(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998
part 7/8
Dragonmirth covers many different eras this time, from nearly modern to primordial.
Roleplaying reviews: This column comes to an end with a nostalgia trip, fittingly enough. The new owners of AD&D seem a lot more interested in looking back and exploiting nostalgia than the last ones, partly because they aren't embroiled in feuds with the original writers of those books, and partly because they want to do what they know worked before. If they can get back some people who haven't bought a D&D product in years, (and hopefully keep them for a while) then their efforts were not in vain.
The Villains Lorebook is essentially an extended Rogues Gallery, giving us lots of stats for characters from Forgotten Realms novels. Lots of these are illegal, and many of them still feel sketchy despite having whole novels devoted to them. The artwork is inaccurate and frequently recycled. It's all rather unsatisfying, and feels cheap. That's cash-ins for you.
Return to the tomb of horrors is more sophisticated. It tries to replicate the tone of the original in some ways, but is still noticeably fairer in it's challenges than the old school meat-grinder. If your players are high enough level to survive the challenges here, it could well last you a few months, and the illustrations can genuinely make the puzzles more interesting for the players. I think you can get through more than a few muahahas running this one.
Greyhawk players guide and Greyhawk: The adventure begins get a joint review, as they're both essential for a DM who wants to use the updated Greyhawk setting. There is quite a bit of repeated information between them though, and things have become increasingly tied into the central metaplot and iconic characters, which of course have been issues for the forgotten realms and dragonlance, and makes it trickier for new characters to get off the ground and feel they can make an impact. Still, it's cohesive, interesting, and has plenty of adventure seeds buried in it. What they really need now is a few really good adventures to match up to the old ones that made this world's reputation in the first place.
The Dungeon builders guidebook updates and builds upon the idea of dungeon geomorphs, adding in advice on how to build dungeons and put monsters and traps in them to create an interesting, but not too brutal challenge. Again, it gets a solid but not exceptional mark, showing that while useful, this nostalgia trip isn't really setting his world alight.
We also get a brief review of Usagi Yojimbo and the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana to see us out. As with the book column, and the computer game ones ending, there's no mention of the fact that this is going to be the last one within the article, suggesting it was a fairly abrupt cancellation imposed from above. That does make me curious what political stuff is going on in their offices at the moment. It can't be easy, and seniority conflicts between the WotC people, and the TSR people who might have been working in gaming longer, but are now off-balance due to the company failure and moving across the country en masse could feel weird. Who was responsible for this particular change in editorial direction?
KotDT gets into the roleplaying for a change. Players are a pain in the ass.
part 7/8
Dragonmirth covers many different eras this time, from nearly modern to primordial.
Roleplaying reviews: This column comes to an end with a nostalgia trip, fittingly enough. The new owners of AD&D seem a lot more interested in looking back and exploiting nostalgia than the last ones, partly because they aren't embroiled in feuds with the original writers of those books, and partly because they want to do what they know worked before. If they can get back some people who haven't bought a D&D product in years, (and hopefully keep them for a while) then their efforts were not in vain.
The Villains Lorebook is essentially an extended Rogues Gallery, giving us lots of stats for characters from Forgotten Realms novels. Lots of these are illegal, and many of them still feel sketchy despite having whole novels devoted to them. The artwork is inaccurate and frequently recycled. It's all rather unsatisfying, and feels cheap. That's cash-ins for you.
Return to the tomb of horrors is more sophisticated. It tries to replicate the tone of the original in some ways, but is still noticeably fairer in it's challenges than the old school meat-grinder. If your players are high enough level to survive the challenges here, it could well last you a few months, and the illustrations can genuinely make the puzzles more interesting for the players. I think you can get through more than a few muahahas running this one.
Greyhawk players guide and Greyhawk: The adventure begins get a joint review, as they're both essential for a DM who wants to use the updated Greyhawk setting. There is quite a bit of repeated information between them though, and things have become increasingly tied into the central metaplot and iconic characters, which of course have been issues for the forgotten realms and dragonlance, and makes it trickier for new characters to get off the ground and feel they can make an impact. Still, it's cohesive, interesting, and has plenty of adventure seeds buried in it. What they really need now is a few really good adventures to match up to the old ones that made this world's reputation in the first place.
The Dungeon builders guidebook updates and builds upon the idea of dungeon geomorphs, adding in advice on how to build dungeons and put monsters and traps in them to create an interesting, but not too brutal challenge. Again, it gets a solid but not exceptional mark, showing that while useful, this nostalgia trip isn't really setting his world alight.
We also get a brief review of Usagi Yojimbo and the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana to see us out. As with the book column, and the computer game ones ending, there's no mention of the fact that this is going to be the last one within the article, suggesting it was a fairly abrupt cancellation imposed from above. That does make me curious what political stuff is going on in their offices at the moment. It can't be easy, and seniority conflicts between the WotC people, and the TSR people who might have been working in gaming longer, but are now off-balance due to the company failure and moving across the country en masse could feel weird. Who was responsible for this particular change in editorial direction?
KotDT gets into the roleplaying for a change. Players are a pain in the ass.