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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 7956438" data-attributes="member: 27780">TSR RPGA No. 2: Autumn 1981part 3/4How to Create Monsters: Jean Wells reminds us that math is important when designing monsters. While you do have a fair bit of leeway in juggling stats around, the overall power level and numbers you encounter them in should be arranged so the players have a decent chance of defeating them, while not being a complete walkover either. Some stats don't scale much with level, such as movement rate and morale, which are more dependent on creature thematics, while others inflate massively in a system like D&D. All stuff that would be codified and formalised in later editions, but it's good to see someone in the office cares about this even back then. After all, it's tricky to make tournament adventures fair if you can't do the math to figure out odds of success. Turnbull Talking: In another international twist, they give Don Turnbull, the head of TSR UK a column. Similar to Gary, this is a somewhat cantankerous little piece of writing that reminds us kids these days, we don't know how good we have it. When he was a youngster you'd be lucky to have 2 new games released per year, now SPI is releasing a new one every month, and there's so many other companies doing similar it's impossible for a completionist to keep up. This is actually a good thing! It means the hobby is growing, and the more games there are, the more likely it is that you can play something you genuinely like, instead of grabbing what's in store because it's the only game in town. Since the internet will further increase the degree of choice people have in entertainment (and their ability to crowdfund their own ideas and make them a reality) by several orders of magnitude, I find this very amusing. People can adapt to a lot. Just how much faster and more connected will the world get in our lifetime? Will it ever hit a breaking point and go in the other direction again? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Mutants: Jim Ward has never been short of ideas, so here's another collection of Gamma World creatures to do horrible things to your players with. Smashy giant humanoids, Crystal Intelligences, Lizards that disguise themselves as cacti, Intelligent flying monkeys, Treasure hoarding grape vines and ancient servant robots. Some familiar ideas, but given distinct spins by adding on seemingly random mutations that make them all the more unpredictably dangerous. It makes a good argument for using random rolls to spark your creativity, helping you come up with creatures far more complex and interesting than you would have on your own, as you try to make sense of their odd mix of abilities and how that would make them live and think. Definitely an enjoyable collection to read and use. RPGA Gift Catalogue: As their star ascended, TSR was not shy of dipping their toes into all kinds of merchandising. So it's no surprise to see them offering a whole load of RPGA exclusive goodies for sale here, just the right time for christmas shopping. Along with the obvious new modules, they're offering a figure case for your minis and a snazzy TSR belt buckle, and giving lots more potential options for products that they want us to give our opinions on, so they know whether there's a market for them or not. Always a hassle before the days of crowdfunding. Don't want tens of thousands of copies sitting unsold in a warehouse, do they. I strongly suspect I'll be seeing more of this. Even without external ads in the newszine, there's still going to be plenty of promoting their own products.</blockquote>

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