Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

The color of magic​

Reskinning and type substitution. Two fairly valuable ideas that still need a bit of pushing onto the public. Remember, everything in a roleplaying system is an abstract idea, not a reality. This means you're free to do all kinds of things to said ideas. Do not listen to the literal-minded people who want to make massive twists to the system in the name of realism, or those who insist that the rulebooks are holy writ, the letter of which is to be adhered to over the spirit of adventure and creativity contained within. So this encourages you to create many many spell variants that are basically identical mechanically to existing ones apart from the way they look, and the types of immunities and vulnerabilities they are subject too. This includes four sample characters and the specific quirks of their magical education. From fire to spider themed, it all looks pretty easy to implement, and will make plundering the spellbooks of the defeated all the more fun for players. And so we move a step closer to highly abstracted indie games and effect based universal resolution systems being common design elements. I find myself rather approving.

 

[(un)reason]

Familiar faces​

Looks like David Howery has a bit to contribute to this feast of articles as well. Familiars are certainly an, um, familiar topic in the magazine, with lots of big names having contributed articles on them in the past. Stephen Inniss's wide ranging creature contributions in issues 84 & 86, P. N. Elrod's roleplaying advice in issue 147, and Len Carpenter's upgrading spells in issue 181. David's contribution is less about adding new stuff, and more about making the most of the existing rules. There's quite a few normal animals, and several monsters from the monster manual that would make appropriate familiars, but don't have a place in the PHB table. Instead, you can roll on this d% table, which includes lots of natural animals, and a couple of kyoot mini dinosaurs to grab the jurassic park fanboys. There are separate tables for if you try your summoning on the sea or in the underdark, and another one for users of the Complete Humanoids Handbook. It's all very easy to use, and probably won't upset the balance of your game, but isn't as impressive or imaginative as Stephen and Len's contributions. I may have to whip up an even more expanded table integrating all of these bits and pieces. So overall, this is neither brilliant or terrible.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Just a comment on the videos, they are getting better as in the later ones you are speaking more fluently but place the camera higher up, at eye level or slightly above so that you are never looking down at it. Always look at the camera.

 

[(un)reason]

Just a comment on the videos, they are getting better as in the later ones you are speaking more fluently but place the camera higher up, at eye level or slightly above so that you are never looking down at it. Always look at the camera.

Yeah, in retrospect, I should probably have placed myself a little closer and higher up, my instinct to have my head in the centre of the screen doesn't quite work once the videos are bounced down to streaming size.

Editing yourself is a horrible process, with every little blemish and hesitation making me wince. Deciding to do lots of takes and then select the least bad one overall, instead of doing lots of jumpy comping to get everything perfect OL style, was the compromise I chose to reduce the pain and get things done in time.

 

[(un)reason]

Bazaar of the Bizarre​

Ooh. An item that has plenty of potential for magical variants, but hasn't been exploited yet. Magical keys. A little harder to think up new versions of than magical figurines, but certainly not insurmountable. What will they hide or reveal?

Keys of Inquiry force you to tell the truth. Not a particularly surprising power, really.

Map Keys are a lot more interesting, revealing details the original cartographer knew about but left off. This could mean nothing, or be incredibly valuable from adventure to adventure. Certainly a valuable thing to acquire if you're a treasure hunter.

Courier Keys are another solution to the problem of transmitting secret messages. Like Johnny Mnemonic, they lock the info in your head where no-one can get at it until another key opens it up. No torture will help get the info out, although you may wish it could.

Keys of Reunion come in pairs, and always point towards the other one. Splitting the party is rarely a brilliant idea, but this makes it a little more survivable and solvable.

Saddle Keys lock you into one so you can't fall off. Course, if you drop the key, things'll become very awkward, since you're stuck on the back of your mount. Better have at least one member of the group who doesn't need this kind of help.

Shapeshifter keys lock anything it's turned on into their current form. Another one that'll be very useful indeed in certain situations, and not at all in others. Remember, it's just as valuable used on you as on your enemies, and some creatures are pretty scary even with those powers removed.

Grave Keys can unlock any crypt, and bring the dead out to serve you. I'm sure adventurers'll find plenty of use for that, even though it seems somewhat morally dubious.

Keys of Silence lock up your vocal chords, like the speak no evil monkey from the last bazaar. There's more than one way to shut up an annoying blabbermouth, and a good thing too.

Spider Keys part webs and protect you from spider poison. Another one you won't use in that many adventures. Perhaps you should put all these keys on a single chain. After all, they wouldn't take up much space, and would be much more convenient for one person to carry than magical rings.

Rogues keys boost your lock-picking skills. No surprise something like this turned up in the collection.

Keys of Translation are another one that'll be very useful some of the time. Every party needs something to help with languages, really. Otherwise you'll have to fill up your valuable spell slots, and that will reduce your adventuring effectiveness.

Dowsing Keys unlock any groundwater that may be beneath you. Course, the more you need a drink, the less you're likely to get it, but such is life. At least it won't break an athasian campaign like a Decanter of endless water would.

Wizard's keys boost your chances of learning spells. Good luck figuring that one out if you don't have identification magic. So lots of quirky and useful, but not hugely powerful items this month, as well as a few formulaic dull ones. Now, where do we fit them into our random tables?

 

[(un)reason]

Arcane Lore​

Arcane lore returns after more than a year off, to give them another place to fit in new spells. Not that I've missed it with the Wizards Three taking up the slack. And since this is another collection of elemental and energy based stuff, it seems pretty obvious they haven't been getting any cool new submissions in the department lately. Like the ecologies, things sure aint what they used to be round here. Send more stuff in!

But enough pessimism. Let's talk about the good aspects of this article. For a start, it's fluff is set in Greyhawk, rather than the more usual FR stuff. Also, there's a decent amount of planes related stuff too. And all the spells are pretty handy for an adventurer. The worst that you can say about it is that it's a little formulaic. And that's hardly a surprise at this stage.

Frostfire lets you make your torches and bonfires heatless or actively cold. This'll keep you safe, or allow you to bypass many monster's energy resistances. That'll intimidate those red dragons.

Proficiency lets you use weapons you don't know how to, even violating class restrictions. (although gods'll still throw tantrums if their clerics break the rules. ) This is of course most useful to the wizard who casts it. Don't think you can go toe to toe with a fighter though. Hubris will get you.

Bands of Ice are your basic unpleasant magical imprisonment method, which'll also give the captive frostbite. Ahh, the joys of bend bars/lift gates rolls to escape. If anything says they don't actually want you to succeed, it's them.

Lightning Curtain is basically the electrical variant of wall of fire, with it's own variant on being drawn to metal, and being more dangerous to those wearing it. Another one to help wizards be smug in their lair when facing fighters.

Lightningcloak is a little more inventive and a lot more versatile, serving as both offence and defence for it's wearer. There is a compromise in that the protection ends when you discharge all the energy, but that's no biggie as you're unlikely to run out of other spells to blast in the interim at this level.

Death Shroud taps into negative energy for a similar, but even more powerful bit of garb that has a pretty decent chance of killing anyone who touches you. It does have rather expensive and hard to find material components though. Not one for casual use.

 

[(un)reason]

The whistling skeleton​

Now this really shows how much they're pushing the boat out. We get our first adventure in here in over 5 years. It's only a 3 pager, admittedly, but it's still refreshing. It's another Ed contribution, full of delightful whimsy and very clever use of magic indeed. It could be just a flavour encounter, or it could lead into a whole set of additional ones, with the characters within becoming recurring villains. It's certainly designed to lead on to another plot with a much bigger bad, and has surprisingly well developed characters given the amount of descriptive space they get. I suppose that's one of the secrets to his success. He leaves loose ends, but in such a fashion that you really want to investigate them, maybe to find a solution somewhere else in the many realms books out there, maybe to just make it up yourself. Either way, it makes for fun games, and just as crucially, lots more money for TSR, which is a pretty effective combination. Unlike certain other would be supplement mills, the Realms never seemed inherently scary, bound by a single author's vision, or set above you, which is probably a big part of why it lasted. So anyway, this isn't going to fill a whole session unless you expand upon it, but it's likeable, well done, and has a new spell in it too. Another real winner that makes this issue extra special to me.

 

[(un)reason]

Santa's little helpers​

Another crossword. Not a huge one, but with lots of little words to figure out, it'll take quite a bit of work. One for those long post-christmas days where you're lying around, trying out all your new stuff and getting bored of the computer games already.

 

[(un)reason]

The known world grimoire​

The known world grimoire comes to an end as they prepare to migrate to AD&D. But Bruce is doing his part to ensure this issue really goes off with a bang. What is on the arm of the immortals? It's been a mystery for years. What can top cat people, dog people, turtle people, scorpion people, australian chameleon people and secret spiders? Flying elves and minotaurs? Actually, that's pretty good. And the geographic reasons why they would be there, but not have much to do with the rest of the Known World are better than usual as well. As we've come to expect from Bruce, these new races are available as PC's, although their advancement is somewhat slow compared to ordinary classes to make up for their powers, and their flight requires them to remain fairly lightly encumbered to avoid painful crashes. They might be a bit overpowered at 1st level, but things'll soon balance themselves out. This is indeed a pretty cool sendoff, although I again find myself wondering how it would have gone down if it had been Haldemar & co discovering them. Probably make some embarrassing faux-pas, get captured, and have to get away again. It also serves as a reminder that there are still big chunks of setting still lacking info, presenting hints at what is even further west (which of course, is wrapping round to the far east on the main global map. ) A nation of Ogre-blooded humans? There's some interesting unexpanded history there. So this is a goodbye, but certainly not a tying up of loose ends. Have fun figuring out what to do with the thousands of miles of territory still free to you.

 

[(un)reason]

Libram X​

Another comic series starts here. And whadya know, it's another cosmic romance. Someone must be really eating them up. That or they really want to get more girls into roleplaying. With Twilight Empire obviously reaching it's conclusion at this point, this overlap'll hopefully help prevent them from losing more readers. It starts off in media res, with our narrator, Ace Bloodrunner, ( I bet that's not his real name) being pursued by something large and undeadish, for committing crimes as yet unknown. The girl is of course dragged into this, and I suspect she'll actually wind up being the primary audience identification character, as the normal person dragged into a universe stranger than they ever imagined. Man, it's a lot easier to see the formulas this time around.