Dragon Issue 298: August 2002


part 8/10


DM's toolbox: Here's some advice we've seen before. If you want to improvise, make sure you have lots of general stuff prepared. Players are more likely to follow along and enjoy the game if you're playing the RPG equivalent of the blues, rather than atonal free jazz. This is why those old school modules have things like wandering monster encounters, rules for getting lost, and maps which extend outwards a fair way, so when the players wander a bit, they'll still run into something interesting, if not what you expected. As is the fashion, they have more specific bits of advice and directions on where to go and what to steal from than last time in issue 226, but they're also terser, and the approach here is somewhat more autocratic, seeing is the DM's responsibility to come up with stuff themselves rather than bouncing off the players. Overall, I think this is a case where multiple perspectives help you get a bigger picture, so I'm not complaining.


The play's the thing: Robin continues on from last time, with a whole bunch of specific examples of how not to do it, and why they will probably cause problems at the gaming table. Characters getting too much or too little attention is the main one, showing up in quite a few different forms. This applies to the NPC's as well, with DMPC's once again firmly warned against. Also starting to be a problem is the ability in 3e of some character builds to be better than another at what they do and more flexible as well on top of that. (although that can certainly be a problem in the likes of GURPS as well) Finally, expectation gaps are the kind of thing that you can't really predict, unlike the other things here, and can only be solved by talking things out. While system can be an issue, the amount of enjoyment you get out of RPG'ing is far more dependent on the other people than the trappings. The big lesson seems to be that sharing is caring, which we should all remember from children's programs really, but so often forget. Fun is not a zero sum game. It can be created and destroyed, sharing it can mean you wind up with more each, it does not automatically increase in entropy in a closed system. Trying to treat the social sciences like hard ones is an approach doomed to failure. Are we crystal clear yet? Now play nice with each other, it's for your own good.

Dragon Issue 298: August 2002


part 9/10


Nodwick plays matchmaker to Lolth. Holy cross-company crossover!


Silicon Sorcery: Battle Realms is this month's pick for a conversion. A strategy game where you have lots of different uses for your resources, meaning there'll always be something more you want to do, and add to your holdings, if you can just find a bit more to mine, cut down or eat. The kind of thing that's really helped by the improvements in graphics, and number of sprites systems can handle at the moment. But resource management isn't the in thing here, so all we get are two more prestige classes in an issue already jam packed with them. Kabuki Warriors bring their performance skills to the battlefield, which they use to become hard to hit, taunt the enemy into doing stupid things, and generally be sneaky and flamboyant. Dragon Warriors, on the other hand, become highly resistant to damage through focusing their chi, and can rage and make their weapon burst into flame. Both have full BAB, 2 good saves, and aren't too hard to get into, so they're decent enough for fighter types, and have strong thematics that'll make players want to take them. Yet again, this column plods healthily along, as they have no shortage of things to take inspiration from.


Dork tower goes to hell. The colour scheme gets all messed up.

Dragon Issue 298: August 2002


part 10/10


Sage advice: Is craft (herbalist) separate from profession (herbalist) Skip's afraid so. You'll have to really split those skill points.)

Can rangers improve their animal companions like druids (Yes, siree bawb.)

Can you choose your new feat the same level you meet the prerequisites (yes)

What's the point of being able to rage multiple times if it's so exhausting (You have overestimated the recovery time. Relax, don't do it, if you wanna rage.)

How long is an encounter (Until you stop tracking time on a round by round basis)

Does awaken alter your stats (read the spell. Yes it does.)

The tamer of beast's powers don't synergize well (Oh dear. Don't worry so much. It's not a problem if you don't acknowledge it. )

Can forsakers store up power from magic destruction (No. A little every day is better than occasional binges.)

What's with the bloodhound's pacekeeping (It lets you keep up with faster things. You don't have to use it if they're slower than you anyway. How you use it is up to you.)

What's with snakelords getting a power that they already needed as a prerequisite (oop. Errata time. Better substitute something appropriate.)

What size are exotic weapon masters improvised weapons (You choose. This affects damage as normal.  )

Do forsaker ability bonuses come on top of the usual level based ones (yes. Remember, these are very different mechanics.)

Do barbarian and forsaker DR's stack (no)

Do you have to be able to cast spells to become a shifter (Not neccecarily. Some races are cooler than others.)

Does shadow add to all your hiding attempts (yes)

Does spell turning also protect you from counterspells (oooh. This can get awkward. Better not be too strong a spell.)

Do you have to delay to use reactive counterspell (No. You can sacrifice next round's action instead. What a lifesaver.)

Are globes of invulnerability hollow (no. Your buffs are no good here. )

Can sorcerers use scrolls below their casting level (They can use them, no problemo. Don't make trouble for yourself.)

Can wizards scribe cure wounds spells from bard scrolls (no. It's not on their class list. Wizards are not the be all of arcane casting. )

Can sorceror/wizards transfer spells between classes by scribing them as scrolls then copying them into their spellbooks (Yes. But at the normal cost. This means you need to think about if you can really be bothered.)

Can undead use potions. (If they have a throat to swallow with. This is why it's important to take care of yourself as a lich around town.)


What's new reveals where phil got those spikes. Crossover strikes again. What is this, sweeps week? Now stop eating babies. It's unprofitable for the species as a whole.


Well, this was certainly an issue of extremes. Lots of very good articles, a couple of laughably bad ones, and some serious changes in the company, it definitely feels like another turning point in the magazine's history. As has been the case before, the turmoil makes things more interesting, but also more erratic. And once Paizo is set up and moved into their own offices, I have a feeling the dynamics of the magazine will change even more. As with the change of editors just before issue 200, it makes me wonder how well prepared they are for their next big celebration, and if we'll be seeing some more regular features introduced or on the chopping block. Better keep going, because time moves on, and we're still a fair distance away from the present.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 1/10


91 (116) pages. Ookay. They aren't even making token attempts at backdrops anymore. The perspective looks thoroughly skewed. Silver on white is damn poor contrast. And what is wrong with that guy's mouth and eyeballs!? Even the very first issue did better than this. You suck, new art director. Why are your layout choices getting worse when you've been here nearly a year now? I'm confused and irritated. Let's hope the inside format doesn't wind up dragging the contents down and making them less usable. What's the theme? Knights, you say? Is Sir-not-appearing-in-this-film finally ready to show us some action? No? Well, I guess it's good knight from me, and good knight from them then.


Scan Quality: Overexposed, unindexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: Another first character story? You know, maybe you should bring First Quest back. Seems most of the members of staff would use it, and they could do more justice to those stories than cramming them in the tiny editorial space. Unsurprisingly, it's in theme, as Matthew Sernett's first character was a knightly sort, heroic and true, despite the best attempts of the diabolical DM. He eventually become jaded and drifted into playing more morally ambiguous characters, but still has a soft spot for his old idealism. Cynicism is not an inevitable thing, so don't let the game world grind you down, even when the real world does. Sounds about right as an inspirational speech for this issue. After all, it's nearly 300 issues now. How many people have stuck with it right from the beginning, through all the ups and downs? Some, but not many. The same would apply to knights in-game. Many would have died or become fat and lazy lording it up after 26 years in the saddle. Let's keep on trying to prove we've got what it takes.


Scale Mail: We start with another person complaining because a regular feature was skipped for just a single issue. See, that's why that becomes a problem, and having a roster of regular features that show up regularly, but not every issue is preferable. When people think something should be there all the time, they take it for granted, and act all entitled when it's taken away. When they're never sure exactly what's coming next time, it's more exciting.

The cut-out special features continue to get praise. Why they stopped doing them in the 90's is beyond me, since they always add quite a bit to the memorability of an issue.

Another complaint is that they're doing too many tie-ins these days. A pretty valid one, considering more than half the issues this year have had a theme directly connected to their latest new book. They have maybe become too tied up by the day-to-day whims of WotC politics. Will that change as the new company drifts apart from their parent?

The epic level issue causes a fair amount of frustration too, partly because the stuff is hard to use, and partly because too much of the issue was devoted to it. The combination of these complaints means they are having a bit of a rethink in the office. It's a great irony that trying too obviously to be commercial can actually hurt your sales.

And finally, we have a request for more Paladin stuff. They obviously hope the current issue will satisfy that little itch.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 2/10


D&D Previews: Another indicator of how the release schedule has slowed here. More than 2 years in, and they only just release their 3rd monster book. They'd done over a dozen by this point in 2nd ed. Anyway, the MMII gives you a ton more things to kill players with. The Dangerousness to CR ratio is considerably lower than many other books, so easy XP may be a possibility.

The Realms took a break last month, and comes back with a vengeance. City of the spider queen takes you down to attack a drow city in an epic adventure that'll take quite few levels to beat. Tying to this is a set of miniatures, so you can visually represent the battles that take place. Interesting marketing strategy. They also release Hand of Fire by Ed Greenwood. Shandrill continues to find spellfire a mixed blessing. Can she get some peace at the end of the trilogy?

Dragonlance gets another coffee table artbook. Major Yawn. You haven't had a gameline in ages, and you're still making stuff like this? I don't know :shakes head:


Up on a soapbox: A lot of the time, people's decisions all boil down to money. Even adventurers can have that problem, as despite the large hauls they make, there's tons of things that can bleed it off and keep them from retiring comfortably. Paying the help is probably the biggest, although training and equipment costs can be pretty hefty too, especially in 1e, where training is a major inconvenience if strictly enforced. (although since PC's are higher level than their hirelings, they could probably make a big chunk of those wages back by keeping it in-house and charging them the RAW cost for training to level up) So Gary decided to skip dungeoneering for a while, and go take out the middle-men - all those other bandits, brigands and buccaneers that fill out the random encounter tables. Ironically, they have larger treasure selections than most monsters, so this worked quite nicely for a little while, until Mordenkainen & co started to become legendary, which kinda ruined the surprise, and they had to find new pickings elsewhere. Which is obviously a story for a later instalment. In the meantime it's another illustration of the sneaky, anything goes, including metagaming if it'll get you an advantage, adversarial type of old school play, where the goal is to gain as many levels and as much treasure as possible, and playing fair does not come into the equation. (at least on the player's side) It can be pretty fun when you aren't holding back at all, and the stories will be just as interesting as if the DM plotted something out. Question is, how many more stories does he actually have to tell? After the company took off, the amount of time they could actually spend gaming dropped dramatically. You can't spin them out forever. And then what? Will he move onto something else, or is this all he has left?


Dork tower just can't get over that marmot thing. I think a little therapy is in order.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 3/10


Campaign Components - Knights: A 22 page special feature? Well, they definitely have a lot to say about knightly stuff then. Methinks they're trying to create another special feature that'll have people talking about it for years to come. Course, there's a leeetle problem with that. The likes of the Nine Hells or Man vs Machine were packed with personal inventiveness by the writers involved. This is a historical conversion that's carefully designed to be as modular as possible, provide a bunch of tools that'll help you achieve your vision, rather than providing one for you premade. Which means it runs into the kind of problem you get contrasting a point buy system like GURPS to one heavily married to it's settings like WoD or Palladium. The mechanics may be better, but the result is far less interesting to read. This is not helped by the fact that their new Campaign components structure is trying way too hard to please everyone. Want to run a low magic medieval game? You got it! Want to put a bit of knightly stuff into your existing campaign? You got it! Want to know how to adapt the basic idea to other worlds and cultures, You got it! Want to have a more elaborate knight-centric morality system that's blatantly ripped from Pendragon? You oh so got it squire! Basically, this article is the written embodiment of the nice guy who's trying oh so hard to win a girl, buying her tons of stuff and following all the rules on how romance is supposed to work, only to see her go home with the goth bad boy at the end of the night, baffled why all his hard work didn't pay off. I know I ought to like it, and I could take it home to meet my parents with no problem, but I can't stop myself from yawning all the way through, with occasional giggles at how pathetically eager it is. It's appropriate, in a way, given the topic, but also very frustrating. Still, it is their first time. Those are often a bit messy. There's a good chance they'll do better with their next themed issue in this vein.


Oath & Order: The accusation that they're spending a lot of time on tie-ins continues to hold a fair bit of weight, with this little article detailing a couple of prestige classes from their latest novel. Turns out, Nerull has an order of monks devoted to killing shit and subtly corrupting other orders of monks. While he might not be lawful himself, the same one-step rule that clerics use applies, so it's not impossible for lawful evil monks to decide the god of death might be leading the winning team, and become zen about the concept of everything eventually becoming corrupt and decayed. And besides, there's always kidnapping someone and alternately torturing and talking to them until stockholm syndrome sets in. So there is indeed a lot of fun flavour text with this one, and the powers are a pretty good diversion from the regular monk selection, with the ability to deliver scythelike crits and possess people in a very similar way to Yak-men. Less of a departure is the Monk of the Enabled Hand, who'll trade off the higher level transformative powers for the ability to smack enemies around in more versatile ways. Since they're not too hard to get into, they may tempt at lower levels, but I don't think it's the optimal long-term path to enlightenment. So one good prestige class, one meh, that's a solid enough batting average.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 4/10


The bestiary: Having just done a greyhawk article, here's a forgotten realms one. Some new monsters that plague cormyr in particular. In contrast to the last few, the preamble is quite short though, and they seem like they're easily transferable elsewhere. Guess it's another attempt to both have their cake and eat it.

Blood horses are another creepy mount for evil overlords to look imposing upon, with bat wings and glowing red eyes. They drink blood and have a damaging screech. Evil overlords know what they like, and this seems tailor made for them. No wonder they go for a pretty penny on the open market.

Catoblepas ought to be familiar to you. They were on the official books for both 1st and 2nd ed, and the second monster to get an ecology waaaay back in issue 73. Course, since their original incarnation involved a no save instadeath gaze, it's not surprising that they weren't updated, and this new version has been substantially nerfed. Still, they didn't need to turn it into a lame ray attack with a physical manifestation as well as the obligatory save adding. Weak. Still, at least they remembered the death cheese.

Glamer are creatures that burst from the body of Leira after her death. Like most godspawn, they bear a definite similarly to their creator in powers and personality. Whether they have any purpose beyond generic trickery, like say, bringing the goddess back to life or getting revenge for her death is uncertain.

Shadovig are tiny obnoxious fey, likely more tricksters, but also willing to get serious and poison you in your sleep. Since they also have sneak attack and invisibility, they certainly aren't useless in combat either.

Tree Trolls read like a shout-out to the version of trolls found in Wormy. Considerably smaller than regular trolls, they still regenerate, and are good at climbing and grappling. Interesting business.

Veserab are another creepy eyeless flying thing with a huge mouth. Didn't think Yrthaks would have competition, did you. They make rather disturbing mounts, so they are once again quite good for your evil troops, and you can get lots of money for young ones.

Looks like after the conscious attempt to do new and different stuff of the first couple of years of 3e, they're starting to become more comfortable with drawing inspiration from old stuff and updating it again. Probably a good idea, if they want to draw in holdouts. We shall see how this progresses, as with all the previous trends.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 5/10


Bazaar of the Bizarre: A nicely whimsical bazaar this month, as we go back to the idea of magical toys. This rarely ends well, particularly when Ravenloft is involved, but usually produces interesting stories in the process.  Let's hope that's the case here.

The Bottomless Toy box sets us up with a variant on the extradimensional space principle. You can rummage around this one for yonks and not exhaust it. Perfect for the absent-minded cartoon wizard.

Charger the Toy Pony is an animating figurine for every little girl. Ride it here there and everywhere. And maybe brush it's mane, keep it glossy and tangle free. Hi ho!

Dreamweavers are of course devices to ensure easy sleep, safe in the knowledge you won't be possessed or hag-ridden or eaten in the night. Both children and adults can benefit from that in D&D land.

Fairy Masks are adorable butterfly-winged things that make them favourably inclined towards you while mitigating their powers. Perfect for protecting stupid little girls who think everything fairy is cool.

Golden the Clockwork cat is a great example of how far people will go to save the lives of their pets. Transferring their lifeforce into a mechanical contraption is a bit icky, but when it gets you a pet that'll outlive you and not go completely mad, I think you can say It's been a success.

Gray Balls are little lumps of Limbo compressed into safe playdoughy form. Like other bits of Limbo, they respond to your will. I wouldn't let something like that anywhere near my kids. You never know when it might turn into a mini chaos beast and start transforming houses into tentacle monsters.

Splinter the Toy Sword is basically a little moraliser in stabby form. It tries to bring you up with strong values, and refuses to fight other good guys.  Thunder, thunder, thundercats, HO! Let's hope you grow up to be a good little paladin.

The Rose Prince is a mini Mills & Boon hero that'll keep you safe from scary monsters. I wonder if it's anatomically smoothed over like a ken doll

The Siren sings a soothing song to keep little kiddies from throwing tantrums. Hopefully it won't have the bad side effects filling them full of Ritalin does.

The Doll House can suck you in, to play minimised forever in an extradimensional space equivalent to it. A classic horror idea, methinks. Surprised we haven't seen it before. (Although we have had a bottle based variant. ) Anyway, it's another case where the quality of the implementation is more important than the originality of the ideas. Overall, I think it's a success.


Feats of personality: Robin Laws appears to be off this month, so it's someone else's turn to engage in amusing metagame conceits. For example, asking the question how having certain abilities might affect your personality, and whether gaining them is a chicken or egg situation of training following desire, or personality reflecting capabilities. Like the nature vs nurture debate, the answer is probably a bit of both, combined with a big chunk of OOC thinking, as you often have to pick feats and skills to get into prestige classes rather than because you really really want them. So this very much feels like a filler article, taking a fairly flimsy premise and then spreading it out over 5 pages to keep us entertained and their page count up. Just something they've gotta do between the big features and the usual columns. I must admit to yawning a bit.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 6/10


Arcane lore: Spells for Paladins? You know, that's a special they really should have had last edition, but didn't. Come to think of it, they never really did one for rangers either. I wonder if they'll get round to that this time. In any case this is one that seems both welcome and needed. I look forward to seeing what new tricks they get.

Second Wind gives you the Endurance feat. Meh.

Clear Mind boosts your save against mindfucking. Functional, but not regretted.

Energised Shields & their lesser variant give you energy resistance and bonus damage on your shield bashes. Like energy damage on your weapons, this could well turn out popular as a permanent enchantment option.

Find Temple lets a paladin get succour even in unfamiliar terrain. Course, if there are no worshippers of your god in a few miles, you really are screwed. Have to fall back on that indomitable courage again dude.

Sacred Haven is a basic protective buff spell. Plus it means the paladin can monitor them remotely and come to their aid if this isn't enough to save them. Gotta keep that do-gooding spirit up.

Holy Mount gives your mount the celestial template temporarily, assuming it doesn't have it already. That is a pretty substantial buff really. Now, what else can we stack it with? :devil:

Mass Stabilize is your basic lifesaver for when you can't run around the battlefield because you have to keep holding the front end. Compassion needs practicality to get maximum effect.

Moment of Clarity helps you break another creature's mindfucking. If they decided to be bad on their own, of course, it's another matter altogether. Nothing much you can do but smite them down

One Mind I-III give you progressively greater ability to synergise with your mount. Not quite as useful as doing it with the other PC's, since there are places you can't take your mount, but very appropriate to the class.

Sense Heretic is a more specific variant on detect evil. It'll only pick up the real troublemakers, those who actively follow antithetical religions. The agnostics? We can leave them for later.

Spiritual Chariot lets you carry a few people behind your mount, in a good position for ride-by-attacks

Sticky Saddle is for those silly paladins who got to high level without putting any skills in Ride, and don't want to look like a tit. You may still ride like a sack of potatoes, but at least you won't fall off.

Tiny Mount lets you turn your horse into a my little pony. Good thing your horse is pretty saintly too, for most of them would not be happy about being stuffed in your pocket for hours.

Winged Mount is another one that makes paladins that bit more versatile. We shall slay dragons in the skies! One breath and you're plummeting to the ground mate.

Word of Binding helps you with the whole mercy thing. Mustn't forget that, if you want to stay a paladin. I think this has avoided straying too far from that remit, giving us powers that are both useful and appropriate.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 7/10


Guild secrets: Here we have yet another variant on the idea of secret organisation who tries to maintain the cosmic balance, making sure neither good or evil becomes supreme, and hoping they can learn to settle their differences in a reasonable manner. How many is that now? I'm surprised they aren't always getting in each other's way and bickering over who's interpretation of balance is the most balanced. In any case, it probably isn't going to be this lot, as while they're morally neutral, ethically they tend quite strongly towards Law, and they lack the epic power levels of the ones a couple of issues ago. By contrast, these guys are still in the local leagues, and any attempts to right the balance aren't always going to be the subtle and long-term methods bigger and smarter groups use. Which I suppose makes them easier to use, but also makes them feel rather unimpressive as well. Overall, I think this is just another case of the magazine oversaturating a particular niche. Come up with some other excuse for people to get together to promote their agenda, because that one feels pretty overdone now.


Elminster's guide to the realms: Another article where we find out all kinds of interesting little things about the food habits of Faerun. The kind of thing Ed would probably write about even more if he didn't have editors to remind him it needs to adventure-centric. Fortunately, there's a whole load of things you can do with the distribution chain, smuggling, organised crime and so forth that does make for good adventures. Hidden compartments, dodgy deals, switched gear, and the occasional poisoning, the booze trade can be a ruthless and cutthroat business. I suppose this is why organisations like the zhents and red wizards survive, despite adventurers kicking their ass regularly. As long as they have their fingers in the kind of pies heroic dungeoneers overlook, they have plenty of regular cash flow to rebuild when there's a change of personnel. Once again he's found an uncommon adventure hook and incorporated it into his world with style, with plenty of different ways you can use the setting details here. They're likely to wind up being one of the middle links in a larger chain of events, where the adventurers have to do some investigating to get to the bottom of a larger plot. Still, it's a good link, and it's especially nice to see villainous halflings that still retain the race's general personality traits and use them to their advantage. Once again, I approve.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 8/10


Fiction: Memories by Lisa Smedman. Obliviax! Now that's a D&D monster that's never been at the centre of a story before! Which is strange, because it's a pretty interesting one with an appearance and powers that make it perfect for a mystery plot. I guess it's the same kind of thinking that makes oozes and slimes rare as well. They're not humanoid, you can't really talk to them, negotiate with them, or have sex with them, so it's harder to build a story around them. Still, I'm glad someone went to the effort, because this is a little corker of a story, mixing intrigue, romance, religion, and a cameo from Erevis Cale, showing there are gaps between his big adventures where he gets to live a relatively normal life. So this takes lots of familiar elements, and weaves them together quite nicely, showing that there's lots of things you can do with D&D setting elements that they haven't done yet. Have Thouls ever got a story in which their ability to pass as normal hobgoblins was a major plot point? What would happen if a Thoul and a Barghest met? I'm sure there's an interesting tale in there for someone to write. Maybe it's already out there, somewhere on the web.


Campaign news: Con season is ending, so it's time to look at the aftermath of those big adventures they were talking up earlier in the year. Unsurprisingly, they give a positive result, for they want people to come next year. People of all levels got to participate, and plenty of them died in the process, but that just means they can start again and play the next year's low level modules. Almost as interestingly, they've now introduced a module that follows on directly from a previous one, so players can feel their story actually has continuity. Could be pretty cool, especially as it looks like the module is also playable without that previous adventure, you merely start at a different point. As ever, there's the danger of metaplot events getting unwieldy, but since they're also adding new co-ordinators, hopefully they've got that in hand. If they're having any problems, they're small enough that you'll only hear about them on the forums, and they can keep their official announcements shiny and optimistic. Unless someone wants to talk about the behind the scenes politics of the RPGA, we will never know.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 9/10


Playing pieces: Two more characters for your Greyhawk adventures, one mid-level and the other high. Both are mysterious and hard to pin down, albeit for different reasons. But then, they live in Onnwal, which is one of the more politically unstable areas on Oerth, and are doing their best to kick out the Scarlett Brotherhood and liberate it. That means they could be killed at any time if the PC's don't get involved. So by their position, they're more likely to end up working with the players than against them, but they're both morally neutral, so the boot could end up on the other foot after Onnwal is liberated and they have a little time to be corrupted by the perks of power. Mechanically, they're not that interesting, both being straight one-class builds with a few powerful magical items, and we don't find out too much about their personalities, but plenty of effort is put into their histories. So if you're in the area, they'll be pretty easy to use. Another decent enough bit of filler for those who want to see Oerth catch up with Faerun.


All oerth's artifacts: Index time again? Funny that they went over a decade without them, and then the LGJ gives us two in quick succession. I guess that reflects just how dedicated Erik Mona is to the Greyhawk setting, unearthing and cataloguing every little bit of obscure information he can find for our benefit.  Still, it only takes three pages, as Oerth isn't that huge, and many of the things here were originally presented as generic material, and then co-opted, mainly because it was stuff originally written by Gary and used in his home games. Quite a few of the others are personal possessions of various gods, and so are unlikely to show up in a treasure horde unless they have a very specific plan for you. So I think this is more aimed at obsessive collectors rather than players, letting people know how much more stuff there is in the archives to hunt down. And even if they're not directly profiting from out of print material, it's probably beneficial to keep demand up for it. It looks like this is a case where trying to examine the motivations behind the article is more interesting than the article itself. That's probably not a good sign.


Silicon sorcery: Warcraft! Time for another stop in at this series, before it goes on to become the Michael Jackson of video games: already commercially successful for a good decade, to the biggest thing in it's field by an order of magnitude with the release of Warcraft Online. Warcraft 3 continues the plot quite nicely, allowing units to level up if they survive and win battles for a while. (which means you have more incentive to look after individuals and try to keep them alive) This makes converting units to D&D prestige classes particularly easy, although they're only 5 level ones, which I presume reflects the in game ranking system. Dwarven Thanes become Thorlike stompers, able to summon lightning and cause earthquakes with their physical badassery. Orc Blademasters are also fighty sorts that cross the boundary to superhuman, able to become invisible and generate mirror images on top of being able to attack frequently, and with an expanded crit range. One of these popping up in the middle of enemy troops will cause quite the mess. With strong visual images for both of these, they definitely seem appealing to me. And with advice for tweaking them to better suit other classes and races as well, this article is pretty cool. If anything is suited to conversion between the generic fantasy of tabletop roleplaying, it's the generic fantasy of computer wargames.


Nodwick tries to introduce another member to the party. It works out about as well as the last time.

Dragon Issue 299: September 2002


part 10/10


Sage advice:Can clerics use scrolls of their domain spells (yes)

Can you use metamagic feats on spell-like powers (No)

Do barbarians get con increases on every HD when they rage, even ones from other classes (yes)

Do familiars get spell points as they advance (Mamma mia mamma mia mamma mia let me go)

Can anyone take 10 on hide and move silently checks (Not all the time. Ninja benefits goood.)

Can an evershifting shifter heal themselves at will (No. We have already erratad that one. Skip wishes Skip could claim responsibility, but eh, what are you gonna do. )

What do you factor into the damage calculation for wall of thorns (Everything but Dex and Dodge bonuses)

Can a wall of thorns provide cover (yes. It can't tear out souls though.)

Does wall of thorns hinder things movement (oh yes)

Does magic fang affect all your natural weapons (no)

Can you stack damage reduction and hardness (yes)

Do spiritual weapons only get one attack when they move (It's not the moving, it's the switching targets. )

I don't get entangle at all. Help! (Grappling is always a hassle, even when you automate it. Fear not, Skip will explain this in words of four sylables and less.)

If you have a stoneskin up and you take damage that bypasses it, does this also drain your damage buffer (no)

If you're hit by dispel magic, are your items affected (generally, yes.)

Does evasion protect you from prismatic sphere's layers (The appropriate ones, yes. )

Can diamond body protect you from the green prismatic layer. (Yes)


What's new engages in a little role reversal. And the snail finally starts to slip from the page. This interesting.


Another frustrating issue, albeit for different reasons to the last one. Where that had quite high and low extremes, this one has way too much dull stuff, and suffers from their attempts to make every article please everyone. Despite there being a fair amount of Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk stuff, they're always trying to make sure everything in those is useful in whatever campaign you might be playing as well, and the constant nagging awareness of this agenda sucks the fun out of those articles. The period of freedom they enjoyed at the start of 3e is long gone, and now they're more regimented in the kind of articles they produce and how they write them than they ever were. Let's hope they won't feel too bound by formula for the century celebrations at least.

Dragon Issue 300: October 2002


part 1/10


87 (116) pages. Well, we've made it through another hundred issues. It certainly hasn't been an easy journey, for us or them, and the magazine has lost quite lot of things along the way. Course, they've picked up some others, so it hasn't been all bad, but overall, the 200's haven't been a great time for them. Let's hope the 300's have some more auspicious moments.

Unfortunately, first signs don't appear too great. While the first two were both substantially larger than the surrounding issues, and had some special trick on their cover that made them very distinctive, this one has neither of those. In fact, the cover has a lot in common with 274, the 3e changeover issue, only it's even closer zoomed in, and slightly less impressive looking technically. There's also the fact that the theme is once again a tie-in with their latest book, which is as cynical-feeling as ever. Still, at least it's one appropriate to the month, as the book of vile darkness is pretty fitting for an october horrorfest. Like a villain who tries to take over the world every week, only to be thwarted yet again, I shall retain some optimism about the contents. But will I be laughing manically at the end, or cursing those pesky kids for not letting the writers take it all the way? At least there's no way reading it can be as damaging as the in-game book of vile darkness, anyway.


Scan Quality: Excellent, indexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: The editorial reminds us a couple of interesting, and somewhat contradictory things. The reason many people started buying dragon is because of the cool new stuff in each issue. But until 1996 when they jacked up the regularity of the regular features dramatically, you were never sure what you were going to get. New spells, monsters, magical items, each would appear in less than half the issues. The question is, is that a good thing or not? When you only saw Pages from the Mages once a year, people were writing in to praise it a lot more than they are now Elminster's Guide appears every issue. Part of that can be attributed to familiarity taking the wonder away, and part of that is because even the best writer will run out of their A material if they have to produce a constant stream of content. So this is revealing because it shows how they arrived at their current position of putting D&D specific crunchy stuff in nearly every article. Looking at what was most popular and providing only that, rather than a mixture of stuff that includes the most popular options, plus a few more to catch a wider audience. Which may work better in the short term, but also means you'll hit the point of diminishing returns on a particular thing quicker, and'll find it harder to replace that for some new coolness. This goes quite a way towards explaining why 3e and 4e had shorter edition cycles than the earlier ones as well. When it comes to creative media, if you use the same formula over and over again, it doesn't work as well over and over again, even if the technical quality is actually better on the later instalments. So yeah, they have to deal with the fact that even if they're doing the right thing now, it'll eventually become the wrong thing if they don't change sometimes. It's a big headache.

Dragon Issue 300: October 2002


part 2/10


Scale Mail: As with issue 100, they decide to skip the letters for an extended Q&A session. With the shift in management, a lot of people are asking the same things over and over again. This is a bit tiresome, so they just want to get it over with. Most things are staying the same, although they may do the occasional OGL article if they can get them, and they're thankfully bringing back sales of back issues. Fiction submissions are still all going in the bin though. They just don't want to deal with that any more, despite it's popularity amongst both readers and submitters, because their focus is now on doing D&D stuff, and doing it well, and if they're getting more fiction submissions than everything else put together, reading through them all just eats up too much work time. Once again, it underlines that their scope is a lot narrower than a decade or two ago, where even if an individual issue was all D&D, they didn't rule out doing a themed issue on another system next time if enough cool material came along, or even switching to another system entirely if another RPG came out that eclipsed D&D. Turning into their own company does not appear to have increased their creative freedom much. After the editorial, this just deepens my pessimism.


Zogonia is full of quiet wit.


D&D Previews: Our gamebook, pretty unsurprisingly for the issue's theme, is the book of vile darkness. Monte Cook confuses diabolical with gross-out, showing that while their editorial policy might not be as bad as the days of Lorraine, they still aren't really ready to tackle heavy duty philosophy of morality. And of course, he introduces the ur-priest. The problems that prestige class causes. True system mastery is still a way away.

FR & DL each get a novel. Divine Hammer by Chris Pierson and The Thousand Orcs by R. A. Salvadore. Can you guess which belongs to which world. Oh yes, belongs. Keep slaving away, long-term hacks.


Up on a soapbox: Gary takes a break from actual play stories this month, and instead tells a story that could have been, but wasn't. Wastri, the demigod of frogs and human supremacy, never did get an official adventure devoted to him. After all, he's not sexy like the Drow or grand and sprawling like the temple of elemental evil. But he could still appear in your game, and do some pretty cool stuff plotwise. This is basically a pagelong set of plot hooks for your game, showing you that vaguely innsmouth-esque frog people can be effective and scary if you write them well enough, and don't have to just lurk in their own little town gradually growing more degenerate over time. Don't wait for an official version, just take the ideas here and do something with them yourself in that good ol' DIY spirit.