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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4777867" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Issue 116: December 1986</u></strong></p><p></p><p>part 4/4</p><p></p><p>The role of computers is starting to ease into the swing of things, having received plenty of mail by now. So a few ground rules need to be set, as they make clear what they are not going to do. (so don't send us whining mail about that. ) Ho hum. You can only do so much. So you've gotta try and please the largest audience. Anyway, this month's main review is of Dragonfire II. A tremendously customizable game, this allows you to build characters, monsters, places, and even run battles. It can be used to handle the mathematical bits for all sorts of roleplaying games, with a minimum of effort. Just the sort of thing they ought to be letting us know about in this column. Anyone use this back in the day? Seems like it would be even more useful these days, with the massive increase in memory sizes and portability of laptops. </p><p>Our other review is a more conventional computer game. Bards Tale. Train up your team to fight Mangar the dark. An integral part of this is keeping your Bard well sozzled so he can sing songs to buff the rest of the party <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> Even the city streets are incredibly dangerous. But if you already have experienced characters from Wizardry or Ultima III, you can convert them over. It is a bit grindy, with big fights you can't run away from, and you have to get all the way back to the adventurers guild each time to save and level up. So you need to be a careful tactician to advance far. This is not a game that mollycoddles you, but the reviewers have no objection to that. </p><p></p><p>TSR Previews: Not a lot of stuff coming up next month. AD&D gets H2: The mines of bloodstone. Following on from H1, this aims to prove that AD&D can do epic high level adventures too. Right on the other end of the scale, we have N4: Treasure hunt, for 0 level characters. Can you survive in a battle between goblins and orcs using only your wits? Good luck, you'll need it. Somewhere in the middle, we have DA2: Temple of the frog. Go back in time, both in and out of the game, to see this redone, expanded adventure from the very second supplement for OD&D. Not a brilliant name, but a lot scarier and more complex than it seems. </p><p></p><p>The marvel-phile: Jeff continues to mix the silly with the serious with aplomb. Because lets face it, the marvel universe has far too many silly characters to only do one a year for april. We get Crossfire, who is deadly serious, despite having a very silly outfit (posing pouch for vampire hunting strippers, hee) and will turn heroes against each other given half a chance. We also get another amusingly themed supervillain team, the Death Throws. Ringleader, Oddball, Tenpin, Bombshell and Knickknack. All specialize in throwing objects related to their name. Beyond parody, isn't it? Jeff is fully aware of that, and loving it, taking time to hone his faux editorial banter along the way. He's becoming almost as entertaining a writer as Ed. Will he keep his promise to bring us the Marauders next month? Does Roger ever really get to recline on a sofa with his workload? All will be revealed soon enough. </p><p></p><p>Skyrealms of jorune! Another fascinating new game starting soon. Will we see articles for this one? </p><p></p><p>Dr who?: Oh, this is nice. Another game we've seen around for quite a while actually gets an article dedicated to it. And we just had some Dr Who reviews last month. Curious that it's appearances in the magazine should be on the up just as the tv series is about to go into terminal decline.</p><p>Anyway, here we get to see stats for all 6 currently extant incarnations of the Doctor. Which they ought to have in the game anyway, but apparently these ones are corrected :sigh: Errata, errata, do you really matter? Anyway, this gives us a good idea of what they system looks like, apparently a fairly simple attribute and ability based one with a scale of 1 to 6. If you're interested in the show, you may well be tempted by this, but mechanically, nothing here seems particularly groundbreaking. Eh, as long as it does the job, and provides for fun games, it doesn't matter if it's complex or simple. And since the Doctor is probably at the upper end of the system's power level, it should be even simpler for regular PC's. </p><p></p><p>Aim and burn: Flamethrowers! Like their low tech D&D variant, throwing vials of flaming oil, these are highly effective weapons that are far too often ignored. What could be more fun than watching your enemies scream as you melt their face, while you laugh maniacally? For some reason, this article introduces them to the Traveller system. We get several models, rules for the special effects they have on things and creatures hit by them, plus a load of implied setting about the manufacturers to better integrate them into the setting. In another case of retro-future anachronisms that we wouldn't see in games today, we also have stats for asbestos spray, which you obviously use to counter fire attacks. We shall assume that they've found a way to keep you from getting cancer if you spray it all over your body. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> Definitely an article I enjoyed more than I really should <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p>Snarfquest continues to build up tension for the final showdown. Dragonmirth features the wrath of god. Wormy sets up that old classic, a pit trap. </p><p></p><p>Quite a good issue, overall. Both the themed bits and the general articles have an above average number of good articles, keeping this one fairly pleasurable to read. And even the ones I'm not so keen on, the minotaur and animal ones, are annoying in ways I could actively disagree with, rather than simply being boring. This is pretty pleasing. It's nice to end the year on an up note, after having found the average quality to be a good deal lower than the previous three years. Hopefully Roger'll avoid getting bored and burnt out in turn for quite a while, and the magazine'll sustain that over the next year. We might have slowed down, but I'm not stopping 'til this is over, one way or another. There's still way too much to see for that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 4777867, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Issue 116: December 1986[/U][/B] part 4/4 The role of computers is starting to ease into the swing of things, having received plenty of mail by now. So a few ground rules need to be set, as they make clear what they are not going to do. (so don't send us whining mail about that. ) Ho hum. You can only do so much. So you've gotta try and please the largest audience. Anyway, this month's main review is of Dragonfire II. A tremendously customizable game, this allows you to build characters, monsters, places, and even run battles. It can be used to handle the mathematical bits for all sorts of roleplaying games, with a minimum of effort. Just the sort of thing they ought to be letting us know about in this column. Anyone use this back in the day? Seems like it would be even more useful these days, with the massive increase in memory sizes and portability of laptops. Our other review is a more conventional computer game. Bards Tale. Train up your team to fight Mangar the dark. An integral part of this is keeping your Bard well sozzled so he can sing songs to buff the rest of the party ;) Even the city streets are incredibly dangerous. But if you already have experienced characters from Wizardry or Ultima III, you can convert them over. It is a bit grindy, with big fights you can't run away from, and you have to get all the way back to the adventurers guild each time to save and level up. So you need to be a careful tactician to advance far. This is not a game that mollycoddles you, but the reviewers have no objection to that. TSR Previews: Not a lot of stuff coming up next month. AD&D gets H2: The mines of bloodstone. Following on from H1, this aims to prove that AD&D can do epic high level adventures too. Right on the other end of the scale, we have N4: Treasure hunt, for 0 level characters. Can you survive in a battle between goblins and orcs using only your wits? Good luck, you'll need it. Somewhere in the middle, we have DA2: Temple of the frog. Go back in time, both in and out of the game, to see this redone, expanded adventure from the very second supplement for OD&D. Not a brilliant name, but a lot scarier and more complex than it seems. The marvel-phile: Jeff continues to mix the silly with the serious with aplomb. Because lets face it, the marvel universe has far too many silly characters to only do one a year for april. We get Crossfire, who is deadly serious, despite having a very silly outfit (posing pouch for vampire hunting strippers, hee) and will turn heroes against each other given half a chance. We also get another amusingly themed supervillain team, the Death Throws. Ringleader, Oddball, Tenpin, Bombshell and Knickknack. All specialize in throwing objects related to their name. Beyond parody, isn't it? Jeff is fully aware of that, and loving it, taking time to hone his faux editorial banter along the way. He's becoming almost as entertaining a writer as Ed. Will he keep his promise to bring us the Marauders next month? Does Roger ever really get to recline on a sofa with his workload? All will be revealed soon enough. Skyrealms of jorune! Another fascinating new game starting soon. Will we see articles for this one? Dr who?: Oh, this is nice. Another game we've seen around for quite a while actually gets an article dedicated to it. And we just had some Dr Who reviews last month. Curious that it's appearances in the magazine should be on the up just as the tv series is about to go into terminal decline. Anyway, here we get to see stats for all 6 currently extant incarnations of the Doctor. Which they ought to have in the game anyway, but apparently these ones are corrected :sigh: Errata, errata, do you really matter? Anyway, this gives us a good idea of what they system looks like, apparently a fairly simple attribute and ability based one with a scale of 1 to 6. If you're interested in the show, you may well be tempted by this, but mechanically, nothing here seems particularly groundbreaking. Eh, as long as it does the job, and provides for fun games, it doesn't matter if it's complex or simple. And since the Doctor is probably at the upper end of the system's power level, it should be even simpler for regular PC's. Aim and burn: Flamethrowers! Like their low tech D&D variant, throwing vials of flaming oil, these are highly effective weapons that are far too often ignored. What could be more fun than watching your enemies scream as you melt their face, while you laugh maniacally? For some reason, this article introduces them to the Traveller system. We get several models, rules for the special effects they have on things and creatures hit by them, plus a load of implied setting about the manufacturers to better integrate them into the setting. In another case of retro-future anachronisms that we wouldn't see in games today, we also have stats for asbestos spray, which you obviously use to counter fire attacks. We shall assume that they've found a way to keep you from getting cancer if you spray it all over your body. :p Definitely an article I enjoyed more than I really should ;) Snarfquest continues to build up tension for the final showdown. Dragonmirth features the wrath of god. Wormy sets up that old classic, a pit trap. Quite a good issue, overall. Both the themed bits and the general articles have an above average number of good articles, keeping this one fairly pleasurable to read. And even the ones I'm not so keen on, the minotaur and animal ones, are annoying in ways I could actively disagree with, rather than simply being boring. This is pretty pleasing. It's nice to end the year on an up note, after having found the average quality to be a good deal lower than the previous three years. Hopefully Roger'll avoid getting bored and burnt out in turn for quite a while, and the magazine'll sustain that over the next year. We might have slowed down, but I'm not stopping 'til this is over, one way or another. There's still way too much to see for that. [/QUOTE]
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