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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6002406" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon annual 2001</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 5/7</p><p></p><p></p><p>The black talon: Ecologies have always been a popular part of the magazine, so it's not too surprising that once D&D was opened up to other people, who didn't have to stick strictly to the TSR format, they'd put their own spin on the idea, sometimes extending it out to full book form, or just taking more liberties with existing creatures. And since the magazine has recently stopped doing ecologies with fiction, that comes as quite welcome. So here's an interesting alternate take on lizardfolk, with slightly altered statistics, and a highly specific history that's obviously part of a larger campaign world. They're obviously intended to be more PC-friendly than standard lizardfolk, with a smaller natural armor bonus, and more little abilities and drawbacks, and have enemies who are also theoretically usable as PC's, but rather more hostile in their design and abilities. So this looks like it would be good in actual play, and manages to be both familiar and subtly different enough to be thoroughly pleasing to read. There are definite benefits to not using the same stable of writers all the time if you want to keep the public interested. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Black riders and bone horses: Wolf Baur has wasted no time in getting his own D20 material out. Here we see something that ought to have been in Ravenloft, but wasn't. A piece on undead cavalry, and their advantages and disadvantages over regular ones. Well, I suppose there wouldn't have been any decent sized opposition for them to fight. Even Vlad Drakov's army was a bit of a paper tiger really. Nevertheless, headless horsemen on skeletal horses are cool, and adding zombie elephants is a great way of saying the stakes have suddenly gone up a notch. So this takes quite an analytical approach to the subject, thinking about the cool effects they ought to have, and how to codify that mechanically. They may spook living animals, but it shouldn't be impossible to get them back under control. Things like being able to gallop on air, and have flaming feet are detailed, and even how far and fast you can travel using one (as after all, you aren't forced to stop to rest the way living mounts would be. ) This is pretty cool, even if it looks like it's just a promotional excerpt from a larger book, that he's hoping will drive sales. But then, that could be said about most of these to one degree or another. They don't have the same kind of safety net the WotC staff do to share the success and spread the blame.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 6002406, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon annual 2001[/U][/B] part 5/7 The black talon: Ecologies have always been a popular part of the magazine, so it's not too surprising that once D&D was opened up to other people, who didn't have to stick strictly to the TSR format, they'd put their own spin on the idea, sometimes extending it out to full book form, or just taking more liberties with existing creatures. And since the magazine has recently stopped doing ecologies with fiction, that comes as quite welcome. So here's an interesting alternate take on lizardfolk, with slightly altered statistics, and a highly specific history that's obviously part of a larger campaign world. They're obviously intended to be more PC-friendly than standard lizardfolk, with a smaller natural armor bonus, and more little abilities and drawbacks, and have enemies who are also theoretically usable as PC's, but rather more hostile in their design and abilities. So this looks like it would be good in actual play, and manages to be both familiar and subtly different enough to be thoroughly pleasing to read. There are definite benefits to not using the same stable of writers all the time if you want to keep the public interested. Black riders and bone horses: Wolf Baur has wasted no time in getting his own D20 material out. Here we see something that ought to have been in Ravenloft, but wasn't. A piece on undead cavalry, and their advantages and disadvantages over regular ones. Well, I suppose there wouldn't have been any decent sized opposition for them to fight. Even Vlad Drakov's army was a bit of a paper tiger really. Nevertheless, headless horsemen on skeletal horses are cool, and adding zombie elephants is a great way of saying the stakes have suddenly gone up a notch. So this takes quite an analytical approach to the subject, thinking about the cool effects they ought to have, and how to codify that mechanically. They may spook living animals, but it shouldn't be impossible to get them back under control. Things like being able to gallop on air, and have flaming feet are detailed, and even how far and fast you can travel using one (as after all, you aren't forced to stop to rest the way living mounts would be. ) This is pretty cool, even if it looks like it's just a promotional excerpt from a larger book, that he's hoping will drive sales. But then, that could be said about most of these to one degree or another. They don't have the same kind of safety net the WotC staff do to share the success and spread the blame. [/QUOTE]
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