This Old Dragon: Issue #146

 Been a bit since I have done one of these. Looking at my notes I started this in June and just getting around to finishing it. Ah. Well, I have been kinda busy with real life stuff. So lets go back in time, not to an ancient land or a galaxy far, far away, but to the end of the 1980s. June 1989 to be exact. Let's see I had just ended my second year at University. I had settled in on my majors and was getting straight As. I picked up the new AD&D 2nd Edition Player's Handbook three month prior and had just grabbed the AD&D 2n Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. Likely I saw this issue on the stands.  "Rock On" by Michael Damian, cover of the Glam Rock hit by David Essex was number one on the airwaves. In the theaters we were in for a treat, our movie choices were Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Trek: The Final Frontier (who I saw with my best friend who I would later marry in just 6 years), Batman, and Ghostbusters II. And on our shelves along with the new AD&D 2nd Edition was Issue #146 of This Old Dragon.

My issue is missing the cover, but I do want to talk about it. The cover lets us know this is the 13th year of Dragon Magazine! Rather nice milestone. If Dragon had continued we would have celebrated its 48th year.  Our cover is by none other than Keith Parkinson himself.

Since this is the anniversary issue and it the late 80s early 90s we can expect a themed issue about dragons, and that is exactly what we get. 

This is that odd in-between time of Dragon were both AD&D 1st Ed and 2nd Ed are supported. Leading many of us at the time to just treat them as the same game despite some differences. 

Up first, big ad for the Science Fiction book club. I still have a lot of those books. 

This is followed by a big two-page spread ad for the SSI AD&D Computer games.  This is important later one. BTW you can still get these game cheap on Steam and Gog. 

Following that in the Editorial, Roger Moore asks if traditional Pencil & Paper RPGs are dead due to advancements in computer games. The editorial ends with the question "Will computer RPGs eventually replace 'paper' RPGs?" And then adds, "The future will tell. And DRAGON Magazine will be around to find out."  Well...the answer is a lot more complicated than "yes" or "no." The successes of D&DF 5e and Baldur's Gate 3 (note at the time of writing Baldur's Gate 1 was still 10 years away) seems to show that there is not just room for both, but both are welcomed now by a lot of the same people. Sadly Dragon was not around to address BG3 but future issues did cover a lot of video games.

Letters asks for some new features like tech items in Bazaar of the Bizarre and requests to send fan mail to artists. Forum wants to know if the glory days of D&D are now in the past. 

Sage Advice now has to differentiate between 1st and 2nd Edition books. Where discrepancies occur, 2nd Edition takes precedence. 

Wings of Doom begins our featured section on Dragons.

David E. Cates is up first with Dragons are Wizards' Best Friends, a guide to new small dragons to be used as familiars. These fall under the sub group of dragons known as drakes. We ware even treated to a Crystal Drake art by the late Jennell Jaquays. We get Crystal, Demon, Faerie, and Shadow Drakes. These are al 1st Edition stats.

The Dragon's Bestiary has many new dragons, also in 1st Ed versions. These are the Cobra Dragon, the Obsidian Dragon, Gray Dragon, Rainbow Dragon, Draken, and Minidragon.

Jean Rabe and Skip Williams are up with The New Ecology of Dragons. This is designed for the AD&D 2nd Edition game. 

All three articles are a must read for anyone that love dragons (like my son) and plays AD&D.

The Hatching Magazine by A.D. Young is a look back at the predecessor to Dragon, The Strategic Review. Now like many I knew about the Strategic Review and its place in TSR/D&D history, but I had never seen any copies. That would not be until 10 years later when Wizards of the Coast released the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM with scanned PDFs of the everything. 

It was a wonderful insight to an age right before the time I started playing and only knew a little about.

The Ever-After is our short story from eluki bes shahar. Yes that is how it is spelled and it the original name of Rosemary Edghill. I do love how many successful authors and artists got their start with Dragon and TSR.

The centerfold is giant Buck Rogers poster. No need to go over how that went for TSR.

TSR Previews tell us what is hot for the late Spring of 1989. Among the choices, lots of Forgotten Realms, AD&D 2nd Ed DMG and the "All New Dungeon! Family Game."

Marvel-Phile covers some "Sage Advice" like questions for the Marvel Super Heroes game.

Not to be out done, there is an add for the DC Heroes 2nd Edition game, focusing mostly on Batman. Batmania is in full force.

Gamma World is not forgotten, well, at least not yet with Dan Salas' Dangerous Terrain. It looks like it could work for any version of Gamma World.

The Lessers are back (Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk) with the Role of Computers.  Chuck Yeager's A.F.T. 2.0 is featured. I had a roommate that played all the flight simulator games on his DAK 386. That was the shit for the time. This article also shows off the differences between the IMB-PC compatibles and the Amiga. I always low-key liked the Amiga. The girl-friend I had at the time had one and I thought it was really great.

Ad for West End Game's Star Wars. Despite my love for Star Wars, I never played this one.

Arrows of the East gives us some new arrows for the Oriental Adventures book. David Kloba gives us a new selection of arrows including how to find them. 

Gamers Guide small ads are up. Many old favorites are here with more about computers and computer RPG help.

Kevin Murphy has a fun article on wishes in If You Wish Upon a Star... AD&D focused, but could be used with any FRPG. It is a pretty comprehensive article. 

Convention Calendar for June to September 1989 is next. There are some local to me ones that sadly no longer are running. 

Dragonsmirth has our comics including Yamara. One day I need to make good on my promise to read those all in order.

So. If you love dragons then this is a good issue to find. It is also typical of the issue for the next year or so until the Powers that Be focus completely on AD&D 2nd Ed; even to exclusion of the BECMI line.

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 4 September Dr. Seward's Diary, Letter to Van Helsing

Seward checks in on Renfield. 

Dr. Seward’s Diary.

4 September.—Zoöphagous patient still keeps up our interest in him. He had only one outburst and that was yesterday at an unusual time. Just before the stroke of noon he began to grow restless. The attendant knew the symptoms, and at once summoned aid. Fortunately the men came at a run, and were just in time, for at the stroke of noon he became so violent that it took all their strength to hold him. In about five minutes, however, he began to get more and more quiet, and finally sank into a sort of melancholy, in which state he has remained up to now. The attendant tells me that his screams whilst in the paroxysm were really appalling; I found my hands full when I got in, attending to some of the other patients who were frightened by him. Indeed, I can quite understand the effect, for the sounds disturbed even me, though I was some distance away. It is now after the dinner-hour of the asylum, and as yet my patient sits in a corner brooding, with a dull, sullen, woe-begone look in his face, which seems rather to indicate than to show something directly. I cannot quite understand it.

 

Later.—Another change in my patient. At five o’clock I looked in on him, and found him seemingly as happy and contented as he used to be. He was catching flies and eating them, and was keeping note of his capture by making nail-marks on the edge of the door between the ridges of padding. When he saw me, he came over and apologised for his bad conduct, and asked me in a very humble, cringing way to be led back to his own room and to have his note-book again. I thought it well to humour him: so he is back in his room with the window open. He has the sugar of his tea spread out on the window-sill, and is reaping quite a harvest of flies. He is not now eating them, but putting them into a box, as of old, and is already examining the corners of his room to find a spider. I tried to get him to talk about the past few days, for any clue to his thoughts would be of immense help to me; but he would not rise. For a moment or two he looked very sad, and said in a sort of far-away voice, as though saying it rather to himself than to me:—

“All over! all over! He has deserted me. No hope for me now unless I do it for myself!” Then suddenly turning to me in a resolute way, he said: “Doctor, won’t you be very good to me and let me have a little more sugar? I think it would be good for me.”

“And the flies?” I said.

“Yes! The flies like it, too, and I like the flies; therefore I like it.” And there are people who know so little as to think that madmen do not argue. I procured him a double supply, and left him as happy a man as, I suppose, any in the world. I wish I could fathom his mind.

 

Midnight.—Another change in him. I had been to see Miss Westenra, whom I found much better, and had just returned, and was standing at our own gate looking at the sunset, when once more I heard him yelling. As his room is on this side of the house, I could hear it better than in the morning. It was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky beauty of a sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows and all the marvellous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul water, and to realise all the grim sternness of my own cold stone building, with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart to endure it all. I reached him just as the sun was going down, and from his window saw the red disc sink. As it sank he became less and less frenzied; and just as it dipped he slid from the hands that held him, an inert mass, on the floor. It is wonderful, however, what intellectual recuperative power lunatics have, for within a few minutes he stood up quite calmly and looked around him. I signalled to the attendants not to hold him, for I was anxious to see what he would do. He went straight over to the window and brushed out the crumbs of sugar; then he took his fly-box, and emptied it outside, and threw away the box; then he shut the window, and crossing over, sat down on his bed. All this surprised me, so I asked him: “Are you not going to keep flies any more?”

“No,” said he; “I am sick of all that rubbish!” He certainly is a wonderfully interesting study. I wish I could get some glimpse of his mind or of the cause of his sudden passion. Stop; there may be a clue after all, if we can find why to-day his paroxysms came on at high noon and at sunset. Can it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at periods which affects certain natures—as at times the moon does others? We shall see.

Telegram, Seward, London, to Van Helsing, Amsterdam.

“4 September.—Patient still better to-day.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Renfield's moods line up with the ebb and flow of Dracula's own power. He rages when Dracula is at his lowest power.  We will compare this to Van Helsing's later discussion on the powers of the vampire (30 Sept, Mina Harker's Journal).

There is a long held belief that the at times of the full moon people will act crazier. It is the root of the word Lunatic. A belief that persists to this very day. I know back when I was working as a QMHP with a group of schizophrenics and working a suicide hotline that this was the belief. But there is no evidence to really support it.  Still though, I do keep reporting the moon phase.

Stoker is putting up a red herring for our good Doctor here. It's not the moon or the sun that change Renfield, it is their effect on Dracula and Dracula's influence on Renfield. 

Mail Call Wednesday: Art Edition, Djinn Unboxed

 A very special Mail Call on a Wednesday today. A book I have been eagerly anticipating. Djinn Unboxed!

This art book from my very good friend Djinn just landed on my shores this morning all the way from her home in Italy. At 330+ pages it is crammed full of her wonderful, often D&D-inspired, art. 

And there is not a lot I can show you here either! Djinn's art tends toward the risqué and sometime pornographic, but always tastefully so if not outright fun. 

Much of the art features her D&D character, the witch Solaine, and some of it is also her alter-ego Djinn.  

But there is an entire feature on my little witch Larina!

There is a lot more than that, but these are the ones I feel safest sharing. Besides, want to see more? Buy the book!

Djinn's D&D world is a fun place where Solaine battles seas monsters on a pirate ship, accidentally summons amorous demons, and libraries are anything but quiet. 

Not sure when this book will go on general sale, I know she is working on getting copies out to her Kickstarter backers now. But I hope to see a lot more.

Links

• Linktree, https://linktr.ee/djinnintheshade
• Website, https://www.djinnintheshade.com/
• Pateron, https://www.patreon.com/djinnintheshade/posts
• Twitter/X, https://x.com/Djinninthebox
• Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/djinnintheshade/
• Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/djinnintheshade

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 3 September Letter, Dr. Seward to Hon. Arthur Holmwood.

More updates on Lucy's condition. Van Helsing has seen Lucy.

Letter, Dr. Seward to Hon. Arthur Holmwood.

“3 September.

“My dear Art,—

“Van Helsing has come and gone. He came on with me to Hillingham, and found that, by Lucy’s discretion, her mother was lunching out, so that we were alone with her. Van Helsing made a very careful examination of the patient. He is to report to me, and I shall advise you, for of course I was not present all the time. He is, I fear, much concerned, but says he must think. When I told him of our friendship and how you trust to me in the matter, he said: ‘You must tell him all you think. Tell him what I think, if you can guess it, if you will. Nay, I am not jesting. This is no jest, but life and death, perhaps more.’ I asked what he meant by that, for he was very serious. This was when we had come back to town, and he was having a cup of tea before starting on his return to Amsterdam. He would not give me any further clue. You must not be angry with me, Art, because his very reticence means that all his brains are working for her good. He will speak plainly enough when the time comes, be sure. So I told him I would simply write an account of our visit, just as if I were doing a descriptive special article for The Daily Telegraph. He seemed not to notice, but remarked that the smuts in London were not quite so bad as they used to be when he was a student here. I am to get his report to-morrow if he can possibly make it. In any case I am to have a letter.

“Well, as to the visit. Lucy was more cheerful than on the day I first saw her, and certainly looked better. She had lost something of the ghastly look that so upset you, and her breathing was normal. She was very sweet to the professor (as she always is), and tried to make him feel at ease; though I could see that the poor girl was making a hard struggle for it. I believe Van Helsing saw it, too, for I saw the quick look under his bushy brows that I knew of old. Then he began to chat of all things except ourselves and diseases and with such an infinite geniality that I could see poor Lucy’s pretense of animation merge into reality. Then, without any seeming change, he brought the conversation gently round to his visit, and suavely said:—

“‘My dear young miss, I have the so great pleasure because you are so much beloved. That is much, my dear, ever were there that which I do not see. They told me you were down in the spirit, and that you were of a ghastly pale. To them I say: “Pouf!”’ And he snapped his fingers at me and went on: ‘But you and I shall show them how wrong they are. How can he’—and he pointed at me with the same look and gesture as that with which once he pointed me out to his class, on, or rather after, a particular occasion which he never fails to remind me of—‘know anything of a young ladies? He has his madmans to play with, and to bring them back to happiness, and to those that love them. It is much to do, and, oh, but there are rewards, in that we can bestow such happiness. But the young ladies! He has no wife nor daughter, and the young do not tell themselves to the young, but to the old, like me, who have known so many sorrows and the causes of them. So, my dear, we will send him away to smoke the cigarette in the garden, whiles you and I have little talk all to ourselves.’ I took the hint, and strolled about, and presently the professor came to the window and called me in. He looked grave, but said: ‘I have made careful examination, but there is no functional cause. With you I agree that there has been much blood lost; it has been, but is not. But the conditions of her are in no way anæmic. I have asked her to send me her maid, that I may ask just one or two question, that so I may not chance to miss nothing. I know well what she will say. And yet there is cause; there is always cause for everything. I must go back home and think. You must send to me the telegram every day; and if there be cause I shall come again. The disease—for not to be all well is a disease—interest me, and the sweet young dear, she interest me too. She charm me, and for her, if not for you or disease, I come.’

“As I tell you, he would not say a word more, even when we were alone. And so now, Art, you know all I know. I shall keep stern watch. I trust your poor father is rallying. It must be a terrible thing to you, my dear old fellow, to be placed in such a position between two people who are both so dear to you. I know your idea of duty to your father, and you are right to stick to it; but, if need be, I shall send you word to come at once to Lucy; so do not be over-anxious unless you hear from me.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

We get some of Van Helsing's abrasive and no-nonsense personality here. He says he never jests here and later on, but he can be a whimsical character. I think Stoker is trying to portray his genius as something us normal folk just can't understand. 

He is also something of a flirt with the young women. We will learn more about his married life later on.

New Release: Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 Player's Handbook

 It is Tuesday and my FLGS opened at midnight so we could get the new D&D 5.5 Player's Handbook. So here it is!

It is a beast of a book really. 384 Pages vs. the 320 of the 2014 5.0 edition. Most of this though is given over to new art and introductions to the game.  This book is trying to set the stage for new players to D&D.

Rules are covered in the first 30 or so pages which works out nicely. You are eased into it. Sure, I like starting with character creation, but sometimes it is nice to know a bit more about what is going on.

Bloodied is back. It is not exactly the same, but it is there. 

Creating a character is just 14 or so pages. This includes the mechanics of rolling the dice. 

Character classes cover the bulk, about 130 pages. There are the same 12 classes from D&D 5.0 (2014) with their subclasses. Most get four subclasses, some get five. There are a lot of little changes to classes. Fighters get a psychic variant, rangers feel nerfed, warlocks are a little cooler. I'll post more when I have had a chance to get into the details. 

There are backgrounds, like 5.0 though these seem to be a bit better defined.

Race is now Species and that is fine with me. We get Aasimar, Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Goliath, Halfling, Human, Orc, and Tiefling. No half-elf or half-orcs, though I will admit they might be taking the Pathfinder route here and folding them into the elf and orc respectively with some mods. This doesn't bother me. If I want to play a half-elf in 5.5 I can use the elf rules. Easy.

There are some feats from Tasha's here that I love, like Telepathic and Telekinetic. 

About 20 pages for equipment with great illustrations.

Spells take up the next bulk at over 100 pages. Spells are better explained and if is summons a creature that stat block is included with the spell.

Appendix A covers the multiverse. There are no changes here from 1st Ed.

Appendix B has some creature stat blocks related to class, ie Druid Wild Shape and the like. And YES monsters still have alignment. For example Imps are (still) Lawful Evil and Quasits are (still) Chaotic Evil. 

The changes here are less than the changes found between 1st and 2nd Edition. They are more akin to the changes between 3.0 and 3.5. I am going to keep calling this edition 5.5.

Visually speaking, they are closer together than some of the books of the AD&D 2nd Ed era were to each other.

I picked this up just a hour or so ago. So I really have not gone into it in detail. Save to check on the Rangers and Warlocks. They are classes I have heard the most about getting worse and better respectively.

The art is generally better, with some "names" popping up among the nameless NPCs and characters. So that will be fun on a deeper read through.

Overall there is "less flipping" one would need to do through this book while playing. 

I am looking for some character sheets so I can make a new version of Johan for this game; Johan VII for the win!

My 2014 PHB is falling apart and I am not 100% sure how much I will play this edition, but I am glad to have it.

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 2 September Letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood, Dr. Seward to Van Helsing

Seward updates Arthur on Lucy's condition. Van Helsing enters our tale.

Letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood.

“2 September.

“My dear old fellow,—

“With regard to Miss Westenra’s health I hasten to let you know at once that in my opinion there is not any functional disturbance or any malady that I know of. At the same time, I am not by any means satisfied with her appearance; she is woefully different from what she was when I saw her last. Of course you must bear in mind that I did not have full opportunity of examination such as I should wish; our very friendship makes a little difficulty which not even medical science or custom can bridge over. I had better tell you exactly what happened, leaving you to draw, in a measure, your own conclusions. I shall then say what I have done and propose doing.

“I found Miss Westenra in seemingly gay spirits. Her mother was present, and in a few seconds I made up my mind that she was trying all she knew to mislead her mother and prevent her from being anxious. I have no doubt she guesses, if she does not know, what need of caution there is. We lunched alone, and as we all exerted ourselves to be cheerful, we got, as some kind of reward for our labours, some real cheerfulness amongst us. Then Mrs. Westenra went to lie down, and Lucy was left with me. We went into her boudoir, and till we got there her gaiety remained, for the servants were coming and going. As soon as the door was closed, however, the mask fell from her face, and she sank down into a chair with a great sigh, and hid her eyes with her hand. When I saw that her high spirits had failed, I at once took advantage of her reaction to make a diagnosis. She said to me very sweetly:—

“‘I cannot tell you how I loathe talking about myself.’ I reminded her that a doctor’s confidence was sacred, but that you were grievously anxious about her. She caught on to my meaning at once, and settled that matter in a word. ‘Tell Arthur everything you choose. I do not care for myself, but all for him!’ So I am quite free.

“I could easily see that she is somewhat bloodless, but I could not see the usual anæmic signs, and by a chance I was actually able to test the quality of her blood, for in opening a window which was stiff a cord gave way, and she cut her hand slightly with broken glass. It was a slight matter in itself, but it gave me an evident chance, and I secured a few drops of the blood and have analysed them. The qualitative analysis gives a quite normal condition, and shows, I should infer, in itself a vigorous state of health. In other physical matters I was quite satisfied that there is no need for anxiety; but as there must be a cause somewhere, I have come to the conclusion that it must be something mental. She complains of difficulty in breathing satisfactorily at times, and of heavy, lethargic sleep, with dreams that frighten her, but regarding which she can remember nothing. She says that as a child she used to walk in her sleep, and that when in Whitby the habit came back, and that once she walked out in the night and went to East Cliff, where Miss Murray found her; but she assures me that of late the habit has not returned. I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know of; I have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world. I have asked him to come over, and as you told me that all things were to be at your charge, I have mentioned to him who you are and your relations to Miss Westenra. This, my dear fellow, is in obedience to your wishes, for I am only too proud and happy to do anything I can for her. Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason, so, no matter on what ground he comes, we must accept his wishes. He is a seemingly arbitrary man, but this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day; and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, an indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats—these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind—work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. I tell you these facts that you may know why I have such confidence in him. I have asked him to come at once. I shall see Miss Westenra to-morrow again. She is to meet me at the Stores, so that I may not alarm her mother by too early a repetition of my call.

“Yours always,
“John Seward.”

Letter, Abraham Van Helsing, M. D., D. Ph., D. Lit., etc., etc., to Dr. Seward.

“2 September.

“My good Friend,—

“When I have received your letter I am already coming to you. By good fortune I can leave just at once, without wrong to any of those who have trusted me. Were fortune other, then it were bad for those who have trusted, for I come to my friend when he call me to aid those he holds dear. Tell your friend that when that time you suck from my wound so swiftly the poison of the gangrene from that knife that our other friend, too nervous, let slip, you did more for him when he wants my aids and you call for them than all his great fortune could do. But it is pleasure added to do for him, your friend; it is to you that I come. Have then rooms for me at the Great Eastern Hotel, so that I may be near to hand, and please it so arrange that we may see the young lady not too late on to-morrow, for it is likely that I may have to return here that night. But if need be I shall come again in three days, and stay longer if it must. Till then good-bye, my friend John.

“Van Helsing.”

Notes: Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

A couple of very important letters.

First we have Seward's letter ot Holmwood describing Lucy's condition.  Though we get some Victorian medical sleight of hand here. Lucy's blood would not have held to the any sort of analysis if she had major blood loss. But that is applying scientific logic to vampirism. 

More importantly, Lucy's condition stumps Seward so he is obliged to call in his old mentor Prof. Abraham Van Helsing.

 Van Helsing's letter establishes first that he is an expert, he is a "Mud-Phud," a Poly-glot, and shares the same name as our author. He is a medical doctor, a Ph.D. and a Doctor of Literature. 

Stoker had said in the past that Van Helsing was based on a real person. In "Powers of Darkness" it is also stated that "Van Helsing" is a pseudonym used in the book. 

--

Every Moriarty needs a Holmes, every Lex Luthor needs a Superman and Dracula needs his Van Helsing. It is one of the great hero-villain dynamics in all of literature and they share surprising little time together in the novel. Again a good example of this in the movies is FFC's "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

So great is the rivalry that Hammer Studios capitalized on it, and on the friendship of the two actors Peter Cushing (Van Helsing) and Christopher Lee (Dracula) that they made it a central focus of all their Dracula films and even into their non-Dracula horror movies.

Now that Van Helsing has entered the scene things move along in the novel. 

Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 at Midnight!

 I *may* have convinced my Favorite Local Game Store to open up at Midnight to sell the D&D 5.5 Player's Handbook.

They went back and forth a bit over this past weekend, and I woke up to this this morning.

I'll be picking up the new D & D 5.5 in about 14 hours.

If you want yours and you live in the Chicagoland area then head on out to Games Plus to get your pre-order.

Expect a mini-review after I pick it up!