Let's read the entire run

[Jhaelen]

The complete book of necromancers has plenty of cool bits and pieces, but two main criticisms. It's aimed towards DM's and discourages players from using it, which may reduce it's sales somewhat. And it's just too darn polite and tame in contrast to White Wolf's lurid output around the same time. Where are the decaying entrails and cackling inanity?!!!1 TSR being stuck in the disney position, trying to be the family friendly good guys everyone else plays off does have it's limitations.

I still think it was one of the better supplements for D&D at the time. The evil deities in the book were reminiscent of some of the more intriguing deities in the Gloranthan pantheon for the Runequest rpg.

I never got to use it in my games but it was still a good read

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 222: October 1995


part 6/8


The tricks and traps of illusions: Oh no, not this subject again. Slab may be a welcome returnee. Illusion adjudication, on the other hand, I am very very bored with, even though the last time it got a serious look at was in 1988. With multiple articles and forum follow-ups that dragged all the way into 1991, I think it got more than enough screentime. So it is with a heavy heart I see that a new generation needs to hear about this topic again. What should be considered reasonable doubt, so as to trigger a saving throw. The importance of the various senses in fooling particular creatures. And various reasonable situational modifiers. Zzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzz. This is so not what I want to read about anymore. Next!


Floyd might know the basics of magic, but he really has a lot to learn about proper woodsmanship.


Adding substance to psionic combat: Oh great, another encouragement to describe your battles in an exciting manner rather than just rolling dice. Like we haven't seen those before. Only this time for psionic combat. Which really makes it too easy, since you have 5 different combat options with obviously differentiated descriptive natures, and since the battle is all in the minds of the participants, you're free to describe the attacks and defences as you please. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, no challenge at all. Which makes this article feel deeply pointless, really. It also feels like it's put here as promotion for their new products, which is a bit annoying. Subtlety fail, Mr Slavicsek. You'll have to write better than that if you want to pull us in and get us to update.


Running scared ... And really fast!: Spike Y Jones follows up his article last year by showing us how to scare superheroes. Much of this, of course, hinges on dramatic buy-in. It's not just the greater power level, it's the easy availability of takebacks and retcons. If the players are still operating on the assumption that any screw-ups can be reversed along the line with another dramatic quest, then even the nastiest setback will be taken in stride. Make them lose control, on the other hand, and you can start to introduce fear and uncertainty. So this concentrates on tricks that even phenomenal cosmic power can struggle to counter. Foreshadowing. Targeting of mortal connections, or simply dealing with a villain that's way out of their league. It does seem like you'll have to fight the rules somewhat, which I do find a bit annoying. But let's face it, superheroics is such a wide umbrella that you can insert variety without breaking genre. So fairly mixed feelings about this one. It might work, but it'll depend mainly on the skill of the GM rather than the strength of this advice.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 222: October 1995


part 7/8


Who needs hit points when you have credit?: Building up and breaking down villains. Or in this case, both at once, with a side order of Tucker's Kobolds. Yup, this is about making level zero characters threatening to PC's. Something that certainly needs a little ingenuity, especially if the PC's are of the sort who's first reaction is to slaughter their way through any obstacle. Money certainly can't hurt, although it can make you a bigger target. Brains are pretty much a necessity. More powerful minions are very much an option, although you'll need good reasons why they don't just take over. Similarly, a neat magic item can be a great equaliser, but ones that have clever applications will work better than power adders, especially given how small the bonuses they offer are compared to character's natural scaling. It's all fairly tricky when you do the math. It will work better in some other systems, but even so, it's the kind of thing you'll want to do in moderation. So once again, they're encouraging us to fight against the rules to do something that makes dramatic sense. Something I continue to have very mixed feelings about. Make the rules better, and then they'll work with you instead of against you.


Secrets of the sunless seas: Tie-in time again. The Night Below is our big adventure for the year. In fact, it's not so much an adventure, as an entire campaign in a box, with a load of expansion on the underdark that you can use even if you don't put the characters on the main adventure path. And here's a few more glyphs for the new magic system. Since we're unlikely to see it again in actual books, this kind of crunch expansion is generally welcome. Here's 11 new glyphs which you can place in your underdark locations, just to keep players paranoid and ensure the monsters don't die too quickly or seem too dull. They range in power quite a lot, and the upper ones are pretty much a death sentence if you fail your save. It's possible but difficult for a PC to learn these tricks, and they're clearly explained enough that it all makes sense even if you haven't read the actual book. So like the half-dragon article in issue 206, I think this is one of the better tie-in articles they've managed, being useful in it's own right while also selling me on further products. That's the way to do it.


A slither in the dark: Oooh. A Call of Cthulhu article again. Interesting that this should be one of the last non TSR games they ever cover. It's popularity has been amazingly enduring, and if anything has gradually grown over the years. Course, that has come with a bit of dilution. In issue 162 they did an article on putting vampires into the game. This time, it's nagas. Since CoC already has fish-men hybrids, snake ones doesn't seem that much of a genre shift. And being able to swallow you whole is pretty scary even without the uncanny valley. With pretty decent ecology style fiction, with the usual san loss involved, this is quite entertaining, and of course, the new monster can be used for any BRP based system, not just Call of Cthulhu. I suppose that means they can also cater to a larger demographic than they would doing articles for most systems. I still wish they'd done World of Darkness ones at some point. Still, this is a pretty decent way to round off the issue's articles.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 222: October 1995


part 8/8


Things are starting to look up for the heroes in Libram X, but they aren't out of the woods yet. Dragonmirth has more humanisation of the undead. Swordplay's encounters are starting to blur into one, even for them.

White Wolf has got their dirty paws on the Lankhmar novels! Shock, Horror. They'll get narrative juices all over our old skool swords and sorcery!


TSR Previews: Revising and revisiting seems to be fairly high this time. We get a new set of generic DM screens. Instead of one with 4 parts, we have 2 with 3 boards each. In theory more versatile, I found them more fiddly and irritating to use. So much for that plan. They also continue the floorplans series with Country sites. More understated but useful stuff that gets lost among the flashy splatbooks with new crunch.

The Forgotten Realms digs up a bunch of old Dragon articles, add some new stuff, and pads out Pages from the Mages to a full book. The ecologies managed to make the transition. Can this do the same and remain kickass?

Ravenloft pushes the boundaries of gaming in a different way with The Nightmare Lands. Shane Hensley takes you into a land where even when you're awake things are pretty screwy. When you fall asleep, they get even worse, because now you're playing under a different ruleset. That always puts experienced players on edge.

Dark Sun gets a new revised core set. Find out a lot more about the world and it's history, see a revised psionics system, and generally try and decide if you approve of the alterations or not. Some of them aren't actually that bad, heresy as it is to say so.

Dragonlance tries to kick off it's new generation properly. Margaret and Tracey return with Dragons of summer flame. Can they pass on the torch properly this time?

Mystara gets Dark Knight of Karameikos by Timothy Brown. Another new protagonist has an adventure launched by an awkward misunderstanding. My braaaaaiiiin iiiiissss Melllllting!!!!


Okay, some very mixed feelings on this issue. They are obviously making attempts to fix the problems that have crept up on them over the last few years. However, with the visual presentation taking a substantial turn for the worse, some very tired ideas, and repeated tricks that have lost a lot of their impact, overall, it's once again a slight decline in overall quality and satisfaction for me. Let's hope their graphic designer gets better at using the new equipment, because this is just a bit embarrassing. You'll have to try harder to teach this old dog some new tricks.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 223: November 1995


part 1/8


124 pages. The budget cuts continue, with the degree of shading and definition on the cover art taking a real drop. Turn up the contrast too much, and convincingness takes a hike. The red triangle continues to look like it's poorly superimposed on the rest of the image as well. On the inside, we have messy disrupted lines being worrisomely common. Not sure if that was in the original magazine, or a result of careless scanning, but either way, it's another downwards step for the magazine. The issues will continue to mount up until the company changeover, it seems. Let's see how much worse they can get.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter from someone who who is profoundly peeved by the new Dark Sun boxed set. All my stuff is invalidated! Now now, most of the rules stuff is still perfectly functional, particularly the splatbooks. And to be frank, it's only excess entitlement that makes you think you should get a break on new editions.

A letter complaining about the recent absence of Dragonlance stuff. This is met with cryptic teasering. We have big stuff planned. Stay tuned next year. That's right. Work them all up to let them down again.

A request for an anthology of stories from the magazine. They give the usual noncommittal response. Make us think it's profitable, and we'll consider it. No change there then.

A request that they review more of their own books. That's a perilous path to tread, as it opens up accusations of house organism very easily. Oh, if only there were another big gaming magazine by another company that does these things for them to recommend. That would be more healthy for the whole gaming community.

A bold statement that the semi-regular columns are the best thing in the magazine, and the writer intends to send in submissions for them. The response to that is long and in-depth and digresses into talk about how much Dragon, Dungeon and the rest of TSR share staff. Perhaps that may in itself be part of the problem.


Editorial: Oh dear. Another bemoaning of nerd bitchiness. Oh what a surprise, that a group renowned for their lack of social skills wouldn't get along well even amongst themselves. Not that I'm in any position to point fingers. The fact that I'm pretty odd and dysfunctional should be fairly apparent to most of you by now, particularly if you're a Tangency regular. Of course, the fact that I don't even fit into an obvious geek mold, (moving from Genetic engineering/general transhumanism to conceptual hyperspacial physics modelling to combinatoric math and it's applications in musical harmony. ) makes me hesitant to engage in tribalism, because when you're in a group of one most of the time, it's both pointless and suicidal trying to pick on other people. So, um, yeah, Geek solidarity! Except for the sports statistics nerds. And the furries. And the people who actually read their religious texts and spoil it for the honest down to earth fanatics by pointing out what they actually say on various matters. And definitely the pedophiles who hack other people's websites and hide their dirty pictures encrypted in there. Wait, I think that one does go beyond the boundaries of reasonable inclusiveness. Let's move on.

A more interesting point raised by this editorial is that of microcelebrity. This is something that has been massively increased by the internet, but even in those days, the D&D writers and staff had the experience of working at a job for most of the year (and not even a particularly brilliantly paying one at that) and then being treated like stars by the people who buy the books when they do meet them. It shows that the tendency to assign greater weight and authority to people who communicate with you through some artificial medium is pretty inherent in human nature, even when they hold no official position, qualification or mandate beyond their own skills and what they are willing to claim. Indeed, it's something I've experienced personally a few times. It leaves me very curious as to how much of our society is a perceptual construct based on peer pressure and what we can convince others of. How do you leverage the belief of others into something you can make a living from? It's the real big question of the internet age, and a problem I'd rather like to solve, as it would make my life a lot more pleasant.

 

[Nagol]

<snip>

How do you leverage the belief of others into something you can make a living from? It's the real big question of the internet age, and a problem I'd rather like to solve, as it would make my life a lot more pleasant.

Depends on your moral compass, but a couple of modern examples are

1) Start a new religion

2) Shill something you are paid a commission for. This is particularly profitable if the item being sold has no physical substance or is immediately consumed and can be purchased again immediately.

3)

 

[Orius]

Dragonmirth has more humanisation of the undead.

I always liked the "brush with death.

[/quote]They also continue the floorplans series with Country sites. More understated but useful stuff that gets lost among the flashy splatbooks with new crunch. [/quote]

Not a bad suppliment. Lots of places you can plug in here and there in the campaign, and many of them are are loosely connected.

On the inside, we have messy disrupted lines being worrisomely common. Not sure if that was in the original magazine, or a result of careless scanning, but either way, it's another downwards step for the magazine.

My guess is that it's a scan problem. My copy of the issue doesn't seem to have any legibility problems. It's also possible the printer might have messed up part of the run too.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 223: November 1995


part 2/8


First Quest: Tom Dowd? Google is not very helpful, due to both names being fairly common. Had to get to the third page before something pertinent came up. Still, with tons of Shadowrun credits, and a part in writing the original Vampire:the Masquerade book, perhaps I ought to know more. And indeed, his primary interest seems to be in sci-fi games, although he did play D&D as well. Curiously enough, he doesn't talk about the events of his first game at all, although he goes into plenty of detail about the circumstances that led up to it, and then the subsequent ones that got him into the gaming industry. Maybe time has blunted his memory. Or maybe it's the fact that he seems more interested in rules tinkering than the lives and times of individual characters. So I do find this vaguely dissatisfactory, as it's light on the kind of amusing life details you only get in this column. I wouldn't normally say this, but we want to hear about your characters, not you.


The lords of the nine: Oh dear yet again. Now this is another very sad reminder of the worst aspects of 2e. In both 1e and 3e, while the lords of the nine might possibly have been mysterious to the characters, they were fully known and statted out for any DM which had the right book. Trying to make them mysterious here is very much a case of closing the door after the horse has bolted. Although actually, this is already less mysterious than the Baator book in planes of Law, where only a small fraction of them were named. This time, everyone but the big boss As:urk: Excuse me for a second, GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE! I NEVER SIGNED YOUR NDA CONTRACT IN THE FIRST PLACE! AND IF YOU LOOK AT THE DIMENSIONAL TREATIES YOU'LL FIND THIS PLANET IS ALREADY CLAIMED BY ANOTHER HELL. UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET INTO A TURF WAR WITH SATAN I SUGGEST YOU ACT A LITTLE MORE CIRCUMSPECTLY. And really? Knife in the back? This will not wash and loses you several points for style. MUIRBOPPO NI OTREVER!

As I was saying, while it's fairly apparent that a majority of the company want more openness in the handling of fiends, and they have made some progress, we're still a long way from the openness and usability of the stuff they were making 12 years ago. Which is a shame, because they're trying so hard here. Yet both the descriptions and statistics are damnably vague, making them generic and difficult to use without further DM planning, and this whole article concentrates strongly on trying to establish atmosphere over in game usefulness. Presenting them as avatars rather than regular creatures further enhances the impression that you're not meant to be able to do stuff to meaningfully oppose them, and the whole thing has the air that the best thing you can do is avoid getting their attention in the first place. How deprotagonising. Which is especially odd given several of the lords have changed since 1e, so those keeping track will know they can be beaten. This is an excellent example of 2nd edition fail caused by overall politics in the company. Still. it couldn't have happened to a more ironically appropriate group of creatures, could it?


The dragon's bestiary: Hmm. Gargoyles haven't had as much attention as some of the other monster types around, but they haven't been completely absent from the magazine either. (see issues 101 & 131) But they certainly seem like they have room for quirky variants, and that's what this issue has to offer. Just the thing for a cleric who needs an unobtrusive guardian for their church.

Spouters lurk on the eaves of a building and send acidic jets of fluid at anyone who doesn't give the password. Make sure you pack them away if you're planning on holding a service then.

Archers look cherubic, but they're little psychopaths who'll shoot up a whole town if not stopped. One of these could be the driver for quite a nice horror story/murder mystery as long as they make sure they only struck when no-one else is around. After all, who's going to suspect the statue? Muahahahaha!!

Stone Lions generally come in pairs, guarding the front of a building, as you'd expect. They're relatively unlikely to cause problems for their creator, so they seem like a good investment, unlike so many other created beings which are more trouble than they're worth.

Grandfather Plaques are another variant on the old talking door theme. We've seen plenty of these before, so I simply say meharoo to this one. Can't win 'em all.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 223: November 1995


part 3/8


Primal Rage: Hmm. They've recently brought back conversions of novels. Now they're introducing AD&D conversions of video games as well. Very interesting. It's not even one of the expected RPG's either. Instead, it's a giant monster fighting game called Primal Rage. Now that is a strange choice. Still, it means you have some creatures that are supposed to be ridiculously powerful and have some strange tricks, and they aren't being modelled by classes, so I have far less to complain about than usual. Plus I'm just so surprised that it's completely suspended my normal ennui. Onto the specific creatures then.

Blizzard is a gigantic simian with oversized jaws, and unsurprisingly, cold attacks. He can either breathe it, or summon blasts of it down to hurt the enemies at a distance. Sounds pretty familiar from fighting games I've played.

Talon is the short agile one, at only 16' tall. Once again, his abilities are pretty directly modelled. High speed means he usually attacks first, plus he can jump on an enemy's head, and summon other velociraptors to mob opponents. Not sure how that would convert to facing normal sized PC's, but it's unlikely to be pretty. Certainly looks likely to convert to an interesting looking battle.

Vertigo is a cobrasaur, and looks like she might be distantly related to demogorgon. A hypnotic gaze, acidic spit, teleportation, and general spellcasting, she definitely seems the most versatile as a big bad in a regular game. Something like that looming over you laughing maniacally would be rather scary. So I think this article has quite a bit of game usability, even if they don't have very good sphere selections for their worshippers. Plus I rather enjoyed it. Can they continue to pick good choices for conversion? I guess we'll just have to see.


Dragon dice magical effect cards: Lester Smith continues to figure out new ways to improve his game and incidentally promote it at the same time. Just as with Jim Ward for Metamorphosis Alpha, and Kim Eastland for Gamma World, it doesn't look like anyone's joining in, which doesn't bode well for the game's long term survival. Still, this set of player aids is both useful looking and easy to use, allowing you to track magical status effects by using cards instead of writing things down or having to remember them. You will probably have to photocopy them so everyone has a copy, which will be a minor irritation, but still, this is instantly usable in game, and they've actually sprung for half decent colour artwork as well. It's another fairly interesting article that keeps the magazine from the tedium of being all D&D, all the time.

 

[Orius]

Dragon dice magical effect cards: Lester Smith continues to figure out new ways to improve his game and incidentally promote it at the same time. Just as with Jim Ward for Metamorphosis Alpha, and Kim Eastland for Gamma World, it doesn't look like anyone's joining in, which doesn't bode well for the game's long term survival. Still, this set of player aids is both useful looking and easy to use, allowing you to track magical status effects by using cards instead of writing things down or having to remember them. You will probably have to photocopy them so everyone has a copy, which will be a minor irritation, but still, this is instantly usable in game, and they've actually sprung for half decent colour artwork as well. It's another fairly interesting article that keeps the magazine from the tedium of being all D&D, all the time.

Dragon's coverage of Dragon Dice always made it seem like it was an interesting game, and maybe it was a shame that it failed. I have to wonder if maybe it's because TSR was acting econmically stupid by this point and try to make as much money as possible only to end up doling the exact opposite. It's possible that maybe the game might have gotten more traction if TSR had only developed it instead of Spellfire and Blood Wars as well; that is market their own spin on the collectable game craze rather than try to ape MtG with their own IPs twice.