Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 7/8


Rogues Gallery: Silent Sheehan is our only character this month, a grave-robbing dwarf sucked into Ravenloft and given a snake's tongue for his incessant lying. This has slowed him down a little bit, since Ravenloft peasants tend to be superstitious and take weird stuff like that seriously. He definitely seems like he might be useful as an antagonist or uneasy ally, and could develop (or degenerate) with the party as a campaign went on. Obviously it doesn't work so well in another campaign world, but this definitely has potential, and works quite nicely thematically. I think I approve.


Dungeon Mastery: Some 5th age stuff in this column, as we get advice on building an intrigue focussed campaign. Actually, it's system free, and the 5th age stuff is merely used as an example, which is one of the better compromises they can do to keep it's profile up in the magazine without getting in the way. And the advice is quite solid, while the example is very amusing. A scheming spoiled teenage princess as the main villain. Who'd suspect that when you aren't playing in a high school drama? I like this. I didn't think I would at first, and it is a bit more long-winded than I'd prefer, but it's still quite an enjoyable read once I got into it. And it also shows that the 5th age game's different mechanical focus means it might be better suited to this than D&D. Which does help us justify buying it as well, so this does it's job.


KotDT has an aesop's fable to deliver to everyone out there in readerland. Dragonmirth has some ridiculous weaponry. Swordplay are actually working together properly for a change. Floyd is about to face an empire of tiefling bunnies. Er, maybe.


Role-playing reviews: Back to Sci-fi again. Seems it's doing better than it has the last few years. Or maybe it's just doing better by comparison, given that D&D, Runequest and Rolemaster are all undergoing difficulties at the moment. Well, at least there's no shortage of games to choose. Buy now, because you never know when they might disappear again.

Traveller 4th edition tries to take things back to basics after the fragmentation of megatraveller and the new era. Character generation is mostly the same as ever, and the setting information in the corebook has been stripped back considerably, while taking us to after the war. So really, if you like it, this would be a good time to try and get new people interested.

Fading suns seems to be an attempt to apply the White Wolf aesthetic to far future sci-fi. Civilisation is in decline, resources are running out, and everyone is dooooooomed. Eventually. In the meantime, the stage is set for a rich and atmospheric universe for you to explore, and plenty of adversaries both internal and external for you to face. It all seems ready for a good long line of supplements filling things in, such as Byzantium Secundus, which gives us plenty of extra detail on the history and politics of the central worlds. And since it managed 7 years, 34 sourcebooks, plus d20 and LARP conversions before going on hiatus, I think this counts as a reasonable success.

Gatecrasher 2nd edition goes completely the opposite direction, converting the rules to FUDGE, and filling the setting with kitchen sink zaniness of the highest order. That's not to say it isn't highly playable, with plenty of the elements having potential to be quite scary if played straight. After all, transdimensional chaos means never knowing for sure what the rules are, which gets very stressful if you have to live through it the whole time.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Yup, as I thought last month, there have been lots of delays. Although we've updated to July, August, September and October this month, much of the stuff mentioned is a repeat of last time. So I shall skim that, and only go into more detail on the new stuff.

July repeats Finder's bane, Lord Soth, Planar Powers, and Tale of the Comet. (the novel)

August repeats Heroes of Defiance, The Day of the Tempest, The sea devils, Tale of the comet ( the sourcebook) Domains of Dread, The falcon and the wolf and Vinas Solamnus. There is some new stuff though.

The forgotten realms gets 4 books again. Powers and Pantheons. Isn't this like, the 3rd book on them. Just how many more secrets do they have to reveal. Lands of Intrigue gives us more info on Amn and Tethyr. If you want your adventures full of scheming and double dealing head there. We also get two sodding Drizzt novels. See what delays get you. Passage to Dawn by R. A. Salvadore and Shores of Dusk by Mark Anthony certainly sound like they belong to the same series. Guess his life is as eventful as ever.

There's also King of the Giantdowns for Birthright. A quite atmospheric sounding supplement. Isn't often you can manage much mystery in D&D, but this seems quite decent at it. Can you call on the buried giants in your hour of need, or will they ravage the country when their day comes.

September is mostly new stuff. It does, however rehash Faces of Evil, and War. Blaah. Onto the interesting bits.

Dragonlance gets the SAGA fate deck. Now you don't have to share if you want to play the 5th age game. If you just want to read, there's The Wayward Knights, number 7 in the Warriors series. The Tale of Sir Pirvan comes to a conclusion. Is it a happy one?

The Forgotten Realms is up to number 5 in the Nobles novels. Council of Blades by Paul Kidd. More swashbuckling action. No further info given.

The Sahuagin get their first tie-in adventure. Evil tide is the start of another trilogy. Living on the coast never seemed a less attractive option. This is why you need heroes to keep property prices from falling too far.

And Dragon Dice gets a strategy manual, following in Spellfire's footsteps. Now you can spend even more money on becoming optimal. The pokemon comparisons become increasingly apt around here.

October reschedules Lord of the Necropolis and Frostwings to then. Is that all of it, or will we have more schedule revisions detailed next month?

The Forgotten Realms finally gets a novel devoted to the Simbul. The Simbul's gift by Lynn Abbey. Once again, they are obviously relying on the name's selling power because they give no info on the plot at all.

Dragonlance gets Fistandantilus reborn by Doug Niles. You know, even if you bring him back, he'll have to start from scratch learning the new magic system. He won't be the great messiah you'd hoped for.

Planescape starts being really messed around. The Great Modron March is happening out of schedule! What the devil? Oh well, we're adventurers, lets go see what this is about.

And the wizard's spell compendium gets it's second volume. Yet more spells to make you so versatile you'll never lack for a trick to take down an enemy. Fear any player given free access to this.


The current clack, on the other hand, is still oblivious to the recent changes in schedule around here. Indeed, neither TSR or WotC get mentioned at all, the attention being on various other companies. As is often the case, the various licences are the most interesting part. Xena and Men in Black RPG's? Highly amusing. How did they wind up doing? Plus Indiana Jones and Star Wars are still doing nicely for themselves, and the Star Trek CCG has expansions for all the new shows and movies, which is the kind of thing that takes quite a bit of negotiating. I wonder how long they'll keep hold of the property. Also of interest is that they've finally released In Nomine, quite substantially altered from the French version. Another area where I'm quite curious. Why the redesign instead of a straight translation, and was it an improvement?


This issue is definitely better put together than the last issue, but there are still some fairly substantial problems. The tone is all over the place, with most of the articles playing it extra safe, but Ed is suddenly getting away with even more than he used too, which makes him stand out all the more. They've shown they're aware of the problems that led up to TSR's collapse, but still aren't sure what to do in response to them, which also comes off as a little wishy-washy. And they still aren't quite caught up on the schedule. Still, it made an interesting read precisely because of these problems, and leaves me rather optimistic for the immediate future. Just how much further will they have progressed by next month? I'll start finding out right away.

 

[prosfilaes]

As is often the case, the various licences are the most interesting part. Xena and Men in Black RPG's? Highly amusing. How did they wind up doing?

The Men in Black RPG had a couple supplements; personally, it struck me as too silly.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997

Xena and Men in Black RPG's? Highly amusing. How did they wind up doing?

Xena was a pretty good rules light game. At least, it seemed that way from reading it, as I never actually got to play. No idea how either did in the marketplace.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 239: September 1997


part 1/8


124 pages Another draconic close-up showing only the head and a bit of the wings on the cover. Give us the whole picture please, it looks more impressive when there's a real sense of scale. Plus if you miss things, it leaves you vulnerable to tricks from the hand you can't see. Which is this issues' theme again. Looks like we'll be getting a few more traps and diabolical schemes to make weak monsters scary and keep players on their toes. Will some of them be recycled? Previous issues and page references at the ready.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Ahh yes, illusionists pulling double fakeouts. There's a topic we've seen before. (issue 229) Dave Gross again gives his personal experience of this lovely bit of meanness. Plus the equally cruel trick of mixing gas spores and beholders, and having the big bad use extra tricks to make them more convincing. And the reaction to these kind of tricks is straight out of Knights of the Dinner Table. That's two entertaining editorials in a row. I think he might be getting better at this. In addition we see another sign that they're catching up with themselves here, as the staff list has changed again, with them losing an associate producer and changing their advertising guy. Ok, they're now a smaller team than they've been for quite some time, but I guess they don't have so much money. So this definitely shows them moving forward, while not losing touch with their past. I think that's a good sign.


D-Mail: Our first letter is from someone who missed the magazine, and is very pleased they're back. Guess the two issue lead in time continues to apply in this department, despite everything.

A letter praising their Dungeon Mastery article on incorporating more acting into your game. May this column long continue to flourish!

A letter from someone who thinks Dragon should cover other forms of gaming more. It's not as if we're a bunch of monomaniacs. And people will remember things better if there's more contrast.

In typical contrast, someone annoyed by Dragon Dice, because the same common monsters show up again and again, and there's not enough people to trade with in his area. The game isn't taking off the way they'd hoped, is it.

Another letter from someone who really liked the changes they made in the last year. They certainly seem to have no shortage of them writing in, despite everything that's happened.


Sneaky sea Devils: Sahuguin have never particularly been underdogs, with substantial scaling (fnarr) capabilities built in, plus spellcasting right from their original entry. But with their undersea environment, you have to think a little differently to come up with the best tactics and create the best possible technology with the resources available to them. Fortunately we have Skip on the job, and he's not only got enough to say on the subject to fill an entire book, but also has some leftovers for the magazine. So this is cut material, but pretty good cut material, that mostly stands alone, and goes into plenty of detail on each of the tactics they use, and how they work in context, given sahuguin's strengths and weaknesses. So they may be relying a little too much on staff writers, but since they're probably trying to get their submission flow back up and running, I can't complain too much, especially as long as the quality stays good. (which hasn't always been the case, as there have been issues where I've found the staff contributions to be the least interesting parts)

 

[Orius]

the Star Trek CCG has expansions for all the new shows and movies, which is the kind of thing that takes quite a bit of negotiating. I wonder how long they'll keep hold of the property.

Decipher managed to hold onto it until a few years ago actually. They outlasted a lot of the early CCGs (except Magic, but that's Magic), particularly the other licenced games. It's kind of a shame that some of the games I liked like the Star Wars CCG or Iron Crown's Middle-earth game didn't last but this game kept on trekking. Though my view is kind of biased by the early bland sets, apparently some of the later sets improved on the game. Decipher even had online interactive version of the game going a few years back.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 239: September 1997


part 2/8


101 dirty orc tricks: Tuckers kobolds style advice hits double digits! And well into the triple digits in terms of specific tactics! What more can I say at this point? I really don't know, since we've been here so many times before. I'm definitely running out of ideas. So yeah. 101 ideas, some new, some old, some borrowed, all concisely presented and useful. Th-th-that's all I have to say folks.


Legend of the 5 rings. A teaser advert that is once again out of date. I guess they paid for it ages ago, and still have to fulfil their commitments. Not very satisfying for either side at this point, as who's benefiting from it?


Aurora's undermountain sale: Now this is kind of another tie-in article, but not nearly so blatant. After all, Aurora's whole realms catalogue was released a good 5 years ago now, so this isn't commercially motivated at all and more of a follow-up, showing that this still has quite a few fans for it's detailed and playful worldbuilding. So here's 16 more nonmagical items that would be rather handy for adventurers, just in case you still have a bit of room in your pockets. And if you don't, they have better backpacks for you to buy too, so you can carry more with less risk of doing your back in. Power creep! Hey, if magic improved in RPG's at the same rate as computers in real life, people would be complaining it's totally unfair and breaks the game in no time. So yeah, there are a few improvements on standard fantasy technology, but none that don't work in reality as well. It just makes the realms a little more fantastical and less gritty. (not that it was ever hugely gritty, even at the start, what with all the hypermagical empires popping up and then blowing themselves to smithereens every few centuries. ) I have no problem with this, and found this a reasonably enjoyable read.


Magical locks: Another themed collection of magical items. Well, we've had doors ( issues 106 + 115) and keys. (issue 200) This would synergise well with those two. Perhaps one on magical chests some time as well please. Maybe. We'll have to see. In the meantime, it's the usual runthrough of what's in here and how imaginative it is.

Locks of Cages transport anyone trying to pick them into the classic minimus containment. They can't hold that many people though, so you'd better check them regularly if you're a big bad, and bring lots of henchmen if you're a PC. Yeah, bringing henchmen to go ahead of you is a good idea in general in dungeons.

Locks of Curses deliver personalised blights on anyone trying to get through them in unorthodox ways. Another classic, or highly cliched idea, depending on your current cynicism level.

Locks of Displacement are rather cleverer. The innards are not where they appear to be, making picking them a good deal trickier. Anything that doesn't rely on manipulating the mechanics can bypass this no trouble, so this isn't too valuable.

Locks of the Elemental Guardians summon an elemental to kick the butt of the lockpicker. Best to run. Guardians generally stick around, and if they do follow you, someone else can sneak through while they're distracted.

Locks of Etherealness just whisk your target away. Best used on chests, not doors.

Locks of Exploding are another one that has pretty limited use, for once blown, it's pretty much gone. Once again, henchmen to take the brunt will come in handy. RIP, Baldrick the 37th. Hello Baldrick the 38th. Nice to have you on the team.

Locks of petrification are meaner than I thought, because they only turn your hands to stone. This is painful and slowly fatal due to weight distribution and bloodflow issues rather than just freezing you in place. Not a nice way to go.

Locks of Riddles trap you in with them until you can crack their conundrum. Another method that'll make you exceedingly cautious next time if you manage to get out this time.

Locks of Shadow fade away, but keep their door closed. This can be solved by the gordian knot solution of breaking the whole door. Well, isn't that true of most of these. Don't forget to put protections on the walls, windows floor and roof too. Any weak spot can be exploited.

Locks of Shearing eat up anything used to pick them and spit it out in amusing fashion. Om nom nom. Another one that's best to get round by finding an alternate route, for losing your tools and possibly fingers doesn't sound cool.

Locks of Spell Holding, like the cursing ones, are mainly limited by your imagination. Still, they will need regular recharging. Acererak probably wouldn't get round to it between adventurer visits.

Locks of Transferrance teleport your stuff elsewhere, leaving you there naked. The standard is to put them just beyond the barrier, adding taunting to humiliation, but that is very open to customisation. Better hope the other henchmen in the team have the same size clothes.

Locks of Warning just make a racket, attracting any other safeguards the placer may have. So as usual, this is a fairly mixed bag, both in inventiveness and effectiveness. Should keep players busy and paranoid for a while.

 

[Orius]

101 dirty orc tricks: Tuckers kobolds style advice hits double digits! And well into the triple digits in terms of specific tactics! What more can I say at this point? I really don't know, since we've been here so many times before. I'm definitely running out of ideas. So yeah. 101 ideas, some new, some old, some borrowed, all concisely presented and useful. Th-th-that's all I have to say folks.

Well, it's good advice to keep repeating for the noobs, plus there's always the possibility that an experienced DM will pick up a new trick to add to his repetoire. I used some of the tricks in this article myself. The orc polymorphed into a puppy I used, but I used a whole litter of puppies instead of just one. It was quite amusing when the swashbuckling dual-wielding elf fighter in the party decided to go to sleep with a puppy under each arm; he woke up when one of the pair of burly, sweaty, smelly, hairy orc warriors he was cuddling elbowed him in the face. These tricks are much more fun when the players take the bait and then make things even worse.

Locks of Spell Holding, like the cursing ones, are mainly limited by your imagination. Still, they will need regular recharging. Acererak probably wouldn't get round to it between adventurer visits.

Locks of Transferrance teleport your stuff elsewhere, leaving you there naked. The standard is to put them just beyond the barrier, adding taunting to humiliation, but that is very open to customisation. Better hope the other henchmen in the team have the same size clothes.

Oh, didn't you read Return to the Tomb of Horrors? Acererak

Spoiler

imprisoned his balor father and uses the balor's demon minions as his personal servants. They're the demons that attack anyone who goes ethereal in the tomb, and they reset traps and repair tomb damage. So they would probably use their spell-like powers to rechage those suckers when needed

.

Besides that lock doesn't really seem like Acererak's personal style -- the next one does. Or spheres of annihilation, and that's when he's feeling merciful.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 239: September 1997


part 3/8


Wyrms of the north: Up to G this month. Here we take advantage of the draconic ability to live long, and help others prosper, with a copper dragon that has associated (serves really doesn't seem to be the right term) with a company of adventurers, and derives quite a bit of pleasure from seeing them develop over the years, and eventually have families, many of which have become adventurers themselves. Really, he occupies a place somewhere between kindly uncle and animal breeder, depending how cynical you are. This also becomes another opportunity for Ed to reveal there's been a lot more sex and smutty shenanigans over the years than the official records of the Realms have been allowed to let on, with matters of breeding playing a substantial part of this episode. So once again, we see him already getting away with far more than he used to. One wonders how much it was Kim and Roger editing out his excesses in the old days, and how much this is due to having been a regular for years and knowing he's valuable enough to the company that they can't say no so easily anymore. This adds an additional layer of entertainment to my reading. I guess it's the beginning of a new chapter in his story as well as the game's in general.


A saga of your own: Or how to convert other settings to the SAGA ruleset. The mechanics may be fairly simple in general, but there's still knack to making sure any new things you create are balanced with the existing ones. Unless you want them to be blatantly under or overpowered, that is, which is your prerogative in a homebrew game. Stephen Kenson provides some fairly balanced commentary on the quirks of the system, and how to convert to them. Of course, even if you do a bit of modding, the nature of the system means actual play will feel quite different from D&D, and whether that's a good or bad thing will depend upon you. So the question is what kind of games does the system encourage (and how does that compare to what the promoters say it encourages. ) and if you want to run games like that.


The ecology of the stirge: Warning, rehash alert! Hordes of low level biologicals approaching. If you haven't fought some of these guys several times in your adventuring career, you were probably playing in a game without random encounters, because stirges seem to be absolutely ubiquitous in a lot of environments. Since these are the kind of creature that could exist in reality, they get a fairly serious lifecycle examination. This is our first repeated ecology, strangely (see issue 83) and it is rather longer than the first time round. There are a few contradictory details, with this writer making them slightly less smart and co-operative than Ed did, but most of the stuff can be incorporated. I am a bit annoyed to find them rehashing ecologies even before 3rd edition, but the blame for that can go squarely at the editor rather than the writer. Don't do it again. :waves finger:

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 239: September 1997


part 4/8


The dragon's bestiary: More fae creatures? s sake. They really do seem to be overrepresented in this magazine, third only to undead and dragons. What did we do to deserve this? It's not even as if they're nearly as used in D&D in general. Another symptom of the problematic times.

Boggarts already appeared in issue 54, making this REALLY rehashed. Personality wise, they're near opposite to their previous incarnation, favouring the housework & well meaning tricks side over sadism. Just leave them alone and you'll be fine.

Clurichaun sneak into your wine cellar, and live off it. So you're safe if you do not drink …… wine. An irritating footnote in most adventurer's careers.

Wicked Leprechauns do exactly what it says on the tin. They trick you out of your stuff, or might just kill you with poison, depending how they're feeling.

Leshy are another reused name, also seen in issue 119. Your barrel, it is seriously scraped. I definitely think we need to find a new one. You know what havoc stuff like this plays with my indexing? They too are statistically quite different from their previous incarnation, but still probably a pain in the ass. I do not approve of this at all.


Arcane Lore: Stuff for larcenous spellcasters? Hmm. We've already had one article on how existing spells can enable wizards to beat thieves at their on job. I guess this'll make it even easier. Ho hum.

Appraisal lets you figure out how valuable something is. Seen this before in multiple contexts. Next!

Disawareness makes you look boring and unremarkable. This is often more useful than full invisibility. Everyone gets suspicious if a door opens and closes by itself. Some guy who looks like they belong can go anywhere. Basic principle I have profited from many times.

Instant Lockpick ensures you are never without equipment. No more smuggling stuff into prison up your butt if you're captured and stripped. Course, you'll still need to get your spellbook back, but that's next on the list. Good luck.

Lock Inspection gives you a good 25% bonus on your mechanical skills. A multiclass mage/thief will more than compensate for the xp splitting with stuff like this.

Muffling Blow silences whoever it hits temporarily, so you can have a battle without worrying about reinforcements. You cannot expect to take enemies out in one blow in D&D, even with backstab bonuses.

Audio Enhancer boosts your hear noise capabilities. The usual warning about loud noises being bad for you applies.

Feet of the cat lets you run and jump silently and with ease, for those rooftop gigs. Now you can keep up with those annoying psionicists, appearing and disappearing unexpectedly.

Forgery should also be pretty obvious. Doctor that to get in places. Yeah man, you'll never spot this one. Now if you can only remember the password. Oh well, a little ESP'll let you know exactly what the guards want to hear.

Minor Disarm automatically removes one trap, obsoleting remove traps just as Knock does open locks. 3rd level and wizards already make thieves look like chumps at their own game. Multiclass really is the way to go.

Silent Saw lets you cut through things at a distance, and completely silently. Another perfect espionage visual, that could also save your life by ruining machinery and architecture at a crucial point in an encounter.

Ghostly Garrotte is of course for remote strangling. If the big bad is at the other end of the room looking smug, this'll wipe the grin off his face and keep him from casting spells to support his minions.

Major Disarm lets you take all the hard work out of eliminating traps. It even has them automatically spring back to life afterwards, so you can waltz through and leave the owners bemused as to how they weren't triggered or disarmed. Man, being a wizard makes the ninja gig so much easier.

Remote Access creates a brief extradimensional window, perfect for a quick bit of filching or an impossible backstab. This could well be a tide turner if you use it right. Yoink the macguffin and high-tail it outta there. Yeah, this is a lot easier and more fun than learning to pick pockets the hard way.