The Strategic Review, February 1976

Another two months, another issue:

• Gary Gygax has an article expanding the alignment concept.  Up until now there has only been Law and Chaos, but now he adds the orthogonal axis of Good and Evil.  This thus creates five distinct alignments: lawful good, chaotic good, chaotic evil, lawful evil, and neutrality.  The in-between neutral alignments are yet to appear, however, the pictorial illustration nevertheless gives the names of the eight outer planes associated with all eight non-neutral alignments: heaven, paradise, elysium, limbo, the abyss, hades, hell, and nirvana for lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, chaotic neutral, chaotic evil, neutral evil, lawful evil, and lawful neutral respectively, even though NG, CN, NE, and LN are not discussed as character alignments.  Not only are we witnessing the evolution of the concept of alignment in D&D, but we also get our very first glimpse of the development of the outer planes.
• The bard class is introduced.  The author admits that the class is an amalgamation of the nordic skald, the celtic bard, and the European minstrel from history.  The basic concepts of the class are all here, although the details are significantly different from later incarnations.  Bards don't learn spells like wizards, but instead collect magical instruments that allow them to cast certain spells.  Instead of having a song that increases party morale, the bard's song charms others.  Thieving and lore abilities appear as well, although again, the details are somewhat different.  What interests me most about the new classes being added to the game (all of which end up becoming staples of D&D and roleplaying in general) is that some are being created by non-TSR authors.  This was true of the illusionist class and now the bard class as well.  These are just fans of the game submitting their ideas to the magazine, having no conception of the legacy they're creating.  Can you imagine writing an article forty years ago simply out of a love for the game and a desire to contribute to it, only to have it cement our notions of canonical classes in modern day RPGs?

Most of the rest of the content is devoted to board games, miniatures, and other things (such as the very first fiction story in the magazine - something that will become a regular feature), so with that, I'll call it a day.