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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4892459" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 137: September 1988part 5/5The role of books: Invitation to camelot, edited by Parke Godwin, and Arabesques, edited by Susan schwartz are both um, shared setting books. Yeah that's the ticket. <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" /> One uses an arthurian background, and the other an arabian nights one. Both are pretty decent, although Arabesques probably wins in terms of depth and scope. Resurection inc by Kevin J Anderson is a nice bit of hard sci-fi. Two thought provoking technological advances, and their moral implications are examined. It wouldn't be easy to adapt for a game though. Tales of robin hood by Clayton Emery doesn't hang together very well, trying to mix gritty realism with a mishmash of mythology. If you try doing more than one thing at once, you've got to integrate them. The year of the ransom by Poul Anderson is a highly complex Time Patrol tale. While not for inexperienced readers, the interesting plot, told from multiple viewpoints, is worth the effort to unravel. Read the earlier books in the series first to see if you like it. Shrine of the desert mage by Stephen Goldin is another interesting bit of arabian nightsesque storytelling. This is doubly the case because the actual protagonist is also a storyteller, resulting in a cleverly multilayered story full of  magic, genies, and interesting tidbits you can steal for your own games. TSR Previews: AD&D is getting lots of stuff this month. First up is Greyhawk Adventures, which has either been delayed or double-dipped again. They need to be more careful with that. Secondly, we have FR5: The savage frontier. Venture to the lands surrounding waterdeep, and do a little pacifying. How else is a city all on it's ownsome surrounded by wilderness to survive? Waterdeep itself isn't neglected either, with the City System. They are filling up the Realms fast. Curiously, Ed Greenwood himself is actually more busy in the Known world, with GAZ8: The five shires. How will he flesh them out and differentiate them from tolkien hobbits? Top Secret is also reaping the fruits of it's labours this month. TSAC5: Commando gives you back your realistic modern day action, while also upgrading the military hardware allowed. TSAC2, on the other hand is the Agent 13 Sourcebook, providing you with all your pulp gaming needs. Odd that it should be released out of order. Were there delays on the writing side, or due to licencing crap? Speaking of Agent 13 and top secret, we have another Double Agent novel out this month as well. GLITCH!/The Hard Sell gives us a couple more rollicking spy capers. Dragonlance is also getting another novel. Stormblade. The mines of Thorbardin fall into chaos as the dwarves fight over who should weild the lost blade. But first they have to find it. Finders keepers and all that.And finally, we have a third, unconnected novel. St John the Pursuer: Vampire in Moscow. Another fairly self-explanatory synopsis follows. There's a vampire loose in moscow. Guess who winds up having to stop it. The role of computers: Ultima V: Warriors of destiny is yet another game in this highly popular series. And the reviewers certainly think it lives up to those standards, while not being too dependent on being an established player. The graphics have improved considerably, and it retains the same depth of play and complex morality as the last few. Another one to bash your brain up against for months trying to solve all the puzzles. Oids also gets 5 stars, being a highly addictive combination of several arcade game styles. Space and ground travel are both used as you try and foil the alien invaders. It even includes a level editor, so once you finish it, you can design fun new stuff for your friends.  Out Run is rather less impressive, being yer basic racing game where you have to do each bit of the course before the time limit runs out, and it gets extended if you do. You do get to choose both your route, and the music, so it doesn't get too repetitive too soon. Probably more impressive in the arcade where you're using an actual steering wheel. Ebonstar is another space game. You race round a black hole, and have to knock your rivals in while surviving yourself. Seems most fun when played multiplayer. The universal military simulator is another heavily customisable game, allowing you to set up scenarios from past and future. While it has some crashing issues on certain platforms, it has tons of depth in both unit and landscape detail. Intellitype is a typing tutor program. Wait, come back! It's not actually that tedious! They are being rather generous with their 5 star marks this month. Hmm. Snarfquest gets a-racing. Dragonmirth is absent. A slick but tiresome issue here. With the table fetish in the articles, and the tendency towards self-promotion in even the supposedly objective bits of the magazine, it all feels very corporate, very powerpoint, flow charts, mobile phones, and sales targets. An excellent example of the fact that good content is just as important as presentation, if not more so when the eventual goal is having fun. Lets hope horror is a bit more conductive to exciting articles than the wilderness.</blockquote>

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