Fly spell, Among other causes.
I know and Robin Wood suggested a ring of flying. But personally when wizards cast fly, it is usually on the fighter who goes into melee with the flying creature. The wizard stays on the ground and blasts them with lightning bolt. I find the scene more plausible with superheroes. Plus I just started playing in a Tiny Supers game so I have superheroes on the brain.
You do you.
I saw that painting in Robin Wood’s studio. The covers do not do them justice.
Another chess cover. I have to say this is my favorite drawing so far. While I like my first chess cover, I think I did a better job with this one. Also got to envision a rook humanoid character since that never appeared in the four original paintings.
Original by Denis Beauvais
I made that chess board. It really warps the game.
You created the round chess board?
Yes, on paper. Drafting tools are second nature to me. Yea the changes to the game are considerable. The point was the players had to replace chess pieces and “Chess” their way to the center. (Bite me JK Rowling I did it thirty years earlier)
DM used a chessboard trap on us once. We didn’t figure it out. Instead we decided to just cast a spell to decrease lightning damage and walk across. We screwed up a lot in that adventure.
Here is another cover. I replaced the giant frog with a flailsnail. The artist says the wand is smoking because the wizard just polymorphed his opponent. My image is more to the side instead of head on which doesn’t work as well.
Original by Carol Heyer
This cover is a very early issue. It seems to drawn for the Quag Keep excerpt. I have redone the composition because I didn’t like how the characters were positioned. I replaced the psuedo dragon with a dragon mouse. Technically this is a Greyhawk cover since that is the location of the novel. Granted this was before the setting came out so it doesn’t really match the published setting.
Original by Ken Rahman
Quag Keep was not that good a book. It’s on the shelf around here someplace.
Yeah I keep meaning to read at least the excerpt. It mentions the fighter and barbarian having bracelets with polyhedral dice on them. I guess they come from our world.
They all did. Real players pulled into the fantasy setting by some power for…reasons. It’s a standard fantsy quest plot except for the beginning and the rather weak end. The two kinda sort of tied it to D&D.
It was not Norton’s best work.
From wikipedia: In 1976, Gary Gygax invited Norton to play Dungeons & Dragons in his Greyhawk world. Norton subsequently wrote Quag Keep, which involved a group of characters who travel from the real world to Greyhawk. It was the first novel to be set, at least partially, in the Greyhawk setting and, according to Alternative Worlds, the first to be based on D&D.[20] Quag Keep was excerpted in Issue 12 of The Dragon (February 1978) just prior to the book’s release.[21] She and Jean Rabe were collaborating on the sequel to Quag Keep when Norton died. Return to Quag Keep was completed by Rabe and published by Tor Books in January 2006.[17]
She wrote over 300 books, they can’t all be gems.
EDIT: I just Googled the Dragon 12 cover. That early TSR art was not that good. What the mind willfully forgets.
The comment in the wiki article is spot on. There is not enough story there. Quag Keep would have made a good first draft for a book three times ans long.
I have a lot of images I haven’t posted. This one was done a while ago. I replaced the lich with an eldritch lich from the Spelljammer monters posted on D&D Beyond.
Original art by Clyde Duensing III
Remember the Buck Rogers rpg. Probably not because it didn’t sell well. TSR did dedicate a Dragon cover to the game. I decided to give it more of a Star Trek feel. Still has a rocketship instead of a Star Fleet like ship.
Original art by Jerry Bingham
This one has significant differences from the original. I like the characters from Take me to church by Reinaeiry. That design is what I used for the summoner. The demon is from Tome of Horrors.
It has been suggested I include a signature/url on the image so that people can find me if the image is reposted elsewhere.
Original art by Linda Medley
It’s called signing your work.