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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4878995" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 135: July 1988part 1/5<img src="http://paizo.com/image/product/magazine_issue/dragon/135/cover_500.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />108 pages. Bwuh. Rather amusing cover this month. Did that creature just stumble of the fairy, or is it a person who just got transformed into a walrus headed fluke tailed furry thing in a typical attack of mischievousness? Not important. More important is Roger reiterating D&D's international popularity, with stats on the number of people who read Dragon, and send in letters and articles from Canada, UK, Australia, and other english speaking countries. A broadly spread fanbase is the basis for a stable, long-lasting career. And strong distribution and promotion is a crucial part of that. So if you have the money, go on international promotional trips. If you do it right, it'll more than pay for itself in the long run. I will not be insular. Insularity is the slow death that leads to moribund echo chambers. I will step outside my comfort zone, acclimatize myself to new experiences, and incorporate the good ones into my daily life. Or something. Back to the grind. In this issue:Letters: A whole ton of quickfire responses for the cover of issue 133. Very amusing. A letter asking how much the OD&D rules are worth. Depends which printing, and who you're selling them too. Name your price and see if anyone'll pay it. If not, you may want to drop it a little. Forum: Dain A. Miller thinks wizards should be able to wear basic padded armour. Even that would increase their survivability at 1st level quite a bit. This is why so many of them wind up being dex & con monkeys, despite it having little to do with being better at their class abilities. David Carl Argall still thinks that if anything, magic-users are too powerful, and need to be reduced in power at higher levels. Flatten that curve! Kenneth Arromdee has some more comments on the magic-user debate. His own solution to increase survivability without changing any rules is dual classed 1st level fighter/magic-users. Better be using a good rolling method to get the scores for that reliably <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" /> Brian Habing, Randy Smith,Wayne Strailton and Eric Krein all have quite a bit to say on the dimensions of magic-user spellbooks. These of all things shouldn't be standardised. Have you ever seen real researchers notes. Homogeneity is not their strong point. Theresa Mac Donnelly has some very inventive uses for the simulacrum spell. Like shapechanging, the possibilities are endless given a little time to prepare, and knowledge of the right creatures to copy. I very much approve of these ideas. Amit Izhar also has another clever application for the larcenous wizard. Spider climb makes a great pilfering device. Palm objects without using any fingers at all, due to the stickiness. Steve Allen thinks that RPG's shouldn't just be about fun. What about developing your analytical thinking, your acting skills, your ability to work with others well? You'll have more fun if what you're playing has a little sophistication. Contentious statement. I am interested in debating that theory. Brett Barnsdale thinks that saving for disbelief on illusions is a subjective pain in the butt. Just let them know it's an illusion when they touch it and go through it, and leave them guessing until then. S.D. Anderson is also talking about illusion saves. Damn these vague rules, provoking so much controversy! Rick J Federle has a house rule to determine how much XP a thief should get for thieving. A pretty simple one. No objections here. Thomas Cook debates our recent DC Heroes article. Interesting. Wasn't expecting that. Will he get any responses? Since he works for the actual company, I am skeptical. Space 1889! Steampunk kicks off! Nice. The queen galadriel collectors doll?! Looks like a modded barbie to me <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" /> Do you really want to shell $56 on that? Bleh. The ecology of the cave fisher: Back to the fairly realistic creatures. After all, there are real world spiders that hunt by snaring things with dangled strands instead of webs. Give arthropods functioning lungs and the other bits and pieces needed to scale up, and you'd see things like this in a few million years, no trouble. Not that you'd really want too, for being strung up for hours or days before actually getting eaten is not a nice way to go. One of the more lethal ecologies, we not only see two waves of adventurers die, but also an amusing postscript in which the innkeeper takes advantage of their foolishness. It may be a game for us, but it isn't for them. Definitely another entertaining little ecology here. Don't get smug just because your opponents don't have inhuman intelligence and a load of magical abilities. The dragon's bestiary: Tibbits are nekocreatures, mischievous little feline shapeshifters with a quirky set of magical powers. With planar connections, the ability to form bonds with spellcasters, and pretty good thief abilities, they're quite capable of being highly tricky to deal with, especially in groups. One to be intensely annoying with, muahahaha! Through the looking glass: A new miniatures column. It's been a while since they tried one of these. And once again, they're trying out a new name, rather than resurrecting one of the three they've tried before. I wonder if this one'll stick for any length of time. No actual content in this one, merely an outline of what they'd like to see in future issues. Obviously, it's future success is up to the freelancers. Yet again the magazine fills in one of the last few steps to become the one I knew when I started reading. Quite pleasing, really.</blockquote>

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