Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 4/8


Bookwyrms changes reviewers again. Well, at least the editorial staff are delegating a bit more instead of piling this on their plate on top of everything else. Course, whether it'll be proper reviews again or just recommendations remains to be seen.

Giant bones by Peter S Beagle is a collection of short stories set in his established world. But it manages to hit that balance of being accessible to people who haven't read the previous stuff, while still providing useful supplemental material to those who have, and making it clear that there's solid worldbuilding behind them. Sounds like another good prospect for gaming in.

The gratitude of kings by Marion Zimmer Bradley is another follow-on book, this time giving a full book to someone who'd only appeared in short stories (and is ironically her last appearance before the author died). Her big secret is under threat, and of course she has to find a clever and unorthodox solution. Most plot threads are resolved, but a few are left open for a future that would never come. Oh well. That's the nature of life.

The gift by Patrick O'Leary involves the Arabian nights technique of telling a story within a story, which then turn out to be linked together and all add up to a coherent whole. Maybe it wraps things up a little too neatly actually, but it still examines the nature of storytelling while also telling a good story. You'll probably learn about craft more easily than reading a dry technical book on how to write.

The stars dispose by Michaela Roessner is a historical fantasy in the relatively low-key mold, keeping it's magic and villains subtle, it's characters non stereotyped, and it's history unbowdlerised. And it's cooking recipes included in an appendix at the back. Well, a little cheese to help the healthy brainfood go down rarely goes amiss.

Trader by Charles de Lint sees him do a take on the old body-swapping plotline. The people involved act with more common sense and personal agency than certain movies I could mention, and the ending is better than most of his books, but it's not completely without flaws. Still, this is another recommendation, so that makes it 5 for 5 again, which I'm not happy about. And indeed, quite a few other people must feel the same, because this is the last appearance of this column. So it looks like book reviews have gone out with a whimper, being watered down until they were of very little merit to the discerning reader. Which goes to show that taking the safe seeming path is not always the route to success, because if you don't stand out, you can just fade away and be forgotten, which is a failure in media terms.


Giants in the Earth returns! This is a turn up for the books. Lets hope the characters are a little less overpowered this time around.

And the answer is … yes. In principle, this is no different from the modern Rogues Galleries, since it involves an author statting out his own characters, which recently appeared in the magazine. The only difference is that it isn't a D&D property. So here we get to find out out a little more about J. Gregory Keyes' world of the Waterborn. They have an animistic cosmology that's in trouble because one spirit is trying to kill all the others and establish a monotheistic world with it in charge, and creating scary spirit-blooded to serve as it's mortal agents. Meanwhile, most shamen don't have the magical power to deal with spirits from a position of strength, having to rely on cunning and making deals instead. It's an interesting setup, and one that has humanity at a bit of a disadvantage. Which leaves people like Fool Wolf working hard for their heroism.

Perkar Kar Barku is the upright young hero of the Waterborn book, trying to do right by his goddess, and ruin the life of the big bad river god. He has a magic sword that has another little god bonded to it, which of course means he always has someone to banter with. And his stats are considerably less bloated than the average Forgotten Realms NPC. I think I might like to read about his adventures.

Hezhi Yehd Chadune is a good example of the power of the Waterborn. Only 13, she's already an incredibly powerful shaman with a whole load of spirits bonded to her. Not that she has it all good, with a strength of 4, and imperfect control over her still growing powers. Having a few fighty sorts around would probably be good for her health.

Tsem is her Half-Giant bodyguard, and is a good deal smarter than he seems, but still hardly a genius. Still, you don't really want a bodyguard to be too smart, just loyal, and he has that in spades. Once again he has fairly balanced ability scores, and skills that are chosen for flavor rather than twinkitude. So I think I can safely say I like this collection.

 

[LordVyreth]

I was a huge fan of Keyes in the early 2000s or so. Sadly, the Newton's Cannon series sort of petered off in the later books, and the Blackgod world (Fool Wolf's world,) only has two books. I haven't checked much of his later stuff, but judging by Wikipedia, he only dd another series since then that wasn't work on somebody else's universe. Still, it's worth taking a look. I always liked his use of perspective.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 5/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: The Bazaar continues to be much higher in both frequency and number of items per article than it was before the takeover. They really are playing it a lot safer than they used to, despite the revamped visuals. This time, the theme is items for travellers. Which is likely to be a lot more handy for adventurers than the last couple, but still means they can avoid excess focus on combat. Let's see how imaginative this bit of freelancing is.

Amulets of Warning save you the bother of casting alarm on your campsite every bloody night. You'll still need to pay attention, as it doesn't detect animals or undead. But still, it's another definite convenience that will make a whole group's life easier.

Traveler's Backpacks are near indestructible, protect the stuff inside, and float too. If you have bastard DM's who like to make all your items save after every fireball, you certainly won't regret this.

Bags of Cleanliness are yet another lifechanger, like real life washing machines, only portable and not requiring constant refuelling. Seems wizards are increasingly keen on creating conveniences that let them escape the medieval these days.

Hiking Boots let you tromp through any environment, and keep dry and comfortable. Course, if you only find one pair, expect the rest of the party to have trouble keeping up. I hope you're willing to share.

Marching Boots are even more likely to split the party. Moving half again as fast for half again as long? You'll leave them behind in no time. Put it on the heavily armoured fighter who's normally right down at speed 3 to avoid that.

Boots of Passage are more subtle. Like a druid, you can get through thick undergrowth easily without leaving a trace. If you have a druid and heavy party, this'll help your wizard keep up with them.

Boots of Trail Marking are a decidedly mixed benefit. Glowing footprints wherever you go? That could well become a liability. Still, it'll certainly make you notorious. Wear these around town and people'll be flocking to your door.

Bottles of Holding are another extradimensional item for your carrying convenience. You can never have too many of them. Just don't put it in your bag of holding, whatever you do.

Bows of Hunting are no better than normal in combat, but make you great at spotting and tracking down prey for your dinner. Since you may well be using that benefit daily in the wild, are you going to say no?

Canes of Evasion reduces your chance of random encounters by 3/4. This will of course also reduce your opportunities to gain XP. It may seem nice, but getting soft is a perpetual danger for adventurers.

Canes of Fire Starting let you avoid all that tedious business of rubbing sticks together for hours. Yet another convenience that you'll really miss when it runs out of charges.

Canes of Foraging let you find food in a rather less offensive way than the Bow of Hunting. Now you don't have to violate your vegetarian principles.

Capes of Comfort serve as both daywear and sleeping bag. Let''s hope the colour scheme is to your liking, because you'll be seeing a lot of it from now on.

Chalk of Trail Marking is another way of leaving hidden signs for yourself. Not nearly as fun as Merty's magical markers though.

Climbing Spikes are yet another tediously obvious item that does what it says on the tin.

Cloaks of Animal Kinship show that skinning creatures and wearing their fur can endear you to other members of their species. If only it worked that way for humans.

Camoflage Cloaks are like elven cloaks, only they only work in one specific terrain. Yawn again. Do we really need a whole bunch of weaker variants for existing stuff?

Good Weather Cloaks are another one that duplicate many previous items. Increased comfort? Everyone wants some of that, don't they.

Hammers of Climbing are to climbing spikes what magical bows are to magical arrows. Much much more reusable. Not really a big decision if you have the choice is it.

Helms of Infravision are yet another one we've seen a variant on before. Infravision granting stuff is hardly rare.

Helms of Excellent sight are another useful but familiar one. Still, bonuses on finding secret doors are still surprisingly rare. That's one power your players will love.

Machettes of Path Clearing are a far less subtle way of getting through undergrowth than the earlier boots. Another one that'll leave a very clear trail for anyone to follow. Watch out for pissed off druids.

Necklaces of Language let you understand a single extra language. Given item slot limitations, you may find yourself stuck with the wrong one in a pinch though. And for whatever reason, they aren't hot-swappable. Can't say I'm impressed with this design.

Pipes of aversion keep bugs away. Both Gandalf and Elminster probably approve of that comfort.

Rods of Attraction are another way of attracting easy meat. Keep this up and food'll actually be decently catered for in terms of magical items.

Rods of Direction are a variant on the Dowsing principle. Course, they tend to take you by the most direct route, which may well not be convenient. They have other limitations as well, which keeps them from being game-breaking.

Silver's Sustaining Satchel triples your food supplies. Just how many variants on this do we need?

Skillet's of Frying need no fire, and stay perfectly cool on the outside, making your cooking experiences much easier in the wilderness. Who wants burns, after all? Plus, fires do tend to attract attention. You might want a bit more stealth.

Stakes of Concealment tell creatures This is not the tent you're looking for. Well, spellcasters do need their sleep. Wandering monsters during the day is all very well, but if you have to get up in the middle of the night, your memorisation is seriously thrown out.

Torches of limited Light are only visible to those close to them. Now that is a clever trick and a good substitute for infravision. This is even more useful than a standard continual light globe.

Whistles of Repulsion are yet another meh improvement on a perfectly normal real world device. Ahh, the joys of ultrasonics.

 

[Orius]

Fiction: Wakes the Narrow forrest by J Gregory Keyes. Ah yes, Fool Wolf. I recall being told that he becomes another recurring character in the magazine, along with Orion and Ed's stable of bickering wizards. And as it turns out, he's a brooding loner hero who has some very good reasons for being the way he is. ...
My main complaint is of course with the complete failure of editing, putting the pages of the story in the wrong order, which took quite a bit of effort to unravel.

Ah yes, Fool Wolf. Along with Ben Bova's Orion + King Arthur stories, this series was one of my favorite sets of fiction from late 2e Dragon. He's an interesting barbarian anti-hero, but unlike the usual stereotype, he's devious and underhanded, and usually prefer to save his own skin rather than put it at risk. Actually, I think this one might be the weakest of all the stories I read, the subsequent ones all get interconnected later in the storyline, and it's pretty good too.

And yeah, the editing really screwed up here with the pages mixed up. It's a shame because it's one of the better pieces of fiction to appear in Dragon. A shame the error didn't occur with one of the more forgettable tie-in game fiction pieces.

Giants in the Earth returns! This is a turn up for the books. Lets hope the characters are a little less overpowered this time around.

And the answer is … yes. In principle, this is no different from the modern Rogues Galleries, since it involves an author statting out his own characters, which recently appeared in the magazine. The only difference is that it isn't a D&D property. So here we get to find out out a little more about J. Gregory Keyes' world of the Waterborn. They have an animistic cosmology that's in trouble because one spirit is trying to kill all the others and establish a monotheistic world with it in charge, and creating scary spirit-blooded to serve as it's mortal agents. Meanwhile, most shamen don't have the magical power to deal with spirits from a position of strength, having to rely on cunning and making deals instead. It's an interesting setup, and one that has humanity at a bit of a disadvantage. Which leaves people like Fool Wolf working hard for their heroism.

Yes, this was probably put in this issue as a tie-in with the fiction, since it's the same world. I enjoyed the Fool Wolf stories enough to check out the first Waterborn book, which was ok, but I liked the Fool Wolf stories a little better. Hezhi was a more sympathetic protagonist than Perkar, or at least I remember enjoying her part of the story more. I'm not entirely certain, but I think the events in the books take place a short time before the Fool Wolf stories, although there's no direct connection between the two.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 6/8


Arcane Lore: Only one spellbook this month. It is however, given an extra detailed and interesting write-up, with lots of information not only on the new spells, but what it actually does. As those who've studied D&D history will know, Rary is one of those characters who's got quite an interesting treatment. Originally just a bad joke of Brian Blume, retiring as soon as he got to Medium level, he was later turned into the traitor of the Circle of 8, which is very ironic when you consider the position the Blumes held in the company before leaving. But anyway, here's one of his spellbooks. And an evilly appropriate little thing it is, stealing other people's ideas and magic items, and funnelling them back to it's master, before disappearing when it's dupes owners start to get suspicious. Lost spellbook my arse. You can't even copy the new spells contained in it, so you'll soon lose access to them as well. This'll definitely cause the players much misery if they encounter it. Muahahahaha. I actually rather approve.

Rary's Empathic Projection is basically a cutdown ESP only affecting emotions. This is primarily important for the uses the book itself puts it to.

Rary's Mind Scan is upgraded ESP, letting you do a detailed probe of memories. This lets the book figure out exactly what you have worth taking, and when there are gaps in your routine to be exploited.

Rarys Hesitation increases spell casting times. Only really useful if you actually bother to track segments.

Rary's Protection from Scrying is pretty self-explanatory. This is used on the items stolen after they're teleported away, to make getting them back much harder. It even helps you figure out who's asking, so you can turn the tables. The kind of thing every archmage worth their salt should develop a variant on, and it's no surprise they're all so closely guarded.

Rary's Urgent Utterance is essentially quicken spell metamagic, letting you prepare to unleash another spell with a single word. Choose carefully, for it's still a lot trickier to access than it will be next edition.

Rary's Vicious Missiles is a somewhat underpowered 8th level spell that's mainly notable for another bad joke being applied to it. Guess this is in the old skool spirit after all, even if that is somewhat eyeroll inducing. It wasn't all great back then either.


Giants in the earth celebrates their return with a contest for characters. Just the way to build up a new supply for publication. All rights are of course transferred to TSR in perpetuity, blahblahblah, no royalties, no money even, just a free subscription. Not everything has got better since the takeover.


Dungeon mastery: After an issue that's generally been pretty crunch heavy, a bit of system free setting advice based on real world principles comes as a bit of light relief. So here's a whole bunch of spelunking terminology, which allows dungeoneers to sound smart by being able to refer to specific features with a single word while underground, which saves time when who knows what gribbleys may be chasing you, and you don't want to take a wrong turn and be cut off and die. It spans three pages, and does introduce some terms that I'm not familiar with, so it seems they haven't covered all this stuff despite all the underdark specials they've done over the course of the magazine's life. Plus it's a reminder that purely natural processes produce some weird and beautiful landscapes all on their own. Why shouldn't fantasy ones be even more imaginative, and entirely explainable in their own way. By adding more contrast, you make the mundane bits more valued as well. I approve of this one.


Dragonmirth reminds us that the trappings are not neccecarily the class. Swordplay are a bunch of pervs this month. KotDT need reminding that high rolls are not always good in hackmaster.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 7/8


Roleplaying reviews undergoes another change of writer, this time someone called Ray Winninger. Not inspiring confidence here guys! They also fall prey to the wave of rehash that's sweeping the nation, with another Call of Cthulhu special. We had one just 4 issues ago. Have your horizons really become that limited? Maybe we'll even get the same ones reviewed again with a different perspective. :/ No, I can't really give this a positive spin.

The complete masks of nyarlathotep has indeed turned up before, not only getting reviewed in issue 240, but the previous edition getting reviewed in issue 158. It gets a long and gushingly positive review that really just cements it's place as a classic adventure. It's big, clearly written, has a decent amount of nonlinearity, and doesn't hammer it's story in your face. Something for everyone to love.

Delta Green also gets a 6 pip review, and is hailed as a new classic for the game. Four years in development, it's exceedingly polished and very complete in both character options and campaign material. You're certainly not as empowered as you will be in Cthulhutech, but you're not as helpless as in the average CoC campaign. The fact that this still gets talked about today means that it too has stood the test of time, and actually lived up to the hype. Individual companies may suffer, but the mythos does not die.

Realm of shadows is another Pagan Publishing Cthulhu campaign, this time set in the 1940's. It too is pretty interesting, using both old and new school elements to build up plenty of depth in the setting and advice in how to handle the set-pieces. Ray's main complaints are that the organisation isn't quite as perfect as the last two products, and it's quite a bit more visceral in it's horror than the old products. Plus you'll probably have to make new characters.

Nocturnum: Long Shades is from Fantasy Flight Games. This is another attempt at a modern day cthulhu adventure, that introduces a whole new set of bad guys, and is apparently the start of a series. It's interesting, but certainly not as polished as the previous reviews, and has some more reliance of stereotypes. Still, it's more competition that will hopefully drive improvement, not pandering to the lowest common denominator.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 249: July 1998


part 8/8


Previews finally realizes that as they are no longer owned by TSR, they shouldn't have their logo. They also take this opportunity to start covering other games companies as well. I strongly approve. However, they do stop covering stuff 2 months ahead. Since I'm not sure how long this lasts, I'll do everything new mentioned here, and then incremental updates. This does mean I won't be mentioning any TSR stuff this month, as they're not mentioning anything new there.

Atlas games seems to be rehashing a bit, in the Festival of the Damned anniversary edition for Ars Magica. The town of Vezay is involved in dubious stuff again. Better get the inquisitors on the red courtesy phone and try not to be burned in the crossfire.

Biohazard games release Wetware for Blue Planet. Cybernetics, genetic engineering, and other cool toys for both players and GM's. A perennial good seller.

Clockwork release Spookshow. Combining ghostly stuff with espionage. Now there's a pairing that go together pretty well, as Orpheus showed a bit later.

Critical mass Studios are pretty busy, with the Soothsayer game out this month. The players guide, the usual reference sheet and GM screen pack, and two adventures, Set in Stone and Avogrado's number.

Event Horizon seem to be trying to get into the magazine business. RolePaper issue 2 seems to have a whole bunch of articles on stuff useful for various systems. I don't remember this at all.

FASA releases an updated corebook and a new novel for Battletech. Their ongoing plotlines advance, and the rules advances from various supplements get collated into one place for usefulness. Woo.

Fractal Dimensions release SORD. The System of Role-Playing Development. A generic system that I've never heard of before. How long did this last?

Gold rush Games are producing Sengoku: Chanbara roleplaying in feudal japan. Samuraiariffic. Well, I guess D&D has lost interest in that stuff at this point, and it's still fairly popular. Other people will move in to satisfy a demand.

Heraldic Game Design release Steeltown for SOL. I don't remember this gameline at all either. Shrug. I guess I was mostly out of the loop at this point.

Holistic release War in the heavens: Lifeweb for Fading Suns. They're obviously big enough to support an adventure trilogy at this point too.

LUG seem to be the current users of the star trek license. Star trek: The next generation gets a corebook and a Narrator's Toolkit. Including an adventure involving Q? Oh boy. What was this incarnation of the game like?

Pinnacle are busy bunnies, with 4 things upcoming in the next 2 months. Tales O' Terror: 1877 does for deadlands what the poor wizard's almanacs did for Mystara. Another year passing in the game, with more alternate history weirdness. Next month, they unleash Deadlands: Hell on Earth. And you thought the weird west was rough as it is. With both the core and the radiation (ie, GM's) screen, you'll be having a hell of a time in no time. And if that's not enough, there's also Worms!, their 7th dime novel/adventure. They've certainly managed a lot more supplements than boot hill ever did. Probably due to the supernatural elements, in the same way Shadowrun massively outsold Cyberpunk and is still going.

Steve Jackson Games lets In Nomine's metaplot climax, with The Final Trumpet seeing the world in serious danger of ending. Go on, cancel it on a high note, you know you want too. They also release GURPS Traveller. Another big gameline gets a new form after quite a bit of inactivity. They really are the kings of system conversions.

White wolf easily outpace everyone but WotC, showing that in terms of size and production values, they're already comfortably number two. Methinks their output needs dividing up into it's various gamelines.

Dark ages gets Clanbook Baali! Read about the little boy raping and impregnating a priest! See the picture of a woman with maggots in her hoo-ha! Watch as we riff off cthulhu again! ZOMG we're so dark and edgy and mature. \m/ Not their finest hour.

W:tA gets Hengeyokai: Shapeshifters of the East. Goblin spiders, Kitsune, all sorts of strange virtue requirements for different species, and a good excuse for crossover games.

M:tSC gets Crusade Lore: The storytellers screen and book. A rather longwinded name for an ST's companion, but what's new, eh?

W:tO takes us deep down with Doomslayers: Into the Labyrinth. Grimdark at it's finest, with tons of stuff for fighting spectres with, and more than a little to help playing them too. You can never truly beat oblivion, but maybe you can hold it off for a day longer. Just make sure you get regularly castigated for your angst level.

They're even busier next month as well. V:tM gets War of Ages, a rehashed compilation of two old books. See the Anarchs and camarilla contrasted and trying to get the upper hand on each other like the sabbat is barely there. Silly vampires. Man, that seems dated as hell.

W:tWW gets the Wild West Companion. They seem to be on a historical kick as well at the moment. See how wild the frontier is when angry native spirits are added to the mix.

M:tA is also in a rehashy mood, with The Traditions Gathered. A compilation of the old Virtual Adepts, Sons of Ether and Order of Hermes splatbooks. See science get mangled as they try to persuade people to believe in it. I do not consent to this reality.

C:tD gets it's storytellers guide. Actually, this has considerably less cool stuff than the players guide, but it's hardly terrible, and the intro fiction in particular has stayed in my mind.

Trinity is right in the middle of it's big adventure arc. Darkness Revealed: Passage through shadow. They continue to singlehandedly provide colons with employment in this world and beyond. Course, from the perspective of the RPGPundit, they're providing colons with employment in a different sense, but I think the less said about that the better.


Profiles: Having covered Gary last month, Dave Arneson is the logical next choice. After all, he might sue them if they don't. However, the shoddy researching for these articles continues, with several of the dates wrong (as I can personally prove from references earlier on in the magazine's run. ) This makes me skeptical about the facts I can't substantiate as well. I get the impression these may have been dashed off in a very short amount of time, by someone who was busy with dozens of other things as well. Anyway, from this profile (and I know there have been some far less complementary ones from other industry people) he seems to be a likable dilettante, having been set up for life financially by royalties from the basic sets, he's free to experiment with things in all kinds of fields, reviews, making a computer game, interviewing people, and of course, doing guest spots on the convention circuit. Not a bad way to live. You don't have to constantly try and produce the next big thing after having one big hit if you don't want too.


Another issue in which the articles are actually very good, overall. On the other hand, it's increasingly obvious that the reviews are on their last legs, and their editing and fact-checking is more than a little spotty. So at the moment, they're at their best when actually creating new stuff, not looking over other people's. Well, I guess giving the power back to the individual writers and line developers would have that effect. So once again it looks like this era is better to read in bits and pieces than to plough through in a linear fashion looking for the connections. Will that be enough to keep people reading? Not too far till the end of the year, where we can see the statistics again.

 

[Orius]

Previews finally realizes that as they are no longer owned by TSR, they shouldn't have their logo. They also take this opportunity to start covering other games companies as well. I strongly approve. However, they do stop covering stuff 2 months ahead.

I'm guessing this was not a popular move with the readers though because like you said they stop it rather quickly. I don't have a problem with them mentioning releases for other companies, but OTOH, dropping the feature fast seems to indicate they're also listing to the readers better.

 

[Hussar]

Fool Wolf became one of my fav fiction sections in Dragon pretty quickly. Were they ever collected anywhere?

 

[jonesy]

Fool Wolf became one of my fav fiction sections in Dragon pretty quickly. Were they ever collected anywhere?

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Hounds-Ash-other-Tales-Fool/dp/1894063090]Amazon.com: The Hounds of Ash: and other Tales of Fool Wolf (9781894063098): Greg Keyes: Books[/ame]