Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 133: May 1988

part 4/5

Mutants down under, a supplement for TMNT. Seems fitting. Kangaroos with mohawks and uzi's would fit right in in that universe.

Agents for hire: Top secret goes back to the idea of breaking away from your agency, and becoming a spy for hire. A risky business, with treachery from your employers a constant risk. Is it worth it, just to get a little more money? If you haven't built up a rep and some contacts, then you'll struggle to get any work at all. And rooting through bins for passwords, doing stakeouts for someone suspecting their wife of infidelity and similar stuff is a far cry from international espionage which influences the fate of nations. A rather lengthy article that seems mostly designed to point out how tricky this path is to tread, and mechanically codify the process of jobhunting, this is very much in the old edition's spirit (indeed, all it's rules references are to the 2nd ed books) and seems more likely to drive people away from this playstyle than encourage it. And I think that an article that discourages you from trying it out is a failure by most criteria, don't you.

Success by conventional means: This year's focus on wargaming conventions continues with this article on running your own. Setting up something like this is not an easy proposition, and can consume vast amounts of time and money even if done right. So here's advice from someone who built their own con up from nothing, and has been going for 5 years now. Don't overestimate, for you will be disappointed. One person cannot do everything. There is no such thing as too much publicity. Make sure everything works and is rehearsed before the night otherwise you will screw up somehow. Consider your pricing policies carefully. Always consider food, for it can make or break peoples experience. If you are careful, you can make at least a small profit at every stage. Like the freelancing advice that pops up every year or two, this is the kind of advice that can be applied to any commercial venture. Ignore it at your peril. One of those diversions that I'm quite happy to see in the magazine, as it helps break up the monotony.

Sage advice: How does ensnare restrict demons (They can't teleport away or summon more demons, but they can still pull lots of other tricks. Be vewy vewy wawy. )
Can I have some guidelines on wish. (Another nerfer? Not satisfied with the number of articles on this subject already. Skip is very very bored now. Unleash the didactics.)
Can a ring of spell turning affect a wish. (if its effect is aimed at the wearer. )
Can a magic user replace a spell in their book (yes. This is an entirely acceptable way of circumventing the spells known limit. )
Isn't polymorph incredibly abusable (Oh yes, but not quite as much as you seem to think. People who are transformed have an annoying habit of forgetting their original form. Also, system shock's a bitch. Like wish and haste, this'll come back and bite you if you use it frequently. )

Surprise!: Ahh yes, the problem of nonstandardised surprise probabilities in D&D. What do you do when one thing has a power that increases the chances, another has one that reduces them, and neither even use the same dice type. How do we fix that? Same way they do for the Monk and Sentinel, convert the probabilities into percentages, and then add or subtract the two differences from the base 33%. While there are probably more elegant ways of doing it, they would require a substantial system overhaul, and this seems to work, so I think I'll adopt it. So it's a compact and useful article here. I quite approve.

TSR previews: D&D goes from elves, to dwarves, with The Dwarves of Rockhome gazetteer. Find out more about the known world, and introduce dwarven clerics to your game.
AD&D gives us H4: The throne of bloodstone. Their highest level module ever, this may not have quite the level of the BD&D immortal level modules, but it's still pretty ridiculous. Go kick Orcus' butt. You have the Power! We need to set things up for the second edition changeover, so it may even stick for a bit.
Marvel superheroes gets MU1: gamers handbook of the marvel universe 1. A-D of every character, all with stats, and we're already up to 256 pages? There's gonna be quite a few more installments coming.
On the boardgame side, we have The Hunt for Red October game. Can you avert WWIII? The stakes are high in this little license.
Our novel this month is Black Wizards. Doug Niles continues his Moonshae trilogy. The plot thickens, just as it must. Will there be a satisfactory resolution?
And our solo gamebook this month is a Top Secret/S.I. one, The Final Bug. Descriptions are rather sketchy. The problem with solving this puzzle is not lack of evidence, but too much of it. Just slap it in the supercomputer and let that solve the problem.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 133: May 1988

part 5/5

The wild warriors: Berserkers. Now they were one of the weirder parts of the D&D monster list. Technically human, yet treated very much as just another marauding creature to kill or be killed by. This is also another one we've seen presented as an actual class before as well, way back in issue 3. Since the writeup then was pretty perfunctory, I think they are well due a more detailed revisiting.
Unsurprisingly, they draw quite heavily from the Barbarian stuff from issue 63 and UA. After all, they are from the same culture. And even more than them, they are designed to be problematic for a group. Not only do they have the same distaste for magic equipment and wizards, but they also have the blind battle rage problem which means they may end up attacking their allies in battle. Even if the player tries to play them as reasonably as possible, a little inadvertent PvP may wind up taking place. Since they are also combat monsters, especially when berserk, this is likely to end badly for the other character unless you have some way of escaping from or incapacitating them. (a barbarian cleric loaded with several hold person spells, for example) Unless you're playing a solo or comedy game, exercise great caution about allowing them as PC's.

The dragon's bestiary: Wormy may be gone, but this month's bestiary has a decidedly wormy theme. Scaling up tiny and microscopic creatures has already given us several cool articles, but given the numbers and diversity of these creatures all around us, you could do a whole book on this subject and only scratch the surface. Lets see how we can use reality to make our fiction stranger this time.
Neresis are little bristle worms that pounce out from their burrows to grab things. Course, in reality they're mostly herbivorous, but that won't stop the giant ones from trying to get their jaws around you.
Diopatra are one of those disturbing creatures with multiple mandible type jaws that allow them to both grab, hold and chew at the same time. They tend to appear in colonies as well, so several of them can be holding you down and trying to strip the flesh from you ASAP. Definitely nightmare fuel to be had there.
Vanadis evert their bodies to swallow you whole. Since they're pretty stretchy, they can even fit ogres inside. Sounds like a combination of snakes and Krenshar. Another excellent reason for adventurers to travel in parties. It's much easier to cut them out than it is to get out from inside.
Eurythoe are fairly slow and inoffensive, but their bristles are covered with agony inflicting poison. Just leave them alone.
Glyceria have venomous bites that paralyze you, which means they make good ambush predators. Another thing with decidedly disturbing looking jaw structures for creeping your players out with.
Sabella are another harmless bottom feeder. I don't think we need to worry too much about stats for those.
Terebella are also harmless, but they have the quirk of sorting the stuff they filter and dumping the inedible stuff in a pile next to them. This means you can get some treasure off them if you're lucky.
Pectinaria, also known as the ice-cream-cone worm, constructs a portable conical home for itself out of pebbles and mucus. Sometimes there are a few valuable ones amongst them. Another inoffensive creature in an entry rather high on them. This is definitely an entry that you use for flavour rather than just another combat encounter.

The marvel-phile creates an index of all the characters they've covered so far. This is the third time in only 5 years. What's up with that? 5 pages of rather small type follow, going from Abomination to ZZZax, and all the modules and stuff released so far. It's a good thing the marvel universe is constantly evolving, otherwise they would be running out of material to fill this column with. Obviously useful, but not hugely interesting, particularly as the hints of humour that livened the last couple of times have been lost in the attempt to compress the info as much as possible. Wonder how long it'll be before this turns up again.

Dragonmirth tells some more jokes (badum-tish) Snarf falls for the trap. Silly snarf.

A fairly polarized issue, with plenty of good ideas that I'd really like to use, but also an above average number of genuinely poor and ill-thought out articles as well. The reviews continue their strong showing, and the editing seems to be improving, but the articles are very much hit and miss. Overall, pretty decent though.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 1/5

108 pages. Birthday no 12. Another year, another batch of dragon related articles for your delectation. What new and terrifying adversaries will we face, what tactics will they deploy? Will you come home a great hero, or will you be served up crispy fried in foil?

In this issue:

Letters: A letter with some more last word suggestions. Very droll.

A letter from one of their writers, pointing out a mistake he made in a recent article. D'oh!

Another letter pointing out errors, which Roger examines and pronounces they are not errors at all. These are entirely legitimate uses of the english language.

A non letter from the editors, thanking all of us, their loyal readers. 12 years and still going strong. They couldn't have done it without us. Aww.


Forum: Tim Lieberg has his own rather extensive contribution on how to make low level wizards viable characters. Most of these are changes in emphasis rather than actual rules alterations. It's mostly a matter of how you play them that determines their viability.

James A Yates rebutts the recent responses to his college of magic article. Yes, keeping a educational facility running is an expensive business, and you're unlikely to make a short term profit on it. This is very much a realistic reflection of real educational facilities, and the reason why they need government subsidies to stay viable. If the wizard you're playing really is as smart as his stats suggest, he'll find some other ways of wringing money out of the students and surrounding community.

Ed Kruse is in favour of houseruling if you don't like the official rules. This includes the rules for XP. Getting XP for treasure is out, XP for using your class abilities constructively is in. Is that a foreshadowing I see?

David Choi not only thinks that you shouldn't get xp for treasure, but if you fail to actively practice your class skills, you should actually lose xp. Pff. That never goes down well.

Greg Pierson disapproves of the alignment restriction on thieves. Adversity can make even good guys resort to larceny. Another bit of foreshadowing. I suspect roger has a pretty good idea by now what's going to be in the next edition, and they're trying to soften us up to the idea of the changes.

Steve Kommrusch is in favour of the demographics of classes where each level is approximately half as rare as the one below. It's easy to calculate, and level 20+ characters become suitably rare as to retain their specialness.

David Poythress disapproves of ability creep such as that demonstrated in the recent article on alternate dice methods for demihumans. If this carries on, the whole game will cease to be a challenge. And then where will the fun be?

Paul Astle reminds us that there are many stories in which a lycanthrope reacts with horror to their transformations. You can have quite a bit of fun running adventures in which a character tries to rid themselves of this scourge, and the resultant fallout.

Lucas McNeill tells the people writing in as pontificating sages to remember that the medieval conception of the world was rather different to the modern one. Similarly, the D&D universe does not run on real world physics anyway. So they shouldn't talk like modern day scientists.

Len Carpenter rebutts his critics on the matter of jousting. It's been over a year, quite a few books have come out since then, and he's thought quite a bit about how to handle it better. He introduces a new, simpler and more integrated system here. He does not, however, address the matters of honour that some of the repliers have spun the debate off into. Hmm.

S.D. Anderson seems to be having a problem with proto-fishmalks. These degenerates refuse to take the game seriously, and constantly mess around with the other players, both IC, and OOC. Never let them get their hands on a Wand of Wonder. Rather amusing, really. That kind of player use whatever they can, no matter how you try and stop them.

Gregory D Scott tries to give fighters a bit more depth. They don't just fight, they've also got to know military tactics and how to work with a group well. They might not have these abilities spelled out, but you should still apply them if you don't want to be outshone by all the other classes.

Michael Anderson gives his opinions of the recent articles on illusions. One is very much better than the others.


The dragon's bestiary gets back to basics, giving us some actual dragons for the anniversary. Aquatic dragons are exactly what they sound like. They swim! They attack your ship! They really ought to develop proper underwater paper out of pressed seaweed or something for spellcasting! One of those entries that feels flawed due to later developments in design technology.

Ichthyodrakes are another underwater monstrosity. No shortage of those now, with dragon turtles, the various Lung dragons and the like. Well, if the fantasy world is more than 70% oceans like earth, there should be plenty of dragon variants for there that adventurers never see.

Astral Dragons are our first otherplanar dragon species. This conception of them is substantially different from the 2nd ed version, but they are pretty powerful, and rather quirky. I think the astral plane is big enough for more than one dragon type.

Weredragons are not contagious lycanthropes, thankfully, that would just be too scary. They aren't actually that badass in combat, but of course, not that badass for a dragon is still pretty deadly for normal humans. And their seduction and surprise capabilities are quite considerable. They certainly make for a nasty surprise.

Fang dragons don't have a breath weapon, instead having a bite which can drain all your hit points and add them to it's total. Fortunately, this only activates on a natural 20, so really, they're less deadly than many creatures with save or die poison on every hit. And they don't have spells either. Bit of a paper tiger really, compared to most dragons.

Sand dragons are snaky diggers with an instadeath breath weapon. Now this is a bit more like it. Blue dragons can take the desert sky, these guys'll rule the earth.

Stone dragons look like piles of rock when not active. Now there's a trope familiar from TV that can be used to horrifying effect. With three different breath weapons, and a whole bunch of earth based magic, they can be pretty tricksy. A good one to make uneasy allies/enemies of.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 2/5

Give dragons a fighting chance: Hmm. This is stuff we've seen before, and will see again. Another bunch of ways you can power up your dragon, making them both scarier and more individualized. Unique powers, enhanced versions of exiting ones, clever applications of spellcasting, more detail in physical scaling, lots of reiteration here, some of which would be taken up and made official next edition. We also get another case of the endlessly quibblable sample battles. Not a very interesting one. Roll on the future, please.


AD&D, the pool of radiance computer game. Well well. That looks pretty nice, actually.


Serpents and sorcery: Hmm. Another bit of interesting foreshadowing here. The word sorcery in the title is particularly appropriate. This article sets out to explore draconic spellcasting, and how it differs from human magic-users capabilities. And in the process, makes them pretty similar to 3rd ed sorcerer's in the way they learn and retain spells entirely mentally, and can choose to use different ones for a situation. That certainly puts a new light and historical weight on the decision to give sorcerer's fluff that their powers are derived from draconic descent. How very pleasing to unearth. It also includes common spell suggestions and tactical tricks for the various chromatic and metallic dragon types. Course, these are tricks that could be used by any creature with the appropriate spells, including the PC's. In any case, this is a pretty strong article even if you don't take it's historical context into account, so I quite enjoyed it.


Lords and Legends: Yet another bit of historical coverage here, coming from the opposite direction. Dragotha was first mentioned in S2: White plume mountain. But that was merely a warning, from nearly a decade ago. Many have wondered since then, just who this Dragotha is, and what is his history. How did he come to the state of undeath? Wonder no more! Here he is, in all his glory! Which is actually considerably less scary than most older 2nd ed dragons, but that's power inflation for you. He's still capable of dropping an entire 20th level party in one breath if he gets the drop on them and they save badly, and with his horde of undead warriors, can exert substantial influence on the lands surrounding his lair. As with the underdark special three months ago, the use of original characters massively improves this series. In fact, since I've also put white plume mountain somewhere in my gameworld (muahaha!!) this is the first one of these I can actually see myself using. Considering how many issues of GitE and L&L we've had, that is a very definite turnup for the books, worthy of noting. This is turning out to be an intriguing birthday issue.


The ecology of the red dragon: We finally get an actual dragon race covered here. About time too. This series has been going 5 years now, and appearing most months and the closest we've come before is the chimera. Sensibly, it seems they've decided to only cover one draconic species, rather than the whole lot, which would take a truly epic special feature to do justice to the subject. Now they can milk it bit by bit for all it's worth.

Anyway, this is a rather longer ecology than most so far. This is one of those where the sage has to deal with a rather annoying questioner, in this case some dumb young adventurers who think they can go straight to the big leagues and kill a dragon without going through the goblins, lizard men, bugbears, ogres, and the rest of the monstrous food chain first. Still, at least he isn't subverted like the Harpy one, or personally attached to the creature like the Aurumvorax one, he does give accurate information (and some suppositions and extrapolations). Not that this is going to save the adventurers, since even in 1st ed, red dragons are powerful, smart and magically capable. They do include quite a few bits that some won't agree with, (draconic sexism, relatively severe aging rules, exploding poo. ) but this is still a pretty decent ecology, with plenty of detail and ideas. Not too brilliant, not too bad.


Sage advice is covering wider issues than simple rule questions this month.
What do you think of house rules. (Be carefull, be consistent, be upfront and explicit. But enough about my personal life. )

Can we convert AD&D characters to a D&D game (No. The two games must remain separate, by holy decree of Arneson!

Can I play more than one character at once ( We at skip towers do not have a problem with that idea. Go wild.)

Can demihumans change class once they release max level(no. Not in D&D, not in AD&D. They can't even be classes in D&D, and you have to pick your multiclass options when you start in AD&D. Your path is fixed.)

What are attack ranks (an excuse for demihumans to get more badass once they've maxed out their level. Blame non-joined up designing )

How long does lycanthropy take to complete (2-24 days)

What happens when you turn undead. (They run away like little girls. This does not solve the long term problem. I have to wonder why clerics were given this power. Maybe it's a godly conspiracy. )

XP! Huh! What are they good for for once you're maximum level (not much)

When druids fight, does the loser drop a level (yes. They need to work the XP up again. Otherwise they could just rechallenge straight away. And no, restoration won't help you.)

How many druids are there above 30th level ( 25. And no epicly awesome heirophants after that. They're just about the only class that gets worse epic options in D&D than AD&D.)

When can fighters use special combat options (once they've learned how. They are a privelege, not a right.)

How many spells does a 1st level character have in their book (2)

Can I imitate perseus and have a medusa head shield ( :sucks teeth: Oooh, I really dunno. We really don't recommend it working for long, otherwise it'll up the game. Plus there's the constant threat of the rest of the team being affected. )

How do medusas stone themselves (by looking in a mirror)

Why are normal bats stronger than giant bats (oops. We swapped the stats)

What special effect does a tiger beetle have (none. we mixed up the tiger and oil beetle. It's all the layout staff's fault. Yeah, that's the ticket. )

What does wolfsbane do (makes lycanthropes run away like little girls. Then they can cower in the corner with the undead from last encounter. And exchange haircare tips. Keeping it sleek and glossy is a lich when you're dead. )

How do you restore strength lost to shadows (patience)

Can a rod of cancelation disenchant constructs (nope)

Where is the description of the devil swine ( page 30 or 48, depending which book you have. Whatever happened to them? They were one of BD&D's more flavourfull monsters. )

Can rocs be used as mounts ( Yes, but it ain't easy. You'll have to assert your authority pretty strongly.)

What is a war horse (A horse trained for war. The name says it all. )

How lawful can an unintelligent creature be ( Repeaters aren't unintelligent. This is the problem with BD&D not giving proper attribute scores for creatures. Misconceptions like this. )

Why don't megaliths have XP values (because they have too many HD to measure properly. It's the old HD /= Challenge problem at very high levels.)

What's the encumbrance of a spellbook (pretty hefty. I could get precise values from Gary a few years ago, but I can't be bothered )

What do I do if the PC's get a too powerful magic item ( Let me count the ways. Take it away, rack up the opposition, give the other players more, let it run out. Your choices are myriad)

What's a pocket of holding (like a bag, only atatched to your trousers. You'd better hope they're sized right. )

Does your level affect powers from items you're using (No. This may cause scaling problems at high level. )

How do +1 items benefit a character. (oh, it's another moron question is it. Do you even know what a number is? Skip does not have time for this. Skip is a badass Mutha
Shut yo mouth
Hey, I'm talking about Skip here
I can dig it)

How can a bag of holding fit a 10' long item (extradimensional. Bigger inside than out. That's it's whole schtick. Once again, read the book properly)

Do you lose experience when you drink a potion of longevity (only if it's cursed. )

How do you avoid being trapped in a scroll of shelter (get out before it's taken down. Simple)

Can you add new creatures to the egg of wonder (oh yes. Like any random item, expanded tables to keep the characters on their toes are always welcome. Who knows, maybe we'll publish one in here. )

Can you bypass enemies as well as allies with an arrow of blinking (no)

Do magic arrows lose their magic when fired (yes. Use them wisely)

Can any elf or magic user use a crystal ball (yes. It's part of basic training, along with making spellbooks, and the curse which prevents you from using most weapons. )

Does suit armor save you from fireball and lightning bolt (fireball, yes. Lightning bolt, no. Electricity likes metal very much, and then they make little singe babies. You don't wanna be inside when they're getting biz-ayh. )

Can PC's make intelligent magic items (Yes indeedy. You need to be pretty high level though. )

 

[LordVyreth]

Um, I don't suppose you could go into further detail with Dragonmirth, can you? Was there anything new in, say, that last issue?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 3/5

Bazaar of the bizarre: More support for the Jester. One of the few classes solely from the magazine to get follow-up articles. There's a joke in there, or at the very least an irony. In any case, such repeated support makes them more attractive as a character option. This is rather amusing in itself.

The blowgun of wild emotions is a great bit of random screwage. Use with caution, for inducing envy, greed, rage, hatred or paranoia will likely backfire on you painfully if they know who hit them.

The Exalted book of ethnic Humor lets you tailor your offensiveness to humiliate and insult anyone, of any race. Eeech. I can see that one getting uncomfortable around the gaming table if there are any actual minorities around.

The Extendable hand of enjoyment lets you engage in, erm, manual manipulation of objects up to 30' away. I can definitely see a lot of uses in that, some of them not even jokes.

The Larynx of deafening is another item that could be used seriously, as it's basically just a portable amplifier for your voice. Now you can get through to even the largest and deafest of audiences.

Magical paddleboards let you thwok things with balls on rubber bands. Of all the humiliating ways to go, this really takes the cake.

Paddleboards of wondrous transformation take the previous idea and run with it, transforming creatures hit into some other random creature. Since these are often scary monsters, this is one that will just make a fight more insane, rather than putting the opponent out altogether. Muahahahaha!!!!

Random target daggers do exactly what they say on the tin. Throw them and they could go anywhere. Who knows what they'll hit?

Skates of the roller hoopers let you skate over any surface, including walls and ceilings. Your battles will become tremendously cinematic, verging on the cartoonish.

The Hula-hoop of the roller hoopers whirrs around your body and deflects missile attacks. Combined with the skates and a ranged weapon (or the paddleboards or extendible hand, you become able to whizz around griefing your enemies while they can do sod all in return. Now there's a confidence booster for you.

The Tome of the fool is like most other tomes, it gives a jester extra XP, and screws over nonjesters reading it. Avoid like the plague, for forced class conversion sucks.

The Tome of the humorous perspective allows a jester to calmly accept death as just the punchline to the greatest joke of all, becoming scarily fearless and able to bring levity to the grimmest of situations. Just like Kender then. Do not capture them, for they'll ruin even the best prepared evil monologue.

The Yo-yo of fate lets jesters do a bit of god-modding. Yet another tool they have to survive and laugh in the face of adversity.


For your orcs only: Bruce Heard plays sage as people give their feedback and questions about the Orcwars! game. You'd better learn da rulez of Waaagh!!!!! boyz.

Can hordes fight or occupy without a chief (Sure. Da boyz like to fight. Just don't expect dem ta show much initiitiitiative. )

Can hordes without a chief stay in a coalition. (Ya. Untill a noo strong leader takez over. Den all bets are off if he don wanna follow da big boss. )

How does the code of ethnics work if one side doesn't have a chief. (Da boyz join da first big boss of the same race dey meet.)

How can uncommanded hordes retreat. (Dey don't. Without a warboss ta give them tactics, da boyz fight to da death! )

Can uncommanded hordes mine. (Sure. Mining don' take much brainpower, and da boyz gotta get dere exercise if dere's no-one ta fight. )

Can chiefs exchange hordes (Yeaaaah! Watch out if da new chief is a different race to da hordes though. Da boyz might kill him.)

When can a chief pick up uncommanded hordes. (Da boyz will leap into action for him any time. )

Do you have to roll an authority check if forced to retreat out of your home (Nahh. Da boyz don't mind a little adversity. It's coming inta money dat makes dem unreliable. )

Can you collect gold from a territory you've just retreated into ( I bleedin wish. )

What happens to the gold if you lose your horde by the chief survives ( All gone. All Gooone! There's a dog loose in the woods. )

Can a big army lose war machines if a little army was successful against them (if dey used dem in da battle)

Can you retreat into territory controlled by your own coalition. (sure. Den you get more buds and go kick dere asses. Revenge!!!!! )

Can you fight, move and fight some more in a single turn (no. Such a shame.)

Can you use a spy to figure out which card you want to take (no. That would require two uses. )

Do you keep control of a territory after moving all your troops out (till some other chief comes in)

Does a chief automatically capture a territory he moves into (only if he ends his move there. )

Can a chief just take over an unnoccupied enemy territory and levy troops. (sure. Da boyz'll be bored and fight whoever ya tell'em to fight. Especially if you tell'em to get Soulja boy )

Are we going to get an orcwars boxed set. (Maybe. Buy lots of GAZ10 if ya want that ta happen. )

Are Gold country east and west different territories. (Yar. There's gold in them thar territories, and they don't wanna share. )

Can you use multiple chief operations defensively (Yes! The boyz can co-operate sometimes.)

So let's get raiding! Raaaaaaar. Last one dead has to eat everyone else!

 

[(un)reason]

Um, I don't suppose you could go into further detail with Dragonmirth, can you? Was there anything new in, say, that last issue?

Not really. Lets see now. A bunch of slaves in a longboat being driven on by a guy with a modern day drumkit. A succubus selling kisses, unsuccessfully. A witch with a rather advanced taste in young children. A guy trapped under a dragon. A dragon reading playdragon, full of captured maidens. And some people trying to storm a castle succeeding a bit too well.

 

[Richards]

The burning realm by Michael Reaves is the long awaited sequel to The Shattered world. Not content with earth being reduced to a bunch of floating islands in space, now demons want to destroy the whole shebang. At least, some of them do, and they're as prone to making devious alliances to achieve their goals as demons in many other realities. The human characters are just as well developed and diverse in motivation, and the many elements are weaved together properly to build up to an epic finale. See. This is how you do it.

Michael Reaves wrote a sequel to The Shattered World? I'll definitely have to look for a copy of The Burning Realm, as the first book was top-notch.

Johnathan

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 4/5

Fiction: Eyes of redemption by James Brunet. Hmm. This is an interesting mythological set-up. And one I can't really talk about without spoiling the whole plot of the story. I'll just say that it works both as a story, as a bit of worldbuilding, and as part of this month's focus on dragons, taking the hero on a physical and internal journey that makes sense, given what he experiences, and ends in a way that is highly satisfying, if not completely happy. Quite a good one, really.


TSR Previews: AD&D gets FR4: The Magister. Lots of new magical items, and I suspect some reprints from the magazine, all with Elminsters inimitable writing style framing it. Can something that was pretty fun to read as articles be sustained for a whole book?

The Forgotten Realms is also getting next year's calendar. Once again, you get to see artwork from the books reprinted considerably larger, on nice glossy paper for your viewing enjoyment.

Dragonlance isn't being neglected either. The second book is now converted to graphic novel format. The third should be along pretty soon then.

Marvel Superheroes are still in an epic mood, with ME2: Ragnarok and Roll. Thor & co kick the asses of the Elders of the universe. They probably deserve it.

Top Secret/S.I. also pushes it's boundaries with TSAC4: F.R.E.E.Lancers. A new futuristic setting full of superpowered secret agents, this looks like being a polarising little book. They really are moving this ever further from it's original design.

The dread Bullwinkle & Rocky roleplaying party game hits the shelves this month. Includes hand puppets. Eeech. :rumble of thunder, stab of organ music: Erm, I mean It sounds marvelous, and will revolutionise roleplaying as we know it while also being a huge commercial success :teeth ting:

And finally, we have a trio of boardgames. Kage, Crosse and Steppe are all appearing under a new imprint, the Master Moves Strategy Boardgames. Interesting. Anyone remember having these, or are they going to disappear unlamented like too many of their experiments?


Arcane lore: Another interesting design experiment here. Healing magic is one thing that massively affects the tone of the game. Just how much of it you have available, and how quickly you can apply it makes a huge difference. Here's a clever little trick. Instead of waiting until they get hurt to heal them, you could apply pre-emptive spells that kick in when you get hurt. leaving the cleric free to do other things mid combat. And so another ingenious little bit of spell technology came into being, with 4 new spells that do exactly that. Regenerate light, serious, critical wounds, & Regenerative Heal. Each heals slightly less than it's after the event counterpart, and imparts the healing over a longer timescale rather than all at once, so they don't overshadow the standard spells in terms of power. But in terms of tactical play, combining the two types of healing can give a team substantial advantages. Very clever indeed, and a good example of how to become more effective through proper tactics and variety of options rather than objective power creep. I like this one quite a lot, and am definitely putting it in as a secret technique to be unearthed in my game.


The official ballot for Origins 1987! Vote now and send it in! Another interesting bit of context here.

Another rather lengthy bit of Gen con info, as they give a 4 page bit of promotion on the games auction, and how to participate in it. Pay attention to the small print.


Sighting in: Top Secret's article this month is focused on assassination. Just as people are finally getting over their rage about the assassin being removed from the next edition of AD&D. In particular, sniping. One of the least favourite ways to kill a PC, and generally problematic, in the same way that nukes and spaceship combat are. But that's because it's rather effective at killing things. Anyway, this is two pages of gun pr0n, and half a page on getting the proper training to use it. After all, not every agent can become a sniper. You still need to gather plenty of info about what's going on and where to lurk before you can set things up to shoot someone. Not a hugely interesting article, and once again the stats are all for the second edition rather than the new one. They really are still giving it a lot of support. Is this driven by the magazine staff or the fans?


The game wizards: Speaking of snipers, Steve Winter decides to talk about their new Sniper™ games. There are still quite a few people at TSR who like wargames, and would like to see them return to a wider audience, and he's leading the charge. So this month, this column is devoted to promoting the series, describing how the rules work, and trying to make buying them seem like an appealing prospect. Designed to cover a wide range of close range engagements, and both mundane and supernatural scenarios, they're certainly trying hard. But as Yoda said. Do, or do not do. There is no try. Another depressing reminder of all the companies failed experiments.

 

[Orius]

Arcane lore: Another interesting design experiment here. Healing magic is one thing that massively affects the tone of the game. Just how much of it you have available, and how quickly you can apply it makes a huge difference. Here's a clever little trick. Instead of waiting until they get hurt to heal them, you could apply pre-emptive spells that kick in when you get hurt. leaving the cleric free to do other things mid combat. And so another ingenious little bit of spell technology came into being, with 4 new spells that do exactly that. Regenerate light, serious, critical wounds, & Regenerative Heal. Each heals slightly less than it's after the event counterpart, and imparts the healing over a longer timescale rather than all at once, so they don't overshadow the standard spells in terms of power. But in terms of tactical play, combining the two types of healing can give a team substantial advantages. Very clever indeed, and a good example of how to become more effective through proper tactics and variety of options rather than objective power creep. I like this one quite a lot, and am definitely putting it in as a secret technique to be unearthed in my game.

I'm pretty sure they were eventually reprinted in the Priest's Spell Compendium in late 2e, not sure if they got updated or what, I think there aren't significant differences between 1e and 2e spells.