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- Thread starter (un)reason
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(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 87: July 1984
part 1/3
100 pages. A rather amusing cover this issue. Don't let the cutesy art style fool you about the seriousness of their predicament. Those are some scary plant creatures. Meanwhile, the editor would like to assure you that Dragon itself is in no danger whatsoever from the Tolkien estate. Unfortunately, TSR is now big enough that the left hand doesn't neccecarily know what the right hand is doing. We can't say with certainty what's going to be out when, or why changes have to be made sometimes. Sorry about that. Maybe if we had leaders who weren't bickering over control of the company, y'know. Anyway, enough with the inept rumour-quashing that'll just create more speculation, and on with the show.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: The vice-president of empire games writes a letter direct to Michael Gray, saying that the problems he mentioned in his PbP article have now been fixed. Please don't judge us on what happened in the past. Your money is safe with us.
A letter saying Kim's rulings on healing magic are inaccurate. Kim decides to defer. On consideration, nerfing healing magic's ability to help convalescing characters too much is a bad idea.
A letter praising them for printing dragonquest stuff, and asking for more ASAP. They say they'll do what they can.
Two letters complaining about inconsistencies between the ecology articles and their original monster entries. They reply that it matters not. You can pick and choose the fluff for your monsters, or even throw out the canon one and make your own. Don't sweat about it so much. The canon police aren't going to break down your door for changing things....... yet.
The forum: David W Sisk is still not happy with the way disbelief on illusions works. Other GM's in the area disagree with his rulings. You badly need to spell this out to us better.
Scott D Hoffrage gets a second letter published. In it he introduces us to set theory, the idea of different sizes of infinity, the balance of the universe, and lots of other cool conceptual stuff. You can make the other planes fantasticly alien, yet still functional, by correct application of advanced mathematics and imagination. Sounds to me that you ought to be sending in a proper article on this, instead of just pontificating in the forum.
David F Godwin thinks that given the standard amounts of treasure given in modules and random tables, it is pretty probable that characters will have a selection of items which give them a decent chance of taking down gods by the time they get to their upper teens, even without actively twinking. And they are unlikely to be happy about being forced to retire. The game's breaking at high levels is inherent to the system, not a result of bad players, and they shouldn't get all the flak for it.
Edward R Masters is another returning forumite, and he still thinks the planes don't really make sense as written. How can planets orbit through earth? How do you negate pressure in an infinite solid expanse with a defined down. It's too much hassle to fix, so I'm never going to let my players go there. Dear oh dear. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to side with Scott.
Beyond the dungeon part 1: Katharine Kerr starts really earning her keep around here, with one of those articles that tries to push people out of their comfort zone, and into new vistas. Wilderness adventures may be well established amongst the TSR cognoscenti by now, but there are still substantial holdouts of grognardia that haven't seen the sun in years. Ironic that the dungeon could wind up being considered safer than the wilderness for many people. The basic and expert sets have a lot to answer for.
For a start, moving around on different terrains dramatically impacts your movement rate. This requires an exception based new susbsystem that only works for humanoids! And lots more rules tinkering, all over the shop. While the goal is laudable, and the ideas interesting, the execution of the crunch isn't that well integrated. She's right though that D&D really needs a perception stat rather than having flat chances to surprise that a few class and race abilities modify in arbitrary ways. But then this would involve overhauling the entire system. A good article, that tries hard, but is just lacking that final push to get it into the classic domain, in my opinion. Lets hope part two can pull something really cool out of the hat next month.
part 1/3
100 pages. A rather amusing cover this issue. Don't let the cutesy art style fool you about the seriousness of their predicament. Those are some scary plant creatures. Meanwhile, the editor would like to assure you that Dragon itself is in no danger whatsoever from the Tolkien estate. Unfortunately, TSR is now big enough that the left hand doesn't neccecarily know what the right hand is doing. We can't say with certainty what's going to be out when, or why changes have to be made sometimes. Sorry about that. Maybe if we had leaders who weren't bickering over control of the company, y'know. Anyway, enough with the inept rumour-quashing that'll just create more speculation, and on with the show.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: The vice-president of empire games writes a letter direct to Michael Gray, saying that the problems he mentioned in his PbP article have now been fixed. Please don't judge us on what happened in the past. Your money is safe with us.
A letter saying Kim's rulings on healing magic are inaccurate. Kim decides to defer. On consideration, nerfing healing magic's ability to help convalescing characters too much is a bad idea.
A letter praising them for printing dragonquest stuff, and asking for more ASAP. They say they'll do what they can.
Two letters complaining about inconsistencies between the ecology articles and their original monster entries. They reply that it matters not. You can pick and choose the fluff for your monsters, or even throw out the canon one and make your own. Don't sweat about it so much. The canon police aren't going to break down your door for changing things....... yet.
The forum: David W Sisk is still not happy with the way disbelief on illusions works. Other GM's in the area disagree with his rulings. You badly need to spell this out to us better.
Scott D Hoffrage gets a second letter published. In it he introduces us to set theory, the idea of different sizes of infinity, the balance of the universe, and lots of other cool conceptual stuff. You can make the other planes fantasticly alien, yet still functional, by correct application of advanced mathematics and imagination. Sounds to me that you ought to be sending in a proper article on this, instead of just pontificating in the forum.
David F Godwin thinks that given the standard amounts of treasure given in modules and random tables, it is pretty probable that characters will have a selection of items which give them a decent chance of taking down gods by the time they get to their upper teens, even without actively twinking. And they are unlikely to be happy about being forced to retire. The game's breaking at high levels is inherent to the system, not a result of bad players, and they shouldn't get all the flak for it.
Edward R Masters is another returning forumite, and he still thinks the planes don't really make sense as written. How can planets orbit through earth? How do you negate pressure in an infinite solid expanse with a defined down. It's too much hassle to fix, so I'm never going to let my players go there. Dear oh dear. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to side with Scott.
Beyond the dungeon part 1: Katharine Kerr starts really earning her keep around here, with one of those articles that tries to push people out of their comfort zone, and into new vistas. Wilderness adventures may be well established amongst the TSR cognoscenti by now, but there are still substantial holdouts of grognardia that haven't seen the sun in years. Ironic that the dungeon could wind up being considered safer than the wilderness for many people. The basic and expert sets have a lot to answer for.
For a start, moving around on different terrains dramatically impacts your movement rate. This requires an exception based new susbsystem that only works for humanoids! And lots more rules tinkering, all over the shop. While the goal is laudable, and the ideas interesting, the execution of the crunch isn't that well integrated. She's right though that D&D really needs a perception stat rather than having flat chances to surprise that a few class and race abilities modify in arbitrary ways. But then this would involve overhauling the entire system. A good article, that tries hard, but is just lacking that final push to get it into the classic domain, in my opinion. Lets hope part two can pull something really cool out of the hat next month.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 87: July 1984
part 2/3
The ecology of the dryad: Ahh, another of the popular sylvan creatures. How many people have fantasized about being charmed by one and lured off to be their love slaves for a few years. And how many adventurers have found them an almighty pain in the ass. All we wanted to do was cut down a few trees to make a fire with, and cook the animals we just killed for our dinner. Plenty of detail is gone into on their lifecycle, and a few new words are invented as well. They finally manage to strike a decent balance between fiction and footnotes in this one as well. If they'd included a little more action, rather than the fiction just being a load of sagely pontification, it would have been perfect. There's always some little nitpick, isn't there. Keep trying guys.
Gods of the suel pantheon: Len continues his elaboration on greyhawk gods, with Kord the brawler (now there's a familiar name) and his son Phaulkon, god of the open air. Seems like he's quite the Zeus figure, with tons of kids all over the place, more than a few of which become demigods. Your PC can become one too if they can roll 2 18's for their stats. Shades of Synnibarr here, as they reward arbitrary luck with even greater fortune. Once again a whole page is used up recycling the generic god abilities as well. In short, this is a rather poorly thought out piece, that I would recommend you keep in the Lendore isles where it belongs. There is an excellent reason why this style of game design has been largely abandoned. If you try it, you'll find out why pretty soon, when all the other players start complaining.
The legacy of hortus: A load of botanical fluff about a wizard who transferred his lifeforce into the plants he created. Lots of very very bad pun names are used as the basis for animal/plant hybrids of various kinds. It all gets rather silly. And they don't even make stats for them either. I strongly disapprove. At least when Jim gets silly with his mutants he does so inventively, and with decent crunch. I'm sorry, but dedicating the article to a dead person doesn't get you a pass on quality judgements, and I pronounce this article very much wanting.
Reviews: Stalking the night fantastic combines modern day occult, and the spy genre, like an early X-files. Unfortunately, the cool premise and setting is ruined by seriously clunky, poorly organized and overcomplicated rules. Steal from it and convert to conspiracy X or something.
The forever war (another product they've been advertising in here for a while.) is a wargame loosely based off one of the scenarios in the book. Again, the potential offered by the book is left unfulfilled, with big chunks missing or not very well modeled. While not a terrible game in it's own right, it does seem like rather a waste of a license. The review is notewothy for being the first mention of "beer and pretzels" gaming in the magazine though. Guess I get to pinpoint the popularization of another catchphrase, which pleases me.
Whiteout: A 16 page top secret adventure. Head to the antarctic to figure out what the hell the Children Of Neptune (not literally, we aren't straying into crossover land here.) are up to. The previous adventures that appeared in the magazine were all part of a larger plot by a villainous mastermind! Can you foil their plan? The fate of the world rests in the balance. Looks like an open ended and rather tricky mission designed to be a climactic part of an extended campaign. The PC's have chance to make a real difference in the world with this one. That certainly makes a change from all the completely disconnected D&D modules. (particularly the railroaded metaplot ones where the difference you're gonna make is predetermined, no matter what the players do.) I very much approve, apart from the continued tendency towards silly names. Top secret has definitely come quite a way in the last few years from pseudo dungeon crawls in Sprechenhaltestelle.
Fiction: Simon Sidekick by John E Stith. Sci-fi manages to stray out of the Ares section in this fairly long piece about, oohh, yet another little boy learning how to come of age, and the people and things that help him through the experience. Angst is felt, the plot is nicely telegraphed and twists where it ought to, and the end is bittersweet. No great surprises here. File under solid but unexceptional.
Dragonriders of pern game and calendar available now! Buy it! Hee.
Freeze! Star law!: It's not easy enforcing the law properly out in Star Frontiers land. With such a huge area to cover, and much of the power in the hands of huge corporations who essentially are the government on many planets, a star law ranger's gotta be a pretty badass character, who can track a fugitive down over the light years, and get the job done by underhanded means and compromises if neccecary. Now that's a job custom suited for adventurer types, who even if they claim noble ends, often wind up using the most sociopathic of means to achieve them, and care nothing for collateral damage. You can even have a whole team of PC's working as a posse, and they actively encourage that, as well as drawing fun old west parallels in other ways. This is almost a textbook example of how to open up a new mileu of play and make it seem fun and inviting. (unless you don't like space exploration and cowboys, in which case you are dead to me
) The bureaucratic rules are handled with a light touch, and you have plenty of leeway to be a maverick and push their limits without being kicked out. I love this idea, and would very much like to play something in this style at some point.
part 2/3
The ecology of the dryad: Ahh, another of the popular sylvan creatures. How many people have fantasized about being charmed by one and lured off to be their love slaves for a few years. And how many adventurers have found them an almighty pain in the ass. All we wanted to do was cut down a few trees to make a fire with, and cook the animals we just killed for our dinner. Plenty of detail is gone into on their lifecycle, and a few new words are invented as well. They finally manage to strike a decent balance between fiction and footnotes in this one as well. If they'd included a little more action, rather than the fiction just being a load of sagely pontification, it would have been perfect. There's always some little nitpick, isn't there. Keep trying guys.
Gods of the suel pantheon: Len continues his elaboration on greyhawk gods, with Kord the brawler (now there's a familiar name) and his son Phaulkon, god of the open air. Seems like he's quite the Zeus figure, with tons of kids all over the place, more than a few of which become demigods. Your PC can become one too if they can roll 2 18's for their stats. Shades of Synnibarr here, as they reward arbitrary luck with even greater fortune. Once again a whole page is used up recycling the generic god abilities as well. In short, this is a rather poorly thought out piece, that I would recommend you keep in the Lendore isles where it belongs. There is an excellent reason why this style of game design has been largely abandoned. If you try it, you'll find out why pretty soon, when all the other players start complaining.
The legacy of hortus: A load of botanical fluff about a wizard who transferred his lifeforce into the plants he created. Lots of very very bad pun names are used as the basis for animal/plant hybrids of various kinds. It all gets rather silly. And they don't even make stats for them either. I strongly disapprove. At least when Jim gets silly with his mutants he does so inventively, and with decent crunch. I'm sorry, but dedicating the article to a dead person doesn't get you a pass on quality judgements, and I pronounce this article very much wanting.
Reviews: Stalking the night fantastic combines modern day occult, and the spy genre, like an early X-files. Unfortunately, the cool premise and setting is ruined by seriously clunky, poorly organized and overcomplicated rules. Steal from it and convert to conspiracy X or something.
The forever war (another product they've been advertising in here for a while.) is a wargame loosely based off one of the scenarios in the book. Again, the potential offered by the book is left unfulfilled, with big chunks missing or not very well modeled. While not a terrible game in it's own right, it does seem like rather a waste of a license. The review is notewothy for being the first mention of "beer and pretzels" gaming in the magazine though. Guess I get to pinpoint the popularization of another catchphrase, which pleases me.
Whiteout: A 16 page top secret adventure. Head to the antarctic to figure out what the hell the Children Of Neptune (not literally, we aren't straying into crossover land here.) are up to. The previous adventures that appeared in the magazine were all part of a larger plot by a villainous mastermind! Can you foil their plan? The fate of the world rests in the balance. Looks like an open ended and rather tricky mission designed to be a climactic part of an extended campaign. The PC's have chance to make a real difference in the world with this one. That certainly makes a change from all the completely disconnected D&D modules. (particularly the railroaded metaplot ones where the difference you're gonna make is predetermined, no matter what the players do.) I very much approve, apart from the continued tendency towards silly names. Top secret has definitely come quite a way in the last few years from pseudo dungeon crawls in Sprechenhaltestelle.
Fiction: Simon Sidekick by John E Stith. Sci-fi manages to stray out of the Ares section in this fairly long piece about, oohh, yet another little boy learning how to come of age, and the people and things that help him through the experience. Angst is felt, the plot is nicely telegraphed and twists where it ought to, and the end is bittersweet. No great surprises here. File under solid but unexceptional.
Dragonriders of pern game and calendar available now! Buy it! Hee.
Freeze! Star law!: It's not easy enforcing the law properly out in Star Frontiers land. With such a huge area to cover, and much of the power in the hands of huge corporations who essentially are the government on many planets, a star law ranger's gotta be a pretty badass character, who can track a fugitive down over the light years, and get the job done by underhanded means and compromises if neccecary. Now that's a job custom suited for adventurer types, who even if they claim noble ends, often wind up using the most sociopathic of means to achieve them, and care nothing for collateral damage. You can even have a whole team of PC's working as a posse, and they actively encourage that, as well as drawing fun old west parallels in other ways. This is almost a textbook example of how to open up a new mileu of play and make it seem fun and inviting. (unless you don't like space exploration and cowboys, in which case you are dead to me
) The bureaucratic rules are handled with a light touch, and you have plenty of leeway to be a maverick and push their limits without being kicked out. I love this idea, and would very much like to play something in this style at some point.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 87: July 1984
part 3/3
Luna, a travellers guide: As the pun name suggests, welcome to the moon in the Traveller system. As Traveller is set waaaaaaay in the future, the moon has a history of habitation stretching back thousands of years, and a population of 8 million. It's a fairly decent place to live, but there is a substantial minority of Solomani extremists, and plenty of other things going on to keep it interesting for PC's. Marc Miller personally oversees this, turning in a well integrated and thought out piece that makes it feel like a real place with plenty of built up cultural quirkiness of it's own. Seems like the entries in this series are continuing to improve as they go along, which is definitely promising. If they can keep this going for a year or so, we should get some pretty cool variations by the end of it.
A field guide to lunar mutants: Jim follows up on last month's lunar article, as he promised. We get three examples of each of the two big competing genera, macrobes and plants. That should get your evil imaginations started.
Sword macrobes are giant amoeba with a vibrablade tentacle. Now you can have lightsaber battles with amorphous monsters on the moon. That's a pretty cool image. What more could a cinematic adventurer want.
Ball Macrobes look like a certain brightly coloured kids toy, and throw exploding stink balls at you. Such a humiliating way to go.
Eye Macrobes look like giant disembodied eyes sitting on a wall, duh. They're the brains of the single celled organisms, using their psychic powers to organize and direct all the bacteria in the area. If you spot one, expect trouble to follow soon after. On the plus side, if they're intelligent, you have a shot of negotiating. Hmm. What does a giant psychic eye want?
Coners are mutant pine trees. Not only do they shoot their cones, but they can plug themselves into a socket and use that power as a weapon.
Rosoid are ambulatory roses. Yeah, it's as silly as it sounds, but remember, roses have sharp thorns. And when they're 3 meters tall, you don't laugh at them for being froofy unless you want a fistful of thorns in the face.
Shooters are mutant dandelions that shoot their flowerheads like giant shuriken. Ouch. And if you don't dig them out fast, they'll start to grow a new flower inside your body. The old tricks are the best, eh.
As ever, the gamma world contributions are often rather gonzo and silly. That certainly hasn't changed. In a way, the game is already starting to seem outdated compared to the new more sophisticated settings. Still, it is funny and inventive. And it's certainly not generic in any way, despite allowing a pretty kitchen sink selection of add-ons. Jim really knows how to switch things up, and would probably be great fun as a GM. I'm sure these guys would make for a fascinating game in actual play.
Star questions is headed by Roger Moore this month, and is tackling the Universe game, one of the properties TSR snaffled up when they bought SPI. So while they may not have designed it, anything he says is Official Material now.
What new stuff are you making for the game. (lotsa new articles in various magazines. We shall remain curiously silent about any bigger stuff. )
What unpublished stuff do you have for the games. (lots more articles, some quite big. Write lotsa letters and we'll consider putting them in the magazine. )
What do the interiors of starships look like. (You tell us. We're all agog and fascinated to find out as well.)
I want more info on star systems. (You can get more info on stars in any good astronomy books. Star systems in the game, on the other hand, are all made up, because our telescopes just aren't good enough.)
Why do many stars have such silly names (Because there's a lot of stars, and a lot of bored astronomers trying to name them. Strings of numbers are hard to remember, and they ran out of sensible god names ages ago.)
Hw do you get a meteor storm in outer space. (When a comet falls apart, it can make space hazardous over quite an area. especially when you're traveling through at high speeds. Pinprick punctures are a pain in the ass. )
Wormy is still on a fishing trip. Talanalan gets metagame. Snarfquest is off on another mission.
Apart from the saggy bit in the middle, this has been a pretty impressive issue. The Ares section continues to gather steam, and the forum is finally starting to have recurring writers. We're seeing an interesting mix of new and old style articles, as they might be moving away from the game's roots, but there are still quite a few people writing and playing games like that. Still, as that results in an interesting variety of articles, it keeps things interesting for me. I can definitely see why this can be considered a classic era for the magazine.
part 3/3
Luna, a travellers guide: As the pun name suggests, welcome to the moon in the Traveller system. As Traveller is set waaaaaaay in the future, the moon has a history of habitation stretching back thousands of years, and a population of 8 million. It's a fairly decent place to live, but there is a substantial minority of Solomani extremists, and plenty of other things going on to keep it interesting for PC's. Marc Miller personally oversees this, turning in a well integrated and thought out piece that makes it feel like a real place with plenty of built up cultural quirkiness of it's own. Seems like the entries in this series are continuing to improve as they go along, which is definitely promising. If they can keep this going for a year or so, we should get some pretty cool variations by the end of it.
A field guide to lunar mutants: Jim follows up on last month's lunar article, as he promised. We get three examples of each of the two big competing genera, macrobes and plants. That should get your evil imaginations started.
Sword macrobes are giant amoeba with a vibrablade tentacle. Now you can have lightsaber battles with amorphous monsters on the moon. That's a pretty cool image. What more could a cinematic adventurer want.
Ball Macrobes look like a certain brightly coloured kids toy, and throw exploding stink balls at you. Such a humiliating way to go.
Eye Macrobes look like giant disembodied eyes sitting on a wall, duh. They're the brains of the single celled organisms, using their psychic powers to organize and direct all the bacteria in the area. If you spot one, expect trouble to follow soon after. On the plus side, if they're intelligent, you have a shot of negotiating. Hmm. What does a giant psychic eye want?
Coners are mutant pine trees. Not only do they shoot their cones, but they can plug themselves into a socket and use that power as a weapon.
Rosoid are ambulatory roses. Yeah, it's as silly as it sounds, but remember, roses have sharp thorns. And when they're 3 meters tall, you don't laugh at them for being froofy unless you want a fistful of thorns in the face.
Shooters are mutant dandelions that shoot their flowerheads like giant shuriken. Ouch. And if you don't dig them out fast, they'll start to grow a new flower inside your body. The old tricks are the best, eh.
As ever, the gamma world contributions are often rather gonzo and silly. That certainly hasn't changed. In a way, the game is already starting to seem outdated compared to the new more sophisticated settings. Still, it is funny and inventive. And it's certainly not generic in any way, despite allowing a pretty kitchen sink selection of add-ons. Jim really knows how to switch things up, and would probably be great fun as a GM. I'm sure these guys would make for a fascinating game in actual play.
Star questions is headed by Roger Moore this month, and is tackling the Universe game, one of the properties TSR snaffled up when they bought SPI. So while they may not have designed it, anything he says is Official Material now.
What new stuff are you making for the game. (lotsa new articles in various magazines. We shall remain curiously silent about any bigger stuff. )
What unpublished stuff do you have for the games. (lots more articles, some quite big. Write lotsa letters and we'll consider putting them in the magazine. )
What do the interiors of starships look like. (You tell us. We're all agog and fascinated to find out as well.)
I want more info on star systems. (You can get more info on stars in any good astronomy books. Star systems in the game, on the other hand, are all made up, because our telescopes just aren't good enough.)
Why do many stars have such silly names (Because there's a lot of stars, and a lot of bored astronomers trying to name them. Strings of numbers are hard to remember, and they ran out of sensible god names ages ago.)
Hw do you get a meteor storm in outer space. (When a comet falls apart, it can make space hazardous over quite an area. especially when you're traveling through at high speeds. Pinprick punctures are a pain in the ass. )
Wormy is still on a fishing trip. Talanalan gets metagame. Snarfquest is off on another mission.
Apart from the saggy bit in the middle, this has been a pretty impressive issue. The Ares section continues to gather steam, and the forum is finally starting to have recurring writers. We're seeing an interesting mix of new and old style articles, as they might be moving away from the game's roots, but there are still quite a few people writing and playing games like that. Still, as that results in an interesting variety of articles, it keeps things interesting for me. I can definitely see why this can be considered a classic era for the magazine.
Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
I can say from personal experience that Jim is a *great* GM!
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 88: August 1984
part 1/3
103 pages. Oh man, more litigious crap. This is what happens when companies pick similar names. Avalon Hill has been sued by Monarch Avalon, whoever the hell they were. And the settlement they've come too looks bloody stupid. I do not approve. And to top it off they use this as an excuse to remind us that they'll sue our asses as well if they think we're getting too fresh with their intellectual property. It's a hard life, being a big company. You've got to keep people on your side without them thinking you're a pushover, or they'll just take and take until you've got nothing left. So what are we getting for our money this time?
In this issue:
Out on a limb: A letter asking if the people from TSR would really send an unsigned personal reply on normal paper. Kim replies that the answer to that is hell no, someone's trying to trick you. You were quite right to be suspicious.
Some nitpicks about the unarmed fighting system in issue 83. It's supposed to be a simpler variant. Putting extensive lists in it would spoil that.
A letter complaining about the lack of stats in the legacy of hortus article. I quite understand.
Some more questions, this time on the new magic items from issue 86
A question about dragon deities. Who the hell do neutral dragons worship? Kim encourages you to fill out the dragon pantheon yourself. The AD&D multiverse is a big place, and there's still huge wodges of it that need filling in.
And finally a question on if stuff in the magazine is official. Yes, most of it isn't, but what about all the stuff Gary trumpets as Official AD&D Material. Kim replies that while it may be more official than other stuff in the magazine, even that isn't truly tournament official stuff. You're still restricted to the three corebooks if you go to a convention and play a game there, which keeps everyone on a level playing field, no matter how much they've spent. )
The forum: Sam Chupp doesn't have a problem with high level characters. Once you get to that stage, you have to really start individualizing them, and creating plots and challenges customized to the character, instead of endlessly throwing bigger and badder dungeons at them. It's a big world out there, and you've gotta expand your scope to deal with it.
Kevin Deevey & Richard Emerich have some extensive thoughts on the nature of illusions and how to handle disbelief. This topic isn't going away any time soon, is it.
Adam Zar is entirely in favor of high level adventures where you take on gods and arch demons and things. Saying that you can't kill them because it'll upset the cosmic balance is like saying monsters don't exist to be overcome by the heroes. It's like saying the universe ought to suck, and you shouldn't even try and change that. Which frankly is both pessimistic and unambitious. These things were given stats so they could be beaten. So let's go and do epic heroey things. Hurrah!
Brian M Oglivie explains how the planes can work in simple terms, using some classic books as his sources. Expand your mind and get cosmic, man. Or better still, take it logically, and even the impossible can be rationalized. It's a tremendously useful human ability, (abeit one responsible for lots of stupid religious dogma. ) and so it should be used.
Chris Wayne puts his own spin on the Star law police force for his game. Any setting can be customized, and that does not imply that the canon setting is deficient.
James Brewer is shocked that the RPGA puts so little emphasis on the actual fun had when it comes to scoring tournament play. After all, it it's not fun, why play? It's not as if there are big cash prizes for winning AD&D tournaments.
Kevin Lawless thinks that the idea of dragon clerics, particularly worshipping beings as weedy as Bahamut and Tiamat, is a totally stupid idea. Both the idea of tithing and parishes are grossly inappropriate to their nature, and that's not even getting into the alignment problems with chaotic creatures worshipping lawful gods. Take that, Alan Zumwalt. Now someone hurry up and make a proper dragon pantheon, with gods you can really believe in.
Gods of the suel pantheon gives us Syrul, Fortubo and Wee Jas this month. Two long forgotten, one much less so. Syrul is the hag goddess of deceit, and a thoroughly nasty piece of work in general. She's certainly a good target for high level characters who want to try a little godslaying. Fortubo is essentially the lendore isle's dwarf god, as his portfolio covers mountains and metal. He's a bit dull really, being exactly what you would expect of someone with his portfolio to be. Wee Jas, of course, is another kettle of fish altogether. Somehow she manages to have not just one, but two really powerful portfolios, plus a bunch of minor associations as well. Ruthless, but not outright evil, clever but still beautiful, highly disciplined but with her chaotic bit on the side lover who she'd really rather wasn't mentioned in polite company, and with an interesting special benefit for her clerics, it's easy to see why she became so popular amongst a wide section of the population, both in and out of the game. She's far more three-dimensional than the majority of D&D gods, and in a pleasing way. And so we get to see D&D's implied setting build itself up some more, in it's slow and haphazard way. Take the best, leave the rest behind.
Physics and falling damage: Oh great. Not this annoying issue again. Have we not established that trying to make D&D realistic is like trying to fit an elephant into a mini. Neither side ends up very happy, and even if you do somehow find a way to do it, the thing runs so slowly you might as well not have bothered. Give it up, embrace the gamism. Anyway, we get a detailed analysis of acceleration rates vs air resistance, and the curve that follows to get us to terminal velocity in the real world. And then the author introduces an enormous fudge factor so as not to change the game too much after all that. Which satisfies neither my gamist or my simulationist side. Bored now. Next please.
Kinetic energy is the key: Great. More falling physics pontification. Bzzzt. Epic fail. I said next please.
part 1/3
103 pages. Oh man, more litigious crap. This is what happens when companies pick similar names. Avalon Hill has been sued by Monarch Avalon, whoever the hell they were. And the settlement they've come too looks bloody stupid. I do not approve. And to top it off they use this as an excuse to remind us that they'll sue our asses as well if they think we're getting too fresh with their intellectual property. It's a hard life, being a big company. You've got to keep people on your side without them thinking you're a pushover, or they'll just take and take until you've got nothing left. So what are we getting for our money this time?
In this issue:
Out on a limb: A letter asking if the people from TSR would really send an unsigned personal reply on normal paper. Kim replies that the answer to that is hell no, someone's trying to trick you. You were quite right to be suspicious.
Some nitpicks about the unarmed fighting system in issue 83. It's supposed to be a simpler variant. Putting extensive lists in it would spoil that.
A letter complaining about the lack of stats in the legacy of hortus article. I quite understand.
Some more questions, this time on the new magic items from issue 86
A question about dragon deities. Who the hell do neutral dragons worship? Kim encourages you to fill out the dragon pantheon yourself. The AD&D multiverse is a big place, and there's still huge wodges of it that need filling in.
And finally a question on if stuff in the magazine is official. Yes, most of it isn't, but what about all the stuff Gary trumpets as Official AD&D Material. Kim replies that while it may be more official than other stuff in the magazine, even that isn't truly tournament official stuff. You're still restricted to the three corebooks if you go to a convention and play a game there, which keeps everyone on a level playing field, no matter how much they've spent. )
The forum: Sam Chupp doesn't have a problem with high level characters. Once you get to that stage, you have to really start individualizing them, and creating plots and challenges customized to the character, instead of endlessly throwing bigger and badder dungeons at them. It's a big world out there, and you've gotta expand your scope to deal with it.
Kevin Deevey & Richard Emerich have some extensive thoughts on the nature of illusions and how to handle disbelief. This topic isn't going away any time soon, is it.
Adam Zar is entirely in favor of high level adventures where you take on gods and arch demons and things. Saying that you can't kill them because it'll upset the cosmic balance is like saying monsters don't exist to be overcome by the heroes. It's like saying the universe ought to suck, and you shouldn't even try and change that. Which frankly is both pessimistic and unambitious. These things were given stats so they could be beaten. So let's go and do epic heroey things. Hurrah!
Brian M Oglivie explains how the planes can work in simple terms, using some classic books as his sources. Expand your mind and get cosmic, man. Or better still, take it logically, and even the impossible can be rationalized. It's a tremendously useful human ability, (abeit one responsible for lots of stupid religious dogma. ) and so it should be used.
Chris Wayne puts his own spin on the Star law police force for his game. Any setting can be customized, and that does not imply that the canon setting is deficient.
James Brewer is shocked that the RPGA puts so little emphasis on the actual fun had when it comes to scoring tournament play. After all, it it's not fun, why play? It's not as if there are big cash prizes for winning AD&D tournaments.
Kevin Lawless thinks that the idea of dragon clerics, particularly worshipping beings as weedy as Bahamut and Tiamat, is a totally stupid idea. Both the idea of tithing and parishes are grossly inappropriate to their nature, and that's not even getting into the alignment problems with chaotic creatures worshipping lawful gods. Take that, Alan Zumwalt. Now someone hurry up and make a proper dragon pantheon, with gods you can really believe in.
Gods of the suel pantheon gives us Syrul, Fortubo and Wee Jas this month. Two long forgotten, one much less so. Syrul is the hag goddess of deceit, and a thoroughly nasty piece of work in general. She's certainly a good target for high level characters who want to try a little godslaying. Fortubo is essentially the lendore isle's dwarf god, as his portfolio covers mountains and metal. He's a bit dull really, being exactly what you would expect of someone with his portfolio to be. Wee Jas, of course, is another kettle of fish altogether. Somehow she manages to have not just one, but two really powerful portfolios, plus a bunch of minor associations as well. Ruthless, but not outright evil, clever but still beautiful, highly disciplined but with her chaotic bit on the side lover who she'd really rather wasn't mentioned in polite company, and with an interesting special benefit for her clerics, it's easy to see why she became so popular amongst a wide section of the population, both in and out of the game. She's far more three-dimensional than the majority of D&D gods, and in a pleasing way. And so we get to see D&D's implied setting build itself up some more, in it's slow and haphazard way. Take the best, leave the rest behind.
Physics and falling damage: Oh great. Not this annoying issue again. Have we not established that trying to make D&D realistic is like trying to fit an elephant into a mini. Neither side ends up very happy, and even if you do somehow find a way to do it, the thing runs so slowly you might as well not have bothered. Give it up, embrace the gamism. Anyway, we get a detailed analysis of acceleration rates vs air resistance, and the curve that follows to get us to terminal velocity in the real world. And then the author introduces an enormous fudge factor so as not to change the game too much after all that. Which satisfies neither my gamist or my simulationist side. Bored now. Next please.
Kinetic energy is the key: Great. More falling physics pontification. Bzzzt. Epic fail. I said next please.
amysrevenge
First Post
Is this the first mention of the RPGA in Dragon? I don't remember seeing mention of it in your articles to date.
I just came across the castle and am considering making it. However, I don't think it will happen soon. I also cam across a boat they included later, taht one I might be building.
Great read. I have most of the content of my old mags in three ring binders (ripped out of the mags and sorted by topic) and the good art in a box (I always mean to use it in game, and never do). I also have the CD, a great item to have.
Great read. I have most of the content of my old mags in three ring binders (ripped out of the mags and sorted by topic) and the good art in a box (I always mean to use it in game, and never do). I also have the CD, a great item to have.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 88: August 1984
part 2/3
The ecology of the rust monster: Ahh, this is more like it. Now if ever a monster deserved an entry in this series, it's this one. The rust monster has been a D&D staple almost from the very beginning, and remains one of it's most iconic monsters. In fact, specifically because of it's exclusion from 4e, it's become the symbol for a certain kind of playstyle that the current designers no longer support, but many people still hanker for. Ed proves once again that he really likes his footnotes, providing us with a bunch of optional rules that clarify lots of points and make the creature even more scary in some ways. Crucially, it answers the questions, can you train them, and can you extract their rust inflicting power to use for your own ends. (yes, but not easily for both.) That'll make a lot of adventurers happy. Now they can put the screwage boot on the other foot. I certainly intend to make use of this article at some point, be it as player or GM. Like antipaladins, there was probably substantial prior demand for this article, and I hope you found it satisfying. I certainly have.
Off the shelf: The chaos weapon by Colin Kapp is a very epic bit of science fantasy, with disgustingly powerful heroes facing off against even more disgustingly powerful villains. It may not be that deep, but it's a fun story.
The paradoxicon by Nicholas Falletta is an examination of paradoxes in all their forms. How they work, why they are so annoyingly intractable, and the people who have struggled with them throughout history. It should give you plenty of inspiration on how to puzzle and frustrate your players.
The sword and the chain by Joel Rosenberg is the second book in the guardians of the flame series. Since it looks like they're stuck in a fantasy universe for the long haul, (or at least a trilogy) it's time for them to really find out what makes their characters work, and set goals for themselves. The meta conceits do not detract from the drama of the story.
Across the sea of suns by Gregory Benford gets a fairly negative review, as the primary narrative device of delayed lightspeed communications results in a confusing plot that gets bogged down by symbolism.
Salvage and destroy by Edward Llewellyn, on the other hand gets a very positive review. While there is a certain amount of the usual examination of humanities stupidity there is far more celebration of our positive aspects, and our ability to survive in the face of great odds. The aliens get a pretty cool treatment as well.
Neuromancer by William Gibson is of course the classic that was a huge inspiration on the cyberpunk genre. What seems like a techno-thriller at first turns into an almighty head with a downer ending. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Beyond the dungeon part two: So, how do you make an exciting wilderness adventure, Mrs Kerr? It's not as if the great outdoors is short on features that are a real challenge to get through. You've just got to figure out how to fit it into the framework of the game. Once again, the need for a proper skill system becomes apparent, as stuff has to be handled with a combination of attribute checks and ad hoc bonuses based on what skills they ought to have. Which means difficulties will vary wildly from group to group, and the skill of the DM becomes paramount in judging how to run a situation. Game design has a long way to go in these respects.
Of course it's not all wilderness out there. Towns, fortresses and ruins also receive the attention of her expert eye. Once you get out of the dungeon, you have to pay more attention to how your locations are structured, and the relationships of the people and creatures living there. Once again, this advice may be familiar now, but it's never been covered in this much detail around here before. If it seems unimpressive at times in retrospect, it's simply because the lessons here have been taken on board and developed upon so much since then. That's the thing about progress. It makes things look dated. We'd really miss this stuff if it wasn't there.
Games workshop gives us a big full colour ad for warhammer minis. It looks pretty good.
The indiana jones RPG. Another big licence to coincide with the new movie. I wonder how this one'll be handled in the magazine, as it's another TSR game. We shall see.
Limited edition 10th anniversary D&D collectors set. Pop it while its hot, pop it while it's hot. Get it while it's cheap, cos it'll be worth more later.
Elefant hunt: Another Tom Wham game. My, they are adding up over the years. How does he keep his imagination fresh? Well, in this case by stealing a real life situation wholesale and putting his own spin on it. Like the name says, you hunt elefants and other afercan game. If you're lucky you'll find their graveyard and can loot tons of ivory. A game that is fairly high on randomness, but still has more than enough tactical choices for you to consider, you're unlikely to see a consistent winner on this one. Still, it looks a good deal of fun, and by changing the score needed to win you can easily make this a long or short game, as you choose. It may not be very politically correct, but hey, this is a magazine where killing things and taking their stuff comes as standard. There's nothing wrong with enjoying imagining doing things you'd never consider doing in real life, right?
Jorune! Another familiar name gets it's first advert here. We are getting some interesting adverts this month.
Fiction: Key to Ramali by Ardath Mayhar. What, after your last three novels got viciously slated here, you send in some fiction to Dragon? Now that's gotta take some balls. I have to applaud that. Now I can see if your writing's really as bad as Chris Henderson says without having to spend any money.
And the answer is ......... meh. I've seen much worse. She does have a tendency towards florid prose and silliness. But it's certainly not as bad as, say, the Gord stuff. I can live with this.
part 2/3
The ecology of the rust monster: Ahh, this is more like it. Now if ever a monster deserved an entry in this series, it's this one. The rust monster has been a D&D staple almost from the very beginning, and remains one of it's most iconic monsters. In fact, specifically because of it's exclusion from 4e, it's become the symbol for a certain kind of playstyle that the current designers no longer support, but many people still hanker for. Ed proves once again that he really likes his footnotes, providing us with a bunch of optional rules that clarify lots of points and make the creature even more scary in some ways. Crucially, it answers the questions, can you train them, and can you extract their rust inflicting power to use for your own ends. (yes, but not easily for both.) That'll make a lot of adventurers happy. Now they can put the screwage boot on the other foot. I certainly intend to make use of this article at some point, be it as player or GM. Like antipaladins, there was probably substantial prior demand for this article, and I hope you found it satisfying. I certainly have.
Off the shelf: The chaos weapon by Colin Kapp is a very epic bit of science fantasy, with disgustingly powerful heroes facing off against even more disgustingly powerful villains. It may not be that deep, but it's a fun story.
The paradoxicon by Nicholas Falletta is an examination of paradoxes in all their forms. How they work, why they are so annoyingly intractable, and the people who have struggled with them throughout history. It should give you plenty of inspiration on how to puzzle and frustrate your players.
The sword and the chain by Joel Rosenberg is the second book in the guardians of the flame series. Since it looks like they're stuck in a fantasy universe for the long haul, (or at least a trilogy) it's time for them to really find out what makes their characters work, and set goals for themselves. The meta conceits do not detract from the drama of the story.
Across the sea of suns by Gregory Benford gets a fairly negative review, as the primary narrative device of delayed lightspeed communications results in a confusing plot that gets bogged down by symbolism.
Salvage and destroy by Edward Llewellyn, on the other hand gets a very positive review. While there is a certain amount of the usual examination of humanities stupidity there is far more celebration of our positive aspects, and our ability to survive in the face of great odds. The aliens get a pretty cool treatment as well.
Neuromancer by William Gibson is of course the classic that was a huge inspiration on the cyberpunk genre. What seems like a techno-thriller at first turns into an almighty head
with a downer ending. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Beyond the dungeon part two: So, how do you make an exciting wilderness adventure, Mrs Kerr? It's not as if the great outdoors is short on features that are a real challenge to get through. You've just got to figure out how to fit it into the framework of the game. Once again, the need for a proper skill system becomes apparent, as stuff has to be handled with a combination of attribute checks and ad hoc bonuses based on what skills they ought to have. Which means difficulties will vary wildly from group to group, and the skill of the DM becomes paramount in judging how to run a situation. Game design has a long way to go in these respects.
Of course it's not all wilderness out there. Towns, fortresses and ruins also receive the attention of her expert eye. Once you get out of the dungeon, you have to pay more attention to how your locations are structured, and the relationships of the people and creatures living there. Once again, this advice may be familiar now, but it's never been covered in this much detail around here before. If it seems unimpressive at times in retrospect, it's simply because the lessons here have been taken on board and developed upon so much since then. That's the thing about progress. It makes things look dated. We'd really miss this stuff if it wasn't there.
Games workshop gives us a big full colour ad for warhammer minis. It looks pretty good.
The indiana jones RPG. Another big licence to coincide with the new movie. I wonder how this one'll be handled in the magazine, as it's another TSR game. We shall see.
Limited edition 10th anniversary D&D collectors set. Pop it while its hot, pop it while it's hot. Get it while it's cheap, cos it'll be worth more later.
Elefant hunt: Another Tom Wham game. My, they are adding up over the years. How does he keep his imagination fresh? Well, in this case by stealing a real life situation wholesale and putting his own spin on it. Like the name says, you hunt elefants and other afercan game. If you're lucky you'll find their graveyard and can loot tons of ivory. A game that is fairly high on randomness, but still has more than enough tactical choices for you to consider, you're unlikely to see a consistent winner on this one. Still, it looks a good deal of fun, and by changing the score needed to win you can easily make this a long or short game, as you choose. It may not be very politically correct, but hey, this is a magazine where killing things and taking their stuff comes as standard. There's nothing wrong with enjoying imagining doing things you'd never consider doing in real life, right?
Jorune! Another familiar name gets it's first advert here. We are getting some interesting adverts this month.
Fiction: Key to Ramali by Ardath Mayhar. What, after your last three novels got viciously slated here, you send in some fiction to Dragon? Now that's gotta take some balls. I have to applaud that. Now I can see if your writing's really as bad as Chris Henderson says without having to spend any money.
And the answer is ......... meh. I've seen much worse. She does have a tendency towards florid prose and silliness. But it's certainly not as bad as, say, the Gord stuff. I can live with this.
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