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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4617935" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 79: November 1983part 2/2Magic resistance: Yes, it's time for some more rules clarifications. Magic resistance is an additional bonus chance to completely avoid effects that some creatures get on top of their usual saving throw. When it takes effect, what it does, what items bypass it, if it can be switched off volantarily, you probably encountered these questions if you were playing at the time. This makes it a useful but dry little article that feels rather dated, as the rules and how to phrase them have since been refined. Oh well, you've gotta put the work in to make the improvements. And it's a good thing someone did. Gen con miniature open '83: Oooh. Pretty photos. Properly scanned ones this time. Their record on that has been spotty at best in the past. People, units, monsters and dioramas. Who's done the best job of painting and displaying their stuff this year? Shout outs to Julie Guthrie (four times, she really swept the boards this year), Jim Zylka (twice), Gene Elsner, John S Goff, Alan Patton, Judy Brown, and Mike Jaecks.    (that's a weirdly high proportion of people who's names begin with J. What's with that?) I'll bet this brings up fond memories, if you're reading this. Blame it on the gremlins: Oh, this is amusing. A monster from real world earth gets transplanted to D&D land. That's a bit wonky. Anyway. Annoying little trickster monster from modern legend. Be very afraid, for humiliation is worse than death, you know the drill. One of those articles that gives a rather large amount of tactical, ecological and sociological detail. It's just a vague irritation that it's being applied to such a silly subject. Really not sure if I like this or not, as it's going a long way for a joke, but wouldn't really fit in a serious D&D game. I think I'll leave it. Setting saintly standards: Hello again Scott. You were dissatisfied by the fudgy answer to the question of sainthood, so you've decided to fill in some details of your own accord. While this still doesn't reveal how to become one (and given the criteria is essentially "convince some god they like you enough to grant sainthood"  that puts hard and fast rules out anyway) this gives us a decent powerset and bunch of examples for different alignments. While that won't help you with the philosphical issues, at least it's a few more combat encounters to throw your players way, and lets them become godkillers lite before going on to the real thing. So it's useful in actual play, anyway. Another so-so article. Wacko World: Another top secret module. Although 16 pages long, it actually isn't that big, because two pages are blank, while others have adverts on part of them. Still plenty of stuff going on, as it combines location based wandering with a timeline dependent plot. Something sinister is going down at the funfair, and you'd better figure it out before lots of people die. Despite the comical exterior, this actually looks like it could be rather tricky to solve. It's certainly not a bad module, and the site could be easily transplanted for other uses. As ever, actual play experiences are welcome.Page advice II: Once again, they give advice to all you aspiring freelancers out there on how to get your stuff up to scratch and into print. This time, they're a little more specific than before, along with the usual stuff about producing work consistently, not getting discouraged, learning from feedback and trying again, they give more info about handy reference materials. The elements of style gets it's usual hearty recommendation, and research in general is played up as a very good thing. After all, you can't conciously hone and adapt your style unless you can analyze other people's styles and figure out what's good about them. Looks like they're refining their knowledge of how to spot a good freelancer as well as their personal writing skills. Well, with a bigger player base to draw on, they can afford to be more selective. This of course makes it harder for the ordinary person to get their big break. Oh well, so it goes. This is why getting in on the ground floor if you can spot a trend coming is a good idea. The fights of fantasy: Lew Pulsipher considers how magic would logically affect D&D warfare. A very good topic to cover indeed. Once again, his tastes and thoughts mesh seamlessly with mine, as he examines the impact scrying, mind reading, and general use of wizards as artillery and strategy pieces has on the flow of war. Pay attention to this stuff, because it's easy to adapt to regular party situations as well. Good battlefield control enables you to take on far larger forces and come out on top than piling in with straight attacks. Buffs (actually get neglected somewhat in Lews consideration, which is interesting to note.) and strategic spells have far greater impact than straight damage dealers. While it is a bit dated by the ruleset, and hampered by 4e's brutal nerfing of strategic noncombat spells, the principles are still sound. Apply them, and your ability to take on large opposition and come out on top will be massively increased, whatever system you're using. I very much approve, and hope some of you had your playstyle shaped by this back in the day. Be aware and take care: (You'd better watch out if you've got long black hair <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ) Lew gets a second article published in quick succession. This is quite a long one, spanning 8 pages. (albeit sharing them with lots of adverts) It covers much the same themes as the previous one, but from a different angle. This is focussed around avoiding the obvious mistakes an adventuring party can make, and tactics for good dungeoneering in general. The lessons from dealing with years of antagonistic DM'ing are writ large here, as well as lessons on adapting your play to the fudging, make it as they go along style GM. This is indeed very focussed on the kind of play where the team is trying to win, and the victories are more important than the journey. But as we know Lew doesn't neglect the role side, and this focus on the objective is merely for this article, that's not too bad. Once again, this is filled with inventive touches such as putting explosive runes on paper planes and polymorphing charmed creatures to make them more useful. He's pretty much got the whole package sorted. Rules mastery, imagination, and social contract stuff. I am indeed envious. Off the shelf: The art of Al Williamson by James van Hise is a biography of the man and his artwork, showing how he has developed over the years, the people who have influenced and collaborated with him. It could be easy to get sloppy and produce scrappy work when you have to create stuff daily for the newspapers, but he has always retained proper anatomy and shadow play. This has won him much respect from his peers and readers. Code of the life maker by James P Hogan is science fiction with a strong emphasis on both the science and the social commentary. Let us not forget, humanity has done many dumb things in it's time. What better way to teach than by mockery. The unteleported man by Philip K Dick is another of his classics of convoluted plot and shifting viewpoint. Now in a new extended edition, with the original ending retained. What do these publishers know about commercial success? Dinosaur tales by Ray Bradbury is an illustrated collection of his works. Great for anyone who loves dinosaurs, bradbury, or good artwork. That's a pretty broad net cast there. Methinks a little hyperbole is involved. Still, it's not as though dinosaurs don't hold a deep fascination for some people. I'm sure plenty would enjoy it. The generals wife by Peter Straub is exceedingly expensive. Not sure why, when it seems from the decsription to be quite short. I guess the illustrations and packaging make up the deluxe cost. An interesting little curio. The worthing Chronicle by Orson Scott Card is as preachy as we have come to expect from the man, the mormon, the legend that is Scott Card. Thankfully this is pre-brain eater days, when he could still tell a riveting sci-fi story to back his ideology. Or at least, this reviewer likes it. Ahh, more innocent days. The man who used the universe by Alan Dean Foster  is another tale of intrigue and ambition. The reviewer didn't like him before, but for some reason, does now. What changed? Wormy goes to a werebar. Hybrid form is the preferred dress around there. Dixie gets bodyswapped in What's new. Say growf to me, bitch. Growf Growf! GROWF! Oh yeah, that's right baby. What, we're still not going to do sex in D&D. Then what....... oh no. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /> An odd mix of the dry and silly in this issue. Seems like they decided to use up a lot of april's leftovers before they went off, but also put in a load of gaming advice. This is a bit incongrous, and overall adds up to a slightly sub par issue. You really ought to get back to the spectacular special features. At least they're interesting even when they fail technically. At least all the rules stuff is pretty solid this time, unlike with a lot of joke articles. Come on, you've done some good stuff recently. Don't start letting things slide and get flabby again.</blockquote>

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