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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5220820" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 188: December 1992part 3/6Bazaar of the Bizarre: Another article following very directly in Ed's footsteps. Idiosyncratic magical swords? Of the Realms? Issue 74 would like to have a word with you, whippersnapper. As ever, the difference between a homage and a rip-off is purely a matter of quality.  Calathangas turns both the wielder and those attacked into wererats. This may or may not be considered a good thing. It also lets you control normal rats, which probably is handy. Better get practicing that control shape skill. Dyerwaen makes you highly popular with elves and lets you fit into the forest as well as any ranger or druid. Whether you use that responsibly is up to you. Equillar lets you change shape, can change it's own shape, blocks mind-reading and disrupts the shapechanging abilities of others. You can slice through intrigue with ease and finesse. Useful here, and even more so in Ravenloft. Evithyan's Blade is an elven sword designed to kick drow ass. Like Glamdring, just seeing it'll have them quaking in their boots, such is it's reputation. The Heart of Stone lets you cast stoneskin on yourself, and petrifies enemies with a crit. Cheesy or what? It does have a teensy little drawback, but that's only a problem if you don't do your homework. And I do so love putting players in situations like that, so I approve of this. Ice Claw is an intelligent frost brand that wants to kill dragons. Don't we all mate. And with an ego like that, you aren't going to be saying no to it any time soon. Have fun being dragged along in search of foes to valiantly slay. Neekar lets you speak and read any language. It's intelligent as well, so it'll help you by explaining the context of stuff you still don't understand, and quite possibly being a general right-hand diplomat whispering in your ear. A sword that likes preventing bloodshed? Next thing you know, we'll have an axe that encourages you to plant trees. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Nightwatcher lets you see in the dark, and alerts you if set properly while you sleep. Solo dungeon crawling is always a mugs game, but this is a good bit of gear to have if you really can't find a team. Swords +2, shock blade add extra energy damage to your hits above and beyond their regular plus. Ahh yes, this became one of the great cheese exploits in 3e, particularly Neverwinter nights. Add a whole bunch of 1d6 elemental/energy damage effects (and permanant true strike if you want to be really cheesy) and the weapon becomes a lot more deadly for it's GP value. That's what happens when you put item crafting in the hands of smart PC's.  Swords +2, Vampiric regeneration do exactly the same as the ring of the same name. Not sure why they bothered to specify the exact plus, and that's easy enough to change anyway. Really, that ability could be applied to nearly any item. Not the most imaginative ending to the collection, but they all seem pretty handy anyway, and have enough quirks to keep players on their toes. It's much easier to follow a trail than it is to blaze it. Shadow knight supplement for Amber! With lots of glowing quotes and a questionnaire. <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" /> The role of computers decides to fill their page count with more smaller reviews. In the process, they stray ever further from their original remit to review things from the perspective that this is a roleplaying magazine, and the games chosen and criteria they're examined with should reflect that. Another thing that has gradually been diluted over the years to the point where it's pretty much forgotten without actually being consciously abandoned. And more cause for long-term concern. Complacency is a persistent challenge that never gets any easier to deal with, just like creativity. Aces of the Pacific is a WWII flight sim. It's pretty easy to learn, and reasonably fun. But they don't give much info about it, apart from stuff on what your computer needs to play it, which is a section that hasn't got any shorter under their new format.  Darkseed gets another review driven strongly by complaints and system requirements. Annoying copy protection plus a crap instruction manual drag down it's marks. Falcon 3.0 is another flight sim, this time more modern. This gets a little more detail,  and a general recommendation, although they once again complain about the manual. They're computer programmers! They may work in larger teams than in the 80's, but the days of each program being a massive project with space and budget for dedicated music & manual writers is still a few years away. Minotaur is a multiplayer fantasy adventure game where you're put in a maze and have to compete to find weapons, spells, etc to beat the other players and escape. Treacherous alliances and brutal deaths are the order of the day. The online arena is progressing nicely these days. Prince of Persia gets 5 stars, kicking off another long-running series with a bang and much frustration. Once again they complain about the copy protection. If you lose the manual, you're in trouble. Play it on a console instead. Red Baron is a third flight sim, this time concentrating on WWI. Man, what has this got to do with roleplaying? I suppose it draws on the wargaming link, but we haven't see much of that round here in years. I am left vaguely bemused again.</blockquote>

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