Kobold Quarterly #3 has arrived
- Thread starter Glyfair
- Start date
FATDRAGONGAMES
First Post
Glyfair said:
Agreed.
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
Whew. I'm still reading through my copy. I am deliriously happy that I bought in from day one as a subscriber. I'm writing a review, but here's a couple things already. This kind of magic just doesn't happen every day. I feel like I did reading Dragon when I was a younger fella. (Now I just have a more mature wasteline...perspective.)
Ecology of the Lich – really well done stuff. Made me want to use a lich as a villain in a future campaign. Many flavorful ideas. I liked how the author explained the transition to lich, then to demilich.
Ed Greenwood interview – A couple of expected questions led into a couple of unexpected questions. I really liked the part where Ed talked about how the Forgotten Realms aren’t supposed to be awash in magic. They’re supposed to be hugely varied with magic, so that there’s spells and items and effects to make it more interesting for players. I remember an early Dragon article with Pages from the Mages, where Ed would write about spellbooks with interesting covers and variant spells in the pages and then we would get new spells. It’s so cool. (And also a bit remniscent of the very cool pdf series from Bret Boyd, Behind the Spells, which according to an ad is coming out soon in compiled form! Yeah, now that’s an awesome 3.5 product!) Got me all excited about maybe running a game with all sorts of neat little magical oddities.
Star & Shadow magic – awesome. I thought that I had a lot of this from Book of Roguish Luck and from the patron-only adventure Castle Shadowcrag (that I got as a member of Open Design). Well I was wrong. Here’s the complete Illumination school, combining light and shadow magic, as well as a big pile of spells including some very cool 0 level ones. (I would have liked to see a Greater Shadow Bite, maybe one that does damage, and perhaps a Greater Shadow Blindness, the spell that interferes with darkvision, but hey, who’s picky? I can write that myself.) A whole new and useful school of magic? Me likey.
Power Attack article was handy. Very interesting to dissect the math. I kinda glossed over that, truth to tell, but found the General Trends illuminating. In my experience, I see players either going for the tried and true +2, or sometimes +5, but this opened my eyes to more uses.
Ancestral Spirits is all about getting, well, an ancestral spirit instead of a familiar. This is very, very cool stuff. I’m going to allow this in future campaigns! I love the flavor of this variant for a wizard or sorceror.
Action – Easy Variants for Cinematic Combat. Some of these were really, really good. Exactly what I should do in my games. (Well, okay, I’ve allowed and/or done a couple things from this article in the past. Not all eight.) I’m jealous of his cool. In particular, I like Option #7 for skills to make rolling a 20 more exciting.
Comics are good stuff. This particular Bolt and Quiver was very funny, in light of all the forthcoming 4E changes.
Dangerous Doors was a cool article. Years ago, I had a pdf from Creative Mountain Games called Perilous Portals that had a lot of similar stuff. This article sent me looking for the old pdf, which sadly appears to have gotten zapped off my computer in the big changeover along with a few other things. Sadder still, Perilous Portals is no longer on RPGNow.com. So I must be content with Dangerous Doors, which has a couple really cool ones, including the low level Hot Door Handle trap and the Earth Elemental Door.
Ecology of the Lich – really well done stuff. Made me want to use a lich as a villain in a future campaign. Many flavorful ideas. I liked how the author explained the transition to lich, then to demilich.
Ed Greenwood interview – A couple of expected questions led into a couple of unexpected questions. I really liked the part where Ed talked about how the Forgotten Realms aren’t supposed to be awash in magic. They’re supposed to be hugely varied with magic, so that there’s spells and items and effects to make it more interesting for players. I remember an early Dragon article with Pages from the Mages, where Ed would write about spellbooks with interesting covers and variant spells in the pages and then we would get new spells. It’s so cool. (And also a bit remniscent of the very cool pdf series from Bret Boyd, Behind the Spells, which according to an ad is coming out soon in compiled form! Yeah, now that’s an awesome 3.5 product!) Got me all excited about maybe running a game with all sorts of neat little magical oddities.
Star & Shadow magic – awesome. I thought that I had a lot of this from Book of Roguish Luck and from the patron-only adventure Castle Shadowcrag (that I got as a member of Open Design). Well I was wrong. Here’s the complete Illumination school, combining light and shadow magic, as well as a big pile of spells including some very cool 0 level ones. (I would have liked to see a Greater Shadow Bite, maybe one that does damage, and perhaps a Greater Shadow Blindness, the spell that interferes with darkvision, but hey, who’s picky? I can write that myself.) A whole new and useful school of magic? Me likey.
Power Attack article was handy. Very interesting to dissect the math. I kinda glossed over that, truth to tell, but found the General Trends illuminating. In my experience, I see players either going for the tried and true +2, or sometimes +5, but this opened my eyes to more uses.
Ancestral Spirits is all about getting, well, an ancestral spirit instead of a familiar. This is very, very cool stuff. I’m going to allow this in future campaigns! I love the flavor of this variant for a wizard or sorceror.
Action – Easy Variants for Cinematic Combat. Some of these were really, really good. Exactly what I should do in my games. (Well, okay, I’ve allowed and/or done a couple things from this article in the past. Not all eight.) I’m jealous of his cool. In particular, I like Option #7 for skills to make rolling a 20 more exciting.
Comics are good stuff. This particular Bolt and Quiver was very funny, in light of all the forthcoming 4E changes.
Dangerous Doors was a cool article. Years ago, I had a pdf from Creative Mountain Games called Perilous Portals that had a lot of similar stuff. This article sent me looking for the old pdf, which sadly appears to have gotten zapped off my computer in the big changeover along with a few other things. Sadder still, Perilous Portals is no longer on RPGNow.com. So I must be content with Dangerous Doors, which has a couple really cool ones, including the low level Hot Door Handle trap and the Earth Elemental Door.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
Varianor Abroad said:
Exactly...back when Dragon had great reviews...
Ok, Ok. I will admit that I like reviews as recomendations, but I also like them for two other reasons. To see bad products get the wripping they deserve. And for the same reason I like book reviews. I am never going to come close to playing all these games or adventures or using all these supplements. But I don't need to, I can just read the reviews...
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Having just opened my copy (I've been traveling abroad these last few weeks) I'm intensely curious about the full-page ad on page 21. Beyond the very bold picture and statement it makes, it seems that at least one company is going to be sticking with 3.5 past when 4E comes out (bravo to them!). Does anyone know anything more about what's being hinted at there?
I subscribed a few weeks after issue #2 was published and received that issue, so I think you'd get 3.freyar said:
NarlethDrider
First Post
I just subscribed! Lookin forward to the mag (I will probably pick up the previous pdfs) & I can always use more dice!
