Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994


part 1/6


124 pages. Time for clerics & druids to get another turn at being the featured class for an issue, with both a cover appearance and three articles near the beginning. I guess this means more spells, and possibly more kits if we're lucky. They still don't actually do articles with them that frequently. Funny business, really. I suppose it reinforces the image of them as a cool idea that was never implemented very well, allowing prestige classes to improve on the principle quite a bit come next edition. But I'm getting ahead of myself again, aren't I. Let's try and keep this linear, at least in the output stages. (and then you'll never know just how non-linear my reviewing process actually was, ahahahaha!!!!! ahem)


In this issue:


Letters: A letter from someone who wants to work at TSR. As with the unsolicited magazine articles, Dale has to inform them their chances are slim. Try becoming a freelancer first. It's a rough ride, but it all gets a lot easier after the first few articles sold and contacts made.

A letter from someone worried about the death of dragonlance. It's not dead, it's just the RPG side of it that got small. The novels are going as prolifically as ever. If you're unhappy about this, keep writing and buying.

A complaint that their copy of the complete book of humanoids lost it's cover. Hey, that happened to me too! Guess it's another one that was shoddily printed in general. Which is silly, since like UA, it was one of their crunch heavy books most likely to be thumbed through again and again.

And finally, a request for healthy food recipes that'll make good alternatives to the mountain dew and chips stereotype that results in overweight gamers. Tee hee. Thankfully that is not a concern of mine, and as long as my knees'll allow me to walk miles regularly and do several hours of dance practice a week, hopefully that'll continue to be the case.


Editorial: Not sure who's doing the editorial this month, as they don't sign it, but it certainly doesn't read like a Dale piece. Plus he's too young to have a daughter just join the army, unless he was a dad at 12. Still, like Dale's editorial in issue 207, it's a strong reminder that the journey is usually by far the biggest part of the adventure, and in real life, every lengthy trip is a minor adventure, especially if you aren't much good at reading maps and following directions. And most people didn't have GPS or mobile phones then, so if you were lost or running late, you couldn't call to apologise or ask for help. It's also a reminder that gamers and army people do have quite a bit of overlap. Since Roger left, that's come up less frequently round here. Still, this story of other people's frustration and eventual triumph is reasonably entertaining, and has lessons for you to apply to your gaming as well, be you player or GM. It's a big world out there, and a lot less actively malevolent than most game worlds. If you want true realism, you have to remember the neutral stuff as well.


First quest: Steve Winter has been a fairly regular contributor for over a decade now. He's one of the old guard who started off as a wargamer, before being sucked into roleplaying by the people in the gaming club. He actually puts a lot of attention to that start, it's more than halfway through the article before he gets to his D&D experience. And even then, he found he preferred Metamorphosis alpha and gamma world. I seem to recall him being heavily involved in the Battlesystem stuff, so I suspect he takes the non D&D projects where he can. This is one of the introductions I identify less with, as the writing isn't too engaging, it takes too long to get to the point, and the experiences are quite different to my own. But then, it would be a boring world if we were all alike. I know there are other people out there who'll see themselves in his formative experiences. Personally, I'll have to return a meh result though.


Branching out all over: So we've reached the end of class and race handbooks. All the ones from the players handbook are now fully catered for. What now? Not sure, but at least we can take advantage of the last one with a tie-in article to provide subtle promotion. As he did with the Council of Wyrms, Roger Moore looks at better integrating the new druid subtypes into the various other campaign worlds. Actually it's surprising how few of them actually have druids. Like assassins, they like to think of themselves as ubiquitous and eternal, like the cycles of nature, but they really really aren't. No wonder entire planets wind up ecologically screwed on a regular basis. This certainly isn't as fascinating as the half-dragon stuff, and is pretty much lacking in new crunch. It's obviously for the setting obsessives who just have to have a canon answer, instead of applying a little logic. The new spell ideas are cool, the rest is stuff I could have whipped up myself in a few minutes. One of those cases where you wonder why they put them first. Probably the whole established author thing. MeeeeEEEEeeeeh, once again.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994


part 2/6


The priests of africa: More kits time! As with issue 200's wizardly kits, (which are by the same writer) these have minor access to spells from the other side, thus blurring the wizard/priest distinction in D&D. This should make for an interesting article mechanically, but also runs the risk of repeating fluff ideas. Africa is a big continent, but are his cultural sources wide enough to do that justice? I shall have to see. Artwork's good though, so that's already a plus in it's favor.

Animal priestesses get wizard divination spells (but not clerical divination spells, very weirdly) and the abilities to talk too, charm and summon their chosen animal. Course, they can't hurt said animal without losing their powers, but as a limitation, I think this falls into the path of what I was going to do anyway. They're pretty unlikely to attack you with that suite of powers unless there's a more powerful spellcaster involved.

Kongo Witch Doctors get to create village wide circles of protection via dancing. They're not that great as adventurers, with quite a small sphere selection and no armour allowed. More a support kit then, for they'll be almost as squishy as wizards in the frontline.

Legbas are another variant on the elemental priest idea. They get the more wide-ranging power to control all kinds of animals from the appropriate terrain, and a pretty decent spell selection, including wizard spells of the appropriate element. The only hinderance is once again having no armor and shields, which I suspect may be standard for all this lot, given the culture.

Obeah-men get wizardly necromantic spells, setting them up as the priestly parallel of issue 200's Houngan & Mambo. They also have to sacrifice animals to the gods upon level increase in the same way. Using both really blurs the distinction between the magic types.

Poro draw upon their ancestors regularly, and get to upgrade their mental stats in the manner of cavaliers. They also get bardic lore and lots of proficiency slots. Their spell selection isn't that great though, making them more generalists with spiritual fluff than clerics. Which is interesting. But as with last selection, these seem more likely to err on the side of overpowered than under. Maybe the consistently considerably lower AC's will balance that out. Guess that's another question for the actual play realms.


Palladium also gets all verdant, with the jungles of yin-sloth out now.


Long-lost priestly magicks: Wizards aren't the only ones with obscure spells. Clerics might not have as many, for both IC and OOC reasons, (godly records, and not as many supplements focussing on them) but there's certainly nothing stopping spells from going out of common use, particularly if they're the sort that would only be cast a few times a lifetime anyway. High priest forgets to pass them down, or gets killed before a decent successor arises, and the hierarchy's secrets are borked. Such a pain.

Merge with Nature lets you avoid death by merging with a tree and becoming a dryad. This is nowhere near as good as Tree Spirit from the complete druids handbook, but it is a level lower and accesible from more spheres. If you know about both, you're unlikely to use this unless it looks like you're going to die from old age before you get the chance to advance a few levels.

Roots of the Assassin are a druidic variant on Evard's black tentacles. They kill by strangulation, and are rather a bitch to fight. They seem perfectly decent as a combat spell, and have some neat forgotten realms fluff woven in as well.

Resplendence of renewed Youth lets an old priest temporarily regain the vigour of youth for one last world-saving adventure! (at a heavy price, of course) Very much a plot device, this has a good dramatic feel to it, making me thoroughly approve. This selection definitely goes for quality over quantity, which since we have tons of spells already, isn't a bad thing. And new methods of playing with the aging process, which is one area D&D has always been rather conservative with, are especially welcome. So I definitely enjoyed this one.


Role-playing reviews: Lester bends the rules a little, and reviews computer-based roleplaying aids in this column. Well, it's just as valid a form as audio CD's to aid your gaming, and has considerably more legs in terms of development and reusability. After all, we know now that computer based aids'll become an invaluable part of 4e's player aids toolkit. It's mainly the budget required that keeps this from becoming more common. I suspect quite a few companies are trying to jump on this bandwagon around this time.

Goldtree engine is for creating your own fully searchable city setting, full of fleshed out buildings, people, objects, weather, random events and plot hooks. Much of Lester's review is devoted to his sample adventure created with it, which does indeed sound pretty cool. It's surprisingly quick to use, and can throw up results that surprise even the DM, spinning off into new plots easily. A computer program should make things quicker and easier, not harder, and this certainly seems to fit that bill. Now, if they could just get the self-aggrandisement out of the manual.

Worldsystem Mapmaker is designed to create maps and encounters over a wider scale, even going up to solar systems rather than just planets. Again, it's flexible, and supports putting a certain degree of randomness in your game so you can have random monster attacks and weather to keep players on their toes. It does seem a bit harder to use than Goldtree, but also more versatile. It also has a bunch of expansions, so it seems good for people who really want to work at mastering a program.

Campaign Cartographer isn't nearly as versatile as the other two products reviewed here, but does what it does better, thanks to being more specialised. You can zoom in and out from street to global level easily, and create amazing levels of detail. You can lose yourself for hours and fill your entire computer's memory with your world maps. And it costs $70. That's a fairly substantial investment to make. Once again I'm thankful that computers have become a good deal cheaper and better over the years.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994


part 3/6


The invisible sun: A second (and final) amazing engine article for the magazine before it slips away like Top Secret and Gamma World before it. This is actually recent enough to be topical, as it's for Kromosome. Although it does look like cut material from the book, as it is by Wolfgang Baur, the actual author, but still, better than nothing. So here's a new organisation for the players to join or oppose. Existing largely online, and making use of nasty computer programs that burn out people's minds, turning them into cyber-zombie slaves, The Invisible Sun certainly isn't a heroic organisation by any stretch of the imagination. But of course, they have valuable information and a good social network, so you might need to deal with them to get things done. And the premise is fairly fun and not too hard to convert. The biopunk name might differentiate it a bit from standard cyberpunk, but stylistically, it means little. Just a slight difference in the kewl powerz. But I'm not complaining at all.


Forum: B. Johnson brings back the paladin's code issue, once again saying you should discuss it with the DM before play to establish their moral priorities. Then, when the pinch comes down and it's time to make hard compromises, you won't lose your powers for prioritising a different ideal to the DM.

Mary Cateli thinks that paladins shouldn't all be played as cavaliers, and cavaliers shouldn't have to act like jackasses towards the peasantry. Many of the best knights were humble and courteous to everyone regardless of age, sex, race or social class.

Eyal Teler thinks that it's important that the paladin's code doesn't force them to act like idiots. Good ≠ stupid, and if you make it so, then of course they'll wind up falling from grace or failing in their tasks regularly. Unless they're following the god of pedantic bureaucrats, this is a bad thing.

Steve Fletcher points out that paladins may be slightly more powerful than rangers, but they're both harder to get into, and easier to wash out of. This is what counts as balance in D&D at the moment.

Mike Delmonico is finding his specialist wizards are gaming the system, and often not actually using that many spells from their speciality. And the fixed opposition school system is rather clunky. Perhaps removing that, and making the proportion of spells that need to be of their speciality rather higher, at least 50%, would help.

Jean-Philippe Suter expresses his displeasure at Jon Pickens reorganisation of spheres in issue 205. This kind of movement based not on what they do, but who ought to be using them seems like putting the cart before the horse to him. Course, in his ideal world, every god would have a completely customised spell list. You know why they don't do that? Because that would mean it'd be a nightmare figuring out if a particular priest could have particular spells from supplements. The sphere system supports modular expandability.

Julian Neale picks apart the power level of high level necromancers. Many of their spells are surprisingly sucky. House ruling time! Yeah, I think half the time they use necromancers as villains so they can inflate their levels to look impressive, while still having the PCs kick their ass when they get to them.

Donald R. Maclean turns his eye on the many problems with using magic jar as a method of immortality. Sooner or later, they're going to break free, or you'll be stuck in the receptacle somewhere obscure for years with no-one to take over. Like becoming a vampire, you're setting yourself up for a troubled existence where you regularly have to worry about your victims coming back to haunt you.

Christopher Davis also points out Eric Burns' misconceptions as to how magic jar works. People do fight back mentally when you take over their body. Plus you can't tell exactly what you're getting beforehand. That can be rather embarrassing.

Doug Ironside recommends cheating on your gaming group with another one. If they're better, you have more fun, and if they're worse, you learn to appreciate what you have all the more. Either way, it's more interesting than hanging around with the same people year in year out.


Ex Libris: Just back in issue 207 they encouraged us to use pieces of paper as treasures, for there are quite a few plot opportunities created by them. How many more opportunities in something comprised of hundreds of pieces of paper? We already have a decent selection of magical books in the DMG, so this adds a whole selection of nonmagical ideas, once again determined via random table. Most of them are useful, quite a few are funny, and some of them contain useful information for magic-users to research stuff. This is very much in the old school spirit, being short, lighthearted, and not afraid of bending genre. Does feel a bit rehashed though. Probably shouldn't have come so soon after a similar article.


You wanna be a What!: Ah, yes, gamma world and their gonzo selection of races. Unlike D&D, which is still relatively conservative in the official publications, they've always encouraged you to play sentient plants, cockroaches, conglomerations of radioactive gas, and other such weirdness. So here's another bundle of crunch, giving you stats for characters derived from ants, butterflies, cats, dogs, dolphins, dragonflies, fleas, flys, killer whales, leopards, lions, lizards, owls, rabbits, rats, scorpions, snails and wolverines. Most of them are pretty much as you would expect in both stats and personality. The artwork goes for an alice in wonder land, pseudo-victorian style which looks good, but doesn't seem very appropriate for the post apocalyptic environment of gamma world. That, combined with the fact that this seems to be back to basics again (what, no stats for cat & dog stock in the corebook?) leaves me a little bemused. Not a lot of rigorous critical thought going into putting this together, it seems. What game do you really want to play? What playstyle are you trying to promote?! This is doing my head in now. Why did the editor put this together in this form? Chalk it up to lack of direction.

 

[Orius]

Ex Libris: Just back in issue 207 they encouraged us to use pieces of paper as treasures, for there are quite a few plot opportunities created by them. How many more opportunities in something comprised of hundreds of pieces of paper? We already have a decent selection of magical books in the DMG, so this adds a whole selection of nonmagical ideas, once again determined via random table. Most of them are useful, quite a few are funny, and some of them contain useful information for magic-users to research stuff. This is very much in the old school spirit, being short, lighthearted, and not afraid of bending genre. Does feel a bit rehashed though. Probably shouldn't have come so soon after a similar article.

I think this may be the very first article I saw in Dragon. I was at a bookstore, and just kind of leafed through an issue. I only remember an article that was about books in a campaign. This might have been it. Didn't hook me enough to buy the magazine though, it would be another few months before I actually picked up an issue.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994


part 4/6


Eye of the monitor: After only a single year, Sandy moves on, his regular programming work taking up so much time that he can't hold down this column as well. Bah. And now we truly move into the endgame of computer game coverage in the magazine, where the cast of reviewers changed every month, with very little consistency. This doesn't feel particularly good either, even though he wasn't around as long as the Lessers, he certainly made his mark with memorable soapbox pieces and cool additional articles for the magazine. Still, he goes out with another prophetic statement, predicting the rise of MMO's and other multiplayer games. The greater the proportion of people regularly buying computer games, and the more able they are to communicate, the better the network externalities become, and the more viable this option is. And other people are always a challenge where computer opponents soon cease to be, or reach the point of impossibility. He certainly has his finger on the pulse better than most people who try to predict the future.

Inherit the Earth is a point and click adventure game that feels a bit buggy and outdated. It's also annoyingly hard, leaving Sandy frustrated at what could have been. It only takes a few things wrong to seriously lower a game's score.

Equinox is the sequel to Solstice. (see what they did there) Like it's precursor, it's a 3d isometric game where you explore levels and solve puzzles with decidedly limited resources. Make sure you don't use them up too soon, otherwise you can find yourself stuck.

Castlevania IV shows Sandy once again making fairly elementary errors about nintendo games. Castlevania II was the only one that had any real roleplaying elements, I & III were both straight platformers. He's decidedly disappointed by this. Platformers are evidently not his thing.

Serf City is essentially a medieval version of sim city, with all that entails. The building side is balanced out with the combat side, with knights that you use to conquer enemies and defend your city. The AI is limited, and there's no networked multiplayer, so it's hardly a classic, but it's another one that's entertaining enough if you like the genre.


Gunnar Thorson solves the mystery, with a little oracular help. A plot wrapped up in under a year? Unheard of! Will he be back to solve another one? Nahh. This is going to stay a one-off. Bah.


1,001 faces of undeath: Ahh, yes, dark sun undead. Each one an individual. Which means more powers for them to choose from rarely go amiss. And that is exactly what we have here, along with a semirandom set of tables for determining how many and which ones they have. Like the old hordeling table, which it has a moderate amount of stuff in common with, you can get some pretty obscene results, especially if you get multiple complementary effects on the defensive powers table that make them virtually impossible to hurt and able to reform even if their physical body is destroyed. You won't even have to resort to fiat to get scenarios like a classic slasher movie series, where buggers like freddy and jason just keep on coming back ad nauseum, killing more people each time. Ravenloft may spin a scary tale, but Dark Sun really backs up it's terror with large numbers. So this'll let you whip up multiple scary, idiosyncratic individual monsters much faster. That's definitely worth something, even if it's hardly original these days.


Fiction: What power holds by Richard Parks. A tale of magic and it's laws this month. Not too unusual around here, you might say. The thing you have to pay attention to is their consistency, and the way they impact the fictional world around them, hopefully in such a way to create compelling stories. When they create a battle between what is just, and what is the compassionate thing to do, this becomes more of a benefit to the narrative. And when we get to discover them along with the protagonists in a naturalistic fashion, it helps keep the world accessible, and makes you eager to read more. So once again, it looks like their fiction department has picked a winner, with a premise that could easily be expanded on to fill a few novels of adventures and worldbuilding. Sometimes this magazine seems like a whole world full of unfulfilled potentials. Only a few of them will ever become reality. But then I remember that's much of the point. With roleplaying, it's what you make in your own games that really matters. So let's draw what we can from this and move on again.


Sage advice: How does speak with dead work on petitioners if they've lost their memories (It doesn't. It works on corpses, which remember just fine. )

What racial adjustments do githzerai thieves have (none. Their body is close enough to human to make no difference in these matters. )

Do the fated get double to both weapon and nonweapon proficiencies (Skip says no, full knowing future freelancers will break that rule. Skip looks forward to capping their asses. )

Can power's avatars enter sigil (no. Even that would cause the lady of pain to throw a tantrum with sharp whippy things.)

How big are a dragon's wings (2/3rds it's body length)

How high can a dragon's strength go ( Not as high as you'd think. Damn this 25 point scale )

How big an area can you scry ( As far as you could see from that point normally)

What races can use giant sized weapons (have we not formalized size categories yet? Oh well, another thing to put on the edition change list)

Do PC satyrs get 50% magic resistance (no. PC's are different. In this case this means we nerf stuff, like we did for githzerai last issue.)

Can a magical shield deflect attacks from creatures that need magical weapons to hurt (yes, but a normal shield could do that too)

What's this? Looks like the higher-ups at TSR are forcing Skip to do spellfire questions as well. What are you gonna do if Skip refuses, huh? Oh. Yes, maam. Right you are. :mutter, mutter mutter. Skip'll get you for this later, just you wait and see:

What is an unprotected realm (one with no defences or defender )

How far back can I set my realms (you need to put them as close as possible. Only if you have lots of them can they cower behind one another)

What happens if you get more than 8 cards in someone elses turn (nothing, until you get to step 5 of your turn.)

Can a realm defend itself with spells without a champion (no)

Why put stuff in your hand, not the pool (so you can use it more quickly)

How many cards can you have in the pool (as many as you like.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994


part 5/6


The dragon's bestiary: Fae last time, trolls before. Now it's Golems. Another fairly common occurrence in the magazine (see issues 44, 99, 119, 136, 156, 159) and gaming in general. And one that's relatively easy to create new variants for, just by picking a new material for them to be constructed out of, then adding a few appropriate powers. Thankfully, this writer doesn't take that lazy route, instead going to some effort to both reaffirm their horror story origins, and create some more inventive creatures.

The brass minotaur is your classic terminator style pursuer with a couple of twists. Any damage it does is a bugger to heal (although not as much as clay golem's) and it can transport it's victim into an extradimensional maze and hunt them down without their friends being able to help. Run, run as fast as you can. If you're encumbered, shed the excess. It's better than losing your life.

Phantom flyers are unusually clever and mysterious for constructs. They strike in the night, and disappear into the shadows in the daytime. They can serve as spies, retrieval, or just mothra-esque engines of destruction for their masters. Steal the magical whistle controlling them and you get some pretty awesome treasure instead of having to kill them. That sounds like a fun scenario to me.

The burning man is even more likely to go psycho on it's creator than Clay Golems. Since it's also near indestructible, and has a malevolent intelligence, it really is a nuclear option for a battle. One of these is perfect for destroying an entire village and similar horrifying situations. Don't hesitate to run away if you don't have the tools to beat it. Yeah, all of these three are nicely scary, more so than most actual undead. Maybe they should have been saved for the october issue.


Rumblings: Hee. Kindred: the Embraced. White Wolf is about to learn the hard way what TSR learnt over a decade ago. Dealing with tv executives and coming away with a shred of artistic integrity and faithfulness to the original licence's vision is not an easy task. They're a bunch of coked up tosspots. At least most musicians have basic listening skills. The rest of this column is taken up by the origins awards winners. Dragon mountain, their minis line, and this magazine all get awards, while Traveller: the new era, GURPS Vampire: the Masquerade and Magic: the Gathering are among the other products making waves. Colons are the in thing in modern titles. People'll copy the silliest little things in the hope that some of the cool will rub off, while missing the things that really make them popular. ^~^


The game wizards: I've certainly been guilty of a little Ed Greenwood worship over the years. Here we see that even the other designers at TSR are in awe of his talents. Whatever you think about the quality of his work, his sheer prolificness is not in dispute. He produces writing more than twice as fast as most of their staff, despite also holding down a regular day job as well. Does he type faster, sleep less, or simply have so many ideas that he doesn't need to pause to think what to write next the way most of us do? Even the editors find him a joy to work with, which is not the case with many prolific but scattershot creators who have more ideas than they have time to properly develop, and struggle to decide which to work upon and complete properly. And he seems to make an impression as a great eccentric on those who meet him personally as well. So while this is technically a promotional article for his new novel, Crown of Fire, it's more one extolling him personally, to make their superstar writer even more of a legend than he already is. Does he really need that? Probably not, but there you go. In any case, it reminds us there are very good reasons he rose to the top, rather than someone else, and sometimes you can meet your heroes without it shattering your illusions about them. There are far worse things to learn, really.


The role of books:Weird tales from Shakespeare, edited by Katherine Kerr & Martin H Greenberg does the alternate takes thing with humour and aplomb. From musical comedy to satire about hollywood conversions, the fun variants are the best, while the ones which play it straight less so. If you want to make an adaption work for a new time you need to inject same of your own creativity. After all, shakespeare certainly ripped off older plots, but it's what he did with them that was important.

Mordenheim by Chet Williamson is of course the story of Ravenloft's Frankensein analogue. It gets hit by the strong complaint that magic in D&D is a well known and codified thing, and Mordenheim's actions make no sense at all in light of that. That is a presumptuous assumption. Maybe in some other worlds, but Ravenloft is very much a place where each domain works on it's own little rules socially. Darkon might have plenty of wizards and clerics, but Lamordia certainly doesn't, and anyone openly showing occult knowledge would be another target for a good old lynch mob wielding burning torches. Yeah, it all falls apart if you look at it too hard, but when doing so will likely get you eaten by a creature of the night, you learn not to do that almost reflexively. Ahh, rationalising. There's not a lot you can't do with it.

Caledon of the mists by Deborah Turner Harris is one of those stories that can't figure out if it wants to be Historically Accurate or fantastical, and suffers for the split in tone. Pick one or the other and stick with it! Less can be more.

Mother of storms by John Barnes posits a near future in which global warming has destabilised the weather substantially, resulting in far more frequent and violent hurricanes. Meanwhile, virtual reality is really taking off as a form of entertainment. These two bits of unconnected relatively hard sci-fi premises interact in an interesting manner to create a story that seems fairly plausible, while not neglecting the characterisation either. This doesn't seem bad at all.

A logical magician by Robert Weinberg is another novel applying scientific principles to magic, setting things in modern day chicago. It does have a streak of comedy running through it, but not to the extent that it could be defined as a comic novel. As is often the case these days, it leaves things unresolved so as to obviously set up a sequel. Shouldn't give away everything at once, should we?

Wizard's first rule by Terry Goodkind is another book that's immediately recognised as a series chosen for major promotional push by the book company. And indeed, it does get a mostly positive review, standing out from the pack due to it's quite distinctive characters and setting. Course, those quirks will start to bug us over the course of an extended series, but hey ho, too late then.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994


part 6/6


Libram X deals with the duplicate problem, and then they get back to Jen's home. Of course, now they have to deal with the thing they left behind. And time seems to have passed faster here. What are the odds he's ready for them. Swordplay shows that while the mage may be useless at defending the party, he's quite capable of defending his property. Dragonmirth shows the limitations of various types of spellcasters. Yamara is in danger of having her skull repossessed, along with everyone else. What a diabolical plot. And given the RL attempts of companies to patent genomes and genetically modified crops, reality is once again imitating the most ludicrous of fiction.


Through the looking glass: As he's done several years in the past, Robert warns us to prepare for the long dull winter months at home. Perfect time to stay in and paint all your minis, really, presuming you can get a good idea of the colours in artificial light. Just watch your ventilation. You need to strike the right balance between keeping warm and not suffocating yourself on toxic fumes. I think that's not a worry to most people. Still, using spraypaints is an option that could speed your painting process along quite a bit, so it is good of him to point it out to us. A few decades ago, people would pay a lot for that kind of technology.

Our minis this month are a sleeping dragon and its treasure hoard. They're detachable, so either can be used individually, making it more versatile. An armoured giant that'll tower over most minis, but still look pretty puny compared to action figures, as it's only 65 mm. 6 coffins, 2 ponies and a sacrificial altar. The ponies will not fit in the coffins, but they might carry them somewhere. Two mildly futuristic troopers, and two trenchcoated badasses with guns, another adjacent pairing that seems to add up to a good story. A dune buggy and a helicopter. A mohawked, dual-wielding post apocalyptic warrior grrl. Another batch of faceless security goons for your PC's to dispatch with ease. And a quartet of shadowrunners which are really feeling the burn of the removal of lead from our minis. The stresses of the last few years have faded to a low-level persistent grumble.


TSR Previews: The forgotten realms gets Elminster's Ecologies. Ed was the king of these a decade ago. See what he can do when applied to the various regions of his own world. The Realms really is filled up to quite a frightening degree now. How can they find more stuff to put in? And our book this month seems quite interesting too. The Ogre's pact by Troy Denning is another start of a trilogy. An ogre's kidnapped someone's daughter and he doesn't want her rescued? Whyever could that be. What will happen to the doof who tries to rescue her anyway?

Ravenloft, on the other hand, still has plenty of room. Hour of the knife, of course, takes you to Paridon to face Jack the Ripper. Just who or what is he really? Not that it's hard to know. All you need to do is read the corebook. It's so hard to be genuinely scary in D&D. It also gets it's first fiction anthology, Tales of Ravenloft. Another opportunity for them to illustrate the ironic sense of humour of the Dark powers, as people suffer, and make others suffer.

Planescape gets it's own short adventure anthology. The well of worlds. 128 pages of extraplanar jaunty goodness. Get 'em done and be back in Sigil for dinner.

Mystara continues releasing CDs with products, with the adventure Hail to the Heroes. Add a new level of atmosphere to your game by playing tracks at the appropriate places. Oh, the cheese. How much did these cost to produce?

Lankhmar gets Rogues in Lankhmar. Exactly what it sounds like, this details the thieves guild, and has lots of ideas for what larcenous adventurers would like to steal in the city. Now that definitely sounds like fun.

Dragonlance finishes rehashing the original module series, with Dragonlance classics, Vol 3 filling parts 10-14 in a condensed format. As with B1-9, it might be a good idea to use the originals as well if you can find them.

Endless quest does Spelljammer, in A Wild Ride. Save the rock of Braal from rogue asteroids. Isn't that a computer game? Strange to think this is the last product for the line.

Our generic AD&D book this month is Wizards Challenge II. A monster a normal army can't touch? No problem. A few magic missiles'll do the job. Really, if you fill your army with nothing but fighters, you should expect this trouble.

Another book which looks to have goofy elements is Go Quest, Young Man by K B Bogen. A young would be mage has a distinctly awkward time of things avoiding a girl who's after him and finding anything genuinely heroic to do. He needs more narrativium.


Once again, I'm not hugely enthusiastic about this issue. There are some funny bits, but it's bookended by boredom and basic advice. By this time, I'm getting fairly sure it's an actual consistent quality slide, and not just burnout on my part or a few duff issues. I suppose that fits with the brief history of the magazine I read before starting the journey. Still, it's not really bad enough to outright slate yet, just getting dull and go round the same subjects too many times. Which is better than being actively bad from a reader's point of view, but not from a reviewer's. On top of that, I seem to be running short of jokey ways of pushing onwards without repeating myself too. What are we to do? Let's start the next issue and hope something in there'll inspire me. The halloween ones generally do seem to be of above average quality.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 210: October 1994


part 1/6


124 pages. That lich's collar is definitely OVER 9000!!! Ahahaha! And his wife hasn't let a little desiccation affect her bust size. It's those little details that provide so much amusement in this Tom Baxa cover. Yes, it looks like our horror will be leavened with a nice slice of schlock again. Not that there's anything wrong with that. More than one note is needed to make a truly great tune. And a bit of chromaticism is very helpful in producing horror tunes. Let's try and add a few more odd chords to our horrific repertoire.


In this issue:


Letters: The harm CCG's are doing to roleplaying really starts to become clear this issue. The reviewers thought they could peacefully co-exist, but no, they are stealing valuable players away with their highly modular charms. It's a terrible tragedy. What are we to do!?!1!! Ok, maybe I'm being a little hyperbolic, but it is having an effect. Despite his levelheaded response, Dale has cause to consider the magazine's future direction. Do they follow the tide, and risk alienating people who think this magazine should focus on RPG's, or stay where they are, and risk losing sales because of it. Not an easy decision.

A letter complaining about something being out of stock. There's usually somewhere second-hand you can get it if you're really desperate. You'll just have to work a little harder.

Another familiar topic. A complaint from a reader who's spotted an error in the magazine. Dale comes up with a suitably comedic faux punishment for the errant freelancer. Again he has learnt from Roger well.


Editorial: Wolf Baur takes a turn in the editorial seat to do what Roger used to around this time of year - report on his convention experiences. He has less to say about the madcap antics, and more about the actual games themselves. In particular the foreign ones. We've managed to convert D&D to many other languages, it's caught on successfully in some markets, and now they're returning the favour by translating their games into english. Stuff like The Black Eye and Nephilim are making waves this year, and existing games like Shadowrun and Call of Cthulhu have supplements created by the localisation teams, and then translated back. The dawn of international gaming is upon us! Hmm. This is one thing that the internet has done less than we expected to fix. While it has eradicated distance barriers with reasonable success, language barriers are still fairly substantial. While small countries have most of their population learn english as a second language, latin america and china in particular can still feel like different worlds with very little crossover in popular media. Course, the more separated they are, the more likely the games are to be intriguingly different in rules and cultural references. So as with quite a few recent editorials, this encourages you to go out and check out what the real world is doing, because it'll make your gaming more interesting and varied. Don't spend a lifetime dreaming in isolation, or your dreams will be small and unrealistic.


First Quest: Dale may be taking a break from the editorial this month, but he's here, on the next page instead. You're hardly going to miss him. He's not one of the grognards. No, he was part of the second wave drawn in in the early 80's by the brief period of media hysteria. The cool factor of killing things and taking their stuff is not to be underestimated. And enthusiasm is more fun than technical skill, especially when it comes to recruiting new people to your cause. This is another tale where they look back with a combination of nostalgia and embarrassment, and recall both the good and bad aspects to gaming in the early 80's. You learn by making mistakes and reading stuff in magazine articles. Actually, that's another distinctive factor of his early gaming, just how much he drew from the magazine. Seems fitting for someone who would then become editor for it. This is another one that's quite likeable because he does obviously have clear memories and plenty of enthusiasm for the topic, and isn't censored by politics as far as I can tell. And as long as he's having fun, he'll bring it to the magazine.


Dead or Alive: Resurrection does open up a legal can of worms. Since clerics are more likely to be on the inside socially than wizards, it does make sense that they would be cautious about bringing people back if it would cause social upheaval. An extensive look at the logical ramifications of it being regularly available and commonly known about is long overdue. What does it do to inheritance and tax law, especially if they're dead for a while before being raised. What is the legal status of undead who integrate with the community and don't try to eat everyone? What does it do to royal successions? Quite the headache. Fortunately, this is the kind of headache that makes for good adventures. Normally, when you kill a bad guy they stay dead, but when people keep on coming back, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to get a comic-booky scenario where over-the-top stuff happens on a regular basis. On the other hand, players being players, they might well get obsessive about finding and mutilating every body so the enemies can't come back again and again, more maniacal and irritating each time. So lots of ideas here on how you could play it up or tone it down, both of which could make things interesting and different from the average campaign. I approve of this quite strongly.

 

[lordxaviar]

nice... I have all my early editions and have all the strategic reviews, i have a little newsletter from the same time period that was published in NYC and local area. The only thing I didnt like about dragon, is that I (three times) sent in well worked and researched articles and they sent me standard rejections like they didnt even read it and then articles came out with the flavor of my work but not the research, it was a tight knit club.

 

[Orius]

124 pages. That lich's collar is definitely OVER 9000!!! Ahahaha! And his wife hasn't let a little desiccation affect her bust size. It's those little details that provide so much amusement in this Tom Baxa cover. Yes, it looks like our horror will be leavened with a nice slice of schlock again. Not that there's anything wrong with that. More than one note is needed to make a truly great tune. And a bit of chromaticism is very helpful in producing horror tunes. Let's try and add a few more odd chords to our horrific repertoire.

Ha, wait till next October's cover!