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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5371620" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 209: September 1994part 4/6Eye of the monitor: After only a single year, Sandy moves on, his regular programming work taking up so much time that he can't hold down this column as well. Bah. And now we truly move into the endgame of computer game coverage in the magazine, where the cast of reviewers changed every month, with very little consistency. This doesn't feel particularly good either, even though he wasn't around as long as the Lessers, he certainly made his mark with memorable soapbox pieces and cool additional articles for the magazine. Still, he goes out with another prophetic statement, predicting the rise of MMO's and other multiplayer games. The greater the proportion of people regularly buying computer games, and the more able they are to communicate, the better the network externalities become, and the more viable this option is. And other people are always a challenge where computer opponents soon cease to be, or reach the point of impossibility. He certainly has his finger on the pulse better than most people who try to predict the future. Inherit the Earth is a point and click adventure game that feels a bit buggy and outdated. It's also annoyingly hard, leaving Sandy frustrated at what could have been. It only takes a few things wrong to seriously lower a game's score. Equinox is the sequel to Solstice. (see what they did there) Like it's precursor, it's a 3d isometric game where you explore levels and solve puzzles with decidedly limited resources. Make sure you don't use them up too soon, otherwise you can find yourself stuck. Castlevania IV shows Sandy once again making fairly elementary errors about nintendo games. Castlevania II was the only one that had any real roleplaying elements, I & III were both straight platformers. He's decidedly disappointed by this. Platformers are evidently not his thing. Serf City is essentially a medieval version of sim city, with all that entails. The building side is balanced out with the combat side, with knights that you use to conquer enemies and defend your city. The AI is limited, and there's no networked multiplayer, so it's hardly a classic, but it's another one that's entertaining enough if you like the genre. Gunnar Thorson solves the mystery, with a little oracular help. A plot wrapped up in under a year? Unheard of! Will he be back to solve another one? Nahh. This is going to stay a one-off. Bah. 1,001 faces of undeath: Ahh, yes, dark sun undead. Each one an individual. Which means more powers for them to choose from rarely go amiss. And that is exactly what we have here, along with a semirandom set of tables for determining how many and which ones they have. Like the old hordeling table, which it has a moderate amount of stuff in common with, you can get some pretty obscene results, especially if you get multiple complementary effects on the defensive powers table that make them virtually impossible to hurt and able to reform even if their physical body is destroyed. You won't even have to resort to fiat to get scenarios like a classic slasher movie series, where buggers like freddy and jason just keep on coming back ad nauseum, killing more people each time. Ravenloft may spin a scary tale, but Dark Sun really backs up it's terror with large numbers. So this'll let you whip up multiple scary, idiosyncratic individual monsters much faster. That's definitely worth something, even if it's hardly original these days. Fiction: What power holds by Richard Parks. A tale of magic and it's laws this month. Not too unusual around here, you might say. The thing you have to pay attention to is their consistency, and the way they impact the fictional world around them, hopefully in such a way to create compelling stories. When they create a battle between what is just, and what is the compassionate thing to do, this becomes more of a benefit to the narrative. And when we get to discover them along with the protagonists in a naturalistic fashion, it helps keep the world accessible, and makes you eager to read more. So once again, it looks like their fiction department has picked a winner, with a premise that could easily be expanded on to fill a few novels of adventures and worldbuilding. Sometimes this magazine seems like a whole world full of unfulfilled potentials. Only a few of them will ever become reality. But then I remember that's much of the point. With roleplaying, it's what you make in your own games that really matters. So let's draw what we can from this and move on again. Sage advice: How does speak with dead work on petitioners if they've lost their memories (It doesn't. It works on corpses, which remember just fine. )What racial adjustments do githzerai thieves have (none. Their body is close enough to human to make no difference in these matters. )Do the fated get double to both weapon and nonweapon proficiencies (Skip says no, full knowing future freelancers will break that rule. Skip looks forward to capping their asses. ) Can power's avatars enter sigil (no. Even that would cause the lady of pain to throw a tantrum with sharp whippy things.)How big are a dragon's wings (2/3rds it's body length) How high can a dragon's strength go ( Not as high as you'd think. Damn this 25 point scale )How big an area can you scry ( As far as you could see from that point normally) What races can use giant sized weapons (have we not formalized size categories yet? Oh well, another thing to put on the edition change list)Do PC satyrs get 50% magic resistance (no. PC's are different. In this case this means we nerf stuff, like we did for githzerai last issue.)Can a magical shield deflect attacks from creatures that need magical weapons to hurt (yes, but a normal shield could do that too) What's this? Looks like the higher-ups at TSR are forcing Skip to do spellfire questions as well. What are you gonna do if Skip refuses, huh? Oh. Yes, maam. Right you are. :mutter, mutter mutter. Skip'll get you for this later, just you wait and see: What is an unprotected realm (one with no defences or defender )How far back can I set my realms (you need to put them as close as possible. Only if you have lots of them can they cower behind one another)What happens if you get more than 8 cards in someone elses turn (nothing, until you get to step 5 of your turn.) Can a realm defend itself with spells without a champion (no)Why put stuff in your hand, not the pool (so you can use it more quickly)How many cards can you have in the pool (as many as you like.)</blockquote>

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