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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5412705" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 216: April 1995part 5/8Role-playing reviews: Masque of the red death tries to tone things down to accommodate modern day gothic horror, but still retains far too much of the D&D class and level system to make it work properly. These flaws are not immediately apparent though, and in terms of layout it's pretty great, resulting in Rick giving it a 6 pip rating. Style! Parlainth: The forgotten city sees Earthdawn picking up pace and setting detail, with a nicely detailed citybook. Robin Laws gives it plenty of history, and makes it into a dungeon crawl with a sense of humour and plenty of opportunities for roleplaying. Rick's main complaint is exactly that, it's not sure if it wants to be completely serious as worldbuilding. Bah. TSR have certainly been guilty of that too. Glantri vice, anyone? Red steel turns D&D's magic level up a good deal, ironically making spellcasters less essential in the process. The new races are pretty good, the kits are cool and well integrated, and the constant need for new sources of Cynnabryl to stave off nasty withdrawal symptoms keeps adventurers constantly busy and with plenty of potential opportunities and enemies. I like this a good deal more than Masque, and it has stood the test of time better mechanically. (apart from the CD, which was pretty meh even at the time, and now just seems embarrassing to my trained ears in terms of sound design. ) Rick just wishes there was more detail on the setting, which I can quite agree with. Denver, the city of shadows gets a review that is largely Rick taking the piss out of Nigel Findley in an affectionate manner. The product is packed full of IC dialogue of shadowrunners trading off quips and information. This makes it an entertaining read, but tricky to find stuff in a hurry. Typical mid 90's writing flaw then. Fiction: Dead man's curse by Roy V Young. An excerpt from one of their new novels? They haven't done that since Quag Keep & Trollshead. This is a very unwelcome stepping up of their co-ordinated promotional recycling crap. It's another goofy april story as well, which is a bit much after last month. On the plus side, it is edited in such a fashion that the excerpt still works as a standalone story, and the finale is genuinely laugh out loud worthy. So this is another case where I have to return a mixed result because I can see ever more of the sausage grinder that's actually producing this stuff, and looking behind the scenes isn't particularly pleasant. This is another case where I seriously hope they don't make a habit of this. Forum: Jon Larie praises the idea of mashup games, but warns that you should be prepared to houserule after the fact if a combination turns out to be gamebreaking. In situations like this, GM agency is more important than ever. Jason Hubred justifies the recent rise in minis prices. Yes, we know there are good reasons, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. It's still a pain from a consumer end, however you slice it. Ann Wilson tells Stephen Jessup not to try railroading characters into novel plots, especially if they're the wrong level and party mix. That'll result in things turning out differently even if they try to play along. Steve Shawler complains about the recent tendency towards railroading and statistical sloppiness in TSR modules. The backlash is building, the backlash is building. Damn right too. We want choices in our adventures, not to watch some NPC's having all the fun. Keep that to the novels. Donald Hoverson suggests another thing that would become standard next edition. AC should have a base of 10 and go up, not down. These are really starting to add up and still 5 years to go. I wonder how many more canonised houserules we'll spot in here. Ralf Toth thinks clerics are not the supreme class. Their kits suck, and they're in just as much danger of losing all their powers as wizards, maybe more if they follow a strict deity. They don't get as much love in supplements, do they. Garry Wilson wants holy warriors for gods other than the same old lawful good stuff.  You'll wanna go back to issue 106 mate. That'll give you more than enough examples to draw upon. Matthew Ferguson continues the magic jar debate. He thinks it is all that compared to becoming undead. Y'know, I think I'd prefer the Shade option. Far cooler, and a lot less destructive of other people's lives. Steve Collier is another person who thinks clerics can be pretty scary in combat. Ok, they may not stack up to wizards in AoE power, but stuff like hold person, heat metal, animal summoning can really turn the tide. Points of damage are not the only way of determining advantage.</blockquote>

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