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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5096163" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 172: August 1991part 1/6124 pages. A surprisingly non cheesecaky cover from Clyde Caldwell this time. Goes to show, doesn't it, you spend years fantasising about and drawing unrealistic looking and dressing women, but still settle for a perfectly normal one in real life. And even when you draw her, you still wind up showing substantially less skin than usual. Not that this is some great triumph of feminism. There's still plenty more ludicrous cheesecake covers to come. Also plenty more rehash too, as they make the underdark their theme for the third time. (see issues 131 & 152) Will we discover something new on this trip downstairs. It is a big place, after all. There should be some more nooks and crannies to scrape out of this barrel. <img src="http://index.rpg.net/pictures/show-water.phtml?picid=7011" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />In this issue:Letters: A letter saying they need more basic D&D articles. They've agreed with that for ages. WHY AREN'T YOU SENDING THEM IN!!! Poor Bruce is being driven to exhaustion trying to cover this stuff largely unaided. A letter asking if they've heard of the SCA. Sure. They've heard of them since back in 1979. Course, they don't talk about them much, because for some reason, TSR doesn't do any LARP games, and isn't that keen on covering other people's either. What is with that. An apology from a convention that got abruptly cancelled. Nasty business, very frustrating for all concerned. This is another area that the internet has helped substantially, as it allows you to easily send messages that'll get to all your clientele  straight away at minimal cost. Course, you're still losing tons of money from their loss of custom, but that can't be helped, and they're more likely to come back if you do apologise promptly and with good grace. Editorial: Oh god. Robin hood, prince of thieves. (everything I do) I'd forgotten that was released around this time. And then stayed at number 1 for, like, evar. I will always love you, love is all around, my heart will go on, spaceman. God, the 90's had some sucky music become huge due to tie-ins. But anyway, this is Dale once again demonstrating how players will not play along with ideas that work in the movies, partly because they are not stupid and genre blind, and partly because the rules frequently encourage and reward behaviour that is at odds with narrative convention. So do not railroad your players, or create scenes that don't work unless they take a specific course of action, for this will result in annoyance for both you and them. Even most of the licensed RPG's don't really encourage play that fits the source on a mechanical level. (MERP, I'm looking at you) And making rules that don't just define the physics of the game universe, but also the dramatic conventions hasn't become a generally known and accepted idea. Many even actively discourage playing like the movies by giving you characters dramatically weaker than the stars and setting the difficulties appropriate to them, plus writing adventures that encourage a different mode of play (This time it's star wars d6 and it's Traveller lite tendencies that'll get a good glaring) So don't try and jam a square peg in a round hole. There's lots of new players that make that mistake, and some have even gone on to become game designers. Quite valuable advice, really. Seeing the sights in skullport: The Realms' fourth wall continues to be fairly porous, with Laeral making another visit to the TSR offices. Undermountain came out a few months ago, and it looks like they've got some leftover material again. If you want to spend extended amounts of time down there, you need a homebase, somewhere you can get food and don't have to kill everything on sight. Fortunately, since this is one of the biggest and most raided dungeon complexes on the planet, other people have already had the same idea, and set up Skullport, a classic example of a literal seedy underbelly to a city. If you want drugs, slaves, poisons, zombies, and enforced blind eye neutrality to any killing that may take place in the tunnels, this is very much the place to go. With a full map, plenty of interesting NPC's, and Ed's usual way with history and worldbuilding, this is another of his highly specific ideas that could nevertheless be stripped out and put into your campaign without too much trouble. Would you like to make a home around there? Not a good place to raise your kids, but at least rent is cheap. Watch out for the floating skulls the place gets it's name from, and other subtle dangers. Tons of fun to be had here, in other words.</blockquote>

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