Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Let's read the entire run
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5746013" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 4/8</p><p></p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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? </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5746013, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999[/U][/B] 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. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Let's read the entire run
Top