(un)reason
Legend
Well, they remind us that there was a big world outside the magizine with all sorts of other stuff happening. It's one reason i'm diliberately taking it slow through the middle part of the run.
Let's read the entire run
- Thread starter (un)reason
- Start date
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Is that aimed at the RPG.net readers or here?
Or both?
Heck, if Dragonsfoot hadn't kicked you out, even they might have had someone willing to do it.
There is a lot of reviews and stuff though, while some of the game specific stuff seems to be a tad lighter. The reviews do give me something to comment on since I'm familiar with some of the stuff being reviewed, but I can see why some subscibers felt they weren't getting their money's worth. Personally though, I liked the magazine from a few years later when it got a lot crunch heavier.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 188: December 1992
part 6/6
Mind over matter: Ooh, a 2nd ed psionics article at last. All the sage advice and forum brouhaha has paid off. Rich Baker, who would of course go on to write a full sourcebook on this issue, helps you figure out what to actually do with psionicists in actual play. Unlike fighters or thieves, what they're really good and bad at isn't immediately obvious from a casual readthrough. And unlike wizards and clerics, you really do have to pick your powers wisely for maximum synergistic effectiveness, for you can't hot-swap them from day to day and draw on millions of supplements and magazine articles. Like Greg Detwiler's work on specialist wizards in issue 163, this isn't that big, but packs a lot of solid mechanical advice into it's paragraphs. Power picks, tactics, fitting into a team, DM advice, this is an end of issue filler article that transcends that status quite handily, and will be very useful for the not so mechanically adept indeed. And it's very pleasantly readable too. I can see why they picked this one up to be a regular writer. Two thumbs up.
Dragonmirth apples more modern sensibilities to medieval tropes. Yamara gets level training the hard way. Twilight empire has another battle scene that advances the plot. Well, it keeps things more interesting than if the fluff and crunchy bits are separated.
Through the looking glass: Tis the season to be selling, with this column getting nearly 8 full pages of reviews. Battletech mechs cut from last month's column. More big stuff that you can spend quite a bit of time assembling and customising, above and beyond the usual paint jobs. Some rather tall Dream warriors, with all the mutant surreality said name indicates. An Eldar tank for Warhammer, proving they can pull out some pretty big guns too. A Dragon trick or treating, which they really should have done a couple of months ago. A wizard kicking back and relaxing on a skulled throne and putting his feet up on a pile of books. An angel supporting a holographic image of the world. God, that technology really is advancing quite a bit at the moment. Still costs $40 to buy though. The Visionaries were barely half that. Plenty of cheap ones though. A barkeep, a female rogue and a man-at-arms all go for a mere $1.25, so you can grab them as an impulse thing to round out your cart. I diorama of barbarian violence. Gee, like you never see those anymore. A pair of well-armed centaurs. Plenty more barbarian warriors, including some official woodwoses from LotR. Some miserable straw pallets for a little more realism. An armorer's workshop. Some dwarf cavalry. And a trio of wizards with staves substantially bigger than they are. No, not compensating for anything at all, really. Ahh, the joys of trying to maintain anatomical accuracy in widely varying scales.
TSR Previews: As usual for january, next month is relatively quiet compared to recent month. It's still a lot bigger than busy months a few years ago though, showing how much the supplement treadmill has accelerated.
Dragonlance is the busiest setting this time. DLR3: Unsung heroes stats up all the stuff that's appeared in recent novels. Once again we see that the book line is the primary driver of this setting, and has been for some time, while the gaming merely follows. Also, they finally finish the Meetings Sextet, with The Companions. Just how many of the team will be together by the end of this?
The forgotten realms starts off a series that will become quite a lot bigger. Volo's guide to Waterdeep presents a different perspective to previous sourcebooks, with a much closer to the ground, more fallible narrator. Well, it helps keep Elminster from getting overexposed.
Our generic AD&D stuff this month is PHBR8:The complete book of mary-sue twinks (elves) See some of the most powerful kits, and try and persuade the DM to let them into your game, along with enough lovingly crafted setting detail to choke a dwarf on their own beard. They're also filling out more general NPC's. REF6: Rogues Gallery. People from all worlds and none. Will you be able to find a place for them in your campaign?
D&D gets something very similar. The character and monster assortment gives you a ton of new models to represent your creatures in battle. You can never have too many kobolds to swarm your enemies with.
Marvel Superheroes continues to release sourcebooks focussing on characters. MHR3: Avengers archives is of course all about their history, villains, home base, and other useful stuff for your game. Who will get the spotlight next?
So we say goodbye to the Princess Ark, and hello to the Wizards Three this month. That's a pair of fairly significant column changes that say next year isn't going to be the same as this one, even if their overall policy hasn't changed much. As is often the case, we get both great articles and not so good ones, familiar faces and unearthed stuff. We do seem to have an above average number of historical pointers and groundbreaking articles this month, so even if it's not all good news, this is one issue I certainly don't regret reading. Lets see how 1993's crop come out.
part 6/6
Mind over matter: Ooh, a 2nd ed psionics article at last. All the sage advice and forum brouhaha has paid off. Rich Baker, who would of course go on to write a full sourcebook on this issue, helps you figure out what to actually do with psionicists in actual play. Unlike fighters or thieves, what they're really good and bad at isn't immediately obvious from a casual readthrough. And unlike wizards and clerics, you really do have to pick your powers wisely for maximum synergistic effectiveness, for you can't hot-swap them from day to day and draw on millions of supplements and magazine articles. Like Greg Detwiler's work on specialist wizards in issue 163, this isn't that big, but packs a lot of solid mechanical advice into it's paragraphs. Power picks, tactics, fitting into a team, DM advice, this is an end of issue filler article that transcends that status quite handily, and will be very useful for the not so mechanically adept indeed. And it's very pleasantly readable too. I can see why they picked this one up to be a regular writer. Two thumbs up.
Dragonmirth apples more modern sensibilities to medieval tropes. Yamara gets level training the hard way. Twilight empire has another battle scene that advances the plot. Well, it keeps things more interesting than if the fluff and crunchy bits are separated.
Through the looking glass: Tis the season to be selling, with this column getting nearly 8 full pages of reviews. Battletech mechs cut from last month's column. More big stuff that you can spend quite a bit of time assembling and customising, above and beyond the usual paint jobs. Some rather tall Dream warriors, with all the mutant surreality said name indicates. An Eldar tank for Warhammer, proving they can pull out some pretty big guns too. A Dragon trick or treating, which they really should have done a couple of months ago. A wizard kicking back and relaxing on a skulled throne and putting his feet up on a pile of books. An angel supporting a holographic image of the world. God, that technology really is advancing quite a bit at the moment. Still costs $40 to buy though. The Visionaries were barely half that. Plenty of cheap ones though. A barkeep, a female rogue and a man-at-arms all go for a mere $1.25, so you can grab them as an impulse thing to round out your cart. I diorama of barbarian violence. Gee, like you never see those anymore. A pair of well-armed centaurs. Plenty more barbarian warriors, including some official woodwoses from LotR. Some miserable straw pallets for a little more realism. An armorer's workshop. Some dwarf cavalry. And a trio of wizards with staves substantially bigger than they are. No, not compensating for anything at all, really. Ahh, the joys of trying to maintain anatomical accuracy in widely varying scales.
TSR Previews: As usual for january, next month is relatively quiet compared to recent month. It's still a lot bigger than busy months a few years ago though, showing how much the supplement treadmill has accelerated.
Dragonlance is the busiest setting this time. DLR3: Unsung heroes stats up all the stuff that's appeared in recent novels. Once again we see that the book line is the primary driver of this setting, and has been for some time, while the gaming merely follows. Also, they finally finish the Meetings Sextet, with The Companions. Just how many of the team will be together by the end of this?
The forgotten realms starts off a series that will become quite a lot bigger. Volo's guide to Waterdeep presents a different perspective to previous sourcebooks, with a much closer to the ground, more fallible narrator. Well, it helps keep Elminster from getting overexposed.
Our generic AD&D stuff this month is PHBR8:The complete book of mary-sue twinks (elves) See some of the most powerful kits, and try and persuade the DM to let them into your game, along with enough lovingly crafted setting detail to choke a dwarf on their own beard. They're also filling out more general NPC's. REF6: Rogues Gallery. People from all worlds and none. Will you be able to find a place for them in your campaign?
D&D gets something very similar. The character and monster assortment gives you a ton of new models to represent your creatures in battle. You can never have too many kobolds to swarm your enemies with.
Marvel Superheroes continues to release sourcebooks focussing on characters. MHR3: Avengers archives is of course all about their history, villains, home base, and other useful stuff for your game. Who will get the spotlight next?
So we say goodbye to the Princess Ark, and hello to the Wizards Three this month. That's a pair of fairly significant column changes that say next year isn't going to be the same as this one, even if their overall policy hasn't changed much. As is often the case, we get both great articles and not so good ones, familiar faces and unearthed stuff. We do seem to have an above average number of historical pointers and groundbreaking articles this month, so even if it's not all good news, this is one issue I certainly don't regret reading. Lets see how 1993's crop come out.
(un)reason
Legend
I'm not picky. It does seem to have caught on more over there though. Seems like every other thread in Other Media is a where I read/watch one these days.
True. But Frank Mentzer looking back over his own organisation's history would be a quite different experience to an average member's reviewing. Not that I wouldn't read the hell out of that.Heck, if Dragonsfoot hadn't kicked you out, even they might have had someone willing to do it.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993
part 1/6
124 pages. Another month another year, another set of special topics to fill. Fortunately, one of Roger's requests to the readership now yields fruit. African gaming! Yay! They're finally getting to fill that long neglected region in in fantastical manner. And it looks like they're covering some other exotic regions of the planet too. Seems a good way to start off a new year. How long will this resolution last?
In this issue:
Letters: A repeat letter from a soldier who got shipped out to fight in the gulf war. Roger remembers him personally, and is quite friendly, but can't solve his primary request. They have proper professional artists to hand draw their maps, not some computer program. No easy shortcuts via throwing a bit of money at the task here.
A complaint that Atari isn't dead. Maybe not, but they're certainly not a leading company any more I'm afraid. We certainly won't be making any more computer games for their systems, so there.
Errata attacks again! Because we can't have things with AC's above 10, even though the system has no particular trouble with it. That would mean normal humans aren't the weediest, most fragile things in the world. It's things like that that remind you how mathematically unrealistic D&D can be.
A complaint from a UK gamer that far too many of the things they advertise are only available in the US. Roger is apologetic, but there's not much he can do. Roll on internet ordering to close these gaps somewhat.
Another complaint about ageism, from someone who's probably been playing longer than the complainers. Keep practicing, and smoke their asses like a good prodigy.
A letter praising them for finally doing some Greyhawk material around here. Roger gets a bit snippy, pointing out the many modules and sourcebooks they've released in recent years. Ok, not as many as the Realms, Krynn or known world, but it's hardly been neglected ……. yet. And of course when you actually get greyhawk wars, you may well wish they had neglected it.
A letter asking if there's a mundane survival game. Avalon hill has something about right.
And finally a throwaway joke comment just to pad out the page. Just what the doctor needed after a rather heavy interrogation.
Editorial: Once again, Roger exhorts you to fight complacency in your own campaign. Visualise what you want your players to experience vividly and then throw it at them with gusto. The results will be far more interesting than just grabbing some monsters and having them charge along a 10' wide corridor at the PC's. And even if they lose, the results will be memorable. Remember, roleplaying isn't about winning and losing, it's the ride along the way. hand it to them on a plate and they'll be bored as well. It's also a demonstration of how to nick stuff from literary sources the right way. You can't control what players do, but you can control the weather, you can control what they encounter, and that gives you a lot of leeway if you know how to use it. If you can't scare them with all the tools at your disposal, they're insufficiently invested in the game. Fairly standard roleplaying advice here. If you want your world to be real, visualisation is a very good task. I use it regularly myself.
The dark continent: Off we trot to africa then. Or at least, a place as much like it as Kara-tur is to real asia. David Howery kicks things off with a brisk 9 page special feature, including the map and quite good artwork. Integrating it into your campaign, terrain, natives, appropriate monsters, environmental challenges, magic, etc. There isn't a huge amount of new crunch, but there is lots of drawing upon various supplements to bind things together. He takes care to avoid the monoculture problem, pointing out that it's a big continent, and there's plenty of different cultures and environments for you to choose. Ironically, despite being bigger than most features these days, it does still feel too small, but I suspect anything less than a medium sized sourcebook would have the same problem. It does compare quite favourably to the introduction to the Known World at the start of the Isle of Dread module as a skeleton to build on though. If we're very lucky we might even get a few more articles doing just that. Anyway, this is a pretty decent way to kick things off.
Arms & armor of africa: So we've explored the dark continent, and met the natives. What time is it? It's violence time! Nothing to do with racism, just to make things clear, it's just that we're adventurers, and killing things and taking their stuff is our job. The fact that we took the job because we enjoy killing things and taking their stuff is neither here or there. But you can't expect them to just lie down and die. Wouldn't be realistic or fun. What unique weapons have the people of africa come up with? There's the usual knives, spears, bows, swords, axes, albeit adjusted for things like chopping through jungle, and paddling across lakes to skewer fishes without carrying two items. There's giant razors and boomerang/club hybrids. There's sickles designed to get around enemy shields. Speaking of shields, they have lots of interesting variants on them too, as since it's too hot to wear armor, you've gotta make the most of them. Using lighter, more fragile materials than metal means you can make them larger, more cover than blocking devices. They also have ones designed specifically to deflect missile weapons. And they reintroduce the idea of spending weapon slots to specialize in shield use, which I believe we saw in the forum before. Again, this is competently done, and not hugely surprising. What next. Some new mythological monsters wouldn't be a bad idea.
part 1/6
124 pages. Another month another year, another set of special topics to fill. Fortunately, one of Roger's requests to the readership now yields fruit. African gaming! Yay! They're finally getting to fill that long neglected region in in fantastical manner. And it looks like they're covering some other exotic regions of the planet too. Seems a good way to start off a new year. How long will this resolution last?
In this issue:
Letters: A repeat letter from a soldier who got shipped out to fight in the gulf war. Roger remembers him personally, and is quite friendly, but can't solve his primary request. They have proper professional artists to hand draw their maps, not some computer program. No easy shortcuts via throwing a bit of money at the task here.
A complaint that Atari isn't dead. Maybe not, but they're certainly not a leading company any more I'm afraid. We certainly won't be making any more computer games for their systems, so there.
Errata attacks again! Because we can't have things with AC's above 10, even though the system has no particular trouble with it. That would mean normal humans aren't the weediest, most fragile things in the world. It's things like that that remind you how mathematically unrealistic D&D can be.
A complaint from a UK gamer that far too many of the things they advertise are only available in the US. Roger is apologetic, but there's not much he can do. Roll on internet ordering to close these gaps somewhat.
Another complaint about ageism, from someone who's probably been playing longer than the complainers. Keep practicing, and smoke their asses like a good prodigy.
A letter praising them for finally doing some Greyhawk material around here. Roger gets a bit snippy, pointing out the many modules and sourcebooks they've released in recent years. Ok, not as many as the Realms, Krynn or known world, but it's hardly been neglected ……. yet. And of course when you actually get greyhawk wars, you may well wish they had neglected it.
A letter asking if there's a mundane survival game. Avalon hill has something about right.
And finally a throwaway joke comment just to pad out the page. Just what the doctor needed after a rather heavy interrogation.
Editorial: Once again, Roger exhorts you to fight complacency in your own campaign. Visualise what you want your players to experience vividly and then throw it at them with gusto. The results will be far more interesting than just grabbing some monsters and having them charge along a 10' wide corridor at the PC's. And even if they lose, the results will be memorable. Remember, roleplaying isn't about winning and losing, it's the ride along the way. hand it to them on a plate and they'll be bored as well. It's also a demonstration of how to nick stuff from literary sources the right way. You can't control what players do, but you can control the weather, you can control what they encounter, and that gives you a lot of leeway if you know how to use it. If you can't scare them with all the tools at your disposal, they're insufficiently invested in the game. Fairly standard roleplaying advice here. If you want your world to be real, visualisation is a very good task. I use it regularly myself.
The dark continent: Off we trot to africa then. Or at least, a place as much like it as Kara-tur is to real asia. David Howery kicks things off with a brisk 9 page special feature, including the map and quite good artwork. Integrating it into your campaign, terrain, natives, appropriate monsters, environmental challenges, magic, etc. There isn't a huge amount of new crunch, but there is lots of drawing upon various supplements to bind things together. He takes care to avoid the monoculture problem, pointing out that it's a big continent, and there's plenty of different cultures and environments for you to choose. Ironically, despite being bigger than most features these days, it does still feel too small, but I suspect anything less than a medium sized sourcebook would have the same problem. It does compare quite favourably to the introduction to the Known World at the start of the Isle of Dread module as a skeleton to build on though. If we're very lucky we might even get a few more articles doing just that. Anyway, this is a pretty decent way to kick things off.
Arms & armor of africa: So we've explored the dark continent, and met the natives. What time is it? It's violence time! Nothing to do with racism, just to make things clear, it's just that we're adventurers, and killing things and taking their stuff is our job. The fact that we took the job because we enjoy killing things and taking their stuff is neither here or there.
But you can't expect them to just lie down and die. Wouldn't be realistic or fun. What unique weapons have the people of africa come up with? There's the usual knives, spears, bows, swords, axes, albeit adjusted for things like chopping through jungle, and paddling across lakes to skewer fishes without carrying two items. There's giant razors and boomerang/club hybrids. There's sickles designed to get around enemy shields. Speaking of shields, they have lots of interesting variants on them too, as since it's too hot to wear armor, you've gotta make the most of them. Using lighter, more fragile materials than metal means you can make them larger, more cover than blocking devices. They also have ones designed specifically to deflect missile weapons. And they reintroduce the idea of spending weapon slots to specialize in shield use, which I believe we saw in the forum before. Again, this is competently done, and not hugely surprising. What next. Some new mythological monsters wouldn't be a bad idea.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993
part 2/6
The other orientals: They've finally stopped publishing 1e OA material, four years into 2e. But they're still quite popular, and we've seen a few of the old classes turned into 2e kits. Getting the magazine to finish this off seems like exactly the kind of thing they should be doing. If anything they should have done it sooner. Kits are a whole world of easy articles they've barely scratched the surface of yet. So I strongly approve of this article. Lets bring them up to date, and maybe even improve on them mechanically.
Bushi are pretty much unchanged, albeit a little less larcenous than they used to be. As they were the straight fighters of OA anyway, this is little surprise.
Kensai get a slight nerfing, keeping their signature powers, but losing some of the peripheral details, which makes them more streamlined and less overpowered. Since they're now working on the same xp scale as everyone else, this is probably a good thing.
Sohei actually come of pretty well, as they keep nearly all their old stuff plus full cleric spellcasting. Ok, they only get 5 major spheres to choose from, but compared to the crap deal many speciality priests get, that doesn't seem bad at all, and makes them a good deal more balanced than the 1e (and 3e) version, which were horribly underpowered.
Shukenja are also probably a bit better than they used to be, as they get regular cleric HD, although they still can't use armour. Just don't expect to be able to work up levels without adventuring by hanging around healing villagers anymore.
Ninja lose all their multiclass wonkiness and most of their special abilities. Now they're just thieves with a few more tricks and a particularly strict guild policy. Since that's mechanical benefits for purely social penalties, that's still a pretty decent deal as a kit.
Yakuza become substantially easier to get into, and are also a lot less wonky than they used to be. Having the full complement of regular thief abilities and not being so district limited will make them more playable. Yup, I think I can say this article has definitely improved on the old versions both in terms of balance and playability. You can very definitely have a place in any game that I'm running.
Rhino's armor, Tiger claws: Another set of weapons of armour, this time with an indian slant. This really is turning into a very culturally diverse issue indeed. India has a more advanced selection of armors than africa, despite being almost as hot. Large metal overplates above another kind of armor. Bracers with mittens to protect your hands as well.
Rhino hide armor, which is considerably more kickass than regular cow based leather or hide armor. Lots of interesting helmets, many disguised as regular turbans. Armless armor to help you stand the heat a little better. And a guard to keep you from being slapped by your bowstring. Now that's one you never hear adventurers complaining about. Lots of good ideas here. As with the african stuff they have several shield variants specifically designed to be good at dealing with missiles or melee weapons. The weapons are rather more familiar, enough of them have shown up in other sourcebooks that I recognise the names and what they do. Tiger claws, spiked bucklers, punch daggers, interesting picks, and all kinds of sword variants that show there's no one best way to forge a blade. The momentum is starting to wear off, but this still seems like a decent enough way to finish off the themed section. Which leaves this issue at well above average so far.
The Known World Grimoire: The voyage of the princess ark may be over. But Bruce Heard still has plenty more detail about the lands of Mystara to give to us. And far too many ranty letters to answer as well. It's a hard life being a developer, especially when far too many readers don't appreciate your sense of humour. It's also tricky thinking up all the ramifications to big metaplot events. Fortunately he can give official answers to those questions here as well. It does have to say that the new mystara seems somewhat darker than it used to be, with multiple countries destroyed or transformed. While I don't recall it getting as many complaints as greyhawk wars, this did probably cause a few problems to people's campaigns.
We also get a bit of promo for the Poor Wizards Almanac. Bruce freely admits that there are a few errors in there, and sets about providing errata. Tear out the map carefully, unfold it, and then stick it back from one point so you don't lose it. Whalers island is full of walrusses, not whales, so watch out. And mind the scales on the Isle of Dawn. All relatively minor stuff given the volume of information there.
And finally, we have another load of writing on demographics. Mainly useful if you're at the domain stage, and want to figure out your tax base with a little more rigour, this bit is fairly dull. Still, the whole thing feels less forced than the last few princess arks. If this change is what he needs to keep producing cool stuff for us in the long run, so be it.
Fiction: Djinn coffee by Allen Varney & Aaron Allston. Even more multicultural fun here, in a classic example of the devils bargain tale, courtesy of a genie and the slimy merchant who thinks they can get the benefits of unlimited wishes without paying the price. Hah. I think you can guess what happens next. The poor schmuck tricked into serving him finds a loophole, and awaaaaay we go. They have studied the form pretty well. With some amusing magical anachronism, snappy writing and easily visualised action scenes, this shows that some of our rules writers can indeed manage entertaining fiction too. Even if it is a bit formulaic, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
part 2/6
The other orientals: They've finally stopped publishing 1e OA material, four years into 2e. But they're still quite popular, and we've seen a few of the old classes turned into 2e kits. Getting the magazine to finish this off seems like exactly the kind of thing they should be doing. If anything they should have done it sooner. Kits are a whole world of easy articles they've barely scratched the surface of yet. So I strongly approve of this article. Lets bring them up to date, and maybe even improve on them mechanically.
Bushi are pretty much unchanged, albeit a little less larcenous than they used to be. As they were the straight fighters of OA anyway, this is little surprise.
Kensai get a slight nerfing, keeping their signature powers, but losing some of the peripheral details, which makes them more streamlined and less overpowered. Since they're now working on the same xp scale as everyone else, this is probably a good thing.
Sohei actually come of pretty well, as they keep nearly all their old stuff plus full cleric spellcasting. Ok, they only get 5 major spheres to choose from, but compared to the crap deal many speciality priests get, that doesn't seem bad at all, and makes them a good deal more balanced than the 1e (and 3e) version, which were horribly underpowered.
Shukenja are also probably a bit better than they used to be, as they get regular cleric HD, although they still can't use armour. Just don't expect to be able to work up levels without adventuring by hanging around healing villagers anymore.
Ninja lose all their multiclass wonkiness and most of their special abilities. Now they're just thieves with a few more tricks and a particularly strict guild policy. Since that's mechanical benefits for purely social penalties, that's still a pretty decent deal as a kit.
Yakuza become substantially easier to get into, and are also a lot less wonky than they used to be. Having the full complement of regular thief abilities and not being so district limited will make them more playable. Yup, I think I can say this article has definitely improved on the old versions both in terms of balance and playability. You can very definitely have a place in any game that I'm running.
Rhino's armor, Tiger claws: Another set of weapons of armour, this time with an indian slant. This really is turning into a very culturally diverse issue indeed. India has a more advanced selection of armors than africa, despite being almost as hot. Large metal overplates above another kind of armor. Bracers with mittens to protect your hands as well.
Rhino hide armor, which is considerably more kickass than regular cow based leather or hide armor. Lots of interesting helmets, many disguised as regular turbans. Armless armor to help you stand the heat a little better. And a guard to keep you from being slapped by your bowstring. Now that's one you never hear adventurers complaining about. Lots of good ideas here. As with the african stuff they have several shield variants specifically designed to be good at dealing with missiles or melee weapons. The weapons are rather more familiar, enough of them have shown up in other sourcebooks that I recognise the names and what they do. Tiger claws, spiked bucklers, punch daggers, interesting picks, and all kinds of sword variants that show there's no one best way to forge a blade. The momentum is starting to wear off, but this still seems like a decent enough way to finish off the themed section. Which leaves this issue at well above average so far. The Known World Grimoire: The voyage of the princess ark may be over. But Bruce Heard still has plenty more detail about the lands of Mystara to give to us. And far too many ranty letters to answer as well. It's a hard life being a developer, especially when far too many readers don't appreciate your sense of humour. It's also tricky thinking up all the ramifications to big metaplot events. Fortunately he can give official answers to those questions here as well. It does have to say that the new mystara seems somewhat darker than it used to be, with multiple countries destroyed or transformed. While I don't recall it getting as many complaints as greyhawk wars, this did probably cause a few problems to people's campaigns.
We also get a bit of promo for the Poor Wizards Almanac. Bruce freely admits that there are a few errors in there, and sets about providing errata. Tear out the map carefully, unfold it, and then stick it back from one point so you don't lose it. Whalers island is full of walrusses, not whales, so watch out. And mind the scales on the Isle of Dawn. All relatively minor stuff given the volume of information there.
And finally, we have another load of writing on demographics. Mainly useful if you're at the domain stage, and want to figure out your tax base with a little more rigour, this bit is fairly dull. Still, the whole thing feels less forced than the last few princess arks. If this change is what he needs to keep producing cool stuff for us in the long run, so be it.
Fiction: Djinn coffee by Allen Varney & Aaron Allston. Even more multicultural fun here, in a classic example of the devils bargain tale, courtesy of a genie and the slimy merchant who thinks they can get the benefits of unlimited wishes without paying the price. Hah. I think you can guess what happens next. The poor schmuck tricked into serving him finds a loophole, and awaaaaay we go. They have studied the form pretty well. With some amusing magical anachronism, snappy writing and easily visualised action scenes, this shows that some of our rules writers can indeed manage entertaining fiction too. Even if it is a bit formulaic, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
David Howery
Hero
Of course, Chris Dolunt did just that in 3E days, with "Nyambe: African Adventures" later on (I contributed a few monsters to that book), from Atlas Games, when the whole D20 thing was going full speed...
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
It may be a decent kit, but they sure aren't Ninja anymore!
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993
part 3/6
The role of computers: The dagger of amon ra sees the return of Laura Bow. Once again, it's detective mystery time, as she has to solve a murder and avoid being killed herself in the process. With good visuals, particularly in the cut scenes, and interesting puzzles, they quite enjoy it, even if it's not as action packed as it could be.
Global Conquest is one of those resource management heavy wargames that can be played solo or against other people online. Build cities, blast the enemy ones, and try as hard as possible not to lose your king equivalent as if you do, you're out of the game no matter how well you were doing. Make sure you save regularly, despite the inconvenience of doing so, for it does crash on occasion.
Gods is an action game with plenty of puzzle elements. Beat up monsters, pull levers, locate keys, shop for weapons, it sounds moderately zelda-esque. No bad thing really.
Mission:Thunderbolt is yet another one that loses marks due to hard to read, easily lost copy protection. Blue ink on pink paper? Poor poor colourblind people. Bleh.
Pacific Islands is WWII tank based wargame. The vehicles take quite a bit of learning to drive well, and you'll have to get good at interpreting the (not very realistic) sound effects as well. Sounds like it'll put off casual players before they really get going.
Prophecy of the shadow, on the other hand gets mediocre marks for being way too simplistic. With a formulaic plot, hardly any character stats, boring combat and repeated character models, they really aren't very impressed.
Siege does a little better. Take on the role of the humans & demihumans or the monsters, and try and break into or defend one of 4 castles. It is rather slow though even on their system. I wonder how it would run these days.
Warrior of Rome II is yet another wargame. Seems like they're reviewing more of these than actual RPG's these days. Are they trying to hint something to the rest of the magazine? Nah. Surely not. Hmm.
The game wizards: D&D: Warriors of the eternal sun! The first D&D console game. Once again they try and penetrate a new mass market, with moderate success. You talk, you shop, you grind for levels, you have to go all the way back to get your characters resurrected. (and they have a nasty surprise for you when you get to the endgame in that department. ) you spend days sleeping in the wilderness miraculously undisturbed, you spam enemies with missile weapons in the underground sections and win easily, you have a dreadfully anticlimactic ending. Ahh, nostalgia. Pay no attention to the recommendation for a well balanced party. Two elves and two clerics'll get you through way easier. Have fun. Yeah, this a quick bit of straight promotion that I don't mind too much, as it does trigger good memories.
Role-playing reviews once again goes outside it's name to review other sorts of fantastical games. This time, Lester Smith tackles stuff devoted specifically to wizardly battles. An idea well covered in literary sources, and not modelled too well in D&D. It has yet to reach it's commercial zenith, with the epic battles of Magic: the Gathering, but it looks like there's more than a few companies trying this out in various formats. Iiiiinteresting.
Duel arcane specializes in the shapeshifting based wizardly combats where you play rock-paper-scissors with your enemies to try and outshift them. It has a decent set of stats to enable this, although extreme ratings in a few of them prove unbalancing. It also probably takes longer to create and upgrade your character than the game really merits. Still, you'll have no trouble differentiating them and a decent combination of luck and skill is involved in winning. Good luck finding a copy these days though.
Shapeshifters takes a more crunchy, wargaming based approach to the same idea. With a complex flow chart that controls how far you can shapeshift by categories of size, phyla and sympathetic relationships, and secret action declaration followed by simultaneous resolution, it does sound like there's quite a bit of system to be mastered. But as lester says, while it may work as a game, that kind of crunch works against the feel of the kind of literature it's trying to emulate, so it can't really be considered a success.
Castle of magic is quite different in approach. A board game where you compete to take over the castle, and hopefully the countries that surround it, by hunting down macguffins and facing monsters. The visuals aren't too impressive, but the game is a good deal of fun, with a nice combination of competition, diplomacy and luck. It seems well suited to going overground in a new edition.
Wiz-war 5th edition is of course one of the leaders in this field, with proper mass market distribution and so forth. It strongly encourages treacherous bastardry and sounds like a good deal of fun. It's multiple editions have honed the rules so they're usually both fast-paced and well balanced, and there's enough luck involved that no one person will always win. Is this one still going?
part 3/6
The role of computers: The dagger of amon ra sees the return of Laura Bow. Once again, it's detective mystery time, as she has to solve a murder and avoid being killed herself in the process. With good visuals, particularly in the cut scenes, and interesting puzzles, they quite enjoy it, even if it's not as action packed as it could be.
Global Conquest is one of those resource management heavy wargames that can be played solo or against other people online. Build cities, blast the enemy ones, and try as hard as possible not to lose your king equivalent as if you do, you're out of the game no matter how well you were doing. Make sure you save regularly, despite the inconvenience of doing so, for it does crash on occasion.
Gods is an action game with plenty of puzzle elements. Beat up monsters, pull levers, locate keys, shop for weapons, it sounds moderately zelda-esque. No bad thing really.
Mission:Thunderbolt is yet another one that loses marks due to hard to read, easily lost copy protection. Blue ink on pink paper? Poor poor colourblind people. Bleh.
Pacific Islands is WWII tank based wargame. The vehicles take quite a bit of learning to drive well, and you'll have to get good at interpreting the (not very realistic) sound effects as well. Sounds like it'll put off casual players before they really get going.
Prophecy of the shadow, on the other hand gets mediocre marks for being way too simplistic. With a formulaic plot, hardly any character stats, boring combat and repeated character models, they really aren't very impressed.
Siege does a little better. Take on the role of the humans & demihumans or the monsters, and try and break into or defend one of 4 castles. It is rather slow though even on their system. I wonder how it would run these days.
Warrior of Rome II is yet another wargame. Seems like they're reviewing more of these than actual RPG's these days. Are they trying to hint something to the rest of the magazine? Nah. Surely not. Hmm.
The game wizards: D&D: Warriors of the eternal sun! The first D&D console game. Once again they try and penetrate a new mass market, with moderate success. You talk, you shop, you grind for levels, you have to go all the way back to get your characters resurrected. (and they have a nasty surprise for you when you get to the endgame in that department. ) you spend days sleeping in the wilderness miraculously undisturbed, you spam enemies with missile weapons in the underground sections and win easily, you have a dreadfully anticlimactic ending. Ahh, nostalgia. Pay no attention to the recommendation for a well balanced party. Two elves and two clerics'll get you through way easier.
Have fun. Yeah, this a quick bit of straight promotion that I don't mind too much, as it does trigger good memories. Role-playing reviews once again goes outside it's name to review other sorts of fantastical games. This time, Lester Smith tackles stuff devoted specifically to wizardly battles. An idea well covered in literary sources, and not modelled too well in D&D. It has yet to reach it's commercial zenith, with the epic battles of Magic: the Gathering, but it looks like there's more than a few companies trying this out in various formats. Iiiiinteresting.
Duel arcane specializes in the shapeshifting based wizardly combats where you play rock-paper-scissors with your enemies to try and outshift them. It has a decent set of stats to enable this, although extreme ratings in a few of them prove unbalancing. It also probably takes longer to create and upgrade your character than the game really merits. Still, you'll have no trouble differentiating them and a decent combination of luck and skill is involved in winning. Good luck finding a copy these days though.
Shapeshifters takes a more crunchy, wargaming based approach to the same idea. With a complex flow chart that controls how far you can shapeshift by categories of size, phyla and sympathetic relationships, and secret action declaration followed by simultaneous resolution, it does sound like there's quite a bit of system to be mastered. But as lester says, while it may work as a game, that kind of crunch works against the feel of the kind of literature it's trying to emulate, so it can't really be considered a success.
Castle of magic is quite different in approach. A board game where you compete to take over the castle, and hopefully the countries that surround it, by hunting down macguffins and facing monsters. The visuals aren't too impressive, but the game is a good deal of fun, with a nice combination of competition, diplomacy and luck. It seems well suited to going overground in a new edition.
Wiz-war 5th edition is of course one of the leaders in this field, with proper mass market distribution and so forth. It strongly encourages treacherous bastardry and sounds like a good deal of fun. It's multiple editions have honed the rules so they're usually both fast-paced and well balanced, and there's enough luck involved that no one person will always win. Is this one still going?
(un)reason
Legend
Is it any wonder that they gave them a whole complete handbook with dozens of mixed class ninja variants a couple of years later.
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