Let's read the entire run

(un)reason said:

After all, most fiction books aren't written like that, it's more the purview of textbooks and guides to things. What do you make of this?

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I think, if you'll pardon my usage of these over-used terms, I prefer my "fluff" to have a fictiony, prose-y tone, and my "crunch" to have a written-by-committee textbook tone (although I do like it when the textbook style occasionally has moments of informality - dialogue between the writer and the reader, using "you" in a somewhat intimate way).

I don't know how common my preference is, but someone's market research must have suggested it, because that's how I see most modern books turn out.

Dragon Issue 116: December 1986

part 1/4

111 pages. We're pink! The magazine now looks almost exactly like it did when I started reading! Nostalgia city! However, I assure you that I will not let matters of presentation bias me as to the quality of the articles. For some reason, they've decided to go with the aquatic theme this christmas. Nothing wrong with getting a little wet now and then. As long as the boring bits get glossed over. We don't want it to end up like the wind waker, do we? (well, there are worse things to base your games off) Lets see if this issue is a mighty battleship, or a waterlogged little rowing boat.

in this issue:

Letters: One letter about giving individual hit locations their own hit points. Roger gives an alternative method that doesn't require so much bookkeeping, but still adds a load of extra prepwork beforehand. Meh.
Two letters that think that as D&D is now starting to decline in popularity, the magazine ought to start devoting a greater proportion of it's space to other games systems. Not a bad idea. Roger gives the response that that's not what our survey repliers thought. We mustn't forget our core demographic. Oh, compromise, compromise. At least they aren't taking the route certain modern cable channels do and almost completely abandoning their original theme.

Forum: Craig Sessions tells the tragic tale of a girl who couldn't get anyone to join her game, just because she was a girl. How dumb are these people?! Was open sexism still that common in the 80's? Even if it was, you'd think at least a few would say yes simply because they want to score with her, as this is high school. Madness.:shakes head: It's as bad as the girl bassist in my class who was always complaining about exactly the same thing with respects to finding a band. Do they not understand basic principles of visual appeal and audience identification. Oh well. Their loss.
Dan Thompson thinks that save or instantly die poison is lame. High level characters shouldn't go out like that! Keep whining, little star, and eventually your wish will come true.
Alan D Long thinks that D&D ought to be targeted towards older people as well. There's a big untapped market with tons of disposable income just waiting for you. You could definitely be marketing the game better to increase your fanbase.
Niel Brandt gives a load of supplemental material for the mariner. This is pretty cool stuff, and still doesn't make them anywhere near as powerful as primary spellcasters, so I'd allow it.
Archie Li thinks that using humour in D&D should be done carefully, otherwise player suspension of disbelief may be destroyed. It's one thing to have IC jokes, but when they're built into the rules, it's just silly.
Chris Sanyk thinks that using batteries as a limiter for your high tech items is a good idea, but may run into source emulation problems. What makes a good show and what makes a good game are not the same things, you know.
James A Yates is in favour of nonweapon proficiencies, and feels that the longlived nonhuman races ought to have more. A perfectly reasonable statement that opens up a whole can of worms when it comes to game design, and still results in the odd flamewar today. Let the battle commence.
John Goldie is confusticated about the adjudication of illusions. Which considering they have a whole class devoted to them, is a big problem. Someone oughta do an article on it. Careful what you wish for. Both times they sent out a call like that, they wound up with a whole bunch of stuff, much of it contradictory. A special like that, with several different alternatives on how to handle illusions, would send the canonwankers into a frenzy of frustrated fapping.

To go with the dungeoneers survival guide, we now have the wilderness survival guide as well. Isn't that great news. At least Kim's departure didn't result in him pulling the work he'd already done. The company has enough problems on it's plate at the moment.

High seas: Sailing! In the real world, a huge number of our most renowned explorers and adventurers have been famed for their ocean voyages. It's full of hazards, both environmental and from creatures and people, and you get to see all sorts of cool stuff. It's also a perfect justification for episodic troupe play, with a large cast of characters, but only some of them taking part in each individual adventure, because someone has to stay back and take care of the ship and supplies while you explore the insides of the isle of dread, or whatever; while the fact that each adventure is on a different island, or is simply separated by several hundred miles of coastal sailing means you don't have to worry so much about your actions in one place having repercussions everywhere else. (at least, not straight away ) A very promising topic indeed. And our first article sets off to cover the details of sailing a ship, with a long and well integrated set of fluff and crunch. Lots of statistics, how you fought with them, how many crew members they needed, how much they could carry, maintenance, fighting giant sea monsters, this is a solidly researched, comprehensive stuff that richly deserves the pole position. It does skirt on the edge of dullness at times, and the crunch'll probably take a few readings to fully digest, but it still looks like pretty useful stuff. Another of the things everyone should try at least once, seafaring adventures are a great way to visit new lands, kill their inhabitants and take their stuff, while skimming over the months of dull wilderness travel needed to get there. And you can even do bottleneck politics on the way. Now, if only the magazine were telling us that, instead of leaving it up to me to virtually construct my own little article out of tangents.

LordVyreth said:

You better hold out. The Moore era is arguably my favorite one, though that may be the nostalgia talking. Though I've been getting more excited as the pieces fall into place. Moore, the Lessers...this is a few comics strips and a fantasy Star Trek equivalent away from being the magazine I started Dragon with.

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Don't worry. If I stopped now, I'd lose several hundred pages of stuff that I've written, but haven't posted yet. Not wasting that effort is a pretty powerful incentive to keep me going, and filling in the missing bits.

amysrevenge said:

I think, if you'll pardon my usage of these over-used terms, I prefer my "fluff" to have a fictiony, prose-y tone, and my "crunch" to have a written-by-committee textbook tone (although I do like it when the textbook style occasionally has moments of informality - dialogue between the writer and the reader, using "you" in a somewhat intimate way).

I don't know how common my preference is, but someone's market research must have suggested it, because that's how I see most modern books turn out.

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Since I make plenty of use of those terms, I'm not going to complain. Cliches become cliches because they work. Similarly, if facts are presented as objective, it makes us more likely to accept them as such than if they have a discernable author voice. It's all psychological, and goes to show how easily fooled we are by certain tricks which instinctively make us assume someone is an authority figure. There have been detailed studies done on this topic, and it's all a bit worrisome when you find out how easy these things are to exploit.

Dragon Issue 116: December 1986

part 2/4

Children of the deep: At last. A PC writeup for aquatic elves. It's about time. Like most demihumans of this era, they don't get that great class abilities. But they do have fairly good innate powers, and some restrictions on their ability to function on land, so it balances out. Crossbreeds between normal and aquatic elves, on the other hand, are a bit twinked, (plus what is my place in the world angst, yay ) with most of the advantages of both parents. Aquatic half-elves are also pretty good. If you have any seafaring or water adventures in your game, they will really leave everyone else in the dust unless they have some serious magic to compensate with. Another thing that can cause problems in a mixed party, and would be nerfed to bits in 4E. Consider carefully before allowing. It could be fun, but could also be an almighty pain in the ass to design adventures for.

The ecology of the minotaur: Hmm. Another new writer applies a different approach to the ecology series this month. We see the in game writer of the article captured by the creature he is studying, and having to survive by their wits and curry favour with the creature, instead of seeing them as just some scientific specimen to be hunted, examined and possibly dissected. This is an approach that would be used quite a few times during my reading, sometimes with the writer escaping, and sometimes with them being presumed dead, but somehow having managed to hide or send their writings for future discovery. This is a development I approve of. The actual ecological bit, I find rather less enthralling, for it takes a monster that has rather interesting mythological origins, and turns them into just another generic primitive humanoid race, fighting, raiding and mating with harems of female minotaurs. Damn you, family friendly policy! (Although they still have no trouble with the idea of hags being all female and producing offspring by mating with human males by force and trickery, but I guess the great rape double standard strikes again.) The ecological footnotes are rather halfhearted this month as well, not really adding much to them mechanically. Still an interesting entry, but overall subpar, given the series' general high standards.

The dragon's bestiary is back! Bumped off for Gary's featured creatures in issue 62, and then replaced by the Creature Catalogs, they've resurrected it due to public demand. Because the public hunger for new monsters is insatiable, but you don't want to give them too many at once, and then none for ages. This collection of monsters are all following the aquatic theme. So lets take a look at them.

Brain coral is exactly what is sounds like. Psychic Coral that physically resembles an load of lobes spread across the sea floor. Not that much they can do with that intelligence on their own, so they are likely to probe your mind and take over your body. I can see the entertainment possibilities in this.

Sea centaurs are to tritons and hippocampi what regular centaurs are to humans and horses. Which means they're rather smarter and more powerful, but still not as smart as their related species. (why are tritons and sahuguin so damn clever? What do they actually do with all that supposed intelligence? ) No great surprises here.

Giant carnivorous clams may not sound dangerous, but if you get stuck inside them, you're in big trouble. And they have a surprising number of tricks to help them do this. Tentacles, paralyzing neurotoxin clouds, maneuvering jets. They're not just some sessile particle filterer you can ignore when not pearl diving.

Giant groupers will lurk in an underwater alcove, suck you in if you get too close, and swallow you whole. Better have something sharp to cut your way out with, and make Wormy proud.

Morana are really vicious eel/pirahna hybrids. Be thankful they don't come in large groups, because then the party would be in trouble.

Giant porcupine fish inflate themselves to look extra threatening. Considering they have save or die poison all over, you'd think they could be a little more secure in their masculinity.

Electric rays do exactly what they say on the tin, unleashing an electric charge to stun prey. And you, if you threaten them. Not a good idea to rub these guy's belly.

Sawfishes and sharks, like hammerheads, are an example of nature imitating tools. Or maybe vice versa. In any case, they look funny, but don't laugh when they chop you up and eat you.

Giant sea anemone will grapple you with their tentacles, and grip you with thousands of spines. That's really going to be a bugger to escape from. Another example of just how weird real undersea creatures look.

Sea titans are another aquatic relation of a well known land thing. Relations of poseidon, (if you're using a pseudoearth mythology) they are bigger and stronger than regular titans, but nowhere near as smart or magically powerful. They're still no pushovers, especially as they usually have various sea monstery friends. Even if you beat them, that may be just the beginning of your troubles, given how vindictive gods can be. Approach with caution, for even if they're friendly, their moods can turn on a dime.

Undines already appeared in the D&D companion set, you idiot. Someone needs to maintain better editorial control. Unless this is another case of them doing it deliberately to differentiate the two IP's. Anyway, these are sneaky little faeish bastards who enjoy drowning sailors. As if we didn't have enough of those.

Weed giants are larger, less subtle relations of Kelpies. They'll tangle you up, and use your corpse as fertilizer. You'll have to do a lot of hacking to get to their vulnerable areas. Beware dark water. You never know what lurks just beneath the surface. (cue jaws theme)

Dragon Issue 116: December 1986

part 3/4

Hello? your majesty?: This article is only peripherally connected to the sea theme, but is still an invaluable topic they haven't got round to covering before. Communicating over long distances before the modern era was a slow, and often exhausting and inconvenient business. Here's plenty of examples of how it was handled in different real world eras, plus some more speculation on how you could use magic to speed this process in place of technology in a fantasy world. With an extensive bibliography, this is a good example that there are still tons of things for them to still do, they just need to hunt them down. Lets hope they don't wind up rehashing this one like they have so many others. Definitely one to mine for ideas when worldbuilding.

High seas in 3D: This month's centerpiece is another build it yourself effort. Cut out the cardboard pieces and build your own ship. How very appropriate for the nautical issue. Exactly what kind of ship it is is a bit vague, and of course size will depend on the scale of the miniatures you use with it, but this is another cool little centrepiece that I can definitely see the uses for. Dennis Kauth is definitely pulling his weight around here these days. Good luck putting it together. (they advise making photocopies so you can practice to get it right, which definitely implies a few of the staff members struggled with this one. ) As ever, any stories of how you actually used this in actual play would be very welcome.

Rogue stones and gemjumping: Elminster reveal to Ed another of his little secrets for living a long, exciting and twinky life without dying horribly. Gemjumping allows you to enchant a special stone so you can teleport to it later without all that awkward rigamarole of verbal, somatic and material components that someone can disrupt. Just the thing for when you're captured, tied up, or caught off guard. If you're extra clever, you can give it to someone, and use it as a way to get into places you haven't explored without the awkward risk of misfiring teleporting offers. A short article, but another demonstration of both how cool his writing is, and how he can wind up being seen as twinky. Even if individual items are balanced for their level (after all, this is basically just a slight variant on word of recall.), he knows so many tricks and synergies that his characters will legitimately trounce any regular character of the same level. This is why wizards and priests should go into the spell and item design business as soon as they're high enough level. It gives them a huge advantage over people who just use whatever they can research from old grimoires and take from things they've killed.

By tooth and claw: Ha. Someone thinks real animals aren't scary enough in D&D? The game where a 1st level character has a less than even shot at beating a housecat. Where any animal with a claw/claw/bite routine can take on a party of similar numbers and HD and trounce them unless the spellcasters spot them and get off their artillery spells before they can close. Where a whole load of creatures have save or die poison on every bite. I regard your statement with amusement. The problem is merely because D&D PC's scale so massively as they level up, and most creatures remain static, so what is a near impossible challenge at 1st level is a cakewalk by 10. You want a skill based system like Runequest or Storyteller mate, where even after years of play, you're still not even twice as powerful in terms of total stats. So yeah, this is another realism in gaming article, that has some sound tactical advice, (even normal animals are smart enough to pull tricks like ambushes and learn how to deal with traps.) but is mostly a waste of time built on a premise that's pretty dubious anyway. I've certainly always used plenty of natural animals in amongst the weird stuff in my games. Yawn.

High ones, Ancient ones: Looks like they're continuing to push the boundaries of covered games, with this article for Elfquest. Actually, they have covered these before, way back in issue 66, but that was adapting the characters to AD&D. Now they have their own BRP based system to play with. Here we get stats for the High ones, which seem to be your stereotypical physically weak, but mentally powerful ancient race/alien types. Their disadvantages probably don't balance out their powers, but since both are pretty hefty, they probably won't overshadow everyone else all the time. An interesting article that gives me plenty of insights into the setting of a world I've never really got into, but am tempted to do so now. By that criteria, I think we can safely say this article is a good one.

Dragon Issue 116: December 1986

part 4/4

The role of computers is starting to ease into the swing of things, having received plenty of mail by now. So a few ground rules need to be set, as they make clear what they are not going to do. (so don't send us whining mail about that. ) Ho hum. You can only do so much. So you've gotta try and please the largest audience. Anyway, this month's main review is of Dragonfire II. A tremendously customizable game, this allows you to build characters, monsters, places, and even run battles. It can be used to handle the mathematical bits for all sorts of roleplaying games, with a minimum of effort. Just the sort of thing they ought to be letting us know about in this column. Anyone use this back in the day? Seems like it would be even more useful these days, with the massive increase in memory sizes and portability of laptops.
Our other review is a more conventional computer game. Bards Tale. Train up your team to fight Mangar the dark. An integral part of this is keeping your Bard well sozzled so he can sing songs to buff the rest of the party Even the city streets are incredibly dangerous. But if you already have experienced characters from Wizardry or Ultima III, you can convert them over. It is a bit grindy, with big fights you can't run away from, and you have to get all the way back to the adventurers guild each time to save and level up. So you need to be a careful tactician to advance far. This is not a game that mollycoddles you, but the reviewers have no objection to that.

TSR Previews: Not a lot of stuff coming up next month. AD&D gets H2: The mines of bloodstone. Following on from H1, this aims to prove that AD&D can do epic high level adventures too. Right on the other end of the scale, we have N4: Treasure hunt, for 0 level characters. Can you survive in a battle between goblins and orcs using only your wits? Good luck, you'll need it. Somewhere in the middle, we have DA2: Temple of the frog. Go back in time, both in and out of the game, to see this redone, expanded adventure from the very second supplement for OD&D. Not a brilliant name, but a lot scarier and more complex than it seems.

The marvel-phile: Jeff continues to mix the silly with the serious with aplomb. Because lets face it, the marvel universe has far too many silly characters to only do one a year for april. We get Crossfire, who is deadly serious, despite having a very silly outfit (posing pouch for vampire hunting strippers, hee) and will turn heroes against each other given half a chance. We also get another amusingly themed supervillain team, the Death Throws. Ringleader, Oddball, Tenpin, Bombshell and Knickknack. All specialize in throwing objects related to their name. Beyond parody, isn't it? Jeff is fully aware of that, and loving it, taking time to hone his faux editorial banter along the way. He's becoming almost as entertaining a writer as Ed. Will he keep his promise to bring us the Marauders next month? Does Roger ever really get to recline on a sofa with his workload? All will be revealed soon enough.

Skyrealms of jorune! Another fascinating new game starting soon. Will we see articles for this one?

Dr who?: Oh, this is nice. Another game we've seen around for quite a while actually gets an article dedicated to it. And we just had some Dr Who reviews last month. Curious that it's appearances in the magazine should be on the up just as the tv series is about to go into terminal decline.
Anyway, here we get to see stats for all 6 currently extant incarnations of the Doctor. Which they ought to have in the game anyway, but apparently these ones are corrected :sigh: Errata, errata, do you really matter? Anyway, this gives us a good idea of what they system looks like, apparently a fairly simple attribute and ability based one with a scale of 1 to 6. If you're interested in the show, you may well be tempted by this, but mechanically, nothing here seems particularly groundbreaking. Eh, as long as it does the job, and provides for fun games, it doesn't matter if it's complex or simple. And since the Doctor is probably at the upper end of the system's power level, it should be even simpler for regular PC's.

Aim and burn: Flamethrowers! Like their low tech D&D variant, throwing vials of flaming oil, these are highly effective weapons that are far too often ignored. What could be more fun than watching your enemies scream as you melt their face, while you laugh maniacally? For some reason, this article introduces them to the Traveller system. We get several models, rules for the special effects they have on things and creatures hit by them, plus a load of implied setting about the manufacturers to better integrate them into the setting. In another case of retro-future anachronisms that we wouldn't see in games today, we also have stats for asbestos spray, which you obviously use to counter fire attacks. We shall assume that they've found a way to keep you from getting cancer if you spray it all over your body. Definitely an article I enjoyed more than I really should

Snarfquest continues to build up tension for the final showdown. Dragonmirth features the wrath of god. Wormy sets up that old classic, a pit trap.

Quite a good issue, overall. Both the themed bits and the general articles have an above average number of good articles, keeping this one fairly pleasurable to read. And even the ones I'm not so keen on, the minotaur and animal ones, are annoying in ways I could actively disagree with, rather than simply being boring. This is pretty pleasing. It's nice to end the year on an up note, after having found the average quality to be a good deal lower than the previous three years. Hopefully Roger'll avoid getting bored and burnt out in turn for quite a while, and the magazine'll sustain that over the next year. We might have slowed down, but I'm not stopping 'til this is over, one way or another. There's still way too much to see for that.

Huh, I can understand Wizardry, but how the heck did they convert Ultima 3 characters into Bard's Tale? They had completely different races and classes and whatnot. Mind you, I'm primarily familiar with each game's NES adaptation, but still, that's like finding a way to bring Final Fantasy characters into the game...

Dragon Issue 117: January 1987

part 1/4

108 pages. Roger has to confront the problem facing anyone who gets a regular job. You don't have the time to do all the creative stuff you used too. And as he used to be the second most prolific contributer to the magazine, that does suck a bit. Thankfully, these days there are more than enough writers willing and able to step up. The contents page is absolutely jam packed this time. Also, in response to their complaints, we actually have a female adventurer who may not be perfectly dressed for a swamp, but at least looks as though she's had the crap beaten out of her a few times in the past. And given their current situation, this may happen again sometime soon. Will this provoke complaints in itself. The line between equality and misogyny is easily crossed. Neh. Cant please everyone. The important question is, will this issue please me?

In this issue:

Letters: We get a letter asking why the cthulhu mythos has been removed from the god book. Legal crap, my dear. We ain't getting them back any time soon either. Nor will you be seeing the Melnibonean stuff again in this system any time soon. Until the great d20 comes and unifies us, we must remain apart.
A letter asking if they're going to do any more dragonquest stuff. Once again, the answer is no. We're going where the money is, and it aint there.
A rules question about adjudicating attacks on an army with multiple troop types. Fairly simple division. It may slow things down, but still far less than rolling for everyone individually.
A letter saying that presenting sample characters and their histories would be cool. Roger replies that Polyhedron already does this. Subscribe now! Gotta collect 'em all! You know, we really could have a reading thread for that as well. Anyone with the resources and insanity to try out there?
A letter about if something is available in canada. Yes, but it's gonna cost you more, what with currency conversion and shipping and crap. Oh, the woes of being north of the border and a cultural backwater.

Forum: Mark W McClennan may be 14, but he was not sing at the cover of issue 114. He also doesn't think that it's going to draw many new people into the hobby either. At the moment, the controversy is more on the satanic implications than the artwork. He seems to have a pretty level head on the matter.
David F Godwin is a forum regular, and he makes a more highbrow argument, pontificating about the difference between nakedness as Art, and as titillation. Entirely different, fnaw. Yeah, right.
Dan Tejes looks at this topic from a more sociological point of view. If both the writers and readers of fantasy are primarily male, then of course what is produced will primarily appeal to them. That's a rather chicken and egg argument. But maybe they could be appealing better to women.
Marc Andressen Is another of our young readers, and is somewhat embarrassed about the idea of his parents seeing some of the magazine's covers. Nor would he prefer the problem solved by more equal opportunity eye candy. Hrmm.
Carl Forhan also subscribes to the view that some things are more acceptable when done for the sake of Art. The magazine's policy doesn't need that much changing.
At this point Roger butts in again to say that he's shutting down debate on this subject. It grows most tiresome to him. Please do not deluge us endlessly with letters when there are other topics we could also be tackling. We don't want a rehash of the dwarven beards debacle.
Russell Taylor goes back to that old topic of the planes, and the mathematics involved in sets of infinity. They can explain quite easily how one infinity can be accessable from another but not other ones. Funny how a good grounding in the way the universe works can help you better conceive of how other universes might function differently.
Jeff Neely tackles another old topic, PvP. His group's characters argue and compete all the time, but they still have fun. Your group can too.
Mae Tanner thinks that grey on black is a bad thing in a magazine, because it makes it really hard for her to read it. I do have to say it's not the most attractive colour scheme, and I'm glad my eyes don't have problems like that.
Stephen Iicata points out just how much stuff you need for an expedition in the real world. This is why you have pack animals and vehicles if at all possible. Encumbrance is a bitch. Don't forget it.
David Sisk is yet another repeat debater. This time, he tackles the statement that stirrups are an essential part of mounted warfare. They might be helpful, but a good saddle is if anything an even bigger factor in safe riding. Your article does not match up to my 16 years of actual experience! Yes, but have you tried fighting actual battles riding bareback? Yes, I'll bet the other writer hasn't either. Ahh, the joys of realism debates. Never forget that you can actually do some pretty awesome stuff in reality with a little practice.
S.D Anderson dislikes the hit location system because it assumes all hit point damage is actual damage rather than exhaustion and depletion of narrative immunity. Once again, Gamism Vs Simulationism rages through the magazine, with articles trying to influence the implied structure of the game.
Patrick Goodman is fed up with people trying to put realism in fantasy, and thinks 2nd ed cleaning up the system and sweeping away the bad bits from the supplements can't come soon enough. Everything should be much better organized. Another perfectly reasonable desire that may not be satisfied by events to come.

The elements of mystery: Hmm. A topic we've seen before, but only once, from a rather different perspective. I think we can work with this. Robert Plamadon reminds us that they players shouldn't know everything about the setting, and it can be good for the roleplaying if they don't know everything about the game rules either. Rumours are an important part of making an exciting campaign with genuine choices, letting you hint at what adventures are out there, but not giving away the plot. You do not have to stick with the rules for monsters, and even variant classes and spells from other land could be introduced. If your players have misconceptions about the setting, don't correct them OOC, let their ignorance drive the plot by making amusing mistakes happen. Similarly, if they can't remember all the details of their adventures, use it to your advantage. Drama is born of conflict and misunderstandings. Much of the usual rules are not fixed for your game and roleplaying is important advice. Not a bad article, but probably doesn't deserve pole position. I guess they need to push their anti one true way munchikining powergamer agenda.

What are the odds?: You've used this title before as well. That's not good. Another case of a familiar subject updated to reflect new developments. In this case the use of really twinky ability generation methods in UA has people curious just what the chances of rolling a particular ability score with a certain amount of dice using Xd6 keep best 3. At really high numbers you have a better than 50% chance of getting 16-18. Which very much takes the specialness out of getting a roll that good. Oh well. A lot of the time, you don't want to be normal. And if there wasn't a big chunk of the playerbase who didn't want that, I doubt they would have put this stuff in the new books. Another reminder that for all the accusations of power creep in 3e and 4e, 1e had some very definite escalations of power in it's later supplements. Still, statistics are always fun. A nice crunchy counterpart to the very fluffy previous article.

Feuds and feudalism: So your players have reached name level and have set up a domain, and now you're struggling for plot ideas. Or maybe they haven't, but want to go into that sphere anyway. What do you do? If you're struggling for ideas, it's probably because you never really defined who the various rulers around are, their respective resources, and their opinions of one another. A Lord needs servants, and by ingratiating yourself, you can get to be a local knight or some equivalent. And then it's politics all the way. You've got to keep your boss happy, and keep your underlings reasonably happy, but more importantly productive, keep track of who likes and hates who, who wants what, and what they're willing to do to get it, and then choose what side to be on. It may take a bit of effort to set up, but once you set up a soap opera like this, it runs indefinitely with very little further effort. All you need to do is make things react logically and introduce new players every now and then to shake things up and replace people killed. And before you know it, you've got a full on game of generational power politics. Woo. You make it seem so simple. It's all about relationships. Another fairly solid bit of roleplaying advice.

Condensed combat: A load more tables here as they continue their new trend of compiling stuff from multiple books, and putting it all in one place for your playing convenience. Or it least, it would be convenient, if it didn't have some obvious errors. I know accurate copying it hard, but really, what are editors for? If you're gonna be crunchy, you need to be precise. Fail.

LordVyreth said:

Huh, I can understand Wizardry, but how the heck did they convert Ultima 3 characters into Bard's Tale? They had completely different races and classes and whatnot. Mind you, I'm primarily familiar with each game's NES adaptation, but still, that's like finding a way to bring Final Fantasy characters into the game...

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Very good question. I get the impression that the word conversion is the important one there. They may start above starting level, but they certainly won't be the same as they were in the other game. Hopefully there's someone reading who can tell us just how butchered they get in the transfer.

LordVyreth said:

Huh, I can understand Wizardry, but how the heck did they convert Ultima 3 characters into Bard's Tale? They had completely different races and classes and whatnot. Mind you, I'm primarily familiar with each game's NES adaptation, but still, that's like finding a way to bring Final Fantasy characters into the game...

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I have no idea. I've only played themm on the NES too. The best of the lot is Wizardry. I hated Ultima III (aka Ultima Exodus on the NES). The Bard's Tale isn't too bad, but in my digging on the web to learn more about the game, I learned that a good chunk of the game was cut out. The spellcasting classes in particular were chopped down ond simplified into 2 single caster classes instead of the class-changing stuff that was supposedly in the original. My favorite aspect of the game? The spell that turns enemies into figurines that let you summon them into battle later.

And the magazine should be past the point where Gary left the company. Wasn't there a good-bye he wrote to the readers somewhere? I don't remember seeing it, though I've been busy the last week, and I've largely skimmed over the articles.