Let's read the entire run

[Orius]

Yes, while the magazine had some pretty good articles going into 3e, the ugly-ass fonts, illegible color schemes and other assaults upon my eyes were not enjoyed. I also didn't care for the magazine's new logo, I always liked the one they introduced in #225. Their new art director tries to justify it in either the next issue or the November one, but it was all nonsense to me. Crap is crap.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 275: September 2000


part 7/7


Dungeoncraft: Have you been making notes on everything Ray's been telling you? It's time for your examination! A mixture of true or false, multiple choice, and open questions, this is an easy way to remind us of what he's told us over the past year and a half, and will help you get a good idea of just how much you agree or disagree with his views. Most of it is to do with playstyle rather than the rules themselves, and once again is suitable for any roleplaying game, not just D&D. As a format change, this is a nice break from the regular, and quite a few of the things here do jog my memory, so I think it still has value. When so much of the game has just changed, it's important to be reminded what remains universally applicable. And retaining and applying information is more important than just learning it for a short period. I think this was timed about right. Now let's see if he still has new information to give us next month.


Silicon Sorcery: Another D&D based video game gets it's good ideas stolen and transplanted back to the original game. Icewind Dale makes use of your race and ability scores to determine how characters react to you, limited visibility and terrain complications, and forces you to pay attention to character movement rates as a result of encumbrance and positioning in combat. All things you could do anyway, but seeing a computer game handle it automatically is a good reminder of the difference basics like that make. This doesn't give us any new crunch, so it's just a reiteration of basic DM'ing advice. Not terribly written, but rather repetitive, and in definite contrast to the large amounts of new stuff elsewhere in the issue. Well, the game is 2e as well, so I guess this is another sop to the holdouts for this month.


What's new decries the overemphasis on violence of D&D.


What's this guy's story? Hmm. D&D 3rd edition isn't even cooled down yet, and they're already releasing star wars D20. And they're still doing the whole "You'll never be as cool as the stars of the movies" thing. Hmm and hmm again.


Even more than last issue, this epitomises the Punk aspect of their new direction, combining fresh and exciting articles with strange and often impractical stylistic choices. The bouts of leetspeak are particularly amusing in retrospect, and remind me just how far internet culture has progressed in the intervening decade. So if there are some dodgy bits, much of that can be attributed to growing pains. So let's see how they do once all the corebooks are out. After all, punk was a pretty short lived movement. This air of freshness and inexperience is unlikely to last long either once people get some serious playing time in using the new rules.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 1/7


116 pages. Someone's been near death's door a few too many times. In the circumstances, paranoia is entirely advisable. Especially as it's October again, and the energy draining creepazoids'll be out in force, protesting that PC's now get saves vs their attacks. Affirmative action for monsters! Well, the Monster Manual is out this month, so they ought to have at least something that's good for the DM's playthings. But will it be enough to truly challenge the players, or will all their preparation have been a waste of time? Let's get through this issue and do some discovery. Solid knowledge is often the best way to remove fear, even if the results aren't the ones you wanted or expected, because then you can plan to deal with the problem with a bit more confidence.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, game board missing.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Using the contents of your dreams (and nightmares ) as game plots? Yup, I think that's a pretty cool idea, if rather unpredictable in effectiveness. Desperately trying to stop up all the cracks in the room because you're terrified the cold giraffes will get in and suck the life out of you makes perfect sense in dream logic, but lacks a certain something if you let the players tackle it with their rational minds. And trying to remember your dreams is also pretty unreliable as well, although like anything, you can practice and get better at it. So this is something I encourage you to try, but make sure you have a more mundane backup plan just in case your subconscious refuses to co-operate, and you get something inappropriate or irrelevant.


Scale Mail: The way the letters are stretched across lots of pages makes this seem longer than it used to be. First up, we have someone happy that humour seems to be back in the magazine. Just wait until you see next year's april issue. They have a doozy planned. I look forward to it.

Second, we have someone grumpy about the dungeronpunk stylings of the new edition. They will turn it down a bit, but D&D will never really look particularly medieval again. Unless they do decide to go purist in 5e, of course. What are the odds of that?

Thirdly, we have a no catches straight complimentary letter. Ain't nothin' worth sayin' 'bout that.

Fourthly, someone who thinks the new layout looks like a crappy webpage. I dispute that! Even the worst webpages don't have this much horizontal scrolling, you know.

Then we have someone who likes the look, but didn't like the content. Contrary buggers. No pleasing everyone, is there.

We follow with someone peeved that they put adverts on the other side of the sherwood forest map. You won't see them once it's stuck up. And they really needed the money, honest! It's a hard life, trying to keep the magazine profitable.

And finally, we have a complete, article by article rundown. Only not as comprehensive as mine. But more likely to influence their future direction. It's all about being timely.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 2/7


Up on a soapbox: Gary does the grognard grumbling thing again this month. We need more roleplaying of day to day life, and less epic hero saves the world stuff that removes meaningful choices beyond succeed and fail for the players. Oookay. I think this time the cantankerousness is outweighing the useful advice portion of his column. Not that there isn't something to be said for learning the ropes with smaller scale stories, and moving up as you gain experience as both a player and a character. But the experienced DM teaching a bunch of less experienced players can often be less fun than everyone learning together. I suppose it's probably different if Gary's the one doing the teaching, since he pretty much does this professionally by now. But this isn't the most coherent of his complaints. Not everything he's produced was gold, and I think this is worth ignoring, and moving onto the next article.


profiles (no capitalization at all this time): Since our first two profilees in this new era were the other two primary designers of 3e, it's no surprise that Skip Williams is the third. Starting to work in the industry way back in 1976, he's worked his way up until he's one of the most all-round experienced people in the company. He got the job of being the point man for the new monster manual, choosing who made the cut, who didn't, and who was subsumed into the nifty new template system. Finally, you can mix and match classes, races, and erm, crossbreeds with other races with wild abandon. And despite his senior position, he still finds the time to be the same badass sage he's been for 13 years now. Unfortunately, he doesn't make the time to do any actual gaming, and his fingers look kinda stubby, but I guess no-one's perfect. He still has plenty of awesomesauce to pour into the pot of gaming in the next few years.


Tim Hildebrandt gives us another collection of expensive limited edition jeweled miniatures.

Nodwick has some amusing role reversal.


Previews: Say goodbye to detailed ecology and full page spreads in the new monster manual. Instead, get ready for high intensity badassedness, scaling, templates, and tons of things ready to be used as PC races from go. Get ready to customise! If you do it right, your players'll never know what to expect from their opponents again.

Looks like the realms aren't really taking a break after all. Into the Dragons lair gives you a new adventure, and a whole load of hints as to how things will change. Another attempt to snag the impatient impulse buyer wanting to buy more stuff along with the corebooks. R. A. Salvadore also releases a new Drizzt book. Sevant of the Shard. Actually, it seems like this one features Entreri more, but hey, Drizzt'll probably make some appearances.

Dragonlance stays system free on the other hand. Bertrem's guide to the age of mortals helps fill in more setting details for novel readers and gamers alike. Like leaves from the inn of the last home, much of this is sorta IC, and may be fallible if your DM is feeling sadistic.

And it seems like Alternity still hasn't finished winding down, with Xenoforms, the Dark Matter monster manual. Hey ho. Looks like this one goes into rather more detail on each creature than it's D&D counterpart.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 3/7


Countdown to the forgotten realms: We had so much fun with the countdown over the last year that of course we have to do it again until diminishing returns mean it loses all impact. And as the most popular D&D setting by a reasonable margin, especially in the novel department, this is first on the list for updating. Now, they have a few issues that they need to tackle. First, they need to make sure the new corebook encapsulates the years of timeline developments and provides a good point for new people to jump on without feeling intimidated by what has come before. Second, they need to make the old obscenely powerful characters fit into the new system, rather than being completely exception based, which also means players have a much better chance of being able to imitate and match them in coolness. Thirdly, they need to update the artwork and move the timeline forward, but not so much as to alienate people. It's a pretty complicated balancing act, and once again, it'll be interesting seeing the changes broken down into little pieces so I can comment on how much I like them individually. And at least it keeps the promotional stuff from spilling out too much. Question is, what will come after that?


Dork tower presents a horrific case of gamer breakup. Harsh, man.


DEAD and Breakfast: Another minigame even after the edition change. I wasn't expecting this! And it's another one illustrated by John Kovalic. Schweeeeeeet. Unfortunately, I won't get to play it, because they missed out the board again. You take the role of ghosts, trying their best to scare the guests of a hotel as much as possible, while not pushing them too far and ruining the whole gig. It seems to be relatively low on tactics, about the kind of level as Monopoly or less, as you do have a bit of influence on how to move and play your cards, but everything comes down to randomness in the end. It doesn't seem like the kind of game which'll sustain too many repeated plays, but should be fun for a halloween one-shot. And hopefully by next year you'll be able to take it out and do it again. Hey, it's not great, but it's more variety than I was expecting this far in. I still hope they do a few more of these.


Black cats and broken mirrors: I'm rather surprised they haven't done an article on real world superstitions in here before. Guess this something that would be perfectly suitable for the old edition, that's only going to get the spotlight under the new rules. Mind you, it does seem pretty exception based, so chances are it was submitted months ago and converted to 3e rules by the editors. At 4 pages, it only has space to cover the fairly basic superstitions, which most people will know of to some degree anyway. So it's main value is in the good/bad luck rules it adds to them, and the way it presents them, with plenty of interesting quotations breaking up the information. And they're interesting, but not too brutal, which means they're probably going to do the job. Another fairly decent article then.


How to create a monster: The Monster Manual is out this month, so no surprise we have a promotional article connected to it. And here they go into all the formulae that you build monsters by, that are useful in the short term, and very cool for players, as it means any monster can be advanced like a PC, even the ones that just gain more hit dice and size as a default; but become a pain in the ass eventually, as they can force you into skill and feat selections that really aren't optimal for the monster's concept, and need to be compensated for with huge inherent modifiers. Plus, in contrast with the PC classes, the different monster types don't even attempt to be balanced, with Dragon and Outsider quite substantially superior to any of the others, and undead and construct suffering for their lack of Con bonus at higher levels. So this shows up the fact that while 3e might be better balanced and more flexible from a player point of view, it's quite a bit more work for a DM at higher level, and much easier for you to do it wrong if you aren't good at maths. One of their less pleasing promotional articles. Now hopefully they can cut down on them a bit, since we have all the corebooks now.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 4/7


Fiction: Kang's command by Margaret Weis & Don Perrin. Draconians have received a fair amount of humanising characterisation over the years. This makes that retroactive, with a story set shortly before the war of the lance, when they were still team evil's big secret. And it is a pretty strong indicator that their unpleasant nature is a result of nurture as much as nature, since they were treated as monstrous troops right from the moment they were hatched, only educated just enough to do the job needed at the time, and encouraged to be vicious and competitive. Breaking out of that kind of abusive setup is never easy, especially since they are vicious, greedy artificially created carnivores when you get right down to it. So yeah, fantasy racism is an awkward issue, especially when there are huge actual differences in capabilities and lifecycle, but you can make fun stories out of these problems. And indeed, I do find this story fairly interesting, and very D&Dish indeed in the group interactions, with tons of bickering and a good party dynamic where everyone gets to exploit their particular talents. You can play the monsters in the new edition, and have a lot of fun doing so, without the strict class and level limits you had to face before.


Nodwick gets the last laugh at Lolth. Have they run out of classic modules to mock? We shall see.


The ecology of the sheet phantom: Ooogie boogie boo. An amusingly schlocky monster from the fiend folio gets a stab at credibility, and an update to the new edition. Just the thing for a halloween issue. Formed when someone dies in bed, but wants to carry on existing rather a lot, they're a sheet of ectoplasm that then envelops you, suffocates you, and possesses your body. Not a nice way to go. Johnathan gets brutal for a change, killing both the heroes of this little story, and leaving the monster happily at large to haunt and kill some more, which definitely helps make it seem more of a credible threat. It'll never rival vampires for sheer cool, but as long as they're really easy to do as a costume, I guess they'll never truly die. Once again they use a strong, yet largely monochromatic art style that works pretty well for the subject. Nice to see the magazine helping to polish up old stuff that could well have got lost in the cracks.


The adventures of Volo: The artwork improvements manage to penetrate in here for a change. Elminster, on the other hand, takes a break, as Volo also takes a break from exploring dungeons and weird locations, and goes intriguing and partying. An area our great sage has little interest in, so while this might still be unreliable, he isn't going to correct him. So we get to enjoy 7 not entirely flattering character sketches of people who hang around the Cormyran courts. You can bet some of those'll be out for his blood when this gets around. A reminder that this is yet a bloody nother thing he does really well (after all, the nine hells articles were chock full of this, especially issue 91's follow-up instalment) but hasn't really concentrated on in a while. Envy envy envy. Stop making everyone else look boring and one-dimensional by comparison! Goddamnnit, I know I should stop eating so much cheese, but he keeps on making me fall in love with him all over again.


Class acts: Ahh, the hunter of the dead. Another prestige class that you can fit easily into most campaigns. After all, undead are a pain in the ass, especially if you don't have a specialist. Here we run into another problem with 3rd edition. CoDzilla is far better than nearly any prestige class, especially when you consider the tradeoff between 20th level casting vs 10/10 in two different progressions. So this is a perfectly serviceable option for a paladin who wants to concentrate on undead splatting, or a fighter who dips a level in cleric to qualify. But if you want to be a primary spellcaster, this is a bad idea. Also notable is that it doesn't progress your turn undead ability at all. Still, if you're an undead hunter, you don't want to just make them run away, you want to kill them. But like the blackguard requiring stealth to gain, but not having it as a class skill, this does result in another suboptimal ability. How very irksome.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 5/7


Vs Zombies: D&D zombies really aren't scary, especially in 3e, with their fairly unique partial actions only penalty and distinct tactical deficiency. And d12 hit points don't really make undead particularly tough once you consider the lost con bonuses compared to most high level monster types. It merely makes their toughness more swingy. That said, they do have some useful advice here, on what will take them down faster and what will be a waste of time. Hit hard, hit with ranged attacks, and make sure you have a cleric around. But it is pretty obvious stuff. I think this column would be better served looking at slightly more obscure monsters that don't have so much established tactical wisdom about how to deal with them, give the writers more room to stretch their brains to figure out what works and what doesn't themselves.


The Bestiary: Our second 3rd ed bestiary follows the same formula as the first, taking us to a specific greyhawk location to invent some more monsters to fill it. Looks like we have a probable themed series on our hands. What icky stuff lurks within the wormcrawl fissure. I'm betting more kyuss related grodyness.

Avolakia are decidedly cthuloid creatures that can assume a humanoid form, and prefer undead flesh to all other delicacies (which may well involve killing you and animating you. ) Both the description and the artist really go to town, once again showing off their increased art budget

Riftjumpers look like giant fleas, and possess enormous leaping capabilities to match. With a poisonous bite that slows you down and a propensity for knocking you around, you really don't want to meet them mid climb in said rifts.

Nerephytys look like the badass big brothers of earth weirds, and have rather high SR for their CR. You'll have to fight these guys physically then.

Ulgurstasta are yet another of Kyusses foul creations. He is enjoying a resurgence of popularity lately. Giant maggot things that'll consume you whole then animate your skeleton, they seem like a good way to make an army, if they didn't have plans of their own. They get a particularly long and cool description detailing not just their powers, but also their history.

Ciruja plant ages you if it gets it's roots in you. Careful what flowers you sniff. Once again we see that they're not shying away from including permanently crippling effects on monsters in 3.0, just making it a little more likely that you can avoid them. Once again. this makes for pretty fun reading, and the creatures are far less rehashed in terms of builds and ideas than they were in the dying days of 2nd ed. They really have rejuvenated themselves pretty successfully this time.


Dragonmirth gets political. This could be a problem.


Forum: Jeffrey Gerretse has put away his house rules, and been won over by the sleek, highly playtested glory of 3e. It's for the best really. You just can't compete with that kind of resources, and the system is finally good enough to work without houserules. It's all so beautiful :tears in eyes:

Mark Anthony Sims doesn't mind the big changes, but ironically is irritated by all the little terminology shifts. What's the point of those, man? It just throws off your intuition.

Denis Tetreaut approves of trying to expand roleplaying by marketing to Diablo players. That's just the kind of thing WotC should do. And remember, you need to do your bit to make the hobby inviting to newbie too. Now more than ever, since this is a perfect time to get on board.

Joseph Larkin is not amused at the people trying to remove the shortarse races from the game. They weren't a problem in Tolkien, and they shouldn't be in your campaign either. You as a DM can fix this.

Dr Rotwang! Another familiar person known primarily by their online forum pseudonym contributes to the official D&D forums using it. This really is a new era. But saying that plots should be tailored to the players and their characters is nothing new, on the other hand. Still probably the right advice though.

David R. Boruch nitpicks about Tiamat's colour scheme. Did it wind up getting mirrored or something? In any case, gods are well known for their shapeshifting powers. Maybe we ought to add orange, yellow, purple and brown heads as well to reflect advances in dragonkind over the years.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 6/7


Role models: The writing in this column continues to be pretty short and half-assed. Minis and terrain make it easier for you to determine how much cover bonus your character gets. Gee, you reckon? The previous writers for this column already did that in issue 259. Ok, so the bonuses you get from cover in 3e are better than in 2e, so players might be more inclined to take advantage of it, but still, this is rehashed, shorter, and less helpful. An excellent example of a writer not paying attention to what their predecessors were doing, and wasting our time as a result.


PC Portraits: This month's portraits look like they were done in charcoal. Curious. And fairly suitable for the month, since it's dark, brooding heroes again like last year. Not a smile amongst them. Chin up, it might never happen. Actually, it probably has already, given how much players of characters like these like writing up long, convoluted backstories which are more interesting than the adventures they have in play. That's one stereotype that it would definitely be good to see killed in a gruesome and messy manner. But that can only be done if the DM and players work together to make their adventures interesting and dramatic. There's a good achievable target for you to set for yourselves.


Sage advice: If you overrun and trip someone can you use improved trip to get a free attack (No. Wrong type of attack action)

What does countersong counter (magical sound based attacks of all kinds. If it has no save, it's not applicable though. )

Do you need to hear a countersong to benefit from it (no)

Do you have to roll for each shuriken when throwing them. (Exception based design strikes back! Yes, but not with the standard penalties.)

Can you sneak attack as often as you like (if you have the attacks. This is much easier than previous editions. If you can flank 'em, you can shank 'em)

Can you get sneak attack bonuses separately for multiple shuriken in a single blow(No. Insufficient precision)

Can weak characters use a mighty bow ( To their normal extent.)

Are specializations with normal & composite longbows the same (no)

Can you move, turn, take a 5 foot step, and then do a partial charge (No. You fail at understanding the new action system.)

Can you do an unarmed attack to deliver a touch spell (if you're willing to wait a turn. This may not be optimal.)

Do spellcasting levels from different classes stack (no.)

Can you fill spell slots you're not smart enough to learn spells for with metamagic spells (Yes. You can even just use lower level spells. We like flexibility here in 3rd ed land.)

If you're paralyzed do you have the same initiative when it wears off (yes. Saves dice rolls.)

Do you take buffs with you when you swap bodies (Yes. This may make the transfer obvious. )

How many hit points do you have when you bodyswap (As many as that body has. )

Why does bull's grace have a save. (Some people are just ungrateful)

Can you use a gaze attack while shapechanged (usually, no. There are some weird edge cases though. )

Your advice in issue 268 on wall of force contradicts the players handbook (That was last edition. This ……... is now. )

Do you have to decide to use the luck reroll before you know if you succeeded or not (Yes. Lady luck's a bitch. )

Does stoneskin protect you from poison. (If it negates all the damage)
Continual flame is in the wrong School! (Whatdya know. Skip'd better get errataing. )

How does locate object really work (No better than the mind using it in terms of distinguishing classifications. The magic does not have a mind of it's own, and you wouldn't be happy if it did.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 276: October 2000


part 7/7


Dungeoncraft: Having finished the quiz, Ray goes back and elaborates on his second lesson, about ensuring there's always a secret or two behind your setting elements. Just be careful with messing with your players. Finding out your entire backstory is a lie, and you're actually a brainwashed assassin put in a sleeper position ready to be triggered when a secret evil organisation needs a fall guy is both overdone and very annoying indeed. I do not recommend using it. Most of the other ideas he presents are pretty sweet though. A country is a big complicated place, and finding out that it's been involved in some weird or morally dubious stuff isn't going to make most players feel betrayed, especially if they watch the news regularly and are in touch with the disappointments of reality. It's reinforcement of an existing lesson rather than a new idea, which does make me wonder if we're running out of ground to break, but it's still got some pretty entertaining tricks to liven up your game with. Give us some more depth. You've got the space and security to experiment for a bit without worrying about immediate cancellation.


Dixie goes evil in what's new. The metaplot ..... has arrived. The snail approves, incidentally.

The insane clown posse advertise on the back page in eye-hurting fashion. Make it go away. I do not want to have a seizure, or become a juggalo.


As usual, the october issue kicks ass, with the exception of several of the columns that don't really seem to be bothering. The punk aspect of the layout is already toned back a little from last issue, with signs that it'll recede further in the future. With any luck they'll be keeping the good aspects, and eliminating the bad after wildly experimenting for a bit. You'll never improve if you don't shake things up every now and then, push your limits. So let's see what's survived and what's on the chopping board next month.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 277: November 2000


part 1/7


132 pages. Steampunk! This certainly isn't your daddy's D&D. Amusing that this should turn up just as the subgenre really starts to go mainstream, 12 years later, and shows how long it's been gradually gathering fans. Once again they've come up with a topic they didn't cover under the old edition, which almost makes it seem like they were holding back over the last year or so. So I'm definitely excited to see if they've got themselves a decent collection of good articles for this one. Don't let me down now guys.


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, some page curvature visible.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: They've already loosened the alignment straitjacket a little recently. Here's another invitation for people to have a good whine about the problems or opportunities alignment affords them. Even in the office, they have their disagreements about it. But these are pretty friendly ones compared to the flamewars that rage on forums. I do hope they know what they're letting themselves in for. Give people an inch and they'll take a mile, and next thing you know, they won't be using alignment at all. And then how will we tell who the good and bad guys are, huh? Still, a vigorous flamewar every now and then does one good. And if they don't get enough then they have to manufacture them to keep from getting bored. Should see what the results of this are fairly soon.


The contributors to this month's issue get mini-profiles. This means they're no longer putting little comments about the writers at the end of each article. Since they were often struggling to come up with new ones for the regular writers, this was probably for the best.


Nodwick has another attack of continuity. At least this time his load is a relatively light one.


Scale Mail: We start off with someone who thinks that the roleplaying advice articles in issue 274 were brilliant. They deserve reprinting to a wider audience. They're not disagreeing. They like Robin so much that they've given him his own regular column! That was quick. But will he be able to continue to come up with mindblowing insights on a production line schedule? Most writers fall into formula pretty soon.

Second we have praise for the heraldry articles. There's still a fair few people who like this magazine for the historical bits.

Then we have a long letter about the horrible things they did to the english script in issue 275. They've already backed off on the worst of them, and they promise to never ever use Helvetica. But no word on comic sans. They could still do a whole issue in it if they chose.

And one who isn't happy about the change in artwork. It is a good deal less naturalistic than the old style, it has to be said. Whether that's a good thing is very much a matter of opinion.

On a completely different note, we have someone who rather likes the idea of the cardboard markers that come with the new basic boxed set, and wants to see how the idea could be applied to other parts of the game. Until they get lost, these things can speed play along tremendously.

We then get a reminder that Michael Moorcock is not just a novelist who's been influential on roleplaying, he's also produced some very appropriate music with Hawkwind and the Blue Oyster Cult. He is pretty cool, isn't he.

And finally, we have a rather amusing controversy about the presence of the word [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn1VGytzXus]ass[/ame] on the cover of issue 275. Well, a few people are outraged, and the rest are nonplussed. I think this would be a case where it's best to ignore the oversensitive vocal minority, and embrace your enthusiasm. You'll get more coverage that way, and anyone who can't take the odd swearword definitely couldn't handle regularly killing things and taking their stuff as a fun pastime.