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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5561486" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 233: September 1996part 7/8Role-playing reviews: Immortal: the invisible war is pretty much the zenith of 90's storygaming pretentiousness, and all the more entertaining for it. Like Nephilim, you play a self-actualised spirit being, moving through multiple incarnations over centuries of existence. The specifics, particularly the mechanics, are quite different though. Colour based powers, reassignable attribute pools, and vast quantities of jargon. The system is simpler than it looks, but you'd better get used to decoding long words for ordinary ideas. And you'd better get used to some counterintuitive powers as well. Still, if you're in the right frame of mind, those'll just add to the fun. The Pilot pack is one of those bundles of bits and pieces that seem to come out immediately after the corebook, now that they can't cram them in the boxed set. GM screen, character sheets and a short adventure. It's a pretty decent example of the form. Lost trinity is a trio of rather good interlinked adventures that gets 6 pips. It has a CD as well, but don't let that put you off, the Characters are fun and it manages to avoid degenerating into a reskinned dungeon crawl with it's politics and plot twists. Considering White Wolf's adventures were never much cop, I'd call that worth noting. The shapeshifters manual is the supplement Rick finds least interesting. It's just another load of new powers. As someone who's whipped up whole books worth of those, he can smell padding a mile off, and this book has it in spades. Do you really need this? Probably not. Warlock of the stonecrowns shifts gears rapidly, as we go into another Birthright barrage. They're releasing stuff so fast even their own reviewers are working overtime to keep up. It's also a return to fairly normal dungeon-crawling adventures, aimed at novices. Why make it Birthright specific then? Sword & Crown also adheres to the standard TSR model, although it's a little darker and more challenging. Looks like they're once again being left behind by other companies who walk the walk about making their settings and adventures different and distinct better. Perhaps using a few more freelancers instead of the same stable of writers would help a bit. Cities of the Sun does a bit better, as TSR is concentrating on their settingbooks over their adventures these days. This is the one with all the naval combat stuff that they've also been promoting in the magazine. It gets a very short review though, not  giving me much to comment upon. The Rjurik Highlands is also passed over with a fairly positive comment. Gimme something I can make a joke about. Please? Bah, If you can't be bothered to go into any detail, I can't either. You could have covered half the number of supplements in better detail if you'd wanted too. Unless this is another case of upper management leaning on people in counterproductive ways. The book of magecraft get another 6 pip result, as Rick finds it's advice on realm magic both straightforward, fun and well tied into the setting. (unlike say, rolemaster's implementation of ley lines and tapping magical power from the land) This does genuinely push D&D's magic system in a new direction, and it's only a shame that so few wizards will get to try out effects of this magnitude. Of course, PC's should have no such restrictions, since they usually are the nobility here.</blockquote>

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