Dragon 129 (january 1988).pdf

CONTENTS

Issue #129

Vol. XII, No. 8

January 1988

SPECIAL ATTRACTION

Demi-humans:

Pointed ears arent the only things that make them different.

8 Arcane Lore Len Carpenter

Magic that serves the people: new dwarven clerical spells.

2 0 Children of the Spider Goddess Eric Oppen

The long-awaited point of view of the darkest elves.

24 Give Demi-humans an Even Break! John R. Prager

If elves are so smart, why cant they roll more dice for intelligence? Now they can.

2 6 Dont Sell Them Short! Peter Dosik

The guardians are looking for a few good halflings.

3 0 Entering the Driders Web C.E. Misso

Drow who fail Lolths big test get no chance to make up the exam.

OTHER FEATURES

32 The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser

Ship-to-ship combat and the Tower of Myraglen await you.

4 6 A Sorcerer's Supplement Michael DeWolfe

A bridge to the Moon? A cow thats a werewolf? All-new RUNEQUEST® game spells.

54 The Dragons Bestiary Dean Shomshak

Colder than ice and less forgiving: Ice para-elementals.

57 The Game Wizards James M. Ward

The world in a book the WORLD OF GREYHAWK setting, that is.

58 The Old Ways Are Best fiction by Larry Walker

Two heads are better than one, but not by much!

66 Whos in charge here?" Bryan Caplan

How many high-level gnomes will a gnome city have? As many as it can get.

7 0 Armored and Dangerous David Dennis

Trash the Sathar! Powered armor comes to the STAR FRONTIERS® game.

74 The Role of Books John C. Bunnell

Would you let a wargamer be your lawyer?

7 8 The Marvel®-Phile Jeff Grubb

Justice is served and Scourge is your waiter.

82 Role-playing Reviews Ken Rolston

The FORGOTTEN REALMS setting and the D&D® games Known World.

1 0 4 The Last Word Gregg Sharp

You dont suppose that evil high priest is mad at us, do you?

Publisher

Mike Cook

Editor

Roger E. Moore

Assistant editor

Fiction editor

Robin Jenkins

Patrick L. Price

Editorial assistants

Eileen Lucas

Barbara G. Young

Debbie Poutsch

Georgia Moore

Art director

Roger Raupp

Marilyn Favaro

Production staff

Subscriptions

Advertising

Pat Schulz

Mary Parkinson

Creative editors

Ed Greenwood

Jeff Grubb

DEPARTMENTS

3 Letters

48 Sage Advice

90 Convention Calendar

4 World Gamers Guide 88 Gamers Guide

94 Dragonmirth

6 Forum

89 Index to Advertisers

99 SnarfQuest

COVER

While their cleric of Thor stands guard, a group of dwarves hauls out (or hides

away) their massive chest of treasure. These guys, said cover artist Keith

Parkinson, indicating the dwarves holding the chest, are basically greed

dwarves. Entitled The Big Stash, this painting will soon be available as a print.

Keith recently won the coveted 1987 Dark Fantasy award at the World Fantasy

Convention in Nashville, for his painting What Do You Mean, Were Lost? See the

advertisement on page 77.

2 J ANUARY 1988

Lori Svikel

LETTERS

Close to home

I had the game board set up and

most of the pieces out when my

uncle came into the kitchen to check

out the refrigerator. He wandered

over as I was sorting out the Ameri-

can and German counters.

That one of your war games? he

asked, taking a seat. I nodded and

started a new pile for the grenade

counters. My first year of college

was over, I was with my family at

my grandparents, and I looked

forward to some goof-off time.

My uncle looked over the board

and the designs on the counters.

Whats your game about?

Its on city fighting in World War

II, I explained, still sorting the

pieces. The counters represent one

man each, German and American

infantry. One player controls each

side. Its pretty good.

My uncle nodded again. He

watched me work for some time.

I was at Remagen, he said.

I forgot about the counters and

looked up. When they took the

bridge," I said.

Yeah, he said slowly. We had to

go from house to house. It was

pretty terrible. He looked at the

board and the piles of counters I

had made, then sighed and stood up.

Have fun, he said as he left.

I sat alone and poked a pile of

counters with my finger, trying to

imagine what it had been like for

my uncle at Remagen. It was not a

pleasant thought. This was the first

time I realized that modern-era

board or role-playing games had a

special catch to them they some-

times cut close to home. In some

cases, this works to the games ad-

vantage; many gamers enjoy the

realistic feel of games depicting the

world of the espionage agent,

Vietnam-era Ranger, or D-Day gen-

eral. The more realism, the better.

Of course, if you like modern-era

games, you may eventually enter the

close-to-home zone. Games on the

Vietnam War only became popular

in this country in the 1980s, and I

recall some of comments, pro and

con, that gamers had about them. A

small board game on the Falkland

Islands war drew great criticism

some years ago because it came out

very quickly after the war, when the

topic was quite touchy. Ive lately

seen three different role-playing and

board games about combat against

skyjackers and other terrorists.

(continued on page 19)

Businesses &

books

So who won?

Dear Dragon:

I am interested in expanding the number of

role-playing games that I own and was im-

pressed by your list of ORIGINS 87 winners. I

would like to know who won the awards in

previous years but am unable to find any lists.

How can I find this information?

Also, what do the initials S.I. stand for in the

TOP SECRET/S.I. game?

Dear Dragon:

I have a few questions. Have you ever pub-

lished an article dealing with PCs owning a

small business? If not, I would like to see it

covered; if so, what issue was it in?

Also, I enjoy the short stories you often pub-

lish in your magazine. Are these from actual

novels, or are they stories written for your

magazine? Are they available in book form to

the public?

Rob Lysy

Windsor, Ontario

Eric Edmonds

Hendersonville TN

Just as we were going to press, we received a

call from Anne Jaffe, the chairman of the ORI-

GINS Awards Committee. She agreed to serve as

the point of contact for any gamers who are

interested in finding out the previous winners

of the various ORIGINS game convention

awards. Write to: Anne Jaffe, ORIGINS Awards

Committee Chairman, P.O. Box 2712, Fairfax VA

22031. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope

for a reply.

I am reliably informed that the initials “S.I.” in

the TOP SECRET/S.I. game’s title stand for

“Special Intelligence.” This reflects the elite

nature of the game’s PC agents.

We published an article on PCs and businesses

in issue #113: “A capital idea,” by Vince Garcia.

You may find this to be of use in your cam-

paigns. We would welcome any other articles

that would add more useful information to the

topic.

The short stories written for DRAGON®

Magazine are complete within themselves, and

generally not excerpts from longer works. The

Art of DRAGON Magazine,

Name that cover

Mini-spies

The request for possible titles for the cover

painting of DRAGON issue #127 led to some

amusing entries. Among them were:

“Mowing the Front Lawn,” from Tim Emrick

(Whitestown IN);

“So, Whaddya Think of the Party?" also from

Tim Emrick;

“I Still Say It Tastes Great,” from Andy Rodich

(Emporium PA); and,

“Does the Name ‘Custer’ Mean Anything to

You?” from Aaron Johnson (Houston TX).

Thanks to all who entered.

A number of people continue to express

interest in acquiring copies of the cover art for

DRAGON Magazine. You may write a letter to an

artist, c/o DRAGON Magazine, P.O. Box 110,

Lake Geneva WI 53147. We’ll forward the

letters as best we can to the artists. Be sure to

enclose an SASE for the artist to use in writing

back to you.

Dear Dragon:

Although I love the D&D® game and other

such fantasy games, my personal preference lies

in games such as your TOP SECRET® game. In

fact, this is my current favorite. A fine job, guys!

I am curious as to where a person can find

25mm lead miniatures for the modern spy

motif. Is there anybody you know of who pro-

duces contemporary miniatures? It is easy to

find a horse, worg, or dragon miniature, but

just try and locate a Lamborghini Countach or

Wellcraft 38 Scarab special edition deep-V! Is

there anyone who fashions custom-made minia-

tures, based on photos and drawings, for a

reasonable cost? Please let it be so!

J. Anthony Dixon

Petawawa, Ontario

It would be worthwhile to write for a copy of

the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog if you

are not able to find the miniatures you need in

your local hobby stores. You might also consider

writing directly to the major miniature-figure

manufacturers (using the addresses provided in

their ads in this magazine) and asking them for

a copy of their current catalog, with emphasis

on the particular miniature castings you want.

You could also discuss pricing for custom-made

miniatures with those companies, though you

might be better off converting existing minia-

tures into the shapes you want using a hobby

knife, spare parts, and lots of glue (and luck).

The name of artist Jeff Menges was

misspelled on page 26 of DRAGON® is-

sue # 127. We apologize for the error.

We wish to credit Stephanie Tabat for

her excellent DRAGON Magazine logo

design, which premiered in issue #128.

Thank you, Stephanie!

D RAGON 3

available early this

year from TSR, Inc., has several short stories

that previously appeared in this magazine.

Future anthologies are being discussed.

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