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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4843141" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 127: November 1987part 4/5A menagerie of martial arts: Oriental adventures once again gets a new add-on, in the form of 20 new martial arts. That's way more than any one person could learn, let alone master. 12 animal styles, which are fairly common, because humans are a bunch of copycats, and animals turn up everywhere and seem to be fairly effective. And 8 specialist styles, which are somewhat harder to find teachers for. It doesn't actually introduce any new maneuvers though, so it feels a bit like running through the motions, squeezing every permutation out of the existing rules. Another bit of filler to make sure this issue really gives you your money's worth on the topic (because chances are, you aren't seeing any more fighter focussed stuff for a year or two. )The ecology of the yeti: Hmm. Now this is a monster that might still be out there, in reality. A very suitable subject for an ecology. Course, as with neanderthals, D&D has to take a perfectly reasonable concept and put it's own weird touches in, like a metabolism that actually absorbs heat, hypnotic eyes, and the usual tendency towards unreasonable bloodthirstiness that distinguishes monsters from real animals and ensures adventurers get get to enjoy regular stand-up fights.  Another ecology that lives and dies on the quality of it's banter this month, as a pair of settled down adventurers meet up again to deal with a threat to their new home, and find that the other still retains the same irritating traits. Can they figure out a way to exploit the yeti's weaknesses and kick it's ass? Hopefully, and in the process they give quite a few ideas that are good for players as well as DM's. Another fairly solid ecology, both in the fiction and footnotes sections. It fleshes out the creature nicely, giving you plenty of hooks to play with. Nice to see this part of the magazine is still chugging along smoothly. It's the no sase ogre. Now that's a face that triggers the nostalgia. An amusing way of saying we expect you to incur all the expenses when submitting stuff, so there. Thank god for the internet, making that crap redundant. Course, in many cases your applications for things are still likely to be met with a resounding silence, but such is life. DC heroes is still putting daily planet newsletters in the magazine. Nice of them to come up with a new one for each month. Arcane Lore: Despite it being a fighter special, wizards continue to get their now regular dose of additional options. Well, actually it's illusionist's turn this time, which is mildly pleasing. Arthur Collins gives us 9 new tricks to mess around with people's  perceptions. Making them see things in black and white, massively exaggerating echoes, masking the smell and taste of something, temporarily blocking their memory of memorized spells, this is a strongly focussed, and quite amusing set of tricks that could really mess up someone's day, or be used by inventive adventurers to provide benefits for themselves by selectively negating senses. Since this is the kind of stuff that encourages intelligent use of your powers, I definitely approve. Illusionists can be a fun class to play. Take advantage of that, because it's not long before they get rolled into wizards, and lose a big chunk of their uniqueness. The dragon's bestiary is very much not in theme this month, choosing, for no obvious reasons, to give us two new oozes. Xador's Fluid oozes over your skin, and then hardens, turning you into a living statue with then suffocates, putting you in a good position to be digested. Delightful, eh? If you capture small amounts of it, you can apply it to only parts of your skin, you can use it as armour. Bloodsucking armour that is decidedly detrimental to your health in the long run. I'm sure that in the hands of inventive players, it has many other uses, possibly gross. I strongly approve, as I do of anything which encourages you to apply your own evil imagination. Quagmires are somewhat less interesting, basically being your basic ambush predator that pretends to be a patch of swampy water, and then grabs you with a pseudopod if you get too close. Another gloopy death awaits you if not rescued. Ah, the joys of the old school. The role of books: The paradise tree by Diana L Paxton mixes drug research, occultism, and some general sci-fi trappings, and then weaves them into a dreamlike book that holds the reviewers interest while reading, but slips away afterwards, and is tricky to analyze. This is a bit of a pain in the ass for a critic, but does not mean it's actually a bad book. Sea of death by Gary Gygax is of course a Gord book. It does read very much like an actual campaign turned into a book, with authorial dice-rolling clearly detectable in many of the fight scenes. As a fast paced potboiler, and a guide to crafting good D&D adventures, it's useful, but it doesn't really succeed as a novel.  Dark walker on moonshae by Douglas Niles is another AD&D based book, but is much more plot-driven and setting building. While the reviewer isn't too keen on the narrative style, calling it a bit too eager to please, and over analyze itself, it's probably better as a novel. Still both demonstrate how differently you can interpret the D&D game. Other official novels should vary just as widely. Issac asimov's robot city by Michael Kube-McDowell shows the venerable author opening up his robot universe for other writers to play in, just as Larry Niven was around this time with the Man-Kzin war series. This doesn't work too badly, with the writer managing a decent pastiche of Asimov's writing style, but losing focus and integration the more they introduce their own elements. The reviewer has their doubts about it's ability to sustain a 6 book series. Dragonharper by Jody Lynn Nye is a strange fish. A multiple choice adventure book, set in Anne McCaffrey's world of Pern, more attention has been paid to the plotline and social conflicts than is usual in these kinds of books. It isn't that challenging as a gamebook, and you don't have that much ability to really change the overall outcome, but it's still interesting to explore the world, and see cameos from existing characters. This kind of licensing definitely has potential, especially if the authors themselves decide to experiment with this medium of storytelling. The luck of Relian Kru by Paula Volsky displays a warped imagination befitting the most sadistic of DM's. Ingenious characters, strange plot twists, quirky magic, the author is having a good deal of fun writing this, and the reviewer enjoyed it as well, despite it not being the most highbrow of works. A bit of fun is much more interesting than another pretentious meandering pontification on the meaning of life and the tragedy of the human condition. The romulan way by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood is of course a star trek novel. Starring Dr McCoy, he leaves behind Kirk and Spock to get himself in, and then out of some serious trouble on Romulus. It features big chunks of worldbuilding alternating with the plot, which slows things down a bit, but would be very useful for anyone planning to play in the trek universe. An interesting literary experiment. The pig, the prince and the unicorn by Karen A Brush seems a typical save the world adventure, only the person destined to save it from the invasions of chaos happens to be a pig. An otherwise fairly normal pig, who has to figure out how to deal with the usual quests, chases, and, erm, romantic subplots without any hands. Drawing parallels to the narnia books, it gets a fairly positive review.</blockquote>

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