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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4852659" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 129: January 1988part 2/5Don't sell them short: A halfling exclusive class? Hee. How very interesting. It's not even a direct analogue of an existing class, a la the Elven Cavalier. Well, given the huge number of classes only open to humans, someone really ought to redress the balance. So here we have stats for the Halfling Defender. Closely analogous to rangers and paladins for humans, they are fighters with modest nature affecting powers at higher levels, and a duty to defend their communities and the halfling race in general. Really, it's close enough to Rangers mechanically that if they were allowed to become them anyway, this could be represented by a minor tweaking to powers and accessable spells like the dwarven cleric one earlier. In any case, it doesn't look particularly overpowered, so even if it isn't hugely imaginative mechanically, it's another one I'd have no objection to my players trying out. Entering the Drider's web: Drow get a second article this month, proving that they must already be pretty popular amongst certain freelancers. Lolth is a weird one. Putting promising drow through a test of skill and loyalty, failures are cursed with awesome, and sent back to the prime material to serve as an object lesson, a boogeyman to both the drow and other races in the underdark,  and a massive source of fossilized angstium to power future generations of mary sues. <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" /> Makes a certain degree of warped sense, especially when you consider that one of a god's primary pleasures in life is watching mortals do stuff and playing with them like pieces in a game, throwing obstacles in their way to keep things interesting and advance their cause. This is essentially the footnotes of an ecology without the fiction coming first, expanding on their entry in the fiend folio, and detailing exactly how all their capabilities are changed by the transformation. Useful if you want to have one as a major villain, or possibly as a PC, (although that might be a bit tricky to engineer plotwise. ) this does still feel curiously incomplete without the fiction. Goes to show how much of a fixture those ecology articles have become over the years. It also makes a few curious mechanical decisions, and requires you to reference issue 119 to fully understand all the new capabilities given in the article. So overall, it is a somewhat flawed one, that is an interesting read, but could definitely have been handled better. The role of computers: Tower of Myraglen is the main review this month. It's one of those adventures where you have to explore a massive dungeon complex, find stuff, and complete the quest. So far, so familiar. It does have several distinctive features to recommend it though. Proper stereo sound that also gives you clues as to what's around corners and through doors. Interesting tactical considerations, including the ability to move and fire in different directions independently. Design that encourages you not to kill everything and grab every tiny bit of treasure. Plenty of clues and hidden bits. And like the sound, the graphics also show off the new advances in computer technology if you have an up to date machine. If not, sucks to be you. <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" /> The rest of the column has the usual assortment of news, game tips and mini-reviews. From a pinball game, to a sex comedy (ahh, leisure suit larry. Of all the deranged series to remind me of.) they cover a pretty wide variety here. It's not just RPG's and wargames anymore. Which makes it a very pleasant diversion for me, with lots of contextual stuff on the wider gaming industry around. A sorcerer's supplement: New spells for runequest. Another game that had an article here years ago, and nothing since. I know there's at least a couple more to come, but how infrequent will they be? Anyway, here's 12 new spells. From basic temperature control, to reversing aging, this is about 50-50 cool stuff that puts a distinctive spin on the spell idea, and dull stuff that simply converts it from D&D. Overall, a pretty decent article, with several ideas that I'd like to steal and back-convert. (creating the illusion you're wearing clothes? Now there's one you can make plenty of jokes about. ) While they may not be covering as much non D&D stuff in terms of page count as they did in the days of the ARES section, they do seem to be trying to cover a wider variety these days. That's not a bad thing.</blockquote>

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