Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996


part 3/8


A flurry of swords: More new swords? Do we not have enough variants as it is? Apparently not, as Greg Detwiler gives us a full 26 new variants, well and truly affirming the sword's place as the supreme weapon throughout the ages and continents. Polearms? Pah! Piffling by comparison. 17 of them have some distinct benefits when you're proficient in them, and more when specialised, rather than just being another endless tiny variation on damages. So whether you want to slice through armor, massacre small creatures or parry better, you can find something to suit your needs. Happy twinking. Yeah, I'm not very interested in this.


Sorcerous six-shooters: Here we go again, following in the footsteps of issues 28, 57, 60, 70, 124, 176, 199, and lots more non D&D ones over the years. It's not an unfamiliar topic. Thankfully, this isn't one of those annoying starting from scratch reboots that forgets everything that came before. Instead, it's an examination of the place of firearms in all the various settings, including the inactive ones. Apart from Greyhawk & Athas, they have a place in all the worlds, even if it's a rare one for various reasons. (oh, poor poor krynn, made distrustful of technology because the species that uses it most is completely nuts. ) So not only is this pretty pleasing because it has something useful for the casual fans of every world, it's also nicely in continuity, and has some nice new bits of crunch for you to play with. Magical guns may be an abomination to the purist, but as we already know from Shadowrun, they can do some pretty awesome things. And if you try fighting against someone optimised, you lose. Call it natural selection. I think this article manages to draw and fire fast enough that I don't get bored.


The ecology of the roper: Aw. Poor little girl. Now this is a very different ecology indeed. The story of a little girl suffering from uncontrolled attacks of clairvoyance, and when she jumped into the body of this month's monster, and had to experience it killing and eating things from the inside. Now that's a narrative device I've only seen once before (ahh, the joys of rugose cones) The writer gets in character, and stays there all the way through, before ending with a heart-wrencher of a final line. Absolutely brilliant, this even makes the classic Ed ecologies from the 80's seem tame. The footnotes are merely average, but hey, you can't have it all. This is still a classic article, managing to make more impact on me than the magazine has managed for quite a while. Much kudos.


Floyd still hasn't twigged why the little boy has massive magical powers, the twit. How telegraphed do these things have to be?

 

[(un)reason]

Great stuff, as usual, and it's interesting that we've finally entered your interregnum between stints as an active reader.

Since I'm not often following along with my print copies, I do sometimes wish you would include the name of the cover artists and editors you criticize. When I did a similar read-through of the entire run for my own purposes years ago, I found it very interesting to compare the various editorial styles of the editors, from the way they wrote their editorials to the types of articles they printed.

You seemed to keep up, more or less, with the changes in editors over the years, but they're going to start cycling through relatively rapidly from this point forward. Poor A. J. Bryant's entire era slipped by without comment from you (that I noticed).

I _think_ we're into the Dave Gross era, at this point, but I wish it was a little easier to tell from your comments.

Just a suggestion. I've been following this thread for years and eagerly read it weekly.

Keep up the good work!

--Erik

That is a good point. I could try to make this a little more friendly to people who haven't read the magazines referred too recently. I did note the quiet departure of Anthony Bryant, much of issue 230's editorial and conclusion was commentary on that. Ok, name names, be more specific. Gotcha.

 

[Orius]

A flurry of swords: More new swords? Do we not have enough variants as it is? Apparently not, as Greg Detwiler gives us a full 26 new variants, well and truly affirming the sword's place as the supreme weapon throughout the ages and continents. Polearms? Pah! Piffling by comparison. 17 of them have some distinct benefits when you're proficient in them, and more when specialised, rather than just being another endless tiny variation on damages. So whether you want to slice through armor, massacre small creatures or parry better, you can find something to suit your needs. Happy twinking. Yeah, I'm not very interested in this.

At the time I thought it was good, but I've changed my mind since the 3e days. The weapon tables in 2e had too many different weapon varieties that were mostly different in name only. I prefered 3e's approach of having a smaller set of stats and then having tables of cultural names for weapons that were equivalent of the standards rather than dozens and dozens of the same thing. There's a small handful here that have some unique properties, but most of them these days I'd just stats out as one of the standard swords.

Sorcerous six-shooters: Here we go again, following in the footsteps of issues 28, 57, 60, 70, 124, 176, 199, and lots more non D&D ones over the years. It's not an unfamiliar topic. Thankfully, this isn't one of those annoying starting from scratch reboots that forgets everything that came before. Instead, it's an examination of the place of firearms in all the various settings, including the inactive ones

This was a good article, and Roger certainly did his research on it. A good examination of how to fit guns into existing worlds and homebrews, as well as some decent crunch.

The ecology of the roper: Aw. Poor little girl. Now this is a very different ecology indeed. The story of a little girl suffering from uncontrolled attacks of clairvoyance, and when she jumped into the body of this month's monster, and had to experience it killing and eating things from the inside.

Jonathan Richards was pretty much the king of Ecologies in this period until Dragon changed the format. I think this one was one of his best, taking a relatively silly D&D monster and actually making it into a serious sort of threat. And the framing device was very good too.

Floyd still hasn't twigged why the little boy has massive magical powers, the twit. How telegraphed do these things have to be?

Floyd was probably the red-headed stepchild that got slapped around a lot, so that why the synapses don't fire quite right.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996


part 4/8


The role of books: One foot in the grave by Wm Mark Simmons is not a book based upon the sitcom, but a vampire story involving a beleaguered half-vampire. Cliche, you may say, but we all know there's little new in the world, and this is a story that manages to make the idea fun. There's action, sex, and plot twists aplenty, and while it's open for a sequel, it still manages to finish it's current plot properly. It's all very well balanced.

Shade and shadow by Francine G Woodbury combines mystery plotting with magic as science ideas, to produce a fairly slow paced but well written murder mystery. John's main complaint is that the worldbuilding possibly isn't taken far enough. That's the stuff roleplayers need to steal for their games.

Firestar by Michael Flynn is one of the many books coming out around that time that tries to capitalise on pre-millenial tension. How long ago and silly that all seems now. Still, it's very much of the vein that we can make the future better, not that the world is doomed and there's nothing we can do, which is welcome. After all, sci-fi ought to be driving us onwards to advance technology, not making us hold back out of fear.

The magic touch by Jody Lynn Nye is our negative review for the month. It's blandly written, derivative, and the tone really doesn't match the setting. Gotta warn us away from stuff as well as recommend it, otherwise this section wouldn't be half as interesting.

Wind from a foreign sky by Katya Reimann sees John bemoaning that the explosion of fantasy actually means fewer heroic epics in the old skool vein. Fortunately, there are some new writers producing them, like this one, and he hopes they get at least a good trilogy out of this series. But will they enjoy the same commercial success in a competitive market? It's so much easier to become legendary when you're a pioneer.


Tales of the fifth age: The gift of fire by William W Connors & Sue Weinlein Cook (so she's married Monte now? Iiinteresting) We've had stories showing us what's happened to the kender & gnomes during krynn's upheaval. Now it's dwarves turn. With 4 months to go, I don't doubt the elves'll get their go as well. As befits the race, this is actually fairly serious, showing that they're having to deal with internal tensions as well as outside challenges, and do morally dubious things to survive. Such as trying to train a fire dragon of chaos to fight the great dragons taking over the land. Yeah, that's the kind of plan that's likely to lead to massive losses on both sides, whoever wins. And it's not surprising it leads to it's user being banished from the dwarven halls for his rashness. This is actually pretty good, with plenty of drama, well defined characters, and a story that holds up on it's own but still ties into the larger sweep of krynn's history. We're finally getting somewhere with this 5th age idea, figuring out what it's supposed to be about and the stories we could be telling in it. Let's hope they can bring this to a climax at the end of the year, and justify their sluggish start.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996


part 5/8


Dragon Dice: The last two months, we had new races. Now we have new magical items. I guess that they're once again following in D&D's footsteps with this game. Regular items are 4-sided, while artfacts are represented by 10-sided dice. They're also introducing summonable monsters that can be used by any side with sufficient magic to spare. As usual, they have a whole bunch of quirks, requiring constant attention, and refusing to fight other summoned monsters of the same elemental type. And on top of that, they're adding new terrain types with various advantages for their users, like grassy knolls to shoot from and wood to hide in. So this opens up a whole bunch of new tactical opportunities and obstacles for all sides, which means it has potentially higher sales than introducing a new splat. Hmm. Feels once again like they're taking a lot of their lessons from the way they've run AD&D over the years. And why not? It's probably more likely to work than creating a whole new paradigm.


Wyrms of the north: The first two dragons in this series both have names that began with A. Now we have one that begins with a B. Oh dear god. Don't tell me Ed had all of this column written out in advance, and delivered it to the magazine as a fait accompli that'll last several years even before the first one was published. That's just showing off. Could he fill the entire magazine on his own if he wanted? In any case it's a reminder just how head and shoulders he is above everyone else writing for them, that he has both the talent and prestige to get away with such an idiosyncratic and specialist column.

And despite my previous rants about canon strangulation and magic bloat, there continues to be a lot in Ed's writing to enjoy. Chief in this particular one is his detailed talk on the tactics this dragon uses, and his attitude towards the rest of the world. While very obviously of a draconic mindset, he has more than enough nuance to make him individual in both conversation and a battle, and in typical Ed style, these details are easily used in actual play. There's also plenty of info on his lair and the magical items he has are actually put to good use, instead of just being slept on in his hoard. If I were to play in the Forgotten Realms and use dragons, I would actually use this. Still, I don't think there's much chance of that happening anytime soon.


Sage advice: I sent in a question. It cost me $5.16! I'm entitled to an answer! (No, you are not. The Sage's time is a privilege, not a right. Skip is entirely within skip's rights to charge an initial consulting fee, and then refuse to take on a case. And if you send in another letter to whine, you've just wasted another $5.16. Ha ha. Go on, waste more of your money sending in a complaint. Skip dares you. )

Do you get the backstab bonus if you hit a sleeping creature in the front. (yes. They don't know you're there. )

Does backstabbing work on undead and things without backs (not generally. Common sense must provide the exceptions as usual, because we can't talk about every monster individually in here. )

How many attack does fighter get against a swooping creature ( it depend on may thing. The position of fighter in round is critically important. also weapon number held. Attack of opportinity provide one phase of attacks, up to limit. If already used, then no opportunitty to attack.)

Does your movement rate initiative affect? (Affect it does, for PC's only)

Are touch spells blocked by armour (yes)

How does dual-classing work with respect to proficiencies (Skip has changed his mind again. Retcon, retcon! La la la la. Skipadee doo dah, skipedee ay, my oh my what a wonderdfull day. Great chanfes come, great cvhanges go. )

Can priests change spells after napping (not without making their god cranky)

Can dual-classed wizard/priests put priest spells in their contingencies (Sure, why not. Let your imagination run wild. )

Is there an initial save against charm spells (yessssss. )

Do fireballs burn up stinking clouds (nooooooooo)

 

[Orius]

Dragon Dice: The last two months, we had new races. Now we have new magical items. I guess that they're once again following in D&D's footsteps with this game.

Unfortunately, I think they may have also been following in D&D's footsteps by releasing too much at once too. The game looks like it was interesting, but I doubt the pace of these releases was good for TSR's bottom line. If they'd been a bit more conservative with it, and kept to to maybe two boosters a year, it might have been more sustainable.

Wyrms of the north: The first two dragons in this series both have names that began with A. Now we have one that begins with a B. Oh dear god. Don't tell me Ed had all of this column written out in advance, and delivered it to the magazine as a fait accompli that'll last several years even before the first one was published. That's just showing off.

I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know how the hell Ed churns out so much stuff, though possibly he's got tons and tons of material he's already prepped for his home FR campaign, enough that he can pull a stunt like this. From what I've read about his personal campaign, it does seem likely.

And despite my previous rants about canon strangulation and magic bloat, there continues to be a lot in Ed's writing to enjoy. Chief in this particular one is his detailed talk on the tactics this dragon uses, and his attitude towards the rest of the world. While very obviously of a draconic mindset, he has more than enough nuance to make him individual in both conversation and a battle, and in typical Ed style, these details are easily used in actual play. There's also plenty of info on his lair and the magical items he has are actually put to good use, instead of just being slept on in his hoard. If I were to play in the Forgotten Realms and use dragons, I would actually use this.

I think the sour taste the series left in your mouth was the unfortunate fact that the series started with a pair of white dragons, arguably one of the most boring and least useful dragon varieties there is. There are some pretty interesting wyrms in this series, but the first two were pretty damn forgettable.

 

[Echohawk]

Oh dear god. Don't tell me Ed had all of this column written out in advance, and delivered it to the magazine as a fait accompli that'll last several years even before the first one was published. That's just showing off. Could he fill the entire magazine on his own if he wanted? In any case it's a reminder just how head and shoulders he is above everyone else writing for them, that he has both the talent and prestige to get away with such an idiosyncratic and specialist column.

I think it's quite telling that Ed's "Eye on the Realms" articles are almost always the first ones released each month on the online mags. Unlike some^H^H^H^H most of the other regular columns, those have never been published late.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996


part 6/8


Forum: Rick Maffei takes up a full 2/3rds of the forum this time round. People have challenged his opinion, and he is eager to rebutt. After all, that is what the forum is for, and if you don't want debate, get a soapbox and megaphone instead. And despite them being optional, TSR shouldn't publish stuff with shoddy rules in the first place. It sets a bad example.

Jeffrey Martin thinks AD&D should be concentrating on fantasy over realism. It's more fun that way. Plus, medieval laws were heeded in the breach as often as the observance, just like real world tax and traffic regulations.

Michael D. Bugg thinks magic ought to be kept rare enough to remain wondrous. Rather a tricky task when half your PC's use it routinely, methinks. Once again, you're battling the system.


Network News: Hee. We actually have a bit of LARPing coverage this month, as they prepare for the big Gen Con Living City events. Dress up as your character, and you'll get the chance to make a serious impact upon the metaplot of Raven's Bluff. Hey, there are far worse things to do with your time. You'll even get the chance to meet Elminster, although I very much doubt you'll get to attack him. (and wouldn't it make a pretty pickle if some deluded madman killed Ed while he was dressed up as El as vengeance for what Elminster did in one of his previous games. I wonder if that would make the metaplot. ) As with the return of non D&D stuff in their 5th age article, this isn't unwelcome at all, even if it does fall prey to a bit of self-aggrandisement, and isn't as thrilling as coverage of 3rd party games would be. This kind of stuff does look like it would be a great deal of fun to do, presuming you have the time and money for all the travel and costuming. And this is definitely a case where the more the merrier, so promoting it beforehand is a rather good idea.


Swordplay finally reveals how they survive this stuff. Life insurance works much better when you have resurrection spells. Dragonmirth stumbles right into the joke this time. The KotDT crew are reminded that no matter how powerful you are, GM fiat can beat you without a roll. And the GM is reminded in turn that walking out is always an option. No gaming is better than bad gaming.


Role-playing reviews: Conspiracy X is of course an attempt to produce an X-files inspired game. After all, it's one of the biggest sci-fi/supernatural shows out there, so a good game based off it has definite sales potential when targeted at the geek audience. The basic character creation and and action resolution is fairly familiar, point buy and stat + skill + modifiers + 2d6. But it still has quite a few unique quirks, such as the group cell construction rules, and the zener cards for psychic powers, that do help set the atmosphere and make the whole thing more genre appropriate. If you want to play that sort of game, there's few systems better, at least until the unisystem version comes out.

Lost worlds gets a 6 pip review, as Rick is overjoyed it's not only been rereleased after a decade (review in issue 85), but improved upon. It's not quite a roleplaying game, but it is a good deal of fun, and less obviously designed as a money sink than CCG's. Get a few, and have a blast.

Tales of Gargenthir beats even Traveller in the depth of it's character generation lifepath system. It may take a session or two just to get to the present. And things don't speed up much from there, with a pretty crunchy system for resolving actions, and a well detailed, interesting setting. If you can cope with Rolemaster, this should be pretty enjoyable.

 

[(un)reason]

I think it's quite telling that Ed's "Eye on the Realms" articles are almost always the first ones released each month on the online mags. Unlike some^H^H^H^H most of the other regular columns, those have never been published late.

Zing! I think this once again proves that having a good buffer of material is good for all involved. It removes stress on the writer, it gives the editor more time to catch any mistakes in your work, and if things go wrong, it gives the publisher time to find an alternative gracefully. Putting things up as soon as they're done may sound cool, but there is a price.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996


part 7/8


Wraith: the Oblivion gets a second edition. But forgets the pathos regaining rules What are you gonna do. Hire a better editor? Ahahahahaha!


TSR Previews: We once again break the record for new releases next month, with 15 of them mentioned here. Anyone who can keep up with this lot has some serious disposable income and is a very fast reader. Lets see what we can see.

The AD&D core rules get put on a CD-ROM. Now thats a good use of technology, not like those silly audio CD accessories. Just fast, easy, fully legal characters to start playing with. It's not all bad ideas. There's also the epic Rod of Seven Parts adventure, which unusually is well behind it's tie in book. Was Skip late with his manuscript or something?

Birthright gets Legends of the Hero Kings, and the Khourane Domain Sourcebook. More adventures for them to make their name completing, and another place for them to come from and be in charge of. Are your guys ready to step up and bat when their blood destiny comes due? It also gets The Spider's Test by Dixie McKeone in the novel department. Lolth is not involved, unusually. Normally, there's no getting rid of her where spiders are involved.

Lots of setting double bills as well. Dragonlance relaunches it's gaming end with a bang. The Fifth Age has begun, ruled by cards and dramatic conventions rather than dungeon crawling. Will it get the success it deserves. I guess that depends if you like the ideas of dragonlance or not. The novels also kick off the stories of the new era, with Jean Rabe writing The Dawning of a New Age. How will the canon characters react to the massive changes in cosmology and magic system?

The forgotten realms returns to undermountain for a 4th time, to find a place called Maddgoth's ( Mad goth? Srysly? White Wolf envy much? Go sit in the corner with Boinger, Goretox and Black Ice Shadow ) Castle. A flying castle in a giant underground vault? Not the most practical position for it, really. Well, I guess he must be mad. Meanwhile, Elaine Cunningham continues to try and replicate the success of R A Salvadore in drow adventurer tales.

Planescape gets the planewalkers handbook. Finally they get kits suitable for the planes, along with lots of other player-centric goodies. About time. Not so wanted is Pages of Pain, by Troy Denning. How do you do the memoirs of the lady of pain without destroying her mystique. Can he pull off that tall order?

Ravenloft returns to gothic earth, with A Guide to Transylvania. See the land Dracula rules, and quite a few of his lackeys and enemies given greater detail. Well, it's worked for Strahd, it should work even better for the real thing. They also have another ironic Vistani story. To sleep with Evil by Andria Cardarelle. Well, romance is given extra piquancy if it's tragic and cursed. If it's troo wuv they'll battle on regardless.

Our generic book also seems pretty familiar. Trail of Darkness by Darlene D Bolesny sees another scheming bastard foment division and conflict between races for his own profit.

Dragon Dice is also expanding yet again. Magestorm adds magical items to your dice arrays. Can you figure out what their most tactically optimal uses are?