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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5182801" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 182: June 1992part 6/8Ready! Aim! Fire!: Crossbows get a short shrift in AD&D? Oh noes!1 You know, we've actually known that for ages, and we've got a good idea who to blame too. (Len Lakofka, as he admitted in issue 51) So here we have one of those articles that points out the Proud Historical Antecedents of the crossbow, and adds a load of variant crunch that slightly powers up the weapon by adding extra detail. It still doesn't bring them remotely close to swords or polearms, so I don't have any real problem with this, but it is still more than a little dull. Still, we have to have our dose of reality to balance the fantasy, don't we. Let's not dwell on this too much, otherwise before you know it we'll be reading a thousand page illustrated dissertation on weapons through the ages. Psionics in living color: And here we have another instance of attempting to spice up an old topic by applying it to a new avenue. Saying that you need to go for more vivid and detailed descriptions in your handling of psionic powers? I can see the formula from here. Classic pro roleplaying principle + obscure and little used subsystem = another way of hammering in the same lesson. It does have some amusingly experimental art design that I like, but the text itself is too obvious for words. So the formatting is still improving, but the content is much the same as a decade ago. One for the new readers. TSR Previews: Lots of stuff this month, spilling out to an extra half a page. Dragonlance finally gets a proper core boxed set. Strange to think it's never had one before, and everyone's just been picking up bits and pieces as they go along. We also see another bit of history we've known about for ages examined in detail in the novels, with The Cataclysm. More short stories showing snippets of lives affected by the big smash. The Forgotten Realms gets Aurora's whole realms catalogue. Another of their really cool half IC bits of setting building. Dead useful for if you have players who like to spend whole sessions just shopping and roleplaying, and pretty handy if you have hardcore dungeoncrawlers who like to pack all sorts of weird bits and pieces that might come in handy. Just don't forget your encumbrance, or you'll make it too easy for them. Greyhawk gets WGR2: Treasures of greyhawk. More mini adventures for when the DM runs out of ideas mid session and needs some filler to plonk nearby, keep the players interested. Ravenloft is up to it's third novel, Dance of the dead. We've already had the low level adventure set there, now you get to learn some more about the Aaaaangst of it's darklord. Don't give in to brooding, for that path leads to becoming one of them. On the generic side, we have HHQ2: Wizard's challenge. Soon there will be solo adventures designed for all the classes. Be ready to be bloody cautious, and hope you win initiative, for getting that spell off really does mean the difference between victory and death. We also have HR2: Charlemagne's paladins. Another historical era gets adapted as best the ruleset can manage. Just how good that was, I'm not sure. Any takers? D&D has yet another quirky low level set of adventures, this time with a boxed set full of props and crap. Goblin's lair seems designed to introduce new players to the idea of mass combat, which I suppose is something. Still feels like they're seriously dumbing things down in this department. Marvel Superheroes gets another spiffy boxed set. Lands of Dr Doom lets you into Latveria, to fight him, or at least one of his many doombots, in his secret lairs. Very definitely Muahahahahahahaha!!!!! time here. And finally, weirdly, we have another XXVC product, a good 9 months after the last one. Are they trying to reboot it, or this one last book that was written and ready to go before the cancellation, and is just getting put out with a tiny run for contractural reasons. Hardware by slade gives you a load more gadgets to fill your game with. Assuming anyone is still playing, anyway. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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