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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5110767" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991part 2/6Out of the mists: Another collection of scary monsters, also with the official ravenloft seal of approval. Dr Van Richten may have catalogued these ones, but that certainly doesn't make them less dangerous. And just because they're from Ravenloft, doesn't mean you can't use them elsewhere as well. Let's face it, in actual modules, the demiplane of dread is considerably more porous than Athas. But anyway, let's see if they're any good. Shadow asps are yet another magical way of guarding a tomb from any interlopers.  Their poison slowly turns you into a Shadow as well, so although they're pretty weedy, they can become an escalating problem to a party. A swarm of these coming at a party will provoke a suitable degree of terror similar to swarms of spiders or centipedes IRL. Fenhounds are actually good guys, in that they only savage people who've made powers checks. Course, since even good people can wind up making them, especially if they're also spellcasters, and they have no appeals court, a party may well find themselves having their own recurring baskerville situation to deal with. Psionic liches are scary mofos, just like their wizardly counterparts, with the typical array of powers, and probably minions, long reaching plans, elaborate lairs, etc etc.  They're one that would go on to official use and several appearances in supplements. As with regular liches, finding out where the hell their phylactery is is crucial, for revenge served cold is not very tasty actually. Looks like this has been a pretty nice collection really, with stuff suitable for a wide range of situations, not just more boring straight-up fights. Do you want body horror or psychological stuff, little minions or big big bads, because both are provided for. Cry Wolf: A few more monsters to scare your players with. Wolves certainly haven't been neglected in the magazine over the years, with both the regular and were varieties getting plenty of mentions. And they do have a long association with horror stories. Let's see if there's any new ideas to be had here. Dread wolves are animated undead with a nasty rotting bite and regeneration. Their creator can see through their eyes, which means they can be rather useful for espionage as well as killing stuff.Vampiric wolves take the already close relationship between the two creatures and blur it a little further. They vill drink your bluuud, and turn on their leader if they show weakness. Now that's definitely exploitable in a plot sense. They should be popular amongst not-too-bright evil overlords. Stone wolves, on the other hand, are loyal, don't require any upkeep or toilet breaks, and can disguise themselves as ordinary statuary. (not that experienced adventurers will let their guard down around that. ) So it looks like all 3 of these are designed to be minions to some other vaguely horror themed big bad. I suppose wolves rarely do get the same kind of central importance in big plotlines as vampires and mages. Overall, this is pretty useful, but not particularly impressive. Guess that adds out to an average themed section then. The marvel-phile: Steven Schend delves into the history books to give us another obscure villain who hasn't been covered yet, probably because he hasn't appeared in comics for over a decade either. Equinox! Heat and cold powers in one mentally unstable package! A bit gimmicky, but there doesn't seem to be any great reason why he's vanished when some other D-listers haven't. And he's less likely to be countered and ignored by a team effortlessly like a one-trick pony, so he could have a use. But no, this isn't anything particularly special. Bugged about something?: Ahh, yes, giant insects. They've certainly played a substantial part in my low-level D&Ding, especially in places with lots of random encounters. This is a quick little realism in gaming article that looks like it was put in as a filler one, to fit around the number of adverts they have. Greg Detwiler does a decent job of reminding us just how badass real insects are, with their proportionate strength, various spiffy senses, ridiculous toughness, social organisation, etc etc. A bit insubstantial really, but the artwork's good. Meh. The game wizards: I may have made quite a few Gotta collect 'em all quips in my time doing this, and there are more to come, but here they really are literally asking for it. Their trading card series has proven quite a decent seller, and so they fully intend to print new ones each year until it ceases to profit them. This is full of the kind of data that collectables geeks will love. Limited editions, the variations in their looks based on number and run, size of print runs, the kind of thing that makes you look smart if you can quote it to your friends. I actually find myself quite liking this article, unexpectedly, probably because I am a statistics geek. And the economics of collectibles is an interesting and potentially profitable area of study. Anyone know what these cards go for these days?</blockquote>

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