(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 96: April 1985
part 1/3
100 pages. Welcome to another april fools issue. They may have neglected it last year, but this time they're really going to town on the ridiculousness. Pray if they slap you round the face with a fish, it'll be a haddock, not a spiny puffer fish or a giant eel or a mudkip. No-one really lieks mudkips. Not even with pasta. DUCK CITY!
In this issue:
Talisman, the magical quest game. How cute. I vaguely remember this.
Letters: A letter asking if you could cut costs by feeding your soldiers nothing but iron rations. Sure, but they wouldn't be happy about it, and they still wouldn't be able to carry enough to feed them more than a few weeks, especially with all their other stuff. You can't escape logistics that easily.
A question about the jumping rules in issue 93. Unclear math in an example? Say it aint so.
An odd question about attacking while being grappled by the eye of the deep. Of all the things to quibble about.
A letter asking how hard the Urisk is to spot. Pretty darn tricky, as long as it stays still.
Someone pointing out a pronunciation inconsistency. They say to use the dictionary version. Even writers disagree at times.
And finally, as it's april, we have four joke letters. You know, these would be funnier if they weren't immediately obvious as joke letters. You ought to use the real ones. You should know by now they'll be more ridiculous than anything you can come up with.
PENDARGON!! (squee!) Ahem, I mean dragon. One of the most idiosyncratically awesome games ever gets its first edition. Honor, Passion, romance and getting old and dying in the reign of King Arthur. Man, we're not even to the first feature and we've already seen two interesting new adverts. This is promising.
The forum: David Miller has his own thoughts on alignment, leaning towards subjectivity and being true to your own standards being more important than some universal rules of morality. A perfectly valid way to do things, but not one that will end this debate.
Joseph M Dornbierer takes up the rest of the forum, with a huge amount of commentary on all sorts of articles and the way they change the rules. What is really official if even Gary doesn't use the rules as written, what additions and streamlinings are good for the game, and does anyone actually play them as written, because I've never seen a game where every rule is strictly applied. Even if they were, many of the results would be ridiculous in real world terms. This is seriously problematic. Once again we see that many people back then had problems with the rules, and extensive house-ruling was common. What are we to do with this turbulent playerbase?
From the sorceror's scroll: More demihuman level limit increases. God, people just won't let up on this one, will they? Having already granted some pretty hefty raises, now Gary opens up various previously forbidden classes. Most significant of these is that elves can now become rangers. Their gods have finally decided that this newfangled wilderness handling skillset the humans have come up with is so appropriate to elves that they'll grant their persistent prayers and let them have it. See what determined union action gets you? Druids also get considerably opened ranks. We also get some tedious organizational stuff, as they turn paladins into a sub-class of cavalier, and elaborate on the dual classing options available to characters. We also get some amusing contrition from Gary as he receives a lecture in etiquette from a FLGS employee, and reminds us to be polite when requesting stuff they don't have. (also, don't steal kids, as if you needed to be told) And in another of his random left turns, he recommends the Black Company books by Glen Cook as being excellent inspiration for gaming. Another amusing demonstration of his stream of conciousness writing style, in which rules are changed at his whim. Just business as usual around here then.
Daredevils, the game of 1930's adventurers. Well well, another one. So many people trying to do pulp and flopping in the 80's. So much for that plan.
What good PC's are made of: Katharine Kerr continues to preach the cause of proper characterization with increasing stridency. Careful attention to historical detail, check. A definite preference for the gritty over high fantasy. Check. Give your character a proper background. Check. Race, nationality and religion should mean more than a single word on a sheet. She is becoming predictable. All these elements have appeared in her previous articles in various combinations. Fortunately, this is her last appearance for quite a long time. I suspect she was getting as sick of having to think of stuff to write here regularly as I am of reading it. Such a shame to see a writer flag and quit. Still, she went on to bigger and better things, so gamings loss is fictions gain. You'll have to look elsewhere if you want to see the rest of her story.
The ecology of the gulguthra: A rather fitting name, don't you think. If you or I had to eat
, I think we'd make a noise somewhat approximating the taxonomic name of the otyugh family. This is as much a story of forgotten realms politics as it is the monster in question. Not that it neglects them, going into considerable detail on their physiology and mating habits (which are as gross as you might expect) tactics and relationships with other creatures. Ed seems to have pretty much locked down this series for the moment, with the impression given that he can knock off these in an afternoon by now. They're definitely developing in a way I'm not sure I approve of, with forgotten realms creeping into the generic stuff so much. You'll have to remember that this stuff isn't canon, and you can alter their ecologies for your own world if you choose. Don't let them hem your imagination in without even realizing it. And don't think you have to have an ancient superpowerful wizard imparting wisdom to your players at every opportunity. There are better ways to get your infodumps.
part 1/3
100 pages. Welcome to another april fools issue. They may have neglected it last year, but this time they're really going to town on the ridiculousness. Pray if they slap you round the face with a fish, it'll be a haddock, not a spiny puffer fish or a giant eel or a mudkip. No-one really lieks mudkips. Not even with pasta. DUCK CITY!
In this issue:
Talisman, the magical quest game. How cute. I vaguely remember this.
Letters: A letter asking if you could cut costs by feeding your soldiers nothing but iron rations. Sure, but they wouldn't be happy about it, and they still wouldn't be able to carry enough to feed them more than a few weeks, especially with all their other stuff. You can't escape logistics that easily.
A question about the jumping rules in issue 93. Unclear math in an example? Say it aint so.
An odd question about attacking while being grappled by the eye of the deep. Of all the things to quibble about.
A letter asking how hard the Urisk is to spot. Pretty darn tricky, as long as it stays still.
Someone pointing out a pronunciation inconsistency. They say to use the dictionary version. Even writers disagree at times.
And finally, as it's april, we have four joke letters. You know, these would be funnier if they weren't immediately obvious as joke letters. You ought to use the real ones. You should know by now they'll be more ridiculous than anything you can come up with.
PENDARGON!! (squee!) Ahem, I mean dragon. One of the most idiosyncratically awesome games ever gets its first edition. Honor, Passion, romance and getting old and dying in the reign of King Arthur. Man, we're not even to the first feature and we've already seen two interesting new adverts. This is promising.
The forum: David Miller has his own thoughts on alignment, leaning towards subjectivity and being true to your own standards being more important than some universal rules of morality. A perfectly valid way to do things, but not one that will end this debate.
Joseph M Dornbierer takes up the rest of the forum, with a huge amount of commentary on all sorts of articles and the way they change the rules. What is really official if even Gary doesn't use the rules as written, what additions and streamlinings are good for the game, and does anyone actually play them as written, because I've never seen a game where every rule is strictly applied. Even if they were, many of the results would be ridiculous in real world terms. This is seriously problematic. Once again we see that many people back then had problems with the rules, and extensive house-ruling was common. What are we to do with this turbulent playerbase?
From the sorceror's scroll: More demihuman level limit increases. God, people just won't let up on this one, will they? Having already granted some pretty hefty raises, now Gary opens up various previously forbidden classes. Most significant of these is that elves can now become rangers. Their gods have finally decided that this newfangled wilderness handling skillset the humans have come up with is so appropriate to elves that they'll grant their persistent prayers and let them have it. See what determined union action gets you? Druids also get considerably opened ranks. We also get some tedious organizational stuff, as they turn paladins into a sub-class of cavalier, and elaborate on the dual classing options available to characters. We also get some amusing contrition from Gary as he receives a lecture in etiquette from a FLGS employee, and reminds us to be polite when requesting stuff they don't have. (also, don't steal kids, as if you needed to be told) And in another of his random left turns, he recommends the Black Company books by Glen Cook as being excellent inspiration for gaming. Another amusing demonstration of his stream of conciousness writing style, in which rules are changed at his whim. Just business as usual around here then.
Daredevils, the game of 1930's adventurers. Well well, another one. So many people trying to do pulp and flopping in the 80's. So much for that plan.
What good PC's are made of: Katharine Kerr continues to preach the cause of proper characterization with increasing stridency. Careful attention to historical detail, check. A definite preference for the gritty over high fantasy. Check. Give your character a proper background. Check. Race, nationality and religion should mean more than a single word on a sheet. She is becoming predictable. All these elements have appeared in her previous articles in various combinations. Fortunately, this is her last appearance for quite a long time. I suspect she was getting as sick of having to think of stuff to write here regularly as I am of reading it. Such a shame to see a writer flag and quit. Still, she went on to bigger and better things, so gamings loss is fictions gain. You'll have to look elsewhere if you want to see the rest of her story.
The ecology of the gulguthra: A rather fitting name, don't you think. If you or I had to eat
, I think we'd make a noise somewhat approximating the taxonomic name of the otyugh family. This is as much a story of forgotten realms politics as it is the monster in question. Not that it neglects them, going into considerable detail on their physiology and mating habits (which are as gross as you might expect) tactics and relationships with other creatures. Ed seems to have pretty much locked down this series for the moment, with the impression given that he can knock off these in an afternoon by now. They're definitely developing in a way I'm not sure I approve of, with forgotten realms creeping into the generic stuff so much. You'll have to remember that this stuff isn't canon, and you can alter their ecologies for your own world if you choose. Don't let them hem your imagination in without even realizing it. And don't think you have to have an ancient superpowerful wizard imparting wisdom to your players at every opportunity. There are better ways to get your infodumps.
