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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5355428" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 206: June 1994part 3/6Fiend knights and dark artifacts: More Carl Sargent cuttings, strewn through the magazine, filling in details on what Ivid & co are up too. The published stuff post greyhawk wars was very Iuz-centric. And this shows that would not have been so strongly the case if the line hadn’t been cancelled. Although the fiend heavy direction likely would. Seems like they’re getting everywhere, under the guise of service, with serious designs on taking the whole place over. And that never ends well, especially if you have baatezu and tanar’ri around at the same time. So here’s more nasty creatures and items to bite you in the ass.Fiend Armor gives you a whole bunch of baatezu advantages on top of the standard AC boost. They do broil anyone of the wrong alignment though. One of those ones that’ll be a pain for most heroes because it is neat but not for them. Don’t just leave them lying around so the next mooks can be powered up by them as well.Fiend Circlets are pretty similar in terms of granted powers, only less bulky and intended for spellcasters. Stuff like this does not mean they’ll respect you in the morning, just that you’re a valued pawn. But enjoy your few decades of hubris before eternal slavery while you can.   The malachite throne is Ivid’s ‘orrible great regal artefact of insane power and substantial dangers. It gives you true seeing, magical protection, and devil summoning, but said protections are useless against the devils, leaving you open for betrayal or collection of bills. And as he’s going mad, while simultaneously suffering from a wasting disease, it’s safe to say that the situation here will slip out of his control sooner or later, no matter how brutally he tries to hold on to it, and how much cool stuff he has. (unless he decides to become a lich, which isn’t unlikely at all )The Spear of Sorrow is one of those nasty intelligent weapons that  has a load of cool powers (literally) but also likes taking control of it’s so-called owner, and using them to bring back Tharizdun worship. How very embarrassing. I’d rather not be turned into a door to door preacher, no matter the god. The Cauldron of Night is essentially a pure plot device for producing more evil artefacts. You risk your life by coming here, and only woe will result in the long term. Still, it’s a perfect looking location for a climactic fight with a big bad. Send them toppling into the bottomless pit in the middle and hope that finishes them for good. Fiend Knights show that once again Ivid is sowing the seeds of his own demise. Turning your soldiers into unsleeping remorseless semi-automatons seems like a good idea in the short term, but it makes you very unpopular, especially with the friends and families of the transformed. Seeing them stamp around like this is in many ways worse than knowing they’re dead. Silly evil overlord needs a PR adviser if he wants to catch up with Iuz.  Forum: Kathryn Bernstein suggests that if you have one hack-and-slash player pissing off all the others, they ought to gang together and sort it out IC. That and the other logical IC consequences of being a psychopath who kills indiscriminately without remorse. They'll get themselves killed if the DM simply plays fair with challenges. Anonymous gives his experience with hack-and-slash vs roleplaying, pointing out how low level characters succeeded where higher ones failed by using their brains. (and poison) There are several great equalisers in D&D, and even kobolds can exploit them, as Dragon Mountain so brutally showed. B. J. Tomkins reminds us that if a particular player continues to be disruptive, you can and should just kick them out. If they don't want to change, it's not worth trying to force them. You'll have no fun, they'll have no fun, the whole thing will run and run. Lee J. Ballard tried giving the hack and slasher in his group exactly what he wanted and then some. Curiously, that did not satisfy him. Hee. Nothing like a little dark humour to open people's eyes to the plight of others. Unlike the hectoring approach, that sneaks behind their defences to open their eyes. Eye of the monitor: Once again sandy rubs in that the computer gaming and rpg hobbies are currently too young and transient for nostalgia. We’ve been through this before, so this time I shall shrug and move onto the reviews. You’ll get your turn in a few years. Lufia is a Japanese rpg in the final fantasy vein. Build a party, choose a girlfriend, and travel through the land to fulfil the plot. It has a good beginning, but gets more fight-heavy the longer you go on. There’s plenty more where this came from.Isle of the dead bores and frustrates Sandy. It’s shoddily programmed, and the rapid respawn of monsters means getting anywhere is tedious and unneccecarily challenging. We have enough RAM now that this is entirely soluble. Leave it out. Archon Ultra also gets a crap review. Barely improved from a decade ago, it’s frankly inadequate. Not worth buying at all.Epic puzzle pack, on the other hand gets a little slack for being lots of little games rather than one. They do get very cursory reviews though. His heart doesn’t really seem to be in it this month. What’s going on in his life?</blockquote>

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