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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5808001" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999part 4/7Shop keep has to stop their games from being house-ruled into unrecognisability. Countdown to 3rd edition: 10 months to go, and it's time for some serious teasers. Well, this is certainly going to ignite discussion. Which is just what they want, of course. So they start with the obvious ones, and then move to slightly more exotic quirks of the new rules. Higher number are always better. Class & level restrictions are out. Monks & Assassins are back. 4d6 drop lowest is now the default in chargen. Initiative is cyclical. Rounds are a decent length at last. Critical hits have a decent means of resolution. And clerics can now healbot almost too easily. A few details are misleading (druids don't actually get spontaneous conversion, the xp penalty on multiclassing can be bypassed in quite a few ways, and assassins are a prestige class not a core one) but this shows they're already solid on the big details of the new rules, it's merely the fine-tuning that's still subject to change as a result of playtesting. And in case you're wondering where I stand on these changes, let's go through them quickly 1: Like 2: Ambivalent 3: Like 4: Dislike. 5: Like 6: Don't care 7: Like. 8: Like 9: Like 10: Dislike. More positive than negative, but certainly not perfect. I think that's a pretty good overall summation of my opinion about the edition change in general. And with this rollout method, hopefully I'll get the chance to comment on individual rules quirks as they're revealed. That'll be a good method of clarifying my thoughts. Harrowed heroes: As they said a few issues ago, they still have a few Skills & Powers articles to come before 3e sweeps that away, making some bits default, while abandoning others completely. And completely unsurprisingly, Ravenloft is the recipient this month. So here's another 10 pages of options, mostly repeated, but with a few quirky new ones, such as it being a real benefit for half elves if they favor their human side and can pass easily in suspicious little communities, and a whole extra set for the new classes and races - Half vistani, avengers, anchorites, arcanists, and so forth. I can only spot a couple that seem broken on their own, so this is better than the Dark Sun collection, but it does seem quite easy to create a character that is only nominally of their named class by buying lots of unorthodox options. As usual, if you're going to do that, you should probably start with a point buy system, rather than use one that's tacked on like this. Saga of gothic earth: Two years ago we had an article on converting the SAGA system for Ravenloft. Now we have an even more specific one for converting it to Masque of the Red Death. Of course, since then, we've had a second official iteration of the SAGA system released, so they have more resources to draw upon. Ironically, this results in the system being even simpler and easier to start playing, as they recommend using a deck of regular playing cards, and Masque is considerably magic lighter than regular D&D. So they use the 5th age Sorcery/Mysticism straight, with the usual proviso that evil spells may well attract the attention of the Red Death. So as with the previous article, this seems fun and easy to do, while having a few interesting quirks that make the ruleset support the setting. There's probably other things the SAGA system could have done if it had got the sales to support further iterations. Sometimes you don't deserve the hand you're dealt. The oerdian lesser gods: Raxivort is the god of Xvarts. Given how obscure a race they are, they're lucky to have one at all. His priests compensate for their races smallness by getting perfect stilt-using capabilities, which might seem imposing, but is really just comic. They then top that off by producing increasing amounts of smelly gas as they gain levels. Even Kurtulmak doesn't go that far to make himself an unintentional laughing stock. Greyhawk sure does have some goofy stuff in it, just like all the old D&D campaign worlds. Sotillon is the goddess of the lazy, comfortable aspect of summer, when there's more than enough food ripening for you to lounge around and sunbathe much of the day, and then party at night. Her clerics get all the wizardly shelter creating spells as they advance in level, so they should be pretty popular despite their lack of offensive powers. So both the gods this time fall on the whimsical end of the spectrum. That's interesting to note as the overall level of seriousness increases around here.</blockquote>

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