Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 3/8


Fire in the five Peaks: Just as with last year, we have a piece on one of the ancient, singular dragons of Cerilia. Zakhur Lifesbane is one of those dragons that sticks to his home, and metes out a horrible death upon any who dare to intrude. This would be pretty boring, so there has to be something he's guarding to make it worth adventurers bothering. Enormous treasure? Nope. One of those artifacts that theoretically gives you massive power, but in practice just winds up being a huge pain in the butt, taking you over and killing you before too long. Now that's the kind of adventure hook I'd steer well clear from. While the writing here is pretty good, this doesn't look nearly as usable in game as last year's equivalent. It's only really good for a single adventure wheras Tarazin's plans could be woven throughout an entire campaign. Plus there is a bit of diminishing returns involved. Overall, I don't think this is that great.


Wyrms of the north: Ahh. Oh. This series. This officially marks the point in my mind that the Forgotten Realms jumped the shark and went from a brilliantly detailed world that was great fun to read about, to ridiculously overloaded with detail on every aspect of every region. A series entirely devoted to dragons of a single area of the realms? Um, yeah. That definitely felt to me at the time like we'd reached the point where they no longer had valid stuff to add to the world, and were just making up crap to sell to us because they wanted more money, rather than out of any genuine inspiration. It also marks the point where Volo started making regular appearances in the magazine. You already know my opinion on HIM. :spits: As much as I loved Ed Greenwood's work in general, my reaction to this can essentially be summed up as WTF IS THIS ?!?!?!!! :throws the magazine down in disgust:

And that's where I stand on this. While technically it may be better written than the last article, this really does hit the point for me where the Realms are too tied down and codified, and there's not enough room for you to stretch your improvising muscles without hitting your head on some silly little bit of canon. Let me out! The fact that it heavily references other dragons (that turn out to be later entries in this series that we won't see for another few years) further makes me feel hemmed in. Essentially, this whole article made me feel creatively claustrophobic and want to get the hell out of the Realms, and unlike the Skills & Powers stuff, time has not diminished that reaction. I'm remembering exactly why I stopped buying the magazine first time around.


Arcane lore: Yet more draconic treasure here, to make your enemies well equipped and magically versatile. They remain supreme as the monster most likely to have some customised gear to throw a wrench in your plans. Curiously, this focusses on magical items as well as spells. Still, that keeps the variety up. They continue to come up with interesting new ideas here, 20 years in.

Amulets of Supremacy are basically a free maximise spell for the dragon wearing them. Very scary indeed really, especially as they're exclusive. Whether half dragon PC's could use them is up to your DM.

Dragon Fangs make your bit even more badass with their metal edges. Don't want to encounter these false teeth wound up and chattering towards you

Focus Objects let you turn your breath weapon into a single target attack, thus avoiding collateral damage. Not always going to be handy, since it is technically a reduction in power, but not useless either.

Hoardstones make everything in your hoard look more valuable. It's like the fat girl angle and photoshop for insecure dragons. They'll never live it down if you tell their rivals.

Wing Armor has obvious use. Going for the vulnerables can leave the enemy grounded for months, and many dragons are smart enough to realise this. This is adaptable to nearly any flying creature too.

It's not all off-topic, with some more draconic spells following. More notable though is a little index of previous dragon-only spells from the magazine, and a couple of supplements. Gotta collect 'em all if you want really badass antagonists!

Hoard Servant is like unseen servant, only stronger, and mentally suited to the cleaning and cataloguing of shiny things. Not hugely thrilling or dragon exclusive.

Scale Shift lets you change color to fake out any hunters. Use it regularly while going out, and the townsfolk'll think there's dozens of dragons around and be really scared. Muahahahaha.

Dragonbane helps a dragon figure out if they're screwed, by detecting spells and items targeted against dragonkind. Then they can concentrate against them, or run away as appropriate.

Scalespray lets you clean off all the crap you've got encrusted on in a single explosive burst. If your enemies have you surrounded and breath weapons aren't going to cut it, it's time to break this one out.

Clutch Ward lets you enchant your eggs to teleport away if tampered with. Sounds pretty reasonable, given the lengths people'll go to to protect their kids. But what do you do with that slot once they're all grown up, and you're too old to make more?

Alter Breath Weapon is another energy type alterer. This is particularly useful for dragons, of course, especially if they expect to fight another one of their own type. You prepare for a whomph and get a zzzzap instead. Never trust anything with the power to pick it's own spells to be predictable.

Death Matrix lets a dragon go all balor when killed, hopefully taking their attackers down with them, and ensuring you don't get profit from their corpse in any case. It's hard to get hold of, but even harder to get rid of, so it's a good plot device both ways.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 4/8


The role of books: The fantasy role-playing gamers bible by Sean Patrick Fanon delves into gaming history. Like the real bible, it's particularly interesting for the stuff on the creation of the hobby, but then gets more selective and incomplete as history goes on. Still, it's highly readable and doesn't take itself too seriously. You could lose yourself for a good few hours flipping back and forth getting a better picture of the history of gaming.

Remnant population by Elizabeth Moon puts a single woman in an alien culture, trying to figure them out and survive without being well equipped for the job. It does a good job of showing, not telling, and while the underlying message is pretty clear, it isn't rammed down our throats. That's the advantage of conveying personal experiences instead of empty words from books, which is a very ironic message to have in the novel format.

Eye of the Daemon by Camile Bacon-Smith has an interesting cosmology, but the plotting is a mess, going from one character to another in a mess of convoluted machinations that only becomes vaguely explained at the end. John thinks her talents may be better served in the RPG writing department.

Vision Quests, edited by Dawn Albright & Sandra J Hutchinson, is a fantasy anthology focussing on just that. There's relatively few stories, and 2 of them have been previously published in other sources. Not that the stuff we're given is bad, and the smaller size means it doesn't have room to get repetitive. But you may find yourself still hungry at the end of it.

Ladylord by Sasha Miller is a tale of overcoming sexism in a somewhat oriental flavoured fantasy world. With obstacles of both intrigue and action, there's plenty to keep her busy, and with generally good writing, it's another positive review rounding this out.


Network News: This month's RPGA article is another promotion of Polyhedron. There really is quite a lot of cool stuff in it, honest! Well, given the insane rate Ed Greenwood writes and submits articles that's not surprising. They also make the point that they still cover non D&D games as well, which I find very interesting given Dragon has cut that out this year. Unlike the previous times I've come across this topic, I have finally managed to get my hands on some Polyhedron issues, and though my collection is nowhere near complete, it does please me that even after I complete this thread, there'll be several thousand pages more similar stuff still to surf through once I recover my appetite. But still, more than 10 years to go before I have to worry about that. I should put it out of mind for now, not get too distracted.


Tales of the fifth age: Mirta's <s>Boo</s> (yuck, that is a horrible font) God by Mark Anthony. Here we confront a big part of why they had to make a new system for the 5th age. No gods? AD&D just can't handle that mechanically. Athas got rid of the gods, but kept the clerics. Krynn is trying to go all the way, with no divine magic at all. (which they'll fail at too, with the discovery of mysticism bringing it back pretty soon. What can you do. :c ) Ironically, this allows them to tackle questions of genuine faith in a way you can't when the gods are definitely there and communicating with their priests regularly. So it proves here, in the first bit of fiction this year that's actually pretty good. A dragon pretending to be a god and duping people into feeding it. Score! A doubting thomas who gets eaten? An unlikely deus ex machina ending. A sappy life lesson that its what's in the heart that matters, not the figureheads you worship. Actually, in hindsight, this is pretty cliched and cheesy. But it was well written and characterised enough that I didn't notice on the way through. Well, that's a good deal more pleasant than intros that go nowhere or the irritating kender double bill. I'll say 6/10.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 5/8


Rogues Gallery: A bunch of Birthright characters this month, from their official authors. I strongly suspect they're part of her latest novel. Hey ho. That'll give me a chance to learn a little about the story without actually reading it.

Jerryl is a noble bard who doesn't actually rule a domain, although she has no shortage of romantic offers from eligible princelings. Instead, she's having plenty of fun making music, wandering the land and having adventures, some of which make for good stories, and others that remain mysterious, leaving people to speculate about her. That's the spirit. Leave them wanting more, so your fame has room to grow.

Keldric the seer, by contrast, is a diviner who's rather weighed down by the inevitability of what he sees, and the tendency of people to shoot the messenger. This means he's taciturn, grumpy, and only consulted when people really need him. Not a very pleasant life, really.

Maija Larsdotter is a young noblewoman who has accepted that her destiny is rulership, after a fairly long period of rebellion and adventuring. She might not be entirely happy with it, but now she's got the job, she takes it seriously, and is trying to make sure her people prosper. Seems like the kind of person your PC's would benefit from making an ally, not an enemy of.

Ulfig Bjornsson is a study in bear metaphors. Course, as a druid, that's quite understandable, and makes for a more ferocious take on close to nature than many froofy balance seekers. Don't get on his bad side, for I don't fancy your odds, and he may do something he regrets later.


Witchcraft! CJ Carella strikes out on his own.


Dragon Dice: Promotion for this game is back after a good few months off. Well, since Lester Smith left, they'd have to pick out new creative directors for the line and get them up to speed. But they haven't been skimping on the supplements. This is one of those somewhat irritating promotional articles outlining their newest supplement, what it does, why you would want to buy it, blah blah blah. Undead! Really hard to put down for good, able to do things like become invisible, convert enemies into more undead, or scare them away from the battlefield. They are relatively slow though, and don't have any particular ties to a terrain type. An interesting tradeoff. Just as with D&D, they seem designed to lurk in a place and be a right pain to anyone that comes to them, but not so great at taking the fight to others. In a many-players game, they could wind up being ignored for some time. (which would be a fatal mistake if it gave them time to build up their forces. ) I actually don't mind this, given how little non D&D stuff they've been doing recently, seeing more on a game I don't really know does give me something fresh to analyse. But really, I wish they were covering other RPG's again.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 6/8


Forum: Jamie Nossal has some interesting analysis of rogue's combat progression and how it has changed from one edition to the next. Clerics & fighters used to have a hit bonus compared to the others right from the start. Restoring this'll smooth out the mathematical hinkiness where sometimes rogues are better than clerics and other times worse.

Andy Farrell reminds us that roleplaying promotes reading by making it fun. Plus it promotes co-operation. This is a crack to get it into the education system, and thus hook 'em young.

Jeff Crowell picks apart some of the rules in more obscure sourcebooks. Time travel once again becomes an almighty headache for a DM, as there's no way they can predict their players actions for sure and have reactions happen before the action.

Peter Heyck thinks that High and Grey elves are the wrong way round in terms of personality traits. Huh. He does have a point, but it's the kind of silly little thing I wouldn't consider it worth worrying about.

Tim Nutting tries to stem the tide of Players Option complaints by reminding them it's optional. That ain't going to work. As long as DM's have to deal with pressure from begging players. they'll pass the pain onto us. Might as well try to stop the tide.


Sage advice: How does contact other plane's intelligence contacted table work ( Depends how far you are in alignment from the plane you're contacted is. Hostile planes tend to be less informative.)

Do you have to meet the racial limits before or after applying racial modifiers (before, except where sloppy supplements say otherwise. Here we go again)

What happens if you put an ectoplasmic thing in someone, and then resolidify it ( The thing gets destroyed, not the already solid thing. It's called shotgun on that space, and you can't change that. )

How fast is feign death cast (as quick as it says. It has to be to have a chance of fooling people)

If you cast a spell, then move planes, how is it affected (it's usually fine, unless something seriously sadistic changes that.)

How many volumes will the wizards spell compendium have (We don't know until we've finished cataloging them. That's what 22 years of accretion gets you.)

Where are the spells listed in page 123 of the complete druids handbook (Unearthed Arcana. It's no wonder you don't remember them. They're 1st edition spells)

How likely is a high plus sword of sharpness to sever limbs (Scarily good. Don't mess with one.)

How do you handle turning undead (Recycled question. It's a full round action. )

Do gauntlets of ogre power affect your ability to open doors (sure. Ogres are gooood at opening doors. That's why Skip employs one when going out sagin. Never know when you'll need to open a door in the pursuit of info. )

Can priests who learn wizard spells cast them in armour (yes. They count as cleric spells for all purposes)

Can spellstrike remove anti-magic shells ( If it was cast last round)

Did you really advocate changing the rules mid game to stop player innovation in issue 228?! (No. How dare you Impugn Skip's integrity like that! You, outside, now! Let's settle this like men!)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Hnah. What do you say to that? ( Yes, but the difference is that you can figure out the causes and means behind technology. You can't do that to magic. No matter how you slice it, it will still make no bloody sense at all.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 7/8


Dragonmirth takes the old knight-eating joke to a new level. Swordplay have to take on a rather tricky task. Knights of the dinner table mocks Boot Hill. It's been quite a while since we saw that mentioned. Floyd runs into a bad cockney accent. The person it's attached too isn't very nice either.


Role-playing reviews goes sci-fi again. It's not dead, honest, just ….. resting. Premillenial tension and all that, we're wondering if there's actually much future left. Turns out, there is, and it's pretty damn cyberpunk. But space travel is playing far less of a part than we'd like. Oh well, it's not as if what's happening isn't interesting. And it's not as if people aren't releasing new sci-fi games. It's just that they have more genres to compete with these days.

The darkstryder campaign is a rather interesting expansion for the Star Wars RPG. A combination of setting and adventure, it takes you to a troubled, relatively obscure sector where the writers have greater freedom to develop things, and turns the grit rating right up. Sounds AWESOME!!!!!!! [/90's kid] Actually, it's pretty good, if rather incomplete. Having come up with a way to keep their licence going, they'd like to milk it for a while.

Don't look back second edition isn't hugely changed from 1st (reviewed in issue 220) in mechanics. However Rick seems to pick up on the tone quite differently to Lester. Either it's changed in writing style quite a bit between the two, or he's just more attuned to the humorous side of modern conspiracy weirdness. It's not that hard to learn, but there's still more math than rules-lite Rick would prefer. Let's just get to the action.

Giant psychic insects from outer space is an adventure for Don't Look Back. An invasion of giant mantises is a launchpoint for some good retro sci-fi cheeseball fun, with enough sideways cultural references for a media studies degree. If you're not the deadly serious gaming as art type, he can recommend it a lot.

Star Wars Customisable Card Game looks good, but Rick finds it rather clunky in actual play, and not really very good to play with just the starting deck. Sounds like a few expansions are needed to round out the card selection, and possibly a new edition. Trouble is, you have to compete with Magic as it is now, not as it was when it first came out. That is a fairly stiff challenge,

Alternate Universe is an expansion for the star trek CCG, introducing characters from the mirror universe, and the other weird dimensions and times that have appeared over the course of the series. There is a bit of silliness, but that's to be expected, and the artwork is pretty good. Overall, it's quite a good add-on for the game.

 

[LordVyreth]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 7/8


Dragonmirth takes the old knight-eating joke to a new level. Swordplay have to take on a rather tricky task. Knights of the dinner table mocks Boot Hill. It's been quite a while since we saw that mentioned. Floyd runs into a bad cockney accent. The person it's attached too isn't very nice either.

Hey, didn't you miss a comic? There's a new one between Knights and Floyd.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Volo shows up again to give us a second perspective on the Forgotten Realms, with the Dalelands the area he's rehashing for us. Meanwhile, south in Cormyr, King Azoun's death is continuing to have big repercussions. Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb team up to handle this rather large metaplot event.

Dark Sun sorts out a few issues with it's magic system, in Defilers and Preservers. The awkward retcon of when defilers defile is sorted out to my satisfaction, and there's lots of the usual splatbooky goodness, along with a bit of rehash from Dragon Kings. Gotta keep this stuff in print.

Planescape releases something that's very much in theme with recent stuff. Hellbound: The blood war. See the Yugoloth's finest hour. See the writers attempt to fix the dreadful problem entire hordes of enemies with at will teleportation cause. See a rather pretty comic which will also come to the magazine shortly. Once again they pull out the spectacular even as the company falls apart.

Ravenloft starts another big metaplot event. Fresh from killing Van Richten, now they're going to kill everyone in the biggest city in the entire demiplane. Death Unchained kicks off the module trilogy. Are you ready for the reaper to make his grim harvest?

Dragonlance finishes off it's solamnic knights series, with Knights of the Rose, sensibly enough. Once again the order is becoming corrupt, and our protagonist has to make choices between the order and true honour.

We start a series of stuff on beholders, interestingly. I, Tyrant may be a terrible pun, but it's a cool book. The beholder ecology over a decade ago wasn't that impressive, but this goes the distance. They supplement this with a trilogy of adventures. The first is Eye of Pain. Muahaha.

Larry Elmore takes a break from art and ropes in his brother Robert to write a novel as well. Runes of Autumn. Any opinions on this one. We know he can write, because he did snarfquest for years. How good is this?

And last but also first, Spellfire releases it's 4th edition. Already? It's been what, a year and a half. They've really been going at a breakneck speed with this one as well.


The current Clack: Barbara Young is leaving Dragon. And this is put near the end of the article and not even given it's own header. Well, it's a perfect time for a mid-life crisis given what the company is going through, and that her job has been dramatically altered by the year's themed fiction. What has been happening to all the freelance fiction people sent in over the past 6 months? Are they keeping the good stuff back for later, or is it all going in the bin? And what is seeing nothing but in house stuff published doing for the rate of submissions? As with the departure of other long-timers, this feels like a bad omen for the future of the fiction department. Whoever replaces her will have some pretty big shoes to fill.

The rest of the column is mostly concerned with licences. A new forgotten realms computer game, also incorporating elements from Dragon Dice. A Babylon 5 RPG. GURPS Discworld. But no M:tG RPG. Oh well. The fact that we don't always get what we want doesn't mean we don't get way more than we need if we try sometimes.


Having been showing some signs of improvement in content recently, this issue has some of the clearest signs yet that things are going to crap for them behind the scenes, and staff are unhappy and jumping ship. What doesn't kill you may in theory make you stronger, but, um, yeah, so much for that saying. Whether their content will improve despite the pressures on them I'm not sure, but even compared to last year, this is a slight downward slide overall. And since the ones just after people left are often the most problematic, I doubt they'll be getting better next month. I'll have to keep looking ahead to the further future for hope then.

 

[(un)reason]

Hey, didn't you miss a comic? There's a new one between Knights and Floyd.

Ah yes, Hellbound. Another of those things that's pretty cool in it's own right, but loses several marks because it's stuff from an actual product sliced up into chunks and used as promotion. I have it in it's full form, so my mind just skimmed over that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. And so we reach the last issue that I actually bought at the time. While I certainly didn't suspect what would happen next, I was distinctly disenchanted with the recent changes in the magazine and products, plus they were getting harder to find in shops, so I bought them less and less. Around this time, I lost interest, and converted to White Wolf. D&D pretty much dropped off my radar until well after 3rd edition came out. So once again, after this point, I'll be pretty much discovering the month-by month events as they come. You can look forward to much snark. Let's dig this one out of physical storage for the novelty and get ready to rumble.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: So you just got namechecked by the X-files. If anything says that ordinary people have at least heard of you, it's something like this. And really, gaming is losing it's stigma as the people who play it grow up and become (mostly) fairly normal adults. So much for the satanic panic, and the hipsters. It's just another form of recreation. In contrast with last month's very gloomy editorial, this shows them fairly confident that gaming will survive, and with it D&D. After all, the company couldn't possibly collapse when it's still the biggest roleplaying game there is. That'd mean all the other companies are unviable as well. This also indirectly points out one of the big problems the game is having. There's now so many supplements that the degree of shared experience players have is rather lower. So this shows them pretty confident that the company will pull through these tough times. Oh, how wrong they are.


D-Mail: A rather interesting letter from someone who noticed a card game being played in one of their novels, and would like to see rules for it. Oh, you obsessives. Is there no part of the setting you will not explore? Just make it up yourself. Please?

A letter of praise for this year's april fools stuff. Much funnier than last year's! Yes, I suppose it was, on reflection. It was certainly better distributed.

A letter saying they need to aim more articles at players, as they make up more of the userbase. True, but that's a tricky one to get right, because the DM just needs so much more stuff to do the game justice. You can't have nothing but new spells and magic items in an issue.

A whole bunch of questions on the spell and magic item compendia. Yeah, they'll get them out eventually. Don't think it's easy for us. Poor poor slade. He works so hard and sacrifices so much for you people. Show him some love.

A joygasm from someone who really likes the idea of a computer character generator and rules compendium. Steady up mate. They're not putting every supplement in it. That'd be too much even for slade and zeb combined. Still, we hope it doesn't disappoint too much.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 2/8


The master thief: Hmm. Thieves were always one of the weaker classes, although they do balance that out somewhat with lower xp costs to advance. But given the rate spellcasters have got new stuff, and even warriors have stocked up on the kickass magical weapons and armor, they're the ones that have gained the least from the ever piling splatbooks of recent years. This is a problem. Also an issue is the way their powers max out at a relatively low level. How do you keep a 20+ level thief interesting? Unless you invent new rogue skills, you can't really. Hmm. No, they wouldn't. Actually, they would! After all, they already did in Dark Sun. And it opened up issues there. This is one of the articles that made this issue my last. Along with the recent Players Option material, it felt to me like they were making changes that weren't needed, and which would cause trouble if integrated. In hindsight, my opinion is a little different. This becomes more an indicator that having thief skills and nonweapon proficiencies artificially separated, and every rogue having the same skills was the main problem that needed to be addressed. You can't fix an inherent system problem by piling ever more patches onto it, especially when things worked better kept simple. So this is also a reminder that early AD&D may have worked at what it's aimed for, and 3e core may have worked, but pile on the supplements, and things go to crap eventually. It's a real pain in the ass.


The thief who came in from the cold: The thief as disruption to the party is something they've tried to tackle from several angles before. Most notable from a mechanical PoV was the Scout, which kept most of the regular abilities, but by casting them as a member of an organisation using those skills for quite different ends. Here we have an approach which isn't quite as interesting mechanically, but comes pretty close flavourwise. Use a thief to catch a thief. Make the PC's members of a government counterintelligence organisation that trains rogues for the purpose of sniffing out troublemakers, infiltrating their organisations and surreptitiously obtaining all the evidence they need to put these scumbags away for good. It might well be more effective than having big stompy guys trying to stop crime, and it'll make for tons of easy adventures. With another extra thief skill, this did add to my trepidation about spreading your points too thin at the time, but now seems a pretty cool article. It both solves problems and presents new opportunities, which is a nice double whammy.


The spying game: We continue the whole spying theme by letting in other classes on the action. After all, anyone can pass on information, and if you're to be a convincing agent, it's often best to get someone who genuinely knows the job, and leave them in deep cover for years. That or hire a diviner, who can frequently short-circuit the whole information gathering process by scrying and mind-reading their way through the whole problem. Course, every trick has a countermeasure. Diviners can be foiled by abjurers and illusionists, spies can be captured and bribed or brainwashed into becoming double-agents, and spying organisations can be subverted themselves and torn apart from the inside with false info and spurious diversion missions. This is a reasonably entertaining and informative article, that makes it relatively easy for the whole party to get in on the action. Just as with assassins, one class not getting all the action in an area is a good thing about 2e.