Drmg120, Dragon
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Magazine
Issue #120
Vol. XI, No. 11
April 1987
SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS
9 PLAYERS HANDBOOK II:
The
ENRAGED GLACIERS & GHOULS
games first volume!
Six bizarre articles by Alan Webster, Steven P. King, Rick Reid, Jonathan Edelstein, and
James MacDougall.
20 The 1987 ORIGINS AWARDS BALL0T:
A special but quite
serious chance to vote for the best! Just clip (or copy) and mail!
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor
Roger E. Moore
Assistant editor
Fiction editor
Robin Jenkins
Patrick L. Price
OTHER FEATURES
Editorial assistants
24
Scorpion Tales Arlan P. Walker
A few little facts that may scare characters to death.
First Impressions are Deceiving David A. Bellis
The charlatan NPC a mountebank, a trickster, and a DMs best friend.
Bazaar of the Bizarre Bill Birdsall
Three rings of command for any brave enough to try them.
The Ecology of the Gas Spore Ed Greenwood
It isnt a beholder, but it isnt cuddly, either.
Higher Aspirations Mark L. Palmer
More zero-level spells for aspiring druids.
Plane Speaking Jeff Grubb
Tuning in to the Outer Planes of existence.
Marilyn Favaro
Barbara G. Young
Eileen Lucas
Georgia Moore
28
Art director
Roger Raupp
33
Production Staff
36
Gloria Habriga
Kim Lindau
Subscriptions
Advertising
38
Pat Schulz
Mary Parkinson
Creative editors
42
Ed Greenwood
Jeff Grubb
Contributing artists
46
Dragon Meat Robert Don Hughes
What
does
one do with a dead dragon in the front yard?
Operation: Zenith Merle M. Rasmussen
The undercover war on the High Frontier, for TOP SECRET® game fans.
Space-Age Espionage John Dunkelberg, Jr.
Spies battle across the interstellar reaches of the TRAVELLER® game.
The Game Wizards Douglas Niles
Espionage alert: the TOP SECRET® game revision!
Here Comes the Cavalry! Matt Bandy
The fighting armored cavalry of the STAR FRONTIERS® game.
Born in the Ruins Dan Salas
Social class and the second-edition GAMMA WORLD® game.
Linda Medley
Timothy Truman
62
David E. Martin
Larry Elmore
Jim Holloway
Marvel Bullpen
Brad Foster
Bruce Simpson
64
Joseph Pillsbury
David Trampier
Janet Aulisio
Richard Tomasic
68
Jeff Easley
Dwain Meyer
Tom Marnick
Lori Walls
Lawrence Raimonda
70
74
76
Welcome to the Machine Douglas A. Lent
The life and times (such as they are) of Marvels Machine Man
The Role of Computers Hartley and Patricia Lesser
Of bards and other tales, with hints as well as reviews.
79
DEPARTMENTS
3
4
6
26
Letters
86
TSR Previews
97
Snarfquest
World Gamers Guide
88
TSR Profiles
100
Dragonmirth
Forum
92
Gamers Guide
102
Wormy
Sage Advice
94
Convention Calendar
COVER
Our April cover painting has no real title as such. Linda Medley, the California
artist who created it, describes it as a generic bar scene which she had wanted
to try. We looked at the painting when it arrived, and the only trouble we had
with it was in deciding how quickly we wanted to use it. Theres something for
everyone here, it seems more than first meets the eye. Happy April!
2
APRIL 1987
Official business
fixes
We received the following letter from Vince
Garcia, the author of A Den of Thieves (issue
#115, page 14). He had a few corrections and addi-
tional information for that article, but we werent
able
to print it earlier: The relevant parts of his
letter follow.
RM
Lizard bites man
Dear Dragon:
Regarding the article Adventure Trivia! (issue
#117, pages 26-27): In question 19, it is asked how
many successful hits would be necessary for a gi-
ant lizard to kill a fighter who has 57 hp. The ar-
ticle states that the answer is four, but this
amount would only be sufficient to render the
poor tighter unconscious (57 - 16
x
4 = -7)
According to the DMG, a character is only killed
after his hit-point total falls below -10. There-
fore, five hits would be necessary to kill the
fighter.
Roger Moore wont be writing this
months editorial; he wanted me to
do it instead to give a more for-
mal introduction of myself by way
of expressing a few of my thoughts.
I hope its only a coincidence that he
chose to do this in the April issue.
Many years ago, I learned to play
the AD&D® game in the Student
Union of the University of La Crosse
only then it wasnt known as the
AD&D® or D&D® game: it was sim-
ply known as D and D. The game
was fairly crude at that point, com-
ing fresh from its genesis and di-
rectly from the spiral notebooks of
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson,
among others. The game existed as a
set of three, digest-sized, paper-
bound rule books, all very drably
written, cheaply printed, and spar-
ingly illustrated. These were the
official rules in 1975. The game
itself was simplistic by comparison
to todays role-playing games, and its
rules were riddled with vagaries,
inconsistencies, and numerous
flaws. But in that crude and rather
basic form, the game had something
that a lot of its followers lack; it was
the first of its kind, and there was a
lot of room left for development.
Now, in 1987, the AD&D game has
become the largest and most popu-
lar role-playing game on the market.
Ten
(at present) books and numer-
ous modules make the system com-
plete; they also make it extremely
complex. Letters arrive daily asking
the designers to resolve the flaws or
to make rulings on contradictions in
the system. Others write to com-
plain about having to buy ten books
to own the AD&D game. Still others
write to ask what rules in DRAGON
Magazine are official and which
are not. To these gamers, the AD&D
game has become a mass of
confusion.
With the second edition of the
AD&D game presently in the works,
more complaints and letter express-
ing confusion arrive each day. Some
gamers worry that their favorite
classes will no longer be part of the
official rules, hence they will no
longer be able to use them in play.
Still others complain that they are
displeased with having to buy the
second edition a purchase which
will outmode their first-edition
rules. These same people are fur-
ther annoyed that the second-edition
Dear Dragon:
As regards to the guild-within-a-guild, the
Additional Followers Table should be C rather
than D,
as in the article. The confrontation factor
is F (see
below).
Brian Hindenburg
Sycamore, Ill.
Table F: Encounters within parent guild
I see your point. This
was
an editorial mistake
(we changed that one particular question slightly)
which made the question a tricky one, since any
character at
-
7 hp is probably as good as dead.
Five hits it is, then. RM
Dice
roll Result
01-50
No confrontations this month.
51-80 Parent guildmaster suspicious over low
guild tithe, forcing PCs group to cut
back on activities; quarter indicated
take this month.
81-85
Randomly selected thief bungles pick-
pocketing attempt; 90% chance he is in-
carcerated and fined 10-40 gp; 10%
chance he is killed.
86-90
Assassination attempt made on parent
guildmasters assistant: 10% chance
death results, 25% chance in that event
PC is asked to take his place.
91-95
Parent guildmaster suspects presence
of
guild-within-a-guild,
spending next l-
3 months exploring the possibility; 15%
chance he discovers the PCs guild un-
less all unauthorized operations
stopped during the time period (quar-
ter all indicated receipts if activities
continue to be pursued).
96-99
Parent guildmasters assistant suspects
same as above; 10% chance he discov-
ers PCs guild and who runs it regard-
less of whether or not all unauthorized
thieving activities are halted. If he dis-
covers the guilds presence, he may be-
come involved in a beneficial way,
extort a percentage to keep quiet (DM
must arbitrate).
00 PC learns his parent guildmaster will be
relatively unguarded and open to possi-
ble assassination attempt within 1-6
days (30% chance this information is a
trap by guildmaster to weed out trai-
tors; DM arbitrates).
Too much
coverage
Dear Dragon:
In DRAGON® issue #116, several people made
quite a bit of noise about how DRAGON Maga-
zine should expand the number of games that it
covers. Perhaps this is so, but by now there
must be over 750 role-playing games on the
market. If DRAGON Magazine were to report on
all of them well, lets try not to think about it.
Mr. Spivey said if you would report on the top
10 or 15 games, you would increase your read-
ership, but to me it would get quite boring.
My solution? Keep the magazine for D&D®
and AD&D® games, and the traditional medie-
val- and ancient-setting games, and have a sister
magazine with a science-fiction type name for
science-fiction, modern-military, and any other
RPG that doesnt fit into the first category.
Just one other thought, although Im sure Mr.
Gravel's intentions must be good: Please do not
have articles on MONOPOLY® and RISK® games.
Include these in a third periodical, entitled
"Boardome."
Bob Hughes
Schenectady, N.Y.
The chances of seeing another magazine from
TSR, Inc., covering science-fiction games alone
are very poor: Were swamped with work on the
magazines we already have. Though I doubt
well cover the MONOPOLY and RlSK games
here, we will leave open the possibility of cover-
ing certain very popular boardgames with
fantasy or science-fiction themes (the OGRE®
and CAR WARS® games immediately come to
mind). We will continue to cover the most
popular science-fiction, espionage, super-pow-
ered hero, and other such role-playing games in
this magazine. RM
The following adjustments are made to the dice
+
30 if activity factor 1 is pursued; and,
+50
if
activity factor 2 is pursued.
One other error: On page 22, under
Extreme
and
purposeful measures taken,
the text should
read x3 instead of x4.
Vince Garcia
Fresno, Calif.
(continued on page 69)
D
RAGON
3
Thieves guild
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