The Shady Dragon Inn is an accessory

Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, an adventure or module is a pre-packaged book or box set that helps the Dungeon Master manage the plot or story of a game...

 designed for the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

. Carl Smith wrote The Shady Dragon Inn as a supplement used to help dungeon masters introduce fully designed characters into any scenario.

Contents

The Shady Dragon Inn is a supplement of over 100 pregenerated characters, appearing singly and in parties. The book includes a six page floor plan of the Shady Dragon Inn in 25 mm scale. The book describes groups of non-player characters including fighters, magic-users, clerics, and thieves, various races, special characters, and parties of them all.

The idea of the supplement is to provide a dungeon master with either non-player characters to fill out a campaign or already generated characters for gamers to choose amongst to play in their own right.

Fighters

The book lays out twenty-three different fighters from Abel Artone to Vychan the Little. Each character includes a statistic block, a brief description of their equipment, a physical description, and a very brief biography.

Magic Users

Eighteen different Magic Users grace the pages of this accessory from Apris the Wondrous to Zarkon the Blue. Like the fighters, each includes statistic blocks and descriptions with the addition of the wizard's spell selection.

Clerics

Seventeen clerics grace the pages of this manual including everything from Ambrose the Celt to Penelope of West Haven. Like the wizards the cleric description includes known spells along with a description and general possessions.

Thieves

This class of character maintained the title of thief until changing to rogue in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The supplement details fourteen of the thieves from Aiden Ablefingers to Zacharias the Nimble.

Dwarves

Ten dwarves find their way into the manual from Astrid Helmsplitter to Ulf the Sledge. As with the others a statistic block and brief description comes with each of the characters.

Elves

An even dozen elves including Aithne of Far Isle to Torquil of Deep Hollow occupy this section of the book. As in the original Dungeons and Dragons system, all of the elves are magic-users and their spell books come with their descriptions.

Halflings

Begol Burrowell is the first of ten Halflings described in the tome and Wat Watershed is the last. Information about their background is included with a statistic block.

Special Characters

The thirteen characters presented in this section come from the Dungeons & Dragons toy line marketed at this time. Each includes a lengthier, but still short, description block and statistic area. Mercion the cleric is the first described here while Warduke

Warduke

In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, Warduke is a powerful human warrior and a Hierarch of the Horned Society...

, an evil fighter, is the last.

The Shady Dragon Inn

The inn itself gets a description near the end of the supplement along with the people found there on a daily basis. Prices for the various services provided by the Shadow Dragon also come in this section.

In 1983, a followup article written by product author Carl Smith for Polyhedron Newszine

Polyhedron (magazine)

Polyhedron was a magazine which started out as the official publication of the RPGA . Publication began in the year 1981, and the target audience was players of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game...

 provided additional details about the employees and furnishings of the Shady Dragon Inn (Smith 1983).

Parties

The last area of the book details group of adventurers, or parties, staying at the inn at any particular time.

Publication history

AC1 Shady Dragon Inn was written by Carl Smith, with a cover by Larry Day and interior illustrations by Jim Holloway

Jim Holloway (artist)

-Background:Jim Holloway was self taught in illustration, although he was able to study some oil paintings by his father.-Works:Jim Holloway has continued to produce interior illustrations for many Dungeons & Dragons books and Dragon magazine since 1981, as well as cover art for The Land Beyond the...

, and was published by TSR in 1983 as a 32-page booklet with an outer folder.

External links

• Shady Dragon Inn @ Pen & Paper