DragonLance Saga

Combat Computer Re-Creation

01.09.2024 - By DragonLance SagaPlay

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Enjoy this recreation of The DRAGONTM Magazine Combat Computer by Laura and Tracy Hickman. As I don’t have the original magazine and insert, I thought it would be interesting to re-create it as a vector file with Adobe Illustrator CC.

https://youtu.be/Etoa9hWylF4

Time Stamps:

* 0:00 Intro

* 0:56 Re-Creation Process

* 3:09 How to Use It

* 5:10 Combat Example

* 6:21 Outro

About the DRAGONTM Magazine Combat Computer

The DRAGONTM Magazine Combat Computer was originally designed and developed by Laura and Tracy Hickman. It featured Graphic Design by Roger Raupp and Text Editing by Kim Mohan. It originally appeared in DRAGON Magazine #41, June 1983, as an article and insert.

There is an updated version of this AD&D; 1ed Combat Computer on the Mage of the Striped Tower blog: https://mageofthestripedtower.blogspot.com/2012/02/ad-1ed-combat-computer.html

The DRAGON Magazine Combat Computer

Transcript

Cold Open

Combat resolution in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons just got a lot easier!

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga creator episode. My name is Adam and today I am re-creating the DRAGONTM Magazine Combat Computer by Laura and Tracy Hickman.

I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this YouTube channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. 

I am referencing DRAGON Magazine number seventy-four from June nineteen eighty-three, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook & Dungeon Masters Guides, in addition to the mage of the striped tower blog for this video. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!

Discussion

My degree and profession is in Graphic Design. Having to re-create art from low resolution images is unfortunately part of my life. After becoming aware of the DRAGON Magazine Combat Computer, I felt that it would benefit me as a Dungeon Master who truly loves Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to get my hands on a copy. After some cursory searches online, I became aware of someone who already re-created and enhanced the DRAGON Magazone’s version. Rather than use what someone else had done, I thought it would be fun to make it myself. So I started by finding a PDF of the DRAGON Magazine issue with a scanned version of the Combat Computer, and imported it into Adobe Illustrator CC to re-create it. 

Re-creating art can be a long and arduous project but with experience, you can use tricks of the trade to speed it up. The first thing I learned was that the original art wasn’t perfectly symmetrical, so I redesigned it to be just that.

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