Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4712700" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 103: November 1985part 3/3Fiction: The wages of stress by Christopher Gilbert. Ha. A story set in 2007. As usual, they overestimate the rate of technological advancement. Although curiously, this stuff probably is within our current capabilities to create and implement. And given how big business compensation culture has become, and how unpleasantly omnipresent vehicle monitoring has become, something like it could still be tried. ( To go off topic, if the government tries to push implanting RFID chips in people under some pretense, I strongly reccomend opposing them in any way you can. They already do it to homeless people in some states, and it's a step towards big brother dystopia I would really rather not see come into common practice.) This does a good job of handling the speculative side of sci-fi, without neglecting the human drama, or getting bogged down in technical details. One of their strongest pieces in a while, along with the MMORPG one in issue 97, this shows just how well they can hit points that still have emotional resonance and cultural significance a few decades later. Discovering gems like this makes all the work of doing this worthwhile. ARES log: A rather amusing editorial this month, as they loudly proclaim their accessability to foreign writers. We have lots of people in canada, and more than a few from the UK. Don't be shy. Send stuff in. Hee. Misconceptions like this are such a hassle. Of nobbles and men: A rather strange little article here. Do you want to know more about Nobbles, the hornless rhinoesque grazing creatures that people on Tarsus herd. Can't say I ever did. Still, as the western genre shows, cowboy is an entirely valid adventuring choice, when you're trying to make a living in a wild and dangerous land, lots of things will be there to keep your life interesting. And the nobbles are rather more challenging creatures to herd than cows. This is surprisingly pleasing, as it does open up an adventuring style they haven't mentioned here before, which could well be transplanted to other genres and systems. Fancy giving your D&D characters a thousand cows and an assignment to transport them a thousand miles? I find this rather tempting. Starquestions is doing gamma world again. No great surprises here then.:How fast can a vibroblade cut through duralloy ( pretty quickly. Not much resistance there. )How do you design adventures for high level characters (Politics and new frontiers. Both ways to up the stakes and challenge level by increasing the scope. )Why are the symbols for craters and radiation the same (because that's where the nukes hit. Make sense?)What do you use the range ruler for. (Moving your minis around the table and shooting stuff. ) Why are grenades and fungicide resolved differently when they're both burst attacks (ease of play)Why can flying NPC's not go as fast as flying mutant PC's. ( It's not quite like that. It's  just that the writers of the mutation and monster sections didn't co-ordinate. )Where do the gamma world modules take place (all over north america. )What city is sanjo (San Jose. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. ) The saurians: Star frontiers gets a new race. Lizard people? Oh, what an original idea [/sarcasm] Seems like they show up in any remotely kitchen sinkish universe. So we have stats that a primarily intended for NPC's, but are more than detailed enough for player use as well. No real surprises or original spin on the idea here. Such is the nature of cliche. Tanks again!: Looks like this issue's theme of errata is continuing into the Ares section, with an article in issue 99 getting a follow-up. A single page article of corrections, clarifications and extensions, this is another one that is probably useful, but still not very interesting to read. Another article that feels like filler in quick succession. How disappointing.A super-powered seminar!: Ahh, this is more interesting. Stuff from a seminar in which the creators of the various superhero RPG's around at the time got together and answered questions. Jeff Dee & Jack Herman representing villains and vigilantes. Ray Greer for the HERO system. Greg Gorden for DC heroes, and of course, Jeff Grubb handling the marvel side of the equation.  How they were developed, the problems they encountered, and what's coming next for them. One of those reminders that the world of RPG's is a small place, and the sci-fi and superhero genres even more so. Everyone knows each other, even if they only really meet up at cons. Guess it's like actors and awards shows. This has been pretty enlightening for me, and apparently, them as well. See what a little communication gets you. It helps you combine all the best ideas from everyone. The marvel-phile: Jeff also gets help from the official chronicler of the Marvel universe history this month. Guess this is another plus point of going to conventions, as well as a good indicator of his positive relationship with the game's parent company. If they had to go through an extensive niggly approvals process for every little bit of writing, these articles wouldn't be nearly as reliable as they are. Anyway, this month's detailed characters are Armadillo, Count Nefaria, and Hyperion. Only the newest and best (and in one case, already dead) for our magazine. We see how Marvel is currently riffing off DC with the Squadron Supreme series. We see how they must be running out of animals to steal superpowers from. Another solid entry in a series that could probably run forever, given the rate they create new characters for the comics. Irving tries to figure out how to land safely in wormy. Snarf becomes absurdly suggestible. Both dragonmirth jokes this month feature actual dragons. This has been rather an up and down issue. When it's good, it's good. When it's not, it's very boring indeed. Overall, this is a definite step downwards, yet again, from their issue 100 high. Lets hope they've saved up some special features for christmas, because otherwise next month is going to full-on suck. And I would rather prefer it didn't.</blockquote>

Verification