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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5488947" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 225: January 1996part 4/8I'm okay, you're one-dimensional: Another article on getting your character going in a hurry. If you want help fleshing them out, try imagining who they'd be played by. Pick am existing person or character, tweak a few details, plonk them in the new milieu, and off we go. You could also ask what their theme song would be, what their most important personality trait is, or what they first do when meeting new people. So this is an interesting grab-bag of ideas, that might work for you, or they might not. I think it'll be very much a matter of taste. Oh well, a few more tricks and options doesn't really hurt. At least this one does put an interesting angle on the whole character-building thing. Network News: For a long time, we've heard very little about the RPGA in the magazine. Just as Dungeon handles the adventures, Polyhedron is where all the talk of RPGA activities goes. Exactly why they've decided to change that I'm not sure, but here's another soon to be regular feature. Actually, upon reading, it looks pretty obvious why they want to do this - to grow their player base. Raven's Bluff currently has around 5,000 adventurers living in it, played by people from all around the world. But it could be more, oh so much more. We want you! Course, you have to start from 1st level, and your character options are fairly strictly restricted. No weird races, spells from only a few extra books, standardised hit points, comeliness as an extra attribute, evil and chaotic neutral characters not allowed. Hmm. This definitely reads like a set of rules developed organically as and when they ran into problems, and had to patch them to prevent people from running roughshod over the city slaughtering everything. If I was reading this at the time, I might have been tempted. These days, on the other hand, I'm not. I was rather soured on the whole large scale connected RPG thing after 3 years of MUSH play, which ended after one site folded from lack of players, and I quit another after they decided my main character's type was no longer permitted, thus wasting several years of built up xp without the character getting a decent ending. The degree of arbitrary unnegotiable crap you have to deal with from moderators is greater, the amount of influence you actually get to have on the world far less than tabletop, and the choice of venues if you want to enjoy decent sized network externalities rather small. I have no desire to subject myself to that again. Still, this is one step to increase their revenue that seems both sensible and potentially fun for most people involved, so I'm not objecting. And it's looking increasingly unlikely I'm ever going to get hold of a decent collection of Polyhedron back-issues, it will be nice to see what's going on in that corner of the gaming landscape. Back in the saddle: Another bit of rules tinkering here. Maybe you prefer the way nonweapon proficiencies scale in Skills & Powers, but don't want to adopt the whole point-buy rigamarole using it entails. Try this backconversion. The results are almost precisely halfway between the basic 2e nonweapon proficiency system, and the 3e skill system. Proficiencies starts around 10, ± your ability modifier, rather than being liked directly to ability, and you get to scale them to a greater degree than before, but they don't all escalate the way they do in 3e. That makes this very interesting as a curiosity, and a game using this will have more flexible and balanced characters than the basic system. Overall, I think I approve. After all, the system did need overhauling, and this is a step in the right direction, if not a complete fix. Campaign classics: So, the magazine's readers have made it very clear that they still like many of the campaign settings TSR is no longer producing material for. So here's another regular column to try and fill that void. And not too surprisingly, we're kicking off with a Greyhawk one. Three spellbooks, each by established names. This would do just as well in Arcane Lore. Probably wasn't even written for this purpose. Oh well, at least that shows demand is there. Vecna's Ineffable Variorum is constructed entirely out of creatures. Bone for the covers, Skin for parchment, hair for binding, blood for ink. Pretty gross really. It has three unique spells in it. Depth perception, which is obviously to compensate for Vecna's little ocular deficiency. Vecna's Conflagration, which does what fireball cannot and flings enemies away as well as burning them, which is awesome visually. And Turn Lightning, which is also pretty obvious in application. Don't go for the boring attack types against someone this smart. Iggwilv's Nethertome is a rather large and glossy spellbook, and is largely focussed upon demonology. It does have some spells though, including two rather nasty unique 9th level spells. Iggwilv's Lightning Cage allows you to trap enemies in such a fashion that they take tons of electrical damage if they try to escape. And Iggwilv's Timeless Sleep is another variant upon the sleeping beauty thing, not as good as the one in issue 221, although she's more likely to use it to create guardians that last centuries, so adventurers have something badass to fight. Nice to see a villain doing so much for the adventuring community. Acererak's Libram has gone through owners almost as quickly as the tomb of horrors went through adventuring parties. Exactly why is uncertain, as it only has one rare spell, Acerack's Blackstone, which is a fairly basic spell absorber. Frankly, spell engine is lower level and better. So this doesn't seem to be a very imaginative collection at all. Delve deeper into the ancient tomes, you'll get far better ways of doing the same things.</blockquote>

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