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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5090906" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 171: July 1991part 2/6Hunting tanks is fun and easy: Top Secret continues get get occasional articles. When I first picked up the magazine, I assumed that meant it was still a healthy gameline like it was from my years out of date catalog that came with the basic set. Slightly saddening to realise it had already been put on hold for a good year now, and was tapering off in the magazine. Still, this is a fun, if rather crunchy little article that continues the military focus of the last few years, showing you how infantry and light vehicles can face tanks and not get completely pounded. Have those drama points at the ready folks, because it's not easy, but makes for pretty cool scenes. Nice to see this one again. The making of a monster: Now this is one that definitely shaped my gaming. A roleplaying advice piece focussed on getting you into the head of nonhuman creatures, with their IQ's differing drastically from yours, along with their senses, needs and goals. Put yourself in their shoes, and ask yourself what you would do with their knowledge and resources if a bunch of adventurers came along. If they're smarter than you, then that can be simulated by allowing them a limited degree of metagaming, such as undefined contingency plans retroactively tailored towards the players actions. An ugly kludge, but better than the alternative. In any case, this was one of the things that rapidly broke the early habit of mindless hack and slashing, (the other being getting in legal trouble IC back at the homebase for attacking the neighbouring evil castle in my first campaign.) setting me on the path for trying out increasingly strange creatures and situations that culminated in the fun homebrewed stuff I did for the fair folk of Exalted in 2005, before starting to swing back towards examining the human condition again. It also has several other bits of cool advice, like monsters pretending to be other monsters, proper use of technology and natural abilities, and the joys of good collaborations. Another one that it's a joy to reread. Care for a drink: The decanter of endless water. What a lovely device. This is another one that shaped my approach to playing the game, a strong reminder that you can get all kinds of uses out of many items and spells, and you always ought to be on the look out for that edge, for it may both save your characters lives and make for cool looking scenes as well. A fairly short article, this nonetheless has dozens of useful ideas for getting the most of an item that can produce unlimited water at high velocities. It's also a reminder how you can make established items more interesting by putting a minor twist on their powers, such as a decanter of endless lemonade instead of water. I thought it was really cool back then, and it still seems pretty decent now. Just the thing.  TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms finally gives mechanics for Doug Niles' pet project over the last year. Maztica gets a big spiffy boxed set. Strange new lands, magics and monsters are just waiting for you to explore them. Try not to lose your heart to the place, for many of the locals will take that phrase literally. Raven's Bluff is also a busy place these days. LC4<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" />ort of Raven's Bluff examines the nautical side of living there. Pirates, sea monsters, hidden cliff face caves. There's plenty of adventure to be had just offshore. Dragonlance is also getting a double helping this month. DLS3: Oak lords turns the spotlight on the Qualinesti. As usual, we only get to find out about them when a crisis happens. The novels, on the other hand are still focussed on the unedifying history of the Silvanesti. This time it's their human-elf racism that gets examined in The Kinslayer Wars. Time for them to learn from their own aesops. Ravenloft fills in some more of it's big bads in RR1: Darklords. What naughty stuff did they do to get trapped here, and how intractably hard will it be to get rid of them? Like an ugly winestain on the carpet of reality, the demiplane of dread continues to grow. On the generic side, we have DMGR3: Arms and equipment guide. If the complete fighters handbook didn't provide enough weapon pr0n, this is for you. Tons of illustrations of strange polearms for you to fap over. Gary would probably approve. We also have another strange product that feels like an inflated article from this magazine. The AD&D trivia game. As if standard trivial pursuit wasn't geeky enough. Who will be the biggest rules lawyer, and win the night? D&D is back to the hollow world, in HWR1: Sons of Azca. More heart ripping fun for if Maztica just isn't enough. Can't you mix up your cultures a little more? Has someone been leaving their reference books lying round the office again? Marvel Superheroes has another fairly high level adventure ready. MSL2: Warlord of Baluur. Not very well written copy here, but it does the job. Try to resolve an alien invasion peacefully? Tricky business. Buck Rogers continues doing planet sourcebooks, with 25CR4: Luna. Well, it's practically a planet in it's own right anyway. Do I see any objections? :Rumble of thunder, howl of wolves: I thought not. And finally, our generic novel this month is Token of Dragonsblood, by Damaris Cole. A Princess raised secretly as a commoner? There's a cliche we haven't seen here in a while. Oh well, once more onto the path of destiny.</blockquote>

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