DragonMagazine053.pdf

September 1981

Dragon

Dragon

Vol. VI, No. 3

September 1981

There is a bit of a new trend in gaming

that I find a bit disturbing, and perhaps it

should be food for thought for all of us. I

refer to the recent interest in so-called

“live” games, especially of the “assassin”

or “killer” varieties.

These types of games are billed as

role-playing games, and in the strictest

definition of the word, I guess they are.

What disturbs me is that they are being

equated by the non-gaming public (or by

those with limited gaming experience)

with heroic fantasy and science fiction

role-playing games — and the types are

not the same.

I’m not picking on Steve Jackson here,

although he claims his recently released

KlLLER game is the first commercially

available set of rules for the genre. My

first exposure to “live” games was many

years ago in college, and I’ve seen them

played several times since then. “Live”

games are also not necessarily of the

assassin type either — I’ve known of a

few LOTR interpretations, also.

Live games may be role-playing games,

but they are not the same as what we

have come to call adventure role-playing

games (D&D® and AD&D™ games, Tra-

veller, RuneQuest, etc.). Live games re-

quire physical action. In the assassin

games, this involves stalking a person

designated as a target (the stalker may

be a target as well) and performing a

“kill” with, for example, a squirt of a wa-

ter pistol to represent a gun shot, or an

Alka-Seltzer tablet to represent poison.

The attraction of this type of simula-

tion escapes me. Steve says in his ads for

KlLLER that the game will “test your re-

flexes and ingenuity in a way no paper

game ever will...” I’m sure it would, but

why bother? If I want to test my reflexes

against another person, I can think of

many ways that do not involve even sim-

ulated weapons — or, if weapons are the

point, we could meet at the local skeet

and trap club. Ingenuity? Working on

this magazine tests it about as fully as I

care to have it tested. But, I digress...

What we have here is a type of game in

which ingenuity and strategy are secon-

dary to the performance of physical ac-

tions, and the only concessions to role-

playing are an alias and performing feats

of thespian skill like “dying in a very real-

istic or artistic fashion” (worth 5 points in

KILLER). While this is role-playing, it is

limited to the extent of a person’s physi-

cal abilities and acting talent.

“Live” role-playing games are much

more an exhibition (like a Wild West

shoot-out on a movie lot or an SCA dem-

onstration) than actual game playing.

I’m for any activity that is fun for the

participants and harmless to everyone

else. But the “live” role-playing games,

particularly the assassin type, may not

be entirely harmless to everyone else.

Physical games — spectator sports, for

example — can cause harm to the partic-

ipants. But the spectators of those sports

are willing spectators, and they aren’t on

the playing field while the game is going

on. “Live” games are often played in pub-

lic. Sooner or later there will be an injury

to a “spectator” (bystander), and if it

happens to occur in the wrong place at

the wrong time, the headline will read

something like, “Student Injured in Role-

playing Game at Local College.” And all

of us sitting at tables with paper-and-

pencil role-playing games will be equat-

ed with those folks wearing masks-and

chasing each other around with water

pistols and bean shooters.

Perhaps a more serious consideration,

though, is how the non-gaming public is

going to view these games even if no one

gets hurt. Most of us, at one time or

another, have been called upon to ex-

plain our reasons for playing paper-and-

pencil adventure role-playing games, par-

ticularly the heroic fantasy type. Despite

our best efforts to explain, there are still

many who view such a pastime as some

sort of escape from reality, or worse, just

from seeing some people sitting around

a table with books and dice! How are

they going to look at people chasing

each other and playing assassin?

I fail to see the attraction for “live” role-

playing (and in some cases I think it is

just an excuse for a good water balloon

fight), but I’ll grant that the type has its

place in the overall list of games that may

be played. But, like anything else in this

world, perceptions (mine included) de-

pend upon perspective. While I grant

that there is a place for “live” role-

playing, others will not. And it is a very

small step from condemning “live” role-

playing games to condemning all role-

playing games.

Publisher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jake Jaquet

Editor-in-Chief. . . . . . . . . . . Kim Mohan

Editorial staff . . . . . . . . . . . Bryce Knorr

Marilyn Mays

Gali Sanchez

Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Debbie Chiusano

Circulation . . . . . . . Corey Koebernick

Office staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cherie Knull.

Roger Raupp

Contributing editors. . . . Roger Moore

Ed Greenwood

This issue’s contributing artists:

Clyde Caldwell Bruce Whitefield

Roger Raupp Will McLean

Susan Collins Dexter Pratt

James Holloway J. D. Webster

Harry Quinn

Phil Foglio

DRAGON magazine is published monthly by

Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Hobbies,

Inc. The mailing address of Dragon Publishing

is P.O. Box 110. Lake Geneva WI 53147: tele-

phone (414) 248-8044.

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DRAGON magazine welcomes unsolicited sub-

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Hobbies, Inc. USPS 318-790. ISSN 0279-6848.

Second class postage paid at Lake Geneva,

Wis., and at additional mailing offices.

September 1981

Dragon

he awesome task of digging (yes, sometimes liter-

ally) our way through scores of hefty manuscripts

is over. The hours upon hours spent poring over

page after page have finally produced results. It is

with a great sigh of relief and a similarly large

fanfare (taaa—daaa!) that we present The Garden of Nefaron,

the winning entry of International Dungeon Design Contest II.

If you got the idea from the above paragraph that it was more

than a bit of work going through all the entries, then I guess I got

the point across. That point is made, not to make you feel sorry

for us (after all, nobody told us to have the contest), but in

apology for the fact that it took so long to come up with a winner.

As might have been expected, the overall quality of the entries

took a distinct step up from the previous contest. What was not

expected was the great increase in quantity — nearly 200 entries

were received for the AD&D™ division of the contest, and every

one of them had to be looked over before we could make even

the most preliminary selections. Howard DeWied’s entry ended

up at the top, but there were dozens of other contestants who

obviously put their heart and soul into what they submitted

—and they deserve an equally large share of the credit for

making this contest such a high-quality competition. Our con-

gratulations go to all the prizewinners, whose names are listed

for posterity on page 48. When’s the next contest? Well . . . give us

a little while to recover from eyestrain and we’ll let you know.

This issue’s classy cover, “Dragon Spell,” is the first evidence

of the talent of Clyde Caldwell which has appeared on these

pages. Clyde is a paperback-book cover artist of no small re-

nown (look for his distinctive signature the next time you’re

browsing the bookstore shelves), and is also represented with a

piece in our 1982 DAYS OF THE DRAGON™ calendar.

The cornerstone of our feature article section this month

represents somewhat of a departure from policy for DRAGON™

magazine. Never before has this publication printed material

which, to put it bluntly, suggests that an entire major section of

the AD&D rules be reconstructed. But when authors Philip Mey-

ers and Steven Howard provided us with well thought-out man-

uscripts on how the monk character class ought to be refur-

bished and redesigned, we decided to give them their due. Once

again, we point out that articles in DRAGON magazine are

nothing more than suggested ways to change or enhance your

game, and there’s nothing “official,” in any sense of the word,

connected with our presentation of these (or any other) pieces

of writing.

The longest single article inside (except for the module, of

course) is the latest in our continuing line of suggested new

non-player characters for an AD&D campaign: Andrew Dewar’s

vision of the Oracle. For some NPCs of deity-level status, take a

look at the Bogatyrs, a collection of legendary old Russian

heroes (and the villains they fought) which serves as the first

installment of “Larger: Than Life,” a new feature devoted to

descriptions of super-high-powered characters on a par with

the personalities in the DEITIES & DEMIGODS™ Cyclopedia.

On a more philosophical note, we offer you “Some universal

rules” from contributing editor Roger Moore on how to design a

personalized universe that works the way a universe should.

And in the same vein, the second installment of John Prados’

series in Simulation Corner on making a working model of your

very own game design.

Some of the niftiest monsters around are those which have

been “translated” from fantasy literature into AD&D terms. Mark

Nuiver went through John Wyndham’s science-fiction classic

The Day of the Triffids with a fine-toothed pencil to come up

with the definitive AD&D Triffid. Plant a few of these in your next

adventure and see what blossoms.

You can’t usually find out what’s on the other side of a door-

way unless you go through it. Len Lakofka, in his latest essay

from Leomund’s Tiny Hut, spells out how getting through a door

can be a whole lot tougher than simply twisting the latch. In

similar fashion, Merle Rasmussen, the dean of TOP SECRET™

administrators, tries to make things more difficult for agents by

listing what equipment each type of spy can and can’t employ.

The newest additions to the Dragon’s Bestiary area couple of

lawful good guys, the Argas and Narra, plus the bizarre one-

eyed Oculon. Grouped in the Dragon’s Augury section are a trio

of games about three widely diverse subjects — and diversity is

also the key word in The Electric Eye, where computer colum-

nist Mark Herro takes time to clean out his tidbit file.

And the list goes on (but not for much longer) with a Traveller

variant giving more “oomph” to the Merchant class; some re-

commendations from game-design scholar Glenn Rahman on

how to make Junta a more revolutionary activity.

As evidence of our usual flair for finishing with a grin, the last

three pages of #53 contain a sampling of “Dragon Mirth” car-

toons; the current trials and tribulations of Finieous Fingers &

Friends; and a new “What’s New?” by Phil Foglio. If your page 80

is all wet and wrinkled, blame Phil; he told us to do it. —KM

SPECIAL ATTRACTION

The Garden of Nefaron — Winner of the AD&D™ division

in International Dungeon Design Contest II. . . . . . .33

List of prize winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

REGULAR OFFERINGS

Out on a Limb — Letters from readers . . . . . . . 4

Up on a Soapbox — Adventuring with shaky hands . . . . . . .27

The Rasmussen Files — More TOP SECRET™ ideas . . . . . . .49

Dragon’s Bestiary: Argas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Oculon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Narra .......................... ................55

Leomund’s Tiny Hut — Just a door? ....................56

Simulation Corner — Building a game model ............62

The Electric Eye — Random comments .................66

Convention schedule ............... .. ............... .67

Dragon’s Augury

Stalin’s Tanks ..................... ..............74

Warlord ...................................... ..76

A House Divided.. .............................. .76

Dragon Mirth — Cartoon page .........................78

Finieous Fingers —A big surprise ..................... .79

What’s New? — You’ll see. ........................... .80

OTHER FEATURES

Why isn’t this monk smiling? — Examining the AD&D class

He’s got a lot to kick about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Defining and realigning the monk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Sage Advice — Monkish mysteries unraveled. . . . . . . . .11

The Oracle — New non-player character class . . . . . . . . . . .14

Understanding Armory — What those shields mean . . . . . . .18

Some universal rules — Designing your own universe . . . . .22

Larger Than Life — Bogatyrs begin a new column . . . . . . . .28

The ways of the Triffids — The monster from John Wyndham’s

book, adapted for AD&D play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Merchants deserve more, too — Traveller addition . . . . . . . .60

Junta needs more instability — A truly revolting variant. . . .64

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