I had so much fun with the first issue, I figured I'd keep going. Let's see how long we can sustain this romp through role-playing history, eh?
Once again, same disclaimer about image use as last time: I don't own this issue (because expensive magazine is expensive), but I own The Dragon Magazine Archive which gives me access to a wonderfully easy-to-read PDF of every page. All images you see in the article are thus pulled from that, and I'm not claiming them as my own creation or anything like that. Let's get started!
Right off the bat, you can tell someone realized the mistake in clashing colors from the first issue's cover, and made sure to correct that. The logo is still that slimy, lime green shade, but at least the blue text they chose for the rest of the cover is easily legible against the misty background. The cover price remains $1.50 (oh, how I wish that were still the case), and it's still 32 pages' worth of content. Let's get exploring!
"Dragon Rumbles": Editor Tim Kask opens things up with with this editorial. People are starting to take the role-playing hobby seriously: some 240 people participated in the D&D event at ORIGINS II (which was held in July of '76, so right before this issue went to print), making it the single largest tournament of the convention. Unfortunately, very few people are writing to TSR Periodicals, so please send praise, criticism, or anything really so we can have a good selection of things for the letter column? Please...?
"Monkish Combat in the Arena of Promotion" by John M. Seaton: Monks are supposed to have to challenge other Monks in order to win higher rankings (and thus higher levels), right? The rulebook doesn't cover how this is done, so Seaton worked up a method mixing modern-day martial arts tournament stylings with the dueling mechanics of En Garde!. The result is a system that doesn't involve rolling d20s, but rather relies on one person's ability to out-think the other by planning six moves (punches, kicks, blocks, etc...) and comparing them to your opponent's to determine who gets hit, and where, and how hard.
So, it's kind of complex, but also kind of awesome, and makes a nice change to the "you missed...you missed...OK, you hit, roll damage..." method used by D&D. Something special for a special occasion. I like it.
"The Gnome Cache, Part II" by 'Garrison Ernst' (aka Gary Gygax): The second installment of a would-be epic fantasy novel. Our 'hero' Dunstan has stolen his dad's strongbox to finance his wanderlust but neglected to also take a horse, so he complains about the soreness of his balls (on his feet, you weirdo), takes a nap at a Shrine to St. Cuthbert, and awakens to meet a passel of new friends(?). Churlish insults and boorish behavior ensue. To be continued next issue.
Gary's not a bad writer when he's got an editor reigning him in, but this reads like a high school English class assignment where you had to include in your story the twenty vocabulary words you just learned.
"Search For the Forbidden Chamber: The Conclusion": Jake Jaquet murders our fearless trio of explorers, only to be browbeaten by the Editor into resurrecting them and concluding the story in a more satisfactory fashion. So Ralph, Dimwit, and 'Lumbo spend another two pages and discover another, more famous literary character has beaten them to the treasure.
It's not the worst D&D fanfic I've ever read...
"Mapping the Dungeon": A terribly outdated list of names and addresses of folks who play D&D. Once again, Paul Jaquays is the only recognizable one to me.
"GenCon Update": GenCon IX's D&D tournament will be set up to handle twenty groups of five players each. Every group will be made up of the same pre-generated characters, but Mages and Clerics get to pick their own spells and everyone gets to outfit themselves from the equipment list, so you kinda get to customize.
Winners will be decided by a point system set up to adjudicate who best played a particular character class, so one winner from each of the five different class types will be selected, and you get a $10 gift certificate to TSR Hobbies if you're one of the five.
Wonder how all that went over?
"Hints for D&D Judges, Part 3: The Dungeons" by Joe Fisher: This article boils down to, "Put your dungeon entrance somewhere interesting, and here are a bunch of ideas for traps to annoy your PCs, along with a random table to determine how deadly that chest is they're about to open, some ideas for new not-always-cursed magic items, and you should look to both the real world and other sources beyond the D&D rule books for creatures to spring on your PCs."
I approve whole-heartedly!
"Shadow of a Demon" by Gardner Fox: The first installment of what would become an ongoing series within the pages of Dragon. This is the introductory story of one Niall of the Far Travels, a wandering barbarian mercenary of many talents (some lustier than others). Compared to the other two pieces of fiction in this issue, Fox's style and abilities are a breath of fresh air. Given Fox had been scripting comics and churning out prose for forty years at this point though, that's hardly surprising. We're talking about the guy who created Hawkman, The Flash, and Zatanna (among others) for DC Comics, after all.
"The Feathered Serpent" by Lynn Harpold: An in-depth look at Aztec culture, with specific focus on Quetzalcoatl, the winged serpent god. Includes some artwork by the author. This is purely a historical write-up, with no rules or suggestions for how to incorporate anything into an existing game. If you're looking for stats on the Feathered Serpent or other Central American mythological figures, you'll need either Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes (which is coming soon!) or the Deities & Demigods hardcover for AD&D.
"Creature Features": The Remorhaz
This Monster Manual staple makes its first appearance here, along with Erol Otus artwork. They live in the frozen wastes, despite being a heat- and fire-based creature, they melt non-magical weapons which hit them from behind, and eat everything they com across, including people. They don't swallow you whole yet, but they've got a breath weapon which they'll lose in later editions, so they've evolved over the decades.
"A New D&D Character Class: The Alchemist" by Jon Pickens. Here we see our first of what would become many new classes introduced to the D&D game. The Alchemist, as presented here, is more suitable as an NPC than a PC, since much of their work revolves around the time-consuming art of brewing up potions and poisons. Also, they have a restriction of a maximum Armor Class of 5, and the ability to fight only using one-handed weapons, not to mention a d6 hit die so they're pretty squishy.
There are opportunities to use such a character as PC, when their adventures for new/rare ingredients or recipes might take them out of the lab and into the wilderness, with the help of a few "real" adventurer types to serve as bodyguards/defenders, but their ability to brew potions, poisons, acids, and other magical substances would make them a colossal pain in the DM's backside, while the time (and expense) required to do so could take them out of the campaign for literal weeks at a stretch. I could see players rapidly getting sick of adventuring simply to find enough treasure to fund the Alchemist's next batch of brew, especially if they're out risking their lives while the Alchemist is safe at home in his lab.
Interesting idea, but far too niche for all but the most bookish players to be interested in touching. Works fine as an NPC though, and a great way to siphon off some of that extra treasure your PCs are lugging around.
More "Dirt". Ready to find out what the "it" teased in last issue is?
Well, that was certainly worth the wait, wasn't it?
"D&D Option: Weapon Damage" by Jon Pickens. Mr. Pickens is quite the prolific contributor, isn't he? Don't worry, before long folks like Roger Moore and Ed Greenwood will be sucking up so many pages it'll make Pickens look downright laconic.
This is a system of two-weapon fighting and mastery meant to give Fighters and Thieves more power at higher levels (presumably to keep up with the fact Magic Users grow exponentially stronger once they hit mid-tier play).
The Dwarf Hammer, Military Pick, Pike, Pole Arm, and Arrows/Quarrels can all be mastered, but confer no extra damage bonus for doing so--not sure if this is an oversight or deliberately planned, so we may see errata in the future if the former.
Kind of a precursor to the Weapon Specialization rules we'd see introduced in later editions, so the idea at least stuck around.
Ads in this issue include:
- the Second Edition of The Ringbearer - a 4-10 player wargame based unofficially on Frodo's journey in Lord of the Rings.
- Knights of the Round Table - a 2-10 player Arthurian pseudo-RPG.
- Venerable Destruction - a 2-10 player wargame with a greater emphasis on humor and fun than crunchy rules.
- Star Command - a set of rules for 22nd century space combat.
- And, of course, who can forget "the last D&D supplement" (LOL!):
The next issue promises new character sub-classes, a look at women and magic in the D&D world, and War of the Empires. All this and more in just sixty days' time!
And so we close the book on The Dragon, issue #2. Was it worth it? Yeah, I'd say so.
Will I do issue #3? I guess we'll have to wait and find out. Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!