(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 267: January 2000
part 5/7
Bazaar of the Bizarre: Yet again they prove that the writers are chasing each other's tails these days. Magical eyes? Issue 240, just over 2 years ago. Ok, most of these are worn ones, rather than actual physical replacements, but it is once again a demonstration that they are willing to return to topics much more quickly. I do not find myself optimistic.
Cats eyes give you night vision and deal with detection attempts. Very useful for a cat burglar, obviously.
The Circlet of the Bat gives you sonar. This obviously has different nuances from regular and infravision, but lets you see in the dark quite handily. Have fun reading up on the things you can perceive with it.
Evil Eyes are made by hags and let you curse people. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, as is the case far too often these days.
Eyes of Spying are little winged things that you see through and send exploring. The kind of thing you squash with great brutality if you see it flitting around, for that never bodes well.
Talisman Eyes ward off evil spirits and curses. You should never create a problem without figuring out a defence for yourself if someone else tries it on you. Superstition is entirely reasonable in a fantasy world.
Eyed Rings let the wearer see through them, essentially acting as a periscope. Now you can get that rat in the wall. Tee hee.
Eyes of Fury glow red and turn you into a berserker. This is obviously a mixed blessing, as with any fury based power. Watch you don't hurt your buds.
Eyes of Glaring make you really intimidating. A fairly nebulous benefit, but not a bad one. You can often use a little social edge, and D&D doesn't give you that too often.
Eyes of Infravision give you exactly that. A power that is getting a little overcommon. I guess the demihumans in the party are a constant reminder to people they're missing out on something cool. Funny to think we're not far off from getting rid of infravision altogether.
Eyes of Soulgazing let you know someone's alignment and important personality traits at a glance. Should save a few minutes conversation.
Hypnotic Eyes trance and suggestion you, as you would expect. Again, ssssoooo overdone. Make it a core product next time.
Ioun Eyes are an ioun stone that grants 360 degree vision from it's orbit around your head. Now that is pretty handy, especially as it's also up and down and semimobile. Motion sickness from the constant orbiting might be a problem though.
Lenses of Light Shielding are a third way of allowing darkdwelling things to come above ground, after the parasol and shades. It's so valuable, everyone's copying it! Next.
Lenses of Second Sight let you see fae creatures and occasional visions of the future. This will probably bring up more adventures than it prevents. Just remember, they'll still prank you if they know you can see them.
The ecology of the carrion crawler: Shandrilla and Javorik get to face another oogie dungeon denizen in quick succession. At least this one isn't amorphous. Hell, they aren't even able to inflict damage on a combat timescale. But it still has quite substantial screwage capabilities. Still, since they are brainless, you'd think a group of PC's would be able to outsmart them and use them to their advantage. And they do, just about. But, really, a thief and an illusionist ought to be up in the city, swindling money from noblemen and engaging in acts of swashbuckling derring-do, not down in the dungeon where more than half the enemies are immune to their powers. Still, as usual, Johnathan has put his research in, figuring out how to use real world details to fill out a decidedly alien creature. He's still more than pulling his weight around here.
The new adventures of Volo: Wyrms of the North may have ended, but Volo is inexplicably still popular enough to get a new regular column. So you'll have to get used to being called gentles, and having Elminster thumb his nose at him behind his back. Ed takes great pleasure in playing up how intolerable the little twat is, and how inaccurate his reports may well be. (all the better for you to change them, my dear) Well, it keeps them entertaining as reading, even if you don't plan to use this stuff.
We kick off with a whistlestop tour of the various elven kingdoms of the Realms. Many of them are rather hostile to humans, (or at least to Volos
) but most have some interesting stuff to eat, drink, buy, or wear. A surprising number of them are aquatic, once again demonstrating the breadth and depth of Ed's worldbuilding, and that there's still areas of Toril as yet uncovered by sourcebooks. It also shows up the differences between various elven cultures, with their levels of isolationism and technology varying quite a bit. He took in the monoculture lesson and made plans to fix it long ago.
Along with that, it seems his appetite for creating new spells is also undiminished. Spellshine lets you detect spells created by a particular individual, allowing you to perform more refined magical detective work. Since so many elves are spellcasters, the uses of that in their society is pretty obvious. So Ed is once again producing work with both a greater sense of fun than other writers, and stuff that would logically turn up in a magic-heavy world where people keep refining their knowledge of how to use it and counter other people's uses. I'd like to be sick of him by now, but he keeps winning me back. Amazing, isn't it.
part 5/7
Bazaar of the Bizarre: Yet again they prove that the writers are chasing each other's tails these days. Magical eyes? Issue 240, just over 2 years ago. Ok, most of these are worn ones, rather than actual physical replacements, but it is once again a demonstration that they are willing to return to topics much more quickly. I do not find myself optimistic.
Cats eyes give you night vision and deal with detection attempts. Very useful for a cat burglar, obviously.
The Circlet of the Bat gives you sonar. This obviously has different nuances from regular and infravision, but lets you see in the dark quite handily. Have fun reading up on the things you can perceive with it.
Evil Eyes are made by hags and let you curse people. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, as is the case far too often these days.
Eyes of Spying are little winged things that you see through and send exploring. The kind of thing you squash with great brutality if you see it flitting around, for that never bodes well.
Talisman Eyes ward off evil spirits and curses. You should never create a problem without figuring out a defence for yourself if someone else tries it on you. Superstition is entirely reasonable in a fantasy world.
Eyed Rings let the wearer see through them, essentially acting as a periscope. Now you can get that rat in the wall. Tee hee.
Eyes of Fury glow red and turn you into a berserker. This is obviously a mixed blessing, as with any fury based power. Watch you don't hurt your buds.
Eyes of Glaring make you really intimidating. A fairly nebulous benefit, but not a bad one. You can often use a little social edge, and D&D doesn't give you that too often.
Eyes of Infravision give you exactly that. A power that is getting a little overcommon. I guess the demihumans in the party are a constant reminder to people they're missing out on something cool. Funny to think we're not far off from getting rid of infravision altogether.
Eyes of Soulgazing let you know someone's alignment and important personality traits at a glance. Should save a few minutes conversation.
Hypnotic Eyes trance and suggestion you, as you would expect. Again, ssssoooo overdone. Make it a core product next time.
Ioun Eyes are an ioun stone that grants 360 degree vision from it's orbit around your head. Now that is pretty handy, especially as it's also up and down and semimobile. Motion sickness from the constant orbiting might be a problem though.
Lenses of Light Shielding are a third way of allowing darkdwelling things to come above ground, after the parasol and shades. It's so valuable, everyone's copying it! Next.
Lenses of Second Sight let you see fae creatures and occasional visions of the future. This will probably bring up more adventures than it prevents. Just remember, they'll still prank you if they know you can see them.
The ecology of the carrion crawler: Shandrilla and Javorik get to face another oogie dungeon denizen in quick succession. At least this one isn't amorphous. Hell, they aren't even able to inflict damage on a combat timescale. But it still has quite substantial screwage capabilities. Still, since they are brainless, you'd think a group of PC's would be able to outsmart them and use them to their advantage. And they do, just about. But, really, a thief and an illusionist ought to be up in the city, swindling money from noblemen and engaging in acts of swashbuckling derring-do, not down in the dungeon where more than half the enemies are immune to their powers. Still, as usual, Johnathan has put his research in, figuring out how to use real world details to fill out a decidedly alien creature. He's still more than pulling his weight around here.
The new adventures of Volo: Wyrms of the North may have ended, but Volo is inexplicably still popular enough to get a new regular column. So you'll have to get used to being called gentles, and having Elminster thumb his nose at him behind his back. Ed takes great pleasure in playing up how intolerable the little twat is, and how inaccurate his reports may well be. (all the better for you to change them, my dear) Well, it keeps them entertaining as reading, even if you don't plan to use this stuff.
We kick off with a whistlestop tour of the various elven kingdoms of the Realms. Many of them are rather hostile to humans, (or at least to Volos
) but most have some interesting stuff to eat, drink, buy, or wear. A surprising number of them are aquatic, once again demonstrating the breadth and depth of Ed's worldbuilding, and that there's still areas of Toril as yet uncovered by sourcebooks. It also shows up the differences between various elven cultures, with their levels of isolationism and technology varying quite a bit. He took in the monoculture lesson and made plans to fix it long ago. Along with that, it seems his appetite for creating new spells is also undiminished. Spellshine lets you detect spells created by a particular individual, allowing you to perform more refined magical detective work. Since so many elves are spellcasters, the uses of that in their society is pretty obvious. So Ed is once again producing work with both a greater sense of fun than other writers, and stuff that would logically turn up in a magic-heavy world where people keep refining their knowledge of how to use it and counter other people's uses. I'd like to be sick of him by now, but he keeps winning me back. Amazing, isn't it.
Work with the system, not against it. Absolutely no complaints here, either with the format or the message. Carry on then.
