Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996


part 5/8


The role of books: The perfect princess by Irene Radford gets a review that is almost entirely mockery for the stupid alphabet soup names. There is no cultural correlation, a whole bunch of dumb puns, and some random ones that just make him laugh. If you can ignore that the plot isn't too bad, but you'll have a hard time doing that.

One for the morning glory by John Barnes, on the other hand, gets quite specific praise. He's managed to produce something quite different from his usual fare, but still just as high quality. That requires quite a bit of knowledge of craftsmanship and how to manipulate genre conventions. Which means he's a lot more likely to produce other good books in the future. And you know the book houses like their reliable sellers.

Caverns of Socrates by Dennis L McKiernan is a trapped in virtual reality story that does the common thing involving the questioning the nature of reality and consciousness where highly sophisticated computers are involved. It avoids giving any hard answers to those questions, but you probably wouldn't want it too, given they're still ambiguous in the real world. The important thing is that the story is fun, after all.

The spirit gate by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff draws on a pesudo polish backdrop for it's fantasy setting, which is mildly unusual. This is one of those books John likes because it's on the subtle, well thought out end of things, with an internally consistent magic system, and plenty of personal intrigue and character building. He seems to pick one of those most months, so how much drek does he have to wade through to find them and consider them unusual?

The instrument of fate by Christie Golden is another attempt by a TSR author to strike out on their own with a new world. The big supernatural elements? Elves and music. How very froofy. Not that it's bad, mind you, just that the basic ideas are quite familiar. Still, that means you can compare them to other similar things, and he finds she's done her research and made sure things aren't too hackneyed.


Survival of the smartest: A second article which illustrates it's lessons with in character speeches this month. They seem to have really decided to give them preferential treatment. I suppose it's not surprising, given that this approach seems to produce a lot of memorable articles, and if the writers (& their mouthpiece characters) are recurring it a good way to leverage into bigger things. But not everyone is Ed Greenwood. So it proves here, in an article which is pretty entertaining as a read, and has some nice tricks for your character to steal and incorporate but doesn't push the boundaries of wizard behaviour. Well, maybe apart from pointing out that they ought to be using darts more, and not hoarding their charged items like far too many characters do, and that's a playstyle issue. So this certainly isn't bad, and once again, the IC sections help reduce the feel that we've heard this topic before, but it's not quite as good as the illusionist article earlier in the issue. Guess the usual pattern of front-loading the best articles applies here.


Magic doesn't always go Boom!: From clever uses of magic to subtle uses of magic? Yeah, we know this one too. We've been shown many times that utility magic has a far greater impact upon the game than offensive spells of the same level. Magic affecting your skills in particular is overlooked. Stuff that grants you basic skill in something you're ignorant of appeared in issue 181, but here we have a few more variants on that principle. It's not completely redundant, but it is pretty familiar. Neverrending pickle jars. Technology substitutions for hot & cold running water, quills that write on their own. I think this manages to justify itself by putting new variants on the idea, but it's a close one. Next time you probably won't be so lucky.

 

[(un)reason]

Yup. Someone like me. That being said, I do get (most) of your obscure pop culture references, so it'a all good

The Distressed Watcher, redheaded stepchild of Channel Awesome. For whatever reason, he's easily the least popular (or at least, most hated, which probably doesn't mean he gets the fewest views ) of the reviewers there.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996


part 6/8


Tales of the fifth age: The taking of mount nevermind by David Wise. From a double bill of annoying kender facing adversity with cheer, to an equally annoying story of tinker gnomes facing terrifying adversity with cheer. And despite suffering a quite substantial bodycount, they suffer far less than they ought too due to sheer optimism and ability to take advantage of any opportunities life offers them. Despite technically losing at every step against a rampaging red dragon, they irritate him so much that he is just driven to despair. It's one of those cases where the cheese factor of Krynn just gets too much for me to handle, and completely prevents me from believing the setting as a real place with characters I can empathise with. Once again I am forced to pronounce this experiment a failure. The kind of story you are trying to tell is just way too silly for me to enjoy. Even the gag comics have characters with more convincing motivations and emotional reactions.


Dungeon Mastery: A is for yet another quick NPC generation method. An alliterative one as well, in this case. I suppose it makes them easier to remember, but it can also get a bit forced. And when it's only 3 steps while others have gone for 7 or 10, this definitely feels like one of those articles that's redundant when compare to it's bigger, more comprehensive precursors. And as I've said before, the fact that they've suddenly become a lot more willing to directly rehash topics recently is one of the worst parts of the new editorial regime. Nothing much to see here I'm afraid.


Sage advice: How do you decipher illusionists secret language (read magic'll do the job nicely)

How can Phaerimm be 40th level if mortals can't get above 30th (by not being mortals. Another case of the answer being right in front of you, dope.)

Do monster THAC0's improve above 16 HD (yes. They can get very scary)

Do druids still get planar travel at 21-23rd level (no)

Can you cast a true dweomer with a difficulty above 100. (no)

Can a dragon use it's breath weapon if it's mouth is taped shut (They have noses as well. Common sense, as ever, must rule, my dear. )

Do chant and prayer buff spell damage (yes, but only once, not per die)

Is a wall of force negated by a spell engine. (yes. Schloooooorp)

What are the limitations of contingency (one spell, released once, then you have to recast it. You set the conditions. That's it.)

Does call woodland beings work like other summoning spells (no. It's all exception based design. Druids are a pain in the ass.)

Is failing to turn the same as turning your back (no.)

How many attacks of opportunity do you get against a charging creature when using a bardiche (none. They've done nothing to provoke it)

What's the difference between offensive and defensive disarms (one you do on your turn, the other you do on theirs)


Network news: The convention columnist shares his early experiences of going, and a few tips on how to get the best out of doing so. The result is quite pleasant reading, but somewhat hampered by his low word count. Even as single page columns goes, this seems pretty short due to the formatting, and we have had pretty extensive articles on convention going over the years. I think my rough opinion can be described as elaborate or get off the pot. It's not that this is bad, it's just that it's not nearly enough to satisfy, and a bit rehashed. Just as with the editorials, having to write a fixed amount every month even when there's no real news can result in a lot of filler.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996


part 7/8


Forum: Andrew Pearce supports eliminating both dual-classing and level limits. They do not improve the game at all. Slice off that cruft.

Jessica Beals is part of an all female group. See, they do exist. Not too surprisingly, rescuing babies is one of their more common plot points. Sometimes the cliches happen because they're true. ^~^

Andrea McCormick recommends a disciplined and cynical worldview. A pessimist is never dissappointed. But they can well be miserable. A little pleasure once in a while would be nice.

Anton J Uselmann gives his advice on incorporating new players. You have to treat them differently depending on if they're completely new, or have played in other campaigns before. In both cases, there are good and bad ways to handle it. Oversight of characters transferred from other campaigns is always a critical one.

Duston Batson addresses the contrasting problems of characters being too strong/weak to join a campaign. It definitely needs addressing, otherwise you're just setting yourself up for trouble. Make it easy on yourself, start them at about the same level as the others.

Nick Spear disapproves of trying to take the magic out of D&D. Most players would rebel! Yeah, there is that. Yet another reason why going to another system without so many built up expectations would be preferable.

Nathan Kirschenbaum gives support to the women seeking equality, and reminds even the male DM's to put plenty of well-rounded (no, not that way, you perv) female characters in their games. Equality is as important in game as out of game.

Tim Eccles defends the idea of castles as a defensive building in D&D, even in the face of magic. Would you rather they had no protection and just roamed the land like some common adventurers? Well, if it is the optimal way, people will wind up adopting it.

Gary Stahl is annoyed that certain NPC's in official supplements break the rules. Consistency and fairness is important to maintaining a world. The rules should work the same for everyone. Ahh yes, another 3e maxim gets an airing here. The designers are listening. :spooky music:


The knights of the dinner table have had one too many DM screwages to be merciful to strangers. The seven dwarves make another appearance in dragonmirth, and they are not happy. Swordplay still can't get the hang of this tactics thing. Floyd has much to complain about, as he discovers he'll have to change his career.


Role-playing reviews is in the mood for setting expansions this month. Geography may be an exhaustible subject, but it takes a good deal longer than splatbooks in all but the smallest settings, and is far less likely to be completed. After all, it's easier to expand the map than it is to think of new archetypes. Course, they may fall into stereotypes anyway, particularly if cribbing off real world countries, but that's just a danger we'll have to face.

The shire is of course for MERP. As one of the most detailed parts of the original stories, this is pretty easy work for the writers, and with lots of attention to detail and a ton of adventure hooks, it's been made into a great place for low level adventurers to start out. Sure, it's rural, but remember how closely there were animated trees and trolls haunting the outskirts. And hobbits do love to gossip. Even little things could become epic adventures by the time the rumour mill is through with them.

Angmar is of course completely different, and required more work to flesh out. It's a pretty miserable place, even after Sauron's fall, filled with brooding castles occupied by sinister figures. They don't seem very proactive though, which I suppose makes them good for treating as dungeon crawls. It might not be quite as good as the shire one, but not for lack of trying. Guess it's up to the PC's to shake things up and make a difference.

Rifts Japan draws on the obvious ideas, contrasting ancient mysticism and hypertechnology in the creatures, classes and equipment. It's pretty crunch heavy, as is standard for the game, yet is still sold as incomplete, with a second volume in the works already, coming who knows when given palladium's schedules. (still not out as of the writing of this commentary) Not that is isn't a fun read, with cybernetics, ninjas, drug enhanced crazy psionic people, huge guns, mechas, etc etc to fill your game with. Just don't expect game balance or huge amounts of setting detail.

Rifts South America 2, on the other hand, does fill in an already detailed part of the world further, and has some truly off-the-wall additions to the world, courtesy of CJ Carella. Not that there isn't plenty of insanely overpowered crunch, but the setting it's welded too is farther away from the reality and myth of the area. Whether that's a good or bad thing is largely a matter of opinion, but I do note that Carella's contributions to Rifts seem to be some of the most remembered ones. He must be doing something right.

Beyond the wall: Pictland & the north is for Pendragon. It's pretty heavily locked into the pendragon rules and setting assumptions, but like virtually everything else for the line, is of excellent quality, showing you what happens when your knights venture into the highlands and making the picts available as PC's. You should be able to get quite a few years of adventures out of this.

GURPS Greece, on the other hand, uses the dry and modular presentation common to the line, leaving you to decide what to use, and how to build the adventures yourself. And as usual, Rick is respectful, but not too enthused about this. It's tough being the guy in the middle.

Also of note are Rick's assessment of the 7 domainbooks so far for birthright, and his high praise of Planes of Conflict. (a far more dramatic title than planes of neutrality) Both take us well away from D&D's core playstyle and make it work. Support variety in your game worlds!

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Birthright unleashes another 4-pack of stuff into the world. Helskapa and Baruk-Azhik get domain sourcebooks, for those players who'd rather rule a more exotic landscape. Viking land and a dwarf mountain. Not too unusual, but popular secondary choices. The Rjurrik Highlands get their own full sourcebook, putting you up against marauding goblinoids if you want to keep your domain. And on the novel side, we have The Hag's Contract, by John Bettancourt. This gameworld is actually turning out pretty traditional compared to recent worlds they've tried. Can they put a different enough spin on their core values and tropes to justify this kind of continued support.

The forgotten realms almost keeps up with another triple bill. We return to Undermountain for a third time, as they discover some lost levels. With beholders in? I think they can stay lost then. Is this particular cash cow dry yet? We could always head to the Vilhon Reach then. That's still fairly adventurer free for the moment, so if we get there quick we can beat the crowd and grab the good loot. Elaine Cunningham is also churning out books at scary speed, with the 13th harper book, Silver shadows. Which cliche to use today. :rolls: 62. Rash actions endanger everyone the protagonist loves? Ok then.

Dragonlance gets a double bill of novels. Murder in Tarsis by John Maddox Roberts and The Gully Dwarves by Dan Parkinson. Serious conspiracy and comical blundering. There's more than enough room for both here.

Our generic AD&D book this time is another Players Option one. Spells and Magic not only gives you new spells, it lets you customise exactly how magic works in your game. As usual, DM oversight and approval of options is essential.

Our collectable games are busy too. Dragon Dice gets it's third supplement, full of undead monstrosities to add to your army. Blood wars gets part two of it's novel trilogy. Abyssal Warriors. Family is pitted against family in the endless war. Just another evil the fiends manage to accomplish even as they attack each other.


The current Clack: White Wolf once again proves they're number 2 with their new TV series. Not that it'll last long, with a run even shorter than the D&D cartoon, but hey, just getting there is an achievement in itself. Meanwhile, HERO games has a new publisher, as do WotC's ARS Magica and Everway. It is a shame that White wolf didn't buy ARS Magica back again, resulting in erased from continuity weirdness in the game's setting. But then again, maybe it's for the best, as keeping up with the developments in the WoD might have diluted the theme. As is often the case, it's so hard to know for certain. Any idea why they sold the game in the first place?


This is one of those issues that's very much of two halves. The themed section is actually pretty damn good, providing funny, well focussed and easy to use bits of advice and new crunch. The second half once again falls into serious grindiness and lots of rehash. Still, that is better than a lot of recent issues. And having a direction that is often repetitive is still better than the drifting lack of direction of the last year. I can't be too harsh on this one.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. So here we are at the 20th anniversary. A fact they're keeping very quiet about actually. It's not on the cover, it's not mentioned in the letters page, it's not in the editorial. Considering up till 2 years ago, they loudly proclaimed it on the cover every year, this is very odd. This says one of two things. Either they're becoming uncomfortable with their age, and would rather people not know exactly how old they are anymore, or the budget cuts have reached the point where they can't even spring for a simple ribbon on the cover. Neither are particularly flattering conclusions. What this bodes for the contents remains to be seen, but doesn't seem particularly positive. I hope the writers have something good anyway. After all, the best presents aren't necessarily the most expensive ones.


In this issue:


The wyrm's turn: Man, things really must be going downhill for them. This is the point where their professional exterior starts to crack. They're practically begging us to stick around. What do we have to do? We can change. Please! Just write in and say. Poor magazine staff. Incidentally, I note that the editor has left, and the assistant editor has been promoted to take his place. Did he see the writing on the wall and decide to jump ship, or was he pushed by upper management, annoyed that their big recruit from out of state couldn't turn the sales decline around? Either way, things look pretty miserable for them, and it's not helped by their distributor giving them trouble. Ah yes, I seem to remember that was what tipped them over, all the overprinted stock that they then demanded returns upon, messing up the ready cash flow that keeps an active company solvent despite having huge debts lurking in the background gradually mounting up and up. Guess it can't be long before things come to a head. Let's hope it happens with a bang.


D-Mail: John Major's a gamer?! Well, I suppose the conservative government was in a pretty similar position to TSR at this time, so he could probably empathise with them But seriously, this is another bit of mostly positive commentary on the magazine's changes. He's another old skool gamer who's pleased by their attempt to go back to basics. People might be resistant to change, but some changes are more likely to be accepted than others.

Another letter of praise, and a request if there's anywhere that sells a solid gold d20. You know how heavy gold is, right? Even a small one would be capable of hurting quite a bit when thrown. Plus that would be better used in electronics these days. No thanks.

A letter asking about birthright, and another letter asking about Dragonlance, and what those worlds are up to in the near future. They are indeed going to be busy busy busy, both here and in terms of actual products. Stay tuned!

 

[Orius]

Another letter of praise, and a request if there's anywhere that sells a solid gold d20. You know how heavy gold is, right? Even a small one would be capable of hurting quite a bit when thrown. Plus that would be better used in electronics these days. No thanks.

Eh, you should know how some gamers are about dice.

Oh, and when I grabbed this issue off the shelf, I noticed the blurb for the series Ed started with this issue, Wyrms of the North. WotC has the series still archived on their website with the crunch upgraded to 3e. So if you want to drop a link to the articles as you cover them or something, here you go!

 

[Erik Mona]

So here we are at the 20th anniversary. A fact they're keeping very quiet about actually. It's not on the cover, it's not mentioned in the letters page, it's not in the editorial. Considering up till 2 years ago, they loudly proclaimed it on the cover every year, this is very odd. This says one of two things. Either they're becoming uncomfortable with their age, and would rather people not know exactly how old they are anymore, or the budget cuts have reached the point where they can't even spring for a simple ribbon on the cover. Neither are particularly flattering conclusions.

I think the most likely reason for this (also not flattering, unfortunately) is that the magazine had just gone through an almost complete churn of its editorial staff, so the new guys may not have even noticed the milestone. The little "ribbon" on the cover literally costs nothing above a normal cover, so it's not likely to have been a cost-cutting measure. I'd be willing to bet someone simply forgot, or more likely didn't even realize it in the first place.

--Erik

 

[David Howery]

Another letter of praise, and a request if there's anywhere that sells a solid gold d20. You know how heavy gold is, right? Even a small one would be capable of hurting quite a bit when thrown. Plus that would be better used in electronics these days. No thanks.

well, I don't know about gold dice, but I have a couple of solid brass D6s I bought at Gencon many years ago. They are heavy, and they do hurt when someone flings one at you (don't ask...)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 2/8


The orbs of dragonkind: Roger Moore once again tries to give us something significant and impressive for our birthday. A collection of magical items with a well defined history and theme? We've had quite a few of these before. But this is unusual in both it's level of detail, and how specific the adventure hooks it gives are. It's fairly firmly set in Greyhawk, and while you could move the items, it would be quite tricky to translate all the plot details to another setting. It ties in quite closely to existing modules, and having them would help you understand and run this article quite a bit. It's all pretty distinctive. So yeah, 8 dragon-controlling orbs of escalating power and danger levels. All are sentient, and like intelligent weapons, will try and take control of their user. And even if that is resisted, they have curses which will make their owner's lives a misery and eventually be their downfall. (presuming they don't get killed by other fools seeking the orbs first) This does indeed seem like the kind of article that could drive a whole campaign, as various people seek awesome power, and cause considerable amounts of unpleasantness in the process. You've got to love that kind of adventure design, as it's essentially self-perpetuating until someone has the wisdom to drop the items into a volcano and get rid of them for good.

Beyond the actual items, there's some rather interesting stuff here. We've always known Roger was fairly up to date with the web, having published stuff on it way back in 1987. Now we see he's corresponding with the guys on the Greyhawk board, and even getting help from them in keeping track of obscure bits of setting detail. The internet knows all, especially when there's helpful people like Iquander on it. So this is another article from him that's not only cool, but also quite historically significant. Very pleased to see he can still pull spectaculars like this off.


Dragonslayers: New kits focussed around kicking the butt of dragons? It's about time. Lets see, we had one in council of wyrms, one in the complete paladins handbook, and one in issue 205. That's not a huge collection. I think there's room for a few more, don't you.

Dragonslayers are the straight attackers. Double damage, breath weapon resistance, and the ability to call out dragons so they don't just fly away or deathtrap you from a distance. Their benefits aren't as versatile or well developed as the council of wyrms one, and they don't play well with others. I think this is a case where the previous implementation was better done.

Black Arrows are obviously based upon the hobbit, and get to make extra damaging called shots upon dragons just as in that story. Course even with this bonus, they won't be inflicting 1 hit KO's very often, but that's D&D for you. In return though, they have a -1 to all melee attack rolls, which is a small number, but such a broad penalty compared to the very narrow application of their bonus that it will probably actually make them a net negative, especially if you wind up going the campaign without encountering dragons anyway.

Georgians are based on St George, mounted paladins able to call out dragons, and not only resist their attacks, but also impart the same protection on their mounts. They do lose quite a bit of general utility power, but since they can proactively seek out their foes easily, they're less vulnerable to DM screwage making their benefits pointless.

Dragon Lords turn smooth talking back on the wyrms. As long as they don't screw them over, they can wind up with a draconic cohort, and you know how handy something like that is. As usual, the wizards have far greater options than the warriors, and can make a problem into an opportunity instead of just applying violence to stop it. As the best of this lot, I can't see dragons being in any danger of extinction with challengers like this.


Dragons of legend: If feeling a bit lost, go back to your roots. They've been saying basically that for the past year, and here they encourage us to do likewise with our portrayals of Dragons. Question is, which set of source material will you choose? One of the many ancient myths from around the world? Victorian whymsy? Tolkien's silver-tongued engines of destruction? One of the many many modern novels featuring dragons of one kind or another. The choice is yours. I recognise most of the sources too, as even the ones I haven't read have been mentioned (and in many cases reviewed as well) in the magazine. So this is actually moderately nostalgic, making me think of stuff I haven't in quite a while. And while I do complain about basic advice, sometimes a look back at exactly what your original intentions were can be invaluable. So I quite like this one.