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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6151408" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 324: October 2004part 3/8A novel approach: American Gods! That's a pretty cool one to see covered, especially in light of the recent TV show announcement. And since gods generally have some pretty nifty tricks and gear, even if they're weak ones with not many worshippers left, there's plenty here to convert. From the prosaic stuff like Chernobog's warhammer, which is only magically enhanced at night, to weird tricks like a lapel pin that turns into a tree, there's some neat stuff here, most of which is not combat focussed for a change. Like many of the computer game conversions, this is a cut above because it doesn't stick to their usual rules, which gives it far more value than backconversions of their own games and novels. It's just a shame that the nature of the nature of these columns means they can't mine short story collections, which can have even more concentrated amounts of awesome to draw inspiration from. Then they could really get a ton of mind-blowing stuff from Neil's work. Zogonia faces the dread snow golem. Beware it's chilling touch. Nodwick faces the paranoia of his own party. If they kill him, they're doomed. Dork tower faces whatever was in the randomised mini's set. That really isn't a good way to generate a challenge. The shadow over D&D: H.P Lovecraft has been a perennial good seller all through the lifetime of D&D. It's not at all surprising that ideas from his works have bled through into D&D. Indeed, the very first new monster in the magazine, mindflayers, have a fairly strong cosmic horror vibe if used correctly. And it's even less surprising that James Jacobs is hugely influenced by his works, looking at the monsters he's written for the magazine over the years. What's also interesting is the parallels between the mythos and the D20 licence. Instead of suing anyone who mentioned their creatures and backgrounds, they actively worked to build up a common set of references, which gave individual books more resonance, and encouraged people to seek out works by related authors to get the whole picture. Which both makes you better liked by your peers, and contributes to the longevity of your work. (there's tons of pulp writers and characters who are long forgotten and very hard to find these days, while new cthulhu stories keep on coming, and even if they aren't all great, they still add to the stature of his legend. ) Of course, D&D had it's issues with this, as the 1st edition Deities and Demigods showed, so it's not all free sharing. But with the old stories firmly public domain now, and Cthulhu D20 out, those problems seem to be nicely in the past. This is another look at the influences surrounding gaming that feels both refreshing and very welcome after the past few years. By talking more about where we came from, and giving newer readers a sense of history, they definitely help us help ourselves more than highly specific bits of pure crunch that actually constrain creativity when delivered in large amounts. Read it, grok it, add to it, make your literary ancestors proud.  Living nightmares: Directly following the last article, Keith Baker has definitely been taking influence from Lovecraft's Dreamlands in this one. Dal Quor is Eberron's plane of dreams, inhabited by all sorts of weird creatures that can make your nights pretty nightmarish. Fortunately, most of the time, that's all they can do, merely waking you up unsettled if they kill you in the dream. But there are some things that are all too real, and want to feed off you or manipulate you into doing things in the waking world. The most dangerous are those Quori who actually possess people, who can get at you in both worlds and do some real long-term mischief. This is another article that reminds us that Eberron manages to have everything and the kitchen sink and then some, yet still manages to have a flavour of it's own, and it's easy to incorporate at any point in your campaign, or just ignore as you choose. Sometimes the scariest things can be those that are inside your own mind, and that certainly applies to adventurers who are used to fighting things head-on.</blockquote>

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