Dragon #95
Demi-humans get a lift - Gary Gygax
Gary listens to the players and adds more levels to elves, dwarves and halflings who have exceptional ability scores.
The influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games - Gary Gygax
Wherein Mr. Gygax tries to dispel the myths, and give various sources for the games he wrote. I enjoyed the very slim history of Gary’s reading list.
At the risk of incurring the wrath of the Professor’s dedicated readers, I must say that I was so bored with his tomes that I took nearly three weeks to finish them.
Finish the ring trilogy in three weeks, actually seems kind of impressive. I have read the trilogy several times over my life, and I’m pretty sure I dedicated well over three weeks to read them each time. Know what we now, with how overly protective the Tolkien estate is over their IP, this whole article smacks of Gary trying to lop the head off of Smaug before it could attack him again. He had already removed the Balrog, renamed hobbits to halflings, and ents to treants. And of course, Gary brings up Tom Bombadil, who was definitely my favorite character from the trilogy, and I will never forgive Peter Jackson for not adding him to the movies. I feel like Bombadil was the best character, and had the best dialogue. Taking the entire trilogy as an allegory for WW2 (which is may or may not be). I can see how Tom would be a reference the US staying out of the war for so long, or any of the other neutral powers. It may be worth exploring the trilogy in another article later on.
I had never heard of this game. I looked at Ebay, and it apparently expensive. I’m going to start looking for a copy just to see what it is about, and if it’s any good.
How taxes take their toll - Arthur Collins
This article is written as a an interview with a fictitious tax collector. It was entertaining. It will also give you ideas on how to steal all your pc’s extra gold. Create new taxes.
The ecology of the cockatrice - Ed Greenwood
One of the weakest in the ecology series. The story was great, but the rest of this series have been more about how to incorporate these monsters into your game. This one was just a story set in the Realms.
Prices for the Roaring 20’s - Glenn Rahman
Prices for items for any game set in the 1920’s America. Call of Cthulhu, Gangbusters, etc.
Credit where credit is due - Katherine Kerr
How do you keep your PC’s from being murder hobos? Give them new challenges and then give them experience for doing things besides killing things. She goes over several different scenarios you can use. Lock your thieves in a tower, and make the tower the “monster”. Then make them escape. They can try to climb down the outside walls, they can try and sneak out. These ideas are timeless and would work in any RPG. Especially RPG’s where combat is less than important, like Call of Cthulhu.
The many shapes of apes - Stephen Inniss
Mr. Inniss details different species of the great apes. Want to play a campaign in the jungle? And tired of the same old things. Throw some great apes into the mix, including a giant extinct one.
Into the Forgotten Realms - Ed Greenwood
The Tournament adventure fro Gen Con 1984. An adventure with few monsters, few traps, and a basically unkillable bad guy, whom you don’t want to kill anyways. Challenger your PC’s to think, not slash and burn. We also get some of the first inklings of TSR’s and WoTC’s most famous realms. The Forgotten Realms, and the legend of Myth Drannor.
Battles above the dungeon - Tim W. Brown
An entire article on how to run battles better for PCs. I haven’t played any DND games since I was a teenager, and tactics were the least of my concern. I wanted to beat all the bad guys with the best weapons I can get. Now I’m more into wargames where these ideas make a lot of sense. Well worth the read no matter what RPG you are playing, what wargame you are playing, or whatever video game you happen to enjoy at the moment.
I’ve been working on learning the Battlesystem rules from 1st ed, right now I have a bunch of orcs and goblins fighting a mixed force of dwarves, humans, and halflings. Since I’m playing it solo, it is interesting to think how the various forces, with their intelligences would act in a battle.
There is a huge opportunity for role-playing when you take the intelligence of various races into account. For instance, the goblins and ogres are not smart, but the ogres will push the goblins to race forward and attack no matter what.
Desperate Acts - Gordon Linzer
The short stories in Dragon can be hit or miss. This was a hit. It is a lesson in trust, leadership, and doing the right thing. Recommend 10/10 to read. What starts out as a simple quest to defeat the bad guy turns into multiple lessons.
The Zuraqqor Strike Back! - Brian Valentine
New ships for Star Frontiers Knight Hawks game. If you need/want different ships for you current sci-fi rpg/wargame, I’m sure these are convertible to any system.
StarQuestions - Penny Petticord
Answers and advice for Gamma World. Nothing earthshaking.
Antimissiles and roundshot - Jefferson P. Swycaffer
Variant ship-to-ship weapons. Instead of lasers, why not try cannons? Not kidding. Rules for Solid-shot weapons.
The Marvel-Phile - Jeff Grubb
Updated rules for Rhodes, Tony, and the Iron-Man armor. Not as great as some of the other ones.
The Dolphins of Known Space - Sherman Kahn
Playing Ringworld? Want to play the dolphin race? I should probably read this series at some point. Dolphins have never really fascinated me as a species. And dolphins in space really seems far-fetched.