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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5460042" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 222: October 1995part 2/8First quest: Doug Niles finally takes a turn here. He's the pulp guy, and it's not at all surprising he got inspired to engage in gaming via that route. Actually, it looks like he might well have been a writer anyway, even without being introduced to roleplaying by a rather large stroke of luck. But even so, having people to test out your ideas on a weekly basis does do quite a bit for your creative confidence. After all, if you don't enjoy something, it becomes a lot harder to persist with it and get really good. This is really a reminder that very few great things happen in a vacuum, and luck plays a huge part in people's lives. And also, incidentally, a reminder that Gary was a fairly mature adult with teenage kids when he developed D&D, not some whiz-kid, and that probably also had a significant influence on early playtests. So unlike the last few, this column actually has a degree of significance in overall gaming history. That is an improvement. The Death Knight: Well, we're having a decent halloween themed beginning, anyway. Death knights are dramatically interesting because you have to have started off as a good guy and then fallen to darkness to become one. This isn't exactly an ecology, more the equivalent of Council of Wyrms or the complete book of humanoids, turning them from a monster entry into a class/race combo by letting them scale, spreading the abilities they gain out over various levels, and codifying the amount of undead followers they gain. It's obviously intended to keep them as bad guys, but like antipaladins, there is sufficient detail that a PC could run one if they were permitted too. In any case, it lets you customise them quite nicely as big bads, and also provides roleplaying and adventure designing hints for campaigns featuring them. So this is a pretty likable feature, that does something they haven't done for way too long. New classes, kits and races are one of those things the magazine is ideally suited to cover, that they don't do nearly enough on. Hopefully that's one of the things they'll fix in this revamp. The necrology of the Penanggalan: Ahh, ecologies under another name. We've had a few of those over the years, all with a different twist. In this case, well, the fact that it involves undead should make the reason behind this name change pretty clear. This is a fairly familiar story of corruption, deception,  and aaaaaaaangst. But the body horror of the original myths has been played down, with the full-on display of flying viscera that they possessed in 1st ed replaced by a more utilitarian combo blood reservoir and clubbing device. Bloody 2nd ed bowdlerisation. It also has that other great staple, of the woman trying to prove herself in a man's world. And then turning into a weepy twit under pressure and having to be rescued instead of seeing that there is a pragmatic solution to the problem at hand. You're living in a magic heavy world. Do you not think that the solution to the little issue of becoming an undead bloodsucking fiend would not be known to your bosses. Dear oh dear. It's certainly not dull, but I do not approve of several of these stylistic choices. If this is the kind of thing that'll be even more common next year, it's going to get pretty irritating.</blockquote>

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