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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4925582" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989part 3/5The ecology of the kech: Another fairly mundane creature this month. Kech are one of those ambush monsters that works by imitating the sounds of a person in distress, luring adventurers into traps. Even if they fail to kill you, they'll make the party that much more paranoid for next time. And if one princess gets killed because you thought they were the doppleganger, that's one princess too many. Muahahaha! But yeah, this isn't the most interesting ecology. It's another humanoid that has human level intelligence, yet is perfectly happy to just hang out in the forest and kill anyone dumb enough to stumble across them. They do get a bit tiresome, and you wonder how they manage to survive, or possibly fail to wipe out humanity, depending on your perspective. No ambition. :shakes head: Role-playing reviews: A bunch of mini's stuff here this issue. Even with Through the looking glass taking a break, they're not neglecting that side of their demographic. Chaos wars is Ral Partha's wargaming system, taking advantage of their extensive miniatures line. It's still a compact little system, not perfectly balanced, but easy to learn and get playing with new people. With genres mixing freely, and spellcasters kicking ass, it seems like good fast and loose fun, if not suited to rules lawyers.  Warhammer fantasy battle 3rd edition is one of the real big dogs of this era. With rules more than 10 times the size of the last review, tons of supplements, and of course, white dwarf magazine regularly giving new scenarios, creatures and optional rules, it's the wargaming equivalent of D&D. The third edition isn't that different from the second, and it can get complex and bloated at times, but really, it got this big because it's great fun to play and add too, with a strong setting to put the battles in. Warhammer Armies is smaller, and considerably better presented than the corebook. There are lots of little tweaks, prefab armies and troop types, including many player favourites. As a first supplement, you could do a lot worse. Interestingly, the Battlesystem gets a short and ambivalent review. It's the first time in a while that they've been actively critical of TSR products in here. Hmm. TSR Previews: AD&D kicks off the new series of Dragonlance modules, with DLE1: In search of Dragons. Once again the forces of evil are becoming more powerful, and a new set of adventurers have to step up to keep the cosmic balance going. Oh, if only the old heroes were still around. Top Secret gets TS4: Brushfire Wars. Lots of little military based adventures, many involving real world terrorist groups. Now that's definitely going to seem dated if you try running it these days.  Gammamarauders gets Revenge of the factoids. More biological warfare fun with a silly slant. Now with a comic based on the series as well! How long will that one last for? Tom Clancy continues to make substantial profits from cold war geopolitics, with the Red Storm Rising game. How did his books deal with the fall of the berlin wall? Finally, in the book department, R A Salvadore gives us our second dose of Drizzt'y goodness. Streams of Silver is part two of the Icewind Dale trilogy. Can they find the legendary dwarven halls?</blockquote>

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