I s s u e # 1 3 1Vol. XII, No. 10

March 1988

PublisherMike Cook

EditorRoger E. Moore

Assistant editor Fiction editorRobin Jenkins Patrick L. Price

Editorial assistantsEileen Lucas Barbara G. Young

Art directorRoger Raupp

Marilyn FavaroProduction Staff

Lori Svikel

Subscriptions AdvertisingPat Schulz Sheila Meehan

Ed GreenwoodCreative editors

Jeff Grubb

CONTENTS

21 The Realm Below:In the Underdark, no one can see you scream.

2 2 To the Center of the Oerth Vic BroquardA streamlined system for creating caverns and tunnels of every kind.

3 2 The Folk of the Underworld Eric OppenPractical jokes with a dark twist: the svirfneblins point of view.

3 6 The Ecology of the Aholeth Brandon CristThe masters of the subterranean world have masters of their own.

4 0 Lords & Legends Steve Seguin and Christopher JonesTwo mountain dwarves who made the big time.

4 2 The Ecology of the Hook Horror Michael PersingerEven the fungus-eaters of Deepearth are dangerous.

47 The Chasm Bridge Desmond P. VaradyA special underworld encounter from DUNGEON Adventures!

OTHER FEATURES1 0 The Role of Books John C. Bunnell

Wizards in New York, technology vs. sorcery, and a musical interlude.

1 6 Illusory Solutions Matt BattisonAn 8th-level illusionist can cast a 30-HD fireball! Or can he?

1 8 Fantasy First Class Michael GrayThe Alamaze universe lives in your mailbox.

6 4 Mutations Unlimited Kim EastlandEver want eyes in the back of your head? Now you can have them!

6 8 The Game Wizards Douglas NilesJust declassified: further word on the TOP SECRET/S.I. game.

7 0 Role-playing Reviews Jim BambraThe Death Star meets the interstellar French Empire and the BattleMech brigades.

7 8 The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk LesserPilot a Harrier, build an empire, or brave the horrors of the Galactic Museum.

8 8 The Marvel-Phile Jeff GrubbTrouble comes in threes in this case, the Warriors Three.

346

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DEPARTMENTSLetters 60 Gamers Guide 92 Convention CalendarWorld Gamers Guide 62 Index to Advertisers 98 SnarfQuestForum 62 Sage Advice 101 WormyTSR Previews 90 Dragonmirth

SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS

COVEROur cover is entitled: What Geraldo Rivera wished he had found in Al Capones

vault, which just about says it all. This painting won an award at the 1987Norwescons Altercon convention, and is the combined work of two artists:Rodayne Esmay and David Kern. Rodayne says he and David are charter membersof the Happy Valley Space Academy (a local artists group). Thanks, guys!

2 MARCH 1988

LETTERSPhantomphantomsDear Dragon:

I loved the special attraction in issue #126.However, I did catch a miscount in Vince Gar-cias article. He only listed 30 undead. Themissing one is the phantom.

Example: The party settles down for the nighton a wide field. Later on, the characters areawakened by loud war cries as two armiescharge into battle around them. What the PCsdont know is that all the warriors are 300-year-old phantoms.

I also have a question about Hearts of Dark-ness by Tom Moldvay. On page 17 of issue#126, Mr. Moldvay implies that there might be aconnection between werewolves and vampires.According to all the information I have (mostlyfrom movies), werewolves are nearly immortalwhile vampires are dead. These states seemopposed to each other and, as such, lycan-thropes and vampires should be enemies undernormal circumstances.

As long as the subject of werewolves is up, Ihave a question about the MARVEL SUPERHEROES game article by Douglas Lent. SinceJack Russell is a supernatural werewolf, is hecontagious? Ive been wondering about this eversince he managed to claw Iron Man through hishelmet.

Our count of the undead in Vinces articleshows 31 types (we listed sheet phantoms andsheet ghouls in the same heading on page 32 ofthat issue). The article pins down a few mon-sters not previously known to be undead (suchas the crypt thing and vampiric ixitxachitl), butphantoms are stated in the Monster Manual II tobe neither alive nor undead. Your example isappreciated, however.

Tom Moldvay used more traditional sources ofinformation than modern movies in writing hisarticle. A number of European legends andfolktales connect vampires with werewolves insome manner as Tom notes on page 17 of thatissue. Whether you use this information in yourfantasy campaign or not is up to you but itmakes exciting reading.

We checked with Jeff Grubb, and he said JackRussells lycanthropy was the result of a super-natural curse placed on his genetic line, startingwith his ancestor Gregory Russoff. As such, thislycanthropy cannot be transmitted in the samefashion as classical cases of lycanthropy, and isconfined to Russoffs male descendants. Thisinformation comes from The Official Handbookof the Marvel Universe which, interestinglyenough, also makes the vampire-werewolfconnection you mentioned above.

Douglas BurikCincinnati OH

DRAGONLANCEchess?Dear Dragon:

I know that you are very busy, but I came upwith an idea: a DRAGONLANCE chess set. Ifigure even though the chance of you producingsuch a thing is slim, I thought what the heck. Ihave come up with a list of what the piecesmight include:

White (good) Black (evil)King T a n i s AriakasQueen Laurana KitiaraBishops Caramon Lord Soth

Raistlin ?Knights Flint Toede

Sturm VerminaardRooks Tower of the Temple of

High Clerist NerakaDragon of Flying Citadel

ErgothPawns Warrior on Draconian

dragon

The board would be a map of Ansalon withimportant spots labeled.

Mike S t ranePittsburgh PA

Though TSR, Inc., has no plans to produce aDRAGONLANCE chess set, we are producingthe DRAGONLANCE board game, which will bereleased in July. The game features 3D aerialcombat, numerous plastic playing pieces, andfast, easy-to-learn rules. Those who want to trymaking a DRAGONLANCE chess set for theirown use might try using 25mm miniatures forplaying pieces.

A brief messageDear Dragon:

Robert: How many gamers does it take tochange a light bulb?

H.P.: I dont know, how many gamers does ittake to change a light bulb?

Robert: Eighteen; three to build a pyramid tothe socket, three to devour all chips, soda,popcorn, and stray house pets, one to put in thebulb, and the rest to argue about a six-month-old DM call.

Michael CecilBelleville IL

Thanks.

OasisOne of the forces that guided my

path into games, gaming, and ulti-mately to TSR, Inc., was the HobbitHobby Shop in Fayetteville, N.C. Iwas stationed at Ft. Bragg with theU.S. Army in the late 1970s, andeventually found myself in thatshop, wondering if the rows androws of fantasy figures there had todo with the D&D game I had heardabout. I asked the manager about it and my doom was sealed.

A good hobby shop has a varietyof gaming goods, a location with lotsof free-spending gamers (militarybases, college campuses, and mallswork well), stable suppliers, etc. Buta legendary hobby shop has some-thing more: people who genuinelycare about gamers. The very exist-ence of such people benefits thewhole gaming field.

The Hobbit Hobby Shop was leg-endary, and I owe a great debt to Aland Feliet, who special-orderedminiatures and games for me, let medisplay my Star Trek models in thestore, and directed me to othergamers in the area who were run-ning campaigns. The shop had dis-play cases for miniatures andmodels that gamers created, andalways had a good word for yourwork even in cases like mine, inwhich the modelers enthusiasmexceeded his skills. (Your orcs arecertainly the most colorful ones Iveever seen, Al once told me.)

I was pleased to recently learnthat the Hobbit is still around(Our seventeenth year, said Al),and it put me in mind of other leg-endary hobby shops Ive known andloved. The Rusty Scabbard still sitsonly a few blocks from the Univer-sity of Kentucky campus in Lex-ington, Ky. The Something To Doshops hang on in Louisville. Napo-leons in Milwaukee is still filled withgames. Others exist, but they arefew and far between.

If you find such a shop, let thepeople there know you appreciatethem. Al and Feliet thank you! Iwas lucky to have found your oasis.

D R A G O N 3

The World Gamers GuideWith this issue of DRAGON Magazine,

The World Gamers Guide will come to aclose. No further listings will be taken. Ourincreased distribution and circulationworldwide are responsible; because of thegreat increase in international sales, wewill soon not be able to cope with theincrease in WGG entries with our smallstaff size.

However, we are always open to submis-sions for the Letters and Forumcolumns, as well as regular gaming artic-les, and we welcome contributions fromanywhere in the world. We also encouragegamers to organize gaming clubs, set upconventions, and use the resources of theirlocal game and hobby stores.

This column had a long run and a goodone. We wish all gamers across the worldthe best this year. Keep gaming!

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Jeffrey Jongko (AD,DD,TS,T2000)12 Yellowstone StreetWhite Plains, Metro ManilaPHILIPPINES

Alberto Halphen (AD,GW,SF,TS)Lomas de ChapultepecM. Chimborazo 520/701Mexico DF C/P 11000MEXICO

SN J. (Steve) Hudak (AD,MSH,TS)P.O. Box 37-611 NSGA(NSA Naples, Italy)FPO NY 09521-4000UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Bill McQuillan (AD,C