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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5089711" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 171: July 1991part 1/6124 pages. So we've finally reached the first issue I actually bought at the time. It's taken nearly two years, but we're here. Still even longer to go before we finish this, but from now on, I'm no longer looking at this from the perspective of a newcomer, even if I still haven't read many of these issues. Which is a fairly significant change really. This of course means you'll be hearing more about my personal experiences with the articles in this one. Hopefully that won't bore you. In this issue:Letters: A letter on the weight of coins. Very yawnworthy. The only notable thing is that Roger takes advantage of this to point out that money no longer gives you xp in 2nd ed. Which was certainly news to me when I bought this, so it's quite likely other people hadn't realised that either. Two letters from people who find they have strong sympathies with wolves/werewolves in response to the stuff on vampires, and people talking getting inside their heads. Which makes the fact that Werewolf: the Apocalypse was the second world of darkness game seem very obvious in retrospect. A letter from someone who strongly empathises with Kobolds, of all things. Actually a surprisingly common choice. Many people have a soft spot for the ultimate underdogs of D&D. A letter from someone who empathises with rocks. man what. Actually, that's a sad story. Patronising older siblings suck. A letter from someone who had sex with a wyvern while polymorphed. This obviously has them worrying about the consequences. Tee hee. This went completely over my pre-pubescent head the first time round. Once again, goes to show, with the desire to focus more of worldbuilding and ecology sometimes being at odds with the family friendly policy. We'll be seeing more on this topic in the future. Editorial: Oh yes, I remember this well. A guest editorial by Michael Stackpole, on his recent experience with a burglar and his thoughts on his actions. We already know about the idiotic satanic accusations that surround the hobby, despite there being evidence that roleplaying actually reduces your odds of committing suicide & major crimes. (or at least, there is negative correlation. ) Here we see another bit of evidence disproving that stuff, albeit coming from the other way. When confronted by a burglar in reality, he didn't react even slightly like his character would have. Despite having a whole array of replica weapons he could have used to kill or threaten them with, he called 911 and then panicked and frightened them off by shouting. Goes to show doesn't it. Most people won't become badass psychopaths as a result of roleplaying, but at the same time, they're similarly unlikely to take the other extreme, and become merciful paragons of virtue who never compromise their principles, always keep their word and fulfil their obligations, no matter how great the adversity against them. Which is a bit depressing in a way. The call of mediocrity is strong in reality. Still, it shows that most people have no trouble subdividing their life and behaving in quite different ways fitting the circumstances.  Now, the big question is how you spot the people who are going to be a problem, and do something about it before they permanently <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> up their life, and quite possibly other people's as well. Another complicated issue, and one that could probably be handled a lot better. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and funding shortsightedness will wind up costing you a lot more later on. Still, let's not get caught up too much in the problems of humanity and the real world. Despite the fact that they do intrude regularly whenever we have to interact with one-another, and many of the more advanced games are built around making humanities quirks work for us rather than against us, this is not the place for trying to save the world. Not that it wouldn't be cool if someone did, and then said I owe it all to roleplaying, but what are the odds of that. Who's who among dragons: Continuing on from the birthday issue, we have a piece on the territories of various notable dragons of the Known World. There have to be more than enough of them to maintain a breeding population, and some of them will wind up in charge. I haven't read this one in years, and looking at it again, I'm amazed at how much information Bruce fits into a small article. Even more than Ed, he really does have a knack for giving us the crucial details to make for fun adventures. In this case that's HD, personality details, relationships with the other dragons around, and pointers as to the kind of lair they have. This is one that I fell in love with on first reading, (Particularly Marudi, who I wound up pretending to be on the playground for several weeks after) and still seems like a very good bit of worldbuilding indeed, far more concise and effective than the bloated Wyrms of the North series. As with much of his stuff, this is both easily usable if you're playing in the right campaign world, and done in such a way that it makes doing similar stuff for your own game seem quick and easy. A perfect way to start off reading, really.</blockquote>

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