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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8274426" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 25: Sep/Oct 1990part 1/565 pages. A knight holding a black rose on the cover? Isn't that Lord Soth's schtick? Are they going to have some Dragonlance material in here, or is it going to be some other jilted incel who thinks he's a chivalrous nice guy when they're really not. What kind of drama will the players be dragged into, and how much choice will they have in terms of outcomes? Let's head on, and hope they've kept to their general policy of being much less railroady than Polyhedron.Editorial: Ooh. They're actually trying out a non-D&D adventure in here! The editorial is about their newest set of experimentation with system and format in the attempt to improve readability and sustain interest. Let us know which bits are good and which are bad so we can continue to refine them. And obviously, if you want to see more non D&D adventures in the future, send them in, because they can't publish what they don't have even if the audience demand is there. Well, this is an interesting turnup even if I already know it doesn't stick long-term. I look forward to seeing if they'll manage a few more before reverting to homogeny and exactly how people respond in the letters page as well.Letters:  The first letter asks if they plan to do a best of Dungeon any time soon? Nope. Since they ditched Gary, they've not been too keen on retrospectives. Who's got time for nostalgia when you're in one of the most productive eras for worldbuilding?The second thinks it would be a good idea to have a regular section devoted to DM tips and tricks. That idea keeps on popping up, and yet they refuse to bite …… yet. Maybe it's tonight, Maybe tomorrow night, Next week, Next month Next year. We've only time to fear.Third grumbles that their new cover stock is less water-resistant than the old one. What is this cost-cutting nonsense?! They don't have any clever editorial retort for that one.Fourth praises the cunning goblins of Tallow's Deep. Their players were suitably chastened when put up against them. That'll tech them to plan their delves a little more carefully.Fifth is a particularly long one continuing the debate for or against boxed text. Barbara is definitely getting fed up with this, so she calls time on the topic. Stop getting so worked up over procedural details at the expense of whether an adventure is actually fun to play.Sixth takes umbrage at their statement that it's the type of games you play with RPG's that make them the tools of the devil or not, and therefore they're only going to publish adventures involving morally good characters. Good and Evil are no more real than God and the Devil. RPG's are just games. You shouldn't be dignifying the delusions of religious people with that much importance. Still, whether abstract morality is real or not, do as you would be done by remains a strong principle in real world practice, so try to be nice to your co-players even when you're slaughtering their characters in-game.Seventh is some more orcish errata delivered in character. A little comedy makes the inconsistencies go down in the most delightful way.Eighth wishes more adventures took account of the fact that many parties have a character that can talk to animals (or plants, or even weirder things. ) A smart druid or diviner could blow any mysteries right open. Yeah, if your players get that smart and paranoid, most written adventures will not go the usual way, and more linear ones will be amusingly short-circuited. If you're not equally cunning and able to improvise as a DM it can become a problem.Ninth is a writer from Denmark who's looking for people to play with. Another potential growth market if they'd only network a little more.10th is a Texan who also welcomes personal correspondence. The magazine is generally good, but it's the real world adventures we have as a result of it that really count.11th is more errata on their illusionary adventures. It must have hidden itself all through the proofreading process.12th is someone grumbling that all their players want to play fighty types, and this causes trouble with adventures that expect a well-balanced party. There's a lot of problems no amount of raw force can solve. Show them by example how much more effective a little magic can be.13th a lengthy set of bullet points from someone who wants the magazine a little more idiot-proofed. Trouble is, if they do that, it adds a lot of repetition for more experienced readers if they have to see the same explanation of map keys and jargon every issue. We only have so much page count as it is.Finally, a brazilian player who wants more wizard-centric adventures. Most of the other classes have had their turn to shine in solo or single-class adventures, but none have been aimed primarily at spellcasters. Barbara has no problem with that concept, hint hint, it's just a matter of someone submitting a good enough example to publish.</blockquote>

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