Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 123: July 1987

part 1/5

108 pages. Ooh, shirtlessness. A little cheesecake for our female readers this time round. See what you get if you turn the flames up a bit. They also continue their drive to have more themed issues, with wizards getting another bite at the apple. Will this give us a nice selection of roleplaying advice and spells? Or does forbidden knowledge lurk within these eldrich pages, waiting to destroy your gameworld with it's twinkedness? Guess you'll just have to watch me, as I turn the pages and read the contents, see if this degenerates into the incoherent scrawls of a madman.

In this issue:

Letters: Another request for big prints of the magazine's covers. It's all up to the individual artists, really. But they are happy to facilitate this process.
A letter complaining that nearly all the articles in the magazine are for AD&D rather than regular D&D. This sucks. Roger quite agrees. Send them in! Not that it matters much, given how cross-compatible the games are.
A letter from someone afraid that the start of the forgotten realms means oerth and krynn won't get any more stuff. Roger assures them that that is not the case. And even if it was, you don't have to play nothing but modules. Surely the worlds are now fleshed out enough for you to build your own adventures in them?

Forum is rather large again this month. The flames about sexism and oriental stuff rage intensely, often combined. Double the nerdrage, double the fun!

Nathan Perkins points out that everyone taking the min-max choices results in parties with exploitable weaknesses. And even with double specialization, fighters still aren't really balanced with wizards. So if your players are munchkins, don't be afraid to play rough in response.

Eric Krein does some analysis of wizard's spellbooks, in a piece that's almost big enough to be turned into an actual article. Cost, capacity, size and durability, they ought to be awkward choices, not no-brainers. This needs some fixing.

Alan Ristow tells us that Banded mail is not a real type of armour. It never existed! Banish it from your games! Ahh, the joys of the Historical Accuracy crew. Really, it's no great loss, is it?

Steven Van Veen is entirely in favour of people videoing their games, and has some sadistic ideas for dealing with people who keep messing around during the game, slowing everyone else up. I like the cut of your jib.

Tommy Sronce points out that D&D is intentionally unrealistic in many ways. By trying to make it more so, you make it less fun. Go play runequest or something if you want characters who develop in a realistic fashion.

Leung Chi Kong thinks that ships in the D&D world would evolve quite differently, with spells and no gunpowder altering the tactical considerations considerably. Modern ship designs would not make a good example. Yet another case where we really need a full article to help fit things to the physics of the game universe.

Uriah Blatherwick is not happy with the onslaught of new rules in recent books and articles. The writers ought to do more optional stuff, rather than forcing us to change our game. Or at least make it more clear that the new rules are optional. Another case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Adam Dray reminds us that a good person is hardly good if they take the selfish path and sell out their friends whenever the going gets tough. If they do, then they're just a neutral person who likes to think of themselves as good, not the real deal, and shouldn't keep their special powers if they're a paladin or ranger.

T Fujiwara viciously attacks Jeff Klein's statement that women warriors have no place in an oriental campaign, with extensive mythological and historical citations. And even if that were not the case, D&D is supposed to be about exceptional heroes. If you can't do a little bucking of societies expectations, you're hardly a hero, are you?

Derek Ho also disagrees about the female samurai thing, pointing out the story of Fa Mook Lan (aka Mulan. Ahh, disney disney disney. Completely mutilating classic tales since 1932) Genderbending is another perfectly valid way of becoming a hero.

Pat Pitcavage is also against sexism. Use your imagination, people. Is it really that hard to come up with good reasons why there would be female warriors in a fantasy game?

Richard Silva returns to the forum, also presenting examples of famous female martial artists and their exploits. If anything, oriental cultures were less sexist in medieval periods than western ones. How will Jeff come back from this roasting?

Jeremy Sacco rails against the stereotyping of 14 year old boys as crude, sex-obsessed hack and slashers. You protest against discrimination against women by stereotyping and putting down another group. Charming. I find this very amusing indeed.

D Laslie Millitello is amazed such a big deal is made about people's gender, both in and out of the game. She's always been playing in a pretty mixed group, and the gender stereotypes definitely do not apply to them. Some people have all the luck.

Michael Estus is annoyed that no-one ever discusses Top Secret in the forum. Ok then. Perfectly reasonable. What would you like us to say about it?

 

[(un)reason]

Actually, you write pretty good American, with just the right amount of British spice.

This is probably another case where regular reading of books and other media products from america has homogenised things over recent decades anyway. Apart from a few superflous u's in certain words, and the odd UK specific reference to TV shows and adverts, I can't think of much that would really distinguish one from the other these days.

I own Heroes for Wargames. It's been years since I opened it, but I don't recall it being that problematic. It's full of pretty pictures, and IIRC contains a fairly standard tutorial for miniatures painting. I really enjoyed reading it these many years ago.

I have Heroes for Wargames; it does have something of a problem with being neither fish nor fowl. It's about half advertisement for GW and about half miniatures-painting tutorial. The former is a bit tedious and the latter is a bit dated now. (At the time, it wasn't a bad tutorial.)

Interesting. As usual, goes to show just how different opinions can be, and what some people find a problem, others don't even notice, so it isn't an issue.

 

[Doug Sundseth]

This is probably another case where regular reading of books and other media products from america has homogenised things over recent decades anyway. Apart from a few superflous u's in certain words, and the odd UK specific reference to TV shows and adverts, I can't think of much that would really distinguish one from the other these days.

While the dialects might be a bit more homogeni(z/s)ed these days, there are quite a few more than just those differences. If you're actually interested in the issue, you might want to take a look at separated by a common language. (I find the linguistics pretty interesting, myself.)

 

[amysrevenge]

Apart from a few superflous u's in certain words, and the odd UK specific reference to TV shows and adverts, I can't think of much that would really distinguish one from the other these days.

Well, for one thing, the word "advert" would give it away to me.

And you people aren't the only ones to stick in the odd 'u' here and there. We spell colour etc. the correct way in Canada too. My spell checker has a fit when I write RPGA modules, as "armour"/"armor" comes up pretty often and I have to write for American english.

 

[Richards]

I had the exact opposite problem when writing for Mongoose Publishing. I eventually learned to "spell British" without having to think about it too much, but it always looked odd to me; "armour" and "colour" I could easily learn to accept, but "maneouvre" -- man, that's just all kinds of wrong to my American eyes!

Johnathan

 

[Orius]

Jeremy Sacco rails against the stereotyping of 14 year old boys as crude, sex-obsessed hack and slashers. You protest against discrimination against women by stereotyping and putting down another group. Charming. I find this very amusing indeed.

How is portraying teenage boys as crude and sex-obsessed a bad stereotype? They're ALL like that. And I speak from first-hand experience.

This is probably another case where regular reading of books and other media products from america has homogenised things over recent decades anyway. Apart from a few superflous u's in certain words, and the odd UK specific reference to TV shows and adverts, I can't think of much that would really distinguish one from the other these days.

Yeah, I think film, TV and now the net has gone a long way to homogenizing the American and British dialects, though to be honest, there wasn't a great deal of difference to begin with. Most of the biggest differences are with slang terms anyway, and sometimes I don't mind borrowing British slang is I think the word sounds good.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 123: July 1987

part 2/5

Call of cthulhu advertises the miskatonic university graduation kit, arkham horror, Cthulhu by gaslight, and lots of other classic products. This is amusing.

Music of the forgotten realms: Oh great. Music and poetry from fantasy worlds. Now there's a topic that ha produced quite a few abominations against taste and sanity over the years. Remember folks, just because you can make it rhyme, that does not make it good. Thankfully, Ed doesn't show us his poetry, (Put it away. No-one wants to see it.) and instead talks about the actual instruments used in the Realms to create their music. Which is actually a pretty interesting topic, informing us indirectly about cultures and technology in the realms. After all, music is heavily shaped by the materials and equipment you have to make it with. From signaling gongs to primitive organs, they have distinctive variants on earthly instruments that he obviously put quite a bit of effort into developing. Once again, he's tackled a challenging subject and come up smelling of roses, having put the research in and then thought about how his world's countries would handle these things. I very strongly approve. It's a bit odd to have an unconnected article before the themed stuff, but I can see why they gave this one pole position.

The mystic College: So your wizard has reached name level. Quite an achievement, since they have the highest XP costs and are weak at lower ones. Wouldn't it be nice to give back to the community, start a school for aspiring young wizards, so they don't have to go through the same degree of crap you did. Much nicer than building a tower, and then filling the area beneath it with monsters that you rule over and experiment on like a cruel and whimsical god, striking dread into the hearts of peasant communities for miles around. May be we can actually advance the culture a bit this way, make the average peasant a little less superstitious and hidebound by ensuring at least a few of their kids get a proper education. So yeah, lotsa advice on taking this route, how much it costs, and the benefits you can get from doing so. Political, financial, and personal, they can be quite substantial if you are willing to put the effort in. We get another system for advancing 0 level characters to 1st level spellcasters, which eats up substantial time and xp in typical fashion. (Far quicker to go adventuring, make it up that way.) Still, at least it's now an option in a non fiaty way, which is better than before. While not fully integrated with the existing game management systems, this is full of solid mechanical and roleplaying advice for players who want to take a few years out from active adventuring, and try their hand at a little sim game, see how they do. It may never be useful to your group, but it's nice to know it's there. Pretty cool special feature, overall.

No guts, No Galaxy! Renegade legion. Now that's an eye catching advert, that makes it pretty clear what the game is about, even though I've never heard of it before. Nice.

Fire for effect: Ha. It's a realism in D&D article. You ought to consider the consequences using area of effect blasty spells on the surroundings. We've had this one before, but not in as much scientific detail, as Richard W Emerich, one of our more frequent forumites, graduates to doing a full article. So here's lots of pontification about the effect of heat, cold, electricity on various items, and just how much they'll really ruin your day if you get caught in them. Not too long, but with lots of footnotes and a good bibliography, this certainly looks pretty well researched. As they've managed to surpass previous attempts, I'm not too bothered about the rehash. Lets hope it doesn't wind up spawning a load of forum flamewars from other realism pedants in turn.

Arcane lore: Hmm. Looks like they've finally realized what a rich ground for freelance expansions new spells are, and have decided to actively solicit for them. That's nice. Hopefully we'll be seeing this column regularly in later issues. Interestingly, this is not only in theme with the general issues topic, but also the previous article's, as we get a whole load of fire themed spells. Elementalists are always popular, so that's a solid, if not particularly inspired way to kick things off. Flare is yer basic real world tech analogue. Smokescreen is one of the less popular transformers. Enchanted torch is a higher level than continual light, but less useful in most instances, which is a bit crap. Mellix's fire mouth is a variant on magic mouth that proves words may never hurt you, but breath can. Fallion's Fabulous fireball removes most of the tactical disadvantages of regular fireballs. Just the thing for the discerning mage with companions who still haven't mastered basic tactics 4 levels later, the twonks. Fire Phantoms takes the opposite tack, providing weedy elementals for those who don't yet have the skill for the real thing. Avissar's flaming weapon makes a weapon into a flame tongue, and I'm not sure if it's good or rubbish because the duration is left out. At that level you can make permanent magic items easily enough anyway, so it'd better be pretty long. Hellfire makes your life an endless burning torment until you die. Charming. We also get some fluff tying them all together, and a new artifact as well. This definitely shows the influence of Ed Greenwood's writings on magical books, which is not a bad thing. Lets hope it doesn't descend into formulaic variations on the same old themes too much over it's run.

 

[(un)reason]

While the dialects might be a bit more homogeni(z/s)ed these days, there are quite a few more than just those differences. If you're actually interested in the issue, you might want to take a look at separated by a common language. (I find the linguistics pretty interesting, myself.)

Ahh, the joys of reading the works of someone else examining in ridicuously close detail something 99% of the population have no interest at all. That was a pleasant diversion.

How is portraying teenage boys as crude and sex-obsessed a bad stereotype? They're ALL like that. And I speak from first-hand experience.

That is precisely why it's so funny.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 123: July 1987

part 3/5

Lords & Legends: Ur characters, we are wanting them. As was suggested a few months ago in a letter, sample characters are another rich ground for freelance submissions. So send them in! We can't do this without you! Interesting development. Will they be as horrendously twinked as the stuff from Giants in the earth? Signs so far do not look promising, with not a single below average stat between them. Yoshitsune, Benkei, Hsu Hsun, Myamoto Musashi, the current upsurge in oriental material continues, and most of them have some special ability that ordinary PC's can't get. This annoyed me first time round, and it looks like it's going to be bugging me again. Le sigh. Not a pleasing development.

Gamers around the world: Ooh. We finally have an article that isn't remotely rehashed. A guide on how to write letters when trying to contact people through the world gamers guide. After all, making first contacts with strangers is one of the most nerve wracking things to do for a huge number of people. Making a of yourself, or the fear of doing so, can be huge problems, because if you get off on the wrong foot a potential relationship is ruined before it even gets a chance. So we have a whole bunch of advice on proper letter writing procedure. What to put in, what to leave out, and roughly what order to do it in. Formal letter writing was already an art in decline in those days, and of course, the internet has hastened that process, so this does feel a little anachronistic. But the basic principles are still sound, and well worth reiterating. Whether you're looking for a new group to join nearby, trying to set up a play-by-mail game, or simply exchanging correspondence with someone who interested you, this is some valuable advice that will hopefully encourage quite a few people to make that scary first step into communicating with people across the world. Memorable and very much appreciated.

The ecology of the giant leech: What is this, gross-out season? Okay, leeches aren't as icky as rot grubs, but they still have quite a substantial squick factor. Another amusing tale, as an orc and a half-orc plot against one-another in the swamps. Who will wind up becoming dinner? Brains will win over brawn in a situation like this. Plenty of tricks nicked from real world biology in what is pretty good as a bit of fiction, but not hugely imaginative in making the conversion from little real world creature to giant fantasy creature. So overall, a fairly average entry. Moral lesson, a little real world biology info, a little encounter advice, all wrapped up in time for tea, another perfectly serviceable way to fill a couple of pages.

Time flies: You can NOT have a proper campaign unless strict timekeeping records are taken! So said Gary! Yeah. timekeeping can be a tricky business. So here's 5 pages of tables that you can photocopy, and use to help you with this. Going all the way from turns to years, you can tick off time as it passes, and make little notes as to what happened in each interval. While it may need to be adapted to your own campaign, as it chooses symmetry over realism, this is another invaluable bit of advice that they haven't given us before, and is pretty much unconnected to specific systems. Like the writing in advice, this is also applicable to subjects far beyond roleplaying, and a refreshing change from their usual fare. This is a direction I could definitely appreciate for a while, as it gives me plenty of stuff to steal for other games.

Just making time: We continue on from the last article, as is often their way. Now this is also very useful. Roger talks about making a calendar and astrological setup for your own world, and reveals that of the various D&D worlds. Toril and Krynn match earth's precisely, at 365.25 days a year. Oerth has a rather neater calendar of of 364, while Mystara is a fast one, with years only 336 days long. All except krynn have satellites fairly similar to earth's moon. Another slightly depressing reminder of how much more adventurous they could have been with the cosmologies and layouts of their worlds, but still interesting reading. Remember folks, you can do much better than this, because you don't have to worry about homogenising things for a large audience who may not be paying attention. Don't be afraid to experiment with your world design, and make things non symmetrical. It'll spice things up quite considerably. Colours, shapes, orbital periods, rotation times, cosmological influence. I look forward to making you lose track of them and have to look it up.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 123: July 1987

part 4/5

Sage advice: What's the point of leather barding if horses have a natural AC of 7 (Good point. Methinks a little revised table is in order. Now everything's shiny again.)
How much damage does a catapult do (See the master set. Skip don't put out unless you pay, babe. I don't care if you got the chance to use them way before 26th level.)
What's the difference between light and heavy crossbows. (range, rate of fire, cost, weight. What isn't different.)
Do you lose initiative when using a bastard sword one handed (not unless you spend several minutes flipping through the rulebook to check this.)
What is a war hammer, +3 Boomerang (I think this is another case of well duh. It's +3 to hit and damage, and if you throw it, it automatically comes back. Gives your dwarven fighter a whole new set of cool descriptions to their moves. )
How much damage does a lance do (1d10, but only on horseback. They're big awkward things. There is such a thing as being impractically well hung.)
What's a javelin (like a spear, but with a longer throwing range. Thin pointy things come in many shapes and sizes. I could make another peenar joke but I won't)
The Combat charts contradict the separate listings (oops, our bad again)
What are the split numbers on the water movement charts ( for boats that have both oars and sails)
How much food do you find when foraging. (an abstract number measured in meals per day. We can not be bothered to deal with the vagaries in human taste and appetite. )
What is storm giant's special damage (calling lightning. You've been reading wormy, haven't you? Yeah, it's like that. )
How does a roc save (at Beaklays bank. )
What happens if a lightning bolt hits a solid object ( The DM can choose if it bounces straight back, or billiard style. Either way, hilarity may ensue, and other members of your party be hurt.
Isn't invisible stalker overpowered (Oh no. It is emminently subvertable. Summoned creatures are pains in the ass to keep under control. )

Fiction: Palimpsest by Tais Teng. Hmm. Another twist on a few familiar topics in this month's fiction. Seemingly incomprehensible fae, 4th wall breaking stories, post apocalypse, and philosophical musing on the foolishness of humanity, willing to cut off their own hand just to spite their arm. Put together in such a way that you expect it to take one plot twist, and then it does a different one at the end, yet if you go back and reread, it all makes sense in light of that revelation, this is another pretty interesting piece that'll hopefully get your mind working to create similar twists in your own games. They are pulling a lot of surprises out of their hat this issue. Just when you think it's going to be predictable and formulaic, they throw you a curveball. Whee!

The whole-earth Ecology: The Star frontiers article this month is another one on building realistic creatures. Why are they the way they are? How common are they? What do they eat. How do they survive. What is their relationship with other creatures in the same region. Are they physically plausible. This last one is much more important in sci-fi than fantasy, for the degree of pure handwavium that the genre can tolerate is not as great. Not nearly as big or imaginative as Lew Pulspher's article on the same subject back in issue 59, this is a return to the same old rehash, slightly reflavoured for a different game. Another one that would be perfectly reasonable for a more recent reader, but doesn't really throw any new ideas or tricks into the mix for me to use. Like many a critic, novelty seems to becoming increasingly paramount in my equations of if I enjoy an article. After all, anyone can practice doing the same thing over and over again, and get better at it, but no matter how many new ideas you come up with, it never ceases being really hard coming up with more.

The marvel-phile: Jeff gets back to some long unfinished business, with three more of the heralds of galactus. (see issue 92 for the first three) Air-walker, Firelord, and Destroyer. (but not Aunt May ) More cosmic level characters who had decidedly short tenures before being destroyed or retiring. A planet eating force of nature just can't keep good help these days. Who will he try and recruit next, what amusing themes will their powers have, and how will they cope with their heavy burden? Another bit of contractual obligation filler before he carries out his next diabolical plan, a list of the people killed off by Scourge. I look forward to it.