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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4751134" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 111: July 1986part 2/4No campaign ever fails: Monty Haulism gets tackled again, from another perspective. Absolute power is not so important as if that power is fairly earnt, and if the characters are facing challenges commensurate to that power. Even if things have got out of hand, it's entirely possible to change a few things around, and bring them back under your control again. If you use NPC's as trap-springing fodder, a rebellion is pretty likely. If one character starts getting out of hand, award the group an item they can't use. Be very cautious about letting in characters from other campaigns. And if equalizing upward doesn't work, don't be afraid to do a little draining. A fairly balanced tackling of a topic that's never going to go away. Meh. GURPS! It's finally out! The most modular system ever, according to them. And they're probably not far off. Especially once you add on all the supplements over the years. Microscopic monsters: Oh, this is nice. Stats for giant versions of microscopic organisms. We've already seen a relation of this for gamma world, so it's no surprise that someone has decided to do similar stuff for D&D. Protision is a giant amoeba colony that has developed sentience through a communal hive mind. It is slowly growing, has learnt magical abilities, and wants to keep growing until it covers the entire world. What an awesome plot hook. Yoink. Perdinium shoot little bolts from their pores to attack enemies. They can also produce bioluminescent flashes. If Beholders are related to anything from the real world, it's these guys. Gonyaulax are tentacled, armored basketballs. In large groups they can really mess up your water supply. Only the tarrasque would drink stuff infested with them. Ceratium has armor plating and a long saw-like appendage to attack with. Very interesting looking little creature, really. Noctiluca can not only engulf you or strangle you, it can generate flashes of light with bioluminescence and dazzle you as well. Quite a effective set of hunting tricks there. Euglena look like tiny squid with only a single tentacle. Paramecium have lots of little sticky threads covering their exterior. Don't step on them, because they'll eat your foot. They might trap your weapon as well, which is always a pain in the ass. You ought to know what Amoeba are. Blobby things that engulf their food. Merely gross when watched through a microscope, when they're big enough to consume you, it gets rather scarier. They're considerably less scary than things like ochre jelly and black pudding though. This writer does seem to be rather conservative with his statistics. Eh, slap pseudonatural, paragon and gargantua templates on it and that'll change pretty fast. Elphidium are a combination of entrapping threads, and a shell-like central part. This means that they're much easier to escape from than they are to kill. They're mostly scavengers, so just steer clear and you won't have to worry too much. Globigerina are like organic mines. They float around, and then entrap you in their spines. Don't go swimming at night. As if you didn't have enough hassle from bear-sharks. Dictyostelium is one of those cases where reality is weirder than fiction. Comprised of lots of little mushroom like amoeba, when times get tough, they fuse into one big glutinous mass to migrate to a more suitable place. Like an organic spaceship, this allows them to travel further and protect themselves along the way. As they do so, they form specialist organs, blurring the line between many single celled organism's and one differentiated one. Isn't nature awesome? And the giant ones here are even moreso. So we've not only got lots of new monsters, but I also know more about real world biology now as well. This is a great example of how reality can be stranger than fiction, and stealing from it is needed to make your stories better. The trick to seeming fresh is to not steal from the same sources as everyone else. And there's certainly plenty of weird corners of the microscopic phyla that don't turn up in fiction very often. The role of books: Magic kingdom for sale - sold! by Terry Brooks features his usual smug self-righteous writing style. This reviewer doesn't seem to consider that a dealbreaker, however. It makes good use of info from Brooks' original day job to create a twisty plot that seems to keep their interest. The curse of Sagamore by Kara Dalkey is the amusing tale of a man who really doesn't want to be king, cursed to be so due to his ancestor's funniness. There's plenty of humour, both IC and OOC, and it should give you ideas on how to make your players lives miserable in an entertaining way.  Yonder comes the other end of time by Suzette Haden Elgin ties together magic and psionics, and also ties together her earlier novel series', which had previously been unconnected, into one larger universe. The reviewer is somewhat ambivalent about this shift towards epicness, enjoying it, but not sure if it's justifiable.  Witch blood by Will Shetterly is quite different from his previous book, being a story of witches and magical martial artists. What could become cheese easily, does not, as he creates a dark atmosphere, and a strong narrating voice for the protagonist. The cross-time engineer by Leo Frankowski tells the tale of a modern day man thrown into 13th century poland, trying to industrialize it early to protect it from the mongols. What ramifications on history will his actions have? Keep reading, because it looks like another long book series aheadThe unicorn quest by John Lee may not be about dragons (again) but the reviewer can't find anything much about it to recommend. Damn you, generic fantasy tropes. :shakes fist: I can see you coming a mile off. Interstellar pig by William Sleator is an interestingly meta tale of a game of world destroying potential, and what happens when you're not sure if the key to saving your world is winning it or losing it. The various elements are juggled adroitly, in a thought provoking manner. Just what sci-fi should do. After all, silly ideas can allow you to comment on the world in a way that would be ignored or censored in a more serious product.</blockquote>

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