Drmg103, Dragon
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
D
RAGON
1
18
35
26
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
48
UNEARTHED ARCANA
additions and corrections
New pieces of type for those who have the book
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
Editorial staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
Art director and graphics
Roger Raupp
Subscriptions
Georgia Moore
Advertising
Mary Parkinson
Contributing editors
Ed Greenwood
Katharine Kerr
This issues contributing artists
Robert Pritchard
Larry Elmore
Bob Maurus
Roger Raupp
Tom Centola
Marvel Bullpen
David Trampier
Ted Goff
Joseph Pillsbury
OTHER FEATURES
8
The future of the game Gary Gygax
How well tackle the task of a Second Edition AD&D® game
12
Arcana update, part 1 Kim Mohan
Explanations, answers, and some new rules
18
All about Krynns gnomes Roger E. Moore
Finishing our series on the demi-humans of the DRAGONLANCE world
26
A dozen domestic dogs Stephen Inniss
Twelve ways to classify mans best friend
31
The role of books John C. Bunnell
Reviews of game-related fantasy and SF literature
35
The Centaur Papers Stephen Inniss and Kelly Adams
Everything two authors could think of about the horse-folk
58
The Wages of Stress Christopher Gilbert
How to handle obnoxious people and make it pay
DEPARTMENTS
3
4
Letters
World Gamers Guide
88 Convention calendar
86 Gamers Guide
89 Wormy
93 Dragonmirth
94 Snarfquest
6
The forum
COVER
Robert Pritchards first contribution to our cover is an interesting piece of artwork
and thats always the main factor in deciding whether or not to accept a painting to
use. But Roberts choice of a title didnt hurt a bit. The name of the painting, of
course, is Birth of the Blues.
2 N
OVEMBER
1985
One monster
we cant defeat
Copy service
Dear Editor,
Im a bit confused. In answer to George
Embleys question (issue #101) as to whether or
not he could get a copy of the astral article in
issue #67, you said no, unless it was published in
a future Best of DRAGON.
However, in issue #83 you said it was possible
to order copies of articles not reprinted in the
Best of DRAGON series or not still available as
back issues. I checked the list of issues available
in #101, and issue #67 wasnt listed as available.
Why couldnt Mr. Embley order the article from
DRAGON Magazine, simply paying the price
stated in issue #83? Or is this service no longer
available?
Why is the service only available to RPGA
members? Because we don’t have enough time or
people to handle requests from the entire reader-
ship of the magazine. Because Penny is the only
person who deals with the requests, and also
happens to be the head of the RPGA Network
organization. And because RPGA members
deserve some special treatment in return for their
membership fees. If you’d like to find out about
more ways in which RPGA members get special
treatment, write to the above address for mem-
bership information. — KM
No matter how strong you are, you cant
keep it from attacking you again
and again.
No magic item has
any effect on it. No
matter how good your armor class is, it
scores a hit sooner or later and
hits, it hits
when it
everybody.
The monster goes by many names. Well
call it Increasing Costs but dont expect
to find it under I in any of the rule
books. It does show up in a book, but its
the kind used by accountants, not gamers.
Okay, enough of the cute lead-in. What
Im edging toward telling you is this: Prices
are going up. Effective on Feb. 1, 1986, all
new TSR products will cost more than they
would under our existing (soon to be
former) price structure. Many existing
products, including DRAGON® Magazine,
will also carry higher price tags.
The magazines single-copy price will be
$3.50 starting with the February issue
(#106). The AD&D rule books and other
products that now cost $12.00 or $13.50 will
become $15.00 items. Standard-sized mod-
ules will be $8.00 instead of $6.00, and
special, larger modules will be $12.00 or
$15.00, depending on the page count and
number of components in the product.
Practically every other item thats produced
or published by TSR, Inc., will also go up
in price.
Im not going to waste any precious space
with verbal contortions intended to con-
vince
you that higher prices are a Good
Thing. Youre all intelligent enough to
realize why price increases are occasionally
necessary and occasionally is the right
word here. The cover price of the magazine
has been $3.00 ever since issue #37, five
and a half years ago. The price of the
AD&D rule books has not gone up since
those books were first published. But now
the time has finally come when we cannot
continue to absorb all of the Increasing
Costs that continually attack companies in
the publishing business. We have to ask you
to absorb part of the blow for us thats
what friends are for, right?
We cant stop the monster from getting in
its licks, but we can keep you from being hit
while youre surprised, Armed with this bit
of advance warning, you still have several
weeks to pick up existing products at their
current prices, and I hope lots of you do
just that. Bad news is never easy to take, or
to deliver, but we figured youd rather know
about it now than find out the hard way on
the first of February.
Flail followup
Chad P. Culotta
Shreveport, La.
Dear Dragon,
In the clerical spell
holy flail
(issue #100), it
states that any non-bladed weapon is trans-
formed by the spell into a magical flail. Does this
include any weapon that is much larger than a
flail that is non-bladed like a javelin, staff, spear,
or even a lance? Does it work on magical non-
bladed weapons or not?
If the answer to the preceding question is yes,
can the spell be used to an advantage? For in-
stance, if a cleric fights someone who is using a
+ 5 lance, cant he cast the spell to transform the
lance into the less powerful
holy flail?
Does the
weapon transformed by the spell have to be listed
as a weapon, or can anything that can be used as
a weapon (rock, bottle, etc.) be transformed?
Joey Garcia
Bronx. N.Y.
I did speak a little hastily in issue #101. I
thought the photocopying service offered by TSR
had been discontinued (it has been a long time
since issue #83), but I was only partially right
about that. Penny Petticord, the Coordinator of
the RPGA™ Network, informs me that the service
is still available — but only to members of the
RPGA Network.
If you’re a member, you can order photocopies
of any article from an out-of-print issue of
DRAGON Magazine, as long as the article does
NOT fall into one of these categories: 1) It has
been reprinted in a Best of DRAGON® Maga-
zine anthology; 2) It was written by Gary Gygax;
3) It is a work of fiction; or 4) It is an article that
does not specifically pertain to a TSR® game.
The reason for restriction 1 should be obvious:
Why would you want to pay for one article when
you can buy it, plus lots of others, for the same or
less money? The reason for restrictions 2 through
4 is that the authors of those articles have re-
tained ownership of the copyright to their materi-
als, and as such we are not authorized to
distribute copies. For the same reason, we cannot
and will not honor requests to photocopy art.
The cost of the service depends on what you
want: $4.00 for a module from the center of the
magazine, $2.50 for any single article, or $1.00
for any single new monster or magic item —
regardless of how many pages the module, ar-
ticle, or monster takes up. The postage and
handling charge is $2.00 for an order of $15.00 or
less, plus $1.00 for each $10.00 (or portion
thereof beyond that: $3.00 for an order of $15.50
through $25.00, $4.00 for an order of $25.50
through $35, and so on. (Don’t worry if you
ordered some copies recently under the previous
pricing structure; those prices will be honored
until after this magazine is distributed.)
Requests should be sent to RPGA™ Network,
P.O. Box 509, Lake Geneva WI 53147, along
with a check or money order payable to the
RPGA Network. You must be an RPGA member
to qualify, and must include your membership
number in your order. Any requests from non-
members will be returned. Penny tries to fill
requests within 6 weeks of the time they are
received, but don’t panic if it runs a little longer
than that.
Instead of using the term “non-bladed
weapon,”
we should have specified that the spell
only works on weapons usable by a cleric. That
rules out everything except a club, flail, hammer,
mace, staff. lasso, sap, or staff sling — no lances,
spears, rocks or bottles allowed.
The spell will not fail to function when it’s cast
upon a magic weapon, but it won’t offset or
reduce any powers the magic weapon already
had. However, the spell will bestow upon the
weapon any special powers that are part of the
magic. If it’s used on a
horsemans mace + 4,
for
instance, the weapon is still + 4 to hit and on
damage, and for the duration of the spell the
mace will do extra damage to undead and “any
creature of a greatly different alignment than that
of the cleric,” as it says in the text. This extra
damage is 1 point per level of the cleric who cast
the spell, not per level of the character wielding
the weapon — and note that the extra damage
only applies when the magicked
weapon is
wielded by a cleric. Thus, it’s pointless to cast the
spell on a enemy’s weapon — and it’s downright
dumb to even try doing it if the enemy is a cleric
“of a greatly different alignment.” — KM
Too expensive?
Dear Dragon,
I have a question about the automaton in
Creature Catalog III (issue #101). Why is the cost
D
RAGON
3
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]