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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4559021" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 56: December 1981part 2/2Mad Merc: Our Christmas module this year is a Top Secret one that goes to a full 20 pages. A sequel to Dr Yes, this is another semi-aquatic mission. With jetpacks, more bad pun names, and some terrible fashion choices, this is definitely on the more lighthearted end of the gritty/cinematic scale. Of course, that doesn't neccecarily mean it isn't a challenge. But I can't properly judge that. As ever, any stories of actual play from any of these modules would be welcomed. Fiction: The doctor, by Robert Dunkle: Oookay. Now that's just nasty. Well done to you Robert, you've just told a genuinely creepy story in just a page and a half. Don't explain why, just show and tell, and present us with a concept that seems all too plausible from a twisted angle and goes right to the bottom of my mental uncanny valley. I seriously hope that this one doesn't give me nightmares. Ral partha take out a full page colour advert just to wish us merry christmas, without even showing any products. That's ..... nice of them. Figuratively speaking: This months miniatures are a troll, an ent, a storm giant, and an evil wizard. All get pretty average marks, nothing below 5 or above 8. How am I supposed to think of something interesting to say when the reviewer is being so conservative? Dragon's bestiary: Shroom are annoying dog-bear things that like to kidnap people and ransom them for honey or whatever else they feel like at the time. Use them if you want a slightly more lighthearted break in your adventuring. Colfel are weird looking creatures from the negative material plane. Which means they get energy draining attacks. So beware. Another interesting creature that would fill out the ecology of an underinhabited plane. At least, if they had shown up again. <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=":(" /> Gem vars are another construct created by wizards. One of those creatures that eschews the standard hit point system in favour of exception based design that makes them a nuisance to kill. And careful how you do it, otherwise you'll damage the valuable materials they're made of, and won't be able to sell them for so much. They probably would be /nerfed/ standardised in later editions. The dragon's augury: Survival/The barbarian is a packaged set of two short board games, that can be played solitare or in a small group. Both are fairly high on randomness, and probably won't hold up to lots of repeated play. Dawn of the dead is a board game based off George Romero's movies. You know the drill. Find weapons, kill zombies, avoid having your brain eaten. The argon gambit/Death station is another double adventure set for traveller. Both are fairly short, and offer a nice range of challenges within their scenarios. Either can be thrown in fairly easily to an established game when the GM is short of ideas for a session.  Fighting ships provides lots of really big spaceships for traveller. Unfortunately most of them will be out of the price range of PC's. Still, it gives both players and GM's something to drool over. And trying to get the money for one (or steal one) is the stuff adventures are made of, isn't it. Off the shelf returns, at last (obviously they needed to build up the supply of submissions for the new column)Other stories and the attack of the giant baby by Kit Reed is nowhere near as silly as its name implies, with lots of darkness mixed with the humour and only one of the stories fails to entertain the reviewer. Sharras exile by Marion Zimmer Bradley is another novel in the Darkover series. The reviewer is decidedly unamused by her continual denigration and mistreatment of her male characters, but still recognizes the quality of her storytelling. Too long a sacrifice by Mildred Downey Broxon is a story of two people stolen away by the faeries centuries ago returning to earth .... right in the middle of ireland during the Troubles. (my god, how long ago that seems) Tragedy ensues, as they try to make sense of this new world. No easy solutions through magical macguffins here, in a story that sounds like it would be a good inspiration for Changeling:the Lost. When trouble beckons by Mike McQuay is a sci-fi detective novel in the raymond chandler mold, with convoluted plot and plenty of internal monologue. It also receives a pretty positive impression from the the reviewer. A holiday gift guide to lots more books, giving us brief descriptions of 20 recent releases from popular authors. Many of which are still familiar to me now, so I guess they've stood the test of time fairly decently. Others are limited editions, and would have been hard to get hold of even back then. Who'd get those as a present for someone else, unless they were stupidly rich? Simulation Corner finishes off its series on game design by talking about design philosophy. This is of course, one of the most annoyingly nebulous subjects in existence, along with "where does your inspiration come from?" Still, it is important to be able to apply some level of critical rigour to the design process, particularly where it involves mathematical probabilities and sequences of calculations. I suppose taking the time to think up a philosophy can't hurt. Still, if it doesn't produce playable fun games, all that thinking has gone to waste. Better learn from your mistakes and do better next time. Thieves guild disguises another advert as a comic. Cheeky. Wormy meets something that can scare even creatures from hell and god knows where.  Whats new gets to go colour. Dragonmith misses the opportunity to make christmas related jokes. Another issue packed full of useful stuff. The reviews in particular are definitely improving again, now they've widened their scope, and there are more RPG things being released for them to compare and contrast. This gives me a better idea of the subculture outside RPG's and the related things they thought gamers would be reading and playing. The amount of wargaming stuff seems to be gradually going down though. Do they ever make an active decision to cut it out, or is this just a gradual loss of interest that reflects the market shift in general. I guess I'll find out soon enough. On to the next year.</blockquote>

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