Arnwyn
First Post
Increased fun, of course!
As with others here, for us this was the most-used article out of any magazine, ever.
Let's read the entire run
- Thread starter (un)reason
- Start date
As with others here, for us this was the most-used article out of any magazine, ever.
(un)reason
Legend
Given the preexisting demand, any antipaladin article that wasn't glaringly flawed or underpowered would have been taken up enthusiasticly. Sometimes it's easy to spot a niche which it would profit you to fill. More often, people don't know they're missing something untill you make them want it. One of those things.
Ahh, yes, kender. I have an extra special rant in store for them, and their partners in comic relief the tinker gnomes and gully dwarves.Hah, you think?The antipaladin is one of the oldest "screw with the other players" build. Which probably made it popular. I don't think any D&D campaign is complete until it's had a kender antipaladin to totally
Hated that version as well.
Milage may vary, and all that. If you had fun with it, that's all that really counts.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 40: August 1980
Part 1/2
86 pages. Convention season is upon them again, and that means we'll be seeing articles about them, and how they went in the next few issues. The convention circuit continues its rapid expansion in venue size and professionalism, mirroring the rise in the hobby in general. What new releases will be making the big buzz in the rumor mill this year? We shall see.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: We have one letter bitching about all the modules they print, asking for less filler and more fiction. One mans cheese is another mans rancid milk m'dear. They can't please everyone.
A letter complaining about the price increases, and also about the joke article on taxes in issue 36. Someone needs to learn to laugh at their problems. Yes, that particular article wasn't very funny, but that doesn't mean the principle behind it is wrong.
A letter complaining about the inconsistency between restricting PC's levels and the presenting super-powerfull characters in GitE. Yeah, I'm in agreement with you on that one.
A letter complaining that the dragon accompanying the gem dragon article in issue 37 has only 2 legs. To which they quite rightly reply don't be such a pedant.
And finally, a letter saying that people shouldn't complain about high level characters so much, and there ought to be more adventurers catering to them. Go you, I quite agree.
Sage advice is missing. Booo.
The dueling room: Sometimes you don't want the sembelance of plot. Sometimes you just want a one-one arena fight to determine who is the superior character. Another one of those anachronisms of D&D like alchemists and scribe monopolies, where it is assumed that there are high level NPC's there readily available just to maintain conventions like this, yet the main setting remains pseudo medieval. If you want a white room fight, just make it happen out of continuity. A silly but fun article, and it's good to see PvP get a little love instead of being roundly discouraged.
Fantasy has reality: Douglas Bachman expands on his piece in up on a soapbox last issue. He goes into a complex explanation of his vision of the fantasy realm, the moral quests and questions it ought to pose, the difference between the realms of adventure and the places where people actually live. This includes such tricky subjects as characters gaining incredible power in the magical realms, but then becoming regular people again on returning home; dooms and destinies, and the world becoming unbalanced because of the sins of the heroes. This is the kind of article which if used, would completely alter the character of the game, slanting it towards a very particular type of Campbellian high fantasy. I'm really not sure if I like this or not. It has some ambitious ideas, but implements them in a heavy handed way, and would only be fun if the players actively bought into the principles espoused.
Funerals and other deathly ideas: Looting the bodies of the things you've just killed, and then leaving them to rot really isn't a very nice thing to do, particularly for supposedly heroic adventurers. Similarly, just divvying all your own fallen comrades stuff with no regard for supporting their family shows rather a disregard for societial mores. Your players may complain when you introduce the ideas from this article, but they do help make the world seem more like a real place, not just a game where you kill with no reprecussions. One of those ideas you shouldn't overuse, as too much realism spoils the fun.
Wham's revenge - his games: A history and profile of the Gratefull Dead of RPG artists, Tom Wham. An unpredictable and eccentric designer, with a tendency to get sidetracked, he seems like the kind of person who is fun to be around, but a nightmare to employ. Still, this is another interesting insight into TSR's inner workings and the people who make it up. Hopefully we'll be seeing more profiles soon.
Don't drink this cocktail - Throw it!: Many people had realized that using flaming oil was considerably more tactically advantageous than fighting with conventional weapons. This article examines this more closely, including figuring out ways to keep players who overuse it under control. One of those cases where emergent rules turn out to be far more deadly than a fair fight, and another thing that would never work in 4th edition (do they even give stats and costs for flaming oil in 4th ed?) File this under muahahaha.
The wolf in your paint pot: Advice on painting wolf and werewolf miniatures. A fairly detailed article that does exactly what is says it does.
The fatal flaws of Crane: A bored player drops out of a play by mail game because the cost to fun ratio was rather too low. This article describes how the game was skewed towards people willing to spend more money on their characters and empires, the cost for playing each turn went up, odd social conventions grew up as people learned to exploit the rules of the game, and the gamemasters failed to provide new material for higher level characters. Which shows how many parallels old play by post games have with modern MMORPGS, in the problems they have to deal with. And that is very interesting indeed. One case of there's nothing new under the sun I wasn't expecting to see. A very thought provoking article.
Artifacts of Dragon pass: I guess someone's finally paid attention to the repeated requests for Runequest stuff. This is a big load of magic items, each with their own big chunk of history, and full integration into the setting in a way that contrasts sharply with D&D's vague hints of ancient wizards and curses. Like tekumel, Glorantha seems to attract people with a greater love of worldbuilding than D&D at the moment. Its nice to see it arrive in Dragon at last, and I'm guessing there'll be plenty more articles on this game in the future.
The other were? Right here!: 10 new types of lycanthropes for your game. Some of which are rather silly, such as weresloths and bison. As is the norm for this period of D&D, they seem to present an implied setting where after being infected, people lose interest in mortal society, and wander off into the wilderness and form little tribes of lycanthropes, spending most of their time in hybrid form. What's all that about then and where did it come from?
Part 1/2
86 pages. Convention season is upon them again, and that means we'll be seeing articles about them, and how they went in the next few issues. The convention circuit continues its rapid expansion in venue size and professionalism, mirroring the rise in the hobby in general. What new releases will be making the big buzz in the rumor mill this year? We shall see.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: We have one letter bitching about all the modules they print, asking for less filler and more fiction. One mans cheese is another mans rancid milk m'dear. They can't please everyone.
A letter complaining about the price increases, and also about the joke article on taxes in issue 36. Someone needs to learn to laugh at their problems. Yes, that particular article wasn't very funny, but that doesn't mean the principle behind it is wrong.
A letter complaining about the inconsistency between restricting PC's levels and the presenting super-powerfull characters in GitE. Yeah, I'm in agreement with you on that one.
A letter complaining that the dragon accompanying the gem dragon article in issue 37 has only 2 legs. To which they quite rightly reply don't be such a pedant.
And finally, a letter saying that people shouldn't complain about high level characters so much, and there ought to be more adventurers catering to them. Go you, I quite agree.
Sage advice is missing. Booo.
The dueling room: Sometimes you don't want the sembelance of plot. Sometimes you just want a one-one arena fight to determine who is the superior character. Another one of those anachronisms of D&D like alchemists and scribe monopolies, where it is assumed that there are high level NPC's there readily available just to maintain conventions like this, yet the main setting remains pseudo medieval. If you want a white room fight, just make it happen out of continuity. A silly but fun article, and it's good to see PvP get a little love instead of being roundly discouraged.
Fantasy has reality: Douglas Bachman expands on his piece in up on a soapbox last issue. He goes into a complex explanation of his vision of the fantasy realm, the moral quests and questions it ought to pose, the difference between the realms of adventure and the places where people actually live. This includes such tricky subjects as characters gaining incredible power in the magical realms, but then becoming regular people again on returning home; dooms and destinies, and the world becoming unbalanced because of the sins of the heroes. This is the kind of article which if used, would completely alter the character of the game, slanting it towards a very particular type of Campbellian high fantasy. I'm really not sure if I like this or not. It has some ambitious ideas, but implements them in a heavy handed way, and would only be fun if the players actively bought into the principles espoused.
Funerals and other deathly ideas: Looting the bodies of the things you've just killed, and then leaving them to rot really isn't a very nice thing to do, particularly for supposedly heroic adventurers. Similarly, just divvying all your own fallen comrades stuff with no regard for supporting their family shows rather a disregard for societial mores. Your players may complain when you introduce the ideas from this article, but they do help make the world seem more like a real place, not just a game where you kill with no reprecussions. One of those ideas you shouldn't overuse, as too much realism spoils the fun.
Wham's revenge - his games: A history and profile of the Gratefull Dead of RPG artists, Tom Wham. An unpredictable and eccentric designer, with a tendency to get sidetracked, he seems like the kind of person who is fun to be around, but a nightmare to employ. Still, this is another interesting insight into TSR's inner workings and the people who make it up. Hopefully we'll be seeing more profiles soon.
Don't drink this cocktail - Throw it!: Many people had realized that using flaming oil was considerably more tactically advantageous than fighting with conventional weapons. This article examines this more closely, including figuring out ways to keep players who overuse it under control. One of those cases where emergent rules turn out to be far more deadly than a fair fight, and another thing that would never work in 4th edition (do they even give stats and costs for flaming oil in 4th ed?) File this under muahahaha.
The wolf in your paint pot: Advice on painting wolf and werewolf miniatures. A fairly detailed article that does exactly what is says it does.
The fatal flaws of Crane: A bored player drops out of a play by mail game because the cost to fun ratio was rather too low. This article describes how the game was skewed towards people willing to spend more money on their characters and empires, the cost for playing each turn went up, odd social conventions grew up as people learned to exploit the rules of the game, and the gamemasters failed to provide new material for higher level characters. Which shows how many parallels old play by post games have with modern MMORPGS, in the problems they have to deal with. And that is very interesting indeed. One case of there's nothing new under the sun I wasn't expecting to see. A very thought provoking article.
Artifacts of Dragon pass: I guess someone's finally paid attention to the repeated requests for Runequest stuff. This is a big load of magic items, each with their own big chunk of history, and full integration into the setting in a way that contrasts sharply with D&D's vague hints of ancient wizards and curses. Like tekumel, Glorantha seems to attract people with a greater love of worldbuilding than D&D at the moment. Its nice to see it arrive in Dragon at last, and I'm guessing there'll be plenty more articles on this game in the future.
The other were? Right here!: 10 new types of lycanthropes for your game. Some of which are rather silly, such as weresloths and bison. As is the norm for this period of D&D, they seem to present an implied setting where after being infected, people lose interest in mortal society, and wander off into the wilderness and form little tribes of lycanthropes, spending most of their time in hybrid form. What's all that about then and where did it come from?
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Hated that version as well.
It was ok, but a little too dependant on charts, and the whole "crit on 18-20, but only when it's 5 or more above your to hit roll" was a tad cumbersome. Good for some semblance of balance (thus you don't get a crit when you can only hit on a 20), but still cumbersome. Still, I might at some point try to work them into the 3e crit system, who knows?
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 40: August 1980
Part 2/2
Squad leader: Scenarios 3 and 4, the battle for warsaw. I've figured out what I like about these. The articles for this game really do feel like a throwback to the strategic review days, given how compact yet full of interesting little details they are. Which as the issues and articles around them bloat in size, makes them feel like a little breath of fresh air.
Giving the undead an even break: A revised undead turning table based on hit dice rather than just undead type. Which of course makes scaling encounters easier and more sensical. While it wouldn't be used directly in future editions, its a good example of an early attempt to put more joined up thinking into D&D. Which is pleasing, in a way.
The Rasmussen files: More writing from Merle Rasmussen on the design process of top secret. As is often the case, the name was derived from an offhand comment during design that stuck. And there were vast amounts of things that were cut from the rules (some of which may reappear in future supplements, if you ask nicely, hint hint
)
And from Sprechenhaltestelle to?: Getting away from the introductory setting and going globetrotting in Top Secret. Includes a random table to determine what city the next clue to your mission will be found in. A fun concept, but rather dully handled in this article. A good GM should already have realised that to make top secret more james bondesque, you need more globetrotting, cinematics and explosions. Now, did the rules support such behaviour, or would that have been a losing battle anyway?
The miniature spotlight: Filling in holes in your miniatures. One of those jobs you gotta learn sometime,and this ought to help.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: A bunch of oriental themed magic items, several magic helms, plus two wands by Ed Greenwood, in which he sneaks in yet more little realmsian setting tidbits. How long before it is first mentioned officially, instead of snuck into ostiensably generic creature and item entries? Having just seen the runequest entries, the limitations of this format are thrown into stark relief.
The electric eye: Basic programming in BASIC Now this is a real nostalgia trip. All these PRINT and IF THEN GOTO commands. Now that's how you construct a computer program. If you have the time. Ahh, the days where you could understand the workings of a program without years of training and edit it for yourself without breaking everything.
Simulation Corner: This month the spotlight falls upon West End Games, a plucky new arrival in the wargaming arena starting to make waves. We'll be hearing more about them in the future. Another article that gives me historical perspective, and shows how much more in touch with the rest of the gaming scene the magazine was back then.
An advert for real life clergy of various religions to give their opinions on D&D. I suppose they covered women last issue, so they feel like tackling another big society defining topic soon.
Reviews: Annihilator, a mini board game, gets a rather negative review.
High guard, a supplement for Traveller, expands on making big ships, and gets a particularly clever review, with lots of comparisions to other games that tackle similar topics.
Sword quest, a boardgame, shamelessly rips of the plot of LotR, but reasonably well.
The drawing of the dark, a novel, fails to realistically represent the period it is supposed to be set in, but still manages to be an entertaining tale anyway.
The reviews this issue seem to have taken a huge leap upwards, in both opinionatedness, and sense of perspective. Which is a good thing, because the old dry descriptive reviews were rather tedious. Long may it continue.
Dragons bestiary gets 4 monsters this time. The fire eyed lizard, the Flitte, the Wingless wonder, and the Huntsmen. All are pretty interesting, with setting details and quirks that make them more than just another creature to kill and take the stuff of. Ok, so two of them boil down to a wizard did it, (clerics get no love in the monster creation leagues) but that just means players can learn how to do it as well (muahahaha) And isn't having spells named after you and/or monsters made by you make it into common circulation one of the highest things a wizard can aspire to.
Jasmine recaps already. The voyages of the exploration ship znutar gets another comic.
A 7 page index of all the articles from Issues 1-40. Nice to see them taking stock of what they've done so far. How long before they do it again. And how long before it becomes impossible to do.
And two more pieces of Tom Wham foolery. Outside the znutar, an expansion for Awful green things from outer space, and runngus' game, a whole new little board game based upon dropping your pieces on a board and seeing where they land. I guess that'll provide another few hours of diversion before you get bored of it and play something else.
Another strong issue in general, as while it hasn't innovated as much as recent issues, the overall quality and diversity of articles is particularly high. They seem to have an increasing base of enthusiastic freelancers to draw from, and aren't afraid to try new things and explore controversial topics. And they will be rewarded for this.
Part 2/2
Squad leader: Scenarios 3 and 4, the battle for warsaw. I've figured out what I like about these. The articles for this game really do feel like a throwback to the strategic review days, given how compact yet full of interesting little details they are. Which as the issues and articles around them bloat in size, makes them feel like a little breath of fresh air.
Giving the undead an even break: A revised undead turning table based on hit dice rather than just undead type. Which of course makes scaling encounters easier and more sensical. While it wouldn't be used directly in future editions, its a good example of an early attempt to put more joined up thinking into D&D. Which is pleasing, in a way.
The Rasmussen files: More writing from Merle Rasmussen on the design process of top secret. As is often the case, the name was derived from an offhand comment during design that stuck. And there were vast amounts of things that were cut from the rules (some of which may reappear in future supplements, if you ask nicely, hint hint
) And from Sprechenhaltestelle to?: Getting away from the introductory setting and going globetrotting in Top Secret. Includes a random table to determine what city the next clue to your mission will be found in. A fun concept, but rather dully handled in this article. A good GM should already have realised that to make top secret more james bondesque, you need more globetrotting, cinematics and explosions. Now, did the rules support such behaviour, or would that have been a losing battle anyway?
The miniature spotlight: Filling in holes in your miniatures. One of those jobs you gotta learn sometime,and this ought to help.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: A bunch of oriental themed magic items, several magic helms, plus two wands by Ed Greenwood, in which he sneaks in yet more little realmsian setting tidbits. How long before it is first mentioned officially, instead of snuck into ostiensably generic creature and item entries? Having just seen the runequest entries, the limitations of this format are thrown into stark relief.
The electric eye: Basic programming in BASIC
Now this is a real nostalgia trip. All these PRINT and IF THEN GOTO commands. Now that's how you construct a computer program. If you have the time. Ahh, the days where you could understand the workings of a program without years of training and edit it for yourself without breaking everything. Simulation Corner: This month the spotlight falls upon West End Games, a plucky new arrival in the wargaming arena starting to make waves. We'll be hearing more about them in the future. Another article that gives me historical perspective, and shows how much more in touch with the rest of the gaming scene the magazine was back then.
An advert for real life clergy of various religions to give their opinions on D&D. I suppose they covered women last issue, so they feel like tackling another big society defining topic soon.
Reviews: Annihilator, a mini board game, gets a rather negative review.
High guard, a supplement for Traveller, expands on making big ships, and gets a particularly clever review, with lots of comparisions to other games that tackle similar topics.
Sword quest, a boardgame, shamelessly rips of the plot of LotR, but reasonably well.
The drawing of the dark, a novel, fails to realistically represent the period it is supposed to be set in, but still manages to be an entertaining tale anyway.
The reviews this issue seem to have taken a huge leap upwards, in both opinionatedness, and sense of perspective. Which is a good thing, because the old dry descriptive reviews were rather tedious. Long may it continue.
Dragons bestiary gets 4 monsters this time. The fire eyed lizard, the Flitte, the Wingless wonder, and the Huntsmen. All are pretty interesting, with setting details and quirks that make them more than just another creature to kill and take the stuff of. Ok, so two of them boil down to a wizard did it, (clerics get no love in the monster creation leagues) but that just means players can learn how to do it as well (muahahaha) And isn't having spells named after you and/or monsters made by you make it into common circulation one of the highest things a wizard can aspire to.
Jasmine recaps already. The voyages of the exploration ship znutar gets another comic.
A 7 page index of all the articles from Issues 1-40. Nice to see them taking stock of what they've done so far. How long before they do it again. And how long before it becomes impossible to do.
And two more pieces of Tom Wham foolery. Outside the znutar, an expansion for Awful green things from outer space, and runngus' game, a whole new little board game based upon dropping your pieces on a board and seeing where they land. I guess that'll provide another few hours of diversion before you get bored of it and play something else.
Another strong issue in general, as while it hasn't innovated as much as recent issues, the overall quality and diversity of articles is particularly high. They seem to have an increasing base of enthusiastic freelancers to draw from, and aren't afraid to try new things and explore controversial topics. And they will be rewarded for this.
Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
According to a conversation I had with Ernie Gygax last June, they all were amazed by how much Ed had going on in his homebrew, but since they were focused on Greyhawk at the time and didn't have much face-to-face interaction with him they had no idea how large and detailed his world was. Supposedly, Ed wanted to be a fiction writer and created his world for that pursuit, while at the same time having friends play DnD to help flush out the details. When Gary was pushed out and they were looking for a new setting the folks that took over TSR instinctively called Ed and asked how many notes he had. He sent them a file cabinet or two packed with notes and maps, which they immediately offered to buy, and the rest is Forgotten Realms history...
darjr
I crit!
I love this thread. I'm only on comment #44...
Yes, Paizo has scans of the covers. I'm going through those as I read the posts. Note also that some of the early issues and articles from them are on line.
The tekumel site has some issues. Starting with 4 I think. Full issues I think.
The metamorphosis alpha site has the ma1e articles from the early issues.
The only thing I don't know, is where can I buy the pdfs? Drivethru doesn't seem to have them.
Links:
Metamorphosis Alpha - Dragon Magazine Index
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon04.pdf
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon06.pdf
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon07.pdf
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon11.pdf
Yes, Paizo has scans of the covers. I'm going through those as I read the posts. Note also that some of the early issues and articles from them are on line.
The tekumel site has some issues. Starting with 4 I think. Full issues I think.
The metamorphosis alpha site has the ma1e articles from the early issues.
The only thing I don't know, is where can I buy the pdfs? Drivethru doesn't seem to have them.
Links:
Metamorphosis Alpha - Dragon Magazine Index
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon04.pdf
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon06.pdf
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon07.pdf
http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Dragon11.pdf
(un)reason
Legend
The big problem here is that most of the articles were bought for a single use run only. This means that TSR technically never had the right to reprint them, and even the Dragon magazine archive was in breach of that. Understandably, quite a few of their old writers kicked up a fuss, and that means that not only is the archive now out of print and hard to get hold of, but a lot of the back issues will never be available for sale legally. (obviously, since some of them are at paizo's site, they have been trying to get clearance, but of course they'd need to get all the articles above board to be able to sell a particular issue. ) In short, this is one of those cases where it's actually easier to get hold of these things illegaly for free. Which is vaguely annoying, but that's life.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 41: September 1980
Part 1/2
80 pages. A particularly amusing cover this issue, as lizard boy goes to school. This issue, they focus on the fantasy trip, with 4 articles for melee and wizard. Computers also get an increasing amount of coverage, reflecting their new popularity at the moment.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: Two more letters from the opposing sides of the fence of the dwarven beard debate. Gary once again chips in to provide evidence for his rightness. This one just won't die, will it?
Another letter on the age debate, from a 15 year old boy who feels himself more than mature enough to play and run D&D in a responsible fashion.
A letter of support for giants in the earth, offering lots of suggestions for future issues.
A letter in support of including angels in the game and against too much realism.
A letter from Gary with some rather snarky opinions on many recent articles in the magazine. This stuff is not official and never will be (as long as I'm in charge) As amusing as ever.
And finally, a very long letter about the weapon and armor restrictions faced by clerics and magic-users, with lots of real world references. Yeah, this stuff was really easy to pick apart when you started using real world logic rather than game balance considerations. But the designers have said many a time that realism was not one of their design goals. Take that in mind.
Reflections of a real life cleric: Another of our "issues" articles, this examines the power creativity and fantasy has to enrich our lives, as well as the obvious matters that everyone needs entertainment and outlets of some kind, and that being good is supposed to be fun. (the biggest trick evil pulled is making people think that being bad was more fun than being good, when it very much is not, once the concequences are factored in) Of course, like any tool, it can be used for evil, or you can get too caught up in the means, and forget the proper ends, and you need to be wary of that. But you can't spot that stuff unless you're part of the community. Once again, this is a far cry from the hysteria that would later engulf the game several times.
Playing the numbers: Talk of combat optimization for The Fantasy Trip, with detailed analysis of hit probabilities multiplied by average damage capacity, and the corresponding expected output. Ahh, twinking. I guess any game with tactical decisions will attract mathematicians who pore over stuff like this. And that will be continue to be the case as the fantasy trip becomes GURPS and goes through 4 editions. How does steve jackson deal with it? (publishing munchkin, perhaps )
All fighters are not created equal: More Fantasy trip stuff, as they discuss the unfairness of recieving the same amount of XP, no matter how powerful each combatant is. You know what we need? A challenge rating system, whereby you get more by beating stronger foes, and less from beating weaker ones. Now that's what you call progress. Now, how long will it take for other games to pick up on this?
Dueling dragons: Adapting Melee to model combat between dragons, rather than human fighters. This obviously involves changing the tactics weapons, and stat ranges quite a bit. Because after all, dragons are absolutely brutal. I quite approve of this, as it pushes the games envelope, yet the game adapts fairly well too it. I guess the system was already fairly robust, even back then.
Ready, aim, firearm: Rules for firearms in Melee. Which are out of date already, as official rules for them were released just recently enough that they could mention it, but not cancel the article. Oh well. As is often the case when they have a themed issue, they put the worst article furthest in, so as to hook you into the magazine. But that's a common trick in any media. Put the best bits at the beginning and end, where people'll remember them, and squash the filler in the middle. And it must work, otherwise we wouldn't do it. Cut the page count instead you say? Nahh. We couldn't possibly do that
Giants in the earth: This months exceedingly powerful fictional characters (with atrocious artwork by Roger Raupp that doesn't fit the descriptions and makes them all look the same) are C.L. Moores Jirel of Joiry, H Rider Haggard's Ayesha, and Robert E Howards Valeria. Oh, and sigurd fafnirsbane and Starkad from norse myth, who get slightly better treatment.
Dragon's blood: The norse theme continues in this pair of articles on the benefits of being exposed to dragons blood, again mentioning Sigurd and Fafnir. One of those things that they admit has the ability to unbalance the game, given the importance of AC to combat, and the way it is tuned in general. You'd think that getting a dragon's treasure hoard would be enough. Nah, We won't stop until we've made swords from it's talons, clubs from it's teeth, armor from it's scales, and heaven knows what magical gubbins with it's internal organs. Honestly, it's worse than buffalo. No wonder dragons are extinct in the modern day.
For appearance's sake: The appearances of the various demihuman races are expanded upon, with guess what? Random tables to roll for eye, hair, skin color, unusual features, etc etc.
Truly this is for the uninspired gamer. Still, it does contain quite a bit of implied setting stuff. File under rather average.
Minarian legends: The creation legends of Divine Right Trolls. They do fall a little into the noble savage cliche, but are still given enough of a spin to avoid human in funny suits, thanks to they way their society adapts to their regenerative properties. The general quality of this series continues.
Up on a soap box: Good generalship involves tactics. In real life, the best way to win is to not fight, or let nature do your fighting for you, hitting them in the supply lines, as demonstrated by the russians. Of course, doing that in a wargame would make the game not fun, but you still need to consider tactics and psychology, as well as winning through unconventional means. As ever, the most common sense things are the easiest to overlook, like plan your tactics to account for the terrain and weather.
Part 1/2
80 pages. A particularly amusing cover this issue, as lizard boy goes to school. This issue, they focus on the fantasy trip, with 4 articles for melee and wizard. Computers also get an increasing amount of coverage, reflecting their new popularity at the moment.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: Two more letters from the opposing sides of the fence of the dwarven beard debate. Gary once again chips in to provide evidence for his rightness. This one just won't die, will it?
Another letter on the age debate, from a 15 year old boy who feels himself more than mature enough to play and run D&D in a responsible fashion.
A letter of support for giants in the earth, offering lots of suggestions for future issues.
A letter in support of including angels in the game and against too much realism.
A letter from Gary with some rather snarky opinions on many recent articles in the magazine. This stuff is not official and never will be (as long as I'm in charge) As amusing as ever.
And finally, a very long letter about the weapon and armor restrictions faced by clerics and magic-users, with lots of real world references. Yeah, this stuff was really easy to pick apart when you started using real world logic rather than game balance considerations. But the designers have said many a time that realism was not one of their design goals. Take that in mind.
Reflections of a real life cleric: Another of our "issues" articles, this examines the power creativity and fantasy has to enrich our lives, as well as the obvious matters that everyone needs entertainment and outlets of some kind, and that being good is supposed to be fun. (the biggest trick evil pulled is making people think that being bad was more fun than being good, when it very much is not, once the concequences are factored in) Of course, like any tool, it can be used for evil, or you can get too caught up in the means, and forget the proper ends, and you need to be wary of that. But you can't spot that stuff unless you're part of the community. Once again, this is a far cry from the hysteria that would later engulf the game several times.
Playing the numbers: Talk of combat optimization for The Fantasy Trip, with detailed analysis of hit probabilities multiplied by average damage capacity, and the corresponding expected output. Ahh, twinking. I guess any game with tactical decisions will attract mathematicians who pore over stuff like this. And that will be continue to be the case as the fantasy trip becomes GURPS and goes through 4 editions. How does steve jackson deal with it? (publishing munchkin, perhaps
)All fighters are not created equal: More Fantasy trip stuff, as they discuss the unfairness of recieving the same amount of XP, no matter how powerful each combatant is. You know what we need? A challenge rating system, whereby you get more by beating stronger foes, and less from beating weaker ones. Now that's what you call progress. Now, how long will it take for other games to pick up on this?
Dueling dragons: Adapting Melee to model combat between dragons, rather than human fighters. This obviously involves changing the tactics weapons, and stat ranges quite a bit. Because after all, dragons are absolutely brutal. I quite approve of this, as it pushes the games envelope, yet the game adapts fairly well too it. I guess the system was already fairly robust, even back then.
Ready, aim, firearm: Rules for firearms in Melee. Which are out of date already, as official rules for them were released just recently enough that they could mention it, but not cancel the article. Oh well. As is often the case when they have a themed issue, they put the worst article furthest in, so as to hook you into the magazine. But that's a common trick in any media. Put the best bits at the beginning and end, where people'll remember them, and squash the filler in the middle. And it must work, otherwise we wouldn't do it. Cut the page count instead you say? Nahh. We couldn't possibly do that
Giants in the earth: This months exceedingly powerful fictional characters (with atrocious artwork by Roger Raupp that doesn't fit the descriptions and makes them all look the same) are C.L. Moores Jirel of Joiry, H Rider Haggard's Ayesha, and Robert E Howards Valeria. Oh, and sigurd fafnirsbane and Starkad from norse myth, who get slightly better treatment.
Dragon's blood: The norse theme continues in this pair of articles on the benefits of being exposed to dragons blood, again mentioning Sigurd and Fafnir. One of those things that they admit has the ability to unbalance the game, given the importance of AC to combat, and the way it is tuned in general. You'd think that getting a dragon's treasure hoard would be enough. Nah, We won't stop until we've made swords from it's talons, clubs from it's teeth, armor from it's scales, and heaven knows what magical gubbins with it's internal organs. Honestly, it's worse than buffalo. No wonder dragons are extinct in the modern day.
For appearance's sake: The appearances of the various demihuman races are expanded upon, with guess what? Random tables to roll for eye, hair, skin color, unusual features, etc etc.
Truly this is for the uninspired gamer. Still, it does contain quite a bit of implied setting stuff. File under rather average. Minarian legends: The creation legends of Divine Right Trolls. They do fall a little into the noble savage cliche, but are still given enough of a spin to avoid human in funny suits, thanks to they way their society adapts to their regenerative properties. The general quality of this series continues.
Up on a soap box: Good generalship involves tactics. In real life, the best way to win is to not fight, or let nature do your fighting for you, hitting them in the supply lines, as demonstrated by the russians. Of course, doing that in a wargame would make the game not fun, but you still need to consider tactics and psychology, as well as winning through unconventional means. As ever, the most common sense things are the easiest to overlook, like plan your tactics to account for the terrain and weather.
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Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
So, how do wedgies affect lizard boys? Cause you know he's just not going to fit in....
You could go the other way, take a(nother) page from Tolkien instead, and make the dragon blood highly caustic instead. I'm surprised they didn't mention that given the DM vs. players attitude of the time, you know having the dragon blood eat away at the PC's +5 vorpal sword causing it to lose it's enchantment...
You'd think that getting a dragon's treasure hoard would be enough. Nah, We won't stop until we've made swords from it's talons, clubs from it's teeth, armor from it's scales, and heaven knows what magical gubbins with it's internal organs. Honestly, it's worse than buffalo. No wonder dragons are extinct in the modern day.
As well as everything else that got the ol' "Greyhawk" treatment.
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