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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6207859" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 341: March 2006part 2/6First watch: Back to 4 pages. It looks like the extras for the release of stormreach were a one-off. Anyway, this month's generic product is the Tome of Magic. Quite different from the 2e ToM - where that gave the existing classes cool stuff, this provides 3 all new and strongly experimental ones, with their own unique systems. Binders, shadow mages and truenamers. Not quite as cool overall as magic of incarnum, but still fun to play with. The Realms get their own epic level sourcebook - Power of Faerun. Last edition they let characters go to 40th level where most other worlds could only manage 30. And in 3.0 they got rough epic rules before the official handbook came out. So continuing this trend of obscene power seems fitting. Includes stuff on actually becoming a mover and shaker in the world too, which is a definite plus in my book. Only one D20 book this month. Not too surprisingly, it's another Green Ronin one. The Masterminds Manual for Mutants & Masterminds is of course their equivalent of a DM's handbook, full of stuff to customise your game. Seems more like a WW Storytellers handbook than a DM's one, but those are useful too. Tons of minis this month, albeit some rehashed. Once again, they promote the War Drums Minis set heavily. They're also releasing a new D&D starter game focussed around it. That is intriguing. Goodman games also tie in with their other products with minis based on their DCC line. No-one else is really doing modules in that kind of number anymore, so they have an open field to clean up in. On top of that, there's a deluxe Jareth mini to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Labyrinth, and another line of generic fantasy minis from Mega Minis. People may not be playing wargames much anymore, but there's no shortage of materials to play them with. Drizzt gets his recent comics compiled into a graphic novel. But no new books, apparently. Are they not making any, or simply not promoting them here? An interesting sideline this month is a bunch of books that aren't directly RPG related, but still have quite a bit of inspiration for you to try out. Cryptozooology, history books, stuff on mythology. Ahh yes, going outside the subculture for inspiration can definitely help. It's a big world out there, not everything needs statistics. Final Fantasy 12 is our upcoming computer game. They join in on the steampunkishness, with the overall ambience renaissance, airships playing a big part, plus the usual bishis, chocobos and moogles. This franchise continues to be incredibly popular, even if it is slowing down a bit in release rates. And finally, we have another collection of t-shirts with geeky stuff on them. Yawnarama. Can't say these grab my attention. Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Another real world demon this month. Baphomet, prince of beasts. Lord of minotaurs, and served by Goristro, Bulezeau and other horned creatures, he lives in an endless maze and has a vicious never ending rivalry with Yeenoghu, demon prince of gnolls. But he's not just some dumb raging brute. He also has a strong scientific mind, creating all manner of strange things in his disturbing laboratories. Indeed, this is one of the more expansionistic Demonomicon entries, attributing the creation of whole bunch of existing monsters to him. Never trust statements like that, as demons are notorious liars and braggarts. Fairly formulaic entry here, although the blending of warrior and scientist, but not spellcaster is interesting. He might not be as bizarre looking or unique as some of the other demon lords, but being lost in an endless maze can still be pretty scary. Still, overall, this isn't as interesting as previous entries. While still thoroughly gamable, this series is starting to lose it's novelty, and doesn't seem to be improving in terms of writing and design. Ho hum.</blockquote>

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