Today we jump back in time to September of 1980. This was the era of the framed covers for Dragon. I was never a fan of this approach, particularly since Dragon came to my awareness with issue #176. However, this cover has grown on me.
The cover is by James Holloway (his debut on Dragon) and ties into two things I found in the issue. The first is an article from a priest concerning D&D, which I can only imagine was selected due to the backlash from the religious right at the time against D&D.
The second item was this little call out I found buried in the issue. It is a call for teachers. I wonder what ever came of this, if anything. Did they support some sort of program or try to get one off the ground? We are getting close to the height of TSR’s power here, so if anyone could get something going, they could.
Again. Nerds are strange, even back in the 80′s. Who gives a shit about dwarven women and their beards or lack there of?
Is this the first appearance of the singing sword in D&D? Anyone know? Also, that chart for doors is ridiculous.
Dragon used to have lots of adventures published. I always assumed they stopped doing this because of the combination of selling them on retail shelves and Dungeon magazine, but the timeline might be off there. Still, this map, pretty damn cool.
Ok. Last thing. This article is amazing. I remember writing little programs like this in junior high. Then I discovered girls, sports and art and sort of forgot about computers outside the Nintendo. Now I am a tech director at a digital ad agency.
The world is strange sometimes, but this shit is awesome.
