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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6282597" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Compendiumpart 10/10APPENDICES: A few more old school articles round this collection out. Not sure what their criteria was for dividing them between the Classics and Appendices sections, and maybe it was just because they're 1e DMG fanboys, as I can't see much of a difference in overall theme between the chapters. Let's see which I'm more likely to want to refer back too regularly. 101 Wondrous Whereabouts: The 101 lists were always handy, simply because that's too many things to memorise perfectly, so no matter how many times you've used them, you can always find something you've forgotten about to use, and keep your game fresh for you and the players. They could probably have filled a whole chapter with them if they felt like it, (and I'd love to see the bag of beans one converted to 3e) but they stick with just the one. Still, it is a pretty good one, full of atmospheric adventure locations and reasons to go there, many which draw on mythological sources D&D has only briefly touched upon. I fully approve of reusing this selection. 7-Sentence NPC's: This one is also generally handy when you have to crank out a large number of NPC's in a short amount of time, and are finding it hard to make them distinct. Breaking personality building down in the same way as statistics may make characters formulaic, but at least you can make sure they're not too shallow, and you have obvious ways to play them differently. Some people may be able to manage without using shortcuts, but even they'll feel the benefits of using them every once in a while. Be Thy Die Ill-Wrought: The mathematics heavy chi-squared rule article is the kind of thing they stopped doing in the last years of the magazine, so this seems like a breath of fresh air. The amount of higher mathematics and statistics involved in roleplaying ballooned in the 80's, before fading away as people wanted to just get down to the gaming rather than spend forever number-crunching and consulting tables. But making sure people aren't cheating is always a concern, especially if you're concerned with game balance, so this is another thing I'm pleased to see here. Good Hits & Bad Misses: Huh. I'm surprised to see this one a third time. I guess even though they put a basic crit system in 3e, some people STILL want more gruesome descriptive effects when they hit things. I really don't know. Still, at least the crunch here is all-new, with each injury having a mechanical effect that still usually makes sense even if the description doesn't, (due to the myriad body shapes monsters can have) letting you reskin the description. This definitely feels like they gave it some thought to improve how it works mechanically, which is a relief, even if I still don't really want to use it in my own game, as it still gives other people decent options to choose from. Instant Adventures: This one is transferred pretty much unchanged, apart from taking up slightly more space due to the way they formatted it here. And it's still handy, but not the most impressive example of it's kind, since it only provides seeds, not a way to grow them into full adventures on it's own. Guess recompiling the dungeoncraft stuff would have taken a full chapter, and they still only had limited space to play with. If only they had brought out a second one, they would probably have done more interesting themes with it. Not Another Magic Sword: This bit of step by step advice is also unchanged, and curiously enough, doesn't need to be changed for 3e anyway, apart from intelligent magical weapons having wis and cha scores now. Goes to show, some bits of rules didn't need a huge amount of fiddling with, especially when so many magical weapons have unique abilities anyway. Just remember, it can be applied to other magic items too, not just weapons. Pronunciation Guide: Ha. This is a system-free one that remains very relevant today, as new people learn the game all around the world without previous teachers, and so wind up mangling the words that they've read but never heard spoken. This could probably have been expanded quite a bit in the update, since they've introduced tons of new monsters and settings since then, but no, they're sticking to what Frank already gave us. A bit of a wasted opportunity, when you consider some of the changes they've made to other articles in here. Solo Dungeons: And so we finish right back where we started, with an updated version of the random dungeon generation tables from the Strategic Review 1 (and the first best of). It seemed pretty damn cool back then, and you know what? It still does, especially as they've cleaned it up and made it easier to understand, while only changing it the minimum needed to fit into 3e rules. This definitely feels like a good note to end things on, bringing them full circle before I head out in directions unknown. Putting this collection next to the old best of's definitely makes it easier to contrast how their approaches changed over the years, with the far greater emphasis on specific small pieces of information rather than big ideas in the articles. However, this attention to detail is also notable in the better artwork, formatting, and rules, and as a result, this collection definitely feels less lazy than the old best of's and their direct, artless reprints. So it looks like I can end this on a positive note, even if I would have made different choices of exactly which articles to reprint, and praise Paizo for their hard work in the last few years of the magazine's life. Now, will I ever get to see what WotC did once they took it back? The answer is in your hands. For now, farewell.</blockquote>

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