Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 250: August 1998


part 8/8


Previews: AEG release Tomb of Iuchiban for L5R. An evil wizard's tomb full of scary things. A boxed set adventure? Sounds just like home. Suit me up, honey, we're going adventuring! They also get Way of Shadow: The ninja investigations of Kitsuki Kaagi. Looks like another gameline has taken the IC approach to setting development deployed by Volo and Van Richten.

Archon Gaming release Unknown Armies. Woo. Another kickass approach to horror gaming who's influence will filter through the system over the next decade.

Armitage House release A guide to the Cthulhu cult. The kind of people who really need foiling, now you can find out a little more about them, before going mad.

Atlas Games give Ars Magica the Wizard's Grimoire Revised Edition. Old info is refined, new stuff is added. And you know what wizards are like for spell research. More power is always welcomed.

Basement Games unleash Forge: Out of chaos. Another medieval fantasy heartbreaker, it looks like. A new slant on magic indeed.

Chaosium are also busy with Cthulhu stuff. Before the fall: Innsmouth adventures prior to the great raid of 1928 seems pretty self explanatory, if possibly too verbose a title. Sounds like they don't want you to be the ones who get to call in the army and purge the nasty place for good though.

FASA release stuff for a whole bunch of gamelines. Battletech gets Technical readout: 3060. Technology and timelines continue to advance, which means new mechs for both sides to kick butt with.

Earthdawn fill in more details on their Dragons. They may not have elves, but they can't resist putting a load of elaboration and variation on this fantasy cliche.

Shadowrun gets a triple bill. Renraku Arcology: Shutdown sees an explosive bottleneck adventure take place. Just how much of the population will make it out alive, and will your PC's be among them? If they do make it out, it's time for them to convert to the Third Edition rules. Prepare to see the canon outcome of the previous adventures incorporated into the timeline. And if that's not enough, there's a novel too. Psychotrope by Lisa Smedman. Trapped in the matrix by an evil AI, they need to work together to escape with their lives. What lessons will they learn in the process?

Flying Buffalo have a slightly unseasonal offering. Grimtooth's Halloween special. I suppose it'll take a few months to get to the shops. They also compile their citybooks. More generic stuff for all to use.

Guardians of Order give us the Sailor Moon RPG. Ah yes, the days when BESM was not only healthy, but got a load of official licenses. Now you too can have teenage girls doing nude transformation sequences for great justice. Hee.

Hogshead Publishing release another well remembered game. The extraordinary adventures of Baron Munchausen. The exaggeration extends to the description of the corebook, amusingly. They're also bringing out Marienburg: Sold down the river. WHFRP must also be doing reasonably well then.

Inner City Games gets Gary Gygax in to make a module. The Ritual of the Golden Eyes. Exactly what system it's for, if any, is not disclosed. Any more info available on this one? They also release A Very Large Campaign. Take control of giant monsters for fun and profit. Sounds fun, and more than a little whimsical.

Pagan Publishing are a third company doing Cthulhu stuff. What's with that? What are the licensing arrangements here? They release Mortal Coils. 8 more adventures for a system already well catered for in that area.

Steve Jackson Games have a nice little pair for us. Killer gets it's 4th edition. God, I remember when that caused a dirty great controversy, back in issues 53 and 58. Good to see it's still going. GURPS is also doing pretty well for itself, with Egypt the subject their latest supplement. Will you be a pulp hero unearthing the ancient ruins, or travel back to the era they were made in?


Profiles: Unlike Margaret Weis, Tracey Hickman doesn't appear to have aged much since his last appearance in issue 120. (although I wouldn't be surprised if a bit of hair dye was involved. ) Like her, he's kept busy since then, churning out dozens of novels, including a few solo ones, and doing his best to promote his message of a strong morality and influence people's real life behaviour by the messages he puts in his writing. Which I do find slightly dodgy, especially when that morality involves mormonism, and of course, deriding the whole concept of escapism in writing. Gotta be family friendly and set a good example. Bleh. Trouble is, I don't disapprove of the methods, just the specifics. After all, you should try to accomplish something with your creativity. He gets my respect, even if we are ideological enemies in many ways.


After two pretty good issues, this one sees them slip back into dullness again, with a whole load of sensible, realism heavy articles that might be useful, but don't light up my life. You wouldn't think going underwater would bring out the sensible conservative side in people, but I guess knowing you'll be dead in minutes if something goes wrong kinda brings out the desire to prepare carefully. In any case, it means the end of the Archive doesn't feel like anything special in terms of quality, despite having a little more non D&D RPG coverage than they've had in a while. It's making me feel that 2e really did drag on several years beyond it's natural lifespan, and they should have started preparing something earlier. Still, this does feel like a real landmark in that I'm now way closer to the end than the beginning, and the standardised format in which the issues have been indexed is about to stop with the next one. This means that exactly what future issues contain takes a little longer to find out, which maintains a bit more mystery. Whether I'll find them more interesting or not, we shall have to see.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 1/8


142 pages. So we've reached the end of the issues in the archive. From here on in, I've had to hunt the magazines down from various sources. Any missing parts are unfortunate, and if you spot any gaps, inform me and I will do my best to fill them in. This also means I'll be adding a new category to these reviews, looking at the scan quality of the issue, and identifying any problems with the transfer. Any trends in this over the years will be noted with interest.

Anyway. Looks like once again we have a case of celebrating a big number a little too late, as the page count is boosted by a 16 page quick-play booklet in the centre, making this our third biggest issue ever. They're also making extra effort to distribute it to new venues, bring in new people. So this feels like them again trying to make this issue a new beginning, hopefully bringing in some new players. Of course, if the other articles aren't good as well, they may have problems keeping them.


Scan quality: Good quality & resolution, colour slightly oversaturated. No indexing.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Here, we talk about the intersection of nostalgia and their new recruitment drive. Part of the D&D experience is the shared memories and the people we played with. As an inherently social hobby, the people and the way we interacted with them is inextricably linked to your memory, even if you played the same modules as millions of other people. And for a social hobby, word of mouth and player network are even more crucial than they are for other forms of entertainment. So get out there and recruit new people, create your own legends. Otherwise this hobby will slowly fade away, no matter how hard they try to promote it. Which really is just as pertinent a message today. Go to the effort, let today be as nostalgic as 20 years ago when you're another 20 years older. Are you ever too old to make a new beginning? For my own sake, I'd like to hope not.


D-Mail: Our first letter is a complaint about books which need a whole load of other books to fully make sense, and a request that they do more straight AD&D articles. Ahh yes, the back to basics crowd. Given the direction they take in the next edition, I'm not surprised to see complaints like this mounting up.

A letter from someone who really enjoyed seeing Jeff Grubb's PC's in action again and wants more, preferably prequels. I think that's an achievable request with him working for them again.

Two little nitpicks about real world stuff. Aint physics a bitch. We can't constantly elaborate on all the disclaimers when we're trying to fit an article in a few pages.

A letter of generalised praise from new zealand. They can be a bit cut off from the world there, so it's a good way to keep in touch with the rest of the gaming community. I'm guessing you haven't quite got the hang of the intarweb thing yet.

A letter from someone else who doesn't entirely approve of Alternity articles in their D&D magazine. Is there really any demand for it? That's a very good question. It's becoming apparent that the negatives outweigh the positives. People here are more conservative about their roleplaying than a decade or so ago.

Of course, they're still getting mixed messages, and the next letter is one from someone eager to see more Alternity material. It needs help to prove it's versatility, and that won't happen unless freelancers get in on writing articles for it as well. Bring back the ARES section!

A letter from someone who's very happy with issue 248, and thinks it's the best one they've done in ages. If they keep this up they deserve to win new customers.

A letter that thinks people who feel betrayed by the magazine because they included one non D&D article are being overdramatic. Get over it, get a life, grow a thicker skin, or you'll never be able to cope with the things the rest of reality throws at you.

And finally, we have two more letters on the subject of Alternity coverage, one positive and one negative. This looks like it's settling down to be a long haul of a debate. We never used to have this problem about Gamma world, Marvel superheroes, and all the other bits and pieces they also covered. What changed?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 2/8


Nodwick once again punctures his employer's egos. Oh, he's going to suffer for that.


Forum: We take a break from soliciting for the next edition to do a little alternity promotion here. Cross promotion! It gets everywhere! I wonder if it'll actually get any responses. After all, the SAGA debate hasn't exactly set the forum alight.

Matt Wilson disagrees that so many spells need to be moved out of Alteration. I know you can justify it from an IC perspective, but there's still the OOC balance one to consider as well.

Jeremy W. Burks wants psionics kept in the next edition, but any inconsistencies carefully cleaned out. I think everyone'll agree that inconsistencies in the rules are a bad thing. Even the ones that otherwise want everything kept the same won't complain about that one.

Greg Jensen draws upon his philosophy classes to analyze alignment. As ever, there should be room for plenty of variations within a single alignment, as there are only 9 of them, and billions of creatures. Relative morality falls apart when analyzed a lot quicker than picking an objective moral system, and applying it to everything though.

Stephen D'Angelo wants poison and energy draining seriously nerfed. Now you're definitely in luck! Enjoy.

Tim Newman subjects us to nearly 2 pages of weapon related tedium, with a bibliography. This really should have been an article. It's longer than many of them.


Sage advice: How does detect life interact with blocking spells (Perfectly normally. Direct counters stop it. Irrelevant counters don't.)

Can a ring of vampiric regeneration get power from a spectre. (Yes. We have not clarified the way negative energy interacts with living creatures. )

Are illithid vampires intelligent or not (no. They go all feral and raar. That is not conductive to logical thought)

Is spellfire one of the energies energy containment can stop (That is up to your DM. )

How do true dweomers interact with chronomancy and wild magic. (perfectly normally. No, you don't get true wild surges. That would make an awful mess)

Can you use split personality and astral projection to go world-hopping and stay home at once (no)

Can you gain proficiency in a shield by specializing in another weapon (man what. Skip doesn't know how you thought that one up. No.)

When do you get the benefits from a deck of many things (straight away. You can't defer the good or bad effects to a more convenient time. Such is the nature of these random screwage items.)

How high level can demihuman speciality priests get (rather higher in the forgotten realms than anywhere else. Doncha wish your planet was twinky like Ed's. Don'cha)

Can feat help a signer imagine his way to the top (no. You've been doing it wrong for months. Skip recommends you scrap your game and start again. )

Can dweomerkeepers cast inside a beholder's ray (no)

Can dispel fatigue restore spell points (hell no!)

How often does the great modron march take place (once per 17 years. Exactly which planet's year this is judged from is not made clear. )

Can you open a book of infinite spells to more than one spell a day (yes, but you can only use one of them. And luck is a cruel master)

What gives you immunity to chlorine gas ( Immunity to gas in general. Or immunity to chlorine, but I know no monster that has that specific immunity.)

How much do the new armor types cost (some of them cost lots, other little)

Rainbow only produces 6 colours (Oh noes. Pretty colours not properly matched. Skip must make errata. That's better. Ooooooh. :Bats: 7 pretty colours, tied in a bow.)

How fast does telekinesis let you move things (20 foot per round, no matter how heavy. Newton would have a fit)

Do unused magical items count towards a paladin's limit. (As long as they own them. Pass de dutchy on the left hand side. Sharing makes everyone happier)

Is an owlbear's hug normal damage (yes)

What's the 4th power 16th level hierophants get (permanent healthiness. Their connection with nature is strong enough all the diseases politely give up and go away to harass someone else.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 3/8


Magic of the seldarine: Oh bloody hell, it's another elven special. They didn't put that very prominently on the cover, because they wanted to promote the fast-play thing more. And if I'd realised that, I might have been a bit grumpier coming in, because I know more than anyone just how many articles they've done on elves already. Oh well, I'm in now. Might as well take a look around. Looks like it's time for a third helping of elven deities. That brings us up to a good two dozen once you count the ones introduced in the magazine previously, the drow ones, the forgotten realms ones, and so forth. That's approaching some real world pantheons in size and diversity. Elven clerics really are spoiled, despite it not being a focus of the race.

Mythrien Sarath is the elven protector god. His excessive altruism resulted in his Avatar being trapped, which has put him at rather a disadvantage in keeping up with his clergy, and caused him to gradually lose ground with worshippers. His priests get a wide range of protective spells, including limited access to wizard abjuration ones, and power over Mythals. Seems like he deserves better, but you know what they say about nice guys.

Sarula Iliene is the goddess of nixies, who's trying to ingratiate her way into the elven pantheon. Well, she obviously knows how to pick a winning team. This means she's also trying to position herself as a general deity of water and water magic, just as Aedrie Faenya covers wind magic and flying creatures. I think you can guess what kind of extra powers her priests get. Now we just need fire and earth based gods to round out the pantheon.

Darahl Firecloak amusingly fills both of these roles, and in the process sponsors another para-elemental wizard variant. He's a lot more lawful than most elven gods, and tries to be on good terms with dwarves and gnomes. His clerics are predictably versatile, with both earth and fire based bonus powers, and the eventual ability to enter those elemental planes like a druid. Once again, elves get all the cool stuff.

Alathrien Druanna is the goddess of rune magic, a field which is currently rather out of fashion. Not sure why, as not only do her priests get a wide range of extra spells, but they also get to break the usual class rules and dual class as wizards once they max out their priestly levels. That's a real draw for people annoyed at demihumans becoming redundant at higher levels. So yeah, all 4 of these are definitely well above average in power as speciality priests go, making elven clerics seem a very attractive choice. Still, they're not as cheesy as some previous stuff, for which I shall be grateful, and the writing is quite nice. It seems there is more stuff to get out of this barrel after all.


Knotwards & Woodsongs: Following directly onwards from one take on elven rune magic, here we have something very similar. Two bits of minor magic that are intended to showcase the elven tie with nature, and of course give them cool new powers along the way. Since they're based off proficiency slots, this is far easier to get hold of if you're using Skills & Powers rules. It's all fairly low-key stuff, that seems primarily useful for NPC's, making their daily lives easier. There is a bit of the whole elves are better than you thing in here, which irks a bit, but this is mostly whimsical and dull. A prime example of 2e fluff, of the sort I'd much rather ignore. Next!


Beyond the tree: Our 5th age article this month is a dual stat AD&D one as well, showing again that they're trying to figure out how to bridge the edition war gulf they created without outright retcons. Not that this isn't useful in other worlds, as it's about the idea of Dryads as PC's. It's just that since the latest upheavals in Krynn have involved the large scale reshaping of nature, there's a lot of pissed off dryads with the motivation to venture away from their tree to make a difference in the world. We've had one magical item that lets them do that already, (issue 45) but ironically, they're not in a position to make them on their own. But where there's a will there's a way, and this article shows us two of them, in quite a bit of detail, with stats for both systems, and a selection of new spells and magical items to help them out. They don't have level limits like most races, but there is the definite assumption that their adventuring time is limited, and once they've solved whatever problem made them leave their tree, they'll settle down again to live a normal life. Keeping one around as a long-term PC would require a certain amount of DM effort to make their goals stay in sync with the rest of the party. But hey, they look good, and have a decent class selection. We've encountered more problematic races in the past. And given their mythological popularity, I'm sure there's no shortage of people who'd like to play one. So this was definitely an article worth doing, handled in a pretty interesting way.

 

[Orius]

It's making me feel that 2e really did drag on several years beyond it's natural lifespan, and they should have started preparing something earlier.

Of course there is the whole problem with TSR's collapse delaying things by however many months they were delayed. After all, WotC had to clean up the mess left behind, then take a look at the state of the game and then go through the planning for another edition.

Elven clerics really are spoiled, despite it not being a focus of the race.

They're ELVES. Does it really surprise you that anything about them is spoiled?

Course I'm a bit biased here myself, being a dwarf fan and all....

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 4/8


By any other name: Our elvish section ends with a short article on elven names, and how to create them. We already know to make them melodious and multisyllabic, but this gives us a bunch of sample elven words and the way they can be made to fit together to form a descriptive name. The kind of article that's ok when taken in isolation, but frustrating when you try and plug it into a larger continuity, and makes me wish for a full length book on fantasy linguistics to do this definitively in a final way instead of messing around with little articles with minimal overlap.


Dragonlance gets another calendar. People must keep buying them, otherwise they wouldn't keep making them.


AD&D core rules 2.0 Sneak preview: Hmm. A straight up promotional article. I'd forgotten just how annoying I found them a few years ago. For all my frustration at their reduced variety of articles these days, that's one thing I don't regret them reducing the number of, instead going for more subtle tie-in articles. Of course, this is an exception, simply telling us about the new computer version of their rulebooks. It now contains all the info from 9 books, fully searchable, plus the character generator, mapmaker, and support for houseruling the game. In some ways, thats better than the official 4e DDI tools, all this time later. And of course, it's not dependent on being online or paying a regular subscription. It does make me wonder a little about their current direction. We've already seen evidence that pathfinder is outselling 4e. Is the attempt to grip their IP too tightly part of what's causing people to slip through their fingers at the moment? It is very worth thinking about. What lessons can the people running the show now learn from those taken in then?


Fiction: The lizard shoppe by Neal Barrett, Jr. Hmm. This is a fairly complicated story with several layers, combining the magical, political and romantic. This makes it a little tricky for me to figure out what aspect to focus upon, as they interact with one-another. I'm not absolutely sure it's a good story, as they don't always mesh together perfectly, but it is a pretty interesting one, that I had to reread a few times to take in all the details. And like many of their writers, it's obvious that the author has thought about the world and built it up beyond what we see in the story. So it looks like although this isn't a regular writer, he fits in here and is probably a roleplayer. That's a decent use of their pages. It's nice to see they're still giving plenty of fiction despite variety dropping in other areas.


Wyrms of the north: Music has the power to soothe the savage beast? Not that anyone but his typewriter would call Ed savage. But he's certainly shown an interest in music before. (issues 94, 115, 123) So here we have a dragon that's obsessed with music, and will spare the life of anyone who plays for him. Of course this being the Realms, this doesn't so much become a singular legend as a regular thing with established relationships with various Bards from around the realms being the majority of his social life, and his hoard filled with music boxes and magical instruments, many of which can play on command. So this isn't an original idea, but demonstrates that despite being a kitchen sink, the Realms retains a distinctive flavour, partly because it's original creator remains such a productive force for the world, and any ideas he steals will still wind up sounding like him once he's through with them. In the Realms, you won't be the first, you won't be the last, and you won't be the best. Just be thankful that you can play a part without getting abruptly eaten.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 5/8


Dragon's Bestiary has lost it's definite article as well? Really, this is getting to be quite the habit. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that. This also seems rather familiar in another way, as Johnathan creates some more hybrids of existing creatures, this time with less comic and more fantastical elements. Whether they're common ancestors of the existing ones or products of magical experimentation in your campaign is for you to choose. In any event, it lets him fill up another article without needing much actual inspiration.

Bloodstingers are somewhere between pseudodragons and wyverns. With cute little tyrannosaur paws and save or die poison, you might be tempted to tame them, but it ain't going to work. Stick to the regular ones.

Boneslithers seem to be the primitive ancestors of nagas. With no magical abilities, they can't do much with their intelligence. Like the many dumb near dragon things, they seem like an excuse for someone who wants the visuals of a particular encounter type without the hard to manage versatility.

Marble pudding could be the common ancestor of mimics, ropers, and some other pudding types. Their disguise abilities might not be as sophisticated, but really, in a natural cavern, all you need to do is look like stone and people won't question odd shaped outcroppings and stuff until it's too late.

Shadow panthers look pretty similar to displacer beasts, but also have centaur like properties. Curious business. Just how does a creature go from quadrupedal to bipedal anyway? This set of creatures has definitely given me something to think about, even if they're not that imaginative in themselves. Combining existing elements in odd ways is a useful technique when your inspiration is running dry.


D&D fast-play game: Now this is the kind of special feature they should have had last issue. A 16 page adventure designed to get complete newbies playing without a DM. Of course, for experienced players, this is a ridiculously tiny and easy dungeon, that'll take less time to do than most of the 8 page adventures back in the day. So it's really the kind of thing you give to someone else, rather than play yourself, especially if you're a regular reader of the magazine, rather than someone caught by their new marketing push. As such, I am a bit ambivalent towards it, as it involves a level of hand-holding I did fine without when I first learnt to play, and worry that it might slip too far into patronising elementary school territory. I may have to test it out on someone so as to get a fresh perspective, rather than simply judging by how it reads.


The ecology of the wererat: Hmm. Lycanthropes have been curiously absent from the ecologies before now. I guess that since they have official books on them going into greater detail, people haven't felt the need to send them in. Still, this does better on the crunch front than I'd expect, giving them several more new tricks. They may be the weakest lycanthropes in head-on combat, but they more than make up for that by numbers, deviousness, the variability of their weakness, spell-like abilities, capacity to replace themselves, ability to spy and live in cities, right under your feet. Compared to that, who's afraid of the big bad wolf? I pity the thieves guild that doesn't maintain a cordial relationship with the local wererats. I seem to have drifted off topic a bit, so this one can't have been that interesting. It follows ecology formula number 4, that of the writings of someone who died facing the creatures being discovered later. And that's all I can think to say about it. Just seems to have slipped through my mind without making much of an impression, good or bad.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 6/8


Rogues gallery: Ah yes, the Harpers series of books, their largest numbered series of books, making the trilogies and pentads look tame. And Elaine Cunningham has been responsible for more than her fair share of them, in the meantime showing that she's one of the few people who can outcheese Ed in his own world. So can you guess who's converting their characters so you can use them as well? Here's a hint. It's not Jeff Grubb. On with the show.

Bronwyn is a Harper Bard with the Loremaster kit. She has a magical bag that instantly sends any treasure she finds home, where she has a shop. Which means she's even richer than most adventurers, as she's getting to play both ends for her own profit. Plus she gets to hear all the best gossip. Seems to have it all worked out until she makes the wrong enemies with her discoveries.

Dag Zoreth is her older brother, and as a priest of Cyric, is pretty much on the opposite end of the moral spectrum. This is further reinforced by the fact that he's part of the Zhentarim. What would their parents think? I'd bash their heads together and send them to their rooms.

Algorind of Tyr is a naive young paladin, the kind of guy who trusts his clerical superiors wholeheartedly, and doesn't realise how complicated moral choices in the world can be. This is of course the writer setting him up for future drama. Dance, my little puppets, dance! I'm sure you'll get to read about it at some point.

Ebeneezer Stoneshaft is a dwarf who shaves. Blasphemy! Actually, it seems like we're getting more dwarves who buck the stereotypes than elves in this column over the years. That is curious to note. Any ideas why?


AD&D game aliens: Looks like the drive for Alternity material will be cutting more ways than one, with what looks like an attempt at a new column converting Alternity races to AD&D stats. This seems like the kind of thing that'd be good for a single article, but doesn't really merit 4 or 5 pages for every single race, spread out over the course of months. Like Wyrms of the North, it feels like over-pushing a very specific idea to the point where people will get sick of it all too soon.

So this one strips the technological trappings away from the Seshayans, recasting them as animistic primitives with a unique shaman class. Or not so unique, since it's all about getting favors from ancestral spirits, which is about as rare in roleplaying as rice is in food. They can fly, but not for long enough for it to be useful in overland travel, giving them a good excuse to stick with the rest of the party. They have low-light vision rather than infravision, which is unusual for D&D races at the moment, and makes me wonder if that was a 3e change imported from Alternity. They also have a pretty substantial penalty in daylight that may make for conflict with a party that prefers daytime activity. So this is mostly made up of conventional elements, but with a few weird quirks that deserve noting for posterity. It does indeed feel like the company promoting their pet projects over what the public wants though, justifying the earlier letters complaints. So I have mixed feelings about this, with the negative ones narrowly taking the lead.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 251: September 1998


part 7/8


PC portraits: Wait, what? not one, not two, not three, but four elves with beards? That's not sloppiness, that's wilfull contrariness on the part of Rebecca Guay, who's responsible for the first instalment of this new column. Are they actively trying to provoke a rash of complaints on the letters pages? I'm not sure, but it's interesting, and definitely gives me something to talk about here, where I suspect I may struggle to find something to say if this becomes a regular thing. In the meantime, it's a pretty good way to fill out a single page, and not something they've done before, so it's convenient for their editors; and it's system free, so it's the kind of thing that'll remain useful after the edition change. We already know they're thinking about that, so this kind of thing makes a lot of sense. Now to sit back and see if any flame wars come from it.


Dragonmirth has more knight-eating jokes. Swordplay reprints the strip from issue 249 for no apparent reason. Is this the fault of the cartoonist or the editor?

Another contest asks us to design an inn for them. Give us the best possible location for adventurers to start their careers, and then come back too once they've finished an adventure. You have the power! But you don't get to choose the name. Well, I suppose it gets people writing in that wouldn't otherwise. And maybe some of them'll stick around, become regular freelancers.


Roleplaying reviews continues on it's sci-fi special, giving long reviews to a relatively short list of products. This really seems to be to drive in that Sci-fi is a big thing right now, with two active Star Trek series, and other stuff like Babylon 5 and Farscape enjoying both commercial and critical success. At that point it seemed like it would just keep getting bigger. But that's not how fashion works. Things may stick around longer than you expect (reality TV, I'm looking at you) but the public always gets bored eventually, especially as technology does things that make old sci-fi look dated. So let's see how these offerings have held up over a decade later.

Fading suns gets a second review. (Rick did this in issue 238) Once again, the fact that this is heavily influenced by classic White Wolf aesthetics is mentioned, probably even more than WW's own Trinity around this time. Ray goes into more detail on the system and less on the setting than Rick, but comes up with the same overall mark. It's a good system, and the game is full of adventure hooks. Plus it's an original setting in a genre dominated by licences, which is also worth supporting.

The babylon project, on the other hand is a licence of Babylon 5. It gets a rather ambivalent review, with it's odd licensing restrictions and crunch heavy system. It won't be of much interest to people not already interested in the property, and whether hardcore fans will like it is also uncertain. On balance, it seems like a probably not to most readers.

Star*Drive: is Alternity's first setting, and I'm not sure why this is being reviewed the month afterwards rather than with it. It gets a mostly positive review, but also one that points out it's all very generic and kitchen sinky, consciously engineered with the intent of becoming the Forgotten Realms of it's system. Of course, that could well be interpreted as bland. Still, I'm sure it's very playable, should you choose to dig the old game up for a spin.


KotDT face their deadliest foe yet. Squirrels! Lenard Lakofka would be proud.

 

[Orius]

By any other name: Our elvish section ends with a short article on elven names, and how to create them. We already know to make them melodious and multisyllabic, but this gives us a bunch of sample elven words and the way they can be made to fit together to form a descriptive name. The kind of article that's ok when taken in isolation, but frustrating when you try and plug it into a larger continuity, and makes me wish for a full length book on fantasy linguistics to do this definitively in a final way instead of messing around with little articles with minimal overlap.

I've used the tables a few times and it's pretty good for cranking out generic elfy names when needed. I suppose one could swap out or ignore some of the syllables on the table that they don't like or which doesn't fit their world.

Fiction: The lizard shoppe by Neal Barrett, Jr. Hmm. This is a fairly complicated story with several layers, combining the magical, political and romantic.

Was this the story about the warmongering nobles with missing limbs that enjoy their hot-air balloon wars? I think I read this story but I only vaguely remeber some aspects of it.

Wyrms of the north: Music has the power to soothe the savage beast? Not that anyone but his typewriter would call Ed savage. But he's certainly shown an interest in music before. (issues 94, 115, 123) So here we have a dragon that's obsessed with music, and will spare the life of anyone who plays for him.

I thought this was one of the more interesting dragons in the feature.

PC portraits: Wait, what? not one, not two, not three, but four elves with beards? That's not sloppiness, that's wilfull contrariness on the part of Rebecca Guay, who's responsible for the first instalment of this new column.

Maybe they're half-elves? And you can't see that last guy's ears, so you could use him as a human or dwarf if you like the image.

Some of these columns are still archived on the WotC site here: PC Portraits Online Archives

This particular one doesn't seem to be in the archive anywhere though. But you could always link to the later sets when you get to them. It was a pretty useful feature, though some artists had better contributions than others, in partucular some artists when a bit overboard on the ink which made the portraits too dark.