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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5336282" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994part 5/6The dragon project: We've already had one mechanical dragon in here, for Paranoia. This month, Talislanta gets a second, more serious spin on that idea. A legendary giant mechanical construct, that if found and spruced up a bit, could give you substantial benefits in the shock and awe department. Exactly what role it plays in your campaign depends strongly on how intact it is when found, and whether the PC's or the enemies are the ones that find it. Like many of these articles, they try and play up it's versatility as a plot device and long term applications, such as if you find small pieces and have to go on an epic quest to complete it while other groups are racing to do the same. |It all seems quite pulpy and cinematic. Whether that's a good thing for talislanta's general themes I'm not sure, but it's reasonably entertaining, and could be slotted into plenty of other campaign worlds. (particularly Mystara. ) It's another solid contribution from this column. Forum: Travis N. Gillespie would like to know what real world countries Realms ones are based on. This isn't that hard, apart from the ones that aren't based on real world ones at all. And those are relatively few. Kerry C. Zane would like them to set up a personals section. Oh dear god. Once again I thank the internet. With stuff like Facebook, you have pretty good odds of being able to get back in touch with people in a matter of minutes, wherever in the world they are.  Andrew Wyatt praises David Howery for his skill in creative lifting of ideas from other media. It's useful and helps make better stuff quicker. Well, how often has David been published here? If he wasn't a good writer, they wouldn't keep letting him back in. Joe Katzman finds skimpy costumes on adventurers breaks his sense of verisimilitude. Cheesecake has it's place, and it's not in a dank dungeon with things trying to kill them. Save it for the nights on the town when you get back, and want to brag about your exploits and get laid. Nathan Bruha points out that hack-and-slash characters in a realistic world will seal their own doom. It's all very easy. All they have to do is kill the people who would help them, and they'll be out of a quest in no time. The man himself, David Howery, returns to point out some more ways to get round stoneskin. Nibble them or grapple them, it all comes out in the wash. When basic tactics can get around it, there's no excuse to fall into the pattern of just hitting back and forth till someone drops and getting upset when that fails. Sean Murphy is annoyed at how little respect gaming gets at sci-fi conventions. Insufficient crossover, weirdly. This may because Sci-fi games are rather underrepresented, especially since Traveller fragmented itself into limbo. Another depressing case of geek looking down on geek for no good reason. Christopher A. Hunter is yet another person able to explain clearly what lawful goodness and being a paladin should be about. It really isn't complicated. Kindness & Organisation in good balance. Don't be nasty to people, unless they really need killing, and if so do it cleanly and fairly. It's a lot simpler than being morally grey actually. Campaign Journal: Al-Qadim gets a second turn in this column. We've already seen how well and easily arabian adventures can be melded with horror, now Greg Detwiler shows us a grab-bag of other milieus that mix well with it. Mercantile stuff is facilitated by the kits, as is the land and sea based travel and exploration. There's plenty of political reasons for them to go to war, what with religion being a rather touchy subject, and the usual resource issues. Plus there's the expectation that even minor disagreements should be settled with blood feuds. It all seems well designed for neverending interpersonal dramas on any scale. But you can also focus on the supernatural side if you choose. Wait a minute, this isn't a very imaginative selection. Not sure what to make of this. One would think these playstyles would work to a reasonable degree in any world with at least a modest degree of both realism and supernatural elements. This once again feels like basic handholding. Is that the best you can come up with? How about merging arabian adventures with hard-boiled noir private investigator, or bitchy rom-com. I can visualise how to make those work without too much trouble as well. So once again I am feeling rather patronised. Next thing you know they'll be reminding us of our ABC's. I'm starting to feel I may not be in their target audience anymore.</blockquote>

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