Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4554629" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 55: November 1981part 1/284 pages. We get another look at their second class mailing figures this month. And this time the scan is legible. Their current circulation is up to 60,000 as of last month, with average printings per magazine over the last year of 45,000. Which means they've approximately doubled their readership again. Pretty good. They also welcome a new addition to the staff, congratulate another one on getting married, and look forward to the D&D sales blitz this christmas. It should be a good one for TSR. How many of you guys got your roleplaying start as part of a christmas present? In this issue: Out on a limb: A letter criticizing the monk articles in issue 53, and asking for more separation between roleplaying fluff and design crunch. A letter complaining about all the errors and inconsistencies in the D&D books, but also wishing that people wouldn't argue so much about which game was best or worst. A letter of generalized praise. Always room for one of them to get published.A letter encouraging playing with players expectations, not letting them know exactly what is going on statistically with their characters and the things that they face. Another letter decrying ridiculously overpowered characters. Rather a stock selection this month, isn't it. Fiend folio Findings: Ed Greenwood expresses his disappointment with the latest tome of monsters, calling it inconsistent in tone, lacking in setting integration, full of silly names, unclear in description on many monsters, and a whole bunch of other unappealing things. Alan Zumwalt is a somewhat more satisfied customer, enjoying the illustrations, but wishing there were more extra planar monsters, stuff from magazines made official, and fewer rehashed hybrids. Finally, Don Turnbull, the guy primarily responsible for the book, gives his rebuttal. He didn't put monsters from recent Dragon or White Dwarf issues in because the book has been completed and in legal limbo for 2 years before they could get it published. Some of the things that you found unclear are in there, you just needed to look closer. And monsters with unpronouncable names are perfectly justifiable, particularly if it's what they call themselves. But yeah, there are some things he wishes he'd done better. Pleasing to see Dragon isn't afraid to call out the flaws in TSR's products. It's good evidence that they still aren't just a house organ. New theories for old monsters: Dinosaurs! One of those things that blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy when included. This article gives stats for lots of them, including all the usual suspects, revised in light of new scientific discoveries. What, you want realisticaly accurate dinosaurs in your magical fantasy? I think that should be the least of your worries. From the sorceror's scroll returns after quite a substantial absence. Gary apologizes for this, and lays out his plans for the future. The temple of elemental evil is delayed again, because he's been busy making this year's tournament module (the lost caverns of tsojcanth. Another one many of you will remember fondly) Lost of other greyhawk stuff is in the works, including city and castle of greyhawk. Lets hope you don't suffer so many delays on those. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> We also get a reiteration of the Oerth racial groups from issue 52, with some more stuff on their favoured dress and other little details. Which is pretty interesting. Looks like he's finally realized there's a market for full-on world building, and is working to make up for lost time. Robin hood and his merry men get statted up. Not under the Giants in the earth or the Larger than life banner, curiously enough. I wonder if that means we'll be getting three helpings of twinked-out NPC's this month? That would be rather excessive, and not pleasing at all. The coming of the sword: Niall's 9th story in the magazine is a prequel, telling the tale of how he acquired his signature sword. Which means no dubious demon goddess to tell him what to do, and no army to help him out when things go south. Instead, he falls in with an also pretty dubious mage-queen, ands goes adventuring in search of her ancient abandoned kingdom. Is this commentary on his personality or a persistent psychological quirk of the author behind him? Either way, it's fairly amusing. The creature of rhyl: This month's mini-module is our first that is explicitly for basic D&D rather than AD&D. Not that it makes that much difference really. This is a rather odd module, in that the dungeon complex is largely abandoned, yet there are tons of magical items hidden around the place. This means that as long as they can survive (or avoid) the rather tough final encounter, this is a good place for low level characters to power up. It'll definitely be a change of pace compared to the caves of chaos. But if more dungeons were like this the game would get dull very quickly. The electric eye: Another really short article from mark this month, as he gives the answers to last months quiz. So short, in fact, that I have nothing else to say on the matter. Martian metals' advert is upside down (ie, the right way up) this month. Blame Tim Kask for that, as they say in the advert itself.</blockquote>

Verification