From the editor-in-chief's description of the issue:
April, in the area where this dragon's lair is located, is a month of change: It's not winter any more, but it's sure not summer yet, either (Wisconsin does have something called spring, but it always either feels like winter or summer, and the name can safely be ignored.)... All of which is to introduce a lot of changes that are happening or about to happen to DRAGON Magazine.
This issue contains the first ARES Science Fiction Gaming Section, about which the editors have much more to say starting on page 69.
This issue contains the last installment of Phil Foglio's "What's New?" comic strip - at least for now - for reasons that are explained on page 93.
And, we're presenting the first tournament-style AD&D module we've ever done, The Twofold Talisman, beginning on page 43. It's also the first two-part adventure we've published, and we're looking forward to hearing what you think.
Detail-minded artist Dean Morrissey has returned to our cover for the first time since issue #70 with a painting that's not swords & sorcery, but undeniably a piece of fantasy art. He calls it Ian Dinwood's Martian Moment, and describes it as "a scene in an earthly Victorian parlor momentarily transposed (at least in Ian's mind) to a tract of scape on the surface of Mars." So that's why the sky is pink.
The first essay to make it from Steven Inniss's typewriter to our pages is this month's lead article, "A cast of strange familiars," offering a few dozen ways to liven up the magic-user's find familiar spell.
In this issue's ecology article, Ed Greenwood explains how a trapper does what it does; unfortunately, why is still something only another trapper can tell...
...And then there's the rakshasa, where the why is fairly obvious, but the what (as in "What does it look like?") is the unanswered question. Scott Bennie has delved into the myths and legends of India to shed some light on rakshasas and their even more powerful kin, the Knights and Lords - and Ravanna, the baddest of all.
Those of you who savor stories about the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game should be satisfied, for now, by "And then there were three," Frank Mentzer's preview of the soon-to-be-released D&D Companion Set, plus "FRP's gilded chestnuts" by Ken Rolston, in which he describes and compares the newest revisions of the D&D game and the Chivalry & Sorcery game.
And, if you haven't noticed already, take a peek at the small type on the left and welcome Ken Rolston and Katharine Kerr to the ranks of the Contributing Editors for DRAGON Magazine. (Yep, another change.) As for why we wanted them to have the titles: If you've seen more than a couple of issues of this magazine, you've already read the reasons. - KM
