Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6162602" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 327: January 2005part 5/7Bazaar of the Bizarre returns. Magic shop indeed. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />ff: It's one of your most recognised brands, even if it was originally nicked from Lankhmar. What were you thinking trying to genericise it? Anyway, this issue's topic is magic as technology. We've had that one before, but of course computer technology has improved at such a breakneck speed that stuff now would seem like sci-fi in the 80's, so this is well worth revisiting in an ironic way. Course, even more amusingly, much of this technology has advanced quite a bit in the intervening years since this issue. This stuff already seems horribly dated. Figurines of Delivery give you instant UPS to anyone in the world. And unlike the real thing, delivery times and costs aren't an issue. Just pay them once and get a-rocking. Gems of Location give you a zoomable map of an area. Unfortunately, it doesn't update like google earth. If you find this in a treasure pile it may be laughably misleading. Horns of Recording are basic all in one recording devices and gramaphones. They can store up to 2 hours, which is better than old tapes and CD's, but nowhere near modern portable players. Ho hum. Gotta draw a line somewhere. Memory Crystals are one-shot cameras. On the plus side, that means you don't have to worry about developing and printing. On the negative side, duplication is pretty much a no-no. If they get smashed, that's your valuable crime evidence screwed. Mirrors of communication are video phones with very very limited networks. A dozen or two people at the most. They don't even have proper split screen conference calls. I'm not impressed. The Slate Folio is your basic PDA or e-reader. Unfortunately it can only store 100 pages in black and white, but on the plus side they can be spell formulas. Again, I'm not very impressed. Let's hope someone advances these as fast as they do real world memory sizes.Silicon sorcery: We visit Everquest again in these pages, with the PS2 game Champions of Norrath. As with Warcraft, it's once again very obvious that they've taken inspiration from tabletop roleplaying, so taking a little back in return is no problem at all. 7 feats that make D&D dark elves more like Norrathian dark elves? They're a fairly interesting selection too. 4 which involve channeling negative energy to make the lives of enemies a misery, and maybe restore you a little in the process. Undead control for non-spellcasters. And the video-game ability to carry far more than a character of your stats should, which always amuses me. Most of these scale according to the number of racial feats you have, which gives you lots of incentive to go the whole hog with them if it fits your build. These are far better than the bloodline types that only have a couple of things attached to them in previous issues. Once again, having a good source to steal from really helps the design process.</blockquote>

Verification