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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5914915" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 278: December 2000 part 3/7A short history of dwarves: Well, that's a pretty predictable pun. And it looks like we're still in changeover territory in some respects, with a whole ton of short, system free articles coming up that were probably submitted a while ago. Our first one examines the literary origins of dwarves over the centuries, giving us a good bibliography for us to do further research on our own. As such, it's not particularly noteworthy on it's own merits, being basically a warmup article of the same sort as the last issue's leading article. I'm sorry, I definitely prefer it when they start with a big spectacular rather than trying to explain to stuff to us like we know nothing. We haven't forgotten everything just because it's a fresh start. A dwarven lexicon: We continue with a primer in the dwarven language. It doesn't have enough K's, guttural sounds and weird dots and dashes above the vowels to make it look appropriately foreign and metal for my tastes. Dwarvish is supposed to be tricky to learn and pronounce, and this doesn't look too hard at all. Plus it's way too short to get up a decent sized lexicon, which is always a problem with magazine articles. Once again I'm not sure their letter writers have the right idea, and by trying to please the loudest complainers, they may cause other problems along the line. Cry Havoc: A random dwarven battle cry generator? Looks like it's another goofy idea, that allows you to resolve a problem swiftly if you're devoid of inspiration. They haven't done this before, they're unlikely to do so again, and you're unlikely to repeat results with this number of options. Plus the illustration's gurning is rather amusing in itself. Death or Glory indeed. Omnomnomnom. I still love that kind of silliness. Forge & Hammer: Our longest article this month is an 8 page general setting one by Wolf Baur, on the lifecycle of the average dwarf. Birth, education, coming of age, marriage customs, jobs, the way they relate to religion, laws, all leading up to a final piece on funereal practices. They might be a serious, practical lot most of the time, but they sure know how to have a good booze-up, and can form some pretty elaborate social rules over the centuries that may get in the way of actually accomplishing stuff. This invokes conflicting feelings in me. Once again, it's not bad, but it certainly doesn't break new ground the way Roger Moore's articles did way back in 1982. That managed to add new details that were taken up and ran with by other writers, while this just kinda slots in and tells us what we expect to hear about dwarves. Crunch-wise, the most significant thing I can find is the table that tells how much a dwarf can expect to earn in a particular profession. (generally a lot more than in a human community, given how much gold they have access too.) Somehow it just doesn't have the same impact as learning about Moradin, Berronar and the rest of them. Lights, Camera, Dragons!: The guy who played the dwarf in the D&D movie gets interviewed this month, which I suppose is also vaguely in theme. And no surprise that makeup was a fairly substantial hassle, especially the bit where they died his eyebrows orange. They mostly used trick photography to make him look shorter than the other characters, which is one of the few things this shares with the LotR movies. This is their longest bit of promotion, coinciding with the release date, and includes a synopsis of the plot, and little profiles of all the main characters, and talk about how this both uses D&D ideas, and differs from ordinary campaigns. (a fat old elf, the distinct lack of clerics, beholders are utterly incompetent. ) They're still hoping it'll be a success, with people signed on for 2 sequels if it's profitable, but I think they're starting to realise it might not be deserved, now they've actually seen it. Just because quite a few of the people involved are actually gamers doesn't mean the resulting product will be good or faithful. Still, I suppose it's better for the brand that they promote it, compared to the treatment they gave the D&D cartoon back in the 80's.</blockquote>

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