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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4962006" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 149: September 1989part 3/5The dragon's bestiary: This month's theme is variant horses. We've had a few of those before, plus a good few articles on regular horses, but it looks like this is the first time we've got a whole bestiary full of them. Let's hope at least a few of them show some imagination. Av are, as the description says, the greyhounds of the horse world. Slim, very fast, and good at dealing with desert heat and terrain, they aren't good for combat, but make excellent mounts for messengers and scouts. Bahtel, on the other hand, are rather stronger and more aggressive than normal horses, and make very good fighting mounts, able to kick, bite and headbutt all in the same round. Not that it's easy to stay on their back while they do so, but you can't expect power without work. And they aren't hugely loyal either. Better have a good ranger or barbarian handy to establish dominance over the buggers. Kiita are intelligent quadropeds that choose you rather than being chosen, and depart just as abruptly when you no longer hold their curiosity. How very folklorish. With their minor magical powers, they seem like they have a good story in them. Vor are not unicorns, but you might mistake them for one if you aren't an anthropologist. They aren't intelligent or magical, but they do have a little horn, and are very good at smelling poisons. This may annoy players at first if you introduce them, but what's wrong with that? <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=";)" /> Wandega are another quirky intelligent horse variant. They have minor magic learning powers, and like to team up with spellcasters so they can properly take advantage of this fact. They do tend to be a bit clingy, and have a number of other personality traits that they encourage you to play out, that could be amusing or annoying, depending on the group. Plenty of tools here for both PC's and adversaries to take advantage. Overall, I think this has been a solid, but not brilliant collection of creatures. Advice for all mutants: Skip gets another Q&A column to answer gamma world questions with. He is becoming important of late. How did they ever manage without him.     Where in the modules are the things depicted on the covers (Nowhere! We do not constrain our artists imagination by forcing them to pay attention to what they're illustrating. )    What happened to module GW5 (Something went wrong in production. Skip will not reveal what. Can anyone out there in reader land enlighten us? )    How many more gamma world modules will we see. (None! As with star frontiers, it has proved insufficiently popular for continued support)     How do the maps in the modules fit together (Imperfectly! )    Where are the descriptions for the loot tables (GW6. We didn't want to waste space reprinting it in later ones. Gotta collect 'em all! )    How do you calculate service costs ( Skill of the workers multiplied by time it's gonna take to make the item. )     What does the endurance skill do ( Lets you fight on through the pain! Let's you fight on, through the darkness and the rain! Dreaming of the day we'll be together again! [/power ballad] )    Does high con let you avoid radiation (no, only lessen it)     I want vehicle stats (pay for the appropriate supplement then. Remember, you can mail order if the shops are being bastards. )    What's a pneumo-jack (Same as a regular car jack, only futuristic!)     Where are expanded rules for robots (GW10. Cyborgariffic!)    How often can you use telekinetic arm (3/day)     What protects you from black rays ( Light shields. Even black is a colour.)    How long does invisibility last (As in D&D, until you do something that breaks it)    What happens if you attempt to disrupt too many molecules at once (Hnnnnnnnrrrrrg! Ohh, you might bust a brain lobe doing that. )     Why don't plant mutations have modifiers (because they aren't dependent on ability scores)    Do mutant animals get their regular species abilities free (ayup)    How often can you use regeneration (5/day. Not enough really.)     How good is physical reflection really? (it's a fairly specific lifesaver, not a godmod)     What's the range of life leech (twice the rating. In what? Skip will not say)    How often can you use telekinesis (Same as telekinetic arm. Skip wonders why they have two powers that do the same thing)    Are clips full when you buy them (Usually)     How do you power a black ray pistol (propietary power source. Not easy to find.)     How much does a grenade hurt. (A lot, if you're nearby. )     What is a bu'daan protected against (Electricity)     Does pyrokinesis protect you from lasers (no)    Can a PC ultraborg have a stage V ID (yes)    Does genius capability boost your results no matter how good they are (yes)    Can a paralyzed character use mental mutations (Usually. Apply common sense liberally)     Do you automatically have clothes? (Easiest that way)     {Question obscured due to badly formatted advert} (No, I refuse point-blank to answer this! )    Can defence screens result in hits without damage (no, they make things miss)    Can you overcome tech level differences with training (sure)    There's a mistake in the equipment lists. (Only a few weights. It's hardly a system breaker )    When are the combat results tables used (When attacks do more than just hurt)     Is there an overall reference to the weapons and stuff (No. Once again, gotta collect 'em all. ) Orcs in space: Well, you took your time getting here. I guess orcs never were as technologically skilled as dwarves (see issue 70. ) Not actually related to the earlier one, this is still a very interesting article indeed, talking about adapting the Warhammer 40k Rogue trader rules into a full roleplaying game. The setting is not the most conductive to wandering groups of adventurers, it has to be said, with it's hypertotalitarian government and rampant xenophobia. Still, there are ways to do it, with the Rogue Traders themselves being one of the best options for semi-independent traveling. And there's certainly a rich range of places for you to explore, and challenges to face. The biggest alteration that needs to be made is reducing the lethality slightly, giving characters multiple wound points and rolling on a critical system similar to WHFRP's instead of simply dying when hit, and some basic provisions for resolving noncombat actions. Pretty cool. This reminds me of the time I modded the old Heroquest rules to allow for point buy character generation rather than being stuck with the same 4 pregens. That was pretty conductive for evolving into a roleplaying game as well. This has been refreshing, both tackling a system they haven't mentioned in here before, and taking a distinctive approach to doing so. I strongly approve.</blockquote>

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