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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5225936" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993part 2/6The other orientals: They've finally stopped publishing 1e OA material, four years into 2e. But they're still quite popular, and we've seen a few of the old classes turned into 2e kits. Getting the magazine to finish this off seems like exactly the kind of thing they should be doing. If anything they should have done it sooner. Kits are a whole world of easy articles they've barely scratched the surface of yet. So I strongly approve of this article. Lets bring them up to date, and maybe even improve on them mechanically. Bushi are pretty much unchanged, albeit a little less larcenous than they used to be. As they were the straight fighters of OA anyway, this is little surprise. Kensai get a slight nerfing, keeping their signature powers, but losing some of the peripheral details, which makes them more streamlined and less overpowered. Since they're now working on the same xp scale as everyone else, this is probably a good thing. Sohei actually come of pretty well, as they keep nearly all their old stuff plus full cleric spellcasting. Ok, they only get 5 major spheres  to choose from, but compared to the crap deal many speciality priests get, that doesn't seem bad at all, and makes them a good deal more balanced than the 1e (and 3e) version, which were horribly underpowered.  Shukenja are also probably a bit better than they used to be, as they get regular cleric HD, although they still can't use armour. Just don't expect to be able to work up levels without adventuring by hanging around healing villagers anymore. Ninja lose all their multiclass wonkiness and most of their special abilities. Now they're just thieves with a few more tricks and a particularly strict guild policy. Since that's mechanical benefits for purely social penalties, that's still a pretty decent deal as a kit. Yakuza become substantially easier to get into, and are also a lot less wonky than they used to be. Having the full complement of regular thief abilities and not being so district limited will make them more playable. Yup, I think I can say this article has definitely improved on the old versions both in terms of balance and playability.  You can very definitely have a place in any game that I'm running. Rhino's armor, Tiger claws: Another set of weapons of armour, this time with an indian slant. This really is turning into a very culturally diverse issue indeed. India has a more advanced selection of armors than africa, despite being almost as hot. Large metal overplates above another kind of armor. Bracers with mittens to protect your hands as well. <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" /> Rhino hide armor, which is considerably more kickass than regular cow based leather or hide armor. Lots of interesting helmets, many disguised as regular turbans. Armless armor to help you stand the heat a little better. And a guard to keep you from being slapped by your bowstring. Now that's one you never hear adventurers complaining about. <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" /> Lots of good ideas here. As with the african stuff they have several shield variants specifically designed to be good at dealing with missiles or melee weapons. The weapons are rather more familiar, enough of them have shown up in other sourcebooks that I recognise the names and what they do. Tiger claws, spiked bucklers, punch daggers, interesting picks, and all kinds of sword variants that show there's no one best way to forge a blade. The momentum is starting to wear off, but this still seems like a decent enough way to finish off the themed section. Which leaves this issue at well above average so far. The Known World Grimoire: The voyage of the princess ark may be over. But Bruce Heard still has plenty more detail about the lands of Mystara to give to us. And far too many ranty letters to answer as well. It's a hard life being a developer, especially when far too many readers don't appreciate your sense of humour. It's also tricky thinking up all the ramifications to big metaplot events. Fortunately he can give official answers to those questions here as well. It does have to say that the new mystara seems somewhat darker than it used to be, with multiple countries destroyed or transformed. While I don't recall it getting as many complaints as greyhawk wars, this did probably cause a few problems to people's campaigns. We also get a bit of promo for the Poor Wizards Almanac. Bruce freely admits that there are a few errors in there, and sets about providing errata. Tear out the map carefully, unfold it, and then stick it back from one point so you don't lose it. Whalers island is full of walrusses, not whales, so watch out. And mind the scales on the Isle of Dawn. All relatively minor stuff given the volume of information there. And finally, we have another load of writing on demographics. Mainly useful if you're at the domain stage, and want to figure out your tax base with a little more rigour, this bit is fairly dull. Still, the whole thing feels less forced than the last few princess arks. If this change is what he needs to keep producing cool stuff for us in the long run, so be it. Fiction: Djinn coffee by Allen Varney & Aaron Allston. Even more multicultural fun here, in a classic example of the devils bargain tale, courtesy of a genie and the slimy merchant who thinks they can get the benefits of unlimited wishes without paying the price. Hah. I think you can guess what happens next. The poor schmuck tricked into serving him finds a loophole, and awaaaaay we go. They have studied the form pretty well. With some amusing magical anachronism, snappy writing and easily visualised action scenes, this shows that some of our rules writers can indeed manage entertaining fiction too. Even if it is a bit formulaic, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.</blockquote>

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