The Strategic Review, Summer 1975

The second issue of The Strategic Review expanded a whopping 33% over the first issue - from 6 pages to 8!  What took up all this new space?

• The issue starts off with a dedication to Donald Kaye, who had recently passed away.  Kaye was a co-author of the Chainmail rules and co-founder of TSR.  When you read about the history of D&D, TSR, or roleplaying games in general you always hear plenty about Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, but very little about Donald Kaye, no doubt due to his early death.
• The first ever D&D rules FAQ appears (although it's actually called "Questions Most Frequently Asked", as the term "FAQ" had not been invented yet).  It's not really a FAQ so much as it is a list of clarifications, which is not surprising given the vague and loose manner in which the original boxed set was written.  Most of the content isn't all that interesting, except for the part clarifying the Vancian nature of magic.  The boxed set seemed to take this point for granted, as if everyone had read the Dying Earth series and understood how magic worked.
• The Creature Features article for this issue features the roper - a classic, if perhaps not iconic, D&D monster.  What's more interesting about this article is the decorative art: 

  

  Quality fantasy art was still a few years away

• The ranger is introduced as a new class for the game.  I was a little surprised the ranger was not part of the original rules, considering how heavily they borrowed from The Lord of the Rings in the first place.  Most of the essentials are here - tracking ability and fantastic followers, for example.  A few oddities that were dropped in the course of history are worth mentioning though:
• Rangers below 8th level got a 33% boost to their experience for some reason.
• Rangers originally received both cleric and mage spells at higher levels.
• If you rolled well enough on the special follower table, you could have a gold dragon as a follower.
• There's an extensive article (with illustrations!) by Gygax on the various types of medieval polearms.  I remember when I read the 2nd edition Player's Handbook for the first time wondering why it went into such detail on all these historical polearms that I had never heard of before.  After all, did you ever know a fighter who actually took proficiency in the guisarme-voulge?  Now that I understand D&D's wargaming roots better it makes much more sense.

I hope you enjoyed another walk down memory lane.  Issue 3 is up next.