Ad Review: The Dragon Magazine 41, Part I
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?”
Geoff Gander is a dark fantasy writer and D&D module-creator living in Ottawa, Canada. Geoff and I met over early morning coffee to talk gaming.