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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4878327" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988part 4/5Fiction: Eyes of redemption by James Brunet. Hmm. This is an interesting mythological set-up. And one I can't really talk about without spoiling the whole plot of the story. I'll just say that it works both as a story, as a bit of worldbuilding, and as part of this month's focus on dragons, taking the hero on a physical and internal journey that makes sense, given what he experiences, and ends in a way that is highly satisfying, if not completely happy. Quite a good one, really. TSR Previews: AD&D gets FR4: The Magister. Lots of new magical items, and I suspect some reprints from the magazine, all with Elminsters inimitable writing style framing it. Can something that was pretty fun to read as articles be sustained for a whole book? The Forgotten Realms is also getting next year's calendar. Once again, you get to see artwork from the books reprinted considerably larger, on nice glossy paper for your viewing enjoyment. Dragonlance isn't being neglected either. The second book is now converted to graphic novel format. The third should be along pretty soon then. Marvel Superheroes are still in an epic mood, with ME2: Ragnarok and Roll. Thor & co kick the asses of the Elders of the universe. They probably deserve it. <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" />Top Secret/S.I. also pushes it's boundaries with TSAC4: F.R.E.E.Lancers. A new futuristic setting full of superpowered secret agents, this looks like being a polarising little book. They really are moving this ever further from it's original design. The dread Bullwinkle & Rocky roleplaying party game hits the shelves this month. Includes hand puppets. Eeech. :rumble of thunder, stab of organ music: Erm, I mean It sounds marvelous, and will revolutionise roleplaying as we know it while also being a huge commercial success :teeth ting: And finally, we have a trio of boardgames. Kage, Crosse and Steppe are all appearing under a new imprint, the Master Moves Strategy Boardgames. Interesting. Anyone remember having these, or are they going to disappear unlamented like too many of their experiments? Arcane lore: Another interesting design experiment here. Healing magic is one thing that massively affects the tone of the game. Just how much of it you have available, and how quickly you can apply it makes a huge difference. Here's a clever little trick. Instead of waiting until they get hurt to heal them, you could apply pre-emptive spells that kick in when you get hurt. leaving the cleric free to do other things mid combat. And so another ingenious little bit of spell technology came into being, with 4 new spells that do exactly that. Regenerate light, serious, critical wounds, & Regenerative Heal. Each heals slightly less than it's after the event counterpart, and imparts the healing over a longer timescale rather than all at once,  so they don't overshadow the standard spells in terms of power. But in terms of tactical play, combining the two types of healing can give a team substantial advantages. Very clever indeed, and a good example of how to become more effective through proper tactics and variety of options rather than objective power creep. I like this one quite a lot, and am definitely putting it in as a secret technique to be unearthed in my game. The official ballot for Origins 1987! Vote now and send it in! Another interesting bit of context here. Another rather lengthy bit of Gen con info, as they give a 4 page bit of promotion on the games auction, and how to participate in it. Pay attention to the small print. Sighting in: Top Secret's article this month is focused on assassination. Just as people are finally getting over their rage about the assassin being removed from the next edition of AD&D. <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" /> In particular, sniping. One of the least favourite ways to kill a PC, and generally problematic, in the same way that nukes and spaceship combat are. But that's because it's rather effective at killing things. Anyway, this is two pages of gun pr0n, and half a page on getting the proper training to use it. After all, not every agent can become a sniper. You still need to gather plenty of info about what's going on and where to lurk before you can set things up to shoot someone. Not a hugely interesting article, and once again the stats are all for the second edition rather than the new one. They really are still giving it a lot of support. Is this driven by the magazine staff or the fans? The game wizards: Speaking of snipers, Steve Winter decides to talk about their new Sniper™ games. There are still quite a few people at TSR who like wargames, and would like to see them return to a wider audience, and he's leading the charge.  So this month, this column is devoted to promoting the series, describing how the rules work, and trying to make buying them seem like an appealing prospect. Designed to cover a wide range of close range engagements, and both mundane and supernatural scenarios, they're certainly trying hard. But as Yoda said. Do, or do not do. There is no try. Another depressing reminder of all the companies failed experiments.</blockquote>

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