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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4552924" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 54: October 1981part 2/2Giants in the earth: What?! Oookay, looks like they haven't replaced giants in the earth, but supplemented it. Which means double the dose of overpowered mythological and fictional characters this month. Man, this is irritating. Anyway, this months characters are E.R. Eddison's four lords of demonland, and Ursula LeGuin's Gaveral Rocannon. Dragons's bestiary: Boggarts (are missing their name at the top, so you have to read the description to figure it out. Probably another prank on their part) are the usual malicious faerie types. Not particularly dangerous in combat, but a pain in the ass to catch up too and hit. Stroan are weird insect thingies with several interesting special powers. Another thing with an extensive amount of ecology, and even religion, they seem a prime subject for developing further. Shame that never happened. Incubi are another monster that should be completely obvious, and are just an excuse to give us succubi with slightly higher combat stats. Demons are not an equal rights society. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> Beware the Jabberwock: Ha. D&D stats for this particular fictional monster. Which obviously requires a bit of extrapolation by the developer. And as ever, once you've given something stats, it seems a good deal less scary (apart from hecatoncheires) and wondrous. The designer seems unsure if he should be explaining the surreality of the original source, or exploiting it. And as a result, it fails to enthrall. Thieves guild designers notes: The creators of the system and magazine talk about their intents for the system and plans for future products. Loose leaf books that you reassemble yourself? Another experiment that will pass into history unlamented. Another bit of interesting historical perspective here. The dragon's augury: Thieves guild also gets reviewed here. Focussed around, well, the class that you would expect, and scenarios for them, it is both more and less complex than D&D in various ways. I suppose it might not be as focussed as some modern indie games, but it's certainly a step down that path. Barbarian prince is a solo adventure game in which you reclaim your kingdom. It offers rather more freedom of choice than most pick your path games, and offers a rather more badass protagonist. The reviewer seems to rather like it. Cavern quest is this months module, a 14 page solo tournament adventure. And it is a horrible railroad, in which you can't help taking damage, it's just a matter of how much. I suppose when there's no GM, you can't manage the same freedom of choice.  Fiction: Abomination, by D. Aaron Achen. A great story of the healing of a corrupted swamp, from the point of view of the sentient patch of land. Some great imagery here, and a real sense of atmosphere and dynamic tension, as you're never sure who you should be supporting. I really like this one. Minarian Legends: This month, Glenn talks about the pirates of Rombune. More interesting setting detail in what is becoming one of the most filled-in settings of the era. Cash and carry for cowboys: Glenn Rahman gets a second article published straight away, expanding on the equipment list for boot hill. Because players always want things that the rulebooks don't think of. This'll take you all the way from derringers to tombstones.  (because you wouldn't just leave dead PC's to rot, would you, and burials are expensive. ) Another one of those articles that may be useful, but still makes for dry reading. Simulation corner: Part 3 of their series on game design. They further tackle the subject of realism, and how to apply it. Obviously true realism is impossible. And a lot of the time people synonymize realism with quality when reviewing games, even though that is not the case. Historical accuracy and realistic physics are also not neccecarily linked. I am not overly enthralled. Bazaar of the Bizarre: 13 more Quaals feather tokens. Quite the useful little pieces of kit, aren't they. People ought to appreciate them more. Plus two magical maces, and an undead trapping bottle. Careful with the last one. Letting things out without the power to control them is always problematic. The electric eye: Another quiz this month, this time about the history of computers and how they work. As ever, much of this stuff is seriously outdated. Which is only interesting if you care about the minutinae of old computers. Whats new's infestation of dragons has spilled over into the entire damn issue, amusingly. How many are there lurking throughout the magazine? Try and figure it out. Growf growf. Orcwardness: Another parody article about the more irritating idiosyncracies of certain gamers. Nothing you haven't seen already, probably. Dragonmirth has more dragon related jokes. Wormy introduces the book-eating pterodactyl, another character who would somehow become a regular in this crazy soap opera. How did Dave Trampier come up with this stuff? Fineous fingers' plot is brought to a rather abrupt close as JD leaves for Adventure Gaming magazine, to work with Tim again. Everyone sighs, some with disappointment, some with relief that they no longer have to deal with such a flaky columnist. At least he gets the chance for a proper goodbye, unlike the other comics that were unceremoniously cut. (yeah, I'm still not amused about that) His story isn't over yet. A purple worm busts into A D&D Adventure this month. Another issue with articles ranging from the sublime to the utterly tedious. One thing's for sure, with JD gone, and Elminster on board, its not going to be the same from now on. We've just taken a big step away from old skool to, if not the current generation, a different one anyway. How soon these things happen. Soon we'll be nostalgic for the old ways, even with all their flaws and unreliability.</blockquote>

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