Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5388993" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994part 6/6Libram X does that clip show thing. Swordplay is large, but not in charge. Dragonmirth has eating jokes that don't revolve around dragons for a change. Glatheld encourages ultra-violence and commercial cheer on Hard fun and beyond this christmas. From the forge: Return of the ratings system! Well, we have had one for years from Robert, albeit not a particularly brilliant one. So it's not that surprising Ken has been getting mail complaining about the lack of numbers in his review. In a typically amusing irony, he overcompensates, giving us a system with 3 1-10 scales (technical, artistic and value) rather than just the boring 5 star rating. This is the great thing about new reviewers. They're still willing to change things around on a regular basis. Most of our minis reviews this month are of landscapes and accessories. A wizard's chamber with a magical mirror, crystal ball, book stand, and of course somewhere to sit. (not as young as they used to be. ) A cottage and apothecary pairing to plonk in your idyllic little village. A set of magnetic walls for assembling your own dungeons. You know, this is what Advanced Heroquest did quite nicely, albeit not quite as impressively. 8 reversible doors for adding to your construction kit. A pharaoh's crypt and mad scientist's lab, obviously intended for horror purposes. A set of cards that you can lay out to create environments for your minis battles quickly and easily. Our only actual creatures are a pair of dueling wizards and a fairly small but still intimidating to 25mm characters Takhisis. Meh. Well, we have plenty of creatures already covered. A bit more attention on the backdrops makes for a well-rounded world. TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms kicks off the new year with a vengeance. Another Book of lairs, 96 pages of FR specific mini encounters, for when you need a few hours filled. Realms of infamy, another short story anthology. All the familiar names contribute little slices of life, many featuring iconic characters. However, the biggest name of all gets his own full novel as well. Ed Greenwood delivers Elminster: The making of a mage. Big wodges of backstory that demystify him even further. Familiarity may breed contempt. Dragonlance also goes right to the top, with book 6 in the villains series covering Takhisis herself. As with the other one, I worry vaguely that this will remove all the wonder from a greater deity. Particularly as she keeps on losing. Tricky to have an impressive villain if they get foiled and have to retreat each week. Ravenloft has another lycanthropic adventure, Howls in the Night. Unless it's a bait and switch, which is possible. What spin will they put on the themes this time? Our generic stuff this time is the 1994 Monstrous compendium annual. They've largely exhausted doing this for individual campaign lines, so they're going to collect all the monsters released last year (and quite a few from earlier years too.) and put them in a single book for eases sake. Not a bad idea. Seems like they're doing quite a bit of compiling lately. Also out is City Sites. Another attempt to make on the fly adventure design easier with a load of common floor plans. Again, seems fairly useful, particularly if you're busy IRL. I've been holding off for a while, hoping things were going to get better, and for the last couple, it even looked like they were. But man, this issue sucks. The themed section is dated, the crunch is dubious, the computer section is massively inferior to the previous reviewers. The whole package is deeply unsatisfying. I hope they're making some serious new years resolutions, because at this point, they need them.  Oh, for the innocent days of 15 years ago, when the main flaws were technical rather than narrative, and charming rather than tedious. This is all very frustrating for me. Just how far is this going to slide before it starts getting better again? Guess I'd better grit my teeth and find some more reserves of willpower to tackle 1995 with.</blockquote>

Verification