(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 193: May 1993
part 6/6
The dragon's bestiary: Yay! more planar monsters! All ones that would later appear in proper MC appendices as well. Keep building that part of the setting up, we've still got a way to go until planescape.
Giant Nautilus are one of the few things that can go head-to-head with Kraken in both the physical and mental arenas. With 21 attacks per round, tough armour, plus substantial magical powers, they should also be able to deal with most parties too, should one be around while they do something bad for the environment. Not one to be casually trifled with.
Abyss ants are exactly what you'd expect. Giant malevolent twisted versions of normal ants, ready to melt your face off with acid spitting. As they're considerably less chaotic than most abyssal inhabitants, they can survive via co-operation in the face of the horrors of the infinite pit and carve out their own little safe regions. (for them) As ever, good luck turning them to your advantage, because I don't fancy your odds of killing them all unless you're a creature immune to nonmagical attacks that can just wade through them.
Incarnates are possessing spirits that epitomise the 7 virtues & sins. They offer you appropriate powers at the cost of some of your free will. The good ones can be useful, while the bad ones are an almighty pain to get rid of. Now these can indeed be nice plot drivers. Are you willing to make that fusion willingly, and become a lot more like a White Wolf character? (what? Mage, Wraith, Changeling, Exalted, Mummy, Demon, Geist. All use variants on that theme. It does seem to be rather a habit of theirs. I do wonder why. )
Dragonmirth involves literal dungeons this time. And the same joke Fineous fingers started with back in issue 3. Ogrek continues to irritate everyone he meets. How does he get away with it? A spectacular arial battle fills twilight empire.
Through the looking glass: The hammer has fallen. Or has it. As usual, it's more complicated than that. It's only a few states in the US that are doing the lead banning thing. Some companies will still be producing lead minis, particularly ones overseas. And of course, with such patchy enforcement, it would not be a complicated matter to go out of state for your shopping, maybe do a little illegal importing for your mates (although as a pundit in a major magazine, he is contractually obliged to disapprove of that behaviour. ) It would be oh so easy to make a mockery of this, just as we did with prohibition. Plus it would make a great noir comedy. Wargaming importers and the hard-bitten detectives who try and track them down. Adversity does make things interesting.
Our reviewed minis this month are a mechanic with a gun, and a ton of little detail on his clothes that'll be a challenge to pain. Lord Soth in all his brooding glory riding a skeletal horse. Sir Bors from Arthurian legend, mounted or on foot. You think he'd stand a chance against Soth? Some modern soldiers with machine guns and missiles. Dwarves with polearms considerably longer than them. A wererat with a rather nasty looking sword. A completely nonchesecaky druid/ranger. And the token bit of furniture. Once again they fight to increase the legibility of the photographs, with mixed success.
We also get a review of Warhammer Battle Magic. It gets pretty good marks from Robert, with only the subtle niggle that the way they're dividing things up may be more based on getting you to buy lots of other figures than IC thematics keeping him from giving it 5 stars. Yeah, I think we know by now that Games Workshop are pretty ruthless and effective business people. They wouldn't have survived where all the other wargaming companies died if they weren't. At least someone's still around to push the mass market minis.
TSR Previews: Having had Top Secret grind to a halt in 1991, they make another, rather different shot at producing a versatile generic system. The Amazing Engine™. Base rules simple enough to fit in a 32 page booklet, and a system designed to allow you to switch easily between wildly different characters in wildly different milieus. Two of these are released straight away. For Faerie, Queen and country combines victoriana with a distinct flavour of open magic, while Bughunters is fast paced sci-fi. How many settings will they get out before this too falls by the wayside?
Dark sun is our top AD&D attraction this month. The Ivory Triangle is a big boxed set full of info on Gulg, Nibenay, and their epic conflict. Use it fast, because like everything else in this world, it'll be out of date and superceded soon. Much of this is of course the fault of Troy Denning, who completes book 4 of the prism pentad, The Obsidian Oracle. Tyr may be free, but the new boss'll become as bad as the old boss if he gets his way.
Ravenloft proves even Pinnochio can be made horrific, in The Created. A mad toymaker sends his creations against people. Guess it's foiling time again. But how many other suspicious characters lurk nearby to serve as red herrings?
Greyhawk follows up on a couple of months ago. WGR6: The city of skulls sends you to infiltrate Iuz's capital city. Can you make a difference to the big picture? Good luck.
Spelljammer gets SJR8: Space lairs. Another anthology of short adventures. Well, the standard ones don't work very well in space. Don't let your game grind to a halt because you're out of ideas.
And finally, we have another batch of trading cards. I can't even be bothered with the pokemon jokes anymore. Let's skip them until that actually comes out in a few years.
In contrast to the last issue, this one really flew by. Fortunately, that's because most of the articles were interesting enough that I could easily think of something to say for them even if many of them weren't actually that great. With Roger's 10th, and the lead bill kerfuffle, this is another one that both lets me really appreciate how far I've come, and how much further I have to go. And just how much work it's been. Eventually, it'll start getting easier. But knowing me, that just means I'll start posting faster again, making the workload just as hard. Let's hope that day isn't too far away.
part 6/6
The dragon's bestiary: Yay! more planar monsters! All ones that would later appear in proper MC appendices as well. Keep building that part of the setting up, we've still got a way to go until planescape.
Giant Nautilus are one of the few things that can go head-to-head with Kraken in both the physical and mental arenas. With 21 attacks per round, tough armour, plus substantial magical powers, they should also be able to deal with most parties too, should one be around while they do something bad for the environment. Not one to be casually trifled with.
Abyss ants are exactly what you'd expect. Giant malevolent twisted versions of normal ants, ready to melt your face off with acid spitting. As they're considerably less chaotic than most abyssal inhabitants, they can survive via co-operation in the face of the horrors of the infinite pit and carve out their own little safe regions. (for them) As ever, good luck turning them to your advantage, because I don't fancy your odds of killing them all unless you're a creature immune to nonmagical attacks that can just wade through them.
Incarnates are possessing spirits that epitomise the 7 virtues & sins. They offer you appropriate powers at the cost of some of your free will. The good ones can be useful, while the bad ones are an almighty pain to get rid of. Now these can indeed be nice plot drivers. Are you willing to make that fusion willingly, and become a lot more like a White Wolf character? (what? Mage, Wraith, Changeling, Exalted, Mummy, Demon, Geist. All use variants on that theme. It does seem to be rather a habit of theirs. I do wonder why. )
Dragonmirth involves literal dungeons this time. And the same joke Fineous fingers started with back in issue 3. Ogrek continues to irritate everyone he meets. How does he get away with it? A spectacular arial battle fills twilight empire.
Through the looking glass: The hammer has fallen. Or has it. As usual, it's more complicated than that. It's only a few states in the US that are doing the lead banning thing. Some companies will still be producing lead minis, particularly ones overseas. And of course, with such patchy enforcement, it would not be a complicated matter to go out of state for your shopping, maybe do a little illegal importing for your mates (although as a pundit in a major magazine, he is contractually obliged to disapprove of that behaviour. ) It would be oh so easy to make a mockery of this, just as we did with prohibition. Plus it would make a great noir comedy. Wargaming importers and the hard-bitten detectives who try and track them down. Adversity does make things interesting.
Our reviewed minis this month are a mechanic with a gun, and a ton of little detail on his clothes that'll be a challenge to pain. Lord Soth in all his brooding glory riding a skeletal horse. Sir Bors from Arthurian legend, mounted or on foot. You think he'd stand a chance against Soth? Some modern soldiers with machine guns and missiles. Dwarves with polearms considerably longer than them. A wererat with a rather nasty looking sword. A completely nonchesecaky druid/ranger. And the token bit of furniture. Once again they fight to increase the legibility of the photographs, with mixed success.
We also get a review of Warhammer Battle Magic. It gets pretty good marks from Robert, with only the subtle niggle that the way they're dividing things up may be more based on getting you to buy lots of other figures than IC thematics keeping him from giving it 5 stars. Yeah, I think we know by now that Games Workshop are pretty ruthless and effective business people. They wouldn't have survived where all the other wargaming companies died if they weren't. At least someone's still around to push the mass market minis.
TSR Previews: Having had Top Secret grind to a halt in 1991, they make another, rather different shot at producing a versatile generic system. The Amazing Engine™. Base rules simple enough to fit in a 32 page booklet, and a system designed to allow you to switch easily between wildly different characters in wildly different milieus. Two of these are released straight away. For Faerie, Queen and country combines victoriana with a distinct flavour of open magic, while Bughunters is fast paced sci-fi. How many settings will they get out before this too falls by the wayside?
Dark sun is our top AD&D attraction this month. The Ivory Triangle is a big boxed set full of info on Gulg, Nibenay, and their epic conflict. Use it fast, because like everything else in this world, it'll be out of date and superceded soon. Much of this is of course the fault of Troy Denning, who completes book 4 of the prism pentad, The Obsidian Oracle. Tyr may be free, but the new boss'll become as bad as the old boss if he gets his way.
Ravenloft proves even Pinnochio can be made horrific, in The Created. A mad toymaker sends his creations against people. Guess it's foiling time again. But how many other suspicious characters lurk nearby to serve as red herrings?
Greyhawk follows up on a couple of months ago. WGR6: The city of skulls sends you to infiltrate Iuz's capital city. Can you make a difference to the big picture? Good luck.
Spelljammer gets SJR8: Space lairs. Another anthology of short adventures. Well, the standard ones don't work very well in space. Don't let your game grind to a halt because you're out of ideas.
And finally, we have another batch of trading cards. I can't even be bothered with the pokemon jokes anymore. Let's skip them until that actually comes out in a few years.
In contrast to the last issue, this one really flew by. Fortunately, that's because most of the articles were interesting enough that I could easily think of something to say for them even if many of them weren't actually that great. With Roger's 10th, and the lead bill kerfuffle, this is another one that both lets me really appreciate how far I've come, and how much further I have to go. And just how much work it's been. Eventually, it'll start getting easier. But knowing me, that just means I'll start posting faster again, making the workload just as hard. Let's hope that day isn't too far away.
