Dragon #298 contents: Drow, drow, drow...

[Hand of Evil]

Enough Drow, what this needed was a SPIDER SILK GOLEM!

That sounds cool now that I said it.

 

[Desdichado]

Drow are interesting enough (if a bit over-used sometimes these days) so I'm interested in this issue. Still, the last thing the magazine needed was to have yet more domineering themes than the last two issues. I'm a fan of themes, but when the theme is almost all they do, that's a bit much.

I liked some of the other themed issues they've done that have been more moderate. Half a dozen theme articles tops, and then some other really neat articles about other stuff is the way to go.

And taking out classic magazine components like Up on a Soapbox (not that I really miss this one) and Class Acts seems like kinda a shame as well. For one thing, at least the regular columns are rarely press-ganged into the theme, so you at least get some non-theme content there...

 

[qstor]

Dragon magazine for a long time....at least since the early 90's has had themed issues. They dont bother me as long as they add new ones once in a while. Like the historical fantasy issue with did with cyber punk greyhawk and steampunk stuff. Otherwise it gets boring.

Mike

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I guess I'll be getting this in the next day or two (subscription). I have to say that this is the first issue I'm not really looking forward to. Drow are interesting monsters to use, but I've had more than my fill of them after all these years.

 

[Eridanis]

The big news for me is that Paizo has already taken over publication of The Dragon. This must have been in the works for a while, since this issue had to have gone to the printer a good month ago or so.

And I haven't paid much attention to drow since we finished the GDQ series, lo those many years ago. I'll read through my subscription copy once and put it on the shelf - but I've gotten so much enjoyment and use out of Dragon in the past couple years that I'm fine with the ocacsional issue that doesn't selfishly devote itself to my gaming needs. Remember how bad Dragon got in the year before TSR went belly-up? I'll take the current situation over that any month of the year.

 

[Tewligan]

To be fair, the Ashen Compact can be repurposed, the items don't really need to be drow, some of the monsters could be tweaked to be non-drow related and you might be able to use the maps. But overall, this might be the hardest theme to mine bits out of.

Huh, from your initial post, I thought it sounded like one of the easier themes they've done lately to steal and adapt bits from. Sounds like a pretty good issue to me - I'm sure I'll snag and twist some chunks o' crunch, and maybe even use some "as is" for my (newly albino) drow cities.

 

[dreamthief]

Down with Drow

I guess I'll be getting this in the next day or two (subscription). I have to say that this is the first issue I'm not really looking forward to. Drow are interesting monsters to use, but I've had more than my fill of them after all these years.

Yeap enough of them... But I guess they do sell magazines.

 

[reddist]

The necromancer article looks pretty interesting, and I can usually pull stuff out of the toolbox articles, regardless of the monthly theme.

So far, it was the Stronghold Builder issue that I found particularly useless. Most of my players (from the two groups I DM for) have little or no interest in building and maintaing a castle. It was interesting from a historical viewpoint, but added nothing to my current games.

-Reddist

 

[Aitch Eye]

Huh, from your initial post, I thought it sounded like one of the easier themes they've done lately to steal and adapt bits from.

If your looking to use drow, yes, it's a good issue for that. If your not, its hard to pick bits out of the drow articles, and there's not much else in it.

(By the way, if you're using albino drow, be sure to check out the editorial. It's about Andy Collins using "pale-skinned, spider-eyed, demon elves" that were "in game terms, identical to drow" but gave a far different feeling to the game.)

I have no problem with theme issues, even if it's one we can't use. That's just the way things work out. My problem with this issue is just that it was so endlessly cold, nasty, and miserable. Not that it was badly done, just that it seemed when it wasn't about atrocities it was about perversion.

Judging by the demon fetishism on this board [insert a smiley here if I've offended you], that's not necessarily an unpopular approach, and I didn't particularly notice a problem the quality of the work. Then again, I didn't feel like reading many articles straight through in a single sitting, or dwelling on them much afterward, so my perceptions may be a little disjointed.

I had no problem reading through all the (to us) useless articles in the Epic Level issue, and enjoyed some of them. Since both campaigns our group is in have drow as an important element, this may end up being the most useful recent issue. It was the lack of much of any counterpoint to the theme of eternal cosmic degradation that makes me feel that the theme went overboard this issue.

But, hey, the kids love it. What can you do?

 

[Desdichado]

Of course you have to talk about evil a bit more often than maybe you'd like, because for DMs creating compelling villains is a crucial task.

The Epic level magazine, on the other hand, was completely useless, and less interesting than I had hoped.