Dungeons & Dragons Lore Wiki

Welcome to the Dungeons & Dragons Lore Wiki, an encyclopedia of official first-party D&D canon from 1974 to the current day.

We need editors! See the editing guidelines for ways to contribute.

READ MORE

Dungeons & Dragons Lore Wiki

Dragon #100 is a magazine issue released in August 1985.

Content[]

Features[]

The following feature articles appeared in this issue:

Title Page Author Rules
Score One For Sabratact 6 Forest Baker Sabratact
All About the Druid/Ranger 9 Frank Mentzer AD&D 1e
Pages From the Mages V 12 Ed Greenwood AD&D 1e
Dragonchess 34 Gary Gygax Dragonchess
Creative Conjuring 71 Eric Walker Marvel Super Heroes
Champions Plus! 74 Steven Maurer Champions
Charisma Counts! 78 S.D. Anderson Villains & Vigilantes
Defenders of the Future 80 William Tracy Marvel Super Heroes
The Chance of a Lifetime 86 Doug Niles AD&D 1e
From First Draft To Last Gasp 96 Michael Dobson AD&D 1e
Compressor 100 Michael D. Selinker

Fiction[]

Title Page Author
At Moonset Blackcat Comes 22 Gary Gygax

Adventure modules[]

Title Page Author Rules
City Beyond the Gate, The 45 Robert Schroeck D&D1

Development and release[]

Development[]

Kim Mohan served as Editor-in-Chief.

The cover is a photograph of an elaborate paper sculpture by TSR employee Dennis Kauth, carefully illuminated to bring out the shadows. The dragon, and the magazine title "Dragon", were tinted purple in honor of the faerie dragon, which becomes that color upon reaching its oldest age category, and first appeared in Dragon #62 (Jun 1982). This was the first time the magazine had used a photograph for its cover art. The image is intended to depict a faerie dragon floating above the bank of a gently flowing stream. Both the faerie dragon and magazine title were also embossed on the cover.[1]

Dragonchess was playtested by TSR employees Kim Mohan[2] and Roger Raupp. Playtesting took place on a Saturday afternoon in Spring 1985, at Roger Raupp's house. Raupp spent a week constructing the three-tier game board from plexiglass, and the game was played using metal miniatures from Raupp's large collection, plus some from Mohan's. The "gold" player's pieces were painted with light gray primer to distinguish them, and miniatures were glued to bases made from coins, for stability. The weight of the miniatures caused the board to sag in the middle, especially since gameplay focused on moving miniatures to control the center.[3] TSR also registered a trademark on the game's title.

Release[]

Dragon #100 was released by TSR in August 1985 for $3.95 US. The special issue price was higher than the usual price of $3.00 which was otherwise used from Dragon #37 (May 1980) to Dragon #105 (Jan 1986).

Reception and influence[]

Critical reception[]

Influence on other works[]

The issue was notable for its inclusion of Dragonchess, a fantasy chess variant by Gary Gygax. The game would canonically appear as a game played in the World of Greyhawk setting, including in Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad (1998), p.43, Return of the Eight (1998), p.29,44, Dragon #265 (Nov 1999), p.59, Dragon #336 (Oct 2005), p.68, Backdrop:Diamond Lake, Dungeon #124 (Jul 2005), Backdrop: The Free City, Dragon #128 (Dec 1987), and Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (2007), p.18-19. The Player's Handbook (5e) (2014), p.154, establishes it in a 5th edition context, giving a dragonchess game set a canonical price of 1 gp. From there, it also appeared in Forgotten Realms products Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019), p.16, Storm King's Thunder (2016), p.134,230, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018), p.150, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2018).

Gygax's article on Dragonchess was reprinted in Dragon #400 (Jun 2011), and artwork depicting the game appeared on the issue's cover art.

External links[]

References[]

  1. Dragon Retrospective, Dragon #300 (Oct 2002), p.17-26.
  2. Dragon #122 (Jun 1987), p.67.
  3. Dragon Anniversary: Dragonchess, Dragon #400 (Jun 2011).

Template:Navbox Dragon magazine

Dungeons & Dragons magazines
DragonDragon+DragonImagineLiving Greyhawk JournalPolyhedronThe Strategic Review