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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5799567" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999part 5/7Heaven's trump: Ooh. A tie-in article. They're also releasing a book on playing Celestials this month, so why not include one of putting them into your game. Turns out they're just as likely to be subtle while on the prime material as their hellish counterparts, albeit for different reasons. Partly due to not wanting the general public to worry, and partly due to wanting to create heroes which can stand on their own feet and fight evil, they'll pretend to be human and set up missions for wannabe heroes in true Gandalf stylee. If they have to be coddled the whole time, they'll never grow up to really appreciate how good they have it, or why virtue is beneficial. Deus ex Machina appearances with the full trumpets and flaming swords outfit are a sign that you haven't planned things through carefully enough, or the opposition is cheating. (which yeah, demons do, it has to be said) Is it dishonesty to tell a few white lies if you're so much smarter and more knowledgable that you couldn't explain the whole situation and it's context to a mortal without spending several years that would be better spent actually doing good deeds, even though they might not understand the long-term ramifications? Would YOU be able to keep straight a story spanning thousands of years and millions of outer-planar beings trying to manipulate the fate of a world, developing ever more complex relationships of favors and vendettas, doublecrosses and awkward alliances of convenience along the way? Given how long it's taking me to completely grok a magazine lasting thirty-odd years, I might well have to go for the cliff-notes version. So this is really a strong reminder that good is not a blunt instrument. They might not have to hide for the same reasons as evil, but getting the greatest good out of a complex situation requires careful on the ground involvement. The western Wyrms: Which is not a sequel to Wyrms of the north, thankfully, contrary to my first thought. Instead it's an expansion for council of wyrms, making a whole bunch of other dragon races available as PC's. All of the other true dragons from the monster manual in fact. Now since CoW followed some fairly simple formulas in figuring out ability score modifiers, xp costs, class availability, etc, this wasn't hard to do anyway, and I did it myself for plenty of the dragon types in various supplements. However, this does use it's discretion in one aspect. Wheras the regular ones had XP tables strictly based upon how many HD the race has, this shifts things around, giving Shadow Dragons highly inflated XP costs and yellow ones a break, presumably because their spell selections and innate powers are above or below average in power respectively. Of course, putting the vast XP requirement disparities in the first level or two when you have the least amount of time to get the XP and treasure is one of the big flaws in the CoW system in the first place, and made it a real bother to get a long-term campaign going without including solo missions. But still, this is systematic flaw, rather than an issue with this article in particular. This is merely a symmetry filler, neither good or bad. Fiction: Dux Bellorum by Ben Bova. Orion's attempts to keep Arthur alive hit a fairly substantial obstacle, with an Immortal deciding to come down and involve themselves directly in the plot rather than just manipulating others. This results in a situation where he's pretty much helpless during the significant parts of this, and even when he does act, it's on the advice of others. Essentially, it's exactly the same deprotagonisation problem that Niall suffered from, way back in the day. That makes this interesting, but also frustrating. It's similar to the problem where at high levels, the spellcasters take over, and can beat the fighters without even breaking a sweat with a few buffs or a save or suck spell. So this really drives in how annoying being a pawn of cosmic beings is, and presents the kind of plot you really shouldn't subject your players too. Methinks the pendulum had better swing the other way next time if he doesn't want to bore me. Bazaar of the Bizarre: Quite a nice topic here. Items that are a mixed blessing, offering both boon and bane, often simultaneously. As I've said before, this is a trick I'm pretty keen on. When the two aspects have a nice thematic link, this is one of the coolest ways you can reward your players, as it automatically sets things up for the next adventure. And this is no exception, not only listing a bunch of items, but also a random table full of further ideas. Much better than interminable lists of mundane stuff. Ansuit's Gauntlets make you strong but dumb. Now there's a very stereotyped combination that it may well be a no brainer to take. Just need to trust that your companions won't screw you while you're playing smashy guy. The Uniform of Kheles gives you hallucinations, but makes you nearly immune to any illusions of an external source. One you should only wear if expecting an enemy of that nature. Moil Bravura is a magical sword that sends you on 9 quests to fight energy draining undead before you can unlock it's full power. This may well lead to your death and/or losing lots of levels in the process. You could become quite the tortured hero as a result of this, and it'll certainly take over the campaign for a while. Blackstone Amulets are quite nastily cursed, but if you can remove the curse, they become pretty kickass at dealing with evil influences. Another adventure in the making here. Heramais pipes visit the symphony of the gods, and then make you obsessed with figuring out how to recreate it. If you can stick at it, and don't have the pipes taken away by friends growing worried by your obsession, you'll get there eventually. (and a lot quicker than it's taken me to write some real songs <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> ) And then you'll be free to use them to play awesome music, or not as you choose. The Armor of Torrentin has a mischievous invisible servant bound to it. Until you find out the command word, it engages in pranks upon everyone around. Still, this should only take one adventure to solve and then no more worries until the armor is passed on.</blockquote>

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