Dragon Magazine Issue 200: December 1993


part 8/10


Role-playing reviews: Adventure time again. Over the year, Rick has been doing quite a bit of playtesting of official modules. This means that while it may be a while after their release date, he does have more to go upon when reviewing than just his own opinion. And he's pretty harsh really. Even though these are supposedly the cream of the crop, none of them earn that coveted 5 star rating. I guess that makes sense, since the number and quality of them did seem to be declining around that period, pushed out by the bloat of splatbooks.

Dragon mountain is huge, impressively presented, and damn tricky. In fact, it may be a bit too huge and tricky, even for the levels of characters it's supposedly aimed at. The fact that a full third of the boxed set is devoted to the prelude is an issue to Rick, who thinks that's poor pacing. Since B2 took about the same proportion to get to the actual caves, and T1 devoted a good half of the module to the village, I am dubious that it's an inherently bad thing. It's more likely just the implementation in this case. The mountain itself has more than enough variety of encounters to maintain his interest through the difficulty level, although he's not sure about some of the goofier traps. I guess that kind of thing is a matter of taste. They're more serious than they were a couple of years ago, but whimsy and punnery is still a staple of the TSR writers even in serious supplements.

Shadows on the borderland is a rather good Runequest adventure from our other longtime reviewer Ken Rolston. The visuals aren't that impressive, but the plotting is, telling several good stories without railroading you into a fixed conclusion. Only the stabs of goofy humour again spoil the package. You know, a world where sentient ducks are a common PC race is never going to be able to maintain GRIMDARKness with a straight face for long.

Dorastor: Land of doom is another Runequest one. They've turned around their late 80's slump quite nicely. It seems to be as much an region supplement as it is an adventure, with plenty of info on the quirky creatures and dangers, but not a huge amount of plot.

The spectre king is a set of adventures for Pendragon. This is the one that wins top marks, with multiple adventures that fit together well, great writing, well researched historical detail, and interesting twists to the stories. That it wasn't even nominated for awards last year is shocking! Pendragon seems to garner nothing but praise, yet remain a very niche product with an unstable company history. It is a bit bemusing.

Honorable mentions this month go to GURPS Cyberpunk Adventures, Dragon Strike, Corporate Shadowfiles, and TWERPS. Two of them are notably simple and suited for introducing new players, while the other two are more sophisticated. None are perfect, but they all have something to recommend them to readers. He does tackle a pretty broad variety of games, although he seems to prefer slightly lighter systems. Well, I suppose they are easier to pick up and try on the spur of the moment, and then give a comprehensive assessment of. You always have to take practical considerations into account.


Social board games: Allen Varney follows Rick by contributing something that's about halfway between a review and a feature. So your game got abruptly cancelled, but there's plenty of people here. Let's get out a board game! But which one? Oh, the decisions. So here we have microreviews of 13 games, along with some general pontification about what makes a good multi-player competitive game. You ought to keep everyone involved most of the way through (by which criteria Monopoly is a failure) and allow for turnarounds at any point. Players need at least a moderate amount of personal agency, otherwise the game will soon grow tiresome. (again, snakes & ladders disproves that) I suppose this shows how detached serious gamers become from the mainstream, for although I've heard of some of these games, I don't own any of them, and the advice seems nice in theory, but not backed up by reality, where books like Twilight are huge commercial successes despite the obvious technical flaws in their writing and punk is popular precisely because of it's simplicity and sloppiness. Quality and commercial success  seem to have a pretty low degree of positive correlation in actual situations.  In the end, I am forced to simply shrug bemusedly at this article, as it doesn't seem to have much of use to me, and hope that maybe I'll get to try some of these games personally.


The dragon project: Star Wars gets a turn in this column, fresh from it's spate of reviews last issue. Now, as Star Wars is basically the heroes journey IN SPAAAACE!!!!, having a dragon somewhere along the line would not be out of theme at all. In fact, one could say that the Death Star took on that role, as a massive, tremendously powerful monster with a tiny weak spot only a highly talented hero could exploit. And that's exactly the tack they take in this article, statting out a warship called the Galaxy Dragon, and it's commander & inhabitants. By no co-incidence at all, the average troops aboard are members of a reptilian race, while the boss is a former Moff who became an independent warlord after the Empire's defeat. It's certainly a fairly creative way of interpreting the remit of this column, and the stats are a lot crunchier and more detailed than previous instalments, but the writing isn't that enthralling. I guess it's just ok then. It'll make a good adversary for an adventure or so.

Dragon Magazine Issue 200: December 1993


part 9/10


Fiction: The best by Margaret Weis. Another big name is pulled in to make sure this special stays so. It's set in Krynn, but not noticeably connected to the metaplot. The greatest heroes in the land are gathered together by a mysterious individual to kill a dragon. In most stories, this works fine. This time, it all goes horribly wrong, mainly because the dragon is the one doing the hiring, so the deck is horribly loaded against them right from the start. Although they aren't quite as machiavellian as Infyrana from Dragon mountain, but that would probably take a whole novel to play out, and we don't have the time even in this expanded issue. It's still an object lesson in proactivity as an adventurer. Mr Johnson will betray you sooner or later, so don't trust them an inch. They do regularly tell us to play dragons as smart and taking the long view as well, so this is good in that respect too. Don't fall for the hype though. It certainly isn't actually the best bit of fiction they've ever done though. Hell, with the wizards three in here, it's not even the best bit of fiction in this issue. But that doesn't mean it can't be both enjoyed and learned from.


Forum: Andres Zornosa spent time abroad, and is finding it's actually harder to get a new group together back in america, where most people have at least heard enough about gaming to develop a negative preconception. He's also encountering the issue that so many existing gamers have tired of D&D and moved on to other RPG's. It's almost like gaming is a disease, and the population is building up a resistance to one, while other variants still pass through the population. Very curious.

Joel Patton talks about the evolution of his gaming. He seems to have largely progressed beyond needing rules, changing them as needed for the storytelling to take precedence. We start in let's pretend, and that's where we end. It's almost zen-like, really.

S. D. Anderson has some more suggestions for helping out new players, following on from issue 194's article. Actually, he does a considerably better job than that, and in less space too. You have to learn to express your opinion succinctly here or get edited down, wheras they're more likely to pad it up via artwork and font size increases to fit the page count in articles.

Jeremiah Coleman is rather cross that gamers are so bad at returning books to the library. If you keep nicking them, they won't stock them, and that will remove one of the avenues for casual browsers to discover gaming. That is a real issue, and may be another reason why gaming has gone into decline. Stupid petty criminality.  

Eric Burns thinks that lichdom is a dumb idea compared with using magic jar to bodyhop your way down the centuries. He presents a pretty good case too. I seem to recall that there are mechanical problems with that he's missed. I'm sure future forumites will point them out.

Jon Pickens suggests that you solve the tardy players problem by offering XP bonuses to those who show up on time. This little carrot worked quite well for him, although he did lose some players along the way. Well, substantial xp differences do present their own issues. This would wind up exacerbating that. One solution leads to another problem. I seem to remember us having flamewars about that on these forums.


Elminster's notebook: A second regular column beginning along with the 2 ending this month? The issue becomes even more significant than it already seemed at the outset. Yet again it's made pretty obvious how popular and prolific Ed is, even though he isn't around as much as he used to be. Maybe that's going to change again, if this and the Wizards three remain regulars.

So we start off with a ghost story, Realms style. An old adventurer who's managed to reach the lordship stage, but then lost a lot of his enthusiasm when his sons were killed in Orc raids. Since then, he's become brooding and reclusive, and the castle is rumoured to be haunted by their ghosts. The truth is rather more complicated, as after all, we are in a place where magic is known to be real, and manipulated regularly on a professional basis. There is a haunting, but not the one you expect, and it doesn't seem to be particularly dangerous anyway. Certainly not to Elminster, who as ever, casually drops hints as to the many insanely powerful tricks he has at his disposal, and takes for granted his fame amongst the folk of the Realms. The artwork seems designed to add to the notebook feel, with a sketch that reiterates the important bits of the writing, and makes it a lot easier to remember than a straight wall of text would be. As an advancement in presentation, it's a success, and it also serves as an interesting demonstration of how real world legends become quite different once filtered through the Realms' cultural lens and laws of physics. It may not be quite as generic as it used to be, but it's still interesting and he's still got plenty of enthusiasm for trying new things while filling it in. I think once again, we have a winner here.

Dragon Magazine Issue 200: December 1993


part 10/10


The twilight empire is right in the middle of battle. The heroes seem to be losing.

Yamara has a rather more confusing and comical battle to contend with.

Dragonmirth runs the gamut of humours, from bloody to phlegmatic.

Snarfquest returns for an extra special full colour story. Not that we ever find out how he got there, as the plots left hanging four years ago when Larry had his breakdown are simply ignored. Instead, it's a full-colour standalone story full of goofy humour and silly voices. And lots of cheesecake outfits for Telerie. ChEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEsecake! I mean seriously. You call yourself an adventurer? A couple of precise rapier swishes and you'd be completely naked. Ok, so the vampire one is amusing and relevant to the plot, but the rest. :shakes head: Pure pandering. Enough!


Through the looking glass: Robert consciously decides not to spoil our celebrations, but to give us the usual mixture of minis, plus a game review. Blood Berets is the game, a dark mix of sci-fi and fantasy that looks like it wants to muscle in on WH40k and Shadowrun's turfs. As with most of the reviewed games these days, it's simple enough to be picked up and played from cold in an evening. It doesn't seem to have done enough to merit expansions though.

On to the minis then. A whole bunch of floor areas for you to build your own dungeons with. A missile launcher and cannon designed to upgrade tanks with. A phoenix in the process of being reborn. Two more vampires, this time from the TORG crew. I wonder what unique statistical quirks they have. Two set of minis from Palladium. One of them gets the first result under 3 stars in aaaaaaaaaages from Robert, which means it must be pretty bad. Ral Partha have a whole bunch of mechanical thingies: two tanks, a battlemech, and a cyborg bear, of all things. And last, but certainly not least, there's a tie-in set of minis for the Dragon Mountain boxed set. This actually gets a better review than the adventure itself, with all the minis being of excellent quality. Only the dragon really disappoints, hardly having the stature of a proper D&D great wyrm. Who will make a dragon to really match the likes of Scorponok and Trypticon and properly menace our minis?


TSR Previews: Just about the only thing that isn't unusually large, next month sees things drop off as usual. Dragonlance gets a sourcebook and a novel. DLT2: Rook (sic) of lairs is another collection of small adventures to drop on your players. The swordsheath scroll completes the Dwarven nations trilogy. They still seem to be occupying a solid second place overall in terms of product numbers.

Ravenloft follows up on the recent van Richten's guide with RM4: Dark of the moon.   Fight a werewolf. No further details are forthcoming, because it needs to be a surprise to the players. Raaaaar! Fooled you.

The complete series finally gets back to the classes, with PHBR11:The Complete ranger's handbook. Rick Swan shows you how to customise your wilderness lovin' guys even further. Not quite as broad as the complete bard's handbook, but not bad either.

And the Amazing engine gets AM5: Galactos Barrier. Swashbuckling space opera? Sounds like fun. Why did this have so many cool ideas, yet still die depressingly?


Conclusion: Well, as a special issue, this has not only hit the bullseye, but gone right through the target and out the other side. There's just so many great things going on here that it's hard to pick out one to praise above the others. I guess it's going to have to be Ed that gets the gold again, since he did score another hat trick. And yet, somehow, this isn't nearly as adventurous in it's topics as issue 100, or even 150 for that matter. There's a couple of token stabs at more war and boardgaming coverage, but those are pretty weak compared to something like Dragonchess. Instead, the expansion is more a matter of sheer volume, colour and spectacle than having cool new ideas to give us. And when you factor in the substantial decline in readership over the last year, it becomes pretty obvious that if ever there was a definite jump the shark point for the magazine, this is it. A game attempt at really going over the top to turn things around, that they would never again be able to replicate due to declining budgets and closing horizons. I dunno, maybe they'll top even this in issue 400 or 500 just to prove me wrong. But I do know that for the physical issues, it's all downhill from here in terms of size. (and no more holographic covers either. ) Which means I won't be facing any more monumental challenges like this. I suppose I should just kick back and see if I enjoy individual issues as they come. After all, we might be past the "classic" eras now, but there'll still be plenty of month by month fluctuations to come. Some of them are bound to throw up great articles.

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 1/5


124 pages. You know, I think this cover might actually be better than the issue 200 one. It's not quite as exquisitely photorealistic as issue 94, but it is both pretty and detailed, with a real sense of scale and depth to it. Guess we're back to reality after the high magic hijinks of last month. Course, that might mean a more consistently good issue overall, even if it doesn't have the extra size and budget. After all, they managed it in issue 51. Optimism, optimism, are you going to be crushed again?


In this issue:


Letters: A not too surprising complaint about the sideshuffling of mystara. This is putting too much emphasis on AD&D over the regular variety. Dale tries to sidestep the complaints rather than counter them, slipping in as much promotion for the upcoming products as possible along the way. Go on, tell us you're not happy about the move either.

A request for an indian setting. Like africa, you'll have to be content with an increased frequency of articles in the magazine for it.

A demonstration that roleplaying does indeed improve your writing skills. But then, we knew that already. Compare the level of discourse here with say, youtube comments, and there is very little contest.

Another query as to their online plans. They continue to be pretty conservative about this, keeping the web at arms length. And so they slip another small step behind the times, despite individual members of the company trying otherwise.

Another repeated topic, this time proper submissions procedure. You must still beware the no SASE ogres and their ravenous appetites. Grr, Argh.


Editorial: Kim may be the guy at the top of the masthead again, but he's not nearly as involved in day-to-day stuff as he used to be. From now on, it's mostly Dale that's doing the frontline work such as answering letters and writing the editorials. Well, he's still young and enthusiastic, and Kim was never really much of a gamer in the first place. He also has some pretty definite opinions on what he wants to see in the magazine, which doesn't hurt. More ecologies! More minis, non D&D articles and stuff applicable to any game! More detailed bits of setting! More advice on making your own settings! Stuff to grab the imagination, and be handy for all roleplayers, not just AD&D lovers. Not too dissimilar to Roger's aims actually, it's just that he hasn't been worn down by the responsibilities of the big chair and all the compromises and politics that come with it yet. This changeover isn't so much a fresh start, more a renewed determination to make their established formula work. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter of opinion.


The city of lofty pillars: Most cultures have legends of some kind of shangri-la, a perfect secluded place where the troubles of the mundane world do not reach, fantastical things are commonplace, and time passes strangely. Often bound up with supernatural creatures such as fae, you can go there, but you may well have trouble leaving, and don't expect to be able to take much with you. Here we have an Arabian interpretation of that monomyth. The city of lofty pillars in the Realm of Dreams. Time passes at 10 times the normal rate there, and if you leave, you'll rapidly age back to catch up with real time, so extended stays are not a good idea as an adventurer. Jewels grow on trees, but of course melt away when you leave. And spirit creatures like makshi are the primary inhabitants, turning up and slipping away enigmatically. This is one of those articles that seems set up to provide a whole series of adventures, as it's a real struggle to get there, a real struggle to get back, quite possibly another load of hassle trying to return; and even if you do, chances are you won't be seeing much long-term profit from it, you'll just have a good story to tell in the bars afterwards. Which is very much in the arabian nights tradition, if not the D&D one. Even if I can see the formula, it's one that doesn't get used around here that much, (the last example I can remember is The Garden of Nefaron, way back in issue 53) and it's quite well done, so I welcome this. It's not quite one of their old plane revealing epics, but as a way to kick off an issue, it is well above average.


Turkey's underground cities: From high fantasy to a look at the mundane middle east. Allen Varney shows us what he did on holiday last year, visiting one of reality's most impressive dungeon complexes. Not that it looks much like most D&D dungeons. As we've found before, caverns are rarely as neat as they appear on a map, with all kinds of odd-shaped, 3-dimensional rooms which developed organically in response to quirks in the geological composition of the rock. Ventilation is crucial for people to live down there, with large chimneys penetrating hundreds of feet down, ensuring a strong airflow nearly everywhere. It's all very interesting. The history which leads to it is also pretty fascinating. Originally they were just used as storage space, serious excavation and long-term underground dwelling only started in the early AD years, with the rapid growth and corresponding backlash against christianity. Yes folks, the early christians were one of the biggest groups of dungeon-dwellers around. How's that for massive irony, especially as we've already been through the fact that both founders of D&D were also Christians. It raises particularly interesting questions when juxtaposed with the tendency of D&D worlds towards polytheism, with the only people worshipping single gods some particularly obscure races. So this is useful, highly thought-provoking, and far less generic than the last article, taking us to the kind of place a single writer could never come up with on their own. There's a lot here for you to draw upon, and it's all presented with tremendous enthusiasm. This is exactly the kind of thing Dale said he wanted, as it is applicable to any system, and fills in info on an often neglected part of reality. A very definite 9/10er.

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 2/5


The evolution of a castle: A second dose of reality in quick succession. Somewhat less impressive, this is another reminder that in reality, things are created organically, and on a "this'll do for now" basis far more often than they follow some grand concept. Real castles are strongly shaped by the landscape features of the area, with their position chosen by where the resources are, and what bits seem most easily defended. They're frequently unevenly shaped, need expensive repairs that the owner might not have money for, and had things added on years after the original construction. Castles Forlorn, dealing in time travel weirdness as it does, has a great practical example of this. As this has pretty similar lessons to last article, only applied to a different topic, it does feel a bit like filler. Oh well, It's decent enough.


Seven steps to a successful castle: This, on the other hand, is another pretty darn impressive article. Rich Baker finishes the themed section off with a full 10 page special on building your own castle, with both sample base plans and a highly amusing illustration. Despite the size, this is of course far smaller and more accessible than a whole book on the topic would be, and as such, is pretty usable, presuming you can get up the money to use it, as costs will run into the millions of gold pieces if you want to build a really big impressive place to live after name level. Unless your DM is well and truly in the monty haul school, you'll probably have to club together to build a single fortress instead of drifting apart to become individual landowners under these rules. Or once again, build your castle in stages over a period of years, adding on extensions each time you finish another big adventure. You'll never be short of things you want to spend your money on next, making this a good one to return to again and again while also doing other things. This all seems relatively easy to use. Just spend quarter of an hour at the end of an adventure figuring out where the money's going to go and how long it'll take and you're away again. Just watch you don't spend more than you can afford and get in the debt trap like reality.


Sage advice: Can you use nonoffensive spells while wraithformed or invisible (To be sure, to be sure)

Do you have to roll a natural 20 to make saves while irresistably dancing no matter what buffs you have (yup. Not only is it exceedingly humiliating, it opens you up to further humiliation. )

How much damage does defiling regeneration inflict (No people, only plants. Die, filthy plants, spreading their filthy roots through the earth. )

What happens when a pouch of security's owner dies ( It bonds with the first person to show it a little affection. The craving for security runs both ways. )

Can nonevil goblinoids worship human gods (Only the non prejudiced ones. Racism isn't evil if it's justified. )

Can you tear a magic cloak in half and have two small creatures use it. ( No. Magic items are a bugger to destroy, and if you do ruin them the magic's lost, not shared. )

There are instances where the same spell shows up in different books at different levels. (oh noes. Go with the most recent one, or the one for the campaign world you're in. Precedence and all that.)

Can illiterate characters be affected by gyphs & symbols (yes. It's the seeing that matters, not the comprehension)

Can I worship a community deity in the forgotten realms (if your DM lets you)

Where are the rules for half-giant clerics ( What rules? They work just like any other race. Random alignment shifts are not an issue because Dark sun spirit patrons don't give a shit about that as long as you promote their element. )

How many stoneskins can you have on you (I think we need to properly implement the no stacking rule. Otherwise broken stuff happens)

We want more info on what tome of magic spheres various gods grant ( You don't even have to ask. Skip's not gonna forget his duty. Even druids are gonna feel some sweet lovin from skip, the private sage who puts the pages in the mages and the broomstick between the witches legs. Skips gonna be extra generous to the goddess of sweet lovin of the forgotten realms, giving her two extra major spheres. Mmmm. Major Spheres. None of those egyptian fuddy duddies can compete with that.)


The dragon project: Sandy again proves that hiring him was a damn good decision by the editorial staff, with this little pendragon feature. Quite different from his CoC dragon, this plays up the pendragon principle of adventure as moral challenge as much as physical threat. Sure, the dragon may well wipe out an unexperienced whole party with a few casual swats, but fighting it isn't the main focus. Instead, there's quite a bit of effort put into the reason it was released, the way it approaches the world, and the people it's affected. Defeating it will probably involve another adventure beforehand to get hold of equipment that'll boost your odds of success. Even if you win, it may still have interesting after-effects on the campaign, for it's treasure is cursed. I think this counts as another success in terms of understanding and exploiting the themes of the game you're writing for, and bringing them to an audience that may not be that familiar with them. Embrace that mythological style, with all it's quirks and bitter ironies.

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 3/5


The game wizards: Promotion time again. :yawn: Roger returns to try and give a shot in the arm to the historical sourcebooks line. Somehow I suspect they're not doing as well as the complete handbooks, and they'd rather like to clear now several years old stocks of the first books in the series. But they're hardly useless, and you can use them for games other than straight historical stories. Plus you have hundreds of external history books if you want more info. And articles from this magazine. This does all feel a bit forced. It's like he's got into his new office, had a browse through the accounts, and then gone oh shit, this area needs some serious shoring up. The result is completely unthrilling. Fastforward, fastforward, skip!


Forum:Eric Pollinger thinks that psionicists do not need nerfing. They're already unreliable enough as they are. Many of their powers even turn against them 1 in 20 times. That's a pretty ferocious balancing issue.

Another inadvertent Anonymous also argues in psionics favour. The main problem comes when one player uses it, but it's completely unintegrated, and none of the creatures or NPC's have any ability in it, or even knowledge of it. All obscure subsystems have that kind of inherent advantage, even if they are actually underpowered overall. It's the same principle that results in creatures transplanted to other continents having sudden population explosions and messing up the ecosystem.

Eric R. Filmer points out that Christianity plays a critical role in Pendragon. People wanting to incorporate real religion into their roleplaying could do a lot worse. Hell, they could hardly do better, given how awesome pendragon is. And it doesn't hit you over the head with it the way Dragonraid did.

Regina Larsen gives her experiences of last birthday's Dragon Dogfights. Even using little cardboard cutouts, it was surprisingly easy and fun, and not at all expensive either. More people should try it out.

James P. Buchanan has a rather odd suggestion. Cast silence on your silver bullets to shoot monsters. Ok. Seems rather oddly specific. There's a whole bunch of ways that could fall down.

Andrew Benson tells us all the ways his computer helps him roleplay. Character sheets, game logs, even dice rolls. The future marches ever ever on. Maybe we can take paper out of the equation altogether.

Benjamin E. Lake points out The Digital Dungeon. It really is that good! That kind of word of mouth'll probably shift a few more sales.

John Tomkins also talks about his new favourite program, as advertised in our sister magazine. Adventure Writer is both easy and fun. Yup, there's plenty of stuff out there. It just needs better promotion. Another reason I love internet search engines.

Christopher M. Cameron-Carey writes in to pimp his own personal mapmaking software, CARTOGRAFIX. Write in now to buy it! Take out an advert, dude.

Roger Smith finds it vaguely odd that RPG's are considered childish, when playing sports isn't. That's easily explained. When people are making obscene amounts of money from it publicly, that tends to stop those kinds of statements fairly quickly. The same applies to music. Dancing around in ludicrous outfits and doing pelvic thrusts on stage becomes a lot more respectable when you're raking in millions at every stadium gig you play. Until you can theoretically do the same roleplaying (wait, isn't that called being an actor) this will continue to be the case for us.

Amy Jones is among those who disapproves of cheesecake art. It's both ludicrous and pointless. Send those artists out into the world to learn about real female anatomy and dress sense!

Bryan Kirschner also thinks they're crap, especially since it's often so incongruous with the actual contents of the books, where sexual equality is exceedingly common. People do judge books by their covers. Marketing people should know that more than anyone.

Clarisa Fowler feels so strongly about this issue that she's created an amateur magazine for women and gaming. They certainly have plenty to talk about. As before, have fun trying to get hold of it. These things don't last very well.


Eye of the monitor: The 7th Saga is a somewhat FFish looking console RPG. Overhead map stuff, 3D fight scenes, you know the drill, although it's fairly new at this point. It also has tons and tons of side quests, which is another thing that's definitely on the up these days. Fashion come, fashion go.

Might & Magic: The World of Xeen are a duo of adventures which link up into a bigger one. It gets a so-so review. There's plenty of cool features, but also a few clunky and outdated ones. I believe this is the kind of situation they invented the word meh for.

Faceball 2000 does not get a very good review. It would have seemed impressive in the days of pac-man, but these days, endless maze-wandering palls rapidly, and the 3D aspect seems tacked on. Flicker and slowdown do not help things either.


Dragon Strike bogarts the centre pages with one of those double page, full colour spreads that so grab people's attention.

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 4/5


Role-playing reviews: Underground shows us what you can do with desktop publishing, becoming an obvious precursor to the modern age, where even books with tiny print runs like RPG's can be glossy and professional looking as long as they have a sufficiently dedicated designer. The game is quite interesting too, although it looks a bit dated now, being very much in the same paradigm as white wolf games, where your characters may have cool supernatural powers, but a lot of emphasis is put on the psychological effects of this, and the dark humour that often results. Still, government created superheroes who turn against their creators because they seem like the closest thing to 4-color villains out there? That seems more relevant than ever. Whatever happened to this game?

Magic: The gathering is greeted with great enthusiasm. Oh shiiiiiiiit. Allen loved the game, even before he knew it was going to be a huge hit. As a result, this review comes in two sections, written several months apart, as he discovered the world catching up with him with frightening speed. Not that it doesn't seem to deserve it, with Wizards of the Coast showing a dedication to customer service and pursuing new technology that makes TSR look positively moribund. A Challenger Appears! In a situation like this, where we know this is a significant historical step, we want plenty of context, and Allen does not disappoint, talking about the designers, the failed attempts to get something like this going in the past, and the social dynamics that are evolving around the TCG scene. It's all absolutely fascinating, if a bit scary. Just as notable is that White Wolf has already jumped on board, with the Jyhad cardcame in development as we speak. You can bet TSR is already planning their own attempts to break into this market. Watch this space!


The role of books: Ahh, double spacing. My eyes! Ok, I exaggerate a little, but seriously guys, this is a stupid formatting change. I hope you drop it soon. Anyway.

The well-favored man by Elizabeth Willey is a swashbuckler with surprisingly little actual buckling of swash, but plenty of fun storytelling regardless. Just as you can have an RPG with very little roleplaying, you can have a swashbuckler with little swashbuckling, and still have it work as an experience.

The black gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon gets a pretty good review, with some cool dogfighting between the titular gryphon riders, and well-defined characters who interact together well.

The robin and the kestrel by Mercedes Lackey on her own doesn't do nearly as well, with poor pacing and an overdose of monologues, exposition and setting building rather than actual story advancement. The difference is so striking that John seriously wonders how much merit her creative input has. Maybe she's been casting protection from editors too much lately, so it's up to her husband to keep her in check.

Bruce Coville's book of monsters is a playful little anthology that's aimed at younger readers, but still has plenty of scares for our adult reviewer. The kind of thing to read to your kids with a flashlight and lots of overdramatic voices.

The dark moon legacy series by Cynthia Blair gets a good picking apart for the inaccuracies in it's real world details. Native americans aren't some homogenous um how shamanistic morass. And Oregon doesn't have a mountain range right next to the sea. This is lazy cash-in writing, trying to make a werewolf equivalent to the vampire diaries. Ah yes, what goes around, gets mediocre copies. Funny to encounter that, just as paranormal romance has got to the floods of lazy cash-in books stage again.

The rising of the moon by Flynn Connolly gets compliments for it's plotting and characters, but loses marks for bad sci-fi. He is in a niggly mood today.

The wizard's apprentice by S P Somtow also seems fairly familiar, juxtaposing modern media magic with the real thing. This results in an interesting mix of optimism and cynicism, as befits it's hollywood setting. The result seems fun but not too weighty.


The ten commandments of tournament writing: This topic again. It's becoming one of the most regularly recurring highly specific topics over the years. There's plenty of demand for tournament modules now, and people are getting quite experienced at making them. Course, that means there's also going to be plenty of dross floating around. It also means things are quite different from the early modules in some ways. There's more emphasis on balanced encounters, and less on creating adventures that will kill the majority of parties, with the winner being who gets furthest before dying. There's also an emphasis on breaking the rules, or at least creating new ones, which is another huge sea change from the early 80's, where tournament stuff was supposed to be more standardised, and even though they did invent new rules, it was simply because there was no system in place to handle what they wanted to include. But many things remain the same, regardless of fashion shifts. You want good characters, good enemies, a good plot, and most of all, a good editor. For if your scenario doesn't add up, the only fun people will be having is MST3King you. Another article that's interesting in revealing the gradual changes in design theory over the years, but doesn't give us much advice we haven't seen before. Another article, a couple of xp more.


Shadowrun gets a Germany sourcebook. Ha ha! Is that the cause or the effect?

Dragon Magazine Issue 201: January 1994


part 5/5


Fiction: The river children by Peni R Griffin. A fairytale within a fairytale here this month, which is rather amusing. It starts off by telling the original story, a classic ghost tale of betrayal and ironic punishment, and then jumps forward to centuries later, when the original tale is just a legend, and a child meets the characters from it. The result manages to be both cute and creepy, with definite shades of peter pan to it. I quite like this, and it also has the benefit of not resolving itself neatly, leaving the characters open to be used in further stories, or indeed, your game. So it's another story that's both quite good, and well targeted for the magazine.


Libram X has a rather unpleasant bit of imagery that I'm vaguely surprised got past the censors.


Undiscovered treasure troves: For a third time this issue, they remind us that reality has tons of interesting elements to plunder. Building a detailed setting is all about taking elements from reality, and remixing it sufficiently that people can't immediately say that it's a rip-off of a particular thing. Sure, if you can come up with a truly original idea or two, more power to you, but most of us are lucky to manage a few of those in our lifetimes, not enough to build a whole campaign world out of. So stop being embarrassed about having to do this, and focus your mental energy on hiding the sources you steal from and ways you remix them better. Methinks they're definitely descending into filler material again after the strong beginning. So much for this new year's resolution.


Swordplay cheats on their taxes like any sane self-employed business would. Ogrek's plan does indeed pan out and save Yamara. Dragonmirth makes fighting seem like an unwise prospect. Twilight empire has an annoying deus ex machina come out of nowhere to save the day.


Through the looking glass: The impression that win or lose, the damage has already been done in the realm of minis is reinforced this month, with another rather gloomy editorial on Robert's part. This hobby is no fun anymore. Another reason why CCG's probably seem very inviting to many people about now. They fill a very similar niche in terms of highly portable modular impulse purchases which you can play games with, or just collect for the pleasure of it. Jumping ship from one to the other seems like quite a logical option. But we all know fun isn't logical, so there's going to be a lot of embittered people left behind by this sea change, wondering why the hobby shops have changed their space allocations so dramatically.

Still, there are plenty of minis coming out, even if they aren't enjoying the sales they used to. A pair of high-rise buildings, one in good condition, but the other nearly ruined. You may have to swap one for the other if the PC's have heavy weaponry. Another diorama of adventurers intruding into a tomb and finding the inhabitants aren't going to take having their stuff nicked lying down. Another trio of licensed miniatures from the dream park game, that don't get good marks at all. The witch-king of Angmar, about to meet his demise at the hands of a woman and a hobbit. Yeah, no man can kill you. That only means what it says. Four warriors, and three bards. A creepy thing emerging from a dumpster. A werewolf with a gun and a wand. Fricken glass walkers, always confounding the stereotypes with their newfangled tricks. Some not nearly so innovative Sabbat vampires going raar. A spectator and a death kiss. Neither are as scary as regular beholders, but you shouldn't get complacent. And a full set of 10 adventurers. Not often you see a party that big anymore. Oh, for the days of the companions of the lance.

Finally, we have a review of Warhammer 40k 2nd edition. Another of those things that says we may be catching up with the present, but we're still nowhere near there yet. It does get a very good review though, with the clarity of the instructions improved from previous offerings. With the other companies out the way and them gaining increasing control over their own distribution, they're free to steam ahead and hook newbies.


TSR Previews: Another slow month next month. Al Qadim is up to ALQ5: Ruined kingdoms. Off to Nog and Kadar in all their ruined Ashton-Smithsonian glory. Mind the magic items you find there aren't sanity destroying or cursed.

Northwards in the Realms, we get the 8th book in the Harper series, Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham. Well, who better when elves are involved.

Dragonlance releases it's 4th villain book, Heldrick the Theocrat by Ellen Dodge Severson. Neither names I've heard of before. Man, they're getting obscure here.

Ravenloft tackles golems, in Van Richten's guide to the created. Now there's a monster that doesn't seem immediately gothic, but just say frankenstein and most people'll get it. Do you dare meddle with forces man ought not to wot of? Ahahahahaha!!!!!


And finally, our generic product is another deck of cards. The deck of encounters'll help you easily generate packages of monsters and treasure. Oh, go on then.


This time round, I think Allen Varney takes the top spot, with two great articles. The magazine as a whole starts off very well, and then takes an abrupt downturn near the middle, however. With both the introduction of TCG's, and the downfall of minis getting plenty of screentime, things seem a lot less optimistic than they did this time last year. TSR's demise is no longer some distant shadow on the horizon, but something that draws nearer every month. Will anyone realise this before it's too late, or will it come as a shock to everyone inside the company? Keep on rowin down that river, whatever the weather and hope we don't capsize.

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 1/5


124 pages. Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker! Polly'll toast a dumb thief trying to steal her feathers to cinders. Yes, it's rogue's turn to get a featured issue again. One of those topics we've seen quite a few times, and will do so again. As one of the basic class groups, they have to keep providing for them, come rain or shine. Well, unless they changed the primary system they're covering, but that looks increasingly unlikely the longer we go on. So once again I must pray they do not serve up some overcooked rehash browns as I venture into this issue.

In this issue:


Werewolf: the apocalypse gets it's second edition already. Well, that was standard WW practice at the time. And their visuals have certainly improved.


Editorial: Dale proves that he's been perusing the old archive copies of the magazine from before he started buying originally, quoting an ancient Jim Ward article from issue 13. Yesss, curry favor with your overlord. :rubs hands together: The result is a pretty middle of the road bit of GM advice that shows that Dale, like Roger, could be a pretty good article writer if he so chose. The main lesson here that to be a great GM, you need to make sure it's not all about you. Involve your players at every stage, from the creation of the world to the end of the session. And don't kill them unless you really have to. Because after all, sitting out the game until a new character can be introduced is rather boring. Ok, it's not the way they played it back in the old days, but people are more attached to their characters these days. As with increasing the number of continues and frequency with which you can save computer games, it seems like a logical progression. Just have to be careful you don't go too far the other way and have people lose interest because they no longer feel challenged. So this is fairly good advice, albeit very slanted towards the current trends in fashion. Ask again in a decade, see how things have changed.


White wolf denies imperilling the sanity of their playtesters. Nothing to see here, move along, we're a perfectly decent game company.


Letters: A letter complaining that there's too much crunch in current issues. Unfortunately, the more specific stuff is, the easier is is to avoid repeating yourself. This means that in a magazine like this, the average tendency over the years will be to increase the proportion of statistics.

Some joke responses to issue 197's cover. Another thing Roger's departure doesn't seem likely to affect.

A letter from Ian Reid volunteering to be a PbM clearing house. They warn him that he may be biting off more than he can chew. Scary business.

A letter informing us what gliepnir was. Norse mythology is full of cool magic items to plunder for your game.

Another bit of trivia helpfulness.The D&D coloring book was a licence from 1979. They produced some kiddie-centric cheese back then too. Don't let nostalgia fool you.

A complaint that their subscription always arrives late. Pass it on to the postal service.

Another procedural question. With all the staff changes, who do we write too? Just the magazine in general'll do fine.


Magic to a different beat: Bard's relationship with magic is still wrought with tension. Issue 56 suggested that it would be more thematic for them to cast their spells in an entirely different way to wizards, using song, and possibly interpretive dance or playing on an instrument to manifest special effects. And as I thought then, they still need a whole new magic system to really do that idea justice. Still, an article that suggests what kind of instruments are most suited to what types of music isn't a terrible idea. Shame this isn't a very gripping implementation of that idea. In fact, having read it though several times, I'm still struggling to remember enough to comment upon it. Very forgettable indeed, which doesn't really bode well.


Dirty rotten scoundrels: Hey ho. How do you properly roleplay your rogue? With style and panache, duh! You've got to think fast and be flexible if you want to outwit and eliminate your enemies. Course, you have to make sure you stay on the good side of your buddies at least. And you should be prepared to be spontaneous, as oxymoronic as that may seem. For timing is everything, and a great window of opportunity may never open again. This is all very basic indeed, even if it is avoiding the mistake of PvP antagonism that they encouraged back in the 70's. It all feels a bit patronising to me. Very much for any new readers they may have got their hands on recently. I get no xp from this one at all, on the other hand.


The legends say: We've had some fairly general roleplaying advice, now it's back to examining a specific class feature in great detail. This time it's bard's lore ability. It's a mildly problematic one, because you have to either invent histories for all the magic items in your game, or be rather good at winging it. Or create a random table of historical details, and cross things off as they come up, with is even more work really. Maybe you shouldn't have so many magical items in your game in the first place. It also suggests that you shouldn't make all the legends true or complete, which may be a bit problematic, but will make things more interesting. So this is pretty far towards the fluffy side, but not terrible advice if you like that sort of thing. Can't see it appearing in later editions though.

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 2/5


The master's hand: Another bit of purely fluffy roleplaying advice, presented in the form of 2nd person IC narration. Zeb Cook has lots of fun presenting real world thievery and con tricks, showing how a poor street rat can survive and prosper while staying one step ahead of the law. Ironically, the best way to do that is not to look notably ragged and suspicious, so you can walk past someone, have their purse and be long gone before they suspect anything. And the really big hauls involve actually playing on their naiveté or desires, getting their trust temporarily and then exploiting it, preferably in a way that leaves them embarrassed to go to the law for revenge. Having accomplices you can trust but pretend not to know mid heist goes a long way towards making your role convincing. It's all a surprisingly social business, especially once you get into the organised crime aspects, which is where the really big profits lie. If you want to be outside the law, you've got to be prepared to live by a code and be trustworthy to those close to you to stay out of prison in the long term. Ironic, isn't it. Anyway, this is a good deal of fun to read, showing much of the same spirit of cynical IC delivery as his upcoming planescape work. It may not have any mechanical stuff, but this is very solid stuff to draw upon to help you build a convincing larcenous type. And much more entertaining than Wolfgang's spin on the same topic. Wahoo!


Attack of the little people: Minis may be on the decline in many respects, but it looks like one field is still a growth area, so to speak. 15mm minis are obviously a good deal smaller than the standard 25mm ones, but that is actually a real advantage if you want to hold really big battles. After all, scale to area is quadratic, and having them at .6 the size means you can fit 2.77 times as many in your legions. It's not a bad idea at all, especially in these days of increasing prices, to trade visual detail for practicality. Course, their motivation for telling us this is not purely commentary, it's because TSR is moving into that market, with a fairly extensive line of licensed Ral Partha minis coming out over the year. So this is a fairly sneaky bit of promotion, trying to big up an ailing hobby and make more money for themselves in the process. There's still lots of people out there who want to combine minis with their gaming, despite it not being official company policy to encourage this. They'll rise to ascendance eventually. For now, we can watch them really work to keep things together and survive.


Even WiLdEr Mages: Like Wands of Wonder, the wild mage's selection of random effects when they cast spells is big enough to be interesting for a bit, but introducing new and interesting ways for them to go awry after a few hundred spells comes as welcome. This eschews detained tables for a few basic pointers on how to make your own, and the probabilities with which they should occur. You should feel encouraged to whip up new variants on a regular basis, so the players never get complacent, and are always wary about unleashing the wild mage upon the enemy. But at the same time, positive effects should be slightly more common than negative ones, so they keep on coming back to them. It's all pretty predictable, making for another average middle of the issue filler article.


The preservers choice: Or let's make screwing yourself over in the long term for short term benefits a little more tempting. Being a wizard is a bit of a mugs game in Athas anyway when psionics is far more common and less stigmatised. And the option that's less harmful to the environment has powerful enemies that want to wipe them out. It's all rather a pain. It's no surprise that even principled preservers might wind up using defiling in a pinch. So Rich Baker gets to work on making the fall and redemption subsystem more interesting. This is made more problematic by the odds of you becoming a full on defiler each time you use them pretty likely, so you're unlikely to be able to get use out of this article more than 2-3 times in a campaign. If it was bigger, this'd feel like a white elephant. As it is, it's a cool idea that deliberately makes itself inaccessible. I can't help but feel frustrated by that.


Mythic races of africa: So, what alternate races can you play in africa? What mythic creatures seem good for establishing positive relationships with humans and going on adventures with them? Lots and lots of animal men, mostly. And since we've been getting tons of them over the past three years in Bruce Heard's work, all with strong integrated cultures and quirks of their own, this feels decidedly uninspired by comparison. I suppose it's one you can get lots of use out of mechanically, since these are AD&D rules while those were basic D&D ones, but still, this is boring. Reading generic versions after someone else has done damn cool specific versions just isn't working for me at all. Maybe if they'd given examples from specific stories to showcase them. But no, instead this feels like another return to entry level, which I find rather jarring after the known world stuff went on so long, took us so far, and gave us so many tools.  


Libram X has another frying pan to fire episode.

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 3/5


Eye of the monitor: Computer programs grow ever bigger and more complicated as the years pass. Unfortunately, computer programers are as prone to the ravages of ageing and ossification as the rest of us. This frequently makes it a pain to get teams together, as everyone has to be on approximately the same level in terms of coding languages, and if they aren't willing to lean a new one, this can either disqualify them, or make them a drag on the entire team. It also means it's much harder to develop a whole new, more efficient and robust coding language, as you've got to compete with the established ones in the marketplace, even if they do have weird legacy issues and aren't totally suited to making modern games. This probably contributed the slowdown of advancement in computer technology in the 00's, and the increasing dominance of mobile systems that are easier to develop games for, many of which are actually fairly straight conversions of early ones like tetris and pac-man. It's a pain when every commercial product requires a massive team with multimillion dollar budgets, and as we're finding in music and movies, it's not a stable situation. What is overly built up will become bloated and rotten, and change will come by force, for they will not willingly convert to the new ways even when they do offer substantial benefits. It's the ciiiircle of life. Bah. If only there was a way of restoring people's ability to learn with the same speed and ease they could when they were young. It's horrible seeing people descend into creative irrelevance and mindless repetition of domestic patterns and knowing it's likely to happen to me too sooner or later. Hmm. Something in Sandy's writing seems to bring out the philosophical side in me. I wonder why. Back to the reviews.

Master of Orion shows that computer game programmers are starting to poach RPG artists already, with Jeff Dee providing much of the visual flair. Explore planets, fight alien races, and get resources as you try to take over the galaxy. There are some minor flaws with the interface, and the alien races are not balanced at all, but it's still one of those games you can have plenty of fun and eat up huge amounts of time with, in the Civilisation or Sim City vein.

Spaceward Ho! gets a split mark, reflecting the fact that it's a good deal better in multiplayer than solo. Another sci-fi themed wargame, it's pretty simple, but has some neat touches. This of course means it's easy to learn and get going with a bunch of friends. The fact that it conceals which sides are people and which are computers adds to the interest.  

Bram Stoker's Dracula gets a good heaping of disdain. It's sluggish, has a poor control system, and dull visuals. Another mediocre movie tie-in.

Biomenace gets another poor mark, but not quite such a negative description. It's just your basic side scrolling shooter. And it's another bit of freeware, so you can try it with no commitment anyway. It's no sweat off his nose if you like your junk food.


Sage advice: What non core races can become psionicists (not many, and they're not very good at it. The powers of the mind are mysterious and inscrutable, and only humans can truly master them)

What happens when a land is sucked into Ravenloft (This town,  (aaahh.) is comin like a ghost town. All the clubs have been closed down. Yeah, it's like that. )

Can you escape Ravenloft to Athas. (Frankly, given how hard it is to find a way out of Ravenloft, you aren't in a position to be picky on which world you escape to. At least on athas you can plane shift outta there. )

Saurials can't have any rogue kits! Waah. (What about the ones available to everyone, and the ones from other books. Some people, no imagination. )

What are the encumbrance levels for str above 18 (You must have an old PHB. Buy a new one :teeth ting: This is how we reward our loyal customers. Force them to double dip to keep up with a few trivial rules changes. You'll pay for the corebooks again and you'll like it. )

Can you have two defense modes up at once (no)

Why aren't the spheres for the halfling deities listed in their complete book (to force you to buy monster mythology, duh. Gotta collect 'em all. )

If you fail a save against scrying, can you try again (no. The matter is resolved. You've figured out you're being watched or not. That's it.)

Are there mechanics for the invisibility factor (not really. Fiat fiat fiat)

Armor of command looks like one type of armor and works like another. I is confuzzlded ( Oh trageday. Yes, it looks more impressive than it is. That is not an unreasonable thing for magic armor to do. )

Also, beware of Skip bringing gifts to greek gods. They're petulant enough as it is. Now they'll be even more trouble.


Rifts world book 5. Looks like they're also covering germany at the moment. What a co-incidence.


Fiction: Thieves justice by David J Schwartz. What is it with rogues and cats? Nahh, that's a dumb question really. Ok, what is it with wizards and biting off more than you can chew? Nope, I've got a pretty good idea why that happens too. Why do people feel the need for the punishment to be ironically appropriate, especially when they also have magic powers? Once again, I think I understand the dynamics of human nature well enough that this one is pretty clear too. Man, I'm running short on big rhetorical questions to ask. Still, you should be able to get an idea of what kind of story we're dealing with here. Like issue 188's story involving a kid of the cat lord, which it bears several stylistic similarities too, this melds the mundane and magical sides of larceny pretty well, and the comeuppance of the villain feels deserved, but not completely without ambiguity. Nice to see they can still pick an entertaining story, even if I can spot the threads that weave it a little too easily these days.

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 4/5


Role-playing reviews: Mage: the Ascension arrives, with a pretty heavy foreshadowing having preceded it. White Wolf are now the company on everyone's lips, so this gets a good long review. Course, this is the point where their doom and gloom onslaught starts to soften a little, with mages being a somewhat more familiar and less inherently screwed archetype as PC's than vampires, werewolves and mummies. If they have the right spheres, they can do just about anything, and the mechanical process for doing so is somewhat less time consuming and onerous both IC and OOC than the old one in Ars Magica. Not that it's simple or risk free, and Rick certainly finds it a challenge to put everything together, especially as like most WW first editions, the editing and organisation isn't great. It is still pretty ground-breaking, and has a long, if controversial history ahead of it. For to have the will to reshape the world, you must be prepared to endure the mockery and opposition of others with calm certitude, accepting that you may be called wrong or pretentious for daring to take a definite stand, rather than following the crowd or doing what is convenient! Gotta love the way the fanbases of the old WW games mirrored their in game content.

Earthdawn isn't nearly as innovative, especially when compared to it's far future parallel Shadowrun. It also has some seriously clunky crunch, involving matrix tables of the sort that went out of fashion in the late 80's. But then, Shadowrun managed to be a success with some serious mechanical cruft of it's own, so who's to say it can't be a success as well.

Earthdawn gamemaster pack is the usual GM screen plus miscellaneous other nonessential bits and pieces, plus some errata for the corebook. This formula seems to be pretty proven and universal from company to company now, and as usual, this is for completists.

Mists of betrayal is the first adventure for the setting. It gets a quite positive response, even if it is pretty close to a regular AD&D adventure. But at least in this world there's a good reason for all the dungeons.

We also get a reminder of how good the princess ark stuff was, especially in showing you how to handle really cool, wide ranging high level adventures and still challenge the PC's. D&D can take you a long way, and you shouldn't give up just because you've got a little world-shaking power.


Elminsters notebook: Even our great sage doesn't know everything. Sometimes he comes across things which defy even the strongest of divination magics. Of course, this is another demonstration of how he managed to survive and get to that level. Here's a hint, it's not by leaping in and checking things out himself, when it looks like everyone who did so before died howwibly howwibly. Instead, he sets a triggered divination so he can find out via the next dumb adventurers to come across this, and hopefully save them via seeming deus ex machina in the process. (but if not, meh, adventurers are a dime a dozen in the realms) So this is another bit of cool mythology, made all the more distinctive by the unique viewpoint and narration style of it's IC and real world writers. It's not as easy as it seems, both being this awesome, and setting things up so the world views you as such. So this is cool both as an adventure hook, and as a view of the hard paddling feet underneath the swan, which helps give you ideas of how to operate your own Machiavellian high level characters in your own campaigns, so they can be awesome as well without resorting to fiat. Once again he shows us how he's several leagues above everyone else as a designer. My only real complaint here is that the scan of the illustration is poorly contrasted, making it hard to make out some of the bits.


The dragon project: We've already had one mechanical dragon in here, for Paranoia. This month, Talislanta gets a second, more serious spin on that idea. A legendary giant mechanical construct, that if found and spruced up a bit, could give you substantial benefits in the shock and awe department. Exactly what role it plays in your campaign depends strongly on how intact it is when found, and whether the PC's or the enemies are the ones that find it. Like many of these articles, they try and play up it's versatility as a plot device and long term applications, such as if you find small pieces and have to go on an epic quest to complete it while other groups are racing to do the same. |It all seems quite pulpy and cinematic. Whether that's a good thing for talislanta's general themes I'm not sure, but it's reasonably entertaining, and could be slotted into plenty of other campaign worlds. (particularly Mystara. ) It's another solid contribution from this column.


Forum: Travis N. Gillespie would like to know what real world countries Realms ones are based on. This isn't that hard, apart from the ones that aren't based on real world ones at all. And those are relatively few.

Kerry C. Zane would like them to set up a personals section. Oh dear god. Once again I thank the internet. With stuff like Facebook, you have pretty good odds of being able to get back in touch with people in a matter of minutes, wherever in the world they are.  

Andrew Wyatt praises David Howery for his skill in creative lifting of ideas from other media. It's useful and helps make better stuff quicker. Well, how often has David been published here? If he wasn't a good writer, they wouldn't keep letting him back in.

Joe Katzman finds skimpy costumes on adventurers breaks his sense of verisimilitude. Cheesecake has it's place, and it's not in a dank dungeon with things trying to kill them. Save it for the nights on the town when you get back, and want to brag about your exploits and get laid.

Nathan Bruha points out that hack-and-slash characters in a realistic world will seal their own doom. It's all very easy. All they have to do is kill the people who would help them, and they'll be out of a quest in no time.

The man himself, David Howery, returns to point out some more ways to get round stoneskin. Nibble them or grapple them, it all comes out in the wash. When basic tactics can get around it, there's no excuse to fall into the pattern of just hitting back and forth till someone drops and getting upset when that fails.

Sean Murphy is annoyed at how little respect gaming gets at sci-fi conventions. Insufficient crossover, weirdly. This may because Sci-fi games are rather underrepresented, especially since Traveller fragmented itself into limbo. Another depressing case of geek looking down on geek for no good reason.

Christopher A. Hunter is yet another person able to explain clearly what lawful goodness and being a paladin should be about. It really isn't complicated. Kindness & Organisation in good balance. Don't be nasty to people, unless they really need killing, and if so do it cleanly and fairly. It's a lot simpler than being morally grey actually.

Dragon Magazine Issue 202: February 1994


part 5/5


Campaign Journal: Al-Qadim gets a second turn in this column. We've already seen how well and easily arabian adventures can be melded with horror, now Greg Detwiler shows us a grab-bag of other milieus that mix well with it. Mercantile stuff is facilitated by the kits, as is the land and sea based travel and exploration. There's plenty of political reasons for them to go to war, what with religion being a rather touchy subject, and the usual resource issues. Plus there's the expectation that even minor disagreements should be settled with blood feuds. It all seems well designed for neverending interpersonal dramas on any scale. But you can also focus on the supernatural side if you choose. Wait a minute, this isn't a very imaginative selection. Not sure what to make of this. One would think these playstyles would work to a reasonable degree in any world with at least a modest degree of both realism and supernatural elements. This once again feels like basic handholding. Is that the best you can come up with? How about merging arabian adventures with hard-boiled noir private investigator, or bitchy rom-com. I can visualise how to make those work without too much trouble as well. So once again I am feeling rather patronised. Next thing you know they'll be reminding us of our ABC's. I'm starting to feel I may not be in their target audience anymore.


Swordplay once again engages in some money related treachery. Yamara goes into spaaace. Watch out, it gets cramped up there. Dragonmirth points out the drawbacks in getting crystal balls from PBS. It all seems to be a happy ending in twilight empire. OR IS IT? (dun dun der)


Through the looking glass: This column temporarily changes hands this month, with Ken Carpenter taking over. This is probably a good idea, as he seems noticeably less ground down by the ongoing troubles in mini land than Robert. We also get a bit of preamble in which he goes into detail on molding lines, and the things you have to do to make a stable mini that doesn't bubble and crack at the slightest provocation. Since this includes some technical details they haven't elaborated upon in the magazine before, I quite approve of this. New ideas and perspectives are important to keep us from getting bored.

The star system that Robert uses is gone, but there is a new emphasis on the prices of the various minis reviewed, and the scales that they are in. Since those are varying a lot more lately, this once again seems like a good thing. You don't want to see something cool, and then find out too late you can't afford or get good use out of it. Funny how tiny organisational changes can improve the usability of a column so much.

So anyway, back to the minis. A 10-piece official menzoberannzan set, featuring, drizzt, his panther, and 4 other drow of each gender. All glossily mass produced to high standard, even the animal is properly proportioned. A second set of minis based on the artwork of Larry Elmore, who continues to tower over the fantasy genre. These'll be a challenge to paint, but worth it if you can. A duo of rather forcedly "street" vampires, the sort beloved of Bradstreet & co. A trio of female rogues, ready to break the bank and your heart. A genie taking people on a magic carpet ride. Careful assembling this, as with most flying stuff, a small area for weight distribution can lead to instability. A knight with a mace, and an elf with a sword, ready to duel. And finally, a dwarf champion and a goblin launching catapult  from the warhammer universe. An odd pairing, and once again likely to be in opposition to one another.


TSR Previews:  The Forgotten realms returns to milk another proven topic some more. The ruins of undermountain II, the deeper levels. More maps, more monsters, more screwage from Halaster. Have you exhausted the previous stuff and still want more?

Dark sun also gets a deluxe adventure set. Black Spine has 3 books, and 2 maps. More strangeness threatens Athas. Who'd want to conquer this dump? Oh well, guess it's up to the PC's to foil them anyway. It may be a dump, but it's our dump.

Dragonlance sees the original authors return after quite a bit, The second generation is 5 stories showing what happened after the war of the lance. About time. Good to see new heroes taking on the job of fighting evil.

Ravenloft has done Dracula, sorta. Now it puts it's own spin on Jekyll and Hyde in The Enemy Within by Christie Golden. See Sir Tristen and Malken try to live their lives at cross-purposes. Will their secret be discovered in this story?

And finally, the Amazing Engine combines arthurian legend with fantastical sci-fi in The once and future King. Arthur is back, but my has the world changed. Sounds rather comical and cultureshocky. Could work.  

They also add a coming next month in the magazine's sidebar here. Guess they want to push a little harder to make sure they retain their readers by hooking us with the cool stuff they're planning. Makes sense, with their readership starting to slip. Shame it didn't work. There is such a thing as looking like you're trying too hard to please.


Dragonlance, the second generation? Once again they put adverts right next to the previews to make sure you get the point. Can they recapture the magic of the original?


An issue that really makes me feel like I've got past the stage where most of the articles are aimed at me. I guess this is compounded by the large number of recent departures. The new guys that have replaced them are noticeably less experienced, and this is where it's really starting to show. On the positive side, it means they've got more enthusiasm than Roger had in the last year or so, but on the negative, it means I have to listen to them saying things I already know as if it's some great new discovery. I'm starting to see why generation gaps cause problems in relationships. It's the gap in experiences and cultural references as much as the physical differences that become issues. Which is a very odd thing to be learning from reading a magazine. Guess there are still further layers to discover, even after the obvious ones have been peeled back. The question then becomes how you relate them to people, and indeed, relate to people who have no idea what you've been through after learning them. Looks like I might go completely nuts from this after all. And I thought the biggest challenges in doing this thread were over already.

Dragon Magazine Issue 203: March 1994


part 1/5


124 pages. Bradstreet! :shakes fist: Dear god that is some excessive grizzling. And those tattoos were totally added on in post, not properly worn in the way they would be on a proper badass of that age and experience. Still, at least the guns look pretty accurate. Makes sense, after all, THIS IIIS THE 90's!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, we're having another go at sci-fi this month, which means lots of non D&D stuff of various stripes. After last issue's back to basicsfest, this is very welcome indeed. Over the edge, shadowrun and the amazing engine? Even if they only stick to the basics, that'll still be more than we've seen before on these games. And they're starting the planescape teasers too. I think I'm actually excited again. Let's get to work.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter from someone who's written a supplement for AD&D and wants to publish it. Ahahaha! Ahahahaha!! No. It's time you got a hard lesson in copyright law, you poor poor overenthusiastic little fanboy. It's ours, all ours! You can do nothing commercial with it.

Ironically, the magic items mentioned in issue 200's letters are all from a 3rd party product. Mayfair's Role Aids have a rather interesting legal history, as a little googling shows. You can get away with this stuff if you know how to do it. What does putting these letters next to each other say about the magazine staff's view on this stuff?

A letter from someone who noticed there were no greyhawk or spelljammer products on this year's schedule. And of course, they are concerned. Dale doesn't sugarcoat. They were canceled because their sales sucked. And they are indeed lowering their intended average age group for products in an attempt to get new people in. If you don't like it, complain and talk with your dollars. This is what you get for lowering sales. The only consolation prize you get is that Dragon is publishing stuff from the would-be sourcebooks as articles throughout the year.  

A letter from someone who's realised D&D and AD&D are virtually the same game, and you can apply articles for one to the other effortlessly. My god, It's full of stars! Your deduction, it is elementary.


Editorial: Once again Dale plumbs the past to keep his editorials interesting for long-time readers. In issue 166 he encouraged us to try out new systems from all kinds of companies. Here we see some of the new crop of weird and wonderful games out there. Lost Souls, Whispering Vault, Metascape, Amber. All have some kind of innovation that makes them worthwhile to try out, and even if they might not stand the test of time, you can nick their better setting and rules ideas and put them in D&D. This once again shows that Dale is another person who would like to see Dragon covering other RPG's more, which is an ironic turnaround from his earlier days. But then, as we're finding, roleplaying as a whole is still healthy, possibly even growing, it's just D&D that's suffering, as people grow bored and seek out other ways of playing an imaginary character. It's that 7 year itch writ large. Even people within the company are probably playing other games for fun more these days, as working on D&D becomes altogether too much like, well, work. So this is another positive editorial with dark undertones to it. An tree can be rotten to the core long before any signs show on the outside. And you only find out which ones are when a storm comes.


God, white wolf really want to promote their bad boy of game designers image. Oh, I'm sorry, did I get snark all over your lovely expensive trenchcoat? Don't worry, it won't stain. Anyway, we get our first teaser for Wraith this month, and they rip off The Shining to make it.


First quest: Yay! Another cool regular column gets booted up. Another chance to get to know more about the people behind the games, since they ran out of staff to profile years ago. Jim Ward is first to step up to the plate, somewhat bashfully, as of course they haven't quite got the formula down yet. Although some of that seems to be because they can't mention the name of oh, a certain founder of the entire roleplaying hobby! This is a bit awkward. Not that we can't figure out real information about his early experiences in the hobby, but it is rather intentionally vague, and considerably less interesting and informative than his own monty haul recountings back in the day. He played a substantial part in the elimination of the D word monsters, and the corporate chain lies heavy on his neck. This all adds up to an article that feels unsatisfying because I know he's holding back, and does have some far more interesting stories to tell.


More gamma goodness: Kim Eastland is once again the only person who seems to like Gamma World 4e. Tragic, isn't it. This time, it's more /magic items/ technological devices. Let's get exploring those ancient /dungeons/ military bases.

Laser pens let you draw on hard objects, but have safeguards that prevent you from using it as a weapon. Gee. I wonder how hard that'll be to bypass.

Kinetic Dampers repel fast moving objects, like anything intended to hurt you, hopefully. Course, you can still be gassed, or grappled, so like our old friend stoneskin, don't get too cocky just because you have one of these on.

Particle Scrubbers are little wands that clean any surface they're waved over. Exactly how they know what is dirt and what's supposed to be there is uncertain. I guess that's what makes it magitech.

Velcan Tubes are essentially a D&D light spell, although not as good because they require constant maintenance. Still, blinding is pretty crippling in combat, so it's not surprising that they would want to decrease it's duration.

Laser Scissors are essentially lightsabers redesigned for practical home use. Snippy snip snip. Don't run with them, you might trip.

Stikemup is just your basic long-lasting superglue. It may well be so strong that it's easier to saw around it than pull it apart. Nothing remotely reality stretching about that idea.

Smart Dart Bracers are another one that could work fine in reality, even if they are a bit comic-booky. A flick of the wrist is all it takes. Watch you don't launch it accidentally while shaking someone's hands, for this will not be good for diplomatic relations.

Neutralising pigments make you resistant to something when smeared liberally over your body. What is gamma world's ozone layer like anyway? It was such a big issue at the time of writing, you'd think there'd be some commentary on that.

Repellents are another fairly realistic one. Rub it on your skin, it keeps the selected creatures away by smelling absolutely foul to them. Course, using the one that repels humans may be a little problematic. Where are the nose plugs when you need them?

U-Beam guns temporarily negate most of a creature's mutations. Exactly how they know what's a mutation when real creatures have stuff like chameleon skin or wings is another of those things that you'll just have to shrug and accept that It is basically magic.

Brain Jammers block psionic stuff, both incoming and outgoing. Simple, easy and potentially very useful. You will want to be careful if trying to keep a powerful psionic prisoner under lock and key, for the batteries do require regular replacing once again.

Portable Purifiers may save you from gas attacks, but you'll still need to be able to hold your breath in a pinch while they do their work. And they are fairly bulky. Encumbrance is very relevant in a postapocalyptic danger zone.

Mine Detectors allow you to play minesweeper with your life. Move vewy vewy slowly if you don't want to be blown to pieces. And then the GM gives you a mission with a time limit. Such is the adventuring life.

Plastic Melding Rigs are an all-purpose bit of kit that allows you to do all kinds of construction work with plastics. Plenty of fun to be had here, especially if you run across an ancient cache of /children's toys/ sacred idols of he who is optimised and first. It's just a shame the comedy is largely missing from the actual articles in favour of straightly presented magitech. Somehow it becomes harder to suspend your belief in this setting the more you're expected to take it seriously.

Dragon Magazine Issue 203: March 1994


part 2/5


Terribly twisted technology: Over the Edge gets in on the gadgetry market. And if you though gamma world got a little silly at times, you ain't seen nothing yet. Where that is starting to get a little embarassed about it's past, this still embraces the weird and makes it core in it's assumptions. And we know now this one won't be diluted by future editions and committee writing. It's also by Robin Laws, which piques my interest a little further. Just how impressive is his imagination really?

Brainostats disguise your brainwaves. This is only of use in a setting which has psionics and brainwave scanners, but there seem to be plenty of those around in Al  Amaraja. There are plenty of quirks and dangers to this process, the biggest of which is coming to believe your own illusion. This is the kind of technology that's in a constant state of arms race, giving you a good excuse to have it not work every time.

Hotlines are an alien tool for manipulating would be bead wearing hippies. Those voices in your head? That's not psychic powers or angelic advice. This is why you should rely on your own problem-solving abilities wherever possible. It might be harder work, but you won't get screwed over as often. Very ingenious.

Moonlight is exactly that, moonlight in a torch. Simple, easy to recharge, perfect for detecting werewolves and facilitating magical rituals. Not quite as handy as stored sunlight would be though.

NDE Helmets simulate Near Death Experiences. Some people can get addicted to anything, while others just want to finally hear that their daddy loved them. Either way, it's a new high that may not be illegal, but that's just because no-one's though to ban it yet. You can bet the national enquirer would love to run a stary on how near death experiences are corrupting the nation's youth.

Normalenses are used by government agencies to send people into weird situations without them realising the trouble is supernatural. As we know from the X-files and Men in black, they have no compunction about misdirecting and mindfucking their own people for the greater good.

Reptilisers lampshade another RPG and videogame trope, that of monsters just sitting in their room, attacking mindlessly and fighting to the death. Put these little babies on your minion's heads, and you too can enjoy that kind of fanatical loyalty. Sheer genius. Watch out for brain damage though. You probably want to restrict use of this one to your mooks. Yeah, this collection is a lot more interesting and impressive than the gamma world one. Existing in the boundary between conspiracy theories, tabloid culture and the 4th wall gives them a quite different set of tropes to play with.


Looking for work, chummer?:You should know which system this is for from the title alone. Yup, it's time to go shadowrunning, across seattle's streets. You can never be sure what kind of people you'll meet, but chances are, they'll want to screw you over in one fashion or another. The thing about mission based games is that you need employers. And the nature of employers is to want maximum profit for minimum outlay. And if that means it's betraying time, so be it. This is one of those basic adventure-building articles, adapted for a different system. One reason for shadowrun's success is that it's basically D&D meets cyberpunk, and the adventures reflect that. Killing people and taking their stuff frequently works the other way around, with bursting in and kidnapping people while blowing shit up spectacularly being a surprisingly good career choice. And information has tremendous value, despite being easily copied and disseminated, with corporate espionage and hacking putting a very distinct spin on things, as you can take their stuff without them ever knowing it's gone if you do things right. So this is another article that definitely benefits from tackling the same subject in a different game, with all it's quirks and new opportunities. This is why covering 3rd party games is a real benefit to the magazine long-term.


Arcane lore: Back to the Realms for yet another rifle through a spellcaster's personal collection. Must be several for every village. I'm sure they lose them deliberately to increase their legend. This lot have a definite lightning theme, which means there's a certain amount of overlap with the stuff from the last AL column. Still, the history stuff in this one is well above average, feeling like it would actually be fun to incorporate into your game, rather than something the writer added to fit into the format. And as the new spells are split between three books by the same author, you can have a good adventure tracking down the other two after hearing the rumours.

Normal Aura gives you the ability to emulate the recent Al-Qadim items, and temporarily disguise your magic items. Essentially the reverse of Nystul's magic aura, this is of course particularly useful when combined with it, to keep thieves and rival adventurers off-guard.

Lightning strike is a level lower, single (or possibly double) target lightning bolt. Another unpretentious attack spell that'll fill the gap between magic missile and the big boys of blasting while you're 3-4th level.

Charge is an electrical version of fire trap. Curiously, it's probably better, despite being only 2nd level again. But then, it's probably fire trap that's underpowered, with most of it's strength going into the extended containment bit. Electricity is obviously more amenable to being stored and discharging on touch, as you can do that in real life.

Staffspell is basically an electrical variant of shillelagh. I'm shocked that they're resorting to filler material like this.

Lightning shield is another basic energy type substitution. Yawn. Just don't try and cheat and stack it with Fire Shield, as they react explosively. No double damage reflection for you.

Static field is slightly more interesting, sticking to an item, and keeping you from getting in or out for an extended period of time. It won't be nearly as hard to deal with as the prismatic walls, but I think it's about right for it's level. In fact, I'd say the whole balance of this article is just right, which is nice.

Electric Bow is another one that lets you emulate the D&D cartoon, albeit quite impressively, as at higher level you can create a whole electric ballista to bombard the enemy with. The material component is very nicely flavourful too. It shouldn't be too hard to get if you still have good relations with your adventuring party, but isn't the kind of thing you can mass produce either.

Storm allows you to show off to and help out low level druids limited by existing weather conditions for their smiting. It has an interesting compromise between duration of the spell and number of lightning bolts called. It's casting time makes it not really suitable for unexpected combats though. Save it for the big castle assaults. Again, it's fairly familiar, but a nicely written, and more importantly, nicely balanced variant on existing spells.