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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5235008" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 190: February 1993part 4/6Role-playing reviews: It's a GURPS special! My oh my. They have been busy, not only writing various genre supplements, but also licensing out a whole range of properties, many rather surprising. How better to prove that their system really does everything, and if you like, it could be the only game you ever need to learn. Mind you, it'll take a fair bit of effort and money to do that, but at least you're not trying to keep up with AD&D's supplement mill. GURPS The prisoner is one that seems like it would be particularly hard to turn into a setting, given the surreal and sometimes contradictory nature of the show. But the designer manages it, partly by making sure the toolkitness of the whole thing is played up. Answers? Hah. It's more fun without them. GURPS Callahan's crosstime saloon is a bit easier to convert, but ironically winds up duller because of it. And the humour part of the show is a bit neglected too. Some things, even the most generic of systems will struggle to model. GURPS Middle ages 1 shows that they realized right away this topic needed more than one book. It focusses on the english side of history, feudalism and chivalry, legal developments, wars, everyday life details. But as with far too many GURPS books, it's just a load of details. It's up to you to turn that into a good campaign. GURPS Camelot gets much the same result, with the tension between fantasy and history being if anything, greater. How do you make it all fit together? Up to you. GURPS Old West gets the best review of their historical sourcebooks, for being full of easy fun plot hooks, and generally having a more playful approach. Rick also approves of the way the settler/native conflict is handled. Plenty of adventures to be had on both sides. GURPS Terradyne is one of their few full original settings. It combines corporate dystopia on earth with frontier space exploration, giving us a nice contrast between old and new. Quite hard sci-fi, it focusses particularly well on the technological and economic developments of the setting. Sounds like the kind of thing I'd like. GURPS Space atlas 4 is also setting heavy, but is a bit system light too. This makes it particularly easy to mine and convert to other games. Combined with the previous  entries in the series, and you have a pretty substantial modular future atlas for characters to adventure in. Novel ideas: As usual for the first instalment of this column of the year, it's time to see what books are coming out over the course of the year. As you's expect, they lead with their strongest lines. The realms is getting a good 8 books, including 3 Salvadore ones. Not for nothing is he the master hack. Dragonlance is getting 6 novels, plus a rerelease of an old favourite. The people have spoken, and they want poetry! Dark sun, Ravenloft and regular D&D are getting 3 books each. Ravenloft is even getting a hardback, despite being the one that's skipping the trilogies and bigger series. They must be doing particularly well for themselves. Ahh, the joys of horror bringing in a different demographic to exploit. Course, it's not all good news, although they try and spin it all positively. Spelljammer is finishing the end of it's only series, and they have no plans for another one. They've given no hints what's coming after this year for the basic D&D line Similarly, the XXVc line is limping out it's final products on greatly reduced print runs. And the generic line is not only down to 4 books, the same as last year, but two of them are follow-ups of previously successful stories. They really do want to cut their risks in that department. Still, overall that's 30 books mentioned, one more than last year. On the surface it all looks pretty stable, unlike last year, there's few major changes in their lineup. Whether that will result in diminishing returns for sales yet I'm not sure. Anyone with inside knowledge here? Sage advice: Where is Zalchara ( I dunno. But if you want Zakhara you turn south at Toril, and keep going until you get past the pretentious guys with the skyships, then take a 45 degree turn left. You can't miss it, since it is an entire continent. If it's not there, go back a hundred years and try again. If it's still not there, then it's been retconned, and you might as well play cards in limbo with all the people punched by superboy prime) What's the level limit for halfling sha'irs (10)What do rings of wizardry and other magical items that boost your memorization ability do for sha'irs (not a lot, in most cases. Like a mule with a spinning wheel, your best bet is to sell it on for a good price. ) What's with the reference to segments in Wall of Ash (Another case of the writer not keeping up to date with rules changes. Why are descriptions of the Baazrag so contradictory (good question. Unfortunately, Skip doesn't have a good answer, so Skip will give you two mediocre answers instead. Hopefully that'll be satisfactory.)Tinker gnomes have been nerfed by Tales of the Lance! (Yes. We're subtly trying to keep you from playing one, so groups don't have to deal with them as PC's. ) How much damage does a sashik do. (It's a bloody kender weapon, so Skip'll take the least favourable option. )I don't understand the cleric spell lists (They do need a bit of clearing up. That is Skip's job, so Skip will do it ) Reorx and Sargonass' turning abilities are a bit odd (Not all evil gods like hanging around with undead. And is it so wrong for some gods to give alternate turning options? Things get very boring without variety. ) The dates on the calendars contradict each other again. ( Tracey! Margaret! Please report to Skip's office on the double. No excuses and no lallylagging. )High level sword knights can't fill up their spell list in one go. (Yes. This is an intentional bit of design. Lets them have occasional access to high level spells without stepping on clerics toes. ) How many legs do displacer beasts have (6, unless some were chopped off. Or it could just be artist incompetence, as usual. )</blockquote>

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