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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4577683" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 63: July 1982part 2/2... But not least: Roger finishes off the races series with a grab-bag of short articles on the common humanoids. Kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls each get a few paragraphs plus a new god. (one of which I've never seen before, and so must have not gone into common use. ) The shorter word count means he gets to the point, really focussing on what makes the various humanoid races different from one another apart from hit dice and power level. Kobolds are cowardly gang fighters and trappers. Goblins are bootlickers and users of other races to get what they want. Hobgoblins are status obsessed stoic disciplinarians, while gnolls are lazy scavengers. Which is nice. All in all, a good way to end what has been a pretty informative series that's influence is still seen today. Chagmat (what? Not quite the dumbest monster name evar, but not far off.) is this months adventure, another 16 pager. That aside, it's a pretty interesting one, with a combination of small encounters and a full dungeon at the end. Plus the monsters get plenty of depth of history and setting of their own. They could probably even be turned into a PC race without too much trouble. Plan before you play: Hello again Mr Greenwood. More campaign building advice from the master? Railroading (although that term still hasn't been invented yet) is bad, and players like to feel that they have choices, and the world exists beyond just something to challenge them. He then goes into his world building technique, one again including stuff that would appear later (with some alterations ) in the forgotten realms. While creating political situations and relationships might be a bit of effort, once you have done, the story virtually writes itself from there, as the NPC's make their moves and give the players tons of stuff to do on whichever side they choose. Once again, his passion and dedication to the art of storytelling and worldbuilding shines through, keeping things interesting that could be (and have been under lesser writers) dull all too easily. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Do you dare to try and keep up with him? The RPGA posts a bulletin that is both an advert, and an example of content, with some special rulings about how Official RPGAtm Games are run. Because they have to standardize, so adventures can be run fairly and consistently throughout the world. Ho hum. This year, Gary has taken the trip to england, courtesy of Don Turnbull, to attend games fair 82. And it seems he finds english players quieter and better organised than american ones. Do stereotypes have some basis in reality then. He also takes the time to review a couple of fanzines, Dragonlords and Thunderstuck. Both get rather less scathing reviews than the ones he has delivered in the past. He must be enjoying himself. Computer games have a way to go: More interesting historical stuff on the nature and use of computers, and the logistics of creating a game at that time. Most games are way too short and lacking in depth. He looks forward to the days when memory and processing power is no longer the primary limiter on what people can make. Reality, as ever, will be less impressive than your optimistic predictions. Still interesting though. Particularly interesting is how much less simulationistic computer games have become, despite being able to model reality more accurately. Genres such as platformers are still in their infancy, and many games are simply computerised versions of board and puzzle games. i guess they still have yet to build their own identity and subculture. The electric eye: A program to generate characters for Top Secret. Well, someone probably got some use out of it. (if it wasn't errata ridden like many of them) Rem, gosub, goto, and other familiar old commands are there in all their glory. For the sake of Change: Where does money come from? In reality, money comes in many forms, each region with its own, and substantial fluctuations in prices and exchange rates. Should you adopt some of this in your game? Given how complicated economics can get, too much would seriously derail a D&D game. Just like everything, you'll have to find your own balance between reality and usability. Once again, Gary refuses to put his reviews in with everyone else's. He is really rather scathing of Conan the barbarian, calling it Conan meets the flower children of Set (he has a point there). The sorceror and the sword is also called pretty mediocre. All these bad fantasy movies will put people off the idea of making and watching them. This simply will not do! I shall create a D&D movie, and it will blow these amateurs out of the water! If I fail, I shall roast the incompetents responsible and apologize to you personally! This is entertaining. He's certainly in fine form this month. The dragon's augury: Simba Safari is a traveller adventure of, yeah, big game hunting. Travel from planet to planet, killing stuff, and intriguing with the other people on the cruise. Well, It'd certainly be a change of pace from most adventures, if a rather politically incorrect one. Not sure what to make of this, although the reviewer seems to like it. Wild west. Looks like fantasy games unlimited is trying to compete directly with boot hill. Anyone remember this one? What's new faces the danger of computers taking over. Wormy should feel lucky he's out when the shadowcat comes calling. Dragonmirth reminds us that when dealing with undead, your expected level at the end may be substantially lower than at the beginning. Seems we have another case of when designers attack this month. Gary delivers one of his largest broadsides in a long time, consisting largely of things I found rather unpalatable. Still, even when I disagree with him, he's always interesting, and never mediocre. This stuff should have reprecussions in following magazines. Also notable is the number of interesting adverts in this one. Seems like lots of games are coming out now, people are jumping on the bandwagon, and the amount of adverts is increasing. Even the second stringers have half-decent budgets to work with. What will happen next?</blockquote>

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