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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5736817" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine annual 1998 part 4/8Handle with care: Our module this year hits the reset button from the story in the first two annuals, and goes back to 1st level again. Now with extra whimsy! The PC's are hired by a quirky prank playing wizard to guard his stuff on a journey. A rival wizard from the same guild summons a bunch of norkers to smash all his potions and alchemical gear, with wacky results as the PC's are hit by various chemicals in the ensuing fight. The amount of xp you get at the end is primarily based on how much of the equipment you save. Sounds like a CRPG minigame. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad    :mad:"  data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" /> So this is definitely a break from dungeon crawling and serious roleplaying, but not a particularly welcome one. This is exactly the kind of whimsy that makes me irritable and itching to get back to the srys bisnis of pretending to be an elf dual wielding longbows saving the world. <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" /> I do have to praise the amount of detail gone into in terms of the adversaries tactics though. They make them a lot more interesting than their basic stats indicate, and quite a few serious monsters could learn from that. So this isn't terrible, but it is terribly whimsical and not to my tastes at all. I shall definitely pass on this one. The ecology of the Steel Dragon: A rather philosophical ecology this month, as befits the creature covered. Even more than silver dragons, Steel dragons rather enjoy living among humanoids, assuming their shapes, and living their lives. But if they are to convincingly pass for any length of time, they must think as people, age as people, and be ready to suffer the little indignities of life as a person. And then they must leave that life behind, adopt a new one. Preferably a very different one, for how else are you to stave off the ennui of eternity and learn new things. A theme we've also seen show up recently in Kindred of the East, with the Thousand Whispers Dharma being devoted to that principle as a way of finding enlightenment. And indeed, the writer shoots hard for that air of poetry in his writing. It doesn't quite make it, becoming a little absorbed by it's own pretentiousness, and forgetting to reference other sources (what happened to the half dragons?) but it's still another interesting read. You can steal the lessons here, and apply them to all sorts of long-lived creatures.</blockquote>

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