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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5614787" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 239: September 1997part 1/8124 pages Another draconic close-up showing only the head and a bit of the wings on the cover. Give us the whole picture please, it looks more impressive when there's a real sense of scale. Plus if you miss things, it leaves you vulnerable to tricks from the hand you can't see. Which is this issues' theme again. Looks like we'll be getting a few more traps and diabolical schemes to make weak monsters scary and keep players on their toes. Will some of them be recycled? Previous issues and page references at the ready. In this issue:The wyrms turn: Ahh yes, illusionists pulling double fakeouts. There's a topic we've seen before. (issue 229) Dave Gross again gives his personal experience of this lovely bit of meanness. Plus the equally cruel trick of mixing gas spores and beholders, and having the big bad use extra tricks to make them more convincing. And the reaction to these kind of tricks is straight out of Knights of the Dinner Table. That's two entertaining editorials in a row. I think he might be getting better at this. In addition we see another sign that they're catching up with themselves here, as the staff list has changed again, with them losing an associate producer and changing their advertising guy. Ok, they're now a smaller team than they've been for quite some time, but I guess they don't have so much money. So this definitely shows them moving forward, while not losing touch with their past. I think that's a good sign. D-Mail: Our first letter is from someone who missed the magazine, and is very pleased they're back. Guess the two issue lead in time continues to apply in this department, despite everything. A letter praising their Dungeon Mastery article on incorporating more acting into your game. May this column long continue to flourish! A letter from someone who thinks Dragon should cover other forms of gaming more. It's not as if we're a bunch of monomaniacs. And people will remember things better if there's more contrast. In typical contrast, someone annoyed by Dragon Dice, because the same common monsters show up again and again, and there's not enough people to trade with in his area. The game isn't taking off the way they'd hoped, is it. Another letter from someone who really liked the changes they made in the last year. They certainly seem to have no shortage of them writing in, despite everything that's happened. Sneaky sea Devils: Sahuguin have never particularly been underdogs, with substantial scaling (fnarr) capabilities built in, plus spellcasting right from their original entry. But with their undersea environment, you have to think a little differently to come up with the best tactics and create the best possible technology with the resources available to them. Fortunately we have Skip on the job, and he's not only got enough to say on the subject to fill an entire book, but also has some leftovers for the magazine. So this is cut material, but pretty good cut material, that mostly stands alone, and goes into plenty of detail on each of the tactics they use, and how they work in context, given sahuguin's strengths and weaknesses. So they may be relying a little too much on staff writers, but since they're probably trying to get their submission flow back up and running, I can't complain too much, especially as long as the quality stays good. (which hasn't always been the case, as there have been issues where I've found the staff contributions to be the least interesting parts)</blockquote>

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