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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5426047" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995part 4/8Magic resistance, step by step: Oh bloody hell, this rules pain in the ass again. Issue 79 covered it in 1st edition, but that's a long time ago now, and they shook things up quite a bit in the edition change. Skip Williams has answered more than a few questions about it in his time here. Will a full article about it settle this once and for all? Maybe for a year or two, if he's lucky. So like forum getting a stoneskin special back in issue 199, this feels like a sage advice special on top of the regular one. It's all pretty clear and sensible, and is over in a page and a half. Makes you wonder why it was a problem in the first place. Is it because far too many people don't read the rules properly, or is it the fault of the rules for being scattered around the books and sometimes contradicted in supplements. Probably a bit of both. As with last time, this isn't too gripping, although the writing is less dry than last time round. It's a good use for the magazine, but at the same time, you can't help but wish they didn't have to do it. Well, no shortage of other issues they'd do articles on instead if it wasn't there. Meh. Eye of the monitor: Aww, poor Apple. They're pretty much reaching the nadir of their popularity. Co-incidence that they nearly went bankrupt at the same time as TSR? Probably, but it's amusing to ponder. In the meantime, they still have some pretty avid followers in our writing team, arty types that they are. So both reviews this month are mac ones. Well, at least they're not Atari Jaguar ones or something. That would truly be a lost cause at this point. Jump Raven gets a whole load of grumbling because it's far too tricky, and no fun to play. There are plenty of shooting games where you can control everything without a co-pilot, and where the collision detection works properly. Complexity & shiny visuals do not equal fun. Cosmology of Kyoto, on the other hand, isn't really a game, but is both interesting and educational. Explore the streets of japan, encounter all kinds of supernatural weirdness, and try to reincarnate yourself into a favorable form. Course, going to one of the many hells or being reincarnated as a dog just gives you new avenues to explore. For someone who loves oriental stuff as we know zeb does, it's quite a treat, even if it is slow and often a bit illogical. Still, since many of the legends are long and not entirely coherent, this adds to the mythical feel. It's achieved what it set out to do, even if that isn't for everyone. The nature of evil: Ah yes, the question of how to make a really memorable villain. There's one that's always an issue as soon as you introduce an overarching plot with a big bad to your game. The choice here is fairly simple. To make them significant, you need to make the players fear and hate them. And of course the rest of the article is focussed on methods of achieving that. Not a hugely nuanced method compared to the ones that really try and get into your NPC's heads and find out what makes them tick, but the focussed tricks are often quicker. Figure out what they can do, and what they will do to the PC's when they interfere with their plans. Make them mean, make it personal, set them up and deceive them, turn their friends against them, and generally make Evil mean more than just a letter on a sheet and a side in a conflict. It even recommends that you play on the personal fears of your players, which is something that can backfire badly. These things are a balancing act. If you have the villain raping, killing and then reanimating their character's babies as undead monstrosities the players may leave in disgust. So I think this article doesn't quite present the degree of perspective and moderation that you need for a truly great campaign. But if you're looking for trouble, you'll get it in spades following this advice.</blockquote>

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