With a summery cover for the July issue, this is a really great issue of Dragon. Recently they’ve been knocking it out of the park in terms of context and this issue is no exception. This is a particularly essential issue for anyone interested in hell and devils in D&D.

Before we get to hell, we get Ed Greenwood contributing “The Ecology of the Mimic” , a pretty elaborate explanation of the mechanics of the Mimic and its camouflage system. After this we make our move to the underworld with a Gygax preview of the upcoming Monster Manual II bringing us a bunch of new devils as well as their stats in terms of who they rule over and where they rule. However the real highlight of the whole issue is Ed Greenwood’s The Nine Hells, Part 1. This article covers the first five layers of hell (Avernus, Dis, Minauros, Phlegethos and Stygia) in great detail, the most detailed description up until now. In the 15 pages of this first half of article, Greenwood talks about the environment and ruler of each layer, as well as consorts and associates of each ruler complete with stats. 

In other items Lew Pulsipher gives us a bunch of rules for good DMing with explanations, an article on how to make Orcish a logical language and another how to create names for monsters and NPCs. Finally we get the usual comics but this time with the introduction of a new one, Larry Elmore’s Snarfquest!