NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4665374" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 93: January 1985part 2/3The ecology of the Eye of the Deep: Ed Greenwood gives us a look at one of the less commonly used beholder subraces. (mainly because they can't go up to shallow waters, so only groups with water breathing spells'll be able to get to them) This goes into plenty of detail on their mating habits (very weird) their powers(quirky as any beholder), and how they interact with other creatures of the deep.(not very well, really) The amount of extrapolation from the original entry seems to be increasing in this series, which is pleasing. Guess the recent statement that they care not about that has increased Ed's confidence in just making <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> up. Once again he defends his title as the king of world-building. Not too sure about the picture though. Looks like it's cowering from the camera. Well yeah, not many people who are going to disagree if you say Don't look at me, I'm hideous! Can't win them all. Short hops and big drops: Seems like returning writers really are taking over. Stephen Inniss is back, to fix the problem that there are no solid rules on how far a character can jump. Another case where I'm surprised no-one did something sooner. (well, gary did thief-acrobats, but they're obviously intended to be exceptional.) Can you guess how he's going to handle it? If you took invent a completely new subsystem for 5 alex, then you win. The result is surprisingly predictable, with only a few feet of leeway provided by the dice. Thankfully, it's another single pager, so it shouldn't be any great problem to use. As long as you remember where it is, like all the other subsystems scattered throughout the many many issues. This is where loose leaf cutouts come in handy. A Pronunceayshun gyd: Frank Mentzer provides us with some amusing fiction, featuring the interplanar consortium of nebulous sages, before filling four pages with an A-Z of various D&D creatures and personages, and how to pronounce their names properly. The V-Z letters get surprisingly little play, considering how often they produce problematic creatures. This is another thing that could have been dull very easily, but is held together by it's use of fiction to educate us without directly explaining, and humorous asides. He really ought to do more articles here, because he makes this stuff fun. Gary has taught him well. This is definitely something to bookmark for later, because this is the kind of question that comes up again and again. People will always forget how to pronounce xvart or shillelagh, and this way you can quote an authoritative source. Coming attractions: Marvel superheroes get the lions share this month, with modules MH 4 & 5, Pit of the viper and cats paw. Play canada's greatest heroes. Hee. D&D gets module B8, Journey to the rock. What secrets lie within it? AD&D gets C3, Castanamir. A tournament module, exploring a mad wizards place, where you face the gingwatzim, it sounds like there will be random screwage involved. Is my impression correct? Agencies and alignments: Oh, this is amusing. Alignments for the top secret game. These have three axes, each with 5 different alignments on them, for a total of 125 combinations. Political gets democratic, republican, neutral, authoritarian and autocratic. Change gets radical, liberal, neutral, conservative and reactionary. And Economic goes capitalist, unionist, neutral, socialist, communist. That's considerably more nuance than D&D alignments get unless you use the alternate system from SR6, but you could still probably pick apart their definitions and who should be placed where on the axes endlessly. This is a definite case of a D&Dism applied where it doesn't quite fit, which could be exploited in ways not intended. And if you transplant it back into D&D, you can play the fantasy game of class and economic struggle, with secret alignment languages for each side. I am entertained, if probably not for the reason Merle intended. Twilight 2000 gets three full page colour ads right by each other. They obviously want to push this one hard. Man it sounds brutal. Once again we have overtaken the future. Funny how that happens. The gypsy train is this month's adventure, although it's hardly a standard one. 8 pages of character detail, plus a centrefold that lets you build your own mini gypsy wagons for use with a game. Less a challenge to be defeated than something to be interacted with, to add flavour to your game, as each of the NPC's is given several hooks. And as they're a traveling camp, you can drop them pretty much anywhere. I can definitely see the uses for this one. It may not be as impressive as Great stoney, but it's another good example of them pushing the envelope and trying new combinations of their old tricks. And lets face it, since there are so few truly original ideas in the world, that's probably the best shot you've got of surprising people.</blockquote>

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