Quick Dragon Roots Review: Issue Zero

tenkar · Feb 29, 2008

First I want to thank Rocco for bringing down the PDF price so that myself and others can sample his wares before possibly opting for the print version. It was a gentlemanly gesture and much appreciated.

Now to the quick review

The revisit of Social Class from 1st edition's UA brought back memories... it also reminded me why I don't like such rules for PCs in most campaigns but it is certainly a very effective way to "peg" NPCs and where they stand in the scheme of social interaction. Well written and presented even if I am unsure how much I will actually use.

The Alignment article: Its been done before BUT this was actually a good read. The explanations went deeper then previous examples I've seen. Again, more useful for me to give my NPCs more depth then something I'd use much from a players POV... but I've always been fairly loose in my use of alignment.

4e interview: You'll have to read it for yourself. I thought it was well done.

Zero Level Characters and it's accompanying adventure: This is the last half of the magazine. So far I have just skimmed them... the system looks workable but it is not my cup of tea (zero level characters have never been my cup of tea). It might be you cup tho'.

Art: Amazing. 'Nuff said

Assorted maps: Really useful to steal for virtual tabletop play. I think I will be doing so

Editing: Considering that Rocco does 95% of the work load it is passable. No lost chunks of text. I caught a few typos that a spell checker wouldn't catch (mistyped words that are other words). An extra set of eyes proofreading would probably help.

All together a very professional looking magazine. I think I will be digging into my wallet for a print plus PDF subscription this weekend. It wasn't a perfect issue but it was worth the money... considering I'll probably only be using the first half that speaks fairly highly.

DM-Rocco · Mar 1, 2008

tenkar said:
First I want to thank Rocco for bringing down the PDF price so that myself and others can sample his wares before possibly opting for the print version. It was a gentlemanly gesture and much appreciated.

Now to the quick review

The revisit of Social Class from 1st edition's UA brought back memories... it also reminded me why I don't like such rules for PCs in most campaigns but it is certainly a very effective way to "peg" NPCs and where they stand in the scheme of social interaction. Well written and presented even if I am unsure how much I will actually use.

The Alignment article: Its been done before BUT this was actually a good read. The explanations went deeper then previous examples I've seen. Again, more useful for me to give my NPCs more depth then something I'd use much from a players POV... but I've always been fairly loose in my use of alignment.

4e interview: You'll have to read it for yourself. I thought it was well done.

Zero Level Characters and it's accompanying adventure: This is the last half of the magazine. So far I have just skimmed them... the system looks workable but it is not my cup of tea (zero level characters have never been my cup of tea). It might be you cup tho'.

Art: Amazing. 'Nuff said

Assorted maps: Really useful to steal for virtual tabletop play. I think I will be doing so

Editing: Considering that Rocco does 95% of the work load it is passable. No lost chunks of text. I caught a few typos that a spell checker wouldn't catch (mistyped words that are other words). An extra set of eyes proofreading would probably help.

All together a very professional looking magazine. I think I will be digging into my wallet for a print plus PDF subscription this weekend. It wasn't a perfect issue but it was worth the money... considering I'll probably only be using the first half that speaks fairly highly.

I'm glad you liked it

I know that the alignment article has been done before. I asked RavenCrowking to do a final be all end all of alignments articles so we tried to cover everything and make it crystal clear. Alignment is generally lose in my games as well, but classes like the paladin have a more strict code that I wanted to cover. Then there is the whole, what makes up a Lawful Good society versus a Lawful Evil one? A little inside info, the first draft was good, but I had him re-write it three times to get it just right.

I generally hate starting at 1st level, but for some reason, I always loved the article in issue #51 of Dragon about 0th level characters. I didn’t want to start the magazine at issue #1 like everyone else, so I started it at Issue #0 and made most of the content about creating characters, options for new characters and rules for 0th level characters.

Starting at 0th level is mostly something a beginning player will do get a feel for the game or an experienced player will do once for a challenge. Check out the whole adventure though, it is designed for all levels and will most likely give you plenty of new ideas.

The adventure is also our solution to the Adventure Path. It is the first in what we are calling our Campaign Arc. This Campaign Arc is called ZERO TO HERO.

It will be a complete campaign when finished. Unfortunately, with 4e around the corner, issue #1 won’t be continuing the Arc. We are awaiting the release of 4e to update and finish it so the whole Arc will be 4e. We hope to pick up on it again starting in issue #2. So, if you are wondering why there is so much background information, that is why.

The 4e interview I think is really good and has some answers to questions that I haven’t seen before

As to typos and such, I am good at editing others, but very poor at editing myself. When I edit others, I can see what needs to be changed, but for some reason, when it is my work, my mind plays tricks on me and makes the connections in my head that are not always there on paper. That and 69 pages of solid content was a bit mind numbing to sift through. I was bound to miss something. :\

I have a friend coming up from Florida who is a master of editing and we are going to tackle the editing job together. I was going to have him proof Issue Zero, but he was just to busy trying to find a way to move back here and I wanted to release the magazine before 4e came out.

Hmm, no comments on the letters to the editor? I thought that was rather humorous myself

tenkar · Mar 1, 2008

Heh... the letters to the editor were amusing... I just don't think I've ever considered letters to the editor worth reviewing

DM-Rocco · Mar 2, 2008

tenkar said:
Heh... the letters to the editor were amusing... I just don't think I've ever considered letters to the editor worth reviewing

Well, first time for everything

DM-Rocco · Mar 4, 2008

Dragon Roots magazine, in a pdf format, is now available at Paizo.com at this link: http://paizo.com/store/downloads/dragonRoots
or, if you are in Minnesota you can purchase a copy of Dragon Roots from the Souce comics and games, Dreamers or the Monster's Den.

Of course, you can also purchase Dragon Roots at www.dragonroots.net or contact me directly for further information at dragonroots@comcast.net.

Raven Crowking · Mar 18, 2008

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the alignment article, and thought that it was interesting. A lot of it was directed toward the DM side of the table, if only because the DM has a greater workload. Typically, alignment in 3.x allows you to peg (as in all previous editions) a quick-n-dirty "How does this NPC react"....but also (unlike all previous editions) explicitly suggests that religions, regions, etc., be given alignments so that they can be played in the same way. Both myself and Rocco thought that some idea as to how that should work was important, as the official material didn't cover it as well as it should.

(Not to be putting words in Rocco's mouth; he can correct me if I am wrong.)

Since the article referenced 1e, Rocco obtained WotC's gracious permission to publish it. I've got to say that this was classy on the part of WotC.

RC