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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4822945" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 124: August 1987part 4/5Packing it all away: Encumbrance. If there's one feature that really says D&D is not intended to be a cinematic game, for all the superhuman tricks higher level characters can pull, it's this one. Once you start tracking it in terms of both raw weight, and the inconvenience certain items cause beyond that, due to awkward shape and size, you're well and truly into high crunch territory. And when you make all kinds of different backpacks, and start tracking exactly which item is in which compartment, that's where I start to zone out. Looks like it's a bit of mid-issue filler after all the cool articles to make up space and mollify the realism in gaming people. Not for me, thanks. I'll wait, keep my appetite for the next serving. The ecology of the gelatenous cube: Ed returns to his familiar stomping ground, to tell another cautionary tale where the focus is on the human drama as much as the monster. Do not mock other wizards in the halls of academia, for they bear grudges a long time, and are willing to go to quite ridiculous lengths for a dramatically appropriate revenge. A pretty short one, this does still give us two very cool illustrations, a formal name for the titular cube, and the usual bunch of mechanical clarifications. Another perfect example of his writing, if a bit formulaic. The game wizards: More second edition talk this month, as they respond to the quite ridiculous number of letters that are still coming in, including 80 page dissertations and death threats. They're taking this quite seriously, and now have a rough timetable of 2 6 month design phases, with another 6 months of brutal playtesting by the RPGA (sign up now if you want to take part :teeth ting: ) in between. And we'll be keeping you informed every step of the way. Man, that's a lot of time for us to anticipate the new edition. But then, they do seem to be going about this in a very open and careful way, listening to feedback at each step. The days when they would become arrogant and try to give the people what we want to give them, rather than what they ask for are still quite some way away. As further evidence of this, they've just adapted to some new technology that'll enable them to give us higher production values on our modules, at lower prices. How's that for cool? And on top of that, working conditions have improved. They are pretty optimistic at the moment. I guess that's what new management and pulling out from near bankruptcy (which of course, they've never mentioned) does for you. Or is it all a front, and Lorraine ( roll of thunder, stab of organ music) has cut prices by turning things into a virtual sweatshop. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> As ever, backstage gossip is very much welcome. Blasters & Blunderbusses: Guns. A fairly familiar topic in this magazine, spanning multiple systems. This particular one is a system free look at the legality of guns in various places and eras. From past to future, and mentioning tons of game systems, this is an interesting, if rather americacentric little article. Owning weapons is something generally restricted in most societies, because governments don't want the population to be able to fight back. But governments aren't that good at keeping up with the advance of technology, so it'll generally be a few years after something is introduced before they get around to trying to regulate it. With a decent biblography (another thing they seem to be including more frequently these days. ) this is another one that goes on the worldbuilding checklist, as weapon regulations are definitely something you should consider when creating your own game. Poor PC's. All they want to do is strut around in heavy armour and kill things. Why should that be a crime? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> A shot in the arm: Our Star Frontiers article this month is an adaption of recent D&D ones. Hit location systems. Combined with critical hit systems (and the two do often go together like shoes and socks. ) possibly the single most tiresome recurring thing that people try to introduce, but rarely sticks. This is no exception, adding a load of extra modifiers, an extra roll to many attacks, and a load of nasty extra consequences for being hurt. How very tiresome for me. To their credit, they give info for crits on robots and the common alien races, but it's still of no interest to me, on multiple levels. Please don't waste space doing this for Marvel, Top Secret, Traveller, and the other regulars as well in the next few months.</blockquote>

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