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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4729459" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 107: March 1986part 2/3The ecology of the sea lion: Elminster punctures the stupidity of earth naming conventions as he tells a story of Real sea lions. A nicely mythic little tale of epic heroism, treachery and lineage, which has tons of recognizable forgotten realms stuff woven through it. This time he eschews the footnotes for a more prosey description of the creature, with definite hints of his Elminster voice even in the OOC bit. There is a bit of noble savage froofery, but this is another example of just how versatile a writer Ed is. Once again I am left envious and wondering how he keeps going. It barely seems like he's having to work at it. For sail, one new NPC: Looks like we have another aquatic article in quick succession. Scott Bennie introduces a new character class. The mariner. Like the sentinel, this is definitely a skillset that the current classes don't really cover, so I'm not complaining on that front. They have a fairly extensive list of powers, most of which are focussed on sea adventures, so their usefulness as adventurers will vary considerably depending on adventure. Still, even on land, they aren't bad as a lightly armored swashbuckling fighter type, so they'll still be useful, just not spotlight holders in the same way. These are the kind of guys who would never appear in anything like this form in later editions, but I still quite like them nonetheless. They're certainly more interesting than the later Krynnish mariner class. Another one I would have no objection allowing into a game at all. Economics made easy: Ahh yes, the principles of supply and demand. Essential to any functioning economy is the ability to adapt prices based on scarcity and necessity. But of course, as we know, D&D doesn't have a functioning economy. Only insanely powerful unions or some other form of fudge can make them work without doing a complete rebuild of the pricing structure from the ground up. So here's a little article letting you know about a few more basic economic principles. Inflation. Central place theory. Amounts of choice, amount of goods available, and the knock-on effects from spikes and collapses in demand. Resources available. All pretty sensible stuff. Now can you build a world that is both economically functioning, and still exciting to adventure in? Much kudos if you can. More dragons of glory: A rather lengthy article here. Lest we forget, in DL11, the adventure stepped out of AD&D, and became a boardgame, allowing you to play out the war of the lance from a top-down perspective. Of course, in most things like that, there will be stuff cut for reasons of simplicity or page count. So as ever, the magazine gets to give you a nice load of bonus material. Stuff is added on to nearly every phase of the game, and then a load of new scenarios are presented. This is one of those cases where I don't really feel qualified to comment, but it certainly looks like a pretty involved bit of wargaming stuff. I'll have to leave this one up to public opinion. Was this a good game? Did this article add to it? How did your players feel about the change in rulesets when they got to this part? And it's survey time again. A rather badly formatted survey at that. Is this really going to produce a good evaluation of what your readers do and don't want? If you don't pay enough attention to get all the boxes properly sorted out and the things lined up, I'm dubious about your ability to pick questions (and the right kind of categories of answers to them) to produce the data you need to really improve the magazine. This does not bode well for their future direction. When the rations run out: And it's back to examination of realism issues. As anyone who's actually been hiking and camping knows, food and equipment are major hassles in extended treks. The day to day life of an adventurer is a lot less glamorous than the stories would have you believe. No matter how high level you are, until you transcend to godhood, become a lich, or use some other method of getting rid of your mortal limitations, you've gotta eat regularly. Or at least, this writer thinks so. Which is why he makes your ability to survive without food based directly on your con score rather than your hit points. Which is a perfectly valid thing to do, but still results in a rather dull article. Oh, the endless wash of minutinae. Is there no escape from you. Lichdom seems oh so very attractive around now. Profiles: This month's staffers getting the spotlight are Roger Raupp and Larry Elmore. Roger is the head of the art department, handling much of the laying out of the magazine, as well as doing some actual cartography and art in his own right. I've never been that keen on his personal art style, but obviously the magazine as a whole wouldn't look as good without him. He's also primarily responsible for tormenting Roger Moore, turning him into Rogar the Barbarian and other such playful mockery for the dreadful crime of sharing first names. How very delightful <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> Larry Elmore is one of our more famous names, and instantly recognizable artists, being responsible for lots of the new BD&D set, Dragonlance, snarfquest, et all. He's always been a doodler, getting in trouble for drawing when he should have been working in school. He became an illustrator with the army, and looked set for a dull job as a technical illustrator, if he hadn't been rescued by TSR. And he's rather thankful they did, because he certainly gets a lot more fanmail here. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />. The photo of him on a motorbike is pretty cool as well. He may not always turn his talents to the best subjects, but he's definitely responsible for one of the iconic D&D looks. Interesting to find out more about him. TSR Previews: Another short list of releases this month. AD&D gets DL12: Dragons of faith. The chronicle is near it's climax, and the whole gang is together again. Will you triumph. Have you managed to keep your own party on the railroad long enough to get here? Good questions as ever. The AD&D gamebooks gets book 7: Sceptre of power. The start of a trilogy, it looks like even these are getting epic. So much for solo gaming being something you do in the gaps between sessions. Endless quest is up to book 32: Prisoner of Elderwood. A very sketchy description on this one, doesn't really leave me with much to say. And Marvel Superheroes gets MHAC9: Realms of magic. Maybe now being a sorcerer will be a balanced playable option compared with other superheroics. Anyone have any feedback on this matter?</blockquote>

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