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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5340654" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 203: March 1994part 4/6A colorful Collaboration: Once again with the Bradstreet. He's a big name already, so they have to do a whole article on him to show off the fact that they've got him. The cover isn't all his work though. Fred Fields did the colouring, and the whole thing was originally derived from a posed photograph. It is a pretty good example of how you go from a scratchy sketch to a full-color, high detail piece via adding things, removing or going over the little notes. It's also a lot funnier when you see the amount of thought that goes into adding all the over the top badassery. Those tattoos, guns, outfits and circling eagles all took meticulous research drawing upon real-world examples. It once again reminds me that I'm not alone in my degree of obsessiveness, and this stuff is pretty hilarious when viewed from the perspective of an outsider. Where would white wolf be without people like him going above and beyond the call of duty, in the process encouraging us to be proactively pretentious as well. The plane truth: The teasers for planescape really kick in with this highly abridged A-Z. And the first thing they do is start teasing about the new homebase. This is completely new for the new edition, unlike most of the planes themselves, which are mostly as they were last time we visited. It's ruled by the lady of pain, and the people in it are divided into factions, which fight over philosophical points, for in the planes, what people believe can shape reality. SQUEE! It's all coming right back to me. The modron and the sexy tiefling are also instantly familiar. (and look at the size of those horns! I don't remember them being that big! ) They are going to release some really cool stuff in the next few years, and this is definitely one of the high points. (and again, I'm not talking about the tiefling horns <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" /> ) The mix of slightly surreal imagination and artwork with real philosophical questions underlying the action still speaks to me today, unlike the previous article, which feels very dated. Ok, so technically it's just a promotion article that won't tell you anything the actual books don't, but it's still done very well, with interesting framing and accessible writing. This time, it looks like the promotion style is going to achieve exactly what it was intended too, a mix of "Wait, what?" and "Drool, WANT!"   I look forward to reading the next part. Sage advice: Can the caster of a prismatic spell let their spells through it selectively  (no)What happens if something with magic resistance resists time stop.(the whole thing collapses. Waste of a 9th level spell) How exactly does a holy sword's dispelling work (with great brutality. They really are paladin's trump card. )Can a druid help someone else turn undead with a combine spell (sure) What things from issue 185 have psionics ( none of them. Not everything that goes on a trip to athas develops their mind from the experience. Just like going to university) I want deck plans for more spelljammer ships (buy the supplements then. :teeth ting: )My thief wants XP for stealing stuff (Yes, and you ought to give it to him. It's a social contract thing, donchaknow. Otherwise he's hardly a thief, more a trap disarmament and stealth specialist. )Finally, skip does the indian pantheon this month. Mmm, lots of arms. How will they find places to put them. Good thing Skip's gotta whole lotta sage for them to love. Role-playing reviews: Shatterzone Is the new game from West End Games. With many similarities to TORG, it has an interesting setting, but rather clunky rules. Big numbers, exponential scaling and card based narrative control, it all seems pretty similar, only with a sci-fi setting rather than a fantastical cross-genre one. Ironically, they encourage you not to use everything, and Rick finds the game runs better that way. Once again, the parallels you can draw with palladium are pretty obvious. Crosshairs is the first supplement, sending you to a delightfully grim burnt-out industrial planet where corporations rule and danger lurks omnipresent within the rubbish dumps. It all sounds rather Shadowrun meets Judge Dredd, which isn't a bad market to try and tap. High adventure cliffhangers is of course TSR's new try at a Buck Rogers game. It sees him playing a skeptical cheerleader, wanting it to succeed, but all too aware of it's flaws as well. It's easy enough to learn, but it may be a bit simple and twee for experienced gamers, particularly ones who don't buy into the intentionally gee-whiz pulpiness of it. Jeff Grubb tries his best, but even his sterling work won't save this from the scrapheap of history. War against the Han is also not really to Rick's taste, with lots of stuff on determining adventures via random rolls. Fashion, thou art not here. And nostalgia is not currently in in general either. It really doesn't bode well, does it. Battlespace takes Battletech's mechs up, up and away to fight on an interplanetary scale. Surprisingly easy to learn, but hard to master, this get's Rick's highest marks this month.</blockquote>

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