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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6141868" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 321: July 2004part 4/8Silicon sorcery: As usual when they have a new D&D computer game out, they have a larger than usual article in here to promote it. This time, it's a tactics focussed conversion of the Temple of Elemental Evil. While there aren't many new monsters, there's a fair few old ones that haven't been converted to 3.5 yet in here. These include giant crayfish, giant gar and giant ticks, three mundane creatures souped up to make a good fight for adventurers. I do wonder why they haven't converted them before when they use up so little space in a monster manual compared to complicated magical creatures. Somewhat more interesting are the NPC's you can hire. Some of them are loyal, while others are treacherous, and it's up to you to figure out which is worth spending money on. Between those, this game and article definitely seems aimed at those who want a truly old school dungeoncrawling experience, full of sprawling labyrinths with monsters and traps round every corner. If you don't mind the bugs, (which of course they don't mention here) it seems like a pretty interesting ride. The long history of D&D computer game continues to take it in different directions. The limitless light: After a first half packed to the brim with sequels, rehashes and updates, we finally have something that shows a bit of invention, even if the name is rehashed. In 2e, the quasielemental plane of radiance was one of the most hostile places in the generally vicious inner planes. If the solar level heat didn't fry you, the light would still blind you before you could properly appreciate it, leaving it's spectacular colours the last thing you'd ever see. For 3.5, they're completely reimagining it, creating a kinder, gentler, more accessible plane of radiance which has a decent amount of variance for you to explore and adventure in. You can get into it without spells if you can find the end of a rainbow, which feels appropriately mythic, and once there you can follow the rainbow bridge, explore one of the many little floating islands, or step off and fly through the infinite shifting lights and weird weather. There's still the danger of becoming hypnotised by the beauty of the place and just staring into space until you starve, but the DC is low enough that in a party, one person'll probably be able to save the others and get things back on track. I'm not generally a fan of revisionism, but this is a big enough improvement in terms of actual usability and flavour that it gets my vote. Not that there shouldn't be plenty of places in the planes that you need to be epic level to visit and come back from, but the awesome eternal holiday locations are what'll tempt people out of their own little towns in the first place. Both ought to have their place in the D&D cosmology.</blockquote>

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