Drmg113, Dragon
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10
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
53
Cardboard Dragon designed by Dennis Kauth
All the parts you need to make it fly
88
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
OTHER FEATURES
10
Welcome to Hades Bruce Barber
Shedding a little light on the Three Glooms
28
A capital idea Vince Garcia
Owning a business can be quite an adventure, too
32
The role of books
reviews by John C. Bunnell
36
The tales people tell Thomas M. Kane
Folklore can add flavor to a campaign world
40
Magic and morality computer game review by Mike Gray
42
Clout for clerics James A. Yates
Followers and doctrines for high priests
46
A saddle isnt enough Mike Albers
The significance of the lowly stirrup
49
Combat complexity William Carlson
Extra rules for battle in the CONAN® game
62
A Difficult Undertaking Harry Turtledove
A bird in the box is worth building a story around
72
Easy as 1,2,3 Rick Swan
How to quickly create interesting and consistent NPC personalities
74
One roll, to go Larry Church
Binomial tables make dice rolls easy to deal with
76
Top (Secret) Guns Patrick Rice
Jet fighters and TOP SECRET® game agents
80
MINIMAGIC Miniature dioramas by Mike Sitkiewicz
82
Cold Steel Scott A. Hutcheon
Hunter-class robots for GAMMA WORLD® gaming
88
Star Cops! Terrence R. McInnes
Joining the TRAVELLER® interstellar police
Editorial staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
Robin Jenkins
Editorial assistance
Eileen Lucas
Georgia Moore
Art, graphics, production
Roger Raupp
Advertising
Mary Parkinson
Subscriptions
Pat Schulz
This issues contributing artists
Robin Wood
Roger Raupp
Dennis Kauth
Hank Jankus
Janet Aulisio
Bruce Mackley
Joseph Pillsbury
Dave Trampier
Richard Tomasic
Tara Hoffman
Lawrence Raimonda
Larry Elmore
DEPARTMENTS
3 Letters
59 Convention calendar
96 Wormy
4 World Gamers Guide
60 TSR Profiles
99 Dragonmirth
6 The forum
94 Gamers Guide
101 Snarfquest
58 TSR Previews
COVER
Robin Wood's third contribution to our cover is a haunting scene entitled What a
Knight for Apparitions. The idea behind the painting, in Robins words, is this: A
person had been given a geas to present a magic sword to whatever hero won into
this area. The geas was so strong that even after she died, she had to stick around
and see it through. The place fell into ruin, and still she haunted it, until this young
knight got there. He fought his way into the innermost chamber, and broke his own
sword in the process. Now they both get their reward.
2 SEPTEMBER 1986
How I spent
my summer
This was going to be the summer that I
acted like a normal person. I was going
to take some vacation time, take it easy,
and maybe even get a suntan for the
time since I became responsible for
first
Rogers reasoning
(particularly the surprising neutral good ranger-
druid combination for certain elves, elaborated
upon by Frank Mentzer in DRAGON issue #100,
page 9), a ranger-thief is not unthinkable. It
even sounds workable and reasonable.
Consider a ranger-thiefs abilities and outlook.
Here is a powerful scout, one equipped to
infiltrate enemy positions, commit sabotage and
theft, and rescue kidnapped victims of human-
oid armies. He or she is the best alternative to
using an assassin when one needs a spy. The
ranger-thief is an espionage agent and com-
mando warrior with ties to both wilderness and
urban areas. If he or she does not belong to a
thieves guild, then the necessary training is
gamed through a military or paramilitary force
controlled or aided by rangers.
Why did I place it in your article? This is
harder to answer. I fear that on occasions I may
tinker with certain articles, adding new material
that seems appropriate to the nature of the
topic and, in my feeling, that makes the articles
more complete and enhances their usefulness.
For example, I added half-(aquatic) elves to the
mariner NPC class (DRAGON issue #107) and
additional information on broken arrows to
the Agents and A-Bombs article in issue #108. I
try to avoid gilding the lily, so to speak, and I
confine my tinkering to minor additions.
Given the nature of half-satyrs and half-
dryads as outlined in your article, the ranger-
thief combination seemed very reasonable for
them which it does (to my way of thinking)
for elves and half-elves as well.
2. This point is very confused in the AD&D
rules. The Players Handbook implies that elves
(page 16) may apparently use armor and cast
magic-user spells at the same time, and even
implies that gnome and half-elves may do the
same with their illusionist and magic-user tal-
ents, respectively. Yet the book also specifically
forbids magic-users from wearing any sort of
armor, for martial training is so foreign to
magic-use as to make the two almost mutually
exclusive (page 25). Yet again, the Monster
Manual (page 39) notes that a multiclassed elf
has a chance of using magical armor. And yet
again, Unearthed Arcana (page 13) repeats the
ruling that magic-users and illusionists cannot
wear armor. The Arcana update article
(DRAGON issue #103, page 16) says that a multi-
classed character may use any armor and
weapons available to any one of the classes
without harming that characters performance.
Finally, Oriental Adventures forbids the use of
armor by wu jen (sorcerer) characters.
In short, I did my best to interpret the rules as
they stand. If my ruling is incorrect, which it
could very well be, it may be easily altered to
allow multiclassed spell-casters to wear any
armor they are able to use. Call it as you see it!
3. About magical chain mail: Half-satyrs were
noted, in the article, as being opposed to the use
of metal armor. This bias appeared to be a
deeply rooted cultural one, so mention of magi-
cal chain mail was clipped to make the race
more consistent. Elfin chain was kept for rea-
sons noted in the article (DRAGON issue #109,
page 58). RM
putting food on the table. Things were
going to be different this summer.
Well, I was right about that I just
didnt realize how different this summer
was going to be. I immersed myself in
the great outdoors, but I did it sitting at a
computer terminal instead of lying on
the beach. If it was possible to get a
suntan from the glow of a screen filled
with little letters, my face would be
permanently bronzed by now.
From early April until just about the
time youre reading this, I spent practi-
cally every spare hour I had on the crea-
tion of the Wilderness Survival Guide,
the latest hardbound book in the AD&D®
game system. Visions of blizzards, des-
erts, and overloaded mules danced
through my head. I learned more about
how to get along in the wide open spaces
than I ever thought I would need to
know, and I did my best to translate all
that knowledge into rules that work
within the context of the AD&D game.
Im not after sympathy here. I did it
because I wanted to. In fact, I practically
leaped at the chance. Its an honor of the
highest order to join the small group of
people who can point to an AD&D rule
book and say, I did that.
The point I want to make, and which
Im finally getting around to, is that this
kind of writing is not easy. Now that Ive
done a rule book, I have even more
respect for my predecessors and more
understanding of why their books arent
perfect just as Wilderness is far from
perfect. Its impossible to think of every-
thing that could be covered, and it would
be impossible to contain all of it in a
book of manageable size anyway. Its not
easy to be sure that what you said on
page 32 is consistent with a related piece
of information on page 97. Churning out
words is one thing; making all of those
words interlock and support each other
is something else.
I wont say the book is good; thats for
you to judge, not me. I will say that its
the best I could do, and even when you
start picking it apart and pointing out the
errors (you will do that, wont you?) Im
going to be proud of the mistakes I didnt
make.
Dear Roger Moore,
Seeing my article (Hooves and green hair) in
the pages of DRAGON #109 was a great plea-
sure. Thank you very much not only for your
decision to print it, but for your encouragement
and editorial advice along the way.
My players and I were curious about some
things that made it into the published version.
You may want to answer these questions in your
Letters column, because I suspect some other
readers might also be wondering.
(1) Ranger/thief has been added to the list of
multi-class options available to the half-satyr and
half-dryad. However, in Unearthed Arcana, page
7, it says that rangers must be of a good align-
ment, and thieves must be of a non-good align-
ment. This doesnt seem to leave anything over
for the ranger/thief. I seem to remember a
comment somewhere that thieves may be
allowed to shift toward good alignment as they
ascend in level, but this is not mentioned in UA,
and anyway wouldnt seem to help the hapless
half-breed ranger/thief, who must start off with
both professions simultaneously.
(2) In the discussion of armor permitted to
multi-class half-satyrs and half-dryads, the text
reads: Multi-classed characters may use the
armor and weaponry available to either of their
classes, so long as the armor does not interfere
with the performance of the abilities of their
classes. For example, a half-satyr fighter/magic-
user would wear no armor . . . . Is this part of a
new rule that multi-class magic-users cannot
wear armor? Does it apply to elves and half-
elves as well? This would represent a major
change for such characters.
(3) I was a bit disappointed that you left out
magical chain mail as an option for these two
races. I had included it (along with elfin chain)
on the basis of the fact that its available to
bards, who, with their druidic training, are also
nature-oriented characters.
Bennet Marks
Palo Alto, Calif.
1. A large number of gamers prefer to use the
earlier ruling, established in the Players Hand-
book (page 27), that thieves may start the game
as neutral good. Granted, Unearthed Arcana has
changed this rule so that thieves may only be
non-good (Unearthed Arcana, page 7), but Kim
Mohans Arcana update, part 1 (DRAGON®
Magazine issue #103, page 12) modified this
ruling to mean that, though they must start as
non-good, thieves may become good later in
their careers. This article even noted that assas-
sins could change alignment to neutral or even
good status, given time. Furthermore, David
Cook noted in Oriental Adventures (page 26)
that a yakuza, an urban underworld character
class, may be of the lawful good alignment
(presumably starting the game this way). Being
good, then, is no problem.
Given the explosion of new class combinations
possible for AD&D characters with the Un-
earthed Arcana and Arcana update rules
DRAGON 3
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