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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5477391" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 224: December 1995part 1/8124 pages. This month's cover looks almost CGI, with it's clean angles and mostly monochromatic design. It looks like it was probably really good in high resolution, but whatever they're doing to get it onto the magazine, and then back onto the computer has done it no favours, with the detail blurred and the contrast murky. Still, at least we have a proper theme this issue. Fantastic Architecture? Interesting, if not obviously festive. Still, let's make the most of it. In this issue:Letters: Another letter on how to get published by TSR when you're a complete n00b. Follow the procedures and don't get your hopes up. Financial troubles mean we're even less likely to speculate on a completely untried idea, even if we like it personally. A letter requesting that they set up a sage advice hotline. Skip finds that most objectionable! Skip'd have to employ lackeys to keep up with that kind of demand, and they'd surely mess it up. A letter congratulating the new editor, and enquiring about the presence and absence of various features in recent months. Some were merely skipped, while others are going going gone. Dragonlance, on the other hand, is going to be back with a vengeance next year. Look forward to it. Still slipping in promotion wherever possible then. Editorial is really short this month, and padded out like a business letter. They've finally figured out what they're going to do with the magazine. Raise prices! It's only been 2 years since the last increase. Couldn't it at least have been a 50 cent one like last time rather than a full dollar? I suppose if their budget is directly linked to sales, they might be faced with the choice of a big price increase or layoffs. In return, they promise to give us more colour, more meat in their articles and more attitude. Hmm. So this is the point when the pendulum starts swinging back towards the crunchy side. I can't say I'm that surprised. When times get hard, you fall back on the proven sellers. Colour has always worked, this is the 90's, so attitude is very much in, maaan, and splatbooks are big perennial sellers. Oh, and the logo looks like it's been star warsified with that parallax slope. Hmm. If they're becoming more conservative, how will they find new topics to keep long-term readers interested? This all seems a bit ominous for me. As with the last crisis in 1986, it looks like they're going for up front shinys over balance and subtlety. Oh well, it'll give me plenty to bitch about. <^> First quest: Steve Jackson! Now there's a big name to bring in, even if like the last few, he never worked for TSR. Still, when he started, D&D was pretty much the only game in town, so it's not surprising he started with that anyway. Also not surprising is that he rapidly started modding the game and writing his own stuff, moving from freelancing to full-time writing pretty quickly. More surprising though, is that his initial play experience was pretty rules light. Given the way GURPS developed, I find this rather interesting. I guess it was always modular, and you can dial the complexity up or down as you please. If Kevin Siembieda doesn't use all the rules from his game, and Gary went back to stripped down OD&D in his later years, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr Jackson doesn't use all his own rules either. Once again, he doesn't remember much about his first session, which goes to show, it's not such a big deal for some people, especially when it was over quickly, and the things they did after that are so much more impressive. Still, this was quite informative for it's size.</blockquote>

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