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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4971481" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 151: November 1989part 1/5108 pages. Looks like we have yet another oriental special this month. Even though they haven't updated it to the new edition, it's still a popular topic, with a huge slush pile of articles for them to mine. They're still far from scraping the barrel on this one, although depending on how many of their submissions are badly written and incredibly twinked, Roger might be sick of reading them. Still, that doesn't compare with how sick he is of the ZOMG D&D is satanic and causes serial killers/suicides hoopla. His editorial is devoted to that business yet again, this time in response to a kid who was obsessed with a Stephen King book and did this. :facepalm: Some people will go nuts regardless of their cultural surroundings. All they do is influence the directions their neuroses and aggressions go in. Let it die, people. Yawn. In this issue:Grenadier resorts to serious cheesecake to sell their wares. Letters: A letter asking them to go twice monthly. Hey, didn't I have that idea too. Roger responds to that concept with terror. He's already spent some time editing two magazines at once, and has no desire to repeat the experience. That treads too close to those recent memories of 60 hour a week workdays. You know, you could cut the size of each issue in half. Then you'd only have to fill the same amount each month, maybe less if you formatted it right. A letter full of questions about where stuff has gone. The daily planet gaming supplement was an advert. The world gamers guide was a victim of it's own success. The Dragon magazine best of's were probably canned because upper management :rumble of thunder: don't want to pay any more royalties to certain people who were forced out in 1986, and shall remain unmentioned as much as possible. Similarly, reprinting the Fineous treasury would involve giving money to people no longer in favour with the company. Another letter suggesting that people use BBS's for roleplaying. Roger has no objection to the idea, as long as people don't charge to play anything derived from TSR properties. He points out that Steve Jackson Games are even more progressive on this front, with their own official Illuminati boards. He may have change his tune sometime in the near future. Forum: John Wommer tells his own fun tale of playing evil characters. Or rather, how he put them off the idea by sending them to a parallel world where evil (including dark counterparts of the PC's ) was in the ascedant, and good characters were rare outlaws who really had to struggle to survive. That more than satisfied their transgressive urges. Toby Myers has his own contributions on the endless alignment debate, albeit not very good ones. There are plenty of personality traits not connected with morality you know, and even true neutral characters can exhibit complex combinations of them. Don't get all compartmental on us. Steve Williams shows how you can get a gaming group together without having to interact directly with people. Flyers and adverts on shop boards! Still far more useful when thinking locally than the internet. A nameless letter (didn't they say they wouldn't publish those? ) gives some rather lengthy information on the history of castles in reality, and their problems in keeping people with magic powers out. There is a very good reason why they aren't built anymore, and they quite possibly wouldn't exist in the same form in fantasy games. Rather a persistent problem, isn't it. Michael Hents, Eric M Paulson and Gregory H Graham get a combined letter, expressing their contempt for wimpy AD&D players, their overpowered characters, and their stuff must be done by the book attitude. Still, it looks like the new edition is more friendly to you changing the rules to make the game your own, like the old D&D rules. They phrase it in a rather amusing manner too. This is definite flamebait. Aligning AD&D 2nd ed and Basic D&D vs AD&D 1st edition? Muahaha. I look forward to seeing if this gets responses. Joseph D'Amico is on the other side of the D&D vs AD&D debate. AD&D is far more logical and has far more options, so it's the better game. Hnah. What do you say to that? Robert Morrison, on the other hand prefers D&D, going into considerable detail on how the weapon mastery system in the Master set is both more flavourful and better balanced than AD&D weapon specialisation. And it encourages roleplaying more as well. Oh, the controversy. Alan Grimes thinks that computer RPG's aren't true roleplaying games, and will never replace the thrill of actual interaction with real people around a table, and a DM who can just make stuff up in response to your trying something not covered by the rules. Let's hope the day never comes when they supplant tabletop gaming completely. Jason Dunn agrees with this in fewer words, although he does admit also enjoying Pool of Radiance. You can't play a computer in the car. Yes, but many people can't read in the car either, because nausea quickly results. I'm afraid I have to ooze envy at you. Thomas M Kane thinks that a D&D group is no more tricky to organize than, say, a football team. If we can keep spreading the word, it has an entirely reasonable chance of becoming a commonly known and accepted pastime in a few decades.  Derek K Lechman also thinks it's the human factor that makes RPG's genuinely satisfying. Plus it's a lot cheaper than buying a new computer game each time you finish one. Looks like people are pretty much in agreement here. But how many of them will have drifted away from RPG's in 20 years time, while computers still play a huge part in their lives. It's easy to be cynical when you have the aid of hindsight.</blockquote>

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