Dragon Magazine Issue 260: June 1999


part 7/7


Zero point players: The Alternity article this month is essentially a sci-fi Rogues Gallery column. They've recently released a novel for Star*Drive as to try and get the property cooking, and here's the tie in statting up some characters from it. Fairly standard promotional method these days. Let's see if the characters are cliches.

Pete Sokolov is a dual wielding badass with a cybernetic arm, and a whole bunch of general enhancements. He fits the brooding loner stereotype to a tee, is an ex secret agent, and is an expert at computer hacking and martial arts. I suspect he'll still get his ass kicked by a team who can really specialise in their various disciplines. In the meantime, it seems like he's very much stamped from the mold that produced Drizzt. Again. Give. Me. A. Break.  

Geille Monashi is also a dual-wielder, and despite the description saying she wears a sensible jumpsuit, the artist just has to giver her a stripperific twist. She can psychically interface with computers, which lets her pull off amazing tricks on the net. Once again, she's a self-sufficient loner, and the two of them have to learn how to work together to get through the plot. Formula!

Karcen Borun looks like the main villain. He's bio-enhanced and plastic surgeried to the gills, and is doing his best to take over the megacorp and damn the costs to everyone else. I'm guessing he fails eventually. Selfishness is it's own reward.

Marius Grayes is a mid-level legbreaker in the Syndicate. Genetically engineered to deal with high gravity, this makes him exceedingly strong in regular environments. He's very much a blunt, direct straight-talker, which means he's unlikely to ever get to the top, but he has more than enough loyal followers to make a good fight for a group of PC's. So these characters don't step far out of their cookie-cutters, but they might be handy for use in actual play. Much mehness, really.


Dragonmirth has a really hard puzzle, and some clever tricks to show us. KodTD has a TPK. You really need to spot when the enemies aren't bluffing.


TSR Previews: The number of releases continues to decrease, while the amount of rehash stays high. Return to the keep on the borderlands takes us back to see who's moved in since it got cleared out in the early 80's. Actually, it's pretty similar, only with more plot. Hey ho. Drizzt's tales are also getting reprinted. Popular fella, for someone who broods so much.

In the new stuff, the Realms gets Skullport, Another place within spitting distance of Waterdeep for adventurers to get some XP in. Like undermountain isn't enough for an entire career already. Dragonlance sees Dezra's Quest by Chris Pierson. Looks like it's the centaur's turn in the spotlight during the chaos war.  Who's next, the Irda? And finally, Alternity's novel series seems pretty busy too. Zero Point by Richard Baker. What a rubbish collection.


ProFiles: Richard Baker is one of the designers who really shaped TSR's 90's output. Somehow, he managed to get in on his first try, even without having done any gaming work beforehand. After contributing to a whole load of settings, and writing more than a few generic books as well, he was one of the lead designers for Birthright and Alternity. As ever, even the works that weren't commercial successes are presented very positively in the magazine, with him being "very happy" with the way they turned out. :rolleyes: He continues to prove his versatility, moving into novels as well. What part will he play in the next few years of products? As ever, we shall see.


Continuity continues to gradually return to the magazine, with quite a few references to previous issues and other books. The quality remains fairly constant, but I think I'm enjoying it a little more when there are a whole bunch of outside connections to spot. Obviously there'll be another new beginning fairly soon when 3rd edition comes out, but in the meantime, they ought to make the most of the longest-running, most filled in edition of them all. On we go then.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. Succubus Pron, Succubus Pr0n. Classically inspired Succubus P40n. Well and truly back in fashion after being consigned to the middle pages in the 90's. If any of their covers says screw the old code of conduct, let's get some fanboys in, it's this one. So yeah, this is testament to just how much they have changed already, despite in many ways seeming to play things safe compared to TSR. It's definitely worthy of note. Of course, whether the contents'll be as daring is still up to question. Still, it should be easier to find out than forming a relationship with another real person and getting to see them naked. Let's continue pushing the bounds of geekery ever further.


Scan quality: Excellent, no indexing.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Although it's not particularly obvious in the contents page, this issue has a shadow theme. And so Dave uses this editorial to talk about moral ambiguity in your heroes. While the idea of edgy, badass anti-heroes who struggle constantly with their darker side rose to prominence in the 90's, they still have yet to really fall out of fashion. If anything, they might still be growing in popularity, despite having become a derided cliche in themselves. I suppose that's a testament to how people want to view themselves. Since the average person has more than a few moral slips in their closet, they find it easier to identify with a flawed hero than one who is utterly steadfast in their rectitude, and never even drops litter or breaks the speed limit. And without internal conflict, the writer might actually have to give their heroes a decent challenge to keep the story interesting. So this is an amusing little editorial that shows us some of the more interesting little quirks of human nature. We might strive for perfection, but if we achieve it, we grow bored and actively look for an excuse to leave it and do something different. What are we to do with ourselves?


Sage advice goes first for a change. Haven't had that in a while.

Can spellcasters cast spells in armor that doesn't count as armor (no. It just means thieves suffer no penalties. )

Does shield completely negate magic missiles. (Only if you have the right facing. You are keeping track of your characters facing, aren't you.)

Are Sha'ir gen improvement rituals variable in time or not (no, actually)

How the hell does a sha'ir survive the longer rituals (stamina and magic assistance. If it were easy, everyone would do it straight away.)

What happens when dimension door goes awry in sigil or ravenloft. (Say hello to Skip's friend Confusion! Who knows where you'll end up. Skip recommends it be troublesome, but not instantly fatal. )

When do you become invisible again after attacking wearing a ring of invisibility. (When you make yourself invisible again. The onus rests on you. )

What happens if you combine there/not there and invisibility ( you never know if you'll stub your toe or not. It's most inconvenient )

If you close your eyes, is an object automatically not there (no)

Does there/not there work on people (no. That could cause existential crises. )

What happens if a giant throws a boulder that isn't there for it's target. ( events will conspire so that they make sense for all observers, no matter how improbable that is.)

Does a rope of entanglement work on huge creatures (If it's long enough. Usually it will be.)  

Can you recharge Nidus' wand of endless repetition. How. ( Yes. It's an item from an obscure forgotten realms book, so a spell from another obscure forgotten realms  book seems appropriate. )

Can a ghost use their aging attack on the astral plane (No, for a whole number of reasons. Your cosmological knowledge is messed up.)

How much damage does an exploding staff of the magi do (A quite ridiculous amount if it's well charged. You'd have to be mad to do it. )

What's an unseen servant's movement rate (6. No, you can't dress it up in a maids uniform, you sick pervert. )

Can you memorize more than one copy of a spell (Recyled question. Yes you can)

Can you set ioun stones into things (not if you want them to actually work. It's more impressive when they're floating around you anyway.)

What happens if you kill someone wearing a hat of disguise. (They turn back. Not the best way to penetrate a disguise though. Just take their hat off.)  

What happens if you affect tanar'ri with poisonous or nondamaging gas effects (Immunities trump resistances. Resistances do nothing when irrelevant. )

Can you feed someone at deaths door a goodberry (no. They'll choke. You'll accelerate the problem you were trying to prevent. )

How long does a goodberry last (see the duration of the spell, dummy.)

Having followed this from the very beginning, and actually going through each issue while reading your commentary, I just wanted to say that all your hard work has been appreciated.

Thank you.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 2/7


D-Mail: We start off with two letters of praise for issue 258, in particular Bruce Cordell's man vs machine epic. Yeah, that one's joining the hall of fame alright. Not hard to figure that out.

Of course there was also the matter of issue 258's reduced size, which does not go unnoticed either. They're not particularly happy about having to do that either. We need more advertisers! Sales wouldn't hurt either, as the more readers you have, the more advertisers are willing to pay.

Of course, there's always someone who has to complain about the slightest pushing of the envelope, and so we get another letter saying they don't want to see technology in their AD&D, or Alternity in their magazine at all. It's quite strange how little variety they want.

A bunch of talk about 256's Dungeoncraft, and how names and words form, and are appropriated and bastardised by other languages. This is a topic that whole books have been written about. A magazine article is not going to be able to give an in depth and nuanced coverage of this.

And finally, another letter from someone who thinks the magazine has improved quite a bit from the final days of TSR. They're concentrating on what they ought to be concentrating on. Well, that's certainly true, whatever subjective quality analyses might be made.


Nodwick passes on his experience to a new generation of henchpeople.


Forum: Christopher Record thinks monks and psionicists ought to be part of the same class group, as they both draw from the same power source. We are seeing a surprising number of things that they'll only get round to adopting 2 editions later in here.

James Walker reminds us that the DM isn't always right, and letting the players affect your plot in a logical way is more interesting for both sides than railroading. The game is most fun when no-one knows for sure how things are going to turn out.

Daniel Chilcott wonders what nonstandard races really means. You ought to have plenty of options for PC's, so you can choose what ones are standard for your world, instead of being stuck in tolkien rip-off land again.

Pierrr Van Rooden thinks that priests and bards are actually the most powerful classes at the moment. They're certainly the most flexible. We've had plenty of arguments about this one before.

Clyde A. Starr Jr has suggestions for the rules that would result in the books being absolutely massive. We can't compile everything good about the last edition into the corebooks.

Jack Pitsker thinks that healing ought to scale with level, otherwise characters actually take longer to get back to full health as they advance. Very good point, whether HP are a reflection of toughness or cool, it makes more sense for them to replenish in proportional amounts.


Dungeoncraft: Ray finally can't put off making a map any longer. But before he does, he takes another lesson from the old modules and brings it up to date. Rumours! After all, it's good enough for the caves of chaos. Having a good dozen or two rumours, some of them false, some true, means your players have a ton of incentive to stick around the general area of their home base until they're used up. And having red herrings and active lies being spread by people makes the world seem bigger, not just a backdrop to whatever story the DM wants to tell, that'll reveal just whitespace if you go off the path. I approve. The mapping advice, on the other hand, is fairly typical. Make it useful, visually distinctive, and give the things within it logical placements. And make sure the number of NPC's statted up correlates with the number of buildings in a sensible fashion. The kind of basic checklist that of course many published modules ignore freely, and indeed, you can probably get away with missing out several of the elements in this one, as long as you make sure the ones you do include are good. So really, despite Ray saying you shouldn't do more work than you need to, following every single step in his columns will result in a bit of overkill. Just do as much as you can in the time you have available. We are making progress, but it's obvious now Ray's in for the long haul, and'll be giving out new bits of information accordingly.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 3/7


Darkstone plays up the differences between roleplaying personas and the people playing them with withering sarcasm in it's advert. There are no girls on the internet, etc etc. I do not feel tempted to play your game as a result of this.


PC Portraits: It's dwarf time! Which means the inevitable female dwarven beard debate resurfaces. This keeps things ambiguous, as while we do have some dwarves with obvious breasts, they're all beardless, or at the most have a bit of stubble. But there are also a few male dwarves who keep their facial hair short rather than going for the full-flowing, possibly braided mane that denotes age and seniority. I blame all those adventurers being a bad influence, introducing the idea of fashion and corrupting our hardworking lads! Next thing you know they'll be using boomerangs instead of the good old-fashioned axes of their ancestors. Let the flame wars continue! Once again this little column provides me a surprisingly large amount to think about.


Wizards of dusk & gloom: The position of first feature seems a little devalued, given the number of regular columns that came before it this month. Slightly surprising really, given how popular shadow based stuff is. The article on the demiplane was quite possibly my favourite one of 1995, and there's a ton of spells and monsters based around the theme. And now it's time for three more wizard kits and related sets of new spells. After all, the list of things you can do in the shadows is too big for one archetype to fill them all.

Shadow Callers are all about the semi-real creatures and objects, mixed with monsters from the demiplane to keep you guessing so disbelieving the whole shebang won't be effective. Of course, if they do step outside their niche, they have great difficulty controlling normal creatures, and the not uncommon social penalties for messing with dark magic. They seem reasonably balanced.

Shadow Seekers have an obsession with becoming a Shade, which they seem to think ought to take them out of play. Oh come now, it's not as if the powers you get are at all game breaking at that level, and it's one of the easier transformations to make if you have 9th level spells. I suppose that's the big catch, isn't it. Spend less time researching, more time going out killing things and taking their stuff and your magical advancement will take care of itself; you'll soon outpace the geeks.

Shadow Hunters are another variant on wizards with minor rogue skills who use both to steal stuff very effectively indeed. They also get rogue weapons and proficiencies, but have the rather odd hindrance of not being able to use rods, staves & wands. This makes them even more unpopular with other wizards than the other two kits. UR not doin it rite! Ninjas never have this problem. But then, they have PR departments. Shadow wizards are too busy being brooding loners.

The 16 new spells are divided up neatly between the three kits, each with their own book of shadows (and a bit of ironic snark about how overused that name is. Blessed be, bitches. ) As with the kits, they are't terrible, but tend to err on the underpowered side, and some of them are of restricted availability despite this. I don't think they merit the secrecy surrounding them. But then that's the problem with secret organisations. When you don't have large numbers of people to do R&D, you don't get economies of scale and the benefits or extensive troubleshooting. So you're unlikely to come up with something as generally useful and efficient as magic missile. I don't think your wizards will mind in the long run if they don't get the option to join up with these guys.


RPG.net advertises in Dragon!! My head, I think it may explode from sheer amusement at the recursiveness. Plus they cross advertise the sailor moon RPG. I find this hilarious.


Dwarven names: Oh, this one again. Stock up on your phlegm and throat sweets, because you'll need them. Like the 101 lists, they seem to have decided to make a pattern out of this, give their writers something to aim for. Although I very much doubt they'll ever get to the poor norkers or grippli, the kind of races that actually need this kind of expansion, and you can't find in various fantasy novels anyway. But then the writers might actually have to come up with their own ideas.
So this is another column following one of their latest formulas closely, not really distinguishing itself in any way. I think the skip button would be appropriate.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 4/7


Miscellaneous mishaps: Objets d'Art. But it looks like the next scene is pretty similar. Now it's the turn of the random bits of jewellery and art objects to get a three page expansion table to keep players from getting bored. Which doesn't keep me from being bored, ironically, as it's emblematic of a lack of variety in their approaches and topics. I think they should probably have saved this one for next issue. Once again, this might be useful in actual play, but is completely forgettable to read.


Fiction: The fallen god by J. Gregory Keyes. On the other hand, the second Fool Wolf story isn't forgettable at all, and goes quite some way towards building on the interestingly animistic world established in issue 249. A city full of improbable buildings, sustained by blood sacrifices to the gods within, that gradually become warped and trapped by this homage, resulting in a dysfunctional setup all round? Well, not as dysfunctional as it could be. At least they've realised you can get more blood from a human sacrifice by taking a few pints, letting them heal, and then doing it again on a regular basis than killing them. So this is packed to the brim with moral greys and magic as a science, giving you plenty to think about as you read it, while not neglecting the action scenes and plot twists either. It works as both a story and as worldbuilding. Which is just what I want from this magazine. Specific and unique examples along with the general ideas. And there's still plenty of room for other locations and cultures in the same world. He's definitely welcome to visit again.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Shadow related stuff is a very common one in stories. And it certainly isn't neglected in the magazine either, with cool stuff like Issue 213's article on the demiplane it issues from. So It's time for the cycle to bring us another wave of themed magical items. As usual, some of them'll probably surpass their hackneyed theme, while others won't. And I have to see which is which. Roll on, roll on.  

Arrows of the Dark Curtain create a wave of blackness beneath where they're shot. Another one useful for both rogues and underdark monsters.

Cloth of Shadows has a very amusing bit of history attached to it. If you can get hold of the entire suit, it'll be pretty handy. Sounds like a definite adventure in the brewing folks.

Crowns of Shadow Control is another one that seems like it could drive a whole campaign. Armies of Shadows under your command, but a very real danger of transforming into one yourself and losing it all, becoming a slave to the next fool to put it on? Sign me up for grand vizier.

Eyes of Soothing Darkness are just magically enhanced sunglasses. They're very predictable in their powers and drawbacks. Not worth getting worked up about unless you're a goblin or drow.

Shadowstealers are magic rods which do exactly that. As is often mythically the case, being shadowless is rather bad for the health and sanity. This makes it a good one to extort people with.

Shadow pins can be used to trap people by nailing their shadow to the wall. This is also a pain, but can won't last forever. Just wait for the sun to set. No shadow, no problem. Undead Shadows, being insubstantial, are completely screwed.

Shadow Puppet Gloves let you animate any shapes you make, and order them around. This is of course limited by your manual dexterity. I recommend you make the player act out the creation of the creature with a torch

Shadow Snares are special garrottes that can be selectively insubstantial. Another one that'll take some brains to use well. Not a bad collection, really.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 5/7


This month's competition is to design a creature from the demiplane of shadow. Now that's an idea I can get behind.


Arcane Lore is also getting dark and shadowy. Soon we'll have enough for shadow magic to be a viable specialisation in itself, like in certain other games. Muahahahaha!

Dispel Light seems a bit pointless when a Darkness spell can cancel that out too, and do other stuff. No accounting for trickery.

Shadow Lock seals a door so you can only open it by opening it's shadow. Now that is pretty ingenious as a way of keeping out the unknowing. Perfect for a group of cultists, especially as it's low enough level to be commonly used.

Dancing Shadows is kinda the reverse of dancing lights. Like it, it's not hugely powerful, but can have useful flavour effects. And if you're a Shade, it'll mean you can always be at full power in an encounter.

Obedient Shadow is another one that'll give you shade without a parasol, in less obtrusive form, and longer duration. Rest assured that when you need it, it'll keep the light off you.

Shadow Sight is a limited clairvoyance that can only see out of shadows. Makes sense as a way of cutting corners. Make the buggers paranoid and then pull out the full spell to laugh at them.

Shady Palm is yet another variant on the shade theme, making a mobile shadow of a palm tree to follow you around. Sip pina colladas on a flying carpet down in Zakhara with this one.

Hide Shadow makes your shadow into a solid object you can remove and manipulate amusingly. This is full of potential when manipulating others. Thankfully, it's only temporary, so you aren't in danger of going mad like previous versions of this power.

Shadow Weave also lets you reshape shadows to practical ends. And I don't think you'll have a trouble finding shadows to manipulate in a dungeon environment.

Shadow Warrior lets you hurt people by having your shadow attack their shadow. A gimmick monster from issue 61 gets vindicated in amusing fashion.

Shadow Replay is a nice little divination that'll help you get a retrospective on events in an area in interesting fashion. Once again, I quite approve.

Transport via Shadow is a cutdown version of shadow walk, the dimension door to that's teleport. Once again, massive paranoia and neon lights will keep them from popping out in your home.

Death Shade drains hit points permanently over a truly huge area. Nasty business that works well as a long term plot thing. Muahahaha.

Shadow Trap puts you inside your own shadow, unable to affect anything, miming to people to try and get them to break the curse. Another nicely inventive bit of work with plenty of good sources to draw upon.


The ecology of the Dark Naga: Hee. The association of monster hunters finally manages to get something done, albeit more through luck than skill. While they might be facing a serious creature, their antics are a comical as ever, and the monster responds in kind, with enough sarcasm to pickle an elephant. Mind you, with constant mind-reading, all sorts of allies, and the ability to choose their own spell lists, they're likely to be a huge pain in the butt even when played straight, for they'll be tactically one step ahead of you, and you can never be sure what tricks they have up their sleeve. Pair them up with kobolds, and even the mightiest adventurer will tremble at the thought of fighting one. Again, this is fun and useful, but maybe strays a little too far into wacky territory. There ought to be at least the feel that the characters are in real danger in situations like this, and any violence isn't just cartoon violence that'll be reset when the scene changes.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 6/7


Dragon's bestiary: Back to the computer game conversions this month it seems. Myth: The fallen Lords is a game that draws quite heavily on D&D, so converting creatures back seems a little incestuous. Still, they have some neat ideas of their own in many cases. Let's see if D&D can learn from it's descendants this time.

Ghol fill the role of semihumanoid predators. Like Krenshar, they look pretty gross, but aren't hugely powerful beyond those basic tricks anyone can use. You'd better hope you have the advantage of numbers, for they have speed and climbing capability on their side, so the terrain will more likely be in their favour.  

Fetch are your basic arrogant isolationist demonic creatures from another plane. They don't have the magical versatility of most of their D&D equivalents, and so aren't hugely interesting to me.  

Barrier Wights are another creature that is easy to kill, but explodes with pestilent effects when you do. Seems like that idea is on the up these days. It does liven up games where ranged attacks are the primary weapons of choice.

Trow are big clumping humanoids who kick you around the place if they get too close. Since they can move quite fast as well, you'll have to be a pretty good dodger, or split up. They certainly seem designed with cinematic battles in mind, and would fit well in an Iron Heroes style game.


Shop keep encourages the ultimate battle of the geeks.


Dungeon Mastery: Blaaah. It's another article telling us to make magic items more special by reducing their power and frequency. Been there, done that, got the magic T-shirt that protects me from douchequake once per day. As much as less is more and learn to appreciate what you've got are valid philosophies to live by, they're inherently built around compromises. And really, we have to do so much of that in reality that I really don't want to have to put up with it in my escapism at the moment. Maybe if I was a multimillionare rock star I'd be a little more secure and sanguine about this. But no. Fuck you. Gimme my lightsaber that can extend far enough to cut the world in half. This does nothing to improve my mood.


Marvel super heroes: Back to the old Marvel-phile style articles comprising largely of character stats here. Jean Grey and Rachel Summers are both home to the Phoenix, which is ridiculously powerful, but also utterly amoral, and quite happy to destroy entire solar systems to satisfy it's hunger if not kept under control. It's a deeply unsafe deus ex machina that is dangerous to tap into, but impossible to destroy, giving you a ready made source of conflict amongst the heroes and general angst. Of course, the way it's owners deal with it differs quite a bit, and they have other issues to deal with, given Marvel's twisting continuity, soap opera romances, and time travel plotlines. So this new system leaves them free to cover the big guns again for a while, before they have to go into all the obscure minor characters again. (of which there are quite a few more since last time) That's the joy of reboots. Will they last long enough for diminishing returns to set in this time round? It shouldn't be too hard to find out, really.


Role Models: This column is once again worried about finding minis suitable for  Alternity games. Steal bits and pieces from Warhammer and White Wolf, and you should be able to pull it off, especially if you're willing to do some customising. It then provides a mini scenario for the game, while talking about how to paint camouflage in the sidebar. This split focus makes each of these three topics even smaller than usual, so there's no room to get bored, but not much depth either, especially with the amount of illustrations. Once again, I think this column could benefit from being a bit bigger without losing it's ability to deliver lots of stuff. It's as if the writer has too many ideas to properly use, not all of which fit easily into the remit of the column. So this is fun but unsatisfying, like a single piece of chocolate when you'd like a whole bar.

Dragon Magazine Issue 261: July 1999


part 7/7


The twilight jungle: We've already had the spotlight on the Seshayans once, in issue 251. Now it's their turn again under their original Alternity rules and setting. This is actually surprisingly similar, as on their homeworld, they're still animistic primitives, and it's only due to the uplifting efforts of a megacorp that they've been exposed to interstellar civilisation. Of course, this isn't remotely altruistic, and they don't react well to attempts to break their contracts and leave employment, setting things up for a rather interesting campaign focussed around civil rights issues. Or you could do the usual ones of exploration and killing things and taking their stuff. They do make rather good assassins, after all. So not only do they have a fairly distinctive appearance, they also have a pretty good selection of inherent plot hooks. And with several new monsters, weapons and careers statted out, this is a pretty good mini splatbook. Roger Moore's legacy to the magazine continues.


Dragonmirth takes an innovative approach to castle defense. KotDT degenerates into player bickering again.


TSR Previews: A very busy month this time round, although I suspect some of that may be formatting errors, given the positions of various things in the surrounding issues. Oh well, it'll give me a proper workout anyway.

Three of these are CD based computer products. The digital core rules get a ton of splatbooks added to them. Enough kits, spells, races, and other goodies that you should be able to generate complex and twinked characters at high speed.

There's also the Dragon Magazine Archive. If it weren't for that, I'd never be doing this. Course, they didn't get it perfect, with a surprising number of little bits left unscanned, but hey ho, slightly less work for me. Still a ridiculous amount to go even so.

And the Realms finally get a complete atlas, with a ton of maps from the supplements compiled, plus virgin continents given an overview for your players. Now you really can go all around the world. Can you you you, you find your baby there?

The realms is pretty packed in print too. Baldur's gate by Philip Athans is a novelisation of the computer game. Ahh, still doing this a decade after Pool of Radiance. Was this one any good? And on the gaming side, we have Sea of Fallen Stars. They've already covered the cultures around it. Now they take you under the water. I do enjoy it when they do that.

Dragonlance tries another way to get some gaming stuff to sell remotely as well as the novels. The Odyssey of Gilthanias is a mixture of fiction and game stuff for both systems. Lots of new locations, oh, and probably poetry. Ho hum. They're also getting another straight fiction anthology, Heroes and Fools: Tales of the 5th age. More stuff from when the magic is gone and people have to build new lives.

Greyhawk does a double rehash. Against the giants appears both as an expanded revised module and a novel by Ru Emerson. The first modules, and for some people, still the best, it's no surprise that they're part of the silver anniversary celebrations.

Alternity gets Star Compendium: Systems of the Verge. More places for you to explore, new aliens to meet, and possibly kill and take the stuff of.

Marvel Super Heroes gets The Reed Richards Guide to Everything. A whole load of cool optional stuff presented in a humorously IC manner. Nice to see them using that approach here as well.


ProFiles: Fred Fields is not dead. He's not even gone away, as this month's cover proves. He's one of those people who started doing art young, and just kept going, improving his abilities and sending out stuff persistently until he got picked up. As ever, we are reminded that that is one of the crucial ingredients to success. But other elements can vary. In contrast to the last few artists profiled, he usually works from models, sculpting them up to then draw if needed, and drafting in the people around to pose for him. Takes all sorts, doesn't it. In any case, it's worked for the last decade, and he hopes it will continue to work. Now, if only he could get royalties from the people ripping off his work in tattoo parlors. Another moderately entertaining profile.


Once again, this issue seemed to go by a lot faster than the ones before they reduced the page count, even though it's only a small change really. On the other hand that was because this had a pretty high quota of insubstantial articles, as ironically befits the theme. They may have more colour in the illustrations, but they don't have as much contrast in the articles they have each month, with the same regular columns showing up nearly every time. Well, at least we still have a few non D&D ones a month at the moment. On we go, knowing that soon they'll be gone as well.

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. Time for halflings and gnomes to have to share a themed issue again, just as they did their splatbook. They're just not popular enough when compare to elves & dwarves, are they? You're all a bunch of sizeists! :shakes tiny fist: Get back here so I can headbutt yer balls! Mutter grumble mutter, humans these days, no respect for an ancient fantasy archetype. And don't you dare start on the red pointy hats. Red pointy hats are cool. And you can store all kinds of stuff in them as well. Like to see you try that with a baseball cap. Let's show them the meaning of affirmative action.


Scan quality: Excellent, indexed.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn:  Dave decides to take to the stand in defence of cliches. The reason they became cliches is because they work. Where you really go wrong is using them in isolation, or a too familiar combination. The nature of combinatoric math means that you can easily get a unique result if you incorporate enough elements in different orders. Trust me, I've done statistical analyses based upon the number of people in the world, number of stories written, and number of archetypical tropes. It's easier than it seems, especially if you don't know the rules in the first place, so you aren't adhering to the established rules of form for whatever creative medium you're working in. It also helps to have an exceedingly strange mind, which I think we've already established I've got, for better and for worse. Don't be afraid to use the rules. If your ideas are strong enough, they'll till turn out unique despite playing within a framework.


D-Mail: We start off with a letter praising articles that tie into other ones. Those that notice it are unanimously positive. It's just when the tie-ins are too long and complicated that people get confused and pissed off. I suspect this is why Adventure paths work. A year long subscription is about the right length where taking a decade to know the whole story isn't.

Second, we have a request for them to put more old stuff out on CD. It's sold quite decently, so they fully intend to have a few more products in that vein.

Two more letters in praise of Bruce Cordell's machine work, although they both include the caveat that maybe Dragon is being a little too Wizard-centric. I think we can say that's an accurate criticism. As ever, the fact that they're the ones writing the story also means they get the greatest amount of cool new stuff.

Some nitpicking over biology terms. The usual thing that shows up whenever someone tries to bring real world elements into the fantastical universe.

And finally, a letter of generalised praise. Because they still need their ego boosts. Keeps the office running more smoothly than if they're beset by nitpicking fanboys who seem impossible to please, yet refuse to actually go away.


Nodwick stands by his principles in a world where henchmen are becoming commercialised and bastardised. They know nothing of the true spirit of henching!

Aaron Williams delivers another amusing illustration in quick succession. He is doing rather well at the moment.


Forum: Jennifer M. Formosa describes some cool locations from her own campaign. These are decently linked together by the story's thread. Don't see stuff like this much round here.

Kevin McMahon is one of those people who sees nothing much wrong in the system as it is. Wizards are neither over or underpowered. O_o

David R Boruch is another person who wants the custom class creation rules from the DMG (and issue 109) made into the standard method of customising your character, with the standard classes merely as examples of those maths.

Daniel Thomson points out that all the new rules for greater weapon specialisations reduce the role of magic plusses in the game. Whether that's a good or bad thing is still very much up for debate.

Rex V. Settle thinks substituting prepared for memorised would be the right terminology for spellcasting. Just don't expect any royalties for it.

Mike Walko thinks thieves are the class that most needspowering up, particularly in terms of combat prowess. They ought to be highly accurate, damage inflicting monsters. The change to strikerdom begins.

Dirk Keaton thinks monks really need a special power that reflects how much faster they can hit than someone with most weapons. You may well be in luck, depending if you think the solution they give goes far enough.

Colin Daniels thinks AC ought to start from 0 and go up. Lots of people would prefer ascending AC's it seems.

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 2/7


Dungeoncraft: This month, Ray talks about making NPC's to fill your world with. This is one area where he sticks to his lesson of not doing more work than you need too. Only stat them up fully if they have a purpose in your campaign. Whether that's to create a challenge, provide plot hooks, be a source of services and equipment, or simply to look cool is up to you. Although I must warn about the dangers to excess exposition. Many players will ignore it, and wind up blundering into trouble. I guess that's another thing that's become a bit hackneyed since then, driven into the ground by huge unskippable cutscenes in computer RPG's. Of course, the fault could well be with the players as much as the DM. There's no shortage of annoying people on both sides of the screen, as both sage advice and the letters Ray gets prove. Once again, those are actually the most interesting part of the column, showing a little deranged creativity'll beat professionalism quite frequently at capturing the attention of people. I think they could do with letting a little more of that back into the magazine.


Sage advice: Do charisma modifiers apply to all NPCs! (Yes. Don't be so surprised. Characters can still blow it by doing something stupid to piss them off. Even 19 charisma won't save you when you're caught in the treasury at midnight. )

Can you only use spellslaying in combat. (if you try it on someone out of combat, it'll become combat pronto. Messing up peoples magic is not something done in polite society.

What does rain of blood do to characters with negative armor classes (not a lot)

Do you take more damage if an arrow is stuck in you (no. Abstraction strikes again!)
Is six dexterity checks to cross a single bridge too much. (if your DM thinks it's that hard, Skip's not going to stop him. )

How exactly does stone shape progress over it's round. (Up to your GM to decide on the flavor text. But you definitely can't use it to crush people. Guess you'll have to settle for a slow lingering death instead. More time to gloat in)

Can you stack a cloak of displacement and ring of blinking (oh yes. You can add on mirror image as well. Most confusing.)

What are the real morale factors for henchmen and hirelings (Skip is the real morale booster. Oh Yeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh. )

What is the wisdom modifier for aleph 1 ( Your magical defense adjustment)

What do you feel when a charm wears off. (Depends how they treated them while charmed. They do not automatically know they've been magicked. )

What happens if you have both cover and concealment (use the better bonus)
Is the first movement rate for the cube of force right (no)

What level is darkening bolt (4th. Anyone using it as a 3rd level spell had better retcon sharpish)

What does (rev) mean for sphere lists (read the book you're reading it in, because different authors tend to have different opinion on this)

Can you create dimensional folding beneath someone's feet (no. It has to be an upright portal. You can create it and then push someone through though. )

Can power words be used on creatures without minds ( Yes, if applicable)

Can earth elementals be petrified (yes)

How do fatigue points work. Do all these things deduct points (Yes. If you're a busy bunny, you get tired. )

Can evil priests destroy paladins without a roll (no, thankfully. It's troublesome enough when they get turned and run away screaming. )  

Skip is also going to start tackling Alternity stuff again. Lets do this while we still have a chance, and TSR cuts out the other stuff for good.

Do mechalus data filaments count as NIJacks (yes)

How do mechalus heal (normally. They may be mechanical, but they can still repair themselves. )

Can you spend a last resort point to make an enemy critically fail (no. That's just mean)  

How do you determine the result of a complex skill check (it's binary. Don't worry about it)

How long does it take to use up the air in a powered down ship (quite a while. Lots of people will cut that down quickly though.)

Can an accumulator be used with a mass reactor (no)

Do you experience the time in drivespace (yes. It's pretty dull, usually.)

What effect does punching a hole in the universe have in the long run ( Good question. None yet, but you never know when monstrosities from beyond space may start eating everything. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 3/7


Half-pint heroes: Well, it seems that this issue's theme is not just being shared amongst Gnomes and Halflings, but a whole bunch of other races as well. I guess you really can fit more of them in the same space and people won't mind. Still, making more races available as PC's seems to be perennially popular, which is why they hard-code it into the next edition. In the meantime, there's certainly plenty of races left to treat in this fashion.  

Buckawn, like other fae races, can only become fighters and thieves, cost extra xp to advance, and only get their more powerful spell-like abilities at higher levels. These nerfs probably don't prevent them from being rather useful to a team though, and less irritating than many of the more pranksterish fae that might attach themselves to a party. As long as you don't mind a little eco-preaching, let them stick around.

Chitine also make rather good rogues, due to their wall climbing and web spinning abilities. Plus they can fight four-handed with minimal penalties, making them engines of death compared to a normal fighter at low level. While not as flexible as thri-kreen, they could well be picked for the twinking potential. But they do have light-sensitivity issues to keep them from being over dominant, and no spellcasting abilities at all, so they can't fill every role.

Grippli also get superhuman climbing abilities in their amusing sticky froggy way, plus camouflage in their natural terrain. Their class selections are fairly typical for humanoids; despite their above average inteligence, they don't seem to have the knack for wizardry or technology. Good social skills are just as important for building a large-scale civilisation as brains.

Ravenkin are even smarter, but wings and prehensile feet don't allow for as complicated tool-using as a decent pair of hands. Plus they're originally from Ravenloft, where you're too busy trying to keep things that go bump in the night from turning whole cities into ghost towns to grow and advance as much as you'd like. Still, they do have the best class options of this lot, including lots of multiclass wizard ones. And flight. Funny that small things are actually more mobile on average.

Tasloi are another one that have exceedingly high potential as rogues, and not too much at other classes. A dexterity bonus and strength penalty'll focus the mind towards indirect solutions. Once again, climbing is a real strength of theirs, but they're not fond of bright light. Still their pack instinct means if they've ben kicked out of their home, they'll probably be loyal to a group that takes them in. And although some of these races could be a little inconvenient socially, none of them are completely game-breaking. Yet more to add to the list of useful crunch then.


Elmshire - A halfling heaven: Time for Roger Moore to give us one of his periodic returns to a topic he pioneered in the first place. Halflings in D&D worlds aren't quite the same as the hobbits in middle-earth, as many of your young becoming an adventurer is almost expected in trouble heavy places Oerth or Toril. And without powerful wizards like Gandalf looking out for them, they have to do their own hard work to make sure their homes remain places of bucolic serenity. This is of course important for actual play, because it means there can be some conflict within and around them to keep things from getting boring, and the players from leaving for good. This is certainly the case in Elmshire, which has seen a nasty plague, and had to deal with the Greyhawk wars just a few years ago. This leaves a definite undercurrent of suspicion and emotional trauma in their makeup, and more than a few problems to solve. Perfect adventure fodder, in other words. So Roger provides an example of a homebase rather faster than Ray did, and with more distinct flavour as well. Save your own shire. It'll make you feel like a big damn hero! I think this definitely qualifies as both a useful and distinctive article. How is it that the long-term writers often wind up producing the most unusual stuff?


By any other Name: No surprise that this is tackling the naming conventions of halflings & gnomes. Along with the usual syllable soup, they have a tendency to pick up nicknames based on things they've done, which you'll probably want to do in play, rather than roll on the table. Once again, this isn't very interesting, although you can get a few silly results on the nickname table if you're so inclined, so I don't have much to say here. I think this series is already running out of steam.


PC Portraits is in theme as well, with a whole bunch of short folks. Since all we see is faces here, this is represented by giving them generally rounded, child-like features, even when they also have beards and wrinkles. I think that works, but watch out for the perverts. You don't want to play with someone who seems a little too into playing up the child aspects, especially when also combined with sexualising. Nuff said.

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 4/7


Fiction: To dam it where it trickles by Pete D Manison. The issue of magic being just another field of science and used accordingly is one of those issues that writers have struggled with quite a bit over the years, with various results. If it has consistent rules, they can be learned and exploited like anything else. If it doesn't, then what keeps it from being pure deus ex machina, robbing a story of tension? Well, here's one of the cleverer solutions to that. The idea of magic as fuelled by belief and force of will, and therefore impervious to scientific exploitation because the more you actually know, and the more rationally and logically you think, the less power you have. Of course, this leads to a situation where the head wizards could easily be outclassed by their pupils, and have to not only keep this a secret, but actively discourage critical thought in their students, and never let them know why, because that in itself will ruin their magical development. It's a setup filled with inherent tragedy, really. Might as well just become a scientist, as science doesn't care what you believe. So this is memorable, and more than a little sad. As speculative fiction, this definitely gets high marks.


The ecology of the jermalaine: They've had an osquip around for quite a while, and he's played a big part in some of their stories. So it's not surprise that the association of monster hunters decides to investigate the Jermalaine. So they take the shrinky pills, and it's down into the tunnels. Now, if only wizards got Bluff as a class skill. Unsurprisingly for this lot, they get found out, captured, seriously humiliated, and only get out by sheer luck. That shtick is starting to get a bit tiresome. This is what happens when you play to the crowd. Flanderisation sets in, and before you know it, you're slipping on a banana skin while a clown plays a whistle. And then the series gets cancelled. How much longer can he keep this up?


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Gnomes and halflings once again get lumped into the same section, forced to share features. Still, this does look like quite a long article, so I shouldn't complain. Otherwise next time I might have to plough my way through 10 pages of items. And that would be incredibly tedious. Looks like this one'll be long enough as it is.

Amulets of the Steinneblin let you speak with badgers and detect details of stonework like Gnomes. One of those honorary member items that also makes them tend to like you, just as elves have got recently.  

Armor of melding lets you hide in the rock. In the underdark, this may well be a lifesaver. Who knows when a deep dragon is going to come slithering around the corner.

Badges of the Svirfneblin are another honorary member item that grants you a whole bunch of racial abilities. Course, since Svirfneblin have rather more impressive powers than Rock Gnomes, these are correspondingly more awesome to have.

Badgervests let you shapeshift into a badger. Gee, what a surprise. How many limited shapeshifting items do we have in the vault now?

Boots o' the Giant let a normal gnome imitate a spriggan and suddenly grow to huge size and back. Now all you need is a foul temper and lack of hygiene to match and you're ready to play infiltrator. Have fun.

Boots o' the Hills obviously let you go hiking through the roughest terrain without any danger of slipping. I'm pretty sure we've seen something like this before too. Next!

Bracers of Striking boost your strength. Unusually for these kinds of items, they're designed so they remain useful no matter how strong you are. Another sign of the edition change, where plusses will become standard, rather than boosts to a certain level.

Cloaks o' the hills are the gnomish equivalent of cloaks of elvenkind. Unsurprisingly, they work best in the environments gnomes prefer. Another one you could make variants of for all sorts of races.

Cocoon Crystals put you in stasis if there's a rockfall around you. This will save your life, but may involve waking up centuries later in a strange land if there's no-one to free you. Sounds pretty neat to me.

Diamond Badgers are Wondrous Figurines designed for digging. With big savage claws, they're not at all bad in combat either. What is it with Gnomes and Badgers? How do such an amiable race have an affinity for what is basically a giant chunky cranky weasel?

Gloves of Digging let you bypass the badger bit, and use your bare hands instead. Dig speeds are incredibly handy in giving you tactical options. Let's see what tricks you can come up with.

Stone Knives cut through stone like butter. You won't go as fast as the last two, but you get more precision, and can really mess up rock based monsters, as well as becoming a famed sculptor. Retire and become an artist. It's safer than adventuring.

A Pick of Piercing halves armor based AC bonuses and has a wide crit range. Another one that seems to have been made by making a sneaky peek at the upcoming system changes.

Pit Bags are a really nasty bit of trickery. Bags of holding that conceal their entrances and only allow living material in, leaving you naked and your stuff outside for the looting? Now that'll REALLY piss players off. A trick worthy of Garl Glittergold himself.

Barrier Shields provide better cover than normal when used in formation. This obviously means mass production is needed to get full benefits, which is always a bit tricky for permanent magical items.

Goblinslayer Swords let you go berserk attacking goblins. Seems more a dwarf idea than a gnome one. Meh.

Talismans of the Forstneblin are the third of our racial power granting honorary member items, this time focussed around forest gnomes. One wonder what abilities the tinker gnome version would grant. Hopefully speaking and listening at the same time would be among them.

Grandfather's Keys are a trio of useful little devices that help keep a halfling's home safe and sound without having to resort to nasty violence that might damage the furniture.

Hammock Cloaks are another device that allow you to have both comfortable daywear and a sleeping place. Comfort is a halfling specialty, so no surprise they'd recycle and customise this idea for their needs.

Restless Pillows are yet another bit of rehash. You sleep on it, you get prophetic dreams. How very obvious and recycled.

Bracers of Honesty are technically cursed, but they're very useful in dealing with criminals, so a halfling community may well have a few of them around for more humane punishment.

A Horn of Hiding can only be heard by halflings, while it also makes the blower invisible to a specific race. Interesting combination, but effective in defending the homelands. Probably not quite so useful to an adventuring group though.

A Pouch of Forgetfulness makes the original owner forget anything stolen and put in it. This may cause weird memory gaps if it's an important item.

Wish Brushes grant you a wish based on whatever you paint. Steer well clear if you're not an artist, for poor composition will produce equally twisted results. I'm sure a sadistic DM can have great fun with this one.

Flutes of Transportation take you to wherever the song played was composed. This may get a bit embarrasing, since songs are frequently written indoors. But it does make for exceedingly good plot hooks and fun hunting down of lost lore. Very neat.

Hob's Footbath lets you whizz along, but you'll need to soak your feet before and after or suffer horribly. Respect your magical items, don't just treat them like a tool.

Oil of Fake Footsteps show that once a problem's been highlighted, variants on the solution'll be along in no time. Again we fix the problem of being tracked, this time via disguise rather than misdirection.  

Bully Coins are a more anvilicious variant on an idea explored over a decade ago by Gully Dwarves. Give up your treasure freely to a threatening big person and they'll soon be cut down to size, very literally. Never thought I'd be preferring the Dragonlance version to the generic one.

Buttons of Climbing are a bit of detachable clothing that are in theory reusable, but retrieving them from a clifface may be a problem. Maybe you can pull them up with your toes, since you are a halfling, and they generally go barefoot even in horrible conditions.

A pipe of answers helps you get in some productive serene contemplation time. Wizardly gifts can be nice, sometimes, when they don't backfire by revealing depressing information.

Chimes of the Dragon create the illusion that a Dragon is lurking in the room. Hopefully this will scare off timid intruders. Like certain famous halfings, for instance. All this time, and they're still inextricably bound to Tolkien.

Daisy Chainmail is one of those ludicrous puns that they just can't resist slipping in. It's rather fragile stuff too, needing constant infusions of fresh daisys to keep full effectiveness. I think I'll skip this one.

The Helm of the Halflings is another one that combines uses for great practicality and reduced encumbrance. Take it off, turn it upside down and use it as a bowl. It even cooks the stuff inside it. Very handy.

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 5/7


Rogues Gallery: Ah yes, Baldur's Gate. There's an interesting game. So it seems that while this month's gallery is a Realms one yet again, this time it's converting the characters from one of their computer games instead of their novels. Another way in which they can keep the variety up, at least for a little while, since they don't release nearly as many games as novels. Come on, isn't Greyhawk supposed to be having a revival? Give us the characters from their new novels as well.

Abdel Adrian's portrait is obviously modelled upon Billy Ray Cyrus, complete with mullet. Way to make us hate him dude. And given he has a lot of bloodlust to deal with, courtesy of being the son of the god of murder, plus not much of a sense of humour, spending time around him doesn't seem a very safe proposition. Well, most computer game protagonists do rack up insane death counts. Why not lampshade it in setting?

Jaheira is a half-elf fighter/druid harper with a fairly interesting past, but not a particularly interesting personality. By being a whole bunch of things at once, she never really stands out as one. Well, at least it means she doesn't have any obvious weaknesses.

Tamoko is a ninja from the east. Once again, nice to see people still want to keep Kara-tur alive. She has the typical ninja trait of never fighting a fair fight if at all possible, and a heavy accent because she's not from around here. And the usual concern with honor. Yawn. Give me a bit more depth. Still, at least they're using a class from a splatbook.

Sarevok is the bad guy spawn of Bhaal, who has embraced his murderous urges and would rather like to become a god himself. His stats are predictably obscene, and he has some interesting magical items. He seems like a suitable challenge for a boss.


Arcane Lore: Ha. Now this is a long-needed solution. Spellbooks do keep on getting stolen or wet or burned. Many many wizards will sympathise with this one. You'd think more would work on solutions. Maybe they're just not sharing. Thankfully, this one wizard is, even if he chose to hide behind a pseudonym. What does he have to hide? Maybe Elminster and the cosmic balance mafia are out to get him. Well, I'll certainly assist in the dissemination of this.

Animate Drawing is one of those little flavour spells that wizards can use to impress the rubes. Animate their houses instead, that'll really get their attention.

Organize Spellbook lets you refile your spellbook so all the 1st level spells are at the beginning, or put all the elemental ones together. A lot easier than rewriting them all when you've picked them up as a grab-bag over the years.

Protection from Bookworms seems pretty obvious. Yup. Keep this one up and you'll reduce your odds of nasty crap happening quite considerably.

Ink Transfer is another way of allowing your spellbook to undergo a revamp and reorganization at considerably reduced cost. Getting a bit ratty? Pop the ink out and put it in a new one. Awesome.

Ink Luminescence lets you make your spellbook glow-in-the-dark. If you're thrown in a dungeon, and managed to hide your spellbooks, you can rememorize and get the hell out. Maybe some of the later spells will assist further with this.

Protection from Liquids another one that should be obvious in it's spellbook protecting utility, but plenty of other items could also benefit. Weapons don't want to rust, bro.

Damage Link lets you do the Dorian Grey thing, protecting one item at the expense of another. Use cheap stuff to protect the expensive things you really value. All purpose and dead useful.

Spielbuk's Pocket Spellbook lets you shrink it into a tiny replica and back with a word. This'll make it safer, but it'll still be easy to lose. Inscribe it with your personal sigil, then you'll always be able to trace it. Ahh, the joys of article synergy

Temporal Corridor is a nice little xanatos gambit one. Send an item into the future, to keep safe, or pop out just when you need it. One of those spells that gives you second perfect temporal sense would synergize well with that.

Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 6/7


Dragon's bestiary: A second computer game derived bestiary in a row? This is a bit worrying. I know I said quite a few times last year that you needed a change, but if you do too much of this instead it'll soon feel just as tedious and creatively moribund. Variety is important. How many ways do I have to say it?

Anyway, this month is another backconversion, even more direct than last time. For whatever reason, Planescape: Torment included quite a few monsters that weren't actually found in D&D. Since my appetite for planar creatures still isn't really sated, even after all these years, far be it from me to to complain about this one.

Gronk are big hopping rocky things that smash anything they see. Definitely a monster purely for the fighting and killing, as with so many of these computer game conversions.

Grillig have the interesting distinction of being born from 2D, and being immune to edged weapons. They use quite interesting tactics, and have a cool backstory too. These would definitely be allowed citizenship as a canon immigrant if I was in charge.

Sohmien are decidedly creepy looking horse variants. Like Bebiliths, they are evil creatures dedicated to hunting other evil creatures, in particular Nightmares. One way or another they'll end the cycle of destructiveness, quite possibly by taking out both sides. Once again, sounds pretty neat to me. The writers on Torment knew what they were doing.

Trelon also venture well into the uncanny valley thanks to their modelling. Tony DiTerlizzi would be proud. They attack wizards in large quantities, particularly illusionists, and have quite a few immunities. They're another quite interesting creature that again, I wouldn't mind using.


Role models: In some ways, minis are a tremendous boon to mass combat. They allow you to easily tell who is where and think in a tactical fashion. But as has been made very clear before, they're also a substantial expense. You can reduce this by having a single mini represent a whole troop, but that can lead to it's own issues if you want the heroes to split off and do things individually (which they might well be more effective at, given D&D scaling. Once again, this column does three things in two pages. Rules ideas, a mini scenario, and a bit of painting advice. Putting scars on your minis when they came close to death, showing the gradual development of your characters in a solid way is a pretty neat idea too. This column is becoming quite the little smorgasbord of useful tricks. Gotta love it when the writers surprise me like that.


Nodwick and co take their shot at another classic module. Many giants are humiliated.


From dungeons to drivespace: Alternity gets a conversion of Ilithids and beholders this month. Two of AD&D's most powerful, distinctive, and mechanically tricky creatures, they have an array of powers that takes a reasonable amount of work to represent elsewhere. Indeed, just these two monsters take them a full 11 pages, more than many an ecology. They also have some general talk about converting other AD&D monsters, and some thoughts about how to integrate these two terrors into the Star Drive setting. I don't think it's a co-incidence that both appeared quite a bit in Spelljammer as well, and had interesting social structures that differed  substantially from their earthbound colonies. I think this was a clever choice of creatures, as it presents a challenge, and then solves it, showing you that you can get ambitious with the Alternity system and it'll hold up. That seems like it might get them a few more purchases. So this article gets a fairly positive result.