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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5885087" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon: Your official dungeons and dragons magazine (yes, I think that's a bloated byline, and I'm not going to bother to put it on every title section.) Issue 274: August 2000 part 1/7136 pages. So we've made it to the release of 3rd edition. Definitely an appropriate time for a special expanded issue, as they deliver the 5th biggest one ever. This is also an excellent time for a load of format changes. It also means a price increase by another dollar, to $5.95. They change the typeface of the logo drastically, and the colour scheme is extra red and yellow to match that of the new books. This also means the end of even token coverage of other TSR Products, let alone any other gaming stuff. They don't even get any advertising in, as that has pretty much been taken over by computer games and the odd bit of anime and various stuff. So lots of significant stuff happening then, not all of it pleasing. In addition to the obvious 3e release material, they have a secondary theme this month. Robin Hood! That's a curiously specific theme, much more so than dragons, undead or elves. And not something they've done before, with only two brief articles in issue 11 & 55, and an editorial in issue 172. You could have done this last edition and I wouldn't have complained. So it looks like they'll have material that will remain useful even after the novelty of the new edition has worn off. That makes me a little less worried that they won't be all self promotion all the time. Scan Quality: Generally good, but poster & bonus CD material are missing. In this issue:Let the games begin: So they've devoted a lot of effort to tightening up the rules, making sure they cover as many situations as possible. How do they demonstrate that first? Telling us how many creatures can fit into a Behir's belly, and how hard it is to cut your way out! Now that's the kind of situation that comes up in actual play, and needs formalising. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> This makes me giggle, but also demonstrates pretty well how they've focussed more on the universal application and reality simulation aspects of the rules. It's not that you can't just make stuff up, but you have less need too if you don't want too. Course, you've still got to remember where everything is, which will be easier than a 2e game with hundreds of supplements, but still not exactly effortless. Still, humour is a good way to get people to lower their defences. This is a pretty good start to the issue. D-Mail gets renamed again to Scale Mail. Which is a definite improvement in my opinion. Both punnish, rhyming and hobby appropriate, it just seems to fit with everything else much better, even more than Out on a limb (gods, it's been forever since they called it that) I quite approve. We start off with someone who's been using quite a lot of 3e's changes as house rules for years. Therefore, he wants to be hired onto their design team. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> If you were reading the forums over the past couple of years you'll see they took a lot of ideas from there. This is why the revision worked. People felt listened too. Just don't expect to get any money from it. On the other hand, someone wasn't paying enough attention when they put Tiamat's heads in the wrong order in issue 272, and this makes one reader very cross. It's right there in the D&D cartoon! I quite agree. Shocking sloppiness. It's the little details that make a character recognisable regardless of who draws them. Otherwise how are we to recognise her from any other 5 headed dragon goddess in a police lineup? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> And then we have another letter which has spotted an error in Tiamat's statblock. And that's before they even got the rules. This is a problem. Because they're built on formulas, it is much easier to take the writers to task if they screw up. They're going to have to get used to that over the next few years. A letter from Johnathan M. Richards praising the bag of devouring ecology. It's good to have competition to keep you sharp. No disagreement there. Praise for Gary for being able to cut through the <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=":)" /><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=":)" /> and just speak his mind in a way other writers can't. Once again, I am in full agreement. it's good to have him around again. A letter from someone worried that with all the upgrades characters are getting, they'll steamroller monsters now. Well, that's up to the DM, isn't it. Now they have a better idea if a monster is likely to beat a group or not, but they can still put them up against creatures way too powerful for them and see if they realise they should run away. And finally, someone who's really missed Dragonmirth's absence. That's one thing they really shouldn't get rid of. We all need a little light entertainment after digesting some heavy rules. Up on a soapbox: Gary loses his picture, but i'm sure most of us know what he looks like by now anyway. And he stops talking about reclaiming words and high concept what is roleplaying questions, for some practical advice on how to be a good DM. Look, listen and learn. Observe your players, and see what they like, observe other DM's, see how they run things, and adjust your play based upon feedback. Really, it's the feedback loop that is the crucial part here. Learning from others helps, but if you can't learn from your own experiences, then you are forever going to be stuck in a crap position in life. And if you don't vary what you do, you won't have the wide base of experiences needed to make an informed judgement in the first place. Just don't do an Orson Welles and get it right first time, then spend the rest of your life finding new ways to do things imperfectly. <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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