Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 3/8


The series of competitions extends itself to monsters this month.


PC Portraits: Our giant themed stuff starts off with some pictures of giant-killers. They have more than their fair share of scars, and weapons with range or reach would be a very good idea, but otherwise are the usual motley crew of adventuring sorts. After all, giants can generally move quite quickly, so they get around the world and bother people of any race. Dwarves just get lumped with the traditional enemy role because of the rule of opposites as much as anything. So these are fresh for extracting and repurposing. After all, in a dangerous world, you might prefer to fight a certain type of monster, but you can never be sure what you'll run into on the way.


The bigger they are: And so we continue with some specific examples of giant NPC's for your game. I expect we'll see more actual races later, but they generally keep the bestiary near the end now. This is well established with horror monsters, so why not do the same for giants. After all, they may not have the same tragedy in their origins, but they are basically just people writ large, so they can have the full range of human personalities and skills, only ........ bigger? :waves hand: Roll the characters.

Armach is a hill giant thief. Not an obvious career choice, but you'd be surprised how stealthy you can be when there's plenty of tall buildings for cover, and he can climb like no-ones business with his long arms and firm grip. He can certainly play a valuable role in your oceans 11 heist team, even if he won't be the one coming up with the plans.

Tuall is a cloud giant architect who hires stone giants to help out with the gruntwork. Now that is a pretty obvious career choice, that allows a giant to make large amounts of money from smaller folk quickly. He's got a pretty sweet gig going, and he plays it by the book so as to keep a good reputation and get repeat customers. Course, he is a mercenary, so you still might find him on the opposing side. But what kind of players would kill the contractors for the evil overlord before they even finish building their base? That doesn't sound fair or fun to me.

Elhena is a storm giant hunter. She's also relatively nice, but if players are dumb enough to attack without trying to talk first, they'll be taken down without mercy, especially if they're shortarses. So once again these are characters designed to be put in positions where players will encounter them, and to be useful as both allies and enemies. Ideal DM fodder for the DM who doesn't have time to make his own.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 4/8


The harder they fall: And now it's the player's turn. We've had plenty of tactical advice for fighting dragons, along with new spells, items and kits to complement this. Actually, this is about 50/50 advice for the giants, and for people who want to fight them, thus keeping the arms race relatively equal. Still, with a good 5 pages on each, and some genuinely inventive tactics, this ought to keep you very busy indeed. The diagrams are helpful, there's plenty of scientific principles involved, and existing information from lots of giant types is tabulated for analysis and quick reference. So this is one that's both fun to read, and very helpful, whether you play D&D or not, as while specific stats may vary, many systems have some kind of giant monster, and basic things like tactical positioning will work anywhere. It's not just kobolds that should play it smart to win against the PC's. With tactics like this to punch above their weight, giants should remain viable opponents at any level. If it had come earlier in the magazine's lifespan, this could well have been hailed as a classic article. Hell, I think I shall go out on a limb and proclaim it so! After all, one of the reasons I started doing this was to dig up under appreciated gems, and I think this qualifies.


The measure of a monster: Here's another article that's very reminiscent of their october output. One about making singular monsters that are indeed very scary and monstrous. Making an existing thing really really big is an effective way of doing that, which ties neatly into the issue's theme, but that's certainly not the primary focus of the article. Really, what makes a monster monstrous is it's actions as much as it's appearance, which you can't say for things you just meet in dungeons and kill before you have a chance to find out anything about them, and certainly can't say for things that turn out to have societies pretty similar to humans, only on the opposing side. A truly terrifying monster also serves as a metaphor for some other issue, such as sexual violation for vampires, or disregard for the rules of hospitality in the case of Grendel. So if you want them to have a real impact, make them represent something with their appearance and actions. If that means scouring Debretts for an overlooked social protocol to violate, all the better. Once again, this is exactly the kind of alternate perspective that can help you put together a distinctive new adventure, that your players will talk about even after it's over.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 5/8


Are you Proficient?: I've expressed my dissatisfaction with both proficiency bloat and putting combat-related stuff in the nonweapon proficiency slots, thus encouraging you to create characters with no life skills but being a combat machine or fall behind other players. Well, this is one that does both of these, with dark sense and dirty fighting to make your character more hyperspecialised in kicking ass, and some seriously specific noncombat stuff like learning how to keep your food from spoiling as well. (which might come up more than you expect for adventurers, but still, who's going to take that?) Neither extremes seem particularly likely to improve your game. They try to fix this a little, by introducing broader skills as well, but since those cost 3 slots, you're unlikely to have more than one. I know I'm repeating myself, but this just gets more frustrating each time I'm confronted with it. Less than two years to go. Please don't let it go too slowly.


Life is the pits: After a bit of new stuff we return to a topic we've seen before, only done longer and with better illustrations. Pit traps! And since the last article on those was in issue 34, this definitely deserves revisiting. Comparing them, this once again shows that while a lot more verbose these days, they're actually less sadistic than they used to be, and more slanted towards catering to the new player. While that expected you were already familiar with the basics, and jumped straight to the really elaborate and sadistic stuff, this begins with the basics, and gradually ramps up the complexity, while never quite hitting the level of impossible to avoid doublethinking sadism the true old skool material managed. This makes me a little depressed, and wish I was reading the magazine backwards, so I got to see all those scrappy bits of esoterica last and could appreciate them differently. Maybe in another field, whatever I choose to take on once I finish this. So this isn't bad, and showcases very well how the magazine has improved in some ways, but got worse in others, and overall, is more competent than it used to be, but also duller. At least the degree of overlap is pretty minimal this time, so both sets of traps are useful in actual play.


Fiction: Arthur's final nom morn by J Robert King. For a second month in a row, we have someone following where Ben Bova has recently gone. And for a second time, we have an attempt to combine two different tones in a way that doesn't quite work, as we start off with tragedy, and then take an abrupt twist into whimsy. Mood whiplash, anyone? Normally it's the other way round, as things start simple and comedic, and then acquire attachments and pain as your life goes on before having everything ripped away from you. (just as in reality. ) So this sees rehash intrude into an area of the magazine that had previously been mercifully light of it. That's kinda annoying. Don't ruin another regular feature for me.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 6/8


Wyrms of the north: Ed revisits the idea of a dragon serving as a protector of a community this month. Only as a young adult crystal dragon amongst a community of dwarves, she's really no older than the people around her, and has yet to feel the tragedy of outliving her friends. She does have a few badass magical items, but her hoard isn't too huge (partly because she keeps eating stuff from it ) So it's another case where they're not as badass as some of the entries, but gives them a few centuries and they might get there. And since they're reasonably friendly, but will put their community over a party causing trouble there, the PC's might get to be on either side of a conflict involving them. Plus there's more than a little setting detail on the dwarven community itself. So it's one that's pretty well tied into the larger history of the Realms. Dragons aren't just monsters to be killed, they actually make a big difference to the societies around them if they choose to interact with them. I'd love to go back and play join the dots with this info.


Dragon's bestiary: Another case of combining existing ideas from a regular writer this month. In this case, it's giants, undead, and Greg Detwiler. Another article that makes me beg desperately for the onset of templates so we don't have to put up with this kind of crap anymore.

Barrowe are undead hill giants. They retain all their strength, plus they have energy draining attacks. Fitting really, given the ancestry of Wights as a name.

Cairn are undead stone giants. They lurk until you get close, then bombard you with rocks. No great clever spins on the theme here.

Frostmourn are undead frost giants. They're so cold that they can ruin your equipment, and can turn into an icy cloud to escape, vampire style. That should be pretty scary for players.

Firegaunt are, can you guess? They also have the nasty habit of destroying the posessions of those they hit, this time via fire. Poor adventurers, worked so hard to get these levels and then losing their stuff.

Spectral clouds are of course undead cloud giants. Seems like we're covering all the basic 6 types and skipping the later additions here. They're the only insubstantial ones in this roster, and once again are energy drainers, making them a lot scarier than standard wraiths. You'll need to be quite high level to fight them.

Temperament are undead storm giants, as you probably figured out several pages before. Just as in life, they're easily the smartest and most powerful giant type. They too can spawn by draining your life energy to terrifying results. Thankfully, they don't still have the array of magical abilities they did in life, just lots of lightningy death. Yawn. No surprises here then.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 7/8


Rogues Gallery: Only a single character detailed here this month, one Greendale Meadowfield. Interestingly, he's an actual PC, still active, who worked his way up to name level in the Raven's Bluff living campaign. That's a real change from all the novel ones. This does mean that the adventures he's had aren't that weird though, because they're all module ones, but he does have a niiiiiice selection of magical items that gives him a negative armor class and some superhuman stats. And of course, there's plenty of attention paid to his personality. So this is an interesting experiment that's good for a change, but would probably get old fast if repeated. Now let's hope they move out of the forgotten realms next time. They've been a little too heavy on Toril characters lately.


The ecology of the cyclopskin: Another unsophisticated monstrous humanoid this month. However, unlike ghouls, Cyclopskin don't have any real hidden society. They just is what they is, and does what they does, serving as a mid-range link on the dumb marauding humanoid food chain. They kick goblins, orcs, and the like around, and get kicked around in turn by the larger giant races such as hill giants and full cyclopses. And kick each other around quite a bit as well. It's a hard life when the only way you know to exert power over others is bullying. This is an amusing ecology to read, but you wouldn't want to be them, or spend time around them. Best just to kill them. There's no great insights we can use to improve our own lives here.


Aaron Williams manages to sneak in a floyd reference to dragonmirth. The KotDT crew have an attack of metagaming.

Dragon Magazine Issue 254: December 1998


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Christmas is busy, but no-where near as busy as a couple of years ago. The Forgotten realms reprints an old novel, and brings out a new one. Elminster takes centre stage in both Elminster in Myth Drannor and The Temptation of Elminster. Once again, you have a chance to see how he got to be the way he is.

Planescape continues to draw to a close, with The Inner Planes. At least, like Birthright, they get to go out with all the bases properly covered. Actually, they've generally been pretty good about that, unlike many other companies. Really should count my blessings.

Dragonlance bounces forward in time again, with a 5th age supplement covering Palanthas. See how this place has changed since the old magic went away.

We get two generic AD&D products this month. The monstrous compendium annual 4 continues to make it easier to get hold of all the gribleys scattered around strange supplements. The Lost Shrine of Bundushatur takes us into another old skool dungeon for some traditional tournament style play. Another opportunity to die repeatedly, yay!

Alternity gets another novel. On the Verge by Roland Green. More wild frontiering in the StarDrive setting.  

Marvel Super Heroes gets A guide to Marvel Earth. More stuff they've done before, updated for the new system and developments in comic books. Ahh, the wonders of being able to recycle ideas for every new gameline.


ProFiles? Another stupid attempt to be cool. :rolleyes: Anyway, this month's profilee is another returning one. Jeff Easly, last interviewed in issue 109. Rather more sensibly dressed than last time around, he remains in much the same position, only older, greyer, balder, and more entrenched. He's still quiet, yet holds the office together with his wit and he still collects all sorts of crap and decorates his office with it. By now one of the stalwarts of D&D illustration, he's contributed to all the current corebooks, and most of the monstrous compendia. As you would expect, we get rather less info on his early life than last time. But we do get more useful info on his inspirations, and how he approaches his work. It all balances out this time.


One of those issues that starts out very strong indeed, but gradually loses steam along the way, this has both excellent articles and some very annoying formulaic rehash. Really, this hammers in that it's the regular columns, the bestiary in particular, that are really running out of ideas. They stepped up the frequency of them over the last couple of years due to demand, but that's now wearing thin. Too much of any one thing will bore people. Modules were huge in the 80's, the 90's saw settings reign supreme, while the 00's had splatbooks and new crunch for players become the most common type of supplement. Doing the same thing year in year out will eventually fail even if the actual quality remains the same simply due to the vagaries of fashion and advancements in technology. People said focussing on adventures was a foolish choice for Pathfinder, and now it seems to be outselling 4e some quarters. But they too will become subject to diminishing returns with too many adventure paths. Anyway, let's hope they have a few more changes to make next year, and the annual won't be another regularfest like the first one was.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 1/8


124 pages. Big dragon, little dragon, it's hard to tell here. What have I said before about establishing scale in extreme close-ups? And making teeth fit together so they don't lacerate when you shut your mouth is always a good idea. It's not as if dragons don't have plenty of money to pay for a decent dentist. I guess it's probably a trust issue. Actually, the question of dragon teeth is an interesting one. Do they grow slowly but constantly to ensure they aren't worn down, do they produce multiple sets over the course of their lifespans and dramatic changes in size, or are they just incredibly hard, and extra ones fill in the gaps as they increase in size? We may never know. The question of what's in this third annual, on the other hand, shouldn't be too hard to answer. Let's see if any of the potential special features really are all that.


Scan quality: Good. Page widths vary, no indexing.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: A fairly standard what's in the magazine blurb by the editor. It's time to try and cover as many settings as they can again, incorporate an adventure for the Dungeon fans, and give a little something to all their surviving systems as well. Just like the first annual (and doesn't that seem a long time ago), only without the CCG's. But what hasn't changed from then is the lesson that the company really needs to pay attention to it's fans, for if they don't, it could all fall apart. So there is a note of genuine humility and eagerness to please here that we've only seen a few times before. That's definitely worth noting, even if the contents don't seem that different. I wonder what the overall mood in the office is like at this point.


By dragons ruled and divided: I did suspect before that Ed had the full Wyrms of the North column series planned out, and quite possibly written even before they started publishing it. This pretty much confirms it, with full info on their territories, including the dragons 5 that have yet to be published. Which also tells us that it'll be drawing to a close sometime next year. But on his terms, not because people have been complaining in the letters page. While they may have been cutting down on the number of articles with continuity elsewhere, he continues to weave an ever larger and more tangled web with his inexhaustible supply of Realmslore, and both the public and the editors are happy to let him do so. He's already by far their biggest contributor, and his lead is only increasing as time goes on. This just makes it all the more obvious just how much he's done, and how much he still has a handle on all the information circulating around despite it's quantities. So this really serves as a capstone to this column, a testament to his talents, while vouching for his verbosity. And I'm sick of these superlatives, so let's progress to the next page.


Weaponmasters of the Flanaess: Greyhawk makes another attempt to compete with the Realms on it's own ground, that of providing new crunch that's generic enough to use anywhere, but also has details tying it into the specific setting as well. Only this time, more effort is spent on crafting the setting detail than the underlying crunch, as new fighting styles and combat tricks take up less room to describe than new spells and monsters. So really, this is two attempts at playing catch-up in one, given the frequency new combat styles turn up by comparison. That's not to say it's bad. The characters are well sketched out, have plenty of variety in fighting styles and are well integrated into the setting. And the new manoeuvres are useful but not overpowered, and not all of them require spending slots just to be able to use them. It's certainly better than some of the previous attempts at this. And it's well integrated with previous books that touch on the topic as well, providing options for S&P and regular characters. So it's not on the level of Ed's output, but I'm feeling fairly positive about this one. It reinforces that like the game as a whole, seeing the setting die once means some people are ironically all the more passionate about it.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 2/8


Denizens of dread: Ravenloft was a relatively late jumper on the kit bandwagon, only starting with the third core set in 1996. While the place certainly has plenty of need for heroes, the generally low population and insular nature of the natives means it's a struggle to get enough for a formalised skillset to form. Still, here's a few. Whether they'll give your character an edge against the darkness, or just tie you down and make it harder to leave still remains to be seen, of course.

Danseur are roguish sorts that specialise in dancing, obviously enough. They get some fairly substantial benefits, but can't wear armor, and need to spend at least 3 hours a day practicing, which'll slow down any adventuring party, and make wandering monsters interrupting their rest very amused. Well, I suppose spellcasters can take even longer than that to fully recharge at higher levels. Still could get frustrating if the DM tracks it strictly.

Dilettante have already appeared in issue 214. Of course, this is a rather more general application of the idea than the generalist hyperspecialist half-elf fighter/mage/rogues from that. They again get some fairly substantial benefits and penalties, and won't keep up in terms of advancement speed to the rest of the party.   Let's hope their extra skills will prove to be the ace in the hole a party needs to grease their sticky wicket.

Investigators are another one that gain fairly decent benefits at the cost of having a big chunk of their daily time and encumbrance allotment ring-fenced to maintain these skills. Whether this will balance out will be completely dependent on if your DM remembers to enforce that. Of course, if the whole party picks kits like this, that time reduction becomes a little less likely to cause conflict anyway.

Psychologues are devoted to curing mental illness, which is of course particularly prevalent in Ravenloft. Their chance of doing this isn't bad at all, but it's compensated for with a flat -1 penalty to attacks. Since they're usually spellcastery sorts, this puts them firmly in the support character section of the party, hanging back so they can treat the frontline guys after the battle. This might not be glamorous enough for some players.

Stalkers are your basic brooding evildoer hunters, able to follow things anywhere, but mistrusted, and unable to settle down. Seen that before several times, don't doubt I'll see it again. Not really a hindrance, methinks.

Warders are professional bodyguards, getting substantial benefits at saving the life of others, but suffering from terrible depression if they fail despite that, and their charges get kidnapped or killed. Whether this will work in an adventuring party, I'm not sure, depending on how strict the DM is about what counts as willingly letting your charge be endangered, particularly if they're another PC. But once again they have fairly substantial benefits and penalties that'll hopefully balance out in actual play. So this collection is mostly pretty good, as long as the DM keeps track of the character's powers and needs and remember to make their benefits useful and hindrances annoying.


Planar Pestilence: Or tiny obnoxious things throughout the multiverse. Disease and the planes is a somewhat odd topic. Ok, in some places it seems very appropriate. The first layer of the grey waste has pestilience as one of it's main themes, and the everything eats everything no fairness horror of the abyss is a place where even the smallest things are against you. But in others, such as Mechanus or the seven heavens, where there is a very precise natural order, these things would be more likely to form beneficial symbioses than be harmful to their hosts. And by focussing on things like that, there is the risk of making the planes seem banal, especially if the effects of the disease is merely a bigger, badder version of existing real world ones. And unfortunately, that is the case for most of the examples here. Abyssal gangrene, limbo lockjaw, planar rabies, hive plague, these are all just quicker, deadlier, and resistant to the usual curative magic. Slightly more interesting are zombie leprosy, which is the kind of thing that causes a nice cascading apocalypse, and fading breath, which is created by dead gods, and is more likely to affect creatures of opposing alignments. On the other hand, Astral Mold seems to miss the point since metabolism doesn't function while there, so you don't eat on the plane anyway. So I think this article has a greater proportion of boring ideas than interesting ones, especially if you're already familiar with biology and the study of diseases in general. It could have been so much better.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 3/8


The home front: A lot of emphasis in the Dragonlance 5th age fiction was put upon family, and the small acts of heroism that happen on an everyday basis, and make the lives of those around you better, rather than going off and saving the world, which you may not get the credit for, and if you do, the stories'll be twisted and exaggerated. I'm not surprised that they're doing an article covering the same ground. Of course, the fact that Krynn has been taken over by giant dragons which take what they want from the population, and give nothing back, while allowing monsters to freely roam the countryside, really keeps things interesting for the average person in the worst possible way. Which means plenty of opportunity for heroes to have whole campaigns without ever venturing far from home. Really, this is applicable in any campaign where the evil overlord is an approaching menace, or wandering monsters are common enough that everyday people have to constantly take precautions against them. Even in real world hunter-gatherer societies, you'd lose quite a few people to predation over the course of a year. To keep people around, they introduce a popularity mechanic which seems easy enough to add into either AD&D or the 5th age system. So this is a good way of both continuing to give coverage to this setting, and provide advice that's applicable elsewhere. When the stakes are personal, you don't have to escalate the scale too much to keep people emotionally engaged. Just take care not to kill all their friends and family in one raid, otherwise they'll lose all the attachment they had for the place. Overall, I definitely approve of this, and can see how you could easily get a good campaign out of it.


Alternate frontiers: Star Frontiers! I was hoping we'd get a conversion of their old Sci-fi setting to their new system. Woo. At 10 pages, it's a pretty extensive one too. Dralasites, Vrusk, Yazirians and Sathar all get racial writeups making them available as PC's. And there's a dozen bits of equipment that are relatively common in Star Frontiers, but not in the Star Drive setting. Despite it's size, this feels like it's over all too soon, which is a testament to the amount of material they published in the magazine for it between 84-88, and the degree which I remember it despite it being over 2 years of real time since I was covering that period. So this doesn't leave me completely satisfied, but is generally a positive experience, with a ton of useful crunch, and enough setting that a complete newbie can understand what's going on. This is a nice boost in variety of material covered, and hopefully we'll be seeing a few more resurrections of old material in the next year, as the 25th anniversary celebrations get underway.


Super science in the marvel universe: Another rather interesting bit of crunch for their other new system. We talked about the gadgeteer issue in the old FASERIP system, and issue 180's attempt at tackling it, which didn't impress me much. Their SAGA system solution, on the other hand, is both simple and exceedingly flexible and wide-ranging, making only your imagination (and the technical competence to back it up) your limit. Which in a comic book universe is very appropriate. Also appropriate is the fairly high chance of things blowing up in your face if you overreach yourself, keeping you from just trying the same thing again until you succeed if you have the time. And it also tackles how to keep inventions from changing the world too easily, and how to keep the research process from getting in the way of adventuring. Pretty damn good, really. I suppose if there's one thing the SAGA system should do well, it's getting the rules to fit into the narrative, and this is more than simple and flexible enough for that.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 4/8


Handle with care: Our module this year hits the reset button from the story in the first two annuals, and goes back to 1st level again. Now with extra whimsy! The PC's are hired by a quirky prank playing wizard to guard his stuff on a journey. A rival wizard from the same guild summons a bunch of norkers to smash all his potions and alchemical gear, with wacky results as the PC's are hit by various chemicals in the ensuing fight. The amount of xp you get at the end is primarily based on how much of the equipment you save. Sounds like a CRPG minigame. :mad: So this is definitely a break from dungeon crawling and serious roleplaying, but not a particularly welcome one. This is exactly the kind of whimsy that makes me irritable and itching to get back to the srys bisnis of pretending to be an elf dual wielding longbows saving the world. I do have to praise the amount of detail gone into in terms of the adversaries tactics though. They make them a lot more interesting than their basic stats indicate, and quite a few serious monsters could learn from that. So this isn't terrible, but it is terribly whimsical and not to my tastes at all. I shall definitely pass on this one.


The ecology of the Steel Dragon: A rather philosophical ecology this month, as befits the creature covered. Even more than silver dragons, Steel dragons rather enjoy living among humanoids, assuming their shapes, and living their lives. But if they are to convincingly pass for any length of time, they must think as people, age as people, and be ready to suffer the little indignities of life as a person. And then they must leave that life behind, adopt a new one. Preferably a very different one, for how else are you to stave off the ennui of eternity and learn new things. A theme we've also seen show up recently in Kindred of the East, with the Thousand Whispers Dharma being devoted to that principle as a way of finding enlightenment. And indeed, the writer shoots hard for that air of poetry in his writing. It doesn't quite make it, becoming a little absorbed by it's own pretentiousness, and forgetting to reference other sources (what happened to the half dragons?) but it's still another interesting read. You can steal the lessons here, and apply them to all sorts of long-lived creatures.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 5/8


Arcane Lore: Hmm. Another Spell selection for Dwarven priests. We last got one of those in issue 129, which I think is a decent enough interval. As usual, I shall examine them closely for any repeats.

Dwarven Zeal enhances their bonuses against goblinoids some more. This is obviously exclusive, but not as annoyingly as the Dragon exclusive spells, and certainly isn't overpowered.

Mud in your eye is the kind of bad joke that seems more appropriate for Gnomes. I'm sure I've seen this one before, possibly with a fae origin. Do we really need another 1st level spell that's this inferior to Sleep?

Precious Affinity is a fairly direct recycle of Detect Metals and Minerals from last time, only shorter duration. Not worth the bother.

Foundation doesn't beautify you, it helps you stick to the ground better. Dwarves never were ones for vanity, were they.

Ignore light wounds is an interesting variant on Aid. Gotta love that insane toughness. Just remember to look after yourself properly after the fight.

Shatter Metal is another one we've seen before in different context. Gotta love that weapon screwage as a way of settling fights, biatch.

Stone Shell is a particularly cool looking armor class boosting spell. It'll slow you down a bit too, but dwarves never were winners of the miss lissom leg contest either, were they.

Transmute Gem lets you upgrade your gems, or just refluff them. This is not very reliable as a get rich scheme, and may piss off people if discovered. They can't make that easy in D&D, can they.

Clinging Earth is the great equalizer, slowing everything else down to dwarven rates. You laugh at our stubby legs! Who's laughing now? I'll run rings around you. Ha!

Stromp's Dwarven Cleaver is another weapon conjurer. It's actually pretty badass for it's level, making it compare favourably with Mordenkainen's Sword. Clerics are better at just hitting things instead of blasting them.

Earth Fist compares similarly well with the equivalent level Bigby's hands, making for a definite bit of power creep here. Can't say I approve of that. Basic comparison, folks. This is what the corebooks are there for.


Dungeon mastery: Keeping a journal is a pretty old trick that even the first gamers quickly discovered was a damn good idea. Similarly, creating a proper calendar for your world, with seasons, holidays, celebration days, etc, etc is one of those things that helps a world feel real. Combining the two, so your events always happen on a specific day, and even when you spend months in the wilderness, the DM can easily note the seasons changing, and the characters having their respective birthdays, is a logical leap, but not one that's you'd automatically make. This also demonstrates the substantial advantage taking your notes on the computer rather than paper has, in allowing you to edit, copy, and divide up your material, giving players selective access to it. And of course, proper timekeeping lets you easily keep track of all manner of little things that would be much harder without an established framework, (facebook really has been a godsend for my scheduling stuff and social life.) and then analyse them statistically. So this has some old ideas, but mixes them with ones that are new to me, and both are good ones. We can always do with ways to organise our work that actually save more time in the long run.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 6/8


Bazaar of the Bizarre: For a second time here, they decide to eschew the usual magic for a collection of purely mundane items. They really are pushing the tolerance of their readers. Ok, it's more affordable than the magic stuff, but really, we want the shinies. It's quite a long one too, so it looks like this is going to be another tedious page-filler.

Angon are serrated, crossbarred spears that seem good against armies and large creatures. Another fairly realistic example of trying to customise existing weapons for specific situations that D&D doesn't represent too well.

Ordinary Bracers are useful too! Another slightly amusing reminder that mundane items were doing this stuff hundreds of years before D&D got in on the act.

Bronzewood Portals are reinforced doors that impose a penalty on attempts to break in. In a place full of adventurers, this is always going to attract repeat customers.

Charcloth Tin is full of really flammable paper. This makes starting fires in cold, wet miserable conditions a lot easier. Another valuable one for low level adventurers.

Dagger Sashes are one we've seen before in plenty of illustrations, but not formalised into mechanics. An array of little sheathes designed for quick throwing. Just strap it on and you're ready to make several ranged attacks per round.

Double Bows are another one we've seen before. Bloody gnomes. In fact, compared to the 6-shooter crossbow, these aren't too impressive. Screw this.

Double Mail is like katanas. Chain-mail made tougher by having two points of connection per link? Seems a bit spurious. If it was that easy, why isn't it the standard? I don't know.

Draw-Mouth Quivers are another item designed for more convenient access in case of an unexpected fight. It's amazing how often item manufacturers don't think about real world in-the-field issues when designing stuff.

Dwarven Stone Scrolls are designed to protect important information. Open them wrong, and they explode, hurting you and destroying the stuff inside. Have fun trying to solve this one.

Fineplates are a pointless portmanteau. We already know you can add cost onto practical items almost infinitely by increasing the ornateness. This is not really needed.

Galda oil works well in both lanterns and for cooking. Well, it certainly reduces stress for adventurers. A ruined meal from a wrong ingredient will have everyone cranky, especially if supplies are running low.

Gnomish Neckpurses are another faintly ridiculous but practical device by everyone's favourite irritating shortarses. This is one that could well work in reality. After all, what airport security thinks to check the hairband? Not that I plan on smuggling anything in the near future, of course.

Gorgetal is neck armour, to protect you against strangulation and called shots. Another one that seems like it could have it's roots in reality. Like armoured codpieces, protecting vulnerable areas is a good idea too many people forget.

Gullet Guardians do the same for your lower abdomen. Wear them under your clothing, and people will just think you're a little fat. I think I can take that without any worry.

Honey Dust is just a mundane perfume. Yawnarama. I think this goes a bit too far into pointless setting-building.

Ipp Candles drive away bugs. Like bracers, we've seen several magical variants on this, while the mundane, real version remains relatively obscure. Everyone goes for the magical solution first, despite the extra expense.

Jalzanda Oils give you a good night's sleep. Take too much, and you'll appear dead to the world. Just the thing for those tragic Romeo and Juliet style misunderstandings.

Laceleather Pantaloons try and give a reasonable explanation for why any adventurer would wear ridiculous clothing like Alias's trousers. I'm not buying it. You wear something with that many little gaps in the wilderness, and next thing you know, there's a spider setting up camp by your crotch. No thank you.

Luminous Paste is another mundane solution to a problem normally dealt with by magic. Glow-in-the dark runes? No problem. Just need the right tree extract.

Pace Beads allow you to engage in more accurate mapping without wasting too much time on tape measures. Once again with the simple useful tricks.

Padded Leather Armor is another fairly obvious bit of technological advancement. Make the leather and chain bits of your protection modular, and you have more freedom to vary your precise level of protection based on danger and temperature. Couldn't this stuff be made standard as well?

Reedmace Shafts are used to make arrows in marshy areas where proper wood is scarce and valuable. They don't work as well as regular arrows, but burn easily once properly dried. I guess you have to make the best of what you've got.

Rhizian Shield Harnesses are another twinky trick to let you both fight two-handed and still benefit from a shield. Like the Athasian Tortoiseshell blades, this'll take quite a bit of extra training, which'll hopefully pay off and let you be a smug flashy git who both has their cake and eats it.

Santal Wood Incense freshens up the foulest dungeon or your money back. I really couldn't make this shit up. I suspect a joke round the table that the writer decided to run with.

Santolin is a pretty and all round useful fabric. Another attempt to create culture for an existing world that is unlikely to be taken up and become official.

Silver Tissue is much the same, only even more so. Pretty elven-woven stuff that's tremendously rare? Before you know it, everyone'll have some.

Talwucs see the people of Oerth reinvent the mackintosh. Great, now they can have flashers as well Who's going to remember this silly name?

Tamal Leaves see them include a culturally integrated variant on chewing tobacco as well. Filthy habit. I want no part of it. :spits:

Walking Sticks also get an examination with a bunch of variants, including the usual concealed weapons and smuggling devices. You can also putt a whole bunch of triggered spells in them which can get pretty brutal. Probably cheaper than the normal way of enchanting rods and staves too. Once again, we see how you can run rings around the official methods by careful rules-lawyering and profit tremendously.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 7/8


Dragon's Bestiary: Off to the city again, for some more not particularly impressive variants on existing creatures, courtesy of our resident ecologist. Come on, surely someone else is submitting stuff. Stop bogarting this place. You aren't that interesting.

Acid pigeons exaggerate an existing creature, making them even more destructive to statues and buildings. Give 1st level adventurers the job of hunting them down and cleaning up the city if you really want them to feel small.

Pirahna ants are completely self explanatory. Um, don't we have these in real life anyway, albeit found in jungles? Oh, they're even smarter are they? Well, whoopee doo. Filler.

Polyroaches merge into one huge cockroach, taking the whole hive mind thing a bit too literally. Like the demonic sawflys of a couple of issues ago, I can see this being quite creepy.
 
Rat burglars are also self explanatory. Intelligent kleptomaniac rats? With a goofy backstory typical of his writing. A low level substitute for wererats, methinks. Still, you could well use them to liberate adventurers of a bit of their treasure sneakily.

Stone termites, unsurprisingly, eat stone. This means they're a lot harder to squash, and similarly more troublesome to the structural integrity of your home. Another unglamorous pain for low level adventurers to solve.

Dragon Magazine annual 1998


part 8/8


Rogues Gallery: Another Troy Denning novel conversion this month. I'm sure he's been around a lot more than he was before the changeover. This time, it's his new novel Faces of Deception that he's telling us about the characters of. Which seems to involve venturing both to the utter east and the planes, so they're also keeping their other settings supported through this. Hey ho. Gotta get what you can take.

Atreus Eleint is utterly hideous, as a combination of a childhood raised by bullying ogres, and a magical curse. He'd very much like to fix that, and I suspect much of the book involves working towards this. In the meantime, he has virtually every material thing he wants, a castle, plus a whole band of ogre mercenaries. This will not assuage his angst, of course.  

Yago is his surprisingly smart and civilised ogre adoptive father. As a mercenary, he's spent a lot of time around various villainous masterminds, keeping quiet and paying attention, and he might not completely get human culture, but he knows what he's doing. He seems quite appropriate to put in a game.

Rishi Saubhari is an eastern conman with a moonshaes fashion fetish. He's high born, but ruined his family, pissed away his wealth, and now lives from one grift to the next. Superficially charming, but with poor long term planning skills and a short temper if foiled, he's pretty much the epitome of the chaotic evil wastrel. Steer well clear.

Seema Indrani is a pacifist priestess with a really crappy sphere selection, following a god that can only empower a very small number of clerics. Well, that's what you get when you're only worshipped in a remote tibet analogue. At least it proves she's genuinely faithful. But she wouldn't make a very good adventurer.

Tarch is a Barbazu slaver. His abilities are pretty standard for his race, it's merely what he does with them that's interesting. He seems more of a plot point than a fully fleshed out personality though. How long an appearance does he actually make in the book?

The Sannyasi is a deva who also has more than half of his description wasted on the powers and immunities that are common to his race, thus leaving little space for individualisation. Would it be so hard to simply refer us to the appropriate monstrous compendium? Or is he just another cookie cutter goody-good boy scout? Either way, I'm left a little disappointed by this.  


Dragonmirth has an attack of the twee. Expense is relative, and value is in the eye of the beholder.


Another mixed, but generally competent collection this month. On the positive side, they had more non D&D RPG material than they've done in ages, with an article for each of their 3 other systems, and the setting specific stuff is generally pretty cool. On the negative side, their over-reliance on the same old regular columns continues, and gets a little more barrel-scraping each month. And without any extra special guests like last year's annual, I'm left feeling this is business as usual overall. If this is intended to make me feel like it's time for a change in the near future, they're succeeding. I strongly want to get to the next edition. Will the magazine ever start getting quicker to get through again? Guess I'll never know if I don't keep going.

Dragon Magazine Issue 255: January 1999


part 1/8


124 pages. Another case of the eerily similar cover subjects here. Check issue 177.  Don't they look like the same person. Also, Rebecca Guay fails mind flayer anatomy 101. Sphincter mouths, not leering fanged maws. They aren't sexy vampires. Don't humanise stuff unnecessarily. But anyway. They've finally got round to doing a psionics themed issue for 2e, nearly 10 years in. About time too. I was worried you'd miss it out, and that would be a real shame. So let's see if the minds of the writers can master the minds of people who can master others with their minds, or if it'll all degenerate into paranoia where no-one's sure who's controlling who.


Scan Quality: Good, a little visible pixelation.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Another new beginning? You just can't stick at it, can you. Yes, once again, they're talking about making this a fresh start, and the new material more friendly to newbies. Have a little trust in the intelligence of your readers, please. Well, this pretty much guarantees I'm going to be bored by some of the articles, but when has that ever not been the case. Still, they've got regular coverage for two other systems, and two new columns planned, so it shouldn't be entirely a reset to the same old topics as if we'd never seen them before. So as usual, I am torn between pessimism and optimism, hoping for the best while fearing the worst, and aware that reality will be somewhere between the two. It's never going to be a perfect world. But just maybe, it'll be better than 95 and 96.


D-Mail: We start off with one of those long letters where someone spells out in great detail exactly what they do and don't like about the recent magazines. Once again, they think Wyrms of the North is played out. Ed maybe got a little too self-indulgent there. But it has been an interesting ride.

A letter asking for reprints. Not in the magazine. But we do have something extra special planned for you. Oh yes. I think you'll be very happy indeed, providing you have enough money.

Another letter saying wyrms of the north has probably run it's course. The public are pretty unanimous on this one. But Sage Advice can stay in perpetuity. People will never stop coming up with new silly rules questions for Skip to solve.

Two more letters giving sample castings for a Dragonlance movie. Kiefer Sutherland is nowhere to be found amongst them, I'm afraid.

And finally, a fairly long letter with illustrations (!) about the idea of bringing back a minis column. They've already said they were doing that! Show a little patience! There's still such a thing as lead-in times, you know.


Nodwick saves the day. But he still won't get the credit.