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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5324601" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994part 1/6<img src="http://www.rpg.net/pictures/show-water.phtml?picid=9155" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />124 pages. You know, I think this cover might actually be better than the issue 200 one. It's not quite as exquisitely photorealistic as issue 94, but it is both pretty and detailed, with a real sense of scale and depth to it. Guess we're back to reality after the high magic hijinks of last month. Course, that might mean a more consistently good issue overall, even if it doesn't have the extra size and budget. After all, they managed it in issue 51. Optimism, optimism, are you going to be crushed again? In this issue:Letters: A not too surprising complaint about the sideshuffling of mystara. This is putting too much emphasis on AD&D over the regular variety. Dale tries to sidestep the complaints rather than counter them, slipping in as much promotion for the upcoming products as possible along the way. Go on, tell us you're not happy about the move either. A request for an indian setting. Like africa, you'll have to be content with an increased frequency of articles in the magazine for it. A demonstration that roleplaying does indeed improve your writing skills. But then, we knew that already. Compare the level of discourse here with say, youtube comments, and there is very little contest. Another query as to their online plans. They continue to be pretty conservative about this, keeping the web at arms length. And so they slip another small step behind the times, despite individual members of the company trying otherwise. Another repeated topic, this time proper submissions procedure. You must still beware the no SASE ogres and their ravenous appetites. Grr, Argh. Editorial: Kim may be the guy at the top of the masthead again, but he's not nearly as involved in day-to-day stuff as he used to be. From now on, it's mostly Dale that's doing the frontline work such as answering letters and writing the editorials. Well, he's still young and enthusiastic, and Kim was never really much of a gamer in the first place. He also has some pretty definite opinions on what he wants to see in the magazine, which doesn't hurt. More ecologies! More minis, non D&D articles and stuff applicable to any game! More detailed bits of setting! More advice on making your own settings! Stuff to grab the imagination, and be handy for all roleplayers, not just AD&D lovers. Not too dissimilar to Roger's aims actually, it's just that he hasn't been worn down by the responsibilities of the big chair and all the compromises and politics that come with it yet. This changeover isn't so much a fresh start, more a renewed determination to make their established formula work. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter of opinion. The city of lofty pillars: Most cultures have legends of some kind of shangri-la, a perfect secluded place where the troubles of the mundane world do not reach, fantastical things are commonplace, and time passes strangely. Often bound up with supernatural creatures such as fae, you can go there, but you may well have trouble leaving, and don't expect to be able to take much with you. Here we have an Arabian interpretation of that monomyth. The city of lofty pillars in the Realm of Dreams. Time passes at 10 times the normal rate there, and if you leave, you'll rapidly age back to catch up with real time, so extended stays are not a good idea as an adventurer. Jewels grow on trees, but of course melt away when you leave. And spirit creatures like makshi are the primary inhabitants, turning up and slipping away enigmatically. This is one of those articles that seems set up to provide a whole series of adventures, as it's a real struggle to get there, a real struggle to get back, quite possibly another load of hassle trying to return; and even if you do, chances are you won't be seeing much long-term profit from it, you'll just have a good story to tell in the bars afterwards. Which is very much in the arabian nights tradition, if not the D&D one. Even if I can see the formula, it's one that doesn't get used around here that much, (the last example I can remember is The Garden of Nefaron, way back in issue 53) and it's quite well done, so I welcome this. It's not quite one of their old plane revealing epics, but as a way to kick off an issue, it is well above average.</blockquote>

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