News

I freely admit I was a huge fan of D&D 3E when it came out. I was there the first day it launched, leaving Circuit City on my lunch break to go to the mall in this little half-hidden comic shop to buy the Players Handbook. It had a couple of sample monsters in the back and I remember being completely confused by all the changes. Still, as I started playing, the system made sense, and the more I played the more I enjoyed. This joy was extended when I discovered WotC would be releasing character class Guide Books. Today,...

The I series of modules from TSR are certainly an interesting line, and one known primarily for Hickman’s Pharaoh trilogy, but that isn’t to say those venerable classics are all the line has to offer.The initial offering, I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City is pure old school art, featuring the talents of ‘The First Four’, and I3 Pharaoh has entered the full 1980s recast of the TSR pit with all Jim Holloway art, but I2 Tomb of the Lizard King was produced fully in the transition.It still features the new cast, Holloway, Quinn, and Easley, but they are raw here...

What can I say about TSR’s Gangbusters Boxed Set that isn’t apparent from the outstanding cover? Well, I can say that for many years I’d wrongly assumed that the two color cover pieces for the game were done by artist Jim Holloway when in fact it was his partner in crime [yes, pun intended] Harry Quinn who actually produced these two brilliant pieces for this little loved yet classic RPG.The game takes place in the heart of the prohibition era 1920s with gangs and cops vying for control of Chicago as they try drive Duesenbergs and fire Thompson submachine guns...

In my continuing series of Dragon Magazine reviews, I take a look at Issue #179 from March 1992. Published by James M. Ward and Edited by Roger E. Moore the magazine sure has the correct pedigree to give readers great content and hasn’t yet lost the edge in the market to the advent of the Internet and the decline of paper periodicals. Art direction comes from Larry W. Smith and he has secured a very intriguing Larry Elmore cover without title. To me, this Elmore holds a rather unique place because it looks to be a non-good adventuring party actually...

I’ve heard many an argument for a renowned love of boxed sets from gamers. They are cool, they hold my books & papers, they look great on shelves, etc, but being a child of the 1980s I can tell you for a fact that there is another underlying reason that young male gamers of that era loved RPG boxed sets. Two words, porn storage.Yep, I said it! I let the cat out of the bag on this one, but truly there was a great art in this practice. It seemed an almost time honored tradition because really, truly, where was...