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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5481445" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 224: December 1995part 5/8Bazaar of the Bizarre: Another article complaining that druids don't have enough magic items focussed towards them? I don't know. Sometimes I feel like there's not enough continuity here. This is why compilations turn out handy after all. But why are monsters getting regular yearly ones while magic items aren't. Surely items are useful to both players and DM's, so they'd actually probably sell more. Oh well, basic logic errors may be another thing that's contributing to their sales slide. Claws of the Bear are an idea they've already used in this column, goddamnit. So very bored right now. Silver Branches shed moonlight, which lets you see, reveals fae, and enhances plant spells, curiously. Nicely idiosyncratic collection. A Pouch of Trails protects you from tracking, and helps you follow trails made by others. Another one full of flavour and multiple uses. Eyes of the Frentlin let you see through the eyes of a bird. Unless you have other powers to control it, this aint so great. But there are plenty of spells to solve this, particularly if you're a druid. Meh. Bane Toadstools are evil fungi that corrupt you if you use their powers. They had to have a booby prize in there, didn't they. Most druids will of course try to uproot these buggers. But there's always one who thinks they can master the powers isn't there. Muahahaha. An entertaining end to a rather mixed bag here. From the forge: Another column comes to it's end without being given a proper chance to say goodbye. Indeed, the writer is aware that this column has been delayed during the reorganisations, and even gets some formatting updates along with the rest of the magazine, which suggests that the guys in editing thought they'd keep this column, and then suddenly changed their mind, probably when the second changeover in quick succession happened and Pierce and Anthony came in. I guess minis are still a contentious topic for roleplayers. Some love them, while others find they actively impede their imagination. Now, the big question in my mind is: Was this the personal choice of the staff, or driven by the survey responses of the readers? This is one era where a little insider knowledge would help a lot, as the reality might be very different to what I'm inferring. Once more to recap the actual minis then. Games Workshop release Warhammer Quest, their latest attempt to get new players on board. It seem a little more sophisticated than Heroquest, and is certainly more challenging and open-ended. They also release another pair of undead badasses to command your armies in the full game. The public appetite for them seems to be neverrending, and so why should they stop making them? Not that they're lacking in competition, with RAFM's skeleton war wagon, Ral Partha's official Dragolich, Crypt thing, and Lord Soth figurines, and Grenadier & Harlequin's respective skeleton forces. We've had so many skeleton armies over the years that no force should be reduced to a skeleton crew. :rimshot: There's also a demon and a dragonman, neither strangers to the modelling world. The only unusual creatures are two rather goopy looking Earthdawn monsters from Heartbreaker hobbies. Well, it's more diversity than some  halloweens managed. And finally, we have a best of year. It's like squeezing the contents of two articles into one. A lot of these are larger showcase pieces that you might not want to use on the battlefield too frequently. A scene of a Hippogriff taken from a poem. A new wizard figure from sculpting legend Julie Guthrie, who has apparently gone into retirement. A <s>dracolich</s> necro drake from RAFM, photographed with brooding clouds gathering behind it. A 16 inch living dragon, which I'm sure will terrorise nearly any scale of minis you have. A rather skinny demon named Kreegah the Spoiler. I'm betting he can still rip most wizards to shreds from his description, not that that's hard when they didn't bring the rest of the party along <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> A High elf from Games Workshop, an Orc Shaman from Heartbreaker Hobbies, a Grim Reaper from Grenadier. They're sticking to the standards as well. A julie Guthrie sculpted Klingon from Rawcliffe, showing she's busier than it seems. A very brightly painted and menacing looking mecha from Global Games. A looming Balrog from Ral Partha. And yet another bloody skeletal legion. Just how many more of them do we really need? Maybe we could do with a break from minis after all. It is a shame though, because they actually appear to have improved the way they transfer photos into the magazine as part of their reorganisation. That's gone up and down so much over the years that it seems very silly to stop just as you got it working well.</blockquote>

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