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: 5962592" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Issue 284: June 2001</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 2/7</p><p></p><p></p><p>Countdown to the forgotten realms reaches zero, but is still going. And they're reminding us that the realms was primarily born as a kitchen sink where you could place and draw elements liberally, and even if you don't play in it, there's still vast quantities of crunch and setting detail that you can steal for your own world. But this flows both ways, as they have so much stuff that they want to update from last edition that they're taking generic monsters, and detailing them in FR books. That's a bit cheeky, and feels a bit like cheating, forcing people to buy these books if they want to use them again, even if they aren't a fan of the Realms. Play nice, now. I suppose it's consistent with WotC's cancelling everything but the most popular lines. They want to try and please all the people all the time, and despite it's haters, the Realms has come closest to that. If they could get the rest of their demographic buying it, they wouldn't have to worry about the split base problem anymore. Nice try, but no dice. I still like my variety, thank you very much. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Up on a soapbox: A short one this month, as more than half the page is taken up by graphs. Character development, role assumption and story come in at the top, while building, business and economy are at the bottom. There are some mild variations due to gender and experience, but all of these are well under 10%, showing that the variation in individuals is far greater than any broad divisions of gender and race. (although roleplaying is still very predominantly a white male pastime. ) We get into this for the imaginary people, not the imaginary objects. Because really, it's the drama and relationships that are important and get us invested, everything else is just a backdrop. Even geeks can not stay engrossed with slaughtering alone. I find that very telling. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Dork tower presents the non-history of dragon magazine. Look how thing's have non-changed. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Scale & claw: So half-dragons are a lot more common than they used to be last edition, and the rules on what kinds of dragons can produce them are far less restrictive. That IS an interesting change. What do I think of it? Actually, I find myself surprisingly ambivalent. The scientific part of my brain recognises the value in having things accessible and standardised, but there's still a part of me that finds the baroque rules of the issue 206 version more interesting, where each half dragon type has individual rules, some of which vary for the same species on different worlds. Still, with the mechanics all sorted out, that means they can devote more attention to the roleplaying and characterisation side this time. Like most halfbreeds, they get plenty of leeway to favour either side of their parentage, but their charisma bonus isn't always enough to stop them from becoming viewed as freaks and outcasts. And even more than before, they're more powerful than the average character, (until you start enforcing ECL to slow their advancement appropriately) so they can be a real temptation for a PC. This is a good reminder of how much more open 3e is in terms of player options, but also how if all the PC's are special, none of them will feel special in the long run. Where the rules don't provide oversight, the DM must for the game to remain fun. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Draconian Tactics: This is an even more familiar topic, that's mainly enlivened by the fact that as their first birthday under 3e, they can go into plenty of detail on specific tactics that the new rules support or discourage, and it'll be fresh this time around. Individual races do have roughly the same sets of spell-like abilities that they used too, but these have been subtly changed by the new rules. They can also choose different feats, select more spells than they probably could under 2e, and if you're really mean, you can add templates or class levels to increase their flexibility further and keep the players on their toes. So this avoids rehash by being sufficiently specific that it's full of advice you won't have seen before, but also shows that the writers stayed sufficiently true to the dragon types as we know them as to not alienate old players. It's an article that needed to be done, so it's good that it was done well. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Dragontongue: The language primers seem to be decreasing in frequency now, but they haven't done dragons, so they can join in here this year. And since Draconic is a language commonly used by spellcasters, and many lizardy humanoids use simplified dialects as well, a solid grounding is rather handy to an adventurer. Unsurprisingly, they have a lot of different possessives, reflecting that they're greedy buggers, so they like to define exactly how they stand with respects to another person or object. The sample phrases aren't as verbose as I would expect though, usually coming in at fewer words than their english equivalents (which are weirdly colloquial in themselves, and feel like they would be tricky to directly translate. ) I have a hard time imagining a dragon saying "Totally radical dudes! Let's send out for pizza" So as usual, I'm not totally enamoured of this series. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Run for your Lives: Time for the usual kind of advice about running a dragon and keeping it scary. Build up any encounter beforehand, and don't overuse the dragon itself. Remember to play them smart and prepared, but also arrogant and maybe too paranoid for their own good. Nothing particularly new here then, unlike the previous articles. If you've read previous years, (and I know they have increased their readership lately, so there must be some new people that this is relevant too) you can skip this one and not feel like you've missed anything. Again.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5962592, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Issue 284: June 2001[/U][/B] part 2/7 Countdown to the forgotten realms reaches zero, but is still going. And they're reminding us that the realms was primarily born as a kitchen sink where you could place and draw elements liberally, and even if you don't play in it, there's still vast quantities of crunch and setting detail that you can steal for your own world. But this flows both ways, as they have so much stuff that they want to update from last edition that they're taking generic monsters, and detailing them in FR books. That's a bit cheeky, and feels a bit like cheating, forcing people to buy these books if they want to use them again, even if they aren't a fan of the Realms. Play nice, now. I suppose it's consistent with WotC's cancelling everything but the most popular lines. They want to try and please all the people all the time, and despite it's haters, the Realms has come closest to that. If they could get the rest of their demographic buying it, they wouldn't have to worry about the split base problem anymore. Nice try, but no dice. I still like my variety, thank you very much. Up on a soapbox: A short one this month, as more than half the page is taken up by graphs. Character development, role assumption and story come in at the top, while building, business and economy are at the bottom. There are some mild variations due to gender and experience, but all of these are well under 10%, showing that the variation in individuals is far greater than any broad divisions of gender and race. (although roleplaying is still very predominantly a white male pastime. ) We get into this for the imaginary people, not the imaginary objects. Because really, it's the drama and relationships that are important and get us invested, everything else is just a backdrop. Even geeks can not stay engrossed with slaughtering alone. I find that very telling. Dork tower presents the non-history of dragon magazine. Look how thing's have non-changed. Scale & claw: So half-dragons are a lot more common than they used to be last edition, and the rules on what kinds of dragons can produce them are far less restrictive. That IS an interesting change. What do I think of it? Actually, I find myself surprisingly ambivalent. The scientific part of my brain recognises the value in having things accessible and standardised, but there's still a part of me that finds the baroque rules of the issue 206 version more interesting, where each half dragon type has individual rules, some of which vary for the same species on different worlds. Still, with the mechanics all sorted out, that means they can devote more attention to the roleplaying and characterisation side this time. Like most halfbreeds, they get plenty of leeway to favour either side of their parentage, but their charisma bonus isn't always enough to stop them from becoming viewed as freaks and outcasts. And even more than before, they're more powerful than the average character, (until you start enforcing ECL to slow their advancement appropriately) so they can be a real temptation for a PC. This is a good reminder of how much more open 3e is in terms of player options, but also how if all the PC's are special, none of them will feel special in the long run. Where the rules don't provide oversight, the DM must for the game to remain fun. Draconian Tactics: This is an even more familiar topic, that's mainly enlivened by the fact that as their first birthday under 3e, they can go into plenty of detail on specific tactics that the new rules support or discourage, and it'll be fresh this time around. Individual races do have roughly the same sets of spell-like abilities that they used too, but these have been subtly changed by the new rules. They can also choose different feats, select more spells than they probably could under 2e, and if you're really mean, you can add templates or class levels to increase their flexibility further and keep the players on their toes. So this avoids rehash by being sufficiently specific that it's full of advice you won't have seen before, but also shows that the writers stayed sufficiently true to the dragon types as we know them as to not alienate old players. It's an article that needed to be done, so it's good that it was done well. Dragontongue: The language primers seem to be decreasing in frequency now, but they haven't done dragons, so they can join in here this year. And since Draconic is a language commonly used by spellcasters, and many lizardy humanoids use simplified dialects as well, a solid grounding is rather handy to an adventurer. Unsurprisingly, they have a lot of different possessives, reflecting that they're greedy buggers, so they like to define exactly how they stand with respects to another person or object. The sample phrases aren't as verbose as I would expect though, usually coming in at fewer words than their english equivalents (which are weirdly colloquial in themselves, and feel like they would be tricky to directly translate. ) I have a hard time imagining a dragon saying "Totally radical dudes! Let's send out for pizza" So as usual, I'm not totally enamoured of this series. Run for your Lives: Time for the usual kind of advice about running a dragon and keeping it scary. Build up any encounter beforehand, and don't overuse the dragon itself. Remember to play them smart and prepared, but also arrogant and maybe too paranoid for their own good. Nothing particularly new here then, unlike the previous articles. If you've read previous years, (and I know they have increased their readership lately, so there must be some new people that this is relevant too) you can skip this one and not feel like you've missed anything. Again. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Let's read the entire run
Top