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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4639886" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 86: June 1984part 2/3The warrior alternative: Dragonquest gets another article. They may have virtually stopped coverage on non-rpg's, but somehow this little fella has slipped through the cracks. At the moment, not taking a magical course makes you a strictly sub-optimal character, as there's nothing else for you to spend that time on. It's a persistent problem, wizards being more badass than everyone else. So why not allow the characters to train in nonmagical skills with that time and money. It still probably won't make you quite as scary as a high power wizard, but at least it's something. And bringing a game closer to being balanced is usually to be lauded. I quite approve. Five new enchanted objects: One of those articles that does exactly what it says on the tin.The staff of the coatl lets you summon one of the aforementioned goody goody snakey snakes, and gives you a bunch of their other powers if you're of an appropriate alignment. The scepter of defense gives you L337 parrying skillz. This is of course only useful against the kind of attacks you can parry. So pick your enemies wisely. Or give it to a Duelist, and watch them win battles like no-ones business. Rust dust also does what it says on the tin, affecting anything sprinkled with it as if it'd been hit by a rust monster. Which means you can ruin enemy stuff without having to constantly worry about the thing turning on you and trying to eat yours, barring sudden gusts of wind. Muahahahahaha, etc. The necklace of alteration is one of those weird items that offers a random amount of benefit each time you activate it. This can be rather amusing, particularly if you're turned into salt. And finally, Dragonhelms give you a load of dragon related bonuses, at the cost of starting to think like a dragon, and sucking up to them if you actually meet one. A clever example of an item with both benefits and drawbacks, where you'll have to make a genuine choice if it's worth it or not. A strong selection of items all round. The suel pantheon: Len Lakofka gives us more greyhawk stuff, officially sanctioned by Gary. Lendor, god of time (and tedium, oh my sides are splitting) and Norebo, god of gambling. (and Wee Jas' lover, at that time. An episode of her history I suspect she'd rather retcon.) More to come in future months. I'd say I'd missed you, but unfortunately I haven't. There's still something about Len's writing style that I find rather unappealing. They're still refining the rules to distinguish speciality clerics while keeping them balanced overall though, which is good. Dragons and their deities: Another godly article by another regular writer. Alan Zumwalt. How do you make dragons even scarier? By letting them gain clerical levels from worshipping their gods. Muahaha and all that. Well, they had to have something dragon related for their birthday as usual. Since they can't get that high a level as clerics, and dragons are already pretty scary combat wise, it's best to channel these extra spells into increasing their versatility, healing and utility powers. Another option for when you have players who are starting to take things for granted and need surprising by putting a different slant on a familiar creature. Secondary options are useful, even when they might be suboptimal, simply because you can confound people who plan around the tactically optimum path all the bloody time. You can't do that when you only have 2 or 3 power options. Great stoney: This month's centrepiece is certainly an interesting departure from their usual servings. A full-on cardboard castle, this must have added quite a bit to the production costs of this issue. (I wouldn't be surprised if they actually made a loss on this one, like they did with some of the later boxed sets) At 8 storeys tall, it would certainly make an impressive adventuring ground, which you could fill with all kinds of challenges. Like most of the more physical extras, this is of course a bit of a nuisance in .pdf format, but still, I can see what they were doing here, and I'm quite impressed by their ambition. If TSR was run by bean counters and lawyers, this would never have been approved. Yes, it may have got them into trouble, and eventually killed them, but that's the risk an adventurer takes. At least they're living with style and producing extravagant stuff like this along the way. Chill! Another classic game is about to be released, and gets advertised here. Neat. Fiction: Mzee by Charles R Saunders. Life is hard for a young orphan. Bullied by other kids, looked down upon by the adults, getting the last share of any stuff the tribe has, and generally having a pretty sucky life. The question is, will that adversity break you, or make you strong? Everyone loves a good coming of age drama. Seems like half the stories (all of them if you believe Joseph Campbell ) are based around that theme. (and the others are romances.) Another likable but not particularly exceptional or original bit of fiction to fill out the pages with. Reviews: Battlesuit is a wargame set in the same world as the OGRE game, focussing on infantry battles. This is only slightly more revealing about it's ruleset than saying that Mario Kart and Paper Mario are set in the same universe. It's more a marketing decision. But that doesn't stop it from being a fun game, as long as you like wargaming that has no pretensions towards realism, you should get along fine with it. Phantasy Conclave is almost the definition of a fantasy heartbreaker, (only with a ph, which like using vampyre, faerie, deamon, or khaiyne, automatically marks it as pretentious as well as insipid) essentially a bunch of someone's AD&D houserules turned into a game of it's own. And it is very badly done indeed. The writing is badly done, there's tons or errata, the illustrations even worse, and there are huge amounts of basic detail like character sheets, weapon ranges, movement rates, and general worldbuilding just missing. If you don't want your heart broken and your money wasted, avoid it like the plague.</blockquote>

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