Matters of Castle & Space Piracy Using Dragon Magazine, The Best Of Vol. 4 & Independence Games Skull & Crossbones

 So last night was one of those night's where the Best of Dragon Magzine issue IV & came across a few articles that one think about the glory days of  Dragon magazine. Could it be that I miss Dragon magazine in its glorious print format?! This is espcially true of Section III Creative Campaigning. This is a wonderful section for any old school or OSR dungeon master. This is especially true of 'A PC and his money by Lew Pulsipher'. This is one of the semial article on dealing with 'treasure', money, and adventurers. 

'A PC and his money by Lew Pulsipher' purposes any number of ways in which circumstances, the state, politics, religion etc. will drain away all of that ill gotten loot of the PC's. Just look at the section on religion; "Religion: This should drain a significant sum from adventurers, staying more or less proportional as income rises. In most fantasy worlds the gods are real, and if not omnipresent, they at least affect the world through manipulation of followers and minions. Most adventurers will actively worship one or more gods, if only "just in case." Active worship entails contributions, if not tithes (10% of all income) or offerings of animals and goods of the worshiper. And if the local temple is destroyed, the wealthy worshipers (that is, the adventurers) will be expected to provide money to rebuild it." 
Simple, straight forward thinking DM advice that comes in really handy in the middle of a campaign or when those higher levels come. And money breeds greeds which attracts unwanted attention. 
But I can also see this coming into play in 2d6 rpg campaigns as well! That's right there's a deeper well touch stone here and that's using this information with other games as well. Yes, we're specifically looking at Stars Without Number & other Traveller derived systems especially when exoplanets are involved. an Earth analogy exoplanet. And its this idea that could well tie into Stella Gemma Publishing's Barbaric rpg. 

Imagine for a second here that the Wild West analogy is turned on its ear & in turn you've got a horde of space pirates descending from the stars onto a primitive society. Imagine if you will a horde of Clement sector space pirates deciding to raid a group of primitive worlds for slaves stock, artifacts, and especially nature resources. All of this to make a quick dollar on the open market and if worm hole gateways have been cut off for hundreds of years even better. Yes, we're looking at Independence Games Skull & Crossbones here. 

The idea here is that this is simply another investiment in the space pirates portfolio. To this nameless little primative world this could be the Apocalpyse. But what happens if the primatives turn the tables?! A primitive proto Germanic or European Viking style culture suddenly becomes an interstellar player on the sector scene?! 

Events & politic become a whole lot more complicated and this is something that early Traveller dealt with a lot. Even taking H. Beam Piper's Space Viking into account here. The implications of a Dark Ages society becoming an interstellar power one that echoes in the hearts of some Science Fiction fans. Sure it may take a century or two but those hordes could well be coming for your colony. 

And this same ideal could well be suited for taking the Demon-class lembus and the Ironbard-class longship and adding it to your hordes of Chaos in Adventurer, Conqueror, King. An idea that goes back to March 22,'s blog entry here. ACK's fanzine  Axioms Issue 2: Savage Swords of Chaos! has some excellent articles on doing exactly that! 

The Barbaric Hordes - Using Dragon Magazine, The Best Of Vol. 5 To Fill The Ranks

 Last night while thumbing through Dragon Magazine, The Best Of Vol. 5 several interesting things came across my mind.Dragon Magazine, The Best Of Vol. 5 seems to concentrate on world building with lots of articles by various old school writers  taking center stage. And I had forgotten just how good Dragon magazine is. I don't want to go into too much detail but from Ice Age adventuring to using ancient Dwarven runes. Dragon Magazine, The Best Of Vol. 5 is a classic. 

'The Real Barbarians' by Katherine Karr from Dragon issue #72 April 1983 really spoke to me as a DM especially with a German & Celtic barbarian slant. This article gives food for thought when your looking into a game such as Adventurer, Conqueror, King, rpg. ACK's slant is towards a fantasy pseudo Roman empire. And I can see these barbarians being used as a fantasy barbarian clone horde in my own campaigns coming up. 
And to turn this on its ear these barbarian hordes on their ear by taking them into Stars Without Number rpg as a transplanted series of cultures on an Earth analogy exoplanet. And its this idea that could well tie into Stella Gemma Publishing's Barbaric rpg. 

Celtic & German barbarian hordes coming to meet and murder a party of explorers on some distant world seems like the sort of an event that would tie into Axioms Issue 2: Savage Swords of Chaos! This exoplanet might be a hot bed of Chaos where the hordes have matured over the centuries ready to be unleashed upon some unspecting world! 

The Stars Are Wrong - Using 'the Astrologer' NPC Class From The Dragon 45 January 1981 For Your Old School &OSR games

Last night I went hunting for Dragon issue #45 after diving into one of the later issues in other blog entries. Issue #45 is one of those issues that's mixed back into one of the transition eras of the magazine. Wayne from Wayne's Books feels the same way; "My favorites are what I deem the "Golden Age" of Dragon Magazine: Issues ranging in the 50s and 60s. They had some of the most inspired writing, including great essays by Gary Gygax, examinations of the Planes, the whole range of demi-human articles and deities, and so much more!

-Wayne"Now the big draw articles for this issue seems to be 'Dragon Dungeon Design kit' article,the 'Write Way to Get Published' By Kim Mohan,"Ways to Handle High Level Headaches' by Lewis Pulsipher & this goes hand in hand with 'Magic items For Every Man' By Philip Meyers.  This last article was one for out fitting high level PC's & NPC's. I'm gonna tackle these in another blog article.


Why is this? Well because this is the era when Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was codifying the grand game as we know it. And this issue reflects that & it contains one of my favorite but most underutilized NPC  classes within its pages 'the Astrologer'. There's also a decent NPC 'Alchemist' class as well within the same article by Roger E. Moore & Georgia Moore. Now these are quick & dirty rules that would later go on to be quantified & spun into more fleshed out articles later on. But for the OSR dungeon master the Astrologer NPC class has lots of potential. Astrologers have been getting a lot of press in the OSR with Lamentations of the Flame Princess's Tower of the Star Gazer adventure. 



Not only can I see the Astrologer being a useful NPC class but I can see them being used as a great source for weird tales style adventures. There is a tie for Mystara right out of the gate I found from a post on RPGnet's site thanks to poster'sIthaeur ; 

"The Poor Wizard's Almanach for Mystara (BECMI in this case) had an astrology option; each week of the month tied to one of the elements, and each month to a creature of the Mystaran zodiac, and you could use these to give you ideas about the personality of a character." We can also see a tie in with the classic Greyhawk box set which has all of the celestial data on Oerth itself. 

Astrologers in setting such as Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea would be key to so many things. Locating dungeons, favorable star conditions for dungeon exploration, times of royal birth, the correct times & alignments for Mythos rites, & possibly locating the hidden signs of the Old Ones among the stars. One of the adventures from AS&SH that could benefit from consulting an astrologer would be THE BEASTS of KRAGGOTH MANOR by Tim Callahan The adventurer's chances need the help of the stars on their side cracking this module. There are several celestial related adventure elements here but I really don't want to spoil the adventure.


Alternatively if the player's PC's are high level enough to have settled into a tower or castle an astrologer might be consulted for the best dates to conceive a son or daughter to continue a PC bloodline within a game. In fact this might be critical to a retro clone such as Adventurer, Conqueror, King.
The Lion & Dragon Rgp & Dark Albion setting books  do  have some solid  'Astrology' resources but RPGPundit Presents #18: Advanced Medieval-Authentic Astrology is a great choice for adding in an astrological background to your OSR games.

In Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique setting an Astrologer would be a welcome addition. Not only could he benefit  the PC's by locating the old stars & possible favor conditions for exploration but he might be able to locate the ancient abodes of some of the 'Great Old Ones' among the changing stars. In CAS's Shapes of Adamant (1935)we get a taste of this in the fragment of this story. Astrologers play a key role within  Averoigne
These specialists are also key in predicting the destruction of Hyperborea in the ancient past. 
 B3 Palace of the Silver Princess's events might be fore told by Astrologers & wisemen giving the DM yet another way of drawing the player's PC's into the spider's web of that classic adventure. 

Some OSR & Unorthodox Thoughts On Dragon Issue #211 An Underground Extravaganza

So last night I dug out my copy of Dragon issue 211 & began to go through it. Dragon 211 is significant for a number of reasons. This is a really good issue if your doing dungeon construction & contains a number of articles that centered around dungeon ecology. Not much has really changed since 1994 when this issue was published.



The article 'Dungeon Ecology'  By Buck Deason Holmes. is worth the  price of admission alone because i talks about using natural caverns as dungeon design fodder. Jeff Grubb's early experiences with role-playing games, in his artitcle First Quest Mammals & Dinosaurs has some nice ideas for creating prehistoric settings.The author's early experiences with the ideas of dungeons are pretty nice.  Roger E. Moore. doesn't get any credit today for creating some of the best articles on Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to ever grace the pages of Dragon. 'Sight in the Darkness' is a great article on the uses of infravision in the dungeons. 'Fungi of the Underdark' by By Chris Perry. Illustrated by Terry Dykstra is the stand out article featuring :

• Askume
• Nimergan
• Ormu
• Timmask
• Trillimac

These are perfect additions to an OSR game or adventure as players would have no idea what type of horrors their adventurers would be facing. I can see 'Fungi of the Underdark' to be a great addition to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea for the Underborea setting & dungeons. 
Then there's a quick overview & article on Topkapı Palace By Steve Kurtz.which is perfect for adding a very nice curve ball of an adventure location to any OSR campaign. Here the author talks about using it for  Al-Qadim . But I can see using this location for Lamentations of the Flame Prince as an other worldly dungeon destination. "The Wizards Three: A Night of Shadows' finds The archmages Elminster, Mordenkainen of Oerth and Dalamar of Krynn exchange spells in Ed Greenwood's house. So here's what I find interesting three of the most powerful wizards are hanging out on the prime material plane. Could there be other times when these types of wizard's councils are held & could Oerth be far more strongly connected to a prime material Earth then we realize. 

For that matter could such mini wizard councils actually be recruiting cells of adventurers for missions, dungeon raids, & other tasks across the planes? Do dungeons themselves often have portals that connect into other ground realms on the prime material? So how do these high level mages connect with Mystara?  Well  since the 'Council of Intrusion' takes down the god level threats are there cells of lesser mages that watch over the plane of Mystara? Well in the Vaults of Pandius article Mages of Mystara, AC 1000 by Marco Dalmonte we get an overview of powerful wizards & mages of ninth level & above. These well might be the sort of mages that could be recruiting adventurers for the tasks that the immortals can't be bothered to handle but that still pose a threat to Mystara. This might well be another way of recruiting adventurers besides the usual we all meet together in a bar routine. It also provides a way of cementing a BCEMI Dungeons & Dragons campaign together using the setting. 
Dragon Issue #211 An Underground Extravaganza remains to me one of the quintessential dragon magazine issues because it addresses one of the broader concerns of the game namely the ecologies, issues, & other minutia of the game. This issue of Dragon magazine still has relevance today because its contents are still being used at the table top level.

The Clark Ashton Smithian Ecology of The Orc Tribes in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea with Help From Dragon Issue #62

"These despicable humanoids are the unhallowed progeny of swine dæmons and an abominable tribe of Picts. They are stocky, short-legged, thick-boned, and heavily muscled, but their features are horribly disfigured and oft porcine, with pronounced lower canine teeth. In the wilderness they are largely nocturnal, but in subterranean lairs not necessarily so. Orcs are temperamental and prone to infighting, but under a strong leader they are capable of exceptional obedience. They are a violent species, killing for pleasure, and they relish in torturing and burning their victims; too, they are notorious slavers. 

Orcs are intelligent enough to manufacture their own weapons and armour and perform other feats of simple engineering, but their craftsmanship is generally inferior to human standards; hence, a suit of orcish plate mail might provide AC 4 instead of AC 3 (otherwise orcs have natural AC 6 from their thick hides). Orcs speak their own language (Orcish) and oft a crude form of the Common tongue of man; some are able to speak a smattering of Pictish."

These are the orc warrior tribes that we've come to know in Hyperborea but there is far more bubbling below the surface of these eaters of men & warriors of renowned cruelty.

When most folks think of the troops of Ragnarok they seem to always forget the most dangerous & deadly the Orcs.  Found on the edges of Zothique  & the temperate forests of Hyperborea the pig faced orc warriors are some of the most dangerous foes that adventurers can encounter. The orc tribes of Hyperborea go all the way back to the time of the ancient Hyperborean nations were wrecking havoc on Earth. They are the projeny of Babi - ngepet ("swine demons") & an abominable tribe of half blooded Picts on Hyperborea. But their origins go much further back in history into the very mists of time. Their wiki entry hints at some of their demonic origins;

"Old English glossaries record the word orc corresponding with Latin Orcus (deity of the Underworld), and synonymous with þyrs/ðyrs "ogre" (cognate to Old Norse: þurs), as well as "hell devil". The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal defines ork in the very closely related Old Dutch language as a verslindend monster ("devouring monster"),^[3] and points at a possible origin in the Old Dutch nork "petulant, crabbed, evil person".^[4]

The Latin: Orcus is glossed as "Old English: Orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol"^[a] as given in the first Cleopatra Glossary (10th century), and on this entry Thomas Wright wrote, "Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglo-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin.

þanon untydras ealle onwocon eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas swylce gigantas þa wið gode wunnon lange þrage he him ðæs lean forgeald —Beowulf, Fitt I, vv. 111–14[7]

Thence all evil broods were born, ogres and elves and evil spirits —the giants also, who long time fought with God, for which he gave them their reward —John R. Clark Hall, tr. (1901)[8]

The compound orcneas is designated "evil spirits" above, but its accurate meaning is uncertain. Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. orcus "the underworld" + neas "corpses" and that the translation "evils spirits" failed to do justice"

Orcus himself the demon prince of the undead had a hand in seeing his babi-ngepet minions sewing the seeds of his chaos as the old gods battled the orc warriors birthed from the stomachs of mankind. These first warriors were the powerful gods of the orcs who would later be worshiped & venerated in the city state of Orcust. Shamans to this day court the evil survival at costs favors of their gods. The Hyperborean wizards & shaman scientists who courted the favor of Orcus lord of the underworld had no idea of they were sewing the seeds of their own destruction.

DD12 – Orcus, Prince of the Undead By Otherworld Miniatures 

Driven by their Jotunn masters the tribes of orcs ran riot killing both man & demi god alike. They were born into an age of the axe & very well adapted for it. The events of Ragnarok were the orcs golden age & they reveled in it. But as time moved on the orc mind began to resemble or emulate mankind. Even as they put man to the sword & axe their chieftains began to arise from those touched by their gods. The chieftains were methodical in their violence & carefully dangerous in their tactics. They became more lawful in their evil as time went on. They began to turn on both human & Hyperborean masters alike putting them to fire & flame. 

HT3l – Pig-faced Orc Chieftain I by Other World Miniatures 

With the unleashing of the Green Death upon the Earth the orc tribal shamans & priests lead their peoples into the underworld of Iceland soon to become Hyperborea. When the black  miracle of Hyperborea was lifted into the sky occurred the first champions of the orc tribes waited along with their babi-ngepet masters. Their infravision scanned the caverns of Underborea. But soon the Hyperborean wizards would create more savage versions of these creatures. Orc shamans communed with the Great Old One Abhoth ("The Source of Uncleanliness") for his genetic favors for their warriors. The shamans passed this knowledge along to senior Hyperborean wizards & they birthed special warriors & chieftains who were slightly more intelligent then the usual rabble. These warriors often had mastery over many weapons stronger natures & constitution but soon the Green Death came for all & once again the orcs retreated beneath the vaults of Hyperborea. Thousands died but those who survived were the strongest of the race of the damned.

HT3q – Pig-faced Orc Shaman I By Otherworld Miniatures

Today foolish humans have forgotten the face of the Hyperborean wizards & their kings of the damned nation states. The City State of Orcust now grows fat with the newest batches of these despicable monsters. But in the genes of orcs, ogres, & goblins flows the promises of damnation from the twin horrors of insanity from both Abhoth ("The Source of Uncleanliness") &  Ubbo-Sathla. The wizard houses of the Ixians have been turning out record numbers of new Orc shock troops. While in the wilds outside of the bounds of civilization the ancient Orc shamans & priests begin to call upon their gods. Some of the Ixian's shock troops already hear the ancient call of their gods as it courses through their dark & sinister veins!

So one would not think that there would be a Dragon magazine angle to this but in Dragon issue#62 we have the article Gods of The Orcs Make War Not Love By Roger Moore. The update to this article is the roll that orcs have on Hyperborea today.



The difference here is that the shamans of the orcs tell of their incredible bravery & battle prowess during the time of Ragnarok & how now their is only room on Hyperborea for them! The humans will once again die by the score on their sword & knife blades as they did during the end of all things.


Today the orcs of Hyperborea are even more dangerous then they were during the time of Ragnarok because humanity does not preconceive the danger that their in. The orcs grow bolder & more dangerous with each passing day. So mankind will feel the rage & wraith of the orc once again! 

Tombs, Crypts, & Other Smaller Scale Dungeon Adventure locations Using The Dragon magazine issue #9 from 1977.

Having a campaign element in mind sometimes means going back to the collective well of Dungeons & Dragons original goodness for adventure advice & elements. In this case its reaching back into the archives of Casa De Fabiaschi & pulling out The Dragon magazine issue #9 from 1977.



At first it doesn't seem all that important an issue but let's look a bit deeper into those contents shall we from Wayne's Books Dragon magazine index;
DM's Brew (Mixing Alignments in D&D) by Gary Gygax; The Finzer Family (concluding a tale of Modern Magic) by H.O. Fischer; From the Fantasy Forge (new figures reviewed); Seal of the Imperium (Empire of the Petal Throne) by M.A.R. Barker; Fastest Guns That Never Lived, pt. 2 (adding movie greats to Boot Hill); Tombs & Crypts (preparing those "special" hoards in D&D) by Jim Ward; Comix Cache (humor section); more. The article 'Tombs & Crypts' (preparing those "special" hoards in D&D) by Jim Ward is the one that I've been looking for for the last day or so. At the center of an upcoming adventure I've got a treasure residing within a tomb that the entire adventure centers around. The article provides a simple but very effective system that can be used for older editions of Dungeons & Dragons or as Mr Ward states;
"The mystery, challenge and pleasure of any wargamer in discovering and opening a tomb of some unknown being is well known to those that have done it. The creation of these tombs can be a very drawn out, head scratching process for the judge. I have created a set of graphs to ease this creation process. The top row of numbers in the first graph stand for the following: 1. Soldier, 2. Hero, 3. Priest, 4. Pair, 5. Mated. Pair, 6. Lord, 7. King, 8. Patriarch, 9. EHP, 10. Magic User, 11. Wizard, 12. Being."One thing I've always loved about James Ward's writing its straight to the point with little adjective laden manure. Tombs are simple & super effective adventure setting that have a few advantages over other adventure locations. Tombs can be played within an evening & there's some advantages to using only a simple guardian monster or two along with some tricks or traps. Tombs & crypts are perfect meeting places for cults or as undead lairs.

Joseph Wright of Derby: Virgil's Tomb by Moonlight, with Silius Italicu 

Players seem to respect the usual dungeons & mega dungeon campaign locations but tombs offer a closer urban or rural alternative to the usual run of the mill adventure locations. They can also be filled with many monsters to keep the players guessing. The system for creating special hoards by Mr. Ward has some true advantages for the dungeon master looking to change things up a bit for the players. I think one disavantage of the OSR movement has been the fact that many of the various random tables, treasure generators,etc. present within the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide have become far too well known. This means that we as dungeon masters have to go a bit further afield or become more creative for the great game that we all know & love. 

The tomb or crypt as undead lair conjures up all kinds of images but there's lots of opportunities to present a fuller & much more dangerous tomb or lair. Where is the treasure coming from & why is the monster hunting to gain it.  Motives for the monsters is only a small part of the adventure opportunity offered by these locations. Here's ten reasons why tombs make fantastic adventure location: 

1. Tombs & crypts are only a small part of the compete package of a campaign setting & in fact be used as a candy sampler of the upcoming adventures within a campaign. Adventure elements & monsters can be used as a mini preview of coming adventure attractions. 
2. Tombs offer a perfect base for a mid level or lower tier boss monster to confound or try to outright slay the PC's. 
3. Crypts are the perfect location for cults to operate from especially rich vile villains using his family crypt as a base. 
4. Crypts & tombs also are perfect locations for post apocalyptic games such as Mutant Future or Gamma World 
5. These places are the perfect areas to place the local relic or artifact because one of the previous owners had the thing buried with them. 
6. Tombs & Crypts can also be the prefect spot for lone assassins to operate from with a campaign. 
7. Tombs & crypts make perfect meeting spots for thieves guilds. 
8. Some abandoned  tombs & crypts are the perfect location for dark druids to use as grove points. 
9. These locations are the perfect spot for drop points & cache points for spies. These locations are perfect for PC's to stumble upon. 
10. Tombs & Crypts force player's to all always think on their feet. The unexpected is right around the corner. 

OSR Campaign Commentary - Gary Gygax's Gord The Rogue & 'The City Beyond The Gate' AD&D adventure

Its been a long while since I cracked open an issue of Dragon magazine & issue one hundred has as it centerfold adventure one called The City Beyond the Gate for AD&D. I never ran it for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons but instead I ended up running it for the Stormbringer rpg back in 97 or so. The adventure takes a party of Greyhawk adventurers into the heart of modernish day London to recover the Mace of Saint Cuthbert. Its a really well done adventure & it worked out very well for a mixed party of Stormbringer/Hawkmoon rpg adventurers. But looking over my extensive notes for June of '97's Stormbringer conversion game somethings struck me. This was the issue with the first Gary Gygax's  Gord The Rogue story in it. The City Beyond The Gate when we ran it was set after the destruction of Oerth. When the PC's were well aware of the events of Dance of Demons by Gary Gygax. At this point one of the main branches of Greyhawk's Oerth had broken off & been destroyed the wiki entry goes deep into it; "Dance of Demons is the finale, in which Gord and Gellor enter the Abyss on a mission from the world's most powerful forces of Balance, to retrieve the remaining Theorparts. The goal is nothing less than to free Tharizdun, the long-imprisoned god of ultimate evil and entropy, and to finally destroy him. The novel ends with the complete destruction of Oerth, and the unveiling of a new and better world." 



 The PC's met up with Gord later on as an NPC in Miami when they ran into a particularly heinous cult of the archfiend Baphomet on modern Earth. Gord had appeared in an anthology story of the Eternal Champion called Evening Odds . The PC's needed information that Gord had to save their own Oerth from Baphoment's cult & a rather nasty relic left by the Lords of Chaos. ""Evening Odds" appears as story 14 in Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion, an anthology of fiction inspired by Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion mythos. The story takes place some time after the events of Dance of Demons. Gord has apparently been deposed from his position as the new Catlord and is traveling the alternate realities as a Champion of Balance. In the course of the story he upsets a plot by the archfiend Baphomet on modern Earth."   'The City Beyond the Gate' took place after this on this same Earth when the PC's journey to recover the Mace of Saint Cuthbert.

It was a solid game of Stormbringer & everyone had an excellent time. But it was the fact that I was using a time war as the background of the campaign that I had forgotten about. This allowed me as a dungeon master to use a wide variety of illogical adventure elements & interchange them without consequences. Sure there were a lot of gonzo elements but it allowed me not to be hamstrung by either the Greyhawk or Eternal Champion  mythos elements. This is a situation that I increasingly find myself in today with certain OSR dungeon masters & players  who hew savagely to the Dungeons & Dragons fluff that has built up over the years. I can honestly say that I miss the halcyon days of free wheeling a campaign together. I wonder if I can simply reverse this situation & run 'The City Beyond The Gate' as an OSR Con style one shot game adventure. By keeping the time war elements & pulling in some of the Greyhawk stuff this could work as a campaign buffer adventure in my current campaign line up. Another idea that I have is to take 'The City Beyond The Gate' adventure & run this as a possible Dungeon Crawl Classic filler adventure. The PC's are thrust into the marrow of the adventure & must recover the mace to complete the quest.



Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game – 4th Printing (Peter Mullen cover)

'The City Beyond The Gate' is a high level adventure that pairs Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure elements into a modern Eighties style adventure setting. This mix is a heady one for PC's to navigate & I can see using this as a part of a greater arching campaign mix. 

Some Quick Notes on Best of the Dragon Vol. I From the Strategic Review and The Dragon Vol. I & II

There comes a time when you have to go back to the source material once again. For many people this means going back to Cons & onto forums of original Dungeons & Dragons. But for me its crack open a dog eared copy of the Best Of The Dragon Volume I & II. This tome has within it a whole array of articles from the hey days of the Strategic Review & Dragon's earliest issues.


So why is this particular piece of Dragon magazine history important? Well for my own perspective as a dungeon master its not just the articles by James Ward on Metamorphis Alpha first edition or the sage advice of Gary Gygax himself. These are essential to the history of the grand game but also the articles by

Daniel Clifton called Designing for Unique Wilderness Encounters , along with Tony Watson's The Development of Towns in D&D.  

These are great articles for designing towns & hex locations in OD&D & went way towards helping me as a young dungeon master to design interesting & unique encounters not just in OD&D but also Gamma World as well.  There's another article called Hints for D&D Judges byJoe Fischer which was an article that had a huge influence at the table top level. Robert J Kuntz's Tolkien in D&D gave me a lot of thought about Middle Earth in OD&D or my lack there of. 

This volume doesn't get mentioned to much except perhaps in passing on some forums as a curious piece of the history of OD&D. Not so for me because for me this volume was a living & breathing artifact from the roots of the game. I don't mean this in this high praise of the altar of gaming although I'm in awe of the creativity & experimental DYI nature of the early halcyon days of the hobby.


What I find amazing is the usefulness of this material in the OSR after all of this time since these articles were published. Everything from the original bard class to the illusionist still gets referenced depending upon what edition of Dungeons & Dragons or its retroclones are being used. Maybe its the late night echoes of nostalgia  talking here but this book still even after all these years gets the creative juices flowing.
For me Best of the Dragon Vol. I
From the Strategic Review and The Dragon Vol. I & II is one the most useful books for original Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. The articles are easily applicable to the current crop of OSR retroclone games & adventures. This is one volume of killer & no filler material. Grab a copy if you can find this volume at a reasonable price.