Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6054482" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 299: September 2002part 7/10Guild secrets: Here we have yet another variant on the idea of secret organisation who tries to maintain the cosmic balance, making sure neither good or evil becomes supreme, and hoping they can learn to settle their differences in a reasonable manner. How many is that now? I'm surprised they aren't always getting in each other's way and bickering over who's interpretation of balance is the most balanced. <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=":)" /> In any case, it probably isn't going to be this lot, as while they're morally neutral, ethically they tend quite strongly towards Law, and they lack the epic power levels of the ones a couple of issues ago. By contrast, these guys are still in the local leagues, and any attempts to right the balance aren't always going to be the subtle and long-term methods bigger and smarter groups use. Which I suppose makes them easier to use, but also makes them feel rather unimpressive as well. Overall, I think this is just another case of the magazine oversaturating a particular niche. Come up with some other excuse for people to get together to promote their agenda, because that one feels pretty overdone now. Elminster's guide to the realms: Another article where we find out all kinds of interesting little things about the food habits of Faerun. The kind of thing Ed would probably write about even more if he didn't have editors to remind him it needs to adventure-centric. Fortunately, there's a whole load of things you can do with the distribution chain, smuggling, organised crime and so forth that does make for good adventures. Hidden compartments, dodgy deals, switched gear, and the occasional poisoning, the booze trade can be a ruthless and cutthroat business. I suppose this is why organisations like the zhents and red wizards survive, despite adventurers kicking their ass regularly. As long as they have their fingers in the kind of pies heroic dungeoneers overlook, they have plenty of regular cash flow to rebuild when there's a change of personnel. Once again he's found an uncommon adventure hook and incorporated it into his world with style, with plenty of different ways you can use the setting details here. They're likely to wind up being one of the middle links in a larger chain of events, where the adventurers have to do some investigating to get to the bottom of a larger plot. Still, it's a good link, and it's especially nice to see villainous halflings that still retain the race's general personality traits and use them to their advantage. Once again, I approve.</blockquote>

Verification