General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Dragon rumbles is presented by jake this issue, as tim has quit to get a new job. No, there's nothing acrimonious about the split, he's just tired and just wants to try new things. (is that true, or were there backstage shenanigans we're not hearing about?)
This is unofficial as I am not Tim Kask and I never worked for TSR. I talked to Tim Kask last June about his leaving. He said he loved the magazine and he loved Gary, but he could not stand the Blumes and one of their wives. She would come and give him advice on how to run his magazine and also suggest that Tim, Gary, and others not drink alcohol during conventions because of the lack of professionalism that showed. They did so anyway, but such things showed Tim how much increasing control the Blumes had in the company. He wasn't a big fan of being told what to do, so he left the company. One of the things he was promised for his work was to get a lifetime subscription to Dragon, but that didn't last long. Gary told him before he died that one of the Blumes decided to take him off the lifetime subscription list as a 'cost saving measure'. Most likely it was because of a confrontation that Tim had with the wife at the time. He missed out on meeting Frank Mentzer as Frank was coming in at the time and took Tim's place as one of Gary's confidants. Frank and Tim are now very good friends and talk often of what might have been with hindsight.
__________________ My Involvement:
Spoiler:
Player of Doral Kinsman the Beguiler in Who Wants to Be a Wayfinder IC
(un)reason, might I make a suggestion. Paizo has scanned images for almost all the covers for these magazines. You might want to toss a link up. Just a thought.
The cover for Issue 37:
__________________ Currently running: Sufficiently Advanced over Maptool. Soon to change. If you'd like to join in a short 3-8 session campaign for various systems, drop by our forums.
I double-dog-dare you to make your game sound super cool without comparing it to other editions. - paraphrased from Umbran.
Simulation corner: Talk of the development of randomisers as a means of adding possibilities to wargames. Interesting as it notes that dice other than 6 siders are still considerably harder and more expensive to get hold of. Also in that the concept of dice pool as binary curve generator rather than roll and add seems to not have occurred to them yet. Another bit of historical minutinae that gives me a better impression of how things have developed in recent years.
Leomunds tiny hut: The Monties. Another potshot at Jim Ward, presenting a pantheon based upon the events therin. Ironically enough, these guys are less overpowered than the average deity. Len, you just don't get it, do you? Well, he invents the tiny hut, while mordenkainen creates the magnificent mansion. I guess thinking small comes naturally to him.
Miniature Spotlight: Instructions on how to make your own spears and lances using just little bits of wire, basic tools, and some paint. If you've mastered basic miniature painting, this looks like a good way to branch out and try something a bit more complicated.
Up on a soapbox: Talk of magic as a science, and magic-users as researchers in the field. And of course how to ensure it doesn't just become another bit of the mundane, predictable physics of the universe. Which involves allowing chaotic characters having a natural instinctive understanding of how magic works that allows them to keep up with and surpass their more lawful counterparts. Another eyerolling inducing article that doesn't really add anything to the game.
Armies of the Renaissance: Part 6, Landsknecht and Reiters. Nick Nascati continues his little potted histories on the wars of that period. Having exhausted countries, he turns to one of the prominent mercenary companies of the era. Another pretty blah article.
Squad Leader part 2, large scale streetfighting: A second article expanding on last months one, and giving tactical advice for it. Another short, sweet and effective article.
Spell research, the hard way: Oh, not another one of these. Go away, annoying nerfers. :waves hand: We do not want more pointless bureaucracy and expense attached to the process of developing new cool powers.
Libraries: Players want to look in a library and you haven't prepared details on every book in the world? Use the same solution they always used back then. Roll it randomly. Another one to add to the list of still useful today articles to plunder.
Eye of the dragon: Yay, a new regular feature. This is where they look at new releases and happenings. TSR has UK offices now, Tekumel has been sold to Gamescience (what's the betting we'll see far fewer articles for it from this point on) and avalon hill are making computer games. I look forward to getting a better picture of what going on in gaming through this.
Giants in the Earth: No particular characters detailed in this issue. We get a statement that they're not going to do characters from LotR here, because the flamewars they'd have to deal with for not doing it right, no matter how they did it, would be too much bother to deal with. They also talk about the difference between D&D and AD&D levels in terms of actual power and in game position, in which AD&D levels above 8 or so count as around 2.5 D&D levels. And finally, they give lots of suggestions for future articles. Which is interesting, because its a taking stock situation that gives us insight into the way they think. I still disagree with many of their design decisions though.
Frederick Macknight is still waffling on about his houserules. Bored now. Make it go away.
Mapping the dungeons II: This is only 4 pages long this time, thank god, with only the new additions. I guess not that many people want to advertise for players in here.
Reviews: This is a rather short column this issue. We have Pearl Harbor, a strategy game. Magic Wood (don't laugh) a boardgame. And Belter, a game of war, diplomacy and economics set in the asteroid belt in the future. As a big Larry Niven fan, I say yay to them for trying to make playable a topic as sophisticated as that. But unfortunately the reviewer seems less than enthralled with the execution. Oh well. Those are the risks of trying something different. Often it's hard to accomplish.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: A bunch of magic items I don't remember. Yefars magic mirrors, the rod of singing, and the discus shield. Two are exceedingly useful, one is cursed and a right pain in the ass. Can you guess which one?
Dragons Bestiary: Vulturehounds. Another one of those lovely D&D hybrids that is exactly what you'd expect. A dog with vultures wings, talons and head, they can be trained, and are worth quite a lot if you do so. One of the more sensible monsters around, in ecological terms.
Dragonmirth is back.
How to tell if you're in or out of love: That old chessnut of GM favouritism towards your significant other gets a lighthearted look at here (only of course it's not an old chessnut yet) And of course they automatically assume that the man will be the GM :rolleyes: I was never a fan of those twee Love Is comic thingies (what's the technical term for one frame comics, as strip seems inappropriate) anyway, so forgive me if I don't laugh.
Jasmine, by Darlene: And once again, we see the way they pick their letters and articles to complement one-another. Somewhere between fiction and comic, this new story is so blatantly an attempt to appeal more to the female demographic that it's funny. A princess as the protagonist, check. Soft pastel colours, Check. No-one understands me and my visions, check. A handsome prince, check. Lets just hope the story can transcend the cliches in later issues, otherwise my eyes will be doing much revolving in the near future.
And finally, another 16 full page module, The pit of the Oracle. One of those modules that gives you a small village, a dungeon, a host of plot hooks, and sets the players free to roam and solve those problems. Which I have no objection to at all, as no railroading is involved, and if they players want, they can bugger off to try something else elsewhere.
A fairly significant issue, given the change in staff, two new regular features, a general increase in social awareness, and the reveal of lots of upcoming products. And I get the impression that with Tim's departure, more things are likely to change in the next few issues, as his influence disappears, and Mohan becomes ever more significant to the running of the magazine. Interesting times indeed.
74 pages. A particularly amusing cover painting this issue, combining obvious attempt at sexing it up, with bad hair and somewhat incongrous facial expressions. Plus John Barnes ought to sue the creators of he-man for plaglarism. This isn't right, not right at all.
In this issue:
Dragon Rumbles: The company changes it's name from TSR periodicals to Dragon publishing, in an attempt to further separate themselves from their parent company. We also have a new addition to the staff, and Kim is compiling an index to every issue of the magazine so far. How nice of him. So things are chugging away nicely, not standing still, but not changing too fast either at the moment.
Out on a limb: A letter from Gary "correcting" lots of recent articles. Four letters on the subject of overpowered characters and peoples different opinions on how to keep the game fun despite them. And a letter praising them for publishing errata for their books in a fairly timely fashion. When are they going to get those twinks under control?
Fiction: The cup of golden death, by Gardner F Fox. The 7th niall story, and the 3rd this year. They seem to have decided that he's in demand, so we get more of him. The deific manipulations continue, and we get to see some more of the politics of his world.
Leomunds tiny hut: Talk of dragons. As with his stuff on gods recently, these are generally more power-ups to make them more trouble for players to face. It also includes brown, orange and yellow dragons, (none of which are the same species that would appear in future products, weirdly enough) and a new set of stats for tiamat, now in her familiar 5 heads, 1 for each major chromatic dragon type, form. Another rather underwhelming article. Why did he get to be one of the major columnists of this period?
The Fantasysmiths notebook: Two different articles under this ageis this issue. Talk of the founding of a new award, the Fantasysmith Wings. And more tips for customising your miniatures, with pictures of how to turn your miniatures into frankensteinian constructs without looking too obviously piecemeal.
Which way is up?: A further expansion on the possibilities of tesseract dungeons, and their escheresque properties. Even a tiny area becomes an enormous dungeoneering prospect when each room can be encountered from 6+ different orientations. This is awesome. If only it were easier to map though.
The rasmussen files: After being advertised 3 months ago. Top secret gets it's first article. with talk of how it was written, and came to be published. As is often the case it's a story of persistence, with the writer sending regular submissions of his ideas for years before being published. Take that in mind. No matter how good your ideas are, if you don't have the persistence to keep spreading them when they're ignored or criticized, they'll never reach their full potential.
Minarian Legends: The history of mivior. More Divine Right goodness for those of you who like their boardgames with extensive setting history.
From the sorcerers scroll: Just because you're good, doesn't mean you have to act stupid. And the same applies to evil guys too. (not that you'd know it from the cartoons of the era) In amongst the common sense stuff, this also features the classic statement that the best thing for paladins to do with goblinoids is to give them a swordpoint conversion, and then kill them so they can go to heaven before they backslide. Oh, and female dwarves definitely have beards. Ahh, gary gary gary. Always the idiosyncratic ideologue. What are we to do with you?
Its about time: Tactical advice for 4th dimension. Damn, this is making me want to play the game, as despite being a small area, it looks like the amount of emergent tactics are quite considerable. A pretty good article.
The seven magical planets: One of those extensive lists of real world magical correspondences. Obviously not useful unless playing in the real world or something close. Now, when will Ed Greenwood publish something similar for Toril's solar system? That'd be far more interesting.
(un)reason, might I make a suggestion. Paizo has scanned images for almost all the covers for these magazines. You might want to toss a link up. Just a thought.
Hmm. Not a bad idea. On consideration, I think I'll do it when I have cause to comment upon the cover, but not otherwise. I don't want to be too big a bandwidth theif, and it's not as if they're that hard to find if you're interested.
The Gem dragons! Finally, neutrality gets it's own set of iconic dragons. They have the same iconic traits that they maintain all through the editions, Relatively low physical power, but high intelligence and charisma, and kickass psionic abilities. Includes their own singular high end badass to complement Bahamut and Tiamat, Sardior the ruby dragon. Who I don't remember seeing before, so he must not have caught on. But the dragon deities in 2nd ed were more interesting anyway.
Sardior made a reappearance in the Mind's Eye article series on 3E psionics. There even was a prestige class for worshippers. I wouldn't have guessed Sardior had been conceived that early!
Just another voice popping in here to thank you for what you're doing.
Very enjoyable!
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
__________________ Want to see through my crystal ball and what's in store for 5E? Take a glance at my Dreams of 5th Edition
He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder. Tad Williams
Can't wait for the review of the next issue...Dragon #39 is one of the well-known issues. Crit tables, anti-paladin, oh yes.
__________________ "Y'know, I think my favorite thing about being a hero of destiny is that it gives you all kinds of narrative justification to just slay any ol' jerk who gets in your way." -- 8-bit Theater
"i did not serve with napolean in his artillery. but i did play wargames with him and his men." -- diaglo
Frederick Macknight finally finishes his series on a slightly higher note, with an interestingly S&Sish 20 questions puzzle.
It's the little things that count: A funny story of using magical shrinking mirrors of opposition and geases to create tons of pint sized high level magic-users for sale. The kind of thing that the rules would never let you get away with nowadays. Still, I'm sure we'll find new broken rules exploits to mess the setting up with.
Spelling out a strategy for hostile magic-users: An update of the system in TD19 for AD&D. As the number of spells has increased and isn't the same for every level, they move into percentiles. Of course, even that wouldn't be enough for modern days. Obviously, you need to apply common sense to the results here, so enemies don't use useless spells in combat. Still, a little randomness can make sure players don't become too able to predict your monster's tactics.
An advert for tunnels and trolls. I know its been out for a bit, but nice to see they have the money to advertise here now. Along with the request for more variety in articles from last issue, hopefully we'll be seeing some stuff for this game here soon.
Simulation corner: Talk about the founder of avalon hill, Charles Roberts, and the award he lent his name too, the charlies. As ever, accusations of fixing and favouratism bedevil them. Such is the nature of awards. Hopefully they'll be able to convince people of their integrity in the future.
The electric eye: Text and ascii games, multi platform programming and strategy games get a look at. We're finally getting into subjects that assume a reasonable level of computer awareness. Which means they rapidly become impenetrable, because the specifics of how computers work has changed a lot over the years. Still I'll soon figure it out. And of course as we get closer to the present, this'll become less of a problem anyway
Reviews: Only one review this issue, that of Freedom in the galaxy. It is, however an extremely long and extensive one, by someone who is obviously thoroughly enamored with the game. Designed to model the theme of star wars, with a wider strategic scope and potential for lots of different scenarios, it seems to live up to this reviewer's expectations. And who am I to begrudge that?
Dragons bestiary: The Flolite. Little strength draining tentacled glowing lights that live in deserts, and occupy the same ecological niche will o the wisps do in marshes. As is often the case, their body parts can be harvested to the benefit of adventurers. An entry full of cool little bits of flavour.
Jasmine continues, in changelingesque fashion. Fineous fingers restarts, introducing a new character, and promptly putting him in serious trouble.
And we get another full game. Ringside, a boxing simulator, by Brian Blume. Feel like pitting Muhammed ali against Mike Tyson or Rocky. Go for it. A simple game that still has quite a bit of tactical thought involved and the potential for extended play of a fighters career. This definitely goes on the list of things from here I'd like to try at some point.
Another mixed issue, with both good and bad stuff aplenty. Still, the increases in size and scope of the issues mean that there should be at least some good articles every issue. Particularly nice is the decision to experiment with non D&D adventures and games some more. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of that in the future.
#38 is the first issue I remember owning/buying. I remember the Ringside game, because they gave Rocky Marciano straight 5's for his stats and no-one else got all 5's. Damned if I can remember what the stats were. (And this was pre-Mike Tyson. He might have gotten all 5's from people making his stats when he was crushing everyone, but post-Buster Douglas, he'd probably have gotten some 3's. Heh.) I'll have to dig out my copies out of whatever box they're in in the basement. Maybe I'll kibitz your reviews.
You do realize now that I have to post the Lets Read Dungeon Grom Ghe Begining over here now!
Damn you unreasonable bastich!
Oh and lets remember all the hindsight is 20/20 and your judging somone's very early works upon which all others built thier foundations. Everyone of the writers and especially the editiors learned from those who had gone before's mistakes.
You do realize now that I have to post the Lets Read Dungeon from the Beginning over here now!
Damn you unreasonable bastich!
That is entirely your choice. Anyone can clickthrough the link in my sig to go and see it anyway.
Quote:
Oh and lets remember all the hindsight is 20/20 and your judging somone's very early works upon which all others built thier foundations. Everyone of the writers and especially the editiors learned from those who had gone before's mistakes.
It's like roll and keep, isn't it. You find the good options by blind chance, but then you can reuse them, and once you have enough you can start making tactical choices and managing your resources. There's a general life lesson parable in there somewhere. Could be worth a ponder.
Fiction: The cup of golden death, by Gardner F Fox. The 7th niall story, and the 3rd this year. They seem to have decided that he's in demand, so we get more of him. The deific manipulations continue, and we get to see some more of the politics of his world.
Gardner Fox?!? THE Gardner Fox? Great Caesar's Ghost! I have got to go back and check that out. That's just kooky.
78 pages. So its their 4th birthday. Notice something different? Yes, folks, you knew it was coming, even if you didn't know when. This is the point that Dragon Magazine loses the definite article from its cover. It continues inside for a few more issues, but the knell has sounded for it. Not that it saves me much time, because I'm copypastaing that stuff in advance anyway. It also marks yet another high (and new minimum) point in size, and changes in formatting. The magazine now has a computer, and a UK office. But does the UK office also have a computer? Probably not. How long before computers become integral to their operation, as they are for almost every business in the world today? I doubt we'll know exactly, as these things creep up on you. And then you're a slave to the machine.
They're also auctioning off a complete set of back issues. Which is nice for those completists out there. Ahh, the hassle of getting hold of old issues before the electronic age. Ebay and .pdf's really have been a godsend. Also, ask for The Wargamer at your local store, because we're distributing that magazine in america now. Busy beavers build bigger businesses. (as the zoologist said to the gynacologist)
In this issue:
Out on a limb: A rather strident little letter accusing them of being afraid of covering Runequest, because it is so much better than D&D and they'd go out of business if it got the popularity it deserves. To which they calmly explain, yet again, that they are not a house organ, or dependent on TSR, and if another RPG became more popular than D&D they'd switch to primarily covering that. And they can't publish articles on a game if no-one sends them in. (anyone listening, bueller?)
A letter supporting the recent article on angels, saying that they don't seem to have a problem with demons in the game, why should angels be one? They're the good guys.
A letter of generalised praise from a self proclaimed Charismatic and Spirit-filled Christian, saying he doesn't think they're doing anything wrong by depicting angels, plus commentary on other matters.
A request for binders, to store the magazine in and protect it from the ravages of time. To which they respond they don't think the readership is large enough to do this profitably, but maybe some day
And finally a request for an updated version of the MM with the various monsters from Dragon issues in. To which they respond that they aren't doing so, but the fiend folio will be out soon, with all manner of new nasties within for your enjoyment.
The fantasysmiths notebook: On one one side, an illustration showing you how to cover up a naked miniature, attiring it so it doesn't offend the feminists or make the moralists go into think of the children mode when fielding it in your army at a con. On the other page, an article about increasing your speed and efficiency via production line techniques and doing things in batches instead of working on one miniature until its done, then moving on to the next one. This becomes particularly helpful if several people work in a team, each concentrating on a particular aspect of the job. All seems pretty common sense to me.
Antipaladins! Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (cough, wheeze, hack) Ahem. Yes folks, one of our oft-mooted annoyances finally gets (semi)official rules. And heavens to betsy, they're pretty solid ruleswise, if a little overpowered, and entirely recognisable as the inspiration to 3e Blackguards in the specifics of their special abilities. Hell, their 5th level title is Blackguard Of course they are not recommended as PC's, because they refuse to accept anyone as their equal (under pain of losing their powers), so if they're not in charge of the party, they'll spend the whole time scheming to backstab whoever is and get in charge. Which may not be good for group dynamics.
Up on a soap box: The problem of morality in fantasy. A direct rebuttal to the article in issue 36, attacking the use of modern moral relativism in fantasy and playing up the use of the heros journey as a means of defining the moral trials that adventurers should go through. Which as they were designed for dramas with a primary protagonist, not troupe dungeoneering, might not work too well in D&D, in my opinion. But the point that morality is not relative in D&D, and you shouldn't be able to get out of it by arguing cultural exemptions or other rules lawyerish behaviour is a good one. As ever, defining what good and evil is in the game needs to fall to the GM, and then they need to be consistent. Otherwise, you end up with a situation like modern day earth, with loads of different people arguing which rules are more important than others and what god really meant, because he isn't around to explain and enforce them.
Minarian Legends: The history of Divine Right barbarians, and their greatest hero, Juulute Wolfheart. A cool story involving animism and people breeding with spirits. In fantasy games, people like this can be real living legends, instead of just myths distorted and magnified by time.
Women want equality: The long advertised article by Jean Wells finally arrives. And is a little underwhelming really, given the build-up. Sexist crap happens, and this, along with the way that RPG's are marketed in hobby stores that have previously catered almost entirely to men, does put quite a lot of women who would be interested in roleplaying off gaming. (if RPG's had evolved primarily from amateur dramatics rather than wargaming, the demographics of gaming might well have been very different) Women want different things from their gaming, like romance (but only on their own terms, not being used as sex objects) and talking to NPC's instead of fighting straight away. Oh, and the first use of hack and slash as the primary derogatory term for players who are only interested in the fighting side of gaming, rather than actually playing a role. (Which I guess is pretty significant. Now we know who to attribute the popularising of that phrase to.) Chesecake outfits are annoying, and decidedly unpractical for adventuring purposes. Lots of stuff that is still an issue today, in other words, if maybe not quite as frequently. Human nature is a pain in the ass to change. But we've got to try, otherwise we're no better than animals. And I guess they've already come quite a way since the first time this topic was covered in issue 3. That was ....... not good.
Points to Ponder: Female fighters can kick much ass as well as male ones, and there are plenty of historical and mythological examples. Don't underestimate them. Women are both more agile and better at withstanding pain than men, and this should be reflected in their stats.
Leomunds tiny hut: Len talks about designing a party and an adventure for that party. An interesting article because it reveals his assumptions about proper party size, ability score ranges, amount of control players should have in creating their characters, and similar matters of demographics. Which is always useful, as it allows me to get points of data on how the game, and attitudes to it have changed over the years.
Fiction: Next time, try a cleric, by Tom Armstrong. A short story poking fun at D&D ressurection, where a character can be restored to life several times in one day if things aren't going well. Which kinda takes the threat out of death, doesn't it. Nice to see people back then were realizing it as well.
Of staves, strings, and other things: Talk of the construction process of various types of bows. and their advantages and disadvantages. Yawn.
Giants in the earth: This month they decide to go all Sagaical, with Bodvar Bjarki, and Egil Skallagrimson from norse stories. Slightly less twinked than most previous entries, they still both have abilities that PC's can't have. Business as usual then.
Gardner Fox?!? THE Gardner Fox? Great Caesar's Ghost! I have got to go back and check that out. That's just kooky.
AD
"Never Give Up, Never Surrender!"
Indeedy. I had a similar reaction about Andre Norton and Jack Vance knowing about RPG's and contributing so soon. Niall became quite a regular in the magazine before Gar's death stopped this. Those stories are a good source of old skool S&S style flavour for those of you who like their games like that.
Sage advice returns, after a months break, with more rules quibbles and enforcement. Can I use a potion of gaseous form to get cursed magical items off me? (No. You can't get around curses that easily. You are now naked when you reform, with only the cursed item on. (Now, is it worth it wearing cursed robes or armour just for that minor benefit?))
Is there such a thing as a lawful neutral dwarven paladin? (no, stop breaking the rules immediately.)
Is a ranger in violation of his alignment for breaking a written contract? (That depends, is it an evil contract? If so, then he can and indeed should break it. )
Does every weapon require a separate proficiency slot, even really similar ones? (yes. Suck it up. This ain't the complete fighters handbook. You can't get benefits by appealing to realism here.)
Why can elven fighter/magic users wear armor and cast spells, when full MU's can't. (There is no in game reason, it's entirely an out of game balancing rule. Someone'll invent some stupid justification for it sometime, I'm sure. And then It'll be an article in here. Betcha ten dollars.)
Page 10 and 26 contradict one another on how many spells a magic user can have (there is a difference between how many spells they can know it total, and how many they can have memorized at one time. Is that so hard to understand? A brain's a brain, and it does what it can. If you don't like it, play a cleric instead.)
If I change my alignment to chaotic neutral good will I lose a level? (There is no such alignment. You could however be Chaotic neutral (good tendencies) and as long as you don't push over the actual boundary, you won't suffer any xp penalty. )
Can any race have psionics? (no, only humans, dwarves and halflings)
I've found the duration for ghoul paralysis. In T1, it says it lasts 3-12 turns (well spotted. Carrion crawler paralysis lasts the same amount of time, and ghast paralysis lasts twice as long. )
If someone is killed by poison, does have to be neutralised before you try and raise them? (no)
Which weapons are two-handed (here's the list(no, I can't be bothered to type it out))
Can centaurs read scrolls, have psionics, and be raised? (possibly, no, and hell no, do I have to give the whole no ing souls screed again for you people?)
Can a ring of regeneration regrow limbs lost before you found it? (no, your body matrix is already fixed in its new form if you've already healed the hit point damage, or some such crap, so it can't fix old wounds. You'll have to keep your eyepatch and pegleg, I'm afraid)
Good hits and bad misses: Ahh, critical hits. How many attempts at putting you in D&D will we see before 3rd edition makes them stick in a form most people were happy with? This is one of those ones that involves several extra dice rolls, and then consulting a table for the specific effect the crit has. Increased complexity for decreased fun, in other words. Meh, meh ah say.
Uniformity, conformity, or neither?: A look at how D&D has increased in complexity over the years and editions, and looks like it's only going to get more complex and diverse, until it's impossible for any one person to keep track of, yet alone use all the options. Which means it's up the GM to ensure their campaign doesn't get bloated beyond their ability to handle. Welcome to the upward part of the complexity cycle. It's gonna be quite a while before D&D gets its first spring cleaning and streamlining. You'll just have to live with it.
Fiction(ish) The aliens frombeyond (sic) by Bryce Knorr: An exaggerated account of the dragon magazine research process, as the staff race to find out the origin of a particular set of miniatures before the magazine deadline hits. Which is amusing.
What are the odds: The probability of rolling a particular ability score using 3d6, and thus how common each one should be among the general population. A simple bit of statistics I calculated myself ages ago, but nice to see it here.
The electric eye: A computer terminology glossary. Which weirdly enough, gives me WoD corebook flashbacks. Funny how unrelated things can have stylistic connections.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: Lots of cool items this time around, from Cloud castles to Red dragon scale armor. And Ed Greenwood once again sneaks in some realmsian setting detail, with Laeral's storm armor. As does Richard Forsten for whatever his own setting was. (not that we're likely to ever know what that was, unfortunately.) Stuff that's usefull for every class here.
Research in Imperium: A table based system for modeling scientific research that realistically reflects how slow, tedious, expensive and unpredictable this process can be. File this under the same category as all those annoying spell research systems for D&D.
Reviews: The Beastlord, a fantasy boardgame. Intruder, a solo sci-fi boardgame based off Alien, where you hunt down an increasingly deadly metamorphosing monstrosity. They seem to have stopped doing little single line summaries of a load of further games along with the full reviews. Hopefully that'll return sometime.
Simulation Corner: The importance of graphics to a games success. Ahh, another classic refrain that never changes. Some companies put more emphasis on pretty cover pictures and miniatures than they do in making a game play well. And you can only tell if the game plays well after already buying it, so they've already made money off you. Includes plenty of specifics and information on how design technology has improved in recent years. One of those articles that gives me a good sense of history, and how it has and hasn't developed.
City state of the world emperor. The legendary Duck tower! (snerk) Hooray for interesting adverts.
Dragons bestiary: the Groundsquid. A good compliment to the landshark, this is an example of a real world monster adapted to the weirdness of the fantasy world. It has a very long and extensive desription, with lots of stuff on both its hunting tactics, and the uses its various organs and byproducts have. A very well written entry that could well become a major sideplot in a game to exploit. (trained groundsquid would be exceedingly useful in dungeon construction)
Yay for dragonmirth.
Fineous fingers, Wormy and Jasmine are together in the same issue for the first time. How often will that be the case, since neither JD or Tramp have been that consistent with their contributions.
Top secret gets a module, The Missile Mission. Eeexcelllllent :steeples fingers: Two teams of competing commies from russia and china try and get the scoop on a secret missile program simultaneously. Fun stuff happens, hopefully. As is typical for modules of this period, this is more location than plot based, which feels a little odder in a modern setting. But this still looks like it has the potential for much spy vs spy goodness.
They really pulled out all the stops for this one. Both size and quality are at a high, and despite its size, I don't feel the exhaustion and boredom I have getting through some of the recent issues. Hopefully that will continue to be the case, even as the issues get even bigger and more detailed. After all, I'm still only a small fraction of the way through this endeavour. The idea of spending 8/9ths of it bored out of my skull is not an appealing one.
Good hits and bad misses: Ahh, critical hits. How many attempts at putting you in D&D will we see before 3rd edition makes them stick in a form most people were happy with? This is one of those ones that involves several extra dice rolls, and then consulting a table for the specific effect the crit has. Increased complexity for decreased fun, in other words. Meh, meh ah say.
I still use a version of crit/fumble charts based on this article (heavily modified) and have done so in one form or another since 1E - though I read the article in one of the "Best of Dragon" compilations (II?). . .
I still use a version of crit/fumble charts based on this article (heavily modified) and have done so in one form or another since 1E - though I read the article in one of the "Best of Dragon" compilations (II?). . .
That damn chart...
We had a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of that chart. And used it all the time. How many times can you chop of your own foot in one day? lol
Notice something different? Yes, folks, you knew it was coming, even if you didn't know when. This is the point that Dragon Magazine loses the definite article from its cover.
This issue, huh? Fancy that. I've never referred to it as The Dragon, given that the first issue I looked at, let alone bought was over 200. But it's also one of the most well-known of the classic issues as well.
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Antipaladins!
Woot!
Been waiting for the review of this article.
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Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (cough, wheeze, hack) Ahem. Yes folks, one of our oft-mooted annoyances finally gets (semi)official rules. And heavens to betsy, they're pretty solid ruleswise, if a little overpowered, and entirely recognisable as the inspiration to 3e Blackguards in the specifics of their special abilities. Hell, their 5th level title is Blackguard
Good mechanics, huh? That might have helped establish the class's popularity. Oh who am I kidding....
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Of course they are not recommended as PC's, because they refuse to accept anyone as their equal (under pain of losing their powers), so if they're not in charge of the party, they'll spend the whole time scheming to backstab whoever is and get in charge. Which may not be good for group dynamics.
Hah, you think? The antipaladin is one of the oldest "screw with the other players" build. Which probably made it popular. I don't think any D&D campaign is complete until it's had a kender antipaladin to totally up party dynamics.
Quote:
Good hits and bad misses: Ahh, critical hits. How many attempts at putting you in D&D will we see before 3rd edition makes them stick in a form most people were happy with? This is one of those ones that involves several extra dice rolls, and then consulting a table for the specific effect the crit has. Increased complexity for decreased fun, in other words. Meh, meh ah say.
Perhaps, but this article probably got tons of useback in the day. I think it also was one of the sources of inspiration behind the Player's Option system back (err, later) in 2e.
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Originally Posted by amysrevenge
That damn chart...
We had a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of that chart. And used it all the time. How many times can you chop of your own foot in one day? lol
See what I mean?
__________________ "Y'know, I think my favorite thing about being a hero of destiny is that it gives you all kinds of narrative justification to just slay any ol' jerk who gets in your way." -- 8-bit Theater
"i did not serve with napolean in his artillery. but i did play wargames with him and his men." -- diaglo
Another one to add to the list of still useful today articles to plunder. 
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