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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4738394" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Issue 109: May 1986</u></strong></p><p></p><p>part 2/4</p><p></p><p>Worth its weight in gold: Oh, this is hilarious. A guide to dwarven beards,and how they style them throughout their lives. And this writer definitely falls into the female dwarves have beards, and they're proud of them too camp. As does the illustrator. From their first adolescent sproutings, to courtship, to marriage, to venerable elderhood, a dwarf's beard can tell you a lot about them. And since it's so important to their social status, it's no wonder they have a distrust for those pointy eared hairless pansies from the woods. It might be pure fluff, but I found it very entertaining, without being a complete joke. You shoulda had this last issue. We could do with some more light stuff like this in here. </p><p></p><p>The ecology of the displacer beast: Now here's a classic D&D monster. With an ability that exists purely to confuse people, they are pretty nasty predators, but not so far removed from real creatures as to seem utterly detached from the ecosystem. We get plenty of detailed physiological chatter in this one, taking us from birth to death, and talking about their antagonistic relationship with blink dogs. A very sage-ey entry, with lots of IC academic talk, this is good, but not exceptional. Needs to make a bit more stuff up, rather than sticking to the details in the manual. </p><p></p><p>The role of books: The initiate by Louise Cooper is a story of a world where the cosmic balance has shifted too far towards Law, and the protagonist finds himself being the one to overturn that. Neither side is really good or evil, and both have understandable motivations for doing what they do, so it's a tough choice who to sympathize with. Where will the rest of the trilogy take them? </p><p>Shuttle down by Lee Correy is an interestingly prophetic story of space a space accident, that turns out to be sabotage. Espionage, bureaucracy and sci-fi aren't the most obvious bedfellows, but this combines them quite well, to produce a tightly woven plot that is eminently stealable for your game. </p><p>The seekers and the sword by Michael Jan Friedman tells the tale of what happens after ragnarok. Most of the norse pantheon is wiped out, the world has recovered, and there has been thousands of years of relative peace. But someone always has to spoil things, and It's up to the peaceful Vidar to save the day against a cunning and mysterious adversary. This makes good use of the old legends without being bound by them. </p><p>Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly is another story of a dragonslayer who really isn't as impressive as the legends make out. The dragon is really just the macguffin that drives the story, with lots of political and romantic intrigue involved as the protagonists try and figure out how to solve this problem, and who's really behind it. Even the dragon gets a proper characterization. </p><p>Where dragons lie by R.A.V Salsitz, on the other hand, is just another generic dragon hunting story. It gets a thoroughly mehsome review. </p><p>Time of the twins by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the start of the new Dragonlance series. Raistlin's gone evil, and it's up to Caramon and Tasslehoff to stop him. But first, Caramon has to beat the demon drink. So it's not an entirely bowdlerized tale of happy shiny heroics and cardboard cut-out villains. Which is probably a good thing. After all, what would be the point of a straight retread of the first series? </p><p>The warlock enraged by Christopher Stasheff continues his interesting series about a real wizard on a planet full of SCA'ites. Only now he has kids, and they're developing unusual powers as well. This is going to get even more interesting as new factions show up to cause trouble. </p><p>Spinneret by Timothy Zahn is a rather complex sci-fi tale of discovering new technologies, trying to unravel them, and the competition between various factions, as they try and take advantage of these new discoveries. Which would probably be rather a headache as a world for gaming in, but it does make for fascinating reading. You'll have to steal and adapt carefully if you want to use the ideas from here. </p><p></p><p>War machine revisited: Now this is an underused subsystem if ever there was one. The mass combat rules from the Companion set get an expansion in this article. Naval combat, scouting, and lots of sample forces and officers. This is nice to see. I'll have to dig my companion set out and see how mechanically sound they are. Scouting in particular has a rather fiddly procedure attached to it, with math that seems more about clever use of dice rather than emulation of the realities of scouting. This is the kind of stuff you should only use if you do use the war machine in your games frequently, as many of it's rules involve the idea that you will be keeping a largely consistent roster of troops, replacing the ones that are lost, and advancing the ones that survive through multiple battles. Like the barbarian cleric, I'm still skeptical as to whether including them would improve a game, but I would be very interested in testing them out, so I could know for sure. </p><p></p><p>The uncommon tongue: Languages makes another appearance in this guide to ye olde english, and how to incorporate it into your game to make things sound more medieval. Because even if the language in your fantasy world sounds nothing like english, and hasn't evolved in a remotely similar way, it's still a good shorthand for previous eras that most people have at least a casual acquaintance with. You can't really be expected to invent a world wholecloth just for a weekly game. And if you did, your players probably wouldn't find it as easy to enjoy anyway. A little familiarity like this is probably for the good. </p><p></p><p>The paragon society for wargamers advertises itself, but not very well. I don't remember these guys, so I am dubious as to their survival prospects. Anyone remember this? </p><p></p><p>The eleven (sic) fighter/mage miniature from ral partha? They really need a better editor. </p><p></p><p>Locals aren't all yokels: So you have players who think they can act like arrogant jackasses whenever they come into town, who consider emrikol the chaotic a good role model. After all, they're just 0th level peons. What chance do they have against someone who can unleash fireballs, or windmill their way through mooks like a cat through a roll of toilet paper. Well, remember you're not the only game in town. Chances are, in a dangerous world, there are plenty of people who worked their way up to a decent level, then settled down with their ill-gotten gains due to laziness, shyness, love or political ambition. And remember, age is not a serious impediment in D&D. You have plenty of excuses to scatter higher level characters through ordinary settlements. Homicidal arrogance will rapidly become suicidal unless the DM is deliberately making the opposition incompetent. A single page article that makes an important point.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 4738394, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Issue 109: May 1986[/U][/B] part 2/4 Worth its weight in gold: Oh, this is hilarious. A guide to dwarven beards,and how they style them throughout their lives. And this writer definitely falls into the female dwarves have beards, and they're proud of them too camp. As does the illustrator. From their first adolescent sproutings, to courtship, to marriage, to venerable elderhood, a dwarf's beard can tell you a lot about them. And since it's so important to their social status, it's no wonder they have a distrust for those pointy eared hairless pansies from the woods. It might be pure fluff, but I found it very entertaining, without being a complete joke. You shoulda had this last issue. We could do with some more light stuff like this in here. The ecology of the displacer beast: Now here's a classic D&D monster. With an ability that exists purely to confuse people, they are pretty nasty predators, but not so far removed from real creatures as to seem utterly detached from the ecosystem. We get plenty of detailed physiological chatter in this one, taking us from birth to death, and talking about their antagonistic relationship with blink dogs. A very sage-ey entry, with lots of IC academic talk, this is good, but not exceptional. Needs to make a bit more stuff up, rather than sticking to the details in the manual. The role of books: The initiate by Louise Cooper is a story of a world where the cosmic balance has shifted too far towards Law, and the protagonist finds himself being the one to overturn that. Neither side is really good or evil, and both have understandable motivations for doing what they do, so it's a tough choice who to sympathize with. Where will the rest of the trilogy take them? Shuttle down by Lee Correy is an interestingly prophetic story of space a space accident, that turns out to be sabotage. Espionage, bureaucracy and sci-fi aren't the most obvious bedfellows, but this combines them quite well, to produce a tightly woven plot that is eminently stealable for your game. The seekers and the sword by Michael Jan Friedman tells the tale of what happens after ragnarok. Most of the norse pantheon is wiped out, the world has recovered, and there has been thousands of years of relative peace. But someone always has to spoil things, and It's up to the peaceful Vidar to save the day against a cunning and mysterious adversary. This makes good use of the old legends without being bound by them. Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly is another story of a dragonslayer who really isn't as impressive as the legends make out. The dragon is really just the macguffin that drives the story, with lots of political and romantic intrigue involved as the protagonists try and figure out how to solve this problem, and who's really behind it. Even the dragon gets a proper characterization. Where dragons lie by R.A.V Salsitz, on the other hand, is just another generic dragon hunting story. It gets a thoroughly mehsome review. Time of the twins by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the start of the new Dragonlance series. Raistlin's gone evil, and it's up to Caramon and Tasslehoff to stop him. But first, Caramon has to beat the demon drink. So it's not an entirely bowdlerized tale of happy shiny heroics and cardboard cut-out villains. Which is probably a good thing. After all, what would be the point of a straight retread of the first series? The warlock enraged by Christopher Stasheff continues his interesting series about a real wizard on a planet full of SCA'ites. Only now he has kids, and they're developing unusual powers as well. This is going to get even more interesting as new factions show up to cause trouble. Spinneret by Timothy Zahn is a rather complex sci-fi tale of discovering new technologies, trying to unravel them, and the competition between various factions, as they try and take advantage of these new discoveries. Which would probably be rather a headache as a world for gaming in, but it does make for fascinating reading. You'll have to steal and adapt carefully if you want to use the ideas from here. War machine revisited: Now this is an underused subsystem if ever there was one. The mass combat rules from the Companion set get an expansion in this article. Naval combat, scouting, and lots of sample forces and officers. This is nice to see. I'll have to dig my companion set out and see how mechanically sound they are. Scouting in particular has a rather fiddly procedure attached to it, with math that seems more about clever use of dice rather than emulation of the realities of scouting. This is the kind of stuff you should only use if you do use the war machine in your games frequently, as many of it's rules involve the idea that you will be keeping a largely consistent roster of troops, replacing the ones that are lost, and advancing the ones that survive through multiple battles. Like the barbarian cleric, I'm still skeptical as to whether including them would improve a game, but I would be very interested in testing them out, so I could know for sure. The uncommon tongue: Languages makes another appearance in this guide to ye olde english, and how to incorporate it into your game to make things sound more medieval. Because even if the language in your fantasy world sounds nothing like english, and hasn't evolved in a remotely similar way, it's still a good shorthand for previous eras that most people have at least a casual acquaintance with. You can't really be expected to invent a world wholecloth just for a weekly game. And if you did, your players probably wouldn't find it as easy to enjoy anyway. A little familiarity like this is probably for the good. The paragon society for wargamers advertises itself, but not very well. I don't remember these guys, so I am dubious as to their survival prospects. Anyone remember this? The eleven (sic) fighter/mage miniature from ral partha? They really need a better editor. Locals aren't all yokels: So you have players who think they can act like arrogant jackasses whenever they come into town, who consider emrikol the chaotic a good role model. After all, they're just 0th level peons. What chance do they have against someone who can unleash fireballs, or windmill their way through mooks like a cat through a roll of toilet paper. Well, remember you're not the only game in town. Chances are, in a dangerous world, there are plenty of people who worked their way up to a decent level, then settled down with their ill-gotten gains due to laziness, shyness, love or political ambition. And remember, age is not a serious impediment in D&D. You have plenty of excuses to scatter higher level characters through ordinary settlements. Homicidal arrogance will rapidly become suicidal unless the DM is deliberately making the opposition incompetent. A single page article that makes an important point. [/QUOTE]
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