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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5772577" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999part 7/7Zero point players: The Alternity article this month is essentially a sci-fi Rogues Gallery column. They've recently released a novel for Star*Drive as to try and get the property cooking, and here's the tie in statting up some characters from it. Fairly standard promotional method these days. Let's see if the characters are cliches. Pete Sokolov is a dual wielding badass with a cybernetic arm, and a whole bunch of general enhancements. He fits the brooding loner stereotype to a tee, is an ex secret agent, and is an expert at computer hacking and martial arts. I suspect he'll still get his ass kicked by a team who can really specialise in their various disciplines. In the meantime, it seems like he's very much stamped from the mold that produced Drizzt. Again. Give. Me. A. Break.  Geille Monashi is also a dual-wielder, and despite the description saying she wears a sensible jumpsuit, the artist just has to giver her a stripperific twist. She can psychically interface with computers, which lets her pull off amazing tricks on the net. Once again, she's a self-sufficient loner, and the two of them have to learn how to work together to get through the plot. Formula!Karcen Borun looks like the main villain. He's bio-enhanced and plastic surgeried to the gills, and is doing his best to take over the megacorp and damn the costs to everyone else. I'm guessing he fails eventually. Selfishness is it's own reward. Marius Grayes is a mid-level legbreaker in the Syndicate. Genetically engineered to deal with high gravity, this makes him exceedingly strong in regular environments. He's very much a blunt, direct straight-talker, which means he's unlikely to ever get to the top, but he has more than enough loyal followers to make a good fight for a group of PC's. So these characters don't step far out of their cookie-cutters, but they might be handy for use in actual play. Much mehness, really. Dragonmirth has a really hard puzzle, and some clever tricks to show us. KodTD has a TPK. You really need to spot when the enemies aren't bluffing. TSR Previews: The number of releases continues to decrease, while the amount of rehash stays high. Return to the keep on the borderlands takes us back to see who's moved in since it got cleared out in the early 80's. Actually, it's pretty similar, only with more plot. Hey ho. Drizzt's tales are also getting reprinted. Popular fella, for someone who broods so much. In the new stuff, the Realms gets Skullport, Another place within spitting distance of Waterdeep for adventurers to get some XP in. Like undermountain isn't enough for an entire career already. Dragonlance sees Dezra's Quest by Chris Pierson. Looks like it's the centaur's turn in the spotlight during the chaos war.  Who's next, the Irda? And finally, Alternity's novel series seems pretty busy too. Zero Point by Richard Baker. What a rubbish collection. ProFiles: Richard Baker is one of the designers who really shaped TSR's 90's output. Somehow, he managed to get in on his first try, even without having done any gaming work beforehand. After contributing to a whole load of settings, and writing more than a few generic books as well, he was one of the lead designers for Birthright and Alternity. As ever, even the works that weren't commercial successes are presented very positively in the magazine, with him being "very happy" with the way they turned out. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> He continues to prove his versatility, moving into novels as well. What part will he play in the next few years of products? As ever, we shall see. Continuity continues to gradually return to the magazine, with quite a few references to previous issues and other books. The quality remains fairly constant, but I think I'm enjoying it a little more when there are a whole bunch of outside connections to spot. Obviously there'll be another new beginning fairly soon when 3rd edition comes out, but in the meantime, they ought to make the most of the longest-running, most filled in edition of them all. On we go then.</blockquote>

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