Let's read the entire run

[jonesy]

Necromunda is another Games Workshop gateway drug, taking the warhammer 40k rules, simplifying them a little, and giving you a pretty cityscape for your minis to fight in. Rick finds this both amusing and impressive. His main complaints are that it can sometimes be tricky to calculate line-of sight, and that the board is large and takes so long to put together that assembling it for every game or storing it between them would be pains. Get a bigger house.

Necromunda is one of the best products GW ever put out. It's small scale, standalone, easy to play, and it doesn't take ages to finish a battle.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 237: Mid 1997


part 8/8


The current Clack: No surprise that this column is also very out of date and laughable in light of events. TSR experiencing substantial growth over the year?! I don't think they were being entirely honest in their reporting. That or it's the old story of expanding profits, but new expenditures exceeding revenue, resulting in spiralling debts even as they technically succeed. Other companies have been suffering pretty badly as well. The blame is laid upon the distributors as much as the public. They've been taken in by the CCG craze, and are only carrying the biggest items, leaving the others to rot, which hurts diversity quite a bit. Once again I wonder what history would have turned out like if CCG's hadn't been invented, or didn't wind up appealing so strongly to the same demographic as RPG's. If they weren't competing for shelf space, might TSR have survived? In any case, it would have been someone else than WotC that bought them if they'd still killed themselves through poor management and 3e would have been a very different beast. So I think this proves that you can't believe everything you read here, and that the explosion of CCG's did make a real difference to the RPG market. Very worth noting indeed.


I don't think it'll surprise you to hear that this issue is an absolute mess, with huge amounts of the articles stuck in different time zones, and the whole thing having the air of someone who's just woken up after being knocked out and trying to stagger their way home on automatic. That said, it still has two absolutely brilliant articles, and it's fair share of ok ones, so it doesn't feel wasted either. They've still got plenty of people sending in material, some of it quite good, and a fully built up infrastructure. They're not in a bad position to make a recovery, unlike far too many companies. Let's see how they pull it off.

 

[Orius]

The CCGs get a lot of blame, but I have to wonder just how much of it is the fault of Magic. How much of it was the result of underlying problems in the RPG industry to begin with? How much did these companies that took a hit from CCGs make the problems worse by trying to crank out their own CCGs to compete? TSR must have made their "many buckets" strategy even worse by cranking out 2 CCGs and Dragon Dice while having income problems with D&D. If WotC (or anyone else for that matter) never picked up M:tG from Garfield, would RPGs have collapsed on their own? I mean D&D did take some serious hits from WW's WoD stuff right before Magic hit.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 1/8


124 pages. Our second issue after the changeover, and things still look pretty much the same. The perspective on that dragon looks a bit awkward though. Not sure exactly where they're supposed to sit, and no way will that lance reach ahead of it's neck to actually be useful. I guess Dragonlance might have moved on from the actual lance thing, but people still haven't learnt from it's mistakes. Let's see if WotC is starting to learn from the mistakes of it's predecessor yet.


In this issue:


Even before the editorial, we have an updated product list for the rest of the year. It fits everything in in just 2 pages as well. When you contrast that with the 9 pages of cruft they had last issue, that looks like a huge improvement. They're already getting their acts together and hopefully cutting waste, which is a positive sign.


The Wyrm's turn: Dave Gross finally gets the hang of this telling stories from his past gaming experiences thing and making it entertaining. This is helped by the fact that he's picked the most insane parts of his youthful experiences, including cameos by the smurfs and the dread disco dragon. This kind of experience must be pretty much universal with first generation gamers, particularly ones that started young and made it up as they went along with their first group. And like most people, they eventually decided that was enough silliness, it's time to get Serious. It's pretty obvious that this editorial was originally intended for their april issue, one of the most anticipated (or dreaded) months of the year. But heaven knows we could do with a little levity about now, so they're bringing a good chunk of their joke articles over, and trying to get the right balance between comedy and serious ones. A development I have no problem with at all. Still, the real test of the new management will be seeing how they handle april next year, when they've had time to start writing their own material.


D-Mail is still stuck in last year, and being mainly positive. Actually it seems very strange that the proportion of positive letters would increase as the sales dropped. Are the editors being selective to make themselves look better, or is the removal of casuals leaving only hardcore fanboys, creating an echo chamber effect that leaves them out of touch with reality. Either way, it makes it even harder for them to figure out how to genuinely improve the magazine. But anyway.

We start with some nitpicking about Forgotten Realms dating. Like a long-running soap opera, even the official writers can't keep continuity straight anymore. Fortunately, they have a 4th wall breaking excuse to help them out. Elminster may have mastered 9th level spells, but his handwriting still sucks.

A letter from someone who thinks the magazine has improved quite a bit over the last year. Congratulations, at least you're winning some people back.

A complaint about them publishing articles that are basically just bits from recent supplements. The article you're specifically calling out wasn't one of those actually, but the basic point is valid. It is something that lowers the value of the magazine if they do it regularly.

A generally positive letter from someone who would like to see elves maintain their dominant position in the magazine. I think that's another fairly safe bet, given the number of freelancers that also enjoy writing about them.

A letter from someone who wants the dragons in Wyrms of the North more codified mechanically. But then DM's won't be so able to change things around for their game. Once again it's the Realms in particular that's being strangled by canon.

Yet another letter from someone who wants more Wyrms of the north and Wizards Three. The vote is in and the ayes win. Ed'd better keep cranking then. I hope he's getting well paid for all this.


Mommy dearest: Bwahahahaha! This is an old school comedy article and a half. We haven't had a cheesy new class for April since back in the 1e days. And since this isn't april, I guess we still haven't. So here's the Mother Class. In classic style, it has branching advancement paths, going to Grandmother, and then giving you the choice of Great-Grandmother or Fairy Godmother at really high level. Their abilities are pretty much what you would expect. Kissing it better, sending you to your room, mastery of gossip, always being able to find something wrong in what you're doing. Anyone of the politically correct ilk will not find this funny. Me? I find more issue with the fact that the granted powers show up really unevenly, with huge amounts at 9th and 16th level, and tons of dead levels inbetween. Is that what you call a fair way to build a class dear? I don't think so. Go back upstairs and don't come down again until you've sorted yourself out.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 2/8


Villains, like fine wine: Or let's make having characters who are centuries old actually mean something. What have they accumulated over the years? Is there a particular era they've got stuck in in terms of morals or fashion. How does that affect their behaviour. What unorthodox tricks have they developed with their abilities over the years? What goals do they pursue, and how do they stave off the boredom and ennui of the years pressing down upon them? It's a complicated question, but the answers are generally pretty similar to those already given for dragons in recent birthday issues. To believably live that long, they need to have plenty of contingencies set up, contacts all over the place with favours owing or owed, and vintage gear that they'll be very annoyed if you break. This means work building the character, and making sure they don't go down like punks in their first encounter with the PC's, wasting all that effort. So this is a more general application of a principle we've seen used before for a specific case. Normally it's the other way round, but either keeps things from getting too tediously rehashed. You can have plenty of fun doing this, so it's not bad to be reminded of it.


Bard on the run: Obviously april is long come and gone. But the filks must be heard! This time they name not only the artists they're parodying, but also the specific songs, which makes things much easier for me, as I can just go to youtube and find out exactly what tunes they're meant to be sung too. In any case, here's a full 8 songs, including a full length parody of American Pie about the loss of magic and discovery of Sorcery in Dragonlance, plus songs for both sides of the blood war. It's actually a pretty good collection, and I have no objection to the presentation this time around either. So I think they've actually improved on things this time around, even if the songs still aren't very up to date. Well, I guess they've had extra time to think about exactly how they want to run this.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Buh. Once again they do a close recycle of a very recent theme indeed. Their editorial control is really going out the window. Villainous items that'll be rather inconvenient for PC's to profit from (unless they read issue 215) Ok, the undead focus has been removed this time, but it still turned up just 4 issues ago. It's almost like their writers are echoing each other. Buh and buh again.

Betrayers shrouds let you mind people into doing nasty stuff to other people. This is obviously easer if they're already naturally inclined that way.

Black crystal balls put a dreadful slant on all the news they deliver. Just like real TV then. This has a corruptive effect over time, which means you'll become paranoid and preemptively treacherous. Just a normal day at the TSR office.

Chains of command are a bad pun with an obvious effect. Wrap someone up, they obey. Simple, handy and eyeroll-inducing.

Darkfire lanthorns burn the fat of innocents, and shed light or darkness at your whim. Neither are very pleasant for enemies caught in them.

Bloodbane inflicts a slow unpleasant death by destroying all your blood. Perfect for suiciding if you think you're about to be vampire chow then. See, these things can be useful for good guys too.

Gravebringers suck the lifeforce of everyone around you to make you into a near unstoppable juggernaut of destruction. As usual with AoE stuff, this will not make you popular with your friends. Still, singlehanded army slaughtering definitely has it's perks.

Brightstar daggers make you incredibly powerful for a very limited time, then kill you. Obviously only for those who want to die, or care nothing for their minions. Very cool idea though. This is a trick you see quite a bit in media, but not so much in gaming.

Enchanter's knives let you transfer the Con loss from making magic items to some other sucker. Given how annoying that is, this will be pretty tempting even to good characters.

Ebony helms are another highly ingenious trick. You think you're getting a badass skull mask. Really, you're signing away your independence to an evil wizard. Not cool at all.

Honeydrops make you susceptible to minding. Mmmm, sweet sweet minding. Still, booze would probably be cheaper and almost as effective.

Iron Maiden's Plate gives you a quick spiky death if you put it on. Yet another Sucker! item with no use other than leaving in treasure hoards as a trap.

A Shield of the faithless is useful for bad guys, cursed for good guys, but still a lot broader in it's applicability than the one religion shields from a little while ago. Another near direct recycle then.

Staves of bones multiply your undead creating powers 10 fold. Finally, undead armies you don't have to spend months painstakingly digging up and animating a few a night! Another one certain adventurers will find very tempting.

 

[Orius]

Anyone of the politically correct ilk will not find this funny.

Judging from some of the angry letters that showed up for several months later, many of them didn't. Still, if it's a joke April type article, I wouldn't expect much balance in it anyway.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 3/8


Gangsters of the underdark: Okay, here we go again with the belated april fools material, in a direct follow-up to last year's article of the same name. Get ready for real world and literary references aplenty, many of which I won't get, and some absolutely terrible puns.

Da Pen takes the godfather references to a new level of cheesiness, with a Marlon Brando Aboleth and sufficient metaness to make me groan repeatedly, including a deadline joke that seems very ironic given what's happened to the magazine this year. If these are about getting a reaction, this one is definitely a success so far.

"Tommy Gun" Tortello once again makes me go WTF with his mishmash of pop culture jokes, and attempts to lampshade how they could be combined into one character and make sense within the setting. You really don't want to spend time with him, for death by exposition is a terrible way to go.

Master Furli is an amalgamation of comical sidekick traits which once again, feels like they're trying to pack as many references as they can into a character that would die exceedingly quickly if the forces of drama weren't on their side. Really, his only purpose is to serve as a stalking horse, and make even sir Elliot of Kness facepalm on a regular basis. Go go gadget cravat. :-/

Vanyard " The Fox" on the other hand is instantly recognisable to me. It's an X-files reference! And oh dear, the lengths they go to make a truth is out there pun is quite considerable. Other than that, he's actually a pretty straight conversion. Course, that in itself makes things all the sillier in a regular D&D campaign.

Danna the Skull makes things completely obvious, as if they weren't already. The doctor thing becomes study as a necromancer, and there's another terrible pun worked in with great aplomb. And to top it all off, they even manage to weave Elminster into their web of conspiracy. This has certainly been one of the most elaborately set-up joke articles they've managed, especially when combined with last year.


The return of the wizards three: It's been rather longer than they'd hoped since the plane-hopping wizards last got to meet up. Things haven't gone very well for Krynn or Oerth. In fact, since Krynn lost it's magic system, Dalamar can't even get here, and the others are not inclined to risk their hides going to look for him. In the face of metaplot, even the gods themselves can wind up going out like punks. What odds a mere archmage? Still, El has a solution to prevent this column undergoing an awkward name change. He's been training up an apprentice for just this kind of eventuality. Say hello to Rauthene, a rather promising protege. (although I suspect their reasons for focussing on her are not entirely due to her natural magical talent. ) She'll get to be the butt of the jokes (which is where all that ice-cream is likely to go ) in quite a different way to Dal. The lechery content is way up in this one, as is the metaness. Both the 4th wall and the censors need reinforcing. Ed really does have a dirty mind. I wonder if we'll see any more of that under the new management.

Spell Echo lets you engage in magical forensics finding out what's been cast in the area recently, and possibly get some hints as to how to cast it yourself. That ought to be worth a decent bonus on your spell research rolls, and short circuit lots of mystery plots.

Scourge of Stars gives you a magical whip that gives you the hit points it drains from others. It lasts longer than vampiric touch, but doesn't hurt as much per hit. Seems pretty decent. Ed is building us up a nice collection of spells that make magic weapons over the years.

Firedart, on the other hand is one of those spells that's higher level than fireball, but also weaker. Another blah bit of blastage.

Turnblade lets you turn a weapon into any other weapon. Just the thing for multiclass wizards and anyone who wants to deal with inconvenient undead.

Backshift lets you screw up people's shapeshifting abilities in a rather amusing manner. Just the thing to deal with a Dragon that's been playing you for fools for a whole campaign and has recently decided to reveal itself and finish you.

Mystra's Unravelling is a close relation of Mordenkainen's disjunction, only Toril themed. It'll still permanently depower most magic items in it's AoE, so this is very much the D&D equivalent of the nuclear option. Another reason why archmages are scary things that other classes can't even touch if they do it right.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 4/8


Wyrms of the north: Ed is pretty whimsical most of the time anyway. But it seems like his second contribution this month was intended as an april fools one as well. A happy go lucky dragon who constantly crashes into things when flying, and treats evil creatures as a game to be played with, humiliating them, but never taking them seriously or killing them, and has insane amounts of lucky co-incidence insuring things work out for him. Like Master Furli from the gangsters article, I can trace the cartoon antecedents of this character with great ease and pity anyone who encounters him. If he's on your side, it'll be excruciating, and if he's an enemy it will be doubly so. Stuff like this makes Elminster look better by comparison, as at least he knows when he's irritating people, does it on purpose, and has the sense to get sensible when it's needed. The new spells give new uses for teleportation that also have extensive comical applications, particularly Frame Teleport, which makes for serious oh moments when he extends the duration and poses as a stuffed Dragon head. So this is one of those instances where Ed is simultaneously brilliant and incredibly annoying, and I'm not sure which to give more weight too. I guess your milage will probably vary. Still, he certainly remains interesting.


Frequently asked questions: But not many answers, it seems. They might be assuring us that they're aware of our concerns in light of the takeover, but they're still being very cagey indeed on their decisions. The main thing we can draw from this is that they're definitely going to go where the money is, dropping anything that isn't profitable, and keeping the gamelines that are. Any vanity projects by the old company are ed. They probably will introduce a new edition at some point, but they would have done that anyway, and they certainly don't want to rush into it and alienate people. This isn't satisfying at all, but at least tells us things are likely to be more sensible from here on out. Whether that's a good thing or not, is very much a matter of opinion.


Bookwyrms: The widowmaker by Mike Resnick showcases another thing that's different about this than the proper reviews. They do a lot more books that are in a continuing series. In this case it's the story of a terminally ill gunslinger and his younger healthier clone that's being used to fund his survival. This allows you to fit plenty of questions about ethics and identity into the action, which sounds like it makes for good sci-fi.

Orion among the stars by Ben Bova sees them pull a bit of nepotism for the magazine's new contributor and recommend his latest book. This time, it's enough with the real world history and into the far future for some epic interstellar war. Once again, I don't really have a complaint about the book, just the fact that this seems rather obvious in light of recent events.

3001: the final odyssey by Arthur C Clarke sees the editing go out of the window as the 1's are replaced with 7's not just once but 3 times. WTF man? More dawizard to your credibility, methinks. Anyway, we finally get a few more answers as to what the hell this was about, presuming you can get through the pacing, which if anything is even more ponderous than the first one. I think we may have to differ in opinions on this one.

Nightlamp by Jack Vance once again takes us to unusual worlds and cultures, and gives us heroes who go against them, at a rather faster pace than Mr Clarke. Again, this seems like such an obvious choice that I'm not sure why they need to recommend it. Actually, looking at wikipedia, it does seem that many of his books have had small runs and gone out of print over the years, so he might not be a rich as we'd expect from an author this big. Hmm. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

Desperation by Stephen King seems to have a lot of familiar elements too, drawn directly from his own life. Another tale of small town horror against a mysterious supernatural being. Course, he's very good at writing this stuff, so that just means it's a safe buy if you like this stuff.

The regulators by Richard Bachman is one worthy of note, because this is a psudonym of Stephen King, and the two books are strongly linked thematically, showing us the same characters, confronting the same adversary in two rather different parallel realities. That's interesting as both writing and a marketing trick. I approve.

The sandman: book of dreams, edited by by Neil Gaiman & Ed Kramer is a short fiction anthology set in the world of the comics. This proves that the art is not essential to making good stories here, and they manage to be both good and quite varied. Neil isn't bad as a critic either it seems.

Lord of the Isles by David Drake is a little less predictable, as the sci-fi author tries his hand at a fantasy doorstopper. Obviously the writer considers it a success, otherwise it wouldn't be appearing in this column.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is another no-brainer recommendation, especially as they just mentioned another book by him just a moment ago. This just feels like playing it safe to a ridiculous level. Who do they think is reading this? We are quite capable of doing a little follow-up investigation of our own, especially now we have access to the internet.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 5/8


Fiction: Nothing but trouble by Ed Greenwood. A third contribution by Ed this month. Well, if they're having to make some hard choices which articles to keep, and which to drop from their 6 month hiatus, it's certainly not going to be Ed's. And if they're short of contributors because people are pissed off they haven't been answering mail for ages, I'm pretty sure he has enough spare material to make up the deficit, so he wins either way. Actually, I don't think he's done completely system-free fiction in the magazine before, so this shows him once again showing off his flexibility. And also his dirty mind, because this story is so filled with innuendo and dirty humour (and full-on genderswitching, just to underscore what a filthy bugger Elminster is) as to make many a young geek blush. They may not have officially repealed the TSR code of conduct yet, but he's already getting away with rather more than he could under the old regime. Which amuses me no end. Also pleasing is that we finally get to meet Mirt the Moneylender, who's been mentioned casually before, but not really filled in as a character. And he certainly distinguishes himself from Elminster nicely, being competent and quick-witted, but certainly not godlike or immune to the ravages of time and chance. In fact, he makes for a rather more interesting protagonist. So this definitely helps me fill in a little more knowledge of the Realms, and makes it clear Ed's not going anywhere soon. In fact, he might be even more entertaining now. Mwa ha, muahaha!


The dragon's bestiary: Sewers! For the first time in over 2 years, we have a monster topic that isn't rehashed! One I'm surprised we haven't seen before too, given that they make another good excuse for interesting and distinctive dungeon environments. This seems rather promising.

Necromantic sludge is what happens when wizards keep on performing alchemical experiments and just dumping the remains. It may well develop intelligence and start oozing around making a pest of itself. No good deed goes unpunished.

Plague moths are another magical experiment that backfired. Instead of a poison, they produce the effects of some random potion when they bite you. Course, since they come in large groups, that means the miscibility table becomes an issue. What an ingenious idea. You could definitely profit from these little guys, but it would be a painful process requiring lots of suffering and careful sorting of captured moths. I strongly approve.

Albino Crocodiles are your basic urban legend fuel. Years of being exposed to magical goop does not make them easier to beat. Another neat little encounter idea.

Water cats are not only good swimmers, but intelligent and with a very special poisonous bite that can provide an excuse for another classic sewer trope, the clan of mutants lurking beneath the city. They can simultaneously save your life and ruin it. How's that for fun.

Lich's blood is another form of malfunctioning magical goop. It eats your magic, so spells will be useless against it. A decent end to a nicely themed collection that are perfectly designed to be weaved together into a single adventure.


Forum pulls itself together as they try and ease back into a regular routine again. There is something different though. Hmm, what is it? It's a lot bigger than it's been for a year for a start. Oh, oh, oh! They now have headers on the letters, for the tl:dr amongst you. That is interesting. Not a bad idea, really.

Peter Johansson backs up the people who say spellbooks should be pretty hefty. In case you'd forgotten during the interim. And again I yawn.

Kevin McMahon puts a very specific slant on the low magic issue by bringing up resurrection. Of all magics, this is one that changes people's behaviour the most. When you have life insurance that really means something, it really affects how you play your character, often for the worse. Ban it, make death regain it's sting.

Amber Decker also supports lower magic than the average D&D world. The 5th age stuff has particularly regained it's mystery with the recent changes.

LT Bruce F. Beyers wants the cavalier back as a full class in itself. The 2e kit is ridiculously nerfed! Nostalgia does silly things. I wonder if anyone's going to deconstruct you.

Chuck Moffat shares his multiple specialisation rules with us. Players really fear Driz'zt under these house rules. And his own drow fighter/mage/thief with exploding cigars. He's obviously heavily inclined towards the cheese side.

Daniel Bishop disagrees with Dale. PC's and NPC's ought to operate under the same physics, even if they don't have the same abilities, and there ought to be an IC rationale for why they can make exceptions to the game rules. Because is not a reason in itself.

John Cudmore gives his reasoning for why high and grey elves have the names and behaviour they do. Semantics, like statistics, can make the same thing appear to be many things, all perfectly plausible to the casual observer.

Alexander Fontenot tries to defend dual classing. The first reason, that of powerful subclass combinations is reasonable, the rest doesn't hold up so well. A lot of us get pretty good at multiple things in our so-called short lifespans, often simultaneously.

Paul A Schreiber brings back the parrying problem. Weapon sizes ought to play into it significantly, but skill is still the primary determiner. This one still needs a little refinement.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 6/8


Sage advice also seems to be in a time warp from april this month. How silly is that.
Define spasmed, shocked and scorched. ( Oh yeah, we have formal game effects for each of those words now. Isn't that useful. We must remember to keep those for the next edition. )

Where does righteous wrath of the faithful transport allies too. Which sphere is it really in? (it transports them emotionally, maaaaaaan. Skip thinks it fits better in combat than war. )

What happens if a lupin becomes a werewolf. (much emoness. They have become the thing they hate the most, and will do anything they can to be rid of the curse. )

My druid kept summoning fire elementals in the hope of getting an efreeti, and then wishing his ability scores up until they were all level 25. Is this allowed. (Technically, but lets look at the math. You've only got a 4% chance per casting, which means if you're 16+ level and fill all your slots, you still only get a an average of 0.24 efreeti per day. Plus it takes 10 wishes to raise your scores after 18, and 20 for each point above 20. It'll take years to do this even if you're lucky. And if you're not, who knows what tricks the efreet might pull for this kind of indignity. This is a great plot opportunity for you to screw him over.)

Are bracers of defense armour or not (no, but you should still punish attempts to twink due to that fact. Skip keeps old skool antagonism alive, just for you.)

Can you have a sepia snake sigil tattoo (no)

Can you repair an apparatus of kawalish (yes, but a regular blacksmith wouldn't have a clue how. )

Does an enchanted shield count as a magic weapon if you bash with it (Hmm. Skip will say yes, but gives individual GM's full freedom to say no.)

I have my own interpretation of how frisky chest works (Excuse me?! Are you The Sage? No. Skip is The Sage. You ask the questions. Skip answers them. Of all the nerve. Kids these days. No respect.)

Shove 29 tiny marshmallows up your nose and try and sneeze them out (man what. And Skip thought Skip was cracking up under the pressure of She who must not be named's rule. Skip can't be bothered with this. )

What happens if the character is smarter than the player. (let them make ability checks to solve problems they can't)

What happens if you drink sovereign glue (Hmm. Let's try it, shall we. Glug, peh, peh, peh. Morf morf gnorf schplorf. Schnorplf hgnorplf ooooruuuugh! )

Does cure disease prevent you from developing resistance to diseases (probably. This is why overreliance on magic is bad for the fibre. Makes you soft.)

Can you lay on hands if your hands are cut off (yes. Just use the stumps. )

If hit points are abstract getting better at fighting, rather than being able to actually sustain more damage, why don't healing spells restore more to high level characters ( Because we didn't think it through at the time. It was 1979. We were more concerned with our hairstyles and funky disco moves than engaging our brains.)

Can you use shocking grasp as a defibrilator (no)


The dragon's bestiary II: A second bestiary this month? Dear oh dear. In the chaos and uncertainty, they're retreating, relying heavily on proven topics. In this case, it's back to the undead to add a couple new varieties of Mummy.

Bog Mummies, unsurprisingly, are from peaty places like oierland. They aren't diseased, but their waterlogged nature makes them a bitch to deal with. Another thing with an annoying tendency towards advancing relentlessly.

Ice Mummies bring the south american preservation to the party. Unsurprisingly, they then ruin said party. They too are pretty predictable really. This is nowhere near as good as the other bestiary entry.