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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5233419" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 190: February 1993part 2/6Divide (VVVV) and conquer!: Never split the party, the first words in this article, and one of those lessons most teams learn pretty soon, especially if raised on a diet of horror movies. It makes you vulnerable, and results in players spending long periods of time with sod all to do. But from a plot point of view, sometimes it's the natural course of action to take, and then you need to figure out how to make it work. Fortunately, there are tricks to make it work better. Timekeeping is of course the critical one, as Gary knew well, and the rest of us hurriedly learned. Not that fudging to ensure characters have a greater chance of "co-incidentally" running into one-another again hurts in this kind of game. The other things are making the story interesting enough that people don't mind sitting around waiting for a bit, tailoring the adventures properly to the participating members of the party, proper use of cliffhangers, between session one-on-one interactions, letting players control NPC's, and figuring out how and where they're going to get back together. So plenty of advice I've seen before, a couple of bits I haven't, and quite a few valuable ideas I've often used on this subject missing. I think that adds up to a middling article overall, just high enough CR that I can eke out a few more XP from it. The known world grimoire: As with last month, it's letters and economics in here. Not hugely interesting. Let's get a-saging. Are you going to fill in all the locations in Thunder Rift? (not officially. We have to give your DM a chance to exercise some creativity.) The Rules Cyclopedia is just too good and complete! (Honestly, no pleasing some people. If you want to keep things from the players, get the AD&D PHB instead) The artwork on your new introductory products is frequently crappy, recycled and inappropriate! And Thunder rift is pointless! And they're too expensive too! You Suck! (How are they supposed to know? They're only N00bs. We want to dumb things down so new people can get in gently. Never mind that things weren't nearly as simplified in our greatest boom period. ) Was Robrenn influenced by the Asterix books (Hell yeah. In the original french too. Well done for spotting that one. ) Your map keys are incomplete. I'm confused! (Honestly, most of them should be common sense. How hard is that? <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" />) I'm sad that the princess ark series has been half filler over the last half a year. (Sorry 'bout that. Reality is a complicated and annoying thing. )You suck for increasing your margin sizes to save money! (Once again, would you rather we raised prices instead? No pleasing some people.) The economics talk this month covers population growth (or decline, if you really mismanage it) and exploitation of natural resources. These are of course intertwined, for as the population grows, it'll want to clear woods and create new villages, and'll grow ever more capable of exploiting things like mines and farmland. Bruce introduces some more fairly simplified subsystems, that'll do the job as long as you don't examine them too closely. Meh. This is all a bit uncomfortable. I have to wonder how many of the complaining letters he actually agrees with, and is actually using this as a means of making sure other people know about the companie's current missteps. Or is that kind of political reverse psychology reading too much into it. I'm really not sure these days. The marvel-phile: Looks like it's sagin' time in here too. What with the actual sage advice, plus the known world grimoire, and the letters and forums, this does seem a touch excessive. Send me the game statistics of ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPOQRSTUVWXYZ characters! ( Statistics are a product, not a right. You'll have to wait for us to put them in books and magazines and then buy them like everyone else) How can I get The Ultimate Powers Book? (Search me. It's out of print, and we ain't redoing it. (Note, do not literally search me, or we will be forced to taser you and inform the relevant authorities)) Send me a catalog of what's available! (Write to the right department! We are not going to do all the work for you. ) How does power absorption work? (In the comics, however the writers want it too. Don't expect your GM to be so generous with you. ) Why does wolverine need to put effort into slicing up a sentinel. (again, game balance. We have concerns they do not.  )How does endurance interact with martial arts (Martial arts is the great equalizer. A sufficiently well trained fighter can even take on the hulk in a superhero universe. ) How can assassins gain karma? ( By doing other stuff as well to work off their debt. ) Do you get a chance to dodge when the other guy shoots you (only if you haven't already used your action this round. Yes, it's so unfair.) Which is tougher, Wolverine's bones and claws, or Thor's hammer. (Thor's hammer, but not by an insurmountable ratio.How can street level heroes fight thugs with such a big multiple attacker penalty. (sufficient badassery. Simple as that. ) I don't want to play a superhero. What opposition can I face? (Steal batman's villains. Plenty of street level stuff around really.)</blockquote>

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