Dragon 119 (march 1987).pdf

CONTENTS

Magazine

Issue # 119

Vol. XI, No. 10

March 1987

SPECIAL ATTRACTION

DRUIDS: Those who know Mother Nature best.

Publisher

Mike Cook

Underestimating Druids (is a bad practice) Carl Sargent

Druids are much more powerful than you might think (or might hope).

Editor

Roger E. Moore

Is There a Doctor in the Forest? John Warren

A little holistic medicine goes a long way in the woods.

Assistant editor

Fiction editor

On Becoming the Great Druid William Volkart and Robin Jenkins

Great Druids are made, not born and the process is difficult and long.

Robin Jenkins

Patrick L. Price

Editorial assistants

Cantrips for DruidsNaturally Rick Reid

Bird calls, bug repellent, and a cure for poison ivy.

Marilyn Favaro

Barbara G. Young

Eileen Lucas

Georgia Moore

King of the Jungle Ed Greenwood

The best friend a druid ever had: the beastmaster.

Art director

Roger Raupp

OTHER FEATURES

Production assistant

Gloria Habriga

The Uldra Calle Lindstrand

A new demi-human for those who like dwarves, gnomes, and the northern forests.

The Ecology of the Korred Ed Greenwood

Come and join the dance you may not be able to resist it.

Subscriptions

Advertising

Pat Schulz

Mary Parkinson

Ed Greenwood

Creative editors

Jeff Grubb

The Dragons Bestiary The Readers

Not everything in the forest is small, cute, furry, and helpful.

Henchmen and Hirelings Charles Olsen

An update and review of the rules on those special NPCs.

Contributing artists

Paul Arpino

Martin Cannon

Darlene

Jeff Easley

The Game Wizards Jeff Grubb

Remembering the Forgotten Realms . . . and things to come.

Larry Elmore

Jim Holloway

Daniel Horne

Marvel Bullpen

Richard Tomasic

David Trampier

Dwain Meyer

The Pawns of Crux Steven Saylor

A slavers game becomes a crucible for courage.

Politics Amid the Rubble Douglas Lent

More of the rubble rousers of the GAMMA WORLD® game.

The Role of Books John C. Bunnell

Punk elves, shared worlds, and more.

The Marvel®-Phile Jeff Grubb

The newest X-Man has her telepathic eyes on you.

This is Only a Test Lawrence Liao

If this had been an actual emergency, your agent would have been dead.

DEPARTMENTS

3 Letters

88 TSR Profiles

97 Snarfquest

4 World Gamers Guide 90 TSR Previews

100 Dragonmirth

6 Forum

92 Gamers Guide

102 Wormy

74 Sage Advice

94 Convention Calendar

COVER

Daniel Horne, our cover artist this month, was in the mood to do a historical

subject. His painting, entitled The Real Reason the Romans left Britain, depicts a

little-known episode in British history, in which two Roman foot soldiers have

bumped into Kostchtchie, the surly fellow from page 40 of the

2 M ARCH 1987

Monster Manual II.

Of the unsquashed legionnaire, Daniel writes, Boy, is he going to get it!

LETTERS

One for Michael

Finding Chainmail

devoted entirely to science-fiction articles? I am

a player of the D&D game but prefer science-

fiction games more. In fact, there seem to be

quite a few good science-fiction game articles

when you glance through the index published in

issue #112. A lot of SF role-players might like

the magazines SF material published under one

cover. How about it?

There is another idea I have been thinking

about for a few years With all the good articles

DRAGON Magazine has been running on the

background and mechanics of a fantasy world,

why not put them together in one volume called

Fantasy Source Book? Articles such as those on

running a castle, currency, sailing ships, and

weather could be included Such a book should

be a generic type, not orientated strictly toward

the D&D or AD&D game. It should be some-

thing that a person with a different fantasy role-

playing system would want to buy just as an

information source. Also included in this book,

at the end of the articles or as a separate article,

should be a critical bibliography. Something that

would say, If you can buy only one or two

books on the subject, buy these, or If you want

a complete collection and have the money, buy

it otherwise, pass it by. I think DRAGON

Magazine did one or two articles on bibliogra-

phies in the past already A well-done Fantasy

Source Book could be a hot-selling item in TSRs

line of products.

It happens now and then that role-

playing gamers feel called upon to

explain why they like gaming and

what they enjoy about it. A lot of

interesting excuses are trotted out,

most of them perfectly valid -- but

perhaps missing the main point of it

all in the attempt to prove that

gaming has some redeeming social

value.

It is certainly true that you can

learn a lot from role-playmg games.

The amount of incidental learning

can be outstanding; I know more

about medieval pole arms now than

I did before I first played in a D&D®

game, for example. In a more seri-

ous vein, weve received a number

of letters from teachers and parents

who give glowing reports on stu-

dents who formerly had academic

problems or lacked interest in read-

ing until they discovered role-

playing. Then, there was no way to

stop the students from exploring the

local libraries to research ancient,

modern, and speculative hooks and

papers usually for use in gaming,

of course, though the teachers and

parents pointed out that this behav-

ior generalized. Students in role-

playing seem to develop stronger

interests in reading than they did

before their gaming habits started.

Other people point out that role-

playing games are mind-expanding.

The games present unusual thought

problems to gamers which they

must then solve, using only their

imaginations and a set of rule books.

It is conceivable that one could not

only learn new ways to solve prob-

lems in general, but could also gain

the spark of creativity itself from

gaming. Gamers reward the unique

idea, the bizarre plan that works,

the solution no one else thought of.

I have been playing the D&D® and AD&D®

games for about five years and have rarely been

disappointed. Im proud to say that Ive only

played about three prepared dungeons in my

life and found them to he very boring and

limiting. I enjoy using the three original books

(Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide,

and Monster Manual ), although I have all the

books and sometimes use Unearthed Arcana

and Legends & Lore. What I want to know is,

what ever happened to the Chainmail rule

book? Ive only heard that it was the original

game. What was it like and how does it differ

from todays game? Im asking because the idea

of a more basic system appeals to me. I find

plenty of adventure in fighting with NPCs, and I

treat monsters as rarities, preferring to use

basic monster types (i.e., trolls, giants, and

dragons). Let me know whats what.

Richard Roughgarden

Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil

The Chainmail rules are a set of wargaming

rules for medieval miniatures, written by Gary

Gygax and Jeff Perren in the mid-1970s. The

booklet is only 44 pages long, and the majority

of it is devoted to historical medieval military

units (such as Swiss pikemen, Turkish archers,

arquibusiers, and feudal knights). A special 14-

page section covers fantasy combat rules; when

compared to the current state of the AD&D and

D&D games, these rules look very “basic”

indeed!

The silver-covered Chainmail rules may be

purchased from the TSR® Mail Order Hobby

Shop. For a catalog, write to: The TSR Mail

Order Hobby Shop, P.O. Box 756, Lake Geneva

WI 53147. From the sound of your letter, I

would guess that you might also want to see the

original D&D game rules if you want a less-

complicated game system than the AD&D game,

though the current edition of the D&D game

(particularly using the Basic, Expert, and Com-

panion rules alone) serves very well. The origi-

nal D&D game rules (those three little tan

booklets that you hear so much about) are not

well polished and make use of the Chainmail

rules in some places, but they are extremely

interesting.

Running a fantasy campaign using the

Chainmail rules would be a challenge — on the

other hand, we did receive a letter from an

Australian gamer who had run exactly such a

campaign for several years. Anything’s possible.

— RM

George F. Cooper III

Parma, OH

We, too, have considered a “Best of" science-

fiction collection, and other readers have sug-

gested the same idea. What we need most now

is feedback from our readers: Would you be

interesting in such a collection? What games

and articles would you most like to see in such a

collection? What about super-powered hero

articles?

As for the Fantasy Source Book, our current

series of “Best of” Anthologies seem to fill the

bill already. Anything we could produce would

greatly overlap the material in all of the pre-

vious anthologies. However, we are always

taking new ideas for articles that should be

collected for future anthologies; see the follow-

ing letter. — RM

There are lots of other good things

about gaming, hut the one that has

meant the most to me is rarely men-

tioned. When I remember the best

times that I had while gaming, I

think about the people I met and the

friendships that gaming forged.

A module

anthology?

There's Bill, for example, who was

with the very first gaming group I

ever joined. He's now stationed in

Turkey with the U.S. Army (I havent

met his wife Melissa, but shes like

an old friend, too). Once a month or

so, we exchange strange postcards

or long letters. Then, there was the

big Army group I hung around with

(continued on page 60)

Dear Dragon.

Can you put adventures in your Best of

DRAGON Magazine anthologies? I would like to

see The Dancing Hut," "Fedifensor, and Into

the Forgotten Realms:

I have used many articles from DRAGON

Magazine. I like all of Ed Greenwoods articles

on the Realms I especially liked the article in

issue #110 about the dracolich.

(continued on page 60)

An SF anthology?

Dear Dragon:

Glancing through some recent issues, I

thought of an idea I would like to propose. How

about a Best of DRAGON® Magazine anthology

D RAGON 3

Dear Dragon:

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: