Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 1/7


72 (108) pages. Our cover star this month has been taking fashion tips from Venger, which is mildly amusing. Still, at least he's brought along some help, which are also appropriate to the contents inside. But there's no theme this issue. Guess it's another christmas grab-bag. Well, at least they aren't calling it a magic themed one, which was so broad as to be meaningless anyway. Shall we see what they've stacked in our stockings.


Scan Quality: Good, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial: Whatever happened to the best ofs of yesterday? Demand for them never really went away, but when Lorraine took over, they refused to do any more, drawing as much of a line in the sand as possible to put forward their new stuff. Erik, on the other hand, loves settings from all eras, and has no problem with mining them and bringing stuff back, then adding to it, as we've seen in their Adventure Paths. So when given the chance to reprint the best material not only from recent issues, but also older articles updated to 3e rules, he leapt at it. ( And then got bogged down in endless debate with the other members of staff over what to put in and leave out. ) Given how much work good conversions are, I don't have the same cynicism about this being just money for old rope that I did in the old days, and I am vaguely irritated that they didn't get to do another one in the series with so many more good articles they could have updated. And of course, they never do something similar for 4e, since it's even more work to move stuff into that from previous editions. So basically, this editorial reinforces my frustration with rapid edition and staff turnovers. You really ought to explore ideas to their fullest before moving on, because it's much harder to go back and then recapture the same feel if everything else has changed in the meantime. And a corporate structure where everyone is disposable will not result in innovative creative leaps, as people wind up repeating the basics year in year out. You may have more ideas than you can ever use, but it's more valuable to finish one than start 100.


Scale Mail: The article on types of alcohol gets an amused reply, wondering if they're going to expand on this even further. Probably not, since they still (mostly) try to be a family friendly magazine. They have other ideas that excessive drinking would only get in the way of.

Second, we have a request for more dark sun monsters. Again, nothing planned for a while, but if people keep sending stuff in, who knows what next year will bring.

Also a repeat request is one trying to figure out exactly what stuff from the magazine is OGL. Nothing in the past year, and nothing in the near future either, for WotC want to keep as many goodies to themselves as possible from now on. Tightwads.

Yet another very familiar one is for more setting specific material. Erik is obviously trying to build up a portfolio of evidence that he can use to convince his superiors that it will be good for sales to do a little more of this.

And finally, we have a request for a serious updating of Yugoloths. They've been neglected since the 3e switch, and could definitely benefit from an epic article giving them some new coolness. Where's Shemeshka the Marauder when you need her?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 2/7


Full frontal nerdity plays with their dice the wrong way. Consign them to the earth! They then cheat at computer games, and admit they've never read LotR. None of these are greeted with good humour.


First watch: Another edition's been around for a while, and it's getting hard to keep track of things. Let's Compile! The spell compendium does exactly what you would expect. Once again, though, I am reminded how small 3rd ed actually is compared to 2nd ed. In that wizards took 4 volumes and priests 3. Here, one is enough for everyone. And it's not even pretty faux leatherbound or anything.

That's the only official D&D product next month, but as usual, there's more than a few D20 ones out there. Green Ronin do very well for themselves, with Damnation Decade, the skewed 70's roleplaying game, and the generic True20 corebook. Both can be used alone, or combined with the vast amounts of other D20 products out there in odd combinations. Although it's a bit trickier for True20 than it is for most variants.

Our big game aid this month is Paizo's Game Mastery Item Packs. Like spell cards, this lets you add and remove stuff without endless scribblings on your character sheet.

Card games hit hard, but to limited effect this month. WotC release Three-Dragon Ante, another fun little way of using their IP for other purposes. White Wolf release Racer Knights of Falconius, a CCG that disappeared with even less fanfare than Pimp: the Backhanding. I wonder if it was any good.

Some rather interesting non gamebooks this month. Order of the stick: On the Origin of PC's cements Rich Burlew's place in gaming culture. While Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide has tons of art from Tony DiTerlizzi, someone who's managed to escape and go mainstream, but is still wearing his geeky influences on his sleeve. And producing tremendously pretty stuff along the way.

Quite a few interesting bits on the computer gaming front. Most notable is the release of the X-box 360. Technology trundles onwards, bringing us into the realms of HD games. Look at those millions of pixels and marvel at the results. Enjoy the online features. And wish you had a bigger hard drive. Oh well, maybe in a few years. Watch out for the red ring of death. They also promote D&D online, even though it isn't actually out yet, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Even with all that flexibility in customisation, they still can't match actual roleplaying in terms of choices.

Our boardgames this month are more FFG ones. They do seem to have this market sown up. Brittania, Fury of Dracula, World of Warcraft again, and Lord of the Rings: Confrontation. Yet more expensive deluxe sets for you to drool over and only get to play once or twice.

Our minis are the Crystal caste Inn, and some dragons designed by Todd McFarlaine. The story practically writes itself. Smash, burn, DESTROY!!!! Hee.

And finally, we have an adorable little dice bag, that looks like a goblin. Well, actually it looks more like a gremlin to me, but hey. D&D does not control all mythology. I might buy this sort of thing on an impulse if I saw it in a shop.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 3/7


Schools of magic: In Unearthed Arcana wizards had the option to specialise in domains, gaining a single extra spell of each spell level rather than the choice of an entire School. However, since there were no drawbacks for doing this, it made them strictly better than generalists to do so, which is poor design when you consider that wizards are probably the third best class in the game already. This article attempts to deal with that by creating an intermediate degree of specialisation, particular curricula of magic with 2-3 spells to choose from per level for your bonus slot, and only one forbidden school, with again, a limited choice of 2 to represent the weaknesses of these particular academies' teaching methods. Since these are specific organisations rather than natural divisions of magical physics, they are free to make the lists idiosyncratic, which also means it's really easy to invent your own infinite number of variations on this idea. They list 8, giving each half a page, with one column devoted to the mechanics, and two to the setting details and important NPC's of each one. So this article could be a lot bigger, but it's already better implemented than the domain wizards in UA, and more interesting to incorporate into your campaign because the little bits of setting detail give you easy hooks on which to hang further adventures. I could definitely stand to see a sequel to this one.


Imps of ill-humor: A somewhat more whimsical article than we've seen for a while, this could easily have fit into the april articles of old. It's also an interesting White Wolf parallel, since the four bodily humours are going to play a substantial part in their next gameline as well. I wonder what inspired them both when it's such an old and underused bit of pseudoscience. So yeah, four imps, each with personality types and powers based on the stereotypes of what people are like when they have an excess of a particular bodily humour. They're all approximately the same power level as Mephits, and would fit right in amongst that grumbling lazy gaggle of extraplanar dogsbodies. I'm sure you can have a great deal of fun playing them, since they're all such blatant stereotypes.

Choleric Imps are always angry, and will pick a fight for no reason. This rage is contagious, so the party may well turn on each other after killing them, which will just be a pain in the butt. Good thing they're not smart enough to strike from concealment and then just sit back to enjoy the show.

Melancholic Imps are inherently depressed all the time, which is an even worse fate than being designed to be inherently evil. Course, they can also be vicious little backstabbers, especially if you refuse to listen to their endless whining. Steer clear, or they'll drag you down to their level.

Phlegmatic Imps are less miserable, but they're even lazier and more likely to come up with ways to skive off their job rather than just complaining. Oh well, that just gives the evil overlord an excuse to do some serious torturing. Who cares if you succeed as long as you have fun being evil.

Sanguine Imps are perpetually cheery and hyper, which makes them the odd one out here. This does not mean they don't love a good laugh at everyone else's expense, so expect some decidedly nasty trickery if you hang around them. At least you can be sure the other imps will ostracise them. No-one likes an optimist in hell.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 4/7


Core beliefs: Boccob. At last, expanded treatments for deities that really give them the respect they deserve. Like the Demonomicon articles, which this article follows exactly the same formula as, this is a 12 page spectacular, going into plenty of detail about said god of magic, his relationships with other gods, his clerics, his rather irritating primary servant Zagyg, their holy days and myths, plus a couple of magical items and spells, and a map of a sample temple. Like the Demononicon, and very much unlike the old Faiths of Faerun stuff, this feels like they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and set out to achieve it in a logical and careful manner. If there is a flaw, it's in that they're both a little too formulaic, and a little too reverential of the original source material, but there's certainly no shortage of added on creative stuff either, most of which would be easily backconvertible to a 1 or 2e game. Its a fairly positive development, and of course, a lot more PC friendly than new crunch for demon lords. It's unlikely that they'll get anywhere near covering all the core gods before the magazine ends, but if they can keep this up, the last couple of years will have more than a few worthwhile articles within their pages.


Staffs(sic) of the magi: Like the imps, here's another topic that has parallels in recent products by other RPG companies. The Magister in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved is an alternate wizard class that puts the focus on their staff rather than their spellbook and familiar. And there are near infinite number of different ways to enhance these things if you're willing to do the research and spend large quantities of money. So if you want to give up your familiar and spend a load of feats to give your staff more special powers, and make it tougher and harder to take away from you, here's your article. It's also a good example of them putting more setting detail in again, with talk about mythological spellcasters and the importance of the staff to them. It makes me feel once again that the magazine is connected to the outside world, rather than just being all about D&D feeding on itself, and that not all wizards have updated to wearing fetish gear comprised largely of belts. Plus getting people attached to their signature gear and upgrading it with them rather than constantly looking for new shinies helps keep a character more consistent.


Ecology of the spellweaver: Yay!. These freaky ers appear in the magazine again. Didn't expect them to get an ecology, but glad they have. The fantasy equivalent of grey aliens, able to perform multiple simultaneous feats of magic with their 6 arms in a way humans haven't got a hope of matching, they're pretty inscrutable and impressive to face. This ecology gives them a cause: Recover their lost empire by finding the spell that will load the magical save point that they made just before trying the ritual that destroyed it. What a very droll twist on an old cliche. Seems very appropriate considering they're a Forgotten Realms creature, and you know how many magical apocalypses that place has had over the years. They also get a Dr Who inspired process of rejuvenation and reproduction, which also seems appropriate, especially since said series had just started up again. Seems like the quotient of whimsy is going up again in these articles, which is definitely a good thing. The amount of useful crunch also seems to be increasing, with several advanced monster stat blocks and a new feat, and a relaxation of the strict subdivisions that plagued the last year. Lets hope next year refines things even further.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 5/7


Wormfood eases up to third gear at last, as we reach the middle of the adventure path. While previous instalments have been deliberately generic, this is very specific to their current adventure indeed. Say hello to the Wormhunter prestige class. Any normal sane person would avoid letting a Kyuss worm get anywhere near them. But there's always a few insane cultists who figure out how to draw power from them. And unlike many vile prestige classes, this is one the good guys can theoretically learn as well, dabbling in the dark side for greater power to fight their foes with. That's the idea anyway. In practice it all falls down a bit because the powers gained are no better than a normal class, and quite a bit worse for spellcasters, plus you have the various prices to health and sanity to contend with subtracting from your overall competence. Once you crunch the math, adopting this will make you suboptimal from nearly any entry point. A fun read, and I'd have no objection to giving it to NPC's as a DM, but there's no way I'd choose this for my primary character as a player. Just not practical at all.


Spellcraft: Having just had a spell weaver ecology, we also get to see some of their unique spells, along with the incomprehensible methods used to record them. 3 books of 4 pentagonal pages, that only make sense when assembled into a d12 in the right configuration? Not sure if that's brilliant, or just weirdness for weirdnesses sake. Either way, it works quite effectively in making this seem alien, and ties in nicely with the previous article, despite them being by different writers. Kudos to the editors too for catching this one.

Anamensis is another means of tapping into unknown lore, this time with sanity threatening alien undertones. The usual disclaimers apply.

Cynosure makes your dimension hopping way more accurate. Since some of them have substantial percentages of killing you underground and the like, this will help the paranoid spellcaster stay alive through the centuries.

Modulate allows you to do amazing things with wands, tapping their energy to cast completely different spells. That's spellweavers all over for you. Who else would be able to pull off tricks that radical. Maybe a few elder dragons, but they wouldn't share this stuff.

Siphon is another metamagic one, stealing energy to kick butt in unexpected ways. Exactly the kind of thing wizards fight over, since they aren't coming up with stuff this radical.

Spell Star is a somewhat wonky bit of counterspelling that does seem appropriate, but isn't nearly as useful. Unlike earlier spells, this is a bit of a white elephant, given it's specificity and prep time. Even spell weavers are hardly perfect. They have issues too.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 6/7


Sage advice: What does once per day really mean. (Oh, not thiss one again! Andy never gets a break, collins collins. Andy hatses you sso much.)

What do you do if something has both resistance and vulnerability to an attack (Resistances first, then vulnerabilities )

What's the duration of a ring of invisibility (3 minutes. )

If you affix dispel magic to hallow, what type is it (Area.)

When a spell effect is affixed to hallow, do unusual durations work (yess)

Is there any way to get rid of unhallow (Cast it's reversse on it, preciouss. )

Do temporary hit points from the same effect stack. How about different effects (No. Yess, but you need to track their durations separately. Lotss of nassty bookkeeping)

What does augment healing do to lesser vigor (Lots of extra pointses, collins collins. Very usseful.)

How long does a master of many forms wild shape last (Ssame as the base class they got it from)

Can you get a familiar from summon monster spells by applying persistent spell to the spell (sssssplts. Andy hateses you. You broke the game, collins collins. Nassty persson. Glarrrrrrkhackhackhackgurglewheezegurgle. That'ss better. He won't break the game anymore.)

What kind of action is attacking with a spectral hand (Part of the casting, yess. Nice extra power.)

Can a spectral hand deliver a spell from a staff, wand or scroll (No.)

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 338: December 2005


part 7/7


Class acts: Barbarians get the Horselord, a new variant. They've already had a feature on how riding barbarians can be cool. Now they can really back it up. Of course, this might be a problem in many campaigns. But mounts always are. Curse you, cramped dungeons.

Bards get Focussed Performer. More feats that enable them to make even more of their class features. They can be extra awesome, stop for a beat, and just increase the power of their song. Like monk's stunning variants, these give you a lot of extra versatility for a couple of feats, and are really worth considering.

Clerics get Religious titles. If you remember old edition, you'll know that every level had it's own title. Here's lots more of them. After all, being called by your class all the time is rather metagame, is it not?

Druids get Animal magic. (Monkey magic? Animal magnetism? Monkey Magnetism? Hmm. Evil thoughts.) Two more magic items to make your companions more useful. Just the thing for our barbaric friends from earlier this issue.

Fighters get The Pikeman. A fighting style that works great in groups for mowing through enemies, at least until the artillery gets involved. Includes a rather handy feat that helps this. After all, fighting with polearm and shield is so historically common, it shouldn't be forbidden to D&D characters.

Monks get another bite at the background apple. Why did YOU become a monk?! Once more, into the backstory, my friends. Mind the purple prose. That stuff can make your eyes water.

Paladins get Solstice Knight. A pair of substitution levels with a fluff requirement, this feels like it ought to have been a prestige class, but they couldn't be bothered extending it to 5 levels. More than 1 way to achieve an effect, eh?

Rangers get The Elk King! Um, ok then. Of all the animals to choose as your archetype. :shrugs: Really not sure what to make of this one.

Rogues get a trio of dwarf rogue substitution levels. Seems they're the new in thing, despite being considerably more awkward mechanically than prestige classes. This set are concentrated on knocking down obstructive crap. Just the thing for a frustrated miner.

Sorcerers get another way to increase their spell lists. It all comes down to who you know, dawg. So you'd better get out there, fake it till you make it.

Wizards get 4 new magical books. Just the thing for if your player pulls a random one from a wizard's library shelf. A little knowledge never hurts.


Nodwick faces the anti-santa. By faces, we mean collects royalties from. Dork tower gets everything they asked for. Some are happier than others. Zogonia faces another horrible death.

Order of the stick makes it into Dragon! You'd better get a move on with your story, because you've got less than 2 years left to tell it in. That means learning the rules, instead of wasting a strip on a cheap gag.


Well, after all this, I can definitely say this was the quickest and easiest year to get through in a LONG time. While not quite up to the level of variety and setting stuff they had in the 80's and 90's, it's still much better than it has been since 2001, and Erik has settled in much faster than most new editors do. I look forward to seeing if he'll continue to improve next year.

 

[LordVyreth]

Order of the stick makes it into Dragon! You'd better get a move on with your story, because you've got less than 2 years left to tell it in. That means learning the rules, instead of wasting a strip on a cheap gag.

Good thing the original comic doesn't have such a deadline; it just recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. God I feel old when I say that. This was a really welcome addition to the magazine for me, and a nice reversal on the general trend of each new comic being less interesting to me than the one it replaced.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 339: January 2006


part 1/6


80 (100) pages. The lady of pain gets a boob window! I'm genuinely shocked, particularly since we just had a lengthy streak of letters complaining about sexism. The art department clearly did not get the memo that inappropriate sexualisation is bad and creates a hostile environment for our female readers. Still, at least it's appropriate to the contents, as it's time for another old campaigns special. As with the regular columns, they aren't going to cram in quite as many as they did in their first attempt, but hopefully that means the ones they do will be bigger and more useful. Here's to the power of concentration and never giving up.


Scan quality: Somewhat blurry, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Editorial: Erik continues to demonstrate his personal attachment to the old settings, Oerth in particular. Having been a long-term fan who really felt it when they cancelled Greyhawk, he wants to reduce the suffering of everyone out there peeved WotC cancelled their favourite setting. He might not be able to bring them back to life, but by keeping them alive in our memories, it increases the chance that the next generation of people who write D&D will be inclined to revisit them in one form or another. Makes perfect sense to me. You never know what influence your actions will have on other people in the future, and in the position of a magazine editor with a circulation in the tens of thousands, you can be sure it will have some effect. Use it or lose it, because time sure aint standing still.


Scale Mail: As usual, the october issue gets plenty of praise. They already have more than enough good material for this year's one too. Anything else you send them will be just icing on the cake.

We have another request for more epic material. They have no great objection to that, but they need more submissions. They ALWAYS need more submissions. The deadline beast is ever-hungry, and they'd rather give it good-quality food if possible.

We also have another request about the old boardgames they did. You can still buy many of them, but they won't be producing more in the near future, which is a shame.

They may well be doing some more psionics material and fiction in the near future, possibly even together. Again, they want to do it, but it's all up to the writers. They have to find the sweet spot between quality, and people who don't want too much money.

An amusing suggestion for an april article. Remember, things going spectacularly wrong is often more interesting than them going right.

As demonstrated by the amusing bickering in Order of the Stick, which persuaded someone to renew their subscription pronto. Funny how a single page of material can make all the difference in a big magazine.

And finally, we continue the endless debate of the fluff/crunch balance in the magazine. Erik reminds us that one cannot truly exist without the other if you want to play a roieplaying game. You'll just have roleplaying, or a game. it's adding the two together that makes it more than the sum of it's parts.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 339: January 2006


part 2/6


First watch: Races of the Dragon. We've exhausted the core collection, but that's where things get interesting. See Kobolds get some more cool stuff so the ultimate underdogs can kick your ass a little more humiliatingly. See Dragonborn, another of the things that would prove damn popular and become core next edition. And the usual load of spells and prestige classes for those of you who want to enhance your draconic connection.

Eberron enjoys it's very own Players Guide. As with many near core supplements, it looks like a grab-bag of material, including some which come from fan suggestions. Some'll be good, some'll be filler.

D20 stuff this month seems pretty decent. The big one is the release of the Dark Legacies player and campaign guide. We've had victorian steampunk mixed with magic recently, now we have postapocalyptic steampunk mixed with magic and horror. Doesn't sound too bad. Another one incorporating dimensional horror, odd technology, and (not actually very) low magic is the Iron heroes Bestiary. See Mike Mearls cook up cool creatures that take advantage of his new combat options, and a bunch of spurious planes for the weirder ones to come from. And finally, they give a shout-out to Goodman's Dungeon Crawl Classics. Revenge of the rat king sees another spin on the classic PHB cover and plenty of other retro features. Ahh, the joys of there being more things to buy than you ever could. It means there's bound to be something you like out there.

Our minis this month tie in with our current adventure path. Writhing Stranglers, worm infested corpses for all your kyussy needs. Several other things in the same line should also prove useful, even if you won't find out why for a few months.

Several other play aids as well, as usual. Castle kits give you another source of minis landscapes for your visual representation needs. If you'd prefer things flat, Ocho games gives us little ceramic tiles with visual representations of monsters. Less worry of being knocked over, but still fun for cats to play with. And dice are getting their own pretty variants, courtesy of q-workshop. Just as long as it doesn't make them hard to read.

Conan gets a graphic novel adaption of the Jewels of Gwalhur. He continues to be a popular choice amongst games for inspiration, and maybe you can get a little more here.

The new D&D computer game, Stormreach, is finally out. Now will you stop going on about it. This is what, the third time here.

And finally, on the silly side, we have D&D themed motivational posters. This became the biggest thread series in rpg.net open, and it looks like someone is actually selling them. I find this very amusing, and more than a little worthy.


Dragon Kings: In 2e dark sun, getting to become a Dragon or Avangion was theoretically possible, but would take a truly enormous game to accomplish. You needed to roll high enough stats to dual class in the first place (even if athas's alternate generation method made that slightly more probable, and then work your way through to 20th level twice, each of which will likely take years of play in itself. And then once you became one, each new level required not only hundreds of thousands of XP, but also a complex and expensive magical ritual. Safe to say that it's considerably easier in 3e. They reduce the requirements to 9th level spellcasting and 6th level psionic powers, which will still require you to be at least moderately into epic levels, but doesn't seem too gruelling if you plan your prestige classes right. Similarly, the power levels are much more balanced with a conventional character of the same total level, with their physical progression fairly similar to what it was, but their spellcasting progression substantially lower. Of course, since their original levels are pretty much bound to be 1/2 BAB, they won't be that physically threatening compared to a fighting class of the same level either. So while they remain a terrifying world-shaking threat to the common person, it's much easier for a party to challenge them and win under 3e. You'll have to give them some more class levels than the minimum if you want them to remain competitive in a world of hecatoncheires and pseudonatural paragon tarrasques.