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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5606596" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 238: August 1997part 1/8124 pages. Our second issue after the changeover, and things still look pretty much the same. The perspective on that dragon looks a bit awkward though. Not sure exactly where they're supposed to sit, and no way will that lance reach ahead of it's neck to actually be useful. I guess Dragonlance might have moved on from the actual lance thing, but people still haven't learnt from it's mistakes. Let's see if WotC is starting to learn from the mistakes of it's predecessor yet. In this issue:Even before the editorial, we have an updated product list for the rest of the year. It fits everything in in just 2 pages as well. When you contrast that with the 9 pages of cruft they had last issue, that looks like a huge improvement. They're already getting their acts together and hopefully cutting waste, which is a positive sign. The Wyrm's turn: Dave Gross finally gets the hang of this telling stories from his past gaming experiences thing and making it entertaining. This is helped by the fact that he's picked the most insane parts of his youthful experiences, including cameos by the smurfs and the dread disco dragon. This kind of experience must be pretty much universal with first generation gamers, particularly ones that started young and made it up as they went along with their first group. And like most people, they eventually decided that was enough silliness, it's time to get Serious. It's pretty obvious that this editorial was originally intended for their april issue, one of the most anticipated (or dreaded) months of the year. But heaven knows we could do with a little levity about now, so they're bringing a good chunk of their joke articles over, and trying to get the right balance between comedy and serious ones.  A development I have no problem with at all. Still, the real test of the new management will be seeing how they handle april next year, when they've had time to start writing their own material. D-Mail is still stuck in last year, and being mainly positive. Actually it seems very strange that the proportion of positive letters would increase as the sales dropped. Are the editors being selective to make themselves look better, or is the removal of casuals leaving only hardcore fanboys, creating an echo chamber effect that leaves them out of touch with reality. Either way, it makes it even harder for them to figure out how to genuinely improve the magazine. But anyway. We start with some nitpicking about Forgotten Realms dating. Like a long-running soap opera, even the official writers can't keep continuity straight anymore. Fortunately, they have a 4th wall breaking excuse to help them out. Elminster may have mastered 9th level spells, but his handwriting still sucks. <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" /> A letter from someone who thinks the magazine has improved quite a bit over the last year. Congratulations, at least you're winning some people back. A complaint about them publishing articles that are basically just bits from recent supplements. The article you're specifically calling out wasn't one of those actually, but the basic point is valid. It is something that lowers the value of the magazine if they do it regularly. A generally positive letter from someone who would like to see elves maintain their dominant position in the magazine. I think that's another fairly safe bet, given the number of freelancers that also enjoy writing about them. A letter from someone who wants the dragons in Wyrms of the North more codified mechanically. But then DM's won't be so able to change things around for their game. Once again it's the Realms in particular that's being strangled by canon. Yet another letter from someone who wants more Wyrms of the north and Wizards Three. The vote is in and the ayes win. Ed'd better keep cranking then. I hope he's getting well paid for all this. Mommy dearest: Bwahahahaha! This is an old school comedy article and a half. We haven't had a cheesy new class for April since back in the 1e days. And since this isn't april, I guess we still haven't. <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" /> So here's the Mother Class. In classic style, it has branching advancement paths, going to Grandmother, and then giving you the choice of Great-Grandmother or Fairy Godmother at really high level. Their abilities are pretty much what you would expect. Kissing it better, sending you to your room, mastery of gossip, always being able to find something wrong in what you're doing. Anyone of the politically correct ilk will not find this funny. Me? I find more issue with the fact that the granted powers show up really unevenly, with huge amounts at 9th and 16th level, and tons of dead levels inbetween. Is that what you call a fair way to build a class dear? I don't think so. Go back upstairs and don't come down again until you've sorted yourself out. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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