Dragon (Issue 46 - Feb 1981)

Vol. V No. 8 of Dragon Magazine.

Cover Art by Steve Swenston.

Summary of issue content by Assistant Editor:

We’re proud of the way issue #46 of Dragon magazine looks, and we hope you like the changes we’ve made in the appearance of the pages. Even if you don’t like the "new look," or find it a little hard to get used to, we think you’ll find that the high quality of the articles and artwork hasn’t changed a bit.

The headline acts of this month’s show are The Temple of Poseidon, another in our continuing series of ready-to-use playing aids for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and the first large installment of Pinsom, a new fantasy adventure comic strip drawn by Steve Swenston, who also provided us with a full-color rendition of Pinsom and the strip’s other characters for this month’s cover. The adventure itself, which begins on page 66, is "only" in black & white, but wait ‘til you see it...

The Temple of Poseidon is the creaton of Paul Reiche III - a creation which helped him get a job with TSR Hobbies, Inc. To learn more about Paul and Poseidon, read page 31 - but don’t peek at the rest of the adventure if you intend to put a character of yours into this perilous place.

Next on the bill of fare, and leading off our feature section this month, is The Sorceror's Jewel, a short story from the pen of J. Eric Holmes. While maintaining a career as a neurosurgeon and an "alter ego" as a published author of fantasy novels, Eric also found time to serve as editor for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. "Jewel" is the second Holmes story to appear in Dragon magazine, and it features the same two principal characters as "Trollshead" (issue #31).

A few issues back, we printed an article which pointed out some of the shortcomings that the author found in The Tribes of Crane, a popular play-by-mail game. Now, expressing the pro-Crane point of view, we present Richard Lloyd’s view, "Crane is what you make of it." Richard is the designer of StarMaster, another PBM game, and an avid and active player in Tribes of Crane.

It’s been a year since we published any rule changes or variations for Divine Right. In that time, DR designer Glenn Rahman has sent us variants, at the rate of one every two months or so. We’re giving them to you all at once in a Divine Right special section which begins on page 14 and ends with the latest installment of Glenn’s Minarian Legends, this time telling the story of The Black Hand.

It’s also been quite a spell since we devoted any space to Boot Hill. All you card-table cowboys will need more than a fast draw to tangle with Tyrannosaurus Tex, the meanest lizard of them all, adapted for BH by contributing editor Roger Moore. Following that, you’ll find a short but useful article which will help give BH players a purpose in life.

If you think the Paladin down the street has a tough sword, you can gain a different perspective on big blades by reading "Mightier than the pen," a discussion of magic swords from legend and literature. The last special feature inside is our Valentine’s treat to you - a painting by Mike Carroll which is pleasing and perplexing at the same time.

This month’s tour of Dragon’s Bestiary is a short one, since space limitations forced us to cut back to a solitary new creature, the Gaund. Contributing editor Ed Greenwood provided the description and the drawings.

At the front of a four-page Dragon’s Augury section are two reviews of the same product, TSR’s The World of Greyhawk, followed by an "inside look" at Greyhawk from TSR’s design/production chief Lawrence Schick. Also under scrutiny in this issue are The Complete Book of Wargames and three fantasy/adventure playing aids from Dimension Six.

Instead of a regular Giants in the Earth column this month, GITE writer/editor Tom Moldvay takes some space to describe the right way for readers to send in suggestions for the column. As usual, we have some Sage Advice answers for D&D and AD&D players, plus John Prados’ Simulation Corner and Mark Herro’s examination of the best-selling home computers in The Electric Eye. Wormy and Finieous both went into hiding this month, but Jasmine is back with another two-page episode.

Well, I just gazed at the calendar on the wall and realized that this is the shortest month of the year, which means that we have three days less time to make the next magazine, which means that we’re already three days further behind schedule than we were already, which means we’d better get started right NOW -- Kim.