Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 2/8


Forum: Jason Sivyer thinks a 3rd ed is both inevitable and desirable. It gives them the chance to clean up stuff and incorporate the best bits into the core. Mind you, he thinks 3rd ed'll be a change on the same kind of magnitude of 1-2e. But then, I'm sure most people don't suspect just how big the alterations are going to be.

Matt Hinds tries to give some encouragement to the nervous novice DM. It's one of the most rewarding things you can do once you get the hang of it, and that's not as hard as it seems. Just remember, the only real rule is the golden rule. Everything else can be changed to make things work better.

Ian Mathers suggests something vaguely approximating the way sorcerers will turn out. As one of the more interesting and less obvious changes in the edition switch, this one'll need a little more working out.

Gary Sturgess points out how easy it is to achieve the same effect with multiple schools via different methods. He also points out that maximum ages are not remotely a balancing factor between various races in most campaigns. So level limits are actually a bit pointless, because they aren't compensating for anything concrete. Another argument for eliminating them.

Joseph A. Hoffman doesn't want to see D&D dumbed down or made to easy just because some people are scared of a little regeneration or energy draining. Let the dice fall where they may! I think the consensus will drift away from you.


Dungeoncraft: The second column of this is vastly more useful to me than the first one, because it actually has some pertinent advice. It's not obvious stuff, either. While some of the Dungeon Mastery columns give advice that if implemented, would require shittons of bookkeeping, this actively punctures that idea, instead encouraging economy of creativity, and figuring out how to best utilise the time and energy you have. Well, spending all your time creating enormous worlds with tons of houserules is fun when you have that time, but when you're older and have a job and kids eating up most of your time, you have to learn a little more efficiency. It doesn't take that much reskinning to hide the sources of your ideas, and there is a lot of material already out there to draw upon. He also starts giving us a specific example, building up a world of his own, which he intends to continue in future columns. Yay, continuity! We could definitely do with more of that at the moment. So this becomes a good deal more promising, but has yet to follow through on that. Carry on then ……

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 3/8


Sage advice: You're wrong about holy words. They are so blocked by silence spells (No, only the deafening power. Everything else works just dandy. )

Can followers advance levels (If you take them on adventures, they earn half shares. Choose your adventures wisely, for you are name level, and they are not. Replacing them is inconvenient.)

What happens if you put moonweb on a creature (Remember, it reflects attacks both ways. Pacifism's a bitch. Your best option is to walk through your enemies ranks taunting them, and hope they don't catch on. )

How often can you cast teratism ( Once per use. Stacking is as ever awkward)

Can you cast teratism II on a creature if you've already cast teratism I (not to change the same thing. Shoulda thought of that first)

What limits does teratism have (what is this, teratism day? It was a year and a half ago, what's got into you? Just read the description)

Can you cast teratism on a person polymorphed into a duck (Can you use Mind on a vampire turned into a lawnchair? )

Can teratism be dispelled (Yes, thank god. Now let us speak no more of it.)

What are the drawbacks to Wildfire? (The same as the spell imitated. You can still use it to bypass material component costs, though)

How loosely can you define animal (Does it exist in real life? Then it's an animal. No more complicated rule to it.)

What happens if you cast wall of stone in a room full of clay golems (They'll break out eventually, and they'll be pissed. You know how unstable those things are. They're more temperamental than a goat given a nosebag full of chilli peppers. Dunno why priests bother making them. )

Do mirror images fly with their creator (yes)

Can you use phantasmal force to make the illusion you're not there. (No. You are not the zombies.)

What AC does an illusory creature have (about the same as the real thing, maybe a bit worse. )

Does an illusion keep acting once you stop concentrating (only if it's high enough level)

How does fire shield interact with fire resistance (Skip's changed Skip's mind. Skip will let heat and cold resistance negate damage from fire shields. Be grateful for Skip's benevolence. )

What does blindness, deafness and invisibility do to your combat skills (you fail at reading the book. Please try again before you pester Skip with your petty prattling)

Are elves immune to slay living because they're immune to raise dead ( Ha ha ha. That's a good one. It's a long time since Skip heard that one. Skip wasn't even Sage last time someone tried to pull that stunt. The answer is still no. Skip feels no need to gainsay Jean this time.)

Can fighters use miscellaneous magical items (yes. Why would you try and lawyer out of something so useful. )

What, does skip still have to do Alternity questions? Skip refuses, unless skip can get a nice orange box to put them in. Do you hear me, Mr Wizard from the coast? Skip doesn't need you as much as you need Skip. Skip knows how this operation works, and you don't. Skip's the private sage who puts the pages in the mages and the broomstick between the witches legs. Capiche? Eeeexxellent. Bow chikka wow chikka wow. Skip likes the new bosses a lot more than Lorraine.

How the hell do you do all the things you need to fly a ship single-handedly. (autopilots help a lot)

Can you use vehicle operation to do repairs (no)

Does system operations have any benefits over vehicle operations when flying (It can do. Specialization has it's uses. )


Rogue heroes: Another 10 pages of Skills & Powers stuff for thieves and bards to buy. Well, I suppose even more than fighters, they need that flexibility to adapt their array of tricks for the campaign. The standard 8 just don't cut it in every culture and situation. Want to be able to catch missiles in your hands, resist poison, call in favors, see in the dark, detect lies, and more? Well, those are just some of your new options. Seems fairly appropriate, and of course, the way the S&P system works means you aren't getting something for nothing. I think time and repeated exposure has worn away my irritation at the S&P material. That and the other articles lately that throw into sharp relief the flaws in 2e. At least these are trying to address the problem directly, even if they create other problems in the process. Plus the improved formats once again make reading more pleasant. Overall, I'm neutral on this one, which is an improvement by comparison.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 4/8


Hidden Agendas: Well, this month's Greyhawk article isn't doing something the Realms has already done more and better. Instead, it's doing something Planescape and Ravenloft have already done. Secret societies with concrete mechanical benefits and penalties. They aren't restricted to a single class like most kits, and can be stacked with them, possibly providing twinky synergies. Let's see how these compare to the Factions in their coolness.

The Society of the Serpent are your basic ancient lore hunting wizards society. This means they get excellent access to research materials, but have to share any discoveries they make with the rest of the society as well. The kind of thing that shows up in nearly every setting to some degree. Meh.

The Crescent League are rather more specific. They pretended to be a simple mercenary organisation, but were actually a secret front for the Scarlet Brotherhood. They got caught, and are now rather unpopular in most places. They are exceedingly good tacticians though, and can use weapons not normally allowed to their class. They're more likely to make good villains, really.

Fratern Milblinnis are the wizard eliminating equivalent of the Athar. They do their damndest to destroy all wizards and most magical items. This is it's own drawback in the long run, beyond making them very unpopular in your average D&D society. They do get a +2 on all saves vs magic, but really, that's not going to compensate for the awesome powers they're passing up, is it?

Telless ve Turu Decada are the obvious Harper analogue of Oerth, dedicated to fighting evil wherever it may rear it's ugly head. Again, the danger inherent in this is it's own drawback, given the number of powerful evil rulers openly operating round there.

The Azure Masks are another one that's all about gathering knowledge. They go about it in rather a different way though, pretending to be just traveling performers. They get to learn some proficiencies easier, but others are harder, and they have the usual thing where if they're caught and spill, they'll probably end up dead of mysterious causes. So I really don't see any of these breaking your game, unless PC's belong to multiple ones, and their secret agendas wind up tearing the group apart. But they're not wildly imaginative either.


The lost giants of Krynn: Dual stat 5th age articles strike again! You know, didn't we have a giant themed issue a couple of months ago? Maybe this was late, but they still liked it, and used it now. It can't be because they had too many non D&D articles in that issue already. Anyway, the name is pretty self explanatory, although as usual for these kind of articles, I doubt it'll be hard to transplant to another setting, as it's not hugely specific in flavor. Still, having SAGA stats for the monsters as well is nice, and the fact that they're crammed into little statblocks means there's more room for descriptive text in the same pagecount. There are flaws to the standard MM format, and efficiency of space is one of them.

Earth Giants are essentially Terry Pratchett trolls played straight, enormous creatures that appear to be part of the landscape when inactive, and spend centuries at a time asleep. They're surprisingly aware of everything going on around though, and make excellent sources of ancient lore. If you can rouse them in a time of crisis, I'll wager they could match Ents as a tideturner.

Cave Lords are enormous bloated goblins, dwarfing even Bugbears in mass. They have a taste for cannibalism, and avoid sunlight at all costs. They may get too fat to leave their home, but within it, they're surprisingly fast and not to be trifled with. Sounds reasonably mythic to me.

Desolation Giants are humans that have been turned into massive misshapen mutants by the power of the Desolation. This has twisted their mind as well, and now they're stereotypical chaotic evil sadists who are incapable of relating to others save via violence, trickery and betrayal, even when it might be more profitable to play it straight. Gotta love Krynns cheesy 80's cartoon morals. Put them out of your misery before they add to it if at all possible, and don't hang around anywhere that might do the same to you.

Half-Giants have a slightly easier time in Krynn than they do in Athas, but still face prejudice whichever side of their heritage they spend time with. They get reasonable capabilities as PC's, but are always going to be fighty sorts. Well, breeding with hill & stone giants is just about anatomically feasible, but having sex with a Storm Giant just isn't going to be pleasurable for either party. I suppose there's always a turkey baster if you're that desperate to have kids. All of these were fairly amusing and quite easy to write about. I think they can have my approval, even if half-giants are getting rather rehashed now. They definitely ought to have a place in the generic books, given how common they are.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 5/8


Fiction: The span by Diane Duane. Youuuuuuu. oints: Actually, no, I'm thinking of someone else, as my look back over the archive shows she's responsible for some of the better regarded Star Trek books. It's other people who were responsible for the characterisation violating, idiot ball juggling abominations we saw slated several times in the book reviews column (RIP ) Instead we have a rather interesting bit of writing full of nuanced social interaction, and magic involving sex as an integral part of the plot line, with all the complications and worries arising from that you'd imagine. In short, this is one that'd never have been published a few years ago, with the TSR code of conduct in full force. There's a little bit of cosmological detail and magic as science stuff, but it takes a back seat to the human element here. So this once again shows the difference in quality between the mainstream writers who contribute and the staff guys doing Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance stuff. They could do with a little more cross-promotion if they want to grow their fanbase again.


Wyrms of the north: Ah yes, Mercury Dragons. The draconic equivalent of Kender. :spits: Whizzing around the place, dazzling people, and generally being good-naturedly mischievous. Here we combine that with a pulp daredevil flyer, the kind who crashes into a scene, makes a nuisance of himself, and then takes off again and leaves other people to deal with the consequences. He also has an awesome secret hideout filled with traps and monsters that'll be the envy of every evil wizard who tries to penetrate it. Plenty of detail is also gone into his treasure, but unusually for Ed, he doesn't have any unique spells. So like a lot of these dragons, he might serve as an ally or an enemy, depending how much tolerance the PC's have for whimsy and pranks. So this really reminds us that Ed is as cheesy as ever, and that's unlikely to end when this column does. If you want to adventure in the Realms, you're going to have to live with that, or spend a lot of time cleaning out the goofier elements.


PC Portraits: This has some roguish characters. They seem to skew slightly younger-looking than the recent instalments of this series, but there's the usual wide range of races, sexes, and personality types. They might trick you, they might go unnoticed while stealing, or they might use force to get what they want. Probably the safest thing to do is to not trust anyone. But that in itself can condemn you to a lonely paranoid life. Oh, the dilemma. Best to at least try and make people think you trust them. It does help a little bit, given that most people do adhere at least a little to do as you would be done by.


Dragon's bestiary: Hmm. 4 issues ago, we got a collection of monsters based on the works of M R James. This time they're converting stuff from the computer game Heretic II. This is an interesting development. We saw plenty of characters converted in the old GitE articles, but monsters were less likely to be direct rips. I wonder if this trend will continue. In any case, it'll give us some interesting visuals, even if the monsters may occupy the same niche as existing D&D ones.

Plague sidhe are elves infected with a deadly and highly contagious disease that makes them attack all noninfected people in the vicinity. A great justification for enemies that attack on sight, and need to be taken out from a distance.

Plague spreaders are the mid level bads behind the disease, ensuring it spreads with rather more intelligence and some neat technomagical devices. Take them out and things become more manageable, but you may have to be put down after fighting them. It does add rather a tragic edge to proceedings. Looks like like many books, they're going for accurate conversions rather than fair, which I generally approve of.

Parthoris Gorgons are adorable little dinosaur like creatures that'll leap at you and get blown away. Watch out for back attacks, because that'll be rather unpleasant to say the least.

G'Grokon just look strange. Semi-bipedal bug things, they're pretty weedy, but spit acid balls with a very high RoF, so if you're standing still, your life meter'll go down fast. Another case where I can see the game tropes showing through and contrasting with the usual D&D design ones to interesting effect.

Parthoris harpys fly around and dive on you. Another one that seems like a decent challenge, but not too spectacular or imaginative in terms of abilities. Not a bad conversion, overall, and they've added a nice amount of ecological data. This is rather better than the endless rehashes lately.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 6/8


Arcane Lore: Music based magic. You seem a fairly familiar subject. Spooky music based magic? That's a pretty decent combination. Distinct enough to be unique so far, but common enough mythologically to draw upon. Has potential.

Chant of Dark Summons lets you bring forth lesser demons from the abyss. As usual, this carries pretty substantial risks. And don't even think about trying to summon cascade the buggers. That will not go to your benefit. I'd go with regular animals instead.

Chorus of Wrath buffs those who join in. The more people who join in, the more each individual is buffed. Power in numbers! I do love synergistic effects.

Danse Macabre is a lesser version of the city undeadifying ritual from recent Ravenloft adventures. Honestly, next thing you know everyone'll be using it, and then someone'll develop a planetwide variant, and then where will we be? Screwed, that's where. Sure, everyone being undead may sound neat at first, no more death, no more horrible crawling squishy ecosystem of everything eating everything else, but sooner or later your fingers are going to start coming off, and who'll replace them? Cotton to sew stuff comes from plants you know.

Haunting Melody brings the victim back as a ghost. If done without their consent, this may make them cranky. And of course, knowing ghosts, they may wind up going nuts after a while anyway.

Nocturne envelops you in gloom, so you can brood properly without being disturbed by that irritating sunlight. Perfect for vampires who need to be up and about, and don't mind making themselves conspicuous.

Eerie Piping is like Heat Metal, if you don't get away, it gradually gets ever more unpleasant. Still, it's very very unlikely to have it's full effects on most listeners.

Fiendish Fantasia twists everything into a nightmare landscape, distorted and looming. Once again I refer you to the wondrous creepiness of Watership Down.

Keening is basically a banshee wail. Had that before. In a proper sourcebook too. Run better editorial checks. The new spell compendia should make that easier too.

Melody of Madness is another one that gradually builds in unpleasantness as time goes on. This kind of thing is why you need mates around to catch you when about to fall. Keep those curative spells handy.

Nightmare Lullaby is a lower lever variant on the regular Nightmare spell. The goal is the same. Disturb their sleep, give them penalties later. Muahahahaha.

Siren Song makes people let you wander through undisturbed, and wind up surprised if you do anything nasty. Turnaround is fair play when so many monsters pull tricks like that.

Sorrel's Dirge is another angstfest. Nothing wrong with turning depression on other people to make them suffer penalties instead of you.

Swan Song brings us to a close, with a spell that may well kill the caster, but will at least let them take quite a few of the enemies with them. Sounds about right. Swans do make an awful racket if you annoy them. They're not quite as psychotic as geese though.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 7/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Another Rogue focussed article interspersed with the other ones this month. They're always appreciative of magical items that enhance their ability to take stuff, although sometimes not to the extent of actually paying after having them commissioned.

The Harp of Screams is an interesting little alarm system. It'll make a ghastly racket if triggered, which is useful for both thieves who want a diversion, and people guarding their stuff.

Shadowgloves let you reach through containers to get at the valuables inside without disturbing things. Just don't use them on extradimensional storage devices, for the usual ugly boom happens.

Wandering Eyes give you a security network you can easily flick through. Just plonk them in strategic locations for maximum benefit. Since they can't propel themselves, this is once again probably more useful for foiling thieves than assisting them

Liar's Boots create a false trail of footprints going in a different direction to your actual destination, while leaving no actual tracks on you. Dead handy, really.

Darkdust is a very cliched name indeed. It creates a black cloud wherever it is thrown, hopefully blinding the victim and allowing for escape. Well, it's slightly less obtrusive for a burglar than the similar ones that blind by flashes of light.

Rings of Dodging let you improve your AC against one opponent. Once again we see a trick that would become standard next edition. I suspect those are going to increase over the next few months.

Ringdaggers are yet another way of concealing a weapon and then instantly calling it to hand. Yawn. As if we don't suspect everyone automatically by now.

Spider Rope stretches out and ties around things on command. No great surprises there.

Keys of Disruption completely seal a door magically. You'll have to rely on old fashioned violence to get out. Better hope you didn't make your fortress impregnable then

Chameleon Keys aren't as good as skeleton keys, as you have to touch them to the key you want to imitate. Still, that does seem less likely to break an entire adventure. Once again with the weaker variants for game balance's sake.


Role models: So minis are finally back. Like other systems, they've had a spotty treatment in the magazine. One of the things bumped off in the 96 "refocussing", it looks like they've decided there's enough public demand to give them another go. And once again they get a new column name. That's the fifth time. Just don't stick, do they. Lets see how long this one lasts.

As with Dungeoncraft last month, they start out with a cost analysis of getting into minis in the first place. More evidence that the staff are more money conscious now than in the TSR days. You'll need one for each PC, a modest selection of models for monsters, and preferably some paints as well. This actually probably won't cost as much as the three AD&D corebooks, but it's not a trivial expenditure either. Running parallel to that is an explanation on how you translate movement rates into scale inches. So once again they really are starting from level 0, aiming at people who don't have a clue what they're doing, and wouldn't research this kind of information proactively. Since being spoonfed isn't really to my tastes, and I remember the advanced mini painting advice in 1980, I do feel inclined to make a darn kids, gitoffa mah lawn quip. Make gratification too instant, and people won't value what you provide. Don't get insecure because the internet now offers infinite distractions. Stick to your guns.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 8/8


Blood philosophy, the world of the Weren: Another expansion of a particular Alternity race is the article that system gets this month. Honorbound warrior sorts from a harsh environment? That seems fairly familiar. Still, they're certainly not klingon rip-offs. Instead, they're huge hairy things which look like they have walrus or polar bear derivation, and come from a planet that's fairly chilly even at the equator, with enormous icecaps covering most of it's mass. They're from a fairly traditional culture, but there's now plenty of them out in space, getting assimilated and forgetting their traditional values. So while they do have a stereotype, you have plenty of leeway to play them against type if you want. They dip into ecology, sociology, religion, philosophy, language, and it's obvious some effort has been put into keeping things scientifically plausible. It's not the most entertaining to read of articles, but it does seem to be of pretty decent quality, and has enough density of ideas to support re-reading. Now, if they could just do something about the dryness to draw people in better.


The blood war makes it's way into dragonmirth. Swordplay takes a leaf out of Nodwicks book on the proper treatment of hirelings. KotDT engages in some lame horsetrading, in more ways than one.


TSR Previews: D&D gets another fast-play adventure, Eye of the Wyvern. The first introduced you to dungeoneering, now this brings the wilderness into things. Roll on the next generation.

AD&D has several bits of rehash. On the generic side, there's dungeons of despair, a collection of some of the best adventures from the magazine. While Ravenloft collects 3 of it's old books in Van Richten's monster hunter compendium. They do seem to be increasing the amount of this lately. Roll on .pdf's and the long tail.

Dragonlance bounces back and forth along it's timeline as usual. The Sylvan Veil is another dual stat adventure, covering a whole load of the elven nation's history. Just what choices will you have a chance to make here. There's also The Puppet King by Doug Niles. Looks like the elves are going to have a crappy time of things just like everyone else.

The Forgotten Realms is still concentrating on the seaside in Star of Currash by Clayton Emery. A hidden undead city? Pulp action? Plenty of fun to be had there.

And Alternity gets an adventure. Planet of Darkness. Hidden secrets and sociopolitical crap? They are still trying. Good luck with that.


Profiles: rk post is one of our more recent new artists. Signing up just before TSR crashed and burned, thankfully, the new management kept him on. He's just starting to really make an impact, having done a lot to shape the look of Alternity with his prelediction towards the weird. Sounds like he fits in here just fine. Like quite a few of the staff, he's an absolute obsessive, painting for work, and painting for entertainment in his free time as well. Suppose that's how you get really good at it. Come on, surely he has some personality quirks or something you can write about? I dunno. These profiles aren't the most insightful, are they. First Quest was way better at getting inside the heads of the writers.


Slightly more continuity in this issue than recently, but it still feels very much like a collection of articles to be judged on their individual merits, rather than as a whole. It's not exactly groundhog day, but most of the wheel-spinning is happening behind the scenes as they prepare for the edition change. Say you'll shift into a higher gear at some point. Maybe I should speed up again. Surely I can do this.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 1/8


124 pages. Roger Raupp is back again, with another Arthurian cover, which has quite a bit of similarity to the one he did 12 years ago in issue 125, only closer perspective and with more saturation on the colour. Guess time hasn't changed that interest. The issue's theme is the Dark Ages, which fits in, even if it might not be that different from the regular medieval D&D assumptions. I guess it all depends on the details, and there's certainly plenty of information to research from on this topic. How will they balance the twin demands of accuracy and fun this issue? Well, that would be telling. Fortunately, I've never been averse to spoilers.


Scan quality: Good, a little visible grain and oversaturation. No index.


In this issue:


Man, that's a lot of adverts before we even get to the first feature. Particular demerits go to lands of lore III, which just looks fugly. This is not making me want to buy these things.


The wyrms turn has much the same ideas as I do about the balancing of fantastical elements and realism. If anything, they go into rather more detail, and examine how this intersects with sci-fi as well as fantasy. When there really was something there, you can accurately judge how accurate it was. Otherwise it's just a matter of attention to detail and verisimilitude rather than actual accuracy. Makes sense to me. Talk about realistic magic is a bit silly really, when you step back. On the other hand, a magic system could indeed be better or worse for telling a compelling story with, and an author could stick to the rules they established, or wind up breaking them, and you could do some objective analysis on those grounds. So this makes me think about the nature of reality, and how different people might perceive and react to the same thing differently, and there's vast quantities of information we don't have the senses to process, but there's still an underlying reality there. (unless you're a hardcore soliptist. ) So logically, the fewer biases and preconceptions you have, the closer you come to seeing what's actually in front of you. Well, there are dumber sounding routes to enlightenment.


D-Mail: A letter telling them that they're great, and the magazine is great. They shouldn't expect to please everyone all the time, and should stick to making good articles. Don't get jittery and blow it by overthinking things.

A letter asking for them to put the map of dragon territories from the annual online. The site they reference is still up as of writing this, but I can't find the map itself. Such is the nature of progress.

A mostly positive analysis of issue 254. They do seem to have more people individually examining each article these days. Must be something in the airwaves.

A letter saying they should give more credit to their cover artists. After all, if anyone's going to bring in new blood, it's them. They take this constructive criticism on board eagerly. Let new artists make a name for themselves.

Another Dragonlance casting letter. This seems likely to carry on running until the editors lose interest. After all, it has more built up history than Scud and Allycia.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 2/8


Nodwick saves the day again! What a hero!


Forum: Tim Ellenbecker thinks you ought to detach combat levels from skill levels, so PC's can pick up lots of proficiencies if they can find the time, independently of if they're badass or not. I still don't think that's a bad idea.

M. Keaton thinks that the people who want tons of options collated into the corebooks are wrong. This is a definite case where things should be kept simple. We want to get new people in, after all.

Jason F. Smith is another person who believes in templates and story based experience rewards. Clap your hands if you believe and they'll be applied to your characters!

David Higgins is another person who thinks saves should be based around the ability score that resists the effects. And the probabilities ought to change less as you go up levels. If they're dithering about fort, ref & will, this'll help them decide.

Joseph F. Matons reminds us druids are awesome, despite being frequently overlooked. It's not an edition based comment, but still very appropriate since they'll be even more awesome soon.


Dungeoncraft: This month's column moves onto creating the home base. This focusses upon macro details such as size, political system, and primary economic products, rather that details that'll instantly be useful to players, like the inn layout and shopping lists. While this may lead to larger adventures, it won't be as instantly useful or easy as drawing a map, filling it with monsters, and setting the players loose to play. I guess Ray has bigger fish to fry, and we already have more dungeon crawl modules than we can use. But still, it seems like he's trying to start small, but then slipping back into top down worldbuilding. Still, the example world is coming along nicely, with an edge of civilisation fortified settlement that's heavy on wandering adventurers and rumours of stuff for them to do. Do a little more of what he's doing, not what he's saying, and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 3/8


Sage advice: Do you know any languages if you don't spend a slot on one (yes. You cannot give that language up for an extra slot, even if you have the spells to get around it)

Does a 1 on surprise rolls always equal surprise even if you have bonuses (you decide)

What penalty do you suffer for being underwater? The DMG contradicts itself (God, have we still not cleared the errata on that out after a decade of reprints? Bit late now, I guess. +4)

How does a yo-yo of fate work (personally, and occasionally. It's not the game-breaker you seem to think it is)

How much of a person's body do you need to raise them. Raising needs all of them. Ressurection can regrow them from a tiny bit. Those extra 2 levels really come in handy.)

What happens when you wrestle someone with stoneskin on (The spell provides no protection. Betcha didn't expect that, cully. )

Can you cast spells while grappled. (No. Even verbal only spells are a bugger to get out while you're being groped.)

How does a scimitar of speed work under Players option rules (kludgily)

Can nondetection protect you from magical wards (no. Wrong school of magic)

How near do you need to be to an effect to use storm's spell thrust. (Inside it. No protection by proxy. )

How does a dimensional blade affect flesh ( Brutally, but not that brutally. All D&D characters above 1st level are superhuman, remember.)

What happens when undead use channeling ( The usual. Undead immunity to fatigue is like paladin immunity to disease. Magical stuff can get through it )

Are death knights affected by their own fireballs (yes. Just like wizards, you've gotta take account of the terrain when using your artillery. )

Can you put a low level spell in a higher level slot (Same as it ever was. Even now we remember what we used to say. Take a clean break wash that love away.)

How does a book of the planes work (Read it, go to the top layer. Not hard. )

How many spells can a draincone drain (dunno. How many did you cast? )

What's the right area of effect for a swordward (chunky slices. Better get buffing.

What, does Skip have to answer Marvel super heroes questions as well this month. Hmm. Skip'll do it, but this time, skip wants a purple box. Skip couldn't possibly do Skip's work without it. Can't go mixing the Marvel and Alternity questions up, can we? You will, Mr Wizard from the coast? Why thank you. Ha. Suckers. Skip wonders what else Skip can pressure the new management into giving him.

Has Threnody been cured of the legacy virus or not (we don't know yet. Even if we get an answer, marvel may retcon it anyway)

How much damage does a fall do. (Has a superhero ever been seriously hurt by falling? Not often. Get the Reed Richards guide to everything if you really need to know)

How strong do you need to be to throw something. (depends what you want to lift. Is comparing two figures on a chart really that hard?)

Can you use doom and have it used against you straight away. (no. You don't suffer the consequences until at least next scene. Just enough time to get cocky)

What happens if you make a contingent boxing attack. (skip has no idea, so skip will spout vaguely plausible technobabble and hope that makers you go away.)

The characters from the comics break the rules of the game! (and you are surprised why? They have tons of experience, and narrative fiat behind them. You don't. Live with it. )