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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5403119" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 214: February 1995part 8/8From the forge: Last time, Ken was all about the accessories. This time, it's landscapes that get the spotlight. Pimpin'. Minis without context are like tea without biscuits. You can live happily without it for years, but adding them just takes the experience to a whole new level. :adjusts monocle: So, let us take a stroll through these miniature panoramas. Stone mountain miniatures go for both retro and futuristic, with a fireplace, some rather spooky giant stone heads and computer control panels, a weapon array emerging from little domes, and some weird rock outcroppings. Build up the suspense, and then give them the payoff, barrier peaks style. Heartbreaker Hobbies go for something appropriately traditional, a hut and tent inhabited by yer basic orcs. Geo-Hex take on the city blocks and highways, while Terrain Specialities will let you set out the green green hills of home. Tactical Conflict Systems fill an oft-overlooked niche, with modular strips of river that you can assemble into all sorts of shapes, plus a bridge to go over it at any point, and a little cottage that'll look nice nestled into a bend. Finally, Alternative Armies have a wide range of walls for you to shore up your defences with. This seems like a collection that'll get a complete newbie up and running without too much duplication. In addition we have three minis sets, one a holdover from his last column. A spined and heavily armed mecha angel for Legion of Steel. A trio of samurai. And another set of postapocalyptic scavengers. The influence of Mad Max over the cultural landscape lies longer than I remember at the time. TSR Previews: Planescape releases an adventure that ties in with last month's boxed set. Fires of Dis takes you there, to one of the biggest and hottest cities on the planes. You break the rules, you'd better be ready for trouble. Dark sun gives us another monstrous compendium. As if this place wasn't harsh enough. More stuff to challenge you right up to epic levels. They also get The darkness before the dawn by Ryan Hughes. A story of gladiators, and their suffering in the arena. Can the protagonist survive and come out tougher. Signs point to positive. Ravenloft takes us to Sithicus, to face Lord Soth. You know the drill by now. Explore, deal with railroading, probably fail to actually defeat the domain lord. Lankhmar shows us the Cutthroats of Lankhmar. See the places where you make money, and figure out how to get ever more of it. Muahahaha. The city is not your friend. The Forgotten realms gets part two of the twilight giants trilogy, The Giants Among Us. As is usual here, things get more complicated than ever, hopefully being set up for the final book to resolve. The First Quest line gets two novels of it's own. How very odd. Guess it actually sold really well last year. Rogues to Riches by J Robert King and The Unicorn Hunt by Elaine Cunningham show you some more novice adventurers learning essential life lessons the hard way. Lurk Moar. Amateurs. And finally, we have another non roleplaying, but connected item. The Blood Wars Dueling Decks. Blerg. Trading card games have well and truly arrived. Can you build an optimal deck to beat your enemies? The ecologies are highly enjoyable in this issue, and a very welcome return indeed as well, but the rest of isn't very good at all. The themed section is twinky froofy crap, the computer section is weird and thoroughly flawed, and there's way too much CCG stuff. Meanwhile the rather good reviews and fiction remind us that there is plenty of of good stuff happening in the wider roleplaying landscape that you might want to check out. It is more than a little frustrating. And makes me want to reread the other books I was buying around that time more than I do this. Bah. Next issue please.</blockquote>

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