Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 1/7


132 pages. Arr! There be pirates on this cover! Don't recall them doing that before. Space pirates, (issue 217) but not regular ones. Guess they're still not completely tapped out for the final 2e issue. Inside, it looks like the theme is swashbuckling, which is another popular topic that maybe hasn't got the coverage it could have, with just a half-hearted theme in issue 219 and a few other articles through the years. We've revisited the sky and ocean recently and found new things to say, now let's blow a kiss to the audience, sweep our cloak dramatically, and leap out the window into the darkness!


Scan Quality: Good, unindexed, centrepiece missing.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: In one way, time is linear, and you can't really go back (because if you do, it causes all manner of causality problems. In others, a lot of it is cyclical, and you do the same things with minor variations on a regular basis. In a monthly magazine, those cycles are a little longer than some jobs, but they are there, and do become routine soon enough. And eventually, you have to take a break from them. Which may become a routine in itself, such as taking yearly holidays. Which establishes another new cycle you'll eventually have to break. Life is complicated. Even chaos naturally falls into certain patterns. But at least we're about to see some pretty major changes around here. Yup, we're in philosophical mode again for this editorial. After all, they're worried if they're making the right decisions, or it'll all fall apart in their face. Well, it's too late to turn back now. Even as we speak, the books are shipping to game stores across the world. All you can do now is keep looking for errata for the next printing to fix, and get to work on those first few supplements.


D-Mail: We start off with the quite valid worry of how easy 3e will be to teach to newbies. Good question. Increasing the consistency and organisation of the rules does have it's benefits. But we're still talking about hundreds of pages over 3 books just to play the core game. It's probably better than AD&D, but nowhere near as easy to pick up as the old basic sets.

We then have to deal with the old problem of specific vs general articles. They have to balance the problems of getting wide appeal with not repeating themselves, and there's plenty of people on both sides of the argument.

Next we have a letter from someone who seems to want half the regular columns cut, particularly those that don't provide more gaming stuff. You know that's a dangerous path. If you cut out everything that you think is filler to only do the most popular stuff, you may well wind up with a smaller audience, not a bigger one. Man can not live on gold alone.

Another couple of mostly positive letters with minor nitpicks follow. One wants Greyhawk to get coverage outside the RPGA, while the other wants the return of reviews in the magazine. Neither are going to get their wishes. The ways of the company are strange and inscrutable, and they don't want to pretend to objectivity anymore.

A letter from someone who loves what they've seen of 3e so far, and can't wait for it to arrive. I think most of the readers are in that boat by now, even the ones who aren't sure just want it over and done with. A year is a long time to build anticipation.

And finally some good old fashioned historical nitpicking. Will we ever know for sure what happened in ancient egypt? Would it stop the arguments if we did develop a device that let us open a window to the past and see everything? Probably not. There'd still be too much data to get an unambiguous result.


Nodwick gets examined for his serious case of nasal expansion.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 2/7


Forum: Bryan Rantala thinks people are thinking too much about the rules, and not enough about actual roleplaying. If they do that, class imbalances seem far less significant.

C. Roach points out that there's now tons of cool variant RPG stuff on the net. Oh, and B. J. Zanzibarrs People are sharing a ridiculous amount of cool stuff for free. Take advantage of it, even if the quality control might not be as high as in published books.

Steve Damon asks all the people jumping at previews to wait until they have the actual 3e books in their hands to give proper judgement. You know, that's the first time they've said that in here. That is a bit surprising.

Michael Bridges thinks a little moral ambiguity makes PC's more fun. Fafhrd and the Mouser never stopped being primarily out for themselves, even when they did wind up doing the right thing in the end. It's more interesting when you don't know exactly what the players are going to do or when.

Mike Donavon thinks people shouldn't expect every article to be tailored to their interests. That just seems selfish and self-centred. The hobby is bigger than you, cutter. And remember, even if it isn't useful now, it might be later. You never know when you might find yourself playing Traveller or Runequest again.

Heather Woodhurst has enjoyed having familiars play a big part in the game. Hers wound up getting a class and being loved by everyone. Autoscaling in the new edition comes quite welcome.

Osveldo Ortega reminds us that priests are servants of gods, and their powers come from a position of supplication, not demanding. They shouldn't expect their god to grant them miracles at a moment's notice. And 3e's playing up their medic side sucks. Cleverness will be replaced by brute force HP soaking to solve problems. Boo.


ProFiles: Fittingly for our final 2e issue, we see a profile that says goodbye to a leaving member of staff. Larry Smith has been working on the magazine's art for over 10 years, since issue 157, where the last minute decision to make it a Buck Rogers special from upper management (Roll of thunder, stab of organ music, god I've missed doing that.) resulted in much panic for him. He's had to deal with the Great Nipple Ban, legal department stupidity, mad freelancers, and the spellfire card game. But over time, you can become jaded to anything, and he really needs a change in his life, an escape from the endless roar of the dreaded deadline beast. Maybe he'll get bored after a few months and be back as a freelancer, maybe not. In any case this is a quite different profile from most of the recent ones, avoiding the blatant plugs for future products and relentless optimism, and not presenting a too rose tinted view of the past either. Which is rather refreshing, really. Even if you work in gaming, it doesn't have to be your life, and it can do you good to get out and have other interests. Advice I really ought to heed myself. Oh well, less than a quarter of this to go, and then I can leave it behind for good.


Up on a soapbox: After a whole bunch of trying to get people to look back and reevaluate behaviour often seen as immature, Gary gets to the point. If D&D is to survive long-term, it needs to be able to attract new players. And that does mean catching them young. To make that work, you need rules that start off simple, and can get you playing fast, and can then build complexity and provide supplements on myriad subjects to keep up to their spending power. And you need enough cool stuff to hook them in in the first place. This is harder than it sounds, and it was the old Moldvay and Mentzer basic sets that managed it most successfully. There's also the issue that despite Robert saying a DM should learn from a more experienced one, a group may actually have more fun if everyone starts at the same time and learns together. That way, there's no-one telling you you're doing it wrong, acting superior and driving people off before they can get up a bit of experience and investment in the game. Once again, he's questioning not only received wisdom, but the value of wisdom itself when it comes to having fun. Did you have more fun as a child or an adult? Why is that? If the answer is as a child, how can you fix that without abandoning your responsibilities? Pretty deep questions, really. And one the designers of each new edition need to solve in turn, for despite their efforts, roleplayers are still an ageing population. Whatever criticisms people may have of Gary, stupidity is not one. He's right on the mark here, and these questions are still very relevant indeed. I hope the people in charge of 5e are paying attention.


Countdown to 3rd edition: Only 1 month to go. Aren't you just bursting with excitement? And they've saved one of the best changes until last. Spontaneous Spellcasting! Sorcerers fill several valuable roles. They let you play a spellcaster without having to do so much bookkeeping, they're a good excuse to put a charisma primary class in the game, and they let you fill an important literary niche that D&D handled really badly before, the spellcaster who developed magical abilities as a twist of fate or ancestry rather than through conscious study over an extended period of time. It's an idea that wasn't obvious before it was done, but made perfect sense and was pretty popular after introduction, with more new classes being spontaneous casters than prepared ones over 3e's lifespan. Basically, they feel awesome, and it's interesting that despite this, they actually turn out slightly less powerful than wizards in long term play. Versatility trumps firepower when given time to prepare, especially once you can make magical items. Similarly, the new implementation of Bards is pretty nifty. Even if they did get criticism for being slightly underpowered in combat, their sheer versatility, able to fill any role, even the healer as a secondary character, plus being the kings of social stuff makes them pretty significant. So this is a fairly exciting teaser, that shows how they're increasing flexibility in the new edition pretty well, and will get players excited about not having to deal with spellbooks if they don't want too. That's the kind of choice I feel very positively about, even if I like quite a bit of bookkeeping myself.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 3/7


Touche: We start off our themed section with a list of source material and basic campaign ideas. Fairly dry, this feels like basic advice for the DM who would like to try this, but isn't sure where or how to start. Which means it's one of those articles that feels altogether too basic given my level of experience. Well, I guess like everyone, I'll be starting again at 1st next edition, so I should enjoy that feeling while it lasts. But still, this feels like an end of themed section filler article that was only put at the front because it was by one of their regulars. Curse you, you nepots! As much as you shouldn't neglect your basic exercises, I'm a little baffled by this.


40 Swashbuckling adventures: What, not even 50, let alone their preferred 101? Must have been short of sources to plunder this time around. As you'd expect, they're a lot more social than the average adventurer's fare, and those that do involve exploring far lands are all sea based. (so yay, pirates, buried treasure, and racially dubious colonial attitudes. ) There are a few supernatural elements, but the majority of the adventure hooks involve just people on different sides, trying to advance their agendas. Just the thing to keep the players morally conflicted. (but not trusting the Cardinal farther than they can throw him) So there's a pretty decent number of good ideas here, of a sort they haven't covered that much in the past. And even 40 should be enough to advance them a good few levels before the DM needs to come up with their own ideas. Swashbucklers do seem to hang with a higher class of people than dungeon crawlers, and their adventures are more likely to have long-term consequences and people seeking revenge for slights upon them and their family in the past. Hopefully you'll be able to get the drama self-sustaining by then.


Swashbuckling essentials: Now unlike Dale, Robin Laws knows how to make his writing style match his subject, and applies that skill with verve here. It's not only about the rules, it's about the implicit assumptions of the game. And you won't get very far if you try to play a swashbuckler when the DM is running the game to screw you over if you aren't paranoiacally careful with everything you say and do at all times. But changing the rules can make a pretty big difference as well. So he's pretty aggressive in house ruling D&D, particularly when it comes to experience awards, but also in giving you a lot more concrete uses for your Charisma score, making being flashy, charming and overdramatic the way to not only survive, but also prosper. This kind of willingness to reshape the fundamentals of the game is exactly what they need on the team, and it's a shame he wasn't here back when they were doing lots of settings. Seeing a full setting that altered basic things like how AC or experience work would be very interesting indeed, if probably flamewar provoking as well. This should have been twice as long and starting off the issue, then we'd really have a good sendoff for the system.


Van Richten's Legacy: The Foxgrove-Weathermay sisters unearth another piece of Van Richten's research, this time on herbalism. After all, he was a doctor before he was a hunter of monsters, so he ought to have some fairly substantial notes on the plants he's discovered in various domains and what they do. Of course, this is Ravenloft, where things rarely work as planned, and so each herb has three options for the DM to choose from, expected, with a twist, and with a horrible side-effect, or completely misleading. So once again, this is very much for the sadistic DM, particularly one with players who read the books and would otherwise metagame with their knowledge. This three options format is a pretty neat one, and I can see why they included it. The specific herbs are pretty neat too, with plenty of detail on their appearance and habitat, and powers that are handy, but not game-breaking. So this is both cool in general, and very well integrated into the specific setting. High marks here.


Something up your sleeve: Another article of mundane gadgetry isn't particularly swashbucklerish, but it does help keep rogues from being completely outclassed by spellcasters. And this stuff is a bit more high tech than medieval, so they might want it for a job. Still, I very much doubt they'll be lugging around a folding boat, or ninja climbing equipment. While there is some rehash here, there's less than I expected, which I guess is testament to how long Greg Detwiler's been around, and knows what's in the books. And since this is pretty system light, you could convert it to 3e without any trouble as well. Until the OGL gets going, there'll be a shortage of esoteric gear there that needs filling. This isn't bad at all then, and quite well timed for it's purpose.


Fiction: Shamur's wager by Richard Lee Byers. A few issues ago, we had promotion for Ed's new non D&D novel series. But upon investigation, it turned out to be mostly action scenes, with a rather insubstantial plot linking them together. Well, this is the first time a short story in the magazine has basically been one long action scene with short bits at the beginning and end to set us up. It's not a bad action scene either, a griffon race through the sky with plenty of twists and turns and treachery to keep things tense until it finishes. But it doesn't really feel like a proper story either. It feels like they came up with the cool action scene, and then bolted on a flimsy pretext for it to happen afterwards. So this is literary junk food, entertaining while it happens, but leaving you nothing much to think about afterwards. A bit won't kill you, but too much will leave your brain fat and lazy. This isn't the kind of change I'd like to see become common.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 4/7


Abandon Ship!: Another minigame in quick succession? This is an unexpected treat. Course, the big question is if they'll continue doing these in the 3e days, or this is the end for them, just as with reviews and articles on other RPG's. Anyway, this is an amusing little piracy themed card game, where you fight the other players to get as much treasure onto a lifeboat before your ship sinks. With an intended playtime of about an hour, it seems pretty easy to pick up, but has a decent amount of tactics for you to think about and the possibility of ganging up on players and other politicing. John Kovalic is responsible for the artwork, which gives it a somewhat cutesey old school feel like the work of Tom Wham. I'm a little annoyed that the board was missed out in the scan, but I still like this quite a bit. It's another amusing diversion from the huge morass of sometimes contradictory options AD&D has become filled up with. More standalone minigames would definitely help keep the casual gamer market interested in the magazine.


Rogues Gallery jumps the gun a little as well, giving this collection of characters 3e stats. Curiously, they manage to make the statblocks smaller than the old ones, despite the greater amount of crunch in them, via more efficient formatting. Which also means they can fit in slightly more character detail as well. I think that definitely counts as a win-win situation.

Thamlon Uskevren is the patriarch of a Sembian merchant house. He's fairly honest, for a merchant, and this seems to be working for him, as he now has a large and prosperous family, and tons of high class homemade wine. Seems like a pretty sweet position. I bet there's people in the family who want to take it.

Shamur Uskevern is his wife, and has an incredibly interesting history. Sent forward in time, she adopted the identity of her own relative, and since then, has been pretending to be much more boring than she actually is. Well, she can't really go back now, with all the kids she has in the modern day. But then again, who knows what tricks fate might pull in the future. It's not as if backwards time travel is unknown in the Realms, even if it isn't as common as Krynn.

Thamalon Uskevern II is the typical hedonistic wastrel son. A fighter with a 6 strength, he's pretty much useless for everything, and it's going to be a challenge for him to ever measure up to his dad. Maybe he should give the role of heir to someone else.

Such as Thazienne Uskevern. 4 years younger than her brother, she's already an accomplished rogue, and is starting to develop the business aptitude to go with it. Dad probably wouldn't completely approve if he found out how she was making money on the side, but hey, at least she's competent. The family wouldn't end up losing all it's merchant cred with her in charge.

Talbot Uskevern is the black sheep youngest brother. He's not really that bad, but he broods about the things he does wrong more, feeling he can never really live up to his parent's expectations. He actually has the makings of a pretty decent hero, if he can just get over himself and realise his potential. And hang out with the right people, instead of spending too much time in bars listening to music. Get yourself a good adventuring party.

Erevis Cale is our first non family member, and the first character to take advantage of 3e's less restrictive multiclassing as well. He of course becomes the breakout guy of this book, transforming quite radically over the next decade. But at the moment, he's a fairly straight angsty brooding fighter/rogue, ruthless, but regretting it. Someone wants fangirls. Well, why mess with a winning formula?

Larajin is a young half-elf serving girl with a Tressym pet. Her honesty means she'll probably never work her way up and become one of the more important merchants. Good thing she has the opportunity to become an adventurer instead then. Hopefully she'll get the chance to level up soon, for even in 3e, the world isn't that forgiving on 1st level characters. Good thing they haven't forgotten the ky00t factor, even if she isn't completely by the book.


The new adventures of Volo: More Realms tidbits from that most fallible of reporters, designed specifically to get you into trouble here. The House of Stone may not be as famous an adventuring location as Undermountain, but it certainly seems to chew through adventurers quite handily, with it's rearrangeable walls, and readily replenishing traps and monsters. Course, adventurers being what they are, that kind of reputation only encourages them, and so it continues to lure them in at a rate of approximately 2 parties a week. So that's a death toll of around 4-6 hundred a year. Man, they must breed fast in the nearby villages. Everyone thinks they're the ones who'll succeed where everyone else has failed. Maybe your PC's are even correct. In any case, it's rather (un?)intentionally comical, showing what happens to a world when adventurers become routine. Elminster's snark when dealing with Volo's "facts" is as strong as ever, and this looks like another fun place to drop rumours of into your campaign, see if the players bite. It's pretty much system free too, so it'll still be useful next month. This is still both entertaining, thought-provoking and useful then.

 

[LordVyreth]

What happened to part 4? Also, it looks like the Potion of Spotlessness description cut off mid-sentence.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 5/7


Arcane Lore: We draw 2nd ed to a close with a 3rd druid special, this time concentrating even more specifically on plant magics. Hey, that means it'll also be useful to Rangers. A plan with relatively few drawbacks. Except the ever present danger of rehash. Still, hopefully this is the last time I'll have to say that for a while.

Hail of Thorns brings the pain, plant style. Slightly less dangerous than magic missile, as a cleric blasty spell should be, it's still both accurate and reasonably damaging.

Pinespear lets you add piercing damage to your staff without any metal assistance. Cue getting reamed with a pinecone jokes. Hey, druids can still have filthy senses of humour.

Nature's Mantilla is invisibility, plant sphere style. This is another one that doesn't work quite as well as it's straight wizardly equivalent, but that's the nature of kludges.

Leaf Ears is clairaudience via plants. Well, we do already have teleportation via plants.

Rooting lets you feed through your feet. Seen you before. Next!

Thorn Growth is the textbook antigrappler. Seen plenty of variants on you too.

Bear Fruit is a juicy variant on create food and water. Handy though, because it leaves the tree it creates behind, which may be more of an ecological benefit than the immediate one. Reforestation can be hard for druids, this makes it a lot easier.

Placate Plants satisfies their appetite, keeping them from going all Audrey II on you. A niche power, but possibly a lifesaver, like so many others.

Bronzewood Weapon is another way of making your weapon more badass, hopefully enough to hurt an annoying monster immune to mundane stuff. Not totally reliable though.

Rooted Wrath is a buffed up, damage inflicting Entangle. As usual though, there needs to be vegetation around. And this is one dungeon delving druids are unlikely to have the materials to draw upon, unless on the first level, and having the tree roots reach down out of the roof. Oh well, it's hardly terrible, is it.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Our final 2nd edition bazaar is in theme, with a whole bunch of items that are perfectly suited to the swashbuckling mentality. Fight with style, and have dramatic encounters. An idea I'm pretty positively inclined towards. Looks like a pretty decent closing sale.

Favors for the favored are charms, traditionally presented to your romantic amour, which offer minor mechanical benefits. That's a good present, not like some pack of cheap chocolates that are probably half nutty crap anyway.

The Blade of Heroic Measures lets you do called shots and disarms with much greater probability. You don't have to kill your enemies to kick ass.

The Impeccable Defender lets you parry lots of attacks. But maybe not enough. D&D still can't match up to white wolf in terms of active defence mechanics.

The Rapier of Brilliance produces flashes of light that allow you to make a quick getaway or temporarily blind your opponent. It's all very unfair. I suppose we'll always have Grimlocks.

Breath of absolute valor allows you to bring a companion back to life, but at the very real danger of giving up your own life. One perfectly designed for dramatic nerve-wracking scenarios where everything hangs in the balance.

A Bridle of the Companion Mount boosts your mount's morale and helps you perform stunts with them. Hi ho, Silver! Away we go!

Candles of Renewed Brilliance let you rest and come up with a cool idea to sort out your current problems. Since I can generally do that anyway, I'm not impressed.

Everflowing Capes billow dramatically without any wind, let you leap chasms, and produce stuff mysteriously with a flourish. Swoon.

Gloves of the Gallant let you fight while seeming not to be paying attention at all. This has little mechanical effect, but is highly amusing flavourwise.

Kaldeen's Chroniclers of Questing Confessions provide a truly faithful account of your actions. This means you may be cautious about letting people read it, for all your little lies and indiscretions will be revealed.

Perfume of Wondrous Attraction are an item recycled right from the early 80's. Temporary charisma boost followed by sharp loss if you're not careful. Just the thing to really set you up for a disappointment.

Potions of Spotlessness help your grimy adventurer to become socially acceptable again in short order. If you've just got back from a big adventure and feel it's partytime, this'll get you spruced up in time for a full evening's carousing.

The Shield of the Righteous is another item that reduces the effect of undead screwage. You may still lose levels and die, but you can postpone the effects for a bit and hopefully make a real difference for the party.


The ecology of the hippocampus: Silly people, underestimating things that look like animals, when actually they're pretty smart. Still, it does make for rather good stories, so I suspect they will keep on doing it. This ecology is the work of a pair of new writers, and it shows, in comparison to the slick charactersmithery of the monster hunters stuff. It's also a little to attached to the savage nobility of it's subject, the angst of being captured and suffering, the bond between man and animal, and all that bumpf. What is it about horses that makes people go all gooey. It happened with unicorns, centaurs just about avoided it, but they're half human, and I expect it'll happen to pegasi if they ever get round to doing an ecology on them. Still, once again, the change in storytelling style breaks up the monotony. That's worth quite a bit these days.

 

[(un)reason]

What happened to part 4? Also, it looks like the Potion of Spotlessness description cut off mid-sentence.

Editing fail. All fixed now.

 

[LordVyreth]

Editing fail. All fixed now.

There we go! Do you think the fiction would have worked better if we saw the Rogue's Gallery version of the characters first?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 6/7


PC Portraits: This column always likes to join in, and swashbucklers have an easy iconic visual appearance, so they have an easy job this month. A nice smile, a stylish outfit, a flamboyant hat, and the confidence to not look like an idiot jumping around the place and cracking one-liners. Easy to describe, not always so easy to implement. Still, they're both racially and sexually inclusive, and not all of them are weilding the same old rapier/main gauche combo. I think this is a decent enough collection to choose from.


Shop keep suffers one of the more blatant breaches of gaming etiquette I've seen in a while.


Arms Race: So it's the final Alternity article. How could they possibly spend their final bit of coverage for an RPG other than D&D in a valuable way that'll stick in our memory for years to come? Well, certainly not more weapons, when we now have a full book on that already. Yes, it looks like we're going out with another load of new toys, not a mature culmination of their creative efforts. More than a little disappointing. So here are 5 new melee weapons, and 14 different guns of myriad sizes, shapes and power sources. Tons of ways to kill people, and a few that'll incapacitate them without killing them. People never stop looking for more efficient means of inflicting violence upon each other, do they. Very very disappointing, which is not the kind of note I wanted to end this on. There's so much more that you could have done with this system, and you end it on a filler episode. I guess this is goodbye then. If only there was something we could have done.


Wizards live: A couple of notable special guests this month. Lisa Stevens gets a profile, which she never did in the magazine, despite her importance to it. And the creator of Babylon 5 and other cool TV shows J Michael Straczynski pops in for a chat. Every day apart from thursdays and saturdays is once again filled with something. A lot of it is devoted to the new RPGA stuff, as they gear up Living Greyhawk for everyone to play. The logistics of that must be fairly substantial. Still, at least they can set stuff up wherever there's a decent player base without having to pay international phone rates just to talk. I wonder if they're still printing and mailing out all the modules from a central location? Economies of scale can still make that cheaper, weirdly enough. So this shows their online support as a still evolving process. The majority of the population are aware of it and participating to some degree, but it has yet to take over completely from the traditional distribution channels. And since that's still an ongoing process, 12 years later, I think we'll probably have more to say on that in later issues.


Dungeoncraft: So what does a DM actually do in play, asks Ray. Provides descriptions of the world, and resolves what happens when characters interact with it. When you put it like that, it sounds so simple. But they need to be good descriptions, while not being so verbose as to take up too much of the session time, so they players have a decent amount of information to react too, and enough time to act in. This is where all your preparation actually turns into success or failure. Give them enough information to choose a course of action, preferably one that you've prepared for, and if they do do something not covered in your notes, improvise a result that is interesting and makes sense. His big question here is if you should reveal all the info players need to make an accurate judgement of a scene upfront, or just the basics, forcing them to ask questions if they want to find all the treasure and avoid tripping any traps. With an assumption that a lot of the time, setting puzzles that test the intelligence of payers rather than their characters is a good thing. This advice won't be particularly relevant if your game is pure hack and slash, or narrativist one for whom all the conflict is interpersonal and the environment is just an unimportant backdrop. But between those extremes, they are some pretty important questions that don't have a one size fits all answer. Players will differ in their natural curiosity as much as DM's will in their innate verbosity. Hopefully this'll help you figure out what will best suit you and your players. And if you survive the first session, it should get easier from there.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 273: July 2000


part 7/7


Sage advice: Does having a reversed spell take up extra space in your spellbook (no)

Can a sha'ir use a spelljamming helm (If they plug their gen into it with them. Stupid incompatible rulesystems. Needs moar fudge. )

What happens if no-one finds a secret door, but they know there must be one around and keep searching (Good question. Skip will backconvert the taking 20 rules from the next edition to get around this annoying scenario.

How do you determine the level of magical traps in a module (look for details on their creator. Simple enough.)

Can dual or multiclassed fighters have exceptional strength ( Yes, but not for much longer. Just one more month before all that crap gets jettisoned.)

Can you stack strength of stone with holy might (no)

Can you use a sunblade to backstab (Yes. Neither the back, or stab are literal. That is why we renamed it for the next edition. )

When you spend a CP to reroll do you have to do so before rolling (yes. This isn't quite as bad as it seems at first. )

Can a flametongue sword destroy enemy weapons by hitting them (only flammable ones. Other swords won't melt that easily. )

How does curse tablet work (It's very thematic, and somewhat inconvenient. Just be glad it works more reliably than real world curses. )

Do all necromancy spells require powers checks in ravenloft or not (no)

If you polymorph a shapeshifter, can they still shapeshift (Yes. They can turn back next round if they like. Or they can toy with you for a bit. Either way, your spell is mostly wasted)

What happens if you petrify a polymorphed character. ( Their new form turns to stone. It's all a bit embarassing. )

What happens if you smash a polymorphed, petrified person. (they turn into a shattered statue of their original form. This really doesn't help.)

Can dispel magic dispel flesh to stone (Recycled question. The answer's still no)

What happens to magic items while polymorphed or petrified ( They do nothing while stone, but they might work while you're shapeshifted, if that's applicable.)

What happens if an enfeared character is put in a corner (usually, they'll fight. An old adage about rats springs to mind. )

Does a crumbling wall of ice last as long as a solid one (No. Once it's gone, it's gone.)

Can you stack a ring of blinking and a cloak of displacement (Recycled question)

If you save against charming, do you know about it. How about if you're charmed and then it wears off. (More recycling. Skip is so glad about a significant edition change after 13 years doing this. That way, even if people ask the same question, Skip no longer has to give the same answer. And no more poring through hundreds of years old books.)

Does someone's alignment change while charmed (No. Even though they like you and want to help you, they'll do so in a manner appropriate to their nature. Laters, dudes. Skip's off to par-tay!)


Role models: When it comes to minis, you can't always get what you want. So if you can't make the minis fit the creature stats, change the stats to fit the creature. Like rolling stats for your character randomly, you can derive creativity from looking at the world, and then trying to make sense of it and build a story out of the parts you find, rather than crafting them custom. You could use this to ask questions about the death of the author and the validity of derivative works. Or you could just be lazy and reactive rather than working hard for your creativity. This is the kind of lesson you could take in all sorts of ways. So I think it does have some value, even if the presentation needs a bit more work, and is once again interrupted by blatant self-promotion. I think they might be improving again.


Silicon Sorcery: Nethergate gets some ideas stolen from it this month. A fantasy adventure game with a strong Celtic flavour, it's full of sinister crones, woad painted warriors, giants and fae. So as they've done before, they present 6 encounter ideas inspired by the creatures and events of the game, and give advice on how to recreate the mood of the game. Since celtic stuff has probably got less elaboration than it deserves over the years, with a big chunk of that focusing on the celt/roman conflict, this doesn't go unwelcome at all. That it's also high density, and has a decent amount of crunch in there makes this quite nice reading. This column appears to be in the hitting it's stride stage now. Hopefully it won't be suddenly taken over by someone else and take a downhill slide abruptly.


Nodwick is still fighting the slavers. And they're extra diabolical this time. They have literature and everything. Be very afraid.


Coming attractions: The releases this month are pretty much system free. You know an edition change is immanent when that happens. The Realms comes off vary nicely from that policy. As I thought, The Cleric Quintet gets it's final instalment reprinted. More money for TSR and Salvadore's coffers. We also get another computer game tie-in. Volo's guide to Baldur's gate. Just the thing for luring in those computer gaming casuals to proper roleplaying. And if that's not enough, there's The Halls of Stormweather, a set of short stories from their latest spotlighted city. It's gonna be tough for you guys, not getting any products for a while until they can get the updated corebooks out. Hope there's enough to tide you over.

Dragonlance gets The Clandestine Circle by Mary Herbert. Heavy armour and tights do not a great combination make for actual combat. Let's hope the contents are less cheesy than the cover.

Alternity may be cancelled as a gameline, but it still has a few novels working their way through the system. Two of minds and Gridrunner for StarDrive, and In hollow houses for Dark Matter. The print runs were probably pretty small, so good luck finding these ones. But at least the writers still get paid.

And finally, we have another novelised CCG conversion. The Scorpion by Stephen Sullivan is a L5R novel focussing on said clan. Looks like they've already made the deal with AEG that'll result in Rokugan being the primary setting in the 3rd edition Oriental Adventures. Not my favourite move ever. Still, at least the all D&D policy of the next magazines means I won't see so much of that.


What's new takes over. So much for those CCG's. Roleplaying will triumph again!


…… Yeah, this issue was pretty tough to finish, both in the emotional sense, and in that it was more than a bit of a grind. Up to this point, everything from the very first issue of the strategic review has been fairly compatible with everything else if you're willing to squint a bit. If you had the persistence, you could squeeze most of it into a single campaign spanning decades. That is not going to be the case anymore, thanks to both the massive rules changes and the accelerated rate of advancement in the next edition. Still, at this point, a substantial part of me welcomes that, and I know that's true for many people at the time as well. So let us not mourn the death of an edition that was long finished by the time it ended. Let us celebrate one that still has quite a bit of life in it.