Gygax's departure may be coincidence with the decline of both Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Maybe the writers just ran out of things to say, or if they did, they provided the fluff that filled the deluge of 2nd edition splat books.

It would be an interesting thought as to what the fate of TSR and AD&D would have been had GG remained with the company and at the helm.

Seeing the same tired faces and the same tired articles wears thin after a while. To be honest, of all the articles I have ever read on role-playing games, only 3 or 4 have remained with me to this day.

Dragon Magazine Issue 178: February 1992

part 2/5


Follow the leader: Ooh. An expanded followers table. Haven't had one of those in a while. (see issues 99, 106, 113 & 115, all of which are obviously for the last edition.) This time, it's paladins turn, in an article which reduces the number of followers they get ( under the principle that extreme lawful goodness is a hard path to follow) but gives you more cool unique creatures attracted by your reputation. Using this, you could well end up with a lammasu, couatl, gold dragon or ki-rin helping you out, which seems pretty nifty. As ever, careful with the ones that are actually more powerful than the character, which should be used as friends and companions rather than outright followers, and turn on you if you should fall from your standards. It's not easy being a good guy. So no great surprises here, but useful for me nonetheless.


In defense of polearms: Ah yes, the much maligned (unfairly, too) polearm. They might not be as glamorous as swords, but they're highly damaging, cheaper, and much more useful in formation based fighting. Reach is a tremendously useful quality that only gets it's full credit next edition. And they can also serve as 10' poles. Multipurposing for greater efficiency! This is one of Greg Detwiler's efficient, above par filler articles, playing a valuable part in keeping the magazine chock full of stuff, but unlikely to really rock people's worlds. Looks like this particular themed section has been pretty low on big cool surprises then.


What not to include: Yup. This is an increasingly important part of game design once you have lots of different games to choose from. What is left out becomes as significant as what is put in in shaping the feel of the setting. And since TSR are currently adding new settings as fast as they can, this is a big issue at the time. (It is very interesting to note that Greyhawk, FR and later on Eberron, all started in times of comparatively few active settings, consciously go the other route, trying to find a place for everything.) Arthur Collins knows what he's talking about when he compares it to sculpting. You have all this material, and if you keep it all, your world will look little different from anyone else's. And you don't have to connect it all up to the official AD&D cosmology either. (even though that may involve changing or forbidding some spells. ) On top of this, there's advice about avoiding the generic monoculture races, changing up the things you do put in, sorting out the religion, gods, and history/myths, and making the things you do leave in seem suitably significant in the overall scheme of things. It may be a case of taking something mentioned in another article, and expanding it out to several pages of it's own, but this is a pretty good one.


TSR Previews: Back to a fairly regular schedule this month. The Forgotten Realms is getting FOR3: Pirates of the fallen stars in the gamebooks, and Prophets of moonshae, book 1 in the druidhome trilogy in the novels. Doug Niles returns to the lands he helped create, bringing another crisis with him. Time for a new generation of heroes to level up and kick some butt.

Dark sun gets it's very own monstrous compendium. MC12. They've long since converted most of the 1st ed stuff, so this is mostly new coolness too, with lots of psionic beasties. Now you can match up to the increased power of your PC's.

Spelljammer continues their latest big metaplot event in SJQ1: Heart of the enemy. Fight those goblinoids through multiple spheres. Just how much mess will they leave behind them?

Ravenloft does zombies, voodoo zombies (It's like james bond with swampwater and shabbier tuxedos) in RQ1: Night of the living dead. Another adventure designed for low level characters recently sucked into the mists. Are you ready to dance the night away and still foil their plans?

Greyhawk is still mid-war, in WGQ1: Patriots of Ulek. Yet another one for beginning adventurers who don't have the power to make a big difference to the fighting. I suspect we may be seeing similar products for every single gameworld. This is not very useful to your existing playerbase.

And finally, our standalone book this month is Thorn and Needle by Paul Thompson. Some rather quirky ad copy tries to set it above run of the mill fantasy. Does it live up to that promotion?


The voyage of the princess ark: Another jaunt westward along the savage coast brings us to Eusdria, another blatant real world rip-off, in this case scandinavia. (despite it being a pretty warm locale, after all, this is even further south than the Baronies.) They're actually pretty civilized for such a warlike culture, thanks to the presence of lots of elves, and more than a few half-elves. (including the current king) Unfortunately for Haldemar, they're allied with the Heldanic knights, which gives them a perfect excuse to capture them (again) and have them tried for their "crimes" Once again, though, the ruler of the nation proves themself to be a smart cookie, more than able to deal with this kind of politics and come out ahead. Honestly, Haldemar, you really need to do more research. You have crystal balls and the like. Use them. Then maybe you wouldn't be in trouble so much of the time.

We see in the OOC bit that Eusdria isn't quite a stereotyped as it first appears. Although they may be descended from your basic northern viking warrior types, they are properly integrated into their new environment, with technological developments, properly defined relationships with their neighbouring states, and an interesting plot hook that allows for raiding goblinoids to be a continuous problem. I'm surprisingly impressed by this.

We also get lots more variant classes. Rules for elven clerics and druids. Rules for elves to become Paladins and Avengers, and rules for half-elf PC's of all kinds. All are pretty simple and efficient, and have drawbacks as well as strengths. At this rate, BD&D will soon have as many class/race options as AD&D. Do we want to remove our strong fixed archetypes? Very good question. Even if they're not too unbalanced, you should consider carefully if you want to allow this or not.


Fiction: River's friend by Josepha Sherman. Another fairytaleish story from this author, this time with an eastern european dressing. But underneath the trappings, it's the same old hero's journey, as a boy from poor origins has to prove his worth to the people at court, and more importantly, to himself. Which is transferable everywhere, as there's always social class and an in and out crowd. More interesting are the human/supernatural interactions, with the fae creature in this one forced to interact with people on their own terms, but retaining a degree of it's own alienness. Overall, I Can't say I feel particularly strongly about this one either way.

Dragon Magazine Issue 178: February 1992

part 3/5


The role of computers: Pools of Darkness continues the Realms story, allowing you to reach higher levels than before in a D&D computer game, while also improving on the visuals and sound. This allows them to regain that prized 5 star rating. As ever, don't expect it to be easy, and note that this time, the demihuman level limits are a real issue, so bringing in your old characters from previous games may or may not work too well. Still, that should keep their clue corner busy for quite a while.

SimAnt sees the sims series get educational, while still being pretty entertaining. Turn your hive into the biggest, baddest swarm in the garden by getting the right proportion of workers to soldiers and then bogarting all the food supplies. Less open-ended than the city one, it still has tons of replayability, with circumstances being different each time.

Gunship 2000 is another one they're pretty generous with. Get your heavily armed supply helicopter to the needed place, destroying any opposition along the way. Tactics will work much better than trying to charge in and use twitch reflexes, as usual.

Police Quest III doesn't get such a good review. It's fiddly, crash-prone, and has "adult subject matter" Seems like that's going to be this year's pet peeve for these reviewers. They're really not going to like Mortal Kombat then

Swamp gas visits the united states of america is a surprisingly good educational program. Combining geography questions with arcade action, it sounds silly, but I guess some of those things would manage to be good by luck. Not that it'll make it any easier for parents to persuade their kids to play them.

Shining in the Darkness is another decent enough Genesis adventure. It's no phantasy Star, but uses a lot of the same elements and should keep you busy for a while.

Vapor Trail is a top-down shooter, for one or two players. Apart from the choice of 3 planes with different capabilities, this seems very formulaic indeed. Yawn.

Arcus Odyssey also seems quite familiar, having a lot of design similarities with Gauntlet. Fantasy arcade action with plenty of hack and slashing and exploring, and a bit of roleplaying. Another one that'll fill up some time. Remember to write down your passwords.

On the conversions side we have The Immortal. Another RPG which uses passwords rather than saving, which does get rather annoying given the length of levels and the fiddlyness of the codes.

They also praise the Wing Commander strategy guide. Even they don't find these games easy, so this is quite welcome. A bit cheeky though. Well, I guess the book reviews have done plenty of books about computers so turnabout is fair play.


The marvel-phile: A third set of characters rescued from the scrap-heap this month. Leir, the celtic god of lightning, which makes him a rival of Thor. Not a bad guy, but a hot-headed arrogant twit who is easily tricked, as so many gods are. Still, even he doesn't have as big a self-control problem as Nobilus, a flawed clone of Thor (again?!  Silly mad scientists, forgetting the inverse ninja law. ) What was the High Evolutionary thinking trying a stunt like that? In any case, it didn't turn out well for him, and we won't be seeing these guys again very often, which once again makes it pretty obvious why they were cut. More filler here, I'm afraid.


Role-playing reviews is taken over by Rick Swan. Another personal favorite writer of mine (apart from the complete paladins handbook, which sucked) We finally get star ratings on our reviews here as well, (how long have the computer team been using them without the others catching on) which is another positive development in my opinion. Anyway, this month's review topic is another visit to minis based wargaming. Rick notes that while they may still seem popular at conventions it is now a surprisingly small number of people who actually play regularly. Although he doesn't phrase it so negatively, the market isn't in such good condition these days, with only a few big companies remaining. But ironically, the rulesets are possibly better than they've ever been. (now there's another familiar tale from both music and gaming) So I guess it's now his job to persuade us we want to buy things we don't need, and keep this hobby going a little longer.

Fantasy Warriors is Grenadier's attempt to provide a system for their many minis. It gets a solid rather than brilliant result. It's easy to learn, and the minis that come with it are quite nice, but there is some irritating rules cruft, and no sample scenarios at all. A new edition could make quite a few improvements.

The AD&D 2nd ed Battlesystem miniatures & skirmishes rules do slightly better, but still aren't perfect. Still, they are a substantial improvement on the 1st ed Battlesystem, with the presentation getting a clean-up akin to that of the various AD&D corebooks. The rules are nicely simplified as well, making running battles involving several hundred creatures on each side entirely feasible. The only major flaw (although it is a very big one), is the handling of magical effects, which is way too sketchy. This limits how fantastical things can really get, without some serious DM adjudication. Dark Sun'll probably take a bit of work then.

Bladestorm also gets a quite positive result. It manages to have both a good system, including cool magic; and a nicely imaginative setting to justify all the fighting that takes place. Strange races, advanced rules that improve the game rather than slowing it down, and spells that are designed around the battlefield make it all hang together nicely without being generic, and it's his favourite game of the month overall.

War Law gets our worst review. Like the rest of Rolemaster, it's insanely complex, with it's barrage of math and tables doing Rick's head in. Someone must be able to make head and tail of it, given the number of supplements they've managed, but if even experienced game writers have trouble, he wonders who the buyers are.

Quote from: Lawbag;387358Gygax's departure may be coincidence with the decline of both Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Maybe the writers just ran out of things to say, or if they did, they provided the fluff that filled the deluge of 2nd edition splat books.

My premise is that Gygax had such a breadth of interests that subjects for articles wouldn't have run out or gotten stale as quickly as they did, if Dragon and Dungeon followed his lead. Gygax seemed more interested in infusing many different, outside influences into D&D than his successors did. As I said, D&D began to draw on itself for inspiration after Gygax left. Whether or not this would have happened with him there we'll never know.

Dragon Magazine Issue 178: February 1992

part 4/5


Novel ideas: The novels section continues to bloat in size as befits it's proportionate profitability. Course, they also have a couple of new gamelines as well, so they can increase the number of novels by splitting them amongst more subdivisions. Basic D&D is getting novels, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer are busy building up their own fanbases, and they vainly try to keep the XXVc line alive for another year. They do seem to be reducing the number of generic books though, going from 6 last year to only 4 this time. Guess my hunch that they don't sell as well was probably right. Even so, that's at least 29 new books this year, several every month. More than enough for most people's disposable incomes, unless you're a total addict. Still, they're not publishing nearly as many novels as they are game books, apart from in the Dragonlance line. So no great problems here, yet.


The game wizards: This month, our other promotional column concentrates on the Marvel Superheroes game. Just like the basic D&D game last year, this is going through a revamp. Looks like they're reducing the number of adventures, and going for more splatbooks based upon specific superhero and villain groups. Mutants, Dr Doom & Latveria, The Avengers, and Spider-man's rogue gallery are their first choices. I suppose it fits in with their general policy at the moment, but I can see this getting very barrel-scraping within a few years. It also encourages you to use the canon characters in your games even more, rather than inventing your own heroes and villains, which is mildly objectionable on a creative level. I guess we'll see what changes they'll make in a few years, when the shine on this new trick starts to wear off. In any case, I can't say I'm too enthusiastic, but since they've managed to turn around dubious premises before, I'm not going to prejudge. Any opinions on this particular change of direction for the line?


A swing and a hit: Some more fighting tricks for Top Secret this month. As with AD&D's OA, we haven't been short of a trick or two in this department. But like new spells and monsters, people'll always add a few more, even if they turn out to be just variants on already filled niches. So here's another 9. Choke holds, for killing people with when grappling. Crushing blows, letting you break bricks with a chop if you've built up enough strength. Disarming, always a favourite when the system doesn't make it more bother than just killing an enemy. Feinting, also a cool movie idea sometimes hampered by system. Cheap shots to people's vulnerable areas. What charming behaviour. Meditation as a means of making yourself more generally badass, which pushes at the bounds of supernatural capabilities. Attacking simultaneously with a weapon and doing unarmed MA stuff with the other hand, which pushes the bounds of cheese. Intimidating people with flashy displays of prowess, which is rather amusing. And steeling your body so it takes less damage from a blow. Rather a useful collection really, that'll offer quite an advantage to people using them. Watch players who want to introduce this one closely.


Sage advice is still on a Dark Sun kick. You change the rules substantially, and of course you will get a substantial amount of questions:

 What levels and races are ranger's followers ( Mostly from the same races that become rangers )

Can athasian characters have kits (If they're culturally appropriate. That means no samurai or swashbuckers, for sure. )

Can water-finding be used in any terrain. Does it stack with Survival. (yes, and probably. This still may not be enough in Athas)

Do half-giants get extra damage on their weapons. Do they need to eat and drink more (no and yes. They're big enough to be inconvenient, but not big enough to completely smash the rules and setting up.))

Can thri-kreen use four weapons at once. (not unless they're specially trained. Claws are more natural than weapon weilding)

How do gladiators advance ( slowly, while spinning something spiky. )

Can bards backstab (no, thank god)

Do inactive characters get extra money when advanced (probably a good idea)

Are enchanted weapons less likely to break? (Probably)

How damaging are sandstorms (DM decision. Generally, death caused by sandstorm should be slow and lingering, as you are gradually flayed and dehydrated until nothing is left but your bones, to be buried underneath the shifting sands and forgotten.)

What athasian creatures does speak with animals work on (not enough. This will seem stupidly arbitrary to the natives who have no idea that some creatures exist on other worlds, and others don't. )

Why are there so few creatures in athas (ecological disaster. We're trying to engage in a bit of social commentary here. Art as moralising lecture on the evils of the real world and all that pretentiousness. Thiiissss iiis the 90's!!!!!!! )

Why no mind flayers or beholders (Mind flayers can plane shift, and are waaay too smart to stick around a dump like this. Beholders were just never here in the first place. (no way I'm buying the other possibilities, given much wimpier creatures have survived here. ))

Can I have a spelljammer crossover (no)

Does athas have an underdark (Possibly)

How much are thieves tools (relatively, a lot more expensive)

Can you backstab twice if wearing two wrist razors (general rules still apply. Don't think that just because a new gameline is out, you can get around Skip by phrasing the same question with altered fluff. Get back to the back of the queue. )

Why can't high level people detect invisibility anymore ( They can. We just moved the rules. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 178: February 1992

part 5/5


Where's the thief?: As we near the end of the issue, we get another little filler article.  Rules for sneaking around in the Battlesystem? I can see why some people would miss that capability and want to include it. So here's an efficient page and a half of conversions, allowing them to work as both individuals and units. I doubt I'll get to playtest them, but I still approve in principle of this add-on. Yet another useful but hardly mid-blowing delivery.


Forum: John Cummings would rather undead drained ability scores than levels. You know, that's actually more of a problem if you can't get access to restoration spells.

Ivy K. Ryan thinks it's a rather good idea to make energy draining temporary. She also wants to nerf troglodytes strength draining effect. You can't stop effects from being more effective agains one class or another, and it strikes at the team nature of the game to completely cut stuff like that out.

Sabine Volkel continues the debate about DMPC's and the problems they cause. It does take quite a bit of work to avoid trouble, but can be done. Only the DM can break a game.

Dale Meier has another long letter about how to deal with that annoying star wars twink. This one is rapidly getting overdone, methinks.

James Lawrence-Knight wants to add a Reseaching nonweapon proficiency. Knowing how to best find pertinent info in large quantities of books is a definite skill, and another one we are probably losing as the internet becomes ever more taken for granted.

Marcus Wagner nitpicks 169's weapons article. That's not a basilard, it's a katar! Tee hee. So many silly sword variants.

J. B. Coburn discourages you from putting too many magical items in your game. The players shouldn't be overshadowed by their gear. Blah-de blah. Can't we just agree to disagree on this point?

Geof Gilmore complains about the balance problems psionics has when used in a campaign with magic. You can do a whole bunch of things at low level that wizards couldn't 'til much later, and screw people over from a distance they can't manage. It's not overall power that's really the problem, it's just that many other creatures don't take it into account in their design. Another thing that they heed and probably overcompensate for next edition.


Milwaukee by night for V:tM. With expanded rules for the ravenous Lupines Now that really rubs in how undeveloped the world of darkness still is. I'll bet their abilities bear little resemblance to the powers W:tA werewolves got.


Just who are these folks: Twilight empire gets a recap for those of us who didn't see the story from the start. Meanwhile, in this month's story, David Bowie needs a backup plan, and the others explore the ruins in the caves. Bad things happen, as you'd expect.

Dragonmirth is a bit depressed. Yamara has more discussion on the proper nature of romance. So fucked up. In a good way.


Through the looking glass: This time, the gulf war section at the start concentrates on the air side of things. Looks like there was quite a bit of variety, with different countries on the allied side having quite different air force compositions. Good luck hunting down models for all of them. Also, don't huff oil based paints. :shakes head: How silly can you get. Another irritating reminder that this magazine is primarily aimed at kids and teenagers these days.

Our minis this month are some dwarves with crossbows, giving your army some much needed missile capacity. A bunch of miscellaneous undead, none very pretty. And the usual assortment of D&D focussed models from grenadier. Half-elves & elves, paladins & anti-paladins, berserkers and bog standard warriors. The photographs occupy a bigger proportion of the section than usual, making the writing seem a bit insubstantial. I suppose you can judge for yourself now they're doing decent photography with reasonable reliability.


A rather filler heavy issue, one of those with lots of stuff that seems inconsequential,  and was hard to form a strong opinion on. This far in, very little of what we see here will have any impact on the course of the game, or even be seen again. And so sifting out the good stuff becomes more of an effort. I hope other people are getting the benefit of all my effort, because it doesn't really seem worth it from the perspective of improving my gaming ability. Will it have been worth it in the end? I really am not sure. All I know is that I can't quit this far in.

Dragon Magazine Issue 179: March 1992

part 1/5


124 pages. A surprisingly dynamic and cheesecake low Elmore pic heading things up this month. Someone's going to slip and fall while trying to get their hands on that sword, especially if they're rivals rather than part of the same team. The topic inside, on the other hand, is rather less mold breaking. Generic Magic again. You've got to specialise! They've realised that over in the campaign building stuff. When things are stable, you specialise to fill a niche, and outcompete anyone at it to profit properly. When times get hard, that's when it pays to be a generalist, and you adapt or perish. My mind needs more variety! :sigh: Pass me the lube. Here we go again.


In this issue:


Al Qadim! The forgotten realms fills up another continent with pseudo real world cultures. Well, it works for Kara-tur and Maztica. Why mess with a winning formula? Now all they need is a fantasy australia and the world'll be complete.


Letters: A letter asking about how you can become an official certified Dungeon Master. That, my dear, is just an urban legend, albeit one probably started by them back in issue 28, where they provided a system for figuring out what level DM & player you are. And then distorted and spread further by Jack Chick. What goes around comes around.

A letter by people who've translated the dwarvish on issue 174's cover. Another thing introduced by Ed Greenwood via the magazine, back in issue 69. Yet another strange little thread of history we can trace and enjoy.

And finally, yet another sexism letter, this time from a girl struggling to find other women interested in gaming. There's certainly enough of them sending in complaining letters to the magazine. Now, if only they could find each other in real life.


Editorial: Another familiar topic here, as Roger returns to the theme of future shock. The geopolitical situation has changed in a way few predicted, making a whole bunch of sci-fi novels invalid again, while also increasing his tolerance for improbable plot twists, since reality has often proved itself stranger than fiction. This seems really to be another not too subtle attempt at getting people to check out new games, both from TSR and other companies. Which hopefully will lead to more variety in the games he gets submissions for. Well, an editor can dream, can't he. Not a hugely interesting editorial, this does once again highlight his sense of whimsy and search for new forms of gaming to keep interests up. I'm betting we'll see a definite drop in non D&D articles soon after he's replaced.


Picture this!: Nigel Findley gives us another cool set of themed magical items. Why should Ed have all the fun in that department? So enjoy these 7 magical paintings, each a masterpiece both visually and in terms of effects. After all, you have a lot more room to customise a painting than with most items.

The Watchers lets you take control of animals in the vicinity and use them as spies. Careful though, for the twin dangers of losing yourself in their minds, and dying if they get killed while you're in them are quite significant. Seems like this could be almost as much a liability as a benefit. Seems rather appropriate given his fondness for horror stories.

Widow's walk is less dangerous, but still has it's quirks. But shielding from magical divination and weather control seem well worth a little creepiness. Anyone with reason to be paranoid'll value those qualities.

The Gladiators traps you in the painting and forces you to fight it's occupants. If you know the password, you can summon them out to fight a party the old-fashioned way. Which is actually less scary, but life is odd like that sometimes. This one is probably more a liability than a benefit to most groups.

Dragonnel lets you summon a little dragon to ride on, or turn into. It does have the danger of running out mid-combat, but since that's perfectly normal for magic, it can hardly be considered a curse.

Glorindel's Gates let you step into the area painted. This is of course a one-way trip. Seems pretty self-explanatory, and with plenty of literary sources.

Glorindel's Living Paintings are hypnotic. Another reason never to go to an art gallery in fantasy worlds, especially in Ravenloft. You never know what'll be implanted in the back of your mind, just waiting for the right situation. Being a slave sucks.

Igrane's Portraits let you communicate with the person in the painting. Again, this might not seem too surprising, but there are more than a few tricks this can pull. It can penetrate the veil of death. (with the usual dangers to your sanity) And there's an unfinished one which is even more useful than the finished ones. Goes to show how quirky magic can be.

Dragon Magazine Issue 179: March 1992

part 2/5


Magic by candlelight: Another themed collection of magic items here. Looks like this issue is a bit more focussed than the contents page indicated. And since these are generally limited-use devices, you can be relatively generous with them as treasure. With 22 items in 3 pages, this is a dense little entry that I don't feel like individually listing everything in. Few are hugely powerful, but most are useful, with quite a few which can be hazardous to an incautious user, just like fireworks. As with potions, a good identification spell will come in handy. They also give you some guidance in what materials are needed to make them, which can be applied easily to potions, perfumes, oils, and other topically applied limited use items. Scavenger hunts eat up a good amount of time, and making magical items like this is a nice starter for them at mid levels. Plenty of good material to draw upon here then. This issue is looking up.


Mutants in orbit! A crossover supplement for Rifts and After the bomb. Seems a bit weird to have two different post apocalyptic settings mix like this.


Something completely different: Looks like it's not just new toys in the special this month, it's advice about properly applying them as well. We have all these weird and wonderful items built up over years of the magazine, and plenty of room for more obscure mundane items to be given their own magical powers. What do you do if you find a magical wardrobe in a villains collection, or a sentient spork? Large items may have cool powers, but transporting them can be a nightmare. And there's plenty of unusual nonmagical valuables you could use as well. Perhaps some customised random generation tables would be good. They often produce more interesting results than personal choice could. Curiously, this also manages to fit in 14 new items, each adding a quirk to an existing item family, although the descriptions are even shorter than in the last article. Another good example of their strong base of submissions around this time. Roger may be looking for more variety in his themes, but when people submit good material for previously covered topics he's hardly going to turn it down because of that.


Seven Enlightening lanterns: Once again, the influence of Ed Greenwood on the magazine is felt strongly here. Even when he's not contributing personally, he's done so much, and inspired so many that it's surprising we don't see more blatant copycats like this one. Still, once again you can enjoy a big collection of magical variants for an atmospheric but oft-neglected item. Let's see if we can play pinpoint the source material with this lot.

Bashal's Tendrilight sends out black quivering tentacles. Hmm. Have the Lasombra been aded to Vampire: the Masquerade yet? I guess Evard was already leading the way in hentai action. With paralysis and immunity to lots of weapons, these'll be a right bugger to fight.

Goldmane's Dazzler provides free light indefinitely, and also has two cool semi-connected tricks that make it seem even more Greenwoodesque. The history stuff is quite good too. So I guess the Realms grows ever more able to surprise it's creator in a good way.

Illag's Abominable Beacon is a skull-headed lamp of Eeeevil that projects undead summoning darkness. Better be able to see in that then to direct them properly, and make sure you don't stub your toe on a milling zombie.

Krillus's Blazer is electrified, and can unleash that power in a fashion akin to those pretty globes you see at every science fair. That'll do rather more than making your hair stand on end.

Malthrox's Shadowcaster also messes with darkness, in this case producing a shadowy clone of a person illuminated. This isn't as perfect a copy as an evil mirror clone, but is controllable at least. Have fun with it while it lasts, and don't hesitate to tease as well as fight. Making out with someone's shadow clone can drive them to rash acts.

Messakk's Eye can paralyze people looking into it Once again it looks like they're falling back on obvious ideas to finish the collection off. Still, an encounter-ender is not to be sneezed at, formulaic as it may be.

Thessall's Wayguider is incredibly handy for any dungeoneer. Instant illumination of secret doors & traps? Retracing your step effortlessly? True seeing? That'll cut your exploration time massively. No more tedious inching along mapping all the way and testing every flagstone. Now that's convenience for you. Awesome.


Fiction: Moonlight by Heather Lynn Sarik. Another quite amusing little story here. So you have a macguffin that produces a rare and valuable material. This stuff could make you a fortune! Trouble is, no-one can figure out what to do with it. And you keep on producing it. This is not a stable situation, and will lead to fast devaluations unless you pull some slippery snake-oil shenanigans. And the result is rather amusing, and reminds me quite a bit of "The two best thieves in Lankhmar" as the protagonists bicker their way through what they thought would be an easy job and wind up the fools, with unusually strong language for these family friendly days. As it's also moderately fitting for the theme of the issue, I definitely have to pronounce this one a success, subverting expectations quite nicely.

Dragon Magazine Issue 179: March 1992

part 3/5


The voyage of the princess ark: Another year, another attack of surreality for the princess ark, as they find themselves in Renardy, home of the dog-like lupins. Who also happen to be French. :rolleyes: (Someone's been watching Dogtanian and the three muskethounds ) And determine prestige amongst the noble families by wine-making contests :double rolleyes: And someone has stolen this year's best vintage Guess who has to retrieve them and save the king from dishonor However, they can't get through the fields of sleep inducing flowers to catch the goblins responsible. But it's alright, because they get saved by ninja tortles :cool: They solve the mystery, honor is satisfied, and everyone ends up happy. Apart from the goblins. The cheese quotient is definitely on the rise in this series. It may still be entertaining, but I'd want to filter this stuff out a bit before actually putting it in a game.

Unsurprisingly, we get more details on Renardy in the OOC bit. Lots of cultural and statistical data. Business as usual here. Can't say I'm that enthralled.


The marvel-phile: We finish serving up last year's leftovers, and actually have some interesting gaming advice here this issue. How do you build good villains? Why do so many official Marvel villains suck? Well, let's start with the name. A bad one condemns you to risibility even before you start, no matter how powerful you might be. Then there's the costume. Poor color co-ordination or the wrong areas of skin exposed can make it very hard to take you seriously. And finally, possibly least importantly, there's the powers. After all, there's plenty of badass normals holding their own out there in comic books, on both the good and bad sides. A single dumb trick is probably worse than none at all. And having too many schticks means it becomes impossible to remember them all and apply them to maximum effect. Their universe runs on dramatic logic rather than raw power.

They then go into specific examples of villains who have successfully repurposed themselves in the comics. Most notable is Paste Pot Pete becoming the Trapster, but there's others out there trying out a little self-improvement. Now, if they can just avoid things merging into a morass of grey grimdark villains with poorly defined badass powers. (yes, you, liefield.) And to top it off there's stats for the Sentinels and Hurricane. This is much better than the last few issues. Creative advice is more interesting than straight statblocks.


Rifts world book two, Atlantis. Beware the splurgoth. Now there's a name that'll eat your brains if you look at them the wrong way.


Forum: David Howery talks about painting minis, and expresses annoyance that there are so few minis of normal animals, along with various other thoughts about the practical problems of painting real creatures. There are some textures paint just can't simulate.

Justin Kelley is annoyed that magic resistance is so much more common and harder to penetrate in 2nd edition. Their mage is proving useless at high level! Elementary tactical error, methinks. That kind of stuff is why you move into buffs and terrain controllers rather than direct blasty effects. If your wizard isn't contributing much at 25th level, I have no hesitation in saying you're Doing It Wrong, since so many other groups are finding their spellcasters naturally graduate to supreme overlord at that level.

Bryce Harrington goes back to the headache of how to build fantasy cities in a defensible way with so many horrible creatures and spellcasters roaming around. Some historical models offer more benefits than others, but given the variety of powers out there, none really seem optimal. I guess it depends what monsters are most common in the particular area then.

Rene Vernon thinks that energy draining needs a little nerfing, but crossbows need powering up. More differentiation! Do you want every weapon group to be as complicated to handle as polearms and swords?


The role of computers: Macs may still be getting a decent amount of games, but it seems PC's are starting to pull ahead now, generally getting stuff first. However, it's Amiga that are really suffering. Just a couple of years now before they go bankrupt, and boy does it show. Might be a good idea to abandon this ship before it sinks. So it's another amusing historical pointer in the intro section here.

Conquests of the longbow: the adventures of Robin Hood gets a very positive review, with the reviewers impressed by both the graphics and gameplay. Point and click movement is applied with increasing finesse, and you get plenty of choices in how to overcome the various obstacles and bring peace to the land.

Eye of the Beholder II: The legend of Darkmoon once again goes to 5 stars, with substantially improved graphics and sound. Seems like they're saying that all the time these days, with particular emphasis on the precise specs needed. Point and click, and engage in lots of violence, as long as you have a good enough machine. SSI know what they're doing at this point.

Neverwinter Nights is of course their official online game. It's a pretty interesting, translating the turn-based D&D combat process surprisingly faithfully. Course, the world really isn't ready for this as a mass market product, with costs of several dollars an hour in phone bills, which probably explains why it doesn't count as part of the later series. I wonder if you can still get hold of this one.

Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers only gets a short review, but they say it's as good as previous instalments. I guess, like the book reviews, that's all a series with established fans needs.

The Simpsons: Bart's house of Weirdness also gets a short but positive review. Don't spout long discredited catchphrases, just enjoy the action. Funny that you don't see more spin-offs based on this series any more, given the time it's been running.

Dragon Magazine Issue 179: March 1992

part 4/5


TSR Previews: A mere half a year after the last new campaign setting, they unleash another, very different desert heavy place for you to enjoy. Al-Qadim, Arabian adventures. Ok, so it's actually yet another add-on to Toril, but it's disconnected enough that you can ignore that and transplant it if you want too, like Kara-tur, and very much unlike Maztica. They finally figure out how to use kits properly, as a device for making classes reflect cultural roles, and the proficiency system probably works about as well as it ever does. I believe this permits a little yaying.

Speaking of kits, we also have one of the books that applied them most radically. PHBR7: The complete Bards handbook, where they weren't so much variants on the existing class as total retools. You could build a whole party of bards and have more than enough variety to be viable and distinct, especially when the half-elf multiclass variants were allowed. Just watch out for the cheese. Here be jesters, and all that.

Spelljammer expands on space combat, with the War Captain's Companion set. Shoulda brought that out before the goblin war stuff so we could use it in those adventures.

Dark sun sees more mass combaty fun in DSQ1: Road to Urik. Tyr and Urik are fighting! Save the newly freed city. Making the world a better place ain't going to be easy. Once again, they use an interesting spiral bound format.

The forgotten Realms is off in Maztica still, in FMQ1: City of gold. See new people, take their stuff, and figure out how to get members of the cool new races and classes the players are drooling over into the party.

Dragonlance has many more short stories to tell. The reign of Istar takes us back in time to that false paradise destroyed by it's own corruption. Look forward to more bloody aesopping, if I know them.

D&D has yet more entry level adventures, three of them in fact, in Dragons Den. Well, I suppose they want to get noobs in, and it ain't easy to run low level adventures with dragons. That they might think we would appreciate help with that is probably justified.


Wonders of the land of fate: Surprise surprise, with the release of Al Qadim, (already mentioned twice this issue) we get an article promoting it. Ok, it's not the full-on special Dark Sun got, but it's better than nothing. And it's actually a lot more useful than the stuff in the Dark Sun and Buck Rogers specials. Ok, so it's mostly cut material from the corebook, but it's good material, as well as being appropriate to the theme of the issue. A ton of new magical items, many obviously derived from the arabian nights stories, and new random determination tables so you can get a good idea of their respective frequencies. The descriptions are very short, but do the job, and still manage to sneak in a decent bit of flavour. It does get released officially after all a bit later in the Land of Fate boxed set, but this is still useful stuff, and seems a good one for drawing people into the new setting. Jeff Grubb has done his job well, producing so much cool stuff that he can't fit it all into one book.



Ars magica gets a 3rd edition. Now with more crossover with the WoD. Watch out for those tremere.


Role-playing reviews: Back to fantasy gaming again. So many people who think they have some neat ideas to contribute to the genre. Some of them may even be right. This time it's Lester W. Smith who's our compere.

Fifth cycle gets an all round positive review. The worldbuilding is good, the system makes sense to him, and the magic has a nice internal logic to it. It has enough supplements to fill it out without overly bloating things. If you want another decent alternative system, go for it.

Barony gets a slightly less positive review, mainly due to it's small press origins being pretty obvious. But the ideas therein are rather more innovative, and it includes a rather spectacular treatment of Dragon battles, for some reason. If they could just tidy up some of the more pretentious and idiosyncratic language and make it more accessable. Pff. I'll bet I could understand it no trouble. After all, we had to deal with high Gygaxese for over 10 years.

Stuff O' Legends is halfway between an RPG and a boardgame, combining diplomacy and battle in a game of heroics revolving around the Trojan War. It's full of military and supernatural elements, as you build up your heroes and get them into position for the eventual inevitable conflict. With lots of optional rules that add further variety, it looks like an interesting edge case that could be taken either way.

Dragon Magazine Issue 179: March 1992

part 5/5


Ladders to the sky: The shine is probably starting to wear off spelljammer around the office, as the realities of the first couple of year's sales are in, and they aren't so great. It's not dead yet, but new products are starting to slow down. And aside from the special, and rather a lot of Sage Advices, it hasn't seen much stuff submitted to here either. Allen Varney tries to spark things a little by reminding you how easily you can incorporate space stuff into an existing game. All you need is a means of going up! And this being spelljammer, cheesy ideas work just fine. Giant plants which shoot up into space as part of their mating cycle. Hired by a passing ship with a crew shortage. Random portals that send you somewhere unexpected one-way. Many of these would also work fine for introducing the planes as well. And a nice reminder that it's not hard to shake up a game that's getting stale by changing the environment and removing most of the familiar cast. Just be careful, for as many a TV show can demonstrate, this kind of trick can kill a series as easily as it can revitalise it, and pushing the reset button afterwards may not help. Good luck pulling it off.


Sage advice: Why can't druids cast call woodland beings and commune with nature. Those are well within their remit (Oops. Errata. )

Can you save against a warp marble (only if it's thrown at you)

How do you determine an object's resistance to dispelling (use the person holding it. )

Does a ring of wizardry boost your spelljamming power (not officially, but Skip quite likes that idea. )

What magic items can bards use ( Officially only rogue ones, but skip likes the idea of making them jacks of all trades. Skip will argue the case with his sagely might! )

If you invent printing presses, can they mass-produce magical spells (Hell no! That would fuck game balance up the ass with a 36 inch spiked rotating dildo!)

Can you get someone back from a bag of devouring by turning it inside out (no. If they've been swallowed, it's already too late. They're gone, jim. )

Can you overclock a wand of conjuring to summon high level monsters at high level (no. Wands do not scale. Live with it, or sell them on to lower level adventurers for a tidy profit. )

Can a bag of holding's weight reduction powers be negated (not normally. Skip will laugh at you if you wreck one by experimenting to find a way to do this. )

Do cloaks of displacement protect against magic missiles (No. A penalty to automatic hit is still an automatic hit. )

Are item malfunctions always detrimental ( The odds of them being beneficial are about as good as real life radiation mutations being beneficial. Not bleedin likely, in other words. )


Dragonmirth is rather wizard-heavy this month. Yamara gets caught between the packs of marauding journalists. The twilight empire team have to figure out how to get flammable slime off in a hurry.


Through the looking glass: Hmm. Another interesting topic tackled in the introduction to this piece. The irritating battle between houserulers and official only takes a slightly different form when it comes to minis, but it is there. Try taking a customised piece to a Games Workshop store game, and see what happens. And as they're the biggest baddest guys on the block, you may well have to lump it if you want to play. TSR will die, but they continue onwards, regularly driving off existing players and having to draw in new ones with their irritating company policies. Yet another reason to steer clear of con games, as if there weren't enough.

Lots of stuff that seems adaptable to all kinds of fantasy games this month, presuming your GM will allow it, ironically. Two hordes, one oriental themed, the other gnolls, from Ral Partha. Thunderbolt mountain minis have a mermad, a dark elf, and a nicely idiosyncratic box containing a triceratops war machine ridden by orcs. There's one you really wish GW would let in their WHFB games. And Grenadier finish this off with a Halfling, a Ranger and a generic dungeoneer. They should fit together in a team nicely.


Great. The moonshaes get another trilogy. What a thing to happen to them.


With lots of stuff for various official campaign worlds, and plenty of bits that you can insert in anywhere as well, I've rather enjoyed this one, and it looks like it also has more reusability than the average issue as well. Keep submitting those cool articles folks, surprising us and making sure things don't get too dominated by the same recurring writers.

Dragon Magazine Issue 180: April 1992

part 1/5


128 pages. Welcome to the halfway point of this insane trek through time. Finally I can say, I am at the midnight of my suffering. Though there may be many challenges ahead, there will be a dawn. This kingdom shall know peace again! So proclaim I! We shall slay every dragon, delve every dungeon, roll every polyhedron, and er, drink with every white dwarf! (cue accusations of racism) And the ending shall be glorious! So press onwards with me, stalwart comrades from across the globe! Together we are strong! We shall not fall prey to despondency or insanity! (florble gibber thnorble help me! Or kill me now!) We shall face this april fools issue like we faced the ones before. Deadly seriously! (see page XX for the contract. ) It too shall fall! (god, I'm such a fool) I will not fail! (the betting pool is still open) Let's make it so.


In this issue:


Letters: No surprise that the letters here again prove that the collective readership have more silliness when combined than the writers. And a lot more wiling to ask questions about sex than they are to answer them. I hope that their parenting skills aren't similarly stilted. They also demonstrate the usual array of stupidly twinked characters, requests to buy stuff, chain letters, non sequiturs, bad crossovers, submissions that haven't a hope of being published, and other stuff that makes you go what is this I don't even. Perhaps it would be more fun if I had a little wharrgarble. WHARRRRRRRRGARRRRRRRRBLE!!!!!! Yeah, I think I feel a little better. And now, thanks to this, I'm imagining whargarble and other such amusing macro effects dubbed onto an oral sex scene. Ceiling cat approves strongly.


Editiorial: Hmm, this is a new one from Roger. A clever one too. Just how far can you take the concept of unusual PC's before they become unplayable? You need to be able to fulfil most, and preferably all of a certain checklist. Sentience. Communication. Hands or other environment manipulating capabilities. Movement. Power. Ability to advance. And not being inherently disruptive to the party by nature or needs. Ok, some games make a point of breaking some of those rules and still work, (Traveller, Wraith, Earthbound Demons) but like rules of musical structure, they remain valid as a general thing despite certain songs benefiting from violating them. I remember seeing a checklist very like this in forum threads before, but not in this magazine, which means he may actually be innovating here, and creating something that then spreads to GM advice things in other books. Can anyone trace this to an earlier source? Given the silliness of his recent editorials, this is a surprisingly serious and useful entry. One might suspect him of building things up to make a deliberate play on expectations this month. Still, it continues his efforts to get us to expand our gaming horizons, so it's hardly coming from left-field, especially when you consider his old articles for the magazine before he became the editor.


Suspend your disbelief: Oh, here we go with another realism in gaming (or at least, verisimilitude) article. Personality! consistency! believability! These are the great principles with which you must build your game. Ecology! Society! Parsimony! The things in it come from somewhere and must interact with each other! Hmm. Either this is a very dry parody, or just very rehashed indeed. Either way, everything said here has been said before in the magazine, better, and in greater detail previously. Yawn.


Not another magical sword: Another person complaining that magical weapons should get more detail so as to make each of them special? That idea in itself is starting to seem rather overdone, ironically. And not reflective of my personal experience either. I don't have names for my half-a dozen guitars, only one of the laptops in my family has a name, and the various electrical appliances that we rely on certainly don't get that kind of sentimental affection. Yeah, they might all have their individual quirks, but this is generally a pain in the butt to work around rather than something to celebrate. Not that making them visually and mechanically distinctive is a bad thing, but there's a lot of other places I could be putting my effort, and I only have so much energy to give. Fortunately, they also provide some nice specific examples as well as the oft-repeated generalities, keeping this from being useless to me. As with last issue, the Greenwood influence is very noticeable. No escaping it these days, with even the other campaign worlds that are consciously trying to be different winding up using the same methods.


Role-playing reviews: Rick demonstrates his particular sense of humour again in this little article, lampooning the crap deal psionics gets in so many systems. We've seen near nowt on it since issue 78. And either it's too similar to magic, or incoherently designed in many systems. Doesn't stop them from putting it in though.  Which of course means he has enough to make a good themed column. Hopefully that'll also stimulate freelancers to send in stuff, so we can get a psionics themed issue for this edition as well.

The complete psionics handbook gets a rather dry and descriptive review, with lots of explanation of how it works. It may seem daunting at first, but it's not that hard to understand, and differentiates things from magic quite handily, apart from a few near identical powers in the telepathy domain. Unlike certain forumites, he considers the fact that powers aren't usually level restricted a plus. It could do with more GM advice, monsters, and other cool peripherals though.

Psionics is a Mayfair Role Aid product. It doesn't do quite as well, having a bunch of irritating niggly restrictions on it's powers. But with plenty of cool stuff to mine and surprisingly little overlap with the official system, it could run alongside the other system if you wanted.

GURPS Psionics Also gets a solid but not gushing review. It encourages you to pick one or two skills and specialise in them, which encourages team differentiation in a class free game. The mechanics are solid, but psychic battles are rather complex to manage. It also has more campaign material than the other two,aimed quite strongly at modern day games. As with all the GURPS stuff, it's for those who like to customise, and mix and match elements from multiple genres for their games.

Rick also gives brief reviews to the Draconomicon and Ashes to Ashes. Neither are perfect, but both have lots of cool stuff for you to use. Seems both Vampire and D&D started with a greater proportion of adventures in their early supplements.

Dragon Magazine Issue 180: April 1992

part 2/5


Your basic Barbarian: Another april fools collection of things NOT to do when playing a dumb smashy sort. All the classes have their own stereotypes of how they can be disruptive to the party. Fighters probably get the least attention, when compared to preachy dick priests, thieves that steal from their own team, and wizards who take over everyone else's role at high level. But they can be a real pain in the butt too, and this article shows you how! Exaggerated dumbness mainly. Never be afraid to leap into a situation, short-circuiting debate and getting your companions into trouble. Apart from water, which is a source of terror to anyone with heavy armour, and of course rust monsters, which must be fled from with as much speed as you can manage. I do not see myself laughing at this one. Just a bit of space-wasting goofiness.


Hot night in the old town: Or how to keep things interesting for clerics when they're not out adventuring. Because of the nature of both their organisations and their powers, (at least, if they resemble real world priests at all) there is a certain natural pressure on them to get involved in the community, and lots of demand for their powers if they're willing to set a reasonable price. Lots of fun can be had trying to increase your congregation and settle disputes, get together the money for a decent temple, and competing with priests of other gods. Many of them may involve asking your adventuring party buds for a little help, and lead into a whole new adventure. This seems like a very cool idea, and the principle could be applied to the other classes for generation of tailored between adventure solo bits without too much effort. It certainly makes for considerably more variety than another motiveless wandering monster. Very handy indeed.


Colorful connection: Looks like puzzles are indeed becoming a regular feature, with another crossword. 80 more cryptic clues for your puzzling out, and an overall secret contained within. Actually seems like it would be more appropriate put in the birthday issue than the april fool one, but that makes the solution too easy to guess. Another one that'll easily eat up a few hours unless you're a real whiz at this kind of thing.


Cyber HERO: Yes, another supplement for the HERO system. They're not gonna let a genre get away.


Forum: Adam Lesh deals with the Robin hood problem with roughly the same advice I would have given. You can't expect players to follow the film script, and you can't expect the game to follow the same narrative logic when the rules encourage other options. You can use those stories as inspiration, but don't forget the adaption.

Steven Davis would rather like playing gods to be a viable option for adventurers who've reached obscene levels of power. Things might change, but they can still have meaningful challenges. Roll on Nobilis to make that feasible system-wise.

Victor Paraschiv thinks that fighters are still crap and not worth playing, especially when you could take a multiclassed demihuman or a paladin instead. Perhaps increasing the XP differential would help?

Jake Remley goes back to the violence in roleplaying/TV/music/video games is corrupting our youth stupidity. Roleplaying is far less dangerous than those other media, because it's all in your imagination, and frequently very abstracted. It does not make you more likely to commit real violence.


The voyage of the princess ark: From the ridiculous to the epic in this series. The princess ark goes from a country full of french dog-people to one inhabited by english cat-people. Logical, I guess. As this is essentially elizabethan england, everyone is very polite, and their time there is devoid of the usual dramas. However, that's because they're just the B plot this month. The main one is that we get to see what happens when you die in mystara. Raman is killed by the ghost he faced several months ago, and has to find his way out of Limbo. (not the same limbo as the AD&D universe, in another example of them making the two games deliberately different. ) And he makes it just in time. Any longer and he would have been buried. Oh, the tales he has to tell.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the article is devoted to exactly that, opening up another interesting avenue of play. If your team got hit by an unexpected and unwanted TPK, you don't have to stop now. You can just take them to the underworld, where they can search for a way back to the lands of the living, go to their eternal rest, or explore the lands of the dead and try and make a living of sorts there. The various types of undead are dramatically recontextualized, we get an interesting synopsis of the society of the dead, and we have more info on how the sphere of entropy tries to dominate the universe. This is the kind of thing that you should consider carefully if you want to adopt, because it gives answers to big questions that may not be welcome. (curiously, that everyone goes to limbo, and only followers of specific immortals go on to get a nice afterlife, would later be adopted in 3rd ed forgotten realms stuff, and I wasn't too keen on the idea there either. ) But it's certainly interesting, and very gameable. Another great example of just how weird and expansive Mystara has become with it's own built up setting.

Dragon Magazine Issue 180: April 1992

part 3/5


Your own treasure hunt: Hmm. Another article with a bunch of ideas they've never tackled before. In issue 177 we had a letter about charging to pay. Roger may have come down against the idea there, but his feelings must be more complex than that, otherwise he wouldn't have picked out this article. In it, the writer floats the idea of holding a fundraising event for your gaming group, as if it were a charity or something. The idea that your gaming group should be a formal entity in itself, with books and equipment owned collectively, dues paid for belonging, a fund for expenditures, and written procedures defining where and how you play, and what you need to do to get in (or kick someone out) does seem a bit strange, and it's not something I've come across personally, despite once being in a group that pushed 20 at times. Seems like the kind of thing that would develop when you have to specifically hire out space to game, rather than meeting at someone's house or down the pub. And of course, in schools, where tedious bureaucracy reigns, and the authorities want to keep track of what their students are doing. Most of the article is devoted to the logistics of setting something like this up, including lots of general advice on organising stuff that is applicable to all kinds of tasks. Set clear goals, figure out how to achieve them practically and get the stuff before stating, make sure someone properly co-ordinates things, check as things go on and revise plans accordingly, and since this involves getting other people to give you money, publicity publicity publicity. One of their more interesting diversions into real world matters, and a lot fresher than the stuff on how to be a good writer that pops up every couple of years.  This has certainly been a pleasant eye-opener for me.


The role of computers: Last month, we saw the plight of Amiga become hinted at. This time, it's the Atari Lynx that we scent the blood of. 3 years in, and they've just sold their millionth cartridge, and have a library of 40 games. That's fewer products than D&D has managed in the same timespan. Hell, it might be fewer sales than Palladium has managed as well. Compare that to the gameboy and it all becomes a bit risible.

Castles: The northern Campaign is an expansion for the original Castles. It improves on it quite substantially, adding lots of new options on both the military and trading fronts. This pushes their verdict up to 5 stars.

Castle of Dr Brain is another educational game. It doesn't really hold up to their scrutiny, with the normal difficulty level easily completed, and no interesting ending to reward you for that.

Elvira II: The jaws of Cerberus is another one that improves on the original, with more action, better graphics, better sound, and tons of items and spells that you'll need to apply carefully to progress. Get ready to juggle that equipment list again.

Hyperspeed is another game that is left behind by the advance of technology. If it weren't for Wing commander raising the bar, this'd probably be a 5 star one. As it is, it'll just have to settle for 4.

Nova 9 is a 3D shooter. This is one area that technology is definitely having an impact on. Anyway, with both ground and space based missions, there's plenty of enemies to kill and power-ups to collect. They quite enjoy it.

The Simpsons Arcade game gets a relatively weak review, being mostly mindless combat. This is another one I burnt a ton of money on at the arcade one summer. Having got to around level 7, I really wanted to finish it, but kept on dying and ran out by around level 9. I wan't even really enjoying it that much. Repeating patterns, eh.

V for victory: battleset 1, D-day utah beach, 1944 is another 5 star one. Looks like wargames are also exploiting the new technology out there. The number of scenarios isn't huge, but the interface is very good. Still, it'll take you quite a while to do each one, so it's not wasted money.

Back to the future III gets a fail result, both on a gameplay and a technical level. Recent advances in graphics really have spoiled them, and this just feels like a cheap cash-in.


Novel ideas: Looks like they're giving the huge world-changing events a miss this year. Instead, it's sequels to their bestselling series that are getting the big fanfare, as they want to milk the cash cows without disturbing them too much. Moonshaes: the next Generation. Yet more Dragonlance prequels. Existing authors have to come back to their old works and try to recapture the magic, while new ones have to learn the history and try to fit into the existing canon. As ever, they have little bits of info on the writing process and difficulties involved, which may or may not be accurate, and will hopefully make you want to buy the stuff. As usual, this column has nothing particularly essential worth reading.


The power of the pen: It's survey time again, for approximately the 7th time in the magazine's history. What do you want more, less or about the same of? Not brilliantly phrased, as I always read everything, whether I like it or not. Nothing much else to say here. What will the replies be this time? See you in the editorial in a few months time.


The dragon's bestiary: Battering rams are another creature based on a dreadful pun name. Like the Death Sheep, they might be a bit amusing, but they can still mess your day up, and in this case, break down many obstacles as well. Fuck not with a druid who has a flock of these as an entourage.

Gorse are teeny little fairies with magic that lets them control thorn bushes. Ahh, the old spike up the arse trick. That alway's gets a giggle.  Since they have only 1 hp and come in large numbers, using magic while hiding in the bushes from attack, this is definitely one a flamethrower would aid in dealing with. Looks like they're treading the fine path between humour and usefulness well this year.

Quakedancers are real thunder lizards, looking much like brontosauri, but actually causing earthquakes as a hunting mechanism. Another one that's a serious monster (with very serious damage outputs indeed as it gets bigger), but can also be a bit goofy and amusing. Still, none of these guys are disbelief suspension breaking to me. They can join the queue of monsters to use.

Dragon Magazine Issue 180: April 1992

part 4/5


Sage advice has it's usual collection of questions so insane that they aren't even a joke.

I pick at your elven armour exceptions! Pick, pick, pick I say! ( You know that'll only make it worse. Yeah, it isn't the most consistent of rulings. Maybe we ought to modify it a bit. )

What's the difference between a catapult and a trebuchet ( One's a tension + release mechanism, the other's a counterweight force user. But do you really care about the physics behind it? Or do you just want to cause the maximum possible destruction? )

I need help with my 6 inch tall permanently hasted fighter-monk (You need help, full stop. Haste is not good for the body. You'll wear yourself out, keeping that on all the time. )

Can you turn the tarrasque into a bunny and eat it (yes, but it still regenerates. Persistent eating of tarrasque bunny may be hazardous to your health, particularly if it escapes. And you know what rabbits are like for mating. If it got loose and started producing tarrasque blooded rabbits, the whole world would be doomed. )

What happens if I deliberately misread all the rules, and then try and break the universe based upon my misreading ( A pair of pissed off astral dragons kill you painfully. This is gonna get really really nasty. )

How does losing an arm affect your ability to use magic items ( Common sense, you are lacking it. Err on the side of generosity, you should. )

How many gnomes can a griffon carry ( Bwahahahahaha! Oh, that's a good one, :wipes away tear: Two or three seems about right. )

Where can you put a sphere of annihilation when not using it. (anywhere you want. Not many people will be able to steal it, and those that can will laugh at mere walls. )


Fiction: Murder most fowl by Deborah Millitello. Who killed the golden goose? A comical question, but when each of it's eggs is several pounds of gold, a vital one for the stability of the economy. It could be any one of dozens of suspects, from this country or others. Intrigue runs wild. Harsh measures must be used. And the result is a rather fun little romp through fairytale land, combining whimsical fantasy with murder mystery. The answer, of course is not who you'd expect, or why. As with last month, the comedy of errors air and twist at the end works pretty well. As long as Roger doesn't pick another similar one next month, I have no problem with this.


TSR Previews: Gamma world is back! 4th edition once again tries to clean up the rules, make it more fun and accessible. Just how well they succeed is a matter of opinion.

Curiously, Marvel superheroes occupies second place, putting all the D&D stuff at the bottom. Seems like the X-men are still their biggest draw, because this is another supplement focussed upon them. MHR1: X-forces, the mutant update. As if a generalised handbook covering all the changes to existing characters each year wasn't enough. Have they been going through some kind of crisis?

On the generic AD&D side, we have DMGR4: Monster Mythology. See the weird gods various creatures worship, and what spheres and priestly levels they can get for doing so. Yet another way they can be made more 3 dimensional and scary at the same time. Also being newly ecologised is MC14: fiend folio. The 1981, erm, classic gets the remainder of it's monsters converted, and a few new ones in it's spirit added on. Don't neglect the gonzo!

Ravenloft ventures into the mists, and finds RR4: Islands of terror. If you thought the Core was claustrophobic and weird, you ain't seen nothing yet. Ripper era london, seriously fucked up india, the inescapable sargasso sea, it's a crap shoot regardless of whether you stay or head back into the mists to try another one.

Dark sun, on the other hand, shows while it may be bleak, there are some people on top who are doing fairly nicely for themselves. Nice contrast really. DSR2: Dune trader deals with the frequently underhanded profiteering of the merchant groups. When things are scarce but essential, you can really put your haggling skills to work.

Spelljammer reaches volume 3 in the cloakmaster cycle. The metaplot actions of the modules reach here, putting our hero in danger from marauding goblinoids. We coulda got that if we'd just stayed on krynn.

Speaking of Krynn. The Oath and the Measure is part 4 of our meetings sextet. Sturm, Caramon and Raistlin have wacky adventures together or something. I'm betting Raistlin's pragmatism vs Sturm's idealism is a principle driver of the dialogue.

And for D&D, we have Assault on raven's ruin. You know, we get through the first few levels quicker than any of the following ones. Unless you're the kind of group which can't keep the same campaign going for more than a week or two, you'll never get any use out of all these introductory adventures.