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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Echohawk" data-source="post: 6061328" data-attributes="member: 9849">I thought this was a particularly strong issue of Dragon.For a start, it clocks in at 60 pages, which is nearly double the previous two issues (34 and 33 pages), and it certainly feels more substantial.Next, it includes support for a whopping five different campaign settings, more than any issue since the "Campaign Classics" print issues during Paizo's run. As well as the expected Dark Sun, Eberron and Forgotten Realms articles, we also get a Greyhawk article (Claudio's "Backdrop: Hochoch") and Mystara support with Tim Eagon's "Ye Olde Creature Catalogue" which presents 4th Edition versions of some classic creatures from old D&D modules -- the decapus, magens, rhagodessas and thouls.For 4th Edition fans, this issue contains a fair amount of new crunch: a new theme, eleven new monster stats blocks, six new magic items, one artifact and two traps. In particular, the article on magical tapestries (Jennifer Clarke Wilkes's "Wondrous Weavings") presents an interesting selection of items and does so with a solid, if short, back-story of the Caretaker who manages the hall of wondrous hangings.For non-4th Edition fans, most of the content is just as useful for other editions of the game. The Dark Sun, Eberron and Forgotten Realms articles are very light on crunch. "Backdrop: Hochoch" is entirely crunch free, and while they do spend some time looking at the Tarrasque's place in the 4e cosmology, there is plenty of back-story in both of the Tarrasque articles which could inspire games for any edition.I'd like to echo TavisP's opinion of "Inns in an Instant". I think this article is John Hasznosi's D&D writing debut, and it is a good one. The article consists mostly of tables for generating random inns, but those tables are packed with evocative and even amusing entries. Who wouldn't want to stop by the Boisterous Hedgehog to try their grilled crocodile and wild rose puree with sundew mead? That's certainly a better choice than the Shady Serpent Inn whose special today is lettuce, liver and lung pie with turnip wine!Finally, the artwork in this issue is great, from Craig J. Spearing's picture of a rampaging tarrasque on the cover through to Hector Ortiz's stylishly elegant tapestry.Since reverting back to a single monthly PDF, it has felt to me as if Dragon (and Dungeon) have been assembled with more care than they were as a collection of individual articles, and I hope that Stan!'s departure from WotC (mentioned in the editorial, and covered in more depth on <a href="http://www.stannex.com/?p=2054" target="_blank">his blog</a>) doesn't mean that we'll see a dip in the quality again in 2013.</blockquote>

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