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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5496800" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 226: February 1996part 3/8The game wizards: Ah yes, the CD rules and character generator. This is one experiment with computers that was a pretty decent success, so much so that they later produced an add-on with a ton of the crunchy bits from various splatbooks. It did indeed make creating characters quickly and legally easier, especially in long-running campaigns, as when you levelled, or the sheet got worn out from marking and erasing spells & damage, you could just print off a new one, and it'd be just as good in quality at no additional effort. Fully indexed and searchable, so it's good for the DM and rules lookup as well. It occurs to me that if this hadn't succeeded, it would be very unlikely that we'd have got the Dragon Magazine Archive either, and then I probably wouldn't have been able to do this thread. So this is a step towards integrating computers into your roleplaying that is pretty significant really. And this article makes it pretty clear why you would want to buy it as well, without forgetting to inject a bit of humour into it's selling process. I'm pretty glad it's here, because it gives us another useful historical marker to take note of. TSR were taking steps to improve their computer-friendliness, if they'd survived they might have got there eventually, if not by the same route as WotC. Powers from the past: Oooh. A new idea. In regular D&D rules creating magic items is the exclusive province of powerful spellcasters, and requires vast amounts of time, expense and deliberate effort. Also damper on narrative drama is that you can't normally enchant an existing item. When something is created, that's about as awesome as it gets. Wouldn't it be cool if it could work the other way around, and an item could develop special powers of time through being used in awesome deeds and developing a legend correspondingly. Well, using this system, you can. The result will have a very interesting effect upon a setting, especially when you include the proviso that someone currently owning a magical item will find it a lot harder to create new ones through their deeds. It essentially creates a system whereby the vast majority of items have a legend and original user associated with them, and if you want to make more, you have to do something worth being celebrated without any crutches. That's actually a pretty awesome premise from a narrative PoV. Not sure it jives perfectly with D&D's expected number of items per level thing, but since that only really becomes codified with 3e, that's not really an issue yet anyway. So this is a great idea that has potential far beyond this system, making for good novels as well. Jackpot! Vampire: The dark ages! Now White Wolf are muscling in on medieval territory. Do you have what it takes to go against the 800 pound gorilla and survive? If you're now a 300 pound orangutang, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility. Bazaar of the Bizarre:  David Howery's back again, filling another little idea. Magical scabbards don't get nearly the screentime swords do. I believe this is a perfect topic for the magazine to cover. He's got no shortage of ideas, even if some of them are nicked from existing myths and legends. Should fill up another few pages nicely. Bondbreakers let you draw your sword even if they're tied up. You're ready to fight anyway. Naughty naughty very very naughty. <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" /> Quickarm Scabbards can teleport your sword to your hand and back, even from a distance. This allows you to pull a whole load of tricks and then look innocent as soon as authority turns it's head around. Scabbards of adjustment fit any weapon perfectly. Hurr hurr, IYKWIMAITYD. Scabbards of care are another one bringing a feminine touch to proceedings, allowing you to leave the business of oiling and cleaning your weapon to it. That'll save a good bit of time each evening. Scabbards of empowering give your sword a plus which fluctuates in an interesting manner, depending on how long it stays in the sheath. Which means the less you fight, the more badass you are when you do. Interesting dynamic to have. Scabbards of Forging can completely fix a broken sword by just shoving the pieces in it and leaving them there. If you don't have the logistics for a blacksmith in your supply train, carry one of these. Scabbards of flame are another one that empowers their sword. If you kill someone wielding a flaming sword, make sure you take all their stuff. A Scabbard of Protection gives you another chance to stack extra AC bonuses beyond your armour and shields and rings and boots and etc. Truly, you can get obscene negatives with the right combinations.  Scabbards of Sharpening are another one that makes your weapon badass, but they'll need regular returning for resharpening. Like most of the others, this does not stack with a magical sword's powers. Oh well. Scabbards of Weightlessness do exactly as it says. If your DM's an encumbrance tracker, this is mildly cool. Otherwise, it's just a bit of extra flavour really. The Scabbard of wound closure gives you arthurian badassedness. Course, clerics with their blunt weapons'll still be able to take you down, but that just keeps them the powers behind the scenes. Let the fighters have their little bit of limelight, posturing and preening. Scabbard-swords are an emergency one-use item for if you lose your weapon. The kind of thing made by paranoid wizard/thieves. Scabbards of binding prevent you from drawing your sword, by being intractably sticky. Unless it's a valuable magic sword trapped in them, it's easier to just discard the bugger, leave it in the treasure pile for the next sucker to solve. Scabbards of Cowardice try to stop you from taking your weapon out by twisting around, and are of course impossible to discard once you've seen their bad side. Give it to your enemy for the usual fun. Scabbards of Tripping are even worse, because they hamper you every round you fight. Way to enforce pacifism on people.</blockquote>

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