Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 4/8


Wyrms of the north: Ed once again makes the exceptions more common than the rule in this column. This time, it's not even a proper dragon he's covering, but a person transformed into a dragon. Well, I suppose it keeps him from getting bored as much as it does us, even if it is cheating. Her tale is smaller in scale than Master Fire Worm's, but obviously has more of a personal element to it, as she has a pretty tough life even before being transformed. Mind you, as a priestess of Shar, you ought to expect demeaning treatment and backstabbing. And really, trying to get turned back by proving yourself valuable? That's not going to work. It just makes it all the more obvious that you're a better tool in your new form. (as well as a longer lasting one, likely. ) So this is another instance where they've been cursed with awesome, and are going to have to learn to live with that. Look on the bright side, you could simply be cursed. This once again shows that Ed can keep a topic interesting long after anyone else would have given up, become dull or started repeating themselves. The magazine would still be a poorer place without him.


Fiction: The quest for steel by Ben Bova. Orion makes his second appearance in the magazine. Following on from last time, where he helped out Beowulf and discovered Excalibur, he's now off to meet King Arthur. Only to find that when history is in flux, his incomplete memories can be as much a liability as a benefit. Unlike the first instalment, which was completely standalone, this not only makes much more sense when you've read it's precursor, but also obviously intends to have further follow-ups. And once again, the contrast between Orion being able to take on any physical threat, but all too helpless against the machinations of the creators is a big source of drama. The question is not if he'll succeed in what he tries, but what course of action he'll take, and the consequences it'll have. So really, this is better inspiration for something like Exalted or Nobilis than D&D. This doesn't have the novelty of the first one, so it doesn't thrill me as much as that, but it's still better than all the forgotten realms fiction they're suddenly bombarding us with. (which is itself better than the Dragonlance stuff from '96) And it does leave me wondering where they'll take this series next. They may have cut down on continuity in the comics, but between the fiction and the ecologies, the amount of recurring characters is increasing elsewhere in the magazine.


Bookwyrms: The masterharper of pern by Anne McCaffrey is a prequel set in her now very busy world, filling in the history of one of it's most well known characters. This of course means he has to face some fairly substantial challenges to grow up to be the badass we see in earlier books. There are some apparent continuity errors though, which can only really be resolved by making one or another of the narrators unreliable. Writer sloppiness, or intentional?

Wolf's Bane by Tara K Harper gets picked apart, with it's pacing flaws, inconsistent naming conventions and whiny main character. it has potential, but really needed an involved editor to hack big chunks off to make it a better story.

The dragonstone by Dennis L McKiernan gets an even more scathing review, as the entire main cast seem to be playing a stupid game involving passing multiple idiot balls around, blundering through their quest and engaging in awkward romantic pairings. Sounds like it would be most entertaining given an MST3K reading.

Wizard of the winds by Allan Cole is a fairly interesting arabian fantasy that also maintains a pretty nasty amount of genre appropriate IC sexism. (while making it clear that the author doesn't share these prejudices. ) If this isn't a deal-breaker, (and it is a woman doing these reviews) it is pretty good, and is left open to become an extended series. (or at least a trilogy, as googling reveals. )

The prestige by Christopher Priest does get a pretty positive review though. While it may seem to have flaws at first, the twists at the end make sense of them, and telling the story from multiple viewpoints is used to full effect to make the story more interesting. Do not switch your brain off when reading.

Shards of a broken crown by Raymond Feist gets a blue sidebar marking it out as a special recommendation. Well, they have increased the amount of colour quite a bit this year, why not do a little experimentation? They still say it's not quite as good a story as the previous instalment in the series, but it does make the setting better for other groups to adventure in. Not sure If I want to be tempted by that or not, but I am interested in googling more details.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 5/8


Arcane Lore: Hmm. More dragon-exclusive spells. No great surprise there. What is interesting is that this time they're priestly spells, most of them specific to worshippers of specific deities. Since most dragon types have rather fewer priest spells than they do wizard ones, they also tend to be rather powerful for their level. After all, it's not as if players can use them.

Aura of Null makes their fear aura extra chilling and penalty inflicting. Since dragons get attacked by whole parties, this debuff'll really add up in terms of the awkwardness it makes you suffer.

Hydraform lets you go all Tiamaty, with a ton of extra bite attacks. Yeah, no way that kind of benefit could ever be allowed to a PC for a 1st level spell.

Hoard Attunement lets them do the stereotypical draconic thing of detecting the tiniest addition or subtraction from their hoard, and being able to track the stuff taken perfectly. Once again, it's scary powerful for it's level.

Purge of Garyx gives you radiant burnination. This one is actually less impressive than a standard fireball or breath weapon. Most useful for a dragon who doesn't already have fire based innate powers.

Faluzure's Curse raises anything they kill under it's effect as a zombie lord. A zombie LORD?! Jesus. That really is pretty obscene. Even if you kill the dragon, a regular user of this would have a truly scary number of nested minions that still need dealing with.

Kereska's Favor lets you put wizard spells in your priest slots, or vice versa. Don't see why this one should be so exclusive. PC's are rarely going to be able to benefit from it, and it'll still be an overall step down in power for increased versatility for those that can.

Aura of Kereska lets you consume a magic item to briefly have unlimited spellcasting. Another deeply brutal one that they think should be kept well away from PC's.


Dragon's bestiary: No surprises here either. It's a birthday issue, and that means draconic variants. As they've been running short on original ideas of late, they go back to the source legends, and manage to find some that haven't been used yet. Course, we still don't have D&D stats for Bonnacon, and with good reason, for they are more than a bit of an embarrassment. So we shall have to see if these have cool ideas as yet unmined, or are another example of the toilet humour of the ancients.

Amphitere are two-tongued, winged snakes. Yeah, that's typically mythically quirky. Since they have save or die poison, they're one that can mow through a party, and a long spear or missile weapons would help.

Lesser Cetus are rather goofily described sea monsters. They're another one that'll devastate your ship though, and with their interesting balance of nature trick, can make for a bigger plotline as well. not bad at all.

Dragonets are slightly stronger tan they were in issue 158, but pretty similar otherwise. Just couldn't avoid the rehash for long, could we. They do include some quite cool ecological ideas and uses for them, so it's not all recycled ideas though. The fun charlatans can get up too when everyone knows magic does exist.

Gargouille are another large reptilian sea creature that will enjoy sinking your boat and gobbling you up. Man, there sure were a lot of those around in old legends from all kinds of cultures. I guess it probably has something to do with ocean voyages being a big gamble in general back then. Now we're more concerned with subtle predators that stalk the streets than massive ones that lurk in the deeps.

Hai Riyo are partially draconic birds big enough to carry off gargantua as prey. When the shadow of one appears above you, it may be brown trousers time. But as ever, not as much as with real dragons. None of these really match up to a proper great wyrm really.

Peluda are another dragon turtle variant, only with spines instead of a shell. Since those spines are also save or die poison, (the old legends care nothing for your pitiful cries for fairness and game balance) they're quite a tricky one to fight. The usual missile bombardment won't work very well, and they're surprisingly good at hiding for a creature their size. Good luck.

Surrush are yet another creature that probably looks stranger due to bad word of mouth descriptions over the years. Relatively small pack hunters, almost cute-looking, they seem like the kind of thing a red dragon would domesticate. Since they're yet another instadeath poison deliverer, that would add to the danger of an encounter with one, even when the PC's are name level+. Looks like they've managed to justify the birthday issue covering the same basic topic again this year, just about.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 6/8


Dungeon Mastery: A fairly amusing bit of system free adventure advice here this month. Out of adventure ideas? Convert one from the newspaper or TV news. Just be careful you don't pick one that the players'll find unbelievable. Who'd be convinced for one about banks trying to extort and evict people who aren't even their customers? And you might have a little trouble trying to put together dungeon crawls using this method. (although you could google the layout of the daily mail's offices) There are some specific details here as well, with 4 examples showing the easy routes to get from modern day things to their medieval fantasy equivalents. You'll still have to do all the mechanical design yourself, so this won't work if you're completely devoid of inspiration, but hey, the magazine's given us enough random generation tables in the past that you can probably break that impasse as well. This is sufficiently different from most of their articles to hold my interest, and feels like another part of their attempts to return to the old school. And while that's not as good as genuinely breaking new ground, it's better than staying the way they were a few years ago.


Nodwick gets rescued too late. Ho hum. Another resurrection fee to pay.


The ecology of a spell Contest: Slightly misnamed article here, but in an amusing way. They talk about the judging process of their recent competitions. How do you get from hundreds or thousands of entries, to a few in the final, and then to a winner. For a starter, you get rid of any which break the rules of the competition, are incomprehensibly written, or grossly under or over powered. Then you look for more subtle flaws, such as forgetting little details like types of saving throws, disruption of niche protection, silly humour, and blatant anachronisms. And only then can you really be judged on actual merit. This is why you should always learn how to give people what they want. All the talent in the world counts for nothing if you can't learn to follow the rules, both written and unwritten. Bah. Be a rebel, live by your own rules. Still, we get 4 neat new wizard and priest spells here, plus a couple of Dragonlance Saga ones. As ever, this proves you don't want to think about the mulch that was used to grow the roses you're smelling, because the process is rarely pretty.

Dragonmirth gets away from the old ball and chain. Swordplay gets on the bandwagon. Which is still pulled by horses, I'm afraid.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 7/8


Roleplaying reviews: Kindred of the east sees them forget to put in a pip rating, but still give it a positive review. It doesn't do too terribly in terms of political correctness, and has pretty interesting setting conceits, putting a very different spin on the basic idea of playing a vampire. In retrospect, the system probably has a few too many twiddly bits, with three different kinds of chi to keep track of, and the very real possibility of your character losing control of themselves on a regular basis, but this is a White Wolf game about oriental vampires. Being screwed and having to deal with too much bureaucracy seems curiously appropriate, and an interesting counterbalance to the Asia is kewler bits. And the gameline managed to fill itself in with a decent number of supplements without becoming bloated and impossible to keep track of, so it's well worth revisiting.

Merchants of the jumpweb is for Fading Suns, detailing all the main merchants guilds, plus larger details on their history, and how they go to be so prominent in the Second Republic. A different writer takes each guild, which means they get covered in distinctively different and appropriate voices. The developer keeps them all on message, and it adds up to a quite substantial expansion to the setting.

Cracken's threat dossier is for the Star Wars RPG, and is essentially a detailing of characters and places from 7 of their recent novels. The fact that the contents of 7 books fit into 140 pages reflects poorly on those novels, but the sourcebook does it's best with the material it has to work with. The Force has become cheapened by growing increasingly common, and the tone of the books has strayed far from the original movies. It's a credit to the editors that they do still manage to get useful material from them.

The way of the dragon is a splatbook for Legend of the 5 Rings, covering the appropriate clan. Chris wonders about the wisdom of doing the most atypical clan first, but they attack it enthusiastically, filling in both setting details and new powers, plus a rather excessive 5 appendices. Just watch out that they aren't overpowered until the other clans get their turns.


KotDT features a truly intelligent dragon for a change.

 

[Orius]

KotDT features a truly intelligent dragon for a change.

Ah yes, a draconic venture capitalist. Quite amusing, especially since there's no hoard for them.

Also, Weird Pete is a seriously hardcore DM.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Not much going on in August, but the things that are are pretty neat. The illithids get the second in their trilogy of adventures. Masters of Eternal Night has them sucking the power of the sun like a juicy elephant brain. The fate of the world is genuinely in your hands.

The Realms revisits an already covered area in more detail. Empires of the shining sea is a boxed set covering the far south and it's rather weird surrounding states. High magic in hot climates. Up north, the Harpers series finally ends with it's 16th book, Thornhold by Elaine Cunningham. Good luck collecting all that lot.

Planescape gets a little closer to filling in it's various bits and pieces, with a Guide to the Ethereal Plane. Explore insubstantial realms a lot closer to the prime material than their usual fare. Watch you don't get sucked into the demiplane of dread.

Speaking of the demiplane of dread, they once again reach out and grab characters from other worlds in Vecna Reborn. Guess who the newest darklord is. And he ain't happy at all. Can you keep the crossovers from getting out of hand?

And finally, Alternity sees it's first campaign setting get a third book, the StarDrive Arms and Equipment guide. Once again, the rather different approach to the Amazing Engine's fire and forget style is noted.


Profiles: For our birthday issue, we get the biggest gun of all. Gary Gygax got the first profile in the magazine, way back in issue 103. Quite understandable when you remember that he founded the game, the magazine, and the entire milieu. Unfortunately, it seems his glory days are behind him. Where last time the magazine was most interested in pointing out how ridiculously hard he was working, and the things he was planning to do next, this article is more interested in using him as a means to promote Return to the Tomb of Horrors, their latest bit of nostalgia exploiting expanded rehash. They barely mention the stuff he did after leaving TSR. They get the publication date of Unearthed Arcana wrong. It's all more than a little shoddy. Even the greatest of people can be turned into a sideshow. Not a very pleasingly written profile.


This issue starts slowly, but winds up pretty jam-packed with cool stuff, even if more of it is rehashed than I'd like. The articles are generally of high quality, and the reviews appear to be on an upswing again as well. So as usual, the battle for this era appears to be getting enough material that hasn't been done before better. And this time, I think they've succeeded again. But then they are generally spoiled for birthday and halloween issues. There are still plenty of others between those they may struggle to fill. I suspect there'll be plenty I struggle to think of something to say about before I finish this.

 

[David Howery]

Vecna Reborn

ah, Vecna, the coolest of the cool for insanely evil demigods. He got himself tossed into Ravenloft, yanked himself out of it, and made the whole multiverse wobble in the process...

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 1/8


124 pages. Raar. Birthright gets to be on the cover for what will probably be the last time. How long did they have this one planned in advance before they knew the setting was going? There don't seem to be any actual tie-in articles inside though, although there are both Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms ones. Birthright never really caught on amongst the freelancers, did it. So I wonder what mix of material we'll be getting this month. Good or bad, specific or general, freelance or staff commissioned, what will they choose?


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Dave Gross reminds us of a small but important bit of worldbuilding. You don't have to plan every detail in advance, but when you do, you need to make sure it's internally consistent with what's come before. I suspect that this is part of how Ed Greenwood has so many notes on things that are pertinent to actual play. Keeping a regular gaming group going and writing up all the stuff that they encounter or ask questions about will get you more material for less effort than slaving away in a cubicle saying you don't have time for gaming. And the more built up material you have, the less work it takes to keep the campaign going if the players make an unexpected turn. So this is pretty good advice.


D-Mail: A rather lengthy complaint about Thulsa Doom. He wasn't in the original books! Judging Conan on his movie incarnation is wrong! The editors shrug and respond with a simple YMMV. Sometimes adaptions are better, sometimes they're worse, and sometimes you get canon immigrants like Harley Quinn coming back to the original from the adaptions. Usually, we can pick and choose the best bits and discard the rest for further development.

A letter from someone who can't tell the difference between Rakasta and Rakshasa. Methinks you may be a little dailysex. Fortunately, upping your nerd rating'll soon cure that.

A lengthy letter about possible rules changes in the new edition, and the status of various settings. Obviously, the magazine staff disagree on what their favourite settings are, and what should happen to the rules. It'd be an even more boring magazine if they were all in perfect lockstep.

And finally, someone who feels betrayed by them putting Alternity articles in his D&D magazine. If they don't stop immediately, I shall cancel my subscription! That's a bit melodramatic, isn't it? There's always someone who spoils it for everyone else, isn't there. Who are you supposed to try and please most?


Nodwick is alive again. For how long, however, it's difficult to say. These adventurers are not the greatest doctors in the world.


Forum wants to know what rules you ignore. If no-one uses them anyway, why include them at all? We don't want the new books to be really huge, that'll scare away the newbies.

Justin Bacon does believe there's plenty of things that need fixing about AD&D, starting with dropping the A. Streamlining is the most important. It needs to be accessable, but also expandable. That way, you can cater to EVERYONE!

Chris Perry tries to fix up the favored enemy rules. Not quite the final result, but at least they're bringing it to the attention of the writers.

Kevin McMahon talks about luck and fate, and how AD&D and the SAGA system focus more on each aspect. You should choose depending on what sort of game you want to play. The same can be said of any RPG.

Adam Donaldson things one of the most important things that needs fixing about weapons is the weights. You'd think the writers had never handled actual weapons. Yah, I can buy that.


Night warriors and Bastard! (their exclamation mark, not mine) The anime adverts keep racking up. Not long before they become so common as to be unremarkable.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 2/8


Sage advice turns it's questions orange, and cuts down on the italics. This definitely makes it easier to tell what's what.

Can you catch an arrow with juggling (no. Mucho pain if you try it)

Does being forbidden to use magic armour also apply to shields (Oh yes. You also can't take restrictions that other ones render redundant. Min maxing is OK, but points for nothing is not.)

Which ship is the acting ship. (The one taking the action. Honestly, next thing they'll be asking how you determine who the attacker is in melee fights. I suppose it's better than being prosecuted for your face repeatedly hitting someone's fist, as the police sometimes do. )

What subabilities go with what proficiencies. (Oh, this is gonna be a tedious list. Skip ought to get an intern to handle crap like this. )

What subabiliites goven bonus spell points (knowledge and intuition)

If a wild mage casts sending, can the surge affect someone across the world (no. Such a shame. )

Does a wildshield protect you from nahal's reckless dweomer (By the RAW, yes. Skip recommends changing that to screw players who try and abuse this privilege.)

What special powers stack with shields (most of them. But there's always exceptions. The game would get silly without them. Well, even sillier. You know what Skip means. )

What happens if an immortal creature casts spells that age you. (System shock! Oh, the strain, the strain, woe is my poor little immortal body)
How do you recharge a ring of spell turning (recycled question. The answer has not changed.)

Can a specialist cast opposition spells from a ring of spell storing (sure)

High level campaigns says anti-magic shell blocks psionics. This contradicts the complete psionics handbook (We changed our minds. Pray we do not change them again. )

Does a prismatic sphere stop psionics (sure. It'd be churlish not to when it stops everything else. )

What happens to goblyns when their master dies ( they act all lost and lonesome until they find a new Masssssssster)

Where do the al-quadim deities live (look at their alignment, and put them on the appropriate plane. How hard is that?)

Can ogre mages spread out the duration of their daily flight power (no)

Can an illusory creature move freely through the spell's range (yes)

My characters always give their magnificent mansions the maximum number of floors (This power does not work the way you think it does. Skip is afraid Skip will have to burst your players bubble.)


Out of character: Peter gets back to giving us what we really want to see. Hints as to the next edition. Here, it's the basic correction of making high good, low bad for everything. It may seem small, but it just makes things a good deal simpler to learn for new people, (although many would say 3e took more effort to learn in other ways) and allows power levels to scale upwards infinitely without weird mathematical circumlocutions taking place. They are still addicted to acronyms though, possibly at the expense of accessibility. Still, it's the kind of house rule many people were independently doing, and it's one even many of the retro-clones used, so I think we can definitely say in hindsight this was one of the smart moves. So this was a brief but enjoyable read, that again shows the influence the new boss is having. How many more changes will be directly attributable to him before this is over?


Seeds of evil: Historical fantasy? It's a relatively bland sounding theme. But with interesting results, as what we have here is a double tie-in article combining the Masque of the Red Death campaign, and their old series of historical sourcebooks. Nice to see James Wyatt is expanding his range a little. This proves yet again that you can mix horror with nearly anything, and produce something worth playing. What we generally know about history is respected, although he has no qualms about saying X historical figure was a puppet of the Red Death or agent of the resistance in a way that makes the World of Darkness look subtle. Really, this just goes to demonstrate that the Red Death is gradually winning the war over centuries, by being unified and capable of long-term planning where the heroes aren't, and the deck is so slanted against us that winning seems impossible. So I think the question is are you going to go down fighting, or are you going to cheat, build a time machine and go back and plant all the seeds to it's downfall along the timeline just where they're needed, Bill & Ted style! :guitar riff: So yeah, this can spin off into cheese very easily, destroying the low-key mood that the corebook worked hard to create in favor of gonzo time-traveling antics where you see the world, meet historical figures, find out what kind of gribley they are, and kill them. I'm really not sure what to make of that. It took the world of darkness hundreds of supplements for that to happen, and you've done it in 2 and a few magazine articles. :claps: If he was going for that, this'd be awesome, but I think he actually expects us to take this seriously. :/ Well, it's a success as entertainment, anyway.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 3/8


Below the tomb of horrors: A second double tie-in, sort of, as we have material here that's useful for both the old and new tomb of horrors modules. Since the original Tomb was a mere 12 pages long, 2 of which was taken up by the pregens; plus the separate illustration book, this is actually a pretty substantial add-on, nearly doubling the amount of potential challenges they could face if they take a wrong turn. As this is the tomb of horrors, you can expect to be utterly screwed if you don't choose your actions very carefully, and won't even get a saving throw on many of the challenges, instead having to use your OOC ingenuity if you want to succeed. And even if you do get out, there are subtle traps in the magic items that'll cause you more problems along the line. So this is very much for the hardcore amongst you, and much of it feels like a conscious attempt to emulate Gary's sadisticness. And it did elicit a few diabolical chuckles from me, so it must be doing something right.


Sixguns and Sesheyans: It becomes apparent that their theme of Historical Fantasy this month is actually a pun with a double meaning, as they're referencing both real world history, and the history of gaming in their articles. Here, they're bringing Boot Hill to Alternity! Not that they really covered Boot Hill enough in the magazine for me to feel nostalgic about it the way I might if they bring back Marvel, Gamma World or Star Frontiers material. But making a left turn like this helps them establish Alternity as a universal system, not just a sci-fi one, until they can get a few more settings out. While this concentrates on the wild west, it also gives some details on the development of firearms throughout history, and the various ways you could introduce fantastical elements to the milieu, allowing you to take advantage of the already introduced crunch. Most of this falls into the competent but dry mold, with the exception of the final setting ideas, as there is a lot of info to be dumped upon us. So I didn't really enjoy reading this one, but can recognise it's usefulness. I think it needed another writer to really bring the Wahoo spirit.


Fiction: Wakes the Narrow forrest by J Gregory Keyes. Ah yes, Fool Wolf. I recall being told that he becomes another recurring character in the magazine, along with Orion and Ed's stable of bickering wizards. And as it turns out, he's a brooding loner hero who has some very good reasons for being the way he is. After all, when you have a powerful spirit bonded with you that has a nasty habit of killing everyone around you whenever it's let out, it kinda precludes the possibility of long-term healthy relationships. Becoming a hermit or an irresponsible drifter actually seems the safest course of action. There's some pretty substantial worldbuilding in this story, and it does lay the groundwork for further adventures without slowing itself down with exposition. My main complaint is of course with the complete failure of editing, putting the pages of the story in the wrong order, which took quite a bit of effort to unravel. Unlike little mathematical miscalculations, that's not the kind of thing you just shrug off. Someone's going to get reprimanded for this.


Wyrms of the north: Since Ed was the one who originally created Weredragons, I was wondering when he'd do one in this series. Wonder no more! As usual with Ed, we're dealing with an exceptional example of an already exceedingly rare subspecies. Her humanoid form is a Drow, and her Draconic form is a Shadow Dragon. But she does have the typical Weredragon trait of using sex to get what she wants, then eating paramours that become troublesome. And is also of dubious sanity, engaging in behaviour that makes it likely she'll be killed by some band of heroes eventually. So this is one of his more PC friendly articles, presenting a character that isn't so powerful and well prepared that they won't be able to pin her down and beat her if they play it smart, and that gives them good reasons to want to fight her in the first place. And the new spells are low enough level that people could use them, and useful enough that they would actually want to learn them. So as usual, there's plenty of merit in what he's writing, and you can easily steal bits for your own campaign if you like. He's building on what he did before to good effect as well. He just gets the best of both worlds, doesn't he.