This might not have the most famous or best cover of all Dragon magazines and that might lead you to think that it’s just one more issue like all the others. However, you couldn’t have been more wrong. With half a dozen good articles and features for D&D and AD&D, this also has two items of historical importance.

First among these is a column by Gary Gygax which I have seen quoted again and again, and it’s the one about the relative influence of Tolkien in the development of (A)D&D, a kind of a biographical article, it contends that Tolkien’s influence was extremely limited, giving credit instead to the American pulp writers which helped found the Sword and Sorcery genre like Robert E. Howard and those who followed in his footsteps, such as Fritz Leiber and L. Sprague de Camp, as well as other pulpy authors such as Lovecraft. Gygax even credits other British writers such as Michael Moorcock above Tolkien, which he frankly finds to be “boring”. 

The other important entry in this issue is the first ever published adventure module set in The Forgotten Realms, entitled “Into the Forgotten Realms”, it’s a short competition adventure module by Ed Greenwood, set in the Dales as your party goes from Shadowdale to the lost elven city of Myth Drannor attempting to recover or destroy magical artifacts before the evil ruler of Scardale, Lashan, manages to obtain them. Other than this there are plenty of articles on subjects such as raising levels for demihumans by Gygax (another momentous article), the ecology of the cockatrice by Greenwood, ape stat blocks for the game, tactics for wilderness combat, distribution of XP and so forth. Brimming with content this one.