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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6154194" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 325: November 2004 part 3/8Silicon sorcery: Dungeon Siege introduces an interesting idea that upsets the usual D&D game assumptions. Spellbooks that you can actually share, instead of each wizard writing their own idiosyncratic variant of magical notation that takes a fair bit of effort to decode? Unheard of! Sky falling, cats and dogs living together, etc etc. Course, they only manage that by being minor artifacts in their own right, that give you additional powers if you use them heavily, which means if people know you have one, you can expect a lot of people trying to be your friend and/or kill you and take your stuff. In addition, the powers key off the number of spell levels you have memorised, which creates the same kind of dynamic as reserve feats, making you think carefully about whether to keep using your low level but consistent powers, or burn your big guns and face the next challenge weaker. This is very interesting, but does also take a fair bit of bookkeeping, which means it's for people who really like to consider their tactical and strategic options, and plan their spell selections and character build carefully. Anyone who prefers sorcerers should steer well clear. A novel approach: This column takes on an old favourite instead of a new release for a change. The Dune series has been going for a good while, but the original book is still the best selling and most critically praised. So they convert the obvious hallmarks of the series, Spice, and Sandworms. If you want to transform into a gigantic bloated psychic monstrosity, it'll be pretty expensive, and since it's addictive, remaining an adventurer yourself doesn't seem very viable afterwards. Best to keep that for the NPC villains, really. Statistically, sandworms are simply reskinned Purple Worms with a more interesting treasure type, and the caveat that you might want to avoid killing them and just follow them around so as to get more long-term profit selling their byproducts. Which I have to say will definitely be a different challenge for most D&D adventurers, so this is another conversion that more than justifies it's appearance here, even if the spice won't be quite as invaluable (and therefore expensive) in a world where most high level spellcasters can teleport and plane shift anyway. On the other hand, putting this in d20 modern/future would probably work very well indeed. Just because they don't mention that option in the magazine, doesn't mean you can't use it. Zogonia meets that dungeon staple, an orc in a 10x10 room with a pie. Nodwick keeps his party from making over their wizard. Beard and hat combos never go out of fashion. Dork tower tries to sell loaded dice. That's a bit worrying. Hometown heroes: The Play's the Thing may be gone, but it's legacy remains in this article, another one that aims to get you building interesting characters more quickly and effectively by directing your thought processes and asking relevant questions. In this case it's where they came from that's the area of focus. What it was like, who lived there, Parents, siblings, teachers, local pub, first crush, local bully that they fully intend to teach a lesson once they've gained a few levels, it's these everyday things that shape a young person's character, before they're old enough to venture into the world and try to be something they chose for themselves. Not every character can be an orphan who's survived on their own wits and skill ever since they can remember, and the game is probably far more interesting for it. Plus if you say all the characters are approximately the same age and from the same place, you can do collaborative character creation and make everything more fleshed out while also providing good reasons why the characters are adventuring together. Since this isn't crammed into the 2 page regular column format, it makes for better reading than those, even if the bright yellow formatting is a bit garish. We can all do with being reminded where we came from, and that other people came from very different places all around the world.</blockquote>

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