Dragon Magazine stops publishing

[Shadow]

Thanks for sharing all the covers. I'll have to dig out what I may still have.

[AtlasFan]

I do remember alot of these issues... great stuff. I was also really into TSR's sci-fi version of AD&D - GAMMA WORLD.

 

We would often have fun throwing GW characters into AD&D and vice versa!

[HouseofComics.Com]

We were big Top Secret fans (there weren't enough modules though) and Boot Hill afficionados. It was easy for us to create Boot Hill adventures but Top Secret was more difficult. Our games became heavily Mack Bolan influenced, I must say.

 

Marc

[Shadow]

I never cared for Top Secret, but we played Gamma World a bit. But I could never resist including the Sentinels in Gamma World in some shape or another. D&D was still my favorite. There was nothing like those older modules. I still remember starting with "Keep On The Borderlands". We had a blast with the "Slaver" series and the Giant/Drow series. "Hidden Shrine" was fun but "Tomb Of Horrors" kicked our proverbial -censored- Good memories.

[drice6900]

I never cared for Top Secret, but we played Gamma World a bit. But I could never resist including the Sentinels in Gamma World in some shape or another. D&D was still my favorite. There was nothing like those older modules. I still remember starting with "Keep On The Borderlands". We had a blast with the "Slaver" series and the Giant/Drow series. "Hidden Shrine" was fun but "Tomb Of Horrors" kicked our proverbial -censored- Good memories.

 

Tomb of Horrors! <shudder>

 

You knew you were in trouble when you lose two fellow adventurers before you even get in the door to that place...

[HouseofComics.Com]

Tomb of Horrors is a great one. It was designed as a tournament module not campaigns. In tournaments you're using the pregen characters so there's no real investment in them. Not so in the campaign....

[Shadow]

Boy, Drice, you hit that on the head. The first time we played TOH, we all died before getting in the darn place. Had a forgiving DM who, wisely, didn't want to shoot the whole evening before 8:00pm.

 

There was another good one called "Ghost Tower Of Inverness" that we enjoyed. The modules that came out later in the 80's were ones I wasn't as crazy about. They tended to want to "guide" the story more than the old ones. Plus, some were ridiculously hard or very boring. The one with "Orcus" comes to mind. I bought it, saw what the last room entailed and knew no party could survive that much energy draining undead.

[Shadow]

Found a lot of my Dragons, but most have been printed here. My oldest is in the 60's (I think) but most are 90's to 100's. I have that great "Black & White dragon battle" one also.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Village of Hommlet was terrific I thought. Great for 1st level and starting a campaign. Temple of Elemental Evil sort of lived up to the hype after taking like ten years to finally show up.

 

The one we really loved was Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Or is it Tjoscanth. No, it must be the former. Great outdoor campaign just to find the caverns, great stuff inside, and then the killer female vampire pic. Which my players figured out right away!

 

Marc

[jordanscott]

One of my favorite campaigns was the Temple of Elemental Evil.

 

That was a great go round. Starting at Lvl 1 and progressing thru the story. Truly an enjoyable game there. My party had a few deaths, some forgotten and some devine punishment for stupidity.

 

Another that I really liked as it was a bit stranger than normal and a bit more fantastic was Castle Amber.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Never heard of Castle Amber. That wasn't one of the UK series was it? Probably just after my time--1987 would've been the last one I purchased. Probably Isle of the Ape or Wonderland, both huge disappointments.

 

We ran Temple of Elemental Evil twice--almost three times.

 

First time, we found a DM at nearby Western Michigan University and I was excited that I'd get to actually play with my friends instead of DM. Well, it turned out he was dyslexic and couldn't really read flavor text and such and the guys didn't like his style, it fell apart. So that didn't happen.

 

So I put on the DMs hat again and ran everyone through it. Long campaign and went very, very well.

 

Four years later I ran it for my college friends, the last time I ever played D&D. Not as fun, but still fun.

 

Marc

[Shadow]

I played Castle Amber and it was pretty good. Another tough one was Barrier Peaks.

 

This may sound geeky, but I miss playing the game. I've played PC games like Baldur's Gate, which I liked. I haven't played on-line at all. Playing on-line would probably be fun, but it lacks the "having people over" feel. I actually haven't "played" since the early 80's. By 1982, I had to DM, which I liked, and I never got back much to the player side.

[deathlok]

I played Castle Amber and it was pretty good. Another tough one was Barrier Peaks.

 

This may sound geeky, but I miss playing the game. I've played PC games like Baldur's Gate, which I liked. I haven't played on-line at all. Playing on-line would probably be fun, but it lacks the "having people over" feel. I actually haven't "played" since the early 80's. By 1982, I had to DM, which I liked, and I never got back much to the player side.

 

I agree with you. I miss getting together and playing D&D, mostly for the imagination and laughs as well the sense of excitement. Online games just don't have the same feeling as a live game.

[Shadow]

The personal interaction was key. Mix in the dice, the laughs, the story, etc.

[deathlok]

Funny enough, as a DM I really only used the dice for effect. I knew which way I wanted the party to move and things I wanted to happen. I never really used them for random stuff unless I wanted to throw the party off.

 

Of course, when I played Rolemaster we had to use dice for everything.

[Shadow]

Oh, I clearly "cheated" a bit with the dice on my end. I had the DM Screen up at all times which shielded the view of my roles. If there was a "flow" to a battle, etc., I tried not to let something like a "critical" role harm one of the player's characters too much unless he was easily retrievable. I wouldn't allow an entire party to be wiped out either. I'd leave an "out" for the situation. That being said, if someone was going to continually be dumb in choosing bad situations, than I would only "cover" for them so much.

 

I also had a "path" I tried to nudge them on concerning storyline. I let it free flow a bit and other storyline's woven in. I had a tendency to create "arch-villians" for my group's that I wouldn't let be wiped out either, until some sort of arc ending I had planned. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't and characters wouldn't make it to that end alive.

[deathlok]

Anyone ever play Talisman board game?

 

 

In addition to D&D, this had to been our second favorite indulgence.

 

 

[Shadow]

I saw it but never played it. What was it like?

[deathlok]

I saw it but never played it. What was it like?

 

It was a board game with 3 levels. Players got a random character that had special abilities and hit points. Roll the dice to move around the board. Each space would have either traps, treasure or a monster. You would roll dice to fight or find stuff.

 

Overall, easy to play and lots of fun. The makers also made a lot of expansions to the game so you could add a lot more elements to the basic game.

 

I can remember they added 2 characters that were really tough, and that was the only thing, my group ever wouldn't allow in the game.

[Sal]

 

WHERE ARE THE REST OF THESE?

 

 

my biggest board let-down is the thread where you started posting this story and just stopped