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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5162413" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 180: April 1992part 2/6Role-playing reviews: Rick demonstrates his particular sense of humour again in this little article, lampooning the crap deal psionics gets in so many systems. We've seen near nowt on it since issue 78. And either it's too similar to magic, or incoherently designed in many systems. Doesn't stop them from putting it in though.  Which of course means he has enough to make a good themed column. Hopefully that'll also stimulate freelancers to send in stuff, so we can get a psionics themed issue for this edition as well. The complete psionics handbook gets a rather dry and descriptive review, with lots of explanation of how it works. It may seem daunting at first, but it's not that hard to understand, and differentiates things from magic quite handily, apart from a few near identical powers in the telepathy domain. Unlike certain forumites, he considers the fact that powers aren't usually level restricted a plus. It could do with more GM advice, monsters, and other cool peripherals though. Psionics is a Mayfair Role Aid product. It doesn't do quite as well, having a bunch of irritating niggly restrictions on it's powers. But with plenty of cool stuff to mine and surprisingly little overlap with the official system, it could run alongside the other system if you wanted. GURPS Psionics Also gets a solid but not gushing review. It encourages you to pick one or two skills and specialise in them, which encourages team differentiation in a class free game. The mechanics are solid, but psychic battles are rather complex to manage. It also has more campaign material than the other two,aimed quite strongly at modern day games. As with all the GURPS stuff, it's for those who like to customise, and mix and match elements from multiple genres for their games. Rick also gives brief reviews to the Draconomicon and Ashes to Ashes. Neither are perfect, but both have lots of cool stuff for you to use. Seems both Vampire and D&D started with a greater proportion of adventures in their early supplements. Your basic Barbarian: Another april fools collection of things NOT to do when playing a dumb smashy sort. All the classes have their own stereotypes of how they can be disruptive to the party. Fighters probably get the least attention, when compared to preachy dick priests, thieves that steal from their own team, and wizards who take over everyone else's role at high level. But they can be a real pain in the butt too, and this article shows you how! Exaggerated dumbness mainly. Never be afraid to leap into a situation, short-circuiting debate and getting your companions into trouble. Apart from water, which is a source of terror to anyone with heavy armour, and of course rust monsters, which must be fled from with as much speed as you can manage. I do not see myself laughing at this one. Just a bit of space-wasting goofiness. Hot night in the old town: Or how to keep things interesting for clerics when they're not out adventuring. Because of the nature of both their organisations and their powers, (at least, if they resemble real world priests at all) there is a certain natural pressure on them to get involved in the community, and lots of demand for their powers if they're willing to set a reasonable price. Lots of fun can be had trying to increase your congregation and settle disputes, get together the money for a decent temple, and competing with priests of other gods. Many of them may involve asking your adventuring party buds for a little help, and lead into a whole new adventure. This seems like a very cool idea, and the principle could be applied to the other classes for generation of tailored between adventure solo bits without too much effort. It certainly makes for considerably more variety than another motiveless wandering monster. Very handy indeed. Colorful connection: Looks like puzzles are indeed becoming a regular feature, with another crossword. 80 more cryptic clues for your puzzling out, and an overall secret contained within. Actually seems like it would be more appropriate put in the birthday issue than the april fool one, but that make the solution too easy to guess. Another one that'll easily eat up a few hours unless you're a real whiz at this kind of thing. Cyber HERO: Yes, another supplement for the HERO system. They're not gonna let a genre get away.</blockquote>

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