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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5572910" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 235: November 1996part 1/8124 pages. Hmm. Another cover I wasn't too keen on at first. It looks like a highly zoomed in photograph of a mini. Actually looking at the description, it turns out to be their first all CGI model. Which would also explain why the resolution looks a bit weird and grainy, but there is a genuine sense of 3D. Computers still have quite a way to go before they can produce realistic looking images, but hey, we'll get to watch Reboot and Toy Story in the meantime. There doesn't seem to be a definite theme this month, but a good 3 of the articles are sea based, so we'll go with that. You know, you've advertised themed episodes before when you only had two articles on a topic. I suppose that was a different age. :|  In this issue:The wyrm's turn: Another editorial charting the rise of online gaming. We're now at the point where the average person has at least heard of the internet, even if they might not have signed up yet, and it's pretty easy to find people to play a game with online. Chatrooms can connect you with people around the world instantly, and many have virtual dice rollers that allow you to roll any amount of any-sided dice you desire. (Thanks, SeaCHAT!) In fact, not seeing the faces of the people you're playing with can actually help your imagination. It certainly makes it easier to play characters of the other gender convincingly. <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" /> We're most of the way along that path of history now, but it's still nice to see it mentioned, as it gives me another chance to talk about things happening outside the roleplaying sphere. Not everyone may want to play online, but it does offer some definite advantages and disadvantages, and only a fool would ignore that option completely. D-Mail: One of those letters that comments on nearly everything, and then asks if it's worth subscribing to the magazine. Um, you're getting more than 3 times the page count of those hardcover books you could get for the same price. Economywise, I think that's a pretty decent move. A complaint that Bookwyrms doesn't have nearly the reviewing rigour of The Role of Books. Guilty as charged. We just want to do some pimping in the hopes of getting free stuff. A complaint they don't do enough planescape stuff. The nature of the magazine means they can never do enough stuff on any particular campaign, (apart from the Realms, which is getting pretty saturated) and even if they wanted to, people aren't sending enough in for that anyway. You'll just have to live with it, and be thankful specific settings are getting any support at all, because there's a rather vocal minority which want everything generic, all the time. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> Planar heroes: Kicking things off is a 16 page extravaganza of Skills and Powers material. Blergh. That's a lot of stuff I'm never going to touch, even if it is for a setting I love. While I'm sure there are people who really want S&P racial builds for tieflings, aasimar, bariaur, gith, rogue modrons et all, I'm not one of them. Some of the abilities they can buy are pretty damn twinked as well. Regeneration, immunity to level draining, plane shifting, wings, magic resistance, all that good stuff is available if you're a member of the right race for surprisingly reasonable costs. On top of that, there's a bunch of new class abilities and restrictions, many of them not even focussed upon the planes. So I'm decidedly ambivalent about this. On one hand, I can recognise that it is a rather large, impressive bit of writing. On the other, I can see the twinking potential from even a cursory examination, and it highlights the fact that any rules revision requires a ton of revisiting existing works to make them all compatible and updated. The overall effect is to remind me how bloated 2e has become, and how much 3e will also become in time. And massive rules splorps like this are the quickest way to make that happen. Not a good way to start things.</blockquote>

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