Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 234: October 1996


part 8/8


Role-playing reviews: The Night Below is of course TSR's latest epic adventure path, designed to take you all the way from levels 1-10 (which then puts you into a perfect position to face Dragon Mountain immediately afterwards ) It's a bit more linear than the average dungeon crawl, but then, that's what's happening in adventures these days, where plot is put above exploring locations. It is good at what it does though, and has given Rick hundreds of hours of actual play fun so far. If you don't have time to make your own campaign, this will go a long way.

Undermountain, the lost level, on the other hand, just seems like a self-consciously old skool dungeon crawl, a bunch of amusing ways to die strung together without any particular plot or climax. If you've played the tomb of horrors several times and know how to get through it without dying, this might scratch your itch for a bit, but don't expect it to change the world.

Blades is an adventure anthology for Earthdawn. This gets 6 pips, managing to combine making the adventures self-contained, yet able to combine into a bigger whole. Both the writers and editors are on the ball here, which means they can mix up settings, and work a moral message in at the end without being heavy-handed. That seems worth praising.

Super tuesday is for Shadowrun, and sets things in the shadow of the presidential elections. Dunkelzahn for president! Yeah, this has lots of potential for satirical fun, and is filled with IC commentary on the process of the election. As a framing device for multiple adventures PC's can interfere in, you could do far worse.

Classic adventures volume three is a reprint of Star Wars' old scenarios. Okay, they're only what, 6-7 years old, but that still feels like a long time to Rick, and there has been an edition change in the meantime. And they are pretty fun, taking you from Tatooine to deep space. Strap on your lightsabers, and get ready to play.

The Kathol Rift contrasts dramatically with the lighthearted old stories with it's decidedly grimdark tone. Players will face substantial environmental hazards and struggle from one gritty challenge to the next, assuming they survive. And if they do, you can bet they won't be in the right mood to appreciate the prequel movies. Poor poor EU, subject to retcons at a moment's notice.


TSR Previews: Generic stuff is very much on top this month. The world builders guidebook and Wizards spell compendium are more useful tools to help speed your game along, and keep you from flipping through dozens of books to find the crunch and advice you need. Gates of Firestorm Peak is the first adventure to use the Players Option books. Now you can face enemies as tweaked and twinked as you are. For fairly high level players, obviously.

Dragonlance continues to be temporarily invigorated. Heroes of Steel is the first sourcebook for the 5th age game. Stuff for both DM and players, they obviously want to try hard to retain people beyond the corebook. Having got rid of the gods, they bring them back again pretty quickly, in Dragons of Summer flame. Takhisis is back, and as usual, she has evil plans. And they follow up on them straight away, in The Doom Brigade. Margaret Weis leaves her long term writing partner, and teams up with actual husband Don Perrin instead. The Chaos war continues to do a number on the setting you love.

The Realms sends you back in time to Netheril again, this time in game as well as fiction. See a time before the gods put the level 40 cap on humanity in the realms, and their other attempts to emulate the changes between 1st and 2nd ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic is the sourcebook, and Dangerous Games is part two of the novel trilogy. It's like Blackmoor all over again. It'll all end in tears and you know it.

Planescape fills in the astral plane. Another case where we say about time. When are you going to get round to the ethereal and inner planes? The really alien and hostile universes are the most fun to read about.

And our evil overmistress :Wolves howl, thunder rumbles: makes yet another attempt to fill her personal coffers at the expense of the company. Buck Rogers: A life in the future by Martin Caldin. Another book, another continuity from the last two attempts. Let this one die just like the rest.


The current Clack: Last month was filled with info from Origins. Now this one is even more jam packed with Gen Con goodies. Celebrity guests! Big new releases timed to coincide with the fair! A monty python & the holy grail TCG!!?!! Oh man, that's brilliant. I hope it's as snarkily deconstructive of it's source material as the film was. Hogshead are rereleasing Warhammer FRPG and WotC are once again making waves in terms of products and convention space, at this point actually outdoing TSR in attendance. Ok, that's the biggest pointer yet that TSR aren't the healthy market leaders they used to be, even if they try and put a joking spin on it. We really can't be far away from the buyout if that's the case. Very very interesting.


Yup, as usual for october, this is a pretty good issue overall. There's lots of good, highly usable articles, and the bad ones are mostly flawed in interesting ways, keeping me from getting bored and making me want to read onwards. It does seem like the magazine is finally getting better again overall, partly because we are getting some very specific ideas, some of which disagree with other ones. So it seems I get to move on feeling quite cheerful for a change. Calm before the storm and all that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. Hmm. Another cover I wasn't too keen on at first. It looks like a highly zoomed in photograph of a mini. Actually looking at the description, it turns out to be their first all CGI model. Which would also explain why the resolution looks a bit weird and grainy, but there is a genuine sense of 3D. Computers still have quite a way to go before they can produce realistic looking images, but hey, we'll get to watch Reboot and Toy Story in the meantime. There doesn't seem to be a definite theme this month, but a good 3 of the articles are sea based, so we'll go with that. You know, you've advertised themed episodes before when you only had two articles on a topic. I suppose that was a different age. :|


In this issue:


The wyrm's turn: Another editorial charting the rise of online gaming. We're now at the point where the average person has at least heard of the internet, even if they might not have signed up yet, and it's pretty easy to find people to play a game with online. Chatrooms can connect you with people around the world instantly, and many have virtual dice rollers that allow you to roll any amount of any-sided dice you desire. (Thanks, SeaCHAT!) In fact, not seeing the faces of the people you're playing with can actually help your imagination. It certainly makes it easier to play characters of the other gender convincingly. We're most of the way along that path of history now, but it's still nice to see it mentioned, as it gives me another chance to talk about things happening outside the roleplaying sphere. Not everyone may want to play online, but it does offer some definite advantages and disadvantages, and only a fool would ignore that option completely.


D-Mail: One of those letters that comments on nearly everything, and then asks if it's worth subscribing to the magazine. Um, you're getting more than 3 times the page count of those hardcover books you could get for the same price. Economywise, I think that's a pretty decent move.

A complaint that Bookwyrms doesn't have nearly the reviewing rigour of The Role of Books. Guilty as charged. We just want to do some pimping in the hopes of getting free stuff.

A complaint they don't do enough planescape stuff. The nature of the magazine means they can never do enough stuff on any particular campaign, (apart from the Realms, which is getting pretty saturated) and even if they wanted to, people aren't sending enough in for that anyway. You'll just have to live with it, and be thankful specific settings are getting any support at all, because there's a rather vocal minority which want everything generic, all the time.


Planar heroes: Kicking things off is a 16 page extravaganza of Skills and Powers material. Blergh. That's a lot of stuff I'm never going to touch, even if it is for a setting I love. While I'm sure there are people who really want S&P racial builds for tieflings, aasimar, bariaur, gith, rogue modrons et all, I'm not one of them. Some of the abilities they can buy are pretty damn twinked as well. Regeneration, immunity to level draining, plane shifting, wings, magic resistance, all that good stuff is available if you're a member of the right race for surprisingly reasonable costs. On top of that, there's a bunch of new class abilities and restrictions, many of them not even focussed upon the planes. So I'm decidedly ambivalent about this. On one hand, I can recognise that it is a rather large, impressive bit of writing. On the other, I can see the twinking potential from even a cursory examination, and it highlights the fact that any rules revision requires a ton of revisiting existing works to make them all compatible and updated. The overall effect is to remind me how bloated 2e has become, and how much 3e will also become in time. And massive rules splorps like this are the quickest way to make that happen. Not a good way to start things.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 2/8


Mage on deck!: Oh dear. Sea mages & magic again. Considering that was given a quite solid treatment in issue 220, hardly any time ago really, my rehash alarm is being sent into high alert. The result is a bit iffy, but is aware of the previous entry and tries to take a different approach. Where that made them into a specialist wizard type, this does them as a kit, which allows them to make their benefits and penalties a little more subtle and idiosyncratic. (and also make them more fragile, because they lose their extra powers if they ever settle down and become a landlubber. ) It does raise serious questions about concept implementation and niche protection, which again shows up the problem with AD&D's current ruleset, gradually accreting extra bits and pieces ad hoc from different writers. However despite the larger editorial issues the appearance of this article indicates, taken individually, it's actually a slight improvement on the previous one, with more amusing little flavour bits, and a much larger selection of new spells. So this is one case where they manage to justify the repeated topic, but doesn't leave me totally satisfied. Now let's look at the spells, see how many of them are variants of already existing ones and how they compare mechanically.

Absolute Location is a fairly basic homing pigeon thing. Seen that before.

Cast-iron Stomach lets you consume manky rations & weird foreign stuff without fear. I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of these basic practical spells over the course of this.

Cure Lumber is also self-explanatory. It may save time, but only once your wizard has a decent few levels up. Remember, rememorisation is a bitch, especially at the 1 spell a day level.

Depthsounder means you don't have to carefully measure out rope to see how many fathoms the sea bed is. It's duration is fairly short, so it may run out before you get through big reefs. Better get sailing then.

Detect Structural Flaw is another one that lets you condense hours of careful examination into 10 minutes chanting. Now you just have to schedule regular maintenance time to actually apply that knowledge. Don't get complacent.

Desalinate is for those who don't have the levels to make water from nothing. And since a ship's crew can get through a LOT of water, this'll help you stave off pissdrinking for quite a while longer, hopefully. Then you just have to deal with weeks of getting weaker & starving.

Predict Tide is only really useful if you've been knocked out & imprisoned for ages, or live on a world with multiple moons which make the tides more complicated. Otherwise, you really ought to be able to remember this stuff yourself.

Preserve keeps yer perishables intact for a year. Make sure you write down somewhere what's expiring when. Logistics is a crucial part of long journeys.

Protection from Rust is another one that's long term, but certainly not permanent. After all, the shipmages want to stay in regular employment, not get hired once during construction then ignored. Tactics as well as logistics, y'see.

Strip continues the basic function accelerators. This is going on for ages. Just how much more can we take? I suppose you'd need a specialist to get near to having all these spells memorised.

Vermin-ward lets you keep rats off the ship. But then how will the sailors know if it's sinking?! I suppose that's another reason to keep the wizard around.

Anchor starts us off on the 2nd level spells. Not only able to do it faster than a manual drop, but also able to halt enemy ships if you can get onboard. This one seems ideal for extending the range with spectral hand.

Collision Alarm is your basic awooga. It won't spot people swimming up to the boat though. Watch out for ninja pirates pulling their appearing tricks.

Diskboat is a hybrid between a rowboat and Tenser's floating disk. Interesting. I suppose there are some definite benefits to floating just above the surface of the water. Just don't expect to avoid seasickness.

Fog Light actually works better in mist or fog than in open air. Well, magic doesn't have to be logical. And that does have a definite use, so you could see why someone'd develop it.

Eagle Vision basically does what the old magical item does. Always amusing to see that kind of retro-fitting added onto the game.

Fisheye lets you see better underwater. Also fairly obvious.

Flamedouse lets you get rid of fire more cleanly. After all, this is one thing you really want to get done in an emergency. Don't be afraid to wake your wizard in the middle of the night.

Gripdeck keeps people from slipping off in stormy weather. Also a perfect counter for Grease, which has long needed a better opposite than dispel magic.

Helmsman creates an unseen servant with specialised knowledge to pilot your ship. This seems like the kind of thing you could create a whole bunch of variants for. Selective intelligence! It's so much less likely to turn on you and try to take over the world than full sentience.

Intruder Alert is another expanded version of an existing spell, upgrading Alarm to cover an entire ship. That'll show those ninjas.

Seal says we're never gonna survive, unless we go a little crazy. And indeed, the sheer length of this article is starting to wear upon me. Too much filler!

Stormsail is another bit of basic reinforcement so when the weather gets tough, the tough keep going. Turn an obstacle into an opportunity and get there ahead of time.

Swim also adds basic skills to the unskilled. Swim swim swim like a fishie. Don't go sleepin' with the fishes though, as that's just gross.

Turn increases the maneuverability of your vessel. You'd better learn learn learn, learn to react appropriately if you don't want to overshoot.

Crew of Phantoms finally gets us to 3rd level spells, and further expands on the unseen servant idea. It's a good thing the numbers decrease as you go up in levels, or this'd take up half the issue.

Doublespace lets you fit twice as much in the hold. Make damn sure you've removed the excess before it wears off, for trying to fit a quart into a pint pot is very messy indeed.

Fast Travel Doesn't work as well as Haste does on individuals. Maybe if it were a few levels higher.

Locate Person is one I'm sure I've seen before. Well, it's such an obvious variant on an existing spell that multiple people would develop it independently, wouldn't they.

Phantom Sail is another way of keeping on going even when things are a complete mess. Mind you, it has a duration of concentration, so you'd better have that anti-slippage spell already cast if you're in the middle of a storm.

Robust Construction is another example of impermanent protections that'll last quite a while, but keep the sailors coming back for more. Fantasy economics at it's finest.

Sail in Irons lets you stall an enemy ship. This seriously pisses off anyone on the locked ship, probably more than just grappling and robbing them. Really, it's just embarrassing, like a spell to make your trousers fall down. You know, they really ought to add that in one of their april issues.

Shield Vessel is yet anther large-scale variant of a lower level spell. Oh why couldn't stuff like that be a template. Then we wouldn't have to endure endless variants like this.

Hurricane Anchor will keep you safe from all but the strongest winds. Watch out for farmhouses from kansas though. If it's strong enough to pick one of those up, you're still screwed.

Smooth Sailing is pretty similar, only it keeps you moving as though the weather was mild and balmy. A better researcher could probably have condensed these into a single spell.

Wind of the Zephyrs lets a ship move faster in a more stable fashion than the lower level spell. It's reversible too, letting you slow down enemies and maybe even capsize them. It really ought to say how far you can target them at though.

Blinkship continues the larger scale spell adaptions with a particularly impressive trick. Even blink elephants'll look awkward next to this bit of teleporting confusion.

Wild Jibe sends a blast of wind to knock over an enemy ship. They really are obsessed with wind here. I would make a fart joke, but I'm feeling pretty deflated by now.

Dimensional Fog lets a nasty wizard pull the Ravenloft trick, sending you to another world via fogbank. This works on a ship or landbound group of people, so it's not just for sea mages. And that's the end of that article.

 

[Orius]

There doesn't seem to be a definite theme this month, but a good 3 of the articles are sea based, so we'll go with that. You know, you've advertised themed episodes before when you only had two articles on a topic. I suppose that was a different age. :|

I dunno, I liked that the themes actually had more coverage than just two articles with the rest of the mag being reviews of just about anything else myself.

Planar heroes: Kicking things off is a 16 page extravaganza of Skills and Powers material. Blergh. That's a lot of stuff I'm never going to touch, even if it is for a setting I love. While I'm sure there are people who really want S&P racial builds for tieflings, aasimar, bariaur, gith, rogue modrons et all, I'm not one of them. Some of the abilities they can buy are pretty damn twinked as well. Regeneration, immunity to level draining, plane shifting, wings, magic resistance, all that good stuff is available if you're a member of the right race for surprisingly reasonable costs.

Well, it's useful if you want to use both Player's Option and Planescape together; the PO rules covers the standard campaigns easily enough, but Planescape isn't exactly standard. I haven't looked at the article in years though, so I can't be certain how badly overpowered some of the stuff can be, and the last time I would have checked it out I was still unaware of the inherent imbalances in the S&P material. Still, Planescape is the sort of setting where being powerful isn't a guaranteed success, so maybe it's not too bad.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 3/8


The dragon's bestiary: Another helping of aquatic monsters. As ever, they're hardly rare, but certainly not in proportion to their frequency in reality. As with the underdark stuff this year, we shall have to see if they avoid rehash the hard way.

Octo-jelly may sound comical, but they can certainly eat you up. Who'd want to hybridise octopi and jellyfish? Mad wizards once again proving their insanity, I guess.

Hide do exactly that, camouflaging themselves on the ocean floor and eating anything that comes on by. Seen that plenty of times on wildlife documentaries.

Gulpers, like snakes, make a living by swallowing creatures that it would seem rather improbable for them to do so. Make sure you have a dagger ready to cut yourself out.

Angler fish are another real life creature scaled up for fantasy purposes, but otherwise largely unchanged. Since we've seen a variant on this before in here, i yawn at this.

Viperfish are also converted pretty straight from reality. If one of these gets it's teeth into you, you're going to lose a big chunk of flesh, win or lose. Man, it's hard being an adventurer underwater.

Death minnows are easily both the funniest and scariest creature in this collection, with a cartoon-esque trick that'll disconcert your players. My sadism gland is already secreting away at this. A good end to a mostly mediocre collection.


Arcane Lore: Following on from the second take on sea magic, and more aquatic monsters, we have another set of nautical spells barely a year after the last one. This is not a very thrilling prospect to me, as you might expect. Once again they drive me away by repetition and lack of imagination.

Foul Rigging tangles all the enemies ropes, slowing them down for hours. That'll win you most races if you don't get caught out there. (I hate this job so much right now)

Land Call lets you know the direction to your destination. If you got blown off course, this is very helpful as usual. Mind there's nothing in the way.

Map is one that would be rather useful on land too. (if it worked) Just enchant it and it draws your travails for the next few days, no mess no fuss.

True Compass is a pretty direct bit of recycling from issue 220. Yawn.

Eagle eyes is also one I'm pretty sure I've seen variants on before here. No dice, dude.

Fantar's Shoal, on the other hand, is a new variant. It's essentially hold person on a ship scale. Temporary grounding with invisible planes of force is another mean trick for pirates to pull.

Flame Resistance is another one that's oh so very rehashed from last time.

Leomund's many life Preservers creates buoys for the crew. How very goofy. I wonder if Len would approve or not.

Morning Glory is an equipment only large scale burning hands. Careful who you spend time with in port sailors. Running away naked is rarely a fun experience.

Plug Leak provides short term relief so long term repairs can be implemented. Roll on higher levels so you can just summon a complete ship out of nothing.

Buoyancy allows you to save your stupid party fighter who insists on wearing plate armor on board and fighting the giant sea serpent in it. Rather a relief to have really, especially as it's rather open to creative applications. Watch those poor sahuguin try and escape now.

Fantar's Reef is a more vicious version of his previous spell, not only trapping a ship, but doing serious damage to it's underside.

Leomund's Lifeboat see's our tiny hutmaker's name aliterated in vain again. Well, I suppose he is from the Lendore Isles. He's got slightly more reason to research nautical lifesaver spells than Mordenkainen. Wizards and lusty wenches first!

Mentap's Mine makes you wonder why delayed blast fireball is 7th level. If it weren't for it's highly specific need to be attached to a ship, this would be almost as useful at half the level. Hmm. This is worth considering. Legacy issues can be a right pain.

Narcomb's Battened Hatches is another quick way of making sure sudden changes in situation don't ruin your ship. It is not idiot proof, however. Make sure you don't have a foolish and superstitious crew to mess things up.

Amgig's Rowers is one of those spells that will help you replace the human element. I'd prefer the undead touch, frankly. They last longer and can be used for other jobs as well.

Call Wind is another one that appeared in issue 220 as well, only this time it's lower level and a lot more convenient. Once again this writer is being quite generous with their spell's capabilities.

Ironside is your basic durability enhancer. No extra weight, no downsides apart from the duration. And a few more levels and you'll be able to fix that part. Y'know, we ought to have a special on magical ships at some point. The princess Ark shouldn't be alone in these pages.

Otiluke's Screen is a protective device, pretty similar to his sphere only larger and mobile when centered on a ship. It probably ought to be applicable to other vehicles too. Shields up, cap'n.

Repair Breech is a basic ship healing spell. If ironside's protection isn't enough, you use this next.

Spectral Navigator is essentially a shipbound version of Find the Path. It'll get you where you want to go safely, assuming you aren't hopelessly lost.

Raise Vessel brings a sunken ship to the surface. It won't fix the structural problems though, so you'd better get busy before it's duration runs out. More amusingly, it's reversible, which is a quick and brutal way to ruin your enemies day. So there is plenty of useful stuff here, as there's more actual spells than last time, and less ruminating on specialists. The two could well be combined to good effect.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 4/8


Bookwyrms: Alvin Journeyman by Orson Scott Card gets a positive review from the editors, showing his fall from grace in geek circles is still yet to come. The worldbuilding is interesting, and his characters have a distinctive voice. He just wishes they'd release new books a bit faster.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is one of those old classics that any self-respecting sci-fi fan ought to have read. A man driving himself to madness in an attempt to get away with murder in a telepath controlled future. With some fascinating word-pictures, precursors of modern text speak, and exceedingly clever plot twists, this gets inside your mind and shows you different ways to think. The science may not be that hard, but there's still plenty to speculate about here.

A game of Thrones by George R R Martin begins another epic series (that's also going to takes ages IRL and quite possibly never be finished) that takes fantasy in a somewhat different direction. Eschewing obvious good and bad guys for multilayered intrigue where no-one is safe, the twists just keep adding up. I doubt anyone can predict where it'll end.

The grid by Philip Kerr is a story of a computerised building turned sentient and malevolent, and trying to kill the people inside it. Wasn't that the plot of an X-files episode around this time as well? Well, at least it isn't going to take over the entire world like skynet.

Now you see it by Richard Matheson is a whodunnit involving a stage magician, who may well be using his craft to foil a murder investigation. This of course means plot twists and false reveals aplenty. So as usual, have fun seeing if you can guess the real killer and how they did it.

So you want to be a wizard by Diane Duane is another old book that they dig out to try and ensure younger readers of the magazine have shared cultural references with the editors. After all, it is perfectly targeted for kids, and it'll get you into the idea of building internally consistent magic systems. That's worth quite a bit to them.

The stars my destination by Alfred Bester is another of his old books that still has few direct peers. Once again, it shows us what we could be, if we only have the will to surpass our limitations, but also that people in power will fear you if you do, and try to keep you within their boxes.

War of the worlds: Global dispatches, edited by Kevin J Anderson lets a whole bunch of authors do slice-of-life examinations of the martian invasion as seen by different people in different cultures. You know, my class had to do exactly that as a project when I was 10. These are almost definitely better than what we wrote, but still, I find this spooky. I'm definitely going to track this one down.

The winter king by Bernard Cornwell tries to bring a bit of gritty historical realism to arthurian myth, downplaying the magic, and focussing on the real social changes of the 5th century. Oh, how very 90's. Meh. Once again, I'm not impressed by this column.


Tales of the fifth age: Relics by Jeff Grubb. Our themed fiction draws to a close with yet another low-key examination of what true heroism is. It's not about getting the praise for saving the world, although that certainly doesn't hurt. It's about the good you do for the people you know, not some anonymous and exaggerated tales. repeated by people in another country. And it's what you're prepared to do in the future, as much as what you've done in the past. But you shouldn't get cynical, and think all heroism is just exaggerations and putting a good spin on pragmatism. There are genuinely nice people out there, doing genuinely amazing things. So this isn't really a climax in any sense of the word, but a story of people carrying on another day, doing the best they can like they do in real life. The only truly happy ending is a new beginning. Actually, I have to wonder if sticking to that message so strongly was part of the reason the 5th age failed. People don't really want that level of realism in their storytelling, even if they say they might.

 

[jonesy]

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is one of those old classics that any self-respecting sci-fi fan ought to have read. A man driving himself to madness in an attempt to get away with murder in a telepath controlled future. With some fascinating word-pictures, precursors of modern text speak, and exceedingly clever plot twists, this gets inside your mind and shows you different ways to think. The science may not be that hard, but there's still plenty to speculate about here.

In the article on writing science fiction that was published in Redemolished (a short story collection that also has a deleted scene from The Demolished Man) Bester said that he'd been getting increasingly disgusted with the lack of originality in the scifi of his time. Hence, the book.

And it really is one of the best sci-fi stories of all time. I love how even the title of the book is something that turns out to be a twist. I wasn't expecting it to mean what it did, but it made sense when your society is dominated by espers.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 5/8


Network news: Another attempt to make joining the RPGA seem easy to do for newcomers? This is getting a bit repetitive really. Don't tell me the column is already outstaying it's welcome barely a year in. So yeah, this is them telling you all the benefits you'll get for signing up. It's worth it if you plan on attending even a single convention in a year! So give us your money! Yeah, this is one case where the attempts at entertainment fall flat, and this just reads as straight advertising. I'm not impressed.


Sage advice: How tall do you need to be to weird a longbow (at least medium size category. Yes, that does mean 4' 1" dwarves can wield 6' longbows. Maybe they hold it sideways)

What happens if you use attack modes on a nonpsionicist (nothing unless you use contact first. Yes, it's all backwards, but at least it's better than 1st edition. Do you remember 1st edition? Skip remembers 1st edition. Skip misses Gary. He was my best mate, y'know. Will you be my friend? :Rumble of thunder, ominous organ music: Yes, mistress, Skip'll get back to work now.

How much does making powers permanent by psychic surgery cost (However long the surgery lasts, you have to pay the cost that long. After that, it maintains itself, whether they like it or not. )

Can sha'irs hacve a signature spell (yes indeedy. It ony requires minor adjustments to work with them)

Can song mages canst sopells without singing using vocalise (No. No singing, no magic. )

Can yopu memorize cantrips asd your bonus 1st level spell as a specialist ( ```````yes)

Can the new rules frolm issue 232 be applied to the weapons in the PHB (Sure. You'll have to do the specifics yourself. Skip is a very busy sage. Very busy getting bery drfunk. )

Why do other specialists get wildf magic sopells when they caaaaant (HJave the freelancers been getting inna rules barn again. Skip qwill set rhetorical traps for them. Thatll teachem a lewsson, twist their tongues into a mobius loop and cut off their typin fingers. )

You blooped all over issue 231 ( Bloop? Skips stomach go bloop. Bloop. Bloop is a funny word. Booooooooooooop. Oops I did it again. )

I've already read the rod of 7 parts book. Can I play the adventure (Suuuuure. It's completely different. Buy two copies. :teeth with bits stiuck between: Wghy are you running away. That normally works great.)

What bonuses does a pixie cutpurse get (pixies are Soo twinkedas theives. They can theive better than the best. They'll make you dance to their tune and by the time you finish you've got no pants on and still feel greazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

 

[Jhaelen]

And it really is one of the best sci-fi stories of all time. I love how even the title of the book is something that turns out to be a twist. I wasn't expecting it to mean what it did, but it made sense when your society is dominated by espers.

I however, was quite disappointed when I read the book. I've read every novel that won the Hugo award and this is one of the very, very few I didn't like. It has, imho, not aged well at all.

I quite enjoyed 'The winter king' by Bernard Cornwell, though. It's a very good retelling of the story and basically leaves it to the reader to decide if there was any magic involved in anything or not. Everything that happens can be explained without having to resort to magic.

And Orson Scott Card was one of my favorite authors back then. His characterization was and is brilliant. He's written a couple of weak novels since then, but they're still mostly enjoyable.

 

[David Howery]

Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996


part 5/8


Network news: Another attempt to make joining the RPGA seem easy to do for newcomers? This is getting a bit repetitive really. Don't tell me the column is already outstaying it's welcome barely a year in. So yeah, this is them telling you all the benefits you'll get for signing up. It's worth it if you plan on attending even a single convention in a year! So give us your money! Yeah, this is one case where the attempts at entertainment fall flat, and this just reads as straight advertising. I'm not impressed.


Sage advice: How tall do you need to be to weird a longbow (at least medium size category. Yes, that does mean 4' 1" dwarves can wield 6' longbows. Maybe they hold it sideways)

What happens if you use attack modes on a nonpsionicist (nothing unless you use contact first. Yes, it's all backwards, but at least it's better than 1st edition. Do you remember 1st edition? Skip remembers 1st edition. Skip misses Gary. He was my best mate, y'know. Will you be my friend? :Rumble of thunder, ominous organ music: Yes, mistress, Skip'll get back to work now.

How much does making powers permanent by psychic surgery cost (However long the surgery lasts, you have to pay the cost that long. After that, it maintains itself, whether they like it or not. )

Can sha'irs hacve a signature spell (yes indeedy. It ony requires minor adjustments to work with them)

Can song mages canst sopells without singing using vocalise (No. No singing, no magic. )

Can yopu memorize cantrips asd your bonus 1st level spell as a specialist ( ```````yes)

Can the new rules frolm issue 232 be applied to the weapons in the PHB (Sure. You'll have to do the specifics yourself. Skip is a very busy sage. Very busy getting bery drfunk. )

Why do other specialists get wildf magic sopells when they caaaaant (HJave the freelancers been getting inna rules barn again. Skip qwill set rhetorical traps for them. Thatll teachem a lewsson, twist their tongues into a mobius loop and cut off their typin fingers. )

You blooped all over issue 231 ( Bloop? Skips stomach go bloop. Bloop. Bloop is a funny word. Booooooooooooop. Oops I did it again. )

I've already read the rod of 7 parts book. Can I play the adventure (Suuuuure. It's completely different. Buy two copies. :teeth with bits stiuck between: Wghy are you running away. That normally works great.)

What bonuses does a pixie cutpurse get (pixies are Soo twinkedas theives. They can theive better than the best. They'll make you dance to their tune and by the time you finish you've got no pants on and still feel greazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

*looks at all the typos and the comment about Skip getting drunk*

Were you getting a wee bit drunk yourself when you posted this?