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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5901237" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 276: October 2000part 3/7Countdown to the forgotten realms: We had so much fun with the countdown over the last year that of course we have to do it again until diminishing returns mean it loses all impact. And as the most popular D&D setting by a reasonable margin, especially in the novel department, this is first on the list for updating. Now, they have a few issues that they need to tackle. First, they need to make sure the new corebook encapsulates the years of timeline developments and provides a good point for new people to jump on without feeling intimidated by what has come before. Second, they need to make the old obscenely powerful characters fit into the new system, rather than being completely exception based, which also means players have a much better chance of being able to imitate and match them in coolness. Thirdly, they need to update the artwork and move the timeline forward, but not so much as to alienate people. It's a pretty complicated balancing act, and once again, it'll be interesting seeing the changes broken down into little pieces so I can comment on how much I like them individually. And at least it keeps the promotional stuff from spilling out too much. Question is, what will come after that? Dork tower presents a horrific case of gamer breakup. Harsh, man. DEAD and Breakfast: Another minigame even after the edition change. I wasn't expecting this! And it's another one illustrated by John Kovalic. Schweeeeeeet. Unfortunately, I won't get to play it, because they missed out the board again. You take the role of ghosts, trying their best to scare the guests of a hotel as much as possible, while not pushing them too far and ruining the whole gig. It seems to be relatively low on tactics, about the kind of level as Monopoly or less, as you do have a bit of influence on how to move and play your cards, but everything comes down to randomness in the end. It doesn't seem like the kind of game which'll sustain too many repeated plays, but should be fun for a halloween one-shot. And hopefully by next year you'll be able to take it out and do it again. Hey, it's not great, but it's more variety than I was expecting this far in. I still hope they do a few more of these. Black cats and broken mirrors: I'm rather surprised they haven't done an article on real world superstitions in here before. Guess this something that would be perfectly suitable for the old edition, that's only going to get the spotlight under the new rules. Mind you, it does seem pretty exception based, so chances are it was submitted months ago and converted to 3e rules by the editors. At 4 pages, it only has space to cover the fairly basic superstitions, which most people will know of to some degree anyway. So it's main value is in the good/bad luck rules it adds to them, and the way it presents them, with plenty of interesting quotations breaking up the information. And they're interesting, but not too brutal, which means they're probably going to do the job. Another fairly decent article then. How to create a monster: The Monster Manual is out this month, so no surprise we have a promotional article connected to it. And here they go into all the formulae that you build monsters by, that are useful in the short term, and very cool for players, as it means any monster can be advanced like a PC, even the ones that just gain more hit dice and size as a default;  but become a pain in the ass eventually, as they can force you into skill and feat selections that really aren't optimal for the monster's concept, and need to be compensated for with huge inherent modifiers. Plus, in contrast with the PC classes, the different monster types don't even attempt to be balanced, with Dragon and Outsider quite substantially superior to any of the others, and undead and construct suffering for their lack of Con bonus at higher levels. So this shows up the fact that while 3e might be better balanced and more flexible from a player point of view, it's quite a bit more work for a DM at higher level, and much easier for you to do it wrong if you aren't good at maths. One of their less pleasing promotional articles. Now hopefully they can cut down on them a bit, since we have all the corebooks now.</blockquote>

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