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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5494373" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 226: February 1996part 1/8124 pages. This cover looks a bit rushed. I can still see the brushstrokes. They've managed to blend the logo with the backdrop nicely this time though. Maybe it was just a stylistic choice. Oh well. They do seem to be putting more artwork in, with the contents page having a rather large variety of different colour illustrations excerpted. Will they work in context? Flip, flip, turn the pages quick. In this issue:The wyrms turn: Blaah. Another editorial on how to get into writing for the magazine. Either they're still getting tons of letters, despite having said this stuff a couple of issues ago, or they aren't and are trying to get more new writers by reverse psychology. We've heard all this so recently, that it really doesn't seem like people are paying attention. Well, apart from the quibbling about fonts. That's new. And also goes to show just how picky they've become about their formatting these days. There is such a thing as being too standardised. Oh well. As soon as online submissions become commonplace, that'll cease to be an issue. In the meantime, this just reminds me that they've had huge staff turnovers recently, so of course they're going to be repeating old ideas more, since they may well be new to them. Ironically, the better my memory is, the more I'm going to suffer due to this. Not a very promising beginning. D-Mail: We lead with three letters asking for stuff from back-issues. I presume that like the requests on how to write for the magazine, they get rather a lot of these, and are trying to drill in the stock answer of no free lunch, you've got to pay, presuming it's even available still. Once again I feel both bah and blah about this. We also see another bit of polyhedron promotion. Looks like the drive to boost the RPGA is going to be sustained throughout the year then. A letter deriding issue 224's castle defence article. If they get to the walls, you've already half lost. A good leader ought to be paying attention to politics and news, and making sure it doesn't get that far. And if it does, they should have an army ready to go, blast them on the approach. Offence is the best defence. Quite a few real world military people agree. Another attempt to soothe a worried writer. What is obsolete now? Oh, that's a tricky one. Just think of it as all optional, some options which aren't compatible with others. You can still pick and choose which options you allow. At least presuming you can get the rest of the group to agree. Good luck with that, by the way. A letter criticising Rick Swan's reviewing style. Surely the most important thing a review should tell you is if a book makes a game more or less fun. The reply goes off at a tangent somewhat, tackling minor points first. Curious. And finally, yet another letter from someone wondering how to become an RPG writer. Another one?! Departmental co-ordination fail. This repetition is getting out of hand. Who's overseeing this section anyway? Anybody? anybody? The magic goes away: Eeek. Nasty scary eyes and 80's hair. No thanks. Equally unwelcome is the topic, trying to sell you on cutting down magic in your campaign. While not a bad idea in principle; as the various historical sourcebooks and masque of the red death have shown, it's not very well suited to the D&D ruleset. You need a system built from the bottom up to really do it justice, because you won't get the proper breadth of characters and niche protection here, and if you try and tone down the level of general magic in the campaign, while leaving the PC's rules untouched, there is the very real risk of them just walking all over the NPC's, no matter what social hindrances you try to put in their way. Ironically, this is one of the worst timings for an article like this, with their tightened focus on AD&D and other TSR properties. So it's a well meaning but problematic article here. Just go to another system instead of spending ages trying to get this to balance. Runequest or WoD work way better for gaming with the magic stripped out. Rome may not have been built in a day but...: We're in more of a hurry these days. And we have better equipment. Yes, it seems that one theme that's continued on from last month is the desire to speed up your creation process as a GM, by guiding you through it step by step. More hand-holding, in other words. And while these channelling methods may help you work productively, if you are completely devoid of inspiration, no amount of trickery will solve the problem short of full-on random tables.</blockquote>

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