In Search Of...Ramal LaMarr

In Search Of… Ramal LaMarr

Every so often, I run into a name that feels less like a person and more like a half-remembered fever dream. Ramal LaMarr is one of those names.

I first encountered him the same way many gamers of a certain age did. Not through dance, and not through music stores, but through the pages of Dragon Magazine. Tucked away in the advertising margins of the mid-1980s, alongside mail orders for electronic dice, miniature ads, and fantasy figurines, was something unexpected.

A record advertisement.

Not a soundtrack.
Not a movie score.

Belly dance music.

Specifically, Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance and Empires of Dance by Ramal LaMarr.

At the time, it barely registered. Dragon was full of all sorts of strange things. But the name lingered. Years later, when I revisited Dragon #98 for my This Old Dragon series, the ad jumped out again, this time louder. It was no longer just a curiosity in the margins of a magazine. It felt like a clue.

Dragon Magazine

In Dragon Magazine #98 (June 1985), Ramal LaMarr’s albums were advertised explicitly as “MUSIC for Adventure Gaming!” The ad promoted two LPs: Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance and Empires of Dance. 

Both were available by mail order from Lotus Records, a small Milwaukee-based label. There was no game company logo or endorsement and no elaborate explanation. Just the quiet assumption that gamers would understand why this music belonged at the table.

And honestly, that assumption was probably correct.

The mid-1980s gaming scene was full of these cultural overlaps. Fantasy roleplaying, New Age mysticism, occult bookstores, exotica records, and mail-order catalogs all blended together in ways that feel very foreign now. If you wanted atmosphere for your game, you built it yourself. Candles, incense, weird records, whatever you could find.

Ramal LaMarr’s music promised atmosphere. I do not know a great deal about the genre, but I do know I plan to use this music when I finally run the Desert of Desolation trilogy, which appeared around the same time as these ads.  Tracks like "Cities of the Jinn," "Ritual Fire Music," and "Wand Dance of the Scarlet Sorceress" from Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms are practically custom-made for these adventures. Even one online catalog files Ramal LaMarr under "occult," so you know it has my attention.

Following the Music Outside the Dungeon

Step outside the pages of Dragon Magazine, and Ramal LaMarr stops being a gaming curiosity and becomes something else entirely.

His music was composed for belly dance performance, not fantasy gaming. His best-known album, Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance, was released in 1983, followed a year later by Empires of Dance, both on Lotus Records. There is a third album, Pleasure Gardens Of Dance (1987), which sounds a little different, and another in 1989, Exotica.  Neither of these later albums was advertised in Dragon Magazine. At least, not that I have seen. He would also appear on a compilation album, Dance Of Mystery, in 2015 with his song Dance Of Mystery.

The sound is unmistakably of its time. Synthesizers sit alongside electric guitar and bass, while traditional percussion instruments, such as African drums and the tabla, anchor the rhythm. Throw in some kanoon and mbira, and LaMarr goes from curiosity to multi-instrumentalist. The result is music that feels ritualistic, sensual, and deeply rooted in the early-1980s studio aesthetic.

This was not archival folk music attempting to reproduce traditional Middle Eastern styles. It was modern studio work designed to evoke an imagined ancient world. Mystery, sensuality, and atmosphere were clearly part of the goal.

The album's own liner notes describe the music as conveying "authentic rhythms and moods of the East with a wonderful quality that transcends time and geographical boundaries," promising to "inspire visions of mystic times past and dreams for future aspirations." 

Which, again, explains why it made perfect sense to advertise it to Dungeon Masters.

Over time, the albums slipped out of print. Copies became harder to find. What had once been a niche record slowly turned into a collector’s item. Belly dancers still search for the LPs. Vinyl collectors trade stories and digital transfers. Online threads periodically appear asking the same question.

Where did Ramal LaMarr go? 

Ramal LaMarr After Dragon Magazine

This is where the trail begins to fade.

There are no confirmed biographical details about Ramal LaMarr’s real name, musical training, nationality, or early life. No interviews have surfaced. No promotional biographies. Even Discogs, usually a good archive of production details, preserves only the album credits and publishing information.

One name does appear repeatedly: Chandrani.

She is referenced in track titles, most notably Raks Chandrani. Community recollections claim that Ramal and Chandrani lived in Germantown, WI, and that she was deeply involved in the dance world. One commenter even claims she later died of cancer. It is verified that on his albums, she played the Zills, or finger cymbals. It has been confirmed she was his wife and featured on the covers of his albums. I guess I really should say their albums. While Ramal played almost every instrument, she feels like a full contributor to the sound of these albums.

Germantown, Wisconsin, is outside my Illinois "Corridor" of gaming influence; it does sit in what many have been calling the Gaming Fertile Crescent. An area between Lake Geneva and the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. But that is for another "In Search Of..."

These stories may be true, but they remain anecdotal. They belong more to the oral history of a small artistic community than to verifiable archival sources.

What we can say with confidence is that Ramal LaMarr recorded at least two albums, published through Lotus Records and its imprint Daughter of the Jinn Music, and that his work circulated widely enough to leave a long echo even after the records themselves disappeared.

One YouTube commenter suggested that Ramal was still alive as recently as five years ago, though attempts to contact his former label, Lotus Records, have yielded nothing.

Another possibility is that Lotus Records was not a traditional label at all. Many niche musicians in the early 1980s released records through private-press imprints, often little more than names created to manufacture and distribute their own albums. If that is the case here, then Lotus Records may simply have been Ramal LaMarr himself.

Anyone online who claims to have known Ramal and Chandrani describes them the same way: lovely, generous people.

What Happened Next?

That is the question that keeps coming up.

There is no reliable public information about Ramal LaMarr’s life after the mid-1980s. No additional albums have surfaced. No modern performances or teaching listings can be clearly connected to him. No official website exists, and there is no widely documented obituary.

In other words, Ramal LaMarr joins a long list of creators who burned brightly in a niche cultural space and then quietly stepped away. 

Why This Still Matters

Ramal LaMarr fascinates me because he represents a moment that no longer quite exists.

A time when a belly dance LP could be advertised in a role-playing game magazine without explanation. When a small regional label could produce something that quietly embedded itself in multiple subcultures. When mystery was not part of the marketing plan. It was simply the way things worked.

I discovered Ramal LaMarr in the pages of Dragon Magazine, but he clearly did not belong there alone. His music belonged to dancers, gamers, collectors, and anyone looking for sounds that felt a little different and a little magical.

Ramal Lamarr and Ronald E. Pillat, the Man Behind the Music

Research is a funny thing. As of right now, I have been working on this post for a little over a year. Digging up old details, reading local newspapers for mentions. But it was not until I decided to look up copyright details for "Daughter of Jinn Music."  That opened up a lot of information for me.

It seems as recently as 2011, a copyright application was filed for "Lands of Pleasure and Delight et al." Tucked away in the application was the best clue I have uncovered in a long time. 

Ramal LaMarr, pseud. of Ronald Pillat (author of pseudonymous work); Domicile: United States; Citizenship: United States. Authorship: Sound recording, performance, production, music and lyrics.

There is an address associated with the filing and it is in Germantown, WI. But that house now seems to be gone and new one has been built in its place with new owners (so please don't try to contact them).

So who is, or more to the point was, Ronald E. Pillat?

There are more copyright claims for all of the Ramal LaMarr albums, including notes indicating that Ramal LaMarr was the pseudonym for Pillat. 

Sadly, this is almost where the trail ends. It seems that Ronald E. Pillat, born May 24, 1951, passed away on  August 13, 2021.  This Ronald E. Pillat did live in the right area (North Prairie, Wisconsin) and was the age I would have suspected.  The 1951 date also tracks with information found in the pulbic records for the copyright for Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance.

I am disappointed, to be honest. I posted first about Ramal LaMarr in 2017. Had I done this research, I could have reached out to Ronald Pillat for more information.  I am happy, though I can finally put a name to Ramal LaMarr. I hope that others find this half as interesting as I did.

I am playing Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance while working on this. Is it D&D music?  It doesn't matter if I think it is or not, its connection to Dragon Magazine is enough. And if my own research has anything to say about it, enough gamers my age remember the ads fondly and that too is enough. But, if you really want my opinion? Yes. It is. I want to play this while running a desert-themed adventure.  Maybe even something for my Wasted Lands: The Dying Age campaign. Certanily there will be a Bard in my games named Ramal at some point.

Thank you Ramal LaMarr for such a wonderful research idea and your funky ads in Dragon Magazine. Thank you and Chandrani for your passion and wonderful album covers. And thank you, Ronald E. Pillat, for bringing all of this to life. I only wish I had had the chance to tell you all this myself.

Links

Copyright details for Ramal LaMarr / Ronald E. Pillat (1951 - )

Discogs: Ramal LaMarr artist page

• Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance
• Empires Of Dance
• Pleasure Gardens of Dance
• Exotica

YouTube Links

• Ramal LaMarr - Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance - Side One 
• Ramal LaMarr - Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance - Side Two
• Ramal LaMarr - Pleasure Gardens of Dance - Side One
• Ramal LaMarr - Pleasure Gardens of Dance - Side Two 
• Ramal LaMarr ‎ - "Princess of the Nile" from Empires of Dance
• Ramal LaMarr - "Golden Daughters of RA" from Empires of Dance
• Ramal LaMarr - "The Ancient Queendoms of Sheba" from Empires of Dance

DJ Farraginous blog, “Ramal LaMarr - Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance.”
https://djfarraginous.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/ramal-lamarr-omens-oracles-mysticisms-of-dance/

Hanttula Exotica archive: Omens, Oracles & Mysticisms of Dance
https://www.hanttula.com/exotica/omens-oracles-mysticisms-of-dance/

Instagram post of Omens, Oracles, and Mysticisms of Dance 
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMURiJyO6q4/?img_index=1

Reddit: “Ramal Lamarr - Where is he today?”
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bellydance/comments/smfdpi/ramal_lamarr_where_is_he_today/

Reddit: “Looking for out of print LPs by Ramal LaMarr”
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bellydance/comments/kezozh/looking_for_out_of_print_lps_by_ramal_lamarr/

Wasted Lands: The Dying Age

 In my rereading of many of the classic Appendix N titles, I have come around again to Jack Vance's Dying Earth. The Dying Earth genre is not one I spent much time with back in the heyday of my D&D/AD&D playing life in the 1980s, but one I came upon much later. 

Honestly, my first foray into this sub-genre of fantasy began with Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique tales. I later moved on to Vance and to other end-of-time works like the Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock, and even the ideas about it from the DC/Vertigo Comics Books of Magic. This also led me to Lin Carter's Gondwane tales and Gardner Fox's Kothar. Even the earliest story of all Dying Earth tales, H. G. Well's The Time Machine. 

What I find most fascinating about these works is that they are not just "post-apocalyptic." In fact, they are far more alien and mystical than that. We are not dealing with a world that is recovering from a disaster. We are dealing with a world that is simply old and run-down. Civilization has risen and fallen so many times that history itself is legend, and legend itself is rumor. Sorcerers are those who remember things that nobody else remembers, ruins are piled on top of even older ruins, and magic is something that nobody is quite sure how to stop.

These worlds are, in many ways, a mirror to many of the settings that we start with in our own works of fantasy. We love to start with a "fresh" setting. We love to start with a "fresh" kingdom. We love to start with a "fresh" magic. We love to start with a "fresh" hero. We don't start with a tired kingdom. We don't start with tired magic. We don't start with a tired hero.

Throughout my writing here, I've touched upon this genre a bit, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, by circling around it. I've written about my time spent in Zothique, Vance's strange future Earth, and games like Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, which draw upon that sense of weird future-antiquity. Indeed, even my writing about fantasy worlds and future lands touches upon this idea in some way. But what if fantasy isn't set in a distant past, but in a future beyond all human imagination?

This idea gave rise to a game idea that has been rattling around in my head for a bit now.

Wasted Lands: The Dying Age

The Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age RPG already gives us a mythic prehistory. It is a world of early civilizations, rising gods, ancient magic, and heroes who will eventually become legend. It is a world before recorded history, a time in which the myths of humankind are still being written.

But what of the last in that series?

What does the last mythic age look like?

This question gave rise to Wasted Lands: The Dying Age.

While the Dreaming Age marks the beginning of history, the Dying Age marks its end. Not centuries, not thousands of years. millions of years. More time between the Dying Age and us than between the Dreaming Age and us. The Dying Age is set so far in the future that everything familiar to us in the present day has become legend. The continents have merged yet again, one last time, into one last supercontinent, perhaps Pangea Ultima or Novopangea. The seas have risen and fallen and risen and fallen and risen yet again. The mountains have been uplifted and worn down many, many times.

The sun is growing old. In the sky above, it shines larger and redder than it did before. The days are longer and hotter, the seasons are stranger, and in the night sky, there are wonders beyond what our ancestors could have seen. The Moon, a constant companion to humanity since the Dreaming Age, is gone. Its recession from Earth since the dawn of time has reached a critical point, and it has been thrown free of Earth's gravity. Out there in the dark, beyond all of our worlds, patient observers can see the first hint of light from the Andromeda galaxy growing brighter as it moves closer to our own Milky Way. The heavens themselves are changing now.

Yet still, human beings linger on in a barely perceptible way.

Perhaps there are only a few thousand of them left, scattered across the surface of the Last Continent. They live in scattered cities, in wandering tribes, in strange little cultures built around traditions nobody really understands anymore. They remember a few of the old things. They tell tales of empires that perhaps existed a million years ago. They dig in ruins older than their own language.

And here is magic in the world.

Perhaps there has always been magic in the world, waiting patiently in the ruins of forgotten cultures. Perhaps it is returning now that the world is growing thin with age. In the Dying Age, there are sorcerers. They are not scholars, but archaeologists of the magical arts. Every single spell they use is from some civilization that perhaps existed a million years ago, or a cult that nobody really understands anymore.

The world itself is changing, too. The great beasts that used to rule over Earth are gone now, victims of a million years of slow decline. In their place, other creatures have risen to assume their places, giant arthropods and stranger creatures.

A farmer might hitch a wagon to a massive stag beetle instead of a mule. Herds of enormous cockroaches are raised for their surprisingly nutritious milk. Armored millipedes crawl through the forests like living trains of chitin. Some cities even keep domesticated mantises as guardians or war beasts. Giant ants and giant termite war with each other across the vast internal desert of the Last Continent. I have not figured out a replacement for horses yet. I am thinking of something akin to a smaller animal grown large, like a hare or jackrabbit. I do have giant riding bats, though. 

There are humans, now millions of years after us, who have evolved into other shapes, and some are only slightly recognizable as human. These will be my orc, goblin, and troll standins. 

It is strange, unsettling, and yet somehow perfectly natural in a world that has lasted for billions of years.

The Dying Age is not a despairing age, though it might seem that way to an outsider. No, it is something closer to quiet endurance. Humanity has survived ice ages, extinctions, and the rise and fall of countless civilizations. It may yet survive the long twilight of the sun itself. There is melancholy here and a general sense of ennui, but there are still humans fighting against the dying of the light.

The stories told in this age are not about building kingdoms that will last forever. Nothing lasts forever anymore. No, they are about what still matters when the world itself is nearing its final chapters. And perhaps the stubborn refusal to disappear quietly.

In many ways, the Dying Age is a completion of a circle that begins in the Dreaming Age. One is present at the birth of myth. The other is present at its final echo. Between them lies all of human history, from the first fires lit in a dark age to the last red sun setting over the last continent.

And yet, in that distant future, under that ancient red sun, there are still adventures waiting to be told.

The Dying Age: Mechanics

Here is where I get to cheat. Wasted Lands: The Dying Age is mechanically no different from Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age. This is just a different campaign model. Though the idea of Divine/Heroic Touchstone should be addressed. In the Dreaming Age, these are gifts of power that bring the characters closer to their divine apotheosis. In Thirteen Parsecs, they are also used to help define heroic characters. 

In the Dying Age, heroes take on a different tone. At first, I wanted to avoid using them, but in truth, they are loved by the players and me. So if there is a pervasive, light feeling of melancholia here, then these are the rewards for the characters who say, "No. I am not dead yet."

Even though I stressed this setting is not Post-Apocalyptic, I can see using some ideas from Gamma World here in search of lost civilizations. 

There are no cosmic horrors here. There are old gods, but their worship is more akin to sacrifice and cults than organized religion. The world is far too decadent and too old for that. 

The reasonable question arises. Why use Wasted Lands when Hyperboria 3rd edition (or any edition) does exactly this? The answer is largely, I have grown to like Wasted Lands more. Plus, I love the rather perfect symmetry of using Wasted Lands for both the beginning and ending of the human saga.  

Larina: The Ash Witch

The Doctor: At the end of everything, we should expect the company of immortals, so I've been told.

- Doctor Who: Hell Bent

I could not help but notice a trend in the various "end of time" tales that have been featured in my re-exploration of Appendix N. We have Fox's Red Lori, Vance's Javanne, and Carter's Queen of Red magic. What do they all have in common? They are all powerful red-headed witches.

Yeah. I noticed.

One of the first things I did was create a version of Larina here at the end of time. Why her and not, say, a new witch? I liked the idea of a character who could remember bits of all her past lives, something of a Larina Ultima. If Larina of the Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age is something of an Ur-Larina, then this is her ultimate form. In this world, she is a seeress and a prophetess, though she will admit that her sight is limited because there just isn't that much future actually left. 

In the far future of Wasted Lands: The Dying Age, Larina still exists, but she is no longer the vibrant witch of West Haven or the wandering occult scholar of earlier ages.

She is known simply as The Ash Witch. 

Like many of my GMPCs, she serves as a witness to the age. She appears to the PCs at strange moments, offering warnings, riddles, or fragments of half-remembered lore. Sometimes she seems to know them already. Sometimes she speaks as though she remembers lives that have not yet happened.

Unlike many of her other incarnations, this Larina is not trying to change the world. There is nothing left to change. 

Here, she also makes the last stand with The One Who Remains. 

She does know a truth. That when the last ember of this universe fades, something new will ignite. And witches have always been good at tending embers. She is the witness of the end and the midwife of the new beginning. 

Currently, I have a group playing NIGHT SHIFT. I might convince them of a Wasted Lands: The Dying Age one-shot. But it is a world I am certainly going back to. 

Mail Call Tuesday: Monster Vault 2, Tales of the Valiant

 Wanted to tryout more of the Retail editions from DriveThruRPG, and I noticed Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault 2 was a choice. So my oldest kid picked it up and we got it just a few days later. Not as fast as say Amazon nor even as fast as me driving to my FLGS, but it was convient and we also got the PDF. 

With a print-on-demand version, I'd talk about the print quality and such, but this is a retail version, so offset printing and everything, so it looks great. 

It is 355 pages and over 300 monsters. Not too shabby, really.

It also has templates, NPCs, Monster Squads (Big Bads and their followers), and rules for Doom.

And it is all compatible with 5e. Though I should point out that none of these monsters have an alignment listed. So if that is something that triggers you then you should avoid this book. But otherwise, I think it will be a good addition to our game library here. I would ask my oldest how it worked for him in his weekend game, but he didn't play 5e this past weekend. He played NIGHT SHIFT instead! 

One thing I am considering, though.

In my game, Hell has gone through a reorganization. Out are Levistus and Zariel. Levistus was unmade and seizing this opportunity, Glasya took command of Stygia, becoming the first Arch Duke (Duchess) to control two layers of Hell since Baalzebul. Asmodeus, of course, allowed this to happen, thinking that these two layers would keep his ambitious daughter too busy to seek other layers. Glasya then did something no one expected. She raised Geryon to the ranks of Duke and put him back in charge of Stygia as her Viceroy. Geryon, happy to be back in charge and still angry with Asmodeus, took Glasya's offer. He was also pleased she had destroyed Malagard, someone he believed never earned her place in Hell. This earned her the hate of Baalzebul and the watchful caution of Mephistopheles (who, in my games, believes he is Glasya's real father).  For assurances that Geryon follows Glasya's orders, she has had Geryon's consort, Cozbinaer, raised and now serves in Glasya's court. 

Zariel is another one. She was defeated, and I had thought to put Astaroth in her place. But I think I will use Archduke Abizeth now. I have a habit of using what I have on hand for these sorts of things. His plane sounds a lot like Avernus, so I have that working for me. 

I have more changes coming to Hell. It's been a busy place. Maybe I should grab a couple of unique devils from Pathfinder 2nd ed as well. Maybe Barbatos is a good choice? There are a lot of good choices from Pathfinder.

Elowen Hale: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

“I have been around long enough to know that returns like this are never free. Nothing in the universe is ever free. There is always a ledger. A balancing. If something, or someone, let Elowen come back, then something may someday collect. I do not know what that means, and I do not like not knowing. She smiles as if the debt has already been paid. I hope she is right. 

But if something comes to collect from that girl, they will have to go through me first.” - Esmé Valethorne

Pathfinder 2nd Edition might not get the hype and play as Pathfinder 1st edition, but in some ways, I think it is better. It can stil play the same sorts of games you can with Pathfinder 1st ed, and of course D&D, but it has a some mechanics I like and many more that interest me.  Plus, I love the world Pathfinder has built.  

Character Background (Pathfinder 2nd Edition)

In this universe, Elowen is marked by the River of Souls. She died before her time, and a power neither divine nor arcane intervened.

Mechanically, she is a Witch, but narratively, she is one of the Returned. She perceives hauntings before they manifest. Undead feel uneasy in her presence. She does not radiate positive energy, but she disturbs the natural flow. I might have her take some levels of Seer later on. I have not decided just yet, I need to read up a little more on the class.

Elowen does not seek power. She studies it because she fears what might have brought her back. She works closely with the witches of West Haven, who understand that resurrection always carries a price. Resurrections of witches, even more so.

Her curse is subtle. At times, her reflection lags behind her movements. At others, she dreams of places she has never been but remembers dying in.  Despite this, she remains hopeful. She believes fate is not fixed. She has seen what lies beyond, and it has made her compassionate rather than cruel.

Elowen Hale
Female Human (versatile) Witch (Hedge Witch), Level 1

Background: Acolyte

Strength 0
Dexterity 0
Constitution 1
Intelligence 4
Wisdom 2
Charisma 2

AC 13
HP 15

Fortitude 4
Reflex 3
Will 7

Skills
Arcana 7, Crafting 4, Deception 5, Diplomacy 5, Lore (Ghosts) 7, Lore (Scribe) 7, Medicine 5, Nature 2, Occultism 7, Performance 5, Religion 5, Society 4, Survival 5

Weapon
Dagger 3, 1d6/1d4

Class DC 17

Feats
Additional Lore, Adapted Cantrip, Student of the Canon

Class Abilities
Attribute Boosts, Witch Initial Proficiencies, Witch Skill Training, Patron, Familiar "Mirepoix" (calico cat), Spellcasting (Occult), Hex Spells, Witch Lessons, Heightened Spells, Cantrips, Hexes, Spinner of Threads. 

Spells
Cantrips: Disrupt Undead, Daze, Detect Magic, Light, Prestidigitation, Read Aura, Shield, Telekinetic Hand, Telekinetic Projectile, Void Warp
First Circle: Sure Strike, Dizzying Colors, Enfeeble, Fear, Ill Omen, Mystic Armor

Focus Spells
Nudge Fate, Phase Familiar

--

This was one of the other main rule sets that helped me define who Elowen was. Here in Pathfinder, she is an Occult-based Hedge Witch. Like Larina has said, Elowen isn't going to raise storms or even summon armies of the dead to fight. She will be a beacon to guide others home, and if she summons up an army of the dead, well, it will be so she can show them to their afterlife and give them peace. 

Of the two versions, Tales of the Valiant and this one, I am not sure which one I like the best.

Fantasy Friday: DragonQuest 2nd Edition (2.19)

 Back when I covered DragonQuest 1st Edition, I discussed my fascination with the DragonQuest rules, in particular the full volume, soft-cover 2nd edition. While I have not scored a copy of the 2nd edition, there is a fan project out there known as the 2.19 edition.

DragonQuest 

My goal with my Fantasy Fridays is to present a fantasy game that could be a potential substitute for D&D at the game table, but what does a nearly 45-year-old have to offer? Well, before I get into that lets recap what DragonQuest is.

I have a bit of history with DragonQuest. Not a complicated one or even an interesting one, but history all the same.  Back in 83 or 84 or so, I would head to Belobrajdic's Bookstore in my hometown every weekend. There, I would get a new edition of Dragon or whatever sci-fi novel piqued my interest and then check out all the new RPG materials.  One I kept going back to time and time again was DragonQuest.  This was the 2nd Edition softcover and looked really different than anything I had played so far.  The barbarian on the cover proudly holding the severed head of a dragon convinced me it was a "Dragon hunting" game, and indeed, I learned that its original name was "DragonSlayer." But the Disney movie caused them to change this.

The game intrigued me so much. I flipped through it many times, and it even got to the point that I annoyed the owner, Paula Belobrajdic, who told me I should buy it.  In retrospect, I wish I had.  

Back in 2020, I managed to score a copy of the boxed set 1st edition.  I am not 100% sure it lived up to my idea of what I thought it should be.  Though while reading this 1st Edition boxed set, I could not help but think that maybe "DemonQuest" would be a fun game. That is, combine this with bits of the SPI game Demons. Consequently, the 2nd edition of DragonQuestion removed many of the connections with demons and demon summoning and even removed the School of Black Magic. 

Also, around this time, I began to delve into the thriving online community that DragonQuest still has. It was here that I discovered the aforementioned 2.19 edition and even some details on the TSR-produced DragonQuest 3rd edition, which has been described by some as "unplayable."

So while I never got my own copy of DragonQuest 2nd edition, I do have a copy of the DragonQuest 2.19 edition in a three-ring binder, so that will have to do.

Rules-wise, they are similar enough to my review of the 1st edition that I don't feel the need to get into a lot of detail about it.

2.19 and the DragonQuest Player's Association

Now, I may not have all my details correct here, so I do apologize in advance. The 2.19 edition of DragonQuest was created in 2003. It seems to have been a group effort to restore the 2nd edition rules while bringing in material that had appeared elsewhere. I think, but am not sure, that some of the better rules from the 3rd edition were also included.  Among other things, the College of Black Magic is back.  

These are the de facto rules used by many in the DragonQuest Player's Association. The site looks like it is an artifact of the earliest internet days (because it is) and has not changed much of its look and feel since 1998. But it is home to an absolute ton of DragonQuest material, both new and old. 

While I suppose the game is still copyrighted to SPI and then TSR and now Wizards/Hasbro, the trademark on the name went to the Japanese software company Square Enix. So while it is not really "abadonware" it is pretty close to that. 

I will be 100% honest. DragonQuest is clunky and not always in a good way. It wears its war game roots right on its sleeve for all to see. And the active community keeps with that notion. 

Its a great idea, in theory, but in practce I am back to where I was 42+ years ago; a neat game that no one around me plays. Maybe the next Con I go too I'll check out if they have a game running. The Facebook group is still active, so I know there are players out there. 

The adventures and the schools of magic are still the biggest draws for me. I have to admit I just love how they look, and the art is like something out of a 1970s pulp fantasy book that I found in the 1980s.  Raven Swordsmistress of Chaos would be a good character for this game. Maybe I'll give her a try later on. 

I still like to think that with the right group, where I am maybe the youngest guy there, this would be great.

Larina Nix for DragonQuest 2.19

One of the best things about DragonQuest 1st edition was it allowed me to detail the life of a mage that had been important to my games but whom I never really knew a lot about. Phygor was an ancient mage in the May game, more rumor and half-whispered history than a character. I figured I could stat him up in DragonQuest and finally run with him. I did. And it was great. I immediately want to try my hand a recreating my witch Larina for the game as well, but knew I wanted to use the 2nd edition rules for her. Well...I never found one to buy that I liked, but then I found the 2.19 edition rules.  I wanted her to have some power, so I awarded her an extra 40,000 experience points. Is that a lot? No idea, I know I wanted her to be skillful and magical, and experience points are used to buy everything.

Yes. There is a fan project on the School of Witchcraft, and it looks like a lot of fun, but I wanted to go Rules as Written for her.  

Larina Nix
Human Female, 26 years old

Primary Characteristics
Physical Strength 12
Manual Dexterity 15
Agility 12
Magical Aptitude 22
Willpower 20
Endurance 12
Physical Beauty 20

Secondary Characteristics
Tactical Movement Rate 4
Defense 12
Fatigue 19
Perception 8
Initiative D+8

Aspect Moon
Social Status First born daughter of a merchant.
Right Handed

Skills
Climbing 0, Horsemanship 0, Hunting 0, Stealth 0
Alchemist 3 (analyze chemicals, mix standard chemicals), Astrologer 3 (beigns affected, change prediction), Beast Master 1 (creatures of the night and shadow), Courtesan 2 (seduction, sing, appear attractive), Healer 1 (empathy - tactile, cure infection, disease, headache)

Languages
Common (S/R&W): 8/8
Ancient, Draconic (S/R&W): 3/3
Farie (S/R&W): 3/3

Weapons
Dagger 20 40 D A 8 RMC
Quarterstaff 20 55 2 C P M

Gear
Dagger, Quaterstaff, blouse, belt (weapon), high boots, cloak, gloves, hat, pants, sleeping sack, rations (1 week), pouch, quills, ink, parchment (26.75 lbs).

260 silver pieces

School of Magic: Ensorcelments and Enchantments
Base Magic Resistance 20

Spells Rank %
Witchsight  ee 6 32
Charming  ee 3 31
Telekinesis ee 4 39
Enchanted Sleep  ee 2 28
Speaking to Enchanted Creatures  ee 2 53
Location  ee 3 31
Invisibility  ee 4 64
Evil Eye  ee 5 42
Bolt of Energy  ee 7 78

--
So I like this. If I had not been deadset on doing her rules-as-written, I would have tried out the school of witchcraft, but that is fine, really. Maybe this is a previous incarnation of Larina, one who lived a generation after the original Phygor. Much like the relationship of Phygora (named for the mythic wizard) and Larina in AD&D, teacher and student, respectively.

 I know. I'll try out Elowen Hale using this system. Though it has honestly taken me months to write this much on this already. Still,  I would love to see if I could do a respectable Raven and Elowen as well. 

Am I done with this game? Not really. I am sure I'll keep coming back to it, if for no other reason than to satisfy the curiosity of a kid from the mids 80s looking at this book on the RPG shelves at my local bookstore.

Can I recommend this game? I doubt that many modern gamers have the patience for this style of rules anymore. Plus, "leveling up" can be slow, and players used to D&D 5 or even video games will have a hard time with it. This is an artifact of an age between ages; when the war gamer still ruled, and the RPG folks were the new kids on the block. Like I said with the 1st Edition, I have so many games that can do what this does. But I am happy I own copies, I am happy I can read them and enjoy them, and best of all, make some characters for them. 

Links

• Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonQuest
• DragonQuest Wiki,  https://www.dq-nz.org/dqwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
• DragonQuest Players Association, THE place to go for everything, https://www.dragonquest.org/
• DragonQuest Fan Page by Snafaru, https://www.zimlab.com/dq/
• DragonQuest Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1470175743293056/
• My DragonQuest posts:
• Review: DragonQuest, First Edition (1980)
• Character Creation Challenge: DragonQuest 1st Edition, Phygor

This Old Dragon: Issue #60

 Time to crack open another old Dragon. This is another one sent in by Eric Harshbarger. While the cover has fallen off of this one and there is a slight musty smell, it is in rather good condition. We head back to April 1982. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts dominate the airwaves with "I Love Rock & Roll."  The teen sex comedy "Porky's" is in the theatres. And on tables and shelves everywhere is This Old Dragon #60.

Dean Morrissey gives us our cover for this month. Editor Kim Mohan tells us a story about a December 1981 Dragon that was supposed to go to Washington DC and instead ended up in Vienna Austria. 

In a move that pre-sages the feature issues of the later 1980s, we have a huge feature on Elves, All About Elves. I should point out that much of this information now feels very familiar. But at the time, this was great world-building. While the debt to Tolkien is acknowledged, there is more here that is not Tolkien and that is great for AD&D (later editions).

Roger E. Morre is up first with The Elven Point of View. A lot of this material was reused for the Unearthed Arcana and can even be seen in the various Demi-human books of the AD&D 2nd Ed era. 

Moore is back, with Georgia Moore, on The Gods of the Elves. While we are still a few years away from the Forgotten Realms, this material has become part of the cornerstones of Greenwood's world. The gods presented here, Hanali Celanil, Erevan Ilesere, Aerdrie Faenya, Labelas Enoreth, and Solonor Thelandria, are still used to this day. 

Sage Advice covers elf-related questions.

Roger Moore, our MVP of Elves, is up again with The Half-Elven Point of View. Honestly, you can practically hear the birth cries of Tanis in this article. 

By page 16 we are done with the elves. Which makes it a shorter "feature" but it punches way above it's weight class in terms of content. 

On page 16 we get our monthly From the Sorcerer's Scroll by Gary Gygax. This one covers more Cantrips. Timely for me because I am reworking my witch cantrips for my Advanced Witches & Warlocks: Occult Adventures. And he has a lot of them. 

A two-page ad for Asgard miniatures. 

Ed Greenwood is up with Firearms, a coverage of early guns. There is a nice history and a table of various types of guns used with AD&D stats. Again, as with most of Ed's material, it is really useful. 

Aside. The paper of this magazine is so thick. Not at all like the later ones and certainly not at all like magazines today.

Wear Wolf is our fiction piece by Joel Rosenberg. A modern werewolf tale of the "wolf skin" sort.

Mike Holthaus has a quiz for us. How Much Do You Know About Science in a Fantasy World? Some basic science applications to situations in a fantasy setting. Like, if you fall 3,000 ft, do you have enough time to cast a Fly spell?

Our centerfold game is Flight of Boodles. Comes complete with a fold-out game board. 

Lest we forget, this is the April issue. I hate sounding like an old humorless grouch here, but I find most of the April issues to be very un-funny. This one at least is tolerable. 

Roger Moore (again!) is up with the Jester class. Though this one is presented as an actual class option and not a joke class. Well...sort of jokey, but still very playable. 

There is a parody of their usual "Giants in the Earth" series, again by Roger E. Moore, featuring some small characters that are supposed to be humorous. 

Phil Foglio has a nice spread in Artist of the Month. Not a feature I remember very well, but there is a cool bit of art here. 

A woman warrior saving a male one from a monster? Since when has D&D been so woke! Kidding of course. But there are certain segments of the fandom who freak out if this art were used today. I admit the color-by-numbers is a nice touch.

The Dragon's Bestiary features the Valley Giant (Jolly Green giant), Donald Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, a werebeaver, and the Bad New Bugbears. I am a little surprised no one sued. 

Interesting ad for the short-lived Gen Con East in Chester, PA.

Gary is up with some Top Secret RPG material for Outfitting the New Agent. 

Glenn Rahman has some playtest notes from his game, Trojan War.

Ah, now here is something fun. Stats and background on the Irish Pooka by Michael Fountain.

We get another point of view on Alignment from John Lees. This time, we delve a little bit into psychology and the ethics of the individuals. It also introduces the concept of alignment gradients, but not the mechanics behind them. 

The notorious Spawn of Fashan gets a review from Lawrence Schick, where he advises us not to take the game very seriously. He is pretty much saying it is a parody and bad on purpose. Later on he admitted it wasn't a parody, but he still thought it was funny. I tried to play it once in college, around 1989 or so. Yeah, it is terrible.

Comics pages give us Wormy and What's New with Phil and Dixie! I don't think there were more than this, though my cover is detached; I think this was all the pages.

So this was great stuff for 1982. The big feature on Elves has appeared in many AD&D books over the years. Ed Greenwood's piece on guns is good if you want to bring them into your AD&D games. And the jester class is one of the better ones I have seen.

Thanks once again to Eric Harshbarger for sending me this issue!

The Witches of Appendix N: Lord Dunsany

 In my coverage of the Witches of Appendix N, I have shown you Robert E. Howard’s decadent sorceresses, Lin Carter's dangerous enchantresses and Fritz Leiber’s suburban witches. They think of ambition, forbidden knowledge, demon bargains, and spell-casting as spectacle.

But Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, aka Lord Dunsany gives us something older.

Dunsany’s witches are not conquerors. They are not queens of abyssal realms. They do not hurl lightning from towers. They live in fields, beside willows, at the edges of villages. They speak quietly. And they are feared.

For this entry, I am looking at three works:

• The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924)
• The Witch of the Willows (in The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens) (1931)
• The Curse of the Wise Woman (1933)

You could almost describe these as “pre-Pulp.”

Ziroonderel - The Witch of Erl

In The King of Elfland’s Daughter, we meet Ziroonderel, a witch who lives on a thunder-haunted hill at the edge of Erl.

She is the most fully realized witch in Dunsany’s work.

Alveric seeks her out to make him a magic sword so that he may reach Elfland. She first reveals to him her “true, hideous form,” a withered shape. When he does not recoil, she grants him something rare: gratitude that “may not be bought, nor won by any charms that Christians know.”

That line matters.

Ziroonderel does not operate on commerce. She operates on dignity. Courtesy is repaid with loyalty. Magic here is personal, not transactional.

She occupies a liminal position:

• Outside the human community of Erl
• Outside Christian respectability
• Outside Elfland

She belongs fully to none of them.

Later, she becomes the infant Orion’s nursemaid. This is not incidental. Dunsany entrusts her with the child who bridges mortal and fairy worlds. The witch becomes caretaker of the future.

She is ancient, knowledgeable about both mortal and fairy realms, yet not omniscient. In one of the most fascinating moments of the novel, she speaks at length with Lirazel about matters beyond mortal knowledge, and it is the fairy princess who teaches her. For all her hundred years of wisdom, Ziroonderel can still learn.

She may even have feelings for Alveric. Yet she nonetheless aids him in his pursuit of Lirazel. Devotion does not curdle into spite.

When the Parliament of Erl later asks her for a “spell against magic,” she refuses flatly. She will not participate in a project of disenchantment.

Compared to the Christian friar who opposes her, Ziroonderel is morally richer and more generous. She is old, hideous in her true form, benevolent in her function, fiercely independent, and capable of loyalty.

For Appendix N, she is the hedge witch elevated to myth. Not a villain. Not a demon’s bride. A guardian of thresholds.

Mrs. Marlin, The Wise Woman of the Bog

In The Curse of the Wise Woman, Dunsany gives us Mrs. Marlin.

She is called a “wise woman,” but we eventually see the truth: she is a witch.

Unlike Ziroonderel, Mrs. Marlin exists in a recognizable, semi-autobiographical rural Ireland of the 1880s. She is not part of high fantasy. She is embedded in peasant life. Her nature is revealed gradually.

She is extraordinarily attuned to the workings of nature. She can foresee events. She is the self-appointed guardian of the bog.

And the bog matters.

When an English corporation arrives, intent on draining and industrializing the land, only one force stands in the way: the old witch whose curses the English workers do not believe in.

Their skepticism is central. Mrs. Marlin operates in a world that is trying to explain her away.

She communes with nature. When workmen tunnel for peat beneath the bog, she sets her arts to work. The climax pits ancient powers against industrial machinery.

Whether what happens is supernatural or natural is left deliberately ambiguous. Dunsany refuses to settle the matter cleanly.

Where Ziroonderel lives in a world where magic is acknowledged, Mrs. Marlin lives in a world that no longer wishes to acknowledge it. She is less a sorceress casting spells than a personification of the bog itself. Old Ireland embodied in a human form.

Magic here is not about power. It is about land. It is about memory. It is about resistance to modernity.

The Witch of the Willows

“The Witch of the Willows,” the 13th Chapter and final story in The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens, presents the most archetypal and yet the most devastating of Dunsany’s witches.

She is never named. But Dunsany makes sure we know exactly what she looks like.

An old woman in a black cloak and high black hat. A black stick in her hand. Grey ringlets. A black cat at her side. A broomstick leaning against the wall of her cottage. Jorkens himself notes the completeness of the iconography with a wry comparison: she dresses like a witch and acts like one, so he calls her one.

Dunsany is playing the archetype, the stereotype even, completely straight and clearly enjoying it.

She lives deep in Merlinswood, at the end of a path so faint it resembles a rabbit track. Her cottage has thick bottle-glass windows. Earthenware jars of cowslip and briar rose line the interior. It is an utterly traditional witch’s dwelling.

But she is far more than folklore. She is a prophetess of decline.

Over the fire she speaks of humanity losing its hold, of machinery, of people becoming more fit for machines and less fit for men. She reads the future in the coals and refuses to tell Jorkens what she sees because such knowledge “is the affair of the witches.” She is not a distributor of secrets. She is their keeper.

More than that, she is the guardian of the old magic itself.

The mystery of the marsh and wood moves with her. It radiates from her presence and recedes when she withdraws. When Jorkens refuses her proposal and walks away, the disenchantment of the forest is immediate and total. The magic does not merely leave her cottage. It leaves the world around her.

She does not wield magic as a tool. She is magic.

The turning point of the story is her proposal. “I suppose you wouldn’t marry an old, old woman,” she says. Every fairy tale warns us what this means. The loathly lady who becomes radiant. The enchantress in disguise. The swan maiden. The enchanted bride motif is firmly in place.

And Jorkens fails.

He knows full well what the tradition promises. Yet he chooses antimacassars and convention over enchantment. The witch is not cruel. She is not predatory. She offers entry into wonder, and he declines.

There is a flash of anger in her eyes, but she does not curse him.

She simply leaves.

And with her departure, the magic of the wood goes too.

Thirty years later, Jorkens knows it was the mistake of his life.

This witch is melancholy rather than malevolent. She sighs over the fire. She offers tea. She speaks with sorrow about humanity’s direction. She wants companionship, not conquest.

In her, Dunsany crystallizes a theme that runs through his entire body of work: magic is not destroyed by force. It is lost by refusal.

Dunsany’s Witches

Seen together, Dunsany’s witches form a progression.

• Ziroonderel stands at the boundary between mortal and fairy, dignified and principled, neither villain nor saint.
• Mrs. Marlin stands against industrial modernity, rooted in land and old Ireland, her powers entangled with ambiguity and resistance.
• The Witch of the Willows stands at the brink of disenchantment itself. She is not fighting priests or corporations. She is confronting indifference.

What the three witches share is significant: none is evil in any simple sense. All three are forces connected to something old, natural, or otherworldly that exists in tension with a more mundane or rational order. Dunsany consistently treats his witch figures with sympathy and complexity.

But they differ greatly in register. Ziroonderel belongs to high, lyrical fantasy and is fully visible as a witch from the start. Mrs. Marlin belongs to a grounded, realistic Irish novel where her nature is hinted at and debated. The witch of the willows seems, from what can be confirmed, to belong to the more melancholy and ambiguous register of the Jorkens tales, where wonder is usually tinged with loss.

There is also a progression in how magic is challenged.

• In The King of Elfland’s Daughter, magic is challenged by Christian piety.
• In The Curse of the Wise Woman, it is challenged by industrial capitalism.
• In “The Witch of the Willows,” it is undone by personal choice and cultural gravity.

In many ways, Dunsany’s witches feel closer to the folklore that later informed Margaret Murray’s witch-cult hypothesis than to pulp sorcery. They are remnants of something ancient, local, and very pagan.

So, yes, Howard gives us the witch-queens, and Carter and Leiber gave us the dangerous enchantress. 

D&D inherited witches from pulp spectacle and demonic sorcery. But it also inherited them from Dunsany’s countryside, from the woman in the black cloak at the end of a rabbit path, from the old guardian of the bog, from the witch who offered enchantment and was turned away.

And for Appendix N, that matters. For me, it matters.

This shows the witch as a liminal figure. A figure on the hedge. These are the witches that most folks will know.