The first indication of our tribute to Halloween is this month's cover painting. "The Doomed" represents artist Steve Oliff's first appearance on the cover since issue #14.
The Halloween art doesn't end there, either. Check out, if you dare, the big black & white drawing by Todd Lockwood on page 6, which leads off a special "things to tease, tempt, and terrify" section - four of the scariest D&D and AD&D variants we could dig up.
Still not spooked? Okay - in the dead center of the magazine you'll find The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow, our first haunted-house module, for which we are grateful to publisher Gary Gygax and author Jim Ward. Gary, upon hearing of our plans for a Halloween observance, said, "Say, Jim's got a haunted house that's a lot of fun. Why don't you see if you can use it?" Obviously, we did just that. We hope you find it a lot of fun, too.
Our regular offerings of new critters and new characters provide another eight pages of potential for thrilling new encounters - five new Giants in the Earth from Tom Moldvay and a quartet of new cages in Dragon's Bestiary.
Leomund's Tiny Hut is back after a short respite with Len Lakofka's long look at the inner planes of existence, and From the Sorcerer's Scroll makes a return appearance with Gary Gygax's admonitions not to be a Dungeon Milquetoast. Sage Advice hasen't been handed out for a couple of issues, so Jim Ward and Will Niebling provided some answers to your questions for us. Because the questions are coming in such quantity, we're hoping to find room for more answers in every issue from now on.
This month's feature review by Tony Watson is a detailed examination of John Carter, Warlord of Mars. Also in Dragon's Augury are evaluations of two new games, Swashbuckler and Time Tripper, and the Starmaster play-by-mail game.
Regular columnists John Prados and Mark Herro give us more observations on their specialties in Simulation Corner and The Electric Eye. For a lighthearted look at an unusual session of gaming, enjoy The Day of the Dwarf by Roger Moore.
Our colorful conclusion is another chapter in the saga of Jasmine, followed by a special surprise Wormy. If the last panel of this episode doesn't at least make you open your eyes all the way, maybe you should have someone else check your pulse.
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