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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5281478" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 196: August 1993part 5/63 Wizards too many: Having fully established the personalities of our three plane-hopping, 4th wall bending archmages, Ed starts to have them relax in each other's company a little more. Mordenkainen is still suffering the most heavily from his world's metaplot events. (I wonder what Ed thought about the power struggles in the company and changes made to Greyhawk after Gary left.) Dalamar is still the aggressive young punk who regularly gets taken down a peg by his older and more powerful companions. (Both El and Mord have tales of them facing down Fistandantilus during his plane-hopping days, which they may or may not be making up to keep him off balance. ) And Elminster is still playful, all-knowing, and tremendously cheesy. All three engage in gender-bending over the course of this episode, which is presumably why it's title is what it is, and these's a running gag involving gnomes as well. The new spells, items and monsters are somewhat less obscene than last time, but still designed for active adventurers, by experienced adventurers, and pretty useful. The whole thing is like a bouncy technicolour ball of sentient energy that bounds in and livens up your day. Which given how much work this thread is, is pretty damn welcome. MERP finally gets a new edition. It's been well over a decade. That's vaguely surprising. Now, the big question. Is it an improvement? Bazaar of the bizarre: Figurines. Little animals that come to life on command. (and sometimes when you don't want them too either. ) Another easy vein for you to mine, that's nowhere near tapped out yet. And since this involves some pretty good writers too, I believe I shall wander up to the head table and go "Please sir, can I have some more?"Amber monkeys are a riff on the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil saying. There are three of them and they'll do exactly that on command, blinding you, deafening you and muting you. Which leaves you alive, but very vulnerable. Muahahahaha. Coral Dragons aren't as badass as real dragons, but are still reasonably useful. They can be both combatants and fonts of wisdom. Show them a little respect, don't just stuff them in your pocket. Emerald Frogs don't get any bigger when animated, but can shrink giant bugs and suck them straight in with their tongue, making what is often a deadly encounter much easier. Like the bottle of trapping 2 months ago, this makes for amusing visuals as well. Jade Snakes come in pairs, one for biting, and one for healing. Trying to use both at the same time is a very bad idea. They look very pretty entwined though. The Moonstone Rabbit digs quite impressively. Don't abuse it though, because it's more fragile than it seems. Opal Cats are another themed set. The mother cat, which attacks with great viciousness. The kitten of caterwauling looks pathetic, and it's yowl is worse than nails down a blackboard. The kitten of contemplation, by contrast, is relaxing to have on your lap, and lets you recover spells in half the time, which a high level wizard would pay a LOT to have. A very cool set of ideas. Silver Carp can produce water, or purify it. Their production capabilities aren't as impressive as a decanter of endless water, but what is? They can also blind you by wriggling their flashing scales. Individually none of their powers are that great, but they do add up to a nice little package. The Tourmaline Turtle lets you ride on it's back like Jacques Costeau. Some of them even let you breathe underwater while on them. it also has a really vicious bite, so any kraken that messes with you will lose a tentacle. Still, it only works up to 12 hours a week, so you'll need another ship for lengthy voyages. Swordplay lowers their ambitions to an achievable CR enemy. Fea wears drowface and incites racial hatred as part of her plan to rescue Yamara. Dragonmirth plays oblivious, but they'll suffer for it later. Robinson finally gets to meet his ex-wife. And safe to say, she doesn't feel the same way still.</blockquote>

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