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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5068158" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Magazine Issue 167: March 1991</u></strong></p><p></p><p>part 5/6</p><p></p><p></p><p>Just give me money!: Here we go again, with the deconstruction of the D&D currency system. This time with extra historical info. Weights are ridiculous, training costs exorbitant, and the whole thing is a bit of a headache. Dividing everything by 10 for everyday purposes has quite substantial benefits in practical terms. And of course, there's all the usual issues with protectionism, moneychangers, taxes, supply and demand causing fluctuations in value, it's all competent, aware of the previous articles and builds upon them, and very very tiresome. The kind of thing I really am not keen on dealing with in reality, and so will probably not bother to use unless I get an economics wonk as a player who actively pursues this stuff and makes it a plot issue. We will have to continue suspending our disbelief so the system doesn't come crashing down around us. (hey, maybe it's not so different from real economics after all) </p><p></p><p></p><p>Milestones and free miles: Oooh. A competition. Shiny. To go to england and attend a convention? Of no use to me, even if this wasn't years out of date. Another piece that's barely a footnote on the massive boot of history. </p><p></p><p></p><p>The marvel-phile: Connecting with the last article, we have some English characters detailed here. Malcom Knight and Thomas Fogg. In typical supers fashion, a scientific accident resulted in them gaining superpowers that just happened to be puns on their names and appropriate to their personalities. One's an ambiguous character who sticks by his own code, while the other is just a slippery slimeball. The idea of supervillains with a scouse accent is somewhat amusing, if a little hard to take seriously. It's very much another average day in the office here as well. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Forum is rather short this month: Russell Speir quibbles about the damage ratings of crossbows. They ought to do considerably more than longbows. Not particularly interesting. </p><p></p><p>Bradley Wadle takes up most of the forum, with a rather detailed piece about how incredibly unfair energy draining undead are. It needs to be removed or seriously fixed, so it doesn't mess people up semipermanently even if you win the combat. It is rather a problem, isn't it. It does have to be noted that even the official designers are gradually coming round to that point of view, with most new monsters, even ones that are supposed to be more fearsome like shadow dragons, only draining stuff temporarily and/or allowing saving throws to avoid the effect. Course, it'll still take 18 years and two big reboots before the people who hold this view can completely purge all the existing sadism from the system. Plenty more time for me to relish it until then. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Lords of the warring states: Or giants in the earth visits the orient again. They do have the advantage of a bureaucracy that stretches back thousands of years recording stuff in rather great detail than some folk stories. So let's head back to the warring states, to see what people make good characters. Lu Pu-Wei, a rogue with a heart who went out with style. Impenetrable Ordinance, who virtually epitomises the batshit insane emperor with his vanity projects and searches for immortality. Li Ssu, who by restricting weapons and clamping down on independent thought, probably contributed to the development of martial arts, as well as generally contributing to the civic good. Ching K'o, who tried to assassinate the emperor, failed, but still became a folk hero. And Sun Pin, the dishonoured general who still fought with tactics and style. There are a few illegal bits, as ever, but this is a lot more interestingly presented than most of these columns. Oddly enough, I have no objection to this one. </p><p></p><p></p><p>The game wizards: As they mentioned earlier, Undermountain is one of their big releases this month. It could have been a lot bigger, since it has been worked on and played in since 1975, when Ed first discovered roleplaying, but TSR do have fairly strict product sizes these days. As is often the case, Ed is joined by a character from the Realms to aid in exposition, (this time Laeral, because Elminster is off boning the Simbul <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" /> ) The reason it remains a deadly dungeon even after all these years is largely thanks to Halaster's persistent efforts at restocking monsters, and designing ever more sadistic traps. (I suspect deepspawn may also be involved. ) He really is providing a tremendously valuable service to aspiring adventurers everywhere, especially since the creatures in there cause surprisingly little bother in Waterdeep itself. As usual, Ed manages to make this far more entertaining than most writers, and somewhat more useful as well, with some advice on how to best use his product. Big chunks of it are left open for you to develop further, but they've provided tools for you to randomly generate stuff for them quickly. It's a great place to incorporate spells and devices from this magazine. And even if you aren't playing in the realms, you can steal a level here, an encounter idea there, and get years of use out of this stuff. It also reinforces another maxim. The best adventures are ones that have been honed through years of actual play, and the best designers are ones who still find the time to play, because if you don't, you may produce stuff that looks pretty, and is mathematically neat, but if you don't learn what's actually fun for the players and works smoothly for DM from personal experience, then it simply won't have that magic. Ravenloft, the Tomb of Horrors, the Temple of Elemental Evil, Ptolus. All went through years of play and development before reaching the form they did in their final mass market release and are better for it. So this is not only a good advert, but useful and interesting in itself. That is very much the way to do it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5068158, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Magazine Issue 167: March 1991[/U][/B] part 5/6 Just give me money!: Here we go again, with the deconstruction of the D&D currency system. This time with extra historical info. Weights are ridiculous, training costs exorbitant, and the whole thing is a bit of a headache. Dividing everything by 10 for everyday purposes has quite substantial benefits in practical terms. And of course, there's all the usual issues with protectionism, moneychangers, taxes, supply and demand causing fluctuations in value, it's all competent, aware of the previous articles and builds upon them, and very very tiresome. The kind of thing I really am not keen on dealing with in reality, and so will probably not bother to use unless I get an economics wonk as a player who actively pursues this stuff and makes it a plot issue. We will have to continue suspending our disbelief so the system doesn't come crashing down around us. (hey, maybe it's not so different from real economics after all) Milestones and free miles: Oooh. A competition. Shiny. To go to england and attend a convention? Of no use to me, even if this wasn't years out of date. Another piece that's barely a footnote on the massive boot of history. The marvel-phile: Connecting with the last article, we have some English characters detailed here. Malcom Knight and Thomas Fogg. In typical supers fashion, a scientific accident resulted in them gaining superpowers that just happened to be puns on their names and appropriate to their personalities. One's an ambiguous character who sticks by his own code, while the other is just a slippery slimeball. The idea of supervillains with a scouse accent is somewhat amusing, if a little hard to take seriously. It's very much another average day in the office here as well. Forum is rather short this month: Russell Speir quibbles about the damage ratings of crossbows. They ought to do considerably more than longbows. Not particularly interesting. Bradley Wadle takes up most of the forum, with a rather detailed piece about how incredibly unfair energy draining undead are. It needs to be removed or seriously fixed, so it doesn't mess people up semipermanently even if you win the combat. It is rather a problem, isn't it. It does have to be noted that even the official designers are gradually coming round to that point of view, with most new monsters, even ones that are supposed to be more fearsome like shadow dragons, only draining stuff temporarily and/or allowing saving throws to avoid the effect. Course, it'll still take 18 years and two big reboots before the people who hold this view can completely purge all the existing sadism from the system. Plenty more time for me to relish it until then. Lords of the warring states: Or giants in the earth visits the orient again. They do have the advantage of a bureaucracy that stretches back thousands of years recording stuff in rather great detail than some folk stories. So let's head back to the warring states, to see what people make good characters. Lu Pu-Wei, a rogue with a heart who went out with style. Impenetrable Ordinance, who virtually epitomises the batshit insane emperor with his vanity projects and searches for immortality. Li Ssu, who by restricting weapons and clamping down on independent thought, probably contributed to the development of martial arts, as well as generally contributing to the civic good. Ching K'o, who tried to assassinate the emperor, failed, but still became a folk hero. And Sun Pin, the dishonoured general who still fought with tactics and style. There are a few illegal bits, as ever, but this is a lot more interestingly presented than most of these columns. Oddly enough, I have no objection to this one. The game wizards: As they mentioned earlier, Undermountain is one of their big releases this month. It could have been a lot bigger, since it has been worked on and played in since 1975, when Ed first discovered roleplaying, but TSR do have fairly strict product sizes these days. As is often the case, Ed is joined by a character from the Realms to aid in exposition, (this time Laeral, because Elminster is off boning the Simbul :p ) The reason it remains a deadly dungeon even after all these years is largely thanks to Halaster's persistent efforts at restocking monsters, and designing ever more sadistic traps. (I suspect deepspawn may also be involved. ) He really is providing a tremendously valuable service to aspiring adventurers everywhere, especially since the creatures in there cause surprisingly little bother in Waterdeep itself. As usual, Ed manages to make this far more entertaining than most writers, and somewhat more useful as well, with some advice on how to best use his product. Big chunks of it are left open for you to develop further, but they've provided tools for you to randomly generate stuff for them quickly. It's a great place to incorporate spells and devices from this magazine. And even if you aren't playing in the realms, you can steal a level here, an encounter idea there, and get years of use out of this stuff. It also reinforces another maxim. The best adventures are ones that have been honed through years of actual play, and the best designers are ones who still find the time to play, because if you don't, you may produce stuff that looks pretty, and is mathematically neat, but if you don't learn what's actually fun for the players and works smoothly for DM from personal experience, then it simply won't have that magic. Ravenloft, the Tomb of Horrors, the Temple of Elemental Evil, Ptolus. All went through years of play and development before reaching the form they did in their final mass market release and are better for it. So this is not only a good advert, but useful and interesting in itself. That is very much the way to do it. [/QUOTE]
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