From the editor-in-chief's description of the issue:
Composing a high-level adventure is a high-level creative task. When characters have gobs and gobs of experience under their belts, they have a multitude of options and opportunities to take advantage of at any given time. It's not easy to design and produce a module for such characters that is challenging without being impossible to "beat," and that's the main reason why you haven't seen very many high-level modules in this magazine. But now is the time, and "The Ruins of Andril" is the place. It occupies the center 16 pages of this issue, and it is the winner in category A-3 of our Dungeon Design Contest. The module was designed by Ian Melluish of Nepean, Ontario - yet another in the long line of Canadian contestants who have won top prizes in the contest.
Among the other highlights of this issue are contributions by first-timers. Our chilly cover is the work of Steve Peregrine, who may be familiar to veteran readers from some interior artwork he did for us a while back. In the lead feature position inside is "Taking the sting out of poison," an exhaustive essay by Chris Landsea designed as a followup and improvement to the articles we've previously published on the use of poison in the AD&D system. In contrast to that is "Living in a material world," a long article on a topic we've never covered before - material spell components. Its author is Michael Dobson, and the good job he did on this article had a little to do with the fact that he's been hired as a member of the games editing staff at TSR.
Letters from our readers take up more space in this issue than in any other previous magazine. An extra-large "Out on a Limb" section is joined by the first edition of "The Forum" - three pages devoted to giving you, and you, and you, a way to get something off your chest and into the minds of the people with whom you have so much in common. Keep those letters coming, so we can keep "The Forum" going strong and lasting long.
In the AD&D world, the automobile is a magic item beyond the comprehension of even the mightiest wizard, but characters can still have horsepower. Pete Mohney's article offers a system for incorporating chariots into your campaign, and Roger Moore's description of Cu Chulainn gives hot-shot charioteers somebody tough to contend with.
Contributing Editor Ed Greenwood has favored us with a lot of "ecology" articles in recent weeks, and we expect you'll be seeing several of them in print during the months to come. We decided to publish his manuscript on the basilisk right away, to get the toughest one out of the way first. Why was this one so tough? Well, to be on the safe side, we did the editing with our eyes closed... - KM
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