LordVyreth
First Post
Huh, I can think of at least one pretty cool samurai named Jack.
That's a remarkable coincidence, really. I wonder if the cartoon's creators read this issue.
Let's read the entire run
Huh, I can think of at least one pretty cool samurai named Jack.
That's a remarkable coincidence, really. I wonder if the cartoon's creators read this issue.
(un)reason
Legend
No, but maybe he wanted too.Skip didn't really answer the question like that, did he?
Sage advice has essentially become my outlet for rapid-fire comedic riffing. There's tons more silliness to come on that front. It was rather a mammoth bit of writing. Most of them are shorter than that.
Orius
Legend
No, but maybe he wanted too.
Skip usually gives solid answers to the various questions, but every so often a really asinine one pops up and he doesn't hesitate to open up the snark when it does.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 121: May 1987
part 2/4
Sage advice helps out with oriental themed questions.
How do you determine height, weight and starting age (humans are same as ever (yes, I know, IRL, asians do tend to be a bit shorter, but if we can gloss over sex differences to abilities we can certainly ignore that) Korobokuru use the dwarf tables and spirit folk use the elf one. Recycling made fun and easy. )
Do dual classed characters get all their new classes proficiency slots (Yup. Twinkitude! (sage advice reserves the right to change it's mind at any point in the future.))
Can women join the oriental classes ( By default, yes. You'll have to decide how sexist your individual setting is. )
Can oriental characters become multi-classed. (No. Feel the social stratifications confining you. Oh, the pain! You'll have to run away! )
Do oriental characters get Xp for treasure (Yes. Money is a great motivator, wherever you are. )
Do characters that attack 3/2 get their extra attacks on odd or even rounds (Even. It makes them a little less scary. )
Do magical crossbows extend your point-blank range. (not unless they specifically say so. Stop trying to twink out)
Can western characters learn martial arts (What. Would you make the karate kid illegal in D&D? Can't say I'd blame you But anyway, yes, they can. )
Why do forest barbarians get rhetoric (because they're good at talking rubbish. It's not quite the same as civilized debate techniques, but still not to be sneezed at. )
Where do I find stats for the harpoon (Unearthed Arcana. Did you miss the memo that it's effectively the new corebook, and all subsequent books assume you have it. )
When do bushi get AC bonuses (every 5 levels. Not a patch on modern defence progressions, is it. Give them time. The progression of class technology is slow. )
How much honor do they lose for learning ninja weapons (same as kensai)
Speaking of kensai, how do they learn MA (how do you think. They spend their proficiency slots. )
Shouldn't kensai get fast-draw (It would be advisable, but they still need to spend the proficiency slot. We don't want to make them overpowered, do we? )
Does the higher level kensai always win a psychic duel (no. They still have to roll, they just get a bonus. Go stand in the corner, and pay more attention next time.)
Which attack table do monks use (The cleric one. I though we cleared that up way back in 1980. Some people just don't keep track of errata.)
Do monks get Str and dex bonuses to AC and attacks (no. They're like monsters. They get trained so hard the normal PC rules cease to apply. )
Do monks get dex bonuses to their thief abilities (yes)
Do monks get damage bonuses on missile weapons (if they're legal and proficient. Take the test, be the best. Kick the ases of the rest. )
Can ninja be dual classed (They already are, sorta. No, they can't change class again. And if they tried their clan would kill them. )
Do ninja have to pay training costs (yes)
Do high level ninja get followers (not automatically. They'll have to please the clan leader, or go off and found their own. )
Why don't ninja get dex mods for their powers (cos we didn't think of that. )
What are ninjas base chances of picking pockets (none, unless they're dual classed with yakuza. Thievery is not an automatic part of their training, nor should it be.
Can you dual class into ninja after starting play (no. The clans wouldn't trust an already established adventurer enough to train them. Give me a boy until he is seven and he will be mine for life and all that.)
How do you determine how much stuff a samurai's fief has (Fiat. Pray your DM is in a generous mood. Bribe him with noodles if you have too.)
Can a samurai specialize in the Daikyu with only one slot (no. Even the benefit you thought you would get isn't there. )
Do shukenja get full XP for subduing enemies (No. They only get half, however they beat them. You may find your advancement slower than you expected)
How do sohei get the 5-7th level spells indicated (they don't, unless we choose to add some epic rules later. The designer was just so enthusiastic he forgot when to stop. )
Do wu jen need to study for 6 hours to regain EACH SPELL! (no. That investment lets them regain all their spells. This will put them at an advantage over standard wizards at high level)
Does the wu jen's second ki power give you extra spells (no, it only enhances the ones you have )
Can you use verbal only spells while fire wings is active (yes. Drive by power words are the shiz)
Is scry a flat circle or a sphere. (A circle. Volume calculations would be too complicated for my tastes. )
How do you use grenades (pull pin, count to three, no more, no less, and throw them)
What are the encumbrance values for the new equipment (oops. Our bad. Use their nearest western equivalent.)
What does standard intelligence mean (normal human. 8-10. Average. Mundane. Don't make me set the theasaurus on you. He's been cranky ever since Gary left. No-one else has quite the same bond with him.)
Do kappa get a damage bonus for their strength. (yes, but we've precaclulated it into their stats so you don't need to worry your pretty little head over it. )
How do you get special MA Maneuvers (each one costs one proficiency slot. Ya don't get many, so choose carefully.)
Why does Karate get more attacks per round than you can create (because the standard styles aren't created using the custom rules and are better than them. The wisdom of the ancients surpasses your puny ingenuity. )
How do you learn weapon related MA (Same as it ever was. Spend the slots. If you want to learn a new weapon, learn a new MA as well. )
The deadliest perfume: Ahh, this is more like it. Lotus dust. The rare flowers of the orient can be harvested and refined into powders with mystical effects. Really, this is basically just a bunch of reskinned poisons, potions, lotions, incenses and dusts, but the concept of organizing items by their use type (single use, charged, daily, constant, worn, etc) hasn't really caught on yet. But this is still 8 flavourful new magic items that you can use as written, or convert into another shape while keeping the basic effects. Perfect for ninjas, assassins, and anyone else who likes being sneaky and poisoning people. Putting the flavour text first and then the mechanical effects in ecology style footnotes may not have been the wisest writing decision, requiring a bit more annoying flipping back and forth to get the full info on an item, but other than that, I quite like this one.
The anywhen universal roleplaying system now available, along with two game-world books. Anyone remember this one, because I certainly don't.
part 2/4
Sage advice helps out with oriental themed questions.
How do you determine height, weight and starting age (humans are same as ever (yes, I know, IRL, asians do tend to be a bit shorter, but if we can gloss over sex differences to abilities we can certainly ignore that) Korobokuru use the dwarf tables and spirit folk use the elf one. Recycling made fun and easy. )
Do dual classed characters get all their new classes proficiency slots (Yup. Twinkitude! (sage advice reserves the right to change it's mind at any point in the future.))
Can women join the oriental classes ( By default, yes. You'll have to decide how sexist your individual setting is. )
Can oriental characters become multi-classed. (No. Feel the social stratifications confining you. Oh, the pain! You'll have to run away! )
Do oriental characters get Xp for treasure (Yes. Money is a great motivator, wherever you are. )
Do characters that attack 3/2 get their extra attacks on odd or even rounds (Even. It makes them a little less scary. )
Do magical crossbows extend your point-blank range. (not unless they specifically say so. Stop trying to twink out)
Can western characters learn martial arts (What. Would you make the karate kid illegal in D&D? Can't say I'd blame you
But anyway, yes, they can. ) Why do forest barbarians get rhetoric (because they're good at talking rubbish. It's not quite the same as civilized debate techniques, but still not to be sneezed at. )
Where do I find stats for the harpoon (Unearthed Arcana. Did you miss the memo that it's effectively the new corebook, and all subsequent books assume you have it. )
When do bushi get AC bonuses (every 5 levels. Not a patch on modern defence progressions, is it. Give them time. The progression of class technology is slow. )
How much honor do they lose for learning ninja weapons (same as kensai)
Speaking of kensai, how do they learn MA (how do you think. They spend their proficiency slots. )
Shouldn't kensai get fast-draw (It would be advisable, but they still need to spend the proficiency slot. We don't want to make them overpowered, do we? )
Does the higher level kensai always win a psychic duel (no. They still have to roll, they just get a bonus. Go stand in the corner, and pay more attention next time.)
Which attack table do monks use (The cleric one. I though we cleared that up way back in 1980. Some people just don't keep track of errata.)
Do monks get Str and dex bonuses to AC and attacks (no. They're like monsters. They get trained so hard the normal PC rules cease to apply. )
Do monks get dex bonuses to their thief abilities (yes)
Do monks get damage bonuses on missile weapons (if they're legal and proficient. Take the test, be the best. Kick the ases of the rest. )
Can ninja be dual classed (They already are, sorta. No, they can't change class again. And if they tried their clan would kill them. )
Do ninja have to pay training costs (yes)
Do high level ninja get followers (not automatically. They'll have to please the clan leader, or go off and found their own. )
Why don't ninja get dex mods for their powers (cos we didn't think of that. )
What are ninjas base chances of picking pockets (none, unless they're dual classed with yakuza. Thievery is not an automatic part of their training, nor should it be.
Can you dual class into ninja after starting play (no. The clans wouldn't trust an already established adventurer enough to train them. Give me a boy until he is seven and he will be mine for life and all that.)
How do you determine how much stuff a samurai's fief has (Fiat. Pray your DM is in a generous mood. Bribe him with noodles if you have too.)
Can a samurai specialize in the Daikyu with only one slot (no. Even the benefit you thought you would get isn't there. )
Do shukenja get full XP for subduing enemies (No. They only get half, however they beat them. You may find your advancement slower than you expected)
How do sohei get the 5-7th level spells indicated (they don't, unless we choose to add some epic rules later. The designer was just so enthusiastic he forgot when to stop. )
Do wu jen need to study for 6 hours to regain EACH SPELL! (no. That investment lets them regain all their spells. This will put them at an advantage over standard wizards at high level)
Does the wu jen's second ki power give you extra spells (no, it only enhances the ones you have )
Can you use verbal only spells while fire wings is active (yes. Drive by power words are the shiz)
Is scry a flat circle or a sphere. (A circle. Volume calculations would be too complicated for my tastes. )
How do you use grenades (pull pin, count to three, no more, no less, and throw them)
What are the encumbrance values for the new equipment (oops. Our bad. Use their nearest western equivalent.)
What does standard intelligence mean (normal human. 8-10. Average. Mundane. Don't make me set the theasaurus on you. He's been cranky ever since Gary left. No-one else has quite the same bond with him.)
Do kappa get a damage bonus for their strength. (yes, but we've precaclulated it into their stats so you don't need to worry your pretty little head over it. )
How do you get special MA Maneuvers (each one costs one proficiency slot. Ya don't get many, so choose carefully.)
Why does Karate get more attacks per round than you can create (because the standard styles aren't created using the custom rules and are better than them. The wisdom of the ancients surpasses your puny ingenuity. )
How do you learn weapon related MA (Same as it ever was. Spend the slots. If you want to learn a new weapon, learn a new MA as well. )
The deadliest perfume: Ahh, this is more like it. Lotus dust. The rare flowers of the orient can be harvested and refined into powders with mystical effects. Really, this is basically just a bunch of reskinned poisons, potions, lotions, incenses and dusts, but the concept of organizing items by their use type (single use, charged, daily, constant, worn, etc) hasn't really caught on yet. But this is still 8 flavourful new magic items that you can use as written, or convert into another shape while keeping the basic effects. Perfect for ninjas, assassins, and anyone else who likes being sneaky and poisoning people. Putting the flavour text first and then the mechanical effects in ecology style footnotes may not have been the wisest writing decision, requiring a bit more annoying flipping back and forth to get the full info on an item, but other than that, I quite like this one.
The anywhen universal roleplaying system now available, along with two game-world books. Anyone remember this one, because I certainly don't.
Last edited:
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 121: May 1987
part 3/4
The life and death of a castle: Hmm. This is a topic we've seen covered before in plenty of detail for western stuff. (issues 80 and 89, among others) So it seems perfectly reasonable to examine how japanese ones differ from them. They may differ somewhat architecturally, but the basic tactical and socioeconomic pressures are much the same. You need to be able to see. You need to be able to defend your walls. You need to be able to dominate, tax, and protect the local population. You need to be able to live there fairly comfortably. And so forth. As with personal armour, they tend less towards singular big hard defenses (no castle can withstand a big earthquake) and more on an array of moats, trenches, and irregular wooden barriers that provide you plenty of cover and are a bugger to get through for enemy troops. It's no wonder they turn to ninja to penetrate these places and kill the bosses without huge losses on both sides. A pretty solid article that describes it's topic in an evocative, easily visualized way, this gives me some more evil ideas for designing my own world with. Mix and match tactics from various cultures to make your players decidedly miserable. Muahahaha, etc etc. Keep on building those fortresses. We'll keep on tearing them down. Lets loot and pillage the best bits and roll ever onwards.
Palladium apologize for the long delayed release of book III, adventures on the high seas. Same as it ever was. Nice pic of a cyclops and griffon though.
The geisya: Ha. Missing your bard role for eastern games? Take a courtesan adventuring. While certainly not badasses, with minor spellcasting and roguish abilities, and pretty good general and social skills, they'll be less useless than you'd think, especially if they're also ninjas. Don't neglect your social and support classes. Probably best suited to troupe play, where each player is controlling multiple characters and sometimes focussing on one or another of them, these are rather underpowered in combat, but also have extremely low XP costs at mid level. If you have the obscene ability scores needed, dual-class into them, then out of them after reaching 8th level if you want to remain a competitive adventurer. This fills a niche they didn't cover before, and maintains ideals of flavour over balanced mechanics, so even if it's not suitable for every game, and possibly a bit obvious, I don't object to it. After all, if you don't cover the obvious stuff, you don't have a solid base for other people to build upon. And you can nick the new spells for your bards and wu jen.
The Genin: There's always someone not satisfied with the established order, isn't there. For whatever reason, the writers of OA decided that all ninjas would be split-class characters, maintaining a convincing front as some other class, and ensuring they have a broad base of skills to draw upon to accomplish their missions and keep people fighting them off balance. But this writer wants to play a character who has been trained in nothing but the ninja arts since childhood, and has not bothered with such petty distractions. So here we have the Genin, which does exactly that, gaining all the powers of the regular Ninja, plus a few extra for being a specialist. They'll obviously advance faster than a character splitting their XP, as they have lower XP costs, and they'll probably have slightly better hp as well, but not be as versatile or able to operate independently for extended undercover missions. There's nothing obviously wrong with this mechanically, but like the barbarian cleric, this is very definite theme dilution, and is probably slightly overpowered as well (more tricks for less xp? shurely shome mishtake.) I mildly disapprove, as this doesn't display a huge amount of creativity. Give us something we couldn't whip up in a few minutes ourselves please.
Sun dragon castle: This month's centrepiece is another build it yourself cardboard model. And the surroundings, in another attempt to push their boundaries. This is bigger than their previous attempts, and the instructions are considerably longer and more detailed as well. I doubt many people managed to put together successfully, and in any case, this eats up a total of 14 pages in the .pdf version that I can't get much use out of. So it's another worthy special feature that'll get oohed and ahhed over for a bit, and then forgotten, when more practical articles are still being used years later. So it goes.
Fiction: Love and ale by Nick O'Donohue. A Dragonlance story here. Been a while since we had one of those. This is one of the ones from Leaves from the inn of the last home, designed to show the softer, small scale side of krynn. See young Tika go through romantic woes, kender be their usual pestilent selves, and the small tragedies and triumphs in general of running an inn. Will this year's ale be a good batch? Will we be able to avoid having the place trashed by drunkards? Will we be able to spot thieves and con men? Not very dramatic stuff, but it has a certain twee charm. But then, Krynn has always done twee well, and the palatability of that is very much a matter of taste. I'm afraid it does not tempt me to pick up the full book.
The marvel-phile: Jeff returns, rather apologetic for his frequent absences of late. This time, we have another case of a new character taking an old character's name. Ms Marvel is now Sharon Ventura, daredevil, wrestler, another recipient of the super-soldier serum, and currently a member of the fantastic four. (yeah, that's not going to last long) Jeff has obviously taken notes from his substitutes, because he includes advice for using the new super-soldier serum in your own game. A bit of a gamble, it could make you badass, or cause you to degenerate into a bestial monstrosity. Don't be too attached to your character concept if you try it in game. But it does make for good drama, and a good excuse for lots of super-powered mooks to challenge your team with. In a genre where you're supposed to be one of a special few, if you don't stick to genre conventions and continually kill your enemies, you'll run out of suitable challenges way too soon, so that's probably a good thing. A change has obviously been as good as a rest for jeff, as this is definitely an above average entry.
part 3/4
The life and death of a castle: Hmm. This is a topic we've seen covered before in plenty of detail for western stuff. (issues 80 and 89, among others) So it seems perfectly reasonable to examine how japanese ones differ from them. They may differ somewhat architecturally, but the basic tactical and socioeconomic pressures are much the same. You need to be able to see. You need to be able to defend your walls. You need to be able to dominate, tax, and protect the local population. You need to be able to live there fairly comfortably. And so forth. As with personal armour, they tend less towards singular big hard defenses (no castle can withstand a big earthquake) and more on an array of moats, trenches, and irregular wooden barriers that provide you plenty of cover and are a bugger to get through for enemy troops. It's no wonder they turn to ninja to penetrate these places and kill the bosses without huge losses on both sides. A pretty solid article that describes it's topic in an evocative, easily visualized way, this gives me some more evil ideas for designing my own world with. Mix and match tactics from various cultures to make your players decidedly miserable. Muahahaha, etc etc. Keep on building those fortresses. We'll keep on tearing them down. Lets loot and pillage the best bits and roll ever onwards.
Palladium apologize for the long delayed release of book III, adventures on the high seas. Same as it ever was. Nice pic of a cyclops and griffon though.
The geisya: Ha. Missing your bard role for eastern games? Take a courtesan adventuring. While certainly not badasses, with minor spellcasting and roguish abilities, and pretty good general and social skills, they'll be less useless than you'd think, especially if they're also ninjas. Don't neglect your social and support classes. Probably best suited to troupe play, where each player is controlling multiple characters and sometimes focussing on one or another of them, these are rather underpowered in combat, but also have extremely low XP costs at mid level. If you have the obscene ability scores needed, dual-class into them, then out of them after reaching 8th level if you want to remain a competitive adventurer. This fills a niche they didn't cover before, and maintains ideals of flavour over balanced mechanics, so even if it's not suitable for every game, and possibly a bit obvious, I don't object to it. After all, if you don't cover the obvious stuff, you don't have a solid base for other people to build upon. And you can nick the new spells for your bards and wu jen.
The Genin: There's always someone not satisfied with the established order, isn't there. For whatever reason, the writers of OA decided that all ninjas would be split-class characters, maintaining a convincing front as some other class, and ensuring they have a broad base of skills to draw upon to accomplish their missions and keep people fighting them off balance. But this writer wants to play a character who has been trained in nothing but the ninja arts since childhood, and has not bothered with such petty distractions. So here we have the Genin, which does exactly that, gaining all the powers of the regular Ninja, plus a few extra for being a specialist. They'll obviously advance faster than a character splitting their XP, as they have lower XP costs, and they'll probably have slightly better hp as well, but not be as versatile or able to operate independently for extended undercover missions. There's nothing obviously wrong with this mechanically, but like the barbarian cleric, this is very definite theme dilution, and is probably slightly overpowered as well (more tricks for less xp? shurely shome mishtake.) I mildly disapprove, as this doesn't display a huge amount of creativity. Give us something we couldn't whip up in a few minutes ourselves please.
Sun dragon castle: This month's centrepiece is another build it yourself cardboard model. And the surroundings, in another attempt to push their boundaries. This is bigger than their previous attempts, and the instructions are considerably longer and more detailed as well. I doubt many people managed to put together successfully, and in any case, this eats up a total of 14 pages in the .pdf version that I can't get much use out of. So it's another worthy special feature that'll get oohed and ahhed over for a bit, and then forgotten, when more practical articles are still being used years later. So it goes.
Fiction: Love and ale by Nick O'Donohue. A Dragonlance story here. Been a while since we had one of those. This is one of the ones from Leaves from the inn of the last home, designed to show the softer, small scale side of krynn. See young Tika go through romantic woes, kender be their usual pestilent selves, and the small tragedies and triumphs in general of running an inn. Will this year's ale be a good batch? Will we be able to avoid having the place trashed by drunkards? Will we be able to spot thieves and con men? Not very dramatic stuff, but it has a certain twee charm. But then, Krynn has always done twee well, and the palatability of that is very much a matter of taste. I'm afraid it does not tempt me to pick up the full book.
The marvel-phile: Jeff returns, rather apologetic for his frequent absences of late. This time, we have another case of a new character taking an old character's name. Ms Marvel is now Sharon Ventura, daredevil, wrestler, another recipient of the super-soldier serum, and currently a member of the fantastic four. (yeah, that's not going to last long) Jeff has obviously taken notes from his substitutes, because he includes advice for using the new super-soldier serum in your own game. A bit of a gamble, it could make you badass, or cause you to degenerate into a bestial monstrosity. Don't be too attached to your character concept if you try it in game. But it does make for good drama, and a good excuse for lots of super-powered mooks to challenge your team with. In a genre where you're supposed to be one of a special few, if you don't stick to genre conventions and continually kill your enemies, you'll run out of suitable challenges way too soon, so that's probably a good thing. A change has obviously been as good as a rest for jeff, as this is definitely an above average entry.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 121: May 1987
part 4/4
TSR previews: D&D gets M4: Five coins for a kingdom. Another epic adventure spanning planes, and ending in a battle inside the sun. Sounds like a suitable challenge for players that level. At least the world doesn't hang on their success this time.
D&D gets an attack of rehash, with I3-5: The desert of desolation. Tracey Hickman's early modules get complied and revised in light of his new popularity. Venture into the desert and face ancient undead foes. You know the sort. They generally wear bandages. It also gets I13: Adventure pack one. A collection of short OA featured adventures, it seems rather appropriate for this issue.
In the solo gamebook realm, we have book 13: The gates of death. Prove your paladinhood by saving a princess? All in a days work, really. At least, if you survive to become an experienced hero. So many don't.
Lot's of novels this month. We get our first forgotten realms novel even before the rulebook comes out. Doug Niles delivers Darkwalker on Moonshae, an epic tale set in the Realms' britain analogue. Be afraid, for the stakes are high, and the writing of questionable quality. Lets get this treadmill of endless trilogies rolling. We also get 2 Windwalker books, Rogue Pirate, and Trail of the Seahawks. John Gregory Betancourt and Aradath Mayhar continue to work for TSR. Life is hard for a jobbing writer.
Lazer Tag also continues to roll out the supplements. Book 1 is High spy, and book 2 is Danger, second hand. Looks like they're bringing plotting and character arcs to what could be just a simple game of competitive violence. I wonder how these'll do.
And finally, we have an SPI imprint wargame, Onslaught. In an attempt to stem the decline of wargaming, they're going for simpler games that you can complete in a single sitting. Ha. If you don't market it right to attract new people, all this'll do is irritate the grognards, who will then ignore it after a bit of bitching. And that's no good for anyone.
The role of books: Hmm. Red and yellow-green. Much better than last installment, but certainly not perfect. But this should really be about contents, not the wrapper. This is the equivalent of bitching about what some starlet is wearing on the cover of her new single, and completely ignoring the merits of the music. Don't judge a book by it's cover, and other such cliches.
The folk of the air by Peter S Beagle is a rather well crafted and unorthodox bit of fantasy, with much of the weirdness remaining purely in the mind, while creating a mythic air. Seems like another one that would be good for Changeling: the Dreaming players.
The maze of peril by John Eric Holmes isn't an official D&D novel, but it is obviously based on a D&D game, with spell levels, dungeons, and other such metagame conceits showing up and playing integral parts. This does not translate to novel form too well, and indeed, the fact that it's only a small press work, even though he did manage to get an official D&D novel published in the past speaks volumes of it's quality. Boinger will struggle on regardless!
The burning stone by Deborah Turner Harris is the start of another trilogy. It has the same editor as Tolkien's LotR. Wait! Come back! It's actually quite good, with a nicely thought out magic system and social order developed to regulate that magic, realistically ruthless villains, and several plot threads that weave together to create a fast paced story full of cliff-hangers. The reviewer certainly wants to read the next two books.
Stalking the unicorn by Mike Resnick is a tale of a new york private eye who travels to an alternate reality at the behest of his new employer, an elf who has lost his unicorn, and needs it back fast. (don't laugh) It applies logical thought to a distinctly fantastic setting, to create a nicely plotted, suspenseful mystery.
A voice for princess by John Morressy is a tale of a wizard's attempts to completely reverse the transformation on a princess formerly turned into a frog (hence the title) Originally a series of short stories in a magazine, it doesn't quite work as a full length novel. Hopefully future books in the series will avoid that problem.
Dragon's pawn by Carol L Dennis is another fairly meta fantasy novel. While it uses lots of cliches, it's characters are aware of this, and manage to twist them to their own ends. Another one that seems likely to spawn additional follow-up books.
Cybernetic Samurai by Victor Milan is the story of a supercomputer programmed with the knowledge of an ancient samurai ruler, and how it deals with the conflicts of the modern day business world by applying those values and lessons. Seems like the kind of thing real geeks would do. In any case, it seems an entirely valid bit of oriental styled cyberpunk.
Wild cards, edited by George R R Martin, is another of our shared world anthologies, a series of stories about superhumans in WWII. Not nearly as comic booky as you'd expect, this has lots of strong characterisation, is well presented, and the stories meld together well, thanks to the editing. An idea that would go on to spawn an RPG, this is definitely an interesting one to report upon.
Operation Zodiac: We continue the series on Top Secret adventures in spaaaace with a whole bunch of extrapolative future history and plot hooks based around this. As is often the case, these seem sadly out of date these days, as we've actually gone backwards in terms of space exploration capability since those days. A sad state of affairs, really. If only the cold war hadn't ended. Now that was a nebulous media excuse for fearmongering and directing our tribalistic hatreds you actually had a hope of beating. Still, as an excuse for lots of weird and wonderful adventures, this isn't bad at all, pushing the boundaries of (then) modern tech, without going into outright sci-fi territory. If only it had turned like that. Life would be rather more interesting than it is.
Profiles: Michael Breault is one of those names that seems like they've been around forever, when actually, they haven't. Curious, that. He's been around quite a bit of interesting stuff, seeing half his class flunk out due to overaddiction to gaming, working on a far right magazine (whether he subscribed to their beliefs is not revealed), and getting a degree in astrophysics. And he's already edited lots of TSR's recent big books. Having just become a dad, he's going to be a busy bunny in the next few years. Another familiar name finally gets a face.
Robin Jenkins has considerably more style than the average editor. Snappy dresser, party animal, movie buff, excellent dancer, he's got so much fashion sense he regularly gets mistaken for a woman. (along with several other members of the crew ) One of our best written interviews, most of the attempts at humour in this one hit the mark nicely. He obviously applies his lesson of learning how to communicate to himself.
Barbara G Young's article, on the other hand, doesn't quite work for me. Much is made of her hippyish tendencies, but this is a bunch of life snapshots that doesn't really help me get into the head of the person behind them. Hmm. Never mind. Plenty more where that came from.
Snarfquest jumps into the future. Can the adventurers use their anachronisms, or will they just blunder around amusingly as usual. Dragonmirth gets in on the oriental stuff. Wormy is full of hostility, racism, and possibly treachery.
A very smooth issue, that went down easily, with plenty of mildly positive articles, but no real radical highs or lows. The big central feature meant that there was less text to digest than usual these days, which resulted in me finishing this one quickly. It fulfills it's thematic remit quite reasonably, and there were far fewer articles that seemed tacked on purely to make up the numbers than the last one. They seem to be back on track again, and getting the hang of their new remit. Lets hope they keep that up.
part 4/4
TSR previews: D&D gets M4: Five coins for a kingdom. Another epic adventure spanning planes, and ending in a battle inside the sun. Sounds like a suitable challenge for players that level. At least the world doesn't hang on their success this time.
D&D gets an attack of rehash, with I3-5: The desert of desolation. Tracey Hickman's early modules get complied and revised in light of his new popularity. Venture into the desert and face ancient undead foes. You know the sort. They generally wear bandages. It also gets I13: Adventure pack one. A collection of short OA featured adventures, it seems rather appropriate for this issue.
In the solo gamebook realm, we have book 13: The gates of death. Prove your paladinhood by saving a princess? All in a days work, really. At least, if you survive to become an experienced hero.
So many don't. Lot's of novels this month. We get our first forgotten realms novel even before the rulebook comes out. Doug Niles delivers Darkwalker on Moonshae, an epic tale set in the Realms' britain analogue. Be afraid, for the stakes are high, and the writing of questionable quality. Lets get this treadmill of endless trilogies rolling. We also get 2 Windwalker books, Rogue Pirate, and Trail of the Seahawks. John Gregory Betancourt and Aradath Mayhar continue to work for TSR. Life is hard for a jobbing writer.
Lazer Tag also continues to roll out the supplements. Book 1 is High spy, and book 2 is Danger, second hand. Looks like they're bringing plotting and character arcs to what could be just a simple game of competitive violence. I wonder how these'll do.
And finally, we have an SPI imprint wargame, Onslaught. In an attempt to stem the decline of wargaming, they're going for simpler games that you can complete in a single sitting. Ha. If you don't market it right to attract new people, all this'll do is irritate the grognards, who will then ignore it after a bit of bitching. And that's no good for anyone.
The role of books: Hmm. Red and yellow-green. Much better than last installment, but certainly not perfect. But this should really be about contents, not the wrapper. This is the equivalent of bitching about what some starlet is wearing on the cover of her new single, and completely ignoring the merits of the music. Don't judge a book by it's cover, and other such cliches.
The folk of the air by Peter S Beagle is a rather well crafted and unorthodox bit of fantasy, with much of the weirdness remaining purely in the mind, while creating a mythic air. Seems like another one that would be good for Changeling: the Dreaming players.
The maze of peril by John Eric Holmes isn't an official D&D novel, but it is obviously based on a D&D game, with spell levels, dungeons, and other such metagame conceits showing up and playing integral parts. This does not translate to novel form too well, and indeed, the fact that it's only a small press work, even though he did manage to get an official D&D novel published in the past speaks volumes of it's quality. Boinger will struggle on regardless!
The burning stone by Deborah Turner Harris is the start of another trilogy. It has the same editor as Tolkien's LotR. Wait! Come back! It's actually quite good, with a nicely thought out magic system and social order developed to regulate that magic, realistically ruthless villains, and several plot threads that weave together to create a fast paced story full of cliff-hangers. The reviewer certainly wants to read the next two books.
Stalking the unicorn by Mike Resnick is a tale of a new york private eye who travels to an alternate reality at the behest of his new employer, an elf who has lost his unicorn, and needs it back fast. (don't laugh) It applies logical thought to a distinctly fantastic setting, to create a nicely plotted, suspenseful mystery.
A voice for princess by John Morressy is a tale of a wizard's attempts to completely reverse the transformation on a princess formerly turned into a frog (hence the title) Originally a series of short stories in a magazine, it doesn't quite work as a full length novel. Hopefully future books in the series will avoid that problem.
Dragon's pawn by Carol L Dennis is another fairly meta fantasy novel. While it uses lots of cliches, it's characters are aware of this, and manage to twist them to their own ends. Another one that seems likely to spawn additional follow-up books.
Cybernetic Samurai by Victor Milan is the story of a supercomputer programmed with the knowledge of an ancient samurai ruler, and how it deals with the conflicts of the modern day business world by applying those values and lessons. Seems like the kind of thing real geeks would do.
In any case, it seems an entirely valid bit of oriental styled cyberpunk. Wild cards, edited by George R R Martin, is another of our shared world anthologies, a series of stories about superhumans in WWII. Not nearly as comic booky as you'd expect, this has lots of strong characterisation, is well presented, and the stories meld together well, thanks to the editing. An idea that would go on to spawn an RPG, this is definitely an interesting one to report upon.
Operation Zodiac: We continue the series on Top Secret adventures in spaaaace with a whole bunch of extrapolative future history and plot hooks based around this. As is often the case, these seem sadly out of date these days, as we've actually gone backwards in terms of space exploration capability since those days. A sad state of affairs, really. If only the cold war hadn't ended. Now that was a nebulous media excuse for fearmongering and directing our tribalistic hatreds you actually had a hope of beating.
Still, as an excuse for lots of weird and wonderful adventures, this isn't bad at all, pushing the boundaries of (then) modern tech, without going into outright sci-fi territory. If only it had turned like that. Life would be rather more interesting than it is. Profiles: Michael Breault is one of those names that seems like they've been around forever, when actually, they haven't. Curious, that. He's been around quite a bit of interesting stuff, seeing half his class flunk out due to overaddiction to gaming, working on a far right magazine (whether he subscribed to their beliefs is not revealed), and getting a degree in astrophysics. And he's already edited lots of TSR's recent big books. Having just become a dad, he's going to be a busy bunny in the next few years. Another familiar name finally gets a face.
Robin Jenkins has considerably more style than the average editor. Snappy dresser, party animal, movie buff, excellent dancer, he's got so much fashion sense he regularly gets mistaken for a woman. (along with several other members of the crew
) One of our best written interviews, most of the attempts at humour in this one hit the mark nicely. He obviously applies his lesson of learning how to communicate to himself. Barbara G Young's article, on the other hand, doesn't quite work for me. Much is made of her hippyish tendencies, but this is a bunch of life snapshots that doesn't really help me get into the head of the person behind them. Hmm. Never mind. Plenty more where that came from.
Snarfquest jumps into the future. Can the adventurers use their anachronisms, or will they just blunder around amusingly as usual. Dragonmirth gets in on the oriental stuff. Wormy is full of hostility, racism, and possibly treachery.
A very smooth issue, that went down easily, with plenty of mildly positive articles, but no real radical highs or lows. The big central feature meant that there was less text to digest than usual these days, which resulted in me finishing this one quickly. It fulfills it's thematic remit quite reasonably, and there were far fewer articles that seemed tacked on purely to make up the numbers than the last one. They seem to be back on track again, and getting the hang of their new remit. Lets hope they keep that up.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 122: June 1987
part 1/5
108 pages. Black dragons don't breathe fire! You of all people should know that. [/pedant] Seriously, welcome to their 11th birthday. The times, they are still a-changin around here. The upcoming edition changes for both D&D and Top Secret cause many readers much distress. Top secret in particular is a problem, because they've made it clear that the changes are going to be big and the new rules are not going to be easily convertable to the old ones. They say that they'll dual stat the crunchy bits in new articles, but we all know promises like that by a company rarely last long. Still, at least they're asking us what we want to see at the moment, rather than telling us.
In this issue:
Letters: A letter asking if they ever plan to do a D&D comic book, and what the current situation on the D&D movie is. Roger is pretty positive about the first idea, and forced to report that the second seems to have died a slow development death with Gary's departure. Bleah.
A letter from someone who didn't get one of the april fools jokes two years ago, asking for free photocopies. Howe Audacious is not a real person. Stop bugging us! Drive a man mad, int it, blood.
A letter from a 13 year old asking if conventions have age limits. Generally, no. Especially not ones covering topics with a large youth demographic. That would massively cut their profitability.
A letter praising the ecology articles, and asking to make More! Bigger! Covering non AD&D creatures as well! Roger has no objection to the idea, but really, this is up to the freelancers as much as anything. Send in your own ecologies now! Your magazine needs you!
A letter asking for help constructing their own Dragonchess game. Unfortunately, the people most involved in that have since left TSR, so Roger can't help much. The technology still isn't really there to build a good board at an economical price, either. Boo.
Forum is extra long this month, as they let people get their opinions in about the state of gaming as a whole:
Dana Foley reminds us that the spirit of the various articles is more important than their letter. Trying to follow them slavishly without understanding the reasoning behind them will only cause trouble.
Anthony Tennaro thinks that weapons ought to cause more damage next edition. Characters can be hit in vital areas repeatedly to no effect. This isn't realistic. It was never intended to be. Abstraction, my dear.
Craig Ulmer would like to see an article on how you improvise as a DM. Um. You make it up yourself. If you're following rules someone else made, then it essentially becomes playing the blues rather than true freeform improvisation. While that can be fun, it hardly compares to genuine DM'ing skill developed by years of personal trial and error.
Sylvain Robert shows up again, quibbling about the nature of weapon specialization, who can have it, and how many weapons they can specialize in. Your pregens from an adventure break the rules as written. Trusting module writers to get all the stats right is a foolish thing to do. Just fix them, and play your game the way you want too, instead of trusting to a canon that is self contradictory anyway.
Chris Patterson thinks that it's important to enforce consequences for alignment deviations, especially for classes with moral codes. We must not allow psycho dick paladins to retain their powers.
W Brian Barnes thinks that with the recent supplement bloat, UA and it's questionable ideas in particular, the AD&D game has lost it's way. The new edition needs to get back to that original spirit, of allowing us plenty of freedom to keep all the optional bits out if we choose. Flexibility is a good thing.
Ed Friedlander reminds us that for a good cleric, doing good should be a pleasure, both for them, and the people they follow. If it's not, then you're playing it wrong. Being utterly po-faced about your religion is an attitude more suited to lawful neutral and evil types. Humour, music, parables, and using magic for entertainment are all entirely suitable actions for a preacher. And the next edition really ought to have proper rules for conversion of your opponents. Pacifism ought to be a valid character choice in D&D. Hmm. Radical ideas here.
Scott Gilpatric thinks that it should be possible to allow automated reprints of old articles by loading them onto computer disk, and then allowing people to order them, and print them out from their own printer via modem connection. Plus you could double the service up as a bulletin board. My oh my. That's a very forward thinking idea indeed. I very much approve.
Martin Gibbs agrees with Craig Sessions that sexism is bad, and so is judging people without giving them a fair chance to prove themselves. That kind of prejudice is hurtful to them, and harmful to you in the long run, because you miss out on so many cool opportunities.
S D Anderson reminds us just how heavy 1000 gp is, and suggests that giving xp for money is a bad idea. It can be gamed horribly, and results in unfair and over fast advancements. This is another thing about the game that needs fixing.
Robert Montgomery thinks that the problem with alignment is not the existence of good and evil, but the way you define these words. As long as you do that properly, you can have evil PC's without any problem. That's treading perilously close to the moral relativism argument.
W Brian Barnes shows up a second time in a single issue. This time he argues that balancing out magic-users power at high levels by making them painfully wimpy at low levels is not balance at all, and actually makes things worse. True balance should be applicable at all points through the game, not over time. Some serious revision is needed to make that the case. Oh, you don't know the half of it. I wonder what his opinion of 4e is.
Jeanne McGuire is another returning forumite. She examines the math of wizard's intelligence and spells known. picking holes in all the problems that come up and suggesting solutions. One of those letters that seems like it ought to be a proper article, but couldn't quite make up the length.
Stephen Barnecut is also examining the rules for wizards, and trying to clarify the ones for spellbooks. Having them scattered throughout the books really does make getting a clear picture a bugger. Let's get working to fix this.
Scott Luzzo delivers another almost article, about the procedure for recharging charged items. The rules on this are currently unclear, so I shall make up my own and share them with you. I do not object to this idea at all.
part 1/5
108 pages. Black dragons don't breathe fire! You of all people should know that. [/pedant] Seriously, welcome to their 11th birthday. The times, they are still a-changin around here. The upcoming edition changes for both D&D and Top Secret cause many readers much distress. Top secret in particular is a problem, because they've made it clear that the changes are going to be big and the new rules are not going to be easily convertable to the old ones. They say that they'll dual stat the crunchy bits in new articles, but we all know promises like that by a company rarely last long. Still, at least they're asking us what we want to see at the moment, rather than telling us.
In this issue:
Letters: A letter asking if they ever plan to do a D&D comic book, and what the current situation on the D&D movie is. Roger is pretty positive about the first idea, and forced to report that the second seems to have died a slow development death with Gary's departure. Bleah.
A letter from someone who didn't get one of the april fools jokes two years ago, asking for free photocopies. Howe Audacious is not a real person. Stop bugging us! Drive a man mad, int it, blood.
A letter from a 13 year old asking if conventions have age limits. Generally, no. Especially not ones covering topics with a large youth demographic. That would massively cut their profitability.
A letter praising the ecology articles, and asking to make More! Bigger! Covering non AD&D creatures as well! Roger has no objection to the idea, but really, this is up to the freelancers as much as anything. Send in your own ecologies now! Your magazine needs you!
A letter asking for help constructing their own Dragonchess game. Unfortunately, the people most involved in that have since left TSR, so Roger can't help much. The technology still isn't really there to build a good board at an economical price, either. Boo.
Forum is extra long this month, as they let people get their opinions in about the state of gaming as a whole:
Dana Foley reminds us that the spirit of the various articles is more important than their letter. Trying to follow them slavishly without understanding the reasoning behind them will only cause trouble.
Anthony Tennaro thinks that weapons ought to cause more damage next edition. Characters can be hit in vital areas repeatedly to no effect. This isn't realistic. It was never intended to be. Abstraction, my dear.
Craig Ulmer would like to see an article on how you improvise as a DM. Um. You make it up yourself. If you're following rules someone else made, then it essentially becomes playing the blues rather than true freeform improvisation. While that can be fun, it hardly compares to genuine DM'ing skill developed by years of personal trial and error.
Sylvain Robert shows up again, quibbling about the nature of weapon specialization, who can have it, and how many weapons they can specialize in. Your pregens from an adventure break the rules as written. Trusting module writers to get all the stats right is a foolish thing to do. Just fix them, and play your game the way you want too, instead of trusting to a canon that is self contradictory anyway.
Chris Patterson thinks that it's important to enforce consequences for alignment deviations, especially for classes with moral codes. We must not allow psycho dick paladins to retain their powers.
W Brian Barnes thinks that with the recent supplement bloat, UA and it's questionable ideas in particular, the AD&D game has lost it's way. The new edition needs to get back to that original spirit, of allowing us plenty of freedom to keep all the optional bits out if we choose. Flexibility is a good thing.
Ed Friedlander reminds us that for a good cleric, doing good should be a pleasure, both for them, and the people they follow. If it's not, then you're playing it wrong. Being utterly po-faced about your religion is an attitude more suited to lawful neutral and evil types. Humour, music, parables, and using magic for entertainment are all entirely suitable actions for a preacher. And the next edition really ought to have proper rules for conversion of your opponents. Pacifism ought to be a valid character choice in D&D. Hmm. Radical ideas here.
Scott Gilpatric thinks that it should be possible to allow automated reprints of old articles by loading them onto computer disk, and then allowing people to order them, and print them out from their own printer via modem connection. Plus you could double the service up as a bulletin board. My oh my. That's a very forward thinking idea indeed. I very much approve.
Martin Gibbs agrees with Craig Sessions that sexism is bad, and so is judging people without giving them a fair chance to prove themselves. That kind of prejudice is hurtful to them, and harmful to you in the long run, because you miss out on so many cool opportunities.
S D Anderson reminds us just how heavy 1000 gp is, and suggests that giving xp for money is a bad idea. It can be gamed horribly, and results in unfair and over fast advancements. This is another thing about the game that needs fixing.
Robert Montgomery thinks that the problem with alignment is not the existence of good and evil, but the way you define these words. As long as you do that properly, you can have evil PC's without any problem. That's treading perilously close to the moral relativism argument.
W Brian Barnes shows up a second time in a single issue. This time he argues that balancing out magic-users power at high levels by making them painfully wimpy at low levels is not balance at all, and actually makes things worse. True balance should be applicable at all points through the game, not over time. Some serious revision is needed to make that the case. Oh, you don't know the half of it. I wonder what his opinion of 4e is.
Jeanne McGuire is another returning forumite. She examines the math of wizard's intelligence and spells known. picking holes in all the problems that come up and suggesting solutions. One of those letters that seems like it ought to be a proper article, but couldn't quite make up the length.
Stephen Barnecut is also examining the rules for wizards, and trying to clarify the ones for spellbooks. Having them scattered throughout the books really does make getting a clear picture a bugger. Let's get working to fix this.
Scott Luzzo delivers another almost article, about the procedure for recharging charged items. The rules on this are currently unclear, so I shall make up my own and share them with you. I do not object to this idea at all.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 122: June 1987
part 2/5
The ecology of the rot grub: Or Ew, ew, it just crawled inside me! getitout getitout getitout! as they are colloquially known. Yeah, these are fun little bastards to trick and squick your players with, and Ed Greenwood is fully aware of this fact. Even the stuffiest of sages will show a crack in their composure at the prospect of one of these getting loose mid-lecture. Ed skips the footnotes completely this time around, but this is still a fun little feature, that feels like a throwback to the early days of the ecologies, back in '83. He knows sage and adventurer psychology inside out by now, and this is pretty well tailored to answering some of the common questions adventurers might have. Nice to see he can still knock em out when in the right mood.
A step beyond shogun: We obviously have a lot of oriental articles, because they're continuing on from last month. This is a brief review of 5 of the books from OA's bibliography, so as to give you a little more info on just what you're getting yourself into if you pick them up. The writer goes for the ones that have already made some pop culture penetration, The art of war, A book of 5 rings, another biography of Myamoto Musashi, two books on the nature of what it means to be a samurai, this is very much a japan focussed populist selection. Still, if people are daunted by that bibliography, you want to direct them towards the more accessible stuff first. Don't want them put off before they even play. Very much a filler article.
And a step beyond that: Zeb Cook gives us yet more source material to read, this time Officially Recommended. What is Japanese architecture. The Taiheiki. Ugetsu Monogatari. Japanese ghosts and demons. Japanese castles. The samurai film. The medieval Japanese Daimyo. 7 more books for you to check out if you want to fill in your OA campaigns with realistic historical detail. Nice to see he's still enthusiastic abut the topic, but as a dry listing, this doesn't make very interesting reading in itself. Yet more stuff to possibly check out once I've completed this insanely long trek through history.
Out of Africa: Hmm. Yes, compared to europe and the orient, africa does get relatively little airtime in mythological circles. But there's no shortage of legends from there. Quite the opposite, given the number of different tribes, it's just that they're not remotely unified, or even particularly well documented in comparison to greek and norse myth. This is the advantage of writing stuff down. It really does help with the posterity thing. Even more helpful is artwork, which is important for getting a fixed form from the strange descriptions in oral tales. Still, we can extract more than enough fairly concrete creatures from those legends to make up a whole bestiary full of monsters. And if you want to make some more, there's a pretty decent bibliography for you to hunt down and read. A nicely flavourful collection that looses a couple of points for being purely fluff.
Gaming the dark continent: Fortunately, Our esteemed lead editor is here, and continues his practice of making articles that complement each other, by himself if he has too. So here's stats for 11 creatures from the preceding article. There's something here to challenge you from 1st to low name levels, taking you from tricksy little humanoids, to gigantic swamp monsters. The descriptions are very sparse, because of course most of the fluff was back in the preceding article, which results in lots of annoying flipping back and forth. Would it have been too hard to composite these two articles into a seamless whole? Oh well. Still very much better than nothing. Now what we need is some stuff on playing african PC's. Come on writers. Don't let me down.
Paranoia second edition. Now even your own clones are out to get you. Buy it now. Not upgrading is treasonous citizen, as the computer may crash from incompatible code. As the computer is perfect, this cannot be. Long live the computer!
The natural Order: Looks like following on from recent issues is the theme of this one, as we now have lots of new druid spells for you to exploit as well. Arthur Collins delivers 21 new spells of all levels. All are suitable to druid's nature control purview, and help add a little more celtic flavour to the class. Utility and combat both get their fair share, and we also get a quartet of seasonal ceremony spells, as inspired by Len Lakofka in issue 58. Someone's maintaining a proper sense of history here, and finally seeing a symmetry like this filled in is curiously pleasing to me. He may not be one of their star writers, but Arthur is certainly continuing to deliver over a longer period than most of their freelancers. And it looks like that will continue for quite some time longer, since I remember him still being around when I started reading. If he continues to deliver little gems like this, I have no objection to this state of affairs.
From the sorceror's scroll: Yes, Gary shows his face again (sorta, because the graphic that used to adorn this column is missing) after his mysterious and unheralded disappearance. However, it is only to explain what has been going down in the past year or so, and deliver a terse goodbye. He was forced out by the board of directors (naming no names, but glaring very hard at) After much unpleasantness, he resigned entirely, washing his hands of the crap, and formed a new company. Looks like Kim Mohan and Frank Mentzer decided their loyalties lay with Gary rather than the company as well, and jumped ship. That explains Kim's sudden departure from the editing job, forcing Roger to edit two magazines at once, as they wouldn't have done that intentionally. Even Penny Petticord has switched sides, albeit a bit later. Man, this is uncomfortable. He's trying to couch it in optimistic terms, but all those staff leaving must have left quite a bit of chaos in their wake and bad blood on both sides. It's surprising that they managed to keep the magazine running as smoothly as they did. He hopes to talk to us again soon, but of course I very much doubt we'll see much of that in here. They wouldn't want to give airtime to a dangerous competitor. Rather shoddy of them to stuff this in the middle and treat it like one of those little retractions you see in the newspapers, something faintly embarrassing they'd rather you didn't notice. At least they deigned to say something, even if the true extent of the backstage ugliness remains very much concealed. So long, Gary. Don't be a stranger.
part 2/5
The ecology of the rot grub: Or Ew, ew, it just crawled inside me! getitout getitout getitout! as they are colloquially known. Yeah, these are fun little bastards to trick and squick your players with, and Ed Greenwood is fully aware of this fact. Even the stuffiest of sages will show a crack in their composure at the prospect of one of these getting loose mid-lecture. Ed skips the footnotes completely this time around, but this is still a fun little feature, that feels like a throwback to the early days of the ecologies, back in '83. He knows sage and adventurer psychology inside out by now, and this is pretty well tailored to answering some of the common questions adventurers might have. Nice to see he can still knock em out when in the right mood.
A step beyond shogun: We obviously have a lot of oriental articles, because they're continuing on from last month. This is a brief review of 5 of the books from OA's bibliography, so as to give you a little more info on just what you're getting yourself into if you pick them up. The writer goes for the ones that have already made some pop culture penetration, The art of war, A book of 5 rings, another biography of Myamoto Musashi, two books on the nature of what it means to be a samurai, this is very much a japan focussed populist selection. Still, if people are daunted by that bibliography, you want to direct them towards the more accessible stuff first. Don't want them put off before they even play. Very much a filler article.
And a step beyond that: Zeb Cook gives us yet more source material to read, this time Officially Recommended. What is Japanese architecture. The Taiheiki. Ugetsu Monogatari. Japanese ghosts and demons. Japanese castles. The samurai film. The medieval Japanese Daimyo. 7 more books for you to check out if you want to fill in your OA campaigns with realistic historical detail. Nice to see he's still enthusiastic abut the topic, but as a dry listing, this doesn't make very interesting reading in itself. Yet more stuff to possibly check out once I've completed this insanely long trek through history.
Out of Africa: Hmm. Yes, compared to europe and the orient, africa does get relatively little airtime in mythological circles. But there's no shortage of legends from there. Quite the opposite, given the number of different tribes, it's just that they're not remotely unified, or even particularly well documented in comparison to greek and norse myth. This is the advantage of writing stuff down. It really does help with the posterity thing. Even more helpful is artwork, which is important for getting a fixed form from the strange descriptions in oral tales. Still, we can extract more than enough fairly concrete creatures from those legends to make up a whole bestiary full of monsters. And if you want to make some more, there's a pretty decent bibliography for you to hunt down and read. A nicely flavourful collection that looses a couple of points for being purely fluff.
Gaming the dark continent: Fortunately, Our esteemed lead editor is here, and continues his practice of making articles that complement each other, by himself if he has too. So here's stats for 11 creatures from the preceding article. There's something here to challenge you from 1st to low name levels, taking you from tricksy little humanoids, to gigantic swamp monsters. The descriptions are very sparse, because of course most of the fluff was back in the preceding article, which results in lots of annoying flipping back and forth. Would it have been too hard to composite these two articles into a seamless whole? Oh well. Still very much better than nothing. Now what we need is some stuff on playing african PC's. Come on writers. Don't let me down.
Paranoia second edition. Now even your own clones are out to get you. Buy it now. Not upgrading is treasonous citizen, as the computer may crash from incompatible code. As the computer is perfect, this cannot be. Long live the computer!
The natural Order: Looks like following on from recent issues is the theme of this one, as we now have lots of new druid spells for you to exploit as well. Arthur Collins delivers 21 new spells of all levels. All are suitable to druid's nature control purview, and help add a little more celtic flavour to the class. Utility and combat both get their fair share, and we also get a quartet of seasonal ceremony spells, as inspired by Len Lakofka in issue 58. Someone's maintaining a proper sense of history here, and finally seeing a symmetry like this filled in is curiously pleasing to me. He may not be one of their star writers, but Arthur is certainly continuing to deliver over a longer period than most of their freelancers. And it looks like that will continue for quite some time longer, since I remember him still being around when I started reading. If he continues to deliver little gems like this, I have no objection to this state of affairs.
From the sorceror's scroll: Yes, Gary shows his face again (sorta, because the graphic that used to adorn this column is missing) after his mysterious and unheralded disappearance. However, it is only to explain what has been going down in the past year or so, and deliver a terse goodbye. He was forced out by the board of directors (naming no names, but glaring very hard at) After much unpleasantness, he resigned entirely, washing his hands of the crap, and formed a new company. Looks like Kim Mohan and Frank Mentzer decided their loyalties lay with Gary rather than the company as well, and jumped ship. That explains Kim's sudden departure from the editing job, forcing Roger to edit two magazines at once, as they wouldn't have done that intentionally. Even Penny Petticord has switched sides, albeit a bit later. Man, this is uncomfortable. He's trying to couch it in optimistic terms, but all those staff leaving must have left quite a bit of chaos in their wake and bad blood on both sides. It's surprising that they managed to keep the magazine running as smoothly as they did. He hopes to talk to us again soon, but of course I very much doubt we'll see much of that in here. They wouldn't want to give airtime to a dangerous competitor. Rather shoddy of them to stuff this in the middle and treat it like one of those little retractions you see in the newspapers, something faintly embarrassing they'd rather you didn't notice. At least they deigned to say something, even if the true extent of the backstage ugliness remains very much concealed. So long, Gary. Don't be a stranger.
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
So why is it that no one remembers that Egypt is in Africa whenever they talk about Africa? Unless talking about Egypt specifically you'd think there was nothing there but desert nomads and jungle tribesmen.
Orius
Legend
So there it is.
Well, it took 10 years. And we all know how THAT happened too. But there it is on the cover of the second Annual issue, Gary's name in BIG letters, and his article reminiscing about the old days of his game. He didn't really write any more rules related stuff after that, but they did give him a column later on where he discussed RPGing stuff in general.
Speaking of which, that makes me think of something. How are you planning to cover the Annual issues when you get to them? Not like you need to decide quickly, since there's still another 9 years to go. They were released between the November and December issues originally, but in my collection, I just put them at the end of their respective years.
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