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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5012162" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 158: June 1990part 1/6116 pages. Year 14. Yeah, the magazine is currently a sulky teenager, or something. But no matter how old you get, there's always a part of you that eagerly awaits your birthday presents. Well, it's either that or spend it moping how you grow ever closer to death's final embrace. Which doesn't really work quite the same way when you're a magazine. So as usual, we get a whole bunch of articles on dragons, and some fiction featuring one as well. Just the thing to make yourself a hero with. But remember, don't do it too well, or you'll leave nothing left for future generations, and the whole tradition will die out. Lets see what room they have for new stuff amid the old traditions. In this issue:Letters: A letter asking when they're going to release another best of. It has been a while, hasn't it. As with the last time they were asked, they'd like too, but for some reason upper management :Rumble of thunder, stab of organ music: doesn't seem too keen on the idea. What is up with that? Another letter asking them why they don't go digital. Roger replies with a detailed and somewhat snarky breakdown of why it's not the great ecosaviour move this writer seems to think it would be. Besides, how would they advertise. Hmm. Actually, that is interesting. I wonder why they completely dropped the ads when Dragon went digital. It's not as if they couldn't still put some on the pages, and it would deal with the irritating whitespace issue. A letter about how umber hulks smell. Roger trots out one of the most tired old jokes of all in response. I didn't laugh. Forum: Ralph Sizer doesn't think there's anything evil about paladins using feints and other such sneaky tactics in combat. You're dethpicable. <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=";)" /> No clath or honour at all! Such actions may not be evil, but they are chaotic. You can expect a good spanking if you use them regularly. Brian Smarker is dubious about the idea of good clerics creating undead just to give their acolytes turning practice. Wouldn't that be like an environmentalist creating an oil spill just to teach people how harmful they are, and how to best clean them up. On the other hand, people like those PETA nuts who released a whole labfull of weasels into the wild, seriously mucking up the predator/prey balance, and dooming most of them to a quick death anyway because they didn't know how to hunt properly might try that. And clerics are frequently known for fanaticism over reason. James S. Watson joins the realism brigade. Your articles on wars, and how soldiers  were trained and organized in them were insufficiently researched! Same as it ever was. Dennis Lee Bieber does some similar work on heraldry, pointing out some more accessable books for you to add to your collection. Another murky bit of history with customs often honoured in the breach gets picked over. Craig H. Barrett has some pretty complicated thoughts about the alignment system, and how people should be judged along it's axes. As ever, it's tricky to separate our own cultural biases from the theoretical absolute standards of good and evil. I think there's room for some interesting articles on this matter. Toby C Jennings is similarly interested in running the gamut of alignment in his gaming, and looking at the differences in how they interact. Once again, problems in the narrowness of various descriptions causes headaches Toby Myers gives lots of useful advice about building your campaign world. Remember, stealing liberally and adapting is very much the way to go. Can't argue with that one, given what I'm currently doing. The game wizards: Ha. Jim Ward returns to deal with the great wodges of nerdrage about the removal of the creatures who's name begins with D from the lower planes. The vast majority of readers want to see them back. So they've caved in, while pretending it was their idea all along, bringing them back under different names in the upcoming outer planes MC appendix. That didn't take long. Once again, the ball is in our court. Whether this will mollify the letter senders, or result in yet more annoyance from both sides of the satanic divide remains to be seen. In the meantime, he tries to distract us by waving around teasers for a few more of the shinys that they're producing in the near future. Maztica! Hollow World! New psionics rules! New horrific monsters! Think about those instead, and get to work saving up the money to pay for them. <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=";)" /> Ahh, another perpetual problem creative types face. By the time a particular bit of work gets published and properly released, you're already sick of it and working on your next idea. Having to talk about old ideas endlessly with the public can sour you on them quite a bit. Still fairly stressful times trying to run the company then. The pressure from both above and below never really lets up.</blockquote>

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