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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5930214" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 279: January 2001part 2/7PROfILES :sigh: Anyway, let's not dwell on the endless format stupidity. Jason Carl is our latest man in the spotlight. He's done modules for Dragonlance, the Forgotten realms, White Wolf, and various LARPing stuff. But his current job is splatbooks. Yes, he's won the enviable job of kicking off the supplement treadmill for the new edition. Which means he gets to design lots of new feats and prestige classes with which to bloat your options and upset the carefully considered balance of the game. <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" /> He is not unaware of this danger, making sure he listens to the input of other writers and editors, making sure that while the system increases in versatility and depth, it doesn't get too far out of hand in the upwards direction. This one does get bogged down rather in the technical exploration and talk about the new edition, not giving me that much of a picture of the person behind it, outside his work. But then, many of the staff don't seem to have much of a life outside their work. The best they can manage is to choose what music they're listening too while writing. It's another thing that's a bit of a pain in the ass. Up on a soapbox: Gary gets his act together, and returns with another plan after several months off. He's going to talk about exactly what a roleplaying game is. He's broken it up into a whole list of elements (not all of which will fit into a given campaign) and wants us to rate how important each of them are to us. This gives him well over a year's worth of material to talk about if he decompresses it as much as possible, and plenty of things for him to express interesting opinions on. And since he does have pretty interesting opinions, I'm definitely looking forward to reading future instalments in this series. Will he be be insightful, or in pontificating windbag mode? Previews: The splatbook mill starts to really turn with Sword and Fist: A guidebook to Fighters and Monks. Lot's of new feats, prestige classes, and all that shininess. The first one I really remember, I suspect this'll sell rather more than the adventures. Speaking of adventures, this month's one is The Speaker in Dreams. They step out of the dungeon and back to the city for a little political fun. Can you get your players to play investigator properly? Our novels this month are both rehash. Dragons of a Fallen Sun moves to paperback, or something, while Legacy of the Drow sees more of Drizzt's adventures compiled in omnibus form. Not a very interesting result really. Nodwick becomes the bearer of puerile news. He may be shot for it, but nothing a little duct tape can't fix. Countdown to the forgotten realms: 5 months to go. A very short article this month, giving us a bunch of little updates to the setting and timeline. The Red Wizards have set up magical shops, trying to take over via commerce rather than force. This seems to be working, making them a little less carton bad guys. The North has formed it's own league of nations to make things a little more civilised. Unther has lost it's god king and been invaded by Mulhorand. Oh, and the Simbul has always been a Sorcerer, not a wizard. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Well, someone had to be, and of all the powerful spellcasters Ed's done over the years, she's one of the most unpredictable and primal, so it's a good fit. Any objections to these changes? No? Let's move on then. Dork tower sends in the filk. Be afraid. Leaf & thorn: Robin Laws decides he's got plenty to say about elves as well as dwarves. And he doesn't hesitate to contradict some of the stuff in the complete book of elves, cutting the time they spend pregnant from 7 1/2 years to a mere 12 months. But they're still very much better than you in all sorts of ways. They're in touch with nature and the cosmos, stick to the big rules but don't sweat the small stuff, can have sex without all that stupid worrying about if the other person is really attracted to you or not, and then move on easily when it's over, get to learn naturally at their own pace, and then accept death when it comes magnanimously. As pretty pure fanboyism, this is the first thing he's written I don't like. They do have problems as well, you know, not that this talks about them. Otherwise they'd completely dominate the world, which they don't seem too. Remove a good chunk of the saccharine, and call me again next month.</blockquote>

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