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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5884148" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 273: July 2000part 7/7Sage advice: Does having a reversed spell take up extra space in your spellbook (no) Can a sha'ir use a spelljamming helm (If they plug their gen into it with them. Stupid incompatible rulesystems. Needs moar fudge. )What happens if no-one finds a secret door, but they know there must be one around and keep searching (Good question. Skip will backconvert the taking 20 rules from the next edition to get around this annoying scenario. How do you determine the level of magical traps in a module (look for details on their creator. Simple enough.)Can dual or multiclassed fighters have exceptional strength ( Yes, but not for much longer. Just one more month before all that crap gets jettisoned.)Can you stack strength of stone with holy might (no)Can you use a sunblade to backstab (Yes. Neither the back, or stab are literal. That is why we renamed it for the next edition. ) When you spend a CP to reroll do you have to do so before rolling (yes. This isn't quite as bad as it seems at first. )Can a flametongue sword destroy enemy weapons by hitting them (only flammable ones. Other swords won't melt that easily. )How does curse tablet work (It's very thematic, and somewhat inconvenient. Just be glad it works more reliably than real world curses. )Do all necromancy spells require powers checks in ravenloft or not (no)If you polymorph a shapeshifter, can they still shapeshift (Yes. They can turn back next round if they like. Or they can toy with you for a bit. Either way, your spell is mostly wasted)What happens if you petrify a polymorphed character. ( Their new form turns to stone. It's all a bit embarassing. )What happens if you smash a polymorphed, petrified person. (they turn into a shattered statue of their original form. This really doesn't help.)Can dispel magic dispel flesh to stone (Recycled question. The answer's still no)What happens to magic items while polymorphed or petrified ( They do nothing while stone, but they might work while you're shapeshifted, if that's applicable.) What happens if an enfeared character is put in a corner (usually, they'll fight. An old adage about rats springs to mind. )Does a crumbling wall of ice last as long as a solid one (No. Once it's gone, it's gone.) Can you stack a ring of blinking and a cloak of displacement (Recycled question)If you save against charming, do you know about it. How about if you're charmed and then it wears off. (More recycling. Skip is so glad about a significant edition change after 13 years doing this. That way, even if people ask the same question, Skip no longer has to give the same answer. And no more poring through hundreds of years old books.)Does someone's alignment change while charmed (No. Even though they like you and want to help you, they'll do so in a manner appropriate to their nature. Laters, dudes. Skip's off to par-tay!) Role models: When it comes to minis, you can't always get what you want. So if you can't make the minis fit the creature stats, change the stats to fit the creature. Like rolling stats for your character randomly, you can derive creativity from looking at the world, and then trying to make sense of it and build a story out of the parts you find, rather than crafting them custom. You could use this to ask questions about the death of the author and the validity of derivative works. Or you could just be lazy and reactive rather than working hard for your creativity. This is the kind of lesson you could take in all sorts of ways. So I think it does have some value, even if the presentation needs a bit more work, and is once again interrupted by blatant self-promotion. I think they might be improving again. Silicon Sorcery: Nethergate gets some ideas stolen from it this month. A fantasy adventure game with a strong Celtic flavour, it's full of sinister crones, woad painted warriors, giants and fae. So as they've done before, they present 6 encounter ideas inspired by the creatures and events of the game, and give advice on how to recreate the mood of the game. Since celtic stuff has probably got less elaboration than it deserves over the years, with a big chunk of that focusing on the celt/roman conflict, this doesn't go unwelcome at all. That it's also high density, and has a decent amount of crunch in there makes this quite nice reading. This column appears to be in the hitting it's stride stage now. Hopefully it won't be suddenly taken over by someone else and take a downhill slide abruptly. Nodwick is still fighting the slavers. And they're extra diabolical this time. They have literature and everything. Be very afraid.Coming attractions: The releases this month are pretty much system free. You know an edition change is immanent when that happens. The Realms comes off vary nicely from that policy. As I thought, The Cleric Quintet gets it's final instalment reprinted. More money for TSR and Salvadore's coffers. We also get another computer game tie-in. Volo's guide to Baldur's gate. Just the thing for luring in those computer gaming casuals to proper roleplaying. And if that's not enough, there's The Halls of Stormweather, a set of short stories from their latest spotlighted city. It's gonna be tough for you guys, not getting any products for a while until they can get the updated corebooks out. Hope there's enough to tide you over. Dragonlance gets The Clandestine Circle by Mary Herbert. Heavy armour and tights do not a great combination make for actual combat. Let's hope the contents are less cheesy than the cover. Alternity may be cancelled as a gameline, but it still has a few novels working their way through the system. Two of minds and Gridrunner for StarDrive, and In hollow houses for Dark Matter. The print runs were probably pretty small, so good luck finding these ones. But at least the writers still get paid. And finally, we have another novelised CCG conversion. The Scorpion by Stephen Sullivan is a L5R novel focussing on said clan. Looks like they've already made the deal with AEG that'll result in Rokugan being the primary setting in the 3rd edition Oriental Adventures. Not my favourite move ever. Still, at least the all D&D policy of the next magazines means I won't see so much of that. What's new takes over. So much for those CCG's. Roleplaying will triumph again! …… Yeah, this issue was pretty tough to finish, both in the emotional sense, and in that it was more than a bit of a grind. Up to this point, everything from the very first issue of the strategic review has been fairly compatible with everything else if you're willing to squint a bit. If you had the persistence, you could squeeze most of it into a single campaign spanning decades. That is not going to be the case anymore, thanks to both the massive rules changes and the accelerated rate of advancement in the next edition. Still, at this point, a substantial part of me welcomes that, and I know that's true for many people at the time as well. So let us not mourn the death of an edition that was long finished by the time it ended. Let us celebrate one that still has quite a bit of life in it.</blockquote>

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