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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9753762" data-attributes="member: 7052563">That is a fantastic cover.  It has a dreamy feeling evoking medieval legends that was not often present in D&D of any era.  The game began with pulp sword & sorcery influences before becoming its own brand of fantasy, itself quite influential on other TTRPGs and CRPGs, but Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms never seemed like the kind of worlds where the music of a lone harper might enchant a dragon.There was a strong simulationist tendency in the 1980’s RPG scene which has appeared in many previous Dragon issues (looking at you, multi-issue debate about falling damage... <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😑" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f611.png" title="Expressionless face    :expressionless:" data-shortname=":expressionless:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />).  It tended to produce very detailed, crunchy systems designed to cover every edge case, the kind of thing that probably appealed more to world-building DMs than to most players.  I usually prefer rules over rulings, the exact opposite of the well-known OSR credo, because I generally value consistency over spontaneity.  However even I don’t need or want a rule for absolutely everything, and this issue features two articles that seem like overkill.A bean-counting system for expressing a divinity’s clout in hit point form is exactly the kind of thing that Gary Gygax seems to have loved, but it also seems like a lot of busywork for little benefit.  I think it was a terrible idea to give deities game stats like hit points or AC in the first place, because it absolutely invited power gamers and Monty Haulers to run books like Deities & Demigods as modules (“Good work guys, next week we’ll take out the Mesoamerican pantheon!”).  I also prefer fantasy deities to be distant, inscrutable, ineffable beings, not soap opera characters, and have always disliked the sort of messy “war of the gods” metaplots that have been used to reset campaign worlds like the Forgotten Realms or Golarion whenever a new game edition rolls out.  I suppose there is precedent in mythology about petty squabbling among the denizens of Olympus or Asgard, but I prefer the epic grandeur of divine battles against titans, monsters, and giants to devious scheming that mere mortals really should not know anything about, if it happens at all. Even if the improvised weapon system is well designed, it does not seem worth the effort since the stakes are so low.  Everyday objects like chairs or frying pans are likely to do just a few hit points of damage, so unless you are running the kind of urban campaign where tavern brawls outnumber dungeon crawls, the DM can probably just wing it.I do like the article on training only when a PC gains major new abilities, because I have had similar ideas myself and it seems reasonable in-universe.  The training could be run as a downtime activity or even played out to some extent, with the higher level NPCs who can teach new skills, spells, or weapons becoming a recurring part of the local setting.Ed Greenwood’s articles were usually entertaining.  I always wondered why D&D split the Gorgons of Greek mythology into “generic brand medusa” and “metal bull that breathes petrification gas”.  Wikipedia says that the latter might be a result of confusion with the catoblepas, which also appears in the MM as a monster in its own right because of course it does <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😁" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f601.png" title="Beaming face with smiling eyes    :grin:" data-shortname=":grin:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />.  I also liked the way “Pages From the Mages” made spellbooks into unique magic items with their own lore, almost like real medieval manuscripts.A few final thoughts:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Play by mail games began in the 70’s, peaked in the 80’s, and declined in the 90’s before the Internet more or less finished them off.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I wonder why espionage RPGs never really caught on, given the popularity of the James Bond and Tom Clancy franchises, or TV series like Mission Impossible or Get Smart.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The short story sounds like Sword Art Online and lots of other media featuring virtual reality games.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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