By all that is holy, I didn't think they could make the type they used for the magazine any smaller, but they found a way. I understand they were trying to save on printing costs by keeping the page count down, but this is ridiculous. You would have either had to use a magnifying glass or settle for an eye strain-induced headache to read this back in the day.
The opening editorial consists of Gary Gygax making some rather pointed comments about another game designer who had apparently given a bad review of Dungeons and Dragons. The article is notable for the rather snippy and defensive tone Gary uses, which is a bit surprising, as I have always read that Gary was a rather easy-going guy. But I guess we all get a little defensive when someone attacks our (brain)child.
This months' Creature Features brings us a couple of staple D&D creatures like the shambling mound and the ghost (not that the ghost is unique to D&D, but it's characteristic aging attack is and appears here from the beginning). Also included are the piercer and the lurker above, two creatures which I feel very much represent the design philosophy of the game at this point. The piercer looks just like a stalactite, and the lurker above is a large manta ray that looks just like a cave ceiling. When something walks beneath them, they fall on them, stabbing them or smothering them respectively. They're basically designed to be undetectable traps. Both are somewhat ludicrous when considered as actual creatures with a biology and ecology, but this represents the philosophy - make the game harder for players by any means necessary and don't worry about reality.
The rest of the issue has remarkably little D&D-related, but has articles on Napoleonic warfare, old west gun fighting (in preparation for TSR's Boot Hill), and the layout of Martian cities based on John Carter of Mars. It represents a brief moment of history when TSR (and the magazine) really were multi-faceted, before the wild success of D&D overshadowed all else.
Next post we get back into actual books, with Supplement II: Blackmoor. Until next time.
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