Accessory - Dragon Magazine #132, MAGAZINES, Dragon Magazine
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CONTENTS
Issue #
132
Vol. XII, No.
11
April 1988
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
49
ORCWARS!
Bruce A. Heard
A game of looting and world conquest, for the orc in all of us.
6
OTHER FEATURES
Bazaar of the Bizarre
Stewart Wieck
At last, the ultimate hack-n-slash weapon: the one-and-only chainsword.
Role-playing Reviews
Jim Bambra
Bust ghosts. Party with aliens. Serve The Computer. But most of all, have fun.
Beyond the Gate of Dreams
John Nephew
There are some adventurers for whom dreams come true always.
Resourceful Sorcery
Michael DeWolfe
Some RUNEQUEST® game advice: First, you catch a spirit. . . .
With All the Trappings
Gregg Sharp
If you care enough to give the very best, give em green slime in a spiked pit.
Let the Good Dice Roll
Scott David Gray
Probability tables can bring out the hero in your hero.
Out of Hand
fiction by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Her drawings were real enough to leap from the page and they did.
The Ecology of the Aurumvorax
Mark Feil
Lovely to look at, delightful to hold but if you annoy it. . . .
Arcane Lore
Mike Rodgers and Tom Hazel
A few spells designed to bring out the animal in any druid.
The King of Conventions
Keith Polster and Robert M. Bigelow
The 1988 GEN CON®/ORIGINS Game Fair, from both sides now.
Cash & Carry, Gamma Style
Dan Kretzer
Another day, another domar in the GAMMA WORLD® game.
A Little Less Super
Jon Slobins
Reach for variety, but know your limitations in the DC HEROES game.
Superheroes Alive!
Jeff Grubb
Five books on super-powered heroes, from encyclopedias to shared worlds.
The Frontiers of Design
Mike Lane
Shipbuilding with flair in the STAR FRONTIERS® game.
The Marvel®-Phile
Jeff Grubb
Somewhere on the bizarre planet of Halfworld lived a young boy named Rocket
Raccoon. . . .
The Role of Computers
Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser
The quest for the Coconut of Quendor leads you far Beyond Zork.
Publisher
Mike Cook
8
16
Editor
Roger E. Moore
24
Assistant editor
Robin Jenkins
Fiction editor
Patrick L. Price
28
Eileen Lucas
Editorial assistants
Barbara G. Young
38
Art director
Roger Raupp
40
46
Production Staff
Lori Svikel
Marilyn Favaro
58
Subscriptions
Pat Schulz
Advertising
Sheila Meehan
60
Ed Greenwood
Creative editors
Jeff Grubb
64
70
72
74
78
80
DEPARTMENTS
3 Letters
68 TSR Previews
91 Convention Calendar
4
Forum
86 Dragonmirth
98
SnarfQuest
34 Sage Advice
88 Index to Advertisers
101
Wormy
66 Gamers Guide
COVER
Prospecting for gold is not all that its cracked up to be, as Snarf and his
planet-hopping friends discover in this months SnarfQuest adventure. Larry
Elmores Fools Gold cover painting is now available as an art print; see page 96
for details.
2 A
PRIL
1988
LETTERS
Errers
Two problems
Dear Dragon:
I am devoted to DRAGON Magazine, and my
collection extends back to #68. Issue #128 had
two major problems I felt had to be pointed out.
The first concerned the KINGS TABLE game.
It is an extremely interesting game, and I intend
to play all versions of it. Unfortunately, the rules
neglected to cover one basic point: what hap-
pens to a piece when it is captured? Is it
removed from the board? Is it unable to move
until one of its captors moves away? Perhaps I
missed something, but I believe this point was
never explained.
The second problem occurred in Dennis
McLaughlins article Chopper Power! Included
in this article was a description of the 2
3/4
rocket. From the description, I can only con-
clude that the author thought the 2
3/4"
referred
to the rockets length (this would explain their
$10 per rocket price, and the maximum range
of 150). In actual fact, the 2
3/4
is the measure
of the rockets diameter; the rockets are nearly
5 in length! This changes a few things about
them: the rockets cost several hundred dollars
each, and their range is approximately one mile.
And in terms of damage, any human caught
within 10 of an exploding rocket is killed out-
right. As well, the weapons PV (Penetration
Value) skyrockets (no pun intended), because
these rockets were designed to destroy all forms
of armored vehicles (including tanks, if they hit
where the armor is weak).
I have not included more exact statistics for
the 2
3/4
rocket because I would never allow
such a deadly weapon in my own TOP SECRET®
campaign. If Admins wish to use it, they must
make up their own stats for it. As a final note,
Admins may use the stats of the weapon given
in Mr. McLaughlins article simply by treating it
as a grenade launcher.
overwhelming horror that its been cancelled,
due to insufficient sales.
Please, say it wont happen.
Our staff was out to lunch, and at
some point while waiting for our
food to arrive, I announced that I
wanted to write an editorial on the
stress and strain that the magazine
staff experiences in its work. Eileen
thought that was a great idea.
We could use a funny editorial,
she said, or words to that effect.
Well, ha ha. Most of you arent
aware that the magazine editors
here have a little ritual we perform
every time a new box of freshly
printed magazines comes in. The
ritual is called Whats Wrong With
This Issue, and we play it very seri-
ously and with large, felt-tipped,
error-marking pens with fluorescent
yellow ink that would startle an
airline pilot at a one-mile range. We
pride ourselves on our ability to
catch any errors in each issue
before it gets printed but some
slip through anyway. Nevertheless, I
think that most people notice some-
thing wrong with an issue only if it
involves an immediate gaming con-
cern. (You left the duration off of
the 'summon froghemoth' spell, and
you didnt give the giant cave ham-
sters a movement rate.")
For example, we recently had five
issues in a row which had slightly
different masthead set-ups in the
upper left-hand part of page 2. We
never noticed them until we hap-
pened to note a small error on the
one prepared for issue #131. Then
we backtracked and the changed
mastheads immediately appeared.
No one wrote to comment on them.
Last year, we failed to notice that
the date on the bottom of each page
of the January 1987 issue was for
January 1986. Only two readers
wrote to us about it.
We changed some advertisements
around in issue #130 and had to
drop an article (Matt Battisons Illu-
sory Solutions) at the last minute.
However, I forgot to remove a refer-
ence to that article from another
article in that issue (see if you can
find it). I found the error only sec-
onds after opening my own copy of
issue #130. I considered wearing a
paper sack over my head for life
but few people wrote in about it.
We wont talk about the unusual
subscription cards in issue #129,
which didnt seem to cause a prob-
lem with most subscribers.
We all make mistakes, but few of
us make mistakes seen by a quarter
(continued on page 88)
Marc Webber
Belleville, Ont.
As for finding new gamers, see the last letter
on page 3 of issue #130. You might also consider
joining a play-by-mail game; see the first letter
in the “Letters” column for issue #126 for more
information. We reviewed a good PBM game in
issue #131 as well (the
Alamaze
game).
Back to Brak
Dear Dragon:
Concerning the article, The Last Word, by
Gregg Sharp in DRAGON® issue #129, one of the
quotes (Brak? Thats a stupid name for a bar-
barian.) hits hilariously close to home. Brack,
our resident Stupid Barbarian, is distressed to
see his name misspelled in print, however.
Three and a half years ago, the character
Brack was born into the world of Harn, and
soon became known as you stupid barbarian
for fairly obvious reasons.
We players had always assumed our Brack
was unique. We are therefore most interested in
discovering the origins of this other Brak.
Sandie Weissman
Murray W. Weissman
Sheila M. Humphrey
Diane L. Fryberger-Smith
G. William Brack Smith IV
Glenside PA
I suspect that the Brak to which Gregg Sharp’s
excellent article alludes is the hero of a series of
sword-and-sorcery stories by novelist John
Jakes, originally appearing in the late 1960s.
They are worth reading, if you can find them.
The Brak of those stories, however, was not
stupid at all; insulting his name within his hear-
ing could be considered stupid, though, as he
was cut from Conan’s mold.
Gord Coleman
Nepean, Ont.
Pieces that are captured in the KING’S TABLE
game are removed from play.
We are not able to speak on the subject of
helicopter rockets, but your suggestions are
noted. We wish an agent facing such firepower
the best of luck in the afterlife.
It wont happen
Dear Dragon:
Im worried. Ive been playing the AD&D®
game for eight years now and have enjoyed
every aspect of it, up to and including DRAGON
Magazine. The reason for my unnerved state is
concern for the popularity now and in the
future of the AD&D game.
I live in Canada, and during the past few years
Ive found it next to impossible to find active
gamers. I hope (knock on wood) that the day
never comes when I go to pick up the latest
edition of DRAGON Magazine and find to my
FREE INSIDE:
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER™
Game Poster
1988 GEN CON®/ORIGINS™
Game Fair Information
D
RAGON
3
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