This is Dragon Magazine 95, from March, 1985. God, I love this cover by Dean Morrissey . It is so weird! First off, it feels way more 1975 than it does 1985, and that trumpet dude just reminds me off Schneider from One Day at a Time. That said, I love that this dude is like, yea, I need some armor, I’m gonna be an adventurer. I can hear the conversation between these two guys in my head, clear as day. “Yea, yea, it will protect me, but do I look cool?”

Inside, we have Gary Gygax’s article in which he downplays the influence of Tolkien on D&D. I’ve read that thing a dozen times and I still can’t decided whether his argument is preposterous or right on the money. There is also material on demi-humans, apes, a tournament mod and more, but nothing earth shattering. Certainly nothing as wild as that cover. Also, I thought for sure that the Dolphins of Known Space article for the Ringworld RPG was a joke, but nope!