The Dragon #28, Vol 4.2 – D&D Chronologically

Cover by Dean Morrissey

Extensive Q&A with Gygax about the DMG
It’s an attempt to give more structure to the game to avoid the craziness OD&D could lead to and allow campaigns to go longer without the players becoming too powerful too quickly (ha, rather different to 5e)
He doesn’t envision there being a lot of supplements like OD&D – the 3 books will be sufficient – there may be a second edition but it will be a long time in the future
And female dwarves have beards
And a bunch of comments by a panel of people involved in its creation – mostly about which sections they like the most

Gygax delves into the evil alignment, particularly what it means to be lawful vs chaotic or neutral

The Politics of Hell – a half real-world mythological/half made-up account of the history of hell
A Short Course in D&D – describes an experience of teaching D&D to 55 people and the logistics involved
Six Guns and Sorcery – Allen Hammack gives a character conversion table between Boot Hill and AD&D, both from and to
Fantasy Smith’s Notebook – a new column about miniatures – in this one reviewing various manufacturers

Conventions: The manufacturer’s view – Gygax gives a good overview of the various costs vs profits an exhibitor can expect – basically it costs a lot but that’s the price of exposure

Level Progression for Players and Dungeon Masters – a way of scoring yourself – x amount of XP for DMing a campaign, for having a character die etc and then being able to say something like I’m a level 4 DM and a level 7 player, one of those nice ideas that will never take off

Len Lakofka gives us Potions of Forgetfulness, Rings of Silence, Horn of Hadies, Chime of Warning, Book of a Magic User, Leomund’s Plate and Cup, and Apparatus of Spikey Owns (!?)