I liked "Sages and Specialists", myself.
Let's read the entire run
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I liked "Sages and Specialists", myself.
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Sages and Specialists was kind of bland really. I suppose it's ok in the context of 2e, but I never got around to using it. And it really didn't have much material in it that was worth converting to 3e, since 3e's NPC classes did what this book tried to do, but in a way that was easier to use an much better integrated into the rules.
Echohawk
Shirokinukatsukami fan
Heresy! Without Sages and Specialists, we'd have no D&D rules to play Scribes or Historians.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996
part 8/8
The current clack: This month's news column is mostly concerned with revivals, which is actually quite pleasing. The battletech CCG is being rescued from limbo, Hero games are getting a new publisher, and so is The Whispering Vault. While companies may be experiencing financial problems, there's still plenty out there, and they want to keep cool properties alive. Of course, in some cases, this'll be just throwing good money after bad, but this is frequently the case in creative industries. You have to offer people all these different ideas so some can become breakout hits and support the other ones. The eras where everyone tries to follow the crowd in their attempts to succeed are the dullest to observe.
Also amusing here is Allen cementing his place as the resident technophile. He jumped on the internet quickly a couple of years ago, and now he's sharing his wisdom on the matter of mailing lists and message boards. Yes, they do require adapting to a quite different style of conversation to face-to-face communications, and can branch and spiral in ways that aren't easy to follow to the uninitiated. It is interesting to speculate just how people's brains are being affected by regularly conversing in this fashion, and what implications it has for young people who don't remember any differently. In the long run, it just makes for another "kids these days, gitoffa my lawn" cultural gap for people to rail against. And there's not a lot we can do about that.
It's not all bad here, but I can quite clearly identify the bits in the issue that made me decide I was getting sick of D&D at the time. Too many bits, pulling in different ways, too many mutually contradictory articles, too much dilution of theme, too much sloppiness in the writing and editing. And Dragon Dice just being annoying. It made me realise that I had enough to keep on playing for years as it was. Why bother with more if it was only going to make things worse? So that meant I pretty much missed their commercial nadir. This time, of course, I'm going to have to go all the way through it, try and give it a fair assessment. Tune in next time, as I once again venture into terra incognita. Only this time it's urban decay instead of virgin wilderness. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunities for heroes here too.
part 8/8
The current clack: This month's news column is mostly concerned with revivals, which is actually quite pleasing. The battletech CCG is being rescued from limbo, Hero games are getting a new publisher, and so is The Whispering Vault. While companies may be experiencing financial problems, there's still plenty out there, and they want to keep cool properties alive. Of course, in some cases, this'll be just throwing good money after bad, but this is frequently the case in creative industries. You have to offer people all these different ideas so some can become breakout hits and support the other ones. The eras where everyone tries to follow the crowd in their attempts to succeed are the dullest to observe.
Also amusing here is Allen cementing his place as the resident technophile. He jumped on the internet quickly a couple of years ago, and now he's sharing his wisdom on the matter of mailing lists and message boards. Yes, they do require adapting to a quite different style of conversation to face-to-face communications, and can branch and spiral in ways that aren't easy to follow to the uninitiated. It is interesting to speculate just how people's brains are being affected by regularly conversing in this fashion, and what implications it has for young people who don't remember any differently. In the long run, it just makes for another "kids these days, gitoffa my lawn" cultural gap for people to rail against. And there's not a lot we can do about that.
It's not all bad here, but I can quite clearly identify the bits in the issue that made me decide I was getting sick of D&D at the time. Too many bits, pulling in different ways, too many mutually contradictory articles, too much dilution of theme, too much sloppiness in the writing and editing. And Dragon Dice just being annoying. It made me realise that I had enough to keep on playing for years as it was. Why bother with more if it was only going to make things worse? So that meant I pretty much missed their commercial nadir. This time, of course, I'm going to have to go all the way through it, try and give it a fair assessment. Tune in next time, as I once again venture into terra incognita. Only this time it's urban decay instead of virgin wilderness. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunities for heroes here too.
(un)reason
Legend
The question then becomes what more essential stuff they could give us without repeating themselves at this point. I'm sure they were wracking their brains trying to come up with new topics for books as well. After all, they were releasing them a lot faster back then.
Hello? Issues 3 & 62. Well, they provide the scribes. I'm the one playing the historian.
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
And how much of that information is now badly out of date I wonder? I mean rpg.net was probably just getting started, and it's three years before Eric Noah's 3e news site started up. Not to mention all the other various RPG fora that have come and gone over the years.
I wonder how much of that is Dragon's fault and how much of it is the fault of TSR as a whole. By this point in 2e, all the freelancing in the core lines had led to some seriously fragmented rules. Just look at Rick's review of Shaman from this issue, he notes that there's already several different priest classes called shamans, and they're not all the same. That's just one example of how there's too much bolted onto the system at random without trying to make everything fit together well at this point.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996
part 1/8
124 pages. A cover rendered entirely in washed out reds and yellows that looks like it needs a little sharpening up here. The theme, on the other hand, does seem pretty sharp. Weapons? Don't think we've had a full themed section on that, while we have had quite a few on magic. Rogues got some new tricks last issue. Now it's warrior's turn to try and play catch-up. As usual, I am fairly curious how well that'll work.
In this issue:
The new D&D starter set is advertised using the cover from the old Moldvay basic set, in the process showing that the new one isn't a patch on the old in terms of sheer attention-grabbing weirdness. This is no good at all. All you'll do is fuel people's nostalgia.
The wyrms turn: We leap straight into the issue's theme in the editorial. What exactly is a weapon? Let's consult our friend the Oxford English Dictionary again. Huh. These new editors have more boring references than the old ones. This doesn't compare to army stories or goofy actual play experiences. And once again, they use formatting to try and disguise the fact that their word count here is very low. This feels like another content free editorial that they could have skipped entirely. Blah blah over-reliance on formula. You could have fit an article twice this size in this space. I miss 1987, when they were actively trying to be as efficient as possible. Now it seems like they're trying to pad things out wherever they can to save money. This sucks.
D-Mail: A letter praising the revamped magazine, in particular Roger's recent orbs of dragonkind article. They have been printing a lot of letters like this recently. I suppose it shows they are pleasing a decent segment of their readerbase. And the ones they aren't pleasing must be quitting altogether rather than complaining. Or maybe they're being selectively positive to keep people from quitting via peer pressure.
A letter nitpicking about the name of Tolkien's dragons. He did change his own mind quite a bit over the years. Even serious geeks may dispute which one to use.
A letter saying that what they need is more themed issues, and a bigger forum section. Perfectly reasonable requests. The themed stuff I agree with in particular, especially if they can find one they haven't done before.
Another letter just offering general praise and stuff. (apart from the price increases, which suck) Yawn.
And finally a question about rare Dragon Dice. You can only get them at a convention! Just another way to sort the true fanatics from the lightweights. (join the RPGA now :teeth ting: )
part 1/8
124 pages. A cover rendered entirely in washed out reds and yellows that looks like it needs a little sharpening up here. The theme, on the other hand, does seem pretty sharp. Weapons? Don't think we've had a full themed section on that, while we have had quite a few on magic. Rogues got some new tricks last issue. Now it's warrior's turn to try and play catch-up. As usual, I am fairly curious how well that'll work.
In this issue:
The new D&D starter set is advertised using the cover from the old Moldvay basic set, in the process showing that the new one isn't a patch on the old in terms of sheer attention-grabbing weirdness. This is no good at all. All you'll do is fuel people's nostalgia.
The wyrms turn: We leap straight into the issue's theme in the editorial. What exactly is a weapon? Let's consult our friend the Oxford English Dictionary again. Huh. These new editors have more boring references than the old ones. This doesn't compare to army stories or goofy actual play experiences. And once again, they use formatting to try and disguise the fact that their word count here is very low. This feels like another content free editorial that they could have skipped entirely. Blah blah over-reliance on formula. You could have fit an article twice this size in this space. I miss 1987, when they were actively trying to be as efficient as possible. Now it seems like they're trying to pad things out wherever they can to save money. This sucks.
D-Mail: A letter praising the revamped magazine, in particular Roger's recent orbs of dragonkind article. They have been printing a lot of letters like this recently. I suppose it shows they are pleasing a decent segment of their readerbase. And the ones they aren't pleasing must be quitting altogether rather than complaining. Or maybe they're being selectively positive to keep people from quitting via peer pressure.
A letter nitpicking about the name of Tolkien's dragons. He did change his own mind quite a bit over the years. Even serious geeks may dispute which one to use.
A letter saying that what they need is more themed issues, and a bigger forum section. Perfectly reasonable requests. The themed stuff I agree with in particular, especially if they can find one they haven't done before.
Another letter just offering general praise and stuff. (apart from the price increases, which suck) Yawn.
And finally a question about rare Dragon Dice. You can only get them at a convention! Just another way to sort the true fanatics from the lightweights. (join the RPGA now :teeth ting: )
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996
part 2/8
Weapons of the waves: We start off this themed issue with one of their more ambitious articles in a while, a 9 page one on naval combat in the Birthright setting by one of the official writers. Since they're also producing a supplement on this topic, this has the air of a promotional tie-in, so I'm not sure how much of this is repeated in the book. Still, it's both interesting and at least some of it is new. It reveals just how much Cerilia's history and naval tactics differ from the real world, and are shaped by their magic & geography. With tactical advice, new weapons, and a whole bunch of little cards containing statistics for ship types, there's plenty to use and appreciate here. It's not particularly usable in another campaign, but I still rather like this one, as it has both ambition and smoothness. Still, I don't think it'll be changing history like the half-dragons one.
En Garde!: Yay! A Red Steel swashbuckling article! That's something I've certainly wished they'd do. If I'd noticed this was coming, I might not have quit last month. It has some pretty cool ideas as well, with formalised fighting styles that you gradually learn upwards, only getting the higher level manoeuvres after learning the lower ones in the style. They did that with wizards in the Paths of Power article, and that was awesome. Unfortunately once again we are hindered by the fact that warriors only get one new proficiency slot every 3 levels, and have a lot of choices on which to spend it. You'll be unable to master this stuff before 20th level, at which point wizards will be using wishes and chain contingencies. So this is a cool idea hindered by the underlying system, just as with the previous attempts to give warriors more combat options. Roll on the next edition.
And the walls came down: Magical Battering Rams? That's a new one. (apart from that april fool monster, and that's bleating) Not often you see mundane ones in D&D either, as mass combat isn't that common, and they're a bit too encumbrance-heavy for a party to carry in a dungeon, despite being quite useful potentially. Maybe when you get yourself a portable hole or something. As is usually the case when they manage to fill in a new niche that makes sense, I approve.
The Arien of Thang-Nor is a spell that conjures a supernaturally tough battering ram. Fairly basic, but it does deal with a lot of the logistical problems you'll face. Whether it's worth a 5th level spell slot I'm not sure. Might want to add a few summon monsters to get the creatures to wield it. Everything is soluble if you're a wizard, but it can take a lot of preparation.
Frost-Rent is more interesting. Carved of solid ice from the paraplane, it'll transfer it's chill to the structures attacked, and make them brittle. Wrap up warm, otherwise it'll take off your fingers as well. Can't trust these artifacts at all, but at least this one's drawbacks are relatively simple to avoid.
Khalmick-Graz is a rather scary orc device that plays music as it runs, like a giant evil bullroarer. This makes it pretty likely to win by sheer revulsion, presuming you have the staff to operate it. But then, given how fast orcs breed, they should have replacements up and trained soon enough.
Thunderstrike Rods let you unleash lightning bolts so powerful, they also serve as battering rams, and stun everyone in their path. Make sure your forces back off before you unleash it, because that's one hefty area of effect.
part 2/8
Weapons of the waves: We start off this themed issue with one of their more ambitious articles in a while, a 9 page one on naval combat in the Birthright setting by one of the official writers. Since they're also producing a supplement on this topic, this has the air of a promotional tie-in, so I'm not sure how much of this is repeated in the book. Still, it's both interesting and at least some of it is new. It reveals just how much Cerilia's history and naval tactics differ from the real world, and are shaped by their magic & geography. With tactical advice, new weapons, and a whole bunch of little cards containing statistics for ship types, there's plenty to use and appreciate here. It's not particularly usable in another campaign, but I still rather like this one, as it has both ambition and smoothness. Still, I don't think it'll be changing history like the half-dragons one.
En Garde!: Yay! A Red Steel swashbuckling article! That's something I've certainly wished they'd do. If I'd noticed this was coming, I might not have quit last month. It has some pretty cool ideas as well, with formalised fighting styles that you gradually learn upwards, only getting the higher level manoeuvres after learning the lower ones in the style. They did that with wizards in the Paths of Power article, and that was awesome. Unfortunately once again we are hindered by the fact that warriors only get one new proficiency slot every 3 levels, and have a lot of choices on which to spend it. You'll be unable to master this stuff before 20th level, at which point wizards will be using wishes and chain contingencies. So this is a cool idea hindered by the underlying system, just as with the previous attempts to give warriors more combat options. Roll on the next edition.
And the walls came down: Magical Battering Rams? That's a new one. (apart from that april fool monster, and that's bleating) Not often you see mundane ones in D&D either, as mass combat isn't that common, and they're a bit too encumbrance-heavy for a party to carry in a dungeon, despite being quite useful potentially. Maybe when you get yourself a portable hole or something. As is usually the case when they manage to fill in a new niche that makes sense, I approve.
The Arien of Thang-Nor is a spell that conjures a supernaturally tough battering ram. Fairly basic, but it does deal with a lot of the logistical problems you'll face. Whether it's worth a 5th level spell slot I'm not sure. Might want to add a few summon monsters to get the creatures to wield it. Everything is soluble if you're a wizard, but it can take a lot of preparation.
Frost-Rent is more interesting. Carved of solid ice from the paraplane, it'll transfer it's chill to the structures attacked, and make them brittle. Wrap up warm, otherwise it'll take off your fingers as well. Can't trust these artifacts at all, but at least this one's drawbacks are relatively simple to avoid.
Khalmick-Graz is a rather scary orc device that plays music as it runs, like a giant evil bullroarer. This makes it pretty likely to win by sheer revulsion, presuming you have the staff to operate it. But then, given how fast orcs breed, they should have replacements up and trained soon enough.
Thunderstrike Rods let you unleash lightning bolts so powerful, they also serve as battering rams, and stun everyone in their path. Make sure your forces back off before you unleash it, because that's one hefty area of effect.
Great stuff, as usual, and it's interesting that we've finally entered your interregnum between stints as an active reader.
Since I'm not often following along with my print copies, I do sometimes wish you would include the name of the cover artists and editors you criticize. When I did a similar read-through of the entire run for my own purposes years ago, I found it very interesting to compare the various editorial styles of the editors, from the way they wrote their editorials to the types of articles they printed.
You seemed to keep up, more or less, with the changes in editors over the years, but they're going to start cycling through relatively rapidly from this point forward. Poor A. J. Bryant's entire era slipped by without comment from you (that I noticed).
I _think_ we're into the Dave Gross era, at this point, but I wish it was a little easier to tell from your comments.
Just a suggestion. I've been following this thread for years and eagerly read it weekly.
Keep up the good work!
--Erik
Since I'm not often following along with my print copies, I do sometimes wish you would include the name of the cover artists and editors you criticize. When I did a similar read-through of the entire run for my own purposes years ago, I found it very interesting to compare the various editorial styles of the editors, from the way they wrote their editorials to the types of articles they printed.
You seemed to keep up, more or less, with the changes in editors over the years, but they're going to start cycling through relatively rapidly from this point forward. Poor A. J. Bryant's entire era slipped by without comment from you (that I noticed).
I _think_ we're into the Dave Gross era, at this point, but I wish it was a little easier to tell from your comments.
Just a suggestion. I've been following this thread for years and eagerly read it weekly.
Keep up the good work!
--Erik
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Looks like we're at Gross' run here. He's credited as editor in this issue. Thing is that the magazine kind of shifted from Bryant to Gross without any sort of fanfare, so without checking the masthead or whatever its called it's hard to tell.
I will say that Dragon from sometime during 96 to the release of 3e was fairly good overall IMO, lots of interesting cruch that could be sprinkled around, some decent advice and so on. It certainly was pretty good after WotC first took it over. I was less enthusiastic after the release of 3e, but that had more to do with the design philosophy of the art editor than the magazine's actual content.
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