Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998


part 4/8


101 Hauntings: Ahh, so we've finally got an article able to give us a full 101 ideas on this topic, after issue 186 gave us a mere 50. I knew it was possible. Of course, the fact it's not all castles this time round helps them come up with a wider range of ideas. The length of ideas is also about the same or slightly larger this time around, which is quite interesting, and makes this feel quite close to a special feature. However, there is a lot less mechanical help this time around, instead concentrating purely on the setting details and histories behind the hauntings. Overall, both are entirely valid and don't repeat each other much, and there are more illustrations this time as well, although they don't quite match up to the quality of the previous article's one. So I think this one wins via sheer quantity, but the previous one was pretty good too. I suppose that just means I have more choice should I need a haunting in the future.


Home Sweet Headquarters: We skip having an Alternity article this month, and instead go for a Marvel Superheroes one. As it's brand new, and has the potential to sell well, they obviously want to make sure everyone's aware of it. Exactly how much coverage they'll give it, and if they'll alternate between the two, or we'll get the pleasure of multiple non D&D articles again, we shall have to see. This seems designed to ease us in rather than starting off with a bang, with a short article that's 3/4's pure description, before introducing us to a bit of statistics for the system. And while constructing a lair may be slightly different, you can apply some of this advice to your fantasy campaigns as well, particularly if you have the kind of villain who goes for carving a mountain into the shape of a skull and calling that their "secret" lair. After all, a good setpiece doesn't go amiss in all but the grittiest of games. Of course, since these are the official character's headquarters, I have a suspicion players will seriously struggle to create hideouts with the same degree of awesomeness on a budget, but that's usually the case in licensed games where they never let you overshadow the official characters. Still, they do seem to support the more spectacular possibilities in terms of location and capabilities. You'll just need to work up to the really big stuff. So this does leave me not entirely satisfied, but definitely interested in learning more. The original Marvel-Phile got caught up in endless filling in of minor characters at the expense of actually improving your game. Will they go the same way this time?


Fiction: Mathers blood by R A Salvadore. Oh, you've finally found time to squeeze out a bit of extra short fiction on top of the novels again. It's been a while. (Issue 152) And while there's plenty of fast-paced action here as usual, there's also quite a bit of poignancy, as he examines the problems of aging as an adventurer, when many of your companions are of different races and developing in different ways and speeds to you, and the value of blood vs adopted family. And he actually gets to kill off the protagonist at the end, which I'm sure he's wished he could do to Drizzt a few times. So this feels like a bit of light relief for him, while also having a definite serious side and moral to it. Being an adventurer isn't all guilt-free slaughtering and enjoying your loot. If you go on for any length of time you'll develop real relationships with your companions, and be choked up when they die or leave. (and if it's done right, it could happen within a 22 minute cartoon. ) If you can manage that within a 7 page short story, you're probably doing something right.

Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998


part 5/8


Dragon's bestiary: Hmm. A rather curious halloween present from this department, as they choose to convert monsters from the works of M. R. James. He might not be as famous as H. P. Lovecraft, but it seems he created his share of monsters to scare the reader with. This could well provide us with some unmined ideas for a game.

Demonic sawflys can grow to human size, and then shrink back to regular insect dimensions. That's actually pretty creepy, when you consider how often bugs get into your house and have to be swatted. You really wouldn't want to wake up with one of those in your bedroom in the dark.

Living hair is a bit silly, but constructs can be made of nearly any material, after all. And being able to fit through tiny gaps does have it's advantages over big clunky golems. Once again, the horror seems to be derived from the corruption of the everyday into something unsettling.

Web-spectres are from the same wellspring as Worms that Walk, albeit rather less gross. Still, just like them, being able to discorporate and reform as long as even a tiny amount of your body survives is a very useful ability, so you can see why wizards would want to become a creature made of nothing but cobwebs. And it seems the transformation is available to relatively low level characters, so it's not a bad one to dangle before your players.

Death linen removes any doubt that there is a comic element in these particular writings of the macabre. Smothered by your own pillow. How's that for a humiliating way to go? You'll have to be a good storyteller to keep your players from laughing at this particular problem.


Wyrms of the north: Ed once again skews his examinations towards the ancient dragons who have attained obscene power, and found ways to extend their lifespan even beyond the thousand+ years allotted them. However, this is one of the experimental life-extension methods that hasn't worked perfectly, making it's recipient somewhat fragile and only suspending his ageing when he's in an insubstantial form. Still, he makes the most of the whole invisible thing to be a subtle protector and follow the lives of a small community and generally make it better. Which is a theme we've seen before here, and seems to be a common one amongst immortals. Vampires may become jaded and monstrous as the centuries go by, but that's a problem with their situation and appetites in particular, rather than an inherent one with immortality. So this once again shows that while Ed may be repeating ideas, and probably ought to move onto something new, immortality as a goal is a viable one, and it's not as if you'd run out of things to do once you had it. You just have to move your attention onto longer term ones that would be impossible and foolish to even consider before. And I think I know a little something about impossible and foolish goals by now.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: More Horror stuff here. In fact, we have one of our most Halloween specific articles ever. Magical Jack-O-Lanterns? Why has no-one thought of that before?! Genius. It's not even that much of a stretch given their origins in real world folklore, frightening off evil spirits. And as we've found over the years, if there's anything you can do in reality, you can do it magically in D&D.

Your basic magical Jack-o-lantern acts as a protection from evil spell and repels mindless undead. Keep it well preserved for next year, as they are quite expensive.

Jovial Lanterns make everyone around their glow want to party! Woo. Get the keggers! ( But hold the Cheggers, thank you very much)

Bursting Lanterns explode when you go near them. Some people will find this hil-arious. Course, 3d6 damage may be piddling to high level characters, but it'll blow marauding goblinoids to pieces.

Fright Lanterns scare nearly anything away. Stay inside when these are lit, so they only scare away the monsters.

Wailing Lanterns make everyone who listens to them depressed and paranoid. Couldn't you just put the Smiths on instead? As usual, there's a better nonmagical solution.

Talking Lanterns give magic mouths a much more expressive face. Oh, the fun you can have with this one. It's pranking time.

Lantern Tallow lasts longer, maybe even up to a month without needing replacing. Shame you can't just plonk a continual light inside the pumpkin and leave it. Sticking to flavour can be a pain sometimes. But still, overall, this has been a damn cool collection, and not vastly bloated like far too many recent articles.

Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998


part 6/8


Nodwick makes a second appearance. And then dies again. Hodey hum.


PC Portraits: Our 14 little pictures this month are in theme, portraying adventurers that might want to investigate ghosts and other undead. This means there's a surfeit of individuals that either look haunted or shifty. More moisturiser, less eyeliner! Still, do you want your adventurers paying more attention to their grooming than their combat effectiveness? And at least we're pretty chesecake free this time round.


Arcane Lore continues to cast it's net a little wider, this time heading off to Ravenloft. Another one fitting for the time of year. I guess they still have no shortage of those kinds of submissions, with White Wolf still nipping at their heels. Hopefully that'll mean the quality stays good.

The book of the Requiem is developed by Azalin's lackeys to tie in with his recent metaplot attempts to escape the dark demiplane. It has plenty of spells he knows, and three new ones he obviously can't. Mind control via blood, buffing via blood, which can be reversed at the caster's whim to ensure obedience, and a priest spell to harvest life force from worshippers for the big rituals that he's plotting. All seems to slot into established history fairly neatly.

The Tome of the Shackled Mind is a nasty little book of mind-control effects from Dementlieu. As with far too many magical tomes like this, it has it's own agenda, and will control you as much as you control others. Its two new spells are both evil variants on standard mind control, making people fuck up their lives with desire and paranoia, hopefully to your benefit.

The Revelations of the Prince of Twilight is a clerical book, produced by a maddened monk. It's another trap, that'll wind up with you getting soul-swapped with an eldrich monstrosity from who knows where. You really don't want that. So all of these are pretty inventive, but none are really player-suitable. Oh, the dilemma. Have fun with your villainous experiences.


The ecology of the ghoul: Welcome to the kingdom of the ghouls. You thought that we were merely filthy scavengers, haunting graveyards, feasting on corpses, and not afraid to make a few more corpses should you stray into the wrong area at night. You were oh so very wrong. Heavily inspired by the works of Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, Wolfgang Baur gives us a lengthy and atmospheric ecology that takes a familiar monster, and makes it into oh so much more. If you follow the right rituals, you too can join the ranks of unhallowed dead with your mind intact. Oh, the forbidden things you can learn if you do! Oh, the fun we shall have, singing blasphemous chants to dead gods, and dancing for days on legs that feel no fatigue. Let me still your flesh. Let me free your mind from petty mortal concerns. Let us taste the delicious brains of those who would not understand together. Yeah, this is good stuff, if not quite as cool as the similar treatment of aboleths in issue 131. This stuff may be a bit cliche, but that's because it works. One of the big hooks about the undead is the omnipresent danger that you too can become the monster, all too easily. And once you do, the things that they do won't seem so bad, somehow.

Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998


part 7/8


Dragonmirth covers many different eras this time, from nearly modern to primordial.


Roleplaying reviews: This column comes to an end with a nostalgia trip, fittingly enough. The new owners of AD&D seem a lot more interested in looking back and exploiting nostalgia than the last ones, partly because they aren't embroiled in feuds with the original writers of those books, and partly because they want to do what they know worked before. If they can get back some people who haven't bought a D&D product in years, (and hopefully keep them for a while) then their efforts were not in vain.

The Villains Lorebook is essentially an extended Rogues Gallery, giving us lots of stats for characters from Forgotten Realms novels. Lots of these are illegal, and many of them still feel sketchy despite having whole novels devoted to them. The artwork is inaccurate and frequently recycled. It's all rather unsatisfying, and feels cheap. That's cash-ins for you.

Return to the tomb of horrors is more sophisticated. It tries to replicate the tone of the original in some ways, but is still noticeably fairer in it's challenges than the old school meat-grinder. If your players are high enough level to survive the challenges here, it could well last you a few months, and the illustrations can genuinely make the puzzles more interesting for the players. I think you can get through more than a few muahahas running this one.

Greyhawk players guide and Greyhawk: The adventure begins get a joint review, as they're both essential for a DM who wants to use the updated Greyhawk setting. There is quite a bit of repeated information between them though, and things have become increasingly tied into the central metaplot and iconic characters, which of course have been issues for the forgotten realms and dragonlance, and makes it trickier for new characters to get off the ground and feel they can make an impact. Still, it's cohesive, interesting, and has plenty of adventure seeds buried in it. What they really need now is a few really good adventures to match up to the old ones that made this world's reputation in the first place.

The Dungeon builders guidebook updates and builds upon the idea of dungeon geomorphs, adding in advice on how to build dungeons and put monsters and traps in them to create an interesting, but not too brutal challenge. Again, it gets a solid but not exceptional mark, showing that while useful, this nostalgia trip isn't really setting his world alight.

We also get a brief review of Usagi Yojimbo and the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana to see us out. As with the book column, and the computer game ones ending, there's no mention of the fact that this is going to be the last one within the article, suggesting it was a fairly abrupt cancellation imposed from above. That does make me curious what political stuff is going on in their offices at the moment. It can't be easy, and seniority conflicts between the WotC people, and the TSR people who might have been working in gaming longer, but are now off-balance due to the company failure and moving across the country en masse could feel weird. Who was responsible for this particular change in editorial direction?


KotDT gets into the roleplaying for a change. Players are a pain in the ass.

Dragon Magazine Issue 252: October 1998


part 8/8


Previews gets it's TSR back, and stops covering stuff by other companies again. That didn't last long. And seems rather stupid. Let it die, folks. You don't need that company name anymore. Wonder why they did this.

Anyway, back to this month's releases. Our trilogy of Illithid adventures draws to a close with Dawn of the Overmind. That sounds pretty ominous. I hope you've stocked up on your mind protecting items.

The Realms doubles up as usual. Our gaming product is a book on Calimport, and our novel is a new on by R.A Salavadore, The Silent Blade. Drizzt, Entreri, Wulfgar, and all that crew continue to service the fans in fairly familiar environments.

Dragonlance returns to AD&D, sorta. Seeds of Chaos is a dual-statted book covering the chaos wars from a gaming perspective. Because if any era is hostile to PC's, its one that makes half the classes suddenly useless. Looks like the 5th ages' days are numbered as well, as the sidebar hints at the next series of cataclysms to take place there. People barely had a chance to get over the last one. Give them a little time to catch their breath. They also continue to cover the chaos wars in the novels, with Tears of the Night Sky by Linda P. Barker and Nancy Varian Berberick. Nonlinear timelining makes for many headaches.

Greyhawk opens up another lost tomb, the Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad. Another attempt to combine old skool meatgrinder with a little modern plotting.

Planescape fucks it all up with Faction War. They just had to screw this setting up before cancelling it as well. Bastards. Hiss spit growl.

The Odyssey line also draws to a close with Jakandor: Land of Legend. Will they get a remotely satisfying ending? Well, I guess it's up to the players in your game.

Alternity also gets a supplement and a novel. The last Warhulk sounds rather 40k'ish, but the description makes it seem rather more interesting than that.  Starise at Corrivale by Diane Duane, on the other hand, seems a pretty standard bit of intrigue. Isn't she a regular star trek fiction writer. Hmm.


Profiles: In another case of topicality in here, R.A. Salvadore is available to be this month's interviewee. While he puts as much effort into his work as most of our writers, his biggest success stems from a moment of mad inspiration while under pressure. Funny how that works. He dreams of creating his own world which eclipses his Forgotten Realms success, but really, it's not going to happen. People don't really want originality, they want regular fixes of junk food. So you'd better keep doing that hackwork if you want to eat. Muahahahaha!


Another issue with excellent articles overall, but the sense that they're closing in on themselves continues, with the reviews finally ending, and the brief experiment with covering the release schedules of other RPG companies abandoned. They are covering slightly more non D&D RPG'ing than they have the last couple of years, but it's still all WotC material. So I guess this is where they give up the last few pretences of not being purely a house organ. Now all that's left is for them to concentrate on being the best house organ they possibly can. The year draws to a close, and the old projects still in development when WotC took over are pretty much out now. Time for them to really work on the complete makeover they'll give both the game and the magazine soon. The power is in their hands, and they're going to apply it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 1/8


124 pages. Hmm. This is a nice cover. Certainly a good bit of light relief compared to the more blatant supernatural covers. It is a bit cheescakey, mind, but they've done worse (issue 114, for example) The theme this month is another look at magic, magic items in particular. Well, I suppose we've got to have something to beat the new undead they introduce every year. The arms race continues. Will the players or the DM benefit most from this issue? Guess we'll have to carry on and see.


Scan quality: Excellent colour, but no indexing. A few slightly angled pages.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Having finally got rid of book and RPG reviews, it seems a great irony that they're now thinking of starting up a minis column again. Swings and roundabouts. But I suppose they will push playing with minis more in the next edition. I wouldn't be surprised if the people responsible for that decision are already working here. So this editorial is devoted to selling readers on the idea, and asking them what they want in it. Well, this is interesting. Since I was never particularly interested in minis, it's not as welcome as the gaming reviews, but it certainly adds a bit of variety and gives me something to think about. And if there's a place they should be announcing changes to the magazine, this is it. At least they're not trying to work jokes in the whole time.


D-Mail: We start off with some praise for Ed Greenwood, and the other old greats of the company. He's stuck with the magazine through thick and thin. The others should come back too! I think many of them are earning way more working for computer game companies. And TSR did get rather stressful near the end. They may well be happier where they are.

A letter pointing out that Thulsa doom IS an original R.E.H character, but from a Kull story rather than Conan. That's egg on Justin Bacon's face.

Another letter, this time pointing out that while some characters have been through so many hands it's hard to say which is the right interpretation, this does not apply when the first author is still fully known and in print. Well, maybe in the case of comic books, but those were always collaborative anyway, with the artist as important as the writer in building the character.

A letter criticising Dave Gross's editorial from issue 248. He stands by his basic point though. Fun is crucial for a game. Everything else is not. Therefore it has to be the first priority. Worry too much about everything else and you'll suck out the primary reason for doing this in the first place.

A request for a bit less crunch, more general roleplaying advice. I think at this stage, they have trouble providing either without repeating themselves. But there's more different bits of crunch they can add to the game, so that's why things have slanted towards that as time went on. The stuff in the old magazines is still perfectly valid.

A letter full of ideas for who might play the Dragonlance characters in a movie. Most of them are a bit old for that now. The passage of time sucks. Mind you, we did get a Dragonlance movie in the end. And that sucked too. Sucking all round! There's plenty for everyone, and that doesn't suck!

A letter praising their artwork in recent issues, and in particular that of Rebecca Guay. They already have repeat commissions from her, rest assured. This is one area they don't intend to skimp upon.

And finally, yet another letter that asks about submissions procedure. They're more email friendly than they used to be, but they still want the damn SASE's for the manuscript itself. It's just the way they still roll, despite adding days to revision times.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 2/8


Nodwick becomes trap fodder again.


Forum:Greg Hill wants story based xp rather than killing things and taking their stuff based, like so many other games. Apart from that, his tastes are pretty old skool. The basic 4 classes and 1e style psionics and he's happy.

Patrick Seymour wants to change D&D so it's primarily a game, rather than a simulation of reality. All that historical accuracy griping is one of the biggest sources of slowdown. Another idea you'll have to wait a second edition change to see fully implemented.

Gary Sturgess doesn't want ability scores starting low, or advancing as you gain levels. PC's should be heroic right from the start and stay that way. And level drains should be largely temporary. Most things in the game, however, don't need changing.

Ben Wray defends the idea of moving quite a few Alterations elsewhere. Wish, on the other hand should possibly be moved INTO there, particularly if you take the monkey's paw interpretation of it's methods. How do you want to play that?


Sage advice: How does boosting your scores from magical books work. (You snooze, you lose. They vanish as soon as you've read them, so you'd better find the time to practice what they preached pretty sharpish, before you forget. )

Are undead immune to normal invisibility. If not, why have their own version. (No. Sometimes you want ordinary people to see you, but not the monsters. Surely you can see the use in that. )

Can you be raised after being power word killed. (Skip says yes! Yes, Skip knows Jean said no, but that was over a decade and edition ago. Skip is his own sage, and can do what Skip likes again. )

Does silence defeat power words (only if the caster is within it's area. If they're not, and you are, you're only disadvantaging yourself)  

How many arrows can you fit in a quiver (20. No more. It is the law, and the quiver unions will complain if you try and get them to build a bigger one)

How many arrows can you make in a day (1d6. Not the most reliable and well-paying job for a young man to take)

How many knives fit in a bandolier (never enough. )

Do wizards have to take reading/writing or not? (Oh, Bloody 'ell, not this one again. Orl roight. Let's run through this one more toime. Ye don't have to know regular writing to understand magical script, or vice versa. Y'get me? )

What saves does the rod of seven parts have (Metal. It's well 'ard mate. )

What are the thieving modifiers for dragonskin armour  (same as for any other type of scale mail. What need have I for your "logic")

Does mordenkainen's lucubrication work the way I think it does (no)

Can you dispel selectively in an area (no)

I get weird results by messing with Skills & Powers (Oh, what a surprise. Any customizable system can be broken. Anyway, I thought you rules lawyers liked doing things like that. )

If a wizard loses their spellbook, can they copy ones they already know into it (no. They're far too complicated for that. You've gotta find the damn things all over again. )

Why can't elves be priests of mystara? (ZOMG Racism! LOL!)

Can a giant eagle wear a magic ring on it's talons. (No. That's like trying to get around the 2 rings limit by wearing them on your toes)

What happens if you try and charm a mirror imaged person. (Skip will provide you with options. You pick one, any one. Ha ha. Wrong one.)

How many charges do charged rings have (How long's a piece of string after someone's cut several bits off it.)

How long does it take to build a castle with a rod of building (Work it out as if it was a solid cube. It's easier that way.)

Does vortex affect undead and golems (Undead, yes, Golems shrug it off like they do everything else)

Can you shoot melee enemies (only if you want to be attack of opportunity central. Skip likes attacks of opportunities, and will do Skip's best to ensure they become non-optional next edition)

How do I find stuff within a bag of holding quickly (Good question. Skip recommends you get the deluxe edition. That'll solve those problems.)

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 3/8


Spontaneous enchantments: Magical items developing not through wizards enchanting them, but by doing cool stuff with them over an extended period. That is a good idea. Wait a minute, my rehash sense is tingling. Let's have a look. Thought so! Issue 226, less than 3 years ago. That's not a suitable gap in my book. It's less crunchy than the previous one as well, which gave a properly codified system for player actions to enhance their items and become legendary. However, it is longer, and details a wider variety of methods, which all seem appropriate from a story point of view. And the artwork is superior this time around. So from a system guy's point of view, this article is inferior because it's vaguer, but if you're looking from a Storyteller PoV, it's superior, giving you a wider range of tools to tell a story the way you like it. Overall, it obviously doesn't have the impact it did first time around, but it's still a good idea well presented. So they just about get away with this one. But a third time will make me vewy vewy cwoss.


Random magical weapon generator: Sniff sniff. Is my rehash sense still going off? Shurely shome mishtake? Aww. sonofabich. Issue 57 already did it. Guess I get to do the compare and contrast thing two articles in a row. And hmm. I think that once again this issue manages to do it in greater detail and quality than the previous one, which was only a single pager, where this is 6. They also have slightly different focuses which means they don't step on each other's toes much anyway. Plus this one has examples that show what can come out of it, which is another plus. Once again, there are benefits to experience, and Greg Detwiler is certainly a pretty experienced writer. The 2e era may have dragged on a bit longer than it should have, but that means there is some highly polished stuff in amongst the repetition that'll be very good in actual play.


A treasure trove of tomes: We've had tons of magical books for the Realms, and Greyhawk has been trying to play catch-up. Now they try to play catch-up in the nonmagical books department as well. And don't do too badly, with 20 books packed with plot hooks and minor mechanical benefits for owning them. This is full of the kind of detail canon obsessives can have a field day with, with tons of specific dates, places and people mentioned. This is one of those cases where I don't feel quite qualified to make a judgement on their consistency with established lore, or if they get used again later, but they do make quite entertaining reading, and aren't particularly overpowering. They should probably work fine in actual play.


Working class wizards: Wizards doing mundane jobs with their magic seems to be another familiar topic, although this is more driven by the forums than the official writers. As I've said before, this is one area where being a specialist will let you earn more money, for you get to do more per day, and get a reputation for doing something in particular, instead of promising the world to people and leaving them disappointed when you can't perform miracles in any field they ask. The good thing about this article is that it picks careers that have possibilities for adventuring life, such as spy, messenger and police officer. That way, as long as the DM makes sure that the missions you face are interesting, you have a ready supply of plots to give the group direction, and they may well have to kill enemies and take their stuff in the process. There are more ways to tie adventurers into larger society and still keep their lives eventful than one. Of course, it's even easier for clerics, with gods for everything, and more emphasis on utility spells. But they aren't as glamorous, so they don't get as much attention. Oh well. That may or may not be a story for another time.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 4/8


With a twist: Avoiding monoculture with nonhuman races is one thing we've talked about quite a few times over the course of this journey. Well, now we have random tables for that too! Sometimes I love doing this. This is both useful and amusing. Not too surprised to find out it's another one from the pen of James Wyatt, who continues to come up with interesting takes on niche topics. Some of them are fairly extreme, going well beyond any real world cultural variations to the point of whole subraces. But I guess that's nothing new, especially for elves with their tendency to splinter at the drop of a terrain. You try to compensate for a problem, and you can wind up overcompensating. Still, his contributions remain a lot more interesting than the average writer. I can see why he's getting plenty of repeat work from them.


Sufficiently advanced magic: Or putting AD&D elements in Alternity. Well, they're doing another racial conversion the other way just a little later in the issue, so why not. Actually, it turns out my first impression is disingenuous, as the talk about AD&D magic is restricted to a sidebar, and it's mostly about even more advanced technology than the default setting details. Since all of these are well known from other stories, this seems to be a pretty arbitrary distinction, but I suppose the distinction between magic and technology can be, especially when psionics essentially is magic with a veneer of technobabble. So really, I'm left pretty underwhelmed by this article. The statistics of the two systems are close enough that converting stuff between them isn't hard. And it doesn't introduce new ideas or mechanical tricks. Really, it's just a bit of filler that only got through because they're trying to give consistent coverage to their new system.


Fiction: Guardian of the barrow by Nancy Varian Berberick. We had one Beowulf story fairly recently in issue 236. Here's another quite different one. Set in his twilight years when the dragon showed up, it's a rather floridly written piece that reminds us that life goes on when one person's story is over. The dragon may be slain, Beowulf may have fallen as well, but a new person has to take over the role of king, and figure out what to do with the unstable political situation and the dragon's treasure. (I think one will wind up solving the other, one way or another. ) So it occupies an uncomfortable middle between trying to pay homage to the style of the original poetry, and present a more realistic view of things, not quite succeeding at either. The fiction department may have more hits than misses, but this isn't one of them.


Planar sites design contest. Looks like they're really racking up the number of competitions. What's this in aid of?


AD&D game aliens: Here we get the AD&D conversion for the Fraal, aka the Alternity system's take on Gray aliens. Frail physically, but with tremendous mental abilities, they have unlimited advancement as psionicists, (if they can make the Con minimum) but pretty limited class abilities otherwise. Still, even the ordinary individuals among their race have substantial Wild Talents, and other bonuses to their mental powers, which they pretty much take for granted amongst their own race. This does lead to another big drawback, that of not dealing very well with being alone, but that's solvable by having more than one of them in the party. (which is a good idea anyway, given their skill at psychic synergies. ) So they're quite powerful in their own way, but their limitations mean they certainly won't take over the whole game, for a party still needs a rogue and a wizard. And they are relatively iconic for a new race. If you're playing a game which includes the odd sci-fi element like Barrier Peaks they'd fit right in.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 5/8


Wyrms of the north: In a world so full of powerful magic and active gods, it's easy for paranoia to set in. Dragons are certainly no stranger to this, as their great power and senses means they can be all too aware of those that exceed them. This is one of those cases. He's not one of those super twinked dragons or archmages that's become immortal and practically invulnerable, but he'd very much like to be. After so many of the real thing, it's amusing to meet a wannabe who tries hard, but hasn't really pulled it off yet. So this shows he's aware of his excesses in the past and if not apologising for them, is able to poke fun at them. Racking up the contingencies is something so many of his characters do, and it's no surprise that not everyone would be perfect at it, and they'd still feel unsafe after doing all they can. So this fills out the slightly lower tier of the world nicely. Surely there are enough people at the top now? At least until a few of them get killed in big metaplot events.


Arcane lore: A special for diviners? About frigging time! Each element has got at least one, often several themed issues, while this school remains neglected. It's no wonder they get the best deal in terms of restricted schools. It has plenty of potential, but not enough people are exploiting it. Oh well, this is a decent length and density, skipping the lengthy histories of who and why to just get into the useful crunch. Plenty of stuff here to help keep your diviner competitive and more informed than anyone else.

Detect Mineral helps you become a very profitable dowser. It'd work better if it had a longer range though. Sometimes the really good stuff is miles underground. Can't expect the world from 1st level spells.

Know Intelligence, like detect magic or evil, is one of those low level divinations that reveals a fairly limited bit of info, that you can nevertheless get plenty of use out of if you apply your own analytical skills.

Serpentine Sight helps you penetrate cover, seeing slightly around walls. Interesting. Cast on your warrior and they'll really benefit in a trench based battle.

Envision Whole lets you figure out what a broken object was. Again, reconstructing it will take higher level magic.

Insight boosts your intelligence temporarily in the same way Strength boosts your strength. Another case where I say roll on next edition, where this stuff'll be standardised and applied to all your scores equally.

Time Sense gives you a perfect internal clock. I'm sure I've seen a better variant on this with a decent duration before, so I shall yawn at this one.

Forecast Usefulness helps you figure out what spells you'll need next day. Genius. This is only as infallible as the GM's ability to predict what the players will do and encounter of course, so play nice, will you.

Know Command Word is a relatively quick and specific item identification trick that'll let you pluck an item from a hoard, and turn it against it's owner in a couple of rounds. One of those ones that could well become a staple of the cautious wizard, especially since the full identify is so expensive.

Locate Wizard Mark lets you tell where every instance of your personal sigil is. This isn't too earth-shattering on it's own, but you can bet Elminster and co can find some incredibly obscene uses for it along with other divination and sympathetic magics. Lets pull those Xanatos Gambits folks!

Teleport Track is another of the Elminster favourites. Foil those escaping fiends and make them think twice about underestimating a foolish mortal. Diviners really are the kings of antiscrewage, and they ought to get more credit for that alone.

See Backward lets you rewind and find out what happened in a place. Another no problemo plot solver for the DM to work around cleverly.

Clairsentience gives you remote sight, sound and smell, in one handy package. That's much easier than stocking up on spells for all the senses.

Reverse Scrying is yet another familiar Wizards Three favourite. Who could this be that is researching me? Perhaps I should terminally douse their curiosity.

Speak with water is another information gatherer that'll work just fine, albeit with slightly quirky focus. Yawn.

Candle of Revelation is a longlasting, multipurpose portable divination device. A whole bunch of the basics in one go. Some wizards do get lazy at higher levels.

Well of Wisdom gives you superhuman wisdom for a very short time. It's material component is a bit of a bugger to get though. This'll take quite a bit of work to take advantage of, and carry serious risks along the way. Not everyone can be Solomon.

Speak with Distant Dead lets you summon spirits without their bodies. This is surprisingly tricky and unreliable in D&D. I suppose there are worse metaphysical quirks to have to work around.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 6/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magical Charms are this month's theme. Whimsical stuff for the wearing, that'll help you through life's trials and tribulations. As is often the case these days, they include some amusing fiction at the start. It's all quite encouraging.

Gabriella's Cameo of Countenances shows the profile of anyone named, giving you a definite help identifying them. It's not unfoilable, but what is in this world.  

The Locket of the Grandmother lets you talk to a deceased relative daily. Exactly how pleased they'll be about endlessly being bugged in the afterlife is not made clear. Guess that's up to how you roleplay it.

Eve's Bestiary Bracelet is an 8-pack of awesome animal based tricks. Like Quaal's feather tokens, each of these individually would be a perfectly valid bit of treasure. Together, it'll get you out of a whole novel's worth of jams, and permanently change your character beyond that. A truly mythic item.

Doublets of the Doppleganger let you create a duplicate, albeit a rather weedy one, to serve as a distraction or servant. We've seen better variants of this in the past.

Trousers of Timely Change always have just enough money for you help people out. Kinda takes the sacrifice part out of charity, making it a no-brainer. Still, the designer probably hoped it'd rub off on the wearer so they do it anyway after a while.

Mama's Hankie makes it all better when rubbed on a boo-boo. Just make sure you wash all that nasty mess off carefully afterwards.

Mama's Purse is a bag of holding with a slightly comical edge. What junk will you unearth as you try and get the right thing out of it's depths. Who wanted to store a stuffed giraffe in there anyway?

Irene's Mystical Ballgown makes you into a great dancer. The illustration goes straight for comedy. I hope that isn't Mordenkainen there.

Fans of Sweet Airs can cure disease for an entire community. This has it's cost to recharge, and it's quite a high one. One life for thousands, are you willing to make that oh so cliched sacrifice.

Shawls of Aging make you look decrepit, or even more so if you already are. Aka the snow white gambit. No-one suspects the sweet old lady. Which evil laugh shall I do this time? Kekekekekekeke!

Canes of Safe Passage also seem designed to facilitate the untouchability of the elderly. Any tricks you try may well be turned against you, possibly while faking obliviousness.

The Parasol of the Night Fiend lets monsters that are vulnerable to sunlight go out in the day by using it as shade. Depending on their appearance, this may look at bit incongruous. They do love their whimsy around here.

Gloves of the Butler animate and function like a particularly intelligent unseen servant, only visible. Another one with an obvious TV source.

Chaps of Riding are another basic proficiency score adder. No great surprises here.

Buttons of Repast turn into full meals when removed from your clothing. A good emergency one for if you suspect you'll be captured. After all, how often do they check your buttons? Just hope they don't completely strip you as a response.

The Left Shoe is an incredibly stupid cursed magic item. Unless you have two left feet, this is going to be rather uncomfortable. Not sure if that cycles round through idiocy and back to genius again, but it definitely works as a pain in the butt.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 7/8


Dungeon mastery: How should you begin every session? With a monologue! That's the lesson in this month's DM'ing column. Ahh, joy. That's a classic one from the storygaming school that has the potential for much parody. If you don't have enough charisma IRL, the players will ignore you and chatter or fiddle around with their electronic gadgets. And if you ham it up too much, you'll fail to get immersion as well, and open yourself up to parody. So this is a rather entertaining article because it's different, and oh so very of it's time. If your group likes the amateur dramatics side of roleplaying it could work quite well, but if they just want to move pieces around and kill stuff, it'll be a waste of time. If it works, you can even add epilogues as well, although you might find it harder to script those in advance, unless your story is pretty heavily railroaded. I guess you'll have to work on your improvisation skills as well if you want to be a great DM, and then make it seem like it was part of the plan all along. So yeah, I've used this technique before anyway, to mixed success. Try it, but don't be too surprised if it doesn't always work for you.


Dragonmirth has lots and lots of beefcake.


PC Portraits is in theme as well, with a good 14 Enchanters of various age, sex, race and gender. And honesty for that matter. I wouldn't buy a potion from half of them, especially if they were selling it from a little shop I'd never seen before despite walking past it every day. It'd be much preferable to live in a world where magic is common enough to be regulated, really.


KotDT has another attempt at switching the roles around. Guess The DM is the DM because he's the least bad at it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 253: November 1998


part 8/8


TSR Previews: The Forgotten Realms enjoys another variant splatbook. Demihuman Deities gives you yet more gods to be speciality priests of, with all the cool power options that entails. On the novel side, Troy Denning returns after his lengthy sojourn in Athas with Faces of Deception. He adventures in the Utter east (which is of course, actually to the west of the things he was making involving the Horde back in 1991.) Sounds like it could be fun.

Dragonlance continues to fill in the gap between the original adventures and 5th age. Legacy of Steel by Mary H. Herbert sees an attempt to found a new knightly order that isn't batshit insane or with a stick up it's arse, that actually helps ordinary people. Tough order, really.

Greyhawk really brings the irony to it's lost tombs series, with The Doomgrinder. It makes more sense when they reveal it's a giant evil windmill. Now that sounds like a fun bit of adventuring.

Ravenloft goes back to another classic, with Children of the night: Werebeasts. An anthology of short adventures, you know how these things go by now.

Alternity gets The Lighthouse. Your typical inn on the borderlands where you can rest up and find clues to adventure, only Iiiin Spaaace! Once again we see how closely they're sticking to the D&D product model with this line.

Marvel super heroes enjoys a double bill featuring the Avengers. A Roster book full of stats, and Masters of Evil, an adventure anthology. Will you use the pregens for this one, or adapt it to your own ends?


Profiles: Jolly Blackburn is the writer and artist (by default, as he couldn't get anyone else to do that bit for him) of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic strip. Originating in Shadis magazine, it has since gone from strength to strength, and wound up moving to Dragon in issue 226. This is because despite being somewhat exaggerated and simplified in it's dysfunctionality, it is pretty true to life. So many people identify with it, and the people and scenarios, and frequently, they suggest storylines that he then uses. Ahh, the joys of observational humour. As long as you know how to shut up, listen, and remember what you take in, you will never want for material. Also, an excellent example that the production values of something are less important than the ideas and emotions contained within. Even if you don't have the resources to do something properly, do the best you can, get it out there, and if the fundamental ideas are good, you'll pick up people to help along the way.


Another issue of fairly high quality articles, and slow development in the format of the magazine. It looks like after cutting away some stuff, and adding a few bits and pieces to replace them, they've reached approximately the form they'll keep until the edition change comes to shake things up again. They just have to struggle with the dread spectre of rehash, which is more prevalent than ever. Maybe introducing some new regular series would help with that, as the current ones are approaching saturation, apart from the ecologies. Maybe we'll see something coming next year. After all, it's the end of the millennium. All that apocalyptic tension has to go somewhere. But first, another christmas! I never get tired of those at least.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 1/8


123 pages (missing page 89) A giant who appears to be doing rather well for himself (if you look at the quality of his boots) deals with another valiant assailant on the cover. Inside, it looks like there are quite a few Giant-centric articles as well. That's a theme for an issue they haven't done before, and has a rich vein of legendry from around the world to tap for inspiration.  Maybe they can give goblins their turn in the sun (which the goblins would hate) sometime soon. Perhaps, perhaps perhaps.


Scan quality: Excellent colour, missing one page, no index.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Looks like once again, the staff of the magazine have barely found time to play all year, and when they did, it was to playtest a new module. A pretty textbook example of turning something into your job spoiling the fun. And so when they do, they get a little silly, acting deliberately stupid in the name of roleplaying. So they're still a way away from insisting people should put being a team player over creating a character. Still a way from the present and more interested in storytelling than tactical play then. Well, that's vaguely interesting to see. So it's another editorial that shows what they preach in the articles isn't exactly what they do in actual play. Obviously they can't incorporate everything. But it would be nice if they were trying out some of the custom monsters and kits before sending them our way.


D-Mail: Two letters of general praise for issue 251. Once again it seems that for many of the people still reading, the magazine's the best it's ever been. Let's hope that continues to be the case.

A letter of specific praise for PC Portraits, that also points out that in the artwork department, the amount of rehash has actually gone down. If only I could say that for the articles they're supporting as well.

Some niggling about catapults, cannons, and other ancient weapons of mass destruction. Why is is always the mass combat rules that leave people unsatisfied. Do the designers not put the same effort into them, or is it just harder to get right?

A letter from someone who quit for a while, but has been lured back by the magazine. Nostalgia will tell, as long as you don't change things too much.

A letter niggling about evolution, and criticising the comics that they've already cancelled. It seems some people actively want less continuity in the magazine where I would prefer more. How are they to please both sides?

A letter which thinks they ought to catalog and republish their back issues for ease of reference. Oh, they have a better idea. They're going to put 250 issues on computer. So they probably started planning this immediately after, or even before they reached that landmark. Someone at the company really cares, even if their editors can't always find the time to check the back-catalogue to see if they've already done something.

And finally, a second letter of praise for PC Portraits, asking if it could be done in colour. They chose to do it in B&W so you could customise it yourself. Still it's good to see it get such a strong response. You can bet they'll keep this around for a good few years.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 2/8


Nodwick is getting rather compressed. Thankfully he has his hench snax to keep him going. Remember folks, chemical augmentation is Wrong.


Forum: Ben Stiles wants rules for knockback and other effects from spectacular hits.  Fighting giants and dragons definitely shouldn't be a matter of just trading blows till someone dies.

Garett Kutcher is another person who wants to see achieving story goals be the primary method of gaining xp next edition. it makes it so much easier to control the PC's when you explicitly can define all the carrots and ignore everything else they do. No levels until you follow the plot!

Derek Groen defends the need to trim down the alteration school. You can justify nearly anything as an alteration, and far too many people have. I suspect overambitious transmuters in game.

Justin Bacon gives another lengthy contribution, as expected by someone who's been a regular forumite for ages. He wants to see D&D move towards the majority of systems, with point buy, skill progressions, and all that. The current system is still based off a 1974 kernel with lots of clunky add-on script, to use a computer analogy.

Matt Loey wants to get rid of alignment restrictions on classes, as they mostly cause trouble and arguments. It should be a purely internal matter, and based more on intentions than actions. See you when 4e comes around.


Sage advice: If you destroy your old body and the receptacle after magic jaring, does the new body count as your natural one (no. You're still a squatter, no matter what you do. You'll get your just deserts sooner or later. )

Can you get around spell caused aging and ability drain by casting it in someone else's body. (No. Fate does not smile on that kind of jackassery)

Is passive contact still a power (yes)

How much do you pay to make it permanent (nothing above the base cost)

How many people does it take to make the new kinds of armour (Follow the formulas. Skip wonders if people read the books sometimes)

What level is a wand of wonder's power when a wild mage controls it (6th, just like most wands )

Which of your items have to save when a fireball hits you. (use table 47)

I need more info on the staff of the python (Well, you say NI! to activate it, and feed it shrubbery to recharge it. And now for something completely different. )

You still haven't properly converted all the proficiencies from old supplements to Skills & Powers. (If skip did that, skip would be at it all year. It'd be even worse than giving tome of magic spheres to all the old gods)

Can detect magic locate an invisible enemy (Man, you people never learn, do you. This is like the 4th time you've asked that. )

Can a feebleminded character maintain psionic powers (no. )

Are all PC pixies middle aged (oh, errata, errata. What does it matter. It makes books fatter. Especially if it's fried and served in batter.)