Dragon Magazine Issue 240: October 1997


part 3/8


The murder Medieval: Ahh yes, murder mystery. Now there's a topic that really needs a bit more attention, especially given the difficulty of making it work in D&D, where shortcuts are found aplenty to those with a bit of magical skill. Ironically, most of the examples here are from more gritty historical series, which there are actually a surprising number of. Actually, this is nothing but examples, listing both book series and their main protagonists, with rough synopses of their adventures and what makes them interesting characters. I'm left ambivalent by this one, as it basically gives you a whole bunch of reading, and then does nothing itself. Like turning the novel reviews into mere recommendations, I'm not sure this is how I want them using their page count. It just feels lazy by comparison.


Mysterious cities: Here comes a tie-in. James Wyatt has already sent in a previous Gothic Earth article. Now he proves that this is a personal favourite of his with another one based off the new supplement for it. 11 cities that the gothic earth gazetteer passed over from all around the world get short descriptions, along with hints at what lurks beneath the surface. Many of them are exactly what you would expect if you had a basic primer in world mythology already, but there are a couple of surprises, with exceedingly obscure monsters referenced, and a couple of new statblocks. This is certainly more useful in and of itself than the last article, but it still feels like a pointer towards bigger, better books than a full product and leaves me unsatisfied. It's like they're putting the filler articles at the front this time, which is a rather baffling editorial decision.


John Manabi's Capricorn. Well, this is a different looking bit of advertising. Looks like our new staff are already starting to make a difference in that department as well.


Goddess of shadows, Guild of thieves: Ah yes, gods of thieves. Bridging the gap between what are on the surface the least connected classes. Here's a good look at the Birthright implementation of this idea. Cleverly, she doesn't even represent herself as the goddess of thieves to the general population, allowing her church to put on a legitimate front as shadow-worshippers and avoid harassment that way. As with illusionists who don't let people know they're illusionists, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. They do have a relatively small sphere list, but with a well built up social setup, several neat new spells, a reasonable amount of thief skills, and tons of money as a result of their larcenous activities, they're hardly underpowered. They're perfectly suited both as villains and PC's (presuming you don't have to share the party with a holier than thou paladin) so you could have this either as a backdrop setting element, or as central to a political plot. And as it doesn't seem too hard to adapt to other settings, it hopefully won't get complaints from the people who want all generic stuff either.


Saga of the mists: More tie-in stuff. Doubly so, in this case, as it's about converting Ravenloft to the SAGA system. Interestingly, since Ravenloft already has it's own card deck as part of the old boxed set, that gives them an easy in to allow the system to be translated to the setting's quirks. And the setting is more suited to lower magic, character driven adventures than many, so that makes them a good match on another level. There are quite a few changes made to the rules, but they're logically done, and seem like they'll further make the rules support the mood  you should be going for. Morality matters, magic works closer to the way it does in D&D, but constructing spells is still a different process that'll force you to specialise in the type of magic you use. I rather approve. This is useful for both people who already have the 5th age game, and those that are still on the fence and need more proof that it's applicable to other settings to buy into it. That seems like another good use of their page count.

Dragon Magazine Issue 240: October 1997


part 4/8


Mysteries of the dead gods: Another author tie-in here. Seems like they're doing them more issues than not these days. Monte Cook is another writer who quite possibly overwrote when making the rather large adventure Dead Gods. He managed to fit in a side-plot already, and this article makes you even more able to handle sidetracks and stretch things out. Random Dead God generation tables for people who are wandering around on the astral plane for an extended length of time? That's fairly specific and quite awesome, as well as being a callback to the very first issue. The challenges you face, the visuals you see, and the treasures you can get from exploring and quite possibly mining them can be rather strange, and coming up with stuff off the cuff may not be easy. So this is exactly the kind of article I like to see, as it's useful, full of flavour, and builds on D&D's existing elements nicely without rehashing them. Good to see Monte has cool creativity to spare at this point.


Fiction: True power by Ron Collins. Ahh, this old chessnut. The idea that given the choice between immortality and great power, but uncontrollable appetites that involve feeding off other humans; or being a regular joe, you'd be happier if you chose mortality. Considering mortality involves a whole raft of pretty onerous appetites to keep your body fully functional, and many people are deeply annoying to spend time with, I'm not entirely convinced. I'd still give it a few centuries, see if I got tired of living like that first. After all, in a fantasy world, there are plenty of other long-lived creatures out there for you to have friendships and intrigues with, keep you sane and with something to do over those timescales. So this is a story who's message and moral hinges on a morality I simply don't subscribe too, and who's protagonists are not being particularly sensible in their actions. I really can't relate. You can do far better with the hand you've been dealt than this, you just have to be willing to change your worldview a bit.


The ecology of the nymph: We return to the monster hunters association again this month, with the characters from issue 227 recurring. And here we see the dark side of such an organization, in more ways than one. They don't just capture and kill animals and marauding monsters, but also more benevolent creatures like this. Of course, this being the magazine that it is, anyone dumb enough to distress a damsel, regardless of species, is going to get their comeuppance by the end of the story. Even with the new ownership, that part of company policy is unlikely to change too much. So yeah, this is almost exactly how I'd expected it would be. Not sure if that's good or bad. Guess I'll have to go for mediocre, as it doesn't have much cool new crunch, and is pretty predictable. That's what happens when you get distracted by sex.


Wyrms of the north: Time for a topaz dragon here. Now of the gem dragons, they were always presented as the closest to being evil, with their generally misanthropic nature and ruthlessness. And here we have one that seems generally designed to be played as an antagonist, if not exactly a nemesis, as she is of a distinctly larcenous bent. Whether the players wind up a victim of her quest for more treasure, tricked, robbed and left alive, or are merely hired by someone else who was, this is an easy way to get into an adventure. And since like many Ed NPC's, she has a rather substantial and ingenious array of contingency plans ( he really does more of that than everyone else put together), the possibility of her surviving a confrontation and winding up a recurring character seems rather good. This is a relatively short one, but that thankfully means he doesn't go overboard on the new spells and magical items this time, although the new spell that we do have is probably a bit overpowered for a 1st level one. So I'm reasonably entertained by this, and can see it's uses in game. A little ambiguity does wonders for opening the field up.

Dragon Magazine Issue 240: October 1997


part 5/8


Dungeon mastery: For a second month in a row, we have a 101 items list. Hrum. Well, those are generally expansive enough that even when every single item on them is stolen, you're unlikely to be able to trace all the sources. And unless you're blessed with photographic memory, you'll never remember all of them anyway. This time, it's unexplained mysteries, giving you a large selection of omens and Fortean weirdness to unsettle your players with and keep them guessing. Some would make great setups to a future adventure, while others are just red herrings that wouldn't be easy to do stuff with. Once again, this seems like a good one to go to when you suddenly find yourself at an impasse, and don't want to resort to the old cliche of goons breaking down the door and attacking. More stuff to fill out the middle ratings, really.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Cyberware comes to D&D! I kid, but only by a little, as this is all about magical limb replacements. If you regularly put your players up against phycomids, and similar ugliness (which is thankfully quite rare these days) it would only be fair to let them get their army of darkness on and replace lost limbs with something better for a sizeable price. I quite approve. And with a good bit of overarching fluff, this is much better than their recent attempts in this column.

Seeing eyes are the basic model. Apart from being able to choose your colour, there's nothing special about this. Not that this is to be sneezed at when someone's had yer eye out. But if you don't have enough money for the upgrades, I guess you'll have to settle.

True seeing eyes are one of the obvious upgrades. Who doesn't want to short-circuit dopplegangers and shit. Nobrainer really.

Dim-seeing eyes give you infravision. Now you can know what demihumans take for granted. They won't pull the wool over me again :shakes fist:

All-seeing eyes give you x-ray, telescopic and periscopic vision. Truly a device for all seasons. Even superman can't quite match that.

Eyes that bind paralyze you with a look. If you didn't include it, someone else would. Another no-brainer.

The look that kills isn't as impressive as it's name sounds. Sure it'll kill your victim eventually, but it'll be both tedious and painful. Mounting a medusa head on your shield would be both cheaper and easier.

Helping hands apply the same no-frills principle to your manipulatory digits. It's a lot more useful than a hook, that's for sure. But let's see what else you can add before making a final decision.

Gripping hands show once again how popular Larry Niven is amongst geeks. You really don't want one of these closed around your balls. Tempting for a sadistic ship's captain.

Tricky hands let you be even better at sleight of hand than you were before. If you lost your hand as a punishment for thievery, this really is the way to go. You really don't want to be caught making that mistake again.

Hidden Hands are another one for rogues and brigands. They go from regular hand to vicious hook with a word. Best of both worlds, really.

Casting Hands give you extra fast-castable spell slots. Now that really will prove awesome in extending your wizard's useful day, albeit at the cost of greater downtime too. No free rides, I guess.

Hands of Justice are by far the most powerful of these, with multiple tricks useful for taking down the other items. Well, they cause so much trouble, this is just a small way of redressing the balance really.

Walking legs are of course the basic replacement down there. Not that kind of down there, although you could probably commission one of those too. But this is still a family friendly magazine. What are ya gonna do when you can't advertise through regular channels.

Leaping legs let you go all froggy. Does that sound like your kind of additional benefit? It's certainly worth 500gp to me, as I like my cinematic combats.

Hidden legs turn from realistic to peg-legs in the blink of an eye. Useful for pity plays, comedy and disguise. Hee.

Swimming legs turn all fishy in the water. Since this stuff is marketed at sailors, that really is a no-brainer. You're gonna fall in sometime, really. an extra thousand gold pieces is a small price to pay for survival.

Hollow legs Improve dramatically on the real world variant of this trick by being extradimensional. Just think how much you could smuggle. Amusingly, this means they're the most common variant. Fantasy economics strikes again!

Dragon Magazine Issue 240: October 1997


part 6/8


KotDT suffers once again from players missing the point. Dragonmirth is very topical, with magic eye pictures. I remember those! Ye gods that was irritating. Swordplay also miss the point. Floyd is now officially a target of the demonic invasion.


Role-playing reviews: Requiem: the grim harvest is of course the Ravenloft supplement that lets you play the undead, along with overturning Ravenloft's established order in the accompanying adventure. Rick's main complaints, ironically, are where it sticks a little too closely to established D&D rules cruft, limiting options in some ways, while presenting too many irrelevant ones in other cases. It might be entertaining to play, but it's not going to win many people back from White Wolf.

Children of the night: Vampires looks like a collection of NPC monsters, each with unique abilities of their own, but really, it's a bunch of mini-adventures as well, as each one has their own history, agenda, and in many cases lair and minions detailed. Not all of them are great, and some are silly, but it shows just how varied you can make them these days, which is important for a long-term Ravenloft campaign. After all, that's what they're trying to promote now.

A guide to Transylvania gets a fairly middling review. It's useful if you're playing a gothic earth game, but a bit dry, and doesn't have ready-play adventures. Still, this is one case where the folklore wasn't all stuff I'd seen before, including some rather interesting expansion on the piper of Hamelin mythology. And it's system light enough that this book is one I still find useful now. Some things age better than others, and this has actually been one of them.

A world of darkness 2nd edition looks like a general WoD book, but since Vampire is the most popular line, can you guess who gets the lion's share of the screentime? Yup, it's time for another gritty, highly detailed, and not so highly edited dive into a world not too far from our own, and sometimes so over the top that the horror flips round into being funny from Rick's PoV. I should look this one over again as well, see how it's held up over a decade later.

Constantinople by night is cut from much the same vein. You still expect indexes from them after 6 years? More fool you. And of course, it's very much for mature readers. Gee, ya reckon? Shame you can't fleshcraft common sense onto someone.

Chicago Chronicles Vol 1, by contrast, shows that they have actually developed quite a bit, by compiling two old supplements from the early days of the line into one. The artwork is noticeably worse than more recent supplements, and the writing less polished. But that doesn't make it less fun to read, only trickier to use in actual play.

Horror's heart is for Call of Cthulhu, and shows up the sanity threatening side of Montreal. (don't laugh) Spooky locales, gruesome monsters, and an overarching plot that is full of interesting bits, but doesn't quite climax properly. Still, since the end of a story is where you have most leeway to change things, hopefully that can be fixed in actual play.

Ye Booke of Monstres II also showcases the cthulhu designer's twisted imaginations, expanding the universe beyond Lovecraft's original writings. The main complaint here is that the illustrations aren't that great. Compared to TSR or White wolf's recent output, they really don't blast the SAN like they should. Guess it's back to using your imagination to fill in the details again.

The complete masks of Nyarlathotep, on the other hand, does manage to pull everything together and make a mega-adventure that holds up all the way through. It might be an old one, but surely standing the test of time is a good thing. Now, if only they'd come up with some new adventures that match it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 240: October 1997


part 7/8


AEON! Another game that's going to be forced to change its name soon. Dear oh dear.


TSR Previews: Just one bit of rescheduling for december. Pages of pain finally gets released. Troy Denning can breathe a sigh of relief. Onto the new.

Dragonlance bounces around it's history in Dragons of Chaos. More short stories painting the world of Krynn as it goes through turbulent times. As if we didn't get enough of those in the magazine last year. Goes to show, plenty of writers still want to play in this sandbox.

Technically under the Forgotten realms banner, but crossing over with both Dragonlance and Planescape is Tymora's Luck, part 3 of the lost gods series. Kate and Jeff set things up for their heroes to save the worlds, again.

Birthright gets Tribes of the Heartless Wastes. Now all of Cerillia has at least a general overview. The gameline can die happy, knowing it came out hitting hard and fast, and did what it had to do to make the whole thing playable and complete.

The Sahuagin adventure trilogy also comes to an end with Sea of Blood. Load up on water breathing powers and hit them back. Watch out for 3D maneuvering. It lets even more enemies swarm you at one time.

Dragon dice combines fire and water to get the Scalders, their 7th kicker pack. Seems pretty self explanatory, even if more info on what this new race looks like would be nice.

Dragon Magazine Issue 240: October 1997


part 8/8


The current Clack is extra large this month, as they've got a lot of news to deliver. Most importantly, we have WotC mending bridges with Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. They didn't have to do that, but it's tremendously beneficial for both them and the game that they did, and helps give the new owners more legitimacy. That definitely deserves credit. Also positive is that Gen Con has remained a stable size, and Origins has grown in attendance despite the company problems. Well, some people probably turned up so they could get first-hand accounts of what was actually happening. Not so positive is Larry Elmore having a heart attack. Still, it looks like he's going to recover. And hopefully he'll take better care of his health for a while. Sometimes you need that scare to get you to shape up.

In non D&D news, we have significant stuff for several other big companies. White wolf's sci-fi game plans have gone out the window and been hurriedly replaced. Meanwhile, they're also producing a whole batch of historical supplements for their WoD lines. Things were never exactly happy shiny puppies and unicorns, but some creatures had more prominence at one time or another. Shadowrun is moving onto it's 3rd edition, and getting a CCG like the rest of the cool kids, although it might be a bit late to really cash in. Meanwhile, Glorantha is leveraging fan power to raise the money for it's new books. The company may be having problems, but the public interest is still very much there. This is interesting. And we get to see the beginning of Eden Studios. Plus there's the usual array of awards from this time of year. The whole landscape seems to be shifting. Guess it really is the start of a new era in general.


The articles this month aren't very interesting, as they continue to play it safe and rely heavily on regular columns and campaign world tie-ins. But they do seem to finally be caught up in terms of internal organisation, and starting to implement plans for the future. And those plans do seem to be an improvement on TSR's behaviour over the last few years. That makes me hopeful that there'll be more interesting things to write about over the next few years. So: 240 down, 119 to go. I'm pretty certain I can do this.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 1/8


124 pages. Giraffe neck, woodlike head, trogdor arm. This dragon is a bit of a mismatch of body parts. And would have serious trouble chewing it's food. If it doesn't eat those adventurers whole, they'll be doing it a mercy killing it. No particular connection to the contents this time, which apparently involves ancient empires. Well, most of their campaign worlds have been around long enough for that, with the ironic exception of Ravenloft. That gives them plenty of room for tie-ins. Lets see who gets excavated, and who is left buried this time.


In this issue:


The Wyrm's turn: Ooh. We add a 9th member to the staff again. A production manager? What does one of them do then that the editors and directors don't? Actually, their staff list currently looks a bit top heavy in general. Big titles, or do they actually have too many chiefs and not enough indians? Well, as long as everyone knows their role, and doesn't step on the other's toes, it hopefully won't be a problem. Speaking of stepping on toes, they're now trying to figure out how much material they should publish on specific settings. One person may like one over another, but really, they shouldn't be in competition. So this is the public's chance to influence their direction in the next few years. Once again, they're trying to pay attention, really give people what they want. Let's hope what they want is interesting to me as well.


D-Mail: A letter complaining about the Mother NPC article. By a man. No mothers appear to have been offended by the creation of this parody. Lighten up maaan.

A letter asking about Alternity and what kind of support it's going to get. Quite a bit, apparently. Once again, given how previous attempts died, they want to try extra hard to get this right, so they're not so dependent on their flagship products.

A letter from someone who finds their group is being bogged down by bickering from contrasting characters. An article on how to deal with this would be very welcome. I doubt the editors will have trouble finding one.

On the other hand, they may have trouble finding original articles if this is the quality of would-be writers for them. Our final letter is from multiple people who want to write for them, but don't have a clue what to write about. You may be approaching things the wrong way around. Do you even know if you're any good at writing in the first place? Do you enjoy the process, or do you just want the prestige? It won't be worth it if that's the only reason.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 2/8


Forum: Alan D. Kohler is not amused at the guy waxing lyrical over the cavalier. Not only is he wrong on several mechanical details, the old cavaliers were an abomination anyway. Mind you, the new skills and powers stuff is pretty bad too, so no-one's coming out of this great.

Lloyd Brown thinks xp bonuses should be factored off wisdom, not your key ability scores. He makes a fairly persuasive case from a thematic PoV, but of course the mechanical results may be a bit iffy. Like factoring hit chances off Dex instead of Str, it's worth a try.

David DeKeizer supports regular character death and multiclassing. Both give you more chances to change your character and keep the game interesting. And the rules lawyers can go hang.


Sage advice: What happens when a rogue violates their alignment restrictions (Lawful good thieves have to go straight. They can no longer in good conscience go on living the life they lived, and if they try, they'll find their alignment changing back pretty fast. Bards lose their spellcasting. Ha ha. That's what you get for being originally derived from druids. )

What undead are affected by sunlight (Read the descriptions. Duh.)

Does a cloak of elvenkind stack with thief abilities (No. Use only the best roll. )

Does a cube of frost resistance protect you against lava. (no Greater than or equal too is not equal to equal too. )

How does faith of Illmater work ( They're way too nice. They can wind up sacrificing their life for you. Suckers.)

Does regeneration from high con let you stay alive below -10 and regrow limbs (no)

Does know alignment work on intelligent items (yes)

Does spell immunity get disrupted by any form of protection, even irrelevant ones (yes)

Can I stack all these spells (no)


Great Excavations: Archaeology? You mean we have to dig our own dungeons just to get at the treasure and monsters?! The DM is being bloody stingy this session. Well, we had mining in the past. (issue 152) If you want a slightly more realistic adventure setup, this is a way to go about it. All classes have reasons to seek out ancient stuff, and there's plenty to find down there. And since so much of what you find is luck, a grab bag of bits and pieces of crunch on the theme seems curiously appropriate. Two new kits, one for the spellcasters, and one for the fighty sorts. 2 new spells. And 4 new Proficiencies. Oh, and a new priestly sphere which has so few spells as to be near worthless. (still better than Astral though, amirite? ) None of this seems particularly over or underpowered, although the random findings table is a bit underdeveloped. Overall, it's a reasonable enough bit of coverage that isn't on a heavily rehashed topic. So in terms of marks, it's somewhere in the middle.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 3/8


Chronicle of Cerilia: Or oh yeah, this line's been cancelled, and we still hadn't got round to putting a timeline in the books. Guess it's the magazine's gain again. And as usual for a D&D setting, the beginning of recorded history is actually surprisingly close to the present. Elves & dwarves have been around for ages, but history only gets going a few thousand years ago, and the current political system, with empowered bloodlines and everything that goes with it is only 1,500 years old. And really, how do you expect democracy to gain root when they are so obviously and demonstrably superior. Maybe if someone exercises their droit de siegneur a little too much, so a larger proportion of the public have at least some bloodline abilities. Keep harems for greater justice in the future! But I digress. While not as detailed as the Realms timeline is by now, this is still pretty detailed, obviously drawing on not only the whole range of supplements, but also the magazine articles for the setting. In a way, that makes it very much a capstone on their output as a living setting. There may be a few more articles coming after this, but we won't see timeline advancement or big metaplot upheavals anymore. Which is a bit sad in a way, but given how much metaplot annoyed people, might be for the best. At least this way, it's memory will remain unsullied amongst those who cared.


Legacies of the Suel imperium: Hmm. New PC races with a greyhawk slant? Well, we've had spellbooks and magical item collections. The main issue here is that as the original generic AD&D setting, what creatures feel distinctively Greyhawk rather than just D&D? That's a tricky question to answer. The approach here seems to be to go for a bunch of stuff from all over the place, with an emphasis on the old school. Well, I guess the old modules that got retroactively incorporated into Greyhawk were rather a grab-bag too, so that makes as much sense as any decision.

Derro are of course interesting because of their unique Savant class. Unfortunately, this article takes an old school attitude towards this, and spends a big proportion of it's time telling us that behaviours that are quite normal for the race should not be allowed when they're used as PC's, and making sure that we can't play the most interesting parts. This makes it deeply unsatisfying.

Lerara are ....... Holy shit!!!! Remember Elayne Mystica from issue 139. One of the most obvious examples of cheesy mary-sue background this magazine has ever produced. Well now you can play another member of the race of albinos that she came from. Only you'll never be as cool as her, as they're given a charisma penalty that retroactively makes her an illegal character. Now that's either insulting or just incompetent. Drizzt doing stuff that's impossible in game and then making new rules to make that legal is one thing, but making a character that's basically legal, if very cheesy, and then retroactively invalidating them is just nasty. Major mechanical fail, as well as a delving of ancient lore that really should have remained buried, thank you very much.

Skulks are always thieves, although a few of them have minor multi-class abilities. Stereotyping much? Still, since all their racial abilities are focussed around greater stealth, would you really want to take another class? On the other hand, playing against type is a great pleasure of roleplaying. And on the gripping hand, making them lose their special powers if they manage to get over their racial cowardice makes this another deeply problematic one. Mandating good behaviour or you lose your powers causes enough problems with bad DM's. Mandating bad behaviour or losing your powers just seems custom designed to blow up in your face in actual play. So that's 3 fails in a row. I'm not optimistic about the rest of this article.

Jermalaine are another one that are pretty much restricted to a single class, as they don't have the strength to become fighters, or the magical aptitude to become wizards, and their priestly skills are pretty pathetic too. This is one of those times when I can't wait for 3e to come, and sweep all this arbitrariness away.

Su-Dopplegangers are new, and drop even the pretense of class choice, essentially being a full-on return to Basic D&D race as class design. That said, even though they only go up to level 8, they're a lot more powerful than halflings, with their innate AC and damage dealing abilities scaling with level. Unsurprisingly, their ESP power gets nerfed.

Blah. Who made this? Roger Moore?! WTF man. I thought he liked his gonzo. This has been one of the most persnickety and restrictive set of new races I've seen, and is easily the worst article he's ever done. This is really the kind of bad article that only someone on the inside could get away with writing. Just as Gary's new classes that then got put into Unearthed Arcana were more mechanically problematic than most of the classes sent into the magazine by freelancers back in the day, this is the kind of bad writing that only gets through because the editors have a personal connection to the writer and aren't judging their work with the same kind of critical scrutiny as everything else. Epic fail.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 4/8


Modron Magic: Time for another burst of themed crunch, this time mixing magic items and spells. Modrons have always been fairly entertaining creatures to put in adventures, with their moral neutrality making them usable as allies and enemies easily, and their quirkiness giving DM's good hooks for roleplaying them that keeps their orderliness from getting tedious. They may be very much a love or hate creature, but that's because they're distinctive. So there's plenty of information for you to build appropriate devices with, expand the info on them further. Which is just what Monte Cook is doing here.

Clockwork Slings take advantage of modron physiology to sit on their heads and fire automatically. This means they effectively get an extra action per turn. Since pentadrones can already get 5, fitting the infantry with these will make them rather scary to PC's with only 1.

Clockwork Spinswords aren't exactly magical chainsaws, but they're close enough for government work. Well, we've seen a those in the magazine before (issue 132) You've got to put your own spin on things, and this definitely does.

Crystals of Clear Focus help you do things in a logical and successful manner. Unlike certain other supernatural groups, there is no catch, but it will tend to push you towards their way of approaching tasks. Hey, it's better than losing your soul because you didn't read the small print. And yet you still hear about people trying to deal with devils more than you do modrons. Maybe it's because they understand the principle of combining carrots and sticks better. Or maybe it's just sexiness. Oh dear, bad images.

Delay Fire Cossbows are a great retreat coverer. Put them down, and they target and shoot anyone nearby later a bit. The kind of technomagic that rewards intelligent use, will players take advantage of it?

Flying Harnesses are another mostly mechanical one. They may be rather awkward for a non-modron to put on, and take some learning to operate, but hey, flying! Everybody wants that. Probably why we've had so many methods of doing so over the years.

Lenses of Protection save modrons from being maddened by the strange and incomprehensible chaos of the rest of the multiverse. What they consider maddening may not be the same as what is bad for human sanity, of course. Still, better than nothing.

Limb Extensions are another technological one. We don't need magic for that. We can buy those from a toy store. You can even get pretty good at using them.

Magnetic Clamps are another pretty mundane trick that would seem supernatural to the superstitious mind. Mind you, it's a bit broader than real magnetism, but I guess that's where the magic comes in.

Mirrorballs show that Monte is playing this for laughs to a degree. A floating mirrorball that hovers around you to give you rear and sides vision. Again, it works in reality. (I've used the reflections from my glasses to surreptitiously watch things behind me in the past.) And modrons would take the practical route without concern for how silly it makes them look to everyone else. I can see the logic in this.  

Truebridges violate conservation of mass and turn from a single plate to a whole avenue of them. This isn't just useful for bridges, but also temporary cover, ramps, patching up the floor, or anything else you can think of.

A Winch of Giant Strength also adds a little magic to a basic physics principle. This has the air of filer. Mixed bag, really.

That's all the items. Now for the spells. Set the Path is another variant of making everything go according to plan. Assuming it's a good plan in the first place. Otherwise, you'll be forced to mime the actions that make no sense in light of reality. More intentional comedy in the name of unbending logic I see.  

True arrow of Law works on the same kind of principle as Holy Word, only not as powerful. Chaotic creatures hit by one are hurt, lawful ones are buffed, and neutral ones are charmed in your favor. Also notable because it's a wizard spell that can heal, so it bears watching carefully in the hands of PC's.

Correlate Data lets you do the Sherlock Holmes thing without the DM giving you tons of data and you working it out manually. Useful for breaking plot dead ends and general avoiding deus ex machina.

Harmony promotes the Arcadian version of law rather than the Mechanus one. Go for the peaceful solution, and calm man, beast and nature. Not very adventurer-like I know, but who wants to be orthodox all the time anyway. Overall, I think this collection has more finely tuned machines in it than rattly old bangers.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 5/8


Fiction: Innkeepers solution by Steven Piziks. One of those stories that shows us that the big damn hero method is not always the wisest way to get things done. If you're lucky, you'll get the glory. If not, then a fate worse than death may well await you. So it proves here, when an attempt to take a dragon as a familiar results in the dragon making a familiar of them instead, resulting in a lifetime of isolation, broken up with being a stalking horse for it's appetites. Not a very pleasant thing to happen, but when you can't disobey them or even kill yourself, what can you do? There is an ending, but it's pretty bittersweet. With quite solid worldbuilding that makes it clear this isn't our world, while setting up it's own rules quite clearly and then working from them, this manages to be a pretty good story, without making comfortable reading at all. It's another reminder of how arbitrary, unglamorous and fragile life can actually be. It makes me want to find a way to get around my own mortality on my own terms. Living in an entropic universe sucks.


Wyrms of the north: Ahh, red dragons. The real iconic bastards. Ed gets round to giving us one of these at last. They have pretty decent magical abilities anyway, but Ed just can't resist giving this one even more, to keep up with all the other superpowerful monsters and wizards he's already added. Not that he's quite on the same level of some of them, merely being a seeker of immortality where they've successfully attained it. And for all his paranoia, he falls victim to that great draconic vice, spending decades at a time asleep, which can leave you open no matter how many traps and constructs you protect your lair with. I suppose that the important thing is that while competent, he doesn't seem unbeatable or a mary-sue, which is quite significant when you're intended primarily as an antagonist. The new spell is interesting but underpowered, which further makes him seem fallible despite his plentiful treasure and magic items. So this isn't the most inventive creature Ed's ever given us, but still useful, and not as cheesy as he has been known to get either. Middle of the road for him is still a well above average article for anyone else.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 6/8


Arcane Lore: Back to Greyhawk we trundle for another trio of spellbooks by named wizards. Gotta keep up with the realmses, or at least try and fail miserably. Even this doesn't excite me like it used too.

Exalted Dwomercraft was made by the mage of the valley. It's like, totally a collaborative work with a hot drow babe too. Dude has mad skillz. He can totally condense a prismatic sphere into weapon shape and fly around in a pimpin' conjured ride. That'll kick ur ass in a single hit. Power word kill eat your heart out.

The Pyronomicon is the work of Keraptis, he of White Plume Mountain fame. Unsurprisingly, all it's spells are fire based, including adapted versions of unseen servant, magic missile, cone of cold and invisible stalker with extra burnination attached. Equally unsurprisingly, it has a long and ugly list of people fighting over it after the original owner was beaten. Dunno why, when fire stuff is so common.

Slerotin's Manifesto is a survivor of the Suel rain of colorless fire. It's also proved rather popular, and surprisingly enduring due to the troll components used in it's construction. It's only unique spell is similar in effect, allowing you to make inanimate objects completely indestructible. 9th level spells rock.


Dungeon Mastery: Oh god. The Idealist-Reactive-Civic-Adaptive generational analysis model. There's a bit of sociology of debatable value that I haven't seen in years. Still, even if things get pretty blurry in reality, it's the kind of thing you can apply to help you in your worldbuilding, and twist around to represent the different psychologies and lifespans of other races in the setting. Boiling things down to one or two significant crises per generation per country certainly seems to be a way to accelerate constructing a history for your world. And this is the kind of quirky article that keeps me from being bored by not relying on the usual fantasy cliches and using an unusual source for inspiration. What would Lord of the Rings been like if Tolkien had been a sociologist rather than a linguist? Probably not as commercially successful, but hey. Fun to speculate.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 7/8


Campaign Classics: Ah yes, Yak-men. While genies got plenty of expansion in Al-Qadim, Yak-men were the big breakout new monster of the setting. Quite right too, as they have enough mythic ancestry to be resonant, but are also pretty unusual in powers as D&D monsters, and their power levels are sufficiently scalable that they can continue to be a challenge into the mid-teens at least. An article supplementing them is to be welcomed. So here we get a look into their politics and day-to-day life, when they're not off bodysnatching and trying to overthrow and enslave everyone else. Despite being fairly unified and stoic for an evil race, there is still a degree of internal politics, and the losers end up on the sacrificial altar while the society as a whole goes onwards. With details on how their kingdom is divided up, stats for the leaders of the provinces, and even the manifestation of their dark god, this is a nicely specific article, not afraid to make a stand and pin things down in many ways, while also being helpful in showing you how to transplant them to other settings. In addition, it's fully aware of and builds upon the ideas from issue 233's birthright/al qadim hybrid article, which is something I find very pleasing indeed. If anything, it has quite a bit in common with the princess ark travelogues in the way it expands upon a previously mentioned place, and isn't afraid to set it up as a challenge for all levels. That makes me pretty happy, as that's just the kind of adventure location I can use.


KotDT sees conspiracies in every random roll. Someone really should break the miners guild monopoly. The inflated prices they're charging are ridiculous. Dragonmirth applies modern principles again to hilarious effect. Swordplay needs a new party leader. Floyd gets some much needed exposition.


Role-playing reviews: Bubblegum crisis RPG gets a reasonably positive review, despite Rick not being into anime at all. Since that's about to undergo a real boom around here, he may not enjoy RPGing so much in the near future. Anyway, character building is based on random generation & lifepaths, traveller style, and the system is based on the Fuzion engine. While fairly crunchy, it's clearly explained, and seems to facilitate the kind of action the show shows. Give it a good chewing over.  

Hong kong action theatre sees the first mention in the magazine of infamous designer Gareth-Michael Skarka. Even more than the last review, this wins Rick over by the way it approaches it's subject matter. It actually has some elements in common with the Amazing Engine, in that you're playing an actor, who has some stats in common each time, but plays different roles regularly. Still, it implements them better, encouraging you to flip genres regularly and break the 4th wall while still developing your character. Whether it's aged well I'm not sure, but i'm sure you could still have fun with it.

Cthulhu Live reminds us just how little coverage LARPing gets in the magazine. Rick loves it as much as he loves Cthulhu tabletop, and finds it rather easier to get into than dressing up as warriors and wizards. The system has been stripped down quite substantially to fit the environment, and the sample scenarios are excellent. Now you just need to have enough players and a suitably atmospheric location to make them work properly. Not a challenge I would object to taking on.

Dragon Magazine Issue 241: November 1997


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Up to next January, and we've finally cleared the schedule snarls. What a relief. Let's just get back to doing what we do best, albeit at a somewhat slowed down pace.

The Forgotten Realms is still steaming happily onwards, giving a full supplement to the cult of the dragon. Introduced in the 1986 birthday of this magazine, they certainly make people's lives interesting, but have played second fiddle to the Zhentarim and Red wizards in recent years. Will they be getting tied in novels where they make some master stroke shortly? Whatever happens though, we already know Netheril is doomed. Can the stars of the trilogy get back then escape it and live long happy lives before it implodes?

Dragonlance is it's usual beleaguered yet curiously cheerful self. Heroes of Hope is the supplement for the new Mystic magics. Divine power from hope and believing in yourself? Then what do we need gods for? Oh yeah, we don't. They always caused more trouble than they were worth, anyway. We also get to see Raistlin, finally free from all that suffering crap and a fully accredited archmage, look back on his life in The Soul Forge. See what Margaret produces without Tracy to balance her.

Two rather quirky generic products this month. College of wizardry finally fills in details on their guilds, schools, and other organizations. Common, rare, or somewhere in between, this is more worldbuilding fun. We also get a mini campaign setting you can drop into any other world. Jakandor: Island of War! What's all that about? Don't remember this stuff at all.


The current Clack: More progress on the WotC takeover. The Code of Ethics is out! You can say Demon again! Greyhawk is coming back! Woo! Other settings may not be so lucky. And Magic: the Gathering's world is getting a AD&D conversion. Well, maybe. So this is interesting, but it also reminds us that things are up in the air, and they will still change their mind about many of the details of their future plans. Still, there is a certain excitement in the air here. Once again, the simple fact that the pressure is off after several years of it gradually mounting up means a lot. Once again it looks like this'll be more interesting than the average article in the near future.


This issue is mostly ok, improving towards the end, apart from the two Geyhawk articles, which for some reason are both rather iffy. That does seem a little strange, given they're planning on bringing it back now, and makes me wonder how well it'll do. Still, the magazine as a whole has settled down, and we're getting clear indications of where WotC want to go with the game as a whole. Things have definitely been worse, even if the magazine doesn't have the verve it did back in the early 80's. Will it ever get that level of groove going again? As usual, it's time to look to the future with both hope and fear. 1997 will be over quite quickly, but 98 is going to be another long year, what with the annual and everything. Off I bounce to another christmas then.

Dragon Magazine Issue 242: December 1997


part 1/8


124 pages. A nice cover at last, with none of the over cluttering or excess badass that has been far too prevalent in recent months. Ahh, Tony Diterlizzi. Managing both quality and quantity of images while retaining a distinctive style. He deserves quite a bit of credit for what he's done over the years. Lets see what's inside. Gah, another generic magic themed issue. They've done that for christmas before, and this certainly doesn't look like it's got anything special like issue 200. Come on, prove me wrong bitches. I'd love to have my expectations defied in this case.


In this issue:


The Wyrm's turn: This year's been a bit of a bust really. But they're already cheerfully looking forward to next year. So here's where we hear about the changes they're making. While they're not announcing 3rd edition yet, they're going to concentrate on setting heavy products that'll remain useful even if there is an edition change, so they're obviously starting to make plans in that direction. They're also putting more control in the hands of the writers for the settings, and the magazine is getting a column by their new owner Peter Adkison. Since Gary's columns were often one of the most interesting things about the old magazine, I shall watch this development with great interest. Promises promises. You may have changed a few things already, but you have a whole bunch of established culture to go against. And you shouldn't want to slay every sacred cow anyway. In any case, this is more interesting historical signposts.


D-Mail: We start off with someone complaining about Dalamar's replacement in the Wizards Three. Ed takes the opportunity to give a suitably whimsical IC reply. People would complain just as much if you ignored continuity and had him turning up unexplained. Still, couldn't you have got a replacement from Cerilia or one of the other settings instead of just adding an apprentice. That would seem a more interesting solution. Don't they have enough iconic NPC's to draw upon?

A letter expressing annoyance at too many multi-page adverts, and suggesting that an article on medieval clothing might be useful to their readers and not too rehashed. That's the kind of specific request they can fulfil without too much difficulty.

A letter asking for more Greyhawk and Spelljammer articles. We're already getting a decent number of Greyhawk ones. Any setting ones would be welcome really, because it gives them choice.

A quibble from regular writer and forumite Paul Culotta about Roman history and language. He knows his stuff, it seems. Do you want to try debating him?