Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 163: November 1990

part 4/6


The role of computers: Secret of the silver blades is another Forgotten Realms CRPG that sticks pretty close to the actual game rules. Once again, you can even bring in your characters from previous adventures. It doesn't get quite the high marks of Azure bonds, mainly due to the plot not being as good, but in terms of gameplay, it does make some improvements. Another one to help the Realms rise to eminence as THE AD&D game setting with the mass market penetration.

Centurion: Defender of rome is one of those large scale tactical wargames where you get to build an empire from the top down. It has some control issues, and the fact that you have to prepare for events blind annoys the designers, but they still think it shows promise. The screenshot they have is certainly pretty amusing.

The keys to Maramon gets a rather mediocre review for not being sufficiently role-playey. False advertising, man. :shakes head:

Dungeon Explorer is basically Gauntlet, only with up to 5 players, and a little more NPC interaction. This is a pretty good thing in the reviewer's mind, giving them an RPG'y fix without requiring days of grinding and regular saving and restarting to finish a game.

The Revenge of Shinobi sees Sega sequelize to capitalize on the ongoing popularity of ninjas. Shuriken, double jumps, a special power you can only use once per life. This sounds very familiar indeed. I strongly suspect I may have wasted a load of money in an arcade on this one summer.


Fiction: Storm Winter by M C Sumner. Yo. Y-Yo. Sentient reptile people with a dry sense of humour in da house, representing it northside. Some of us really want to rule the world, but I just want to be a captain of sail. They try sacrificing me to their cruel god, but I'll team up with a human girl. We'll avenge her father, foil necromantic slaughter, send them packing, and hide the macguffin. And that's enough bad rap-filk for quite a while. Still, this was another fairly enjoyable bit of fiction, with some rather good world-building for such a small amount of space. And it doesn't take itself too seriously either. They're keeping up the good performance in this area.


The statement of ownership is in an odd place in the middle of the magazine this year, which means I missed it the first few times I looked through. Hmm. With an average of near 109 thousand, but a last issue number of only 103, it looks like they continued their slow rise early in the year, and then started declining in the last few months. Interesting to note that the ratio of subscribers to newsstand buyers has increased quite a bit though. I wonder why. Perfectly normal fluctuations.

Buck Rogers Play by Mail game? Talk about combining an out of date property with an out of date format. More excuses for Loraine (roll of thunder, stab of organ music) to siphon money out of the company.


The marvel-phile has a lot of writers this month. This is probably because this is more leftovers from the new marvel handbook installment, and they can't remember who did which characters, or split the labor on each of them in some arcane way to make the production treadmill work faster. This time, it's a couple of cut villains, Nebulon and Solarr. A shapeshifting alien who tried to take over the world, and a mutant thug who absorbs energy from the sun, although not to ends as powerful and wide ranging as superman. Both are now dead, which may be a factor in their non-inclusion in the update. And It doesn't look like they've been brought back since either. Since I didn't find them very interesting to read about, I think they can stay in the dustbin of history where they were found. It's nice to see characters stay dead around here, ironically.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 163: November 1990

part 5/6


Making law out of chaos: Where the forum leads, full articles frequently follow. In this case, it's back to the alignment debates. The out of date alignment debates, using the terms from the 1st ed books rather than the 2nd ed ones to define things, just to make this a little more tiresome, and drive home just how much crap they still have in their slush piles. Were they really getting so few decent 2nd ed articles submitted? And this is a pretty dull one that keeps the definitions fairly restrictive. There's no room for people who just don't particularly care about morality, with neutrality being the opposite of the way it ought to work. (In reality, people are far more likely to side with whoever looks like winning) Puh-lease. One of the good things about 2nd edition was that it was more clearly written than 1st ed, and allowed for more customisation of characters. While there are some cooler bits in 1st ed, this is not one you get much from holding on too. Let it go.


KIng arthur is back, and he's a mutant in palladium's new sourcebook. Hee.


Professional Monsters: Another one about giving monsters classes, this time idiosyncratic specific ones in the mold of the halfling defender. Why should humans get all the fun? So here's three examples - Centaur Cavalier, Orc Barbarian and Lizard man Druid. Curiously, along with the usual low level limits usual for 1st ed nonhumans, they are, in general, somewhat weaker than their regular equivalents. Still, they do each have a few unique bonuses along with the penalties, and I suppose it's better than not having access to the classes at all. I think I'm unlikely to see players pick these guys, even if I was getting to run games a lot more frequently than I am, so there's no need to restrict them. The humancentricism will continue for the foreseeable future.


The dragon's bestiary: Spell weavers are a classic weird screwage monster. Alien, inscrutable, and able to cast several spells at once. They've really gone to town on these guys, creating things that are pretty scary on multiple levels, and packed with loving advice on their tactics and unique equipment. One that does get into official books and adventures later, these guys definitely encourage both DM's and players to step up their tactical efficiency, for whoever snoozes loses. And pray Mariliths find them as incomprehensible as we do, for multispellcasting in their hands does not bear thinking about. As you've probably guessed, I've always been rather fond of these guys, and it's nice to discover they're another one that got their start in the magazine.


TSR Previews: A fairly small list of releases this month, but the forgotten realms is still getting a double bill. FRA3: Blood charge completes the horde trilogy of modules. Their sound and fury burns itself out, but will continue to have repercussions. R A Salvadore is still prequelising in Exile. Drizzt has been kicked out of his home, and has to figure out how to make friends among other races that hate his. AAAaaaaaaaaaangst!!!!!!

Dragonlance finishes it's second spin-off character trilogy, with Galen Benighted. The things we do for our family, eh. Not an uncommon theme, really.

Lankhmar gets LNA2: Nehwon. A magical scavenger hunt? Sounds a bit goofy. Is this in theme with the books?

Marvel superheroes finishes getting grim and gritty in MLA3: Night life. They've done cosmic, they've done gritty, they've done time travel. Where will their adventures take us next?

And finally, it's another standalone book. The Alien Dark by Diana G Gallagher. From a truly alien point of view, the ad copy says. Does it live up to that bold statement?


The Affordable Fort: A second minis-centric article this month to supplement the regular one. We haven't had cardboard castles given away with the magazine for a few years now, but that doesn't mean you can't make your own. Cardboard, glue and paints are not commodities in short supply. The space and facilities to construct, display, and move these around, on the other hand, may well be, but that depends on your situation really. With excellent photography, this is a nice little piece full of practical advice useful for complete amateurs. Which makes sense, given how infrequently they run advice like this. Still, this does make me realise that the aimed average expertise level of the readership is actually lower than 10 years ago, even though the production values are substantially increased. Slightly sobering, really.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 163: November 1990

part 6/6


Dragonmirth reminds you that a good DM is essential. Yamara reminds us that there are better ways to clear a dungeon than going in hacking and slashing. Grognards may disagree. We get an enemy introduced and a flashback in Twilight Empire.


Sage advice goes from peach to yellow. This is what happens when you expose scrolls to too much sunlight. Still, as long as it doesn't affect the legibility of the writing, it's not a problem.

Why is it so hard to change your gender back after donning a girdle ( Hee. Because Gary found it amusing, back in the day. You might as well just enjoy your new gender. A lot of people would pay a lot of money for a complete, fully functional sex change. )

How do you choose a spell's school (logic and common sense, based on what it does and how it does it. )

If a spell is of multiple schools and one is banned, can a specialist use it (Yes. This is very exploitable if you're designing custom spells. )

How do you determine a multiclassed characters ego (use the best level )

Can grease counter spider climb (Probably. )

Are immortals immune to mortal magic or not? (Not entirely. So it goes)

I'm confused by the prices in the castle guide ( Yeah, accountancy's a bitch, particularly when you don't have proper editors and leave some pages behind. Skip has had Words with the writer, and will cap him if he makes a mistake like that again.)


Through the looking glass: Back to the reviews in time for christmas. A battlemat with a forest background. A pair of odd little figurines that aren't really that great for wargaming, but still look pretty neat. A rancor pit from Star Wars, which isn't very well done. And some more generic fantasy and sci-fi miniatures. Business as usual here.


A hoard for the Horde: Another bit of cut material from a recent Realms supplement here. Why do we never see stuff like this for dragonlance or greyhawk? So Zeb overwrote this time, and here's the monsters they decided to cut. Ironically, my second hand copy of the Horde boxed set came with this pull-out included, courtesy of whoever had it before, so I've already seen this.

Dzalamus dragons are three headed grouches that'll swoop upon you and temporarily reduce your level with their breath to soften you up. Fortunately, that's their only magical trick. They'll never make a good ruler of nations like some other dragons I could mention.

Manni are humanoid crow things. Probably related to tengu somehow, only with considerably less style and magic. They're basically another thing in the goblinoid niche, only tougher and able to fly. Which can make all the difference with a little cunning. Still, I can see why they weren't considered essential.

Morin are strange ugly little burrowing things that look very similar to a creature we'll see later in Orpheus. Ahh, the joys of body shape squick. They're not hugely dangerous individually, but come in reasonable sized swarms. Whoever they pick on is in trouble. Probably the coolest of the monsters here.

Sand cats are pretty bland, and another thing that I can see why they got cut. Course, they can still kill your average 1st level character easily enough, with the whole claw/claw/bite/rake thing. That's D&D for you. Redundant monsters aplenty amongst the cool ones.


A somewhat odd progression this issue, as they go quite from forward-thinking articles to out of date and tired ones over the course of it. They also seem to be increasing the number of articles which are simply cut bits from upcoming books, which I'm really not sure if I like. Well, I suppose I'll see a hell of a lot more of that if I ever do the 4e Dragons, and much of it isn't even cut material, just sneak previews. Anyway, overall, this is a fairly average issue in terms of quality, with a fairly even mix of cool stuff and crap. They're definitely an overcommercialised juggernaut now, but they are still acting as an airing ground for quite a few cool ideas. As ever, you'll have to keep your filters ready, and don't forget to read between the lines. On we go to the season of snow.

 

[LordVyreth]

Hmm, the Manni sound a bit like the kenku do. Do we know which one predates the other? But then, the kenku didn't really get turned into flightless goblin-class crows until 3rd ed, either. The three headed dragons sound familiar; I think I used that one on the party before.

As for the spell weaver, sigh, I KNOW that one is familiar; an old DM inflicted that one on us as one of the campaign's main big bads. A 6th level 2nd edition mage does not want to see two fireballs tossed at him in a round, let me assure you, especially after the party was split. Thanks again, Jason Bulmahn of Paizo Publishing!

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 164: December 1990

part 1/6


116 pages. From one very familiar special topic to another one, in our third oriental special issue. 121, 151, and now this, with plenty of issues in between featuring oriental articles as well. Just can't escape it, can they? Still, last issue they managed to justify their repeated subject with new ideas. Can they do so again? As ever, I live in hope.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter from people who seem to have assumed D&D = satanic = religion or something. Roger tries to explain, with much bemusement. Our sole purpose is to make money by selling stuff. Religion and philosophy do not come into it.

A letter asking where the new classes, adventures and places are. We have published quite a few of the first recently, with another one this issue. The other two are Dungeon's remit. You'll have to buy that. (PS. Death Masters, dangerous? Ahahahahaha!!!!! A wizard of equal level trounces them effortlessly. What are you on Roger? Did you ever playtest them at all? )


Editorial: Hmm. This is an idea we haven't had since 1985, from a different perspective. The concept of analysing people based on what kind of characters they most frequently play is an interesting one, but not something that works as well as armchair psychiatrists think. For a start, people frequently choose roles that actively contrast with their most common real life one, as a means of release and exploring different personas. For another, it's surprising what a few events early in a character's history can have on the way you portray them, often in ways originally unintended. And let's not get into the whole playing members of the opposite gender issue. While there are a few exceptions, such as the guy who insists on playing catgirls at every juncture, I think we can safely rubbish Katherine Kerr's theory that playing evil characters means you're a bad person in reality. Most people have a little more breadth and nuance to their personality. Just watch out for the ones that obsess on one thing, and bring it into whatever they do, even if it's inappropriate. This has been a nicely thought provoking little editorial.


Flying feet and lightning hands: We kick off our themed section rather literally, with a bunch of new MA maneuvers, including a new kick. Most of our articles in this vein have been on new styles combining different permutations of the existing maneuvers. Looks like Len wants to push things a little further. Just as with the core ones, there are several techniques that are obviously supernatural mixed with the physically achievable ones, showing how blurred that particular line is in D&D. Some of them are compiled from other articles in the magazine, where they were class specific abilities. A couple of them are really scary, but most aren't that impressive. So it does nothing for the overall balance of MA as an option, while setting a few more traps for the mechanically unwise player. Purchase with caution. You know how limited your slots are, and every one counts.


Things your sensei never taught you: More MA moves here, and a little advice on building your own styles containing them. MA styles shouldn't simply be bunches of random moves, but a themed collection with definite strengths and weaknesses. No great surprises here. What is slightly more surprising and irritating is that a few of the moves are pretty much the same as the last article. Since that seemed to be compiling stuff, having one immediately following it that not only makes it out of date again, but also introduces redundancy in terms of moves to buy is rather poor organization on the editing staff's part. You could have merged these first two into a single article, and both would have been rather better off for it. Wakey wakey Roger.

 

[(un)reason]

Hmm, the Manni sound a bit like the kenku do. Do we know which one predates the other? But then, the kenku didn't really get turned into flightless goblin-class crows until 3rd ed, either.

Kenku are from the Fiend folio, so they've been around for a good 10 years longer. Tengu are from OA.

The three headed dragons sound familiar; I think I used that one on the party before.

Note that they also introduced another three-headed dragon this year, the Gorynych. Must have been something in the water.

As for the spell weaver, sigh, I KNOW that one is familiar; an old DM inflicted that one on us as one of the campaign's main big bads. A 6th level 2nd edition mage does not want to see two fireballs tossed at him in a round, let me assure you, especially after the party was split. Thanks again, Jason Bulmahn of Paizo Publishing!

Poor you Did you manage to win in the end?

 

[amysrevenge]

Flying feet and lightning hands.

Here's another one we had a photocopy of, and used the crap out of.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 164: December 1990

part 2/6


Bonds of brotherhood: Ahh, the old background filling in questions. Monks are supposed to have been trained by some organization. Like clerics, this means you can get substantial world integration benefits by spelling out what organizations, gods and philosophies are out there for the PC's to follow. If you set them up so they have good reasons to go out adventuring, that helps even more. So here's a bit of advice on that, and three sample orders from the writer's home world. A good one which hunts down and shares knowledge. An evil one which controls places from behind the scenes under a humble guise. And a neutral one which tries to pacify and enlighten barbarians from the inside. All seems pretty sensible, and draws on a nice range of literary sources for inspiration. File under solid but unexceptional.


Born to defend: As they've said earlier, new classes are popular. Just the oriental ones introduced here alone nearly double your options from the main book. Doesn't matter if they're poorly balanced or thematically misconcieved, people still crave the crunch. No surprises that another new class finishes off this section then. The Piao Shih, who's job it is to escort caravans and people across the huge distances and substantial dangers of the oriental world. You can see how one of them would wind up with an adventuring party. And they do have some exceedingly valuable skills, especially since oriental characters don't have a ranger equivalent, and the closest thing, barbarians, are kinda persona non grata in polite society. They are pretty high on customizability, with many of their abilities selectable from an array of options that looks easily expandable. They do have a bit of an issue in that they only earn half experience from killing things and taking stuff outside the line of duty, but since this is also a problem Shugenja, Samurai and Sohei face, this is not an insurmountable issue. All you need to do is make sure trade is an important part of your group's activities. They're certainly a lot easier to integrate than Geisha, and they certainly don't look egregiously over or underpowered, while having plenty of distinctiveness and flavour. If your group is playing Marco Volo, having one of these come back with you seems pretty plausible. And then the paths the adventure could take just keep on forking. What ideas will they have next.


Sage advice loses it's colour for the first time in a while. Oh noes. Poor skip. Just when skip was getting used to it, they pull the plug again. Skip will have to make some arrangements to fix this.

Can magic resistance stop gaze and protection attacks (no, and maybe. )
If a staff has all it's charges used, does it still retain a bonus to hit and damage (No. It's just a useless lump of wood. )

How do clerics read scrolls if they don't have spells to do so. (Err. Somehow. )

Where can I get more info on herbs to make proper use of the herbalism proficiency (Waay back in issue 82. No, we still don't do reprints. You'll have to get hold of it yourself. )

How many slots does it take to learn everything about poisons. What can I do with that knowledge (Ask your DM. Don't think that more powerful poisons'll be cheap or easy to make, even if you have the knowhow. And remember kids, poison use is hazardous to your health and your alignment. Don't do it at home. )

What abilities do you get when polymorphed (You've asked this before. Skip can't be bothered. Skip is still pissed off about losing his colour. Skip is off to complain to the editor. Seeya later, bitches.)


Forum: S. D. Anderson points out that wizards actually stand to benefit more than fighters from adding firearms to their arsenal. They're not likely to be the ones holding back their development. It's more likely to be the clerics, quite possibly from orders by their reactionary bosses. Remember, the magic/technology divide is a pretty artificial one, and most in setting characters would likely ignore it, seeing both as perfectly normal within their normal parameters.

Toby Myers trots out the old "computer can never replace the imagination of a human" argument. I think everyone agrees with that, yet they still keep using computers. This is pretty much a non debate.

Jeannine Cochran wants demons and devils back. Good needs strong opposition to really shine. We shouldn't listen to a bunch of mothers who'd rather ban things for everyone than keep an eye on what their children have access to personally.

Kildare Bangore speaks up in promotion of anime, building on Gregg Sharp's letter. It may not have gone mainstream, but there are quite a few clubs out there, trading videos and giving people a forum to talk about these things. He also goes into a talk about the history of the giant robot genre. Guess who was originally responsible.

Patrick E. Baroco and a bunch of other kids speak up to praise D&D, and give their opinion on it's problems. They of course think that they shouldn't be banned from playing it. Quite right too. We've already seen the educational benefits roleplaying sneaks in under the guise of cool explosions and killing stuff.

 

[LordVyreth]

Note that they also introduced another three-headed dragon this year, the Gorynych. Must have been something in the water.

Nope, I checked my notes and it was a Dzalmus, so the spelling might be different, but otherwise the same thingy. So look forward to a remake of that guy come 3rd ed.

Poor you Did you manage to win in the end?

Heh, define "end." That adventure ended surprisingly well. Well, not that well for the two characters that died, but they came back! I narrowly lived myself and honestly it was my favorite adventure in the campaign, not the least because the overall crazy plan was my idea. But how many games have you infiltrate an entire army of villains and manage to steal a boat, a magical artifact he had in his possession, AND the horse he rode in on?

The campaign itself, though, ended with the entire universe going foom. So there's that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 164: December 1990

part 3/6


The voyage of the princess ark: Sweeps week on the princess ark, as we discover that they've been catapulted 34 years into the future. Now Bruce doesn't have to worry about accidentally putting anachronisms in his stories. However, this means that Haldemar, and all his crew, are now people out of time, with everyone they knew changed dramatically or dead. What's worse is that while they were gone, their enemies have been doing evil stuff in the world at large. To top it all off, the empress decides that what they have seen can never become known to the public at large, so the entire crew are now condemned to roam the world forever, like the flying dutchman, never to settle down anywhere, never able to candidly talk about what they've been through. What a miserable reward for all they've been through. Still, it means we're going to get lots more adventures from them, so it's good news for us. Will they ever find a happy ending? Will the political climate change again sometime? We'll have to keep reading to see.

On the OOC side of things, this month we finally get stats for Haldemar. He's certainly not your typical archmage, with his dandyish socialite tendencies and penchant for gambling. He's actually not that twinked, with fairly modest stats and magic items for his level. Talasar, on the other hand, has considerably more innate talent, despite being lower level. This is also a good example of how alignment means surprisingly little, with personal bonds between the crew transcending it. Another interesting thing to note about the way Bruce handles D&D. So what kind of wringer will his evil mind put the characters through next year? I look forward to seeing.


The role of computers: Another interesting sign of the times this month, as they talk about sound cards. While manipulating recorded audio still involves an expensive custom rig just for basic 4 track facilities, and most effects need to be tediously rendered on, computer's ability to sequence and create digital audio on the fly is improving quite a bit. We're currently progressing past the age where you only had 4 basic waveforms to work with to try and represent everything in the game, and into the age of General MIDI soundbanks. 16 channels full of cheesy sounds that often differ significantly from module to module. Not an age I remember with fondness. If chiptunes are just becoming the cool underground thing, I hope that doesn't mean general MIDI sounds will be the next in line for a kitschy retro revival. Still, like the things that give us clues to the state of the internet back then, this is very nice for me to see. If they actually come through with their hints and review some music sequencing software, I'll be all over that action.

Megatraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy brings the RPG to the computer with a level of success similar to the Azure bonds game, creating a huge universe full of things to do and people to kill. As befits the original game, just generating a good set of characters and running them through the careers system can involve hours of mucking around, which they seem to enjoy. Their main gripe, as is often the case, is that save points are annoyingly far apart. You'll just have to suck up the extra challenge that causes.

Flood is an arcade game where you have to collect stuff, avoid enemies, and escape, while water slowly rises. (and of course, you have no swimming ability at all) Now that definitely sounds familiar. Rainbow island should be along pretty soon, shouldn't it.

Bloody Wolf is a top down shoot-em-up, where you explore and kill terrorists to rescue the president. Another one that sounds pretty familiar, it seems like most of the big genres are present and correct now. Just a matter of the weird little discoveries and developments to come.

The Animation studio is a drawing product produced by Disney. At $179, this is obviously a pro level product rather than a game, and quite possibly is a variant on the software they're currently using to facilitate their movies. It does have several neat tricks to help you produce smooth animations and a whole bunch of preloaded disney characters for you to modify. Now that's something that'll definitely ratchet up people's temptations to pirate.

Bad Blood and The dark heart of Uukrul get slated due to bugginess issues. Not only are they continuing to push complaints against companies releasing shoddy material, they're making a new section to focus on this. I guess we should be glad that we don't see stuff like this too often in modern reviews, because it means the complaints have worked. (plus, there's downloading patches now. ) Still, this little subplot of history continues to amuse.