We reach the end of 1977, the last year of Original D&D as we are transitioning to Basic and Advanced versions of the game, with this last issue of Dragon. TSR is clearly on the rise and from the editorial we get that the magazine is going to start focusing more on D&D, although not exclusively and is also going to transition to monthly. Tim Kask is now the full time editor of The Dragon with sister publication Little Wars going to another editor.

This is all a sign of a business that is growing, as is the expensively produced Monster Manual that had just come out (there’s an ad for it in the magazine), 1978 is just around the corner and is going to bring more changes to the game. Gygax gives us a long article about copyright protection and imitators of D&D, he has a point in that they spent a lot of time and money making this game, invested all their lives in it and, while they respect and are flattered by games that take elements from D&D, they can’t approve of out and out imitations or unauthorized reproductions of the game. This is partly their own fault, however, as the information in Original D&D was spread around a bunch of different sources, and amateurs had been trying to collate it in unauthorized editions. The new edition of Basic and Advanced is also an effort by TSR to solve this problem by having comprehensive manuals for the game.

Beyond this interesting article which is an interesting look at the behind the scenes of the business side of TSR, we also get some variants for the game like two articles on needlessly complicated mini-game systems for brawling and quarterstaff fighting. More interesting is the article by Thomas Filmore on how important actual Roleplaying is to the game, something which was often absent from early considerations of the game which are too rules focused coming from a wargaming culture. Filmore focuses on creating a background and quirks for player characters, really playing a role., instead of just rolling dice. We get a new column from Bob Kuntz focused solely on D&D products in From the Sorcerer’s Scroll. Rounding out the issue is a review of the Rankin/Bass The Hobbit (negative), comics, miniatures and a Holiday card from TSR!