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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5204149" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 185: September 1992part 5/6The game wizards: Not content with trying to make the old basic rules more accessable in a new boxed set, TSR are now trying to get into some of that lucrative HeroQuest market by making Dragon Quest, another game that bridges the boardgame and RPG classification, and hopefully will make a good entry drug for young players. As you might expect, this is the usual mix of behind the scenes and promotion. Buy it for your kids, or your little siblings! Hope they actually bother moving on from it instead of just playing a few times and losing interest. Hrm. Like the Collectable Card stuff, this feels like a slightly forced attempt to expand their scope and get into new markets. Good luck with that. And with a little googling, I see that that impression is actually rather disingenuous, as it's actually a resurrected SPI property that they only did token promotion on. Or maybe that's the last edition, and they just slapped the name on an unrelated product, it's hard to tell. In any case, my skepticism level is rather high here. I shall watch with interest to see if this disappears without a trace. The role of books: Jaran by Kate Elliot gets a positive review for it's interesting take on worldbuilding. Complex cultures are created, set in conflict, and then our normal human PoV character is dropped in the middle. Y'know, some people would make it accessible enough that you don't need that gimmick.  Dragons over england is a set of short stories from the TORG setting. It doesn't get a very good review. The design feels more like a sourcebook than a novel, and the stories lack any kind of consistency. The problems with a kitchen sink setting is that it can wind up not feeling like a setting at all, and the editing certainly doesn't help that. You can't just plop in whatever cool stuff your writers come up with, however good the ideas might be individually. Jumper by Steven Gould is of course a book that has gone on to be a movie a few years ago. And from the sound of this review, it quite deserves it, as it succeeds both on a character-building level, and in how he logically exploits and develops his teleportation powers. Sci-fi doesn't have to be all high concepts and rayguns. And psychic powers don't have to turn into a kitchen sink of mind control and telekinesis. Court of shadows by Cynthia Morgan is a swashbuckling elizabethan espionage romance. With memory loss, dueling, and a strong chemistry between the female lead and the main villain, it also seems good fair for a movie conversion. Can't happen to every good book, can it. The Catswold Portal by Shirly Rousseau Murphy gets a negative review for trying to juggle one plot too many for it's length. Not a bad attempt, but needs a better editor. Sahara by Clive Cussler gets a mixed, but overall positive review. Yes, it's terribly formulaic as a spy thriller, and doesn't quite have that bondesque elegance, but it does demonstrate how the espionage genre has a future in the post cold war era. Keep the popcorn popping, and the airport shelves full. Fire in the Mist by Holly Lisle, like Jumper, is a first book from a new author that scores quite well by putting a distinct spin on familiar ideas. Gender segregated spellcasters and prodigies with incredible but not fully controlled powers certainly aren't new ideas, but when the delivery is at the right pace, and the worldbuilding is good, the reviewer isn't going to complain. TSR Previews: So much stuff coming next month that they drop the this month ones completely. This is gonna be another loong ploughthrough. The Forgotten Realms is focussing on the Drow this month. Menzoberranzan gets a big boxed set letting you adventure the hell out of it. Whether you play as Drow, infiltrator, or adventurer trying to attack (bad move if you ain't epic level) there's lots of stuff for you to take advantage of. Meanwhile, Menzoberranzan's most famous prodigal son is doing so well, his latest book gets published in hardcover. The Legacy sees Drizzt about to have his newfound happiness shattered, again. Onward, building up ever more Aaaaangst! Al-Qadim experiments with the formula of it's supplements. Mini boxed sets. Slimline, with all sorts of odd bits and pieces. The first on is AQ1: Golden voyages. Follow in Sinbad's footsteps and lose your ship repeatedly. Invest your treasure wisely and leave it at home, for losing all your stuff is very annoying. Dark Sun expands some more on the veiled alliance, in DSR3. The degree that all the city states have become rotten and ready for a good revolution becomes increasingly clear. The preservers are all over the shop, just waiting for someone to get their acts together. Are you that someone? It also gets The Amber Enchantress, book 3 in the prism pentad. Wait, what? Cleric quintet vs prism pentad. Settle on a name for your 5 book series. Not sure what to think about this. Dragonlance gets a second introductory level module, DLQ2: Flint's axe. I suppose it fits with their obsession with prequels. You can still move onto the original epic module series from here, I hope. D&D is quite busy this month, with several very different products. The Haunted Tower adventure pack sees them concentrate on undead, with another bunch of mini adventures assisted by a ton of gimmicky props. Now there's one that would be a lot less thrilling if I downloaded it in .pdf. PC4: Night howlers makes werecreatures available as PC's in D&D. Been quite a while since they had new stuff in this series. Cool. Not so cool is their saying the first D&D novel is out. Um, are you forgetting Quag keep and Trollshead back in the 70's? Looks like the current management have either forgotten about the early years of the company, or are a bunch of lying liars who lie. Anyway, The minted Sword by D.J Heinrich is the start of the Penhaligon trilogy. This is rather a mixed blessing to the setting. Do we really need more metaplot mucking intruding here? Gamma world gets the Gamma knights boxed set. Wear powered armour and pilot giant mecha! I remember when Jim did an article on that, back in issue 101. Hoo boy. That's a substantial change from the normal playstyle. And it includes a boardgame too. This may be contentious. Marvel superheroes celebrates spiderman's 30th anniversary by releasing a supplement devoted to him. A bit trickier thinking of stuff to fill this out than for the X-men or Dr Doom. Oh well, he's got lots of plotlines and a big rogues gallery. I'm sure you'll be able to get some useful ideas out of this. Finally, it looks as though Buck Rogers' gameline is still limping along at the moment, with Nomads of the sky by William H Keith jr. RAM are still trying to dominate the solar system, and not having an easy time of things.</blockquote>

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