Dragon #29
Twenty-nine already. Not a bad number, heh? Still far away from the total 430 issues, but closer to a hundred! And it’s becoming hard. The issues are getting bigger and bigger. This one has 42k words. A considerable sum. The cover is quite interesting. I can’t figure out what it is.Luckily, a lot of the articles here are pretty decent and entertaining. Particularly the D&D ones are quite fun and inspirational. Wasn’t overly fond of the wargaming content, as usual, and the reviews section was a slow burn. Other than that, a nicely done 4 out of 5.
The miniatures come with some interesting new contenders at page 37, with some cool dragons by Dragon Tooth. There’s a TLotR hobbit at page 34. The last page also has a nice-looking figure of a giant.
Ads, there’s one of Judges Guild on promoting their JG membership, which grants you access to the Dungeoneer magazine. I wonder how’s that one? Looks cool.
Content:
Dragon Rumbles: Not a lot this time, other than a few disclaimers regarding change of address, subscriptions and some comments for future letter senders.
Convention Schedule 1979: WVU Simulation Games Con (September 29-30), Council of the Five Nations (October 5-8), Y-Con (October 12-13), Grim-Con (October 26-28), RockCon V (October 27-28), WINTERCON VIII (November 16-18).
Of the Gods: By Craig Bakey. A quick and interesting guide for the creation of gods. While generic, following a simple Lovecraftian with classic Greek influence, it does the job and has random tables for making your gods more spicy or duller, depending on what you get. All gods roll automatically on 0 AC, so they are strong, and they have a fuck ton of HP. You can also roll for their relations, alignment, gender, divinity status, portfolios, relics, possessions, etc. Pretty nice and very complete, perhaps a tad too complex at times. There’s also a list of named gods according to different groups: The White Lords, The Neutral Gods and The Dark Gods. Also, for some reason this article doesn’t have a title. Not that I can find. Thanks to the PDF for helping with the index, lol.
Source of the Nile Flow Charts: A flow chart that helps you run your games by simplifying the way the turn system works. First page is very low res, sadly, but the second page looks more readable. It’s a quite complex and open algorithm with a variety of options.
Fantasysmith’s Notebook: Continuing the lovely article about miniatures. This one is for the preparation before you start painting. Clean off mold marks, cut off spruces, don’t directly touch it with your fingers, and THIN YOUR PAINTS. And all good. Lovely. It includes an awesome hand illustration of the different tools you’ll need. A bit hard to read the typeface, but it works.
Order of the Indian Wars: A mini article about an organization dedicated to the study of the history of the Indian Wars. Mostly made as a forum to discuss things, but they have a disclaimer that they rather not go into sociopolitical presentations or guilt trips, whatever that means. It seems they are still active and are made up of history buffs and reenactment enthusiasts.
The Half-Ogre, Smiting Him Hip and Thigh: Half-ogre stats and mechanics, as well as some general tips and recommendations when creating half-races, mostly word of caution. In general, mixed races are not recommended because it is believed that they might become either too broken or too weak and might not fit in a general campaign. I find it odd, but I guess balancing was something important in AD&D. It also explains a bit why the human race is stronger compared to other races. It pretty much boils down to Gary believing that, in general, most campaigns would be human dominated, thus he went with the human bias.
Curses: Never Get Even- Get Ahead!: By Harold Pitt. An article about how to make curses more interesting and how to apply them in your campaigns, and general ideas of how they work. Interesting, but would’ve been better if it provided actual curses as well.
Out On A Limb: First letter is by Brian Wagner—Joplin, a big Paladin fan and one trying to keep the column alive. His letter is a general comment about different stuff he has liked or disliked. He has strong opinions regarding magazine, and it’s not a big fan of the merging with Little Wars, but as long as the fantasy-side of things stays balanced, he’s happy. Next one is by Marc Jacobs-Allentown, a long rant and counterargument against Gygax opinions regarding social class and D&D, and his AD&D ramblings. The next one is a very well structured and welcoming criticism of TSR Periodicals lack of professionalism and massive ego, especially the Gygax feud with the creator of Tunnels & Trolls, Ken St. Andre. Kask, well, he just doubles down so there’s that. Next one is a classic issue that has plagued us, nerds, for decades, Gary Reilly just finished a campaign in a chaotic note, and he now has trouble finding players and would like to know some tips to find good people to play with. Kask pretty much tells him that there’s no shortcut to this, but perhaps he could try to find some neophytes to teach them and play with them. I agree. It’s always fun to play with new people as long as they show they really want to share the experience there and not just being on their phones while half session goes by. Oh gosh, I’m sound like a geezer now. Damn kids and their phones! Anyway, next letter is by Gary Braswell, a Lovecraft book talking about the Necronomicon. Finally, last one is by Daniel O. Myers, which is a rebuttal to a review for Mercenary in issue #26.
Giants in the Earth: By Lawrence Schick and Tom Moldvay. The feature that adds different classical legends and heroes to D&D. This time we have Shadowjack from Roger Zelazny, and Iocounu, by Jack Vance. I don’t know these characters, but I do know about their creators, particularly the weird tales of Jack Vance.
Rewarding Heroism in D&D: By Doug Green. A little article about rewarding good deeds that are deemed as heroic, such as sacrificing oneself for others or making a last stand to safeguard another. It’s very short but has some good, basic ideas.
Inns and Taverns: No idea about the author. A pretty detailed article about the design and mechanics of various inns and taverns you can use in your campaign. It includes basic concepts about how they should work, where to find them and the stuff they sell, as well as some tips as to how to make them more interesting. I enjoy these kinds of articles, guides that include both mechanics and blurbs about how to insert things in your world in a better way.
Air War North Vietnam: By J.D. Webster. A selection of scenarios and rules for the Air War game, based on the Vietnam War.
Awful Green Errata: A patch of fixes and rules that were accidently left out of the game in the weapon attacks mechanics.
Smaller Than Man-Sized Weapons Table: By Thomas Holsinger. So, this table seems to be a fix to a ‘problem’, that being how doe creatures smaller than humans, such as hobbits, eh, halflings, manage to use weapons that are made for man-sized creatures. I feel like it overcomplicates things and makes it more a chore to play those races.
Anatomy of an S.C.A. Battle – The Sleep War: By Allen Hammack. I think this is a report from some battles done by a group of wargamers. Don’t care enough, honestly.
Origins of the Norse Pantheon: By Paul Karlsson Johnstone. History article about the origins of the Nordic gods and their legends, as well as their real historical context. A long info dump and good luck with the pronunciation of most of the names. Uyd-daen, Heimskringla, ulbandws.
The Mythos of Oceania in Dungeons & Dragons: By Jerome Arkenberg. And we continue to deities series, this time focused around Oceania! If there’s one thing this series has made me realize, is that I know shit about mythologies other than the all famous Greek one. Anyway, interesting read and, as usual, you have some really strong stats here, as well as a little list of heroes and other creatures.
Strain and Spell Casting: By Kevin Thompson. Well, not gonna lie, I don’t really understand much of this. In a nutshell, spellcasters now have a chance to get strained depending on their spells and how much they use them, and their rolls, of course. A ‘Strain Point’ goes from 1 to 6, wich 6 meaning that you spell backfires at you. Yeah, good luck MUs. Kask does point out that this probably makes MU even weaker, which I’d guess he’s right.
Trained Animals in Dungeons & Dragons: By Robert Greayer. A list of different tamed animals that you can use in your campaigns. It doesn’t really tell you how to train or tame other animals, but the list has some useful and interesting creatures. It’s pretty simple, really. There’s a price tag for training and that’s it. I imagine is up to the DM to decide how this training process develops.
Aging in D&D: By Mike Crane. A small chart about aging. Depending on the stats, you might die sooner or later. Now, the actual chart is a bit… odd to read. The explanation starts with: The number is the number… so that’s already confusing. Could’ve been better.
Adventures in the Impossible: By Richard Dienst. When your comic strip script doesn’t get the drawings, this is more or less what you get.
Non-Player Characters Have Feelings, Too: By Rick Krebs. A small chart to give your NPCs a little bit more of personality by adding random personality traits, dislikes, fears, etc.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: The Ring of the Necromancer: By Bill Howell. Pretty much a ring that, you’ve guessed it, allows you to control the powers of death. It has some requirements though. You must wear it for at least a week, and if you remove it, it must be worn for another full week for re-use. Once a month, it can summon any undead (except liches), which serve the wearer for one day. But before being used, you must make a sacrifice. A bit annoying to use, but seems fine, otherwise it would be quite powerful.
A Working Design for Heward’s Mystical Organ: By Steven Wiederhoft. So, this book touches on a gigantic relic that’s featured in Eldritch Wizardry, but only mentioned. Here, you have the rules. It’s a bigass organ that’s fucking complicated to use and has a shit ton of actions and powers. It has 65 keys and 7 stops, and fractions, and some binary shit. I don’t know I’m too dumb I just gave up. Cool stuff, though.
Report On Origins ’79: By Jim Ward. Been a while since the last convention articles flooded Dragon, and look at that, this time is not by Gary Gygax! In a few words: Lots of new, cool products, including awesome miniatures for TLotR, and gamers cramped in tight spaces, and no food to eat. Still awesome and worth the trip due to the fantastical gallery of products and games going on.
Diceaholics Dream Come True: By T. Kask. Turns out, dicegoblins have been around for a long time! Well, if you need more dice, come to The Armory, 3424 Janellen Dr. Baltimore, MD 21208, for a humungous collection of dice to get.
New Water-base Paints: By T. Kask. Just a little promotion of new paints by The Armory. 79 cents for a good sized bottle of 7/8 oz. Take that, Citadel.
Game Review: REICH: By J. Ward. A game by the legendary Chaosium. This seems to be a combination of wargame and cardgame into one. It’s quite rare and couldn’t find much info on the internet. The reviewer, overall, likes it and recommends it, but finds the cards to be a bit too ambiguous in their interpretation.
Game Review: Raiders and Traders: By J. Ward. Another Chaosium product. An interesting game set in ancient Greece, where players take on the role of raiders, and well, traders. It seems to be a combination of wargaming with a bit of roleplaying. The reviewer, indeed, likes it.
Book Review: Panzer Colors II: By Tim Kask. Not to be confused with famous reviewer T. Kask (that’s a joke), this is a book about panzers, and their colors, and technical stuff. Highly recommended by the reviewer, Tim Kask, not T. Kask. Joke, again.
Book Review: Kfz. I Kubelwagen, Volkswagen Type 82: By Tim Kask. They really need to find a more diverse assortment of staff to make these reviews. All my experience about the Kubelwagen comes from Company of Heroes 2, and let me tell you how I hate, hate that RNG allows this miserable piece of tin can scrap to survive a shot from a King Tiger. HOW. Okey, going back to the review, Task likes it.
Book Review: Desert Tracks: By Tim Kask. A book about British in the Nort African theater of WW2. Tim also likes it.
Book Review: The Tolkien Quiz Book: By Allen Hammack. A little book with a ton of questions about the world of Tolkien. Best tool to make you feel dumb. It’s alright, says the reviewer.
MICRO REVIEWS: Short Takes and First Impressions: By T. Kask. Why do they sometimes go with Tim and then T. in the next jump? Stick with one, goddammit! Anyway. These are a ton of more, MORE, reviews that I’m already too tired to read. So, I’ll just list the titles: LAST SPIKE, TEAM, KLONDIKE, TIME WAR, STARFIRE, ASTEROID ZERO FOUR, CERBERUS, STAR FLEET BATTLES, Chariot Race and Gladiator, and to end it, MAATAC. Gosh.
Dragon’s Bestiary: Whiz-bang Beetles: By John Hageman. A swarm-like critter. These bastards are dangerous and really like fire and smoke. I’m not very versed in the old rules for AC, but they have 2, isn’t that quite strong armor for a regular-sized beetle? The beetles themselves are not that interesting, but you can find their hive and eat their honey. I have no idea how beetles produce honey and I’m afraid to ask. Honey pretty much acts like crack. It makes you go fast as fuck, boi. Interesting little creature.
Endless Questing 