This is a collection of individual and cumulative frequency tables for the various methods of rolling a given ability score in AD D. A nice brief article that is informative, but also a relic of its age. While the numbers are still good and even still apply to any version of D D, these can be generated on the fly with the tools we all have at our disposal now. Not just with Excel, but with Google Sheets which is free and nearly as powerful. Out of Hand by Nina Kiriki Hoffman is the fiction piece of this issue. Mark Feil gives us a rare non Ed Greenwood at least for the last few issues Ecology Of article. The Ecology of the Aurumvorax covers the MMII monster also known as the Golden Gorger. Not a lot of information, but I did learn do not eat one of these things if you kill it. It gives you metal poisoning The big feature of this issue is Bruce Heards Orcwars game. Set in the Known World you get to play in the Great Orc Wars. It looks like it would be fun for a rainy afternoon. Set it in your own world. Each player 2 4 gets to play one of the tribal coalitions of orcs. I like it to be honest. It is not exactly taking D D back to its wargame roots, but it is honoring those roots. Given the campaign I am currently running I could see using this as part of a flashback to an ancient battle. Something to add more depth and color to the history of my game world. Much like Traveller always did with their RPG and tie in board games set in the Imperium. Arcane Lore is up after all of that with some spells based on traits of animals. Like Oxen Strength and Lions Courage. Naturally ugh for druids. There are some goods here too. Keith Polster has a bit on Gen Con and what to expect in 8. The King of Conventions. I certainly get the feeling here that Gen Con was growing more at this point. This article covers the combined Gen ConOrigins Game Fair. Robert M. Bigelow follows up on the next page with how miniatures events will be run at the combine con. Now an aside. I consider myself knowledgeable about the history of our hobby, but I also fully admit I am far from knowing everything. I had no idea this happened And I have some vivid memories of reading this issue. How long did Origins and Gen Con stay togetherWhen did they split up again Checking the internet I see this was done in 1. And yes Gen Con was seeing a lot of growth during this time. Cash Carry, Gamma Style covers the economic structure of Gamma World or least a small part of it. Some small ads. TSR Previews gives us a look ahead at some new releases. This includes two of the biggest disappointments, for me at least, in adventures. First is WG7 Castle Greyhawk. While I do appreciate the humor in some of the levels and I respect how deadly this module actually is, it does not make up for the fact that it is also not very good. It was also not the Castle Greyhawk we have heard about for years and years. I ran Castle Greyhawk once. Not likely to run it again. Next is OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes. If Castle Greyhawk was bad, this one was just lackluster. The Outer Planes would get a huge boost in a few years with the advent of Planescape. Jon Slobins is next with variable hero creation for the DC Heroes game. This produces heroes a little less super. Ah yes, we are moving to the 9. Mike Lane has new ships for Star Frontiers. And in a move that would surprise new readers of today, Jeff Grub gives us a Marvel Phile of joke or no joke depending on your read hero Rocket Raccoon. The Role of Computers has expanded to 6 pages now including a huge review of Beyond Zork. We have a couple of pages of Dragonmirth. Some ads. 5 pages of the Con Calendar. We end with Snarf. Quest on his prospecting mission. About this time I began to loose interest in Snarf. I think a lot of people did. If had completed its big arc and now seemed to be a little lost. OR what is more likely I could not keep up with it like I used to because I was not buying Dragons regularly anymore. Wormy is also here. About this time Tramp would disappear. Little did I know at the time he moved to the same town I was living in. I could have passed him in the grocery store and never knew. Really a pretty solid issue. AD D 1 was showing its age at this point and the world outside was changing. Soon word would come down that AD D 2 was on the way and the 9. But until that time there was plenty to do. The Dragon was more and more focused on TSR only games, but still, a few others snuck in every so often. They were more inclusive than say White Dwarf was at this time. In fact, April 1. White Dwarf 1. 00 would be the last White Dwarf I ever owned. We are certainly on the verge of something in this issue. That might be my retrospective on it, but some big changes had already happened here and more are coming.