David Howery
Hero
uh... huh? Was this guy mailing his letter from Antarctica or something?
Let's read the entire run
- Thread starter (un)reason
- Start date
uh... huh? Was this guy mailing his letter from Antarctica or something?
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996
part 8/8
The current Clack: Once again the most interesting news this month is thrown in as a virtual afterthought. Margaret Weis marries Don Perrin. Given they're both writers, I am absolutely certain collaborative books will be forthcoming. Still, how will this affect her writing partnership with Tracy Hickman? Well, he's already produced collaborative works with his own wife. Oh god, foursome, bad images, bad images. Also :googles: 17 year age gap. Go her. Although apparently they divorced in 2003, so it can't have been a hugely stable relationship. I am strongly tempted to delve into gossip a little further here, but I think that's a bit too far out of good taste. Family friendly thread (just about) etc etc.
Our more standard gaming news once again concerns the ownership of various properties. Everway is getting to be the first game of a brand new company. Gatecrasher is being republished by Grey Ghost Games. Darkurthe Legends has moved to Gatekeeper publishing. Pandemonium, on the other hand is being dropped, and all remaining copies are being given away for the price of shipping. Everyone's feeling the pinch, and just hoping that their creativity survives. Oh, you needn't worry about that. The internet is busy making the creative attempts of normal people ever more accessible to a wide audience for a minimal price. Still, the outlook doesn't look great from this angle.
Overall, I rather enjoyed this issue. After the last two being pretty torturous, they had quite a lot of good or decent articles, and the return of several features I'd rather missed. It feels like they're finally starting to accomplish the goals they set for themselves in the revamp. It may not save them, but It's good to see they still gave it their all. The next few months are definitely going to be interesting reading.
part 8/8
The current Clack: Once again the most interesting news this month is thrown in as a virtual afterthought. Margaret Weis marries Don Perrin. Given they're both writers, I am absolutely certain collaborative books will be forthcoming. Still, how will this affect her writing partnership with Tracy Hickman? Well, he's already produced collaborative works with his own wife. Oh god, foursome, bad images, bad images. Also :googles: 17 year age gap. Go her. Although apparently they divorced in 2003, so it can't have been a hugely stable relationship. I am strongly tempted to delve into gossip a little further here, but I think that's a bit too far out of good taste. Family friendly thread (just about) etc etc.
Our more standard gaming news once again concerns the ownership of various properties. Everway is getting to be the first game of a brand new company. Gatecrasher is being republished by Grey Ghost Games. Darkurthe Legends has moved to Gatekeeper publishing. Pandemonium, on the other hand is being dropped, and all remaining copies are being given away for the price of shipping. Everyone's feeling the pinch, and just hoping that their creativity survives. Oh, you needn't worry about that. The internet is busy making the creative attempts of normal people ever more accessible to a wide audience for a minimal price. Still, the outlook doesn't look great from this angle.
Overall, I rather enjoyed this issue. After the last two being pretty torturous, they had quite a lot of good or decent articles, and the return of several features I'd rather missed. It feels like they're finally starting to accomplish the goals they set for themselves in the revamp. It may not save them, but It's good to see they still gave it their all. The next few months are definitely going to be interesting reading.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 1/8
124 pages. Okay, now this is truly a hideous cover. Everything about it offends my eyes. The scrappy colouring. The lack of depth and perspective. The cluttered loading in of creatures. This is a pretty strong contender for worst cover evar. Even the cheap stuff from the early days of the magazine had better planned composition than this. Remember, once you get above a certain level, adding in more stuff makes things worse, not better. I'm turning the pages fast to get away from that, and hoping the contents will be an improvement.
In this issue:
The wyrm's turn: This month's editorial is actually pretty entertaining, as Dave Gross tells us the story of his youthful passion for chess. It's amazing how such a simple seeming game can become a passion that takes a lifetime to master. Well, although it may be a game of pure skill, there's still more permutations than a human mind can memorise, and your opponents will hopefully improve as you do, so there'll always be a challenge there. Really, this is another reminder how interesting gossip is, and how small and silly our reasons for taking one direction in life over another can be. Even if you cloned someone, they might well wind up with quite different interests and skillsets from being raised in a different time and place. What chance events threw your life in a completely different direction?
D-Mail: A letter asking for coverage of online gaming, and conversions for older editions. Things that seem likely to get a mixed response really. Still, doesn't hurt to try.
A letter from the writer of 231's Arcane lore answering some questions about dragon wing armor. Yeah, it'll take quite a bit of work to make that one useful for PC's. Might want to destroy it or give it to a good dragon as a bribe.
A letter chattering about the whole geek stigma thing, and also about the age gap in their gaming group. They might not have the same experiences, but they can all contribute positively in the present.
A gripe that the CD they included with the magazine was Windows only. Poor macs, getting the short end of the stick. Count yourself lucky they survived at all. What would the computer landscape be like without at least one competitor to Microsoft's world domination?
A letter asking what computers they use to make the magazine. Currently, Quark Express is the main program. But it is a complicated business. One crashed system could be a real problem. I hope they have backups.
part 1/8
124 pages. Okay, now this is truly a hideous cover. Everything about it offends my eyes. The scrappy colouring. The lack of depth and perspective. The cluttered loading in of creatures. This is a pretty strong contender for worst cover evar. Even the cheap stuff from the early days of the magazine had better planned composition than this. Remember, once you get above a certain level, adding in more stuff makes things worse, not better. I'm turning the pages fast to get away from that, and hoping the contents will be an improvement.
In this issue:
The wyrm's turn: This month's editorial is actually pretty entertaining, as Dave Gross tells us the story of his youthful passion for chess. It's amazing how such a simple seeming game can become a passion that takes a lifetime to master. Well, although it may be a game of pure skill, there's still more permutations than a human mind can memorise, and your opponents will hopefully improve as you do, so there'll always be a challenge there. Really, this is another reminder how interesting gossip is, and how small and silly our reasons for taking one direction in life over another can be. Even if you cloned someone, they might well wind up with quite different interests and skillsets from being raised in a different time and place. What chance events threw your life in a completely different direction?
D-Mail: A letter asking for coverage of online gaming, and conversions for older editions. Things that seem likely to get a mixed response really. Still, doesn't hurt to try.
A letter from the writer of 231's Arcane lore answering some questions about dragon wing armor. Yeah, it'll take quite a bit of work to make that one useful for PC's. Might want to destroy it or give it to a good dragon as a bribe.
A letter chattering about the whole geek stigma thing, and also about the age gap in their gaming group. They might not have the same experiences, but they can all contribute positively in the present.
A gripe that the CD they included with the magazine was Windows only. Poor macs, getting the short end of the stick. Count yourself lucky they survived at all. What would the computer landscape be like without at least one competitor to Microsoft's world domination?
A letter asking what computers they use to make the magazine. Currently, Quark Express is the main program. But it is a complicated business. One crashed system could be a real problem. I hope they have backups.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 2/8
Going to Court: Once again, they try to revitalise the political game-playing, as after all, they'd really like Birthright to succeed, and prove that D&D can sustain modes of play other than dungeon-crawling. As is their current trend, they take a somewhat more crunchy approach to this than previous attempts, breaking things up into influence levels, their effects on reaction rolls, and the various actions you can use to raise or lower your standing. This goes by amazingly quickly, which is a pretty good sign, as it means they're not only fitting quite a lot in, but it's done in an easy to read style. So It's a pretty positive beginning, that should help even the most socially inept DM run a courtly situation. Good choice. A random courtier generator would be nice at some point though.
On wings of eagles: Or The Ecology of the Avariel, attempting to do for them what Roger Moore's articles did for the standard demihuman races quite a while back. Instead of giving a general overview, they choose to go with the options of IC fiction (with added AAAAngst), and lots of detail on a specific example city. At 8 pages long, it's bigger than our last look at winged elves, back in issue 200, but obviously less integrated into other articles, since it's generic, rather than for a specific gameworld. This does make it harder for me to establish an emotional connection, especially as this writer doesn't have Bruce's skill at cramming vast amounts of detail into a few paragraphs. It doesn't bug me like the article on animal men which was in a similar position, but it does fall a little into the elves as mary-sues with a perfect society trap. It does have quite a bit of useful new crunch, including 3 new kits, and is self-contained enough to be used without the complete book of elves, so I'll return a mildly positive result. It's got more than enough good and bad points to be interesting, in any case.
Fiendish Fortresses: Or good god, it's an absolute pain in the ass creating a safe home when there's creatures with at-will teleportation. All the normal tactical approaches go out the window, especially when they add flight, a whole bunch of immunities and magical abilities, and the intelligence to take advantage of this. Not that it's impossible, especially when the other side also has at will teleportation, and a different set of immunities and magical abilities. The solution? Well, it involves places that feel rather like traditional dungeons, with deathtraps in a substantial fraction of the rooms, layouts that are counterintuitive and lack toilet facilities, and infinite pits all over the shop. Tee hee. Basically, they ensure anyone trying to go in blind has a pretty good chance of ending up in a horrible situation that does tons of damage before they can get their bearings. And since they may be able to teleport, but they're pretty low on scrying spells, this makes them cautious. Immortality is a terrible thing to risk. Obviously the various sides have their own quirks. The baatezu make every single room containable and checkpointed, while the tanar'ri places are such utter tips that no-one else can figure out where to go and constantly stub their toes and knock over cups of acid.
And let's not even get into the yugoloth ones. (which they don't, annoyingly) This is well-written, logical, inventive, and fun to read. The only problem, and it's a doozy, is that THEY JUST INVALIDATED THE WHOLE ING PREMISE IN THE METAPLOT!!!!!!!!!1! Seriously, that's not the kind of problem you just brush off in the prelude. If every single human in the world suddenly had their legs fuse together into a single hopping limb, you would not see us carrying on as if nothing was wrong. I get that they're prideful creatures and afraid of revealing weakness, but when you're that common and smart, you should figure this crap out pretty quickly. So it's not this article I have a problem with, it's their company need to have metaplot in every single bloody gameline, and the way it makes an infinite universe seem so ridiculously small. And there's worse to come on that front. This really just makes me want to shout YOU TSR, YOU'RE SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT HERE!!! Ugh. So much squandered potential.
part 2/8
Going to Court: Once again, they try to revitalise the political game-playing, as after all, they'd really like Birthright to succeed, and prove that D&D can sustain modes of play other than dungeon-crawling. As is their current trend, they take a somewhat more crunchy approach to this than previous attempts, breaking things up into influence levels, their effects on reaction rolls, and the various actions you can use to raise or lower your standing. This goes by amazingly quickly, which is a pretty good sign, as it means they're not only fitting quite a lot in, but it's done in an easy to read style. So It's a pretty positive beginning, that should help even the most socially inept DM run a courtly situation. Good choice. A random courtier generator would be nice at some point though.
On wings of eagles: Or The Ecology of the Avariel, attempting to do for them what Roger Moore's articles did for the standard demihuman races quite a while back. Instead of giving a general overview, they choose to go with the options of IC fiction (with added AAAAngst), and lots of detail on a specific example city. At 8 pages long, it's bigger than our last look at winged elves, back in issue 200, but obviously less integrated into other articles, since it's generic, rather than for a specific gameworld. This does make it harder for me to establish an emotional connection, especially as this writer doesn't have Bruce's skill at cramming vast amounts of detail into a few paragraphs. It doesn't bug me like the article on animal men which was in a similar position, but it does fall a little into the elves as mary-sues with a perfect society trap. It does have quite a bit of useful new crunch, including 3 new kits, and is self-contained enough to be used without the complete book of elves, so I'll return a mildly positive result. It's got more than enough good and bad points to be interesting, in any case.
Fiendish Fortresses: Or good god, it's an absolute pain in the ass creating a safe home when there's creatures with at-will teleportation. All the normal tactical approaches go out the window, especially when they add flight, a whole bunch of immunities and magical abilities, and the intelligence to take advantage of this. Not that it's impossible, especially when the other side also has at will teleportation, and a different set of immunities and magical abilities. The solution? Well, it involves places that feel rather like traditional dungeons, with deathtraps in a substantial fraction of the rooms, layouts that are counterintuitive and lack toilet facilities, and infinite pits all over the shop. Tee hee. Basically, they ensure anyone trying to go in blind has a pretty good chance of ending up in a horrible situation that does tons of damage before they can get their bearings. And since they may be able to teleport, but they're pretty low on scrying spells, this makes them cautious. Immortality is a terrible thing to risk. Obviously the various sides have their own quirks. The baatezu make every single room containable and checkpointed, while the tanar'ri places are such utter tips that no-one else can figure out where to go and constantly stub their toes and knock over cups of acid.
And let's not even get into the yugoloth ones. (which they don't, annoyingly) This is well-written, logical, inventive, and fun to read. The only problem, and it's a doozy, is that THEY JUST INVALIDATED THE WHOLE ING PREMISE IN THE METAPLOT!!!!!!!!!1! Seriously, that's not the kind of problem you just brush off in the prelude. If every single human in the world suddenly had their legs fuse together into a single hopping limb, you would not see us carrying on as if nothing was wrong. I get that they're prideful creatures and afraid of revealing weakness, but when you're that common and smart, you should figure this crap out pretty quickly. So it's not this article I have a problem with, it's their company need to have metaplot in every single bloody gameline, and the way it makes an infinite universe seem so ridiculously small. And there's worse to come on that front. This really just makes me want to shout YOU TSR, YOU'RE SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT HERE!!! Ugh. So much squandered potential.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 3/8
Wyrms of the north: Speaking of squandered potential, is Ed Greenwood still producing this stuff? As interesting as it might be to read, just how many people are actually going to get to use even one of these dragons in actual play, let alone the 20-odd it looks like we'll be getting. Still, we're onto C now, and chances are, we might skim the last few letters. We're probably well over a 10th of the way through.
So this is our 1st green dragon. She is a pretty cranky creature, as is standard for the race, but the details are very individual. From eating habits, to vices, to tactical details, to sex life, (or lack of it) the details are not only pretty substantial and usable, but also rather funny. They're just the kind of thing a skilled player could exploit, but should watch out when doing so, for having your corpse used as a chewtoy often offends. It's also a reminder that while the lesser chromatic dragons may have intelligence, they're nowhere near as smart or magically capable as the average metallic or gem dragon, and they may well envy their sheer range of options. Actually, I wonder if he will do dragons of other types, as so far, it's been all the boring colours. Guess I'll find out in future issues.
Campaign classics: Al-Qadim meets Birthright this month, with domain stats for the various regions and city-states of the land of fate. That's actually a pretty cool idea, if rather specialist. Obviously you'll need at least the core products for both worlds to make sense of this. But if you do, you have a very interesting bit of conversion, which takes a few liberties with the setting of zakhara and the rules of birthright to produce a game that won't be quite like a regular birthright domain game, but will be more high magic, more trade-oriented, and with more interesting nonhuman interactions, particularly where genies are involved. I think this is a pretty awesome idea. Substituting Cerilia's very traditional celtic fantasy backdrop for an arabian one can really spice up the domain rulership game, as well as changing the personal adventures between them. Plus you could do a little continent shuffling (hey, it worked for kara-tur) and set both continents in the same world, so you have a playground more than twice the size to conquer. I like that. Now, if you could get round to doing a crossover article for OA as well, I'd be even happier.
Dragon dice: After rapidly introducing a ton of new races, we're now getting assurances that the old races are still valid. Power creep hasn't made them useless, and they'll still be getting support in the future! God, once again we see how accelerated their development cycle is. It's no wonder they overreached themselves and then burned out when sales didn't match the creator and company's enthusiasm. Just as with Birthright and it's 4 books at once barrages, it makes me wonder how they expect the general public to keep up with this. I suppose that's exactly why they're having problems. The lack of research and unrealistic expectations about what the public wants led stuff to be overprinted, underprinted, or generally not targeted right to make maximum profit. This isn't really a terrible column, but it is pretty telling. If you'd spread these supplements out over a longer period, the game might still be chugging along. But no, you had to get overambitious. Oh well.
part 3/8
Wyrms of the north: Speaking of squandered potential, is Ed Greenwood still producing this stuff? As interesting as it might be to read, just how many people are actually going to get to use even one of these dragons in actual play, let alone the 20-odd it looks like we'll be getting. Still, we're onto C now, and chances are, we might skim the last few letters. We're probably well over a 10th of the way through.
So this is our 1st green dragon. She is a pretty cranky creature, as is standard for the race, but the details are very individual. From eating habits, to vices, to tactical details, to sex life, (or lack of it) the details are not only pretty substantial and usable, but also rather funny. They're just the kind of thing a skilled player could exploit, but should watch out when doing so, for having your corpse used as a chewtoy often offends. It's also a reminder that while the lesser chromatic dragons may have intelligence, they're nowhere near as smart or magically capable as the average metallic or gem dragon, and they may well envy their sheer range of options. Actually, I wonder if he will do dragons of other types, as so far, it's been all the boring colours. Guess I'll find out in future issues.
Campaign classics: Al-Qadim meets Birthright this month, with domain stats for the various regions and city-states of the land of fate. That's actually a pretty cool idea, if rather specialist. Obviously you'll need at least the core products for both worlds to make sense of this. But if you do, you have a very interesting bit of conversion, which takes a few liberties with the setting of zakhara and the rules of birthright to produce a game that won't be quite like a regular birthright domain game, but will be more high magic, more trade-oriented, and with more interesting nonhuman interactions, particularly where genies are involved. I think this is a pretty awesome idea. Substituting Cerilia's very traditional celtic fantasy backdrop for an arabian one can really spice up the domain rulership game, as well as changing the personal adventures between them. Plus you could do a little continent shuffling (hey, it worked for kara-tur) and set both continents in the same world, so you have a playground more than twice the size to conquer. I like that. Now, if you could get round to doing a crossover article for OA as well, I'd be even happier.
Dragon dice: After rapidly introducing a ton of new races, we're now getting assurances that the old races are still valid. Power creep hasn't made them useless, and they'll still be getting support in the future! God, once again we see how accelerated their development cycle is. It's no wonder they overreached themselves and then burned out when sales didn't match the creator and company's enthusiasm. Just as with Birthright and it's 4 books at once barrages, it makes me wonder how they expect the general public to keep up with this. I suppose that's exactly why they're having problems. The lack of research and unrealistic expectations about what the public wants led stuff to be overprinted, underprinted, or generally not targeted right to make maximum profit. This isn't really a terrible column, but it is pretty telling. If you'd spread these supplements out over a longer period, the game might still be chugging along. But no, you had to get overambitious. Oh well.
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Hmm, I thought you'd find this one to be rather absurd. We've got what is in essence a dragon who lounges around all day and watches the magical equivalent of some horrendous mashup of soaps and reality TV covering the lives of spoiled noblewomen in Waterdeep, Nerverwinter, and Silverymoon. And she spends the whole time sighing because she wishes she could be just like them. Are you kidding me? Her lust for magical power is ok, and actually kind of typical for a dragon, but the silliness with the crystal balls just makes it ridiculous.
There's 30 dragons in the whole series, and he branches out beyond the typical MM color coding, oh yes.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 4/8
Bookwyrms: Oh dear. Another column gets a punny name. Not that it's a terrible pun. But I still rolled my eyes when I saw it. I wonder how long this change'll last.
Archangel by Mike Conner sets a mysterious and deadly plague on 1930's america, that for whatever reason, doesn't affect black people. This obviously has serious political repercussions, and a whole bunch of other interesting things are happening against that backdrop. There may not be overt supernatural elements, but there's plenty of speculation in this fiction.
The forgotten beasts of eld by Patricia McKillip is an old book that's been reprinted. It's writing style evokes nostalgia in the reviewer for the books he read as a kid, which is a good thing. Pastiches may try, but a book written in a particular period will always bear the hallmarks of it's real time in terms of cultural influences.
Immortals by Tracey Hickman gets a rather odd recommendation. It would be perfect as a text for teaching in school? Bwuh. Okay then. I don't think that's going to get much traction.
The wind after time by Chris Bunch is a bit of high action sci-fi adventure that seems to have more than a little in common with Star Wars. It once again gets a recommendation. You know, these are a good deal shorter and less critically rigorous than the role of books. This is not a very good change, and worries me quite a bit.
Tales of the fifth age: Thunder and ice by Douglas Niles. Meet the new magic, not the same as the old magic, but a good deal more similar to the average portrayal of magic in fantasy stories than D&D's vancian magic system. This allows them to do things more narratively, but just as importantly, it democratises magic enormously. People from regions and cultures that formerly wouldn't get the formalised education to tap into the moons are discovering new powers in a haphazard way and refining them into an art. Which makes them valuable, but not in the same reliable and relatively trusted way as the old mages and clerics. So as so much of the 5th age, this is about faith and it's sincerity and justification, hard sacrifices, and being challenged by the forces of nature as much as any monster. I think I'm starting to get the picture. After the last few stories built the drama up, this lets it unwind a little, but not all the way. I'm pretty ambivalent about it, actually. Feels like filler. I suppose you've got to have a few plateaus before you get to the climax, and it has been a mostly upward trend so far. They've still got a bit of time.
Iron & blood: warriors of Ravenloft? Way to break the mood of your license. Really, I can't even parody this.
part 4/8
Bookwyrms: Oh dear. Another column gets a punny name. Not that it's a terrible pun. But I still rolled my eyes when I saw it. I wonder how long this change'll last.
Archangel by Mike Conner sets a mysterious and deadly plague on 1930's america, that for whatever reason, doesn't affect black people. This obviously has serious political repercussions, and a whole bunch of other interesting things are happening against that backdrop. There may not be overt supernatural elements, but there's plenty of speculation in this fiction.
The forgotten beasts of eld by Patricia McKillip is an old book that's been reprinted. It's writing style evokes nostalgia in the reviewer for the books he read as a kid, which is a good thing. Pastiches may try, but a book written in a particular period will always bear the hallmarks of it's real time in terms of cultural influences.
Immortals by Tracey Hickman gets a rather odd recommendation. It would be perfect as a text for teaching in school? Bwuh. Okay then. I don't think that's going to get much traction.
The wind after time by Chris Bunch is a bit of high action sci-fi adventure that seems to have more than a little in common with Star Wars. It once again gets a recommendation. You know, these are a good deal shorter and less critically rigorous than the role of books. This is not a very good change, and worries me quite a bit.
Tales of the fifth age: Thunder and ice by Douglas Niles. Meet the new magic, not the same as the old magic, but a good deal more similar to the average portrayal of magic in fantasy stories than D&D's vancian magic system. This allows them to do things more narratively, but just as importantly, it democratises magic enormously. People from regions and cultures that formerly wouldn't get the formalised education to tap into the moons are discovering new powers in a haphazard way and refining them into an art. Which makes them valuable, but not in the same reliable and relatively trusted way as the old mages and clerics. So as so much of the 5th age, this is about faith and it's sincerity and justification, hard sacrifices, and being challenged by the forces of nature as much as any monster. I think I'm starting to get the picture. After the last few stories built the drama up, this lets it unwind a little, but not all the way. I'm pretty ambivalent about it, actually. Feels like filler. I suppose you've got to have a few plateaus before you get to the climax, and it has been a mostly upward trend so far. They've still got a bit of time.
Iron & blood: warriors of Ravenloft? Way to break the mood of your license. Really, I can't even parody this.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 5/8
Bazaar of the Bizarre: More magical armour? Here we go again. I really think we need some form of more specialised categorisation here. As usual, let's hope the ideas are both cool conceptually and not mechanically broken.
Avian armor isn't that great at the actual armoring gig, and makes you look like Big Bird. But hey, shapeshifting! Actually, given that there are plenty of more powerful and less embarrassing items that let you change shape, I think I'll skip this one.
Armor of Faith only works for someone who is of a specific alignment, and who follows a specific deity. A perfect excuse to prevent you from using enemy gear, in other words. Not likely you'll get use out of this when it turns up randomly.
Armor of Grounding protects you from electrical attacks. That's it, sparky. Once again, good luck getting the right enemies.
Armor of Swimming doesn't impede you in the water at all. In fact, it lets you swim like a fish and breathe underwater. Perfect for a pirate. Watch out for the sahuguin while you're down there. They can still outswim you and pwn your ass.
Helms of Horror have evil glowing eyes and scare people you look at. You may get mistaken for an antipaladin, and killed horribly by the next bunch of adventurers if you can't walk the walk as well.
Helms of Thought Protection are another one that's very common in the literature, and I'm surprised hasn't been done before. Many are even comfortable to sleep in. It's all about the tinfoil layering, my dear.
Dweomerbane shields suck up any magic that passes by them and get ever more powerful as they do. This may not be a good thing if you have spellcasters on your own team, but will be devastating as a bad guy fighter's primary item.
Shields of Faith are another highly restricted item for the DM to annoy the players with. Really, this restriction could be plonked on any kind of magic item.
Shields of Missiles suck up magic missiles and spew them back at the enemy. Obviously not as obscene as the general dweomerbane ones, this could still be a lifesaver. And shaking wizard's faith in one of their most reliable spells doesn't hurt either.
Shields of Shattering, like swords of 9 lives draining, are incredibly brutal, but have decidedly limited lifespans. They'll break both the weapons and arms of anyone attacking you, and then break themselves when they run out of charges. Keep it for special occasions where you really don't want to play fair.
Forum is once again cut down to precisely the size they need to fit it around the adverts.
Roger Smith adds a third voice to those who want level limits and dual classing removed. There are many more silent out there that agree with them.
Steve Shawler starts his all new players off at 1st level, but makes sure they get adventures tailored to them. It seems to work.
Josh Heckman points out that demihuman level limits are a setting conceit as much as a balance one. Changing them will change how they are regarded in the campaign. Ah yes, the battle between thematicness and those desiring strict mechanical balance. One of the more interesting axes of gamer opinion, and one that's definitely swung as time went on.
part 5/8
Bazaar of the Bizarre: More magical armour? Here we go again. I really think we need some form of more specialised categorisation here. As usual, let's hope the ideas are both cool conceptually and not mechanically broken.
Avian armor isn't that great at the actual armoring gig, and makes you look like Big Bird. But hey, shapeshifting! Actually, given that there are plenty of more powerful and less embarrassing items that let you change shape, I think I'll skip this one.
Armor of Faith only works for someone who is of a specific alignment, and who follows a specific deity. A perfect excuse to prevent you from using enemy gear, in other words. Not likely you'll get use out of this when it turns up randomly.
Armor of Grounding protects you from electrical attacks. That's it, sparky. Once again, good luck getting the right enemies.
Armor of Swimming doesn't impede you in the water at all. In fact, it lets you swim like a fish and breathe underwater. Perfect for a pirate. Watch out for the sahuguin while you're down there. They can still outswim you and pwn your ass.
Helms of Horror have evil glowing eyes and scare people you look at. You may get mistaken for an antipaladin, and killed horribly by the next bunch of adventurers if you can't walk the walk as well.
Helms of Thought Protection are another one that's very common in the literature, and I'm surprised hasn't been done before. Many are even comfortable to sleep in. It's all about the tinfoil layering, my dear.
Dweomerbane shields suck up any magic that passes by them and get ever more powerful as they do. This may not be a good thing if you have spellcasters on your own team, but will be devastating as a bad guy fighter's primary item.
Shields of Faith are another highly restricted item for the DM to annoy the players with. Really, this restriction could be plonked on any kind of magic item.
Shields of Missiles suck up magic missiles and spew them back at the enemy. Obviously not as obscene as the general dweomerbane ones, this could still be a lifesaver. And shaking wizard's faith in one of their most reliable spells doesn't hurt either.
Shields of Shattering, like swords of 9 lives draining, are incredibly brutal, but have decidedly limited lifespans. They'll break both the weapons and arms of anyone attacking you, and then break themselves when they run out of charges. Keep it for special occasions where you really don't want to play fair.
Forum is once again cut down to precisely the size they need to fit it around the adverts.
Roger Smith adds a third voice to those who want level limits and dual classing removed. There are many more silent out there that agree with them.
Steve Shawler starts his all new players off at 1st level, but makes sure they get adventures tailored to them. It seems to work.
Josh Heckman points out that demihuman level limits are a setting conceit as much as a balance one. Changing them will change how they are regarded in the campaign. Ah yes, the battle between thematicness and those desiring strict mechanical balance. One of the more interesting axes of gamer opinion, and one that's definitely swung as time went on.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 6/8
Game wizards: Skip Williams is once again promoting his big Rod of 7 Parts adventure. (and isn't that an invitation to make tons of dick jokes. Well, at least it's not an octodog) Still, this time it's stuff that definitely isn't in the book, but may well be helpful to you once you buy it. And it's more support of their official campaign worlds, albeit nowhere near all of them, as he shows you good places to put the various scenarios in the adventure. I guess Krynn has never been fond of adding random gods and artifacts, while Athas and Ravenloft are kinda closed off from the standard planar cosmology. This obviously isn't useful if you aren't interested in the first place, but it's not bad as a bit of promotion. Bonus features are always far more welcome than a straight advert.
Network News: Ahahaha! The epic editorial fail in issue 231 is corrected here, with the rest of the interview with Lou Prosperi. This is actually only half a page of writing, squeezed around an advert. Basically, it's just more reiteration of the fact that this is a hard job, but a fun one if you can get into it, and you have to be prepared to make your own breaks. Yeah, we know that. It's only getting harder, too. Still, if you don't play the game you've got no chance of winning. We can't give up hope, even if we make mistakes like this. Just try not to do it again.
Sage advice: Can an invoker really have 8 1st level spels under the new rules. (no. We did mess up. Skip gotta clean up agaiun.)
table 30 page 95 0,1 2 points table 30 up to 29 points infinal round against initiative huh? ( Youy forget modifiers. Many more points can be accumulated if you apply them, see. Pkus give more monety please. Skip, er deity like that.)
Arrow of done duration special how long special? ( 1 day until fired, prepare in advance)
Can you stack heart of stone and trollish regheneration (no.)
How do mind fayers work in campaigns without psionics (juuuust dfine. Skips mind wor just fine. Magic if not psiobnics.)
How do you convert psionic powers to skills& owers (11-power score = MAC. Ok)
Can humaniods ability adjustments exceed ability score maxumums (no. Rules all backwards. Not like PHB. Skip Caaap mooooofooooo)
Can you stack MA specialization with Complete book of humanoids fighting styles.sips coffee: only close quarter fighting. Savage and finesse fighting styles do not mix well.)
KotDT tries to break it's players of the kill them and take their stuff habit, to no avail. Dragonmirth reminds us that to get to the top, you've got to be ready to cheat. Swordplay are not acknowledging encumbrance. Floyd continues to treat serious matters in a rather goofy fashion.
part 6/8
Game wizards: Skip Williams is once again promoting his big Rod of 7 Parts adventure. (and isn't that an invitation to make tons of dick jokes. Well, at least it's not an octodog) Still, this time it's stuff that definitely isn't in the book, but may well be helpful to you once you buy it. And it's more support of their official campaign worlds, albeit nowhere near all of them, as he shows you good places to put the various scenarios in the adventure. I guess Krynn has never been fond of adding random gods and artifacts, while Athas and Ravenloft are kinda closed off from the standard planar cosmology. This obviously isn't useful if you aren't interested in the first place, but it's not bad as a bit of promotion. Bonus features are always far more welcome than a straight advert.
Network News: Ahahaha! The epic editorial fail in issue 231 is corrected here, with the rest of the interview with Lou Prosperi. This is actually only half a page of writing, squeezed around an advert. Basically, it's just more reiteration of the fact that this is a hard job, but a fun one if you can get into it, and you have to be prepared to make your own breaks. Yeah, we know that. It's only getting harder, too. Still, if you don't play the game you've got no chance of winning. We can't give up hope, even if we make mistakes like this. Just try not to do it again.
Sage advice: Can an invoker really have 8 1st level spels under the new rules. (no. We did mess up. Skip gotta clean up agaiun.)
table 30 page 95 0,1 2 points table 30 up to 29 points infinal round against initiative huh? ( Youy forget modifiers. Many more points can be accumulated if you apply them, see. Pkus give more monety please. Skip, er deity like that.)
Arrow of done duration special how long special? ( 1 day until fired, prepare in advance)
Can you stack heart of stone and trollish regheneration (no.)
How do mind fayers work in campaigns without psionics (juuuust dfine. Skips mind wor just fine. Magic if not psiobnics.)
How do you convert psionic powers to skills& owers (11-power score = MAC. Ok)
Can humaniods ability adjustments exceed ability score maxumums (no. Rules all backwards. Not like PHB. Skip Caaap mooooofooooo)
Can you stack MA specialization with Complete book of humanoids fighting styles.
sips coffee: only close quarter fighting. Savage and finesse fighting styles do not mix well.)KotDT tries to break it's players of the kill them and take their stuff habit, to no avail. Dragonmirth reminds us that to get to the top, you've got to be ready to cheat. Swordplay are not acknowledging encumbrance. Floyd continues to treat serious matters in a rather goofy fashion.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996
part 7/8
Role-playing reviews: Immortal: the invisible war is pretty much the zenith of 90's storygaming pretentiousness, and all the more entertaining for it. Like Nephilim, you play a self-actualised spirit being, moving through multiple incarnations over centuries of existence. The specifics, particularly the mechanics, are quite different though. Colour based powers, reassignable attribute pools, and vast quantities of jargon. The system is simpler than it looks, but you'd better get used to decoding long words for ordinary ideas. And you'd better get used to some counterintuitive powers as well. Still, if you're in the right frame of mind, those'll just add to the fun.
The Pilot pack is one of those bundles of bits and pieces that seem to come out immediately after the corebook, now that they can't cram them in the boxed set. GM screen, character sheets and a short adventure. It's a pretty decent example of the form.
Lost trinity is a trio of rather good interlinked adventures that gets 6 pips. It has a CD as well, but don't let that put you off, the Characters are fun and it manages to avoid degenerating into a reskinned dungeon crawl with it's politics and plot twists. Considering White Wolf's adventures were never much cop, I'd call that worth noting.
The shapeshifters manual is the supplement Rick finds least interesting. It's just another load of new powers. As someone who's whipped up whole books worth of those, he can smell padding a mile off, and this book has it in spades. Do you really need this? Probably not.
Warlock of the stonecrowns shifts gears rapidly, as we go into another Birthright barrage. They're releasing stuff so fast even their own reviewers are working overtime to keep up. It's also a return to fairly normal dungeon-crawling adventures, aimed at novices. Why make it Birthright specific then?
Sword & Crown also adheres to the standard TSR model, although it's a little darker and more challenging. Looks like they're once again being left behind by other companies who walk the walk about making their settings and adventures different and distinct better. Perhaps using a few more freelancers instead of the same stable of writers would help a bit.
Cities of the Sun does a bit better, as TSR is concentrating on their settingbooks over their adventures these days. This is the one with all the naval combat stuff that they've also been promoting in the magazine. It gets a very short review though, not giving me much to comment upon.
The Rjurik Highlands is also passed over with a fairly positive comment. Gimme something I can make a joke about. Please? Bah, If you can't be bothered to go into any detail, I can't either. You could have covered half the number of supplements in better detail if you'd wanted too. Unless this is another case of upper management leaning on people in counterproductive ways.
The book of magecraft get another 6 pip result, as Rick finds it's advice on realm magic both straightforward, fun and well tied into the setting. (unlike say, rolemaster's implementation of ley lines and tapping magical power from the land) This does genuinely push D&D's magic system in a new direction, and it's only a shame that so few wizards will get to try out effects of this magnitude. Of course, PC's should have no such restrictions, since they usually are the nobility here.
part 7/8
Role-playing reviews: Immortal: the invisible war is pretty much the zenith of 90's storygaming pretentiousness, and all the more entertaining for it. Like Nephilim, you play a self-actualised spirit being, moving through multiple incarnations over centuries of existence. The specifics, particularly the mechanics, are quite different though. Colour based powers, reassignable attribute pools, and vast quantities of jargon. The system is simpler than it looks, but you'd better get used to decoding long words for ordinary ideas. And you'd better get used to some counterintuitive powers as well. Still, if you're in the right frame of mind, those'll just add to the fun.
The Pilot pack is one of those bundles of bits and pieces that seem to come out immediately after the corebook, now that they can't cram them in the boxed set. GM screen, character sheets and a short adventure. It's a pretty decent example of the form.
Lost trinity is a trio of rather good interlinked adventures that gets 6 pips. It has a CD as well, but don't let that put you off, the Characters are fun and it manages to avoid degenerating into a reskinned dungeon crawl with it's politics and plot twists. Considering White Wolf's adventures were never much cop, I'd call that worth noting.
The shapeshifters manual is the supplement Rick finds least interesting. It's just another load of new powers. As someone who's whipped up whole books worth of those, he can smell padding a mile off, and this book has it in spades. Do you really need this? Probably not.
Warlock of the stonecrowns shifts gears rapidly, as we go into another Birthright barrage. They're releasing stuff so fast even their own reviewers are working overtime to keep up. It's also a return to fairly normal dungeon-crawling adventures, aimed at novices. Why make it Birthright specific then?
Sword & Crown also adheres to the standard TSR model, although it's a little darker and more challenging. Looks like they're once again being left behind by other companies who walk the walk about making their settings and adventures different and distinct better. Perhaps using a few more freelancers instead of the same stable of writers would help a bit.
Cities of the Sun does a bit better, as TSR is concentrating on their settingbooks over their adventures these days. This is the one with all the naval combat stuff that they've also been promoting in the magazine. It gets a very short review though, not giving me much to comment upon.
The Rjurik Highlands is also passed over with a fairly positive comment. Gimme something I can make a joke about. Please? Bah, If you can't be bothered to go into any detail, I can't either. You could have covered half the number of supplements in better detail if you'd wanted too. Unless this is another case of upper management leaning on people in counterproductive ways.
The book of magecraft get another 6 pip result, as Rick finds it's advice on realm magic both straightforward, fun and well tied into the setting. (unlike say, rolemaster's implementation of ley lines and tapping magical power from the land) This does genuinely push D&D's magic system in a new direction, and it's only a shame that so few wizards will get to try out effects of this magnitude. Of course, PC's should have no such restrictions, since they usually are the nobility here.
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