Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999
part 6/7
Rogues gallery: Another instance of their increasing use of computer game material, with some characters from Planescape: Torment getting stats. Well, it did have some of the most interesting characters and plotting D&D games have produced. In hindsight it seems a fairly sure-fire choice. And it's definitely better than another forgotten realms novel.
Morte the floating skull gets to be a 10th level bard, with hit points that are impossible for a normal character of his stats and level, and dramatically different accuracies for his bite and headbutt. That is quirky. I suppose that's emulation for you. I suppose if he's irritating, hard to hit, and tough, you have an excellent distraction while the actual protagonist does the real work. It's a classic sidekick setup, especially when you're playing a silent hero, and need something hanging around to do exposition. And let's face it, he can hardly be more annoying than Navi.
Ravel Puzzlewell is a somewhat senile night hag, who's been imprisoned by the lady of pain, but could escape all too easily if her
was together. She's eaten a whole bunch of magic items, which I assume she gives you if you fulfil certain conditions in the game. I can see how this one plays out all too easily. That's quirky for you. It too can become predictable, especially if you keep using the same voice actors.
Pharod Wormhair is a human, but pretends to be a tiefling for the extra street cred. He sells corpses, which means you may well encounter him when you die and come back. He also has tons of junk looted from them, which seems like another obvious opportunity. Do you get to kill him if he screws you, or will you have to talk for your plot coupons?
Fall-From-Grace is a succubus who's become Lawful Neutral, ironically, and joined the sensates. This does not mean she's given up on looking sexy, of course, only actually having any. But she does collect a wide variety of other sensations, and it looks like you can sell some of your more unique experiences to her. So this lot do seem very much in keeping with the planescape tone. I could see myself stealing them for my game.
Wolverine vs The Brood Queen: We've had fast-play introductions for D&D and Alternity fairly recently. I'm not at all surprised they're doing one for the Marvel Superheroes game. It's much smaller than the others though, at only 7 pages, and comprised purely of a single combat between our infamous canadian anti-hero, and the aforementioned xenomorph expy. No room for roleplaying or exploration here, it's pure asskicking with a few tactical options to liven things up. I suppose that gives them a real chance to show off the system. Since Wolverine has regeneration, he's pretty likely to win this fight eventually, but the alien queen will take a fair bit of pounding to finish off, and even with cards, things can be pretty swingy from round to round. As with all the fast-play games, this is really simple, even moreso than the old modules they used to do in the magazine, and won't do more than whet your appetite. Not sure if it'll get people buying or not. After all, those who've been reading the magazine regularly will already know about the game, and probably made their mind up. Those who haven't won't even notice. Unless they're also putting this in the middle of actual comics as well. Did they?
What a surprise. This month's contest is for ghost stories. Lets get those horrific juices flowing.
Shop keep has another case of why do they bother?
Role Models: Once again, they both provide new rules, and give you advice on how to implement them, before finishing up with a mini-scenario taking advantage of the new crunch. They're really getting this little formula down to a tee. This time, it's vertical movement, which can be rather tricky when using minis. Their solution? Bits of wire to wrap around your minis and hold them at the appropriate heights. Not a terrible solution, but one that will get very messy if you have lots of flying things or a zero-G environment to represent, and are moving them all around on a turn-by-turn basis. Still, unless you can afford quantum-locked supercooled magnets, or can fly into orbit just to play a game, it does seem like one of the better solutions. (the really simple one, stacking pogs, runs into problems when things are directly above each other.) This is fairly thought-provoking, as it presents a problem that doesn't have an immediately obvious solution, and requires some real world engineering knowledge to deal with, not just clever rules. Which is pretty cool, really. Anyone have other solutions to the 3D problem they'd like to share?
For someone who creates such dark illustrations, he seems pretty cheery. Guess angst worked out is no longer a problem. And as long as there's an audience for being slightly unsettled in a safe environment, he'll have plenty of work to make a living from. 
