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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5332220" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994part 1/6124 pages. Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker! Polly'll toast a dumb thief trying to steal her feathers to cinders. Yes, it's rogue's turn to get a featured issue again. One of those topics we've seen quite a few times, and will do so again. As one of the basic class groups, they have to keep providing for them, come rain or shine. Well, unless they changed the primary system they're covering, but that looks increasingly unlikely the longer we go on. So once again I must pray they do not serve up some overcooked rehash browns as I venture into this issue. In this issue:Werewolf: the apocalypse gets it's second edition already. Well, that was standard WW practice at the time. And their visuals have certainly improved. Editorial: Dale proves that he's been perusing the old archive copies of the magazine from before he started buying originally, quoting an ancient Jim Ward article from issue 13. Yesss, curry favor with your overlord. :rubs hands together: The result is a pretty middle of the road bit of GM advice that shows that Dale, like Roger, could be a pretty good article writer if he so chose. The main lesson here that to be a great GM, you need to make sure it's not all about you. Involve your players at every stage, from the creation of the world to the end of the session. And don't kill them unless you really have to. Because after all, sitting out the game until a new character can be introduced is rather boring. Ok, it's not the way they played it back in the old days, but people are more attached to their characters these days. As with increasing the number of continues and frequency with which you can save computer games, it seems like a logical progression. Just have to be careful you don't go too far the other way and have people lose interest because they no longer feel challenged. So this is fairly good advice, albeit very slanted towards the current trends in fashion. Ask again in a decade, see how things have changed. White wolf denies imperilling the sanity of their playtesters. Nothing to see here, move along, we're a perfectly decent game company. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Letters: A letter complaining that there's too much crunch in current issues. Unfortunately, the more specific stuff is, the easier is is to avoid repeating yourself. This means that in a magazine like this, the average tendency over the years will be to increase the proportion of statistics. Some joke responses to issue 197's cover. Another thing Roger's departure doesn't seem likely to affect. A letter from Ian Reid volunteering to be a PbM clearing house. They warn him that he may be biting off more than he can chew. Scary business. A letter informing us what gliepnir was. Norse mythology is full of cool magic items to plunder for your game. Another bit of trivia helpfulness.The D&D coloring book was a licence from 1979. They produced some kiddie-centric cheese back then too. Don't let nostalgia fool you. A complaint that their subscription always arrives late. Pass it on to the postal service. <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" /> Another procedural question. With all the staff changes, who do we write too? Just the magazine in general'll do fine. Magic to a different beat: Bard's relationship with magic is still wrought with tension. Issue 56 suggested that it would be more thematic for them to cast their spells in an entirely different way to wizards, using song, and possibly interpretive dance or playing on an instrument to manifest special effects. And as I thought then, they still need a whole new magic system to really do that idea justice. Still, an article that suggests what kind of instruments are most suited to what types of music isn't a terrible idea. Shame this isn't a very gripping implementation of that idea. In fact, having read it though several times, I'm still struggling to remember enough to comment upon it. Very forgettable indeed, which doesn't really bode well. Dirty rotten scoundrels: Hey ho. How do you properly roleplay your rogue? With style and panache, duh! You've got to think fast and be flexible if you want to outwit and eliminate your enemies. Course, you have to make sure you stay on the good side of your buddies at least. And you should be prepared to be spontaneous, as oxymoronic as that may seem. For timing is everything, and a great window of opportunity may never open again. This is all very basic indeed, even if it is avoiding the mistake of PvP antagonism that they encouraged back in the 70's. It all feels a bit patronising to me. Very much for any new readers they may have got their hands on recently. I get no xp from this one at all, on the other hand.</blockquote>

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