Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 196: August 1993


part 2/6


Cultivating campaign cultures: Things step back down again, with a bit of random table stuff. We already have one for random personality quirks for people. Now we have one for random cultural mores for societies! If you stumble across some village in the middle of the jungle, you need to know what the trigger is that'll result in them driving the players out in disgrace or trying to put them in the cookpot. Yeah, I can see the use in that. I can also see the humour in it too. Most of the specific examples are ones from the real world, and don't seem too ridiculous though. Although it is a bit short. I guess you'll have to use it as a springboard to designing your own expanded tables with their own quirks and taboos. Cool idea, so-so implementation.


The art of storytelling: Things step downwards again with this bit of basic listed roleplaying advice. With a rather substantial editing error which means that point number 6 is repeated twice, and then it continues from there. Tut tut. That loses quite a few marks, even beyond this advice being mostly rehashed. Very much half-assed filler.


Organization is everything: Or once again I thank humanity for inventing laptops. Even a decade ago, most of my notes were on paper, and things tended to get seriously higgledy piggledy as things were scrawled down wherever was most convenient at the time. If you wanted to seriously sort out the organisation of your notes post-hoc you have to completely rewrite them on fresh bits of paper. And of course, the sheer volume of them seriously mounts up if your campaign continues for years. If you aren't gaming at your own home, there comes a point where you simply can't fit all the stuff you use into your backpack to take to the group. These days, hard drives are big enough that you can fit .pdfs of every D&D book ever released into them, and still only fill a fraction, so I don't think you're in any danger of filling them up with your own written notes. And in this format, you can copy effortlessly, and cut and shift stuff around or insert something in the middle of other notes with a tiny fraction of the time and work it would have taken then. As is often the case, they finish off the themed section with an article that's relatively short, but still full of handy advice. Which in this case seems a bit dated, but the principles are still sound. After all, it may take a fraction of the effort to search and organise your work on computer, but it still needs to be done, otherwise you'll have a ton of little post-it's littering your document folder and you have to open them up to see what's inside the obscure titles. So plenty to think about here. Better get to work.


Forum: Pierre Lapalme agrees with earlier forumites that getting persuading new players to start can be tricky. Much of this is the fault of the rules. Choose wisely, and then be consistent, but don't let them straitjacket you. They should be a path to fun, not an obstacle.

Erik Koppang also thinks that wise house-ruling is important. Neither the rules of the tabletop game or the computer games are perfect. You certainly shouldn't follow them blindly just because that's the easy path.

Paul Bleiweis finds he's becoming more embarassed talking about gaming as he gets older. Yeah, probably need to tackle that, or you'll have great trouble putting a group together in adulthood. You need to be able to convince them it's a desirable thing to do, and shame will not help with that.

And finally we get another Anonymous letter, from one of the female employees at TSR, who is part of the anti-cheesecake brigade. Anyone know who this was? Anne Brown? Barbara Young? In any case, they blame it on the people in marketing. If you want to convince them otherwise, write to that department.


Sage advice is tiny this month.

Do paladins still lose their powers if they commit evil acts in ravenloft (yes. The gods know, even if you don't. Ok, sometimes the dark powers'll take over, but that kind of cheatyness is for NPC's only.)

Why aren't the new spheres from ToM used in Tales of the lance (Space. Writers always produce too much, then something has to be cut. Like Skip this month, it seems.)

What kind of spellbooks does a multiclassed mage/minstrel have (Two of them, one for each class. Oh woes, for I have to have a big backpack. It's nothing compared to the amount of gear modern musicians have to lug around. )

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 196: August 1993


part 3/6


The known world grimoire: Bruce manages another burst of inspiration this month. He might not be able to manage them frequently enough to run a proper narrative, but there are still areas of the known world to fill in, and by gosh he's going to keep at it. He visited the manscorpions in issue 192. Now we head south to see the orcs that give this nasty swampy peninsula it's name. With a particularly big, tough battlescarred red dragon as their overlord, the various tribes may bicker with one-another, but they're more than organised enough to repel any attempts at civilising these lands. As with many aspects of mystara, this is a set-up designed to give the players challenges at whatever level they may be, from fighting individual raiding parties, to being able to take on entire armies and do world-shaking deeds that'll get them into the Immortal pantheon. Just be careful you don't bite off more than you can chew and get the attention of the big guns too soon, for huge dragon breath killing the entire party in one hit is a real day spoiler. With the usual mix of IC and OOC perspectives, and plenty of references to the other parts of this massive intertwined world, this is a pretty pleasurable read, able to support plenty of adventure while leaving room for expansion of the specifics by the DM. I just wish they were coming more frequently. While he may still have the skills, they mean little without the creative will to channel them. It becomes increasingly difficult to see a future for this series.


Mutant chronicles gets a very eye-catching advert. Nice colouring job, dude.


Fiction: The only good orc by Liz Holliday. Aka the story of orc jesus, and the stuff he goes through to get to sacrifice himself for the sins of his race. This involves a certain amount of deception, but mainly because people don't believe an Orc can be good, so the truth wouldn't be believed. The result has a pretty decent number of twists and turns, and the requisite bittersweet ending. It's not often you'll see PC's sacrifice themselves like this, so you need every good example you can get. It's all pretty decent.


The role of computers comes to an end. Or at least, the crew of writers leave for other fields, to specialise in Mac games in another magazine. Once again cementing the fact that they don't have a great track record in picking successful systems. We've had some good times, we've had some dull times, we've had some strange moments. We've seen systems rise and fall, games go from 0 to 6 stars, (wing commander is still unsurpassed) and lots of complaints about stuff not working properly. (well, it wouldn't be a computer column without them. ) They've been one of the most consistent columnists since 1986, and I can't escape the feeling that this magazine's computer game coverage won't be the same without them. I know it's only a couple of years before they cut out computer stuff entirely, so the people who replace them certainly won't have the chance to build up the same level of familiarity.

Challenge of the 5 Realms is an ok fantasy RPG, if a bit dated in presentation. Overhead walky stuff, slow dialog balloons, instruction manual based copy protection, this all sounds very familiar. is this the 90's or what?

The Journeyman Project pushes at the current limits of data streaming, and consequently runs annoyingly slowly on their computer. It's no good having these fancy CD's if you don't have the read speed to really take advantage of it, or the RAM to buffer most of the info for instant use when needed. Can't win either way. Too primitive, they give it poor marks, too advanced, they can't run it properly yet.

Legends of Valour doesn't do too well. It may look good, but play is both tedious and fiddly. If you don't have the hint book, you'll waste tons of time trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Whatever happened to the instruction manual guiding you through the basics?

Pax Imperia is one of those epic space games where you have to not only build an empire, but manage it too. I some how doubt we'll be seeing nearly as many of those under our next regime.

S.C.O.U.T combines action shooter with puzzle game, as you have to find keys, negotiate railroads, teleporters, mirrors, and all manner of other tricks to get around the alien base and blow them to bits.

Spaceward Ho! V. 3.0 is another, slightly smaller scale space exploration and resource management game, where you have to think more about controlling individual spaceships. They finish this off with another load of clues on how to play it well, which seems appropriate since these things can get pretty complicated.

 

[LordVyreth]

I really missed these guys (and gal, if I remember right,) when they first left. I liked how the upcoming replacement focused more on console games, but he had a completely different mindset regarding reviews, often giving perfectly acceptable games a two or three star review. But on retrospect, the Lessers had the same problem. Nearly every review they gave was 4 or 5 stars, unless it was for something silly like too much copy protection, adult content, or just not working for their system.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 196: August 1993


part 4/6


Novel ideas: How many Forgotten Realms books have TSR published in the past 6 years?! Jeez, maybe you should have started worrying about their continuity a little sooner. James Lowder takes on the job of figuring out what happened before and after various other things, and delivering it to us. The timeline starts off fairly sparse and sketchy, but them becomes very busy after DR 1350. It's pretty obvious where the prequels end and the bits written as present begin. With things stretching up to 1372, it seems that they've progressed forward at the rate of approximately 2-3 game years per real year, giving new adventurers plenty of chances to strut their stuff on the stage. This is interesting when contrasted with their other gameworlds. Mystara & Ravenloft tried to maintain a realtime, 1 game year per real year progression, while Krynn and Oerth have wound up progressing in fits and starts, due to their primary developers being absent for extended periods of time, and over-reliance on prequels, interquels and side stories. It's a good thing there aren't actually that many crossover stories between them, or this'd become an almighty headache. This stuff isn't too hard to handle as long as you have a good line editor, but take your eye off the ball, and before you know it, there are inconsistencies and continuity snarls everywhere and you have to deploy the dreaded blunt tools of retcon and reboot to get things working again. And it only gets harder the more stuff you add. So this is a sign that they're not quite at the point where continuity starts to strangle the line, but it's only a few years away. It also manages to be quite a good bit of subtle promotion, not only helping you know clearly all the stuff you might want to buy, but also some of the books they haven't released yet. It's certainly given me plenty to think and talk about, and something to reference back too.


The game wizards: Hmm. A new adventure for Dragon Strike? That's an interesting one. I have been saying they need more useful stuff than straight promotion in these columns. Looks like someone else was saying so at the same time and they've listened. So in 2 pages we get a map, and a key, including a bunch of roleplaying notes. While still pretty basic to actual roleplayers, this still manages to have more depth to it's play than Heroquest, (which it is clearly influenced by) and is a good example of how you can fit a lot of play info into a tiny word count, which is a lesson the official AD&D adventures are increasingly forgetting to their detriment. While I'm still not too keen on boardgame stuff being promoted here, like this month's Novel Ideas, this is an interesting way of handling their duties, and one that gives me things to think about. You too can steal and make good use of this kind of adventure notating formula, and thereby fit a dozen scenarios in a 32 page booklet.

In another amusing footnote, we also get an apology for their spate of cultural insensitivity last month. Research Moar! And remember folks, what is acceptable around the gaming table is not acceptable in an international magazine. Knowing is only half the battle. You also have to act upon that knowledge.


Role-playing reviews: Rick picks some rather obscure licensed games this month. The kind of thing that are unlikely to make much money, and probably got commissioned because the original creator is a geek, or someone approached them and gave them a good spiel. Curious business.

When gravity fails is a supplement for Cyberpunk 2020, giving us a vision of how islamic culture might interact with cyberpunk tropes. There's always going to be the stereotypical reactionaries, but this gives a far more nuanced portrayal than that, mixing olde world issues with modern solutions, and adding on a ton of cool personality modification rules as befits the original source material. If anything, it's too short to handle all the cool ideas it raises, with some bits left sketchy, but what there is is both interesting and genre expanding. Just as roleplaying games need to tackle cultures outside medieval europe more so too do cyberpunk stories.

Dream Park is a rather odd little game from Mike Pondsmith, based on Larry Niven's story of the same name. (see issue 52) As you're playing a person playing a character inside a virtual reality game, things get a little meta, and you can shuffle your special abilities around between adventurers, and lose powers as often as you gain them. It also means the GM can worry far less about things such as plausibility and continuity, instead concentrating on delivering inventive one-shots while having an excuse for keeping the same underlying characters throughout. Like Toon, the system may be a bit simple to really support extended campaigns, but it should be fun for a change of pace if the regular GM is absent.

Wizards is based on Ralf Bakshi's movie. This isn't quite as bad as the movie, in Rick's opinion, but still feels like a poorly edited, convoluted mess that needs some serious revision to get it's good ideas up and running. Why it ever got made in the first place is a mystery.

 

[humble minion]

When Gravity Fails was based on the novel of the same name by George Alec Effinger and its two sequels (and the chapter or two of the unfinished third sequel that ended up online ages back). They weren't Cyberpunk 2020 novels to the best of my knowledge, but were co-opted/licensed as a sort of generic cyberpunk middle east anyway.

They were reprinted recently after being out of print for ages. Highly, highly worth the read.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 196: August 1993


part 5/6


3 Wizards too many: Having fully established the personalities of our three plane-hopping, 4th wall bending archmages, Ed starts to have them relax in each other's company a little more. Mordenkainen is still suffering the most heavily from his world's metaplot events. (I wonder what Ed thought about the power struggles in the company and changes made to Greyhawk after Gary left.) Dalamar is still the aggressive young punk who regularly gets taken down a peg by his older and more powerful companions. (Both El and Mord have tales of them facing down Fistandantilus during his plane-hopping days, which they may or may not be making up to keep him off balance. ) And Elminster is still playful, all-knowing, and tremendously cheesy. All three engage in gender-bending over the course of this episode, which is presumably why it's title is what it is, and these's a running gag involving gnomes as well. The new spells, items and monsters are somewhat less obscene than last time, but still designed for active adventurers, by experienced adventurers, and pretty useful. The whole thing is like a bouncy technicolour ball of sentient energy that bounds in and livens up your day. Which given how much work this thread is, is pretty damn welcome.


MERP finally gets a new edition. It's been well over a decade. That's vaguely surprising. Now, the big question. Is it an improvement?


Bazaar of the bizarre: Figurines. Little animals that come to life on command. (and sometimes when you don't want them too either. ) Another easy vein for you to mine, that's nowhere near tapped out yet. And since this involves some pretty good writers too, I believe I shall wander up to the head table and go "Please sir, can I have some more?"

Amber monkeys are a riff on the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil saying. There are three of them and they'll do exactly that on command, blinding you, deafening you and muting you. Which leaves you alive, but very vulnerable. Muahahahaha.

Coral Dragons aren't as badass as real dragons, but are still reasonably useful. They can be both combatants and fonts of wisdom. Show them a little respect, don't just stuff them in your pocket.

Emerald Frogs don't get any bigger when animated, but can shrink giant bugs and suck them straight in with their tongue, making what is often a deadly encounter much easier. Like the bottle of trapping 2 months ago, this makes for amusing visuals as well.

Jade Snakes come in pairs, one for biting, and one for healing. Trying to use both at the same time is a very bad idea. They look very pretty entwined though.

The Moonstone Rabbit digs quite impressively. Don't abuse it though, because it's more fragile than it seems.

Opal Cats are another themed set. The mother cat, which attacks with great viciousness. The kitten of caterwauling looks pathetic, and it's yowl is worse than nails down a blackboard. The kitten of contemplation, by contrast, is relaxing to have on your lap, and lets you recover spells in half the time, which a high level wizard would pay a LOT to have. A very cool set of ideas.

Silver Carp can produce water, or purify it. Their production capabilities aren't as impressive as a decanter of endless water, but what is? They can also blind you by wriggling their flashing scales. Individually none of their powers are that great, but they do add up to a nice little package.

The Tourmaline Turtle lets you ride on it's back like Jacques Costeau. Some of them even let you breathe underwater while on them. it also has a really vicious bite, so any kraken that messes with you will lose a tentacle. Still, it only works up to 12 hours a week, so you'll need another ship for lengthy voyages.


Swordplay lowers their ambitions to an achievable CR enemy. Fea wears drowface and incites racial hatred as part of her plan to rescue Yamara. Dragonmirth plays oblivious, but they'll suffer for it later. Robinson finally gets to meet his ex-wife. And safe to say, she doesn't feel the same way still.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 196: August 1993


part 6/6


Through the looking glass: The air of pessimism that pervaded the past few columns here is gone. Life goes on, and that includes the big conventions. There'll still be plenty of cool minis released there, along with paints, brushes, primer, and other modification tools. Don't hesitate to buy them. After all, your hobby still needs you as much as you need it.

Interestingly our first set of minis tie in with the Dream Park game reviewed earlier this issue. Guess it must be a bigger licence than I thought. Vaguely cyberpunkish people which can fit in any near future game. There's also a pair of giants intended for the Pendragon game, also fairly easily used in other fantasy games. Pendragon also gets another knight, so you have another choice to differentiate your PC from the others. Other products include a 2 storey medieval building, a Sorcerer ready to cast at you, A mummy that looks like it's in the middle of the Thriller dance routine, a thief, a cleric, an elf, several rather large goblins, and a cyberlegger. Any changes in construction materials have not affected Robert's fairly generous marking system, with all the scores going from 3+1/2 to 5 stars.

On top of that, we have another trio of game reviews. Night Brood introduces hive based alien horrors to the Silent Death game. Yeah, we know what you're influenced by. Get ready for violence with a touch of body horror.

Man O' War is a game of high seas piracy set in the Warhammer universe. This means it combines historical and fantasy elements to good effect. Games Workshop may well have another winner on their hands if they can market it to the kids.

Seekrieg 4th edition is another, far more crunchy ship based wargame, with rules covering hundreds of real period ships and their weaponry. It get's compared to Rolemaster, which really isn't a recommendation for me, but Robert must like da crunch, because he gives it 5 stars.


Vampire and werewolf get their own lines of minis as well. That vaguely amuses me.


TSR Previews: Having flopped with the fight for freedom in the grim 25th century solar system, TSR takes a more lighthearted shot at a Buck Rogers licence, with the High Adventure Cliffhanger game. More money for Lorraine's purse. Whoever got assigned to develop that must be seething. Will it flop just like the last one? Magic 8-ball says signs point to likely. Still, they're still gonna give it their all, experimenting wildly with mechanics and little add-ons in the boxed set.

Ravenloft goes back to basics and expands on them. RM3: House of Strahd lets you face the vampire lord just like you did in 1983 (not 1982, as the historically incompetent copy writers seem to think) Only now he's twice the level, and the castle & surroundings gets twice the detail. Which means your chances of finishing him off for good are considerably smaller. Still, they might come away alive, and with a copy of his memoirs, I, Strahd (Ghost-written by P. N. Elrod. ) See how he's not just some Dracula clone, but a complex person in his own right in one of the most popular gameline related books they ever released.

Dark sun, on the other hand, expands and changes once again. DSM2: Merchant house of Amketch allows you to take the role of a trading company trying to prosper in these harsh environments. Not easy when there's apocalyptic stuff going down nearby in the final book of the Prism Pentad, The Cerulean Storm. Rain is about to become more common again on Athas, but it certainly isn't happy shiny land yet. Still a long way to go.

The forgotten realms, having been focussing on the harpers in the novels last year, finally releases a supplement dealing with them. FOR4: The code of the harpers. Ed Greenwood personally intervenes to make them more playable. Do you have the right stuff to join their cheesy ranks?

Spelljammer comes to a conclusion with The Ultimate Helm. Book 6 of the cloakmaster cycle. As is often the case, the fate of the universe is at stake. Will they engage in a big act of metaplot screwage?

Dragonlance decides to tell the backstory of an actual dragon in their second villain book. The Black Wing by Mary Kirchoff lets us know what Khisanth got up too before the heroes met him.

Two generic products as well. GA3: Tales of Enchantment is another little module, this time focussing on fae. This time, diplomacy really is the best option. As it also is when trying to get all the fantasy collectors cards, which have been bumped up to 3 installments this year. Trading will get you one of each considerably cheaper than trying to tough it out on your own.


A quick and easy beginning, but a slow grindy ending here. This is often the case, but it was particularly pronounced this time. Still, with a classic article in the 3rd wizards three one, the departure of the computer columnists, and the interesting, but not entirely welcome dragon strike support, it was one that stands out overall. It definitely has me interested to see how the magazine will change with it's new contributors.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 197: September 1993


part 1/6


124 pages. Dark sun art doyen Brom takes the cover this month. No great surprise, since the last couple of years made this month a Dark sun special. And while they aren't going that far to promote it this time, there are a couple of articles devoted to that campaign world. September isn't really the optimal month for heat and dryness, but it's almost a tradition now, so let's just go with it, shall we.


In this issue:


Letters: A bumper pack of one-liners from readers of the unfair things their DM has inflicted upon them. Tinker gnomes with uzi's! Not so funny now, are they?

A letter praising the people providing us with African articles. Visualise the idea, and make it work!

Another of those letters about people's personal experience with the satanic panic. Some parents believe the hysteria, some don't. Pray that yours are of the sensible kind. Roger makes another long response that shows this is still an ongoing problem. And worst of all, they don't even contact us to get the other side of the story! It's so unfair. I want to go on chat shows and local news programs and become more of a celebrity.


Editorial: This month, Roger shows you how to take classic plots, and twist them until virtually unrecognisable. Going through 9 iterations of the same basic seed, gradually growing more elaborate and counter-intuitive, he shows how evolutionary thinking rapidly results in things as different as fish and trees. And just as with real world evolution, this will give your story weird legacy issues, such as human's tendency to get back and knee problems that stem from our quadrapedal ancestry, that may require further workarounds to turn into a good story again. Which is a fun business, especially if you have an imagination as active as Roger's. Many of these are rather goofy and humorous, but that's not a terrible thing, and it does help set an example for you to emulate. It's both better and more original than any of the bits of GM'ing advice offered last issue, reminding us that Roger's talents as a writer have been stifled somewhat by his time as an editor. He really ought to get back into a more creative role.


Discworld mini's! Ahh, the joys of cross-marketing. They're probably usable in other games as well.


The ecology of the giant scorpion: Hmm. This is a creature that's probably actually less scary in giant form than it is at regular size. After all, when you can see it and fight it directly, it's just another nasty fight to get through. When it lurks in your boots, bed or toilet bowl, and takes you by surprise, you have rather more of a shock coming. A quite D&Dish ecology, with a nice portrayal of infravision, and characters using named spells and the standard class roles. Most of the changes in the footnotes are for reasons of greater realism, which is reasonable for an ecology, and actually makes them more generally effective, yet less likely to cause a TPK with instakills. Since that'll probably make encounters with them more fun, I think I can can call this ecology a success, even if it's not the most brilliant one ever. On top of that, we have the first appearance of Tony Diterlizzi's distinctive style in the magazine, which is a definite plus for me.


Think big in miniature: If you've been reading the minis column, you'll know that TSR and Ral Partha have been partnered for ages now. This continues that relationship, with a particularly blatant single-page bit of promotion. Now they're introducing 15mm scale figures as well as the standard 25mm ones, so you can have more figures in the same space for larger scale battles. This doesn't even pretend not to be promotion or try to be entertaining, making it very tiresome indeed. Next!


Sage advice: Why don't you write back any more. I miss you.( Because the private sage who puts the pages in the mages and the broomstick between the witches legs is a very busy man. Skip can work non stop, and still pick and choose his clients. )

What's included in living expenses ( All your physical and housing needs, and nothing more. Lets get biological, biological. )

Does a jongleurs dodge count as an action. (yes)

How do you resolve synaptic static (same as any other contest. Best roll wins. )

There's overlap in the proficiencies introduced in two spelljammer supplements (Parallel evolution. That's what happens when you have two teams writing books simultaneously but independently. We need a stronger line editor.)

Plus, because skip is a badass mutha(shut yo mouth) Skip is going to give you the extra spheres for all the pantheons, one per month, without even being asked. Skip can read the signs, and knows what you like baby. Oooooh yeah.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 197: September 1993


part 2/6


Perils and postage: It's been a couple of years since we had an article on play by post gaming. As is the case far too often these days, this article assumes you're a complete newbie, and tries to act as a reboot to the concept, bringing in people who've never heard of or thought about the idea of using mail to play long-term games. Of course, straight away we are reminded exactly why this medium never really became mass market entertainment. It's slow, expensive, and requires substantial organisational skills as a GM to make sure everything is communicated in a useful fashion to all the players. It does improve from there, but you're still putting everything into the control of a single person to a rather greater degree than normal (unless everyone sends mailshots to everyone else, which multiplies costs geometrically) On the plus side, you get plenty of time to write more polished prose and react to the actions of others than if you were running in real time. On balance, they still can't make it appeal to me, especially with technology developing at the speed it is. Like the attempts to revitalise wargaming and other RPG's, this is another bump in the road of their interests gradually closing in, and becoming purely D&D centric.


By mail or by modem: The eternal september begins now. Play by post's days are numbered. Nice of them to publish an appropriate article to say that at exactly the right time. Much shorter than the previous article, this points out the same problems, with a very different solution. It's not really that much cheaper yet, and BBS's still have a definite regional element that makes international communications slower, but it is already substantially more convenient in terms of making sure everyone has access to the same info, and don't go around splitting up abruptly or treading on each other's toes. And while PbP peaked in the early 80's, this stuff has been growing fairly substantially, and is just about to start rocketing up exponentially. It's a pretty strong reminder how the future comes in ways you don't expect, at paces even the smartest pundits can't predict. In this case though, I think I can rightly say bring it on, since I have fond memories of chatrooms around the turn of the millennium.


The dragon's bestiary gets four new Forgotten Realms monsters courtesy of Ed. All of these would go on to be printed in official monstrous compendia. That does seem to be becoming increasingly common these days.

Banelar are ridiculously similar to Dark Nagas in powers and fluff. Put side-by side they're virtually the orcs & hobgoblins of the mid-level, scheming serpentine creatures. Rather unnecessary, really. Give us something new!

Flameskulls are another reminder that Ed loves his irritating whimsy. They're near impossible to kill, and may well follow you around making smart-alec comments and being quirkily mentally unstable. Is there a particular novel of his actually featuring one of these? Or is he just setting another bad example which will lead to less skilled DM's annoying their players like hell?

Foulwings are winged, vaguely xenomorph like creatures, with their 3 mouths, vile breath, and hollow bloodsucking tongues. You really don't want one of these jumping out at you on a dark night. Much better than the last two.

Whipstings are also decidedly alien looking things, another of the Realms' strange predators lurking in odd corners and leaping out to trouble the players. Like Gambados or Bhaergala, they're both a decent fight and amusingly weird. So it seems we have rather a mixed bag this time round. Hmm. Could definitely be better.


Castles Forlorn! Another epic boxed set adventure for your players to try and figure out how to deal with. Not an easy one, but good for a wide range of levels, since so many of the problems are puzzle and role-playing based rather than straight combat.


The known world grimoire: Looks like Mystara is finally getting to play with the other boys and girls in the AD&D universe, instead of being on its own. Here we get the big announcement that they're shifting ownership, with Jeff Grubb taking on the developer's role. Bigger budget for books, more colour, and some "special features" coming with the books that are still left mysterious. Course, this may be a poisoned promotion. And what's going to replace it down in BD&D land? Nothing is mentioned here, which doesn't seem very promising. Like the computer columnists leaving last issue, this is presented as good news, when hindsight shows that it really really wasn't in the long term. Now we're never going to get decent amounts of info on Norwald, the arm of the immortals or the southern continents, because they'll be too busy trying to re-cover and update the parts of the world that are already familiar, just like the Forgotten Realms. Another slow step towards the circle closing, D&D starting to eat it's own tail. Man, this is depressing. The new crunch, weapon mastery lists for chakrams and bullroarers, does little to mitigate this feeling. The old guard are gradually being driven away from the magazine. What will replace them this time round?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 197: September 1993


part 3/6


The role of books: The element of fire by Martha Wells mixes magic and swashbuckling, in a world where they are suitably balanced in power to make for stories full of derring-do and political intrigue. Combined with strongly written main characters, this one is pronounced a success.

Knights of the blood by Katherine Kurtz and Scott MacMillan wants badly to be the first book in a long series, but won't be if the poor plotting and worldbuilding doesn't improve sharpish. Vampire knights trying to remain honorable down the centuries certainly isn't a bad idea. But as ever, it's the implementation that's crucial.

McLendon's syndrome by Robert Frezza tries to meld sci-fi and comedy in a manner reminiscent of the Xanth books, only less irritating. The tendency of the characters to be full of quips and puns doesn't destroy the credibility of the worldbuilding or drama of the plot. You could have far worse guilty pleasures.

The ghatti's tale book 1 by Gayle Greeno feels like a blatant formulaic attempt at replicating the successes of several other recently popular novelists. John can trace the elements easily to certain other specific books, and does not feel they've ben integrated well here. The literary world equivalent of Menswear or Republica.

On basilisk station and The Honor of the queen by David Weber see Honor Harrington unleashed upon the world at high speed. These sci-fi age of sail pastiches have done pretty well for themselves over the years, and it looks like the praise is justified. The biggest danger, as for Star trek captains, is being promoted out of the adventuring life.


The shadow of Yserbius is a MMO that only costs 57 cents an hour at off-peak times. Isn't that a bargain? (5/6ths cost reduction in 4 years, the joys of exponential computer advancement.) Don't you want to play it now?!


Eye of the monitor: So welcome to the new computer column. As is often the case, the change in ownership also means a name change, to allow the new guy to draw a line in the sand and stamp their personality more firmly on things. Still, it's not all bad news. Sandy Petersen! Creator of both Call of Cthulhu and rpg.net! The hobby certainly owes a lot to him. This might be fun for a bit after all. He certainly seems more enthusiastic to be here and less formal than the Lessers were by the end of their run. On we go then.

Wolfenstein 3D does very well indeed. The look is strong, the difficulty is well-graded, the AI makes the enemies both clever and realistically dumb, and there's plenty of hidden bits to unearth and tricks to figure out. The fact you can download it for free on the web really is the icing on the cake. Despite that, the makers still probably made a healthy profit with console conversions and the like, giving the laugh to corporations who panic over piracy.

Commander Keen takes a slightly different tack to shareware, giving you the first installment for free, but then you've gotta pay up. Combining overhead map with side-scrolling action sections, it has a decent sense of humour and requires puzzle-solving abilities as well as reflexes. The computer format means you can have lots of similar games based off the same main character easier than you could with consoles, where you need a full-priced new cartridge for each game.

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure also tries the trick of giving you the first bite for free. However, with the actual gameplay slow-moving and repetitive, Sandy can't recommend it. Even free stuff can be a waste of your time.

Waxworks gets a mixed review for being a bit too tricky and brutal for it's own good. Get used to saving after every encounter and dying frequently as you work your way through 1st person 3D horror. You'll certainly be scared regularly, if maybe not for the right reasons.

We don't seem to have a tips section anymore. However, Sandy does offer numbered hints for the games at the end of each individual review, which is probably the biggest format change. Whether he makes more as his confidence increases or not, we shall have to see.


Join the electronic warriors: Jim Ward does a second piece of pretty odious pure promotion, this time concentrating on their quite substantial number of computer games out now. Along with the large number of adverts for their own products, this is rather tiresome, and makes me wonder if they're getting enough external advertisers in to pay their bills properly. Still, they do seem to be expanding the scope of this department, with games for new campaign worlds, plus a generic one planned as well. Hopefully we'll at least get some good games out of this promotional dross, so they can make some more money. But they do need to cut down a bit on this kind of crap. Show, don't tell. Basic rule, you know. Along with the one against railroading, they're slowly forgetting it in their attempts to be more sophisticated.