Let's read the entire run

Woo. 1,000 posts before christmas! Thanks everybody!

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

part 1/6


116 pages. Another october, and you know straight away from the cover that this is another halloween special. As the success of Ravenloft right from the first module shows, the human desire to scare itself from a position of safety is a perennial one. And so they probably have more than enough suitable articles to fill several years of this, even if they never got any more. Hopefully that means they have enough spares to reject the crap and only use the best, unlike far too many of their themed issues. I suppose I'd better get reading and writing.

In this issue:


Letters: A letter from someone pissed off about the magazine now coming in plastic wrap. They've exchanged environmental friendliness for greater durability. Oh woe for all the eco-people.

A letter pointing out two factual errors the magazine made recently. Looks like they can't do anything right.

A letter from someone finding that a vampire PC causes fairly substantial problems in AD&D. Vampire PC's? There's a turnup for the books. Roger gives us some advice that'll keep things getting too out of hand. At least vampires have substantial weaknesses to go with their powers.


Editiorial: Rogar of Mooria tells the tale of his latest adventure in convention land, looting and pillaging his way through the booths of the competing companies and the local chinese restaurants. Roleplaying may not be enjoying the same degree of corebook sales it did in the mid 80's, but the number of convention goers, and by implication established, serious players with decent amounts of disposable income is still increasing. And they're having lots of fun, between the buying and the selling and the weird attention grabbing freebies and the seminars and the adventures. Man, I ought to go to more cons. Hell, I ought to get out more in general. I have a laptop, and wifi is hardly rare. And working from coffee shop does seem to be in amongst pretentious hipsters. (which as my laptop is a mac, I suppose I fit by default) Maybe then I'd meet more interesting people.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: A horror themed pages from the mages here this month, very much in the Call of Cthulhu mold. The Book of Horrors, a typically life and sanity imperiling tome that it'll take quite a bit of effort to get a benefit from. Just the thing for your evil necromancers to own, so if they players kill them and take their stuff, the adventure is in no way over. Can you turn the evil new spells within to good ends?

Undead Control is pretty self-explanatory. If your cleric fails, then you get a second chance to end things without needless bloodshed. Course, it's not as good as that innate ability, so niche protection is preserved.

Sinuous Horrors transforms your arms into snakes. This is scary looking, but on the whole, probably a good deal less damage inflicting than a good fireball or lightning bolt, despite being higher level; plus of course, your spellcasting options are seriously restricted while you have no hands. If you use this as your primary combat method, I'm afraid I will have to seriously question your sanity

Vampire Mist also looks cool, but does less damage over a longer period of time than the standard wizardly offensive spells. Again, I am forced to make a mad necromancer crack and sigh disdainfully.

Crimson Scourge is also not hugely effective in combat, but in a city setting, where you can use it's contagiousness to maximum effect, it could result in huge casualties, plus paranoia above and beyond that as you strike at the heart of the community without revealing your true nature. Now that's more like it, a means of driving a whole plot. Muahahaha.

Amorphous Blob unleashes a pretty self-explanatory ravenous monstrosity capable of infinite growth, in classic horror movie tradition. Another one to release in a community and watch the terror from afar, as if you put it up directly against CR appropriate enemies without a chance to grow to it's full potential, they'll make pretty short work of it. A fitting end to an entry with cool descriptions, but somewhat underpowered crunch. This one shouldn't cause any long term problems if incorporated into your game, while allowing you to make a good mastermind villain who is still quite defeatable when you actually catch them.

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

part 2/6


Robotech, the new generation? Has it been that long? Ok then.


The mind of the vampire: Nigel Findley, writing a horror article? No, say it aint so. Another sign of the times here, as he encourages you to get inside the mind of your intelligent undead monstrosities, and play them as beings with plans, personalities, and quite possibly a degree of internal conflict about their status. Be they vampires, liches, ghosts, spectres, or even lesser undead like ghouls, the way they come to terms with their new lifestyle should vary very much depending on what they were and how they died. And as usual, he does a pretty good job of it, analyzing things both from the statistical capabilities of the various creatures, and their literary sources. They take another step towards the environment that will result in said monsters becoming the stars of the number 2 roleplaying game in the world. Yeah, this one really was pretty telegraphed in hindsight, wasn't it. Even more than those swishy antipaladins, people loooove da bloodsuckers. Bad boys, bad boys, who ya gonna call. So, um, yeah, this rocks, and is also moderately significant in the overall scheme of things. Go him.


Hammer and stake: Call of Cthulhu continues to be one of the more popular non TSR games in the magazine, with an article for including vampires in the game. Rather a step back from the unknowable inhuman monstrosities investigators normally face here. But if you can get over that bit of cognitive dissonance, this is another pretty decent bit of articlage, giving them a fairly straight writeup with both the savage lesser vamps and the more intelligent and refined greater ones catered for. It's probably be a good idea to customise their origin and capabilities if you want them to be properly chilling. But it's certainly not useless, and it's another bit of variety in the magazine, so I have no objection to this.


Out of the shadows: Tom Moldvay continues his slow progress through the entire undead listings and their mythological antecedents with three variants on the Shadow. He also fills us in on the weird editorial decisions that resulted in Shadows being undead in AD&D, but not in basic D&D. An initial decision inspired purely by DM sadism gradually acquired mythic resonance and a special place in adventurers hearts. After all, temporary strength draining isn't as mean as permanent level loss, but it's still pretty scary mid battle, especially when you know what's going to happen if you lose. Once again, he's a font of fun facts, making this a lot more interesting reading than a set of straight bestiary entries.

Skotos are evil spirits who rule rpg.net They recover damage as they hurt you, which means fighting them is not simply a matter of outlasting them. Still, their craving for fresh blood can be used to lure them into making rash decisions. A good mid-level substitute for ghouls or wights.

Sluagh are undead faeries, and a lot more interesting and idiosyncratic than the Changeling version. Appearing in massive hordes, they have very high XP awards for their HD, due to their combination of instadeath attacks, and the shadowesque ability to recruit you for the cause if they kill you. If you don't have an AoE blasty spell ready to go before you get to melee then things are likely to get very nasty. An excellent choice for if you want to play a storyline where entire settlements are being destroyed, and things are getting scarier each time.

Ghost-stones are even more idiosyncratic still. Drawing upon transylvanian myth, if your shadow touches them, it gets trapped on them and they drain your life force through it. Brilliant, and one that'll be a real puzzler for players to figure out how to deal with. Your life or death will depend very much on tactical setup rather than raw power this time. These guys can definitely have places in my game. This selection isn't quite as great as last year's, but that's more a matter of quantity rather than quality. I'm very much looking forward to seeing him complete the collection over the next few years.


Sage advice: Your talk on scale and chain mail was complete rubbish! ( Do you doubt Skip! Skip is the Sage! Do not doubt Skip's word, or Skip will not only destroy you, but your reputation as well. Skip has powerful friends. You'll get what's coming to you for this. )

Did you think up the questions for your april fools issue? (No! Your insanity is more ludicrous than anything Skip could make up himself. Skip is The Sage, not some kind of jester! )

Drinking enwatered PC's simply kills them? That is so unfair! (Only if you're playing a game with regular access to 9th level spells. You might want to think about your playstyle, as that is the problem here, not the rules of the game. So says Skip! )

Ninja can so pick pockets! Oriental adventures says they can! (No they can't! Skip calls shenanigans! You're a bunch of doodyheads.)

You got the number of times dragons can breathe per day wrong (Oh man, Skip just can't win this month. Skip had better call time out before Skip gets even more humiliated. You may have won this time, but Skip will be back, just you see :shakes fist

As you work your way through one of my most beloved issues of DRAGON Magazine (Undead! Scary spellbooks! Ravenloft material! Champions!), a bit of historical context

(un)reason said:

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

The mind of the vampire: Nigel Findley, writing a horror article? No, say it aint so. Another sign of the times here, as he encourages you to get inside the mind of your intelligent undead monstrosities, and play them as beings with plans, personalities, and quite possibly a degree of internal conflict about their status. Be they vampires, liches, ghosts, spectres, or even lesser undead like ghouls, the way they come to terms with their new lifestyle should vary very much depending on what they were and how they died. And as usual, he does a pretty good job of it, analyzing things both from the statistical capabilities of the various creatures, and their literary sources. They take another step towards the environment that will result in said monsters becoming the stars of the number 2 roleplaying game in the world. Yeah, this one really was pretty telegraphed in hindsight, wasn't it. Even more than those swishy antipaladins, people loooove da bloodsuckers. Bad boys, bad boys, who ya gonna call. So, um, yeah, this rocks, and is also moderately significant in the overall scheme of things. Go him.

Click to expand...

Findley will go on to reuse some of this material (with attribution to "a sage whose name has been lost") when he writes next year's RR3 Van Richten's Guide to Vampires, one of the defining products of the Ravenloft line.

Merry second Christmas to all reading this thread! Hope we see a third one.

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

part 3/6


Forum is still going on about the goddamned satanic furor. Still, they are increasingly focussing on the optimistic and practical

Andrew Bartmess talks about how D&D could be a tool for good or evil, depending on the DM and the kind of adventures and lessons they put the players through. This is why it's better to stay involved in your kids lives. If you let them make their own entertainment, then you don't know what they're up to, and it's much more likely to be trouble.

Robert B. Luhrman talks about the law and free speech. We have a right to play, they have a right to protest against it. And since they've tried to ban far bigger things and failed, I don't think we have much to worry about. Just keep playing.

Gord Coleman is another person who wants us to get up get up, get organized. Don't be shy, testify! Let out the rage in healthy ways, don't crack under the strain and shoot up the school.

Marian Lynn Lucas used Dragonlance, and it's moralising lessons to prove that D&D isn't satanic to her parents. Guess they have a use after all. And also a reminder just how many of the writers responsible for D&D were christians of one stripe or another. The two things should not be in opposition.


The voyage of the princess ark: Once again the Ark finds itself rather indisposed. Chasing their escaped captive through the hollow world, they get spotted by the Nithians, and have to put up with doing the awkwardly polite negotiation dance again. They then crash into a flying island inhabited by two rival clans of gnomes. Fortunately, the gnomes know how to make skyships (well, they couldn't get on and off their home otherwise), so they finally have a chance to get some decent repairs in. Funny how Krynn's making gnomes the mechanic race has spread to other worlds so easily. No cool new crunch this time, just some more objective gazetteer material on their new location. Once again we see how having so much cool stuff can be made into a problem as well as an opportunity, as they have devote lots of time and effort to repairing it, and when their magic doesn't work, it really messes up their plans. What other ways will bruce find to challenge them in future issues? Hopefully not too many of them will be crap.


The role of computers: Ultima IV: The false prophet is our only review this month. Since it's a well established RPG series, it is of course an big one, with plenty of hints. There are some fairly substantial improvements in graphics and gameplay as usual, although the bright colours and breadth of options means there may be some hassle keeping track of everything. They look forward to a good few months more completing it and publishing hints on it in here.

This month also marks the point when they make a conscious decision to focus more on video games as well as computers. The market continues to grow with no end in sight, and they're going where the money is. Another sign of the times I knew was coming, but wasn't sure exactly when. Guess history really is rolling along this month.


The dragon's bestiary: More inventive undead here. Spiritus anime are ghosts which animate any corpses in the vicinity, and if you kill one, they'll just hop to another one. A nice little challenge to deal with requiring the use of your brains, like the tombstone one. After all, fighting one skeleton at a time in a full graveyard will rapidly grow very tedious.

Ankou draw on a rather more obscure and specific bit of folklore as they're the undead forms of farmers who killed their families out of greed, who roam the roads and take people to Tartarus. Miserable business, really. A perfect random encounter for those wandering from one adventure to another.

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

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Fiction: A prayer for the dead by Deborah Millitello. Still in theme here as well. They must have no shortage of horror submissions, with Ravenloft drawing in even more writers from that field. This is a ghost story of passion, misdeeds and vengance, where an undead horror needs laying to rest, and the townsfolk are not being entirely honest about the causes. It's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, but the ending is a happy one, without being saccharine. Another quite likable bit of fiction.


Novel ideas: Probably one of the trickiest, but potentially most rewarding part of the book department is figuring out what books to publish outside the established gaming fiction ones. They don't have an established name to give them guaranteed sales, but on the other hand, they don't have an established logo putting off casual browsers. So they're the ones that really need promotion if they're to recoup their costs and reach an appreciative audience. So more free adverts for other parts of the company here. :sigh: Outbanker by Timothy Madden, a sci-fi cowboy adventure. The road west by Gary Wright sees a highly trained ranger face problems both inner and outer. And The alien dark by Diana Gallagher stars cat/bear aliens looking for a new planet to call home. Okey dokey then. Once more, this is mostly promotion, with a bit of behind the scenes stuff about the writer and how they made the book. This is rapidly coming to replace Giants in the earth as the most kickable regular article in the magazine. It's neither useful nor particularly entertaining. Once again I sigh.


The marvel-phile: Oh dear god. Dracula II: Daughter of Dracula. The schlock factor, it is through the roof. The engines cannae handle it cap'n! So Marvel is working hard to shake off the remaining vestiges of the comics code, and one of these is bringing back all the vampires, making the world a little darker and bloodier. Lilith the daughter of dracula, cursed with eternal life by gypsies and trying to make unlife miserable for her dad down the generations. Family, eh? Who'd have one? Cheesecake outfit, cliches galore, yup, this has a very distinctive style that it's rather hard to take seriously. Get the whips out boys, we're goin' vampire hunting, and there may be flying medusa heads involved.


The game wizards: Yet more horror stuff, as they promote Ravenloft some more. Actually, this is a pretty close rehash of one of the articles from last month, only slanted towards horror. The big thing about horror is keeping things surprising. So you've gotta switch things around, and keep them mysterious. Obfuscate details, exaggerate, never use proper names, keep throwing curveballs. Not bad advice, but yeah, oh so very done last month, only with less pretentiousness. This is the kind of thing the editors should catch and screen out. Once again this column seems to be largely a mouthpiece to drive more sales for their products, and the entertainment aspects ring a little false. Bleh. Still, at least it's better than Novel Ideas.

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

part 5/6


TSR Previews: They already had one book on castles this year. Now they give us a boxed set on the various fantasy castles found in Oerth, Krynn and Toril. Must be another surprisingly popular topic among the designers.

The Forgotten Realms is once again getting more than anyone else. FR11: Dwarves deep sees Ed fill in more details about, oh, you know, in his inimitable style. He's another ridiculously prolific writer, because he also delivers FA1: Halls of the high king. Off to the moonshaes to fight viking marauders. As if the horde weren't enough trouble. Mongols to the east of me, Swedes on the west. Guess I'm stuck in the middle with you. Oh well, maybe I can do a little ear collecting.

Greyhawk finishes it's latest module trilogy, WGA3: Flames of the Falcon. This time, you really do get to save the city at last. Woo. Includes a fold-up mansion, presumably representing an important location in the plot.

Dragonlance finishes off it's second prequel trilogy as well. You can tell we're getting near the end of a product cycle, can't you. This time it's Tanis who reveals hidden achievements, in The Shadow Years, by Barbara and Scott Siegel. Can the pairing give the writing the same energy as Tracy and Margaret?

D&D starts to put out follow-ups for the Hollow world. HWA1: Nightwall takes you to see the preserved remains of the very first culture in the entire world. Dude. Totally excellent. [/bill and ted]

XXVc continues to show us the planets, with 25CR2: Earth in the 25th century. Will they manage to get through all 9 before poor sales see the line cancelled? Dale Henson also begins his metamorphosis into Slade. How long before he loses both his name and capitalisation in the credits?

And finally, we have Boot Hill, 3rd edition. Gangbusters was rereleased a couple of months ago. Seems like they're trying their luck with lots of old properties. Before you know it, Gamma World'll be getting another try on the merry go round. Wonder if this'll see any supplements.

Oh, and there's another product mentioned in the this month section that wasn't there last time. Sloppy as ever. Maztica may not be getting as much press as the horde, but that's still going on as well. Viperhand by Doug Niles is number 2 in the book trilogy. How long before the gaming material arrives?

Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990

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Role-playing reviews is taken over by Allen Varney. He starts us off with another entertaining little snapshot from this year's Gen Con, as a new edition of a certain popular game is unleashed upon the public. Always a tense time, when one of the major writers is late, it becomes even more so. I like him already. He's got plenty of cool credits (and a few bits of dreck) for me to look forward to reporting on.

Champions is up to it's 4th edition, which is 350 pages long. It hasn't been an easy ride, but the HERO system has survived a decade and improved quite substantially over that period. Allen gives this a very context heavy review, drawing upon his insider knowledge of the game's history. It now has tons of powers, rules for adapting the overall nature of the campaign, and lots of other options. Course, it's far from unbreakable, simply due to the enormous breadth of powers covered, so GM oversight is essential. Man, that's a pretty familiar refrain.

The HERO system rulesbook cuts out the superheroic setting stuff for just the rules. This brings it down to 220 pages, still substantial, but not bulky. Just the thing for when you're traveling.

Classic enemies is their assembled and revised bestiary. Scott Bennie once again shows that stuff like histories and personal connections between NPC's add to the entertainment factor quite substantially. They even have an incompetent supervillain prison for your own game to take advantage of. Most amusing.

Mind games is a much smaller book focussing on a group of psychic villains. It's mainly fuel for adventures rather than overall advice. Their equivalent of a module, presumably.

Ninja hero sees Allen praise Aaron Allston profusely, the nepot. You want to bring oriental badassery to the HERO system, he's your guy. Ra ra ra! Give him more jobs! Hee. How very naughty.


Dragonmirth is anachronistic again. Yamara fakes the macguffin. The twilight guys have multiple escape plans. One of them's bound to work.


Through the looking glass: The advanced battletech modding is concluded this month. Last time, it was mainly add-ons, this time it's the alterations to the turn sequence that get worked upon. They do have to forbid some things to make it work, and there's a huge list of little technical modifications that look like they'll be a bit of a pain in the ass to remember. Exactly how many of them are essential, and how many of them are simply house rules for their idea of greater balance I'm not sure, but it does look like they've been busy with the playtesting and stuff. This seems like the kind of thing that won't get a huge number of users, but those that do will be very enthusiastic about it. I'm not going to begrudge them some nice stuff I can't use, as long as it also means more variety in RPG's.


Bladestorm by I.C.E and grenadier. A fantasy miniature game of swords, sorcery and battle in a dark chaotic world? Looks like they're trying to rip off warhammer.


A quite entertaining collection of articles this time round, along with some pretty telegraphed historical pointers. Playing vampires, video games ascending to dominance, drama, history, this is pretty interesting stuff. The fact that lots of people are doing it obviously means that they can pick the best articles for the magazine. So even if some of their editorial choices are still rather iffy, there's still lots of useful stuff here. Wonder what next month will bring us.

Dragon Magazine Issue 163: November 1990

part 1/6



122 pages. Larry Elmore once again reuses models for his cover. Even the model looks bored with this. That can't be a comfortable tree to sit in. She must have been posing for him for weeks of total time over the years. The subject is pretty reused too. Magic. Pretty vague really, you think by now they'd start livening it up by running more specific themes, such as necromancy, shapeshifting or mind control. Apparently not. Perhaps they ought to say they're planning doing a certain theme 6-12 months in advance, and would like articles on it. That'd certainly help with the maintaining variety problem. Oh well, let's see if the individual articles are any good.


In this issue:


Letters: Roger once again finds himself with too many ludicrous letters to hold on to until april. So once again he decides to give his snark and punnery muscles a major workout. Whatever keeps ya sane, dude. At least it's not Waldorf or female dwarven beards again. And once again we are strongly reminded of their bowdlerising editorial policy. Gotta keep the actual words kid friendly, even if we all know what they're talking about. Sigh. Let's hope they can slip some dirty stuff under the radar every now and then.


Editorial: Ah yes, realism in gaming. And it's cousin who is often mistaken for realism, grimdark crapsack black and grey worlds where everything sucks and you've got no hope of ever making things better. (with thanks to tvtropes) Well, it's not too far from reality. So Roger delegates to Dale this bit of moderate rehash, tempered with current events commentary. The difference between low and high fantasy, the change in media depictions of stuff. And of course how this impacts on the D&D morality debates. Dear god this feels like filler. They expanded the editorials to a designated size, and now they have to fill them every month. Bed, made, lie in it. Just as I have to. Still, it's another sign of the times. Welcome to the iron age. Take good care of your trenchcoat while here, because the rain falls heavy in darkened alleys.


Have you seen this duck? Runequest advertises by juxtaposing the ludicrous with the deadly serious and hoping that'll draw people in.


Back to school - Magic school: Ahh, this is one I knew they'd get round to at some point. An analysis to the various speciality wizard types, figuring out which is best, courtesy of Greg Detwiler. Abjuration is problematic, with limited utility stuff and the removal of the most versatile school. Alteration is pretty awesome, able to fill a whole load of roles even without bothering with other schools. Conjurers are pretty middle of the road, but do have to rely on others quite a bit, which has it's risks. Diviners are unglamorous, but pretty damn good actually, especially once you add a few supplements. Enchanters, like conjurers, need to rely on unreliable aid a lot, but can work around their issues. Illusionists are even more crappy, but still probably better off than they were in 1st edition, with the whole range of conjurations, alterations, etc open to them. Invokers are pretty decent, but again, have their issues, and find it a bit trickier to be team players to compensate for those. Necromancers are a bit crap until you get a decent load of supplements, especially in the low levels. He seems to have a pretty decent handle on things, not giving us any misleading advice. Remember, ironically, having two wizards specialized in opposing schools is one of the best ways to ensure you always have a wide range of spells useful for all eventualities. And that can lead to odd pairing bickering buddy movie fun. I think following this one will be beneficial to your game.


Oops! Sorry!: Spell misfires. Muahahahaha. If anything is going to fill the players with dread, it's the prospect of things not simply failing, but going wrong in ironic and interesting fashion. After all, this is something with an incredibly long literary tradition behind it, frequently involving talented but impetuous apprentices who then have to spend whole books trying to sort out their cock-ups. Course, in D&D, you can't really go that far every time a spell gets disrupted, plus you may have problems thinking of something different to happen each time. You know what's perfectly designed for solving this? Random tables! Another instance where I'm vaguely surprised they haven't done this years ago. Guess even though the technology's been around for ages, there's still only so much room in each magazine. And since this is a pretty short article, that tries to keep it's various results applicable to the large variety of spells out there via vagueness, there's probably room for another, more comprehensive variant on this some time in the future. Not a hugely interesting read, this should nevertheless add a bit of sadistic fun to your play if used judiciously.

Dragon Magazine Issue 163: November 1990

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Hedge wizards: Hmm. Another article specializing in the uses of the new specialist wizards, this time in relation to getting a job in the community and selling your services. Given the small number of spells you have in D&D, a specialist really has a substantial advantage here, as they get to satisfy more clients a day, and concentrate on doing a few things well, instead of being dragged all over the place by people with unrealistic expectations and trying to compete directly with everyone in the business. Quite a bit of this seems to be Forgotten Realms focussed, with the new spells in particular being fully integrated with named owners and locations. As is often the case, the math in terms of the levels they're supposed to have and the money they earn is a bit wonky when you consider the amount of money peasants earn, and the amount of things you have to kill to get each level. Obviously you need to assume a pretty high magic world to use it. But it does have a nice flavour, and a whole bunch of low level spells useful for everyday use, so if your game meets that criteria, go right ahead. We'll get the hang of this spells for sale thing eventually.


Magic gone haywire: In a similar vein to the spell misfires stuff earlier, here we have a whole bunch of quirks you could add on to magic items, make them more individual than just another sword +1 or ring of invisibility. As is usual for tables like this, some are good, some are bad, and some are decidedly mixed blessings, particularly when various magic items become sentient and start talking back to you. Several evily inventive ideas mixed in with variants on a bunch of familiar ones make this another article that could be spicing up your game for years to come if used in moderation. And so we bring to a close a themed section that's actually been pretty good, and quite forward-looking. Once again they've managed to justify repeating a topic.


The role of books: Dragon's teeth by Lee Killough, Hawk and fisher by Simon Green, and Nightwatch by Robin Wayne Bailey all try and combine mystery plots with fantasy, with varying levels of success. The one that's also a D&D novel gets the best review, curiously enough.

The interior life by Katherine Blake has two interconnected plotlines distinguished by the use of different typefaces throughout the book. Hmm. Wasn't Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man also published around this point using that device. This seems worth thinking about. Anyway, this review seems pretty positive as well, combining reality and fantasy subplots pretty well.

Elven Star by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman gets a review that focusses rather heavily on the meta aspects of the book, in particular a certain anagramatically named wizard who is probably also in Dragonlance, but for legal reasons cannot use the same name in this dimension. The reviewer has doubts about their abilities to resolve the plot in a dramatic and sensible manner.

Gossamer axe by Gael Baudino combines celtic harp music and heavy metal in another story putting it's own spin on combining modern day life with other worlds. While it does seem a little like the author is just writing about their own real life hobbies, at least that means the details are accurate, and there's plenty of distinctive elements springing from that.

Galen Sword 1: Shifter by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens looks like an attempt to start a pulp adventure franchise. The amusingly badass named eponymous hero and his various wacky sidekicks face an alien menace, with mixed success, both in terms of plot and tone. I don't think they're going to make it to 28 books.

Servant of the empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts gives us some fun fantasy politicking, showing that this is very much an option for building good plots on, and good inspiration for if your players are getting to that tricky name level region.

Another day, another dungeon by Greg Costikyan sees the noted designer play with game conventions and use them to drive the plot of this fun story rather better than, say, Kevin Anderson managed. Well, I guess Paranoia is good practice for that, whichever way round you do it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 163: November 1990

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Forum: Robert Roger shows it's not just D&D that suffers from twinkitude, with his star wars game currently having severe balance problems due to a little too much money going round. Remember, anything players can do, NPC's can too. You just need to turn up the opposition to reflect their capabilities.

B. Night offers a load of advice for new players. Is the magazine concentrating too much on stuff for the existing fanbase and becoming too obscure. Not sure I agree with that. Also really don't agree with flaking out because you're just not in the mood. It's hard enough to get a regular group going without "advice" like that.

Matt Bogosian also offers a number pointed contribution, this one advice for good DM'ing. Clear Communication of a Consistent Creation is what they can basically be boiled down too. Oh, and variety is important.

Allan Roberts points out ways in which characters can fail a mission without dying. That is not the only punishment for losing, you know.

Jeff Barnes also thinks that while death should be a big deal, removing resurrection entirely causes more problems than it solves. It'd certainly make the death penalty more acceptable if we knew we could fix mistakes after the fact.

Ofed Ofek also considers resurrection not an issue, because the costs involved are more than sufficient to keep you from doing it casually. At low levels, it's frequently easier and more fun to just start a new character anyway.

Willis M Burge is also in favour of resurrection, at the right price. Unless they got killed through sheer stupidity, they ought to have a chance to bring their character back. Suicide by DM. Always ought to be an option.

Jay Toser points out role-models for paladins from genres other than fantasy. Westerns are particularly good for this. (Let us not forget Murlyand, a canon example of cowboy/paladin crossover from the founding players.) Oh, and he references batman as well, which always gets contentious in the morality stakes. I wonder if anyone'll bite on that bait?


The voyage of the princess ark: The Ark enjoys one of it's most dramatic plot reveals yet. They thought they'd escaped the Night Dragon months ago. Now it is revealed that they've been played for fools for a while. Does everyone apart from the ordinary humans know about the hollow world and how to get there? They manage to escape from the hollow world, thanks to the ingenuity of the gnomes, but they are very much not in control of their own destiny at this point. One humiliation follows another, until it ends on a massive cliffhanger. The GM is definitely turning this from a sandbox exploration campaign to a fiaty railroad with great viciousness. Bloody 90's. Lets hope it gets better.

This month's crunch is info on Night dragons, both lesser and greater. They're a sneaky and deeply unpleasant bunch, even more than regular dragons, personally serving the immortals of Entropy. This does mean they're vulnerable to undead turning, holy water, etc, so it's not all bad. But they're not an easy fight, with every hit they do having a good chance of putting you out the fight. One of those monsters that would be substantially nerfed in later editions.

We also have another extra load of letters, all asking for extra info on various countries. (and the moon) Bruce encourages the writers to be more proactive in filling in the gaps in the Known world. After all, he can't single-handedly build a campaign setting. Prove that basic D&D is as popular as AD&D by sending stuff in yourself. Ahh, the problems that we were going through in that era. This brings them all back.


The HERO system introduces Fantasy Hero. Ahh, the joys of generic systems. You do need to show people how to bend them to whatever end. And that means splatbooks. Yay. More money.