In  August of 1980, I wandered into Klipper’s, my local toy shop that had a counter devoted to Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games, and picked up a copy of The Dragon, issue 41. It was the first issue I purchased. On the cover, by James Holloway, a man in a wizard’s robe carrying a staff was walking a lizard child carrying a lunchbox to school, while the human students were starting wide-eyed.

At the time, I was most interested in the parts of the magazine that could most directly be added to my game. Dragon’s Bestiary, introducing the silkie and tomb tapper, the Giants of the Earth, which not only gave me heroes I could use, but introduced me to fantasy novels to track down, the Bazaar of the Bizarre. I remember incorporating the idea of dragon’s blood advanced by Robert Plamondon into my campaign. I ran my players through The Halls of Beoll-Dur, and enjoyed the exploits of Finieous Fingers.

Other parts were of lesser interest. I was not playing Metagaming’s Melee, which seven pages and four articles were devoted to. Similarly, the Avalon Hill articles by John Prados and Tom Wham were not things I was looking for at that time. Since I didn’t have a TRS-80, the computer program offered by Mark Herro didn’t offer me anything. The article on Napoleonic guerilla warfare was targeted at wargamers, not RPGers.

Revisiting this issue 46 years later, I’m looking at a different aspect entirely.  I found myself wondering “What was advertised in that issue of The Dragon and did any of the advertisers make enough of a splash to still be around after all this time?”

The issue had 26 ads in it. They could be categories loosely as board games (2), computer games (1), RPGs (7), Play by mail (2), Miniatures (5), hobby shops (6), conventions (1), and magazines (2).

Four of the ads were in-house ads placed by TSR. One of them was a full page ad for The Dragon magazine, trying to drum up subscriptions. A year’s subscription was $24, which offered a 33% savings off the $3 cover price. TSR was also advertising that they were looking to co-sponsor regional Gen Cons with other groups, noting that there was a GenCon South in Florida. They also announced the formation of TSR Hobbies (UK) Limited. Finally, TSR has a non-ad, in which they invite teachers who use Dungeons and Dragons to contact them. There was also a small personal ad taken out by Tim Kask, who was the first employee of TSR, Inc. and the first editor of The Dragon, offering copies of The Dragon issue 1 for sale. Kask had left TSR in April of 1980.

Interestingly, with one co-advertising exception, the issue doesn’t include any ads for recent or upcoming AD&D supplements, such as Deities and Demigods, Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits, C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness, The Rogues Gallery or other releases. Perhaps TSR figured that they could promote those items in timely placed articles rather than using advertising space for them.

In 1980, TSR was located in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, so it isn’t entirely a surprise that four of the six hobby shops that were advertised in the issue are located in the Chicago area. The Chicago area hobby shops include Guys n’ Gals Hobbies in Chicago (the building has been torn down and there is a Stand-Up Burgers where it once stood), Lyle’s Hobby & Craft Center in Westmont (now a State Farm Insurance broker), The Compleat Gamer in Palatine (currently Napoli Pizza), and Windmill Hobbies in Batavia (currently the New Moon Vegan Restaurant). Outside of Chicago, World of Miniatures was located in Charles, South Carolina (now a gift shop) and Strategy & Fantasy World was a chain with stores in Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, and Falls Church, Virginia.

Miniatures were a popular product, with Ral Partha taking out a full page on the inside front cover , Martian Medals taking up the back cover, and The Armory taking a two page spread. These manufacturers were joined by a eighth page ad by Plano, Texas retailer The World of Make-Believe. Ral Partha’s ad showed a complex miniature and touted their awards. Although Ral Partha, which was founded in 1975, has gone through numerous acquisitions and name changes, they are still making miniatures.

The Armory, with an ad touting the introduction of World of Greyhawk figures that included an image of the World of Greyhawk folio, which was released in August of 1980. The folio, has been expanded and adapted into various boxed sets and books over the years, although the two large maps by Darlene still form the basis for the setting. Interestingly, most of the Greyhawk miniatures listed in the ad were designed with wargaming in mind, being a collection of infantry and cavalry figures, even if some were elves, goblins, or zombies. Mostly a distributor and publisher, The Armory was founded in 1976 and in 1998 merged with Chessex to form Alliance Game Distributors.

The back cover was devoted to Martian Metals, which offered a line of miniatures for use with Traveller. Martian Metals tried using humor and text to sell their miniatures rather than images of the products. Martial Metals was founded in 1976, but suffered a fire in 1982 which destroyed everything by their master molds. A plan was in place to rebuild the company, but instead, they were hired by FASA, which had acquired the rights to make Star Trek miniatures.

Modeler’s Mart, offered a line of German designed cardstock medieval buildings and dungeon tiles for use with miniatures. Dimension Six offered another supplement in the issue, The Compleat Fantasist was a work that allowed users to convert between major role playing systems. Dimension Six also offered adventure modules. There is also an ad from the Judges Guild for the supplement City State of the World Emperor, a massive follow-up to their popular City State of the Invincible Overlord. The Judges Guild was one of the first publishers of RPG supplements and originally worked on a subscription model. Founded in 1976 after TSR rejected the idea of publishing supplements, Judges Guild grew through the early 80s, although their license with TSR expired in 1982 and they went on hiatus in 1985, eventually licensing their products to Mayfair Games.

More next Saturday…

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Steven H Silver is a twenty-two-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.