Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 5/6


The ten commandments of tournament writing: This topic again. It's becoming one of the most regularly recurring highly specific topics over the years. There's plenty of demand for tournament modules now, and people are getting quite experienced at making them. Course, that means there's also going to be plenty of dross floating around. It also means things are quite different from the early modules in some ways. There's more emphasis on balanced encounters, and less on creating adventures that will kill the majority of parties, with the winner being who gets furthest before dying. There's also an emphasis on breaking the rules, or at least creating new ones, which is another huge sea change from the early 80's, where tournament stuff was supposed to be more standardised, and even though they did invent new rules, it was simply because there was no system in place to handle what they wanted to include. But many things remain the same, regardless of fashion shifts. You want good characters, good enemies, a good plot, and most of all, a good editor. For if your scenario doesn't add up, the only fun people will be having is MST3King you. Another article that's interesting in revealing the gradual changes in design theory over the years, but doesn't give us much advice we haven't seen before. Another article, a couple of xp more.


Shadowrun gets a Germany sourcebook. Ha ha! Is that the cause or the effect?


Fiction: The river children by Peni R Griffin. A fairytale within a fairytale here this month, which is rather amusing. It starts off by telling the original story, a classic ghost tale of betrayal and ironic punishment, and then jumps forward to centuries later, when the original tale is just a legend, and a child meets the characters from it. The result manages to be both cute and creepy, with definite shades of peter pan to it. I quite like this, and it also has the benefit of not resolving itself neatly, leaving the characters open to be used in further stories, or indeed, your game. So it's another story that's both quite good, and well targetted for the magazine.


Libram X has a rather unpleasant bit of imagery that I'm vaguely surprised got past the censors.


Undiscovered treasure troves: For a third time this issue, they remind us that reality has tons of interesting elements to plunder. Building a detailed setting is all about taking elements from reality, and remixing it sufficiently that people can't immediately say that it's a rip-off of a particular thing. Sure, if you can come up with a truly original idea or two, more power to you, but most of us are lucky to manage a few of those in our lifetimes, not enough to build a whole campaign world out of. So stop being embarrassed about having to do this, and focus your mental energy on hiding the sources you steal from and ways you remix them better. Methinks they're definitely descending into filler material again after the strong beginning. So much for this new year's resolution.


Swordplay cheats on their taxes like any sane self-employed business would. Ogrek's plan does indeed pan out and save Yamara. Dragonmirth makes fighting seem like an unwise prospect. Twilight empire has an annoying deus ex machina come out of nowhere to save the day.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 6/6


Through the looking glass: The impression that win or lose, the damage has already been done in the realm of minis is reinforced this month, with another rather gloomy editorial on Robert's part. This hobby is no fun anymore. Another reason why CCG's probably seem very inviting to many people about now. They fill a very similar niche in terms of highly portable modular impulse purchases which you can play games with, or just collect for the pleasure of it. Jumping ship from one to the other seems like quite a logical option. But we all know fun isn't logical, so there's going to be a lot of embittered people left behind by this sea change, wondering why the hobby shops have changed their space allocations so dramatically.

Still, there are plenty of minis coming out, even if they aren't enjoying the sales they used to. A pair of high-rise buildings, one in good condition, but the other nearly ruined. You may have to swap one for the other if the PC's have heavy weaponry. Another diorama of adventurers intruding into a tomb and finding the inhabitants aren't going to take having their stuff nicked lying down. Another trio of licensed miniatures from the dream park game, that don't get good marks at all. The witch-king of Angmar, about to meet his demise at the hands of a woman and a hobbit. Yeah, no man can kill you. That only means what it says. Four warriors, and three bards. A creepy thing emerging from a dumpster. A werewolf with a gun and a wand. Fricken glass walkers, always confounding the stereotypes with their newfangled tricks. Some not nearly so innovative Sabbat vampires going raar. A spectator and a death kiss. Neither are as scary as regular beholders, but you shouldn't get complacent. And a full set of 10 adventurers. Not often you see a party that big anymore. Oh, for the days of the companions of the lance.

Finally, we have a review of Warhammer 40k 2nd edition. Another of those things that says we may be catching up with the present, but we're still nowhere near there yet. It does get a very good review though, with the clarity of the instructions improved from previous offerings. With the other companies out the way and them gaining increasing control over their own distribution, they're free to steam ahead and hook newbies.


TSR Previews: Another slow month next month. Al Qadim is up to ALQ5: Ruined kingdoms. Off to Nog and Kadar in all their ruined Ashton-Smithsonian glory. Mind the magic items you find there aren't sanity destroying or cursed.

Northwards in the Realms, we get the 8th book in the Harper series, Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham. Well, who better when elves are involved.

Dragonlance releases it's 4th villain book, Heldrick the Theocrat by Ellen Dodge Severson. Neither names I've heard of before. Man, they're getting obscure here.

Ravenloft tackles golems, in Van Richten's guide to the created. Now there's a monster that doesn't seem immediately gothic, but just say frankenstein and most people'll get it. Do you dare meddle with forces man ought not to wot of? Ahahahahaha!!!!!


And finally, our generic product is another deck of cards. The deck of encounters'll help you easily generate packages of monsters and treasure. Oh, go on then.


This time round, I think Allen Varney takes the top spot, with two great articles. The magazine as a whole starts off very well, and then takes an abrupt downturn near the middle, however. With both the introduction of TCG's, and the downfall of minis getting plenty of screentime, things seem a lot less optimistic than they did this time last year. TSR's demise is no longer some distant shadow on the horizon, but something that draws nearer every month. Will anyone realise this before it's too late, or will it come as a shock to everyone inside the company? Keep on rowin down that river, whatever the weather and hope we don't capsize.

 

[David Howery]

personally, I never got the appeal of CCGs. I tried Magic and a couple of other ones, but they just didn't spark any interest in me...

 

[LordVyreth]

I'm the same way. I need a story and actual characters when playing games. It's the same way I prefer traditional video game RPGs like Final Fantasy and the various Bioware things to MMOs. Still, you can't deny that this is a momentous issue.

As for Underground, it's amazing how fast it disappeared after those ENDLESS ads in this magazine alone. Seriously, weren't we seeing ads for it for about a year at this point? I can see why it didn't do so well, to be honest. The "cyberpunk" setting was pretty full at the time, and I'm not so sure what the appeal of playing a burned-out Vietnam veteran-equivalent of a superhero is. And if the review was accurate, the game's ultimate goal seemed a bit excessive. Superman would have trouble actually ruling a country; how can they expect some half-crazed guys who would lose a fight to Daredevil to accomplish it? That almost sounds like Call of Cthulhu if the game expected you to actually defeat Cthulhu twenty adventures in.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 1/6


124 pages. Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker! Polly'll toast a dumb thief trying to steal her feathers to cinders. Yes, it's rogue's turn to get a featured issue again. One of those topics we've seen quite a few times, and will do so again. As one of the basic class groups, they have to keep providing for them, come rain or shine. Well, unless they changed the primary system they're covering, but that looks increasingly unlikely the longer we go on. So once again I must pray they do not serve up some overcooked rehash browns as I venture into this issue.

In this issue:


Werewolf: the apocalypse gets it's second edition already. Well, that was standard WW practice at the time. And their visuals have certainly improved.


Editorial: Dale proves that he's been perusing the old archive copies of the magazine from before he started buying originally, quoting an ancient Jim Ward article from issue 13. Yesss, curry favor with your overlord. :rubs hands together: The result is a pretty middle of the road bit of GM advice that shows that Dale, like Roger, could be a pretty good article writer if he so chose. The main lesson here that to be a great GM, you need to make sure it's not all about you. Involve your players at every stage, from the creation of the world to the end of the session. And don't kill them unless you really have to. Because after all, sitting out the game until a new character can be introduced is rather boring. Ok, it's not the way they played it back in the old days, but people are more attached to their characters these days. As with increasing the number of continues and frequency with which you can save computer games, it seems like a logical progression. Just have to be careful you don't go too far the other way and have people lose interest because they no longer feel challenged. So this is fairly good advice, albeit very slanted towards the current trends in fashion. Ask again in a decade, see how things have changed.


White wolf denies imperilling the sanity of their playtesters. Nothing to see here, move along, we're a perfectly decent game company.


Letters: A letter complaining that there's too much crunch in current issues. Unfortunately, the more specific stuff is, the easier is is to avoid repeating yourself. This means that in a magazine like this, the average tendency over the years will be to increase the proportion of statistics.

Some joke responses to issue 197's cover. Another thing Roger's departure doesn't seem likely to affect.

A letter from Ian Reid volunteering to be a PbM clearing house. They warn him that he may be biting off more than he can chew. Scary business.

A letter informing us what gliepnir was. Norse mythology is full of cool magic items to plunder for your game.

Another bit of trivia helpfulness.The D&D coloring book was a licence from 1979. They produced some kiddie-centric cheese back then too. Don't let nostalgia fool you.

A complaint that their subscription always arrives late. Pass it on to the postal service.

Another procedural question. With all the staff changes, who do we write too? Just the magazine in general'll do fine.


Magic to a different beat: Bard's relationship with magic is still wrought with tension. Issue 56 suggested that it would be more thematic for them to cast their spells in an entirely different way to wizards, using song, and possibly interpretive dance or playing on an instrument to manifest special effects. And as I thought then, they still need a whole new magic system to really do that idea justice. Still, an article that suggests what kind of instruments are most suited to what types of music isn't a terrible idea. Shame this isn't a very gripping implementation of that idea. In fact, having read it though several times, I'm still struggling to remember enough to comment upon it. Very forgettable indeed, which doesn't really bode well.


Dirty rotten scoundrels: Hey ho. How do you properly roleplay your rogue? With style and panache, duh! You've got to think fast and be flexible if you want to outwit and eliminate your enemies. Course, you have to make sure you stay on the good side of your buddies at least. And you should be prepared to be spontaneous, as oxymoronic as that may seem. For timing is everything, and a great window of opportunity may never open again. This is all very basic indeed, even if it is avoiding the mistake of PvP antagonism that they encouraged back in the 70's. It all feels a bit patronising to me. Very much for any new readers they may have got their hands on recently. I get no xp from this one at all, on the other hand.

 

[Orius]

And don't kill them unless you really have to. Because after all, sitting out the game until a new character can be introduced is rather boring. Ok, it's not the way they played it back in the old days, but people are more attached to their characters these days.

That and rolling up a new character by this point has mostly progressed beyond the whole "stick a Roman numeral at the end of his name and get on with it" schtick.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 2/6


The legends say: We've had some fairly general roleplaying advice, now it's back to examining a specific class feature in great detail. This time it's bard's lore ability. It's a mildly problematic one, because you have to either invent histories for all the magic items in your game, or be rather good at winging it. Or create a random table of historical details, and cross things off as they come up, with is even more work really. Maybe you shouldn't have so many magical items in your game in the first place. It also suggests that you shouldn't make all the legends true or complete, which may be a bit problematic, but will make things more interesting. So this is pretty far towards the fluffy side, but not terrible advice if you like that sort of thing. Can't see it appearing in later editions though.


The master's hand: Another bit of purely fluffy roleplaying advice, presented in the form of 2nd person IC narration. Zeb Cook has lots of fun presenting real world thievery and con tricks, showing how a poor street rat can survive and prosper while staying one step ahead of the law. Ironically, the best way to do that is not to look notably ragged and suspicious, so you can walk past someone, have their purse and be long gone before they suspect anything. And the really big hauls involve actually playing on their naiveté or desires, getting their trust temporarily and then exploiting it, preferably in a way that leaves them embarrassed to go to the law for revenge. Having accomplices you can trust but pretend not to know mid heist goes a long way towards making your role convincing. It's all a surprisingly social business, especially once you get into the organised crime aspects, which is where the really big profits lie. If you want to be outside the law, you've got to be prepared to live by a code and be trustworthy to those close to you to stay out of prison in the long term. Ironic, isn't it. Anyway, this is a good deal of fun to read, showing much of the same spirit of cynical IC delivery as his upcoming planescape work. It may not have any mechanical stuff, but this is very solid stuff to draw upon to help you build a convincing larcenous type. And much more entertaining than Wolfgang's spin on the same topic. Wahoo!


Attack of the little people: Minis may be on the decline in many respects, but it looks like one field is still a growth area, so to speak. 15mm minis are obviously a good deal smaller than the standard 25mm ones, but that is actually a real advantage if you want to hold really big battles. After all, scale to area is quadratic, and having them at .6 the size means you can fit 2.77 times as many in your legions. It's not a bad idea at all, especially in these days of increasing prices, to trade visual detail for practicality. Course, their motivation for telling us this is not purely commentary, it's because TSR is moving into that market, with a fairly extensive line of licensed Ral Partha minis coming out over the year. So this is a fairly sneaky bit of promotion, trying to big up an ailing hobby and make more money for themselves in the process. There's still lots of people out there who want to combine minis with their gaming, despite it not being official company policy to encourage this. They'll rise to ascendance eventually. For now, we can watch them really work to keep things together and survive.


Even WiLdEr Mages: Like Wands of Wonder, the wild mage's selection of random effects when they cast spells is big enough to be interesting for a bit, but introducing new and interesting ways for them to go awry after a few hundred spells comes as welcome. This eschews detained tables for a few basic pointers on how to make your own, and the probabilities with which they should occur. You should feel encouraged to whip up new variants on a regular basis, so the players never get complacent, and are always wary about unleashing the wild mage upon the enemy. But at the same time, positive effects should be slightly more common than negative ones, so they keep on coming back to them. It's all pretty predictable, making for another average middle of the issue filler article.


The preservers choice: Or let's make screwing yourself over in the long term for short term benefits a little more tempting. Being a wizard is a bit of a mugs game in Athas anyway when psionics is far more common and less stigmatised. And the option that's less harmful to the environment has powerful enemies that want to wipe them out. It's all rather a pain. It's no surprise that even principled preservers might wind up using defiling in a pinch. So Rich Baker gets to work on making the fall and redemption subsystem more interesting. This is made more problematic by the odds of you becoming a full on defiler each time you use them pretty likely, so you're unlikely to be able to get use out of this article more than 2-3 times in a campaign. If it was bigger, this'd feel like a white elephant. As it is, it's a cool idea that deliberately makes itself inaccessible. I can't help but feel frustrated by that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 3/6


Mythic races of africa: So, what alternate races can you play in africa? What mythic creatures seem good for establishing positive relationships with humans and going on adventures with them? Lots and lots of animal men, mostly. And since we've been getting tons of them over the past three years in Bruce Heard's work, all with strong integrated cultures and quirks of their own, this feels decidedly uninspired by comparison. I suppose it's one you can get lots of use out of mechanically, since these are AD&D rules while those were basic D&D ones, but still, this is boring. Reading generic versions after someone else has done damn cool specific versions just isn't working for me at all. Maybe if they'd given examples from specific stories to showcase them. But no, instead this feels like another return to entry level, which I find rather jarring after the known world stuff went on so long, took us so far, and gave us so many tools.


Libram X has another frying pan to fire episode.


Eye of the monitor: Computer programs grow ever bigger and more complicated as the years pass. Unfortunately, computer programers are as prone to the ravages of ageing and ossification as the rest of us. This frequently makes it a pain to get teams together, as everyone has to be on approximately the same level in terms of coding languages, and if they aren't willing to lean a new one, this can either disqualify them, or make them a drag on the entire team. It also means it's much harder to develop a whole new, more efficient and robust coding language, as you've got to compete with the established ones in the marketplace, even if they do have weird legacy issues and aren't totally suited to making modern games. This probably contributed the slowdown of advancement in computer technology in the 00's, and the increasing dominance of mobile systems that are easier to develop games for, many of which are actually fairly straight conversions of early ones like tetris and pac-man. It's a pain when every commercial product requires a massive team with multimillion dollar budgets, and as we're finding in music and movies, it's not a stable situation. What is overly built up will become bloated and rotten, and change will come by force, for they will not willingly convert to the new ways even when they do offer substantial benefits. It's the ciiiircle of life. Bah. If only there was a way of restoring people's ability to learn with the same speed and ease they could when they were young. It's horrible seeing people descend into creative irrelevance and mindless repetition of domestic patterns and knowing it's likely to happen to me too sooner or later. Hmm. Something in Sandy's writing seems to bring out the philosophical side in me. I wonder why. Back to the reviews.

Master of Orion shows that computer game programmers are starting to poach RPG artists already, with Jeff Dee providing much of the visual flair. Explore planets, fight alien races, and get resources as you try to take over the galaxy. There are some minor flaws with the interface, and the alien races are not balanced at all, but it's still one of those games you can have plenty of fun and eat up huge amounts of time with, in the Civilisation or Sim City vein.

Spaceward Ho! gets a split mark, reflecting the fact that it's a good deal better in multiplayer than solo. Another sci-fi themed wargame, it's pretty simple, but has some neat touches. This of course means it's easy to learn and get going with a bunch of friends. The fact that it conceals which sides are people and which are computers adds to the interest.

Bram Stoker's Dracula gets a good heaping of disdain. It's sluggish, has a poor control system, and dull visuals. Another mediocre movie tie-in.

Biomenace gets another poor mark, but not quite such a negative description. It's just your basic side scrolling shooter. And it's another bit of freeware, so you can try it with no commitment anyway. It's no sweat off his nose if you like your junk food.


Sage advice: What non core races can become psionicists (not many, and they're not very good at it. The powers of the mind are mysterious and inscrutable, and only humans can truly master them)

What happens when a land is sucked into Ravenloft (This town, (aaahh.) is comin like a ghost town. All the clubs have been closed down. Yeah, it's like that. )

Can you escape Ravenloft to Athas. (Frankly, given how hard it is to find a way out of Ravenloft, you aren't in a position to be picky on which world you escape to. At least on athas you can plane shift outta there. )

Saurials can't have any rogue kits! Waah. (What about the ones available to everyone, and the ones from other books. Some people, no imagination. )

What are the encumbrance levels for str above 18 (You must have an old PHB. Buy a new one :teeth ting: This is how we reward our loyal customers. Force them to double dip to keep up with a few trivial rules changes. You'll pay for the corebooks again and you'll like it. )

Can you have two defense modes up at once (no)

Why aren't the spheres for the halfling deities listed in their complete book (to force you to buy monster mythology, duh. Gotta collect 'em all. )

If you fail a save against scrying, can you try again (no. The matter is resolved. You've figured out you're being watched or not. That's it.)

Are there mechanics for the invisibility factor (not really. Fiat fiat fiat)

Armor of command looks like one type of armor and works like another. I is confuzzlded ( Oh trageday. Yes, it looks more impressive than it is. That is not an unreasonable thing for magic armor to do. )

Also, beware of Skip bringing gifts to greek gods. They're petulant enough as it is. Now they'll be even more trouble.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 4/6


Rifts world book 5. Looks like they're also covering germany at the moment. What a co-incidence.


Fiction: Thieves justice by David J Schwartz. What is it with rogues and cats? Nahh, that's a dumb question really. Ok, what is it with wizards and biting off more than you can chew? Nope, I've got a pretty good idea why that happens too. Why do people feel the need for the punishment to be ironically appropriate, especially when they also have magic powers? Once again, I think I understand the dynamics of human nature well enough that this one is pretty clear too. Man, I'm running short on big rhetorical questions to ask. Still, you should be able to get an idea of what kind of story we're dealing with here. Like issue 188's story involving a kid of the cat lord, which it bears several stylistic similarities too, this melds the mundane and magical sides of larceny pretty well, and the comeuppance of the villain feels deserved, but not completely without ambiguity. Nice to see they can still pick an entertaining story, even if I can spot the threads that weave it a little too easily these days.


Role-playing reviews: Mage: the Ascension arrives, with a pretty heavy foreshadowing having preceded it. White Wolf are now the company on everyone's lips, so this gets a good long review. Course, this is the point where their doom and gloom onslaught starts to soften a little, with mages being a somewhat more familiar and less inherently screwed archetype as PC's than vampires, werewolves and mummies. If they have the right spheres, they can do just about anything, and the mechanical process for doing so is somewhat less time consuming and onerous both IC and OOC than the old one in Ars Magica. Not that it's simple or risk free, and Rick certainly finds it a challenge to put everything together, especially as like most WW first editions, the editing and organisation isn't great. It is still pretty ground-breaking, and has a long, if controversial history ahead of it. For to have the will to reshape the world, you must be prepared to endure the mockery and opposition of others with calm certitude, accepting that you may be called wrong or pretentious for daring to take a definite stand, rather than following the crowd or doing what is convenient! Gotta love the way the fanbases of the old WW games mirrored their in game content.

Earthdawn isn't nearly as innovative, especially when compared to it's far future parallel Shadowrun. It also has some seriously clunky crunch, involving matrix tables of the sort that went out of fashion in the late 80's. But then, Shadowrun managed to be a success with some serious mechanical cruft of it's own, so who's to say it can't be a success as well.

Earthdawn gamemaster pack is the usual GM screen plus miscellaneous other nonessential bits and pieces, plus some errata for the corebook. This formula seems to be pretty proven and universal from company to company now, and as usual, this is for completists.

Mists of betrayal is the first adventure for the setting. It gets a quite positive response, even if it is pretty close to a regular AD&D adventure. But at least in this world there's a good reason for all the dungeons.

We also get a reminder of how good the princess ark stuff was, especially in showing you how to handle really cool, wide ranging high level adventures and still challenge the PC's. D&D can take you a long way, and you shouldn't give up just because you've got a little world-shaking power.


Elminsters notebook: Even our great sage doesn't know everything. Sometimes he comes across things which defy even the strongest of divination magics. Of course, this is another demonstration of how he managed to survive and get to that level. Here's a hint, it's not by leaping in and checking things out himself, when it looks like everyone who did so before died howwibly howwibly. Instead, he sets a triggered divination so he can find out via the next dumb adventurers to come across this, and hopefully save them via seeming deus ex machina in the process. (but if not, meh, adventurers are a dime a dozen in the realms) So this is another bit of cool mythology, made all the more distinctive by the unique viewpoint and narration style of it's IC and real world writers. It's not as easy as it seems, both being this awesome, and setting things up so the world views you as such. So this is cool both as an adventure hook, and as a view of the hard paddling feet underneath the swan, which helps give you ideas of how to operate your own Machiavellian high level characters in your own campaigns, so they can be awesome as well without resorting to fiat. Once again he shows us how he's several leagues above everyone else as a designer. My only real complaint here is that the scan of the illustration is poorly contrasted, making it hard to make out some of the bits.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 5/6


The dragon project: We've already had one mechanical dragon in here, for Paranoia. This month, Talislanta gets a second, more serious spin on that idea. A legendary giant mechanical construct, that if found and spruced up a bit, could give you substantial benefits in the shock and awe department. Exactly what role it plays in your campaign depends strongly on how intact it is when found, and whether the PC's or the enemies are the ones that find it. Like many of these articles, they try and play up it's versatility as a plot device and long term applications, such as if you find small pieces and have to go on an epic quest to complete it while other groups are racing to do the same. |It all seems quite pulpy and cinematic. Whether that's a good thing for talislanta's general themes I'm not sure, but it's reasonably entertaining, and could be slotted into plenty of other campaign worlds. (particularly Mystara. ) It's another solid contribution from this column.


Forum: Travis N. Gillespie would like to know what real world countries Realms ones are based on. This isn't that hard, apart from the ones that aren't based on real world ones at all. And those are relatively few.

Kerry C. Zane would like them to set up a personals section. Oh dear god. Once again I thank the internet. With stuff like Facebook, you have pretty good odds of being able to get back in touch with people in a matter of minutes, wherever in the world they are.

Andrew Wyatt praises David Howery for his skill in creative lifting of ideas from other media. It's useful and helps make better stuff quicker. Well, how often has David been published here? If he wasn't a good writer, they wouldn't keep letting him back in.

Joe Katzman finds skimpy costumes on adventurers breaks his sense of verisimilitude. Cheesecake has it's place, and it's not in a dank dungeon with things trying to kill them. Save it for the nights on the town when you get back, and want to brag about your exploits and get laid.

Nathan Bruha points out that hack-and-slash characters in a realistic world will seal their own doom. It's all very easy. All they have to do is kill the people who would help them, and they'll be out of a quest in no time.

The man himself, David Howery, returns to point out some more ways to get round stoneskin. Nibble them or grapple them, it all comes out in the wash. When basic tactics can get around it, there's no excuse to fall into the pattern of just hitting back and forth till someone drops and getting upset when that fails.

Sean Murphy is annoyed at how little respect gaming gets at sci-fi conventions. Insufficient crossover, weirdly. This may because Sci-fi games are rather underrepresented, especially since Traveller fragmented itself into limbo. Another depressing case of geek looking down on geek for no good reason.

Christopher A. Hunter is yet another person able to explain clearly what lawful goodness and being a paladin should be about. It really isn't complicated. Kindness & Organisation in good balance. Don't be nasty to people, unless they really need killing, and if so do it cleanly and fairly. It's a lot simpler than being morally grey actually.


Campaign Journal: Al-Qadim gets a second turn in this column. We've already seen how well and easily arabian adventures can be melded with horror, now Greg Detwiler shows us a grab-bag of other milieus that mix well with it. Mercantile stuff is facilitated by the kits, as is the land and sea based travel and exploration. There's plenty of political reasons for them to go to war, what with religion being a rather touchy subject, and the usual resource issues. Plus there's the expectation that even minor disagreements should be settled with blood feuds. It all seems well designed for neverending interpersonal dramas on any scale. But you can also focus on the supernatural side if you choose. Wait a minute, this isn't a very imaginative selection. Not sure what to make of this. One would think these playstyles would work to a reasonable degree in any world with at least a modest degree of both realism and supernatural elements. This once again feels like basic handholding. Is that the best you can come up with? How about merging arabian adventures with hard-boiled noir private investigator, or bitchy rom-com. I can visualise how to make those work without too much trouble as well. So once again I am feeling rather patronised. Next thing you know they'll be reminding us of our ABC's. I'm starting to feel I may not be in their target audience anymore.