Dragon Magazine Issue 188: December 1992

part 4/5


Role-playing reviews: Rick once again diverts our attention to the various board gamers out there. It is christmas after all, and we might want a little light entertainment for the kids. Whether you're a normal parent sneaking a look at your kid's magazine for ideas, or a gamer parent looking to subtly corrupt your offspring, I can see the marketing sense in putting this in here.

The Xanth boardgame brings his much-loved paedophillic punnery to a new arena.  Pick a character, each of which has distinctive abilities, draw a hand of cards, roll the dice and head around the board. The number of options you have to choose from and random events that can happen keep it replayable for quite a while, even if it can be rather unfair and swingy. Yeah, sounds about right as an emulation of the source material.

Minion hunter is a board game based on Dark Conspiracy. As with the Warhammer minis games and RPG's, players are substantially more empowered in this, with a decent chance of actually taking on the monsters and no actual character death. It's another one that's pretty simplistic, and seems more intended to snag newbies than cater to existing players. Get it to corrupt your kids.

Greyhawk Wars gets the same marks, but a slightly more positive review. A war game for people who hate war games? Hmm. Trouble with this one is that it has so much hate built up over what it represents historically, it's hard to judge it for what it actually is. There do seem to be some wonky rules bits, but they make heroes more important than they otherwise would be, which is probably good from a dramatic point of view. It may have it's flaws, but it's probably better to play this and apply it's results to your game than to simply use the default timeline advance.

Battlemasters appears to be another highly stripped down game set in the warhammer universe, like Heroquest. Rick isn't very keen on this one, finding it far too simple and lacking in tactical decisions, but realises that his tastes are a good deal more refined than the average 8 year old. And it's cheap too. Perfectly positioned to appeal to the lowest common denominator and make millions.


Novel ideas: Christmas has certainly come for R. A. Salvadore. Drizzt is a runaway success, and he's about to release his 10th Forgotten Realms novel, with several more already scheduled for next year. This is a pretty cool situation for any writer to be in, but it has it's dangers. You risk burnout, ( Writing a whole book in two months, yikes!) and there is the persistent danger of your character becoming an obscenely powerful mary-sue who's near impossible to seriously challenge and impossible to kill off due to fan demand. But he does seem commendably aware of the dangers and unfazed by the challenges, putting him in a good position to remain one of their primary cash cows for some time, and also making him a likable interviewee. It's so much more pleasant seeing people live the dream when they're not smug superior arseholes. Another relatively good performance from this column. They seem more likely to produce useful information when not splitting it up into too many tiny chunks.


The marvel-phile: Another selection of pretty much brand-new characters here this month. Shield has a new team of super-agents, ready to kick ass and quite possibly go maverick to get things done. Ivory, who ironically is only moderately dark-skinned, and very resilient indeed. Knockabout, a pathological liar who treats life like one big game. Psi-borg, a latverian who may or may not be a double agent, possibly even unwittingly due to subconscious programming. And Violence, who lives up to her nickname quite effectively. The kind of team that you send out if you don't mind there being some collateral damage and unorthodox solutions to problems. Even Nick muthafuckin' Fury finds it a struggle to keep them disciplined. Another entry that's rather too specific to be of a huge amount of use, and as Steven admits, it was a struggle to find enough info to write about them because they are so new. If they keep catching up like this, they soon won't be able to run this every month simply due to lack of new characters. After more than 8 years, I think this gameline is approaching saturation. Where can they go from here? Without rehash, I'm really not sure.


Sage advice finally finishes ploughing through the bloody psionic questions. Skip is getting quite sick of them.

Is flesh armour cumulative with regular armour (no. Best of either, as per usual. )

Can prolong enhance ballistic attack (no)

How does phobia amplification work on PC's (either they cower like little girls willingly, or the DM will have to take control. No stoic badasses when you're being mind controlled)

How far can you teleport at the minimum cost (less than 10 yards)

Does Molecular Manipulation work against Body Weaponry (yes. See the shapeshifter caveats previously mentioned.)

How do you contest control body (opposed roll. Higher better, up to failure point. Weird nonstandardized maths. )

Do telekineticly controlled weapons inflict normal damage (with some exceptions. There's always exceptions. AD&D likes her exceptions, because she's a very exceptional lady. That's why it takes a badass sage like Skip to satisfy her. )

Does the psionics errata in dark sun apply to other settings (Yes. Buy it now, for an even more official gaming experience, etc etc.)

What happens to the hit points animal affinity gives you when you stop if you're damaged ( adjudicate each form separately. This can get complicated. )

Does reduction affect equipment (no. Hee. Tiny naked psychics, running around a dungeon. )

Does dream travel work if you aren't sleepy (if you have enough willpower. )

Is psychic drain permanent (if overdone. The rules for this are clearly spelled out.)

Does wrench make you vulnerable to normal weapons (Depends on the creature. Not everything is immune to nonmagical stuff because it's extraplanar. Try it on the wrong creature and you've just wasted a round in which it can splat you. )

Quote from: (un)reason;396873Our generic products continue to resurge. HR4: A mighty fortress brings swashbuckling to AD&D. Dueling, muskets, mass combat, and various bits of renaissance technology. Have at you, power creep!

I'm not sure if you mean "have at you, power creep!" in the sense that HR4 eschews it. If anything, I've always thought it made the "advanced" tech of the Renaissance a little underpowered, if anything. None of it ever inspired my players to want to use any of it, but of course that's just anecdotal. Maybe it wrecked campaigns elsewhere. If so, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe I missed something.

Dragon Magazine Issue 188: December 1992

part 5/5


The game wizards: Not only are they revamping the columns and submission guidelines next year, they're doing the same for the RPGA. They are trying commendably hard at the moment. Polyhedron is bigger, more frequent and higher budget. More contests, more tournaments, more support of games other than D&D (including our first mention of something called the Amazing Engine in these pages) more online stuff, more clubs, and tons of Raven's Bluff stuff to make it the most filled in city in the Realms. They certainly aren't stagnant or resting on their laurels. A reminder that at this stage, it's mainly the casual gamers that they're losing. As the convention stuff and statement of ownership shows, serious players are staying loyal and maybe even getting more involved as things progress. A distinctly above average article in terms of historical relevance, this is quite interesting and useful to me. This also serves as an irritating reminder that we still don't have a thread for Polyhedron, and I haven't been able to find back issues online in any quantity. Come on, surely there's someone reading this forum who's been a regular member since the early 80's and is willing to step up to the mic. If these page counts are right it'll only be a tiny fraction of the work this thread or the Dungeon one have been. Anyone?


Mind over matter: Ooh, a 2nd ed psionics article at last. All the sage advice and forum brouhaha has paid off. Rich Baker, who would of course go on to write a full sourcebook on this issue, helps you figure out what to actually do with psionicists in actual play. Unlike fighters or thieves, what they're really good and bad at isn't immediately obvious from a casual readthrough. And unlike wizards and clerics, you really do have to pick your powers wisely for maximum synergistic effectiveness, for you can't hot-swap them from day to day and draw on millions of supplements and magazine articles. Like Greg Detwiler's work on specialist wizards in issue 163, this isn't that big, but packs a lot of solid mechanical advice into it's paragraphs. Power picks, tactics, fitting into a team, DM advice, this is an end of issue filler article that transcends that status quite handily, and will be very useful for the not so mechanically adept indeed. And it's very pleasantly readable too. I can see why they picked this one up to be a regular writer. Two thumbs up.


Dragonmirth apples more modern sensibilities to medieval tropes. Yamara gets level training the hard way. Twilight empire has another battle scene that advances the plot. Well, it keeps things more interesting than if the fluff and crunchy bits are separated.


Through the looking glass: Tis the season to be selling, with this column getting nearly 8 full pages of reviews. Battletech mechs cut from last month's column. More big stuff that you can spend quite a bit of time assembling and customising, above and beyond the usual paint jobs. Some rather tall Dream warriors, with all the mutant surreality said name indicates. An Eldar tank for Warhammer, proving they can pull out some pretty big guns too. A Dragon trick or treating, which they really should have done a couple of months ago. A wizard kicking back and relaxing on a skulled throne and putting his feet up on a pile of books. An angel supporting a holographic image of the world. God, that technology really is advancing quite a bit at the moment. Still costs $40 to buy though. The Visionaries were barely half that. Plenty of cheap ones though. A barkeep, a female rogue and a man-at-arms all go for a mere $1.25, so you can grab them as an impulse thing to round out your cart. I diorama of barbarian violence. Gee, like you never see those anymore. A pair of well-armed centaurs. Plenty more barbarian warriors, including some official woodwoses from LotR. Some miserable straw pallets for a little more realism. An armorer's workshop. Some dwarf cavalry. And a trio of wizards with staves substantially bigger than they are. No, not compensating for anything at all, really. Ahh, the joys of trying to maintain anatomical accuracy in widely varying scales.


TSR Previews: As usual for january, next month is relatively quiet compared to recent month. It's still a lot bigger than busy months a few years ago though, showing how much the supplement treadmill has accelerated.

Dragonlance is the busiest setting this time. DLR3: Unsung heroes stats up all the stuff that's appeared in recent novels. Once again we see that the book line is the primary driver of this setting, and has been for some time, while the gaming merely follows. Also, they finally finish the Meetings Sextet, with The Companions. Just how many of the team will be together by the end of this?

The forgotten realms starts off a series that will become quite a lot bigger. Volo's guide to Waterdeep presents a different perspective to previous sourcebooks, with a much closer to the ground, more fallible narrator.  Well, it helps keep Elminster from getting overexposed.

Our generic AD&D stuff this month is PHBR8:The complete book of mary-sue twinks (elves) See some of the most powerful kits, and try and persuade the DM to let them into your game, along with enough lovingly crafted setting detail to choke a dwarf on their own beard. They're also filling out more general NPC's. REF6: Rogues Gallery. People from all worlds and none. Will you be able to find a place for them in your campaign?

D&D gets something very similar. The character and monster assortment gives you a ton of new models to represent your creatures in battle. You can never have too many kobolds to swarm your enemies with.

Marvel Superheroes continues to release sourcebooks focussing on characters. MHR3: Avengers archives is of course all about their history, villains, home base, and other useful stuff for your game. Who will get the spotlight next?


So we say goodbye to the Princess Ark, and hello to the Wizards Three this month. That's a pair of fairly significant column changes that say next year isn't going to be the same as this one, even if their overall policy hasn't changed much. As is often the case, we get both great articles and not so good ones, familiar faces and unearthed stuff. We do seem to have an above average number of historical pointers and groundbreaking articles this month, so even if it's not all good news, this is one issue I certainly don't regret reading. Lets see how 1993's crop come out.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;397923I'm not sure if you mean "have at you, power creep!" in the sense that HR4 eschews it. If anything, I've always thought it made the "advanced" tech of the Renaissance a little underpowered, if anything. None of it ever inspired my players to want to use any of it, but of course that's just anecdotal. Maybe it wrecked campaigns elsewhere. If so, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe I missed something.

Your interpretation is correct. Most of the historical sourcebooks, including the Masque of the red death boxed set, erred on the side of conservatism, as they probably should have.

Quote from: (un)reason;398021Your interpretation is correct. Most of the historical sourcebooks, including the Masque of the red death boxed set, erred on the side of conservatism, as they probably should have.

I completely agree. However...I think they had good intentions, and the resulting books and boxed sets were very good resources, but in the end they just weren't very colorful. I wish they'd spent a little more space discussing legendary creatures and magic of their respective eras/cultures, and a few NPCs with stats would have been nice. Still, they remain useful today because they were relatively crunch light. It strikes me that many of them now could come into their own, since the current edition of D&D allows for entire parties of non-magic-using classes to survive and thrive.

Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993


part 1/5


124 pages. Another month another year, another set of special topics to fill. Fortunately, one of Roger's requests to the readership now yields fruit. African gaming! Yay! They're finally getting to fill that long neglected region in in fantastical manner. And it looks like they're covering some other exotic regions of the planet too. Seems a good way to start off a new year. How long will this resolution last?


In this issue:


Letters: A repeat letter from a soldier who got shipped out to fight in the gulf war. Roger remembers him personally, and is quite friendly, but can't solve his primary request. They have proper professional artists to hand draw their maps, not some computer program. No easy shortcuts via throwing a bit of money at the task here.

A complaint that Atari isn't dead. Maybe not, but they're certainly not a leading company any more I'm afraid. We certainly won't be making any more computer games for their systems, so there.

Errata attacks again! Because we can't have things with AC's above 10, even though the system has no particular trouble with it. That would mean normal humans aren't the weediest, most fragile things in the world. It's things like that that remind you how mathematically unrealistic D&D can be.

A complaint from a UK gamer that far too many of the things they advertise are only available in the US. Roger is apologetic, but there's not much he can do. Roll on internet ordering to close these gaps somewhat.

Another complaint about ageism, from someone who's probably been playing longer than the complainers. Keep practicing, and smoke their asses like a good prodigy.

A letter praising them for finally doing some Greyhawk material around here. Roger gets a bit snippy, pointing out the many modules and sourcebooks they've released in recent years. Ok, not as many as the Realms, Krynn or known world, but it's hardly been neglected ....... yet. And of course when you actually get greyhawk wars, you may well wish they had neglected it.

A letter asking if there's a mundane survival game. Avalon hill has something about right.

And finally a throwaway joke comment just to pad out the page. Just what the doctor needed after a rather heavy interrogation.


Editorial: Once again, Roger exhorts you to fight complacency in your own campaign. Visualise what you want your players to experience vividly and then throw it at them with gusto. The results will be far more interesting than just grabbing some monsters and having them charge along a 10' wide corridor at the PC's. And even if they lose, the results will be memorable. Remember, roleplaying isn't about winning and losing, it's the ride along the way. hand it to them on a plate and they'll be bored as well. It's also a demonstration of how to nick stuff from literary sources the right way. You can't control what players do, but you can control the weather, you can control what they encounter, and that gives you a lot of leeway if you know how to use it. If you can't scare them with all the tools at your disposal, they're insufficiently invested in the game. Fairly standard roleplaying advice here. If you want your world to be real, visualisation is a very good task. I use it regularly myself.


The dark continent: Off we trot to africa then. Or at least, a place as much like it as Kara-tur is to real asia. David Howery kicks things off with a brisk 9 page special feature, including the map and quite good artwork. Integrating it into your campaign, terrain, natives, appropriate monsters, environmental challenges, magic, etc. There isn't a huge amount of new crunch, but there is lots of drawing upon various supplements to bind things together. He takes care to avoid the monoculture problem, pointing out that it's a big continent, and there's plenty of different cultures and environments for you to choose. Ironically, despite being bigger than most features these days, it does still feel too small, but I suspect anything less than a medium sized sourcebook would have the same problem. It does compare quite favourably to the introduction to the Known World at the start of the Isle of Dread module as a skeleton to build on though. If we're very lucky we might even get a few more articles doing just that. Anyway, this is a pretty decent way to kick things off.


Arms & armor of africa: So we've explored the dark continent, and met the natives. What time is it? It's violence time! Nothing to do with racism, just to make things clear, it's just that we're adventurers, and killing things and taking their stuff is our job. The fact that we took the job because we enjoy killing things and taking their stuff is neither here or there. But you can't expect them to just lie down and die. Wouldn't be realistic or fun. What unique weapons have the people of africa come up with? There's the usual knives, spears, bows, swords, axes, albeit adjusted for things like chopping through jungle, and paddling across lakes to skewer fishes without carrying two items. There's giant razors and boomerang/club hybrids. There's sickles designed to get around enemy shields. Speaking of shields, they have lots of interesting variants on them too, as since it's too hot to wear armor, you've gotta make the most of them. Using lighter, more fragile materials than metal means you can make them larger, more cover than blocking devices. They also have ones designed specifically to deflect missile weapons. And they reintroduce the idea of spending weapon slots to specialize in shield use, which I believe we saw in the forum before. Again, this is competently done, and not hugely surprising. What next. Some new mythological monsters wouldn't be a bad idea.

Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993


part 2/5


The other orientals: They've finally stopped publishing 1e OA material, four years into 2e. But they're still quite popular, and we've seen a few of the old classes turned into 2e kits. Getting the magazine to finish this off seems like exactly the kind of thing they should be doing. If anything they should have done it sooner. Kits are a whole world of easy articles they've barely scratched the surface of yet. So I strongly approve of this article. Lets bring them up to date, and maybe even improve on them mechanically.

Bushi are pretty much unchanged, albeit a little less larcenous than they used to be. As they were the straight fighters of OA anyway, this is little surprise.

Kensai get a slight nerfing, keeping their signature powers, but losing some of the peripheral details, which makes them more streamlined and less overpowered. Since they're now working on the same xp scale as everyone else, this is probably a good thing.

Sohei actually come of pretty well, as they keep nearly all their old stuff plus full cleric spellcasting. Ok, they only get 5 major spheres  to choose from, but compared to the crap deal many speciality priests get, that doesn't seem bad at all, and makes them a good deal more balanced than the 1e (and 3e) version, which were horribly underpowered.  

Shukenja are also probably a bit better than they used to be, as they get regular cleric HD, although they still can't use armour. Just don't expect to be able to work up levels without adventuring by hanging around healing villagers anymore.

Ninja lose all their multiclass wonkiness and most of their special abilities. Now they're just thieves with a few more tricks and a particularly strict guild policy. Since that's mechanical benefits for purely social penalties, that's still a pretty decent deal as a kit.

Yakuza become substantially easier to get into, and are also a lot less wonky than they used to be. Having the full complement of regular thief abilities and not being so district limited will make them more playable. Yup, I think I can say this article has definitely improved on the old versions both in terms of balance and playability.  You can very definitely have a place in any game that I'm running.


Rhino's armor, Tiger claws: Another set of weapons of armour, this time with an indian slant. This really is turning into a very culturally diverse issue indeed. India has a more advanced selection of armors than africa, despite being almost as hot. Large metal overplates above another kind of armor. Bracers with mittens to protect your hands as well. Rhino hide armor, which is considerably more kickass than regular cow based leather or hide armor. Lots of interesting helmets, many disguised as regular turbans. Armless armor to help you stand the heat a little better. And a guard to keep you from being slapped by your bowstring. Now that's one you never hear adventurers complaining about. Lots of good ideas here. As with the african stuff they have several shield variants specifically designed to be good at dealing with missiles or melee weapons. The weapons are rather more familiar, enough of them have shown up in other sourcebooks that I recognise the names and what they do. Tiger claws, spiked bucklers, punch daggers, interesting picks, and all kinds of sword variants that show there's no one best way to forge a blade. The momentum is starting to wear off, but this still seems like a decent enough way to finish off the themed section. Which leaves this issue at well above average so far.


The Known World Grimoire: The voyage of the princess ark may be over. But Bruce Heard still has plenty more detail about the lands of Mystara to give to us. And far too many ranty letters to answer as well. It's a hard life being a developer, especially when far too many readers don't appreciate your sense of humour. It's also tricky thinking up all the ramifications to big metaplot events. Fortunately he can give official answers to those questions here as well. It does have to say that the new mystara seems somewhat darker than it used to be, with multiple countries destroyed or transformed. While I don't recall it getting as many complaints as greyhawk wars, this did probably cause a few problems to people's campaigns.

We also get a bit of promo for the Poor Wizards Almanac. Bruce freely admits that there are a few errors in there, and sets about providing errata. Tear out the map carefully, unfold it, and then stick it back from one point so you don't lose it. Whalers island is full of walrusses, not whales, so watch out. And mind the scales on the Isle of Dawn. All relatively minor stuff given the volume of information there.

And finally, we have another load of writing on demographics. Mainly useful if you're at the domain stage, and want to figure out your tax base with a little more rigour, this bit is fairly dull. Still, the whole thing feels less forced than the last few princess arks. If this change is what he needs to keep producing cool stuff for us in the long run, so be it.


Fiction: Djinn coffee by Allen Varney & Aaron Allston. Even more multicultural fun here, in a classic example of the devils bargain tale, courtesy of a genie and the slimy merchant who thinks they can get the benefits of unlimited wishes without paying the price. Hah. I think you can guess what happens next. The poor schmuck tricked into serving him finds a loophole, and awaaaaay we go. They have studied the form pretty well. With some amusing magical anachronism, snappy writing and easily visualised action scenes, this shows that some of our rules writers can indeed manage entertaining fiction too. Even if it is a bit formulaic, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993


part 3/5


The role of computers: The dagger of amon ra sees the return of Laura Bow. Once again, it's detective mystery time, as she has to solve a murder and avoid being killed herself in the process. With good visuals, particularly in the cut scenes, and interesting puzzles, they quite enjoy it, even if it's not as action packed as it could be.  

Global Conquest is one of those resource management heavy wargames that can be played solo or against other people online. Build cities, blast the enemy ones, and try as hard as possible not to lose your king equivalent as if you do, you're out of the game no matter how well you were doing. Make sure you save regularly, despite the inconvenience of doing so, for it does crash on occasion.

Gods is an action game with plenty of puzzle elements. Beat up monsters, pull levers, locate keys, shop for weapons, it sounds moderately zelda-esque. No bad thing really.

Mission:Thunderbolt is yet another one that loses marks due to hard to read, easily lost copy protection. Blue ink on pink paper? Poor poor colourblind people. Bleh.

Pacific Islands is  WWII tank based wargame. The vehicles take quite a bit of learning to drive well, and you'll have to get good at interpreting the (not very realistic) sound effects as well. Sounds like it'll put off casual players before they really get going.

Prophecy of the shadow, on the other hand gets mediocre marks for being way too simplistic. With a formulaic plot, hardly any character stats, boring combat and repeated character models, they really aren't very impressed.

Siege does a little better. Take on the role of the humans & demihumans or the monsters, and try and break into or defend one of 4 castles. It is rather slow though even on their system. I wonder how it would run these days.

Warrior of Rome II is yet another wargame. Seems like they're reviewing more of these than actual RPG's these days. Are they trying to hint something to the rest of the magazine? Nah. Surely not. Hmm.


The game wizards: D&D: Warriors of the eternal sun! The first D&D console game. Once again they try and penetrate a new mass market, with moderate success. You talk, you shop, you grind for levels, you have to go all the way back to get your characters resurrected. (and they have a nasty surprise for you when you get to the endgame in that department. ) you spend days sleeping in the wilderness miraculously undisturbed, you spam enemies with missile weapons in the underground sections and win easily, you have a dreadfully anticlimactic ending. Ahh, nostalgia. Pay no attention to the recommendation for a well balanced party. Two elves and two clerics'll get you through way easier. Have fun. Yeah, this a quick bit of straight promotion that I don't mind too much, as it does trigger good memories.


Role-playing reviews once again goes outside it's name to review other sorts of fantastical games. This time, Lester Smith tackles stuff devoted specifically to wizardly battles. An idea well covered in literary sources, and not modelled too well in D&D. It has yet to reach it's commercial zenith, with the epic battles of Magic: the Gathering, but it looks like there's more than a few companies trying this out in various formats. Iiiiinteresting.

Duel arcane specializes in the shapeshifting based wizardly combats where you play rock-paper-scissors with your enemies to try and outshift them. It has a decent set of stats to enable this, although extreme ratings in a few of them prove unbalancing. It also probably takes longer to create and upgrade your character than the game really merits. Still, you'll have no trouble differentiating them and a decent combination of luck and skill is involved in winning. Good luck finding a copy these days though.

Shapeshifters takes a more crunchy, wargaming based approach to the same idea. With a complex flow chart that controls how far you can shapeshift by categories of size, phyla and sympathetic relationships, and secret action declaration followed by simultaneous resolution, it does sound like there's quite a bit of system to be mastered. But as lester says, while it may work as a game, that kind of crunch works against the feel of the kind of literature it's trying to emulate, so it can't really be considered a success.

Castle of magic is quite different in approach. A board game where you compete to take over the castle, and hopefully the countries that surround it, by hunting down macguffins and facing monsters. The visuals aren't too impressive, but the game is a good deal of fun, with a nice combination of competition, diplomacy and luck. It seems well suited to going overground in a new edition.

Wiz-war 5th edition is of course one of the leaders in this field, with proper mass market distribution and so forth. It strongly encourages treacherous bastardry and sounds like a good deal of fun. It's multiple editions have honed the rules so they're usually both fast-paced and well balanced, and there's enough luck involved that no one person will always win. Is this one still going?


The role of books: The spirit ring by Lois McMaster Bujold gets one of those mixed reviews that results from their being lots of good elements, but not enough tying them together into a coherent whole. Stick to one or two main characters and plots! Someone get that woman a stricter editor.

Mage's blood and old bones, edited by Elizabeth Danford & Mickael A Stackpole is a collection of Tunnels & Trolls short fiction. It retain the playful trope subversion that AD&D has mostly lost by this point, and has some nice background notes and essays along with the fiction.

Tales of Talislanta, edited by Stephan Michael Sechi doesn't get such a good review. It's a mixed bag, many of which aren't very good, and no overall picture of the game world really emerges. Meh.

The price of the stars, by Debra Doyle & James D Macdonald gets a very positive review indeed. High speed sci-fi, full of action sequences that would require a huge budget to represent on screen, and characters that still have distinct likeable personalities, it sounds like a star wars beater. Oh, if only commercial success followed quality.  Someone remind george lucas he needs other people to write decent dialogue.

Out of nippon by Nigel Findley embraces the genre switching nature of the TORG setting. Unfortunately, this involves him sticking too closely to the genre formulas of the various sections, and the whole thing feels like it was written on autopilot. Which is a shame, since his short fiction work here was so good. I guess it becomes just a job for everyone eventually.

Best destiny by Diane Carey is a star trek novel that does surprisingly well. Kirk as a young man is as rebellious and impetuous as you'd expect, and the plot manages to be much less shiny than the series while not betraying the details. It is of course probably completely invalidated by the reboot, of course.

Quantum leap, the novel by Ashley McConnell is another one that actually benefits from it's new format, with the ability to get inside the heads of the characters in their odd situations and challenges working quite well. It's also very handy for providing extra details that would be useful if you wanted to make an RPG around the quantum leap premise.

In an amusing footnote, we also find out that Laurel K. Hamilton has done a Star trek: TNG book. Didn't know that before. Oh, the slashfic crossover images that one raises. :devil: Oh Data! I never knew you were that modular and extendable!

Quote from: (un)reason;398510It is of course probably completely invalidated by the reboot, of course.

Not really. Nothing is invalidated by the reboot. It's a parallel universe, as mentioned in the film itself. The original timeline, and variations like the Mirror universe, are all still intact and viable.

Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993


part 4/5


Bazaar of the Bizarre: A bunch of primitive focussed items here. Just because they live out in the jungle in mud huts, doesn't mean they can't make stuff. In fact, chances are they can do it cheaper, by hunting down the ingredients they need directly. Underestimate them at your peril.

Headdress of peaceful conflict are another way to smooth out your encounters with faerie folk. Unlike our last two items with that theme, if you play in bad faith it stops working. Oh come on. Since when do fae play fair? Turnabout is only what they deserve.

Spirit skulls warn the shaman of non-natives and have a load of other divinatory powers. You can fill in the rest of the visuals pretty easily.

Ointment of mage-smelling lets you know how powerful other spell-casters around you are. Sniffing around people may raise suspicion, of course, but you can probably play that down as part of your savage nature, especially if you're meeting them on home turf.

Drums of menace spread ominous rhythms through the jungle well away from you. This gives a fairly substantial advantage to the home team in hit and-run combat, for the paranoia does not make you any better at spotting real threats. It doesn't have a save either, so it's pretty powerful.

Powder of images is another basic divinatory effect refluffed for cultural appropriateness. Do we really need this kind of basic handholding?

A Rattle of Exorcism is the shamanic variant on sprinkling holy water around the place and reciting from the bible. It takes aaages to work though, in which any demon worth their salt'll do something nasty to them. What works on tv doesn't work in D&D dear.

Masks of stealth let you pick locks, and make people think you fit in anywhere, even if all you're wearing is a loincloth and the mask. It's only useful if you're engaging in actions suitable to a nature connected primitive though. You get corrupted by materialism, and you're out the club. Captain planet, he's our hero! Yeah, this collection seems to have rubbed me the wrong way rather. It can go back in the pile.


Completing the complete bard: So they're finally bringing kits to the magazine in earnest. It's been 4 years, and we've only got one set before? Dear oh dear. I guess spells got the same treatment. The editors really have had to work to get people to submit stuff fitting the new edition's format. Anyway, this is another positive step forward. At least, it will be if they're any good.

Dandys are a bard tailored version of swashbucklers, complete with fiaty special benefits and hindrances that'll be purely DM dependent. And looking at the math, they'll turn out completely inferior to them mechanically after 3rd level or so. Unless you don't have the str to take that kit, avoid this one like the plague.

Outlaws are somewhat better, sacrificing legend lore, countersong and rally allies for increased thief skills and underworld contacts. This is probably a negative trade overall in terms of raw power, but not so much that it's completely untakable. Many people don't bother with those froofy knowledge skills anyway. Still, these two aren't as interesting or effective as the ones from the actual book. You're not missing anything by leaving them out.


Forum: Steven Roemer has found his game has died because his players felt they'd seen and done it all, to epic levels and back. No amount of supplements and worldhopping could freshen it up. So they've had to move onto other roleplaying games. They'll be back. :steeples fingers: just you wait. Sooner or later some of them'll get the nostalgia bug.

Robert J. Letts points out just how annoying Stoneskin is when the party wizards buff everyone up with it every chance they get. Oh yes, this is one that runs and runs, isn't it. Little pebble, big avalanche. Which is ironically a good way to deal with stoneskin. Lots of little hits are much better than one big one. Muahahahaha.

Sally A. Haynes is yet another person annoyed by the sexism problem. It should make no difference who you are and what your character is. And things like separate directories are just patronising. No thanks.

Amaryllis Roy takes another swipe at the ludicrous cheesecake outfits. Come now, have you seen the impractical things women wear in real life. I wonder if Dragonmirth'll ever have something like that, with Alias and Neeva watching a crystal ball together and commenting on modern fashion.

Malcom Wolter points out once again how generous TSR modules are with awarding magical items compared to the theoretical recommendations in the books. It's no wonder PC's can smoke enemies of equivalent level without too much trouble and monty haulism gets out of hand easily unless the DM makes conscious efforts to stop it. VE NEED STRICTER EDITORIAL COORDINATION! ACHTUNG! Yeah, this is a big problem, as I've found before. It's much easier if you don't use prefab stuff though.


Sage advice continues to face questions about the rules quirks of dark sun.
What stops a cleric from becoming an elemental. (Improper planning of your career path. One wrong level and you're gimped forever. And you thought we'd got rid of that when we revamped bards. It's even worse than prestige classes.)

Things you said would be in Dragon kings aren't! (Skip may be The Sage, but Skip still can't see the future reliably. Those bloody writers are always rewriting destiny at their whim. Plays merry hell with continuity, let me tell you. )

Do Dragons and Avangions take damage from psionic enchantments (yes)

The stats of The Dragon, and their general stats don't match up. (Hmm, should Skip shake down the writer, or the editor? Skip thinks Skip'll bang their heads together until their brains are all mixed up. That'll make sure they communicate properly with each other next time.

Avangions have contradictory stats in different parts of the book as well. ( Oh, for fucks sake. How the fuck is Skip supposed to be the fucking source of all fucking knowledge when all the fucking books are fucked up! Guess Skip'll just have to play fucking rewriter afuckingain. )

Can avangions and dragons hurt each other physically (They're monsters now, and they have way more than 10+4 HD, so they can hurt anything which needs +4 weapons or less. This is pretty handy)

Can Dragons use the special attacks other dragons get (Probably)

How do high level avangions cast spells with no limbs (Magic. That's the way to solve everything.)

I think some of the new psionic powers are in the wrong discipline. ( Could be. That's the trouble with edge cases. Someone's gotta draw a line, and not everyone's gonna agree wit that. )

Dragon kings messed up the gladiator advancement table. (So it did. Ignore that. It means nothing)

What happens to your wild talent when you switch to psionicist to become an advanced being. (you get to keep it, thanks to Skip's generosity. )

Why does Ranis Inilka get spells when Athasian bards don't (More writer incompetance. I dunno. We set you these incredibly strict rules for module submissions in the magazine, and then we give commissions to writers who break every one of them with impunity and still get rehired. Life aint fair. )

You make too many game worlds! (We certainly don't think so. If anything, Skip thinks we don't make enough! And as long as you keep buying our stuff, we will continue to produce more. Isn't that nice of us.)

Quote from: (un)reason;398814You make too many game worlds!

This is one of those perennial complaints against TSR that irritated me back then. It always struck me that the complaints were levied by obsessive-compulsives who somehow felt compelled to buy everything printed for D&D. I know that the proliferation of settings has been pointed to as part of the reason for TSR's eventual demise, but as a consumer I enjoyed having a selection of varied game worlds to choose from. It's essentially the same complaint we heard during the rise of d20 - too much stuff to buy and use! came the whining. Well, duh, just buy what floats your boat and quit being a completist.

Dragon Magazine Issue 189: January 1993


part 5/5


Dragonmirth faces more problems, and sometimes solves them. Yamara gets traded to the drow. Twilight empire gets very weird indeed.


Through the looking glass: Last month Rick gave Battlemasters a slightly sniffy review. It might be alright for those common folks, but not for me. Robert, on the other hand is a lot more enthusiastic, as befits someone who's more invested in getting new people into minis gaming. The quality of the minis is good, and they're easily adapted to other games, with their multifigure bases working well to represent large groups of monsters economically. He rather enjoys the game aspects too, going into rather more description of the details of the mechanics. This is an amusing contrast. I quite approve. Which side are you on?

We also get a similarly positive review of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The new edition is clearer and more complete, filled with more than enough minis to get you going, and a catalog to make it easy to decide what supplements you'd like. Games workshop really are a smoothly oiled machine, whether on their own or collaborating with other companies. It's no wonder they survived when the other wargaming companies fell by the wayside. Control the distribution and the games played with your products, multiply your creative freedom and take of the profits. Be your own master.

Our other minis this month are a pair of dragons, Bronze and Flame. Some assembly is required for both. And a bunch of dwarf signallers. I suspect they may actually be overweight gnomes.


TSR Previews: No particular game line gets to shine hugely above the others this month. Al-Qadim has ALQ2: Assassin Mountain. Another slimline boxed set, this is another one you can use as a homebase if you have an assassin PC, or as an ultradungeon to overthrow. If one of the characters is secretly a holy slayer, you can have double the fun. Muahahaha!!!

Spelljammer completes the trifecta of crossover with SJR7: Krynnspace. Now if there's a world that's hostile to interplanar interlopers (apart from the gnomes, weirdly enough) it's this one. Buncha hicks. Leave them to their petty squabbles about good and evil.

Greyhawk gets WGR4: The Marklands. See one of the most war torn areas of Oerth close up, discover the personal cost of the recent conflict.

The Forgotten realms finally follows Dragonlance into the short story business. Realms of Valor has lots of familiar names in the credits, but no detail on the actual stories. Any opinions on this one?

Speaking of Dragonlance, they return to doing trilogies. The Covenant of the Forge is the first of three focussing on the dwarven nations. Well, elves got a load of love last year. The equal heights commission would go mad if they didn't, despite elves being more popular.

Plenty of generic stuff though. DMGR5: Creative Campaigning helps you vary and spice up your games. We can always do with one of these, if only as a checklist to make sure you aren't forgetting something obvious you already know. HHQ3: Thieves challenge is another solo module. You'd better have jacked up the right thief skills if you want to do well here. And finally, the Magic Encyclopedia gets it's second volume. Now you have hundreds more items easily referenceable for the enjoyment of players and DM's.

D&D finally gets a GM's screen of it's very own. Like novels, it's curious that they haven't bothered with that, when AD&D's been doing them for ages, with several different ones for the various campaign settings.

And finally, our generic book this month isn't standalone at all. Valorian by Mary Herbert is a prequel to Dark Horse. Guess we get to see the backstory of yet another universe expanded upon.


With the new column, the new themed topics, and the new determination to actually cover kits in the magazine, this is a very strong issue, full of useful stuff that you can return to and use repeatedly. While it doesn't have any particular standout classic articles, the overall package is one of the best they've done since 2e started. Solid specific details, that's the way to move forward at this point. And maybe a bit more real world cultural stuff, as despite the billing, they spread themselves a bit too widely to really complete the african stuff. Hopefully Roger got some more articles, and'll parcel them out over the year. And if not, maybe this'll inspire the readers to send some more in. Not an impossible dream, is it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 190: February 1993


part 1/5


124 pages. As the cover hints, it's time to go out on the ocean wave again. Although not that much, as it's only 2 connected features, barely worth calling a special. Still, better that than letting some crap ones in just to use as padding. Hopefully they'll have room for plenty of other interesting stuff in the issue instead.


In this issue:


Gnomes and halflings have to share a splatbook? Shows you the low regard people have for them Low regard, Gettit? I prove my own point.


Letters: Some questions about Yamara. Roger goes to the source and gets answers that are a bit silly. But you wouldn't have it any other way, really.

A whole bunch of letters from people who did remember what the Thendar were. Roger is suitably chastened that other people know more about his magazine than him. I guess when you have to make deadline each month, you don't get much time to look back and reflect on the past.

This leads neatly into a request for people to make an index for the magazine themselves. Since you have so much free time and we don't. Cheeky muppet. Oh well, at least there's some money to be made here.

And finally, a correction by Lester Smith re one of their recent book reviews. Oh, cruel fate, that misattributes me so! Yeah, getting the recognition you deserve's a bitch.


Editorial: Ha. This month, Roger talks about the adventures that got planned, but never carried out. You spend hours and hours building a scenario, and then the players go the wrong way, or the group breaks up, and it all goes to waste. Sometimes you can reuse the work later, but others, the scenario is designed specifically around your player's quirks, and just one of them dropping out turns it into a mess. Such a pain. And then there are the idle fantasies for a game in a system you never get to run, which also gets quite a bit of attention here. There is a lot of goofy crap in here, and I can see why they wind up not happening. Roger does have one bit of good advice though. Don't hoard your ideas, talk about them. It increases the odds that you'll be able to bring them to fruition, for they might suggest modifications that you can bounce off, or they might like the idea enough to help you get a group together to actually play. Working alone is far more tedious and depressing than involving your friends. Another fairly entertaining and somewhat useful editorial that actually covers a topic they haven't done an article on.


Monsters of the deep: Not exactly a standard bestiary entry, here we have an odd grab-bag of new monsters and adaptions of existing ones, mostly using abbreviated statblocks. Giant eels, super otters ( ) giant turtles, colossal tadpoles and a whole bunch of variants upon the saurian and whale body forms. Whatever their origins, they're big scary sea monsters that can mess your ship right up, and quite possibly swallow you whole. They're the subject of many real world legends, including, of course, Nessie. Yes, the Loch Ness monster finally gets stats in Dragon! That's an amusing turnup for the books, and definitely ups my rating for this article. With both plenty of subtle humour and a good bibliography, this is a very readable article that manages to venture somewhere new for the magazine and give you directions on how to take a cryptozoological campaign further. I think this is a pretty good way to start an issue.


Deep beneath the waves: From a reasonably amusing upper to rather a downer, as we get an obituary for the writer of this article just before it. While not quite as sad as Paul Montgomery Crabaugh's death in '86, as they don't have a load of previous articles for us to get attached by, there is a very definite sense of wasted potential here. This is both pretty well researched, tackling the real world physical issues of going underwater, the fantastical solutions to those, and the magical creatures and weirdness that could be added down there for your adventurers to encounter. Metallic precipitation, geothermal flows, bizarre creatures, there's both challenges and treasures aplenty to be found down there. With giant tube worms and clams among the new monsters, this once again has slightly amusing elements that help sweeten the extensive footnotes and bibliography. As with the last article, this is pretty good, and together I think they do actually add up to a solid special feature. Just don't keep losing writers, or you'll never keep this up


The ecology of the actaeon: Yet another departure from usual Ecology protocol, we have a BD&D specific monster this month. That is fairly pleasing. Is Bruce's effort finally paying off? Anyway, in terms of actual format, as well as writing, this is a return to classic ecology style, revealing the nature and powers of the creature, and telling a little morality tale at the same time. Given all the powerful supernatural creatures protecting nature, you can barely collect firewood without running into them. I guess you need them to balance out the ridiculous number of apex predators D&D worlds also have to cope with. Anyway, this is a solidly entertaining, yet not particularly ground-breaking ecology. I do miss the days when Ed contributed a new one virtually every month, throwing new lights on creatures and filling in little bits of realmslore as well.


Divide (VVVV) and conquer!: Never split the party, the first words in this article, and one of those lessons most teams learn pretty soon, especially if raised on a diet of horror movies. It makes you vulnerable, and results in players spending long periods of time with sod all to do. But from a plot point of view, sometimes it's the natural course of action to take, and then you need to figure out how to make it work. Fortunately, there are tricks to make it work better. Timekeeping is of course the critical one, as Gary knew well, and the rest of us hurriedly learned. Not that fudging to ensure characters have a greater chance of "co-incidentally" running into one-another again hurts in this kind of game. The other things are making the story interesting enough that people don't mind sitting around waiting for a bit, tailoring the adventures properly to the participating members of the party, proper use of cliffhangers, between session one-on-one interactions, letting players control NPC's, and figuring out how and where they're going to get back together. So plenty of advice I've seen before, a couple of bits I haven't, and quite a few valuable ideas I've often used on this subject missing. I think that adds up to a middling article overall, just high enough CR that I can eke out a few more XP from it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 190: February 1993


part 2/5


The known world grimoire: As with last month, it's letters and economics in here. Not hugely interesting. Let's get a-saging.

Are you going to fill in all the locations in Thunder Rift? (not officially. We have to give your DM a chance to exercise some creativity.)

The Rules Cyclopedia is just too good and complete! (Honestly, no pleasing some people. If you want to keep things from the players, get the AD&D PHB instead)

The artwork on your new introductory products is frequently crappy, recycled and inappropriate! And Thunder rift is pointless! And they're too expensive too! You Suck! (How are they supposed to know? They're only N00bs. We want to dumb things down so new people can get in gently. Never mind that things weren't nearly as simplified in our greatest boom period. )

Was Robrenn influenced by the Asterix books (Hell yeah. In the original french too. Well done for spotting that one. )

Your map keys are incomplete. I'm confused! (Honestly, most of them should be common sense. How hard is that? )

I'm sad that the princess ark series has been half filler over the last half a year. (Sorry 'bout that. Reality is a complicated and annoying thing. )

You suck for increasing your margin sizes to save money! (Once again, would you rather we raised prices instead? No pleasing some people.)

The economics talk this month covers population growth (or decline, if you really mismanage it) and exploitation of natural resources. These are of course intertwined, for as the population grows, it'll want to clear woods and create new villages, and'll grow ever more capable of exploiting things like mines and farmland. Bruce introduces some more fairly simplified subsystems, that'll do the job as long as you don't examine them too closely. Meh. This is all a bit uncomfortable. I have to wonder how many of the complaining letters he actually agrees with, and is actually using this as a means of making sure other people know about the companie's current missteps. Or is that kind of political reverse psychology reading too much into it. I'm really not sure these days.


The marvel-phile: Looks like it's sagin' time in here too. What with the actual sage advice, plus the known world grimoire, and the letters and forums, this does seem a touch excessive.

Send me the game statistics of ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPOQRSTUVWXYZ characters! ( Statistics are a product, not a right. You'll have to wait for us to put them in books and magazines and then buy them like everyone else)

How can I get The Ultimate Powers Book? (Search me. It's out of print, and we ain't redoing it. (Note, do not literally search me, or we will be forced to taser you and inform the relevant authorities))

Send me a catalog of what's available! (Write to the right department! We are not going to do all the work for you. )

How does power absorption work? (In the comics, however the writers want it too. Don't expect your GM to be so generous with you. )

Why does wolverine need to put effort into slicing up a sentinel. (again, game balance. We have concerns they do not.  )

How does endurance interact with martial arts (Martial arts is the great equalizer. A sufficiently well trained fighter can even take on the hulk in a superhero universe. )

How can assassins gain karma? ( By doing other stuff as well to work off their debt. )

Do you get a chance to dodge when the other guy shoots you (only if you haven't already used your action this round. Yes, it's so unfair.)

Which is tougher, Wolverine's bones and claws, or Thor's hammer. (Thor's hammer, but not by an insurmountable ratio.

How can street level heroes fight thugs with such a big multiple attacker penalty. (sufficient badassery. Simple as that. )

I don't want to play a superhero. What opposition can I face? (Steal batman's villains. Plenty of street level stuff around really.)


TSR Previews moves back to the middle of the magazine. Ravenloft does pretty well for itself, with Van Richten's guide to the Lich, and Tapestry of Dark souls by Elaine Bergstrom. Some choose darkness, while others are trapped within it by the wrongdoings of others. Ravenloft welcomes and delights in tormenting them both.

The forgotten realms is also mixing game and novel harmoniously. Ruins of Myth Drannor opens up another boxed set superdungeon to give your players plenty of opportunities to level up .... or die. The Druid Queen completes Doug Niles' Druidhome trilogy. The Moonshaes restore peace and proper rulership. Until next time. :fade out to ominous music:

Dark sun tries to make an epic adventure to match the promise of the setting. DSE1: Dragon's crown gives you another chance to affect the world, that may or may not be railroaded to keep things from straying too far from the official history. Go on, let your PC's break out and become Dragons too.

Dragonlance continues to reprint it's glory days, with DLC2: Dragonlav(sic)ce classics, Vol 2. Aka original modules 6-9. Give us more money! Your gameline needs you!

Generic AD&D products do well for themselves. PHBR9: The complete book of gnomes and halflings sees this line start to run out of steam. They obviously don't think either little race has enough selling power on their own. How vaguely insulting. GA1: The murky deep takes us underwater to a lost city. Woo. Looks like they're having a resurgence at the moment. We also get another year's batch of collectable cards. They have obviously proved profitable as a regular release.

D&D gets The Knight of Newts. An adventure designed for a group to play even without a DM. I'm guessing it's pretty simple then, especially as it's only 16 pages.

Gamma world has another gadget book. GWA1:Treasures of the Ancients. How much will this stuff have changed from previous editions, given real world tech developments since the 70's?

And Warlords of Jupiter completes the Invaders of Charon trilogy. Buck and the 25th century logos are not mentioned at all. It's almost as if they're embarrassed about them.

Dragon Magazine Issue 190: February 1993


part 3/5


The role of computers: Darklands is a particularly in depth medieval RPG, taking your characters from birth to death. This makes for an epic, but often difficult and grindy adventure. One for those willing to do lots of experimenting with character builds and open-ended exploring.

The ancient art of war in the air is a WWI wargame. Unusually for a flight game, it's largely overhead, and has a combination of formation and individual bits to challenge you. This'll require both strategic thinking and fast reflexes.

Goblins gets a short but positive review. Control the three goofy looking little creatures, each with their own unique skills to solve an array of puzzles. Plenty of humour and weird solutions to be found here. Flex those lateral thinking muscles.

Plan 9 from outer space ironically manages to be almost as bad as it's namesake, only without the camp pleasure value. It's just a tedious find the items to solve the puzzles adventure game, linear and dull. Unless you want to MST3K it in the forums, avoid.

Shinobi adds a bunch of new ninja tricks to it's repertoire. Not just a little dog, but a whole bunch of additional ninja become available as you complete the game, with their own tricks. Sounds like someone's taking lessons from mega man's school of reward design.

Alisa Dragoon also involves summoning the right creature for the job as you go through the game. Manage your blasty powers wisely, and beat all the monsters.

Spellcraft: Aspects of valor sees you building spells from scratch using an elemental based components system. Find components, buy them, experiment with them to see what can be done, and try to avoid dying. But even if you do, it's not the end, as you can escape from the underworld, and possibly find some cool rare items while there. The biggest problem comes from mixing your components in real time as the enemies approach, and getting off the spells before dying.


Forum: Thomas Vogt asks a very interesting question. What can you do to improve a sucky GM as a player. Yeah, that is one that could merit an article. Hopefully someone'll step up to that challenge in a few months time.

Paul Cardwell, Jr radiates his disapproval for the more hyperbolic elements of TTLG's argument against banning lead miniatures. There are genuine health risks, and you're being a bit petty simply due to personal investment. Can we just make a law that's good for people.

Cory Dodt finds that people are incorporating house rules from the AD&D computer games into their tabletop experience. You know, I have never strictly tracked material components or post death door recuperation times either. Chances are, they're not even thinking seriously about it. The system actually runs more smoothly if you cut corners.

William D. Sharpe III makes the slightly patronising suggestion that if you want to get more girls into roleplaying, you should just keep all the rules stuff behind the scenes and just actually roleplay. Cos maff is hard for girlz, hehehehe. :rolleyes:  

Eyal Teler suggests that you make magic items with charges a good deal more common than permanent ones. That'll help quite a bit in keeping them from getting monty haulish in the long term, as they'll be regularly exhausting and cycling through items instead of accumulating ever more.

Alexander Dengler suggests the idea of a Ravenloft/Gamma World crossover. The mists seem to reach to all times and places, and you can incorporate a wide range of technologies. All are helpless against the Dark Powers.

Matthew Lyon talks about his worldbuilding experience as a new gamer. Not too surprisingly, he's used a hodgepodge of ideas from whatever he could afford to get his hands on. Perfectly normal. It's only once you have more ideas than you could ever use that you can really pick and choose and only incorporate an appropriately themed set.

Julien Hermitte likes to use film soundtracks to set the mood for his games. Those lyrics just get in the way. Classical music is good too, particularly the more bombastic Wagner stuff. You know, this is another topic we really haven't had enough of. For al the led zeppelin stereotypes, they didn't mention music once during the 70's. More please.

John M. Fairfield picks apart the earlier contributions saying psionicists are overpowered. They may not have many hard level limits, but the prerequisites and high psp costs on their nastiest powers keep them from being easy to use at lower levels. And don't forget the failure chances. Those can be pretty annoying in a pinch. It's particularly the case if you don't allow them insanely twinked ability score generating methods.


Role-playing reviews: It's a GURPS special! My oh my. They have been busy, not only writing various genre supplements, but also licensing out a whole range of properties, many rather surprising. How better to prove that their system really does everything, and if you like, it could be the only game you ever need to learn. Mind you, it'll take a fair bit of effort and money to do that, but at least you're not trying to keep up with AD&D's supplement mill.

GURPS The prisoner is one that seems like it would be particularly hard to turn into a setting, given the surreal and sometimes contradictory nature of the show. But the designer manages it, partly by making sure the toolkitness of the whole thing is played up. Answers? Hah. It's more fun without them.

GURPS Callahan's crosstime saloon is a bit easier to convert, but ironically winds up duller because of it. And the humour part of the show is a bit neglected too. Some things, even the most generic of systems will struggle to model.

GURPS Middle ages 1 shows that they realized right away this topic needed more than one book. It focusses on the english side of history, feudalism and chivalry, legal developments, wars, everyday life details. But as with far too many GURPS books, it's just a load of details. It's up to you to turn that into a good campaign.

GURPS Camelot gets much the same result, with the tension between fantasy and history being if anything, greater. How do you make it all fit together? Up to you.

GURPS Old West gets the best review of their historical sourcebooks, for being full of easy fun plot hooks, and generally having a more playful approach. Rick also approves of the way the settler/native conflict is handled. Plenty of adventures to be had on both sides.

GURPS Terradyne is one of their few full original settings. It combines corporate dystopia on earth with frontier space exploration, giving us a nice contrast between old and new. Quite hard sci-fi, it focusses particularly well on the technological and economic developments of the setting. Sounds like the kind of thing I'd like.

GURPS Space atlas 4 is also setting heavy, but is a bit system light too. This makes it particularly easy to mine and convert to other games. Combined with the previous  entries in the series, and you have a pretty substantial modular future atlas for characters to adventure in.