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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5151710" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 179: March 1992part 3/6Fiction: Moonlight by Heather Lynn Sarik. Another quite amusing little story here. So you have a macguffin that produces a rare and valuable material. This stuff could make you a fortune! Trouble is, no-one can figure out what to do with it. And you keep on producing it. This is not a stable situation, and will lead to fast devaluations unless you pull some slippery snake-oil shenanigans. And the result is rather amusing, and reminds me quite a bit of "The two best thieves in Lankhmar" as the protagonists bicker their way through what they thought would be an easy job and wind up the fools, with unusually strong language for these family friendly days. As it's also moderately fitting for the theme of the issue, I definitely have to pronounce this one a success, subverting expectations quite nicely. The voyage of the princess ark: Another year, another attack of surreality for the princess ark, as they find themselves in Renardy, home of the dog-like lupins. Who also happen to be French. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> (Someone's been watching Dogtanian and the three muskethounds <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ) And determine prestige amongst the noble families by wine-making contests :double rolleyes: And someone has stolen this year's best vintage <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /> Guess who has to retrieve them and save the king from dishonor <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> However, they can't get through the fields of sleep inducing flowers to catch the goblins responsible. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> But it's alright, because they get saved by ninja tortles <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> They solve the mystery, honor is satisfied, and everyone ends up happy. Apart from the goblins. The cheese quotient is definitely on the rise in this series. It may still be entertaining, but I'd want to filter this stuff out a bit before actually putting it in a game. Unsurprisingly, we get more details on Renardy in the OOC bit. Lots of cultural and statistical data. Business as usual here. Can't say I'm that enthralled. The marvel-phile: We finish serving up last year's leftovers, and actually have some interesting gaming advice here this issue. How do you build good villains? Why do so many official Marvel villains suck? Well, let's start with the name. A bad one condemns you to risibility even before you start, no matter how powerful you might be. Then there's the costume. Poor color co-ordination or the wrong areas of skin exposed can make it very hard to take you seriously. And finally, possibly least importantly, there's the powers. After all, there's plenty of badass normals holding their own out there in comic books, on both the good and bad sides. A single dumb trick is probably worse than none at all. And having too many schticks means it becomes impossible to remember them all and apply them to maximum effect. Their universe runs on dramatic logic rather than raw power. They then go into specific examples of villains who have successfully repurposed themselves in the comics. Most notable is Paste Pot Pete becoming the Trapster, but there's others out there trying out a little self-improvement. Now, if they can just avoid things merging into a morass of grey grimdark villains with poorly defined badass powers. (yes, you, liefield.) And to top it off there's stats for the Sentinels and Hurricane. This is much better than the last few issues. Creative advice is more interesting than straight statblocks. Rifts world book two, Atlantis. Beware the splurgoth. Now there's a name that'll eat your brains if you look at them the wrong way.Forum: David Howery talks about painting minis, and expresses annoyance that there are so few minis of normal animals, along with various other thoughts about the practical problems of painting real creatures. There are some textures paint just can't simulate. Justin Kelley is annoyed that magic resistance is so much more common and harder to penetrate in 2nd edition. Their mage is proving useless at high level! Elementary tactical error, methinks. That kind of stuff is why you move into buffs and terrain controllers rather than direct blasty effects. If your wizard isn't contributing much at 25th level, I have no hesitation in saying you're Doing It Wrong, since so many other groups are finding their spellcasters naturally graduate to supreme overlord at that level. Bryce Harrington goes back to the headache of how to build fantasy cities in a defensible way with so many horrible creatures and spellcasters roaming around. Some historical models offer more benefits than others, but given the variety of powers out there, none really seem optimal. I guess it depends what monsters are most common in the particular area then. Rene Vernon thinks that energy draining needs a little nerfing, but crossbows need powering up. More differentiation! Do you want every weapon group to be as complicated to handle as polearms and swords?</blockquote>

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