Accessory - Dragon Magazine #128, MAGAZINES, Dragon Magazine
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Dragon
1
Vol. XII, No. 7
December 1987
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
46
KINGS TABLE
Dale Oldfield and Mark Foster
For over a thousand years, the Vikings choice in board games.
OTHER FEATURES
8
Welcome to Waterdeep Ed Greenwood
The dangerous environs of a city in the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting.
Publisher
Mike Cook
16
Matters of Mastery John C. Bunnell
A book about the mastery of role-playing from a master.
Editor
Roger E. Moore
18
To Believe or Not to Believe W. Todo Todorsky
Was it real or was it illusory? Only the wisest know for sure.
Assistant editor
Robin Jenkins
Fiction editor
Patrick L. Price
22
Role-playing Reviews Ken Rolston
A journey to the limits of fantasy gaming: outer space.
Editorial assistants
Eileen Lucas
Barbara G. Young
34
The Game Wizards James M. Ward
Want to write for TSR? Wonder whats coming in 1988? Heres the inside info!
Debbie Poutsch
Georgia Moore
Art director
Roger Raupp
36
The Spirit Way fiction by Leigh Anne Hussey
The secrets of magic are not easily taken; the search alone can kill you.
Production Staff
Lori Svikel
57
Plane Speaking Jeff Grubb
Marilyn Favaro
Quasi elementals from negative habitats: Ash, Dust, Salt, and Vacuum.
Subscriptions
Advertising
60
—
Dennis McLaughlin
If you cross an agent with an armed helicopter, you roll up a new agent.
Pat Schulz
Mary Parkinson
Creative editors
Jeff Grubb
64
A Mutant by Any Other Name Kim Eastland
. . .
Ed Greenwood
would still be a GAMMA WORLD® game mutant.
69
The Island in Your Computer Cheryl Peterson
Beyond your keyboard is a new land of magic: Island of Kesmai.
74
The Marvel®-Phile Jon D. Martin
Cap and Bucky, together again but who are they?
80
The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser
Explore the world of Shadowgate, then save the world with S.D.I.
86
U 2 KAN ERN BIG BUX! Lawrence R. Raimonda
Kan u say, Kall me Konan? Of kourse u kan!
DEPARTMENTS
3
4
6
Letters 90 Gamers Guide 97 SnarfQuest
World Gamers Guide 92 Index to Advertisers 100 Dragonmirth
Forum
93 Convention Calendar 102 Wormy
COVER
You can almost imagine the conversation taking place as the two would-be
adventurers in Daniel Hornes cover painting come upon a particularly huge, ugly,
vicious, and highly annoyed monster in their local forest. How many pluses did
you say this sword has? Is that all?
2 D
ECEMBER
1987
Chopper Power!
Fun, fun, fun
D-Chess I
Clerics (2): Grenadier Models #142: Clerics (2
packs)
Basilisks (4): Grenadier Models #1501: Monster
Manuscripts, Vol. 1 Figure MM4 (4 packs)
Elementals (2): Grenadier Models #1503: Mon-
ster Manuscripts, Vol. 3 (2 packs)
Dwarves (12): Grenadier Models #1603:
Dwarves, Army of the Gold Mountain (1
pack), and Grenadier Models #189: Dwarf
Champions (1 pack)
Unicorns (4): Grenadier Models #160: Unicorn
and Maid (4 packs)
Paladins (2): RAFM Miniatures #3804: Odo,
Warrior Cleric (2 packs)
Heroes (4): RAFM Miniatures #3810: Charles
the Great, Paladin (4 packs)
Warriors (24): Grenadier Models #1601: Foot
Knights, Army of the Dragon Lords (3 packs)
Mages (3): RAFM Miniatures #3801: Nimrod,
The Bold Wizard (2 packs)
Sylphs (12): Grenadier Models #120: Winged
Folk (4 packs)
Kings (2): Grenadier Models Wizzards and
Warriors Double Blister Dioramic Sets #WS4:
The Royal Court (2 packs)
Griffons (4): Grenadier Models #6004: Mon-
sters of Mythology Figure M9 (4 packs)
The basilisk, elemental, and griffon figures
each come with nine other figures not needed
for the DRAGONCHESS game. You can write to
Grenadier Models and ask to buy just the one
figure that you need from each set. I bought my
griffons this way for only $1.50.
I hope that this helps anyone putting together
a DRAGONCHESS game set of their own. Maybe
it will save them the three months it took me to
put together my own set.
Working at a game company is a
peculiar sort of job. You become so
immersed in the world of games,
gaming, gamers, game theory, game
design, game editing, game news,
and so on that you can develop a
reaction to it. When I came to Lake
Geneva four years ago, someone
took me aside and said, After
youve worked at TSR a while, youll
get a real taste for golf.
Though I never sank to those
depths, I did find that I had a new
and rather ambivalent attitude
about the word fun. In order for
games to sell, they must be fun.
People who work at game compan-
ies must have a very intense appre-
ciation for the value of fun, or else
they might as well take jobs as
accountants or lawyers.*
Anyway, since joining TSR, Inc., Ive
also developed an intense appreciation
for people who know how to have
fun. Game companies have no monop-
oly on fun-loving people, but keeping
your sense of fun alive is sometimes
difficult when it is your job to have
fun. This is a unique pressure that has
interesting side effects (Do we have
to play today?).
But its worth it. The closeness of
the working relationships and the
nature of the business at TSR, Inc.,
have given it the atmosphere of a
large extended family composed of
adult children.** Co-workers and
ex-co-workers are often close
friends who show up at your house
during holidays to trade stories
about work over turkey dinner. And
even the worst workday has at least
one bizarre or amusing event to
tempt you into coming back again
for a little more abuse most of the
time. I have heard that other game
companies have much in common
here with TSR, Inc., and I can
believe it. Were all family, in a
bizarre way.
From all of us here at DRAGON®
Magazine, a special wish is offered to
our readers and to everyone in the
gaming business past, present, and
future for the best of holidays.
And have fun. You deserve it.
Dear Dragon:
I just received [DRAGON®] issue #122 and
read the letter from Emil Leong about the
DRAGONCHESS game and your comment
about a computerized DRAGONCHESS game
being a horror to develop. You were only parti-
ally correct. Ever since issue #100, when you
introduced that game, I have tried to develop a
computerized version of it on my Apple IIc
computer because I liked the idea of the game
but didnt like the work involved in setting it up.
So far, I have a semi-finished version that is
playable only by two people who know how to
play the game. The basic design of the game
was easy to create because it was given in the
article, but putting the mechanics in the com-
puter was hard.
You are correct about it being a horror to
develop; it has taken me almost two years to get
this far, but things are going along nicely. If
anyone who knows about Apple computer
programming and how to play DRAGONCHESS
games has any advice, it would be greatly
appreciated.
Paul Van Horn
Rochester NY
We can pass on comments and questions on
the DRAGONCHESS game through this column
or through the “Forum,” or if writers enclose
postage and a letter, we can send them on to
other writers. Interest in Gary Gygax’s imagina-
tive game continues to be shown, as witness the
following letter:
Boyce Kline
Ledyard CT
D-Chess II
Readers who wish to order these figures
directly from the companies making them may
use the following addresses:
Grenadier Models, Inc.
P.O. Box 305
Springfield PA 19064
(215) 583-1105
RAFM Company
19 Concession Street
Cambridge, Ontario
CANADA N1R 2G6
(519) 623-4832
Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc.
5938 Carthage Court
Cincinnati OH 45221
(800) 543-0272 toll-free
(513) 631-7335 in Ohio
The Grenadier figure pack WS4: “The Royal
Court,” has been reissued as #2021: “The Throne
Room.” All other figures and figure packs are
available as of this date (November 1987). Call
the companies involved for their prices, or
check for them at your nearest hobby and
games shops.
Dear Dragon:
Ive just read DRAGON issue #122 and Emil
Leongs letter concerning the assembly of his
own DRAGONCHESS set. Since my letter in the
Forum section in issue #119 (page 6) concerning
some of the pieces used to assemble my own
set, I have completed constructing my own set
of figures. I carefully selected each piece and
think they represent the best miniatures availa-
ble. Some (such as the king, basilisks, sylphs,
and griffons) were the only examples of these
figures I was able to find.
For Emil Leong and anyone else who wants to
put together his own DRAGONCHESS game,
here are the figures that I used, showing the
game piece name, number of figures needed,
the figure pack providing the figure, and the
number of packs youll need to purchase:
Dragons (2): Grenadier Models #2505: Green
Dragon (2 packs)
Oliphants (4): Ral Partha Personality Minia-
tures, #01-099: Armored Giant on War Ele-
phant (4 packs)
Thieves (4): Grenadier Models #193: Thieves
(2 packs)
(continued on page 56)
* TSR note: Ha, ha, just kidding, folks. A little
editorial humor there, really. I love ya.
** I owe this observation to Margaret Weis,
who made it at a party at her house just before
we played one of her cats like a bagpipe.
D
RAGON
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