[ad_1]
Jake Jaquet has some massive information on this month’s editorial: TSR is buying the wargame producer SPI and the AMAZING Stories periodical. With income doubling yearly, TSR had the money to broaden. Sadly, it turned out that each companies had been in decline, and TSR didn’t have the abilities to show them round.
This month’s particular attraction is “Quest for the Midas Orb” by Jennie Good, which was the third-place winner within the second International Dungeon Design Contest. This journey has some artistic encounters however is overly verbose. Matters should not helped by an unconventional structure, with the room numbers embedded in free-flowing textual content quite than having numbered paragraphs. So far as I can see, Good didn’t publish the rest within the business.
Roger Moore presents one other entry in his sequence on demi-humans, this time that includes gnomes. “The Gnomish Point of View” describes their sociology, drawing on sources equivalent to Poul Anderson and Clifford D. Simak. “The Gods of the Gnomes” presents 4 gnomish deities, together with Segojan Earthcaller and Urdlen, the Crawler Below (who occurs to determine prominently in my present Calimshan marketing campaign). These articles prefigure the splat-books that will dominate the business within the 90s.
“Without any weapons…” by Phil Meyers defines one more set of unarmed fight guidelines. “…or with a bizarre one” by Rory Bowman describes unconventional new weapons for D&D, such because the atlatl and the tonfa. The writer did a reliable job, although it is unclear whether or not the brand new weapons add any worth to the sport apart from a little bit of colour.
There is a one-page advertorial for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Cards. These are taking part in card sized and have a colour image of monsters on one facet and statistics on the again. Monster playing cards stay in style right down to the fashionable day.
A couple of quick articles wrap up the function part. “The winnah: Father Time!” is a set of growing older guidelines for Brian Blume’s Ringside, a boxing sport printed in Dragon #38. The writer was Mark Schumann, who later did work for R. Talsorian Games. “Jo-Ga-Oh” supplies D&D sport stats for the “little individuals” of the Iroquois. Finally, “Special Knowledge and a bureau for Infiltrators” by Gary Gygax affords new choices for Top Secret.
On to the common choices! “From the Sorcerer’s Scroll” by Gary Gygax describes eight illusionist cantrips. Some are comparatively highly effective, equivalent to Rainbow, which might successfully stun a creature for half a spherical.
“Giants within the Earth” offers us an outline and sport statistics for C. J. Cutliffe Hyne’s Deucalion, John Norman’s Tarl Cabot, and Charles R. Saunders’ Dossouye. These characters are a bit of extra obscure than some beforehand featured on this column!
“Dragon’s Bestiary” has 4 new creatures this month. The firetail by Ed Greenwood is a worm-like creature of residing flame. The umbrae by Theresa Berger is a shadowy creature that may solely be attacked by one other shadow. The mild worm by Willie Callison is actually a snake that may create magic lights. Finally, the tybor by Jeff Brandit is an excellent, flightless chicken. Not a very inspiring set of creatures, however the tybor is my favourite.
“Dragon’s Augury” critiques two video games. Hitler’s War by Metagaming is “extremely beneficial.” Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium is “a great sport for skilled role-playing avid gamers and bold judges.” However, the reviewer recommends new roleplayers “wait on this sport till they’ve extra expertise.”
“Off the Shelf” has capsule critiques for seven books. Fall Into Darkness by Nicholas Yermakov Berkley is a “tight, completed work by an writer making his debut.” The Deadliest Show In Town by Mike McQuay is “good thriller writing… good science fiction and social commentary as properly.” The Claw Of The Conciliator by Gene Wolfe is “destined to be a traditional.”
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by Douglas Adams “ought to be on everybody’s ‘do not miss’ record.” The Book Of Philip Jose Farmer is “a masterful assortment.” Durandal by Harold Lamb is “crammed with epic battles, courtroom intrigue, darkish motives, and the entire different flags of fine pulp fantasy.” Finally, Beneath An Opal Moon by Eric Van Lustbader is “nice enjoyable to learn.”
This month’s cowl is by Susan Collins. Interior artists embrace Harry Quinn, Steve Peregrine, Jack Crane, Roger Raupp, Mary Hanson-Roberts, Bruce Whitefield, Paul Sonju, Phil Foglio, Jim Holloway, and Dave Trampier.
And that is a wrap! The spotlight for me was Gygax’s assortment of illusionist cantrips. Next month, we’ve got plenty of dragons, a brand new Top Secret journey, and “Pages from the Mages” makes its debut!
[ad_2]