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This month’s particular attraction is “Flight of the Boodles.” Described as “a easy sport for individuals who aren’t,” it recreates “the Boodles’ dramatic journey by the Grumjug-infested passes of the Snagrock Mountains.” The whimsical names and cute artwork are paying homage to a Tom Wham sport, although the designer on this case was Chuck Stoll. Stoll seems to have achieved nothing else within the area of sport design.
Roger E. Moore continues his collection of participant character races, this time describing elves. “The Elven Point of View” explains the tradition of those wispy, long-lived humanoids, with Moore drawing closely upon the work of Tolkien. “The Gods of the Elves” introduces us to deities akin to Aerdrie, god of the air and climate, and Labelas, god of longevity. The Forgotten Realms mega-pantheon finally absorbed these creations. There can also be a “Sage Advice” devoted to elvish issues, addressing such important questions as “An Eighth-level monk is reincarnated right into a half-elf; does he nonetheless retain his thief skills and 4 harm?” (The reply is no).
“Firearms” by Ed Greenwood provides you guidelines and recommendation for utilizing gunpowder in your D&D sport. He supplies a number of historic context for the event of firearms and features a good-sized desk of balanced weapon stats. It’s a top quality article, as you’d count on from Greenwood.
“WearWolf” by Joel Rosenberg is a brief story about a rare go well with. Rosenberg later printed the favored Guardians of the Flame collection, a few group of fantasy avid gamers transported into their sport world. This thought was hardly unique even in 1982, however Rosenberg managed to publish ten novels within the collection.
“Science and Fantasy–a quiz” by Mike Holthaus is an uncommon article. Holthaus is a mining engineer who posits that DMs have to know some elementary physics to create a convincing world. He features a quiz with questions akin to:
You are with a celebration of gamers exploring a dungeon. As you descend, you discover that your torches, which usually burn with a reddish-orange coloration, now have a blue cap on their suggestions. Should the characters ignore this and press on, or ought to they think about one other plan of action?
I’ll let my readers reply within the feedback!
It’s April, so this subject features a satirical mini-zine titled “Gaming Magazine.” It consists of the Jester class by Roger E. Moore, a brand new bard capacity known as Dairmuid’s Last Jest, a number of NPC stat blocks (akin to “Morc the Orc”), and monster statistics for creatures together with Donald Duck. I do not discover this annual characteristic particularly humorous, nevertheless it would not take up a lot house.
There are a number of different small characteristic articles. “Outfitting a New Agent” by Gary Gygax supplies agent background guidelines for Top Secret. In “Trojan War,” Glenn Rahman presents guidelines variants for his board sport of the identical identify. Michael Fountain provides D&D statistics for the well-known Celtic spirit known as a Pooka, whereas John Lees tries to provide every alignment a sensible description. For instance, the entry for chaotic impartial reads: “The nearly completely unpredictable non-conformist loner. Will stand by and watch the white knight battle the black knight with out feeling compelled to take sides.”
On to the common choices! The editorial group has been culling these columns again just lately, and we solely have a pair left. In “From the Sorcerer’s Scroll,” Gary Gygax provides a brand new assortment of wizard cantrips. Some of those are extra clearly helpful than these within the earlier column, akin to “Hide,” which might flip a creature of just about any measurement invisible for a brief interval!
Finally, “Dragon’s Augury” opinions The Spawn of Fashan by Games of Fashan. The reviewer, Lawrence Schick, suggests the guide is definitely a parody of a fantasy roleplaying sport. He describes it as “a gold mine of humor for the discerning gaming fan, and needs to be required studying for all potential role-playing sport designers.”
This month’s cowl artist was Dean Morrissey. Interior artists embody Darlene Pekul, Erol Otus, Jim Owsley, Roger Raupp, Phil Foglio, Alan Burton, Gilbert Rocha, Jim Holloway, and Dave Trampier.
And that is a wrap! This subject felt full of content material, regardless of the dearth of normal choices. The spotlight was Greenwood’s article on firearms, although I additionally loved Schick’s evaluation. Next month, we’ve an prolonged characteristic on gnomes, guidelines for unarmed fight, and a brand new AD&D journey!
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