Let's read the entire run

[David Howery]

Letters: A public service announcement from the runners of Gen Con that if you want to be involved next year, you'd better let them know pronto, for the deadline is surprisingly close. Given their size, a 6 month lead-in time is now needed. How very tiresome.

man, they weren't kidding either. I went to Gen Con several times, the first time in 1989, the last time in 2000, and it's amazing how much it grew in that time. The first few times I went, you could leisurely look through the entry forms that came in the mail, fill out what you wanted, mail it in, and get pretty much everything you wanted. The last couple of times, if you didn't get your registration in five minutes after TSR put it up on the Internet, you'd be lucky to get a hotel room at all. I just got tired of the 'rush rush rush!' hassle of it all and stopped going...

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994


part 2/6


Hitting the books: Hello again, Eric Noah. Nice to see you. We've touched upon trying to make your campaign work like a novel or other work of fiction, but this is one of the longer and more detailed attempts at this we've seen in a while. So here's a step by step guide to how stories work, how you combine characters, plots, themes, events to make a coherent story. As a writing guide, it's pretty good, and has quite a bit of stuff that hasn't been covered in the magazine before. Unfortunately, it completely neglects the mechanical side of a role-playing GAME, and the opportunities and obstacles the rules present to telling a story in the literary mould. Apart from a reminder that the players choices should remain meaningful, there's a real danger that this could encourage DM railroading, by making them think they ought to craft a detailed story which has a definite beginning, progression and ending, rather than a world which can be interacted with in all kinds of ways. It does point out the standard D&D tropes of being a sociopathic mass murderer and thief, and encourages you to go against them, but doesn't say how, when the XP system is still built largely around violence. So as creative writing advice, this would be excellent. As DM'ing advice, it falls into the classic problems of 2nd edition, trying to change our playstyle without changing the rules to accommodate and reward what they want us to do. This is a big problem. Lofty ambitions need the right tools to fulfil them if you don't want to wind up just a frustrated dreamer.


Adventures that improve with age: After the relatively new high fantasy advice, it's back to the dungeon. Dig up your old modules. Can it ever be as good as the first time? Actually, that's a very good question. I'm glad you asked. If you do it right, it can be even better! Obviously you can't expect it to be the same, but if you run it with a different party, or at least after a few years have passed to dull people's memories, then the thrill of seeing how they do things differently (and possibly worse) can make it even more amusing as a DM. That's the spirit. Make the most of what you already have, instead of constantly searching for novelty that won't really satisfy you anyway. Of course, there's always customising the adventure, but even without that, there's plenty you can do. If the randomness from changing players isn't enough, you could get sidekicks in to play the bad guys as well, removing the pressure to be both omnipotent neutral adjudicator and adversary. Yeah, I like this one, and it does have some very valuable lessons that we haven't seen before. We're not quite at the nostalgia boom yet, but articles like this are laying in the groundwork for it.


Consider the consequences: Ah yes, this pattern again. Having led with some cool ideas, the third article isn't nearly as impressive. Things following on logically from previous events is just the way the world works. Well, as often as not, they don't, they just peter out because people are lazy. But a good adventure changes the world, or hopefully at least saves it in such a way that people know you did so and will be suitably grateful. (shyear, right ) The reset button should not be pressed, instead creating a new status quo with further plot hooks for future adventures. Technological advancements should change the economy, keeping the characters from getting complacent or pulling the same exploits over and over again without others developing counters. Unless you were raised on a diet of 80's cartoons where metaplot and character development were anathema, this isn't too controversial or surprising. Another one it's nice to remind the newbies of, but doesn't change my world in the slightest.


Bug city! Shadowrun metaplot at it's finest. This is the 90's, remember. We're still feeling the fallout from that series of adventures today.


Tricks of the trade: A little more very 2nd edition gamemastering advice. It's not so much about the locations, it's about the characters, plot and story. Continuity is important, an in depth campaign has more than one plot element running simultaneously. Don't be afraid to lie to the players, at least IC, as after all, why should villains tell the whole truth? Once again this is system free roleplaying advice that does nothing to make the game better accommodate the playstyle. After 4 articles in a row, I'm a little tired of that. This stuff manages to be both crunch free and very dated seeming at the same time, which is not an easy feat, or a pleasing one to see accomplished. This collection does not feel like a good editorial decision.

 

[LordVyreth]

Okay, this is a really random question and a few pages late, but I'm curious about something. I wondered why months ago you didn't comment on the political satire in Libram X, and then I realized that because you're on the other side of the pond and (based on the videos) younger than me, you probably have no idea who Ross Perot is! Is that right?

 

[(un)reason]

Okay, this is a really random question and a few pages late, but I'm curious about something. I wondered why months ago you didn't comment on the political satire in Libram X, and then I realized that because you're on the other side of the pond and (based on the videos) younger than me, you probably have no idea who Ross Perot is! Is that right?

I remember the name, and that he tried to run for president as a third party candidate, but I have no idea what he looked like or any specifics beyond that. Yeah, over my head.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994


part 3/6


Psychic proficiencies: Hmm. In the regular Ravenloft campaign, psionics was something that the original boxed set overlooked and the magazine filled in, and then got officially incorporated in the next edition. Looks like a similar process is going on for Masque of the Red Death. Still, even more than magic, William W. Connors chooses to nerf psionics to a huge degree to better fit the powerless ambience of the setting. Each power costs 4 nonweapon proficiency slots, and is quite a bit weaker than it's regular psionicist equivalent. This means that you're unlikely to be able to have more than one, and even that'll be a serious hit to your ability to operate in normal society. It's once again a reminder that AD&D doesn't give you nearly enough resource slots to make your character well-rounded beyond their class skills, and changing class is not generally an option. If I was going to do victorian horror with minor supernatural powers for the PC's, I would much rather use WoD or GURPS than try and kitbash AD&D to fit. So to be frank, I can't see myself using this at all. Just as with the main Masque books, this is just frustrating to read because they're putting so much effort into a fundamentally ill-suited setup.


Eye of the monitor once again changes hands. Just can't get the help these days, can we. Indeed, this time it's regular TSR staff Ken Rolston, Paul Murphy and Zeb Cook who've been rounded up to work on this column. This all seems a bit awkward and last minute. Three people can go to crunch time and produce a column in time for the deadline where one might struggle, since one could be playing and tossing out comments while another types. This is interesting, but another sign that things are starting to fall apart around here. Roles are blurring, people are taking on odd jobs to get things done in time, and everything gets a little higher pressure and closer to the wire. Sooner or later, people will bow out from the pressure. Plus, since these guys aren't regular computer reviewers, they aren't as good at dealing with them when they mess up. That lowers the professional tone a little as well. It's not a good transition.

The seventh Guest is one of those examples of what not to do with all that extra memory in CD based games. Pretty visuals, seriously insubstantial gameplay, largely unrelated to the supposed plot. Not of any great value.

Gadget, on the other hand, subverts your expectations of what a game and interactivity should be to create a genuinely creepy experience. The illusion and lack of choice is integral to the plot, making what is normally a problem into a solution. Of course, that means it doesn't have much replay value. Turn your friends onto it, and live vicariously through their frustration.

Gold Medallion gamepack is one of those compilations of 40 little games that they can't really give a full opinion on, but at least it's good value for money. Meh. We have enough of those now to fill a lifetime.

Quantum Gate also gets a tiny review. It's another one where your choices mean little, but at least you can make your character into a good or bad person. That means something to the reviewer.



Fiction: Winter tale by Catherine Brennan. Quite a seasonally appropriate story this month. Rather tricky to summarise as well. A young squire is turning out to be rather bad at the knighthood thing. So he takes on a rather difficult seeming quest, and solves it via application of wits and folklore. It's funny, and has some cutting remarks about the nature of the artistic life, but doesn't really hit me as hard as the stories in recent months have done. It also has quite a bit of built up implied setting that you can steal for your own game, so that's another plus in it's favour. As usual, it seems like the fiction department gets to maintain higher average standards than the rest of the magazine.


This years statement of ownership shows their slow decline continuing. With an average of 79 thousand, but a last month of 76, their fanbase continues to drift away, albeit rather less than last year. Just about the only number going up is the number of free copies sent out, which has more than doubled for some reason. Wastefulness of resources and all that. Enjoy your deluxe boxed sets while you can.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994


part 4/6


Sage advice: Is a quickling's speed and attacks a natural power that you get if you polymorph into one (Your decision. Skip gives you carte blanche to disallow that, just like PC Gith lose their planeshifting and superspeed on their home planes)

Can you transmit a shocking grasp through a wire. (again, just because it was allowed in a module, don't mean you have to allow it. Skip urges conservatism, for you never know which trick will let the players break your game forever.)

How do you win a psychic contest against a nonpsionic power (use the opponents intelligence score)

Is half-dragon fear the same as dragon fear (yes)

Do magical items without plusses count as +0 for the purpose of hurting things (no,+1, unless stated otherwise.)

Can you energy drain mummies (no. Being powered by the positive energy plane rather than the negative one doesn't change that)

I still don't understand how a frost brand works (whoda thought such an innocuous item would cause such trouble. So it goes. If we knew where the problems would be, we'd fix them before releasing the game)

How much can winged boots lift (enough for all but the fattest people )

How often are defilers charged (once per turn in which they cast spells)

How long does Johdee's mask last (once per battle)

When do you use a rod of shapechanging (Just before declaring battle)

What does ignoring undead mean (you know when ghosts try and speak to people in movies, and even wave their hands through them, without being noticed. Yeah, it's like that.)

How does grak's pool work ( :Croons: You've always got a friend. You'll never be alone again. )

When do you draw a card to defend north Ledopolus (When someone attacks it. Like it says)

How do you decide what kind of champion an ally is (It's a hero unless the card says otherwise)

Does a champion come back to life if he casts animate dead and is beaten straight away (yes)

Does an animated champion count as undead (no)

What boosts a champions level (stuff that says it boosts their level )

Can a feebleminded spellcaster dispel their own feeblemindedness (Physician, heal thyself? No. )

When is the end of your turn (step 5)

Which cards have been replaced (These guys are about to become increasingly rare. Treasure them. )


The game wizards: Another spellfire article here. Bruce Nesmith shows that it may only have been a few months, but he's already keenly honed his twinkery skills to create an unbeatable deck. He's done this by concentrating on speed and defence, trying to get realms out as quickly as possible while also making them tricky to eliminate. It's not totally without weaknesses, and indeed, he points out what he thinks it's flaws are, but it's unbeaten so far. On the surface, this seems innocuous enough, if a touch boastful, but of course, if this is common for the department then it's encouraging them to think about games in a more analytical way, encouraging system mastery and finding exploits. Which was of course the huge sea change in design between 2e and 3e, for better or for worse. So once again, this puts the lie to the statement that CCGs aren't influencing RPGs. They are in all sorts of little ways. And if you didn't like 3e, this is yet another thing you can blame them for.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994


part 5/6


Role-playing reviews has a Mage: the Ascension special this month. It seems to be focussing on the technowizardry side of the game in particular this time. This may be because Allen has recently joined the online community, and gives out his email address to all and sundry who may be reading. Man, things have changed. First there was the trust no-one and lie about your personal details to avoid weirdos and pedophiles phase, then there was the no-one is real on the internet irresponsible phase, then there was the realizing they were real, and most of them were perfectly normal, by which time internet use was standard in business and everyday life, so there's no point separating the two. Or maybe that's just how it was for me. Since this is a game specifically about the subjectivity and malleability of reality, I'm sure there's room for plenty of other perspectives and experiences.

The book of shadows has a ton of new bits and pieces from a ridiculous number of authors within it's pages. It showcases the inherent fractiousness of mage traditions, and also their need to overcome this if they want to make the world a better place (and unlike the other supernatural splats, they can) The main complaint is that all this cool writing is made hard to read by gray patterned backgrounds. Now that's a mistake they continue to make for ages, with both Kindred of the East and secret of Zir'an messed up by it. Silly overzealous art directors.

The book of chantries is of course all about building a homebase for your cabal. The system sounds pretty familiar. Pool your background points and spend them on various aspects of your pad. Get ready to spend lots of valuable freebie points if you want a really good one. In addition to that, there's plenty of sample locations and the NPC's that inhabit them. Unlike many white wolf products, which can get over-specific, this stuff is easy enough to pick and choose from for your own campaign. A bit more tookitiness is probably a good thing.

Virtual Adepts is the splatbook for the good guy techno-wizards, letting us know about their history, and their very bright-looking present and future. With the internet rapidly taking over the world, they're having great fun, while being rather unpopular with the other Traditions. It's a great setup for lots of intraparty bickering, which lets face it, is what's so great about white wolf games.

Technocracy: Progenitors isn't quite so imaginative. The bioengineered creatures are pretty unexceptional as monsters go, and the IC bits are mostly dry lecture notes. The villains aren't getting as much effort as the heroes, which seems a little odd.

Technocracy: Iteration X is a bit more fun, cybernetics having more scope for obvious flashy effects than biotech. This includes the classic HIT Marks, but also ridiculous things like the Cyber-toothed Tiger. Exercise your imagination, because there's a lot of ways you could enhance your character with these kinds of resources, and many of them look damn cool. Now your players'll want to be one.


Forum: Gregory Johns thinks that Bards ought to have more freedom in making up about history if they succeed their legend lore roll. The DM should let other people collaborate in world creation and roll with their ideas.

Jim Looper Points out to the guy complaining about young gamers that they're actually older than he was when he started. You really ought to remember what you were like at that age, and put up with some inanity at first. They'll grow out of it a lot quicker with a little guidance than if just left to their own devices.

Kevin Lighton thinks it's not just the game you're playing that can get stale, it's the players you're playing with. Remember, you can change either independently to revitalise your interest in gaming as a whole.

Mike Delmonico praises Ravenloft, but also points out it's flaws. Of course, he has his own house rules to mitigate these. You've got to give them a reason to stick around.

Robert Griffin let his players take a temporary vacation to play evil characters, and then applied the consequences of their actions to his regular campaign. No-one seems very keen on repeating the experiment. Muahahaha. Evil genius. One I'd very much enjoy doing at some point.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994


part 6/6


Libram X does that clip show thing. Swordplay is large, but not in charge. Dragonmirth has eating jokes that don't revolve around dragons for a change. Glatheld encourages ultra-violence and commercial cheer on Hard fun and beyond this christmas.


From the forge: Return of the ratings system! Well, we have had one for years from Robert, albeit not a particularly brilliant one. So it's not that surprising Ken has been getting mail complaining about the lack of numbers in his review. In a typically amusing irony, he overcompensates, giving us a system with 3 1-10 scales (technical, artistic and value) rather than just the boring 5 star rating. This is the great thing about new reviewers. They're still willing to change things around on a regular basis.

Most of our minis reviews this month are of landscapes and accessories. A wizard's chamber with a magical mirror, crystal ball, book stand, and of course somewhere to sit. (not as young as they used to be. ) A cottage and apothecary pairing to plonk in your idyllic little village. A set of magnetic walls for assembling your own dungeons. You know, this is what Advanced Heroquest did quite nicely, albeit not quite as impressively. 8 reversible doors for adding to your construction kit. A pharaoh's crypt and mad scientist's lab, obviously intended for horror purposes. A set of cards that you can lay out to create environments for your minis battles quickly and easily. Our only actual creatures are a pair of dueling wizards and a fairly small but still intimidating to 25mm characters Takhisis. Meh. Well, we have plenty of creatures already covered. A bit more attention on the backdrops makes for a well-rounded world.


TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms kicks off the new year with a vengeance. Another Book of lairs, 96 pages of FR specific mini encounters, for when you need a few hours filled. Realms of infamy, another short story anthology. All the familiar names contribute little slices of life, many featuring iconic characters. However, the biggest name of all gets his own full novel as well. Ed Greenwood delivers Elminster: The making of a mage. Big wodges of backstory that demystify him even further. Familiarity may breed contempt.

Dragonlance also goes right to the top, with book 6 in the villains series covering Takhisis herself. As with the other one, I worry vaguely that this will remove all the wonder from a greater deity. Particularly as she keeps on losing. Tricky to have an impressive villain if they get foiled and have to retreat each week.

Ravenloft has another lycanthropic adventure, Howls in the Night. Unless it's a bait and switch, which is possible. What spin will they put on the themes this time?

Our generic stuff this time is the 1994 Monstrous compendium annual. They've largely exhausted doing this for individual campaign lines, so they're going to collect all the monsters released last year (and quite a few from earlier years too.) and put them in a single book for eases sake. Not a bad idea. Seems like they're doing quite a bit of compiling lately. Also out is City Sites. Another attempt to make on the fly adventure design easier with a load of common floor plans. Again, seems fairly useful, particularly if you're busy IRL.


I've been holding off for a while, hoping things were going to get better, and for the last couple, it even looked like they were. But man, this issue sucks. The themed section is dated, the crunch is dubious, the computer section is massively inferior to the previous reviewers. The whole package is deeply unsatisfying. I hope they're making some serious new years resolutions, because at this point, they need them. Oh, for the innocent days of 15 years ago, when the main flaws were technical rather than narrative, and charming rather than tedious. This is all very frustrating for me. Just how far is this going to slide before it starts getting better again? Guess I'd better grit my teeth and find some more reserves of willpower to tackle 1995 with.

 

[Orius]

Our generic stuff this time is the 1994 Monstrous compendium annual. They've largely exhausted doing this for individual campaign lines, so they're going to collect all the monsters released last year (and quite a few from earlier years too.) and put them in a single book for eases sake. Not a bad idea.

Always liked the Annuals. A nice eclectic collection of more unusaul monsters, which is good for those jaded players who know all the standard stuff. The better entries were stuff that were really written to be used in a generic campaign rather than the stuff that just got blindly copied and pasted from campaign setting materials that still had a lot of the fluff attached.

 

[(un)reason]

As you may have noticed, I'm not enjoying doing this as much as I used to, and I'm fairly sure this time that it's the quality of what I'm reading rather than just tiredness on my part. So once again its time for me to take my foot off the gas a bit so I can do other things a bit more. No promises I won't slow down further, but as long as I can get through at least one article a day, I'll keep chipping away at this.


Dragon Magazine Issue 213: January 1995


part 1/8


124 pages. A pretty awesome cover here this month, even if it is recycled (precycled) from one of their upcoming products. Not sure if that's good or bad overall of them, but it's definitely a cheap move. Still, we are getting a planescape themed issue. Unless they custom commission some artwork for that, they're unlikely to get something appropriate, for surrealism is not a hugely popular genre at the moment, and the planes do tend to be quite specific in how they differ from earth. So I'll forgive them this time. Let's move on to the inside and hope that's original material, and not just cut stuff from their recent books.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter praising Masque of the Red Death, and wondering if it'll get any more books. Thanks to considerably greater sales than expected, they've already commissioned one for next year. Buy lots of that one, and you might get even more! Woo. An honest success story.

A letter from someone who's been reading the Dragonlance novels and wants to move into the roleplaying side. Can you say hint hint. I think their motives for picking this one are not entirely due to the quality and interestingness of the writing.

A letter complaining that they're doing fewer high level adventures lately. They're doing less adventures full stop, but yes, this is a real trend. Even the so-called high level adventures only seem to hold out to the mid teens, in contrast to the companion & master level adventures released in the mid 80's. As usual, Dale has to defend them by offering the best they have in that department, even if it isn't that brilliant in the overall scheme of things. And it does look like the pendulum is starting to swing back again this year. They do have quite a bit of stuff aimed specifically at experienced guys to show off.


Editorial: Art director Larry Smith takes the editorial again. As is appropriate for the new year, he's thinking about making a few changes, to keep things from getting stale around here. A couple of years late, given the speed things have been changing around them, but better late than never. If anything, it feels like they've been changing too fast, and you're struggling to keep up. Yeah, I noticed that a while ago. Nice to see the people inside the magazine catch on. So this signals that we're reaching the end of the complacent years for the magazine, and entering the worry and panic phase, where they try a whole bunch of different things to turn sales around, but ultimately fail. As ever, I'll be interested in seeing how much the stress shows, and how much it gets glossed over and whitewashed. Happy new year.


First Quest: Regular reviewer and Bughunters designer Lester Smith takes his turn to dredge up his past. Appropriately enough, giant ticks attacking his character when he tried to loot a giant's body is one of the first things he remembers. He turns out to have quite a way with imagery that he really doesn't exploit enough in his reviews, describing several encounters in such a way that I can instantly put myself in them, without going overboard with the adjectives. And they make a loose narrative with a happy ending as well. I suppose that illustrates an important point. You only get a happy ending if you choose your cutoff point. If you hang onto a campaign, it will eventually cease being fun or just fall apart. So this is fun to read, and also has a few little lessons on how to make your game fun, despite all the odds. These definitely seem to be improving as time goes on.