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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5103032" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 173: September 1991part 1/6124 pages. Hello to the beginning of another campaign world. Dark sun's been teasered for a bit, but now it's arrived. And in another indicator of their departments gradually coming to co-ordinate better, it gets a special issue straight off. Buck Rogers managed that, but none of the D&D settings have before. Course, that does mean the themed section is likely to be all stuff by regular writers, but that doesn't mean it'll be poor quality. I just hope it'll be more useful for actual games once they've bought the books than Buck's crap was. In this issue:Letters: Roger decides it's time to sluice off some of the ridiculous letters again, before they overflow and cause a dreadful mess all over the office. They do get a lot of them, it seems. A really pissed off letter about issue 168's editorial. Your attempt at self justification was pathetic! Dear oh dear. An absolutely hilarious continuation of the saga of Waldorf, drawing upon all the letters previously published on the subject. Someone's been reading the magazine for quite a while and doing their research. See, without continuity, you couldn't have absolute gems like this. Another letter about 168's editorial, with a rather specific bit of niggling. Babies are such a big issue, and raising them rather awkward for active adventurers. A letter from someone really miserable that he can't get girls to roleplay with him. You're in luck. Vampire only just came out. Although judging from this, that may well not solve the issue, but that's a problem with your social skills, rather than the game. If I can spend years doing dance training and not get any actual dates from it, you can definitely flub meeting people through roleplaying. A very badly written letter asking how much damage bullets do in D&D. Less than you think, given inflating HP. Editorial: Or Roger goes LARPing. Looks like things are on the up for that, with their third reference this year. Interphaze III seems to be a close adaption of D&D, using the same classes, and much of the same monsters and magic. They also had a whole bunch of games within the game, including an IC banquet, elven belly dancers, and stuff for the kids. He doesn't explain exactly how the rules differed so stuff could be resolved without dice, but he certainly had a good time, packing a hell of a lot in. Another good reminder that he'd probably like to cover a larger variety of stuff in the magazine, but if people aren't sending it in, that's not an option.    Oh well, can't fault his enthusiasm, even after all this time. As long as he's here. he'll keep on trying. The monstrous side of the dark sun world: Welcome to the least generic AD&D world yet. Even more than Dragonlance, Dark Sun is defined by the elements it leaves out. Both in classes and monsters, there are pretty significant removals, particularly on the divine side. And existing things are also changed quite a bit. Dwarves frequently have obsessions other than mining or crafting. Elves aren't nearly as long lived, but a lot better at endurance running. Halflings are savage cannibals. Thri-kreen are much the same as ever, but have a lot more prominence, and human-giant and human-dwarf hybrids are relatively common, thanks to the Sorcerer-kings breeding programs. Oh, and everyone has psionics. So far, no great revelations that you won't also get if you buy the boxed set. As a stopgap until they get their own Monstrous compendium, they give you info on what stuff from other supplements is suitable. Gotta collect 'em all! So probably pretty nifty at the time, and decent as promotion, but not really very useful in retrospect. Bah. A letter from the wanderer: Another article that would have been cool and new then but now seems rather dated. The undead of athas! Not just standardised collections of stats, but individuals all, frequently retaining all their class levels. Thanks to this and Ravenloft, that's actually become pretty ubiquitous in later editions, so this is another one that really has lost all it's impact with the passing of time. The writing is pretty good though, with Troy Denning demonstrating his way with words and descriptions. So once again, it's neat to read as a historical artefact, but about as useful as a calculator when you now have an iPhone. On we go then. Random magic for organized minds: And so, like the Buck Rogers special, it seems the only still useful part of this themed section is the last article. Since Wizardry is mostly forbidden on athas, you'll have a hard time finding spells, and have to take what you can get. And that's where this bit of random tableage comes in, dividing spells up into (relatively) common, uncommon and rare. Something you can use with zero effort, and put an analogue of in your own game with minimal effort. One I'm strongly considering using myself.</blockquote>

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