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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4985948" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 153: January 1990part 4/5Through the looking glass: Another bit of crafting instruction this month, as we get some tips on how to build your own dragon. Although the way he handles it, it seems easier to create dracoliches, working as he does by building the skeleton out of wire and then covering it with epoxy. The results will be pretty light for their size, and a surprisingly small base point will be all that's needed to secure a rearing or flying model. Just make sure you get the centre of gravity right, and don't sit on it, because it'll deform horribly. With three pages of full colour photography taking the sample model from skeleton to completion, this is a pretty little column, and shows that building stuff like this is surprisingly cheap as well. You make it seem surprisingly appealing. I think this counts as a success. The voyage of the princess ark! What a way to kick off the new decade. One of the coolest series they've ever done, and one that plays a huge part in building up Mystara's setting. I'm going to enjoy this. Welcome to the journals of Prince Haldemar of Haaken. We start of with a huge and amusing statement that everything you know is wrong! The map we saw in the Master set, while geographically fairly accurate, was annotated by someone who had barely been beyond Thyatis, and just made up place names based on in-jokes and their relations and pets. Sounds like the kind of thing that could really happen. <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" /> Academics are like that. We then fast-forward several months, into the future. To explore beyond the known world, they've somehow managed to fix up an entire flying skyship with a crew decently equipped with all classes and plenty of magical gear. This certainly isn't your usual adventuring party. They're starting off at a level of epicness most campaigns finish before reaching. How are they going to be challenged by whatever they face if they're already this powerful? Their first couple of months is spent exploring the coast immediately to the south of the known world, just past the inner sea and the isle of dread. Labeled as the four kingdoms, there's actually nothing but jungles and savages there. They lose quite a few men to the various threats, but collect a man eating plant, and raise one of the lost crew as a zombie servant to handle catering. So it's immediately apparent that these guys are from the pragmatic bastard school of adventuring. They take whatever the DM throws at them, and figure out how to turn it to their advantage, even if the results look somewhat strange. And I already know that they accumulate several more bits of weird stuff before I came in to the story, so I'm very much looking forward to finding out what happened in the episodes between here and there. With proper continuity, it looks like I'm going to enjoy this even more than I did first time around. Your best chances: Ability generation statistics again, only updated to the new edition. At least they didn't call it What are the Odds a third time. Just what is the probability of being able to join each class with each of the 6 dice rolling methods. For straight 3d6, the chances of joining the big boys like paladins and rangers is well under 1%. The others increase the probability dramatically, but even for them, your average ability scores will still be somewhere between 12 and 13, so it's best to specialise. Looks like the average 2nd edition character will actually be less twinked than one using UA rules. So much for power creep being a linear progression. In another interesting touch, the writer (our frequent forumite Ed Friedlander) also introduces a method VII, roll 18d6 and assign them to each score.  A method I developed independently, and am quite fond of using myself. A pretty well presented set of statistics, and one that refutes accusations of 2nd ed being power gamey compared to 1st. Sure, you can break it more with the right kits and other stuff from supplements, but at least you'll have to work at it. The role of computers: Their finest hour: The battle of Britain sees Lucasfilm's game division continue to excel. George must make a lot of money keeping this stuff in house. Course, in this case he can adapt the x-wing flying system, as this focusses on the airborne side of things. Learn to fly a whole bunch of different planes, with very different capabilities, and then engage in bombing runs, dogfights, and similar nerve-wracking experiences. While there is a bit of flicker and slowdown when too many things are on screen, that probably makes things easier in those hectic situations. <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" /> And it doesn't stop them from giving it 5 stars. Swords of Aragon combines individual roleplaying and strategic level battle as you attempt to take over the country. Normally, that's the kind of thing you have to foil, so that's a refreshing change. Assemble armies, form alliances, and complete missions. An ambitious goal, but the excecution is a little lackluster, with neither the combat system nor the resource management being particularly user friendly, and the computer blatantly doesn't have the same limitations as you. They want to like it, but overall, found it a little too frustrating. Space Rogue combines space combat with a certain degree of roleplaying and trading. Raid ships, sell their stuff to the various factions, and try to get somewhere decent. A fairly short and favourable review.</blockquote>

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