Let's read the entire run

Dragon Issue 283: May 2001


part 5/7


Rogues Gallery: At the end of last year, we got a whole family of characters detailed in this column. Of course, where there's one noble family, the laws of drama dictate there has to be at least one rival one. So say hello to the Talendars. You can bet they'll be rather more ruthless in their attempts to make a profit and get their leg up in Sembia's busy society. Can't make an omlet without breaking a few eggs.

Marance Talendar is easily the most detailed character we've seen in a while, getting not only the full attention of the intro fiction, but a two page spread to himself as well. And he merits it as well. A damned soul who's managed to win the favour of an archdevil in the hells and get back to the Realms, he's now obsessed with bringing down the Uskeverns. Well, money isn't so much of a concern once you've found out you can't take it with you, and spent years being tormented. He's quite capable of faking politeness and rationality though, and might well employ the PC's as part of his schemes. After all, how are they to know who the good and bad guys are until they've had some interaction with them?

Nuldrevyn Talendar is Marance's brother, but has become an old man during the time Marance spent in the hells, so you'd never know it from looking at them. He's mellowed a bit over the years, but he still wants to see his rival family humiliated, so he goes along with his brother's schemes. But if push comes to shove, he will put stability over personal vendetta. This will probably become an issue at some point in the books, won't it.

Ossian Talendar an an ambitious young member of the family, entirely willing to engage in underhanded methods to advance their cause. This has led him to become their underworld liaison, the kind of guy who gets out on the front line and puts his neck in danger. If he survives, he'll level up quite decently and maybe make it to the top in time. Gotta lay the seeds for the next generation, haven't we.

Avos the fisher is one of the low-life thugs that gets employed at a remove by the Talendars. He's a ruthless bullying guy who uses his fish hook as a weapon, and is highly specialised in it. He'll betray them without a second thought if the price is right though. So I guess it's back to business as usual in the column, although they have kept the new emphasis on ensuring characters are mechanically balanced. The writers are starting to really internalise the conventions of 3e, for better and for worse, and it's for the better in this case.


Vs Treants: Oooh. This isn't a monster I was expecting to see here, that has some quite interesting tactical quirks. Obviously fire is an essential part of fighting them, presuming you intend to kill, because otherwise you'll be setting yourself up for a lengthy and unpleasant vendetta. The important points are that they have long reach, but aren't that fast, so you want to have ranks in tumble and attack in groups to reduce the effects of attacks of opportunity, and remember to focus attacks on the treant itself rather than it's animated servitors. If possible, lure them out of the forest, as this will slant things in your favour quite a bit. This one has a good bit of 3e specific tactical notes that makes it clear they're really paying attention to the rules this time, and doesn't completely ignore the strategic approach either. It's definitely one of the better examples of this column.


Nodwick turns it's attention to the D&D movie. Much awesomeness occurs. And someone finally gets to see sex and D&D as well. Shame it's not us.


PC Portraits: Another round of priestly portraits, as you'd expect. They get a mild grimdarking, with heavier lines, a lot more eye makeup, and somewhat less racial diversity than the collection from issue 263. These look less like people you'd approach to talk about your problems, and more you'd cower before them for fear of being smitten or sacrificed on their altar for the greater glory. So I think the question is if you want your clerics to be friendly healbots, or bloodsoaked harbingers. Both are entirely valid, after all.

Dragon Issue 283: May 2001


part 6/7


Forum: Elzbeth Maclain has introduced roleplaying to her kids. This has helped bring the family together, and done the usual subtle educational stuff. It's all very positive, and just the thing that needs doing if you want gaming to survive for future generations. After all, as last issue showed, we're not getting any younger.

Jason Moscatello thinks that saying WotC have some kind of sinister agenda for trying to use equal amounts of both pronoun is ridiculous. All it's doing is being inclusive. And if being inclusive is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Jim Corrigan thinks Monte is reading too much into Tracey's article. This game is supposed to be about roleplaying, and that's all Tracy was doing.

Kevin Madison sides with Monte Cook against Tracey Hickman. To be frank, Mr Hickman sounds like a self-absorbed jackass. If he tried that crap in his game, he'd be shown the door. Really, he created kender, gully dwarves, AND tinker gnomes. And Fizban. And exploding mini dragons. And poetry. Did you really think that wouldn't be reflective of his personal playstyle. That's like expecting Michael Bay not to create a racist caricature for a character if you invite him to your game.

Michael LeBlanc thinks an open mind is important. Far too many of the people knocking 3e seem to have decided to hate it before they even saw the rules, yet along tried playing. Give it a chance. You've seen how many skeptics have been converted after doing so.


The play's the thing: Sentimentality is the kind of thing that it's tricky to create in a one-shot. People get attached to things with no practical value, but when building a character on a limited budget, you find yourself wanting to squeeze every bit of utility out of your points. Still, if something doesn't have game value, you might be able to get a lenient GM to just let you put it on your sheet anyway. Yup, it's another little article that looks at something nearly everyone does IRL, but you often forget to apply to your characters. Unlike Ray, who improved once he got a regular groove going, Robin doesn't seem to have quite the same long-haul appeal, as he's basically saying the same thing from a different angle each time. He might have emerged impressively, but he won't be sticking around and having as much influence as Ed at this rate.


Sage advice: How do primary and secondary attacks work for monsters. (with great exceptionality. See, 3rd ed isn't all unified formulas.)

What's a slam. Can it knock things down. (Zap! Splat! Kapow! No. )

Are skeletons immune to piercing weapons, or just resistant (Common sense dude. You can break bones with a spear, just not easily.

How far do giants move with a 5 foot step (5 foot. If it was a different amount, it wouldn't be a 5 foot step, would it now?)

Is duergar enlargement limited like the spell (yes)

My DM wouldn't let me coup de grace a stunned displacer beast (and they were quite right too. You never know what you might hit with a displaced creature, even if it's staying still.)

Do magic missiles suffer miss chances against displacer beasts (No. Ahh, magic missile. The old faithful of spellcasting. )

What age do red dragons get their spell-like abilities (Read. The. Description. Oh, there's an error? Skip takes that back. Read beyond the description to see the platonic ideal of the monster. All the rules are but shadows on the cave wall reflecting the true game, the ultimate game that's out there somewhere. Devote your life to the true game. Ommm.)

If a dragon enlarges itself, does it get the new powers of the higher size (No. Just the normal spell benefits. )

Is the retriever really immune to all damage apart from holy weapons. (Skip can see why you'd think that. We'd better cast Create Official Errata, give it fast healing instead of regeneration. That'll sort out the problem. )

What inflicts normal damage on Planetars and Solars ( Oh man, Skip just used Cast Official Errata today. Skip wishes Skip had read ahead before doing this so Skip could have included these guys in the same spell. )

How about Kytons and pit fiends? There's some kinks in their damage resistance as well. (Yeeeees. Them too. Official errata all round )

Does divine damage count as holy for the purposes of beating regeneration. (Not unless you houserule it. )

How does taking -20 to avoid the effects of grappling work ( Choose each turn if you want to suffer the penalty to gain the benefits. Are you willing to take that risk?! )

How does improved grab and damage dealing work (Grab. Inflict pain. Repeat. )

How does swallow whole work. (Bite, hold on, swallow. Quite a few rolls, but not as many as PC's would have to make in the same situation. )

Just what can and can't be brought back to life by various spells. (Honestly. One of the reasons we had the rules revision was to clean up this kind of messiness. At this rate, we'll have to do another in a few years.)

Storm and cloud giants gain extra hit dice as if they were large creatures? (This does have an effect when you advance them. Trust Skip. )

Would all the extra attacks by a vampiric monk drain levels (Bugger that for a game of soldiers. It's nerfing time. )

How many creatures should a monster with a CR of 5 be a challenge for (4. Standard party size these days. Not that there's anything wrong with a bigger party. Skip remembers the days when you had a dozen PC's plus a bunch of hirelings. Ahh, nostalgia.)

How deadly is a large ghoul (Apply the size change formulae. They aren't hard.)

Why are Vampires and Ghosts templates while Ghouls and Wraiths aren't. (One involves you keeping your basic appearance and personality. The other doesn't. You may have a few memories left over, but you can kiss your class abilities goodbye if you're killed by them. Course, since they level drain, you may have lost them even if you survive. )

How smart and aware are creatures without int scores. Can you bluff them. (Depends who programmed them and how. In any case, they'll never learn, so if a trick works once, it'll work again every time. Just don't try talking to them.)

Dragon Issue 283: May 2001


part 7/7


Role models: If getting into those little nooks and crannies on a mini is a tricky procedure involving knowing what order you're going to do stuff, faces are even more of a problem. If you don't have a fine-tipped brush and steady hands, you won't get very far. Eyes in particular are a real challenge to do right, as the black is the smallest part, with the lighter colours around the edge. So as usual, it's time to get over the nerves by going through things in a clear, step by step fashion. No task is too big or too small that it can't be broken down and made more accessible, although when you add the steps up, it can still take a LOOOOOONG time. You'll just have to hope that you have that time to get good, because it may take a fair bit of work in this case. I wonder how good I'd be at it now if I'd taken that up as a pasttime instead of this thread.


Dungeoncraft: Ray is in theme too this month, talking about the deities on his new world. Rather than mysterious otherworldly forces, he decides to makes them really ancient and powerful dinosaurs that may have withdrawn from the world a bit, but can still be found if you know the right hidden valleys to trek too. So they're alien and scary creatures that you propitiate because they're quite capable of going on a rampage with hordes of normal dinos as an army and messing your right up. That's pleasingly S&Sish, and makes for a setup where you probably won't be in direct danger from them at low level, but will be able to challenge them near the end of a campaign. And hey, they're still nicer than Dark Sun's Sorcerer-Kings. With some of the most solid setting detail yet, this is one of my favourite Dungeoncrafts, giving religion in this setting some real teeth, so there's a very good reason not to be an atheist. Bow down before your tyrannosaurical overlord, puny mortals!


Dragonmirth is once again more of a danger to their own friends. What's new has some fairly minor deities drop in.


Looks like it's another pretty good issue, with most of the flaws being little annoying things in the mechanics as they're still getting the hang of 3e. Still, as with the early issues of the magazine, the renewed sense of enthusiasm covers a multitude of small sins. Things look pretty bright for the near future. So now for the birthday issue. Will it have the same renewed sense of purpose as the april one?

Dragon Issue 284: June 2001


part 1/7


133 pages. (132, plus an answer turned upside down and magnified) 25 years. What a number to reach. Well, things certainly look better than they did for year 20. They have a rejuvenated new edition, lots of old fans coming back, considerably better layout technology, and lots of brand new features. But I'm still not going to get to review whatever's on the bonus CD. Oh well, it's a big issue, it may well take a fair bit of effort to finish even so. Let's see which of these features'll be forgotten like pinsom, and which'll stick around for years to come like the bazaar and bestiary.


Scan quality: Ragged edges, unindexed, no bonus CD.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: The editorial is a little look back at what the magazine was like in the past. Which reminds us just how long Kim and Roger were in charge, and that Dave took quite a while to grow to fill their shoes, what with the various problems the company was facing when he was promoted. It's also a good reminder that they covered a greater variety of stuff back then, which I definitely miss. This is the trouble with sticking too close to the middle path, because they want to please as many people as possible with every single article. And the magazine is never going to recapture that sense of openness and possibility, no matter how many cool D&D articles they produce. Looking back is only really fun if you feel that you might be able to do better still at some point. Not a great start.


Scale Mail: We start off with a letter that wonders if halflings and gnomes will have to share their themed issues again this edition. Fear not! The affirmative action continues. You'll soon find out just what they can do these days.

Phil Foglio's april cover gets both praised and picked over. Was showing so much flesh a wise move? Was trying to hide some of it after that? Oh, chill out. Your audience are big boys now, and can handle a little swearing and nudity. Just another example of how showing violence in media is a lot more acceptable than sex in america.

We get another one of those extended commentary pieces that they have to edit down substantially before printing. Short and snappy is the way to go if you want mass media to pay attention. Otherwise they'll just pick out soundbites, and you can't be sure which one they'll zero in on.

And finally, we have some amusing gordian knot solutions to the puzzles from issue 281. Killing everyone is once again the most sensible solution in many cases.


Nodwick faces the dread specter of backstory. And loses.


PROfIES: Phil Foglio! A name which didn't get profiled back in the old days, but probably ought to have. Seems like they're choosing to cover lots of artists in quick succession at the moment. He's one of those people who takes a very interesting attitude to laziness, working ridiculously hard because it's more profitable in terms of profit/effort ratio to do stuff in bulk. He's married to Kaja, who is also an artist, and the two collaborate extensively on their various comics, as well as keep each other going in general. Seems like that's a common occurrence. Monte & Sue Cook, Ethan & Aileen Skemp. Jeff Grubb & Kate Novak. Even though they may take their work home with them, they seem less prone to burnout and moving into other fields than people who remain single or married to civilians. He also stays friends with lots of other big names, which doesn't hurt his career either. After all, he's more than big enough to not be insecure about his talents. He seems pretty angst free in general. Long may he produce awesome work before the inevitable hand of entropy drags him away, kicking and screaming, as it must to all of us some day.


Previews: The Forgotten Realms never really went away, but this month it returns with a vengance, with 4 products in a go, just like the old days. The Forgotten realms Campaign Setting opens things up again, albeit with more than a few changes, the usual timeline update, and a retcon or two on top. Still, the changes are less polarising than next edition's ones. They also continue their adventure series based on the computer games. Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor lets you kick butt and get new magic items. Can you avert yet another apocalypse?

Their novels are pretty busy too. We get a novelization of the previous computer game and adventure, by Carrie A Bebris. As ever, you can expect their experiences to be taken as the canon ones for the timeline. There's also The Shattered Mask by Richard Lee Byers. More turmoil in paradise. Might as well say is it that time of week already.

Dragonlance hasn't stopped either. Betrayal by Jean Rabe sees Dhamon continue to have plenty of reasons for Aaaaaangst. Will he pull through in his companion's time of need?

(un)reason said:

Dragon Issue 284: June 2001

Click to expand...

My first issue of Dragon! I don't have it with me at the moment, unfortunately, but I'll be eagerly reading your analysis. The cover was magnificent, really beautiful.

Dragon Issue 284: June 2001


part 2/7


Countdown to the forgotten realms reaches zero, but is still going. And they're reminding us that the realms was primarily born as a kitchen sink where you could place and draw elements liberally, and even if you don't play in it, there's still vast quantities of crunch and setting detail that you can steal for your own world. But this flows both ways, as they have so much stuff that they want to update from last edition that they're taking generic monsters, and detailing them in FR books. That's a bit cheeky, and feels a bit like cheating, forcing people to buy these books if they want to use them again, even if they aren't a fan of the Realms. Play nice, now. I suppose it's consistent with WotC's cancelling everything but the most popular lines. They want to try and please all the people all the time, and despite it's haters, the Realms has come closest to that. If they could get the rest of their demographic buying it, they wouldn't have to worry about the split base problem anymore. Nice try, but no dice. I still like my variety, thank you very much.


Up on a soapbox: A short one this month, as more than half the page is taken up by graphs. Character development, role assumption and story come in at the top, while building, business and economy are at the bottom. There are some mild variations due to gender and experience, but all of these are well under 10%, showing that the variation in individuals is far greater than any broad divisions of gender and race. (although roleplaying is still very predominantly a white male pastime. ) We get into this for the imaginary people, not the imaginary objects. Because really, it's the drama and relationships that are important and get us invested, everything else is just a backdrop. Even geeks can not stay engrossed with slaughtering alone. I find that very telling.


Dork tower presents the non-history of dragon magazine. Look how thing's have non-changed.


Scale & claw: So half-dragons are a lot more common than they used to be last edition, and the rules on what kinds of dragons can produce them are far less restrictive. That IS an interesting change. What do I think of it? Actually, I find myself surprisingly ambivalent. The scientific part of my brain recognises the value in having things accessible and standardised, but there's still a part of me that finds the baroque rules of the issue 206 version more interesting, where each half dragon type has individual rules, some of which vary for the same species on different worlds. Still, with the mechanics all sorted out, that means they can devote more attention to the roleplaying and characterisation side this time. Like most halfbreeds, they get plenty of leeway to favour either side of their parentage, but their charisma bonus isn't always enough to stop them from becoming viewed as freaks and outcasts. And even more than before, they're more powerful than the average character, (until you start enforcing ECL to slow their advancement appropriately) so they can be a real temptation for a PC. This is a good reminder of how much more open 3e is in terms of player options, but also how if all the PC's are special, none of them will feel special in the long run. Where the rules don't provide oversight, the DM must for the game to remain fun.


Draconian Tactics: This is an even more familiar topic, that's mainly enlivened by the fact that as their first birthday under 3e, they can go into plenty of detail on specific tactics that the new rules support or discourage, and it'll be fresh this time around. Individual races do have roughly the same sets of spell-like abilities that they used too, but these have been subtly changed by the new rules. They can also choose different feats, select more spells than they probably could under 2e, and if you're really mean, you can add templates or class levels to increase their flexibility further and keep the players on their toes. So this avoids rehash by being sufficiently specific that it's full of advice you won't have seen before, but also shows that the writers stayed sufficiently true to the dragon types as we know them as to not alienate old players. It's an article that needed to be done, so it's good that it was done well.


Dragontongue: The language primers seem to be decreasing in frequency now, but they haven't done dragons, so they can join in here this year. And since Draconic is a language commonly used by spellcasters, and many lizardy humanoids use simplified dialects as well, a solid grounding is rather handy to an adventurer. Unsurprisingly, they have a lot of different possessives, reflecting that they're greedy buggers, so they like to define exactly how they stand with respects to another person or object. The sample phrases aren't as verbose as I would expect though, usually coming in at fewer words than their english equivalents (which are weirdly colloquial in themselves, and feel like they would be tricky to directly translate. ) I have a hard time imagining a dragon saying "Totally radical dudes! Let's send out for pizza" So as usual, I'm not totally enamoured of this series.


Run for your Lives: Time for the usual kind of advice about running a dragon and keeping it scary. Build up any encounter beforehand, and don't overuse the dragon itself. Remember to play them smart and prepared, but also arrogant and maybe too paranoid for their own good. Nothing particularly new here then, unlike the previous articles. If you've read previous years, (and I know they have increased their readership lately, so there must be some new people that this is relevant too) you can skip this one and not feel like you've missed anything. Again.

I remember being highly amused by the fact that the closest Draconic approximation of my name - "Jharnythandre," if I recall correctly - translating as "Great Charm-Eyes."

Johnathan

(un)reason said:

Dragon Issue 283: May 2001


Looks like it's another pretty good issue, with most of the flaws being little annoying things in the mechanics as they're still getting the hang of 3e. Still, as with the early issues of the magazine, the renewed sense of enthusiasm covers a multitude of small sins. Things look pretty bright for the near future. So now for the birthday issue. Will it have the same renewed sense of purpose as the april one?

Click to expand...

And we reach the end of the bulk of my Dragon collection. I was buying the magazine for much of Gross' 2e era, and my final subscripion ended with this one. At the time, I didn't have the money to renew, and so I didn't follow the magazine through most of the 3e days. I suppose some of the stuff that appeared at the end of the 2e issue may have seemed like tiresome rehashes to someone who had been following since the old glory days, but this stuff was mostly fresh to me.

I think the magazine had a pretty decent run from about the time WotC bought out TSR until issue 273. During this time, Dragon started to experiment more with color printing, and I like the way the magazine was laid out until the beginning of 3e. Some of the design might have been a bit conservative, but it pleased my aesthetic taste. The early 3e issues looked like crap, IMO. Too much experimentation, unreadable fonts, and just ugly-ass layouts and art. OTOH, the earliest issues I had picked up were late 1995, when there were serious problems with turnover on the magazine's staff that I was unaware of at the time. I was just simply unimpressed with the offerings and thought the magazine was making some real improvements at the start of 1996. Many of the feature articles did slowly improve from 1996 onwards, though maybe some of the more regular features were weak.

Dragon Issue 284: June 2001


part 3/7


Taste test: Robin Laws goes into psychoanalyst mode again, trying to break gamers down into useful categories, that'll then allow you to ensure they all get a chance to do the things they love. Make sure there's fighting for the hack-and-slashers, talky bits for the roleplayers, and challenges that utilise any idiosyncratic special abilities characters might have. I'm thinking if you need to think like, you aren't putting enough effort into making your setting solid and detailed enough that players can apply whatever tools they prefer to get a result anyway. While it is important to make your game fun, if the players feel you're pandering to them, and everything comes too easy or is only solvable by their specific combination of stats and equipment, the world loses verisimilitude. So yeah, this is a bit too far into the narrativist side of the GNS triangle for my tastes. Kinda losing me here.


Wise as an Ox, Strong as an Owl: An article on making the most of low ability scores right after the editorial talked about it? Must be playing on their minds then. But of course, while there may be roleplaying advantages to playing a character who has some weaknesses, they also have mechanical vulnerabilities. And in a game as tactical as 3e, that becomes more significant. So this isn't just about how to roleplay a character with a low stat, but how to play them tactically so their weaknesses have less impact on their actions, particularly in combat. (Con & Dex are the ones you really suffer for neglecting regardless of role) Another pretty good bit of evidence that their priorities have shifted quite a bit, and they're reducing rehash by exploring this new playstyle thoroughly. Iiinteresting.


Fiction: Pilgrim's test by Thomas Harlan. Fool Wolf's story has finished. Now here's the debut of another writer who'll get quite a few stories published in the next few years. This is an action high, and magic light little story, set in the time of the crusades, and focussed on the adventures of a young knight and his wise old servant. In typical adventurer style, when the DM tries to railroad him into surrendering, he proves himself quite capable of surviving a threat that has him seemingly outmatched, and causing a fair amount of collateral damage. So this rings fairly true to my own adventuring experiences, while also not being overly D&Dish, and still working as a story. I can see why they'd invite him back on this showing, especially if his rules writing is also good.


Campaign Corner: We've had a longstanding problem with some people wanting more coverage of specific game worlds, but it being a struggle to get the material, and the new owners wanting to avoid splitting the fanbase. This is their latest attempt, cramming a ton of little plot hooks into a few pages, adapted for their respective campaign worlds. They're all notes that are designed to lead players into an adventure, and have multiple options on how it could go so even if your players read this, they'll still won't be spoiled on the adventure. So this is one for if you need an initial spark to get you going, but know how to build on that under your own steam. This seems like it could stay interesting for a while.


Class acts: Monte turns his attention to a topic he would later revisit in greater depth in Arcana Evolved. The dragon kith, a person who gains draconic abilities by swearing fealty to one, and then performing rituals that bond them together. And they're not quite as good as the later incarnation, with some awkward roleplaying limitations for not particularly spectacular powers. While nearly any class can get into them, they're best optimized for fighty sorts, with their full BAB, natural armour, (which will of course stack with everything else) and smiting effect. Probably best used as NPC's, unless you want a dragon ordering you around and dragging the rest of the party on their missions.


Faiths of Faerun: Ooh. Yay. The start of a new column. Gods are an important part of the setting, and they've certainly made plenty of appearances in the magazine. But so far, that's usually been a whole pantheon to an article, which means individual deities only get a page or two at most. On the other hand, most do not credit an entire book about them. But an article going into more depth on one, ecology style, wouldn't be a bad idea, and could give them years of articles without rehashing themselves. This has definite potential.

The reality, unfortunately, is rather less glamorous. Fluff expansion is completely eschewed in favour of taking a rather anally detailed look at multiclass clerics, and how to best achieve the crunch matching the flavour of two cleric orders, Azuth's Magistrati and Helm's Watchers. As with so much of the multiclass path stuff, this all feels like discredited design that will result in suboptimal characters compared to a straight cleric. Another case where the kinks of the format definitely need ironing out. Send feedback!


Elminster's guide to the realms: This new column, on the other hand, looks really cool, with a real emphasis on the looks. Ed did this before in 1994 with Elminster's notebook, a 1-2 page adventure hook/setting expansion with extensive illustrations building the atmosphere. Only now it's in full colour, with maps, and a greater emphasis on actually detailing the meat of the encounter. Still, some things remain familiar, and one of those is that there's absolutely tons of high level spellcasters in the Realms who've achieved a degree of immortality. (as they're near impossible to kill for good once they've got their contingencies up, they just keep on accreting) Thankfully, the one detailed here is a fairly friendly sort, willing to share his knowledge to those who come in peace, and give brutal demonstrations of his custom spells to those that don't. You can get to high levels self-taught, but if you want a real breadth of options (especially important if you're a wizard) you need to be aware of other's ideas and borrow them liberally. I think this reinforces that one of the reasons for the Realms' success is that it is the closest of all the D&D worlds to the way a world that ran on D&D physics would actually turn out, so it rings true to people's experiences. And as long as that continues to be the case, it'll continue to be popular despite the overcrowding.

Dragon Issue 284: June 2001


part 4/7


Cities for the ages: The new columns continue with one that could in theory continue for as long as the Ecologies, but in practice, it seems unlikely. While there are plenty of interesting historical cities out there, we've found these articles tend to draw more than their fair share of annoying nitpicking, which grows tiresome to the editors after a while. Scanning ahead reveals it lasts less than a year before being consigned to the scrapheap.

But anyway, they're starting off with London. We've already had a fairly substantial adventure set there in issue 100, so this shouldn't be unfamiliar to long-term readers. What's interesting is that they choose to concentrate on the way it was in the elizabethan era. It's population was only in the hundreds of thousands, but many modern land marks were already in place, and it was more than crowded enough for disease, smog, and some fairly complex industrial setups. They also stat out the major figures of the day, although I'm dubious how well they map to D&D classes. Well, many of the adventure hooks are explicitly supernatural as well, so strict realism obviously isn't on the agenda. It's more another reminder that there's tons of stuff you can plunder from historical and folklore books for a game. So so far, this is pretty interesting. Let's see if it's short run was due to a descent into moribundity, or lack of popularity.


Giants in the earth: Thomas Harlan follows up his fiction with the stats of some of the characters. Jerusalem in the time of the crusades was obviously one of the most ethnically diverse, interesting places you could live, with plenty of opportunities to both kill and be killed in the name of your principles. Pity the people who just want to live a normal life there.

Golonza di Barratti demonstrates the general low power level of the setting. At only 6th level, he's one of the most powerful spellcasters around, and his spellbook is still lacking the big blasty spells a Forgotten Realms one of the same level would take for granted. Which means he still has to worry about the church and respect of his peers. Oh, if only you could be a sorcerer instead, then they'd all pay!!!!

Sir Harold Edwinson is the young impetuous knight who was the star of the story. Despite his temper, he's still more than principled enough to keep his paladin status, and has more than enough personality quirks to not be just an engine of righteousness. Now he just needs a master he can respect, who can keep him pointed in the right direction to do the most good.

Sir Carl Zorn Zugott is older and more cynical, but has managed to retain his faith nonetheless. Spend a while dealing with the best and worst of people, and you'll learn it's not about sides, there are good and evil people of all races and religions. I think that applies anywhere.

Manwys ap Lleidd is the wise old squire who tries to keep Harold alive, both in battle and in the kitchen. This means he has plenty of stories to tell, and a dry sense of humour about the strange things he's seen. It's the old ones you've really got to watch out for, as they're the ones with the biggest set of tricks up their sleeves.

Jacopo Ghiarelli reinforces again that this is a magic low world, and most musicians are simply experts or rogues, not D&D style bards. Even a single level in a spellcasting class (gained due to an encounter with the fae) is a big deal, that can leave a person traumatised. He still pretends to be a happy-go-lucky rogue, but it's not easy. Still better than being burned at the stake I guess.

Fingold Torfinson also shows that there is more supernatural stuff going on outside the realms where christianity holds sway, as a half-elf who has a serious vendetta against the drow. So this leaves me interested in finding out more about his setting, and if he can manage to avoid the rapid escalation that the rules encourage. It's nice to see them still trying to integrate historical stuff into the game.


The bestiary: Johnathan M. Richards shows that not everyone is keen to leave the excesses of late 2e behind, by giving us the same birthday gift he did 2 years ago. More Greater Drakes. More little attempts to find rational biological excuses for breath weapons, and give low level characters the chances to ride dragons without it completely breaking the game. It's not as bad as getting socks, but it does seem a little played out, especially now you could add half-dragon to all manner of riding beasts and have your flying, firebreathing mounty fun that way. Yawn.

Barautha spit venom like cobras, blinding you in the same way.

Ermalkankari store stones in their gullet, then spit them at you.

Mardallond store fermenting liquid in their throat bladders, then do the fire-breather trick. Their breath must constantly smell like they're totally pissed.

Trilligarg are chameleonic, and have lots of inflatable spikes on their throat bladder. The puffer fish trick works better when it's your whole body that does the inflating.

Vallochar spit web fluid at you, and can walk in webs. Just the thing for spiderman to ride, should he ever desire a dragon mount. And let's face it, that idea should appeal to the 5 year old boy in all of us.