Dragon #110 - June 1986
This is a Kevin Davies piece entitled “The Vanquished Cavalier”. This is a magical piece that speaks to me as a Christian. The skeleton and the unicorn peacefully eating. I won’t quote Psalm 23, that Psalm doesn’t speak to me, like it does to others, but I could see it applying here. Just a beautiful piece of art.
Cult of the Dragon - Ed Greenwood
This month, Ed brings us the first mention of the Cult of the Dragon. The Cult of the Dragon is one of those Forgotten Realms villains that always seemed sinister and cartoony. Hey, ancient evil red dragon, do you want to become a lich???? Yet, somehow they do. The idea of a dragon lich is terrifying though, all the powers of a dragon, and all the powers of a lich too? Definitely some ideas in here that are fun, and useful for any AD&D game. The ideas would be expanded on in later years by a couple of product, but particularly Cult of the Dragon.
For Better or Norse: I - Joel McGraw
Various gods of the Norse pantheon.
Angur-Boda (giantess-witch “distress-bringer”
Edger (the eagle of Yggdrasil)
Gerda (goddess of agriculture and beauty)
Grid (giant-sorceress)
Gullveig (goddess of black magic and greed)
Hati Hrodvitnisson and Skoll (wolves which pursue the sun and moon)
Hermod (god of thieves and messengers)
Mimir (god of knowledge, wisdom, and inland waters)
Nidhogg (dragon of the underworld)
Njord (god of wind, sea, ships, & wealth)
Ran (goddess of waves and whirlpools)
Skadi (goddess of winter and skiing)
The Tempests (the nine daughters of Aegir and Ran)
Utgard-Loki (prince of frost giants, lord of Utgard)
Vafthrudnir (wisest of the jotuns)
Volundr (god of blacksmiths)
For Better or Norse: II - Carl Sargent
Not only did at least two people think that the Norse pantheon in the Legends & Lore book were short/wrong, they also wrote articles at a similar time. Which makes this an interesting time capsule into that time. One question is, Why was the Norse pantheon so popular at this point in time? A quick google search only showed me the 1968 Danish film Valhalla.
This article is not so much a list of the gods and goddesses that were missing, but some thoughts on missing gods and a reimagining of some others, and just more detail on the rest.
The big one being Loki. I have always felt like Loki was one of the most misunderstood gods, much like coyote in these United States. Both are tricksters, both have good and bad traits, as the author points out, Loki is probably a true neutral, and so is coyote.
Other gods/goddesses mentioned are Niord, Skadi, Frey, and Freya.
These are both great articles for reference if you want to use the Norse pantheon in your campaign world.
All about Elminster - Ed Greenwood
The first iteration of Elminster the sage of the Forgotten Realms as detailed in Ed Greenwood’s campaign. You get his stats, and a couple of new spells. And some sordid history that may or may not be be true. Of course everything was in flux at this point, and Mr. Greenwood would go on to write several novels involving Elminster. I always enjoyed Pages from the Mages, Elminster’s Ecologies, and other such articles written by Ed.
The role of computers - Hartley and Pattie Lesser
The first of a new column talking about various games and software for the home computer. They discuss the philosophy of the column, and what they would like to accomplish, mainly letting you know if paying $39 to $59 (roughly $120 to $180 today) a game is worth your hard earned money. I didn’t realize that computer games were that expensive back in the day. I know my dad was working for Walmart at this time and making $1,000 a month as a salaried manager. We didn’t actually own a computer until a few years later when he started making big money as an officer in the air force. He was always going to Radio Shack and coming home with new toys.
The first game they discuss is Wizardry. This is a game that I have seen many times in the past, but I have never played it. There are some newer versions on GOG, I’ll wait until they have a Black Friday, or July 4th sale, and pick up a copy, or just play it on Abandonware. The game sounds interesting.
The explanations used in these old magazines fascinates me. Putting in an aside to explain a dialog box.
An initial dialog box opens, requesting you to name the character. (A dialog box is simply a small window that usually requests the user to do something. In this case, you simply type in the name of the character to be created.)
At the end of the article is a list of games that might be fun to play:
Alter Ego
AutoDuel
Balance of Power
Enchanted Scepters
Phantasie II
Rings of Zilfin
The Bard’s Tell
Ultima IV
Wizard’s Crown
Dragon Damage Revisited - Leonard Carpenter
More dragon damage charts for dragons released via Dragon magazine. Read it if you want to, but there is not much here.
The House in the Frozen Lands - James Adams
I enjoyed this month’s adventure. It was quite long as would be expected for an anniversary issue. The heroes are hired to find a cleric at the monastery in the frozen lands. Since most of the adventure takes place in the monastery, the frozen lands part doesn’t really come into play, so it could be set anywhere.
The gist is that some cultists of Loviater have decided to take over the monastery, and they have succeeded, so it is up to the PCs to defeat the villains, and restore the monastery back to a pristine state.
The Wizard’s Boy - Nancy Varian Berberick
What can I say, but words I’ve said before, and will say again. This was a great little story. I always find it heartwarming when stories are about lost boys and wizards. You never know what you will get with a short story published in Dragon magazine, but this might be my favorite so far this year.
Knowledge is Power! - John M. Maxstadt
One area that appears to be lacking in the Gamma World system was world knowledge. This article attempts to rectify that, and I think it does a pretty good job. Every human being has a certain skill set that they worked on when they were younger. I was really into computers, so I learned to program them at an early age, and fishing, so I can catch some dinner if I absolutely need to. As I’ve grown older, I enjoy hunting and painting more, than programming or fishing. Now I have some small skill in both. I specialize in small game hunting and trapping, so I am proficient at both skills, but I rarely big game hunt and it shows, because I have yet to harvest a deer.
RPG games should be no different, and having certain skills really adds to the roleplaying element of a game. He breaks things down into two different categories - Skills and Areas of Knowledge. I like it a lot. It opens up more avenues for playing.
One thing I would be remiss to point out is this quote:
”First, training or schooling will take game time, during which the character(s) will not be able to adventure
Several of the other authors I follow on Substack (and one YouTube creator), are always talking about one-to-one time, a skill, that was apparently lost at some point in the history of gaming.
This is not the first article to talk about how when a PC wants to do X, they will not be able to adventure for some amount of time, where that amount of time is how long it takes to do X.
This appears so pervasive in the early literature like this, that no one even thought they had to explain it. I find this to be vastly interesting. It like reading some of Apostle’s letters in the New Testament. When John says “there is a sin that lead to death”, and then just keeps on talking about other things. What sin leads to death, John, what sin? Such a thing must have been common knowledge that he didn’t have to name it, everyone he was writing to, already knew. Same with the idea that when a players want his character to do something, everyone knew it would take game time, and that character would be our for a while.
The Marvel-Phile - Jeff Grubb
Mr. Grubbs gives us the profiles for the Ghost Riders. Johnny Blaze, and a couple of others. New stats are always a nice addition to the game. I really should pick some of these boxed set up for my shelves.
Going for a Swim? - William Tracy
Subtitled: “Underwater action in Star Frontiers gaming”. You get what it says on th tin. New equipment and ideas for running underwater games in the Star Frontiers rpg. I like that is has various rules for getting the bends, and how weapons would be affected underwater.
A Piece of the Action - Ken Tovar
Why would there not be the Mob in Paranoia, and why not use them as a faction. I thought this was a good article, well-written, and with some good ideas. As is usual, there is nothing particularly Paranoia about it that you couldn’t lit for any game you wanted to use it in.