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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5991409" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Issue 289: November 2001</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 7/7</p><p></p><p></p><p>Silicon sorcery: Gauntlet! Haven't seen that series in here since issue 150! Good to see it's still going, now with 3D visuals. And they definitely have some interesting ideas on how to handle magical items which also work in D&D. Potions which can be both drank and thrown, and have different useful effects either way? Nifty. And magical weapons that disappear after a certain number of attacks? Not quite so nifty from a player's PoV, but handy for a DM to prevent endless item inflation, and let them temporarily hand out items far more powerful than would be allowed with a permanent one, which makes big bosses more beatable. This is definitely one of those little articles that makes me smile, and reminds us how idiosyncratic a setting can be. Put a Gauntlet style dungeon in your game, give out treasure freely, and see how long it takes the players to notice. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> So this is another good example of how their computer game conversions are often more weird and adventurous than their regular bazaars these days. It'd be a shame not to include them in a game because of that. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Dungeoncraft: Time for Ray to get to sketching out the NPC's of his setting. This means he spends a good chunk of it repeating the spiel in issue 262, albeit in a more tightly written fashion, fitting more information into approximately the same word count. Don't just make people for the hell of it, make characters to fill specific roles when they interact with your players, and give them broad stroke mannerisms to make them instantly identifiable. It's less effort, and they likely won't notice the difference anyway. Spoken like a true cynic. This is certainly the case when you aren't planning on running a long campaign, and if it does turn out the game is a breakout success, you can go back and fill in nuance for the recurring characters later. So we're in a very pragmatic mood here, reminding us that there'll likely be a good deal of perspiration involved in your worldbuilding, and you might as well take steps to reduce it a little. Mixed feelings about that. Guess there still is a little idealism in me, despite all the crap life throws at me. </p><p></p><p></p><p>PC Portraits: This column is stretched out over 2 pages to fit around the adverts, and their borders are blurred in an annoying way that makes some characters spill over to adjacent panels. This makes it rather trickier to extract one to use in actual play. However, the annoying format fiddling doesn't mean the portraits themselves are lower quality, and they fit the theme of the issue quite nicely. So any blame here definitely needs to go in the art director's direction, and hopefully the new guy will fix this again ASAP. If not, and they think it's cool, then I fear for the next few year's visuals. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Oooh. RPGshop.com. The move towards .pdfs and other e-books has started. Leave your paper behind. Come with us, join with us. You know you want too. </p><p></p><p>Dragonmirth reminds us that adventuring is not good on the hair. Technology is not good for the adventuring either. Don't want to get soft, do we?</p><p></p><p>What's new shows us the benefits of enlightenment. Giant robots and ninja schoolgirls! I'll take a dozen of each please waiter! Sweet. Now, what was I going to do with them? I've been sitting on top of this mountain for 50 years. I'm sure there was something I wanted to do, but I just can't remember what. </p><p></p><p></p><p>A bit formulaic, but this issue continues to deliver the goods with the same consistent quality of the last two. Once again, the theme provides them with some easy balls to hit, but the unconnected regular columns also do well for themselves, particularly the Chainmail ones and the computer game column, with provide me with some much needed variety as well as being fun to read. In fact, this might be the most consistent they've ever been in quality, full stop. Once again, I hope it'll take quite a while for diminishing returns to take over on this set of ideas.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5991409, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Issue 289: November 2001[/U][/B] part 7/7 Silicon sorcery: Gauntlet! Haven't seen that series in here since issue 150! Good to see it's still going, now with 3D visuals. And they definitely have some interesting ideas on how to handle magical items which also work in D&D. Potions which can be both drank and thrown, and have different useful effects either way? Nifty. And magical weapons that disappear after a certain number of attacks? Not quite so nifty from a player's PoV, but handy for a DM to prevent endless item inflation, and let them temporarily hand out items far more powerful than would be allowed with a permanent one, which makes big bosses more beatable. This is definitely one of those little articles that makes me smile, and reminds us how idiosyncratic a setting can be. Put a Gauntlet style dungeon in your game, give out treasure freely, and see how long it takes the players to notice. :) So this is another good example of how their computer game conversions are often more weird and adventurous than their regular bazaars these days. It'd be a shame not to include them in a game because of that. Dungeoncraft: Time for Ray to get to sketching out the NPC's of his setting. This means he spends a good chunk of it repeating the spiel in issue 262, albeit in a more tightly written fashion, fitting more information into approximately the same word count. Don't just make people for the hell of it, make characters to fill specific roles when they interact with your players, and give them broad stroke mannerisms to make them instantly identifiable. It's less effort, and they likely won't notice the difference anyway. Spoken like a true cynic. This is certainly the case when you aren't planning on running a long campaign, and if it does turn out the game is a breakout success, you can go back and fill in nuance for the recurring characters later. So we're in a very pragmatic mood here, reminding us that there'll likely be a good deal of perspiration involved in your worldbuilding, and you might as well take steps to reduce it a little. Mixed feelings about that. Guess there still is a little idealism in me, despite all the crap life throws at me. PC Portraits: This column is stretched out over 2 pages to fit around the adverts, and their borders are blurred in an annoying way that makes some characters spill over to adjacent panels. This makes it rather trickier to extract one to use in actual play. However, the annoying format fiddling doesn't mean the portraits themselves are lower quality, and they fit the theme of the issue quite nicely. So any blame here definitely needs to go in the art director's direction, and hopefully the new guy will fix this again ASAP. If not, and they think it's cool, then I fear for the next few year's visuals. Oooh. RPGshop.com. The move towards .pdfs and other e-books has started. Leave your paper behind. Come with us, join with us. You know you want too. Dragonmirth reminds us that adventuring is not good on the hair. Technology is not good for the adventuring either. Don't want to get soft, do we? What's new shows us the benefits of enlightenment. Giant robots and ninja schoolgirls! I'll take a dozen of each please waiter! Sweet. Now, what was I going to do with them? I've been sitting on top of this mountain for 50 years. I'm sure there was something I wanted to do, but I just can't remember what. A bit formulaic, but this issue continues to deliver the goods with the same consistent quality of the last two. Once again, the theme provides them with some easy balls to hit, but the unconnected regular columns also do well for themselves, particularly the Chainmail ones and the computer game column, with provide me with some much needed variety as well as being fun to read. In fact, this might be the most consistent they've ever been in quality, full stop. Once again, I hope it'll take quite a while for diminishing returns to take over on this set of ideas. [/QUOTE]
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