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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5874000" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 272: June 2000part 3/7Dragon Psionics: Ed Bonny does another intriguingly specific article for a niche setting. How does Gem Dragons having access to a source of power the other two families can't learn or really understand affect politics? Since Psionics aren't subject to magic resistance in 2e, and have lots of mind affecting powers, you can see how some dragons would get paranoid. But while there are some adventure hooks here, most of this is devoted to 8 new psionic powers, most of which are proprietary secrets of various races, and in some cases specific clans. Most of them are quite dragon specific, and wouldn't be of much use to a race without flight, breath weapons, and so forth even if they did manage to somehow steal the secret. This means that while this is pretty fun reading, it's not going to be useful to a huge number of people. Still, given their current stance of making the material they release more generic, that means I shall treasure it. If there's any campaign that really needed a few good supplements to keep you from running out of material before you even got past 1st level, it's Council of Wyrms. How to talk with a dragon: Speak softly, and bring lots of friends with big sticks. Unless you're dealing with a dragon that's still small and young enough that they can't squash you with one claw like a bug, you need to be both obsequious and constantly on your guard. Unlike Devils, which want your soul, and will normally keep to the letter of their bargains, dragons don't consider you important enough to negotiate with seriously unless specifically proven otherwise, plus you look so very appetising, so evil or neutral ones may well eat you as soon as you're no longer useful or amusing, and even good ones will be more than a little patronising. This article takes an extreme stance, (you certainly couldn't say this about all the dragons in Ed's Wyrms of the North series) but does so with style, and more than a little humour, making it stand out from the crowd. It once again shows how interesting a writer Robin Laws is, and how taking a strong stance for an article gets more notable results than filling up your statements with conditionals and compromises. He fully deserves to be a popular and polarising writer who gets forum threads about what he does with this showing. Sleeping dragon Inn: We finally get to see the winner of this competition from issue 251, nearly 2 years later. I do have to wonder what took them so long. And since the inn is small and rectangular, and doesn't have any huge surprises in layout, I'm not sure why they picked this one over all the other submissions they got. What do you consider good building design in a fantasy campaign anyway? I think I'd really have to see some of the competition so I could get an idea of what the bad ideas looked like, (and if they were actually more gonzo and awesome anyway) so I could judge it better. The secret library of Vecna: Ah yes, Bahamut and Tiamat may be getting an upgrade in the edition change, but it's Vecna who's really getting a promotion, from an occasional adversary to a core god who'll appear in most campaigns which don't make up their own whole new set. Part of that is because he just has an iconic look. Anyone can draw a corpse missing a hand and an eye, and however the details differ (did they ever say if it's the right or left eye? ) anyone with a modicum of D&D lore'll be able to say "yup, that's Vecna alright" But anyway, since he's temporarily trapped in Ravenloft at the moment, this is a collection of typically double-edged magical items that he's collected recently. You'd have a hell of a time getting hold of them, and if you did, the odds of you turning into an undead creature, being possessed by a ghost, or just dying horribly when he catches you are pretty high. Basically, you're screwed, because he's the writer's darling, and trying to fight him will just send you on a railroad ride of frustration. I think i speak for many in the audience when I say <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> that noise. Fiction: The skin witch by J Gregory Keyes. Fool Wolf continues to try and get rid of his savage bonded spirit, only to find that the only people who might be able to accomplish that have agendas of their own, and are not to be trusted in the slightest. I don't think it'll surprise you to hear he fails, the author not wanting to change the major framing device for the stories. (plus he'd have to find a sidekick or someone else to talk too to make the adventures relatable) However, he doesn't keep the world static, with the river god that was shooting to become a monotheistic overlord having been overthrown recently, leaving a big power vacuum. But that hasn't made things any nicer, and the magic-users are still getting up to some pretty <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />ed-up stuff in the name of power and security. He might not want to be a hero, but compared to the people he meets, he's not a bad guy at all. Like Gary's column, this is one of the few things in the magazine pushing at what the censors might allow, and is more interesting for it. Magic is probably more interesting, and definitely more balanced when it has a price, and so using it or not is a real choice. Perhaps that would be a better way of balancing D&D magic. Instead of nerfing the powers, just add a few more strange costs for them.</blockquote>

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