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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4859492" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 130: February 1988part 3/5Fiction: Shark-killer by Carol Severance. Off to polynesian tribal territory for this little tale of a disgraced warrior, the sorceress who wants to steal her lifeforce, the little girl who wants to learn from her, and the enemy warriors who don't give a crap and will just massacre the village if they get a chance. You've already betrayed one set of vows. Why not break another? People will benefit if you do so. A nice little morality play here, with hard choices and a bittersweet ending. Seems closer to Runequest than D&D in it's handling of magic. A fairly enjoyable read. The game wizards: This month, they consider how to rework the magic system for second edition. Many people still want a spell point system, but they aint gonna get it. We're sticking with the slot based method, and that's final. That does not mean we aren't making some fairly substantial improvements though, both in clarity of writing and organization, and actual alterations. Quite a few spells need moving from one school to another to better fit their concepts, several schools need adding too, especially in terms of high level spells to make sure all the specialists are viable, cantrips are out again, and we're stripping back on silly fluff details. Once again we see how they are approaching this with a cautious and logical tone, trying to please as many people as possible, and only change things when they really have too. After all, we mustn't alienate our fanbase. And so we get more historical context, that tells us much the same info as the previous few installments. Whether you agree with the changes 2nd ed made or not, I think we can be fairly clear about the designers intentions. The dragon's bestiary gives us more out of date gamma world stuff this month. Whirrzlers are essentially the Peahats from the Zelda games, (which of course started recently, so it's quite possible this is a direct rip-off) bushy plants that fly by rotating their petals. They'll slice you up, and then settle on your corpse, use it for nutrients. Makes sense to me. One of gamma world's less gonzo elements, ironically. A not too impressive single-pager. Miniatures in wonderland: From a single pager, to a half-pager. They declare their intention to make this years conventions the biggest miniature gaming events yet. Bring in your armies, play in battles of a scale impossible to do at home. We need you to make this happen! Interesting. Hopefully they'll report on the success of this endeavour afterwards as well, so I can see how it went. Keeping a good watch: Top Secret's article this month is a interesting little bit of gadgetry. Watches are useful for more than just telling the time. Because so many people wear them on an everyday basis, they can be easily overlooked in a search. You can put quite a few different types of gadgetry in them, and then use them to gain a substantial tactical advantage. Garrotes, hidden compartments, swiss army knives, radio transmitters and recievers, X-rays and radiation counters, magnifying glasses and microreaders. It's amazing what you can fit into such a tiny space. Having something like this could definitely save your life in a tight spot. This is also a case where the advancement of RL technology has outstripped the imagination of this writer. A watch that has all the utility of a mobile phone, including full filming capability with several gigs of interchangable memory using micro SD cards would not be beyond the bounds of real life tech these days. Another reminder that we live in an age of wonders, and shouldn't hesitate to buy cool things in reality. You too can be a swiss army knife of miniaturized utility devices for every occasion, and be the envy of all your friends. Doesn't that sound like fun?</blockquote>

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