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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6072661" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 304: February 2003part 6/9Fiction: Haunted by Dave Gross. Our former editor returns to the magazine with a tale revisiting characters we saw statted out during his run. A flashback heavy tale of the Malveens and how they wound up in their current situation, this is one of those stories that really takes advantage of the Realm's high magic level, and the corresponding jadedness of it's people, with vampires, ghosts, spells and magic items for sale, oh my. This really reminds me how much setting info and fiction has declined in the magazine since he left, to be replaced with yet more crunchy stuff, with decidedly mixed results. So it's definitely good to see him make a visit, even if the result is adding yet another layer of detail onto the Realms when there's tons of more needy settings out there. It might be a big convoluted mess, but it's their big convoluted mess, and it feels like home. Why shouldn't they put in the effort to keep it that way? Elminster's guide to the realms: Speaking of mess, Ed turns his attention to the messy business of grinding grain to make your bread. While the Realms does have some water and wind mills, and even some magically powered ones there's also plenty of places that can't afford the enchanted solution, and don't have the right climate to harness the elements, so they have to rely on draft horses. This is one of those articles that reminds us that when Ed does realism, he really does his research, with this capturing the small details of life perfectly. Constantly having to save so you can replace things when they break (which is a regular and expensive occurrence with primitive industrial machinery ) and dealing with petty village politics feels completely true to reality, and Ed manages to describe even these small scale dramas in a way that keeps them interesting as well. It's nice that even after introducing so many high-powered elements to the game that he can still make little things like this full of real feeling human details too. It's good to see he's still putting the effort in to learn new stuff to introduce, not just running on autopilot.</blockquote>

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