Dragon (Issue 69 - Jan 1983)

Vol. VII No. 7 of Dragon Magazine. (This issue was misprinted as "Vol. VII No. 8")

Cover Art "Minions of the Demon Queen" by Clyde Caldwell.

This issue included Arrakhar's Wand - A fantasy boardgame, and Runes: A special section

From the editor-in-chief's description of the issue:

Wouldn't it be nice to have a magic item that would keep us from breaking our New Year's resolutions? What a different place this world would be...Come to think of it, C.C. Stoll did mention to us that some of the powers of Arrakhar's Wand have yet to be discovered; maybe that's one of them - and maybe the forces of good will prevail in their quest to regain the wand. You won't know for sure until you've played the game in the center of this issue of DRAGON Magazine. Arrakhar's Wand is the second game from C.C. Stoll we've published; this one is more complicated, and perhaps more challenging, than Flight of the Boodles (from issue #60). Tell us what you think.

Just about everybody who's interested in fantasy role-playing or fantasy literature knows what runes are - but perhaps not why they are what they are, and how they can be used in a campaign. All you need to know to use runes accurately and imaginatively in gaming is summarized in a special package of articles leading off our feature section.

Elminster the sage, an old friend of contributing editor Ed Greenwood, was in a talkative mood the last time he stopped by. The result is More Pages from the Mages, a sequel to Ed's article from issue #62, spotlighting four more volumes of magical and medical lore that all you treasure-seekers should be on the lookout for.

Roger Moore, our other contributing editor, also has some pretty powerful friends - at least, when he and his gang sit down to play the roles of superheroes. Caped Crusaders and Masked Marvels is Roger's overview of superhero role-playing games and how to get the most out of them. Apparently, one of Roger's closest inanimate friends is his calculator: He's also responsible for Charting the classes, a statistical summary of the different AD&D character types which illustrates just how different some of them are.

Some characters that Roger's article doesn't consider - but which you ought to - are the new Thief-Acrobat "split class," the latest offering From the Sorceror's Scroll by E. Gary Gygax, and the trio of character types that make up the Entertainer class, suggested by Len Lakofka in his Leomund's Tiny Hut column.

For a change of "scenery," take a look at Everybody Eats Everybody on Sunday's Planet, a piece of thought-provoking fiction by Jeff Swycaffer. After reading it, you might want to make a resolution to never bite off more than you can chew...-KM