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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5269934" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 195: July 1993part 2/6TSR Previews: Dragonlance finally tries to move forwards again, having spent years prequelling the setting with increasing detail. PQ1: The players guide to the Dragonlance campaign may look like an RPG book, but it's pretty much system free, being a bunch of fiction and little essays designed to introduce people to the setting from a ground eye view. See, its not scary to join in instead of just watching. It also gets DLT1: New tales: The land reborn. You get to tag along with some of the characters from the books and clean up the crap from the aftermath of the war. Doesn't that sound like fun! Spelljammer introduces a new area. The Astromundi cluster. Another boxed set opening up a place where things work a little differently. Which is pretty neat. Can you manage to live peacefully beside neogi and mind flayers?  Ravenloft continues to give Van Richten prominence in the setting with his guide to Werebeasts. If you don't think they can be scary, look again. The amount of mystery and suspense involved in finding one, and then dealing with them if they're unwilling, is quite substantial. These creatures are a lot more annoying here than anywhere else, and even powerful adventurers can feel the long term sting of an encounter with them.Dark Sun goes back to home base, to show you what's changed. DSS1: The city-state of Tyr. Is it going to actually become free, or just another chaotic miserable shithole. You know the answer by now. Bloody happy endings mandate. How are we supposed to run a sustainable persistent world suitable for adventuring in if the good guys always win? Greyhawk is still obsessed with Iuz, with the third product in a row focussing on his works. WGM1: Border watch sees the PC's trying to keep him from expanding his territory. Nasty business, but somebody's gotta do it. Don't you miss just going into the temple of elemental evil and killing everything in it. So much simpler. The forgotten realms focusses on it's own villains. Prince of lies by James Lowder sees Cyric face some ghosts from his past. How long can he remain triple portfolio'd god of superdickery? Surely the other gods aren't going to put up with this upstart for ever.Gamma world has the orwell inspired supplement GWQ2: All animals are equal. Mutant animals have taken over the zoo. What kind of society will they form without the humans? And finally, even our generic novels get increasingly serial. Book of stones by L. Dean James completes the story from sorcerers stone. I don't even know about this to be properly snarky, so I shall say nothing.  Real warriors ride elephants: Off to africa again. Persistence is paying off in multiple ways, as this is also another collection of kits to differentiate the class that most needs it. It may not be hugely groundbreaking, but it's certainly needed. Let's hope the mechanics are satisfactory. Ashanti Warriors dress brightly and ride horses, travelling across great distances and generally being showy and heroic. They seriously kick ass in the saddle, with both combat and social benefits, but if they lose their horse, they'll be out of action for ages. This is most likely to be a problem at higher level. Benin Hunters are fierce trackers and protectors, an African spin on Rangers. They get improved stealth and favored enemy bonuses, but lose two weapon fighting, as there's no particular cultural tradition of that. This a pretty minor adjustment, about on the same level as wizards giving up a familiar for some other minor benefit. After all, many wouldn't use it anyway. Bornu Horsemen show that chivalry is not a purely european invention, being the closest thing to knights. This makes them generally pretty popular and trusted, but they have to behave or become hunted down by their former companions in arms. The real benefit is  that they get to use heavier armour than any of the other kits round here, which is easy to overlook. Kalahari Bushmen go around near naked in the desert sun, toughening them up, and making them able to survive their easily, but resulting in serious premature wizening. As this is a purely social penalty for substantial mechanical benefits, this is one of the more powerful kits here. Kongo Pygmies are another set of shortarses, adapted well to the jungle. They get a whole bunch of woodland benefits that make them superior to rangers in some ways, particularly stealth, but all their initial nonweapon proficiency slots are eaten up by their requirements, seriously curtailing their choices, and they have a strength penalty to reflect their size, which is a pretty strong drawback for a fighter. I think that about balances out, but in an interesting way. Kushite Elephant Warriors are the titular kit of this article. Of course, an elephant is both benefit and hindrance. It requires a ton of maintenance and won't fit in many dungeons. But on open ground it can trample most opposition into the dirt, especially if you have several of them in formation. Have fun. Interesting to note how few bonus proficiencies these classes get, especially in contrast with the athasian kits of last issue. Other than that, they're pretty balanced, with the lack of armour an understated but omnipresent factor that'll actually be a pretty significant compensation for the benefits. I think this is a pretty good collection that'll add to your game without breaking it. The game wizards 1: Dragon Strike must be quite a big part of their catalog, as they're giving it a second promotional article this month. While Bruce's was focussed on creating the rules, board and pieces, Jim Ward got to handle creating the video. This end was turned around on a stupidly tight schedule as well, with the reality of scripting, casting, costuming, makeup, special effects, editing, hitting them like a jackhammer. And I'm betting doesn't look nearly as impressive as they're selling it too, especially in hindsight. Computer FX in particular have come a long way since then, and I wouldn't be surprised if they look laughably cheap in actuality. After all, if many major motion pictures have that problem, what hope a little company from Wisconsin? Our imaginations are always going to be capable of greater special effects budgets than they are, which makes the rash of videos and CD games all the more questionable. And of course, making these things is still expensive even if they look cheap, so they have to sell quite a lot to make a profit. I have to wonder if this didn't make things worse for the company, by creating a whole bunch of products that didn't recoup their costs. The problems are mounting up, aren't they. Sage advice goes back to 1st edition again, apropos of nothing. They really are still pretty friendly to previous edition stuff at the moment, even if the articles have tapered off. How do you see using shadow walk. (You're moving at 126 MPH. Whatever you see is going to be pretty blurry) Command dragon is virtually impossible to get the material components for. (Indeed. It is what we in the business call a plot device, not an everyday weapon. )Does a periapt of wound closure work on damage caused by a sword of wounding (yes. Defensive powers trump offensive ones if they conflict. And you thought exalted was innovative. ) How long do familiars live. (about as long as their masters, unless magically zapped.) What happens if you combine a bag of holding and a portable hole ( We've already covered this one. You get to take a quick one-way extradimensional trip through a spacial rip )What's lawful about peace? (It lets you build stuff without it being destroyed unexpectedly. Peace is very conductive to order, if done right. )</blockquote>

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