Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
That scan doesn't do it justice. Luckily for me, I have a copy of the Complete Ranger's Handbook.
Let's read the entire run
- Thread starter (un)reason
- Start date
That scan doesn't do it justice. Luckily for me, I have a copy of the Complete Ranger's Handbook.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 94: February 1985
part 2/3
Reviews: Mercenaries, Spies and Private eyes gets a second review, rather longer and more favorable than Ken's. Arlen P Walker goes into plenty of detail on it's system. A relation of Tunnels & Trolls, it has a well designed skill system, an emphasis on designing your background over random rolls, fast and furious combat, and plenty of design advice. It also has a dual-stat alliance with Hero games, weirdly. Two modules also get reviewed. The adventure of the jade jaguar was going to be published with the core book, but got made standalone at the last minute. As a result, it's probably a bit small to really stand on it's own two feet. Stormhaven is rather better, with tons of pulp references, and a scenario which can be played in lots of different ways. Another great example of how a second opinion can be very useful.
The role of books: Secret of the sixth magic by Lyndon Hardy takes his established world and laws of magic, and starts playing with the formula. Just when you think you know the rules, some bastard goes and changes them on you. And guess who's job it is to save the world in response to this? Muggins here who can't cast a a spell for toffee. Once again, the book gets my wholehearted recommendation, even if it doesn't quite get the reviewers.
The land beyond the gate by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach is another story where a protagonist from our world wanders into a fantasy world, finding themselves the centre of a epic destined story. This cliche is kept interesting by lots of enthusiasm and tight pacing and plotting that doesn't leave things on a cliffhanger just to sell more books.
Raphael by R A MacAvoy tells the story of the titular angel's tricking by satan, loss of power, and subsequent quest for redemption. It manages to be both philosophical and introspective, and have moments of extreme high power kick-assery. So if you want to know how to run really high power games where the protagonists are among the most powerful creatures in creation, and whatever they do will have serious consequences, this seems like good reading for inspiration.
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce is a vampire story. Like any vampire story, the precise powers and weaknesses of the creature may vary from what you expect. Plenty of other mythical thingies make appearances, but it still manages to retain a folkloric feel to it.
The song of the axe by Paul O Williams is set in a postapocalyptic world. Considerably less gonzo and with a better developed setting than gamma world, it manages to be both a self-contained story, and have plenty of references to other stories in the same world. Once again, the reviewer points out how this could be of use in your own games.
The harem of Aman Akbar by Elizabeth Scarborough is full of djinn, and contains lots of advice on how to deal with these powerful, but not particularly loyal creatures in a fun arabian romp with plenty of humor and fantastical happenings.
Exiles of the Rynth by Carole Nelson Douglas is a good demonstration of what happens when the DM has a plot, but the characters persist in trying to do something else. Tensions are caused, and the game is slowed to a crawl. The result is unsatisfactory, and often feels like filler material. You do not need to make every story a trilogy dear. Just get on with it.
My honor is my life: Tracy Hickman introduces us to the Knights of Solamnia. The three organisations that take the proto-prestige class concept of switching classes at certain points like bards and thief acrobats, and stretch it even further. Not that this is mentioned here, as this teaser is entirely rules free, giving us a potted history of the orders and their founders. Despite being a tremendously heroic organization, they've become exiles, trying to find their place in krynn's war torn post cataclysmic landscape. Oh, the angst. Well, good guys are at their best when they're the underdogs, as the kingpriest and co showed. Or something. Many think Krynns "Neutrality, be thou my good" moral lessons are a bit of a broken aesop, and I can't say I'm entirely in disagreement. This also shows signs of dragonlance's concious attempts to hit buttons for commercial appeal, making what seems appealing initially taste increasingly sour on closer examination. You can't sell me on your supposed heroes that easily, I'm afraid.
Creature catalog II: 18 new monsters delivered fresh to your door. Just the thing to terrorize your players with. Be careful unwrapping them, though. Many of them are Ed Greenwood creations, with Roger and Len also getting quite a few contributions in.
Belabra are really rather weird looking tentacled creatures. Thankfully, they don't attack with them. They can be trained too, which could have interesting concequences.
Giant Betta are, as the name says, giant siamese fighting fish. Like the real thing, they're teritorial buggers, easily set off by bright colours and new smells. As they make bubble nests, they're very useful for underwater adventurers in need of a quick refill. Stealth and stuff is good, because you'll probably piss off druids if you kill them.
Bhaergala are one of Ed's great lost gems of weird design and plot hooks aplenty. Virtually every line has some strange bit of flavour, and their abilities are pretty unique as well. Stealing musical instruments, spell reflection, smelling of freshly baked biscuits, these easily mach up to real mythic creatures in sheer idiosyncracy. One I could definitely stand to see some more of, and am very disappointed by future editions treatment of them.
Phase Dragons are exactly what they sound like. Phase spiders have some serious competition. Thankfully they don't grow very big compared to most dragons, and aren't that aggressive either. A 100 foot reptile suddenly appearing in front of you would ruin anyones day.
Ekrat are nasty little paper eating fae. If your wizard suddenly finds himself missing a spellbook, they might well be responsible. Bad puns are employed in the writing of this entry, which is definitely one that's more annoying than deadly. Have them keep pet rust monsters, and the screwage can be shared around equally.
Fireball Flys go boom if you attack them. Ha ha. Like the gas spore, this is a definite play with the expectations of the party monster, only coming at it from the other direction. Laugh? I nearly split my britches. The perfect thing to have hanging around those salamanders and red dragons in their volcanic lairs.
Firestar are floating balls of light that absorb energy. There's good spell components in 'em, so cruel adventurers may want to hunt them down.
Flamewings are our third fire related monster in a row. They expel methane gas and then use it to set fire to their wings. Um, yeah. You couldn't make it up, could you. Thanks for that.
Hurgeon are humanoid hedgehogs. As Good burrowing humanoids, they're pretty unlikely to show up in a game, unless gnomes are involved. They have tricksy magical powers that mean you don't want to despoil nature when they're around. Much mehness.
Giant Lightning bugs, like fireball flys, are little pains in the ass, in this case because they're attracted to metal and shock whoever's in it. This also has the chance of removing an item's magic, which would really annoy lots of players.
Lillendi are winged snake-women from gladsheim. With a ton of powerful tricks up their sleeve, they can be both good allies and scary enemies. Probably the most famous of the monsters from this collection, they get good write-ups in future editions as well. Well, sex sells. They might not have quite the pervalicious qualities of mariliths, but they can still fuel people's fantasies.
part 2/3
Reviews: Mercenaries, Spies and Private eyes gets a second review, rather longer and more favorable than Ken's. Arlen P Walker goes into plenty of detail on it's system. A relation of Tunnels & Trolls, it has a well designed skill system, an emphasis on designing your background over random rolls, fast and furious combat, and plenty of design advice. It also has a dual-stat alliance with Hero games, weirdly. Two modules also get reviewed. The adventure of the jade jaguar was going to be published with the core book, but got made standalone at the last minute. As a result, it's probably a bit small to really stand on it's own two feet. Stormhaven is rather better, with tons of pulp references, and a scenario which can be played in lots of different ways. Another great example of how a second opinion can be very useful.
The role of books: Secret of the sixth magic by Lyndon Hardy takes his established world and laws of magic, and starts playing with the formula. Just when you think you know the rules, some bastard goes and changes them on you. And guess who's job it is to save the world in response to this? Muggins here who can't cast a a spell for toffee. Once again, the book gets my wholehearted recommendation, even if it doesn't quite get the reviewers.
The land beyond the gate by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach is another story where a protagonist from our world wanders into a fantasy world, finding themselves the centre of a epic destined story. This cliche is kept interesting by lots of enthusiasm and tight pacing and plotting that doesn't leave things on a cliffhanger just to sell more books.
Raphael by R A MacAvoy tells the story of the titular angel's tricking by satan, loss of power, and subsequent quest for redemption. It manages to be both philosophical and introspective, and have moments of extreme high power kick-assery. So if you want to know how to run really high power games where the protagonists are among the most powerful creatures in creation, and whatever they do will have serious consequences, this seems like good reading for inspiration.
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce is a vampire story. Like any vampire story, the precise powers and weaknesses of the creature may vary from what you expect. Plenty of other mythical thingies make appearances, but it still manages to retain a folkloric feel to it.
The song of the axe by Paul O Williams is set in a postapocalyptic world. Considerably less gonzo and with a better developed setting than gamma world, it manages to be both a self-contained story, and have plenty of references to other stories in the same world. Once again, the reviewer points out how this could be of use in your own games.
The harem of Aman Akbar by Elizabeth Scarborough is full of djinn, and contains lots of advice on how to deal with these powerful, but not particularly loyal creatures in a fun arabian romp with plenty of humor and fantastical happenings.
Exiles of the Rynth by Carole Nelson Douglas is a good demonstration of what happens when the DM has a plot, but the characters persist in trying to do something else. Tensions are caused, and the game is slowed to a crawl. The result is unsatisfactory, and often feels like filler material. You do not need to make every story a trilogy dear. Just get on with it.
My honor is my life: Tracy Hickman introduces us to the Knights of Solamnia. The three organisations that take the proto-prestige class concept of switching classes at certain points like bards and thief acrobats, and stretch it even further. Not that this is mentioned here, as this teaser is entirely rules free, giving us a potted history of the orders and their founders. Despite being a tremendously heroic organization, they've become exiles, trying to find their place in krynn's war torn post cataclysmic landscape. Oh, the angst. Well, good guys are at their best when they're the underdogs, as the kingpriest and co showed. Or something. Many think Krynns "Neutrality, be thou my good" moral lessons are a bit of a broken aesop, and I can't say I'm entirely in disagreement. This also shows signs of dragonlance's concious attempts to hit buttons for commercial appeal, making what seems appealing initially taste increasingly sour on closer examination. You can't sell me on your supposed heroes that easily, I'm afraid.
Creature catalog II: 18 new monsters delivered fresh to your door. Just the thing to terrorize your players with. Be careful unwrapping them, though. Many of them are Ed Greenwood creations, with Roger and Len also getting quite a few contributions in.
Belabra are really rather weird looking tentacled creatures. Thankfully, they don't attack with them. They can be trained too, which could have interesting concequences.
Giant Betta are, as the name says, giant siamese fighting fish. Like the real thing, they're teritorial buggers, easily set off by bright colours and new smells. As they make bubble nests, they're very useful for underwater adventurers in need of a quick refill. Stealth and stuff is good, because you'll probably piss off druids if you kill them.
Bhaergala are one of Ed's great lost gems of weird design and plot hooks aplenty. Virtually every line has some strange bit of flavour, and their abilities are pretty unique as well. Stealing musical instruments, spell reflection, smelling of freshly baked biscuits, these easily mach up to real mythic creatures in sheer idiosyncracy. One I could definitely stand to see some more of, and am very disappointed by future editions treatment of them.
Phase Dragons are exactly what they sound like. Phase spiders have some serious competition. Thankfully they don't grow very big compared to most dragons, and aren't that aggressive either. A 100 foot reptile suddenly appearing in front of you would ruin anyones day.
Ekrat are nasty little paper eating fae. If your wizard suddenly finds himself missing a spellbook, they might well be responsible. Bad puns are employed in the writing of this entry, which is definitely one that's more annoying than deadly. Have them keep pet rust monsters, and the screwage can be shared around equally.
Fireball Flys go boom if you attack them. Ha ha. Like the gas spore, this is a definite play with the expectations of the party monster, only coming at it from the other direction. Laugh? I nearly split my britches. The perfect thing to have hanging around those salamanders and red dragons in their volcanic lairs.
Firestar are floating balls of light that absorb energy. There's good spell components in 'em, so cruel adventurers may want to hunt them down.
Flamewings are our third fire related monster in a row. They expel methane gas and then use it to set fire to their wings. Um, yeah. You couldn't make it up, could you. Thanks for that.
Hurgeon are humanoid hedgehogs. As Good burrowing humanoids, they're pretty unlikely to show up in a game, unless gnomes are involved. They have tricksy magical powers that mean you don't want to despoil nature when they're around. Much mehness.
Giant Lightning bugs, like fireball flys, are little pains in the ass, in this case because they're attracted to metal and shock whoever's in it. This also has the chance of removing an item's magic, which would really annoy lots of players.
Lillendi are winged snake-women from gladsheim. With a ton of powerful tricks up their sleeve, they can be both good allies and scary enemies. Probably the most famous of the monsters from this collection, they get good write-ups in future editions as well. Well, sex sells. They might not have quite the pervalicious qualities of mariliths, but they can still fuel people's fantasies.
(un)reason
Legend
Word.
It really is rather interesting discovering just how much of the 2nd ed artwork was recycled from the magazine. (if also a bit galling, couldn't they get new stuff as good as that. )
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
Word.
I think it's they didn't want to PAY for new stuff as good as that.
Besides the Complete Books were freelanced, so it was probably easy to just toss in an old color plate every so often to help pad the page count. And for players like me, who didn't play until the 90's it all seemed fresh anyway.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 94: February 1985
part 3/3
Creature catalog II continued: Orgautha are gross-looking giant land leeches. They also have two special powers that make them a serious inconvenience for an unprepared group of adventurers. Poor spellcasters. So easy to ruin their days.
Rekeihs are incredibly weird looking mobile plants. With a distinctive style and plenty of ecological detail, they will give adventurers pause, but not be too scary once you get into an actual fight.
Rummele are extraplanar dogs from Gladsheim. They get a whole bunch of feyish powers such as blinking, shapechanging, and divination, plus the ability to deflect missiles. They're a great cohort for mid-high level adventurers, entirely capable of taking care of themselves against all kinds of screwage. What's that lassie? The last group of adventurers all got petrified? We must rescue them! Bring the reflective shields!
Urisk are miniature goat-headed satyrs. They may look cute, but you can bet they'll be humping your leg and chasing the nixies if you don't keep a close eye on them. They have animal companions as well, so expect the unexpected.
Viltch are hooligan monkeys from Pandemonium. They smash pretty stuff and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Like many of these extraplanar versions of standard animals, they have substantial magical and class abilities that'll make them a real hassle even to higher level parties if played cleverly.
Great Wyrms are a mysterious ancient relation of dragons. They may not be quite as badass as later dragons, but they're certainly no picnic. They have toxic breath, a smaug-esque weak spot and can be a source of great knowledge. Pretty flavourful, in other words.
Xaver are decidedly weird looking things that corrode and eat metal like rust monsters. Only they're intelligent and can actually hurt you with their attacks as well. The party is not going to be a happy one after meeting them. Muahahaha.
So it seems like we have a lot of fae, planar, and general screwage creatures this time, rather than stuff you have a straight-up fight with. Introducing these guys to your game will definitely result in interesting times for your players. A definite sign that they were trying to push the envelope on what monsters did and how they acted at that point. Ecology may have been a fairly established concept by then, so now they're pushing the boundaries of how you should act in a fight, and the tactics you have to adopt to successfully deal with these weird creatures. Course, if the way you find out is by trial and error, there's going to be quite a bit of frustration and a few deaths on the way. Eh, if adventuring wasn't a challenge, what would be the point?
Fiction: Fortunes of a fool by Nicholas Yermakov. Oh, this is mean. How to go from rags to riches and back again, courtesy of some supernatural meddling with a distinctly pessimistic russian slant to it. That makes a change from the usual happy, or at least bittersweet ending, and still feels nicely folklorish. As a change of pace from most of the stories in here, I very much approve.
Coming Attractions: Lots of stuff out this month. D&D gets Blade of vengance, a solo module, where an elf must avenge the destruction of his homeland. It also gets AC4, the book of marvelous magic. Lots of new spells and magic items for your delectation and twinking out.
AD&D gets C4:To find a king. Part 1 of the prophecy of brie series, this tournament module does indeed sound pretty cheesy. Not a classic.
Endless quest gets EQ 25: Conan the outlaw, and EQ 26: Tarzan and the well of slaves. Seems like they're definitely in a pulpy mood at the moment.
Star frontiers gets SFKH3: Face of the enemy. Not much info is given on this one.
And on the wargaming front, we get The breakout from Normandy, and The Quadrigame of waterloo. Two more highly specialized games designed to cover particular battles in great detail.
S.h.i.e.l.d.tm: The Marvel superheroes game's popularity is rewarded by a 5 page article on these guys. Their history, their enemies, their staff (including lots of rather amusing mugshots) and all the cool stuff they have, (including a cutaway diagram of their helicarrier base. ) and finally stats for Nick Fury, their head honcho. A very dense article, this gets tons of info in in an efficient manner. I've seen articles twice the size that don't actually say as much of importance. Guess they're really getting the hang of this 16 pages limitation and editing stuff down for it. The artwork is also particularly good on this one. A fast and furious way to kick off this section, with plenty of stuff that's useful in actual play. You never know when you're going to need a world-spanning secret organization to clear up the messes your players are making.
The marvel-phile: My gods. Now this dates this issue. We have spiderman's symbiote, but no Venom. They also don't know who the hobgoblin is yet either. Fascinating. Goes to show how movies condense the stuff from years of comics decades ago into their writing. We also get the Kingpin, another villain who would plague spider-man throughout the ages. Once again, I am shown just how much comics have changed in recent years, and paradoxically, how much they haven't, with events happening back then still having reprecussions now. Jeff delivers another three statblocks and potted histories efficiently as ever. I find myself tempted to pick up a compilation of that era so I can read all this stuff I missed first hand. Must. Stay. Focussed. 271 issues to go. Long Journey. No time for unproductive diversions.
From anarchy to empire: David Cook acquires his nickname of Zeb, for the first time I've spotted in this magazine. Another interesting historical footnote for y'all. Anyway, star frontiers continues to get plenty of coverage around here, with details on how interstellar government is handled there. From loose trade agreements to centralized authoritarian rule, they can vary widely. On the plus side, this is system free, so it's easily applicable to other games. On the negative, this is another case where they really don't go into enough depth, due to the short pagecount, and as a result all the advice feels very familiar, just reskinned slightly. Not a useful article to a longtime reader.
A second bit of fiction this month, The gun that shot too straight by Ralph Roberts. So you've developed a gun that has unlimited range. Just how unlimited? Oh dear oh dear. This could get ugly. A textbook example of speculative sci-fi, where the protagonists take a back seat to the conceptualizing. Which is a decent way to finish of the magazine.
Wormy is just plain awesome this month, as multiple plot threads get developed upon. Snarfquest shows us a map of his world. Dragonmirth shows us a variant on the trojan horse.
Well, this has certainly been an interesting issue. Never thought I'd see Katharine Kerr flipping out and being a downright spoilsport. Even if the average quality of articles isn't quite as high as the last three, there's certainly lots of weird and wonderful stuff happening in here. The monsters are good, the reviews are well above normal quality, the fiction is cool. It's just the full sized articles that aren't always the best. Keep the surprises coming, guys. Controversy like this is fun to rediscover.
part 3/3
Creature catalog II continued: Orgautha are gross-looking giant land leeches. They also have two special powers that make them a serious inconvenience for an unprepared group of adventurers. Poor spellcasters. So easy to ruin their days.
Rekeihs are incredibly weird looking mobile plants. With a distinctive style and plenty of ecological detail, they will give adventurers pause, but not be too scary once you get into an actual fight.
Rummele are extraplanar dogs from Gladsheim. They get a whole bunch of feyish powers such as blinking, shapechanging, and divination, plus the ability to deflect missiles. They're a great cohort for mid-high level adventurers, entirely capable of taking care of themselves against all kinds of screwage. What's that lassie? The last group of adventurers all got petrified? We must rescue them! Bring the reflective shields!
Urisk are miniature goat-headed satyrs. They may look cute, but you can bet they'll be humping your leg and chasing the nixies if you don't keep a close eye on them. They have animal companions as well, so expect the unexpected.
Viltch are hooligan monkeys from Pandemonium. They smash pretty stuff and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Like many of these extraplanar versions of standard animals, they have substantial magical and class abilities that'll make them a real hassle even to higher level parties if played cleverly.
Great Wyrms are a mysterious ancient relation of dragons. They may not be quite as badass as later dragons, but they're certainly no picnic. They have toxic breath, a smaug-esque weak spot and can be a source of great knowledge. Pretty flavourful, in other words.
Xaver are decidedly weird looking things that corrode and eat metal like rust monsters. Only they're intelligent and can actually hurt you with their attacks as well. The party is not going to be a happy one after meeting them. Muahahaha.
So it seems like we have a lot of fae, planar, and general screwage creatures this time, rather than stuff you have a straight-up fight with. Introducing these guys to your game will definitely result in interesting times for your players. A definite sign that they were trying to push the envelope on what monsters did and how they acted at that point. Ecology may have been a fairly established concept by then, so now they're pushing the boundaries of how you should act in a fight, and the tactics you have to adopt to successfully deal with these weird creatures. Course, if the way you find out is by trial and error, there's going to be quite a bit of frustration and a few deaths on the way. Eh, if adventuring wasn't a challenge, what would be the point?
Fiction: Fortunes of a fool by Nicholas Yermakov. Oh, this is mean. How to go from rags to riches and back again, courtesy of some supernatural meddling with a distinctly pessimistic russian slant to it. That makes a change from the usual happy, or at least bittersweet ending, and still feels nicely folklorish. As a change of pace from most of the stories in here, I very much approve.
Coming Attractions: Lots of stuff out this month. D&D gets Blade of vengance, a solo module, where an elf must avenge the destruction of his homeland. It also gets AC4, the book of marvelous magic. Lots of new spells and magic items for your delectation and twinking out.
AD&D gets C4:To find a king. Part 1 of the prophecy of brie series, this tournament module does indeed sound pretty cheesy. Not a classic.
Endless quest gets EQ 25: Conan the outlaw, and EQ 26: Tarzan and the well of slaves. Seems like they're definitely in a pulpy mood at the moment.
Star frontiers gets SFKH3: Face of the enemy. Not much info is given on this one.
And on the wargaming front, we get The breakout from Normandy, and The Quadrigame of waterloo. Two more highly specialized games designed to cover particular battles in great detail.
S.h.i.e.l.d.tm: The Marvel superheroes game's popularity is rewarded by a 5 page article on these guys. Their history, their enemies, their staff (including lots of rather amusing mugshots) and all the cool stuff they have, (including a cutaway diagram of their helicarrier base. ) and finally stats for Nick Fury, their head honcho. A very dense article, this gets tons of info in in an efficient manner. I've seen articles twice the size that don't actually say as much of importance. Guess they're really getting the hang of this 16 pages limitation and editing stuff down for it. The artwork is also particularly good on this one. A fast and furious way to kick off this section, with plenty of stuff that's useful in actual play. You never know when you're going to need a world-spanning secret organization to clear up the messes your players are making.
The marvel-phile: My gods. Now this dates this issue. We have spiderman's symbiote, but no Venom. They also don't know who the hobgoblin is yet either. Fascinating. Goes to show how movies condense the stuff from years of comics decades ago into their writing. We also get the Kingpin, another villain who would plague spider-man throughout the ages. Once again, I am shown just how much comics have changed in recent years, and paradoxically, how much they haven't, with events happening back then still having reprecussions now. Jeff delivers another three statblocks and potted histories efficiently as ever. I find myself tempted to pick up a compilation of that era so I can read all this stuff I missed first hand. Must. Stay. Focussed. 271 issues to go. Long Journey. No time for unproductive diversions.
From anarchy to empire: David Cook acquires his nickname of Zeb, for the first time I've spotted in this magazine. Another interesting historical footnote for y'all. Anyway, star frontiers continues to get plenty of coverage around here, with details on how interstellar government is handled there. From loose trade agreements to centralized authoritarian rule, they can vary widely. On the plus side, this is system free, so it's easily applicable to other games. On the negative, this is another case where they really don't go into enough depth, due to the short pagecount, and as a result all the advice feels very familiar, just reskinned slightly. Not a useful article to a longtime reader.
A second bit of fiction this month, The gun that shot too straight by Ralph Roberts. So you've developed a gun that has unlimited range. Just how unlimited? Oh dear oh dear. This could get ugly. A textbook example of speculative sci-fi, where the protagonists take a back seat to the conceptualizing. Which is a decent way to finish of the magazine.
Wormy is just plain awesome this month, as multiple plot threads get developed upon. Snarfquest shows us a map of his world. Dragonmirth shows us a variant on the trojan horse.
Well, this has certainly been an interesting issue. Never thought I'd see Katharine Kerr flipping out and being a downright spoilsport. Even if the average quality of articles isn't quite as high as the last three, there's certainly lots of weird and wonderful stuff happening in here. The monsters are good, the reviews are well above normal quality, the fiction is cool. It's just the full sized articles that aren't always the best. Keep the surprises coming, guys. Controversy like this is fun to rediscover.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Now we're getting into the issues I remember (and probably still own - I have two untouched for ages boxes of Dragon in my closet) - I remember these photos inspiring me to create a whole race of reptilian humanioid monsters for my first homebrew at age 14 - Anacondians!
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 95: March 1985
part 1/3
100 pages. Welcome to the D&D experience, blue-jeans style. Certainly an interesting art style for this months cover. I quite approve. No particular theme to this month's issue, just another array of stuff for your enjoyment, for all kinds of systems. Can't think of anything else interesting to say here, so lets get going, as usual.
In this issue:
Letters: We have a letter complaining about how much advertising has increased in the magazine over the years. With statistics. They consider this so significant that they devote the whole editorial to justifying it. Commerce sucks, does it not. Just the price we pay to not have to charge you so much.
One of those awkward questions. If someone is deconverted after a cleric converts them, do they lose XP. The answer is generally no. They take the time to answer some more possible rules quibbles. So it goes.
A dumb question about an apparent rules error that is not a mistake at all. Use a little logic before you write in, it'll save everyone a lot of trouble.
Some questions about the monsters in issue 89. Once again logic and realism have to take a hike. Seems like they're saying that a lot lately. Every trend has it's backlash.
Another question on a recent article. Now they want to know exactly what counts as mental damage. Simple enough to resolve.
As is the next bit, which isn't a letter but a load of errata. All in all, this letters section has been rather a downer. Can't we have at least one feelgood compliment or amusingly insane rant? Poor Kim, having to sift through this crap every month.
The forum: Stephen Inniss rebuts comments on his recent articles. You, sirs, were not paying attention, for I specifically already addressed the problems you mentioned within the article. Fantasy is not real, but you should still try and keep it internally consistent. Not that you have to explain everything upfront, either. Balance, my dears.
Calvin V Jestice wants to introduce chances for broken bones to falling damage. Once again, we see people wanting to put specific injuries into an abstract hit point system. Shoo, Away wi ye, ya varmints.
Leslie G Gillis thinks that the idea of worshipping only one god in a pantheistic society is a silly one. Most people will appeal to appropriate gods whenever they're in a tough situation. A perfectly valid view. Monotheistic assumptions from the real world can be hard to shake of. Also, why should PC's be completely immune to systems that affect NPC's. They shouldn't be that special.
From the sorceror's scroll: After receiving many complaints, Gary decides to loosen up the demihuman racial limits a little, as well as open up the various subraces to general PC's. Welcome to serious power creep. We also see the first named mention of Unearthed Arcana. Having produced so many Official AD&Dtm Rules Additions in this magazine, it's time to compile them and make them easily accessable, like they've been saying they would since 1982. Yeah, that's the ticket And then next year, they'll start work on a new edition. This is interesting information. And that's not all, not by a long shot, no sir. We also have more news on the D&D film, and results from the recent survey. And finally, Gary apologizes once again to the runners of Origins, as bad blood between conventions is not helpful to the hobby as a whole. My oh my. That's some quite substantial news. This will please a lot of people, and piss off almost as many. The D&D ruleset is about to be changed forever, not neccecarily for the better. Looks like the next few issues are going to be rather dramatic ones. Should be exciting for me.
The influence of tolkien on D&D: More pontification from Gary. Once again, for those of you who didn't get the memo way back in issue 13, he talks about D&D's many other influences such as Howard, Moorcock, Lieber, et all. While D&D's races may have been taken from LotR, the tone was very much not. In fact, he's quite critical in many ways of Tolkien's writing style and plot pacing. D&D is not suited to running a game like Tolkien's plots, and you really shouldn't try. Seven years may have passed, and many things have changed in the meantime, but his opinion remains much the same. All you Johnny-come-latelys who've never read most of the original inspirations for the game are Doing It Wrong™. Once again we see how he's already the ultimate grognard, pontificating on subjects most people already consider irrelevant, and only grudgingly changing with the times. Still, once again, he does so in an entertaining fashion. It's going to be different once he's gone. Who's going to play the cantankerous ideologue then?
The world gamers guide: Looks like this is back, sorta. They're no longer going to publish the name of everyone who sends it in, because that'd take forever. Instead, they're going to concentrate on expanding international awareness. If you're in some far flung part of the world, and struggling to find any players at all, they'll help out. How nice of them.
Christians! Learn how to fight at the gates of hell with Dragonraider! Well, okay then. I'm sure your parents will object less than if you were playing that ghastly piece of satanic propaganda that is D&D I find this advert amusing on multiple levels.
How taxes take their toll: Taxes. Peh. Was there ever a thing adventurers hated more? Arthur Collins regales us with tales of the things kingdoms find to take money from you for having, and the way they do it with the least resistance. Catch them in the winter, when they can't run away. An annoying subject, but handled with humour and a good framing device. Will your adventurers aquiesce for the good of the kingdom, or will they slaughter anyone who has the temerity to try and leave or take over. And if they take over, how will they handle the whole finance situation. You might be able to live the high life on a dragons hoard for years, but it won't keep the roads smooth or the army paid for long. A dull subject, but still one you can build plenty of adventures around. Do you want those kinds of realistic ramifications in your game, or would you prefer to keep your play escapist? As ever, any amusing stories of how your characters acted when faced with the dread spectre of taxes are welcome.
part 1/3
100 pages. Welcome to the D&D experience, blue-jeans style. Certainly an interesting art style for this months cover. I quite approve. No particular theme to this month's issue, just another array of stuff for your enjoyment, for all kinds of systems. Can't think of anything else interesting to say here, so lets get going, as usual.
In this issue:
Letters: We have a letter complaining about how much advertising has increased in the magazine over the years. With statistics. They consider this so significant that they devote the whole editorial to justifying it. Commerce sucks, does it not. Just the price we pay to not have to charge you so much.
One of those awkward questions. If someone is deconverted after a cleric converts them, do they lose XP. The answer is generally no. They take the time to answer some more possible rules quibbles. So it goes.
A dumb question about an apparent rules error that is not a mistake at all. Use a little logic before you write in, it'll save everyone a lot of trouble.
Some questions about the monsters in issue 89. Once again logic and realism have to take a hike. Seems like they're saying that a lot lately. Every trend has it's backlash.
Another question on a recent article. Now they want to know exactly what counts as mental damage. Simple enough to resolve.
As is the next bit, which isn't a letter but a load of errata. All in all, this letters section has been rather a downer. Can't we have at least one feelgood compliment or amusingly insane rant? Poor Kim, having to sift through this crap every month.
The forum: Stephen Inniss rebuts comments on his recent articles. You, sirs, were not paying attention, for I specifically already addressed the problems you mentioned within the article. Fantasy is not real, but you should still try and keep it internally consistent. Not that you have to explain everything upfront, either. Balance, my dears.
Calvin V Jestice wants to introduce chances for broken bones to falling damage. Once again, we see people wanting to put specific injuries into an abstract hit point system. Shoo, Away wi ye, ya varmints.
Leslie G Gillis thinks that the idea of worshipping only one god in a pantheistic society is a silly one. Most people will appeal to appropriate gods whenever they're in a tough situation. A perfectly valid view. Monotheistic assumptions from the real world can be hard to shake of. Also, why should PC's be completely immune to systems that affect NPC's. They shouldn't be that special.
From the sorceror's scroll: After receiving many complaints, Gary decides to loosen up the demihuman racial limits a little, as well as open up the various subraces to general PC's. Welcome to serious power creep. We also see the first named mention of Unearthed Arcana. Having produced so many Official AD&Dtm Rules Additions in this magazine, it's time to compile them and make them easily accessable, like they've been saying they would since 1982. Yeah, that's the ticket
And then next year, they'll start work on a new edition. This is interesting information. And that's not all, not by a long shot, no sir. We also have more news on the D&D film, and results from the recent survey. And finally, Gary apologizes once again to the runners of Origins, as bad blood between conventions is not helpful to the hobby as a whole. My oh my. That's some quite substantial news. This will please a lot of people, and piss off almost as many. The D&D ruleset is about to be changed forever, not neccecarily for the better. Looks like the next few issues are going to be rather dramatic ones. Should be exciting for me. The influence of tolkien on D&D: More pontification from Gary. Once again, for those of you who didn't get the memo way back in issue 13, he talks about D&D's many other influences such as Howard, Moorcock, Lieber, et all. While D&D's races may have been taken from LotR, the tone was very much not. In fact, he's quite critical in many ways of Tolkien's writing style and plot pacing. D&D is not suited to running a game like Tolkien's plots, and you really shouldn't try. Seven years may have passed, and many things have changed in the meantime, but his opinion remains much the same. All you Johnny-come-latelys who've never read most of the original inspirations for the game are Doing It Wrong™. Once again we see how he's already the ultimate grognard, pontificating on subjects most people already consider irrelevant, and only grudgingly changing with the times. Still, once again, he does so in an entertaining fashion. It's going to be different once he's gone. Who's going to play the cantankerous ideologue then?
The world gamers guide: Looks like this is back, sorta. They're no longer going to publish the name of everyone who sends it in, because that'd take forever. Instead, they're going to concentrate on expanding international awareness. If you're in some far flung part of the world, and struggling to find any players at all, they'll help out. How nice of them.
Christians! Learn how to fight at the gates of hell with Dragonraider! Well, okay then. I'm sure your parents will object less than if you were playing that ghastly piece of satanic propaganda that is D&D
I find this advert amusing on multiple levels. How taxes take their toll: Taxes. Peh. Was there ever a thing adventurers hated more? Arthur Collins regales us with tales of the things kingdoms find to take money from you for having, and the way they do it with the least resistance. Catch them in the winter, when they can't run away. An annoying subject, but handled with humour and a good framing device. Will your adventurers aquiesce for the good of the kingdom, or will they slaughter anyone who has the temerity to try and leave or take over. And if they take over, how will they handle the whole finance situation. You might be able to live the high life on a dragons hoard for years, but it won't keep the roads smooth or the army paid for long. A dull subject, but still one you can build plenty of adventures around. Do you want those kinds of realistic ramifications in your game, or would you prefer to keep your play escapist? As ever, any amusing stories of how your characters acted when faced with the dread spectre of taxes are welcome.
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
I wonder if this was based on another hard-assed old-school DM looking to stomp PC where and whenever he could.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 95: March 1985
part 2/3
The ecology of the cockatrice: Ed ropes Elminster in to help for the second issue in a row. He must be running out of time to do his own research, with all this rapid writing. We get one of his best stories yet, a nicely folklorish tale of ironic punishment featuring the red wizards of Thay and several now familiar bits of Realms geography. Once again we get plenty of detail on both their lifecycle and the uses to which their parts can be put (and the prices you can command for those parts. You want to make magic items of petrification, here's the thing you want to go for. Once again, he continues to outdo himself, with strong fiction, worldbuilding, ecology, and game-usefullness all handled in an exemplary manner. And he's got a decent balance between text and footnotes as well. Unless you don't like him putting Realms setting stuff in a supposedly generic article, this is practically the platonic ideal of an ecology article. Genius.
Prices for the roaring 20's: Hello Glenn. It's a while since we had some stuff from you. Once again he's put lots of effort into his research and writing to show us just how ridiculous inflation has been over the years. Cars for $200. Shoes for a couple of pounds. A cement mixer for $26, of all things. One of those system-free articles that'll come in handy if you find yourself in the appropriate position. He's got a good idea of what adventurers are likely to want. If your PC's want to go into the lair of the monster dressed in gingham, their desires are catered for.
Another one for bookmarking.
Credit where credit is due: Katharine Kerr once again shows her distaste for hack and slash gaming and tries to get some more people to abandon it for the rarified realms of Proper Roleplaying™. This of course is tricky when the principle source of XP is killing things and taking their stuff. To change people's behaviour, you need to alter what the system rewards and punishes. Clever thought, and one which will be applied to great effect in future games. Once again, her attention to detail is exemplary, but she also shows a certain didactic over-literalism in her writing. I sense that she is growing dissatisfied with this job. She certainly isn't producing as smoothly and reliably as Ed, Ken or Roger.
The many shapes of apes: Stephen Innis continues to be a prolific contributer. At this rate he'll be next to officially join the team. He returns to one of his subjects of expertise, animals. From little chimpanzees to the extinct (on earth) Gigantopithicus, (which really ought to be renamed for a fantasy campaign.) plus gorillas and orangutans. Compared to the recent stuff in the creature catalog, they're a bit dull really. So much for reality being stranger than fiction. Shoulda put bonobos in there as well. Bah. Family friendly magazine and all that crap. Not the most fun way this could have been handled.
Into the forgotten realms: Well well. Having been regailed with hints about it for the past four years, we finally get to play an official FR module this month. With UA as well, this is turning out to be a significant month. This is one of those modules you're not intended to solve by straight combat, with a boss way above your expected CR. It's also very much a tournament module, with a scoring system and definite winners and losers. Looks like despite his progressive tendencies, Ed can kick it old skool with the best of them as well. Is there no end to his talents? This'll test your ingenuity and your ability to play along with ridiculous situations. Will you take the pregens, or subject your regular characters to it.
Battles above the dungeon: We've had plenty of advice on how to set an adventure above ground by now. However, tactical advice for party level skirmishes has not been amongst that advice. And lets face it, positioning can have a pretty significant effect on a fight. Surrounding, hitting from the rear, ambushing with ranged attacks, cover, there are plenty of ways you can turn the tide. Once you add flight, and the artillery effects magic can provide, you can face hugely greater numbers and come out on top. Or vice versa, if it's your enemy that's using these tricks. A lengthy article full of cool ideas to get you to raise your game, that if anything is even more relevant today, with 4th ed's emphasis on positioning and it's manipulation. You can get a lot of use out of this one, regardless of the system you're using. A pretty strong article all round.
Fiction: Desperate acts by Gordon Linzer. A very dramatic tale of aging, ambition, treachery, necromancy, and hiding the truth from both yourself and others. Has the captain of the guard been holding on to her post too long? Who wants to get her removed and why? Obviously I won't spoil you, but the answer will remain mysterious until the last page. Once again, he puts an interesting slant on familiar ideas, taking them a step further to keep them interesting.
Coming attractions: Endless Quest gets two new subdivisions. Super Endless Quest offers more depth and choice, with it's first release, the Prisoners of Pax Tharkas. Meanwhile Crimson crystal uses the same trick as the old transformers toys. Use the crimson screen on the artwork to reveal the clues to solve the problems. It's first two adventures are Riddle of the Griffon and Search for the pegasus. Anyone remember any of this stuff. Seems odd that they aren't covering it in the magazine at all.
Top secret gets TS008: The seventh seal. Save Los Angeles from nuclear destruction. The stakes are pretty high. Are your agents up to the mission?
Marvel superheroes gets MHAC5: Project wideawake. Essentially, it's the mutant splatbook. Lots of stats and stuff for your enjoyment.
Conan gets his own standalone RPG. Another one of those boxed sets that show up just how much more accessable to new players RPG's were back then. 80 pages in total was considered a game of medium complexity. Even supposedly light games like savage worlds are more than twice that nowadays. Ridiculous, really.
AD&D gets lots of cool stuff. The battlesystem game means you finally have a system for mass combat. Let your characters lead armies! Woo! We also get module C5: The bane of Llewellyn, and DL6: Dragons of ice. Both continue the adventures from previous installments. Lots to keep your heroes busy with here.
part 2/3
The ecology of the cockatrice: Ed ropes Elminster in to help for the second issue in a row. He must be running out of time to do his own research, with all this rapid writing. We get one of his best stories yet, a nicely folklorish tale of ironic punishment featuring the red wizards of Thay and several now familiar bits of Realms geography. Once again we get plenty of detail on both their lifecycle and the uses to which their parts can be put (and the prices you can command for those parts. You want to make magic items of petrification, here's the thing you want to go for. Once again, he continues to outdo himself, with strong fiction, worldbuilding, ecology, and game-usefullness all handled in an exemplary manner. And he's got a decent balance between text and footnotes as well. Unless you don't like him putting Realms setting stuff in a supposedly generic article, this is practically the platonic ideal of an ecology article. Genius.
Prices for the roaring 20's: Hello Glenn. It's a while since we had some stuff from you. Once again he's put lots of effort into his research and writing to show us just how ridiculous inflation has been over the years. Cars for $200. Shoes for a couple of pounds. A cement mixer for $26, of all things. One of those system-free articles that'll come in handy if you find yourself in the appropriate position. He's got a good idea of what adventurers are likely to want. If your PC's want to go into the lair of the monster dressed in gingham, their desires are catered for.
Another one for bookmarking. Credit where credit is due: Katharine Kerr once again shows her distaste for hack and slash gaming and tries to get some more people to abandon it for the rarified realms of Proper Roleplaying™. This of course is tricky when the principle source of XP is killing things and taking their stuff. To change people's behaviour, you need to alter what the system rewards and punishes. Clever thought, and one which will be applied to great effect in future games. Once again, her attention to detail is exemplary, but she also shows a certain didactic over-literalism in her writing. I sense that she is growing dissatisfied with this job. She certainly isn't producing as smoothly and reliably as Ed, Ken or Roger.
The many shapes of apes: Stephen Innis continues to be a prolific contributer. At this rate he'll be next to officially join the team. He returns to one of his subjects of expertise, animals. From little chimpanzees to the extinct (on earth) Gigantopithicus, (which really ought to be renamed for a fantasy campaign.) plus gorillas and orangutans. Compared to the recent stuff in the creature catalog, they're a bit dull really. So much for reality being stranger than fiction. Shoulda put bonobos in there as well. Bah. Family friendly magazine and all that crap. Not the most fun way this could have been handled.
Into the forgotten realms: Well well. Having been regailed with hints about it for the past four years, we finally get to play an official FR module this month. With UA as well, this is turning out to be a significant month. This is one of those modules you're not intended to solve by straight combat, with a boss way above your expected CR. It's also very much a tournament module, with a scoring system and definite winners and losers. Looks like despite his progressive tendencies, Ed can kick it old skool with the best of them as well. Is there no end to his talents? This'll test your ingenuity and your ability to play along with ridiculous situations. Will you take the pregens, or subject your regular characters to it.
Battles above the dungeon: We've had plenty of advice on how to set an adventure above ground by now. However, tactical advice for party level skirmishes has not been amongst that advice. And lets face it, positioning can have a pretty significant effect on a fight. Surrounding, hitting from the rear, ambushing with ranged attacks, cover, there are plenty of ways you can turn the tide. Once you add flight, and the artillery effects magic can provide, you can face hugely greater numbers and come out on top. Or vice versa, if it's your enemy that's using these tricks. A lengthy article full of cool ideas to get you to raise your game, that if anything is even more relevant today, with 4th ed's emphasis on positioning and it's manipulation. You can get a lot of use out of this one, regardless of the system you're using. A pretty strong article all round.
Fiction: Desperate acts by Gordon Linzer. A very dramatic tale of aging, ambition, treachery, necromancy, and hiding the truth from both yourself and others. Has the captain of the guard been holding on to her post too long? Who wants to get her removed and why? Obviously I won't spoil you, but the answer will remain mysterious until the last page. Once again, he puts an interesting slant on familiar ideas, taking them a step further to keep them interesting.
Coming attractions: Endless Quest gets two new subdivisions. Super Endless Quest offers more depth and choice, with it's first release, the Prisoners of Pax Tharkas. Meanwhile Crimson crystal uses the same trick as the old transformers toys. Use the crimson screen on the artwork to reveal the clues to solve the problems. It's first two adventures are Riddle of the Griffon and Search for the pegasus. Anyone remember any of this stuff. Seems odd that they aren't covering it in the magazine at all.
Top secret gets TS008: The seventh seal. Save Los Angeles from nuclear destruction. The stakes are pretty high. Are your agents up to the mission?
Marvel superheroes gets MHAC5: Project wideawake. Essentially, it's the mutant splatbook. Lots of stats and stuff for your enjoyment.
Conan gets his own standalone RPG. Another one of those boxed sets that show up just how much more accessable to new players RPG's were back then. 80 pages in total was considered a game of medium complexity. Even supposedly light games like savage worlds are more than twice that nowadays. Ridiculous, really.
AD&D gets lots of cool stuff. The battlesystem game means you finally have a system for mass combat. Let your characters lead armies! Woo! We also get module C5: The bane of Llewellyn, and DL6: Dragons of ice. Both continue the adventures from previous installments. Lots to keep your heroes busy with here.
(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 95: March 1985
part 3/3
The zuraqqor strike back!: Star frontiers Knight Hawks gets some more ship stats and scenarios. Quite a familiar tale, that. Beware the insectile Zuraqqor, and their massive hive-ships. They may seem slow, but there's lots of things even slower, that they can raid and loot. Should provide a few more hours of fun for you.
Starquestions goes back to gamma world. It's becoming quite the regular stop for them as well.
Will you reprint old articles if we demand them ( Mmmmmmaybe. If you ask very nicely. )
What do you use for hit dice when attacking on matrix II (constitution)
How much damage do mini-missiles really do (10d10. Doesn't sound very mini to me.)
How do you penetrate powered armour with a club. (Lots of Clubs! The problem with ablative armour is that it ablates. )
Can you cut peoples limbs off with a vibroblade (No. Abstraction strikes again! Once they're dead, you can mutilate them any way you like. )
Do radiated eyes have a weapon class (nope. Zappy lasers are very good at hitting.)
Does having con 16+ let you attack as a 16 HD creature (quite possibly)
How many attacks can you do in a turn (1. No more. Ancillary actions may be performed as well. NPC's may break that rule.)
Where is the apocalypse base (Very good question. Keep asking and we may do a module on it.)
Can we have a list of how the new edition has changed from the old (no. You've gotta buy the new edition, so there. )
Are there prisons in gamma world (Sure. Don't expect the criterea for being put in them to be fair or sane. You get caught, you deal with the consequences of the local law, whatever it may be. )
Are there more cryptic alliances (Sure. Introduce any you want. )
I don't have an LGS. (Mail order our stuff. Aaaaanywhere iiiinnn the WOOOOORRRRRRLLLLDD!!!!!)
Is radiation damage applied immediately. (At the end of the appropriate interval. It'd be intolerably tedious to roll for background radiation every minute. )
Are there any gamma world posters (sorry.)
How much status do you get for killing things (the enemy's total hit points, divided by the number of combatants on your side. )
Should the players be allowed to look at the rules during the game. (That is entirely the GM's decision. You can be as nice, or as strict as the players will tolerate. )
When do we find out what happened to the rest of the solar system. (Again, keep begging and buying our stuff, and we may tell you ............ eventually. If you can't wait, just make it up yourself. )
Where can I find a starship. (In space. They're too big to land, and any functioning ones are already well off this dump. )
Are there gamma world articles in ARES and polyhedron issues (yes. Pick them up while they're available.)
Will we ever get Advanced Gamma world, organized like AD&D. (No.)
Who fought in the social wars (Everyone. No-one was spared. Not even Switzerland. )
Antimissiles and roundshot: Another familiar system gets more attention. Traveller gets some intriguing new weapons to tip the odds in space combat. Mines. Tractor beams. Antimissile clusters. A definite emphasis on the defensive side of your ship's arsenal. Stuff that shows up in plenty of Sci-fi movies and books, and I'm vaguely surprised isn't detailed already. Spot a gap, fill that gap, soon people can't imagine being without you, that's the way to progress, as I've said before. And this article neatly avoids the threat of power creep as well. But what would you expect from the author of something as inventive and meta-aware as Everybody eats everybody on sunday's planet. Once again, he gets my approval.
The marvel-phile: Iron man! Now there's a character who's evolved in powers quite a lot over the years. Because he has two operators, plus a whole array of special powers developed as needed over the years, this is too big to fit in a single issue, with more to come next time. To start off, we get the unenhanced stats for Tony Stark and Rhodey. Pretty much what you'd expect. Then we get the suit, and a whole page of the special powers it's had over the years. This is a definite case where you need reassignable floating power points rather than a laundry list. Some poor cut-and-pasting is visible in this article, which definitely doesn't interface that well with the usual style of these articles. Gadgeteers are a problem in many supers games, and it seems this is no exception. How awkward and disappointing.
The dolphins of known space: Larry Niven! Ringworld! It's been quite a while since we saw anything on this. But now we have an official licenced game, hopefully we'll be seeing some more in the near future.
Now, dolphins. While intelligent, they're a definite problem to integrate into standard games, cause y'know, the whole no arms or legs thing. Fortunately, Known space is a pretty racially progressive place, (We'll skip the flamewars about it's sexual progressiveness for now) and they have plenty of gadgetry to help them integrate. All of which is nicely statted up for the BRP system. And they do have some cool special abilities that make up for it, such as sonar and exceptional swimming ability. You can make this into the kind of problem that's fun to get around, rather than the type that'll ruin the game. A pleasing article, both from a fluff and crunch perspective. And since it's BRP, that means you can play dolphins in Runequest as well. Looks like Greg's request is already paying dividends.
Wormy also comments on taxes and economics. Snarfquest again triumphs by sheer luck. Dragonmirth is as puntacular as ever.
Looks like D&D's history is chugging along nicely. With UA imminent, and the forgotten realms given a considerable profile raise, we get some more foreshadowing of the big changes that will happen in the next few years. The rest of the issue's pretty interesting as well. Ed continues to shine. Katharine shows signs of burning out, there's plenty of stuff for other systems. Looks like their strong run is continuing, but there are hints that may change at any time. What will the next dramatic left turn be? Lets hope we won't have to wait too long to see.
part 3/3
The zuraqqor strike back!: Star frontiers Knight Hawks gets some more ship stats and scenarios. Quite a familiar tale, that. Beware the insectile Zuraqqor, and their massive hive-ships. They may seem slow, but there's lots of things even slower, that they can raid and loot. Should provide a few more hours of fun for you.
Starquestions goes back to gamma world. It's becoming quite the regular stop for them as well.
Will you reprint old articles if we demand them ( Mmmmmmaybe. If you ask very nicely. )
What do you use for hit dice when attacking on matrix II (constitution)
How much damage do mini-missiles really do (10d10. Doesn't sound very mini to me.)
How do you penetrate powered armour with a club. (Lots of Clubs! The problem with ablative armour is that it ablates. )
Can you cut peoples limbs off with a vibroblade (No. Abstraction strikes again! Once they're dead, you can mutilate them any way you like. )
Do radiated eyes have a weapon class (nope. Zappy lasers are very good at hitting.)
Does having con 16+ let you attack as a 16 HD creature (quite possibly)
How many attacks can you do in a turn (1. No more. Ancillary actions may be performed as well. NPC's may break that rule.)
Where is the apocalypse base (Very good question. Keep asking and we may do a module on it.)
Can we have a list of how the new edition has changed from the old (no. You've gotta buy the new edition, so there. )
Are there prisons in gamma world (Sure. Don't expect the criterea for being put in them to be fair or sane. You get caught, you deal with the consequences of the local law, whatever it may be. )
Are there more cryptic alliances (Sure. Introduce any you want. )
I don't have an LGS. (Mail order our stuff. Aaaaanywhere iiiinnn the WOOOOORRRRRRLLLLDD!!!!!)
Is radiation damage applied immediately. (At the end of the appropriate interval. It'd be intolerably tedious to roll for background radiation every minute. )
Are there any gamma world posters (sorry.)
How much status do you get for killing things (the enemy's total hit points, divided by the number of combatants on your side. )
Should the players be allowed to look at the rules during the game. (That is entirely the GM's decision. You can be as nice, or as strict as the players will tolerate. )
When do we find out what happened to the rest of the solar system. (Again, keep begging and buying our stuff, and we may tell you ............ eventually. If you can't wait, just make it up yourself. )
Where can I find a starship. (In space. They're too big to land, and any functioning ones are already well off this dump. )
Are there gamma world articles in ARES and polyhedron issues (yes. Pick them up while they're available.)
Will we ever get Advanced Gamma world, organized like AD&D. (No.)
Who fought in the social wars (Everyone. No-one was spared. Not even Switzerland. )
Antimissiles and roundshot: Another familiar system gets more attention. Traveller gets some intriguing new weapons to tip the odds in space combat. Mines. Tractor beams. Antimissile clusters. A definite emphasis on the defensive side of your ship's arsenal. Stuff that shows up in plenty of Sci-fi movies and books, and I'm vaguely surprised isn't detailed already. Spot a gap, fill that gap, soon people can't imagine being without you, that's the way to progress, as I've said before. And this article neatly avoids the threat of power creep as well. But what would you expect from the author of something as inventive and meta-aware as Everybody eats everybody on sunday's planet. Once again, he gets my approval.
The marvel-phile: Iron man! Now there's a character who's evolved in powers quite a lot over the years. Because he has two operators, plus a whole array of special powers developed as needed over the years, this is too big to fit in a single issue, with more to come next time. To start off, we get the unenhanced stats for Tony Stark and Rhodey. Pretty much what you'd expect. Then we get the suit, and a whole page of the special powers it's had over the years. This is a definite case where you need reassignable floating power points rather than a laundry list. Some poor cut-and-pasting is visible in this article, which definitely doesn't interface that well with the usual style of these articles. Gadgeteers are a problem in many supers games, and it seems this is no exception. How awkward and disappointing.
The dolphins of known space: Larry Niven! Ringworld! It's been quite a while since we saw anything on this. But now we have an official licenced game, hopefully we'll be seeing some more in the near future.
Now, dolphins. While intelligent, they're a definite problem to integrate into standard games, cause y'know, the whole no arms or legs thing. Fortunately, Known space is a pretty racially progressive place, (We'll skip the flamewars about it's sexual progressiveness for now) and they have plenty of gadgetry to help them integrate. All of which is nicely statted up for the BRP system. And they do have some cool special abilities that make up for it, such as sonar and exceptional swimming ability. You can make this into the kind of problem that's fun to get around, rather than the type that'll ruin the game. A pleasing article, both from a fluff and crunch perspective. And since it's BRP, that means you can play dolphins in Runequest as well. Looks like Greg's request is already paying dividends.
Wormy also comments on taxes and economics. Snarfquest again triumphs by sheer luck. Dragonmirth is as puntacular as ever.
Looks like D&D's history is chugging along nicely. With UA imminent, and the forgotten realms given a considerable profile raise, we get some more foreshadowing of the big changes that will happen in the next few years. The rest of the issue's pretty interesting as well. Ed continues to shine. Katharine shows signs of burning out, there's plenty of stuff for other systems. Looks like their strong run is continuing, but there are hints that may change at any time. What will the next dramatic left turn be? Lets hope we won't have to wait too long to see.
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