The image in the bottom left is by Steve Swenston. Otherwise the cover is a complete mess.
What’s new
- Now 56 pages! Because…
- They’ve combined The Dragon and Little Wars into one magazine
- Sneak peek at the DMs Guide! – editorial notes it’s coming out in August at Gencon
Articles
- The First Assassins – real historical stuff
- Bad to Worse – Gygax reviews some amateur magazines – he completely ridicules them – maybe deserved but this kind of thing is so small minded and petty and not worthy of inclusion in the Dragon
- And another comment by Gygax on a review of the Players Handbook in Strategy & Tactics – sigh – get over yourself Gary!
- International DM Search – a massive list of DMs and campaigns
- D&D – what it is and where it’s going – first in an ongoing series – finally a decent article – has interesting data about printing numbers of early D&D – talks about putting out the simplified Basic Set and mentions that newer sets will have a module instead of geomorphs. Funnily, he says he’s not interested in always coming out with new and improved editions every so often and considers AD&D will be somewhat done and final with maybe small alterations here and there. New material will come in the forms of modules etc. Also speculates that there will be computerised D&D in the future.
- First Invitational AD&D Masters Tournament results – using a scenario called “The Quest for the Holy Grrale” (sic) which they say will be published by TSR – though as far as I can tell, they never did. A who’s who of players
- DM’s Guide sneak peek – descriptions of magic items from the G&D modules, attack matrices, assassin, saving throw and psionic tables
- The Nomenclature of Pole Arms – by Gygax – this was surprisingly readable and interesting!
Ads of note
- Ad for B1 – In Search of the Unknown!