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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5719019" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998part 4/8101 Hauntings: Ahh, so we've finally got an article able to give us a full 101 ideas on this topic, after issue 186 gave us a mere 50. I knew it was possible. Of course, the fact it's not all castles this time round helps them come up with a wider range of ideas. The length of ideas is also about the same or slightly larger this time around, which is quite interesting, and makes this feel quite close to a special feature. However, there is a lot less mechanical help this time around, instead concentrating purely on the setting details and histories behind the hauntings. Overall, both are entirely valid and don't repeat each other much, and there are more illustrations this time as well, although they don't quite match up to the quality of the previous article's one. So I think this one wins via sheer quantity, but the previous one was pretty good too. I suppose that just means I have more choice should I need a haunting in the future. Home Sweet Headquarters: We skip having an Alternity article this month, and instead go for a Marvel Superheroes one. As it's brand new, and has the potential to sell well, they obviously want to make sure everyone's aware of it. Exactly how much coverage they'll give it, and if they'll alternate between the two, or we'll get the pleasure of multiple non D&D articles again, we shall have to see. This seems designed to ease us in rather than starting off with a bang, with a short article that's 3/4's pure description, before introducing us to a bit of statistics for the system. And while constructing a lair may be slightly different, you can apply some of this advice to your fantasy campaigns as well, particularly if you have the kind of villain who goes for carving a mountain into the shape of a skull and calling that their "secret" lair. After all, a good setpiece doesn't go amiss in all but the grittiest of games. Of course, since these are the official character's headquarters, I have a suspicion players will seriously struggle to create hideouts with the same degree of awesomeness on a budget, but that's usually the case in licensed games where they never let you overshadow the official characters. Still, they do seem to support the more spectacular possibilities in terms of location and capabilities. You'll just need to work up to the really big stuff. So this does leave me not entirely satisfied, but definitely interested in learning more. The original Marvel-Phile got caught up in endless filling in of minor characters at the expense of actually improving your game. Will they go the same way this time? Fiction: Mathers blood by R A Salvadore. Oh, you've finally found time to squeeze out a bit of extra short fiction on top of the novels again. It's been a while. (Issue 152) And while there's plenty of fast-paced action here as usual, there's also quite a bit of poignancy, as he examines the problems of aging as an adventurer, when many of your companions are of different races and developing in different ways and speeds to you, and the value of blood vs adopted family. And he actually gets to kill off the protagonist at the end, which I'm sure he's wished he could do to Drizzt a few times. So this feels like a bit of light relief for him, while also having a definite serious side and moral to it. Being an adventurer isn't all guilt-free slaughtering and enjoying your loot. If you go on for any length of time you'll develop real relationships with your companions, and be choked up when they die or leave. (and if it's done right, it could happen within a 22 minute cartoon. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ) If you can manage that within a 7 page short story, you're probably doing something right.</blockquote>

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