Anyways, on to this month's Dragon issue:
- We start with an article where the author takes on two of the biggest problems with Basic D&D (since we passed the Holmes Basic Set in history at this point, I'm going to start referring to it as such, even though TSR hadn't quite created the distinction yet). First, the fact that characters end up amassing too much gold, and second, that they get experience for all that excess gold they accumulate. His solution is brilliant in its simplicity: instead of gaining experience when they acquire gold, players only gain experience (aside from killing monsters, of course) when they spend the gold. It solves both problems nicely: draining excess wealth from players and slowing down their rate of progression. Of course he gives guidelines for what qualifies as valid expenditures for the purpose of gaining experience. Interestingly, while he gives clerics and mages the obvious outlets of sacrifices to their deity and magical research respectively, fighters and thieves can spend their gold for experience by partying. Seriously, he gives guidelines for going on massive benders for the purposes of leveling up. It's a unique solution if nothing else, I'll grant.
- Moving on, another author gives a set of tables for generating random terrain for wilderness encounters. I have to say, I just have a hard time understanding the table-driven, randomly generated nature of the game (and one could say of roleplaying in general) at this point. Why do you need tables to randomly generate terrain? I could randomly generate impromptu wilderness maps for encounters off the top of my head all day long - it's just not that hard. As if to underscore this point, the very next article is a series of tables for randomly creating new monsters. I understand the abstract need - the article discusses the problem of players being familiar with all the monsters (by having read the books) and thus knowing exactly how to deal with each one. New monsters are definitely required from time to time to keep players on their toes. I can sympathize with these tables a little more, as creating new monsters is somewhat more involved than creating random terrain, but I still would much rather create the monster by hand than roll through a dozen different tables. If you've read enough monster entries you have enough familiarity to know that a monster of so many hit dice is going to do a certain amount of damage and have special characteristics of a certain level of power to create one yourself without referring to tables. I would love it if someone could give more insight into the obsession over every aspect of the game being driven by tables for random generation in this era.
- The next article is a breath of fresh air, discussing - gasp - realism in dungeon design. The author's contention is that a dungeon should represent a logical layout based on the needs and preferences of the person or organization who built it, as opposed to what many early dungeons were - random rooms with random connections, leading to an overall absurd design that could have only been built by a madman. This is of course common sense to any roleplayer who likes his world to be realistic, but as we've seen this sensibility was surprisingly rare early on in D&D history.
- This issue includes a rarity for The Dragon - a complete boardgame called Snit Smashing. It's lighthearted and looks quite charming, and I'd love to give it a try sometime
- Another author takes issue with the fact that the rules do not describe how characters gain their new abilities when they level up, and so poses a system where new abilities are granted by the gods and characters must undertake certain rituals when they have gained enough experience to receive them. All in all I don't find it very compelling.
That's all for D&D content in this issue. A couple more issues and we'll be to the very first AD&D product - the Monster Manual.
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