Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5527823" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996part 7/8Forum: Andrew Pearce supports eliminating both dual-classing and level limits. They do not improve the game at all. Slice off that cruft. Jessica Beals is part of an all female group. See, they do exist. Not too surprisingly, rescuing babies is one of their more common plot points. Sometimes the cliches happen because they're true. ^~^ Andrea McCormick recommends a disciplined and cynical worldview. A pessimist is never dissappointed. But they can well be miserable. A little pleasure once in a while would be nice. Anton J Uselmann gives his advice on incorporating new players. You have to treat them differently depending on if they're completely new, or have played in other campaigns before. In both cases, there are good and bad ways to handle it. Oversight of characters transferred from other campaigns is always a critical one. Duston Batson addresses the contrasting problems of characters being too strong/weak to join a campaign. It definitely needs addressing, otherwise you're just setting yourself up for trouble. Make it easy on yourself, start them at about the same level as the others. Nick Spear disapproves of trying to take the magic out of D&D. Most players would rebel! Yeah, there is that. Yet another reason why going to another system without so many built up expectations would be preferable. Nathan Kirschenbaum gives support to the women seeking equality, and reminds even the male DM's to put plenty of well-rounded (no, not that way, you perv) female characters in their games. Equality is as important in game as out of game. Tim Eccles defends the idea of castles as a defensive building in D&D, even in the face of magic. Would you rather they had no protection and just roamed the land like some common adventurers? Well, if it is the optimal way, people will wind up adopting it. Gary Stahl is annoyed that certain NPC's in official supplements break the rules. Consistency and fairness is important to maintaining a world. The rules should work the same for everyone. Ahh yes, another 3e maxim gets an airing here. The designers are listening. :spooky music: The knights of the dinner table have had one too many DM screwages to be merciful to strangers. The seven dwarves make another appearance in dragonmirth, and they are not happy. Swordplay still can't get the hang of this tactics thing. Floyd has much to complain about, as he discovers he'll have to change his career. Role-playing reviews is in the mood for setting expansions this month. Geography may be an exhaustible subject, but it takes a good deal longer than splatbooks in all but the smallest settings, and is far less likely to be completed. After all, it's easier to expand the map than it is to think of new archetypes. Course, they may fall into stereotypes anyway, particularly if cribbing off real world countries, but that's just a danger we'll have to face. The shire is of course for MERP. As one of the most detailed parts of the original stories, this is pretty easy work for the writers, and with lots of attention to detail and a ton of adventure hooks, it's been made into a great place for low level adventurers to start out. Sure, it's rural, but remember how closely there were animated trees and trolls haunting the outskirts. And hobbits do love to gossip. Even little things could become epic adventures by the time the rumour mill is through with them. Angmar is of course completely different, and required more work to flesh out. It's a pretty miserable place, even after Sauron's fall, filled with brooding castles occupied by sinister figures. They don't seem very proactive though, which I suppose makes them good for treating as dungeon crawls. It might not be quite as good as the shire one, but not for lack of trying. Guess it's up to the PC's to shake things up and make a difference. Rifts Japan draws on the obvious ideas, contrasting ancient mysticism and hypertechnology in the creatures, classes and equipment. It's pretty crunch heavy, as is standard for the game, yet is still sold as incomplete, with a second volume in the works already, coming who knows when given palladium's schedules. (still not out as of the writing of this commentary) Not that is isn't a fun read, with cybernetics, ninjas, drug enhanced crazy psionic people, huge guns, mechas, etc etc to fill your game with. Just don't expect game balance or huge amounts of setting detail. Rifts South America 2, on the other hand, does fill in an already detailed part of the world further, and has some truly off-the-wall additions to the world, courtesy of CJ Carella. Not that there isn't plenty of insanely overpowered crunch, but the setting it's welded too is farther away from the reality and myth of the area. Whether that's a good or bad thing is largely a matter of opinion, but I do note that Carella's contributions to Rifts seem to be some of the most remembered ones. He must be doing something right. Beyond the wall: Pictland & the north is for Pendragon. It's pretty heavily locked into the pendragon rules and setting assumptions, but like virtually everything else for the line, is of excellent quality, showing you what happens when your knights venture into the highlands and making the picts available as PC's. You should be able to get quite a few years of adventures out of this. GURPS Greece, on the other hand, uses the dry and modular presentation common to the line, leaving you to decide what to use, and how to build the adventures yourself. And as usual, Rick is respectful, but not too enthused about this. It's tough being the guy in the middle. Also of note are Rick's assessment of the 7 domainbooks so far for birthright, and his high praise of Planes of Conflict. (a far more dramatic title than planes of neutrality) Both take us well away from D&D's core playstyle and make it work. Support variety in your game worlds!</blockquote>

Verification