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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5601830" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 237: Mid 1997part 4/8TSR Product line previews: Oh dear oh dear. 9 full pages of release schedules for the year. All of which is now late or cancelled. You really shouldn't have. No, really, you shouldn't have. It would make you look less of a mess if you'd bumped this entirely and pulled out a couple of extra articles from the slush pile instead. Now exactly how far you've let things slide is on full show to the world. Well, I suppose it's valuable for us anyway, and it means that despite any future attempts at whitewashing we can point at this and say yes, they were planning such and such products. Still, even if the takeover hadn't happened, this would be promotional filler that wouldn't particularly please me. It isn't a very comfortable feeling reading through this section. Game wizards: Another outdated promotional article here. Coming this summer - Alternity! 4 years after their last attempt, here's another shot at creating a new system for sci-fi gaming. This time, they're staying rather closer to the AD&D system than previous attempts, although they are introducing a universal resolution mechanic and a setting that hits all the modern storygaming cliches. Gah. They're being trend followers instead of trendsetters again aren't they. <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=":(" /> As with the 5th age stuff, I am left with a tremendous sense of cynicism about this new endeavour, albeit for different reasons. Wheras that felt like them trying to revive a property that still had some support, just not the right kind by wild experimentation, this feels like trying to follow the market rather than genuine creativity. And neither of these extremes is going to work out particularly well. Plus of course there's the fact that they've now missed their deadline. This once again reminds us how messy things have got around here. I look forward to seeing how they revise their plans and change things around in upcoming issues. I'm a what?: Don't tell me we haven't already had an article expanding on Reincarnation?! Apparently not, aside from a few bits in last year's indian articles. And like Infravision and Alignment Tongues, it's been in the game from the start, and is perfect for a good examining. So I'm rather happy to see this. Figuring out what they can do in their new form, what prospects for advancement they have, and  what obstacles they'll face is something many DM's wouldn't mind a little help upon.  It is a little conservative on strength scores, but we know they won't fix the game's scaling until next edition. It also reinforces that this kind of death is still a fairly substantial blow, and the things you lose from being stuck in an animal form will probably outweigh the benefits. Still, plentiful reincarnation seems considerably less game-breaking than straight resurrection. I'm going to rate this one at slightly above average. Campaign classics: An article on dogs, and an article on dog-people? Shoulda got a few more, and made a whole themed issue on canine stuff in general. Oh well, this is pretty great anyway. Bruce Heard revisits our old favourites, the lupins.  And gives us more detail on them in a way that is both very interesting, and more than a little silly. Lupin versions of the dozens of real world dog breeds, complete with variant ability modifiers, level limits and racial abilities. Although it can't go into as much detail on each one, there's actually more options here than there are in the entire complete book of humanoids. You could easily make a whole party from these guys - in fact, if you wanted to do dogtanian & the three muskethounds, you could run a dog-people only campaign and have no trouble differentiating characters from all around the world by using the different breeds. Indeed, many of the special abilities specialised breeds get are very distinctive and idiosyncratic, far exceeding ordinary races in the way they distinguish themselves from one-another.  Bruce has always been good at packing tons of information into a small package, and here he's really surpassed himself, with an article that's more useful than many full books, and would be a definite classic if anyone was still paying attention during this mess. This is one instance where I really wish Mystara hadn't died. The Realms needs competition like this to keep it sharp and adventurous.</blockquote>

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