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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5595341" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Annual 1996part 7/8Birthright: Birthright is expanding outwards in it's own way. While it doesn't have a central city, it does seem to have a default starting point for your characters, down in the southwest. And in traditional D&D style, the further away you go from that, the further you go from the default medieval assumptions of the game, into different landscapes and political setups, as well as the intention that characters will be higher level. Interesting. So it looks like there's still plenty for them to build upon in this setting, even without opening up other continents on the same world. I wonder how much they'll actually get done before the line dies. Guilds of cerilia: A fairly short article for this world, that's about thieves going legit. Or at least, giving themselves a nice plausible front business for laundering money and keeping the authorities off your scent. Which is a very funny business when you might actually have a more noble bloodline than them. How does that work, when the guy who is in charge uses their power for ends like this? Well, I suppose we have plenty of real world examples of banana republics where the leaders bleed the population dry and then bugger of to switzerland when things go bad. Why shouldn't you enjoy doing that kind of thing? So this shows just how much you can do when you're a rogue that's in charge. They don't have to be the odd ones out at all. A pretty decent little article really. Dark sun: Really, has Athas become more or less dangerous over the years? That's the big question they have to face given how many things have happened. And really, the messages are pretty mixed. The existing areas have probably become less dangerous, but they've opened up a whole bunch of new areas with their own challenges for you to face. And the PC's, already more powerful than ones from other worlds, have gained tons of new stuff in the various supplements, while the bad guys have become fairly pinned down and codified, so we know exactly what it takes to beat them. I think we can probably say that while still daunting, the place is less scary than it used to be. All the over-the-top descriptiveness in this intro can't make up for the facts. Heroes of Athas: Bah. And I was hoping we'd get through this issue without having to deal with more Skills & Powers stuff. Instead, I have to wade through 12 pages of it, the largest article in the issue. Well, when you have to allocate costs to all their standard racial and class abilities, plus a bunch of new extrapolated ones which do tend to be more powerful than the basic set, it really adds up. I'm struggling to get through this set without zoning out, which isn't a particularly good sign. I do note that there seems to be quite a lot of healing/regeneration innate powers, which reduces the need for clerics in a team. There's also plenty of resistances to specific energy types, ability score bonuses, and natural AC lowerers. All that good stuff that'll come in handy nearly every session, in contrast to being able to detect sloping passages. I think I can say pretty safely that there is opportunity for twinkery here. Once again, this is not to my tastes.</blockquote>

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