Drmg116, Dragon
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D
RAGON
1
Magazine
Issue #116
Vol. XI, No. 7
December 1986
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
9
MARITIME ADVENTURES:
Oceans of gaming information
Publisher
Mike Cook
10
High Seas
Margaret M. Foy
Ships, from life boats to the glorious tall sails
Editor
Roger E. Moore
28
Children of the Deep
Todd Mossburg
Aquatic elves in the AD&D® game
Assistant editor
Robin Jenkins
Fiction editor
Patrick Lucien
Price
38
The Dragons Bestiary
Marine life as the readers imagine it
Editorial assistants
46
Hello, Your Majesty?
Craig Barrett
By ship or by pigeon, the mail must go through
Marilyn Favaro
Georgia Moore
Eileen Lucas
Debbie Poutsch
52
High Seas in 3-D
Dennis Kauth
A 25-mm sailing craft for maritime quests
Art director
Roger Raupp
Production staff
OTHER FEATURES
Linda Bakk
Gloria Habriga
32
The Ecology of the Minotaur
Anthony Gerard
The unusual tale of a lone survivor
36
Readers Surprise
James A. Gollata
Our favorite double take of the month
Betty Elmore
Kim Lindau
Carolyn Vanderbilt
Advertising
Subscriptions
Mary Parkinson
Pat Schulz
54
Rogue Stones and Gemjumping
Ed Greenwood
The perfect holiday gift for trouble-prone mages
By Tooth and Claw
Gregory W. Detwiler
Never laugh at hyaenas, and other wild advice
High Ones, Ancient Ones
Michael DeWolfe and Galan Akin
Playing High Ones in the ELFQUEST® game world
The Role of Computers
Hartley and Pattie Lesser
Dragonfire II
Ed Greenwood
Creative editors
Jeff Grubb
58
Contributing artists
66
Peter Botsis
Sue Weller
Roger Raupp
Jim Holloway
David Trampier
Larry Elmore
69
James A. Gollata
Dennis Kauth
pass the test
The Marvel®-Phile
Jeff Grubb
Dont get caught in the Crossfire
Doctor Who?
Margaret Weis and Michael P. Bledsoe
A six-in-one special for FASAs DOCTOR WHO game
Aim and Burn
William A. Barton
Fanning the fires in TRAVELLER® games
and
Bard’s Tale
Robert Maurus
Wendi Pini
80
Bruce Simpson
Joseph Pillsbury
Diesel
Mark Saunders
Francis Mao
Gustave Doré
84
Marvel Bullpen
Cosmic Comics
Lawrence Raimonda
so
DEPARTMENTS
3 Letters
78 TSR Previews
97 Snarfquest
4 World Gamers Guide 94 Gamers Guide
100 Dragonmirth
6 Forum
96 Convention calendar
102 Wormy
COVER
Some time ago, we received an unusual set of pictures in the mail. Peter J. Botsis, of Roch-
ester, NY, created a scratch-built red dragon in its lair, complete with gold coins and the
remains of several treasure hunters. Sue Weller photographed it; the sculpture is actually
several feet long. We immediately decided it was perfect for a December cover (Rangers
roasting on an open fire . . .)
2 D
ECEMBER
1986
Potpourri
Armor addenda
partial armor system adds considerable sophisti-
cation to the games combat system, but it is
sophistication of preparation, not of play.
The
player is urged to write the armor class of each
body part of his character on his character
sheet, so that this information is readily availa-
ble in combat.
Monsters, however, are a different matter
entirely. DMs who enjoy hours of grueling
mental excercise may want to prepare a table
giving the armor class of every body part of
every monster involved in an adventure [See
Alex Curylos article on this topic in issue #114,
page 50, for a much simpler system. Editor].
Others may simply prefer to guess at values,
using the rules put forth in this article as guide-
lines. Either system is usable, so long as guesses
remain reasonable and the armor class tables
dont interfere with the continuity of game play
The system adds but a single die roll to combat,
and it brings a wealth of realism to the game.
Matt Bandy
No particular theme comes to
mind for my December editorial, so
Ill cover a number of short subjects:
New arrivals: The first of our new
features, hinted at in last months
editorial, makes its debut (redebut?)
in this issue. The Dragons Bestiary
returns with a wild host of reader-
submitted oceanic monsters. We
have a large backlog of creature-
type material awaiting publication,
so we ask that new monster submis-
sions not be sent to us for at least
four or five months.
Credit is due: After reading the
description of the witch NPC in
DRAGON®
Dear Dragon,
I would like to commend you on the excellent
job you did on the article, “Armor, piece by
piece” (issue #112); but I have one question.
Wouldn’t it be coherent to have separate hit
points for each part of the body? For example,
shouldn’t the chest be able to take more damage
than a foot? Also, a person cannot be killed by
being hit in the elbow, as the current hit point
system would suggest. I think a separate hit
point system would be realistic if you use the hit
location chart.
issue #114, Paul Suliin
gave us a call. Long ago in issue
#18, in fact we published an
article by Paul describing new
magic-user spells. Among them were
some spells which were later
adopted into the version of the
witch published in issue #43, from
which the revised witch was de-
rived. TSR, Inc., owns the rights to
all of these articles, but certainly
Paul deserves the credit for such
horrors as mass polymorph, mystic
rope, nature call, call spirit, and my
personal favorite, rusting touch
(originally called rust monster
touch). Thanks, Paul.
Speaking of witches: One reader
wrote to ask why the witches of
issue #114 were said to gain up to
13 spells at 22nd level (page 10), but
were given only five spells at 22nd
level on the witches experience table
(page 12). The reference on page 10
is to the total number of High Secret
Order spells that a witch may learn,
but the table on page 12 shows how
many that a witch may cast per day.
Dropped copy: A line disappeared
between pages 27 and 28 in issue
#115. The sentence crossing those
pages should read: These penalties
are added to any adjustments for
surface-types, and when both these
factors are combined with the char-
acters base climbing percentage, the
character's true chance of scaling a
given surface is revealed.
As they say in Amadeus: There it is.
James Goldberg
Phoenixville, PA
Though Mart Bandy did not include a system
for calculating the hit points of individual parts
of the body, he did have a system that took this
question into account. Because of space limita-
tions, the following material was dropped from
the original article; we present it now (as Matt
had intended) for use as a set of optional rules
for his partial-armor system. RM
Damage modifiers:
Damage is modified as to
hit location as illustrated on the following table.
These modifications result from each areas
importance in maintaining life processes.
New horizons
Dear Dragon:
I have played the AD&D game in the past but,
alas, eventually found most all situations,
whether with new characters and/or a new DM,
boring. I have moved on to other games now,
like the TOP SECRET, TRAVELLER®, and
TIMEMASTER™ games. I really enjoyed your
magazine; I didn’t even mind you raising the
prices in the long run, but now I cannot get my
money’s worth because you really are an 80%
AD&D game magazine. I also heard you got rid
of the ARES™ Section (I haven’t bought an issue
since March), so I suppose it’s 90% D&D® and
AD&D game material. I think you would do
much better if you expanded your letters
column, while devoting more of the magazine to
other games like those mentioned above and
other TSR games. I realize there are hundreds
of RPGs that you could write about, but if you
wrote articles about the top ten or fifteen best-
selling RPGs for the past three or four months,
you would eventually get a broader reading
audience. Of course, I don’t mean to tell you
how to publish your magazine; DRAGON®
Magazine has been around for ten years, so I
don’t suppose you’d change the format. True,
AD&D gaming is the most popular — the father,
in fact, of all RPGs ever published — but if it
continues to dominate DRAGON Magazine, you
should call it the AD&D Monthly Role-Playing
Aid. It would be more accurate.
Body part
Head
Neck
Chest
Abdomen
Hand
Foot
Damage
modification
+3
+3
+2
+1
-1
-1
Called strikes:
A combatant may attempt to
strike a specific area of his opponents body,
rather than stabbing at any opening that ap-
pears. In this case, the hit-location roll is by-
passed and a -2 penalty to hit is incurred. If
the attack is successful, the desired location is
hit; if not, no hit is scored. Called strikes may be
used to knock a weapon from an opponents
hand, if damage equal to half an opponents hit
points is inflicted on an opponents weapons
arm.
Selective protection:
A combatant may opt to
lend special attention to the protection of one
specific body part. If this option is utilized, the
armor class of the specially protected body part
is bettered by two, while the armor class of the
remainder of the body is degraded by one. Also,
all attacks made by the defender while protect-
ing selectively are done so at a -2 penalty.
Magical pieces of partial armor are feasible if
the DM so desires. Note that magical shields are
already accounted for with this system.
It has been said that if the AD&D® game dies,
it will be of terminal oversophistication. The
Mark D. Spivey
LaGrange, IL
Dear Dragon:
I’ve been subscribing to your magazine since
issue #63, and I have most of your issues from
#49 and on. You need to start diversifying. It
(Turn to page 56.)
D
RAGON
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