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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6183576" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 335: September 2005part 2/7First watch changes formats from lots of jumbly little coloured boxes to a neater thin column model. It also seems to be moving towards greater focus on actual RPG products. I think that's a positive change. Good to see them still working on that. Magic of Incarnum is our generic release. An attempt to do something different within D&D's magic system, this doesn't do that badly at it's objective, even if it does have some silly names. The substitute magic item system is quite favourful, and the whole thing is unusually multiclass friendly for a primary caster class. A laudable attempt. Our other two releases are a pair of little adventures. Sons of Grummsh and Fane of the Drow. Both aimed at parties of about 4th level, and designed to be compatible with their new minis line, they should keep the uninspired DM busy for a while. We also get our latest patronising attempt to lure new players into the hobby. Afternoon adventures with Dungeons & Dragons? Dear oh dear. Even the title radiates fail. We do not want our hands held. Just make the tools look cooler. People hate reading instruction manuals, especially when they talk down to you. D20 stuff gets it's usual boost. The Freeport trilogy gets reprinted. Green Ronin's own contribution to the worldbuilding business still seems fairly popular. Atlas games goes back to Northern Crown, their game of fantasy frontier america. Seems like you can put a fantasy spin on anything and it'll sell better than a straight historical sourcebook. And if you want something even bigger than the world's largest dungeon, order it from Mammothdungeons.com. I'm betting a certain degree of randomised formulaicness is involved. Our boardgame this month is a glossy conversion from other media. FFG put their own spin on dungeoncrawling with Descent: Jouneys into the dark. Sounds like a more sophisticated descendent of Heroquest. Three computer games get the spotlight this time. Dungeon Siege II. Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth. And Dragonshard, the Eberron D&D game they mentioned a few months ago is now out.  Once again, they know what their readers are likely to be interested in, and reinforce the stereotyping. Two comics as well. Exalted gets it's own line of them, courtesy of UDON's stalwart illustrators. Are you ready to see the stunts in action? Also with it's own share of high action is the compilation of the Conan comics. He's had a long and chequered history, here as in other media. In minis, we have more 3D terrain coolness from Mystic Blocks. Tough little bits and pieces for your characters to wander around in. And yet more space eaten up in storage. And finally, (whew) there's the Gamesac, a beanbag customised for gamers, with a little dice holder and footrest and stuff. I find this highly amusing. Is the geek market really that lucrative? Seriously? Of all the things. What will they come up with next?Waterdeep, splendor of the city: Somewhat irritatingly, we start off the themed section not with an epic special feature, but a bit of celebratory back-patting. We're not covering the Realms in general, but Waterdeep in particular. It's been getting material in the magazine for over 20 years, starting with issue 64 of this magazine, and it's influence extends all over their product range, with sourcebooks, novels, adventures, short stories, and giant maps all featuring or set there. It is a pretty impressive collection, I have to say. So if you're the kind of person who likes tracking down out of print products for the sake of completeness, this article will be quite handy for you. If not, the air of self-promotional smugness may be a little grating. I just want to keep moving forward and see what new stuff they can add to the setting, not look back yet again at stuff I've mostly already gone through now.</blockquote>

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