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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4903579" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 139: November 1988part 1/5108 pages. Looks like the recent improvement in quality hasn't just been subjective to me. Sales are up again, pushing over that crucial 100,000 mark. That's nice to know. What's even nicer is that the format is vastly improved, using actual type rather than a microsized photocopy. Guess they want everyone to see the good news. Will they keep it up next year? Keep on peeling, keep on revealing. (That doesn't sound right somehow. Reeling? Maybe. Congealing? Definitely not. But I digress.) In this issue:Alias and that Saurial paladin. Now there's a novel for you. A textbook example of the impractical cheesecake cover too. Hee. You can't spend 15 minutes lacing up sideless leather trousers (I speak from experience here) in the dangerous wilderness when wandering monsters strike at night.  Letters: A letter asking where the map to Dragotha's lair is. They can give you a large scale reference, but you'll have to make the close up one yourself. Whether he has a simple cave or an elaborate labyrinth filled with traps is up to you. A letter asking what happened to the info on ordering back issues. Check their mail order catalog. A letter asking what's going to happen to psionics and the anthologies. The first will be back in a supplement after some reworking, the second will not for the forseeable future.Some questions on the new Merchant class. No great surprises here. Forum: Jeffrey C Weber thinks that allowing wizards to specialise in different types of magic is a rather good tool to differentiate them, and allow them a little more power, but at a cost to spells outside their speciality. Hello mr foreshadowing. How often are you going to turn up here in the next few months? Michael Drake gives us a bunch of sample ways to differentiate clerics. I think we've established by now that this is very much in next edition, so this is not so much of a surprise. Scott A Shepard has thoughts on the balancing of magic-users. Don't we all. Just don't sweat it too much. Obsessive tweaking ruins the fun for most people. Amod Lele is insulted by the idea that people who play primarily for fun are "lesser" gamers than those who play it to be challenged, or create something deep and artistically meaningful. If it's not fun, the other aspects mean little.  David Moyle also thinks Steve Allen was being pretentious. You choose games full of challenges and puzzles because that is what you consider satisfying and fun. Others think otherwise.  Ed Friedlander is back yet again, reminding us too keep our campaigns from becoming too unfriendly to newcomers. Pregens definitely help in this respect, as does explaining stuff in a non patronising manner. Absolutely right, dear, <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" />ats head: Run along now. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> S. D. Anderson is also back with the beats from the renegade master, pointing out how little power the people have compared to a character with a decent array of magical items. Even if they don't have +5 everything, they can still be pretty untouchable. Meanwhile, poison is way overpowered for it's cost. Both need fixing in some way. Any ideas? Douglas Porter is also engaging in statistical analysis of capabilities, particularly those of dragons. In his opinion, they need a serious powering up. You too will get your wish answered come next edition. Phantasy star. I guess having a computer games column in here has got the magazine enough attention that the guys in sega's marketing division have noticed them as well.A gamers guide to DC heroes does exactly what the marvel heroes index did a few months ago.  Only shorter, because there's been less attention paid to it in here. Copycats <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" /> Definitely an article I can't think of anything interesting to say about. Lords & Legends gives us some more entirely original (as much as anything can be) characters. This time, the theme is wizardly ones. Aylegard, Queen of the unicorns is your typical chosen one. Now it's her job to ensure their health and safety, protect the wilderness in general, and look incredibly hot while never ever getting laid. <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" /> Custom designed for players to hate, methinks. Eelix is a rather blatant rip-off. A formerly dumb guy raised to supra-genius intelligence by a lab accident that he's never been able to replicate. Now where have we seen that before? He has a ton of cool magic items, and is entirely willing to make more if the characters do him a favour. Is that plot hook I hear you say? Elayne Mystica is an outcast (due to sexism) albino from a tribe of underground humans, who was trained by elves, became an outcast a second time for developing psionic abilities, adventured for a while, got too powerful for the rest of her party, and now owns her own demiplane. The amount of Aaaangst she has over this oh so hard life is not revealed. I sense the author would love to write a whole series of novels about her escapades. Shugar is another blatant PC, with magic items that cover for his weaknesses, and tragic elements to his backstory that in no way interfere with his badassedness. Ho hum. Can't say I've been hugely pleased by this collection.</blockquote>

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