Let's read the entire run

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 2/5

Sage advice: How long does a dragon stay subdued (Until they think they can get away with killing you all or escaping. Be vewy vewy wawy. )

Is the tarrasque really as nasty as you say it is (Skip says YES! If you aint got that wish, don't make that trip. Steer well clear, or drop it in the lava, because you can't kill it by conventional attacks. )

Hangman trees are ridiculously tough! (oops. Now that is errata. They're still no pushovers though. )

What does beholders anti-magic eye do. (no magic works while they're looking at you with it. Period. On the plus side, that means they can't kill you, turn you to stone, and disintegrate you simultaneously. So look like a wizard, and then hit like a fighter, and you might have a chance.)

Why do demon princes hide their amulets on the prime material (because the abyss is full of treacherous maniacs. If they're schitzo like Demogorgon, they can't even trust themselves. To be extra safe, they hide them all over the place)

Is there an AD&D module with a spaceship. (S3. Get the reprinted version now! )

Is the temple of elemental evil bigger than the players handbook (metaphysicaly, yes. Practically, no. )

I don't understand the psionics system. (Don't worry. In just a few months we'll get rid of it, and rework it into something comprehensible. )

Are levels of mastery equal to your character level (no, they're equal to the number of levels you gained since you got the power )

Do thieves have to conciously activate hear noise (yes. You want autoscanning, get an elf. Good for 'elf an' safety, innit mate. Never know when a secret door might be a bother. )

The index in the DMG is wrong (no, you're reading it wrong. )

What does c in front of a weapon mean. (Circa. Not perfectly precise. No standardisation mate. Let the buyer beware, innit. The weaponsmiths guild aint as all-controlling as the scribes guild or the assassins guild. )

How do you pronounce drow (it rhymes with cow. But don't call a priestess of lolth that, for a lengthy flaying may ensue. If you get off on that kind of thing, make sure you get someone to youtube it, and pay for your ressurection in advance. )

Do you have to sell gems and jewelery to get any XP from them (no)

How many GP will a container hold (not enough to carry a dragon hoard. This is why sensible adventurers get bags of holding ASAP)

What happens when you're at -1 hp (Nothing. Yet. )

What does a one way door look like from the wrong side (that is so stupidly context dependent I can't even begin to answer it. What does the back of a creature's head look like?)

What's a composite bow (one build out of several layers, duh. The wonders of advancing technology, even if it doesn't actually make your life easier, eh. )

What's on the cover of the manual of planes (an astral dreadnought. Bet you wish you were psionicaly actually there now. )


This means war!: Mass combat for gamma world. Cool. It's heavily derived from the War Machine as well, although it uses rather smaller numbers. This actually makes it simpler to do the math on, and hopefully pretty quick and understandable. Overall, it looks pretty good, although there is the usual problem that if you're doing this as a one-shot, it'll take rather longer to convert the groups into army stats than it will to actually fight the battle. The bit on guerilla warfare may be a bit iffy, and it could definitely stand a few expansions and refinements, but overall, this is a pleasingly ambitious thing to kick off the issue with. Hopefully, we'll see a follow-up or two on this in future issues.


The well educated spy: Another review by any other name. The Spymaster's handbook by Michael Kurland is a good way to put the grit back in your espionage. A well researched book on the technical details and history of espionage, it has an understated sense of humour, and is curiously positive about a business that can get exceedingly mucky. Goes to show, you can't judge a book by it's cover. It's interesting that despite the huge 2nd ed bits, this issue actually has more non D&D focussed stuff than the last couple of issues. I do wonder why they didn't save this for a full book column, but it's still an interesting diversion.
 

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Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 3/5

The ecology of the kech: Another fairly mundane creature this month. Kech are one of those ambush monsters that works by imitating the sounds of a person in distress, luring adventurers into traps. Even if they fail to kill you, they'll make the party that much more paranoid for next time. And if one princess gets killed because you thought they were the doppleganger, that's one princess too many. Muahahaha! But yeah, this isn't the most interesting ecology. It's another humanoid that has human level intelligence, yet is perfectly happy to just hang out in the forest and kill anyone dumb enough to stumble across them. They do get a bit tiresome, and you wonder how they manage to survive, or possibly fail to wipe out humanity, depending on your perspective. No ambition. :shakes head:


Role-playing reviews: A bunch of mini's stuff here this issue. Even with Through the looking glass taking a break, they're not neglecting that side of their demographic.

Chaos wars is Ral Partha's wargaming system, taking advantage of their extensive miniatures line. It's still a compact little system, not perfectly balanced, but easy to learn and get playing with new people. With genres mixing freely, and spellcasters kicking ass, it seems like good fast and loose fun, if not suited to rules lawyers.

Warhammer fantasy battle 3rd edition is one of the real big dogs of this era. With rules more than 10 times the size of the last review, tons of supplements, and of course, white dwarf magazine regularly giving new scenarios, creatures and optional rules, it's the wargaming equivalent of D&D. The third edition isn't that different from the second, and it can get complex and bloated at times, but really, it got this big because it's great fun to play and add too, with a strong setting to put the battles in.

Warhammer Armies is smaller, and considerably better presented than the corebook. There are lots of little tweaks, prefab armies and troop types, including many player favourites. As a first supplement, you could do a lot worse.

Interestingly, the Battlesystem gets a short and ambivalent review. It's the first time in a while that they've been actively critical of TSR products in here. Hmm.


TSR Previews: AD&D kicks off the new series of Dragonlance modules, with DLE1: In search of Dragons. Once again the forces of evil are becoming more powerful, and a new set of adventurers have to step up to keep the cosmic balance going. Oh, if only the old heroes were still around.

Top Secret gets TS4: Brushfire Wars. Lots of little military based adventures, many involving real world terrorist groups. Now that's definitely going to seem dated if you try running it these days.

Gammamarauders gets Revenge of the factoids. More biological warfare fun with a silly slant. Now with a comic based on the series as well! How long will that one last for?

Tom Clancy continues to make substantial profits from cold war geopolitics, with the Red Storm Rising game. How did his books deal with the fall of the berlin wall?

Finally, in the book department, R A Salvadore gives us our second dose of Drizzt'y goodness. Streams of Silver is part two of the Icewind Dale trilogy. Can they find the legendary dwarven halls?
 

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 4/5

The role of computers: Empire comes out on two new systems, and gets reviewed again. This concentrates on the differences, such as graphics, the new method of copy protection, and design errata. Rather a dull review really.

Ikari warriors and Karnov get converted from arcade games. This is a good reminder why arcades were big business back then, as they do suffer a bit in the change. Still, neither are bad games, so it's more stuff for your ROM'ing pleasure.

Contra gets nul points because it's copy protection scheme was stupid, and it refused to co-operate with their computer at all, so they couldn't play it. Hah. Rush'N Attack also gets a load of copy protection griping. Egads, they're doing a lot of that this issue. Odd theme to choose to focus on, if understandable if most games back then used some different idiosyncratic means of trying to prevent piracy.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is another puzzle/Adventure game from the people who brought you maniac mansion. While not as good overall, it does have some refinements in terms of interface design. Oh, if only they could go back and apply them to the old games.

Battlehawks gets 5 stars. A simulation of WWII fighter planes, you can play from both sides, and do several tricky missions. The degree of research and realism is quite considerable. They really are rather fond of Lucasfilm at the moment.

Microsoft flight simulator version 2.0 also gets a pretty good review. People are certainly sparing no expense on making stuff like this. Course, that's easier to do when you consider how expensive the biggest games are to produce back then.

PT-109, Falcon AT, and Final Assault are also simulation games, covering Boating, yet another flight simulator, and mountain climbing, respectively. Man, this onslaught of tiny reviews is getting tiresome. This column isn't as much fun as it used to be.

Star saga 1: Beyond the boundary merges computer game and choose your own adventure book in a rather distinctive looking fashion. That sounds like a curious play experience, but the reviewers enjoy it. Certainly a change of pace.

Pharaoh's revenge gets the same marks as the last one, but a rather more negative review, as they point out that the graphics are seriously outdated. Oh, how very superficial.

Wizardry IV finally gets a review, a year after first being covered. Since they already went into plenty of detail back then, this is another brief synopsis, pointing out that this is not for newbies, and very hard indeed. Hmm.

Shufflepuck cafe is a computer game of the sport, with light sci-fi trappings. Using a mouse provides a reasonable approximation of a real paddle. It does seem like it would be more fun two-player.

Finally, we get a rather cheeky little plug, as they review the clue book for the D&D Pool of radiance game. If you're stumped, put some more into the companies coffers, and get plenty of spoilers on how to win the game. Save it for if you're really stuck.


Made-to-order clerical orders: Statistics time again! Just how common are clerics and faithful citizens in D&D worlds? The answers, as is often the case, don't quite add up. When there's dozens of gods in an area, all competing for worship, it's easy to wind up with either only one or two priests per god, or a proportion of the population being clerics that seems a bit untenable in a medieval society. (unless of course, there are enough high level ones to create food magically for all the hierarchy. ) This is one of those cases where I respect the methods of the author, while not being particularly keen on their conclusions, and is definitely an area you should customise for your own campaign, rather than taking this in slavishly. It does have a nice little map, a new spell, and lots of Realms specific examples, and isn't bad, but it's not one I can see myself using.
 

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989
William H Stoddard does some nitpicking over explosive magnitudes, and the recent DC heroes article involving them. There are some serious dropped numbers in the math here.

Presumably that would be the William H Stoddard that now does GURPS Fantasy. Paying attention to numbers is probably more appreciated in a GURPS writer than in a D&D writer (averaging across all editions, anyway).

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989
How do you pronounce drow (it rhymes with cow.)

Geez. Everybody knows it rhymes with "bow".

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 4/5
Odd theme to choose to focus on, if understandable if most games back then used some different idiosyncratic means of trying to prevent piracy.

Let's see: Rewriting the disk drive drivers to use non-standard tracking, lists of alphanumeric passwords printed in dark blue on dark brown paper, find word 3 in the second sentence of the third paragraph on page 18 of the manual, dongles, .... I think "idiosyncratic" covers the subject pretty well. 8-)
 


Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 5/5

Arcane lore: A whole grab bag of druid spells from various freelancers here this month.

Animal/bird call are cut down versions of the usual summoning spells. They may bring the creatures, but they don't control them. At 1st level, you'll have to use your brains and exploit their natural tendencies to make them useful.

Coalstone is another low key, but tremendously handy little trick. Like continual light cast on an object, only with the additional benefit that you can use it to burn stuff like an actual coal, having one of these in your pack is a huge benefit every evening. The kind of thing you can see becoming a commonplace utility spell in any society where magic isn't too rare.

Druidsight lets you see through the eyes of an animal and order them around. Just what you need for when you've run out of shapeshifts for the day, and need to do some inconspicuous spying. Once again, they prove that what wizards can do, druids can do sooner, and with more side benefits if you apply the powers cleverly.

Hailstone proves that there are still some things wizards are better at, being a nature based relation of magic missile, only not as accurate or damaging. Still, any blasty spells are better than none, and it isn't annoyingly context dependent like call lightning.

Sense Direction lets you know which way north is. Elementary, really. Nuff said.

Sharpleaf lets you turn easily available plant parts into dangerous weapons. Be it as melee, missile weapons, caltrops, or simply tools, they can bring the pain quite adequately.

Shatter Stone and metal lets you not only destroy the weapons of your opponents, but do so explosively, adding injury to insult. A classic of screwage that'll annoy and scare players even more than a rust monster. They are producing a lot of seriously handy powers in this installment.

Sink into earth lets you do a bit of safe underground hibernation. Very thematic.

Splinter wood is like the metal one earlier, only lower level and affecting wood. No matter what your equipment is made of, a powerful druid can ruin it. So much for technology. Go the pure magical force route or something.

Stonewood lets you make wood as hard as stone, duh. Exactly which of the shattering spells now affects it is not clarified. Since it is fairly high level, I would incline towards conservatism. Things that look like one thing and act like another are a good source of screwage and counter-screwage.

Thunderclap is also pretty self-explanatory. The ability to inflict permanent deafness as an AoE attack is not to be sneezed at at all. It may not be as damaging to your HP as fireball or call lightning, but it is a bit trickier to get rid of. If you don't have a cleric, you'd better have money to burn.

Tracking lets druids effortlessly outclass rangers at one of their specialities, just as knock and levitation lets wizards marginalise thieves. Here we go again with the power creep.

Warp stone or metal completes the symmetry of object screwage, being lower level than the shattering one, but higher level than warp wood. Even if it's not as damaging, you can pull some clever tricks by choosing the directions in which the object is warped. And possibly even express your artistic side as well. :p

Weather dome gives you a mobile AoE forcefield against unwelcome weather of all types. It's a bit expensive to use every time there's a bit of drizzle, and that'd be the kind of thing which puts you out of touch with nature if overdone, but it is rather nice to have as an option.

Wind and rain protection does pretty much the same thing, only on a single target for a much shorter duration, at lower level. The two spells were done independently by different people, and boy does it show in their design choices and overall power disparity.

This is an article exceedingly full of versatility increases, and in many cases outright power creep. Definitely a fun one to read, but also another one that reinforces the current spellcasters are way better than other classes attitude. There is very little magic can't do quicker and better. And the edition change is going to do nothing to fix this.


Dragonmirth offends those on high. Yamara starts metaplotting. Things go from bad to worse for Snarf.


Another mixed bag, with some good articles, but the reviews seem to be fluctuating in quality rather. Another fairly average one overall, it is nevertheless a reminder that the magazines used to be easier to get through, and eventually, they will become so again. But in the immediate future, the issues are only going to get bigger. It's still going to be several years before I can get this millstone off my neck, so I'd better think of new ways to keep it interesting. Onward! I may have missed the 2nd ed preview, but I can still see the real thing, which is far more important.
 

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

Addendum: part 6/5


The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition preview: Yay! Thanks to reader generosity, I do now have access to this little bit of historical foreshadowing. Skimming it, it's obvious that although it was included in the magazine, it wasn't designed by their layout staff. And it actually looks a bit scrappy by comparison, with it's single column type, huge margins, and skimpy use of artwork. They could definitely have condensed this down to 28, possibly even 24 pages without losing anything. But anyway. As with the astral plane article, reviews, and other big deliveries, I shall divide up my review using the headers that they use.

The cover is the only bit with any colour. On it, they display not only the three corebooks, but also the character record sheets, the Dungeon Master's screen, and the covers to volumes 2 and 3 of the monstrous compendia. Guess that shows they already have follow-ups aimed to support all segments of the game, pretty near completion and ready to roll. Are you ready for the supplement treadmill?

Introduction: Ahh, here we get our first bit of possible controversy. Wanting to clean up the rules so they're better organized and easier to learn and reference during play is one thing that they've consistently championed all through the development process. However, the other big change in approach is a new one. They consciously reject the "There is One True Way to play the Official AD&D™ Game" proclamations made by Gary in the early 1st ed days, in favour of actively encouraging you to houserule and pick which bits and pieces from the supplements you use in your campaign. They're also pretty open about the fact that this edition is going to change even more over it's lifespan, as they continue to learn and write new stuff. Actually, I do have to say that sounds more appealing to me than the idea of freezing the game in amber, I've never been a very enthusiastic chess player. But I can see why some people would take that as a personal snub, even though Gary was the personal architect of some pretty big changes to the game in UA and OA, and would probably have made more if he was still part of the company.

What we've been doing: And here they affirm that most of the changes are purely due to public demand, and the reason it's been so long between editions is because of a combination of finding there was more corrections and tweaking needed than they thought at first, and the need to make sure they properly tested all these adjustments. All pretty consistent with what we've been reading in the bulletins from the top since 1985. They seem to be pretty much on the level here, given the conservativeness of the changes, the fact that only a few that everyone agreed on got made all adds up. No objections here.

The new Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide: Hmm. This is probably the biggest bit of selling the new edition by crapping on the old one here. But then, given that even Gary admitted that the organization of the 1st ed PHB & DMG could do with some improvement, probably not unwarranted. They talk quite a lot about the choice between structuring it as an instruction manual and a reference book. Since basic D&D, particularly Mentzer ed, already does the step by step intro to roleplaying thing quite well, I think I agree with the reference manual choice. It is Advanced D&D still. Readers shouldn't feel patronised.

The Monstrous Compendiums: Ahh yes, the loose leaf folder approach to assembling your monster collection, as suggested by Stuart Malone way back in issue 30. I still think that could have worked, if they'd only made sure that full alphabeticality was maintained by giving each monster it's own two page spread. (With some more condensation of multiple subtypes of the same monster into a single entry.) Having fewer creatures covered with greater depth and customisability, so we don't need crap like different humanoid races for the 1/2, 1-1, 1, 1+1, 1+2, etc hp ranges, and don't have multiple creatures filling the same role; would definitely have made things more elegant. But then, which ones do you cut in a situation like that? If one person was doing it, you could probably hammer something out. But with hundreds of clamouring voices, all with their own little personal favourites they'll fight to the death to keep, you soon wind up with barely any streamlining at all, which is soon negated as yet more cruft is added to the system. So it goes.
Anyway, other notable tidbits are the fact that this time, they're leaving all the extraplanar creatures out until later. An understated hint towards certain controversies they'll have to deal with next year. And the fact that they're only introducing new monsters to make sure each letter of the alphabet has an even number of creatures amuses me somewhat. They certainly think they've planned this out well enough, even though they're making a few elementary errors.

The Big Changes: Ahh yes, updating the maximum press so that 18/00 keeps track with the accomplishments of real world strongmen. I find that rather amusing. But you still run into the limits of their tables when portraying really big or otherwise powerful creatures, instead of providing a formula for infinite extension. And their lift capacities seem stupidly small for massive creatures that weigh tons. We'll have to wait another decade for that little improvement. The rest of this bit is a demonstration of how much more attention spellcasters got back then. The considerable increase rogues get in flexibility and customizability gets only a few lines, compared to the massive bits on the new school specialisation and sphere systems. And of course, warriors actually got nerfed in the change, with the removal of double specialisation and the more twinked subclasses. If anything, they're the only ones that are even less interesting now. Roll on the complete fighters handbook. Similarly, it seems a little strange that they would only cut out a single race (half-orcs) from the corebook, especially when they're doubling it's size and adding so much. Course, they don't mention the real reason why, because mentioning rape in a positive preview would be impolitic. Still, at least THAC0 has been made official, and the combat table smoothed out so fighty sorts get benefits from leveling quicker and more evenly. That's definitely a good point. And of course, there's the elimination of sexism in the strength tables. That'll please a few people. So it's mostly good changes here, but also a few clunkers and some more that don't go nearly far enough. Which are which is of course a subject for much argument.

What's new: More than half of this section is devoted to nonweapon proficiencies. Now this is an area that IMO, they definitely didn't go far enough on, and the fact that it was treated as optional in the corebook, but a huge number of supplements and gameworlds took it as standard really put horrible stresses on the system. The tiny number of them that you got was never enough, especially after a load of supplements added their own "must-haves" for particular roles, and it's no surprise that a lot of the complete handbooks gave out lots of bonus ones with kits, and interpreted the bonus language rules to allow you to spend those slots on other skills. Once again, I am reminded that at one point in the development process, Zeb wanted to fold thief skills into the nonweapon proficiency system, and I think that could probably work if you rolled them in and divided the number of % points they get per level by 5, allowing thieves and bards to become the generalised skill monkeys as well, getting several slots per level to pick up new ones and enhance existing abilities.
One thing they have rolled properly into the skill system is the Ranger's tracking ability. While they can still do it best by far, now anyone can pick it up if they have the slots. And once again, they've tinkered with the modifiers. Actually, that probably is an improvement. As is the rest of the stuff. New equipment. Cleaned up mobility and visibility rules. The little advantages of ten years of consistent play.

Shifting gears: And finally, it's a little more fear allaying. The new system is entirely compatible with the old characters, and you don't have to ditch your old illusionists and assassins unless you really want too. You don't have to make the changes all at once, you don't have to throw out the old rulebooks. It's not a big deal. Not sure whether to feel reassured or patronized, but it definitely contrasts sharply with the aggressive conversion strategy of the 2-3 changeover, and the clean slate reboot of the 3-4e one. Goes to show, there are very different ways to go about an edition change, and it definitely affects how the customers respond.

So all in all, it's a pretty straightforward, no frills little bit of advertising. It could definitely have stood a bit more prettying up for maximum selling ability, but it more than does the job both in showcasing the good points of the change, and hinting towards the controversies and problems they'll face in the next few years, with bowdlerisation, supplement bloat, and excess options confusion. We aren't going to be surprised by the big course of history here. It's just a matter of how interesting and amusing I'll find the little details. On we go then, to see the real thing.
 

hinting towards the controversies and problems they'll face in the next few years,

I get the feeling that this is more "hindsight hinting". To us in 2009 the hinting is kind of obvious, but to someone in 1989 reading this for the first time, I suspect that they would still be taken completely unawares when the problems crop up.
 

I get the feeling that this is more "hindsight hinting". To us in 2009 the hinting is kind of obvious, but to someone in 1989 reading this for the first time, I suspect that they would still be taken completely unawares when the problems crop up.
Well, of course. I'm all too aware that the problems you predict are rarely the ones that actually become a big issue, largely because you take precautions to deal with the ones you expect. If they'd solved those, people would have found something else to complain about.
 

What our group did at the time was to take the nonweapon proficiencies, houserule them until we were satisfied with them, and not buy 2E at all. (Plus a few other tweeks here and there from it.)
 

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