Let's read the entire run

[Orius]

Ethics go out the window, as they encourage you to charm all your companions just in case to ensure their loyalty, polymorph things liberally and exploit the hell out of this, and raise the corpses of your fallen foes to use against the next bunch of opposition. This is how you make people really dread your spellcaster. Just be grateful that personal buff spells aren't too common yet. Apart from stoneskin and contingency, you don't have to worry too much about tracking endlessly overlapping, long lasting stacking buffs, even if you wanted too. This is definitely one for players who play to win, and have to deal with GM's that are similarly ruthless, but have no objection to their players exploiting every little rules quirk for maximum personal advantage. Or to be less diplomatic, this is total twink fodder, likely to polarize the readerbase.

Well it IS 1e, so there was a lot of strong competitive elements still underlying the game. You know DM vs. players and players vs. each other. See also Knights of the Dinner Table. But if you are in that kind of game, play the wizard ruthless, since you'll need to survive, and being nice just doesn't cut it when you have d4 HD.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 130: February 1988

part 2/5

Arcane Lore: Len Carpenter takes the reins of this column for the second time in a row. And once again, they are ensuring that it's not just wizards that get the cool toys. This one is all about figuring out which of the new spells detailed in Oriental Adventures are suitable for converting back into standard cleric and wizard ones. Some of them are culturally inappropriate, and should be left out or modified to reflect those differences, while others are less thematicly appropriate, and should be left out or increased in level to ensure that the oriental classes have their own niche and special strengths. So here's several pages of lists, which do exactly that. Seems a reasonable enough premise, and if my characters head east and want to learn the cool new spells from the natives, this seems like a good set of guidelines, so I don't have to make up my own. Perfectly decent, but not hugely interesting.

From the creators of Dragonlance comes the Darksword trilogy! Honestly, can't you tell a story in less than three books? It's just a marketing strategy anyway. I'll bet that in terms of total length they come to considerably less than War and Peace. Tolkien's original publishers have a lot to answer for.

Hold onto your illusions!: Illusion adjudication. One of the forum's biggest topics of late. Looks like we have a second article springing from that little controversy in quick succession. Thankfully it takes a completely different tack than the one in issue 128. Where that was all about chances of resisting, this is more about just what images illusions can produce, how they do it, and your chances of spotting an error which would lead you to try and save. The further you try to create things that have multiple complicated moving parts, skills you don't know, or of things you haven't seen, the more likely there are to be obvious errors, and the bigger the bonuses they get to save. Seems fairly logical, but like the previous one, also pretty dull, particularly where it gets statistical. Let's hope there's at least one more interesting article in this themed section. What there isn't is the article referred too at the end of this article. (checking ahead, it appears in the next issue) Sloppy editing there Roger.

The faces of magic: This is more like it. A cool bit of fiction, and a guide to mimicking the identities and abilities of other classes by using wizard spells. Given the dangers they face, some pretty handy advice. After all, if you go around advertising your wizardliness, you'll be the first target of any tactically inclined enemy party, for low HP and high damage output means you should be permitted as few actions as possible. It's also a good demonstration of just how redundant thieves can become after the first few levels, with magic able to duplicate most of their skills, often more reliably as well. There's more than enough spell overlap to imitate clerics as well, it's only fighter that may be a problem, and if you're multi-classed, even that disappears easily enough. Like the tactical advice earlier, this is a strong encouragement to use your powers sneakily, twisting them to ends above and beyond what is intended. It's also a good demonstration of the power of bluffing. With the right illusions, you can pretend to be far more powerful than you are, and given that those spells do actually exist, it wouldn't be too implausible if you actually did them. I approve. Subverting archetypes and applying powers creatively is a good thing in my book.

Better living through Alchemy: Oh, here we go again. What is this, the 4th time they've tried to give us alchemist characters? (Checks, yup, issue 2, 45, & 49, and Roger got his external references wrong again. :Shakes head and sighs: ) Guess like Witches, they think that 7 years is a long enough gap to validly revisit this topic.) Curiously though, the writer does not draw from the previous versions in the specifics of the design, despite having been a reader and contributer back then. And it is probably an improvement over them in terms of design rigour and formatting. However, they are still grossly underpowered when compared to standard wizards and priests, while also having higher XP costs, and far more inconvenient material requirements to utilize their powers. They really aren't competitive as PC's, so unless you ban regular spellcasters and use them to play a gritty game where all magic requires substantial preparation and ritual of some kind or another, they won't get much use. I do wonder why they bother sometimes, knowing this.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 130: February 1988

part 3/5

Fiction: Shark-killer by Carol Severance. Off to polynesian tribal territory for this little tale of a disgraced warrior, the sorceress who wants to steal her lifeforce, the little girl who wants to learn from her, and the enemy warriors who don't give a crap and will just massacre the village if they get a chance. You've already betrayed one set of vows. Why not break another? People will benefit if you do so. A nice little morality play here, with hard choices and a bittersweet ending. Seems closer to Runequest than D&D in it's handling of magic. A fairly enjoyable read.

The game wizards: This month, they consider how to rework the magic system for second edition. Many people still want a spell point system, but they aint gonna get it. We're sticking with the slot based method, and that's final. That does not mean we aren't making some fairly substantial improvements though, both in clarity of writing and organization, and actual alterations. Quite a few spells need moving from one school to another to better fit their concepts, several schools need adding too, especially in terms of high level spells to make sure all the specialists are viable, cantrips are out again, and we're stripping back on silly fluff details. Once again we see how they are approaching this with a cautious and logical tone, trying to please as many people as possible, and only change things when they really have too. After all, we mustn't alienate our fanbase. And so we get more historical context, that tells us much the same info as the previous few installments. Whether you agree with the changes 2nd ed made or not, I think we can be fairly clear about the designers intentions.

The dragon's bestiary gives us more out of date gamma world stuff this month. Whirrzlers are essentially the Peahats from the Zelda games, (which of course started recently, so it's quite possible this is a direct rip-off) bushy plants that fly by rotating their petals. They'll slice you up, and then settle on your corpse, use it for nutrients. Makes sense to me. One of gamma world's less gonzo elements, ironically. A not too impressive single-pager.

Miniatures in wonderland: From a single pager, to a half-pager. They declare their intention to make this years conventions the biggest miniature gaming events yet. Bring in your armies, play in battles of a scale impossible to do at home. We need you to make this happen! Interesting. Hopefully they'll report on the success of this endeavour afterwards as well, so I can see how it went.

Keeping a good watch: Top Secret's article this month is a interesting little bit of gadgetry. Watches are useful for more than just telling the time. Because so many people wear them on an everyday basis, they can be easily overlooked in a search. You can put quite a few different types of gadgetry in them, and then use them to gain a substantial tactical advantage. Garrotes, hidden compartments, swiss army knives, radio transmitters and recievers, X-rays and radiation counters, magnifying glasses and microreaders. It's amazing what you can fit into such a tiny space. Having something like this could definitely save your life in a tight spot. This is also a case where the advancement of RL technology has outstripped the imagination of this writer. A watch that has all the utility of a mobile phone, including full filming capability with several gigs of interchangable memory using micro SD cards would not be beyond the bounds of real life tech these days. Another reminder that we live in an age of wonders, and shouldn't hesitate to buy cool things in reality. You too can be a swiss army knife of miniaturized utility devices for every occasion, and be the envy of all your friends. Doesn't that sound like fun?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Blah. Their refusal to dump the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Vancian magic system in favor of a point buy system is one of the major reasons the group I was playing with at the time never went over to 2nd ed. (If we wanted skills/non-weapon proficiencies, we put them into 1E ourselves.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 130: February 1988

part 4/5

Dungeon Etiquette: Another entertaining little piece here. When one of your players doesn't show up, has to leave early, or falls asleep mid-game, what should you do to their character? There are some very wrong ways you can handle this, like the DM who automatically killed anyone who had the temerity to leave before the game was properly over. (and also liked running marathon sessions to 4 in the morning. Definite creepiest gamer candidate there.) You can assume they automatically vanish, and reappear next session, which can hurt the immersion and internal consistency of the game. You can run them as an NPC, which means they might behave in a way the player doesn't want or wind up getting killed while they aren't there. You can give the player a good prodding, and hope they aren't the cranky sort when woken unexpectedly. Similarly, if characters are killed, do you allow the players to stick around and advise the remaining ones, possibly causing some metagame info to be passed on? How do you deal with outbreaks of puns and digressive storytelling? Eating while gaming? Having the TV or music on in the background? Cheating bastards? Another topic that they haven't covered in detail before, and which could be the source of large amounts of debate. What is perfectly reasonable to one person is unbearably pedantic and strict to another. In any case this made for highly entertaining reading, steeped as it is in the worst case scenarios for these situations, as delivered by someone who seems to have been there personally. I approve, and hopefully we'll see some responses to this in the forum in future months.

The oriental sea: Looks like OA is going to be getting at least one article most issues for the forseeable future. This time, the conversions are going in the usual direction, giving us info on something that's already had it's western counterparts covered in a previous issue. Ships. Although they might not do as much open ocean sailing, China has no shortage of massive rivers to traverse, and many people make a living on these waterways. So here's the stats for 14 more ship types, and some of the additional hazards they are likely to face in the east like typhoon dragons and cranky nature spirits. One of those articles that isn't likely to be useful often, but when it is, it'll be very handy. One of the great things about having decades of this magazine to draw upon is that it does give you a safety net to try different stuff when your players suggest unusual courses of action, without having to make rules up for it wholecloth. Once again, I have no objection to this at all.

If looks could kill: Gaze attacks also get another look at, 7 years later. (our last article on this one was way back in issue 50.) And pleasingly, this writer does not try and step on Lew's shoes, instead examining the physics behind them as much as their adjudication. This is a bit of a pain, as many of the monsters with them work differently on a case by case basis. Some are consciously controllable, some shouldn't be, and some are more spell-like abilities than actual gaze attacks. It also addresses the tricky issue of mating when you can't look directly at each other. Thankfully, we already have a solution for this, taken from the ecology of the Basikisk. (issue 81) Nictating Membranes! (resists urge to filk) I must say, I would prefer my medusae a little more tragic and less in control, and frankly, this article goes on a little longer than the topic really deserves. But I do have to respect it for it's comprehensiveness of research and logical attitude, even if it doesn't quite hold my interest.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 130: February 1988

part 5/5

The marvel-phile: Jeff finishes serving up justice, (pum pum pum) finding the time to level a cheap shot at Rogar of Mooria's hairline in retaliation for the editing job on his work. We are reminded that before the internet and gigabytes of storage space on computers, Jeff actually had to physically chase down all these issues that these minor villains appeared in to do his research. Quite a lot of effort for a few pages writing. So here we have Bird-man II (powersuit bogaloo), Turner D Century, Cheetah, Commander Kracken, Cyclone, Firebrand, Grappler, Hijacker, Jaguar, Letha, Mind-Wave, Mirage I, Rapier, Ringer, Shellshock, Steeplejack II (more powersuit inheritance going on here), and Vamp. None of them hugely impressive individually, and many of them lacking any powers at all after their humiliating defeats at the hands of various heroes, when all 17 of them were gathered in one bar, inverse ninja syndrome made them easy meat for Scourge. Still, even if they themselves are gone for good, someone else could take up their super-gadgets and start the cycle again. Gotta keep the copyright on those names. We also get stats for Scourge, although since he may well be more than one person, they aren't strictly reliable. Jeff is driven to madness trying to find 17 different ways of saying the villains died in the same way, at the same place, which only adds to the entertainment this issue. And so this rather distinctive chapter of their history draws to a close. At least .......... Until Scourge serves justice again!!!! Ahahahahaha!!!!!! Pum.

The role of computers is sequelariffic this month. Wizardry IV gets an extensive bit of writing which is technically not a review, but that's just because they don't think they've got far enough yet. So a proper review will show up in a month or two. They still give plenty of detail on the plot and gameplay. This time, you're the bad guy, and you have to foil the adventurers and escape the ghost of your adversary. Iiinteresting. I can definitely see the fun in that, especially as it introduces a whole bunch of clever effects, such as adversaries that rest and regain powers in the same way that you do, and a keylogger that determines how many actions you've performed so far. (and how many you have left) Nice to see this series not only still going, but experimenting with it's playstyle as well.
Phantasie III is our main actual review. A more conventional continuation of the series, you have to assemble the usual group of reprobates from the classes and races available, and can import characters from the previous two games if you choose. In addition to the usual hit point system, they also have a hit location one, and your characters can have their various limbs broken, or even severed entirely. Getting new ones is not easy, and so the usual advice about saving frequently, and not being ashamed to surrender or run away when faced with superior opponents applies. Another tricky epic that you need both patience and wit to complete.
Sanxion is a shoot-em-up combining 2d and 3d perspectives. You'll have to practice your flying and shooting, because killing every alien ship and not being hit will not be easy.
We also get the usual selection of hints, and an amusing epilogue that hints at gamer stupidity in the recent past. Please don't call them at their home address anymore, especially at odd hours in the morning. They're only a normal family, not some corporation. Hee. Shouldn't have given it out then. Most of our freelancers have the sense to get their fanmail forwarded from the TSR Offices. Another entertaining and quirky entry in this series.

Dragonmirth does disturbing and grimdark. Snarf continues to suffer weird stuff unexpectedly. Wormy once again goes back to a plotline we haven't heard anything on in years.

A rather advert heavy issue. Despite it's increased size, it actually had less game material than most of the recent issues. It also had another case of the special themed material being of substantially lower average quality than the rest of the material. Roger really ought to wait a little longer, make sure they have enough good stuff before doing them, instead of trying to squeeze one into most issues. The rest of the issue is rather more entertaining, with an above average amount of stuff I can see myself using at some point. But it's obvious by now that Roger's run is going to have a lot more dramatic month by month fluctuations in quality and usability than Kim's did. Will next issue be a good one, or a bad one? I'm just as unsure as you are. Lets keep going. The sooner we bypass the hazards and kill the monsters, the sooner we get the treasure.

 

[Orius]

The role of computers is sequelariffic this month. Wizardry IV gets an extensive bit of writing which is technically not a review, but that's just because they don't think they've got far enough yet. So a proper review will show up in a month or two. They still give plenty of detail on the plot and gameplay. This time, you're the bad guy, and you have to foil the adventurers and escape the ghost of your adversary. Iiinteresting. I can definitely see the fun in that, especially as it introduces a whole bunch of clever effects, such as adversaries that rest and regain powers in the same way that you do, and a keylogger that determines how many actions you've performed so far. (and how many you have left)

I've read about it, and supposedly it's insanely hard. Unlike the first 3 games, Werdna can't return to the town and rest at the inn when he blows all his spell slots. And he can't return to his lair to rest up. Nope, he's got to make it all the way though with all his spells in one go, while adventuring groups are trying to chop him to bits. Intersting idea to be sure, but my guess is that most people found it frstrating in the extreme.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 131: March 1988

part 1/5

108 pages. Roger takes the time to reminisce about his old FGLS. Back in those days, having one of those was essential is you wanted to have any idea what books were worth getting, and successfully get hold of them. If they did things right, they also served as a social centre, for gamers to meet each other, form groups, and possibly even play in the shop. A bad one, on the other hand, could cut off the air supply to the scene in an entire town, slowly killing it. Appreciate your FGLS if you have one, and let them know you do. If you're a regular, they'll return the goodwill. And then we all wind up a little happier. But enough moral messaging. We've got some killing and taking of stuff to do. And this month's theme is the underdark, so there's a lot of things to get through. You snooze, you lose. Last one out gets their brain eaten!

In this issue:

Warhammer 40,000! The very first companion volume, the book of the astronomicon. Rejoice, for the emperor is generous. Nice to see the core of the game hasn't changed.

Letters: Some pedantry over the nature and numbers of undead and lycanthropes. Myths are inconsistent, you should know that. We defend the decisions we made adapting from the sources we have.
A letter asking them if they plan to do a Dragonlance themed chess set. They don't, but it's not a terrible idea, is it?
How many gamers does it take to change a lightbulb? 5. 1 to steal the lightbulb. 1 to figure out how it works, 1 to absorb aggro from the socket while changing it, and 1 to flick the switch. Oh, and one to sing about it and encourage everyone else to do their best. Shouldn't this belong in next month's issue? Guess Roger needed to fill in a couple of lines, and this was the closest thing to hand.

Forum: Barbara Curtis gives us yet another alternate ecology of the Harpy. This is starting to get silly. Still highly entertaining though. How long can they keep this up for?
Timothy Makinson and Daryl Short have more comments about Banded Mail, and other nonexistant forms of armour. Just because it doesn't exist in reality, doesn't mean it shouldn't in game.
Matt Wright doesn't think that assassins are the problem, it's the people that are attracted to them. If you get rid of that class, they'll just play something else equally annoying, like kender, malkavians and assamites. Yeah, lets fob them off on White wolf, so they have to deal with them instead of us. Muahahahaha!
Ed Friedlander is back, talking about the medical condition that probably is the origin of real world vampire and werewolf myths. Interesting.
David Carl Argall is also contributing again, pointing out all the ways D&D is actually biased towards good. Funny how different people can interpret the same writings in such different ways.

Twilight 2000, weapons of the world. Someone's been sketching from a photograph for this advert.

The role of books: Forging the darksword by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman is of course the first book of their new trilogy, advertised last issue. Darker than their Dragonlance work, it contains surprisingly hard scientific principles applied to the workings of their magic, and thoughts about their logical concequences on the culture. Seems like they've taken a leaf from Lyndon Hardy's book. Which sounds quite appealing, actually. Can anyone else give their opinions on these?
The wizard of 4th street by Simon Hawke doesn't impress the reviewer too much. Drawing liberally from arthurian myth, it then fails to characterize or integrate the mythical characters very well. Only his inventive attitude towards magic and the sparky protagonists save it from being a loss. Rent rather than buy.
The Crown jewels by Walter Jon Williams is a space opera crime caper book. The protagonist has extravagant tastes, and grand larceny is the only way he can sustain them. Operatic in both senses of the word, it's fun to read, but would be tricky to emulate. Will you take your chances at the opera tonight?
Time pressure by Spider Robinson also gets a somewhat negative review, as it's character development is rather flawed, with the author's voice poking through, making the characters act in ways that aren't consistent with their own experiences, and doing things purely because the plot demands it. The comic elements of the book are rather more sucessfull, with plenty of wit, punnery, and amusing observations on the state of the world. Become a stand-up comedian instead of a novelist.
The first named by Jonathan Wylie is a surprisingly traditional bit of no frills high fantasy. While nothing special, the reviewer finds it refreshing in this era of endless formulaic trilogies. Remember, you imitate the spirit, not the letter if you want to be true to your inspirations.
Shadowspawn by Andrew J Offutt is a tale set in the Thieves World setting. The main character has appeared in several short stories in previous anthologies, and now gets his own full book. He's left the city of sanctuary to start a new, hopefully more respectable life elsewhere. But of course, it's not going to be that simple. A fun swashbuckling yarn, full of useful tricks every thief should learn.
Oh dear god. They also review some filk tapes, for some reason. Someone really needs to suffer for this, and I hope it's not going to be my ears. Heralds, Harpers & Havoc was written by Mercedes Lackey about her own stories, and the songs are sung by various people. Horse-tamers dughter is by Julia Ecklar, and the songs cover all manner of stories with female protagonists. If you want to find out more, here's where to write too. Okay then. :shivers: Another entertaining, if slightly worrying broadening of their remit here.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 131: March 1988

part 2/5

Even Ghostbusters has three supplements out now. They're lying when they say ghostbusting is big bucks by the way. That's just to sucker you in.

Illusory solutions: As I noted last month, this should have been there, but presumably last minute reorganizations caused it to be cut. Oh well, better late than never. Once again, the writer tries to regulate the power of illusionists by granting their opponents saving throw bonuses if they try and imitate things wildly above their experience level. No longer can an 6th level illusionist convince an 18th level wizard that he is their superior with a bit of creative spellcasting and good roleplaying. And for a third time, we have a new way of handling this process. This is a quite substantial nerf to what is already one of the less powerful classes. Let's hope this is the last of these for a few years, and people are satisfied by at least one of the explanations. This is no fun at all.

Fantasy first class: What. People are still playing PbM games when they now have the technology for basic MMO's? I guess the rolling out of progress is usually slower than you expect, and there are always going to be a few holdouts. So here's another overview of an epic multi-player game that'll take you over a year to complete, and eat up quite substantial amounts of money each month playing it. Alamaze is a fantasy strategy game, where you have to build up armies, explore the map, spy on the other players, and battle them for victory. There can be only one winner! The usual selections of classes and races are available, both battle and diplomacy are important, and you have to do lots of resource management if you want to win. There are still a few bugs, but the programmer is proving pretty willing to fix them when they are pointed out. A review that is pretty much completely useless to me now, but still reveals a little more about the current trends in gaming and design. And they keep up their strong standards in terms of reviewing style. So this becomes a pleasant diversion rather than a total waste of time.

To the center of the Oerth: Mmm. Welcome to the start of the underdark special. The logical extension of having all those underground dungeons everywhere. Link them up into one endless, miles deep uberdungeon that you could spend years exploring and only see a fraction of. And the first thing they do is give us some sample areas, followed up by rather old skool random tables and design advice. Well, you can't be expected to map up miles of tunnels all by yourself, can you? This is the kind of thing that is pretty much instantly useful for any game, and is another definite sign of progress on the worldbuilding side as well. D&D's implied settings just got a bit more solid and a lot nastier. I squee in delight. You goin down, adventurers. Oh yeeeeeaaaaaaah. Just remember, choose your targets wisely. Going down on Drow might work. Going down on aboleths ..... really doesn't bear thinking about. Caution and keeping track of your supplies and escape routes is, as ever, strongly recommended. Because getting lost and winding up dying from starvation rather than actual enemies is not a good way to go. A pretty darn awesome way to kick off this themed section. What lies beneath YOUR city, just waiting to be unearthed?

Renegade legion BLOOD & STEEL! Now that's an attention grabbing advert for you.

The svirfneblin point of view: It's been a while since we had one of these articles. Yay for new PC races. One of the more powerful options, they have to be given the power and unpleasantness of most of their neighbours. This leads to an excellent example of good not nececerally being peaceful or trusting, and their gnomish love of practical jokes is twisted into a decidedly lethal form, focussed against their racial enemies. You've gotta be ruthless and closely co-operative to survive when faced with so many powerful, smart and decidedly diabolical neighbours, especially when you have a low birthrate, so you can't afford to be cavalier with the lives of your fellows. A fairly decent piece that takes care to hit all the various class and race interaction checkboxes. Not brilliant, but not too bad either.

The ecology of the aboleth: Speak of the devil. It's the creepy fish things that are born with all the memories of their parents and transform your skin into a transparent slimy membrane. How's that for idiosyncratic powers. Like sahuguin, the fact that they are aquatic and underground based means you can justify them having massive empires that dominate huge areas of the world, and the only reason people don't realize how hopeless their situation is is because we're beneath their notice. And this ecology does exactly that, creating an entire hierarchy of even more scary aboleth subraces, right up to the Grand Aboleth, the most powerful one on the planet, with it's city sized entourage of lesser aboleths and slaves easily a decent match for demon princes, demigods, and maxed out parties of adventurers. Like the order of the dragon article in issue 110, this turns what was previously a singular fairly badass monster into a social even more badass society of monsters that make suitable adversaries for an epic campaign spanning years. If you wanna be a big hero, you've really got to step up your game, because once again, this article shows just how massive and challenging you can make the opposition. And so this themed section continues to kick ass.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 131: March 1988

part 3/5

Lords & legends: Two original characters are introduced here this time round. Both of them are dwarves, and both of them have forumite namesakes around these days :waves:
Kordan Badaxe is a blue-eyed boy with twin returning magical axes. He's kicked the ass of many a giant, and freed slaves to earn his name. Gnarly Bones is an outcast dwarf, who's lost his beard. How very tragic. He's also had a pretty eventful life, going from hedonistic outcast, to responsible leader, with occasional relapses. A good demonstration of just how different you can make two characters, despite them being the same class, race and level. This is considerably better than their usual fare of twinked out literary adaptions. Now that is an unexpected further benefit of this theme.

The ecology of the Hook Horror: How nice. A second of these articles in one issue. This one hews closer to the conventional ecology format, once again bringing in a story involving the guild of naturalists. Hook horrors aren't a world threatening problem, since they're essentially just humanoid crab thingies that don't even have proper manipulators to build stuff with. But as a part of the underground ecosystem, they have a fairly solid niche, eating fungi, climbing from cavern to cavern as they exhaust supplies in one area, steering clear of big cities full of drow and the like, and serving as vectors for disease of all kinds. So yeah, plenty of actual ecological info here, as they go into plenty of detail on it's lifecycle and relationship with other creatures. Remember, these caverns are living, growing places with their own food chains, even if the bottom layer is fungi that grow from geothermal vents and magical radiation. Think about that when designing your own campaign. Going somewhere and wiping out it's inhabitants will have knock-on consequences in all the neighbouring regions. This is a good way of reminding us of that without getting into heavyhanded preachy windbaggery. Once again, they've really served up the goods, in both fluff and crunch.

The chasm bridge: An adventure? In Dragon magazine? Surely you jest. They've all been sent off to Dungeon, to be with their own kind. Nope. This seems to be on the level. I wasn't expecting that. I wonder if they'll put any more in. Or is this just a way of whetting our appetite and getting people who only buy Dragon to diversify, boost their overall sales? Anyway, this is an interesting little 8-pager, joining in with the underdark theme. Intended for a team of level 4-6th level adventurers, but fairly easily adaptable to higher or lower level ones, this is more a single encounter than a full-on module, but it's a lot more detailed than the ones in the past, with lots of attention paid to backstory, roleplaying of the various creatures, and their combat tactics for when things get ugly. It can be a one-shot encounter, or if the PC's go spelunking regularly, it can become a regular crossroads full of recurring NPC's. Once again, they've made this section highly accessable in terms of quick plug-in and playability. You can get a lot out of this. And so we draw to the end of one of the most impressive, broadranging, and widely applicable themed sections the magazine has ever done. Roger's really rolled a natural 20 this time.

TSR Previews is back! Bout time. Of all the silly things to cut. What was the logic behind that? Since they've been away for a while, they fill us in on what came last month, as well as this month and next.
February sees Castle Greyhawk. Explore the Hil-arious dungeon below the titular castle of the original campaign world. Shoulda saved this one for April.
We're also getting one of the bits of rehash several people have asked for. The Art of Dragon magazine reprints lots of the best pictures, plus 4 of the short stories as well. A chance for the usual suspects to make some more money from their art.
In solo gamebooks, we have Marvel gamebook no 8: Guilt by Association. Daredevil has to balance his day and night jobs do-gooding if he wants to make the maximum impact on the criminal population of hell's kitchen.
And finally, we have The crystal shard, by R.A Salvadore. Say hello to Wulfgar and his sidekick Drizzt. Soon the billing positions will be reversed. Just you wait.
In March, our D&D product is The elves of Alfheim. Another part of the Known World gets filled in, another formerly monolithic class/race gets several new variants. Cool.
AD&D is still Forgotten Realms heavy, with FR3: Empires of the sands. Head south to the lands of Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan. The ones that are going to seem rather redundant once Al-Qadim appears as it's own gameline.
The Dragonlance chronicles get compiled into a single book. Probably cheaper than buying them individually, if you're curious, this is the way to go.
In our solo gamebook lines, we have Shadow over Nordmaar, AD&D adventure book 16. They get increasingly formulaic in their descriptions of these
Finally, we have The demon hand, Greyhawke (sic) adventure 5. Rose Estes continues spinning tales which will take the world ever further from Gary's conception of it.