The cover features a dragon horde filled with modern day items. This is also the 9th Anniversary issue. As far as I can recall all the anniversary issues featured dragons on the cover. This cover though does not strike any memories with me. It's a cool cover.
We get to the main feature of the issue, all about Dragons.
Up first is Tailor-made Treasure from Roger E. Moore. This is a new system for figuring out a dragon's treasure hoard. It has some great quotes from various works of literature. Reading it over it could work well with pretty much every version of the game.
The Magic of Dragon Teeth by Gregg Chamberlain covers the various effects of burying dragon teeth. Each color of dragon will produce a different sort of warrior ala Jason and the Argonauts.
Most gamers of a certain age remember the old movie featuring the Harryhausen skeletons.
There are some neat ideas here. To be honest I never felt the need to codify this. Through the dragon teeth on ground and skeleton pop up. Cause weird shit like that happens in a magical world.
Though more recently I have been using Dragon Tooth Talismans. These provide protection from the that dragons' type of breath weapon.
Need music from the Ancient Empires for your game? Well, you can get it in STEREO from Ramal LaMarr! (I am sure that is 100% his real palindrome name too).
I have to admit I loved these ads. So corny and over the top. You can find his music online still.
You keep doing you Ramal!
Leonard Carpenter gives us a nice brief one in Dragon Damage Revised. A great add for AD&D 1 but something you see now in most newer editions of D&D.
Roger Moore is back again with some background on The Dragons of Krynn. In this, we learn that Takhisis and Paladine are similar to (but not the same as) Tiamat and Bahamut. We get some Krynn history that is familiar to all of us now, but here it was all new. A lot of Dragonlance has migrated back into D&D proper since the 3.0 days and I think that is largely a good thing. Back in the 80s we used to talk about how the dragons of Krynn were larger and somewhat more "dragon" than the ones you found in Greyhawk. I know that there are plenty of old-school fans that are aghast with this, but hey. They focused more on dragons in Krynn than Oerth.
Nice big ad for the Dragonlance Chronicles book 2, Dragons of Winter Night.
Ken Hughes gives us an entry with Creative Magic Items. I want to talk less about this specific article and more about the type of article it is. There were always a lot of articles in Dragon that I call "You are not bound by books!" articles. I get that many people want to play RAW, but we were always doing things not in the books. Creating new monsters, new magic items, spells, classes. Everyone I had gamed with had the books memorized back in Junior High, there was no way to surprise them unless you were willing to go out side of the books. Most of these articles elicited a "no shit, doesn't everyone do this?" but after a while I came to the conclusion that no, not everyone.
Detailing a Fantasy World is from Jim Dutton, whom I feel I should know but don't (flipping further I see his company runs the AD&D PBM game). Now this has some great advice on how to build your fantasy world from the ground up, or at least detail enough areas to keep your players busy. At only three pages it feels too short to deal with the advice given, but it is short and succinct and should give any budding world builder a place to start and the seasoned ones some new ideas.
I am usually cautious of reviews of TSR products in Dragon. Such is the case of this reveiw of the first two Dragonlance novels by John C. Bunnell in It's a Neat Idea, but ... NOT just a Gimmick. I think we can be adults here and talk about the fact that the Dragonlance novels have some shortcomings. That being said these are fun books and they did represent a sea change in *D&D as a game and as a product.
A surprisingly long article from Dave Rosene discusses what PCs are likely to find in local shops in Knowing What's In Store. We live in a world today where everything is available at our finger tips. In the 80s even we had malls (lots of malls) but historical medieval lands did not. Fantasy worlds need to tread this line carefully.
The Forum is next.
An ad for Traveller races. At this time and now these books make me want to play Traveller. I want to know more about the Aslan, Vargr and K'kree. Maybe someone has ported them over to White Star or Starfinder already.
Some coming attractions for TSR products. Highlights include the D&D Masters Rules and the AD&D Unearthed Arcana.
Ad for Chill. Still love that game.
Our centerfold is the first Gamma World Mutant Manual. I am very pleased that it is still in this magazine too. Some would make for great additions to an OSR D&D game or a Mutant Future game.
Merle and Jackie Rasmussen have their Part II of Authentic Agencies for Top Secret. A great find for the pre-internet world, but also real world agencies spelled out in Top Secret format.
The Ares section is next.
The Volturnus Connection is first by Stephen Bonario. I have to admit, if I ever run a Starfinder game I'd consider a "Return to Volturnus" like game. I had a lot of fun with Star Frontiers.
When History Goes Awry by Mark Acres deals with parallel and alternate timelines for the Timemaster game. Degree in History not required but certainly helpful.
Big index of all the heroes published for the Marvel Super Hero game in Marvel-Phile.
Huge list of conventions for June to October 1985.
Gamer's Guide has a lot of cool ads including one for the new Super Endless Quest books. These included a simple character sheet/bookmark.
Comics include Wormy and Snarf Quest. Snarf is long, Wormy is down to a page.
A fun issue really and one I'll go back to for more information on dragons.
Want to see what I was saying about White Dwarf magazine for June of 1985? Check out my White Dwarf Wednesday for issue #66.
I assume at the start of your post, you meant 1985, rather than 1995.
ReplyDeleteGreat overview, great series. Going back over these old issues brings a wave of nostalgia--not to mention that this great magazine is long gone!
Tim,
ReplyDeleteYour series on Dragon consistently has the same effect: I want to dig out the issue you highlighted and lie in bed reading it. It never happens but thanks for giving me a goal that will one day be attainable. :)
These reviews really are terrific. The other effect is the sense of guilt for not reading the White Dwarf series of blogs (yet). I'll have to check that out too, especially since I own exactly 0 White Dwarf magazines.
@Mark. Yes! 1985. In June of 1995 I was planning my wedding!
ReplyDelete@Michael, I am so pleased you are enjoying these! White Dwarf was also so much fun.
Here is a page to help you out. White Dwarf Wednesday Index.
I was born in 1976, so this is slightly before my time. But thank you for sharing. I'm signed up for the game Chill at a convention this fall. I don't know much about it, other than that it's a horror game. I assumed it was a new game!
ReplyDelete@Sloppy. You likely signed up for Chill 3rd Edition. The ads here are for Chill 1st Edition. All editions are really fun games.
ReplyDelete