Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 2/7


Previews: Another big release this month. The Psionics handbook shows that once again, they still aren't quite up on the quirks of the new system, with the most MAD suffering classes evar. Still, they've managed to put in a fairly balanced point based magic system, so you have that option. Roll on the revised edition.

Diablo has been converted now. So here's the tie in adventure, To Hell and Back. They try and sell this as an epic adventure, but I suspect executive meddling was involved in it's creation. Anyone know what this license was like?

And there's the usual pair of FR & DL novels. The Summoning by Troy Denning, and Downfall by Jean Rabe. An epic tale of ancient wizards trying to take over the Realms and another step in the redemption of Dhamon. Just how many do they have now?


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 3 months to go. This month's teaser basically just recaps the secret societies of the Realms. Most of them are familiar, and I suspect the others would be too if I'd read all the supplements and novels. You can bet most of them will have custom prestige classes, feats, magical items, and other cool stuff to make you want to join. But what they might be is not revealed here, as this is another single pager. So not much else to say here. Once again, it does the job.


Piffany is still intentionally missing the point in Nodwick. Dork tower still don't want to face reality either, even when it looks pretty pleasant.


Mind lords of Talaron: Unsurprisingly, our first psionic article is a fairly big one by one of their official writers. Even more interestingly, it's one that'll be converted to 3.5 and appear in the Complete Psionic splatbook later on. The 6 noble houses of a lost world, each naturally talented at a particular psionic discipline, now living secretly amongst normal people and trying to keep mind flayers from ruining this one. Interestingly, the codified mechanical distinction isn't introduced here, making the difference between the houses and regular people purely in the class and feats they select. However, they do have more room to go into their backstory and adventure hooks for them here, which is quite interesting to see, and means the two appearances are complementary to one-another. The result is particularly interesting in hindsight, showing that they will return to ideas and improve on them over the course of 3e. And as there's plenty of adventure hooks here, this definitely qualifies as both a notable and useful article. Good show. :claps:


Calm amid the storm: Even more interestingly, Bruce Cordell follows up with an article containing two githzerai focussed prestige classes, one of which will get updated for 3.5, while the other won't. Very curious indeed. Zerth Cenobites have the same basic concept, learning to see into the near future to boost their monkly abilities. However, the implementation of the two versions is very different, with both their prerequisites and power selections substantially altered. And taking a good look at the two, it once again looks like the 3.5 version is somewhat better mechanically, having easier to use powers, plus a minor psionic progression on top of that. The Arcanopath Monk is a prestige class intended to kick the ass of spellcasters, and is also interesting, because at the 10th level, it has the power to permanently erase spells from the minds of people hit by them, which is the kind of thing they'd move away from even further in 3.5. As with any case where they try and make nonspellcasters good at taking down spellcasters, they may succeed at their job, but they'll still be far less powerful overall and certainly less flexible, which leaves them lacking if their target has a chance to prepare. So this issue is definitely turning out to be a good demonstration of how much they have to learn about fine-tuning the d20 system. Fitting really, given the book they're drawing upon.


The splintered mind: Greyhawk isn't particularly well known for it's psionics. But neither does it exclude them entirely like Krynn. And since it's the core world for this edition, they have to be inclusive of all the stuff in the generic books. So where would a psionic organisation fit in? Well, the scarlet brotherhood has potential, filled with monks as it is, but as an evil organisation, this is a problem for players. A splinter organisation dedicated to overthrowing them, so you get the angsty rebel cache to draw players in? Well, it's a pretty well proven cliche by now, so why not. So here's one of those articles that mixes setting stuff and multiple types of new crunch fairly seamlessly. Three new exotic weapons. A prestige class. Six new psionic powers, and three sample multiclass progressions for building NPC's. The weapons have fairly typical exotic weapon bonuses, 2 double bladed two weapon fighting ones, and one that's exceedingly good at disarming. The prestige class is another monk/psionic hybrid, skewing a bit more towards the psionic side, and able to share minds with other teammates for mutual benefit. (which is one thing 2e psionics did better than 3e. ) The new powers are all Telepathy or Clairsentience ones, and also feel less like reflavored spells than a lot of the powers from the new Psionics handbook. So this isn't the most high-powered of articles, but is pretty pleasing flavourwise.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 3/7


By any other name: A bumper pack of monster races get their naming conventions explored this month. Derro, Duergar, Svirfneblin, Kuo-Toa, and particularly bizarrely, illithds as well. Since these guys are pretty different, despite living in similar conditions, their name structures are quite different as well. This particularly applies to illithids, where people are trying to vocally approximate the horrible combination of mental transmissions and writhing tentacles that is their communication. There's less to draw upon for these races, but it still seems like the author has done their research, keeping the names produced consistent with ones from previous modules and sourcebooks. Having exhausted the core races, these are rather more interesting, and I wonder if they'll consider it worth their while to do any more. I'd like to think so, but you never can tell.


101 Wondrous whereabouts: Our system-free article this month raids the mythology books to remind you to make your adventure locations cool, memorable and epic. Dungeons where all the rooms look the same and treasure is primarily measured by it's GP value are so 80's. Far better to have one big reward at the end that'll be a real game-changer like a wish or immortality. Some of these have been slightly altered to make them more gamable, or simply genericised, but most are presented straight. This does mean they might not quite fit into the D&D planar cosmology, but hey, that's not too hard for a DM to deal with, especially if you change the names for your own campaign. And really, you should be using this for inspiration rather than wholesale thievery. A lot of the time, the difference between being considered original or a copyist is how good you are at hiding your sources. As with most of the 101 articles, this is pretty handy.


Logjam busters: Robin Laws continues to deliver multiple articles of play advice this month, showing you how to get stalled sessions going again by psychoanalysing the players and DM. You've got to figure out what everybody wants, and how much they're prepared to compromise on their personal desires for the good of the group.( And if you can't come to an agreement, who needs to be kicked out to get the group into some form of harmony. )This will of course be very contentious for people who distrust psychiatry and being analysed. (But would you want to game with scientologists anyway? ) But does seem more likely to productively resolve a troublesome session than the Tracey Hickman method, in any case. This is a good example of how you can steal ideas from something seemingly unrelated to gaming, and apply it to good effect, and also his general love of taking the responsibility of power from the DM alone, instead sharing narrative control with the players. Just don't become a total pushover who gives them exactly what they want without working for it, or the game won't last that long anyway.


Fiction: The hounds of ash by J Gregory Keyes. Well, that's Fool Wolf's story over. He's saved the world, discovered what's really going on with that imprisoned goddess of his, accepted that he'll need to put up with her for the rest of his life, and got himself a similarly immortal and untrustworthy (but also smokin' hot) girlfriend. There's room left for further adventures here, but I guess after this climax, writing more didn't seem worth it, so it's as good a place as any to draw the curtain. He didn't manage quite as many adventures as Niall, but he did manage to get laid as often, and solved more problems using his own brains, plus the enemies he faced were smarter and less caricatured as well, so I'm going to have to give the edge to Mr Keyes for better quality writing. This is one bit of continuity in the magazine that I'm definitely going to miss.


Dragonmirth is in theme as ever, ie, just barely.


VS Psions & Psychic warriors: This is a bit of a tricky one, really, as psionic characters are almost as versatile as wizards in some ways, and considerably more in others. Grappling them or stealing their stuff will be pretty much a waste of time, for example. To prepare decent countermeasures for psionic characters, you need to know their specific powerset, since they generally have a smaller selection than spellcasters. This will also tell you what their strong ability scores are likely to be, and a decent amount about their personality. The only bit of advice that remains universally applicable is that you should always buff your will score if possible, since so many of their powers target it. Fortunately, there are quite a few spells and items that do just that. If they've read your mind, then any clever tactics you've come up with will be mostly useless anyway. Basically, this is the problem when facing anything with lots of discretionary powers to select. General advice doesn't do much. Better get your divination spells out before the adventure then, and hope they don't have anything to block those.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 4/7


The adventures of Volo: Our Cormyran treasure tales finish off with a ton of additional people to add to our genealogies. And the mysterious Hullack Hawk, which sounds deeply risible, but was the cause of some nasty conflict between Cormyr and Sembia in the past. I don't think he's given his gains back to the poor, but this does have some shades of robin hood. Elminster seems to have completely lost interest, just letting Volo ramble on, mixing exposition and story in a not hugely coherent fashion. This fails to sustain my interest as well. My brain just can't seem to take the information in and assemble it into a proper structure. I do believe I need a break.


Rogues Gallery: A conversion of a Troy Denning Forgotten Realms novel? That's nothing new here. What is different, however, is the illustration style. They've returned to full colour, and adopted a soft-focus portrait style that makes them look like IC sittings of the characters rather than purely photorealistic action shots. It's interesting as a change of pace, and quite aesthetically pleasing as well. I can go with that.

Galaeron Nihmedu is an elf with a beard. And no pointy ears. Wait, what? So did the artist actually get commissioned to do this, or did they just take some stock paintings. You lose several marks again for this cock-up. He's another instance of sorcerers cropping up everywhere, fighting with the wizards they're trying to get formal training from because neither side understands the other. Suddenly we find out that it's been happening for years under the radar, just because the rules have changed in game now. I do so hate retcons.

Melegaunt Tanthul is a 20th level diviner who does actually look fairly close to his description. He's one of those mysterious, seemingly immortal wizards who just showed up one day from nowhere, and has spent ages laying inscrutable plans in motion. Not the kind of person you want to get involved with, for you never know when you'll be sacrificed for the greater good.

Takari Moonsnow is an elf who does have proper pointy ears. But they do get the eye colour wrong, it has a definite purple tinge when the description says it's merely brown. She's another one who takes the long view on things, although she can seem lighthearted. But then, elves take their extended lifespans for granted. What's a few years partying when you have centuries to do serious stuff later?

Vala Thorsdotter once again sees them completely fail to match colours with the description. This artist was totally not paying attention to the brief, despite obviously being talented. Editorial fail. So what seems promising initially winds up pissing me off by not paying attention to the bigger picture. So much for this column.


Class acts: The psi-hunter is Monte's offering this month. I think you can guess what they do. They're one of those classes you'll have to do a bit of inconvenient dipping to qualify for, as they require you to have some spellcasting ability to get in, but then give you an independent spell list that means a primary caster will rapidly become very weak by branching into this. On the other hand, for a fighter, that single level dip into wizard will pay for itself well, as they have full BAB, decent spellcasting, with a spell list that seems well suited to buffing a primary fighter and countering enemy screwage, plus a full suite of special powers against psionic opponents. They're not even that bad against enemies outside their speciality either, since their spells will still be useful, and they'll still have full primary fighting capability. There is a minor write-up error, where they confuse spells known with spells/day, and the artwork frankly sucks, especially in close-up. But overall, this is a pretty useful and well designed prestige class, with benefits commensurate with it's cost.

 

[Echohawk]

Diablo has been converted now. So here's the tie in adventure, To Hell and Back. They try and sell this as an epic adventure, but I suspect executive meddling was involved in it's creation. Anyone know what this license was like?

Not great. The Diablo licence suffered from being split across the tail end of 2nd Edition and the beginning of 3rd Edition. It also focused heavily on replicating the mechanics of Diablo in the D&D rules, whilst paying minimal attention to the setting.

The first release was Diablo II: The Awakening which presented the classes, spells, magic items and monsters of Sanctuary in 2nd Edition rules-terms. It does an okay job at that, but is really heavy on the crunch.

The second release was the Diablo II Adventure Game, a boxed set which amusingly proclaims "Tabletop RPG: No Computer Required" on the front. The rules used in that set are a variation of the 2e rules, but simplified significantly, and with enough changes to not be particularly compatible with The Awakening.

Diablo II: Diablerie used the 3rd edition rules to present the classes, spells, magic items and monsters of the computer game all over again. Astonishingly, it was published in the same year as The Awakening, just nine months later!

The last title, Diablo II: To Hell and Back contains an adventure which finally explores the setting a little more, but the other half of the book contains pages of pages of fairly dull monster statistics, many of which had already appeared in one (or more) of the earlier books.

There was also a free Fast-Play Game: Diablo II Edition booklet handed out at game stores. (Last time I checked it was still available as a download here.) Including this booklet, that means there were five Diablo-themed D&D products, and the first four of those presented the setting with four different rule-sets (2e, 2e variant, 3e and Fast-Play). The line and the license was doomed to failure!

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 5/7


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Another return to the Realms, and a topic they've covered before. Magical Masks. (see issue 117) Man, that cartoon has aged badly. But there's probably still some cool powersets for you to invent. And since these all also have both powers and curses, this definitely looks like their sadistic imaginations have been running actively.

Ynaerv's Mask is a skull-faced device that grants extensive necromantic powers, but has a tendency to transform you into a Curst. Ahh, yes, Ed's very first contribution ever. Good to see they got a quick updating to the new edition. Course, since they're near unkillable, this may not be such a drawback either.

Dhonas's Shroud boosts your illusionary skills, but gives you nightmares. Since it also boosts your saves against them, this will leave you wearing it all the time. The perfect way to hook someone, really.

The Mask of Aberration gives a whole bunch of alteration spells, but has the danger of turning you into a gibbering mouther. Are all of these going to be focussed around a school of magic? Well, there are worse secondary themes to deploy.

Shade's Veil breaks the pattern by focussing on shadow magic. It's curse, of course, eventually transforms you into a shadow yourself, forever semi-real. Again, you don't want to keep taking it off and putting it on. Just use an illusion if you want to interact normally with people.

The Mask of Shum is divination based, and gradually drives you mad with visions. What strange and disturbing things will you see?

The Facade makes you look like a kyton, as it's composed of a ton of chains you wrap round your face. Oddly enough, people will like you anyway, as it focusses on enchantment magic. It's curse gives you low self-esteem, ironically, which seems another good one to encourage dependency on the mask in the future.

The Master's Face is conjuration based, and eventually sabotages itself by making anything you summon hate you. Wait, don't they do that anyway Oh well, still a pretty good collection overall, with neat powers and histories. Like the abyssal armours, they make for a good team of named enemies.


The bestiary: More underdark monsters? Blasted subterranean radiation. Soon as you've finished cataloging them all, the ones you put in a zoo have already mutated or crossbred with something else. What are we to do? Start all over again?

Jawg are decidedly strange looking things with a humanoid head, tyrannosaur's body, and a second set of arms and head on their tail. They hunt Dragons and have quite substantial spellcasting abilities. This means they're a good example of thing that can be friend or foe, even though they might seem like just another monster to kill at first.

Genocid are another gross invention full of symbiotes. With snakes in their cheeks and slug like larvae in their stomachs, they shall make revolting wheezes wherever they go. Man, where were the guys writing this stuff last year? We could have done with some more genuinely monstrous monsters.

Verx Swarms live in stalagmites, then pour out and burrow through you instead, agonisingly noming you up while you're still alive. Cure disease is the way to go to deal with them.

Minwhelgo are another of the relatively rare good guys down there, singlehandedly trying to make the underdark a better place. Good luck, you'll need it.

Deeplings are another thing occupying the low level goblinoid niche, albeit with a few nice little quirks and magical tricks. Still, on the whole, they aren't that interesting to me.


Nodwick ends up living with zuggtmoy. This may actually be an improvement on his usual company.


Role models: We're gradually building up to some more expert advice here, as I'd hoped would happen. Some fairly detailed information on how changing the amount of water you mix with your inks alters the painting process, and the ways you can use that to your advantage, with both drybrushing and washing having their uses. As information don't remember reading about before, this is fairly interesting, and a good example of how you turn a problem into an opportunity. An amateur will make a mess by mixing too much or not enough water with their paint. A pro will use all sorts of ratios at different points with equal proficiency. All you have to do is get a good amount of experimentation time in to make the process intuitive.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 6/7


The play's the thing: Robin Laws' second article this month is another where he reexamines a seemingly tiny part of your character background and shows it can actually be a big deal. Ancestry is a particularly big deal if you're a noble, or from a race that particularly values that kind of knowledge. But to be honest, you can't always control who your ancestors are. Interestingly, I can think of at least three games which allow you to determine your ancestry randomly, (AD&D's Oriental Adventures, Pendragon, Exalted's Dragon-blooded) with solid mechanical effects that result from this, showing it's not a new idea at all. This being modern times, Robin would rather it be placed in the hands of the players and DM, determined by OOC negotiation rather than dice rolls. This doesn't mean that the character has to be happy about what their family got up to in the past, of course, but someone ought to be actively choosing. So I guess this shows that new and old school play do tackle many of the same issues, they just solve them in different ways. And in this case, new might or might not be better than old, but is almost definitely slower and less realistic. This is one case where the insanity produced by a good random table will probably be more interesting than what a player will come up with on their own.


Sage advice: Do humans have to ignore the highest level class for multiclassing (yes. You dabble in a few things, not have two good classes plus a dip. )

Is a wishes inherent bonus added to the ability or the rolls. (The ability. Wishes are not that great at changing who you are.)

Do inherent bonuses stack (No. So much for that enhancement.)

How long does it take to make a scroll under 1,000 gp (Still a day. You can't mass produce magic items.)

How does a small character use a bastard sword (Same as anyone else. It's a bit weird. )

Can you save up skill points and feats if you can't think of anything to spend them on straight away. (If your DM likes the idea. You are, after all, just making yourself suboptimal for a while. )

How does expertise interact with two-weapon fighting (subtract from all attacks. No exceptions)

How hard is it to escape from rope bonds (Ooops. That contradiction has been fixed in the new printing. Don't say we don't do anything for you. )

Does spring attack really let you get at things with reach attacks without AoO's (only if they don't have friends. )

If you add a prestige class, do you suffer XP penalties for not keeping them balanced (No. Prestige classes are just plain cool. They worry nothing about this limitation.)

How do barbarians learn how to read, and how much does it cost (2 skill points, or a single level in another class. Way easier than last edition. )

Are cleric domain powers based on character level or class level (Character level. To do otherwise would be against general design principles.)

Can clerics turn outsiders (Not yet. Maybe some time.)

Do domain powers that turn count towards your general quota (No. Wouldn't be much of an extra if they did)

Can you apply the Sun benefit to other domain granted powers (No.)

Do undead's bodies stay when they're destroyed by turning (No. They go poof like buffyverse vampires. Very neat. )

Does extra turning add to domain granted powers (No.)

How much damage does an unarmed coup de grace do. (Probably not enough to kill someone)

Do you ever die from subdual damage. (Yes. It rolls over. Another thing stolen from WoD. )

What happens if you fight underwater. (You suck. It's a great way to take confident characters down a few pegs. )

Can my lawful good cleric cast doom (it is neither chaotic nor evil, so yes.)

Are you hurt by your own fireball (We wouldn't have invented sunfire if it didn't.)

How much can delayed blast fireball do (20d6)

Is color spray right? (No. More stuff for the next printing. )

Do stunned characters always drop what they're holding. (Yes. Another move action wasted when you recover to get battle ready again.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 281: March 2001


part 7/7


Forum: Shawn Lewis is very pleased at 3e, especially the fact that PC's and monsters now work under the same rules. Even if you stick with the old rules, there are still plenty of cool ideas to be taken from the new books.

Cob Constanz gives XP to the players for contributing to the background of the world. It keeps them invested and coming back, especially when they see how their ideas were incorporated into the larger tapestry of history

Jean-Philipe Suter has re-instituted sexist house rules in his games. i look forward for the flurry of condemnations this should provoke.

Jason Tondro thinks while feats are a cool idea, they still need some adjustment. Most irksome is than fact that you can qualify for them earlier than you can actually take them, since you only get 1 slot per 3 levels. Ever heard the saying "good things come to those who wait." You still can't expect everything to go your way.

Mike Briggs isn't pleased about the psionics previews. It looks like nothing but a spell point based magic system. Not going to argue with you there, especially with psionics/magic transparency now the standard.

Christopher Rheinherren is slightly more positive about the return of psionics, but it still looks like he's going to be disappointed. They're moving forward, not going back to 1e.

Michael Brown reminds WotC to find out how much real weapons actually weigh. God, is that still an issue. They complained enough about it last time that you'd think they'd have caught it.

John Brown loves the new rules, but thinks the presentation of them could do with a bit of cleaning up. As it is, people are still going to argue about what the rules actually mean, and wind up missing out important detail. You'd have to simplify a lot for that to be the case though.

Christian Walker points out how important high charisma is to getting a decent job. It counts more than skill, really. Oh so true. :sigh:

Jeremy A. Michelle talks about guns throughout the ages, and how they could be reintroduced to the magazine. It would take a bit of work, especially since the later ones are batter, so balance is a real issue.


PC Portraits: Psionicists get a good dungeonpunking this edition along with everyone else. They don't have as many tattoos as they use too, instead having a whole load of straps, buckles and fetishwear to make them stand out from the crowd. I think this time the older collection from issue 255 wins the day, having cleaner, less stylised artwork that's easier to apply to a broader range of character concepts. After all, as we've said before, the big difference between psionicists and wizards is that they don't need to rely on books, material components and other external aids to be awesome. Why give up that advantage just for the sake of fashion?


Dungeoncraft: Ray looks over the standard races to see how they're going to fit into his new world, and decides to exclude the gnomes and halflings. We've got no time for whimsy and mechanical inventiveness in a primitive world where it's a struggle to survive! This is serious business! Although it has to be said, Athas managed to find a decent place for halflings that wasn't comic relief at all, but I guess he doesn't want to make a carbon copy of that either in the process of avoiding generic fantasy. He doesn't pick any monster or new ones to replace them though, (maybe later) Really, this is about deciding how much you want to stick too or subvert the standard fantasy cliches. Change something too much, and you might as well not bother with the name in the first place. Not enough, and you'll be formulaic. Neither are inherently bad, and variety in the type of campaigns you run is good. Another little thing that's worth codifying, I guess.


Dixie discovers that there are always CR suitable challenges, no matter how much cosmic power you have in What's new.


Well, this wasn't a bad issue, but it did take a loooong time to do, party because of the amount of reference checking I had to do, and partly because my brain kept sliding off the last few articles, making them a real struggle to finish. Overall, it was interesting and informative, but did have more than it's fair share of mechanical issues. The core 3e rules may have been heavily playtested, but now we're getting into supplements that didn't receive that degree of attention. So i guess it's up to the playerbase to provide lots of feedback. Let's keep going, and see what they have to say about the 3.0 version when the 3.5 one rolls around.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 282: April 2001


part 1/7


116 pages. Phil Foglio gets his first cover pic in ages. And quite a doozy it is too, being funny, detailed, and having a fair bit of cheesecake too. This is promising. It's been a few years since we had a properly zany april fools issue. Lets hope the contents live up to the packaging.


Scan Quality: Good, some white at page edges.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Our editorial this month tells another truly abominable actual play story where the DM used terrible jokes as integral parts of the plot, to the exasperation of the players. It's a hard life living in a world you can't take seriously, and can see the lack of verisimilitude round the edge of every wall. Still, some people love it, and after a good 5 years, they're going to really indulge them again. Good to see them catering to that segment of their audience, when they've cut out support for quite a few others over the past few years.


AEG give us a free taster of their new card game, Warlord.


Scale Mail: Our first letter is from someone who's spotted that they're already putting power creep in their supplements. Is it though, is it? Is +1 to all saves really worth more than +2 to a particular one? Magic 8-ball says probably. A bit of actual play should test that fairly easily.

Second, we have an amusing request to bring back Bards on the Run. That one is very easy to satisfy indeed. Prepare your ears.

The Forgotten Realms timeline gets picked at again. The writers must pay close attention, for the slightest continuity slip in thousands of pages will draw vocal complaints. It's nice to have such a dedicated fanbase, but it can also get a bit trying as well.

We get a letter of general praise from someone who's afraid they might be a little beaten down by the artwork haters. Not at all. Remember a few years ago when they were in the doldrums, but nearly all their letters were positive? And now sales are going up again and here comes all the interesting rants too. Funny how that works. It's no wonder many people can't handle fame. Even if you're getting more positive attention than negative, it's the bad things that wind up sticking in your mind more if you're the sensitive sort.

And finally, we have a letter of general commentary. Rebecca Guay continues to attract attention whenever she appears, and Fool Wolf is rather popular too. In both cases, their popularity may price them out of the RPG market eventually. That's another irony of success.


Nodwick made all that effort to save the world for nothing. Some things just aren't funny to anyone outside 4-chan.


PROfILES: John Kovalic is one of those artists who makes you think If he can do it professionally, anyone can. Course, it's not that simple. Like South Park, his simple art style both allows him to concentrate on the clever jokes more, and produce tons of stuff, fast. He's primarily known for his comics, Dork tower, and The unspeakable oaf. But he's been plugging away for over 20 years now, sketching stuff while in school, putting it out independently, and generally following the dream when all right minded people would quit. Mucho respect for all those 12+ hour workdays.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 282: April 2001


part 2/7


Previews: The average rate of releases continues to drift downwards, as they start to try Ryan Dancy's idea of letting third party companies handle all the little stuff. One adventure, and a couple of novels. The Standing Stone widens their styles covered again, with ghostly horror. Woo. Not that it'll have the same impact as Ravenloft did. The Floodgate by Elaine Cunningham takes us back to Halruaa for some more political intrigue and mystery novel fun. Dragons of a Lost Star by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the second book in the war of souls trilogy. Big cataclysm no 3 proceeds according to schedule.


Countdown to the forgotten realms: 2 months to go. Here they talk about the metaphysics behind magic in the Realms, with the Weave, and the Shadow Weave, and the effects they have in game. Most spellcasters draw on the regular weave, which is owned by Mystra, and if it's taken out or damaged, you get dead and wild magic zones. You can get around that by drawing on the shadow weave instead, but that's harder and has it's own drawbacks. There are other rarer types of magic as well, many of which we've already seen mentioned like spellfire, but under the new edition they'll be better differentiated mechanically. After all, shouldn't you use the rules update to make the game work a little more like the fiction? This is a good reminder of the fact that I like game rules as universe physics style thinking, and 3e is easily the best edition of D&D so far for playing like that. So this teaser is one of the better ones from my point of view, showing how they're trying to give you more fun options to play with and integrate them into the setting. I still like my shiny toys sometimes.


Up on a soapbox: This month, all the elements Gary looks at are on the upper end of the scale. Assuming a role is right at the top, beating even combat, which makes sense given the name of the game is Role-Playing. At the bottom, (but still getting a decent score) is random chance, which I suppose reflects people's increased desire to design their characters manually, and the rise of games that don't use dice or generally have far less randomisation than older ones. If he'd asked a decade ago, that's probably the one that would have changed the most. Problem solving and questing are also fairly high on most people's priorities. A few people may be satisfied creating their character, and then hanging around socialising IC, but most want to go places, have goals, face external threats and grow accordingly. Now the question is what will be right at the top and bottom of the league. Still a few more elements to go and people are still submitting. Maybe there'll be a last minute surge.


Dork tower gets some calls from the other kind of roleplayers. You really shouldn't just reject them. New players like that would be good for the hobby's image.


The outgoing goblin's guide to gaming etiquette: Our humour pieces begin with some decidedly mixed advice about how to run a good game. While there is actually a good chunk of decent advice in amongst the jokes, there's also some bits of trolling that you really shouldn't heed if you value the cohesiveness of your group. I'm not entirely certain if this is meant primarily as an entertainment piece, but I'm leaning that way. April fool. The illustrations are rather good, anyway.


Logic missiles: In issue 271, we had a whole bunch of articles on puzzles. At the time, I made the comment that it would be better to concentrate in ones that work off universal principles, than ones dependent on the quirks of the english language, which your characters wouldn't be speaking IC. Well, my desire has been fulfilled, with a nice 8 pager giving lots of example logic puzzles. While there is some humour in the writing, this is largely a serious piece, drawing upon a whole variety of different puzzle types, some with multiple solutions, which is the joy of having more open-ended challenges. So unlike the earlier article, I can see myself drawing upon this for ideas to challenge my players with, although I wouldn't lift them wholesale. A little more logic in a game rarely hurts, unless it slows everything down due to overanalysis.


Bard on the run is back! With filks based upon brand new songs, not stuff decades old even when the magazine was published. Britney Spears and N'Sync were always pretty self-aware about how cheesy and manufactured they were, so you don't have to stretch very far to make them into comedy. Similarly, ZZ Top have long since become parodies of themselves. So easy targets this year, but at least they're more in tune with fashion than they used to be. That's worth a little praise.

 

[jonesy]

Just did a quick google. WOW that is one seriously hideously ugly cover. Holy crap.

http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/37/170371/6148071_1.jpg

Looks like someone's Elfwood picture.

I thought it made it look like an artsy art magazine. One of those that have more advertisements than content.