Dragon Magazine 007.pdf

Vol. I No. 7

June ’77

It’s an extraordinary experience to be writing this, on the start of our second year of publication. THE DRAGON has come a long way

from Vol. I, No. 1, and-the-less than excellent cover that “adorned” it. (The trouble with that first cover was not the original black and

white rendering of our logo, but rather with the wretched lithes cut by our old printer.) The overall average on our artwork has improved

dramatically. The increased circulation is elequent testimony to the improvement of the material presented herein. What editor can be dis-

pleased by 300% growth in a year’s span? Not yours truly, certainly.

I fully intend to someday say again that I’ve achieved 300% growth, so don’t assume that THE DRAGON will grow complacent, or be-

come stagnant. Such an assumption would be far off of the mark. TD will continue to bring you the best in gaming material. Even now,

plans are underway to broaden the scope of coverage in TD; while it is true that TSR created the field of Fantasy gaming with first Chain-

mail and then D&D, it has never been the policy of THE DRAGON to

be a house-organ. The overwhelming preponderance of material deal-

ing with TSR games is the result of one of the unwritten maxims of

publishing: you can only publish what is submitted. I have been solicit-

ing material on non-TSR games for some time now and only recently

Contents

have received any material of quality.

While it is true that the readers have increased threefold, and our

................. 5 schedule for TD has been increased to eight times yearly, the staff re-

The Origins of D&D ............................... 7 mains the same: me. I have received invaluable help from Gary Jaquet,

Mapping the Dungeon .............................. 7 as best as he has been able to assist, but he lives four hours away, and

therefore serves to help me weed out the junk and locate the good arti-

Mystery Hill — America’s Stonehenge? ................. 8 cles. Dave Sutherland is so busy with work for TSR Hobbies that I

The Journey Most Alone — a saga of magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 don’t get access to nearly as much of his time as I’d like, nor do I get to

Military Formations of Tekumel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 use as much of his work as I’d like to use. Submissions have increased,

Alternate Number Generation Methods

and I’m seldom caught up with all of them. A good rule of thumb if

Bonus Figure Plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 you choose to submit an article is this; if you don’t get it back right

Featured Creature — The Prowler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 away, it has passed first reading, and is being further evaluated for pos-

sible publication. I have finally found someone that can transcribe let-

Editors Library — OGRE and The Judges Guild reviewed . . .26 ters from tape, so my correspondence is getting faster. I try to answer

Gnome Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

as much of the mail as possible; I ALWAYS read every single piece. I

read and mentally file every complaint, as well as the compliments,

which are far more numerous than the former, so we must be doing

something right. I have resisted using form letters far longer than I

should have, but no more.

One recurring theme in the letters we receive bothers us. There is a

misconception that publication in THE DRAGON makes something

“official”, whatever that means. PUBLICATION BY THE DRAG-

ON DOES NOT BESTOW ANY SANCTION OR APPROVAL TO

ANY VARIANTS, VARIATIONS OR RULES INTERPRETA-

TION.

The purpose of this magazine is the dissemination of information.

Editor: Timothy Kask

Staff Artists: Dave Sutherland

THE DRAGON serves the field of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and

Swords & Sorcery Gaming and the enthusiasts of same, in the capacity

of information source. If an article is to be considered “official”, it

Ton Wham

Cover by Elrohir

will be marked as such. There are many forms of designation: DE-

SIGNERS FORUM is one such, an Editor’s Note is another. Common

sense will tell you that if a piece is written by an author of a game, the

game being discussed in the article, you can assume it to be “official”.

Continued on page 6

THE DRAGON is published by TSR Periodicals, a division of TSR Hobbies, Inc., POB 756, Lake Geneva, WI 53147

It is available at better hobby shops and bookstores, or by subscription. Subscription rate is $9.00 per 6 issues. Single copy and back issue price is $l.50, but availability of back issues is not guaranteed. Sub-

scriptions outside the U.S. and Canada are $20.00, and are air-mailed overseas. (Payment must be made in U.S. currency or by international money order.) All material published herein becomes the exclusive

property of the publisher unless special arrangements to the contrary are made. Subscription expiration is coded onto the mailing list. The number to the right of the name, prefixed by “LW” or “TD” is the last

issue of the subscription. Notices will not be sent.

Change of address must be filed 30 days prior to mailing date.

Unsolicited material cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped return envelope, and no responsibility for such material can be assumed by the publisher in any event. All rights on the entire con-

Application to mail as second-class postage rates is pending at Lake Geneva, WI 53147 and additional entry points.

Strategists Club Ballot .............................. 4

Vol. I No. 7

THIRD ANNUAL STRATEGISTS CLUB AWARDS

The Nominees

OUTSTANDING GAME OF 1976

CAESAR (at Alesia) — AH

FIGHT IN THE SKIES — TSR

KINGMAKER — AH

LANKHMAR — TSR

METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA — TSR

RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR — SPI

STARSHIP TROOPERS — AH

SORCEROR — SPI

TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD — SPI

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

*1066* — TSR

OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL

WARGAMING PUBLICATION

vote for any one publication

FANTASY GAMING HALL OF FAME

**posthumous induction**

OUTSTANDING

MINIATURES RULES — 1976

Lord Dunsanay

C.S. Lewis

A. Merritt

Fletcher Pratt

Clark Ashton Smith

CLASSIC WARFARE — TSR

LEGION — FGU

ROYAL ARMIES OF THE HYBOREAN

AGE — FGU

SWORDS & SPELLS — TSR

VALLEY FORGE — TSR

**living authors**

Poul Anderson

M.A.R. Barker

Lin Carter

L. Sprague DeCamp

Gardner F. Fox

Katherine Kurtz

Fritz Leiber

Michael Moorcock

Andre Norton

Jack Vance

Roger Zelazny

OUTSTANDING

GAME DESIGN — 1976

Richard Berg (TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD)

E. Gary Gygax (SWORDS & SPELLS)

Fritz Leiber & Harry Fischer (LANKHMAR)

James McMillan & John Clemente

(WM. THE CONQUEROR — 1066)

James Ward (METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA)

OUTSTANDING

MINIATURE SERIES — 1976

FIGHTING SAIL — Valiant

NORMAN/SAXON — MiniFigs

PANZERTROOPS — Heritage/Der

Kreigspeilers

STARDATE 3000 — Valiant

WIZZARDS & WARRIORS — Grenadier

HOW TO VOTE ON THE

THIRD ANNUAL SC AWARDS

FOR CREATIVITY IN WARGAMING

The SC Awards started a couple of years ago, and were solely the

function of the SC (STRATEGISTS CLUB). The presentation of the

awards was an excuse for the club to get together at the banquet each

year. Details on this year’s bash are elsewhere in this issue.

This year it was decided that the awards would be more meaning-

ful if the balloting was open to more people, so we decided to offer the

opportunity to the readers of LITTLE WARS and THE DRAGON.

This is your best chance to tell the producers of the games what you

think, to honor those deserving of recognition for an outstanding con-

tribution to wargaming.

The nominees on this ballot were selected from a much larger list

of possibles sent to and compiled by the members of the Club. They are

listed in alphabetical order. Those that failed to make the final ballot,

due to insufficient nominating votes are as follows:

GAME — Battle For Midway (GDW), Russian Campaign (AH), Cita-

del (FGU), Bunnies& Burrows (FGU), and War In the West (SPI).

DESIGN — Jim Dunnigan (Russian Civil War), and Andrew Baird

(Lords of Valetia)

MINIATURES SERIES — NAPOLEONETTES, AIRPOWER,

CHIVALRY, WESTERN GUNFIGHTER,

GHQ — Modern Micro — and CinC — Modern Micro

RULES — WRG Ancients (5th Ed.) and AIRPOWER

select any publication of your choice. (I also didn’t want the flack that

would surround nominations on this award). All ballots must be on ei-

ther a 9 c postcard, or an index card. All ballots must be sent to the ad-

dress listed by themselves: ballots sent with orders or other correspond-

ence will not be counted. Simply list your choices in a column on the

post/index card. To prevent multiple voting, we ask that you include

your return address on the card or envelope. All ballots must be in our

hands by June 30th, 1977. The awards will be presented at the SC Ban-

quet (details elsewhere in this issue).

DO NOT SEND IN THIS BALLOT. DO NOT XEROX THIS

FORM.

FANTASY GAMING HALL OF FAME

This is a brand new innovation by TSR (Hobbies and Periodicals)

in recognition of the contributions by the inducted members to the field

of fantasy gaming — they make our intangible worlds tangible. The

Hall of Fame has two categories for induction: Posthumous, and, Liv-

ing Authors. In recognition of their positions in the pantheon of fan-

tasy pioneers, we have inducted Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Bur-

roughs, H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkein. You are asked to vote for

one in each category.

Mail all ballots to:

“SC” Awards

c/o The Dragon

POB 756

Lake Geneva, WI 53147

RULES FOR VOTING

Any reader of LW or TD is eligible. You are asked to cast one vote

in each category. The Publication category is left open so that you may

June ’77

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE

DOG EATS YOUR DICE,

or Some Other Calamity Befalls you Twenty Minutes

Before the Game Club Gets To your Place

of dice to do the job efficiently.

Its twenty minutes before the members of the U.B.A. (Union of

Bold Adventurers) are due to arrive on your doorstep, fully primed for

a rousing adventure in your ruins. The fridge is full of soda and beer,

the kitchen table is groaning under the weight of a veritable horde of

munchies, the chairs are all set out, Rick Wakemans

lots

Myths and Legends . . . of King

Arthur . . . albums are cued on the stereo, all your rules and levels are

neatly arranged behind your screen of WS&IM boards (best use found

for them to date), when that first flash of panic sets in your brand

new chamois/suede/velvet/whatever bag containing all your dice is

missing! Your shouts of anguish elicit from your wife/mother/room-

ie/whatever the horrendous news that they were last seen in the slobber-

ing jaws of Rover/Fido/Spot/Killer/whatever, and he was last seen

heading for his favorite spot under/behind/in back of/the stairs/-

stove/couch/porch/whatever. After locating the miscreant, and drag-

ging him forth from his lair, you are horrified to find shards of dice-

plastic all over his face, and an unrecognizable pile of multi-colored

plastic junk amidst the remains of your bag, which seems to have been

mistaken for his chew-toy.

After the air changes back from blue to invisible, and youve al-

ready considered and rejected at least three dozen fiendish and hideous

indignities that could be committed to/on a dog, the real horror sets in.

At any minute, 4/7/9/however many fully primed UBA members

will be clamoring to explore your ruins. The mere thought of having to

tell them that the game is off would have caused Audie Murphy to

pause and consider the possibilities a group of rampaging UBAers

could make the group that stormed Baron Frankensteins castle look

like a Sunday Tea at the Methodist Ladies Club.

If the preceding tale of woe sounds familiar then this article is for

you. After months of painstaking research, a number of alternatives to

dice have been compiled. Herewith are a few of them:

and

Journey to the

CHITS IN A JAR

All that is needed is a jar with a wide mouth, (lest we find ourselves

in the position of Aesop’s monkey and the coconut) or some other suit-

able container, and the appropriate number of blank counters, poker

chips or slips of paper marked with the numbers you need to generate.

Players blind-draw for results.

CALCULATORS

Many of the newer and more complex calculators, such as the TI-

SR51-A have various function switches that will display random num-

bers when pressed either singly or in certain combinations. Because of

the great diversity in calculators, you are advised to check the instruc-

tions to determine how, or if, yours will do it.

CUTTING CARDS

A standard deck of playing cards can be used to generate nearly

any number; 1-4(suits) 1-12(ace low and Kings draw again), 1-6(same as

preceding, divided by two), 1-10(faces don’t count), and so on.

NUMBERED STRAWS

Rather self-explanatory, don’t you think?

WATCH WITH SECOND HAND

A watch with a second hand can generate the following sequences:

1-4(quadrant method), 1-6(divide by 10), 1-12(read numeral that sec-

ond hand is closest to), 1-15(divide minutes by four), 1-20(divide by

three), 1-30(divide by two), and 1-60. A stopwatch is even better for

this purpose.

SPINNERS

There are any number of children’s and family games that use a

spinner, using many different ranges.

USING SIX-SIDERS FOR HIGHER NUMBERS

One six-sided die can be used to determine any number range divis-

ible by two, three or six. (I.E., for 1-100, first roll determines if it is be-

tween 1 and 50, or 51-100, the second 1-25 or 26-50 (assuming first roll

indicates 1-50), the third determines in which group of five (discarding

rolls of “6”), and the last the actual number.)

COIN FLIPPING

Similar to the preceding. NOTE: in an obscure study financed by a

government grant, it was conclusively proven that the dime is the ideal

coin to flip. The heavier coins have a greater incidence of injuries to the

nail-bed on the thumb after 40,000 flips or more. Of course. this ex-

cludes the silver and half dollar. which can bung-up your thumb much

sooner than that.

PERCENTAGES GENERATED

WITH TWO STANDARD DICE (D6)

The following table is from FIGHT IN THE SKIES. The column

on the left is percentages and numbers needed to get them, while the

figures on the right are the actual probabilities. (I.E., if there is a 10%

chance of an encounter, a roll of “9” indicates that it occurs. The actu-

al percentage chance of rolling a “9” with two standard dice is 11.1% .)

5.6%

10%

11.1%

15%

13.9%

20%

7,12

19.4%

25%

4,7

25.0%

30%

30.6%

7,8

35%

2,4,5,6

36.1%

40%

5,6,8

38.9%

44.4%

45%

6,7,8

50.0%

50%

4,5,67

55%

5,6,7,8

55.6%

61.6%

60%

3,5,6,7,8

63.9%

65%

4,5,6,7,8

69.4%

70%

3,4,5,6,7,8

75%

all except 2,3,4,10

75.0%

80%

all except 2,4,10

80.6%

85%

all except 3, 11, 12

86.1%

90%

all except 9

88.9%

95%

all except 11

94.4%

Omar Kwalish

As anyone that has ever played D&D or EPT can tell you, you

must have dice,

Center of the Earth

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