Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996


part 7/8


Forum: Andrew Pearce supports eliminating both dual-classing and level limits. They do not improve the game at all. Slice off that cruft.

Jessica Beals is part of an all female group. See, they do exist. Not too surprisingly, rescuing babies is one of their more common plot points. Sometimes the cliches happen because they're true. ^~^

Andrea McCormick recommends a disciplined and cynical worldview. A pessimist is never dissappointed. But they can well be miserable. A little pleasure once in a while would be nice.

Anton J Uselmann gives his advice on incorporating new players. You have to treat them differently depending on if they're completely new, or have played in other campaigns before. In both cases, there are good and bad ways to handle it. Oversight of characters transferred from other campaigns is always a critical one.

Duston Batson addresses the contrasting problems of characters being too strong/weak to join a campaign. It definitely needs addressing, otherwise you're just setting yourself up for trouble. Make it easy on yourself, start them at about the same level as the others.

Nick Spear disapproves of trying to take the magic out of D&D. Most players would rebel! Yeah, there is that. Yet another reason why going to another system without so many built up expectations would be preferable.

Nathan Kirschenbaum gives support to the women seeking equality, and reminds even the male DM's to put plenty of well-rounded (no, not that way, you perv) female characters in their games. Equality is as important in game as out of game.

Tim Eccles defends the idea of castles as a defensive building in D&D, even in the face of magic. Would you rather they had no protection and just roamed the land like some common adventurers? Well, if it is the optimal way, people will wind up adopting it.

Gary Stahl is annoyed that certain NPC's in official supplements break the rules. Consistency and fairness is important to maintaining a world. The rules should work the same for everyone. Ahh yes, another 3e maxim gets an airing here. The designers are listening. :spooky music:


The knights of the dinner table have had one too many DM screwages to be merciful to strangers. The seven dwarves make another appearance in dragonmirth, and they are not happy. Swordplay still can't get the hang of this tactics thing. Floyd has much to complain about, as he discovers he'll have to change his career.


Role-playing reviews is in the mood for setting expansions this month. Geography may be an exhaustible subject, but it takes a good deal longer than splatbooks in all but the smallest settings, and is far less likely to be completed. After all, it's easier to expand the map than it is to think of new archetypes. Course, they may fall into stereotypes anyway, particularly if cribbing off real world countries, but that's just a danger we'll have to face.

The shire is of course for MERP. As one of the most detailed parts of the original stories, this is pretty easy work for the writers, and with lots of attention to detail and a ton of adventure hooks, it's been made into a great place for low level adventurers to start out. Sure, it's rural, but remember how closely there were animated trees and trolls haunting the outskirts. And hobbits do love to gossip. Even little things could become epic adventures by the time the rumour mill is through with them.

Angmar is of course completely different, and required more work to flesh out. It's a pretty miserable place, even after Sauron's fall, filled with brooding castles occupied by sinister figures. They don't seem very proactive though, which I suppose makes them good for treating as dungeon crawls. It might not be quite as good as the shire one, but not for lack of trying. Guess it's up to the PC's to shake things up and make a difference.

Rifts Japan draws on the obvious ideas, contrasting ancient mysticism and hypertechnology in the creatures, classes and equipment. It's pretty crunch heavy, as is standard for the game, yet is still sold as incomplete, with a second volume in the works already, coming who knows when given palladium's schedules. (still not out as of the writing of this commentary) Not that is isn't a fun read, with cybernetics, ninjas, drug enhanced crazy psionic people, huge guns, mechas, etc etc to fill your game with. Just don't expect game balance or huge amounts of setting detail.

Rifts South America 2, on the other hand, does fill in an already detailed part of the world further, and has some truly off-the-wall additions to the world, courtesy of CJ Carella. Not that there isn't plenty of insanely overpowered crunch, but the setting it's welded too is farther away from the reality and myth of the area. Whether that's a good or bad thing is largely a matter of opinion, but I do note that Carella's contributions to Rifts seem to be some of the most remembered ones. He must be doing something right.

Beyond the wall: Pictland & the north is for Pendragon. It's pretty heavily locked into the pendragon rules and setting assumptions, but like virtually everything else for the line, is of excellent quality, showing you what happens when your knights venture into the highlands and making the picts available as PC's. You should be able to get quite a few years of adventures out of this.

GURPS Greece, on the other hand, uses the dry and modular presentation common to the line, leaving you to decide what to use, and how to build the adventures yourself. And as usual, Rick is respectful, but not too enthused about this. It's tough being the guy in the middle.

Also of note are Rick's assessment of the 7 domainbooks so far for birthright, and his high praise of Planes of Conflict. (a far more dramatic title than planes of neutrality) Both take us well away from D&D's core playstyle and make it work. Support variety in your game worlds!

Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Birthright unleashes another 4-pack of stuff into the world. Helskapa and Baruk-Azhik get domain sourcebooks, for those players who'd rather rule a more exotic landscape. Viking land and a dwarf mountain. Not too unusual, but popular secondary choices. The Rjurrik Highlands get their own full sourcebook, putting you up against marauding goblinoids if you want to keep your domain. And on the novel side, we have The Hag's Contract, by John Bettancourt. This gameworld is actually turning out pretty traditional compared to recent worlds they've tried. Can they put a different enough spin on their core values and tropes to justify this kind of continued support.

The forgotten realms almost keeps up with another triple bill. We return to Undermountain for a third time, as they discover some lost levels. With beholders in? I think they can stay lost then. Is this particular cash cow dry yet? We could always head to the Vilhon Reach then. That's still fairly adventurer free for the moment, so if we get there quick we can beat the crowd and grab the good loot. Elaine Cunningham is also churning out books at scary speed, with the 13th harper book, Silver shadows. Which cliche to use today. :rolls: 62. Rash actions endanger everyone the protagonist loves? Ok then.

Dragonlance gets a double bill of novels. Murder in Tarsis by John Maddox Roberts and The Gully Dwarves by Dan Parkinson. Serious conspiracy and comical blundering. There's more than enough room for both here.

Our generic AD&D book this time is another Players Option one. Spells and Magic not only gives you new spells, it lets you customise exactly how magic works in your game. As usual, DM oversight and approval of options is essential.

Our collectable games are busy too. Dragon Dice gets it's third supplement, full of undead monstrosities to add to your army. Blood wars gets part two of it's novel trilogy. Abyssal Warriors. Family is pitted against family in the endless war. Just another evil the fiends manage to accomplish even as they attack each other.


The current Clack: White Wolf once again proves they're number 2 with their new TV series. Not that it'll last long, with a run even shorter than the D&D cartoon, but hey, just getting there is an achievement in itself. Meanwhile, HERO games has a new publisher, as do WotC's ARS Magica and Everway. It is a shame that White wolf didn't buy ARS Magica back again, resulting in erased from continuity weirdness in the game's setting. But then again, maybe it's for the best, as keeping up with the developments in the WoD might have diluted the theme. As is often the case, it's so hard to know for certain. Any idea why they sold the game in the first place?


This is one of those issues that's very much of two halves. The themed section is actually pretty damn good, providing funny, well focussed and easy to use bits of advice and new crunch. The second half once again falls into serious grindiness and lots of rehash. Still, that is better than a lot of recent issues. And having a direction that is often repetitive is still better than the drifting lack of direction of the last year. I can't be too harsh on this one.

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. So here we are at the 20th anniversary. A fact they're keeping very quiet about actually. It's not on the cover, it's not mentioned in the letters page, it's not in the editorial. Considering up till 2 years ago, they loudly proclaimed it on the cover every year, this is very odd. This says one of two things. Either they're becoming uncomfortable with their age, and would rather people not know exactly how old they are anymore, or the budget cuts have reached the point where they can't even spring for a simple ribbon on the cover. Neither are particularly flattering conclusions. What this bodes for the contents remains to be seen, but doesn't seem particularly positive. I hope the writers have something good anyway. After all, the best presents aren't necessarily the most expensive ones.


In this issue:


The wyrm's turn: Man, things really must be going downhill for them. This is the point where their professional exterior starts to crack. They're practically begging us to stick around. What do we have to do? We can change. Please! Just write in and say. Poor magazine staff. Incidentally, I note that the editor has left, and the assistant editor has been promoted to take his place. Did he see the writing on the wall and decide to jump ship, or was he pushed by upper management, annoyed that their big recruit from out of state couldn't turn the sales decline around? Either way, things look pretty miserable for them, and it's not helped by their distributor giving them trouble. Ah yes, I seem to remember that was what tipped them over, all the overprinted stock that they then demanded returns upon, messing up the ready cash flow that keeps an active company solvent despite having huge debts lurking in the background gradually mounting up and up. Guess it can't be long before things come to a head. Let's hope it happens with a bang.


D-Mail: John Major's a gamer?! Well, I suppose the conservative government was in a pretty similar position to TSR at this time, so he could probably empathise with them But seriously, this is another bit of mostly positive commentary on the magazine's changes. He's another old skool gamer who's pleased by their attempt to go back to basics. People might be resistant to change, but some changes are more likely to be accepted than others.

Another letter of praise, and a request if there's anywhere that sells a solid gold d20. You know how heavy gold is, right? Even a small one would be capable of hurting quite a bit when thrown. Plus that would be better used in electronics these days. No thanks.

A letter asking about birthright, and another letter asking about Dragonlance, and what those worlds are up to in the near future. They are indeed going to be busy busy busy, both here and in terms of actual products. Stay tuned!

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 2/8


The orbs of dragonkind: Roger Moore once again tries to give us something significant and impressive for our birthday. A collection of magical items with a well defined history and theme? We've had quite a few of these before. But this is unusual in both it's level of detail, and how specific the adventure hooks it gives are. It's fairly firmly set in Greyhawk, and while you could move the items, it would be quite tricky to translate all the plot details to another setting. It ties in quite closely to existing modules, and having them would help you understand and run this article quite a bit. It's all pretty distinctive. So yeah, 8 dragon-controlling orbs of escalating power and danger levels. All are sentient, and like intelligent weapons, will try and take control of their user. And even if that is resisted, they have curses which will make their owner's lives a misery and eventually be their downfall. (presuming they don't get killed by other fools seeking the orbs first) This does indeed seem like the kind of article that could drive a whole campaign, as various people seek awesome power, and cause considerable amounts of unpleasantness in the process. You've got to love that kind of adventure design, as it's essentially self-perpetuating until someone has the wisdom to drop the items into a volcano and get rid of them for good.  

Beyond the actual items, there's some rather interesting stuff here. We've always known Roger was fairly up to date with the web, having published stuff on it way back in 1987. Now we see he's corresponding with the guys on the Greyhawk board, and even getting help from them in keeping track of obscure bits of setting detail. The internet knows all, especially when there's helpful people like Iquander on it. So this is another article from him that's not only cool, but also quite historically significant. Very pleased to see he can still pull spectaculars like this off.


Dragonslayers: New kits focussed around kicking the butt of dragons? It's about time. Lets see, we had one in council of wyrms, one in the complete paladins handbook, and one in issue 205. That's not a huge collection. I think there's room for a few more, don't you.

Dragonslayers are the straight attackers. Double damage, breath weapon resistance, and the ability to call out dragons so they don't just fly away or deathtrap you from a distance. Their benefits aren't as versatile or well developed as the council of wyrms one, and they don't play well with others. I think this is a case where the previous implementation was better done.  

Black Arrows are obviously based upon the hobbit, and get to make extra damaging called shots upon dragons just as in that story. Course even with this bonus, they won't be inflicting 1 hit KO's very often, but that's D&D for you. In return though, they have a -1 to all melee attack rolls, which is a small number, but such a broad penalty compared to the very narrow application of their bonus that it will probably actually make them a net negative, especially if you wind up going the campaign without encountering dragons anyway.

Georgians are based on St George, mounted paladins able to call out dragons, and not only resist their attacks, but also impart the same protection on their mounts. They do lose quite a bit of general utility power, but since they can proactively seek out their foes easily, they're less vulnerable to DM screwage making their benefits pointless.

Dragon Lords turn smooth talking back on the wyrms. As long as they don't screw them over, they can wind up with a draconic cohort, and you know how handy something like that is. As usual, the wizards have far greater options than the warriors, and can make a problem into an opportunity instead of just applying violence to stop it. As the best of this lot, I can't see dragons being in any danger of extinction with challengers like this.


Dragons of legend: If feeling a bit lost, go back to your roots. They've been saying basically that for the past year, and here they encourage us to do likewise with our portrayals of Dragons. Question is, which set of source material will you choose? One of the many ancient myths from around the world? Victorian whymsy? Tolkien's silver-tongued engines of destruction? One of the many many modern novels featuring dragons of one kind or another. The choice is yours. I recognise most of the sources too, as even the ones I haven't read have been mentioned (and in many cases reviewed as well) in the magazine. So this is actually moderately nostalgic, making me think of stuff I haven't in quite a while. And while I do complain about basic advice, sometimes a look back at exactly what your original intentions were can be invaluable. So I quite like this one.

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 3/8


Fire in the five Peaks: Just as with last year, we have a piece on one of the ancient, singular dragons of Cerilia. Zakhur Lifesbane is one of those dragons that sticks to his home, and metes out a horrible death upon any who dare to intrude. This would be pretty boring, so there has to be something he's guarding to make it worth adventurers bothering. Enormous treasure? Nope. One of those artifacts that theoretically gives you massive power, but in practice just winds up being a huge pain in the butt, taking you over and killing you before too long. Now that's the kind of adventure hook I'd steer well clear from. While the writing here is pretty good, this doesn't look nearly as usable in game as last year's equivalent. It's only really good for a single adventure wheras Tarazin's plans could be woven throughout an entire campaign. Plus there is a bit of diminishing returns involved. Overall, I don't think this is that great.


Wyrms of the north: Ahh. Oh. This series. This officially marks the point in my mind that the Forgotten Realms jumped the shark and went from a brilliantly detailed world that was great fun to read about, to ridiculously overloaded with detail on every aspect of every region. A series entirely devoted to dragons of a single area of the realms? Um, yeah. That definitely felt to me at the time like we'd reached the point where they no longer had valid stuff to add to the world, and were just making up crap to sell to us because they wanted more money, rather than out of any genuine inspiration. It also marks the point where Volo started making regular appearances in the magazine. You already know my opinion on HIM. :spits: As much as I loved Ed Greenwood's work in general, my reaction to this can essentially be summed up as WTF IS THIS BULLSHIT?!?!?!!! :throws the magazine down in disgust:

And that's where I stand on this. While technically it may be better written than the last article, this really does hit the point for me where the Realms are too tied down and codified, and there's not enough room for you to stretch your improvising muscles without hitting your head on some silly little bit of canon. Let me out! The fact that it heavily references other dragons (that turn out to be later entries in this series that we won't see for another few years) further makes me feel hemmed in. Essentially, this whole article made me feel creatively claustrophobic and want to get the hell out of the Realms, and unlike the Skills & Powers stuff, time has not diminished that reaction. I'm remembering exactly why I stopped buying the magazine first time around.


Arcane lore: Yet more draconic treasure here, to make your enemies well equipped and magically versatile. They remain supreme as the monster most likely to have some customised gear to throw a wrench in your plans. Curiously, this focusses on magical items as well as spells. Still, that keeps the variety up. They continue to come up with interesting new ideas here, 20 years in.

Amulets of Supremacy are basically a free maximise spell for the dragon wearing them. Very scary indeed really, especially as they're exclusive. Whether half dragon PC's could use them is up to your DM.

Dragon Fangs make your bit even more badass with their metal edges. Don't want to encounter these false teeth wound up and chattering towards you

Focus Objects let you turn your breath weapon into a single target attack, thus avoiding collateral damage. Not always going to be handy, since it is technically a reduction in power, but not useless either.

Hoardstones make everything in your hoard look more valuable. It's like the fat girl angle and photoshop for insecure dragons. They'll never live it down if you tell their rivals.

Wing Armor has obvious use. Going for the vulnerables can leave the enemy grounded for months, and many dragons are smart enough to realise this. This is adaptable to nearly any flying creature too.

It's not all off-topic, with some more draconic spells following. More notable though is a little index of previous dragon-only spells from the magazine, and a couple of supplements. Gotta collect 'em all if you want really badass antagonists!

Hoard Servant is like unseen servant, only stronger, and mentally suited to the cleaning and cataloguing of shiny things. Not hugely thrilling or dragon exclusive.

Scale Shift lets you change color to fake out any hunters. Use it regularly while going out, and the townsfolk'll think there's dozens of dragons around and be really scared. Muahahahaha.

Dragonbane helps a dragon figure out if they're screwed, by detecting spells and items targeted against dragonkind. Then they can concentrate against them, or run away as appropriate.

Scalespray lets you clean off all the crap you've got encrusted on in a single explosive burst. If your enemies have you surrounded and breath weapons aren't going to cut it, it's time to break this one out.

Clutch Ward lets you enchant your eggs to teleport away if tampered with. Sounds pretty reasonable, given the lengths people'll go to to protect their kids. But what do you do with that slot once they're all grown up, and you're too old to make more?

Alter Breath Weapon is another energy type alterer. This is particularly useful for dragons, of course, especially if they expect to fight another one of their own type. You prepare for a whomph and get a zzzzap instead. Never trust anything with the power to pick it's own spells to be predictable.

Death Matrix lets a dragon go all balor when killed, hopefully taking their attackers down with them, and ensuring you don't get profit from their corpse in any case. It's hard to get hold of, but even harder to get rid of, so it's a good plot device both ways.

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 4/8


The role of books: The fantasy role-playing gamers bible by Sean Patrick Fanon delves into gaming history. Like the real bible, it's particularly interesting for the stuff on the creation of the hobby, but then gets more selective and incomplete as history goes on. Still, it's highly readable and doesn't take itself too seriously. You could lose yourself for a good few hours flipping back and forth getting a better picture of the history of gaming.

Remnant population by Elizabeth Moon puts a single woman in an alien culture, trying to figure them out and survive without being well equipped for the job. It does a good job of showing, not telling, and while the underlying message is pretty clear, it isn't rammed down our throats. That's the advantage of conveying personal experiences instead of empty words from books, which is a very ironic message to have in the novel format.

Eye of the Daemon by Camile Bacon-Smith has an interesting cosmology, but the plotting is a mess, going from one character to another in a mess of convoluted machinations that only becomes vaguely explained at the end. John thinks her talents may be better served in the RPG writing department.

Vision Quests, edited by Dawn Albright & Sandra J Hutchinson, is a fantasy anthology focussing on just that. There's relatively few stories, and 2 of them have been previously published in other sources. Not that the stuff we're given is bad, and the smaller size means it doesn't have room to get repetitive. But you may find yourself still hungry at the end of it.

Ladylord by Sasha Miller is a tale of overcoming sexism in a somewhat oriental flavoured fantasy world. With obstacles of both intrigue and action, there's plenty to keep her busy, and with generally good writing, it's another positive review rounding this out.


Network News: This month's RPGA article is another promotion of Polyhedron. There really is quite a lot of cool stuff in it, honest! Well, given the insane rate Ed Greenwood writes and submits articles that's not surprising. They also make the point that they still cover non D&D games as well, which I find very interesting given  Dragon has cut that out this year. Unlike the previous times I've come across this topic, I have finally managed to get my hands on some Polyhedron issues, and though my collection is nowhere near complete, it does please me that even after I complete this thread, there'll be several thousand pages more similar stuff still to surf through once I recover my appetite. But still, more than 10 years to go before I have to worry about that. I should put it out of mind for now, not get too distracted.


Tales of the fifth age: Mirta's Boo (yuck, that is a horrible font) God by Mark Anthony. Here we confront a big part of why they had to make a new system for the 5th age. No gods? AD&D just can't handle that mechanically. Athas got rid of the gods, but kept the clerics. Krynn is trying to go all the way, with no divine magic at all. (which they'll fail at too, with the discovery of mysticism bringing it back pretty soon. What can you do. :c ) Ironically, this allows them to tackle questions of genuine faith in a way you can't when the gods are definitely there and communicating with their priests regularly. So it proves here, in the first bit of fiction this year that's actually pretty good. A dragon pretending to be a god and duping people into feeding it. Score! A doubting thomas who gets eaten? An unlikely deus ex machina ending. A sappy life lesson that its what's in the heart that matters, not the figureheads you worship. Actually, in hindsight, this is pretty cliched and cheesy. But it was well written and characterised enough that I didn't notice on the way through. Well, that's a good deal more pleasant than intros that go nowhere or the irritating kender double bill. I'll say 6/10.

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 5/8


Rogues Gallery: A bunch of Birthright characters this month, from their official authors. I strongly suspect they're part of her latest novel. Hey ho. That'll give me a chance to learn a little about the story without actually reading it.

Jerryl is a noble bard who doesn't actually rule a domain, although she has no shortage of romantic offers from eligible princelings. Instead, she's having plenty of fun making music, wandering the land and having adventures, some of which make for good stories, and others that remain mysterious, leaving people to speculate about her. That's the spirit. Leave them wanting more, so your fame has room to grow.

Keldric the seer, by contrast, is a diviner who's rather weighed down by the inevitability of what he sees, and the tendency of people to shoot the messenger. This means he's taciturn, grumpy, and only consulted when people really need him. Not a very pleasant life, really.

Maija Larsdotter is a young noblewoman who has accepted that her destiny is rulership, after a fairly long period of rebellion and adventuring. She might not be entirely happy with it, but now she's got the job, she takes it seriously, and is trying to make sure her people prosper. Seems like the kind of person your PC's would benefit from making an ally, not an enemy of.

Ulfig Bjornsson is a study in bear metaphors. Course, as a druid, that's quite understandable, and makes for a more ferocious take on close to nature than many froofy balance seekers. Don't get on his bad side, for I don't fancy your odds, and he may do something he regrets later.


Witchcraft! CJ Carella strikes out on his own.


Dragon Dice: Promotion for this game is back after a good few months off. Well, since Lester Smith left, they'd have to pick out new creative directors for the line and get them up to speed. But they haven't been skimping on the supplements. This is one of those somewhat irritating promotional articles outlining their newest supplement, what it does, why you would want to buy it, blah blah blah. Undead! Really hard to put down for good, able to do things like become invisible, convert enemies into more undead, or scare them away from the battlefield. They are relatively slow though, and don't have any particular ties to a terrain type. An interesting tradeoff. Just as with D&D, they seem designed to lurk in a place and be a right pain to anyone that comes to them, but not so great at taking the fight to others. In a many-players game, they could wind up being ignored for some time. (which would be a fatal mistake if it gave them time to build up their forces. ) I actually don't mind this, given how little non D&D stuff they've been doing recently, seeing more on a game I don't really know does give me something fresh to analyse. But really, I wish they were covering other RPG's again.

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 6/8


Forum: Jamie Nossal has some interesting analysis of rogue's combat progression and how it has changed from one edition to the next. Clerics & fighters used to have a hit bonus compared to the others right from the start. Restoring this'll smooth out the mathematical hinkiness where sometimes rogues are better than clerics and other times worse.

Andy Farrell reminds us that roleplaying promotes reading by making it fun. Plus it promotes co-operation. This is a crack to get it into the education system, and thus hook 'em young.

Jeff Crowell picks apart some of the rules in more obscure sourcebooks. Time travel once again becomes an almighty headache for a DM, as there's no way they can predict their players actions for sure and have reactions happen before the action.

Peter Heyck thinks that High and Grey elves are the wrong way round in terms of personality traits. Huh. He does have a point, but it's the kind of silly little thing I wouldn't consider it worth worrying about.

Tim Nutting tries to stem the tide of Players Option complaints by reminding them it's optional. That ain't going to work. As long as DM's have to deal with pressure from begging players. they'll pass the pain onto us. Might as well try to stop the tide.


Sage advice: How does contact other plane's intelligence contacted table work ( Depends how far you are in alignment from the plane you're contacted is. Hostile planes tend to be less informative.)

Do you have to meet the racial limits before or after applying racial modifiers (before, except where sloppy supplements say otherwise. Here we go again)

What happens if you put an ectoplasmic thing in someone, and then resolidify it ( The thing gets destroyed, not the already solid thing. It's called shotgun on that space, and you can't change that. )

How fast is feign death cast (as quick as it says. It has to be to have a chance of fooling people)

If you cast a spell, then move planes, how is it affected (it's usually fine, unless something seriously sadistic changes that.)

How many volumes will the wizards spell compendium have (We don't know until we've finished cataloging them. That's what 22 years of accretion gets you.)

Where are the spells listed in page 123 of the complete druids handbook (Unearthed Arcana. It's no wonder you don't remember them. They're 1st edition spells)

How likely is a high plus sword of sharpness to sever limbs (Scarily good. Don't mess with one.)

How do you handle turning undead (Recycled question. It's a full round action. )

Do gauntlets of ogre power affect your ability to open doors (sure. Ogres are gooood at opening doors. That's why Skip employs one when going out sagin. Never know when you'll need to open a door in the pursuit of info. )

Can priests who learn wizard spells cast them in armour (yes. They count as cleric spells for all purposes)

Can spellstrike remove anti-magic shells ( If it was cast last round)

Did you really advocate changing the rules mid game to stop player innovation in issue 228?! (No. How dare you Impugn Skip's integrity like that! You, outside, now! Let's settle this like men!)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Hnah. What do you say to that? ( Yes, but the difference is that you can figure out the causes and means behind technology. You can't do that to magic. No matter how you slice it, it will still make no bloody sense at all.)

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 7/8


Dragonmirth takes the old knight-eating joke to a new level. Swordplay have to take on a rather tricky task. Knights of the dinner table mocks Boot Hill. It's been quite a while since we saw that mentioned. Floyd runs into a bad cockney accent. The person it's attached too isn't very nice either.


Role-playing reviews goes sci-fi again. It's not dead, honest, just ..... resting. Premillenial tension and all that, we're wondering if there's actually much future left.   Turns out, there is, and it's pretty damn cyberpunk. But space travel is playing far less of a part than we'd like. Oh well, it's not as if what's happening isn't interesting. And it's not as if people aren't releasing new sci-fi games. It's just that they have more genres to compete with these days.

The darkstryder campaign is a rather interesting expansion for the Star Wars RPG. A combination of setting and adventure, it takes you to a troubled, relatively obscure sector where the writers have greater freedom to develop things, and turns the grit rating right up. Sounds AWESOME!!!!!!! [/90's kid] Actually, it's pretty good, if rather incomplete. Having come up with a way to keep their licence going, they'd like to milk it for a while.

Don't look back second edition isn't hugely changed from 1st (reviewed in issue 220) in mechanics. However Rick seems to pick up on the tone quite differently to Lester. Either it's changed in writing style quite a bit between the two, or he's just more attuned to the humorous side of modern conspiracy weirdness. It's not that hard to learn, but there's still more math than rules-lite Rick would prefer. Let's just get to the action.

Giant psychic insects from outer space is an adventure for Don't Look Back. An invasion of giant mantises is a launchpoint for some good retro sci-fi cheeseball fun, with enough sideways cultural references for a media studies degree. If you're not the deadly serious gaming as art type, he can recommend it a lot.

Star Wars Customisable Card Game looks good, but Rick finds it rather clunky in actual play, and not really very good to play with just the starting deck. Sounds like a few expansions are needed to round out the card selection, and possibly a new edition. Trouble is, you have to compete with Magic as it is now, not as it was when it first came out. That is a fairly stiff challenge,

Alternate Universe is an expansion for the star trek CCG, introducing characters from the mirror universe, and the other weird dimensions and times that have appeared over the course of the series. There is a bit of silliness, but that's to be expected, and the artwork is pretty good. Overall, it's quite a good add-on for the game.

Dragon Magazine Issue 230: June 1996


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Volo shows up again to give us a second perspective on the Forgotten Realms, with the Dalelands the area he's rehashing for us. Meanwhile, south in Cormyr, King Azoun's death is continuing to have big repercussions. Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb team up to handle this rather large metaplot event.

Dark Sun sorts out a few issues with it's magic system, in Defilers and Preservers. The awkward retcon of when defilers defile is sorted out to my satisfaction, and there's lots of the usual splatbooky goodness, along with a bit of rehash from Dragon Kings. Gotta keep this stuff in print.

Planescape releases something that's very much in theme with recent stuff. Hellbound: The blood war. See the Yugoloth's finest hour. See the writers attempt to fix the dreadful problem entire hordes of enemies with at will teleportation cause. See a rather pretty comic which will also come to the magazine shortly. Once again they pull out the spectacular even as the company falls apart.

Ravenloft starts another big metaplot event. Fresh from killing Van Richten, now they're going to kill everyone in the biggest city in the entire demiplane. Death Unchained kicks off the module trilogy. Are you ready for the reaper to make his grim harvest?

Dragonlance finishes off it's solamnic knights series, with Knights of the Rose, sensibly enough. Once again the order is becoming corrupt, and our protagonist has to make choices between the order and true honour.

We start a series of stuff on beholders, interestingly. I, Tyrant may be a terrible pun, but it's a cool book. The beholder ecology over a decade ago wasn't that impressive, but this goes the distance. They supplement this with a trilogy of adventures. The first is Eye of Pain. Muahaha.

Larry Elmore takes a break from art and ropes in his brother Robert to write a novel as well. Runes of Autumn. Any opinions on this one. We know he can write, because he did snarfquest for years. How good is this?

And last but also first, Spellfire releases it's 4th edition. Already? It's been what, a year and a half. They've really been going at a breakneck speed with this one as well.


The current Clack: Barbara Young is leaving Dragon. And this is put near the end of the article and not even given it's own header. Well, it's a perfect time for a mid-life crisis given what the company is going through, and that her job has been dramatically altered by the year's themed fiction. What has been happening to all the freelance fiction people sent in over the past 6 months? Are they keeping the good stuff back for later, or is it all going in the bin? And what is seeing nothing but in house stuff published doing for the rate of submissions? As with the departure of other long-timers, this feels like a bad omen for the future of the fiction department. Whoever replaces her will have some pretty big shoes to fill.

The rest of the column is mostly concerned with licences. A new forgotten realms computer game, also incorporating elements from Dragon Dice. A Babylon 5 RPG. GURPS Discworld. But no M:tG RPG. Oh well. The fact that we don't always get what we want doesn't mean we don't get way more than we need if we try sometimes.


Having been showing some signs of improvement in content recently, this issue has some of the clearest signs yet that things are going to crap for them behind the scenes, and staff are unhappy and jumping ship. What doesn't kill you may in theory make you stronger, but, um, yeah, so much for that saying. Whether their content will improve despite the pressures on them I'm not sure, but even compared to last year, this is a slight downward slide overall. And since the ones just after people left are often the most problematic, I doubt they'll be getting better next month. I'll have to keep looking ahead to the further future for hope then.

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 1/8


124 pages. And so we reach the last issue that I actually bought at the time. While I certainly didn't suspect what would happen next, I was distinctly disenchanted with the recent changes in the magazine and products, plus they were getting harder to find in shops, so I bought them less and less. Around this time, I lost interest, and converted to White Wolf. D&D pretty much dropped off my radar until well after 3rd edition came out. So once again, after this point, I'll be pretty much discovering the month-by month events as they come. You can look forward to much snark. Let's dig this one out of physical storage for the novelty and get ready to rumble.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: So you just got namechecked by the X-files. If anything says that ordinary people have at least heard of you, it's something like this. And really, gaming is losing it's stigma as the people who play it grow up and become (mostly) fairly normal adults. So much for the satanic panic, and the hipsters. It's just another  form of recreation. In contrast with last month's very gloomy editorial, this shows them fairly confident that gaming will survive, and with it D&D. After all, the company couldn't possibly collapse when it's still the biggest roleplaying game there is. That'd mean all the other companies are unviable as well. This also indirectly points out one of the big problems the game is having. There's now so many supplements that the degree of shared experience players have is rather lower. So this shows them pretty confident that the company will pull through these tough times. Oh, how wrong they are. :devil:


D-Mail: A rather interesting letter from someone who noticed a card game being played in one of their novels, and would like to see rules for it. Oh, you obsessives. Is there no part of the setting you will not explore? Just make it up yourself. Please?

A letter of praise for this year's april fools stuff. Much funnier than last year's! Yes, I suppose it was, on reflection. It was certainly better distributed.

A letter saying they need to aim more articles at players, as they make up more of the userbase. True, but that's a tricky one to get right, because the DM just needs so much more stuff to do the game justice. You can't have nothing but new spells and magic items in an issue.

A whole bunch of questions on the spell and magic item compendia. Yeah, they'll get them out eventually. Don't think it's easy for us. Poor poor slade. He works so hard and sacrifices so much for you people. Show him some love.

A joygasm from someone who really likes the idea of a computer character generator and rules compendium. Steady up mate. They're not putting every supplement in it. That'd be too much even for slade and zeb combined. Still, we hope it doesn't disappoint too much.

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 2/8


The master thief: Hmm. Thieves were always one of the weaker classes, although they do balance that out somewhat with lower xp costs to advance. But given the rate spellcasters have got new stuff, and even warriors have stocked up on the kickass magical weapons and armor, they're the ones that have gained the least from the ever piling splatbooks of recent years. This is a problem. Also an issue is the way their powers max out at a relatively low level. How do you keep a 20+ level thief interesting? Unless you invent new rogue skills, you can't really. Hmm. No, they wouldn't. Actually, they would! After all, they already did in Dark Sun. And it opened up issues there. This is one of the articles that made this issue my last. Along with the recent Players Option material, it felt to me like they were making changes that weren't needed, and which would cause trouble if integrated. In hindsight, my opinion is a little different. This becomes more an indicator that having thief skills and nonweapon proficiencies artificially separated, and every rogue having the same skills was the main problem that needed to be addressed. You can't fix an inherent system problem by piling ever more patches onto it, especially when things worked better kept simple. So this is also a reminder that early AD&D may have worked at what it's aimed for, and 3e core may have worked, but pile on the supplements, and things go to crap eventually. It's a real pain in the ass.


The thief who came in from the cold: The thief as disruption to the party is something they've tried to tackle from several angles before. Most notable from a mechanical PoV was the Scout, which kept most of the regular abilities, but by casting them as a member of an organisation using those skills for quite different ends. Here we have an approach which isn't quite as interesting mechanically, but comes pretty close flavourwise. Use a thief to catch a thief. Make the PC's members of a government counterintelligence organisation that trains rogues for the purpose of sniffing out troublemakers, infiltrating their organisations and surreptitiously obtaining all the evidence they need to put these scumbags away for good. It might well be more effective than having big stompy guys trying to stop crime, and it'll make for tons of easy adventures. With another extra thief skill, this did add to my trepidation about spreading your points too thin at the time, but now seems a pretty cool article. It both solves problems and presents new opportunities, which is a nice double whammy.


The spying game: We continue the whole spying theme by letting in other classes on the action. After all, anyone can pass on information, and if you're to be a convincing agent, it's often best to get someone who genuinely knows the job, and leave them in deep cover for years. That or hire a diviner, who can frequently short-circuit the whole information gathering process by scrying and mind-reading their way through the whole problem. Course, every trick has a countermeasure. Diviners can be foiled by abjurers and illusionists, spies can be captured and bribed or brainwashed into becoming double-agents, and spying organisations can be subverted themselves and torn apart from the inside with false info and spurious diversion missions. This is a reasonably entertaining and informative article, that makes it relatively easy for the whole party to get in on the action. Just as with assassins, one class not getting all the action in an area is a good thing about 2e.

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 3/8


Why spy: As usual, as the themed section draws to an end, the quality starts to drop. It's very much more of the same, only this time from the perspective that PC's might hire a spy to get information for them. You don't want to do that! The whole point of being a PC is that you're the one getting hired to do stuff, going out, risking your neck, and generally getting into trouble. To top it off, we have another case of proficiency bloat, including one that was presented as a new thief skill a couple of articles ago. That's another of those things that made me realise the thief ability and proficiency systems were rather awkward in their current implementation, and something needed to be done to overhaul and better integrate them. So while this has some fun advice, it's another one that's primarily notable for increasing my dissatisfaction with the system as is, especially when there's lots of supplements bolted on. Despite everything, I still believed in the idea of "one system to rule them all." on some level. Seeing two articles in the same magazine that were impossible to use together once again adds to my frustration.


Wyrms of the north: And here we reach the straw that really made me not interested in carrying on with buying the magazine, back in the day. The realisation that every dragon in here would probably have their own unique self-developed spells was what pushed my suspension of belief in the Realms' fabric a little too far.  That combined with the number of references within to other books and articles killed my desire to collect further for quite some time, for I realised there was no way I could keep up with it all on pocket money. IT'S JUST TOO MUCH! And so I wanted to get off. It is rather interesting just how much my endurance has increased since then. But I can still remember pretty clearly how I felt, and it is taking a conscious effort to carry on past this point. Funny how it all comes back to you, even if you haven't thought about it for years.  


Defilers and preservers: Tie-in article time. Dark Sun is getting a book expanding on the unique quirks of their wizards, and here's some more kits exploiting the conceits of the world and it's cosmology. Harsh environments produce strange creatures to exploit any source of energy they can find. Thankfully, this isn't cut or recycled material from the book though, and is still useful without it, which definitely puts it well above most promotional articles from the start. As to whether they're good mechanically and thematically though, that still needs further examination.

Grey Chasseurs hunt undead and blur the distinction between wizards & clerics. They do get a lot of benefits from this, but like clerics, have to work to keep those godly relationships going. Unlike dragon hunters, undead are ubiquitous enough at various levels that you won't have a problem encountering them if you're actively looking, so I don't have a problem with this. Even with their advantages, they're still heading for an early grave by definition.

Obscures use an adjective to describe themselves when they probably ought to use a noun, which looks silly. That said, they are pretty interesting. They get around the normal athasian plant-killing problems by drawing energy from the neighbouring plane of darkness instead. This could very easily kill the central; drama of the setting, but they continue to show how scarce and hard to access magical energy is on athas by other means. They get unpredictable amounts, could fail altogether and take damage, and being transformed into shadow makes their social issues even greater than normal wizards. It's not an easy alternative by a long shot.

Pales continue the dumb naming conventions. And they function in a pretty similar manner too, drawing energy from the plane of the dead, which is similarly subject to failure and inflicting damage upon the user, and becoming rather undead-like themselves. Once again though, they do get quite reasonable benefits. Better stack up on those appearance altering spells to mitigate the social penalties.

Protectors are elf fighter-mages who try to keep their tribe safe at all costs. This may be a pain for adventurers, as they are constantly on call by the tribe's shamans. Once again though, I think the benefits well outweigh the penalties. Bonus blasty spells are worth a lot of hassle when it comes down to the bottom line.

Relic Seekers are rather interesting because the consciously go against the original conception of athas, a place where people just don't have the time or resources to waste on luxuries like archaeology. I guess they have jungles and a proper sea now. Dilution of theme, blah blah blah. Happens to any long-running setting. That said, the idea isn't bad, and is mechanically pretty cool. Just transfer to another setting.

Slayers are wizard assassins. This is another one that seems better suited to another setting where wizards can at least advertise enough to get clients. As it is, they're stuck working for a singular powerful and nasty patron who'll be able to cause them serious grief if they screw up or try to leave employment. Dunno why wizards don't bugger off to another plane when they get the spells. So overall, I'm ambivalent about this collection. Some of it's cool, but others feel shoehorned into the setting. Once again, we may be adding a bit too much onto what was originally a really cool focussed world.

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 4/8


The role of books: Guardian's key by Anne Logston gets lots of praise for both being high quality, and defying easy categorisation. The elements from various subgenres are incorporated expertly, but the primary goal remains to entertain, which is as it should be. As we've said many times, that needs to be the primary goal of any artform if you want to be commercially succesful.

The two georges by Richard Dreyfuss & Harry Turtledove funnily enough, doesn't play to the stereotypes either of the writers as established in their solo work. It's fast paced, has interesting, if not fully fleshed out worldbuilding, and is generally quite pulpy. John's main complaint is that it doesn't delve into the whys and wherefores of how the world got to be different from reality. Given answers generally lead to more questions, this may be hard, but there you go.

The dig by Alan Dean Foster is a novelisation of a computer game. This gets a moderately problematic result simply because reading it will spoil you on the game, or vice versa, so there's really not much point having both. As with most gaming fiction, it's probably better not to bother. It's not bad, just rather derivative.

War in Tethyr by Victor Milan is of course for the Forgotten Realms. Starring the kind of noble who got the title by kicking butt all the way to name level, it feels like it needs a prequel filling out our star's earlier adventures. But that's a request, not a complaint, as it does make for fun reading, providing a great example of how to set up plot twists so they come as a surprise yet make sense upon rereading. Given how many times we've had complaints about last act deus ex machina, that seems worth reading for aspiring writers.

The gates of twilight by Paula Volsky gets a mildly negative review for concentrating too much on side plots and worldbuilding over advancing the main story. It's not that there isn't stuff to enjoy, but it would be better placed in appendices or given a good pruning by an editor so the story can shine. Perhaps writing should be presented as more of a collaborative artform in the first place.


The electronic wizard: Oh man. Here we have a crux of my annoyance with this issue. You offer us cool bonus stuff, I don't get it, and then we have a fairly long promotional article on it to rub it in. And to top things off, it's not even as well written as the teaser in issue 226. This sent me into more than a little of a sulk back in the day. Ok, so it's probably the distributor or newsagent's fault, not TSR's, but that's not the point. The point is that it's a cocktease. I've never had much patience for that kind of experience, and if anything, my tolerance has only decreased as time has gone by. I'd much rather walk away than try jumping through someone else's hoops for some potential reward they could wind up withholding on a whim anyway because you're putting all the power in their hands. No. Just no. Screw you, and the distributor you rode in on. Buh-bye.

Dragon Magazine Issue 231: July 1996


part 5/8


Tales of the fifth age: Measure of the home guard by J Robert King. Another story in Krynn where the lesson is neutrality, be my good. For a certain value of neutrality. Which really depends on the assumption that going out and killing bad guys is more what the good gods want to see than staying at home and taking care of your friends and family. Which in D&D world, is quite possible. But it does make for some very interesting philosophical questions. Is proactivity really a good thing, when all is said and done. In an entropic universe, everything you do contributes in a small way to the end of everything. In a world threatened by regular apocalypses, both good and evil will want to preserve the status quo, even if it may be out of selfishness. Is it better to work with enemies who will probably backstab you the moment the crisis is over, or stand by your principles even if it means everything going down in flames? What do you do when things change so much that what was once a good and sensible thing to do (be fruitful and multiply) becomes an active liability. (overpopulation) So this story asks hard questions and answers them in a poignant manner. If there's anything that the new setting and system ought to facilitate, it's issues like this, rather than the dungeon crawling D&D is obviously designed for.


Game wizards drops it's definite article. They really are making a habit of that, over the years. You'll already have heard by now that Dragonlance is coming back under a different game system, but here's the official promotional article. People in setting have had enough time to adapt to the lack of gods and figure out a new magic system, which does seem like a bit of a compromise, but there's plenty of radical elements here. Actually, the decision to make it card based and narrative focussed is a blatant attempt to follow in the footsteps of Everway and the WoD, respectively, but there's nothing hugely wrong with that idea. And the way the cards draw upon existing lore does allow them to do things with the mechanics that would be impossible in an all-new setting. There's a lot of interesting things to be said about this one, which of course makes the fact that it doesn't do particularly well all the more regrettable. So it's with decidedly mixed feelings that I say hello to this. At least it's an actual other roleplaying game, unlike all this blood war and dragon dice crap. But it's not as innovative as it would like to think it is, and is marketed in a somewhat newbie unfriendly way, which pretty much ensures it's sales will only ever be a small fraction of AD&D's. I'm sure they could have done things differently and better, even if I'm not absolutely certain how.


Forum slowly shrinks. Combined with the larger font size, it's definitely passing a lot quicker these days.

Tim Merritt points out some more problems with S&P subability scores. It's all too easy for them to wind up as almost pure benefit if you build your characters suitably specialised. No wonder this is one rule that didn't make it to the next edition.

Dale Donovan steps into the ring to defend TSR's creating rulebreaking characters. Story purpose and coolness is more important than strict adherence to the rules, especially for NPC's. Plus you have to make sure rules lawyers don't get smug and overconfident. I don't think he's one of the people who survives the takeover, is he. That kind of change it just to spite them attitude'll be falling out of favor soon.  

Steven Shaffer thinks each demihuman race should have at least one class with unlimited advancement. How simultaneously progressive and old skool. This will of course strongly encourage multiclassing with it, especially now XP isn't still split amongst maxed out classes slowing you down like 1st ed.