Let's read the entire run

[Ed_Laprade]

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999
Rumours! After all, it's good enough for the caves of chaos. Having a good dozen or two rumours, some of them false, some true, means your players have a ton of incentive to stick around the general area of their home base until they're used up. And having red herrings and active lies being spread by people makes the world seem bigger, not just a backdrop to whatever story the DM wants to tell, that'll reveal just whitespace if you go off the path.

I disagree. Tried that once. The PCs spent a week going to a red herring location and found nothing, then spent another week getting back to the base city. The players threatened maiming if I ever wasted their gaming time like that again. And I had to agree with their assesment.

 

[jonesy]

I'm also going to disagree, but with a slight exception. Red herrings work if they also lead to something. It won't be something the players expect, but dead end red herrings just waste time and frustrate people. Besides, there's someone spreading those rumours. They should have a reason for it other than just pranks. Although, if you do use a LOT of them, one or two false ones might not be that bad. If it doesn't take ages to investigate them.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 3/7


Darkstone plays up the differences between roleplaying personas and the people playing them with withering sarcasm in it's advert. There are no girls on the internet, etc etc. I do not feel tempted to play your game as a result of this.


PC Portraits: It's dwarf time! Which means the inevitable female dwarven beard debate resurfaces. This keeps things ambiguous, as while we do have some dwarves with obvious breasts, they're all beardless, or at the most have a bit of stubble. But there are also a few male dwarves who keep their facial hair short rather than going for the full-flowing, possibly braided mane that denotes age and seniority. I blame all those adventurers being a bad influence, introducing the idea of fashion and corrupting our hardworking lads! Next thing you know they'll be using boomerangs instead of the good old-fashioned axes of their ancestors. Let the flame wars continue! Once again this little column provides me a surprisingly large amount to think about.


Wizards of dusk & gloom: The position of first feature seems a little devalued, given the number of regular columns that came before it this month. Slightly surprising really, given how popular shadow based stuff is. The article on the demiplane was quite possibly my favourite one of 1995, and there's a ton of spells and monsters based around the theme. And now it's time for three more wizard kits and related sets of new spells. After all, the list of things you can do in the shadows is too big for one archetype to fill them all.

Shadow Callers are all about the semi-real creatures and objects, mixed with monsters from the demiplane to keep you guessing so disbelieving the whole shebang won't be effective. Of course, if they do step outside their niche, they have great difficulty controlling normal creatures, and the not uncommon social penalties for messing with dark magic. They seem reasonably balanced.

Shadow Seekers have an obsession with becoming a Shade, which they seem to think ought to take them out of play. Oh come now, it's not as if the powers you get are at all game breaking at that level, and it's one of the easier transformations to make if you have 9th level spells. I suppose that's the big catch, isn't it. Spend less time researching, more time going out killing things and taking their stuff and your magical advancement will take care of itself; you'll soon outpace the geeks.

Shadow Hunters are another variant on wizards with minor rogue skills who use both to steal stuff very effectively indeed. They also get rogue weapons and proficiencies, but have the rather odd hindrance of not being able to use rods, staves & wands. This makes them even more unpopular with other wizards than the other two kits. UR not doin it rite! Ninjas never have this problem. But then, they have PR departments. Shadow wizards are too busy being brooding loners.

The 16 new spells are divided up neatly between the three kits, each with their own book of shadows (and a bit of ironic snark about how overused that name is. Blessed be, bitches. ) As with the kits, they are't terrible, but tend to err on the underpowered side, and some of them are of restricted availability despite this. I don't think they merit the secrecy surrounding them. But then that's the problem with secret organisations. When you don't have large numbers of people to do R&D, you don't get economies of scale and the benefits or extensive troubleshooting. So you're unlikely to come up with something as generally useful and efficient as magic missile. I don't think your wizards will mind in the long run if they don't get the option to join up with these guys.


RPG.net advertises in Dragon!! My head, I think it may explode from sheer amusement at the recursiveness. Plus they cross advertise the sailor moon RPG. I find this hilarious.


Dwarven names: Oh, this one again. Stock up on your phlegm and throat sweets, because you'll need them. Like the 101 lists, they seem to have decided to make a pattern out of this, give their writers something to aim for. Although I very much doubt they'll ever get to the poor norkers or grippli, the kind of races that actually need this kind of expansion, and you can't find in various fantasy novels anyway. But then the writers might actually have to come up with their own ideas.
So this is another column following one of their latest formulas closely, not really distinguishing itself in any way. I think the skip button would be appropriate.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 4/7


Miscellaneous mishaps: Objets d'Art. But it looks like the next scene is pretty similar. Now it's the turn of the random bits of jewellery and art objects to get a three page expansion table to keep players from getting bored. Which doesn't keep me from being bored, ironically, as it's emblematic of a lack of variety in their approaches and topics. I think they should probably have saved this one for next issue. Once again, this might be useful in actual play, but is completely forgettable to read.


Fiction: The fallen god by J. Gregory Keyes. On the other hand, the second Fool Wolf story isn't forgettable at all, and goes quite some way towards building on the interestingly animistic world established in issue 249. A city full of improbable buildings, sustained by blood sacrifices to the gods within, that gradually become warped and trapped by this homage, resulting in a dysfunctional setup all round? Well, not as dysfunctional as it could be. At least they've realised you can get more blood from a human sacrifice by taking a few pints, letting them heal, and then doing it again on a regular basis than killing them. So this is packed to the brim with moral greys and magic as a science, giving you plenty to think about as you read it, while not neglecting the action scenes and plot twists either. It works as both a story and as worldbuilding. Which is just what I want from this magazine. Specific and unique examples along with the general ideas. And there's still plenty of room for other locations and cultures in the same world. He's definitely welcome to visit again.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Shadow related stuff is a very common one in stories. And it certainly isn't neglected in the magazine either, with cool stuff like Issue 213's article on the demiplane it issues from. So It's time for the cycle to bring us another wave of themed magical items. As usual, some of them'll probably surpass their hackneyed theme, while others won't. And I have to see which is which. Roll on, roll on.

Arrows of the Dark Curtain create a wave of blackness beneath where they're shot. Another one useful for both rogues and underdark monsters.

Cloth of Shadows has a very amusing bit of history attached to it. If you can get hold of the entire suit, it'll be pretty handy. Sounds like a definite adventure in the brewing folks.

Crowns of Shadow Control is another one that seems like it could drive a whole campaign. Armies of Shadows under your command, but a very real danger of transforming into one yourself and losing it all, becoming a slave to the next fool to put it on? Sign me up for grand vizier.

Eyes of Soothing Darkness are just magically enhanced sunglasses. They're very predictable in their powers and drawbacks. Not worth getting worked up about unless you're a goblin or drow.

Shadowstealers are magic rods which do exactly that. As is often mythically the case, being shadowless is rather bad for the health and sanity. This makes it a good one to extort people with.

Shadow pins can be used to trap people by nailing their shadow to the wall. This is also a pain, but can won't last forever. Just wait for the sun to set. No shadow, no problem. Undead Shadows, being insubstantial, are completely screwed.

Shadow Puppet Gloves let you animate any shapes you make, and order them around. This is of course limited by your manual dexterity. I recommend you make the player act out the creation of the creature with a torch

Shadow Snares are special garrottes that can be selectively insubstantial. Another one that'll take some brains to use well. Not a bad collection, really.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 5/7


This month's competition is to design a creature from the demiplane of shadow. Now that's an idea I can get behind.


Arcane Lore is also getting dark and shadowy. Soon we'll have enough for shadow magic to be a viable specialisation in itself, like in certain other games. Muahahahaha!

Dispel Light seems a bit pointless when a Darkness spell can cancel that out too, and do other stuff. No accounting for trickery.

Shadow Lock seals a door so you can only open it by opening it's shadow. Now that is pretty ingenious as a way of keeping out the unknowing. Perfect for a group of cultists, especially as it's low enough level to be commonly used.

Dancing Shadows is kinda the reverse of dancing lights. Like it, it's not hugely powerful, but can have useful flavour effects. And if you're a Shade, it'll mean you can always be at full power in an encounter.

Obedient Shadow is another one that'll give you shade without a parasol, in less obtrusive form, and longer duration. Rest assured that when you need it, it'll keep the light off you.

Shadow Sight is a limited clairvoyance that can only see out of shadows. Makes sense as a way of cutting corners. Make the buggers paranoid and then pull out the full spell to laugh at them.

Shady Palm is yet another variant on the shade theme, making a mobile shadow of a palm tree to follow you around. Sip pina colladas on a flying carpet down in Zakhara with this one.

Hide Shadow makes your shadow into a solid object you can remove and manipulate amusingly. This is full of potential when manipulating others. Thankfully, it's only temporary, so you aren't in danger of going mad like previous versions of this power.

Shadow Weave also lets you reshape shadows to practical ends. And I don't think you'll have a trouble finding shadows to manipulate in a dungeon environment.

Shadow Warrior lets you hurt people by having your shadow attack their shadow. A gimmick monster from issue 61 gets vindicated in amusing fashion.

Shadow Replay is a nice little divination that'll help you get a retrospective on events in an area in interesting fashion. Once again, I quite approve.

Transport via Shadow is a cutdown version of shadow walk, the dimension door to that's teleport. Once again, massive paranoia and neon lights will keep them from popping out in your home.

Death Shade drains hit points permanently over a truly huge area. Nasty business that works well as a long term plot thing. Muahahaha.

Shadow Trap puts you inside your own shadow, unable to affect anything, miming to people to try and get them to break the curse. Another nicely inventive bit of work with plenty of good sources to draw upon.


The ecology of the Dark Naga: Hee. The association of monster hunters finally manages to get something done, albeit more through luck than skill. While they might be facing a serious creature, their antics are a comical as ever, and the monster responds in kind, with enough sarcasm to pickle an elephant. Mind you, with constant mind-reading, all sorts of allies, and the ability to choose their own spell lists, they're likely to be a huge pain in the butt even when played straight, for they'll be tactically one step ahead of you, and you can never be sure what tricks they have up their sleeve. Pair them up with kobolds, and even the mightiest adventurer will tremble at the thought of fighting one. Again, this is fun and useful, but maybe strays a little too far into wacky territory. There ought to be at least the feel that the characters are in real danger in situations like this, and any violence isn't just cartoon violence that'll be reset when the scene changes.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 6/7


Dragon's bestiary: Back to the computer game conversions this month it seems. Myth: The fallen Lords is a game that draws quite heavily on D&D, so converting creatures back seems a little incestuous. Still, they have some neat ideas of their own in many cases. Let's see if D&D can learn from it's descendants this time.

Ghol fill the role of semihumanoid predators. Like Krenshar, they look pretty gross, but aren't hugely powerful beyond those basic tricks anyone can use. You'd better hope you have the advantage of numbers, for they have speed and climbing capability on their side, so the terrain will more likely be in their favour.

Fetch are your basic arrogant isolationist demonic creatures from another plane. They don't have the magical versatility of most of their D&D equivalents, and so aren't hugely interesting to me.

Barrier Wights are another creature that is easy to kill, but explodes with pestilent effects when you do. Seems like that idea is on the up these days. It does liven up games where ranged attacks are the primary weapons of choice.

Trow are big clumping humanoids who kick you around the place if they get too close. Since they can move quite fast as well, you'll have to be a pretty good dodger, or split up. They certainly seem designed with cinematic battles in mind, and would fit well in an Iron Heroes style game.


Shop keep encourages the ultimate battle of the geeks.


Dungeon Mastery: Blaaah. It's another article telling us to make magic items more special by reducing their power and frequency. Been there, done that, got the magic T-shirt that protects me from douchequake once per day. As much as less is more and learn to appreciate what you've got are valid philosophies to live by, they're inherently built around compromises. And really, we have to do so much of that in reality that I really don't want to have to put up with it in my escapism at the moment. Maybe if I was a multimillionare rock star I'd be a little more secure and sanguine about this. But no. you. Gimme my lightsaber that can extend far enough to cut the world in half. This does nothing to improve my mood.


Marvel super heroes: Back to the old Marvel-phile style articles comprising largely of character stats here. Jean Grey and Rachel Summers are both home to the Phoenix, which is ridiculously powerful, but also utterly amoral, and quite happy to destroy entire solar systems to satisfy it's hunger if not kept under control. It's a deeply unsafe deus ex machina that is dangerous to tap into, but impossible to destroy, giving you a ready made source of conflict amongst the heroes and general angst. Of course, the way it's owners deal with it differs quite a bit, and they have other issues to deal with, given Marvel's twisting continuity, soap opera romances, and time travel plotlines. So this new system leaves them free to cover the big guns again for a while, before they have to go into all the obscure minor characters again. (of which there are quite a few more since last time) That's the joy of reboots. Will they last long enough for diminishing returns to set in this time round? It shouldn't be too hard to find out, really.


Role Models: This column is once again worried about finding minis suitable for Alternity games. Steal bits and pieces from Warhammer and White Wolf, and you should be able to pull it off, especially if you're willing to do some customising. It then provides a mini scenario for the game, while talking about how to paint camouflage in the sidebar. This split focus makes each of these three topics even smaller than usual, so there's no room to get bored, but not much depth either, especially with the amount of illustrations. Once again, I think this column could benefit from being a bit bigger without losing it's ability to deliver lots of stuff. It's as if the writer has too many ideas to properly use, not all of which fit easily into the remit of the column. So this is fun but unsatisfying, like a single piece of chocolate when you'd like a whole bar.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 7/7


The twilight jungle: We've already had the spotlight on the Seshayans once, in issue 251. Now it's their turn again under their original Alternity rules and setting. This is actually surprisingly similar, as on their homeworld, they're still animistic primitives, and it's only due to the uplifting efforts of a megacorp that they've been exposed to interstellar civilisation. Of course, this isn't remotely altruistic, and they don't react well to attempts to break their contracts and leave employment, setting things up for a rather interesting campaign focussed around civil rights issues. Or you could do the usual ones of exploration and killing things and taking their stuff. They do make rather good assassins, after all. So not only do they have a fairly distinctive appearance, they also have a pretty good selection of inherent plot hooks. And with several new monsters, weapons and careers statted out, this is a pretty good mini splatbook. Roger Moore's legacy to the magazine continues.


Dragonmirth takes an innovative approach to castle defense. KotDT degenerates into player bickering again.


TSR Previews: A very busy month this time round, although I suspect some of that may be formatting errors, given the positions of various things in the surrounding issues. Oh well, it'll give me a proper workout anyway.

Three of these are CD based computer products. The digital core rules get a ton of splatbooks added to them. Enough kits, spells, races, and other goodies that you should be able to generate complex and twinked characters at high speed.

There's also the Dragon Magazine Archive. If it weren't for that, I'd never be doing this. Course, they didn't get it perfect, with a surprising number of little bits left unscanned, but hey ho, slightly less work for me. Still a ridiculous amount to go even so.

And the Realms finally get a complete atlas, with a ton of maps from the supplements compiled, plus virgin continents given an overview for your players. Now you really can go all around the world. Can you you you, you find your baby there?

The realms is pretty packed in print too. Baldur's gate by Philip Athans is a novelisation of the computer game. Ahh, still doing this a decade after Pool of Radiance. Was this one any good? And on the gaming side, we have Sea of Fallen Stars. They've already covered the cultures around it. Now they take you under the water. I do enjoy it when they do that.

Dragonlance tries another way to get some gaming stuff to sell remotely as well as the novels. The Odyssey of Gilthanias is a mixture of fiction and game stuff for both systems. Lots of new locations, oh, and probably poetry. Ho hum. They're also getting another straight fiction anthology, Heroes and Fools: Tales of the 5th age. More stuff from when the magic is gone and people have to build new lives.

Greyhawk does a double rehash. Against the giants appears both as an expanded revised module and a novel by Ru Emerson. The first modules, and for some people, still the best, it's no surprise that they're part of the silver anniversary celebrations.

Alternity gets Star Compendium: Systems of the Verge. More places for you to explore, new aliens to meet, and possibly kill and take the stuff of.

Marvel Super Heroes gets The Reed Richards Guide to Everything. A whole load of cool optional stuff presented in a humorously IC manner. Nice to see them using that approach here as well.


ProFiles: Fred Fields is not dead. He's not even gone away, as this month's cover proves. He's one of those people who started doing art young, and just kept going, improving his abilities and sending out stuff persistently until he got picked up. As ever, we are reminded that that is one of the crucial ingredients to success. But other elements can vary. In contrast to the last few artists profiled, he usually works from models, sculpting them up to then draw if needed, and drafting in the people around to pose for him. Takes all sorts, doesn't it. In any case, it's worked for the last decade, and he hopes it will continue to work. Now, if only he could get royalties from the people ripping off his work in tattoo parlors. Another moderately entertaining profile.


Once again, this issue seemed to go by a lot faster than the ones before they reduced the page count, even though it's only a small change really. On the other hand that was because this had a pretty high quota of insubstantial articles, as ironically befits the theme. They may have more colour in the illustrations, but they don't have as much contrast in the articles they have each month, with the same regular columns showing up nearly every time. Well, at least we still have a few non D&D ones a month at the moment. On we go, knowing that soon they'll be gone as well.

 

[Orius]

Darkstone plays up the differences between roleplaying personas and the people playing them with withering sarcasm in it's advert. There are no girls on the internet, etc etc. I do not feel tempted to play your game as a result of this.

Don't be fooled by the ad, it's a pretty good Diablo clone. It's in 3d (perhaps primitive by today's standards), and the graphics are crisper than Diablo's somewhat muddy look. But it was always a pretty obscure game, I'm not even sure how easy it can be to find these days.

RPG.net advertises in Dragon!! My head, I think it may explode from sheer amusement at the recursiveness. Plus they cross advertise the sailor moon RPG. I find this hilarious.

An effect which is perhaps slightly lost here.

Dwarven names: Oh, this one again. Stock up on your phlegm and throat sweets, because you'll need them. Like the 101 lists, they seem to have decided to make a pattern out of this, give their writers something to aim for. Although I very much doubt they'll ever get to the poor norkers or grippli, the kind of races that actually need this kind of expansion, and you can't find in various fantasy novels anyway. But then the writers might actually have to come up with their own ideas.
So this is another column following one of their latest formulas closely, not really distinguishing itself in any way. I think the skip button would be appropriate.

It's useful if you need a bunch of dwarfy-sounding names in a pinch.

Miscellaneous mishaps: Objets d'Art. But it looks like the next scene is pretty similar. Now it's the turn of the random bits of jewellery and art objects to get a three page expansion table to keep players from getting bored. Which doesn't keep me from being bored, ironically, as it's emblematic of a lack of variety in their approaches and topics. I think they should probably have saved this one for next issue. Once again, this might be useful in actual play, but is completely forgettable to read.

One of my many abandoned D&D projects was expanding the article for use in my campaigns. One thing that always bugged me was how the random treasure tables were always pretty vague on art objects, and you don't want to keep cranking out the same necklaces and rings and stuff when doing treasure hauls.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. Time for halflings and gnomes to have to share a themed issue again, just as they did their splatbook. They're just not popular enough when compare to elves & dwarves, are they? You're all a bunch of sizeists! :shakes tiny fist: Get back here so I can headbutt yer balls! Mutter grumble mutter, humans these days, no respect for an ancient fantasy archetype. And don't you dare start on the red pointy hats. Red pointy hats are cool. And you can store all kinds of stuff in them as well. Like to see you try that with a baseball cap. Let's show them the meaning of affirmative action.


Scan quality: Excellent, indexed.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Dave decides to take to the stand in defence of cliches. The reason they became cliches is because they work. Where you really go wrong is using them in isolation, or a too familiar combination. The nature of combinatoric math means that you can easily get a unique result if you incorporate enough elements in different orders. Trust me, I've done statistical analyses based upon the number of people in the world, number of stories written, and number of archetypical tropes. It's easier than it seems, especially if you don't know the rules in the first place, so you aren't adhering to the established rules of form for whatever creative medium you're working in. It also helps to have an exceedingly strange mind, which I think we've already established I've got, for better and for worse. Don't be afraid to use the rules. If your ideas are strong enough, they'll till turn out unique despite playing within a framework.


D-Mail: We start off with a letter praising articles that tie into other ones. Those that notice it are unanimously positive. It's just when the tie-ins are too long and complicated that people get confused and pissed off. I suspect this is why Adventure paths work. A year long subscription is about the right length where taking a decade to know the whole story isn't.

Second, we have a request for them to put more old stuff out on CD. It's sold quite decently, so they fully intend to have a few more products in that vein.

Two more letters in praise of Bruce Cordell's machine work, although they both include the caveat that maybe Dragon is being a little too Wizard-centric. I think we can say that's an accurate criticism. As ever, the fact that they're the ones writing the story also means they get the greatest amount of cool new stuff.

Some nitpicking over biology terms. The usual thing that shows up whenever someone tries to bring real world elements into the fantastical universe.

And finally, a letter of generalised praise. Because they still need their ego boosts. Keeps the office running more smoothly than if they're beset by nitpicking fanboys who seem impossible to please, yet refuse to actually go away.


Nodwick stands by his principles in a world where henchmen are becoming commercialised and bastardised. They know nothing of the true spirit of henching!

Aaron Williams delivers another amusing illustration in quick succession. He is doing rather well at the moment.


Forum: Jennifer M. Formosa describes some cool locations from her own campaign. These are decently linked together by the story's thread. Don't see stuff like this much round here.

Kevin McMahon is one of those people who sees nothing much wrong in the system as it is. Wizards are neither over or underpowered.

David R Boruch is another person who wants the custom class creation rules from the DMG (and issue 109) made into the standard method of customising your character, with the standard classes merely as examples of those maths.

Daniel Thomson points out that all the new rules for greater weapon specialisations reduce the role of magic plusses in the game. Whether that's a good or bad thing is still very much up for debate.

Rex V. Settle thinks substituting prepared for memorised would be the right terminology for spellcasting. Just don't expect any royalties for it.

Mike Walko thinks thieves are the class that most needspowering up, particularly in terms of combat prowess. They ought to be highly accurate, damage inflicting monsters. The change to strikerdom begins.

Dirk Keaton thinks monks really need a special power that reflects how much faster they can hit than someone with most weapons. You may well be in luck, depending if you think the solution they give goes far enough.

Colin Daniels thinks AC ought to start from 0 and go up. Lots of people would prefer ascending AC's it seems.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 2/7


Dungeoncraft: This month, Ray talks about making NPC's to fill your world with. This is one area where he sticks to his lesson of not doing more work than you need too. Only stat them up fully if they have a purpose in your campaign. Whether that's to create a challenge, provide plot hooks, be a source of services and equipment, or simply to look cool is up to you. Although I must warn about the dangers to excess exposition. Many players will ignore it, and wind up blundering into trouble. I guess that's another thing that's become a bit hackneyed since then, driven into the ground by huge unskippable cutscenes in computer RPG's. Of course, the fault could well be with the players as much as the DM. There's no shortage of annoying people on both sides of the screen, as both sage advice and the letters Ray gets prove. Once again, those are actually the most interesting part of the column, showing a little deranged creativity'll beat professionalism quite frequently at capturing the attention of people. I think they could do with letting a little more of that back into the magazine.


Sage advice: Do charisma modifiers apply to all NPCs! (Yes. Don't be so surprised. Characters can still blow it by doing something stupid to piss them off. Even 19 charisma won't save you when you're caught in the treasury at midnight. )

Can you only use spellslaying in combat. (if you try it on someone out of combat, it'll become combat pronto. Messing up peoples magic is not something done in polite society.

What does rain of blood do to characters with negative armor classes (not a lot)

Do you take more damage if an arrow is stuck in you (no. Abstraction strikes again!)
Is six dexterity checks to cross a single bridge too much. (if your DM thinks it's that hard, Skip's not going to stop him. )

How exactly does stone shape progress over it's round. (Up to your GM to decide on the flavor text. But you definitely can't use it to crush people. Guess you'll have to settle for a slow lingering death instead. More time to gloat in)

Can you stack a cloak of displacement and ring of blinking (oh yes. You can add on mirror image as well. Most confusing.)

What are the real morale factors for henchmen and hirelings (Skip is the real morale booster. Oh Yeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh. )

What is the wisdom modifier for aleph 1 ( Your magical defense adjustment)

What do you feel when a charm wears off. (Depends how they treated them while charmed. They do not automatically know they've been magicked. )

What happens if you have both cover and concealment (use the better bonus)
Is the first movement rate for the cube of force right (no)

What level is darkening bolt (4th. Anyone using it as a 3rd level spell had better retcon sharpish)

What does (rev) mean for sphere lists (read the book you're reading it in, because different authors tend to have different opinion on this)

Can you create dimensional folding beneath someone's feet (no. It has to be an upright portal. You can create it and then push someone through though. )

Can power words be used on creatures without minds ( Yes, if applicable)

Can earth elementals be petrified (yes)

How do fatigue points work. Do all these things deduct points (Yes. If you're a busy bunny, you get tired. )

Can evil priests destroy paladins without a roll (no, thankfully. It's troublesome enough when they get turned and run away screaming. )

Skip is also going to start tackling Alternity stuff again. Lets do this while we still have a chance, and TSR cuts out the other stuff for good.

Do mechalus data filaments count as NIJacks (yes)

How do mechalus heal (normally. They may be mechanical, but they can still repair themselves. )

Can you spend a last resort point to make an enemy critically fail (no. That's just mean)

How do you determine the result of a complex skill check (it's binary. Don't worry about it)

How long does it take to use up the air in a powered down ship (quite a while. Lots of people will cut that down quickly though.)

Can an accumulator be used with a mass reactor (no)

Do you experience the time in drivespace (yes. It's pretty dull, usually.)

What effect does punching a hole in the universe have in the long run ( Good question. None yet, but you never know when monstrosities from beyond space may start eating everything. )