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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4621582" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 80: December 1983part 2/2Leomund's tiny hut: Len gives us another of his officialy sanctioned yet not quite official rules revisions. Having characters remain static in their attack rolls and saving throws for several levels, and then do one big jump lacks realism, and makes advancement too granular. So let's smooth out the curve, so they progress 5% at a time. Now that's an improvement that they should have put in second edition, not waited until 3rd and a complete rewrite of the saving throw rules to implement. This time, he's really ahead of the curve. I approve of this development. Did anyone implement it? How did it work out in actual play?These guys really took their time: Gaming group plays for a hundred hours non-stop, sets record, raises money for muscular dystophy. Not much to say about this article, as it's only a short one. I also approve of this. Has the record been broken by then, and if so, by how much? A set of rules for game reviews: Ken Rolston imparts his wisdom upon the rest of us, so we may also make good submissions on this topic. Types of reviews, the way to approach them, solid criterea by which you can judge quality, aiming them at an audience, general style advice. Nothing hugely surprising here, but another decent checklist to go to if you're feeling lacking in confidence. Remember though, all the theory and study in the world means nothing if you don't try and do something with it. Interesting to note here is how the internet has changed the time deadlines for reviews. In periodicals, if something's a few months old, it's dead news, but on websites where everything is saved and indexed, and reviews are often submitted by ordinary users (many of who really should read something like this) you can put them in years after release and still get some activity in the comments. Long tails are good, both in assessment and buying. You get a better picture of quality and informed demand that way. Reviews: Timeship is a light hearted, easy to learn game of time-travel adventure, with a distinct tendency towards gonzoness. Save the city of Gommorrah. Kill Hitler. Yeah, they're not afraid of puncturing the big topics. Sounds like the kind of game which would be good for introducing younger kids to roleplaying. If you want strict realism, give this a miss, but for some fast furious, crossover friendly fun, this might be worth giving a whirl. Illuminati is the classic Steve Jackson card game of conspiritorial wheels within wheels to the point of ludicrity. You've had plenty of opportunities to play it in the past few decades, and it's still in production. And this reviewer accurately calls it as a potential classic as well, with a detailed and enthusiastic review. Well done, Michael Lowery. Have a smug in hindsight point. Privateers and gentlemen is a roleplaying game of high sea combat. Unfortunately, it fails to live up to it's swashbuckling premise, having poor organization, brutal hand to hand rules, and no introductory adventure to showcase the game and get you playing quickly. It is full of flavour though, and the author obviously knows their source material. You may want to steal the ship level combat rules, which seem to be the best developed part of the game, and keep using your usual one for human level interactions. Man, myth & magic, on the other hand, does not seem to be salvageable. Ken viciously slates it, calling it the worst roleplaying system he's ever read. (and he's read a lot) Both system and presentation are teh suxxor. It doesn't even have the decency to be hilariously bad either. Avoid it. Ouch. Harsh man. Can I get a second opinion? Coming soon: Ooooh. Another format change that moves things closer to the magazine that I remember. What better way to encourage strong sales than to always let people know what's coming out in the next month or two. Smart move. We don't want to just pop down to the shops, see what's in at random. Who knows how much we'd miss that way. Anyway, lets see what they've got to offer. For gamma world, we have The cleansing war of Garik Blackhand. Gee, racial supremacists in a world full of mutants. Whoda thought it. For star frontiers, Sundown at starmist, and Dramune run. Two more adventures to challenge your players with. (and I know nothing about beyond the teasers here. )For AD&D, World of greyhawk, the new version of Gary's classic campaign setting.For D&D, B5: Horror on the hill. Oooh, horror. Boogie boogie boogie.(Aiiee, the dread chant of Kool and the gang! Flee <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=";)" /> ) And we just had Ravenloft as well. People will keep trying to do horror in D&D, despite it not being particularly suited to it. But then, they don't have the competition in that area yet. And it helps fill in Mystara as well. Off the shelf: The anubis gates by Tim Powers is a time travel story. Historical and fantastical details are mixed with considerable skill, and the whole thing has a pretty epic plot. The house of the wolf by Basil Copper also takes a bunch of common tropes, but combines them in an interesting way. Is there really a werewolf out there? Who is it, what exactly can it do, and how do we stop it? You won't be sure till the final credits roll. The right stuff by Tom Wolfe is a history of the space program, and the elements that go into making up a true hero. How do you get to be the kind of person who can pursue an epic dream and pull it off. An excellent question. We still have quite a few frontiers to penetrate as a species, and it's a shame that our exploration of the universe seems to have stalled since then. And as modern culture shows, if you don't have people doing genuinely amazing things, then people will idolize any old crap that's remotely interesting. But I digress. Where the evil dwells by Clifford D Simak is a story set in an alternate universe roman empire. A group of heroes venture out into the monster infested wilderness for their own various reasons. The quest turns out to not be so simple and they have to examine themselves and grow personally throughout the adventure. You know the drill by now. The zen gun by Barrington J Bayley gets plenty of praise from both the reviewer, and Michael Moorcock, of all people. A thought-provoking slice of sci-fi, it does the usual trick of mixing drama with social commentary, including a thoroughly hatable villain. Can get a bit meta, but that's not neccecarily a bad thing. Bug jack Barron by Norman Spinrad is an amusingly relevant tale of a gadfly tv presenter a la Mark Thomas or Michael Moore. People phone in, he does his best to fix things. But has he taken on a target too big for him to handle this time? Media and politics are uneasy bedfellows, and can often be turned against one-another. This makes for excellent stories. Lest darkness fall by L Sprague de Camp is another alternate rome story. This time, a guy from the modern world gets transported back in time, and the innovations he introduces end up saving the empire. History is completely changed, but hey, at least he gets a happy ending instead of dying unlamented in squalor in a distant era. The sea of the ravens by Harold Lamb takes Sir Hugh and Durandal out to the middle east, where he joins forces with Ghengis Khan. I assume it's more tastefully done than that synopsis indicates, because the historical realism gets praised. Along with the rich descriptions, there are some equally lavish illustrations, particularly in the deluxe edition. Palladium still haven't fixed the spelling mistake in their advert. Tch tch. What's new covers shopping for monsters. Wormy has monsters getting drunk. The size differential once again raises it's ugly head. Snarfquest is just embarassing. The anachronisms are painful, and going to be integral. Another mixed bag of good, bad and mediocre stuff. Just like real christmas presents, there's a few things here that you'll wind up using again and again, and a load of stuff you'll play with for a few minutes before forgetting about it and wind up just sticking in the attic to moulder. Overall, a fairly average issue, not too good, not too bad, not too short, not too long. Just a reliable average issue. They seem to be chugging along smoothly again after the lows of last year and the highs of this year. So lets see which way 1984 will take them.</blockquote>

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