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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4681280" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 97: May 1985 part 1/3<img src="http://paizo.com/image/product/magazine_issue/dragon/97/cover_180.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />100 pages. Silver dragons are such sluts. Seems like they'll mate with anything with a halfway decent personality or artistic skills, regardless of species. What's all that about then. When the cosmic entities who set the standards for good and evil said that love overcoming all boundaries, differences and difficulties was a great example of good behaviour, did they really mean that principle to be applied like this? Probably not, but it makes for entertaining stories, so I'm certainly not complaining. What other stories will be inspired by the contents of this issue? Good question. Too much rambling preamble keeps solid facts intangible. In this issue:Letters: Kim gets the first "letter" in, an apology for messing up the demihuman level raises article. That's gonna annoy a lot of overeager players. Unearthed arcana'd better be edited better than this. A letter from Arthur Collins' mum complaining about a mistake in one of his recent articles. Kim says that that mistake was his fault, not ours. (although we really should have spotted it and fixed it. ) But really, your mum writing in to complain? What are you, 6? How amusingly absurd. Haven't seen that around here before. Some more errors, this time in the forgotten realms adventure. This one is their fault. They meddled with ed's perfect work, and then failed to take the proper interconnectedness of things into account! Fools!A letter asking how far a cockatrices stoning power spreads. One discrete unit, called a lifeform.  Simple as that. Bloody rules lawyers, trying to make simple solutions complicated. A question on ability score limits and magic items. Once again, they phrased things poorly. When they said maximum scores, they meant permanent ratings, not further temporary enhancements on top of that. Three letters on the Treasure Trove, asking for more detail on various items. A letter asking why apes have a such low chance of being found in their lair. Because normally they don't keep lairs, ya dummy. Does the word nomadic mean anything to you? A letter full of rapidfire questions, which get equally terse replies. Someone's getting in the april fools spirit. The forum: J R Smith disagrees strongly with Gary's statement that Tolkien's world is not suited to D&D gaming, and D&D is not substantially indebted to it. Apparently lots of other people agree with him, in even more heated terms that are not publishable in a family friendly magazine. How very amusing. Goes to show what happens when you talk down to your audience.  David Finlayson thinks debating about good and evil is pointless, yet still has extensive contributions on the debate. That's like saying I don't mean to cause offense just before saying something incredibly rude. Rather disingenous really. David C Rathbun has some optional rules about handedness, of all things. The kind of thing that feels like it ought to have been an article but wasn't long enough. Once again, experience gained from the SCA is cited. Not sure if I approve of that or not, but it's definitely interesting. From the sorceror's scroll: This month, Gary goes into how deities get their power. Worship! Seems a sensible start. However, it then gets rather awkward, applying linear math to what should be an exponential progression, and reminding us that D&D alignment was bloody weird, goes all the way up, and wasn't all that well thought out. I'm really very iffy on this one. It reads like something that was dashed off late at night, and then published without proper editing. You need to join the dots up, otherwise the world won't work properly. Sticks, stones, and bones: Did a thief steal your stuff. A rust monster eat it. Or a fireball backfire and melt your weapons. You'll need to improvise something fast if you want to get out of the dungeon alive. Fortunately, there are plenty of objects that make good improvised weapons, particularly if you've just killed something. Yes, it's demeaning when you're used to shiny magical swords, but a heroes true worth is in his spirit and ingenuity, not material things. Stephen Inniss delivers another of his great examinations of an aspect of the game you may have overlooked. From basic household objects, to industrial devices, so many things can be turned to the task of delivering Pain! Another thing that can be great fun, but has since fallen out of favour amongst the official designers, due to the emphasis on balance and having an expected array of equipment to go with your level. Household objects? We can't be bothered to put costs and descriptions for those anymore. Another article that makes it clear we're still a long way from home. But that doesn't mean we can't use this stuff in our games. If you power down the PC's a bit by removing their stuff, it makes battles genuinely nerve-wracking, and slows down the rush through the upper levels that you can see in 3rd and 4th. Just don't do it all the time. A tale of three talents: Some rather impressive pictures of a miniature castle. Designed by Arthur Collins, built out of sheet metal by Dennis Kauth, and photographed by Mike Sitkiewicz, this is a pretty cool bit of design, well displayed. See what having a proper photographer on the team can do. Keep it up. Crom's Blood! It's Conan the roleplaying game! Out now! Supplements coming soon! Adverts are amusing. Definitely a step up from getting D&D supplements.</blockquote>

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