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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6237810" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 351: January 2007part 3/6Magic and intrigue in the high desert tribes: Al Qadim always was one of the most social campaign settings, successfully integrating things like haggling, storytelling and getting haircuts into your PC's adventures. Since the world-serpent inn already pushes you towards seeking social solutions to your problems within it's confines, it makes an excellent first choice for adventurers seeking new experiences and riches. So they set you down near an oasis that's in the middle of a regular trade route, where there'll always be a new set of people for you to make friends (or enemies) with. There's genies up to their usual mischief, a phoenix for you to hunt, and an undead tribe seeking deliverance from their accursed state. So they've given us a little scenario that's full of flavour, pointing out what's distinctive about playing here, and lets people sample the world using just the magazine for a little while before the DM has to go out and buy more stuff. If they can accomplish the same for all their other articles, this issue will be incredibly useful indeed. Athas and the world serpent Inn: No-one wants to go to Athas unless they're looking for the very best psionics teachers, so it's no surprise that the gate to here is closed off in an obscure back room of the inn, and opens into a bit of desert in the middle of nowhere. If looking out at a featureless expanse doesn't put you off, you'll soon get a crash course in survival as you deal with escaped slaves, Athas's distinctly untrustworthy strain of elves, and traveling traders. So basically this gives you enough adventure hooks for a week or two of exploration before you'll have to get hold of the proper maps and books, and give the players more solid details about just what they've gotten themselves into. It also introduces a new psionic power, a new exotic weapon, and an alternate, simplified way of representing defiling and preserving magic under the 3e mechanics. It definitely does it's job in making you want more, and pointing out where it can be found. Will you survive long enough to get anything from it, or head back to more hospitable worlds after a few hours catching the rays? Scavengers of Istar: Dragonlance's article is a little different, detailing not just a place and it's inhabitants, but a very specific adventure. Krynn has always had a fair amount of time travel, and so it's gate sends you to the city of Istar three days before the Cataclysm, trapped in an endless loop and unable to leave a la Majora's Mask unless you can find 5 special items to break the curse on a Kender who stole them a loooooong time ago. (in subjective time, and how he lost them again afterwards is not made clear.) Which is more than a little cheesy and somewhat railroady, but hey, that's definitely Krynn for you. So once again, this article does an excellent job at capturing the essence of a setting in a microcosm, giving us the stuff that you couldn't really do anywhere else. Plus the info it does give is mostly new, as we never had an adventure in Istar before, so it's also cool for long term players. What would time travellers from another era of Krynn make of adventurers from another world stuck in a time loop? I don't know, but it'd probably make for a very interesting story. Irongate - City of stairs: Greyhawk has a fair few portals to other worlds, but unfortunately far too many of them are of the lower-planar variety, so people hopping in and out the world-serpent inn have to keep a low profile. Fortunately, the gate is underground, in another inn owned by a dwarf who's quite happy to deal with the extra clientele it sends his way. Once again, they pick a location that feels like a microcosm of the setting. Irongate is a bastion of freedom in a war-torn land, heavily guarded both on the surface and underground, because you never know what horrors might invade. Fortunately, they also have rich mines with magical metal in them that ensure they can manufacture badass weapons and armor even when besieged. This article is slightly less user-friendly than the previous ones, but I think that's because they assume greater familiarity with the setting. It still has some neat adventure hooks for both old and new players.</blockquote>

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