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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5392366" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 213: January 1995part 3/8You never know who you'll meet: The planes as presented in the AD&D cosmology do have their limits. Here we step outside them for some rather gonzo random tableage, perfect for when PCs enter that part of the map marked Here Be Dragons.  No matter how high level you are, the wrong result on these'll make your day pretty interesting, and may also threaten the entire world if you don't think fast. Still, in infinite parallel universes, you can probably go back in time to fix things, or find one that's almost identical except for a few little niggling historical details. It's how well you tell the story, not the stakes. What is fairly certain is this article provides a good monkey wrench for you to throw into a campaign that's getting too staid and has players that are getting too confident. Call it kill or cure. <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" /> Either's better than letting a game just drag on past it's natural end. The role of books: The sword of maiden's tears by Rosemary Edgehill is essentially an anti-quest, as the dysfunctional protagonists deny the mess they're in to precisely the point of believability. (and not beyond, as in too many magic meets modern day stories do. ) This does mean that a solvable problem becomes a far harder one by the end, but anyone who's studied economics knows that's pretty realistic. And it's that dose of reality that makes the drama all the more affecting. Sounds like she's amusingly genre aware whatever name she's writing under. The list of 7 by Mark Frost gets one of our more common criticisms. Too many elements at once leads to clutter, and not enough attention given to any one of them. And combining the wrong ones is just nasty, even if they seem good individually. The art of editing and arrangement is one even good writers can struggle with, even after many books. The winter prince by Elizabeth E Wein is a very welsh retelling of arthurian legend, with Mordred as the narrator. This of course means that the perspective is very different, even beyond the various creative liberties. The story is quite complex as well, with plenty to unpick from what is implied but left unsaid. Sounds like it'll reward rereading. The child queen by Nancy McKenzie does something similar with Guinevere, portraying the story from her view, with a particular emphasis on the Arthur/Lancelot love triangle. Once again this shows how differently people can reinterpret the same source material. It only takes a few bounces round the hall of mirrors for an idea to become distorted beyond recogniseability. Brian Froud's Faerielands by Patricia McKillip is a triumph of style over substance, with the story virtually inconsequential as a framework to hang the gorgeously rendered artwork. Might as well have just released it as a straight art book, as the attempt at eco-preaching is very much a broken aesop. Maybe he should collaborate with David Bowie again. Spear of heaven by Judith Tarr gets a fairly good all-round review. It's set in an established world, but not unfriendly to newbies. It's a serious story, but the characters aren't lacking in sense of humour, and there's plenty of worldbuilding without the plot dragging. All just recommended.</blockquote>

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