Let's read the entire run

Dragon Magazine Issue 170: June 1991

part 2/6


Crossing dragons with everything: Now this, on the other hand is easily recognisable as part of a long thread that gradually got a larger part in D&D as the years went by. They haven't got to the point where draconic hybrids become playable, or templates let you combine them with anything with minimal effort, but it's only a few years away. Greg Detwiler does his part to advance the idea here, with some rough guidelines and sample creations.

Mantidrakes look curiously similar to Arcanine from Pokemon, but let's not hold that against them. Since they can fly (clumsily) and have two quite effective ranged attacks, they can be pretty effective against unprepared adventurers. Strafing is one of those combat manoeuvres I don't remember seeing used that much in comparison to it's appearances in films.

Dracimera take an already draconic creature, and make it all the weirder, with two heads up front, and one where the tail should be. This means they get a lot of attacks all round with widely varying damages, and it's rather hard to backstab them. Should also make for an interesting fight.

Wyvern Drakes are also not very surprising, since wyverns are relations of dragons anyway. Once again, they give you the chance to combine the iconic breath weapon and immunities with the tactics of a somewhat weaker creature, so you don't have to deal with the vast array of mental and magical powers full dragons have, just a tough straight-up fight with flight, instadeath poison and almost as lethal breath weapons. Seems like that's a very definite axis of conflict amongst writers. The big smashy lizard vs cosmically connected wise creature of the ages battle is a tricky one, and in a game like D&D you need to cater to both ends.
On the whole this is another vaguely unsatisfying article, as the sample monsters aren't hugely interesting, and it lacks the rigour of later attempts at this.


The dragon's bestiary: We've certainly had no shortage of new dragon species over the years. But for their 15th anniversary they try something a little more ambitious, setting up a new draconic family in an attempt to get them into common use like the Gem Dragons. So say hello to the Ferrous Dragons. Now, there are actually only 3 naturally magnetic metals, but that doesn't stop them from stealing from the rest of the transition metals to make up the full 5. So this does seem like slightly shaky ground, especially as they don't have a particular theme binding them together like alignment or the celestial bureaucracy. Still, they've pulled together things with even less of a foundation before, so let's test this pudding the hard way.

Nickel dragons have a pretty critical typo in their statblock that means while they're intended to be the weakest, they're actually the toughest. Dear oh dear. That aside, like white dragons, they fill a dim but mobile niche, able to breathe underwater, swim, fly and assume gaseous form. They'll surprise you, pounce on you, and gobble you up.

Tungsten dragons are the nice guys of this extended family, complete with the lack of initiative that means they don't accomplish a huge amount in the wider world. They're also prone to being a bit intolerant. Seems a bit Pooterish, if he could make you spontaneously combust by glaring disapprovingly.

Cobalt dragons are as colourful and toxic as their namesake, with powers that encourage trickery and striking from a distance using the terrain to their advantage. They're a good rival for green dragons, in another example of evil not being even slightly monolithic.

Chromium dragons are also pretty nasty, their cruelty matching their shininess and capacity for complex chemical reactions. Their control over ice makes them another one very able to exploit their natural terrain to their advantage. Like all the previous ones, they have a natural rival, in this case silver dragons. Seems like the writer is setting these up for interesting conflicts.

Iron dragons are the bosses, of course. As neutrals, they can be friend or foe to your party, and as shapeshifters, they can get all over the place. They seem quite friendly to humans as a whole, which means one could serve as a mentor or employer to the party. They also get lots of rock controlling powers, curiously enough. Seems like all the ferrous dragons will have better designed lairs than the average dragon.

Gruaghlothor is their onomatopoeicly named ruler. He's a good deal more badass than Sardior was, keeping up with the 2nd ed upgrade, but not godly like bahamut and tiamat. This means he's a beatable adversary for high level parties if you can avoid being splatted by his breath weapon. He maintains their fairly solid set of design principles, with attention to lairs and rivalries paid. This has definitely been an article I've warmed too along the way, and looks like it could make a decent addition to a game, especially if you have lots of dragon NPC's that aren't immediately for the killing.

Dragon Magazine Issue 170: June 1991

part 3/6


We get our first teaser for dark sun, although it doesn't reveal it's name. But the imagery is familiar enough. Great place to adventure in, but you wouldn't want to live there.


Forum: Joey Kostura talks some more about various anime, concentrating on ones that are easily adaptable to gaming such as Megazone and Bubblegum Crisis. They do seem to be in the gradual word of mouth stage still, but every appearance like this gets the snowball rolling a little faster.

Paul Astle shows us how to ruin the life of a character who's become too powerful, and constantly shows off that power. Having to fight at the drop of a hat whenever some punk thinks he can challenge you gets rather tiresome, and you can't stay in full battle gear all the time. Sooner or later they're going to slip, unless they're just purely focussed killing machines. But then, some PC's are.

Duane VanderPol also replies to Robert Rogers' letter with some more technical suggestions about how to nerf powered armour in the Star Wars RPG. All the fiddly costs and rolls and forms, it's enough to drive you mad and make you give up. At least, that's the hope.

S. D. Anderson gives us a third set of tools to deal with overpowered power armour. If all else fails, make them fight a radioactive opponent. Then even if they win, they HAVE to dump the armour or slowly die from radiation poisoning. Man, people are mean.

Ben Ehrets has yet another suggestion. Corrosives. Rust monsters aren't just for D&D, they're for life. Actually, they'd fit right in in the Mos Eisley cantina, wouldn't they.

Michael R Federow brings in the arms race idea. You get more powerful, your enemies should get more powerful at approximately the same rate. Now that's just common sense. We can't be having with that here.

Dave Ewing completes the star wars depowering by telling the GM to tailor adventures to his PC's weak points. After all this, if Mr Rogers can't solve his problems, then he's obviously not very bright. Funny to think that this topic has made the forum the least D&D-centric it's ever been. Even the satanic controversy never managed that.


The voyage of the princess ark: The Ark moves westward along the coast, and reaches the divinarchy of Yavdlom. Bruce is increasingly giving us stories from many different points of view, as the various characters split up and do their own thing. This of course allows them to get in trouble that they could easily have handled if they stuck together, but we have to challenge them somehow. Haldemar gets paralyzed and tied up again, and is framed for the murder of the great prophet. Fortunately, the fact that most of the clerics there have prophetic powers means this doesn't stick, and he gets rescued and released pretty soon. I think a little vengeance is in order. After all, they can't sit around waiting for their enemies to strike next. They're not the kind of people who fatalistically accept whatever their destiny is going to be.

This month's crunch is more stuff on Yavdlom, and how it is governed. They read the destiny of people, and give them an importance commensurate with the amount of important stuff they are going to do in their life. Which may produce recursive results, as by giving them that power, they make them more able to fulfil that destiny. Still, it's a perfectly reasonable idea in a world where magic is common, and it does get around the problem of indolent hereditary nobles. It does run into problems where PC's are involved, which is where the typical cryptic non-interference clause comes in. Still, it's nice to see more experiments with strange forms of government. That's one thing that fantasy is very good for, that also has potential for useful applications in reality.


Fiction: a wing of wyverns by M C Sumner. Bringing D&D monsters and modern technology together is another thing that can be done in many ways. Here, it's used to tell an eco-parable about endangered species and the havoc that we unintentionally wreak on the environment. Somehow it's harder to stay concerned about the welfare of creatures that are able to eat you up with ease, even if they are rare and valuable. Even people who agree in principle with the idea that every species is sacred are likely to say "Not in my back yard" to a family of hungry little dragons. And both the PETA girl and the hard-nosed pragmatist in this story wind up coming to understand the other's viewpoint a little more. It's all a little moral of the dayish. And I'm not very keen on those, so on reflection, it's thumbs down time, despite there being several cool elements in it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 170: June 1991

part 4/6


Chill once again beats white wolf to the punch with a lycanthropes sourcebook. Still, it's not who gets there first that really counts, it's who gets there best.


The role of computers: King's Quest V demonstrates that it's about time computers moved to CD's as their primary game distribution method, as putting a 12 mb game over 10 floppy disks sounds rather like torture to me, from both a coder and loader PoV. Still, all this data is reflected in the visuals, which do look pretty good for their time. Seems like a fairly standard point and click adventure game, in hindsight. Computer games have many more joys to show us in the future, as they grow ever more sophisticated.

Rise of the Dragon is another adventure game, this time a cyberpunk one where you play a hard-bitten PI who was kicked off the force for being a loose cannon. With action, talky bits, and movie-esque narrative devices, it appeals to them, and gets 5 stars.

Space: 1889 sees another RPG property converted to computer game form. It's certainly not just D&D that's jumping on that bandwagon. The sound is a bit crap, but the storyline isn't bad. The big problem is telling all the NPC's apart, which does slow down investigations quite a bit. So be prepared for frustrating situations where you have everything but one piece of the puzzle, and have to grind for that.


Dragon kings: Nothing to do with dark sun, I'm afraid. Still, another boardgame as the magazine's centrepiece rarely goes amiss, especially since it's both a C. C. Stoll one and in theme with the issue. Unfortunately, as with the last one, they forget to include the board in the scanning, making it once again useless to me. Seems like whoever scanned the archive is becoming less and less meticulous about peripherals and proper indexing and searchability as they go on. Which is understandable since they had to do 257 of them and the later issues are a lot bigger, but still damn annoying from a reader viewpoint. All the more so when the rules seem pretty good, giving you a decent terrain for up to 4 clans of dragons to have a real battle royale, sustaining and recovering from horrible wounds. If anyone still has this lying around in their collection, I'd strongly appreciate being able to get my hands on a scan of the board & pieces. Until then, I leave this case open.



TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms sees Ed doing a little rehash, a little new material in Drow of the Underdark. Browsing my copy of this is a very different experience now I see just how much of this stuff appeared in bits in this magazine, some of it a good decade ago now. We also see the start of this year's trilogy. Last year, they did mongols. This time it's off to Anauroch for some desert nomady fun in The Parched Sea, part one of the harpers trilogy. Troy Denning continues to produce both game and novel material prolifically.

Spelljammer is also mixing the two sides of publishing. Nigel Findley creates SJR4: Practical planetology. Lots of ideas on how to create your own world. Sounds fairly invaluable, if something like an extended version of an article here. It also gets it's first novel. Beyond the moons, part 1 of the cloakmaster cycle by David Cook. As is often the case, a normal guy from a normal planet (well, Krynn ) is thrown into very weird situations. Just the way to sucker new people in.

Lankhmar is still getting a decent amount of attention as well. LNR2: Tales of Lankhmar has 7 more mini-adventures. Seems that's their preferred format for this world, paralleling the original short stories.

And finally, D&D gets a new introductory module for those who recently picked up the new basic set to grab. DDA3: Eye of Traladar. Just how easy and dumbed down will this one be?


The marvel-phile: They're Baaaaaaack. Not that surprising really, in a comic universe. The grim reaper has probably fitted a revolving door where heaven's gates used to be. Still, they don't always escape unscathed. Cameron Hodge, for example, has gone from a normal person with some unsavoury beliefs to an indestructible insane disembodied head with a cyborg body. (who is likely to be even more insane next time, after his method of ambulation was destroyed again, and he got buried. ) Speaking of the Grim Reaper, the Marvel version of him is back, stronger than ever, courtesy of Nekra, and equally reduced in sanity. Well, villains don't get buds offering up inspirational speeches to snap them out of their traumas. A good reminder that while comics may get a lot of flak for their frequent use of the reset button, there are some changes that stick, and these are generally the cool ones. Getting rid of the ones that prove unpopular is probably good for their long-term commercial survival. It's also a good demonstration how comic book changes are rarely as linear as character advancement in RPG's, with some substantial respecing taking place, and powers as often gained as lost. Seems like they've got lots of interesting stuff to report on for a while.

Dragon Magazine Issue 170: June 1991

part 5/6


Stand up and be counted!: Or here's your opportunity to vote for this year's Gamers Choice awards. Act fast, for you have less than a month to get them in. Interestingly, they're purely write-in, rather than having a shortlist of nominees and letting you tick boxes. That should produce interesting results, if probably skewed heavily towards TSR stuff. I wonder if they'll post them up in here afterwards. We'll see in a few months time.


Role-playing reviews: Off to revisit Ars Magica this month. Another game that's been selling quite nicely and building up the supplements over the last couple of years. And they are still trying to give the rest of the hobby at least basic attention. Ken certainly seems rather fond of it, so this should provide a decent bit of exposition and promotion for me.

The order of hermes provides lots of background expansion for the 13 houses. It also introduces the concept of Twilight, which we'll be seeing again in another RPG about wizards by White Wolf. They're a bunch of morally ambiguous power hungry bastards who are always scheming and betraying each other for personal benefit, which also seems very familiar now, but is a refreshing change to Ken after years of games which have the PC's presented as heroic even if they aren't particularly in practice. No more heroes anymore. Seems like everyone's singing that tune lately.

The Tempest is an adventure path for the game that may or may not draw upon the shakespeare play of the same name. It's low on maps, random encounters, and all that solid stuff, and high on plot, NPC characterisations, little clues that pay off down the line, and the kind of adventure arcs that are tricky to pull off without at least a little railroading. Good luck.

Covenants of course is useful for both players and DM's. You want to put together a team that's more than just a bunch of disparate power-seekers, this does the job, giving both mechanical assistance, advice and examples. The strength of the fiction is praised, which is no surprise. They know what they want to encourage in their players and are putting in the effort to make it so. Once again plenty of elements that will become incredibly popular in the WoD are already present and invoking nostalgia.

The Saga pack is the least interesting of the bunch, basically being just a GM's screen and a bunch of pregen Grog stats for those of you who chew through them like 1st level characters in the tomb of horrors. One for completists mainly.


The pitfalls of game mastering: Ahh, another of these. Just the thing for anyone who's just started picking up the magazine. A point by point guide to what NOT to do when DM'ing. Which in a way is easier to figure out and implement than what TO do. Let's run through the list. Neither too generous or too stingy with the challenges and rewards be. Cut the cliches. What's my motivation, maaan? Let the player's choices be meaningful (this gets reiterated in a whole bunch of ways, discouraging railroading, deus ex machinas, cheating, and taking it for granted that they'll make a particular choice. Keep the world consistent and developing, not just some static backdrop for the players. (again, covered from a whole bunch of different angles, including reminding you not to make your NPC's know everything you do, give enough detail for the players to work from, and the players valid choices.) Don't allow the players to metagame, and keep the 4th wall fairly solid in general. IC Goofy humour is also a game killer. Learn the rules, but don't let them rule you. Don't play favourites among your players. Just because you're god of the game, does not mean you can lord it over the players IRL. About 2/3rds of these are mistakes I never even considered making, right from when I started playing. Still, the others are, and if I'd started reading the magazine an issue earlier, then my first few years of gaming might have been somewhat different. So it is a fairly valuable contribution, that's written in a way that makes it's advice easier to follow. (although I still often struggle to find the time and inspiration to do enough worldbuilding, even if I don't make the other mistakes any more) I can't hate on this one, even if much of it is rehashed.

Dragon Magazine Issue 170: June 1991

part 6/6


Sage advice is really short again.
Can you stay in a maze spell longer than you have too. Can I abuse it in other ways ( Probably not. That would be too much hassle for us. )

Can innate shapechanging powers be dispelled (as long as you ain't in a true form)

Will anti-magic shell counter magic resistance (Ok, Skip has completely flipped from the pressure. Why would being resistant to magic prevent you from going inside something else that's resistant to magic. Two nos do not make a yes in this matter. )

What affects the calculation of the damage a fire shield inflicts (Nowt but the actual damage they do to you. Simple as that. )

Why can't globes of invulnerability move with the caster ( Because we say they can't. Nuh uh. We make the rules. You can't break them, or we'll take our toys and go home. )

Can you disrupt innate spell-like abilities ( no)

Can you attract an air envelope while on a planet (Oh, god, emergent physics strikes again. D&D is getting less and less realistic. Best say no for sanities sake. Oh, wait! Flurble Gibber flurble. How'd ya like some of that jello crate, mofo? )


Novel ideas: This month, they do for the forgotten realms what they did for Dragonlance a couple of months ago. The Maztica and Dark elf trilogies are drawing to a close, and in their place comes a new focus upon the Harpers, who are getting an extended ongoing novel series spanning the whole of the Realms. Troy Denning, Elaine Cunningham and Jean Rabe contribute the first three instalments. Meanwhile, R. A. Salvadore is taking a break from writing about Drizzt to produce the Cleric Quintet. One big difference between Krynn and Toril is that not everything ties together into one big story. It's a bigger world, with more loose threads winding all over the place and snarling up on things. Exactly why that proves more popular in the long run I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with greater variety of stories allowing it to appeal to a wider demographic. Or maybe it's due to better writers. In any case, lots of people are busily colouring in Ed's sketches. It's a good time for them. And this bit of promotion helps ensure that continues to be the case.


Dragonmirth has more knight-eating jokes. They're getting a bit stale, really. Yamara uses up another wish. Much courtly intrigue is had in twilight empire.


Through the looking glass: Baby dragons! So kyoot! Don't you just want to take one home and turn it into your familiar? The creators of this month's first mini have done their job well. The rest of this column is devoted to draconic figures as well. Which I'm vaguely surprised they've never done before, but this column wasn't around for their 10th birthday, was it. So here's 9 more figures for you to fight with, or simply put on display. (well, dragon fights aren't that common in most games.) Two of them have a riders, one has a master, and one is fighting an angel. Two of them are from Julie Guthrie, who it seems has gone from winning awards to actually making a living at this stuff. One of them has a lot of heads. All get marks between 4 and 5 stars, showing that he's either cherry picking the good ones for the celebrations, or deliberately being over-gentle with his reviews again. Come on, give us some good slatings, something we can get worked up about. You call yourself a reviewer?


Yet another mixed bag, with both stuff that I like, and stuff that I'm not very keen on. Since there's slightly less useful stuff than dull stuff & promotion, it's probably another solid 5/10er. If the scanners had remembered the board, it might be a 6. Course, it's the next issue I'm really interested in. I haven't looked at it since I started this thread. How will it stand up to my new viewpoint? Will nostalgia influence my opinions. Guess we'll see tomorrow. Don't touch that dial folks.

Dragon Magazine Issue 171: July 1991

part 1/6


124 pages. So we've finally reached the first issue I actually bought at the time. It's taken nearly two years, but we're here. Still even longer to go before we finish this, but from now on, I'm no longer looking at this from the perspective of a newcomer, even if I still haven't read many of these issues. Which is a fairly significant change really. This of course means you'll be hearing more about my personal experiences with the articles in this one. Hopefully that won't bore you.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter on the weight of coins. Very yawnworthy. The only notable thing is that Roger takes advantage of this to point out that money no longer gives you xp in 2nd ed. Which was certainly news to me when I bought this, so it's quite likely other people hadn't realised that either.

Two letters from people who find they have strong sympathies with wolves/werewolves in response to the stuff on vampires, and people talking getting inside their heads. Which makes the fact that Werewolf: the Apocalypse was the second world of darkness game seem very obvious in retrospect.

A letter from someone who strongly empathises with Kobolds, of all things. Actually a surprisingly common choice. Many people have a soft spot for the ultimate underdogs of D&D.

A letter from someone who empathises with rocks. man what. Actually, that's a sad story. Patronising older siblings suck.

A letter from someone who had sex with a wyvern while polymorphed. This obviously has them worrying about the consequences. Tee hee. This went completely over my pre-pubescent head the first time round. Once again, goes to show, with the desire to focus more of worldbuilding and ecology sometimes being at odds with the family friendly policy. We'll be seeing more on this topic in the future.



Editorial: Oh yes, I remember this well. A guest editorial by Michael Stackpole, on his recent experience with a burglar and his thoughts on his actions. We already know about the idiotic satanic accusations that surround the hobby, despite there being evidence that roleplaying actually reduces your odds of committing suicide & major crimes. (or at least, there is negative correlation. ) Here we see another bit of evidence disproving that stuff, albeit coming from the other way. When confronted by a burglar in reality, he didn't react even slightly like his character would have. Despite having a whole array of replica weapons he could have used to kill or threaten them with, he called 911 and then panicked and frightened them off by shouting. Goes to show doesn't it. Most people won't become badass psychopaths as a result of roleplaying, but at the same time, they're similarly unlikely to take the other extreme, and become merciful paragons of virtue who never compromise their principles, always keep their word and fulfil their obligations, no matter how great the adversity against them. Which is a bit depressing in a way. The call of mediocrity is strong in reality. Still, it shows that most people have no trouble subdividing their life and behaving in quite different ways fitting the circumstances.

Now, the big question is how you spot the people who are going to be a problem, and do something about it before they permanently up their life, and quite possibly other people's as well. Another complicated issue, and one that could probably be handled a lot better. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and funding shortsightedness will wind up costing you a lot more later on. Still, let's not get caught up too much in the problems of humanity and the real world. Despite the fact that they do intrude regularly whenever we have to interact with one-another, and many of the more advanced games are built around making humanities quirks work for us rather than against us, this is not the place for trying to save the world. Not that it wouldn't be cool if someone did, and then said I owe it all to roleplaying, but what are the odds of that.


Who's who among dragons: Continuing on from the birthday issue, we have a piece on the territories of various notable dragons of the Known World. There have to be more than enough of them to maintain a breeding population, and some of them will wind up in charge. I haven't read this one in years, and looking at it again, I'm amazed at how much information Bruce fits into a small article. Even more than Ed, he really does have a knack for giving us the crucial details to make for fun adventures. In this case that's HD, personality details, relationships with the other dragons around, and pointers as to the kind of lair they have. This is one that I fell in love with on first reading, (Particularly Marudi, who I wound up pretending to be on the playground for several weeks after) and still seems like a very good bit of worldbuilding indeed, far more concise and effective than the bloated Wyrms of the North series. As with much of his stuff, this is both easily usable if you're playing in the right campaign world, and done in such a way that it makes doing similar stuff for your own game seem quick and easy. A perfect way to start off reading, really.

(un)reason said:

Dragon Magazine Issue 171: July 1991

So we've finally reached the first issue I actually bought at the time.

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Close to that point for me too. I went to my pile to double check, and 175 is the oldest one I have (I have some photocopies from earlier issues). Sadly, many of the issues I know I bought between 185 and 215 are missing (along with some comic books, wah!), but my collection is almost complete from there forward.

We're still about 4 years away from my first issue. So it'll be a while.

Dragon Magazine Issue 171: July 1991

part 2/6


Hunting tanks is fun and easy: Top Secret continues get get occasional articles. When I first picked up the magazine, I assumed that meant it was still a healthy gameline like it was from my years out of date catalog that came with the basic set. Slightly saddening to realise it had already been put on hold for a good year now, and was tapering off in the magazine. Still, this is a fun, if rather crunchy little article that continues the military focus of the last few years, showing you how infantry and light vehicles can face tanks and not get completely pounded. Have those drama points at the ready folks, because it's not easy, but makes for pretty cool scenes. Nice to see this one again.


The making of a monster: Now this is one that definitely shaped my gaming. A roleplaying advice piece focussed on getting you into the head of nonhuman creatures, with their IQ's differing drastically from yours, along with their senses, needs and goals. Put yourself in their shoes, and ask yourself what you would do with their knowledge and resources if a bunch of adventurers came along. If they're smarter than you, then that can be simulated by allowing them a limited degree of metagaming, such as undefined contingency plans retroactively tailored towards the players actions. An ugly kludge, but better than the alternative. In any case, this was one of the things that rapidly broke the early habit of mindless hack and slashing, (the other being getting in legal trouble IC back at the homebase for attacking the neighbouring evil castle in my first campaign.) setting me on the path for trying out increasingly strange creatures and situations that culminated in the fun homebrewed stuff I did for the fair folk of Exalted in 2005, before starting to swing back towards examining the human condition again. It also has several other bits of cool advice, like monsters pretending to be other monsters, proper use of technology and natural abilities, and the joys of good collaborations. Another one that it's a joy to reread.


Care for a drink: The decanter of endless water. What a lovely device. This is another one that shaped my approach to playing the game, a strong reminder that you can get all kinds of uses out of many items and spells, and you always ought to be on the look out for that edge, for it may both save your characters lives and make for cool looking scenes as well. A fairly short article, this nonetheless has dozens of useful ideas for getting the most of an item that can produce unlimited water at high velocities. It's also a reminder how you can make established items more interesting by putting a minor twist on their powers, such as a decanter of endless lemonade instead of water. I thought it was really cool back then, and it still seems pretty decent now. Just the thing.


TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms finally gives mechanics for Doug Niles' pet project over the last year. Maztica gets a big spiffy boxed set. Strange new lands, magics and monsters are just waiting for you to explore them. Try not to lose your heart to the place, for many of the locals will take that phrase literally. Raven's Bluff is also a busy place these days. LC4ort of Raven's Bluff examines the nautical side of living there. Pirates, sea monsters, hidden cliff face caves. There's plenty of adventure to be had just offshore.

Dragonlance is also getting a double helping this month. DLS3: Oak lords turns the spotlight on the Qualinesti. As usual, we only get to find out about them when a crisis happens. The novels, on the other hand are still focussed on the unedifying history of the Silvanesti. This time it's their human-elf racism that gets examined in The Kinslayer Wars. Time for them to learn from their own aesops.

Ravenloft fills in some more of it's big bads in RR1: Darklords. What naughty stuff did they do to get trapped here, and how intractably hard will it be to get rid of them? Like an ugly winestain on the carpet of reality, the demiplane of dread continues to grow.

On the generic side, we have DMGR3: Arms and equipment guide. If the complete fighters handbook didn't provide enough weapon pr0n, this is for you. Tons of illustrations of strange polearms for you to fap over. Gary would probably approve. We also have another strange product that feels like an inflated article from this magazine. The AD&D trivia game. As if standard trivial pursuit wasn't geeky enough. Who will be the biggest rules lawyer, and win the night?

D&D is back to the hollow world, in HWR1: Sons of Azca. More heart ripping fun for if Maztica just isn't enough. Can't you mix up your cultures a little more? Has someone been leaving their reference books lying round the office again?

Marvel Superheroes has another fairly high level adventure ready. MSL2: Warlord of Baluur. Not very well written copy here, but it does the job. Try to resolve an alien invasion peacefully? Tricky business.

Buck Rogers continues doing planet sourcebooks, with 25CR4: Luna. Well, it's practically a planet in it's own right anyway. Do I see any objections? :Rumble of thunder, howl of wolves: I thought not.

And finally, our generic novel this month is Token of Dragonsblood, by Damaris Cole. A Princess raised secretly as a commoner? There's a cliche we haven't seen here in a while. Oh well, once more onto the path of destiny.

amysrevenge said:

Close to that point for me too.

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Orius said:

We're still about 4 years away from my first issue. So it'll be a while.

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It's a shame there's not enough poll options to get a good idea of which issues a greater number of people picked up first.