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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4567932" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 60: April 1982part 1/287 pages. They did dwarves and halflings, now elves get their turn at having a special all about them. Surprised they weren't first really. Anyway, they have several other treats for us. It's april, and that means another april fools mini-issue. Plus we're served with another complete game. Amazing just how much they fit into these things. However will I get through it all? Same way I get through every issue. One page at a time. In this issue: Out on a limb: We start with a rather long and impassioned letter from Lew Pulsipher that was originally intended as an appendix to last issues article. In it, he rebutts the statement (from issue 54) that pelins are useless for a campaign. Damn well right. Just because they don't fit in a dungeon, does not make them useless as monsters. They have all manner of uses another generic humanoid can't compete with. A letter from Gary sneering at recent attempts to make archery more "realistic", as that stuff does not improve the game's actual fun quotient. A letter from Roger Moore pointing out a bunch of errors in recent issues. A letter complaining about the publishing of multiple monsters with the same name, and repeating fictional characters with different stat's, as this prevents players from knowing what they're dealing with. Silly person. Players shouldn't know the stats and motivations of every monster anyway. That way lies excessive gamism and rules lawyering. The elven point of view: Ahh, D&D's longest lived PC race. How they contrast with the second longest lived one. The usual tropes such as seeming aloof and whimsical because they are aware of impermanence of other things, connection to nature, magical skill, you know the drill. I have no desire to regurgitate it again. The gods of the elves: Say hello to the rest of the seldarine. One of the largest and most complex nonhuman pantheons. Hanali Celanil, Aedrie Faenya, Erevan Ilesere, Labelas Enorath, Solonor Thelandria. All have pretty well defined portfolios beyond simply being elven, and showcase the wide range of concepts and associations the race can accomodate. They're as strong as I remember them being. Sage advice continues its own contributions to the themed series. What spells are considered charm spells? (spells with charm in their name, plus bards power of the same name, plus magic items with the same effects.)Why are elven thieves always children?(That's errata. We've fixed it in later printings of the DMG)Is Shield cumulative with mundane armour, or do you take the best.(you take the best of the two. You can't get AC-5 that easily)If I'm reincarnated, can I keep my current class abilities. (Not if they're illegal for the new race.)The half-elven point of view: Half-elves get a (rather half-assed) personality of their own. Given that they're more varied than even humans, due to their split heritage, this is rather a pointless task. Notable, however, at this point is the emphasis on half-elves as thieves, (what was with giving them unlimited advancement in this class?) and the floating of the concept of quarter, eighth and more diluted elven bloodlines. But Roger can't be bothered to write those up at this time. This article feels like wasted potential in general. They could have given half-elves a much stronger identity. From the sorcerors scroll: Gary continues his extensive list of cantrips from last issue. He manages to finish off the list of wizard ones, but its still not over. Illusionists will get their turn next month. And then will we be seeing clerics get orisons, or is that a 3rd ed thing only? I guess we'll find out soon enough. As amusing as the last article. Firearms: Ed Greenwood gives us more conversions of modern stuff to D&D rules, plus a history of firearms throughout the ages. Guns may be more powerful than swords and stuff, but for a long time they were rather unreliable. If you enforce that, It should keep things from getting out of hand. Plus it makes wizards less crucial to a party, when other people can supply the artillery. I think ed managed to strike the right balance here on an often tricky subject to integrate into the game. Fiction: Wearwolf by David Rosenberg. A very funny little short story that sets up the premise of a world where loup-garouesque animal suits are commercially available, introduces a twist, and then knocks it down again, all within 2 pages. Quite the classic. A quiz about the nature of D&D science. This takes the D&D rules and assumes that apart from that, real world physics applies. Amusing resultant effects happen. Actually, they aren't very amusing, because they're generally pretty dull. This is not a world of cinematics, it's a world where meticulous resource management is rewarded. Do we really want that? I certainly don't.</blockquote>

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