RPG Magazine Recon pt. 1 – Dragon Magazine 63, 74, 104, 114

Bob Walters 1982, published without context in Dragon 63

Dungeons and Dragons was published 50 years ago, and almost immediately afterwards ‘zines and magazines appeared to give players and DMs more material to work with. And even beforehand things were published in Diplomacy zines and even mainstream magazines.

And there have been a lot of attempts by fellow bloggers to go through these magazines systematically, although in a lot of cases they focused almost exclusively on the holy trinity of Dragon, Dungeon, and White Dwarf. Which after all were the biggest RPG magazines there were in the English language.

So I decided to write down some articles when I find them. Mostly as a way for myself to remember them (I keep coming across useful articles that don’t quite fit with what I am working on, only to half-remember them months later when I could use them). But also because some stuff should not be forgotten just because it’s only in some magazine published halfway across the world 40 years ago.

I am going to use a small rating system for now:

A – for good articles with good game use

B – for articles with some use

S – for articles that are so good they could sustain a whole campaign or at least multiple sessions on their own

H – for articles of historical interest but maybe no actual game use

C – for campaign specific articles with barely any use outside that particular campaign

F – for fiction of note

I – for some general interest stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else, also stuff that is neither good nor bad but maybe has an interesting idea

J – for jokes, cartoons, and humor of note

T – for things that are so terrible I just have to point them out

That… should be enough for now. I don’t think this will be done systematically as I mostly want to note down when I come across some stuff. If an article is not on the list I didn’t think it was interesting.

So lets begin.

Dragon 63 (1982)

G. Gygax, Featured Creatures: Deva, p.5 H – preview to MMII I guess
G. Gygax (?), Where the Bandits are, p. 14 C – details on the Bandit Kingdoms in Greyhawk
Tom Armstrong/Roger Moore, Bandits! p. 23 B – bandit NPC class, I mentioned before I have reevaluated the use of those. This one might be a bad guy, or it might be Robin Hood. I can see some use for that.
Roger Moore, …but not least: The humanoids. Goals and gods of the kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, & gnolls, p. 25, B – some interesting ideas for minor gods and spiritual beings of the humanoids. Might be useful for fleshing out some humanoid tribes. Misogynist vibes though.
Larry DiTillio, Chagmat, p. 33, I – adventure level 1-4, arachnid antagonists, very mediocre dungeon, overwritten, slightly misogynist vibes (why do spider care about abducting maidens specifically?), but has an old one-armed swordsman NPC I wanna steal
G. Gygax, A Couple of Fantastic Flops, p.72 H – Gygax trashes the Schwarzenegger Conan movie and promises a D&D movie with the quality of Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark by 1984/85. Gee, I wonder how that turned out?

Dragon Magazine 74 (1983)

Leonard Lakofka/Brad Nystul, Bureaucrats and Politicians, p.8. I (maybe J) – two NPC classes, overwritten and not very useful, although both read more like a joke I don’t quite get
Ronald Hall, Landragons. Wingless wonders of a faraway land, p.12, B – creature feature about wingless dragons, notably the third entry manages to mess up the notation for inches and feet so bad it requires multiple rereadings
Lewis Pulsipher, A player character and his money…, p. 50, A/H – first appearance of the silver standard conversion, otherwise lots of ideas to part the PCs from their money

Dragon 104 (1986)

[OH wow, I was thinking about it, and there was absolutely nothing notable or useful in this issue. The closest was this:]
Christopher Wood, A plethora of paladins, p. 45, I – expands the “holy warrior” archetype from Paladins and Anti-Paladins out into the other 7 alignments. All are NPC classes and all kind of useless. I don’t see any immediate use for this.

Dragon 114 (1986)

Bill Muhlhausen (and others), The Witch, p.8 I – this is the at least third incarnation of the Witch NPC class. Unfortunately it still is barely usable as the class still is predicated on being an evil overpowered demon-worshipper.
Nick Kopsinis/Patrick Goshtigian, Grave Encounters. Creatures that lurk in cemeteries and crypts, p. 22, B – bread and butter article with graveyard encounter tables
Margaret Weis/Kevin Stein, Running Guns. Ground Vehicles for the BATTLETECH game world, p. 78, H – I’d rate it higher, but seriously all that is covered in the core rules by now
Randal S. Doering, High-Tech Hijinks. Integrating technology into an AD&D game campaign, p. 84 B – a bit overwritten