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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5801094" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999part 6/7Rogues Gallery: The fairy court? Don't we already have stats for them in Monster Mythology? Rehash alert! Well, I suppose they aren't exactly as they were presented in Shakespeare. Still, I believe my appropriate answer is mutter mutter grumble mutter. Oberon is higher level, and of more mundane classes than his MM incarnation, but lower ability scores. The picture is very David Bowie, complete with well-defined area. Easy there. Well, that fanservice quota won't fill itself. Titania, on the other hand is definitely less powerful this time around, more of an equal to her husband despite still being technically superior in a hierarchical sense. Course, since the weather mirrors her mood, you really don't want to provoke her. This is the trouble with systems where you get to the top via raw magical power. Puck wasn't in Monster Mythology, strangely enough, although there were several made-up trickster gods that filled his place, partly because they needed different ones for each race, and too many of them fill the same niche. Guess he's just too badass to be just one character in D&D. Or maybe they are all one character, only shapechanged. So this is a much straighter adaptation of a previously covered topic, that really, just makes me go meh. Where's the imagination in that? Dungeon Mastery: Where the last column in this series was about toning down magic items to make them seem more special, this does exactly the same for resurrection. There's all kinds of complications that could be introduced to make sure that while they might come back, they'll still regret having died in the first place, and be a good deal more cautious in their adventuring next time. Or they could just say screw that and make new characters, particularly if the DM allows them to be of equivalent level to the other guys. So once again, I am left very very underwhelmed, which may or may not be intentional. As with the magic items one, this may be an artificially created problem anyway, encouraged by the system, as most other roleplaying games don't have the same ease of resurrection, and people don't expect them too. Which again, makes the solution very simple. And makes me long for the days when they covered other companies RPG's in the magazine. This era gets very wearing sometimes. Marvel Superheroes: Ah yes, Onslaught. Haven't seen him around in a while. One of those characters that spent quite a bit of time being all mysterious and all powerful seeming, and was eventually eliminated by a reality rewrite. That sounds messy, but I guess that's standard for comics continuity. Having all the powers of two popular characters, plus more won't automatically make you as popular and long lasting as those characters put together. And they encourage you not to actually use him in game, despite giving stats. I mildly disapprove. Why bother giving him the spotlight in the first place then? Who's choosing which characters to update, the magazine writers or the company? It's not as if you're short of characters when it took you thousands of pages a decade ago. Use your time more wisely, or you'll never be as successful as last time. Role models: Our lessons in using miniatures turns to creating your own terrain cheaply and easily. Cardboard and styrofoam are perfect for this, and if you're ordering stuff regularly, you get plenty of that as an extra. Cut it up, slap a bit of paint, stick the pieces together, and presto chango, cheap scenery. You don't need to make it perfect, just good enough for now. And once you have it, you can make your landscapes suitably dramatic for those climactic clifftop battles. Presuming you can get the minis to stand up and stay still on uneven terrain, which can really bog down a fast-paced action scene. (although not as much as kitten attack) As usual, they make it seem quicker and easier than it may be in reality, especially if you're not technically minded or don't have the raw materials lying around. Well, that's your problem, not theirs. It's simple if you know what you're doing. It's just the learnin' stage that may be tricky.</blockquote>

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