Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 6/7


Role models decides to go sci-fi, and immediately bumps into a fairly significant issue. Since the last time they had minis coverage, they completely cut out non WotC games. And since Alternity is only recently out, and they don't have an official licenced minis line to go with it, this make it rather tricky to find appropriate minis. So you'll have to improvise, and incorporate stuff from other gamelines, or even (shock!) generic models. If anything is emblematic of their closing horizons around this point, it's that kind of attitude. They do also have some useful advice on using minis in game and representing cover without actually having terrain minis  mitigates this a little, but this still feels very limited and a bit insubstantial. At this rate, they'll go the way of the reviews before too long, and then I'll have even less variety of stuff to cover. Boo.


PC Portraits: This column does sci-fi characters as well this month. Which means the standard demihuman races get eschewed for various alien types, including a grey with silly hair, a weren, two reptilian things, a guy with a cybernetic third eye, and a whole bunch of other humans with interesting fashion choices. I think this is one that would really benefit from showing their upper body as well as their heads. That's a perfectly valid portrait form. But they've made their format, and they're sticking too it. As with the editorial, I can't help but think the magazine would be better if it was a little less formulaic.


No one can hear you scream: Alternity goes horror? Well, it's a valid topic, but since they only had one joke article this month, while this is the second horror one, I feel a little put out. Are their proportions of submissions really so skewed at the moment? Thankfully, it's not all straight conversions from D&D, although the fear, horror and madness rules from Ravenloft are pretty much identical. The monsters on the other hand, are far more sci-fi appropriate, with effort made to make them horrific in an Alien or Event Horizon way, rather than a dracula and the wolfman way. Body horror is very appropriate when combined with mutations and cybernetics, while other dimensions don't stop being viscerally bizarre because you know the rules on how to get there and back. James Wyatt seems to be improving, because this was not only highly useful, but didn't tip over into being silly at all. He's sticking to his niche, while also expanding it. That's how you gradually take over.


Dragonmirth has much to regret this april. KotDT has another player revolt, even though the DM is entirely playing by the rules.

Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 7/7


TSR Previews: D&D's been building up with quickstarts for the past few months. Now they get a new core boxed set. Bill Slavisek is the guy responsible this time. Once again, newbie friendliness seems to be the primary selling point. No great change there. Sigh.

AD&D, meanwhile, goes back to mining the little tidbits from the corebooks and expanding them into full adventures in an attempt to lure us in by hitting the nostalgia buttons. The Axe of the Dwarvish Lords is the latest artifact to accumulate a prefab epic plot around it.

The Realms does some planar crossovering in The Glass Prison by Monte Cook. A half-demon comes to the realms and has to fight his darker nature. Someone wants to make another fran-chise.

Alternity, unusually, gets 3 books this month. Tangents is a book on alternate universes. Infinite possibilities, infinite ways things could go wrong. Fun fun fun. There's also Threats from Beyond, for those of you who'd prefer alien invasion, and Starfall, a bunch of short stories. This seems pretty positive.

Marvel superheroes follows up on the Fantastic Four suppement with Fantastic Voyages, a set of adventures tailored for them. Dr Doom, the Skrulls, possibly even mole men. They do seem to be concentrating on prefab stuff a lot more than last time round here as well.


ProFiles looks stupid again. They could at least be consistent. Unsurprisingly, given his appearance on the cover, Todd Lockwood is our profilee this month. He's had a long association with D&D, first appearing in in issue 22's Mapping the Dungeons as a person looking for a gaming group. He first contributed to the magazine in issue 36, doing both the art and writing for the Krolli. He made occasional contributions since then, while pursuing a day job in general commercial illustration, but recently has started doing regular work for the D&D crew. A somewhat unusual career path, in that it's taken him this long to really become a known name.  Of course there's bigger and better to come, as he comes to be if anything, the artist that really defines 3rd edition. But this shows that if you keep plugging away, and honing your craft, your career can take off at the oddest times. Just make sure you're ready to capitalize on this fact. One of our most interesting profiles ever. And he still looks pretty handsome as well. Definitely one to respect, even if his work isn't to your taste.


As with issue 142, despite the page count only being about 80% of normal, it still feels like quite a significant drop, resulting in this issue feeling pretty insubstantial, apart from the epic and classic article at the beginning. I think that's enough to make the issue worthwhile though, given how few of those we've seen in recent years. And this does feel like a bit of a landmark in terms of pacing. Let's hope I can get through the remaining hundred-odd issues without anything disastrous happening to me, and finally finish this off for good.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. The TSR logo changes this month, as they officially start their 25th anniversary celebrations. They've been boosting the amount of nostalgia in general for a good year now, but this really shifts things up a gear. Get ready for deluxe limited edition stuff, and and whole bunch of reprints and revisitings of old modules. But that's not the theme of the issue, at least not yet. Seems to be time for another rag-tag collection of articles. Let's see where their meanderings take them this month.


Scan quality: Excellent colour, indexed, but some bleedthrough from alternating pages.


In this issue:


Planescape: Torment! Fun fun fun! Now that's a game I'm delighted to see arrive.


The wyrms turn: For all that characterisation has expanded over the years, landscapes are still important. Even modern modules are more likely to be named after the place than the characters. Even dragonlance, which was one of the first to break those naming conventions, had some pretty memorable backdrops to it's plots. So this combines nostalgia with promotion for their upcoming rereleases. Now you can get a whole new generation into the good old adventures! So this is one editorial where the agenda is pretty transparent. They have product to push, and by gum, they're going to push it. Which is exactly the kind of thing I tend to skip over. Let's hope the letters aren't too sycophantic this month.


D-Mail: We start off with a letter praising them for finally getting round to a psionics special, and also asking them to do more big all-in one articles with setting, monsters, items, and spells. Since I have generally been giving those higher marks than the regular columns, I must concur.

A good ol' nitpicking letter. EVOLUTION DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!!! It's lazy and haphazard and long-term and very environment specific. It's a name slapped on an emergent principle, not a natural force in itself.

A letter asking for more Greyhawk setting info. Despite everything they've done, there's still a good deal of sketchiness to it, especially as regards to geography. Well, we mainly saw towns as a backdrop to the dungeons that were the real focus. Even Hommlet only got half a module's worth of detail.

A letter that's mostly positive, but doesn't want to see computer game conversions. Those monsters should stay where they were created. Although since many of them were obviously based on D&D monsters anyway, that's a little blurrier than you might like.

And finally, another story of someone's use of minis in their game. They really have quite a neat setup for representing the landscape in an easily erasable and redrawable fashion. It's even fairly easy to fold up and transport when not in use. All you need is a little DIY skill.


Nodwick tries to keep his employers on the straight and narrow.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 2/7


Forum: Jesse Mix thinks half the problem of people complaining about classes being underpowered is not because they actually are, but because people these days are spoiled, and want to play badasses right from the start. You need to change their crappy attitudes, not the game. Excuse me for a second. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :pfff: Might as well tell the tide to stop coming.

Leon Chang wants a skill based system, using templates to represent classes a la GURPS. Wait. Doesn't GURPS already do that? Nahh, that'd be too easy.

Jim Bobb wants the game to return to a mix of basic D&D and AD&D 1e. Modern developments mostly suck. Mostly.

Allen Mixson once again lets us know how much of a bugger an axe is to wield. You can have your toes off with a fumble. But weapons on the whole should be more balanced than they are, keep lots of options attractive to players.

Michael P. Kellam is another person who dislikes the idea of spell points, but thinks wizards do need a little more flexibility than the current system offers. In the process, we see another proto-sorcerer idea presented for review.

Daniel Bates is the token reactionary for the idea of standardising cleric & wizard spell levels. It would grossly overpower clerics, with all their other benefits. That depends how powerful the spells at each level are. Classes do not have to operate on the same scale even if they have the same degrees of granularity.

John Wade reminds us that while some classes are better than others, all are needed for a well balanced party able to handle any situation. That should be the case in theory, anyway.

Tom McGreenery thinks game balance is less important than everyone having an interesting character. Actually, which is easier, making rules that always give you balanced characters, or that always give you interesting characters. Neither is particularly easy, particularly when dealing with idiot players.

Pieter Sleijpen thinks the game ought to be strong enough that GM's don't have to change things to keep control of it. House rules are, to some degree, an admission the game isn't perfect naturally.  


Dungeoncraft: Having done religion last month, it's time to tie in another topic we've seen before, but not in a while. Linguistics and naming conventions. As with previous ones, Ray tries to get us through this without putting too much effort into it. You could use existing languages, or even just give things english names based on their meanings in game, with the understanding that they aren't actually speaking english in the actual world. Basically, rip off stuff that works and sounds good, left, right and centre, but make sure your players are on the same page, and try and maintain a modicum of consistency. He then continues to go back and apply these lessons to the previous articles, filling in the names of the things he created then, tying them all together into a larger whole that rewards rereading. He also starts playing Sage as well, giving advice not on rules questions, like Skip, but on handling of players. So he's settling into a routine, and getting into a position where he has feedback to pay attention too. If he pays attention to it, he should continue to improve. I become increasingly enthusiastic about seeing how long this goes on for.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 3/7


Sage advice: Is using poison always inherently evil. (Not as much as it used to be. Regular use is still not honorable behaviour. )

Can a specialized elven archer fire two arrows before anyone gets a chance to act (Not unless you walk around bow drawn all the time. This is very inconvenient. Remember, you only have two hands. )

How many attacks does a specialized guarding 7th level fighter have (the usual)

Are Gnomes and Halflings Small creatures (Yes, with all that entails, good and bad. )

How quickly can you wake up. (It takes a full round to get your bearings. Realisticly, it should often take longer, but adventurers have to learn to roll with the punches if they don't want to die horribly.)

Can blocks counter attacks of opportunity (yes)

What adjustments do you get to saves against extra damage. (luckstones. That's your lot.)

Do monsters die from massive damage (Some of them. Skip will spell it out, and make sure it gets into the core rules next edition. )

What spells are in lesser divination. (Skip will change his mind on this one again, and strip it back to the essentials a wizard needs to function. Skip knows what Skip is doing, srysly.)

Can you cast spells on an area you can't see if you know it well enough (not if you couldn't normally.)

Does spell immunity work on magic resistant creatures (only naturally resistant creatures.)

Does tensers telling blow drain all the charges from stoneskin (no, it just penetrates it.)

Does a dual classed warrior get all the benefit from Strength spells (sometimes. Depends if you're using or not.)

What happens if you magnify time duplicate (it sticks around longer. Sorry to burst your bubble. )

How does fast healing work exactly if you take multiple hits (with minimal bookkeeping, Skip promises. )

Does efficacious monster ward affect humanoids (best not to, just in case.)

Do you need permanancy to create a magic wand (if you want it to be permanent. Is that so illogical. )

How much effect does armor have on your encumbrance ( It's complicated. It's not just weight, it's how it's distributed. Skip isn't too keen on the way it was written either. )

My player wished for the powers of a vampire and I gave him the hindrances as well. He complained. Did I do wrong? (No, padwan, you did exactly right. You have learnt Skip's lessons well. Keep it up. )

Do magical items that boost strength do anything on the astral plane (No. You'll need to get ones that boost your intelligence instead. They'll do double duty for you.)


Designer Demesnes: Our kickoff special feature this month is an attempt to do in 12 pages what took Aria thousands. Present a point-buy system for quantifying your kingdom. Of course, the thing about point-buy systems is that you need a fairly extensive list of things to spend those points on, give you freedom as a player to obsess over the choices you make, and if the ones you've done are efficient or not. And in this case, 12 pages isn't quite enough to do it justice. I'm not sure if that is made better or worse by the fact that these traits are purely descriptive in setting stuff that doesn't plug into any system or give you advantages and disadvantages when interacting with other nations. But either way, this is just too little on a subject that really needs a good mechanical implementation, and struggles to make one stick and be playable. I really ought to get round to buying REIGN at some point, see just how well that really scales up. After all, a system designed from the ground up for it ought to work better than patching and adding onto one designed for crawling dungeons and killing dragons.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 4/7


Shop keep faces another customer who never learns. As long as they keep paying, that's the important thing.


Master of the world: Villains who want to take over the world? (roll the overplayed street fighter clip) Well, if they don't want to take over or destroy at least a country at some point, you're probably underdoing it as a DM, sticking too much to monsters that just sit in their rooms, or appear randomly with no backstory and connection to the world. So here's some system free GMing advice about establishing motivation and means, how to make them believable and competent, and what to do if that actually results in them winning (playing the underdogs of the rebellion can be great fun. ) The kind of thing we have seen before, and in the case of the complete villains handbook, in far greater detail than an article like this can manage. So this is a case where the spectre of rehash rearing it's head makes this less enjoyable for me than it would a new player. You can get all these basic plot ideas by watching a good old 80's cartoon. I don't particularly need to hear them again.


Miscellaneous Mishaps: Wandering monsters getting stale? Well, we've had dozens of different wandering monster tables in different adventures, but most of them have a distinct emphasis on the monsteriness, rather than the other kinds of mishaps that can befall you as you travel from one place to another. Well, if you want too, you can roll on this instead, have them encounter some more mundane irritations like fleas, some random piece of equipment going missing, or stepping in a bear trap. The kind of thing that could create flavour, or could be taken as a red herring, and spin off into a whole new adventure. And really, isn't that one of the things a DM wants, a world sufficiently developed that it keeps on throwing up new adventure developments without having to do a huge amount of work. So this is one of those easy to use, no fuss, suitable nearly anytime articles. It's mainly notable for the fact that it has a full colour Larry Elmore piece accompanying it, that looks quite different from his 80's work, but still high quality. Has he changed his materials or something? Well, anyway, that pushes it up from a 7 to an 8 due to the high production values.


Fiction: Stolen dreams by Elaine Cunningham. Time for our resident elf-lover to serve up a little prequel to her latest novel in the magazine, showing how one of the villains became messed up and entitled. They fuck you up, your mum and dad, they may not mean too, but they do. And when you're adopted by a family of a different race, that can all too easily multiply the feeling that you don't fit into the world, and the way they treat you is unhealthy and not at all what you need. ( On that note, I seriously hope The Jungle Book doesn't get a crap grimdark remake for the emo generation. With CGI animals. ) But does that excuse becoming a kleptomaniac, feeling no remorse when your actions result in the death of your adopted parent, and upon learning you're actually the exiled child of a noble family, instantly starting to act like a haughty entitled bitch. I think not, and this makes me very interested in seeing her get her comeuppance. Which in a way, does make it good promotion. But it does also make it a story where the protagonist is unlikable and gets far more than they deserve with very little effort on their own part, which isn't very satisfying to read about. So really, this has exactly the same problems as the 5th age stories from '96. I'd hoped they'd learned their lesson from that.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 5/7


Rogues Gallery: Another turn in Waterdeep, once again cementing it's place as the most detailed city in the most detailed campaign world. Many people think this is getting too much, but as Elaine Cunningham says here, people never seem to get tired of stories set in New York, so why should Waterdeep become old hat either? Maybe if we had a few more new writers, it'd help keep things fresh. But no, I guess it's another regular heavy month here. This is another column that has become far too formulaic as it's gone on.

Isabeau Thione is another sexy female thief who is fully aware of her physical attributes and exploits them to get what she wants. Seems like that's a female empowerment fantasy as much as a male sex one, as many women would love to have that kind of self-confidence and guilt-free selfishness that they can't pull off in reality. And as with last month, this makes alarm bells go off in my head. The glamour of the bad girl really isn't my thing.

Myrna Cassalanter is a professional rumor-monger. While technically a bard, she doesn't use a whole bunch of the abilities of her class. In a more technically advanced society, she'd totally be a tabloid writer. Like any hack, she's not above twisting the truth if it looks like there's more profit in it than being strictly truthful. And profit she does, having quite the mansion. It's alright for some.

Jerome Diloontier is a perfumer and occasional poisoner. Magically enforced discretion is his watchword. An oily bastard, he's not an outright villain, but he's certainly not a likeable character. His personality traits seem pretty easy to play out, and he's involved in plenty of plots, so he's one that your PC's could well run into over the course of an investigation. Muahahaha.


Dragon's bestiary: Johnathan M. Richards scours the infinite variety of the natural world once again, and manages to find a topic that isn't totally overdone for a change. Symbiotes. Despite being scarily common in reality, they've got even less coverage over the years than underwater or arctic things. This is actually one area White Wolf games do better than D&D, with so many of their supernatural types the product of unnatural symbiosis/parasitism. This could well contribute something valid to our game, even if it's ideas are straight from reality again.

Blood puddings are another transhuman metamorphosis a wizard could practice to make themselves immortal and a bugger to destroy permanently. They flow into you in gross fashion and take over your body. How pleasingly visceral and paranoia inducing.

Skullcap ivy replaces your hair with, well, ivy. On the plus side, that lets you photosynthesise. On the negative side, it looks weird and bugs will be attracted to the flowers in your hair. I doubt druids would mind that though.

Worry-warts are a pun creature that grows in you, does exactly what it says on the tin, and is near impossible to get rid of. Eww. Shoulda had this one last month.

Powerslugs supercharge your adrenalin glands, eventually making you die of a heart attack, but in the process substantially boosting your stats. One that could be a boon if cultivated carefully, and strikes a nice balance between carrot and stick. An excellent end to a collection I mostly quite like.


Wyrms of the north comes to an end, with a good old Z name. And another dragon that spends most of their time in human form, gradually doing long-term stuff to make the world a better place. (cue michael jackson song) It's a good thing the Realms has lots of powerful NPC's on both sides of the moral divide, or we'd be screwed. It's a particularly good example of how magical technology could advance in their future, if it was allowed too without countries blowing up sending things back to the dark ages. A new food source that would allow a far greater population of dragons to coexist over a the same landmass. And wouldn't that have all sorts of interesting knock-on effects on the other populations of intelligent creatures. So while this is the end of the series, it presents some very interesting new plot ideas for your long-term games, and some well sketched characters for the short term. Plus more barely disguised interracial sex. What would D&D be without that? There's plenty of value in this series really, and it has been pretty unique in the magazine due to it's sheer specificness. And since they're gradually cutting down on the amount of whimsy now, we may well not see it's like again. Let's down a good brew of one of Ed's fantastical drinks to it's passing.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 6/7


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Ahh, to sleep, perchance to dream. We spend a good third of our life asleep, yet only a tiny fraction of our items are devoted to it. It's the same kind of principle that results in ocean adventures being so uncommon when the sea covers 2/3rds of the world. Still, there's usually one article every decade or so, and it seems like this is the time for bedtime to get it's own spotlight. So let's see if these are lifechangers like a CPAP machine, or fripperies like a wind-up lullaby player.

A Cover of Invisibility lets you blend into the surroundings while wrapped up and staying still. Course, it won't stop you snoring, or smelling, so it's another imperfect protection against wandering monsters at night.

Bedrolls of the Woodsman give you ranger abilities after a night spent in it outdoors. I think that'll definitely come in handy, especially for a solo adventurer.

Blankets of Security are one of those amusingly whimsical cursed items. No matter how big and bad you are, you'll need your blanky to avoid being scared of the dark.  Taking it away from them without removing the curse will provoke muchos tantrums.

Blankets of Recuperation let you survive on one hour of sleep per night. Like most items of this type, they wear out if used repeatedly in short succession. You'll have to become undead if you want a long term solution to increasing productivity.

Pillows of perpetual youth are a bit of a misnomer, as they only work for 6 hours a day, and only when actually lain upon. You can bet someone'll come up with a scheme to lawyer that for actual immortality by using several of them, but they'll still have to get up to go to the toilet. Or be wealthy enough to get attendants to do everything for them. Hmm. That's a definite character concept there.

Pillows of Nightmares are another cursed one with an obvious effect. You'll never sleep comfortably again. If the curse isn't removed you'll be dead of exhaustion within a month.

Pillows of magic Restoration reduce the amount of tedious studying a wizard needs to recharge. Now that's one that will be highly valued by a party.

Pillows of Dream Travelling are another slight misnomer, but still useful. You don't actually do the astral scouting yourself, but send a magical spirit guide. Way to ruin the fun.


PC Portraits is interestingly progressive. Halfbreeds as a theme? That has a lot of potential, especially as you increase the number of compatible races, resulting in a quadratic increase in the number of combinations. Amusing that D&D would wind up being on the side of racial diversity (if not exactly equality) not out of altruism, but because it gives players more cool options. Along with the obvious half-elf and orc, we have a half satyr, half-giant, half cat, dog, lizard and rat people, and what looks like a half troll to me. Plus a couple where I simply can't tell what they're supposed to be crossbred with. I suppose that means the players'll have freedom to take them and make them their own then.


Dungeon mastery: Ah yes, the idea of keeping the PC's alive when defeated, but then making them suffer, thus turning what could be a game-ending event into a whole new set of opportunities. It's not unknown, but not common around here, partly because of the increasing emphasis on linear storytelling in the modules, and partly because AD&D's ruleset remains as unfriendly as ever to that happening without the DM fudging things. So this column is as system-free as ever, but this is one bit of advice that's particularly pertinent to those who like variety in their systems. There are a decent number of permutations to this idea detailed here, but none of them are unfamiliar to me. So this is pretty near the middle in terms of quality, with a good idea, but only so-so execution of that idea. Have the players lose occasionally, but not too often, otherwise they will get discouraged.


Role models: This column gets round to doing something previous ones haven't at last. Inserting cover fire into AD&D? That's probably going to work better with minis than just using your imagination. So this is mostly a little article on how to handle that, along with a little painting advice, as usual. As with last month, the well spaced writing, combined with large amounts of illustration, means this seems all too short. Still, that means it handles things in a simple and easy to remember fashion, so I guess the pudding will be in the actual play. Better get out that gridded board that they showed us how to make earlier on then.

Dragon Magazine Issue 259: May 1999


part 7/7


Armed & Dangerous: Alternity gets a second computer game conversion in a row, making me feel a little groundhog dayed. Are the writers doing this because they're genuinely fans of the games, or are they getting paid or paying for these bits of promotional material. Indeed, what is the official status of them, and why are they doing so many more suddenly? If the letters page is anything to go by, it doesn't seem to be due to reader demand. So anyway, this time they're doing Fallout 2. And mostly skipping the setting detail, instead giving us 4 pages of solid crunch on their weaponry, which is indeed pretty extensive, going from the basic spiked power fist, to the overkill of the turbo plasma rifle. What you get is very much what you pay for here. So overall, this is pretty dry, and not a huge amount of use unless you already know the game, or are just a gun fiend in general. Their promotional filler may not be quite as annoying as 5 years ago, but it's still not really what I want to see finishing off the month's articles.


This month's contest is a dungeon design one. Only 750 words to work with? Can't be a very big one then. On the plus side, the winners of the earlier competitions are starting to come in now. The CSS Nomad doesn't look bad at all, even if it makes me think of a ship from an old shoot-em-up. Their artists have done a good job representing it from above, below, and interior.

Shop keep faces the stupidity of reality. Dragonmirth should be relieved computers are still pretty stupid. Swordplay considers giving it all up. Actually, they do, since this is the last in the series. Guess these deaths are permanent for a change. KotDT make their GM give up. Again. This really is a one-joke series.


TSR Previews: Clerics get their turn at having all the spells ever produced for them compiled. Part one, anyway. Will it take 4 volumes like wizards spells and magic items did?

Dragonlance gets a double bill, partly rehashed. All the original series gets a 15th anniversary deluxe omnibus release with bonus features and conversion stuff for the Saga edition. This really is turning into the year of the rehash. There's also Reavers of the blood sea by Richard A Knaak. Yet another perspective on the chaos war, as it sweeps across the continents.

The realms gets another novel set in Waterdeep. Dream Spheres by Elaine Cunningham. Several familiar characters make an appearance. Woo.

Ravenloft continues it's Children of de niiiight series with one on Golems. 13 more named creatures with their own histories for you to build adventures around. Every monster a special experience, that's the Ravenloft way.

Alternity gets Killer Clack, a StarDrive adventure. More alien problems, leading you to explore their base, and possibly kill them all. It's the best way.


ProFiles: Sue Cook (nee Weinlein) is one of our editors. In fact she seems much happier as an editor than as a frontline writer. Of course, married to Monte, and discussing projects at home, the line between writer and editor probably gets blurred a bit. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Her current job is as head editor of Amazing Stories, as they attempt to relaunch it again. Since that flops and dies for good pretty soon, I'm not sure that's the best recommendation of her talents. She's also worked on the Dragonlance Saga game. (um, er. This isn't really making her look good, is it. ) So yeah, whatever her talents as an editor, her ability to pick the big profitable projects is definitely a bit dubious. I think I'll stop now, before the snark gets out of hand, and I say something I regret, as I do like quite a few things that she's worked on. Funny how these things can actually wind up not selling you on someone.


I enjoyed most of the regular columns in this one, but not the special features, which ironically felt like the more formulaic and tired parts this time around. I suppose that's just normal issue to issue fluctuations. It still felt like it was over noticably quicker, but not insubstantial like last time. So it leaves me reasonably positive, as the amount of continuity seems to be rising again. After a year of flailing, WotC is finally making it stick. I guess they're ready to write their own stories. At least, once the nostalgia celebrations are over. And I just bet next issue is going to be full of those.

Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. Welcome to their 23rd birthday. A fact that's pretty much overshadowed by the fact that it's D&D as a whole's 25th, but hey ho. We'll get those celebrations in 2 years time, and hopefully they'll have something special planned for that. In the meantime, it looks like we have a good selection of dragon themed articles, as per usual. Who wants to check them, see if they're still fresh after all this time? Well, I suppose dragons have an exceedingly long sell-by-date. The odds aren't too terrible.


Scan quality: Excellent, Indexed, slightly oversaturated.


In this issue:


Jade Coocon? Looks like a total pokemon rip-off.


The Wyrms turn: They've been swinging back towards crunch since 1996. Now we get an editorial encouraging you to embrace your inner munchkin. When I became a man, I put away childish things, and that includes the fear of being seen as childish. So this is one of the signs of the direction they're going to take next edition. Enough trying to be Serious Roleplayers, it's time to power up and kick ass again! It's also a reminder to do whatever's fun, rather than what you think you ought to be doing. Loosen up a bit, chug a drink, and don't be afraid to roll them bones. Life is too short to be uptight ( up tights, on the other hand .....) So this seems inconsequential, but is actually a decent bit of foreshadowing. This is the mood in the office as they develop 3e. Take heed of it.


Forum gets to go first for a change This time they want to know what the biggest house rules are.

Justin Bacon continues to be one of the loudest debaters on the edition change. This time, he tackles spell memorisation and forgetting. One big problem here is largely a matter of semantics. What they're doing shouldn't exactly be called memorisation. Change that, and half the flames'll be gone. What's in a name, eh?

Matthew Avery doesn't think 8 & 9th level priest spells are needed, as hardly anyone gets to those kinds of levels anyway. He would like a greater variety of low level ones though.

Jon Schmunk makes it very clear just how much more powerful clerics actually are in play, and wants that imbalance fixed next edition. He's already come up with a solution for his game though.

Brett Paulfler thinks charm person, fireball, and cure wounds are the most important spells in the game. They're certainly staples of many many groups, and really change your tactics. You may well be right.

Jade Murphy thinks dragons still aren't tough enough for their size, as high level character can still overtake them. I think someone needs reminding that HP are an abstract resource of badassery, not just physical resilience.


D-Mail: We start off with a request for more Skills & Powers material. Fear not, they have a few more of these coming before they discard 2e altogether.

A bit of nitpicking about the weapons in issue 250's alternity article. The kind of rules detail I couldn't spot because I'm not an owner of the system.

A letter of general praise for issue 256. Once again I yawn.

A request for Rangers and Bards to get their own special issues. Perfectly reasonable, since they haven't yet, and quite a few other classes have. Hopefully the freelancers will be prompt with their ideas.

Two exceedingly long letters on the historical accuracy of their Dark Ages article. It's one of those things that combines conflicting sources with people feeling passionate about it, always a recipe for a good flamewar.

And finally, another letter from someone pleased to see minis coverage again. Like Greyhawk, it didn't seem like people really cared until it was cancelled, now people are overjoyed to see it. What's the lesson here? Appreciate what you've got, or otherwise it may well go away.

Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 2/7


Nodwick continues to do the adventurers dirty laundry. All 5 tons of it. Shop keep deals with the creepiest gamer evar. How does he survive?


Dungeoncraft: Ray continues to put off drawing any maps with more talk about creating a home base for the PC's. You know, I've never bothered with this step, simply because the players are unlikely to stick around for long. Of course, if you detail one area more, they're more likely to get attached to it and stick around, but I think that's one of those chicken and the egg situations. So this one feels like padding, deliberately slowing his progress through the worldbuilding process so he can get more milage out of the column. The most interesting part of this is the letter, where they tackle the old issue of the thief stealing from the party, with Ray suggesting methods by which the DM and player can collude to screw over the other players and prevent metagaming. Muahahahahaha! Nice to see him encouraging a little badwrongfun in his advice. After all, it does make for interesting games, up to the point where it tears them apart. So this is a bit of a mixed bag, really. Get on with it!


Sage advice: You gave different answers to the fire shield question in issues 256 and 146. Which is right? (The new one, duh. When Skip changes Skip's mind, skip expects you to pay attention. )

What constitutes a magical trap. (Anything the spell find traps finds. Recursive, Skip knows, but true.)

Can thieves use shields (Still no. Don't go on.)

Can thieves double backstab or get attack bonuses against beholders. (No. You just don't get why it doesn't work do you. If they know you're there, it's not a backstab.)

Do you need to be able to see people to fireball them. (Its a wide range effect. You don't need to be close. )

Do dwarves get AC bonuses against all big things (oh, stop sending the same bloody questions in. No.)

How do deep gnomes get such a low AC (Armor comes as standard in the monster description. Don't think you get it for free as a PC)

Who rolls the dice (you rolls the dice. Skip rolls the dice, they rolls de dice, everybody rolls de dice. Dice are not an exclusive device. But try and keep cats off the table, otherwise they will roll de dice all over the place and lose them. )

Why are thieves sometimes better at reading unknown scrolls than wizards ( Because they're trained in winging it. Wizards always take so long worrying about the proper way to do these things.)

Can Sha'irs get their gens to fetch true dweomers (no. They have to cast them the hard way, with research and stuff )

It's unrealistic that you can only increase THAC0 through gaining levels (welcome to D&D. That's the way we roll here. )

How many martial arts styles can you specialize in (1, plus whatever they spend their later slots on)

You lose your extra attacks if you move over half your movement rate. That's so unfair! (Them's the rules. They're the rules this edition, and they'll be even stricter rules next edition. You don't get something for nothing. )

Is strength added to natural attacks for monsters or not (varies from monster to monster. Fear the arbitrary changes. )

Can an epicure detect poisoned food (possibly. Maybe not in time to avoid it though. )

What's dwarven rune magic. (A pair of neat cleric spells. Skip has a page going free, so Skip'll reprint them for you. Say thank you to Skip, now, or Skip may not be so generous next time. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 3/7


Greater drakes: So you want to ride a dragon, but your DM doesn't want something that'll overshadow the entire party, and is just maybe small enough that a Dragonlance could actually make sense as a combat implement. I think we have a perfect niche to be filled by an article. After all, they've already given us a whole load of draconic familiars, and lesser dragon variants to fight, and half-dragons for when you have sex with them, and equipment made out of their body parts. Why not adapt them to fill other niches in your life as well. Or would that just be unhealthy?

Vandalraug are the base model, bigger and tougher than most, but with no special features. If it's raw damage you want, then go for the vanilla option.

Kavainus are bony and spooky, can see ghosts, and become ethereal. This makes them amazing on a tactical level, and handy when hunting undead. You can ride them nearly anywhere, but you can't mistreat them, because they'll be able to escape any restraints. Better be good to them.

Arsalon have yellow and black scales, and form a symbiosis with a wasp or bee nest in their throat. Which means their breath weapon is bees. (my god) That's both interesting and pretty funny. I want to use these just to see the looks on people's faces.

Retchenbeast are little and toadlike, perfect for riding in swamps, and regurgitate swamp muck at their enemies. Since there are real world creatures that do similar, this makes perfect sense, and doesn't violate physics at all. And it's a better idea than trying to tame a froghemoth, that's for sure.

Silisthis are the underwater ones, long and thin and eel-like. They work like elephants or octupi, storing water in their throat sacs and then squirting it at high pressure to knock down assailants or speed their swimming. Once again, this seems grounded in real world ecological principles. Which actually isn't surprising, given it's been written by our resident ecologist. These are much better than his previous attempts at making new monsters.

Fumarandi breathe smoke formed by the chemical reactions of their toxic digestive systems. They tend to be quite cranky, and of course you might want a gas mask if you're gonna ride them, but there are worse things than adding chemical warfare to your arsenal. Have fun trying to properly train them.

Of course, these new options aren't complete without some kits to make it easier for players to get on board. In the spirit of generosity, Johnathan gives one to each class group. Air Knights are the popular heroes of the sky, inspiring the population as they protect them, and probably acquiring nicknames along the way. But if they lose their mount, they will mope. Generally, I think that's a substantial net positive.

Sky Wizards have things even better, as they don't even have that minor drawback. Like swashbucklers or dragon hunters, their only "drawback" is that they're so awesome that they're very likely to be the first target for any major trouble. Which from an adventurer PoV is just another benefit. Twinkitude!

Storm Priests, on the other hand, bear the weight of responsibility for their team on their shoulders, and suffer if they start to lose. Better make sure you're tactically prepared and on the winning side then.

Wind Scouts aren't so popular, because the public doesn't appreciate the strategic importance of knowing the terrain before a battle. They also have a tendency to be grumpy loners. After all, they're more legit than most rogues, but they're still not perfectly suited to the military life. So these are pretty fun, but do slant towards a higher-powered game by default. Having flying and substantial extra attack capabilities right from 1st level will make a huge difference.


Ahh, the silver anniversary rereleases. Now these mark the point where D&D really started feeding off it's own past rather than outside sources. Sort of an orobourus wyrm, getting more and more incestuous with each generation.

Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 4/7


Draconic design: Who wants to build their own unique dragon with random rolls?! Well, that's taking things a step further than Lew Pulsipher did way back in issue 50. Yes, it looks like it's back to the old skool time again, with an idea that could have been done 20 years ago, but they never got round to it. Greg Detwiler once again puts together two ideas that have been done before to create a result which hasn't. The joys of combinatoric math. The result isn't that comprehensive, you still need to do quite a bit of the mechanical work yourself, but that does make it less system specific. And it is grounded pretty well in myths from around the world. So this is workmanlike rather than inspired, but pretty useful and fun both in playing around to see what you get, and in it's potential to provide lots of encounters for your game that the PC's won't instantly know what to do with. It seems he's still quite valuable in making sure they have enough good articles to fill their issues.


Spawn of tiamat, Children of Bahamut: Tiamat and Bahamut were two of the original unique monsters from the very first Monster Manual. While there have been a few more over the years, such as the Corpse Tearer and the Steel & Grey Dragon, it hasn't caught on like doing new Demon Lords has. I think that part of this is because regular great wyrms are so incredibly scary, anything capable of reliably kicking their ass would be a real challenge for even a level 20+ party. And indeed, even a quick scan of their stats show these guys do not match up to the average great wyrm, which makes them a bit problematic when put in context.

An-Ur, the wandering death lives on the ethereal plane and gorges itself on ectoplasm and proto-matter. With the ability to semi-materialise and attack while staying near invulnerable, and send people scattering to random other planes, it'll be a real pain to fight if you don't have easy access to planeshifting powers, even if it doesn't kill you. So at lower levels it'll be more a plot device than something that gives you a TPK, and even at higher levels you'll have to play it smart to win. Interesting.

Dhrakoth the Corrupter is also rather weaker physically and magically than a good wyrm, but makes up for that with energy draining. It's curiously slow as well, so you'll be able to outrun it if outmatched. Without the versatility of spellcasting, and zombies it's only minions though I can't see it sustaining a long-term plot.

Mordukhavar the Reaver is the only one of these that matches up to a regular red wyrm in terms of general toughness, and even it may lose out in a slugfest due to the lack of damage bonuses on it's physical attacks. Still, compared to the Devils it actually hangs out with, it has more than enough magic to compete in the 9 hells political games, and the muscle to kick a pit fiend's ass no trouble. It's all about comparison.

Medrinia is the undersea emissary of Bahamut. She's almost the equal of a great wyrm bronze dragon, but not quite, and she can summon large amounts of dragon turtles to back her up if she needs to make a point. I think that'll make up for any shortcomings against an individual superpowerful monster.

Xathanon isn't hugely powerful or versatile, but can move at unlimited speed, and empower others, temporarily turning them into great wyrm gold dragon proxies to kick ass in it's stead. This is obviously a huge opportunity for the players if they play their cards right. I approve.

Vanathor the golden Harpist sees them fail music theory as well as game mechanics. 6 octave vocal range is not enough to go from subsonic to glass-shattering. Still, that means it does get 6 breath weapons, and it also has 19th level spellcasting abilities, so once again what he lacks in power he'll make up in versatility. So this article has lots of cool ideas, but doesn't back them up with the mechanical rigor and research they need to fit into AD&D's established power ranges. Rather disapointing, really.


Dragon names: As with the elven name guide, it's time to string together some long chains of syllables. A long life means plenty of time to rack up the achievements, and add on more descriptives and superlatives to bolster the ego. Keep rolling, adding on more until you have too many for a player to remember, so the dragon then has good reason to get pissed off at them when they fail to use it's full name when referring to it. Tee hee. This is very much fluffy filler to round off the themed section. Still, we've had worse.

Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 5/7


Van Richten's legacy: Ah yes, the Foxgrove-Weathermay sisters. Faced with the question of how to replace Van Richten after they killed him in Bleak House, they decided to give his role to two younger nieces, (well, technically not blood relations, but the daughters of one of his adventuring companions.) and continue the story. After all, it's not as if there's brand new monsters appearing regularly that his research would no longer cover. Ravenloft likes to stick to variations on the classics. But anyway, this isn't so much about them, as it is a description of Van Richten's old home. Overflowing with books, more than a few weird magical items, and the requisite secret room where the extra dangerous stuff is kept, this is filled with references to various Ravenloft modules and characters. He even has the sunsword from the original module, and isn't that going to make it a hell of a lot harder for any present day adventurers to finish Strahd off for good. Ravenloft is actually really tiny when you look at the math. I once added up the populations of all the domains, and it comes to around 1.5 million, total. That's small enough that everyone can get personal attention from the monsters that lurk pretty much everywhere, and any name level adventurers will encounter the domain lords along the way. For all they might try to draw upon the same vein as the WoD, you aren't really powerless or insignificant to them, and once you've got a few levels under your belt, you can make a real difference. So this has some moderately useful setting info, and a hell of a lot more you can read between the lines. The gameline still has a few more twists to come before they cancel it and hit the reset button.


Nodwick visits another classic dungeon, and finds it's been turned into a tourist attraction. For once, everyone is in agreement on what needs to be done.
 

Fiction: The honor of two swords by Kate Novak-Grubb. (what, was she not getting enough recognition writing using purely her maiden name?) We return to telling stories of Jeff & Kate's personal group, last seen in issue 247. Here, we finally find out how Ishi got dishonoured back in the east, and she gets to make up for that with some serious asskicking. And also learning that while honor is admirable, it doesn't always work, especially when you're dealing with weird supernatural beings. Sometimes you've got to play it smart, and it's ironic that the paladin would wind up being the one teaching that lesson. This is definitely one of their better bits of gaming fiction, as it bucks stereotypes, isn't yet another origin story, and has a stable romance in it that isn't consumed by drama. See, you can make that interesting if you try. Plus Wizard of Oz references. There's room for a few more stories using these characters.


Dragon! Guardian of the skies. This deluxe model can be yours for only $195. Ai Carumba. I've got guitars that are worth less than that.


The ecology of the Aspis: Aww. It wants to pretend it's people. Only it's not very good at it, unlike dopplegangers or steel dragons. Aspis are one of those intelligent hive creatures that are generally going to stick to the nest. But it's not inconceivable that one might be sent out to acquire information, rebel, or be the sole survivor of their hive, and wind up becoming an adventurer. Once again, Johnathan proves adept at constructing a distinctive voice and mindset for the creatures he's covering, making them both plausible and fairly amusing. With a nicely twisty tale, full of fucked up undertones (stockholm syndrome and love potions, hmm) and rules for making them available as PC's, this is well up to his usual standard. He's really making this series his own.


This month's competition is suitably birthdaylicious. And very specific. Design a new greater Drake. Not a new monster, not a new dragon, but a new greater drake. Hmm. I'm really not sure what to say to that.

Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 6/7


Arcane Lore: We've had plenty of birthday issues where dragons get new toys. How about a little something for us poor schmucks who actually have to kill them? There's been plenty of people who've lost their lives to dragons, you'd think a few of them would become wizards in their relentless quest for vengance instead of going the knightly route. Yup, I think I approve. This column hasn't suffered nearly as much from topic moribundity as the Bazaar or Bestiary.

Dust Shield is a minor but useful shielding effect that'll keep the environment from messing with you, and annoying swashbucklers from throwing sand in your eye. Since flying dragons can make a mess, this is pertinent, if the least of your worries once they're about to breathe on you.  

Chain Invisibility is a sneaky little trick designed to rile up a dragon or other greedy fool. Your stuff isn't really gone. But taking the time to realise that mid-combat'll make you vulnerable.

Fizzlebreath is another one that'll make them waste a few rounds, and quite possibly panic. Remember, they can often kill you in one hit, so don't even let them get that off.

Body Reunion is an interesting sympathetic magic that's useful for hunting not only dragons, but all sorts of missing creatures. A scale, a lock of hair, an old baby tooth, whatever it takes.

Lockjaw is another one to make sure they can't even attack. Now what we need is something to blunt their claws and clip their wings, and enough wizards to unleash them all at once.

Soften Scales is another pretty obvious defence reducer. After all, they do have huge negative AC's. Even an experience warrior will struggle to get hits in if you don't help them.

Earth Magnet is pretty much what I expected it to be. If you're flying, it grounds you, if you're earthbound, it sticks you there. Since Draconic mobility is underused by too many DMs,  consider if you want to bother.

Temporary Youth is really mean for dragons, but pretty neat for the rest of us. A bit longer would be nicer though, as with a tiny duration, it's only good for combat, not social tricks. Maybe a higher level variant then. Still, it's good that this stuff isn't totally focussed on one monster. It's definitely more PC friendly than the last few years.


Role models: This column serves a dual purpose, as seems to have become it's formula. The majority of it is devoted to the rules disputes that are far easier to resolve when you have minis, questions of positioning and how far characters can move in a round, which lets you know if characters can attack other ones, and what ranged modifiers they're likely to be facing. This becomes especially important if you split the party, and one hears the other in trouble, or some similar inconvenience. Meanwhile, the second, shorter sidebar is about painting faces. The secret here is to imply, not overdetail, as minis are small, and you won't be able to make out details unless you get really close. When it comes to faces, the human mind has an amazing ability to extrapolate and fill in the blanks. So once again, it does two things in two pages, and doesn't go into much depth on either. Does White Dwarf still do painting advice at this point? I know they went from covering all sorts of systems into pure house organ as well, but is that still within their remit? And are they only pandering to the new kids, or do they still produce material aimed at long-term fans? If only those threads hadn't stalled in the low double digits. So anyway, while Dungeoncraft is steaming ahead adding new depths to our roleplaying design skills, this column is not keeping up with respect to minis. It all remains a bit basic.


PC Portraits: Not too surprisingly, this column goes for the dragonslayer option. As with the sci-fi one, I think showing their bodies would allow the artist more ability to accurately represent this specialisation. As it is, the main thing they share is a certain intensity of expression. Well, we have had quite a few dragonslayer kits over the years, and they don't have that much in common either, particularly the spellcasting ones. Given how smart dragons are, that's probably for the best. If they know what's coming, they will have prepared a countermeasure. So as usual, this doesn't give me a huge amount to talk about, and you could easily use the portraits for other purposes. Meh. Give it a year or so more to wear out it's welcome.