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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5551872" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 232: August 1996part 6/8Forum: Rick Maffei takes up a full 2/3rds of the forum this time round. People have challenged his opinion, and he is eager to rebutt. After all, that is what the forum is for, and if you don't want debate, get a soapbox and megaphone instead. And despite them being optional, TSR shouldn't publish stuff with shoddy rules in the first place. It sets a bad example. Jeffrey Martin thinks AD&D should be concentrating on fantasy over realism. It's more fun that way. Plus, medieval laws were heeded in the breach as often as the observance, just like real world tax and traffic regulations. Michael D. Bugg thinks magic ought to be kept rare enough to remain wondrous. Rather a tricky task when half your PC's use it routinely, methinks. Once again, you're battling the system. Network News: Hee. We actually have a bit of LARPing coverage this month, as they prepare for the big Gen Con Living City events. Dress up as your character, and you'll get the chance to make a serious impact upon the metaplot of Raven's Bluff. Hey, there are far worse things to do with your time. You'll even get the chance to meet Elminster, although I very much doubt you'll get to attack him. (and wouldn't it make a pretty pickle if some deluded madman killed Ed while he was dressed up as El as vengeance for what Elminster did in one of his previous games. I wonder if that would make the metaplot. ) As with the return of non D&D stuff in their 5th age article, this isn't unwelcome at all, even if it does fall prey to a bit of self-aggrandisement, and isn't as thrilling as coverage of 3rd party games would be. This kind of stuff does look like it would be a great deal of fun to do, presuming you have the time and money for all the travel and costuming. And this is definitely a case where the more the merrier, so promoting it beforehand is a rather good idea. Swordplay finally reveals how they survive this stuff. Life insurance works much better when you have resurrection spells. Dragonmirth stumbles right into the joke this time. The KotDT crew are reminded that no matter how powerful you are, GM fiat can beat you without a roll. And the GM is reminded in turn that walking out is always an option. No gaming is better than bad gaming. Role-playing reviews: Conspiracy X is of course an attempt to produce an X-files inspired game. After all, it's one of the biggest sci-fi/supernatural shows out there, so a good game based off it has definite sales potential when targeted at the geek audience. The basic character creation and and action resolution is fairly familiar, point buy and stat + skill + modifiers + 2d6. But it still has quite a few unique quirks, such as the group cell construction rules, and the zener cards for psychic powers, that do help set the atmosphere and make the whole thing more genre appropriate. If you want to play that sort of game, there's few systems better, at least until the unisystem version comes out. Lost worlds gets a 6 pip review, as Rick is overjoyed it's not only been rereleased after a decade (review in issue 85), but improved upon. It's not quite a roleplaying game, but it is a good deal of fun, and less obviously designed as a money sink than CCG's. Get a few, and have a blast. Tales of Gargenthir beats even Traveller in the depth of it's character generation lifepath system. It may take a session or two just to get to the present. And things don't speed up much from there, with a pretty crunchy system for resolving actions, and a well detailed, interesting setting. If you can cope with Rolemaster, this should be pretty enjoyable.</blockquote>

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