Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5111749" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991part 3/6The voyage of the princess ark: Once again, Raman takes centre stage this month, being lured away by a ghostly creature that hungers for cinnabryl. Guess it's Haldemar's turn to play rescuer this time round. At least, once he escapes from another annoying political plot, probably from the Huleans. Oh, if only we could meteor swarm them at the first sign of trouble instead of having to be diplomatic. Crunchwise, we have stats for the aforementioned errant spirits, who are produced as a result of people extending their lifespans unnaturally with cinnabryl. We also have info on the northenmost 4 of the savage baronies, their relationships with each other, and the looming spectre of Hule's expansion. To survive around here, they have indeed become pretty tough places, full of passionate and stubborn warriors. A rich ground for adventure, both personal and political. Letterswise, we have lots of annoying nit-picking this month. Yes, time has passed since these areas were first detailed in all those out of print modules. Yes, the gazetteers aren't very standardized. Yes, keeping intelligent flying mounts in your army is bloody tricky, and you need to ensure they're well treated and given the respect they deserve. No, none of these are setting breaking. Chill out, dudes. Novel ideas: Athas's promotion continues, in an article that probably ought to have been last month, but for their bimonthly schedule. This is another one that's telling me stuff I know already, that Athas has a nice 5-book series kicking things off, courtesy of Troy Denning, and they intend dramatic things to happen in the novels and change the setting on a regular basis. It also calls attention to the way they're consciously trying to avoid or subvert as many of the usual D&D setting tropes as possible. Maybe too many at once, actually. We've been through this with Tekumel & Jorune, where too many alien elements keep people from getting into things. Athas is probably less experimental than either of those, but it is relatively low on literary and historical antecedents. And it didn't really enjoy the same kind of success as Dragonlance or Ravenloft. On the other hand, it did last quite a few years, and was one of the first worlds to be revisited in 4e, so it's hard to call it a failure either. Guess like morality in Athas, it's more complicated than that. This is definitely worth more debate. I look forward to the next time this topic comes up. Fiction: The blue eyed thief by Bob Liddil. We hear a lot about cycles of abuse. Sins inflicted on people are in turn emulated and performed on others, be out of vengeance, need, or simple habit.  You hear far less about cycles of redemption, people paying good deeds forward. Still, that's what this one is about. A young street-thief turned into a honest (well, almost) merchant by a little generosity and cleverly applied compassion, and then returning the favour a generation later. The kind of heroism that you can actually manage in the real world, if you're something like a teacher or homeless shelter volunteer. Don't think it'll be easy, or that some won't reject your help and continue being locked in their own self-destructive patterns, but you can make a difference. It may be a tiny one against the overall tapestry of the world, but you can make a difference. And this, in it's own small way, is a good reminder of that. So I think it does it's job quite nicely. The role of computers: Quest for glory II: Trial by Fire combines a review with an interview with the makers of the game. Interesting. They talk about their design philosophy, and some of the technical details of it's creation. They've gone to plenty of effort to make this a fun adventure game that you'll have plenty of challenge completing, but hopefully won't get stuck on, and can improve your skills along with your character's. And they intend to release still better looking versions in the near future. Yay for ever increasing monitor resolutions. Cybergenic Ranger: Secret of the seventh planet looks and sounds good, but is slow and boooooooring to play. Remember your design priorities, programmers. Fun must always be primary, otherwise all else becomes irrelevant. F29 Retaliator is a flight simulator, but one that sacrifices realism for fun, making the planes rather easier to pilot than their real counterparts. Which is a good thing, really, since the amount of training to get an actual pilots licence is quite substantial. Sonic the Hedgehog sees them instantly spot that this was created by sega as a conscious attempt at making a marketable mascot. Not that the game is bad at all. (although I always preferred Sonic 3. The series didn't really get going until he had a proper cast of supporting characters.) The high speed bits impress them, the non-linear level design still holds up today, (if anything, it's more so than many of the later games, especially once the series went 3D) and the rotating bonus levels are really cool for the era. Mario now has serious competition, and their battles will be good for the profiles of both sides. Let the lines be drawn, and the fanboys of both sides rage. They also re-review a whole bunch of old games that have been recently released for new systems. Gunboat, Harpoon, Railroad Tycoon, and Wizardry: Bane of the cosmic forge. Most manage to improve on the previous versions in some way. Wizardry in particular is massively improved on it's original incarnation.</blockquote>

Verification