Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 2/7


As 3rd ed is now well into development, Forum stops asking directly rules related questions. They're still directing debate a lot more blatantly than they used to though. This time the question is about when the DM should actively deceive the players. Nashty. My vote is for when there's someone or something actively trying to deceive them IC.

Tanner Neilsen thinks if you can prove something, your character can too. Ah yes, the real world physics arguers. They're still a substantial force in gaming.

Oliver Brochet brings up the old rules are there to be changed if they become an obstacle to fun canard. Yawn.

Andrew Galbraith is one of many people who thinks the distinction between demihumans multiclassing, and humans dual-classing is stupid, and the game works better if you drop it. Let people choose how they advance more organically.

Lewis Anderson's most significant house rule is "You said it, your character said it" Start openly discussing if you should kill someone right in front of them, and things will go downhill rapidly. This cuts down on the idle chatter pretty damn fast.

Jan Lundquist paises Justin Bacon's idea of turning spell memorisation into preparation. It just makes so much more sense! Go for it!

Phil Pike, on the other hand just wants us to go back to Jack Vance and play up the effort involved in memorising spells. Mind you, calling any magic system realistic is missing the point, as usual.

Stephen E. Eldridge thinks Read Magic ought to be scrapped as a spell, and turned into a proficiency, with the difficulty of deciphering a scroll dependent on level. Not a terrible idea, if rather prone to creating obligatory dump slots.

Mike Lewis thinks knowingly embracing the cheese and powergaming can be a lot more fun than a serious campaign. It's like complaining about an over the top action movie. The violence and unrealism is the point. Michael Bay approves.

John Wright is another person who thinks dragons STILL need a serious powering up. I hope you'll be happy with yourselves when you see what you get.


Dungeoncraft: Ray continues to talk about constructing your NPC's. Now, the interesting thing here is that he generates the ability scores first, and then decides on the personality. Well, that certainly is quicker on average than thinking up a personality, and custom tailoring their stats to that, and can often throw up amusing surprises that improve your game in the long run. He also encourages you not to fully stat out everyone, just note the important stats for fighting them, and whatever else might make them unique and crucial to the plot, and leave everything else out, which also means they take less space in your notes. Somehow, I'm guessing he's not part of the 3e design and playtesting teams, with their emphasis on designing all the monsters to formulas, and making sure all the derived stats, skill points and feat slots add up. So this is business as usual, quite possibly written somewhat in advance. These columns aren't current event based, and certainly wouldn't take a month to write, so he might well have most of the planned campaign done already. And it's obvious he's not part of their big plan for the future. We shall see what happens to him when the edition ends.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 3/7


Sage advice: Do fire elementals have mass (yes. They have to stay on the ground, and can pick up and throw stuff about. It makes them all the scarier.)

Which dex subability reduces two-weapon penalty (aim)

Are kit based AC bonuses based on dex (varies from one to another. Read the description. Swashbucklers are, Ravagers are not, for example)

Does stoneskin change your appearance (no. Having concealable protection is a definite advantage. )

What happens if you fall in water while wearing a ring of free action (normal damage, then you have to find your way out. Don't try any clever physics extrapolations.)

Do zakharan mages get extra spell points for being specialists (Elemental mages can, Sorcerers can't)

Why do paladins and rangers get costs for orisons when they can't cast them. (ahh. But they can if they choose the right skills & powers options. So there.)

Does glassteel make things transparent. How do these things save ( yes. Better of both. It's both useful and cosmetically appealing )

Is a swashbucklers AC bonus weight or performance restricted (Performance. Go for their mojo and they lose it. )

Can a pearly white ioun stone regenerate limbs lost to green slime (yes)

Are ghouls and ghasts affected by holy water (yes)

What is the definition of a humanoid. (Funny story that. Let Skip give you a history lesson. Blah blah blah bl.......................
ah. Everything clear now? )

How does the language Primeval affect 10th level spells (-5 to difficulty. Rather handy, don't you think. )

What penalties does a thief who becomes lawful good suffer (none but their own conscience. We've been through this before.)

You left out a load of detail about the new monks ( It wasn't me. )

Is a living wall undead (no, it's a construct. Albeit a semisentient, miserable insane one. )

What happens to someone stuck inside a daerns instant fortress when it shrinks (pop like a cork. Wheee! :splat: )

Can half-elf speciality priests multiclass. (maybe. The lord your god may be a jealous god, in which case no. )

Are spells only available to one god also available to allied gods if you ask nicely (no)

Can priests research wizard spells (probably not. Skip recommends conservatism in this area, for game breaking may ensue.)

Why do dwarves suck at turning undead. (because they prefer to hit them than scare them off)

Can Xothor really use ANY magical item?! (Pretty much. Still won't save them from things going horribly wrong with them)

Can priests of Eilistraee wear nonmagical elven chain (no)

Can Delvesons be multiclassed (no)

Priests of Thoth and Isis break the rules! (Special privilege. Chill, dude. The gods can do what they like to their priests. They just don't usually because they don't want to annoy other gods.)

Can a fighter dual class to paladin if they have the stats (no. Skip may allow them to switch, BD&D style if they're very very good boys though.)

Can a wizard tell what high level spells do even if they can't cast them (in general)

How do you roll a d13 (you don't. That would be very unlucky. )

What would you put as an epitaph on your tombstone ( Are you threatening Skip? You'd better not be. Skip is watching you. Try any funny business and Skip'll cap you faster than you can say collected colloidal collateral. )

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 4/7


Hearth & Sword: This month's main feature is a 16 page piece on the Anglo-Saxon gods. Now this is a slightly odd business, because they have quite a bit in common with the viking ones, only with different pronounciations, and substantial recontextualisation. Although we get a static picture of myths after the event, in a world lacking in fast communication and easy long-term recording and reproduction of information, it's pretty much inevitable that myths would differ even from village to village, and mutate hugely as time passed. That wouldn't work as well in fantasy campaigns where the gods are real and regularly interfere, and magic takes the place of many technological advancements. So what we have here is an alternate take on things they've already covered in Legends & Lore, but in an interesting way. Reality is under no obligation to be internally consistent, unlike fantasy worlds.

Nerthus is the chief nature goddess, all about making sure there's a bountiful harvest for people so they can be happy and healthy. This means turning serious miscreants into trees, so they can be productive by producing yummy fruit if all else fails. Her clerics are also fairly nonviolent, but with bonus sleep and charm effects, they can do nonviolent solutions quite effectively.

Eostre is the goddess of birth and spring, the new growth part of the natural style. Her priests are strict pacifists, so they're not really adventurer suitable, but they're incredibly good at midwifery, and can communicate with Hares for some reason. Choose life. Choose children. Choose not being a violent druggie.

Hred is the goddess of winter, and as this is an era where a nasty winter will kill quite a lot of people, she's not considered very nice. Her clerics don't get a great spell selection, but have access to wizards cold spells, and can enhance them quite substantially over the standard. Double damage ice storm is not to be sneezed at at high level unless you have the appropriate resistance spell.

Mannus is the ultimate big daddy of humanity, encouraging them to excel and gently weeding out the lazy and self-satisfied for the good of everyone else. His priests have a decidedly quirky restriction on their proficiency requirements, and are good at buffing, warding and cursing. Classic clerical support duties, really.

Woden is of course a younger Odin, demonstrating that Wizards taking over because knowledge of magic lets them do everyone else's job better than them at high level isn't purely a D&D conceit. Amoral and out for themselves, his priests get rune magic, but eventually lose an eye. This doesn't slow them down at all, as the other one gets super-perception. You can see why he'd wind up being considered cooler than all these mundane natural cycle goddesses in the long run.

Tir is also fairly familiar as Tyr in the Norse pantheon and Forgotten Realms, although he has yet to lose his hand. It's a hard life, being an honourable warrior god, which is why he encourages warriors to go out in a blaze of glory when age starts to get to them. Keep taking on bigger and badder challenges until something beats you, it's the only way to know just how great you really are. (albeit posthumously) His clerics get to kick ass and see through lies, illusions, etc. But not heal, because magical healing is for wusses.

Thunnor is the unnabbreviated form of Thor, and even more of an impetuous hothead who loves a fight. His clerics get to go berserk, which is always fun, and shoot lightning bolts at higher level. Pretty much what you'd expect then.

Ing is the dutiful demigod son of the pantheon heads, wandering the world, and trying to do good wherever possible. He doesn't have priests of his own, but is the guy people often swear oaths on. And to round things off is talk about christianity in the dark ages and the way it interacts with them. (and eventually takes over) They did co-exist for a couple of centuries, but it certainly wasn't a comfortable one. There's plenty of room for adventures bringing them into conflict in interesting ways. So this has been a fairly cool special feature, giving me plenty to think about in terms of taking existing things and giving them different contexts. The same people act differently in different contexts. The same idea applies to gods.


The Oerdian lesser gods: More gods? Well, I suppose we haven't seen quite as many of them as we have new kits in 2e. Although I might have to doublecheck that. Although the funny thing about that is the changes for being a specialty priest of some kind are more significant than the benefits and penalties for the average kit. This is worth thinking about. Anyway, it's Greyhawk time again, showing that this resurgence really is it's peak in terms of popular support from freelancers, and possibly the public too. Like Star Trek, absence really has made the heart fonder.

Atroa is the goddess of spring and the east wind in particular, with general nature control as secondary. This also means she's all about the fertility, celibacy is strictly forbidden amongst her priests. As the priests also get regeneration at higher levels, and weather control spells are pretty cool in combat, they don't work too badly as adventurers either. Chauntea could learn something from that.

Delleb is the god of sages, not to be confused with the god of magic. He has a black dog for a companion, and indeed, the weight of using knowledge responsibly can weigh on his priesthood a bit, but he remains strictly lawful good so far. His clerics get an unusually large proportion of their spheres from the Tome of Magic, and are rather good at divination. The idea of surprising your enemy with unusual spells, while avoiding those kind of surprises yourself seems a clever one.

Kurell is the god of thievery and jealousy, engaging in many similar actions to Norebo, but for very different reasons. Where Norebo is fun-loving and playful, Kurell is a petty-minded vindictive little bastard who holds a grudge like no-ones business and hates anyone better than him at something. Like most gods of thievery, his clerics get to use some rogue skills, and their granted spells make being sneaky easy. Mind you, if they're sticking to their god's tenets strictly, they're likely to tear the group apart eventually, because you can be sure someone'll get something they're jealous of, and then it'll all gradually snowball.

So I think the notable thing about these gods is that they're all more specific or alternate takes on ideas that already have a god in charge of them. Which I suppose is how it works in greek mythology, with gods that are children of other gods putting their attention to a subset of their parent's portfolio. And it demonstrates how you can approach the same basic concept, and yet have it's embodiments have very different alignments and personalities. That does give this a certain value, and it does make a pretty good read, without making the clerics particularly under or overpowered. I think this is a positive result.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 5/7


Heaven's trump: Ooh. A tie-in article. They're also releasing a book on playing Celestials this month, so why not include one of putting them into your game. Turns out they're just as likely to be subtle while on the prime material as their hellish counterparts, albeit for different reasons. Partly due to not wanting the general public to worry, and partly due to wanting to create heroes which can stand on their own feet and fight evil, they'll pretend to be human and set up missions for wannabe heroes in true Gandalf stylee. If they have to be coddled the whole time, they'll never grow up to really appreciate how good they have it, or why virtue is beneficial. Deus ex Machina appearances with the full trumpets and flaming swords outfit are a sign that you haven't planned things through carefully enough, or the opposition is cheating. (which yeah, demons do, it has to be said) Is it dishonesty to tell a few white lies if you're so much smarter and more knowledgable that you couldn't explain the whole situation and it's context to a mortal without spending several years that would be better spent actually doing good deeds, even though they might not understand the long-term ramifications? Would YOU be able to keep straight a story spanning thousands of years and millions of outer-planar beings trying to manipulate the fate of a world, developing ever more complex relationships of favors and vendettas, doublecrosses and awkward alliances of convenience along the way? Given how long it's taking me to completely grok a magazine lasting thirty-odd years, I might well have to go for the cliff-notes version. So this is really a strong reminder that good is not a blunt instrument. They might not have to hide for the same reasons as evil, but getting the greatest good out of a complex situation requires careful on the ground involvement.


The western Wyrms: Which is not a sequel to Wyrms of the north, thankfully, contrary to my first thought. Instead it's an expansion for council of wyrms, making a whole bunch of other dragon races available as PC's. All of the other true dragons from the monster manual in fact. Now since CoW followed some fairly simple formulas in figuring out ability score modifiers, xp costs, class availability, etc, this wasn't hard to do anyway, and I did it myself for plenty of the dragon types in various supplements. However, this does use it's discretion in one aspect. Wheras the regular ones had XP tables strictly based upon how many HD the race has, this shifts things around, giving Shadow Dragons highly inflated XP costs and yellow ones a break, presumably because their spell selections and innate powers are above or below average in power respectively. Of course, putting the vast XP requirement disparities in the first level or two when you have the least amount of time to get the XP and treasure is one of the big flaws in the CoW system in the first place, and made it a real bother to get a long-term campaign going without including solo missions. But still, this is systematic flaw, rather than an issue with this article in particular. This is merely a symmetry filler, neither good or bad.


Fiction: Dux Bellorum by Ben Bova. Orion's attempts to keep Arthur alive hit a fairly substantial obstacle, with an Immortal deciding to come down and involve themselves directly in the plot rather than just manipulating others. This results in a situation where he's pretty much helpless during the significant parts of this, and even when he does act, it's on the advice of others. Essentially, it's exactly the same deprotagonisation problem that Niall suffered from, way back in the day. That makes this interesting, but also frustrating. It's similar to the problem where at high levels, the spellcasters take over, and can beat the fighters without even breaking a sweat with a few buffs or a save or suck spell. So this really drives in how annoying being a pawn of cosmic beings is, and presents the kind of plot you really shouldn't subject your players too. Methinks the pendulum had better swing the other way next time if he doesn't want to bore me.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Quite a nice topic here. Items that are a mixed blessing, offering both boon and bane, often simultaneously. As I've said before, this is a trick I'm pretty keen on. When the two aspects have a nice thematic link, this is one of the coolest ways you can reward your players, as it automatically sets things up for the next adventure. And this is no exception, not only listing a bunch of items, but also a random table full of further ideas. Much better than interminable lists of mundane stuff.

Ansuit's Gauntlets make you strong but dumb. Now there's a very stereotyped combination that it may well be a no brainer to take. Just need to trust that your companions won't screw you while you're playing smashy guy.

The Uniform of Kheles gives you hallucinations, but makes you nearly immune to any illusions of an external source. One you should only wear if expecting an enemy of that nature.

Moil Bravura is a magical sword that sends you on 9 quests to fight energy draining undead before you can unlock it's full power. This may well lead to your death and/or losing lots of levels in the process. You could become quite the tortured hero as a result of this, and it'll certainly take over the campaign for a while.

Blackstone Amulets are quite nastily cursed, but if you can remove the curse, they become pretty kickass at dealing with evil influences. Another adventure in the making here.

Heramais pipes visit the symphony of the gods, and then make you obsessed with figuring out how to recreate it. If you can stick at it, and don't have the pipes taken away by friends growing worried by your obsession, you'll get there eventually. (and a lot quicker than it's taken me to write some real songs ) And then you'll be free to use them to play awesome music, or not as you choose.

The Armor of Torrentin has a mischievous invisible servant bound to it. Until you find out the command word, it engages in pranks upon everyone around. Still, this should only take one adventure to solve and then no more worries until the armor is passed on.

 

[an_idol_mind]

The western Wyrms: Which is not a sequel to Wyrms of the north, thankfully, contrary to my first thought. Instead it's an expansion for council of wyrms, making a whole bunch of other dragon races available as PC's. All of the other true dragons from the monster manual in fact. Now since CoW followed some fairly simple formulas in figuring out ability score modifiers, xp costs, class availability, etc, this wasn't hard to do anyway, and I did it myself for plenty of the dragon types in various supplements. However, this does use it's discretion in one aspect. Wheras the regular ones had XP tables strictly based upon how many HD the race has, this shifts things around, giving Shadow Dragons highly inflated XP costs and yellow ones a break, presumably because their spell selections and innate powers are above or below average in power respectively. Of course, putting the vast XP requirement disparities in the first level or two when you have the least amount of time to get the XP and treasure is one of the big flaws in the CoW system in the first place, and made it a real bother to get a long-term campaign going without including solo missions. But still, this is systematic flaw, rather than an issue with this article in particular. This is merely a symmetry filler, neither good or bad.

Fun story about this article: it was originally written up as a big campaign expansion for the Council of Wyrms set. The whole western continent was supposed to be a human-dominated area rife with dragon slayers, with a new map and everything.

The problem is that when I wrote the article I didn't have a computer, so I punched it all up on a typewriter. I was in high school and didn't realize how important making copies of everything was. The original article got sent back to me with revision suggestions, and the revision got lost either in the mail or at WotC offices. The article got rewritten from scratch, and a lot of the setting info I had come up with got lost. As it turned out, the setting stuff was going to be cut anyway, since it was a case of me trying to shoehorn my homebrew game into an article rather than providing the magazine with something that actually applied to Council of Wyrms.

Between the first article getting lost and the revision getting cut down, the process of getting this article pounded out from my typewriter to print was a bit over a year and a half. Lesson learned: always keep backups.

I don't know what experiences others have had with the editors of this era of Dragon, but it's worth noting that those guys were really kind in all my interactions with them. I had a lot more enthusiasm and talent, and they tended to give very good criticism in their rejections. They didn't do form rejections all that often in those days, and they sent me a nice congratulatory letter when they finally chose to publish something of mine - again after being very helpful with edit suggestions, turning this particular article from a kludged-together monstrosity that would have taken up way too much space and appealed to very few readers to a smaller article that might have actually had some use to the folks who played Council of Wyrms.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 6/7


Rogues Gallery: The fairy court? Don't we already have stats for them in Monster Mythology? Rehash alert! Well, I suppose they aren't exactly as they were presented in Shakespeare. Still, I believe my appropriate answer is mutter mutter grumble mutter.

Oberon is higher level, and of more mundane classes than his MM incarnation, but lower ability scores. The picture is very David Bowie, complete with well-defined area. Easy there. Well, that fanservice quota won't fill itself.

Titania, on the other hand is definitely less powerful this time around, more of an equal to her husband despite still being technically superior in a hierarchical sense. Course, since the weather mirrors her mood, you really don't want to provoke her. This is the trouble with systems where you get to the top via raw magical power.

Puck wasn't in Monster Mythology, strangely enough, although there were several made-up trickster gods that filled his place, partly because they needed different ones for each race, and too many of them fill the same niche. Guess he's just too badass to be just one character in D&D. Or maybe they are all one character, only shapechanged. So this is a much straighter adaptation of a previously covered topic, that really, just makes me go meh. Where's the imagination in that?


Dungeon Mastery: Where the last column in this series was about toning down magic items to make them seem more special, this does exactly the same for resurrection. There's all kinds of complications that could be introduced to make sure that while they might come back, they'll still regret having died in the first place, and be a good deal more cautious in their adventuring next time. Or they could just say screw that and make new characters, particularly if the DM allows them to be of equivalent level to the other guys. So once again, I am left very very underwhelmed, which may or may not be intentional. As with the magic items one, this may be an artificially created problem anyway, encouraged by the system, as most other roleplaying games don't have the same ease of resurrection, and people don't expect them too. Which again, makes the solution very simple. And makes me long for the days when they covered other companies RPG's in the magazine. This era gets very wearing sometimes.


Marvel Superheroes: Ah yes, Onslaught. Haven't seen him around in a while. One of those characters that spent quite a bit of time being all mysterious and all powerful seeming, and was eventually eliminated by a reality rewrite. That sounds messy, but I guess that's standard for comics continuity. Having all the powers of two popular characters, plus more won't automatically make you as popular and long lasting as those characters put together. And they encourage you not to actually use him in game, despite giving stats. I mildly disapprove. Why bother giving him the spotlight in the first place then? Who's choosing which characters to update, the magazine writers or the company? It's not as if you're short of characters when it took you thousands of pages a decade ago. Use your time more wisely, or you'll never be as successful as last time.


Role models: Our lessons in using miniatures turns to creating your own terrain cheaply and easily. Cardboard and styrofoam are perfect for this, and if you're ordering stuff regularly, you get plenty of that as an extra. Cut it up, slap a bit of paint, stick the pieces together, and presto chango, cheap scenery. You don't need to make it perfect, just good enough for now. And once you have it, you can make your landscapes suitably dramatic for those climactic clifftop battles. Presuming you can get the minis to stand up and stay still on uneven terrain, which can really bog down a fast-paced action scene. (although not as much as kitten attack) As usual, they make it seem quicker and easier than it may be in reality, especially if you're not technically minded or don't have the raw materials lying around. Well, that's your problem, not theirs. It's simple if you know what you're doing. It's just the learnin' stage that may be tricky.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 7/7


The world of the Tsa: Another race that's already got the spotlight in the magazine gets a second one. The Tsa's notable features are their speed, short lifespans, and large broods, which result in a fast developing society with complex social structures that can leave humans confused and worried they're going to be outcompeted. After all, they're the only race that went interstellar on their own, and can fill up a world far faster than we could. Fighting a long-term war with them would be a losing proposition. Good thing they're so skilled at making friends with other races as well. Sincere sociability'll beat being a machiavellian manipulator more than half the time. So it seems plenty of thought has gone into both making their culture fit their biology, and making sure they aren't too disruptive to a group. They don't want to make the Kender mistake again. Although maybe they should have, given the two properties respective success levels. :/ Oh well, this is a pretty good article, like most of those in this series, with several interesting bits of crunch along with the setting expansion. With plenty of planets to come from, they can avoid monoculture as well. With another year to go before they get rid of this column, they should have a few more good articles for me yet.


This months design contest is for gods. You get a full 1,500 words for this one. How generous of them.


Dragonmirth mocks the modern youth. The puzzles are particularly devilish this issue. KotDT fail their min-maxing rolls.


TSR Previews: Council of Wyrms gets rereleased. Vaguely surprised this one was popular enough to merit that. I guess new PC types are always popular. In a similar vein, our new generic release is Warriors of Heaven. Celestial PC's for those of you who find paladins aren't uptight enough.

The Realms gets a double helping as usual. The Wyrmskull throne takes you under the sea of fallen stars to deal with the titular dubious artifact. What unfortunate effects does owning this one have? Meanwhile, R. A. Salvadore is going pretty high up in The Spine of the World. Wulfgar and Drizzt continue to have their issues. Will they get over them, or will it be left on a cliffhanger for the end of a trilogy to resolve?

Dragonlance gets The Siege of mount Nevermind by Fergus Ryan. Dwarves and gnomes working together. An unbeatable combination, even if more than few bad jokes will be told in the process.

Alternity tries to boost it's popularity by releasing a fast-play thingy to help you get new people in. Incident at Exile gives you another simplified setup you can probably do in a single session. Anyone try this?


ProFiles: Bill Slavicsek is definitely one of our big names these days. Star wars, Torg, Council of Wyrms, Dark sun, Planescape, he's produced a lot this decade, and got his finger in all sorts of pies. He's been a writer, an editor, a designer, and now he's one of the head directors, putting him in a good position to put his stamp on the development of the next edition. Was his influence one of the things that helped draw people back into gaming? Or is it dragging things in a direction you hate? He certainly believes in what he's doing, and will continue to experiment with design and pushing the limits of what you can do with gaming. And if you don't like it, the old games are still right there. One of our more interesting interviews from one of our more notable interviewees.


So yeah, I think this definitely counts as a significant issue, and one that's going to get quite a few responses in the next few months. It can't be that huge a surprise to most people, but everyone wants something different from the next edition, and there's everything to gain or lose. And as the rest of the issue has one of the highest rehash counts ever, I think I can say that it hasn't come a moment too soon. I just hope that they can manage at least a few cool new articles before the next edition drops, and I won't be dealing with a whole extra year of boredom. Well, let's continue the countdown.

 

[jonesy]

Dragonlance gets The Siege of mount Nevermind by Fergus Ryan. Dwarves and gnomes working together. An unbeatable combination, even if more than few bad jokes will be told in the process.

That was a weird book. You know how fiction has a tone and fiction in a certain setting has an overarching tone? Nevermind stands all alone. Nothing has the same odd tone that it has. You can't say "if you like Dragonlance check it out" or even "if you like gnomes check it out". It's just.. weird.

 

[M.L. Martin]

That was a weird book. You know how fiction has a tone and fiction in a certain setting has an overarching tone? Nevermind stands all alone. Nothing has the same odd tone that it has. You can't say "if you like Dragonlance check it out" or even "if you like gnomes check it out". It's just.. weird.

I haven't read it since the initial release, but I have to agree. It's not like Lord Toede, which is off-center but feels like DL (given that Jeff Grubb was part of the original team, that's no surprise). Siege . . . is just . . . odd. Not necessarily bad, but odd. But then, that may be appropriate for a book set during the Summer of Chaos.

Looking forward to the treatment of #264 coming up next. That's another well-loved issue of mine.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. A sharply dressed floating bald thing with a big grin? Hang on a second. This seems very familiar. We know Joss Whedon used to play D&D, don't we. Co-incidence? Probably, since Hush only aired 2 months later, and TV turnaround times aren't that quick. Common ancestor? Well, they're certainly creepy anyway, which is exactly what you look for in an october issue. If this issue can be half as effective as that episode, it'll be well worth it. Let's draw those curtains, and shine a torch under our faces to tell a chilling story.


Scan Quality: Indexed. Colour shading set too dark and sometimes hard to make out.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Writing songs for your gaming group? Yeah, been there, done that, posted them on the internet. My geekiness truly know no limit. Writing one in the middle of the session, on the other hand, that's just crazy. Unless you have a real talent for freestyling, that'll eat up the whole session with you not doing much, as with this month's editorial story. Still, it demonstrates commitment like virtually nothing else. Songwriting is unpredictable work at the best of times, and even an experienced songwriter can produce crap songs if inspiration is not with them. Much respect for anyone who manages to pull it off, such as the subject of today's editorial. He went above and beyond the call of duty for his gaming group. The cockles of my heart, they are well and truly warmed. That's a promising start to the issue.


D-Mail: We start off with another lengthy letter and response about playing evil characters. It's hard to play one when the adventures assume you're going to act heroically. But really, it can be a tremendous amount of fun. Dave Gross thinks this privilege should be reserved for DM's, though. Consider it a reward for going to all that worldbuilding effort.

A letter on the ways someone twisted cliches in their campaign. It takes surprisingly little tweaking to make the slave lords scenario unrecognisable, for example. And then you can use it over and over again. Muahahahaha.

A request to bring back Bahamut & Tiamat, with upgrades so they're competitive with 2e monsters. They're going to be a bit mean here, and not bring them back for 2e. On the other hand, they'll be among the first to get 3e stats! You'll truly know fear when you see how high their numbers go there, especially when you're still not sure how much the PCs'll also be upgraded.

A letter from someone who keeps the players informed about the world by producing an IC newspaper. This also helps them feel like they're genuinely famous and their actions have consequences. I think that's definitely worth a little anachronism.

A request for reprints. Once again, they wind up denying that request, but in an interesting fashion. They're thinking hard about how to make more old books available electronically. That would solve so many of their current problems. Course, in the long-term it'll create others, but they would have happened anyway, because other people would scan in and put up their books. The internet will spread into all aspects of our lives, whether we want it too or not.

And finally, we have a letter from someone who was skeptical about the man vs machine article at first, but won over by it's quality. See, the water's fine once you get in. Some people have become so conservative, and they're not even actually that old yet.


Nodwick prays for the coming of 3rd edition, where you can say no to being resurrected if you want.