Dragon Magazine Issue 256: February 1999


part 8/8


Blood philosophy, the world of the Weren: Another expansion of a particular Alternity race is the article that system gets this month. Honorbound warrior sorts from a harsh environment? That seems fairly familiar. Still, they're certainly not klingon rip-offs. Instead, they're huge hairy things which look like they have walrus or polar bear derivation, and come from a planet that's fairly chilly even at the equator, with enormous icecaps covering most of it's mass. They're from a fairly traditional culture, but there's now plenty of them out in space, getting assimilated and forgetting their traditional values. So while they do have a stereotype, you have plenty of leeway to play them against type if you want. They dip into ecology, sociology, religion, philosophy, language, and it's obvious some effort has been put into keeping things scientifically plausible. It's not the most entertaining to read of articles, but it does seem to be of pretty decent quality, and has enough density of ideas to support re-reading. Now, if they could just do something about the dryness to draw people in better.


The blood war makes it's way into dragonmirth. Swordplay takes a leaf out of Nodwicks book on the proper treatment of hirelings. KotDT engages in some lame horsetrading, in more ways than one.


TSR Previews: D&D gets another fast-play adventure, Eye of the Wyvern. The first introduced you to dungeoneering, now this brings the wilderness into things. Roll on the next generation.

AD&D has several bits of rehash. On the generic side, there's dungeons of despair, a collection of some of the best adventures from the magazine. While Ravenloft collects 3 of it's old books in Van Richten's monster hunter compendium. They do seem to be increasing the amount of this lately. Roll on .pdf's and the long tail.

Dragonlance bounces back and forth along it's timeline as usual. The Sylvan Veil is another dual stat adventure, covering a whole load of the elven nation's history. Just what choices will you have a chance to make here. There's also The Puppet King by Doug Niles. Looks like the elves are going to have a crappy time of things just like everyone else.

The Forgotten Realms is still concentrating on the seaside in Star of Currash by Clayton Emery. A hidden undead city? Pulp action? Plenty of fun to be had there.

And Alternity gets an adventure. Planet of Darkness. Hidden secrets and sociopolitical crap? They are still trying. Good luck with that.


Profiles: rk post is one of our more recent new artists. Signing up just before TSR crashed and burned, thankfully, the new management kept him on. He's just starting to really make an impact, having done a lot to shape the look of Alternity with his prelediction towards the weird. Sounds like he fits in here just fine. Like quite a few of the staff, he's an absolute obsessive, painting for work, and painting for entertainment in his free time as well. Suppose that's how you get really good at it. Come on, surely he has some personality quirks or something you can write about? I dunno. These profiles aren't the most insightful, are they. First Quest was way better at getting inside the heads of the writers.


Slightly more continuity in this issue than recently, but it still feels very much like a collection of articles to be judged on their individual merits, rather than as a whole. It's not exactly groundhog day, but most of the wheel-spinning is happening behind the scenes as they prepare for the edition change. Say you'll shift into a higher gear at some point. Maybe I should speed up again. Surely I can do this.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 1/8


124 pages. Roger Raupp is back again, with another Arthurian cover, which has quite a bit of similarity to the one he did 12 years ago in issue 125, only closer perspective and with more saturation on the colour. Guess time hasn't changed that interest. The issue's theme is the Dark Ages, which fits in, even if it might not be that different from the regular medieval D&D assumptions. I guess it all depends on the details, and there's certainly plenty of information to research from on this topic. How will they balance the twin demands of accuracy and fun this issue? Well, that would be telling. Fortunately, I've never been averse to spoilers.


Scan quality: Good, a little visible grain and oversaturation. No index.


In this issue:


Man, that's a lot of adverts before we even get to the first feature. Particular demerits go to lands of lore III, which just looks fugly. This is not making me want to buy these things.


The wyrms turn has much the same ideas as I do about the balancing of fantastical elements and realism. If anything, they go into rather more detail, and examine how this intersects with sci-fi as well as fantasy. When there really was something there, you can accurately judge how accurate it was. Otherwise it's just a matter of attention to detail and verisimilitude rather than actual accuracy. Makes sense to me. Talk about realistic magic is a bit silly really, when you step back. On the other hand, a magic system could indeed be better or worse for telling a compelling story with, and an author could stick to the rules they established, or wind up breaking them, and you could do some objective analysis on those grounds. So this makes me think about the nature of reality, and how different people might perceive and react to the same thing differently, and there's vast quantities of information we don't have the senses to process, but there's still an underlying reality there. (unless you're a hardcore soliptist. ) So logically, the fewer biases and preconceptions you have, the closer you come to seeing what's actually in front of you. Well, there are dumber sounding routes to enlightenment.


D-Mail: A letter telling them that they're great, and the magazine is great. They shouldn't expect to please everyone all the time, and should stick to making good articles. Don't get jittery and blow it by overthinking things.

A letter asking for them to put the map of dragon territories from the annual online. The site they reference is still up as of writing this, but I can't find the map itself. Such is the nature of progress.

A mostly positive analysis of issue 254. They do seem to have more people individually examining each article these days. Must be something in the airwaves.

A letter saying they should give more credit to their cover artists. After all, if anyone's going to bring in new blood, it's them. They take this constructive criticism on board eagerly. Let new artists make a name for themselves.

Another Dragonlance casting letter. This seems likely to carry on running until the editors lose interest. After all, it has more built up history than Scud and Allycia.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 2/8


Nodwick saves the day again! What a hero!


Forum: Tim Ellenbecker thinks you ought to detach combat levels from skill levels, so PC's can pick up lots of proficiencies if they can find the time, independently of if they're badass or not. I still don't think that's a bad idea.

M. Keaton thinks that the people who want tons of options collated into the corebooks are wrong. This is a definite case where things should be kept simple. We want to get new people in, after all.

Jason F. Smith is another person who believes in templates and story based experience rewards. Clap your hands if you believe and they'll be applied to your characters!

David Higgins is another person who thinks saves should be based around the ability score that resists the effects. And the probabilities ought to change less as you go up levels. If they're dithering about fort, ref & will, this'll help them decide.

Joseph F. Matons reminds us druids are awesome, despite being frequently overlooked. It's not an edition based comment, but still very appropriate since they'll be even more awesome soon.


Dungeoncraft: This month's column moves onto creating the home base. This focusses upon macro details such as size, political system, and primary economic products, rather that details that'll instantly be useful to players, like the inn layout and shopping lists. While this may lead to larger adventures, it won't be as instantly useful or easy as drawing a map, filling it with monsters, and setting the players loose to play. I guess Ray has bigger fish to fry, and we already have more dungeon crawl modules than we can use. But still, it seems like he's trying to start small, but then slipping back into top down worldbuilding. Still, the example world is coming along nicely, with an edge of civilisation fortified settlement that's heavy on wandering adventurers and rumours of stuff for them to do. Do a little more of what he's doing, not what he's saying, and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 3/8


Sage advice: Do you know any languages if you don't spend a slot on one (yes. You cannot give that language up for an extra slot, even if you have the spells to get around it)

Does a 1 on surprise rolls always equal surprise even if you have bonuses (you decide)

What penalty do you suffer for being underwater? The DMG contradicts itself (God, have we still not cleared the errata on that out after a decade of reprints? Bit late now, I guess. +4)

How does a yo-yo of fate work (personally, and occasionally. It's not the game-breaker you seem to think it is)

How much of a person's body do you need to raise them. Raising needs all of them. Ressurection can regrow them from a tiny bit. Those extra 2 levels really come in handy.)

What happens when you wrestle someone with stoneskin on (The spell provides no protection. Betcha didn't expect that, cully. )

Can you cast spells while grappled. (No. Even verbal only spells are a bugger to get out while you're being groped.)

How does a scimitar of speed work under Players option rules (kludgily)

Can nondetection protect you from magical wards (no. Wrong school of magic)

How near do you need to be to an effect to use storm's spell thrust. (Inside it. No protection by proxy. )

How does a dimensional blade affect flesh ( Brutally, but not that brutally. All D&D characters above 1st level are superhuman, remember.)

What happens when undead use channeling ( The usual. Undead immunity to fatigue is like paladin immunity to disease. Magical stuff can get through it )

Are death knights affected by their own fireballs (yes. Just like wizards, you've gotta take account of the terrain when using your artillery. )

Can you put a low level spell in a higher level slot (Same as it ever was. Even now we remember what we used to say. Take a clean break wash that love away.)

How does a book of the planes work (Read it, go to the top layer. Not hard. )

How many spells can a draincone drain (dunno. How many did you cast? )

What's the right area of effect for a swordward (chunky slices. Better get buffing.

What, does Skip have to answer Marvel super heroes questions as well this month. Hmm. Skip'll do it, but this time, skip wants a purple box. Skip couldn't possibly do Skip's work without it. Can't go mixing the Marvel and Alternity questions up, can we? You will, Mr Wizard from the coast? Why thank you. Ha. Suckers. Skip wonders what else Skip can pressure the new management into giving him.

Has Threnody been cured of the legacy virus or not (we don't know yet. Even if we get an answer, marvel may retcon it anyway)

How much damage does a fall do. (Has a superhero ever been seriously hurt by falling? Not often. Get the Reed Richards guide to everything if you really need to know)

How strong do you need to be to throw something. (depends what you want to lift. Is comparing two figures on a chart really that hard?)

Can you use doom and have it used against you straight away. (no. You don't suffer the consequences until at least next scene. Just enough time to get cocky)

What happens if you make a contingent boxing attack. (skip has no idea, so skip will spout vaguely plausible technobabble and hope that makers you go away.)

The characters from the comics break the rules of the game! (and you are surprised why? They have tons of experience, and narrative fiat behind them. You don't. Live with it. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 4/8


Dark Ages: Whoa. A 21 page special feature. Now that's not something they do very often. In fact, wasn't the last one about this time last year, and also featuring Roger Raupp's material. He brings the old school vibe back to the magazine, or something. As befits their current editorial direction though, this is quite crunch heavy, assuming that you're at least moderately familiar with the idea of dark ages history, and showing us how to implement it in a mechanical sense, with new races and kits taking up well over half of the page count. Since this is an epic feature, I think I should break it up into subcategories to give it it's due.

The setting information includes a map and a timeline, taking us from the departure of the romans to 1066 and the arrival of the Normans. It includes details of the various kingdoms within the british isles, which generally aren't actually that big. But then, when you don't have fast communication or travel, it's a lot easier to feel like a big fish who rules all he surveys. So this is a good reminder that even at name level when you get your own domain, it doesn't have to be that big or populous by modern standards to feel like a real handful to manage. Still, you'll have to refer to the bibliography if you really want in depth information on how real world dark ages kingdoms turned out, and what life in one was like.

The races information not only covers demihumans, but also gives racial modifiers to the celts and picts, while leaving the anglo-saxons as the "base" human race. While this might be slightly dubious from a political correctness PoV, it will allow you to differentiate your characters more without relying on the supernatural elements. The new races are erkling and trow, forest goblins and dwarf-troll hybrids, both of which tend to be sneaky and rather good as thieves, but poor to mediocre at other class options. They definitely fall into the category of creatures that will be unpopular in human settlements and have to work hard to escape their heritage. So yeah, if you're not comfortable with both real world and fantasy racism and incorporating it into your game, (while preferably separating it from your own personal beliefs) you may want to think hard about this bit.

And we not only get 8 new kits, but also extensive reference to the existing complete handbook series and historical sourcebooks, ensuring that they aren't repeating material from those. Most of these are of the concrete benefits for social hindrances kind though, tying you into the setting, and making it a pain to just go off on adventures for extended periods of time. So I think this is one that put a bit more effort into research than adapting it for the game. While extensive, I don't think it counts as a classic one. But don't let that put you off trying a few more of these.


Fighting with flair: Or yet another attempt to give warriors cool things to do. Which to be fair, they are gradually getting better at, even if they continue to fall behind spellcasters by comparison. Skills and powers is good for something, and that's letting you get helping you really figure out if a particular kit is over or underpowered, and ensuring the character overall is balanced despite this. At least, that's presuming the individual powers and drawbacks are accurately priced and don't have game breaking combos that are way more than the sum of their parts. Since nearly all of these have costs in multiples of 5, fine-tuning does not appear to be on the agenda. Still, this does have a lot of detail in other respects, including referencing many books. So it looks like after several issues which I've criticised for being too disconnected, this one is going the other way, with articles that demand you have lots of supplements to fully use them. That's a pleasant change, at least until they overdo it. Still, plenty of room for the other articles to balance it out.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 5/8


101 Paladin quests: Practical example solutions to the problems paladin's unique powers and requirements sometimes present? Well, it's a much more productive contribution than bitching about them in the forum or saying they should get rid of them altogether. Yay for Johnathan M Richards again. He's at his best when examining already existing elements of the game, and expanding massively upon them while injecting a bit of humour. Split evenly between bonded mount quests, holy sword quests, and atonement quests, (ya think they should have done more atonement ones? ) this encompasses multiple stages of their adventuring life, and like most 101 lists, a single campaign is unlikely to use it up. Most are quite challenging, and some are amusing and inventive as well, making them good for a session or two of solo adventure. They can definitely produce a few more in this line of articles before they start to run out of topics and have to move on.


Fiction: Charger by Ben Bova. Once again Orion changes the path of history via using not only his combat skill, but also his brains. This time, it's by introducing stirrups to Arthur and co, allowing them to ride their horses in true knightly fashion centuries early and kick Saxon butt. Which of course also allow the author to show off his general knowledge of history and science in general. Even more than last time, the contrast between Orion's omnipotence in physical combat, and helplessness in the social arena is played up, with him getting plenty of mockery from the ordinary people for his odd ideas and ways. Well, that's all too realistic. It happens to almost everyone who's different or visionary. So this rings pretty true in all it's non supernatural elements, although Ben takes pretty heavy liberties with the arthurian mythos as usual. My main complaint is the amount of time it spends explaining the premise yet again to those who haven't read the previous stories. That could surely have been done in less time.


Wyrms of the north: Continuity time! In issue 236 we saw a silver dragon who was mated with a Gold dragon. Now it's time for us to get info on said gold dragon. Like most gold dragons, she holds herself to moral standards that most creatures would find a real struggle. (except when shapeshifted, where staying in character may supersede short-term good deeds. ) And she uses her power to engage in actual temporal rulership, and generally make things better for those in her domain, which is certainly unusual. With a flying mountain for a lair, and a magical artifact that gives her tons of earth and environmental control magic, she's pretty obvious, and it's testament to her number of powerful allies and the inability of evil to co-operate that she stays in charge. So this article reinforces the picture of the Realms as a magic heavy world, where the supernatural creatures and powerful wizards are the real players in geopolitics, with cards up their sleeves no fighter or thief can come close too, however high level they might be. That's the natural result of running the world on AD&D physics, and no amount of disincentivising can counteract basic logic.

The Dark Ages articles in 257 and 263 -especially the part about rune magic- is some of the most useful stuff to appear in Dragon.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 6/8


PC Portraits: Roger Raupp takes this column too this month, with some knightly characters, duh. This does mean they slant slightly more towards the white male human than the average one of these, but there are also samurai, indian and mayan looking ones in there. The real common factor is the protective headgear, which is often quite flashy. Well, when you're heavily armored, you can get away with a little peacocking. Sticks and stones will hurt your bones considerably less, so you can feel freer ignoring mocking words. And an elaborate codpiece will only provide more protection. Go on, platemail and a horse already costs tons, you can spare a little extra to look good with it.


AD&D game aliens: The T'sa get a conversion from Alternity this month. Little fast, smart lizard people, they don't fit the stereotype of reptiles, despite there being real world examples where they move at quite scary speeds, run on water and whatnot. So statistically, they're of the high dex & int, low str & con ilk that mess around with techy stuff, and skitter around the place being enthusiastic about everything. With short lifespans, but a fast learning rate, they adapt to new situations fast, and their societies go through regular upheavals as they discover new technologies. They get unlimited advancement as rogues, but aren't that great at spellcasting, oddly enough. Chalk it up to lack of focus, or maybe being from a technology based universe. They still have more technological artifacts than most races round here, which also get statted up for AD&D. So they do fill a niche that the current races don't, and could make an interesting addition to a party. And they also have obvious potential for being played in an irritating manner and disrupting the party, so um, yaaay. The kender and fishmalk crowd can feel happy too.


The ecology of the firenewt & Giant strider: Oooh. A paired ecology. Haven't seen one of those in a while. We also see the return of our protagonist from the Bird Maiden ecology. So that's three sets of recurring characters (plus Elminster of course, who gets everywhere) that this series has built up over the years. Anyway, firenewts are one of those quirky creatures that appeared first in the Fiend Folio, and haven't got a huge amount of attention since then, since low level marauding humanoid is such an overfilled ecological niche. This does it's best to differentiate them from the crowd. Obviously, they already have the distinguishing factor of their flame related powers, and using mounts a lot of the time. So we build on that, and add a load of details on their lifecycle, culture, religion, fighting tactics, and a new spell. That'll do nicely, making sure players won't take them too lightly. Another fairly good ecology that gains an extra mark for the recurring characters. This series is really building up a bit of continuity now.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 7/8


Role models: The minis column is still tackling the basics of getting everything together for a campaign. Pay extra attention to the PC's minis, because unless you're running a meatgrinder, they'll be stuck with them for a while, and the minis they choose will influence the way they perceive the characters in the long run. Meanwhile, the monsters don't need to have the same kind of attention paid to them, especially as painting takes quite a while, and you do want to have a decent variety in most campaigns. Although using unpainted ones as mooks and painted ones to represent named creatures is a clever idea, this is still pretty elementary, and the improved visuals don't really mitigate that. This once again disappoints compared to older articles on this topic.


Shop Keep: John Kovalic delivers us a new comic. Looks like running a game store is almost as exhausting and poor paying as being a professional games designer. You've got to laugh, or you'd go mad.


Battlezone: While Alternity stuff is getting converted to AD&D elsewhere in the issue, computer game stuff is getting converted to Alternity in the Ares column this issue. Since Battlezone was a game where you controlled giant mechanised vehicles, that means lots of stats for cool things that you can drive, fly or walk around the place, and the various weaponry they can be equipped with. And some  images of how they appear in game, which are a bit too small for my tastes, but look pretty nice. So if you want more powerful toys for your players to pilot, this is quite a valuable little article. If not, oh well, better luck next time, I'm fully aware that giant vehicles with powerful weaponry are a niche market, although maybe more due to expense and legal restrictions than desire.


The competitions series asks you to design a 1st level character this month.

Dragonmirth can't draw proper tetrahedrons. Swordplay can't be bothered with this MTV crap. KotDT get into pedantic antagonistic playing again.

Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Greyhawk continues to resurge, courtesy of our new owners. This time, they reverse another thing that was removed in the 2nd ed changeover by bringing back Monks and Assassins. The Scarlet Brotherhood have tons of both, and they're on the rise again. Will you let them back in your country? Can you keep them out, given how sneaky they are.

The Realms continues to rehash, on the other hand. Evermeet by Elaine Cunningham gets reprinted. Meanwhile R. A. Salvadore actually writes an adventure for a change. It still involves his usual locations, but at least he's pushing himself a bit. The Accursed tower takes you to Icewind Dale to have fun with another dungeon crawl.

Dragonlance gets The Rose and the Skull. The Knights of Takhisis have to figure out their new place without their goddess. Back and forth. I hope someone is keeping track of exactly when all these different novels and short stories take place.  

Ravenloft gets Spectre of the Black Rose. Lord Soth is still brooding as things suck in Ravenloft. What an unlife. Give it a rest.

The RPGA releases a compilation of their last year's adventures. More pickup meatgrinders for your delectation, along with other weirdness. Hmm. Worth considering. We could do with a few more single session adventures.

Alternity enjoys a supplement and a novel. They're really competing with the big boys at the moment. Outbound: An Explorers Guide gives you a ton of solar systems to drop into your game. Storm at Edala by Diane Duane is the second book in her trilogy here. Woo.

Marvel Super Heroes does for the fantastic 4 what they did for the avengers. Up to date descriptions and stats. Getcha up to date stats and histories heeeere. 4 for a dollar, maybe even 5!


Profiles: J Robert King is one of our fiction writers. Like a lot of people, he started reading voraciously because he was stuck at home for ages with nothing much to do, so books were a way to escape the boredom. Starting from the slightly less glamorous job of editor, he's become most well known for his Ravenloft work, but has also contributed to the Dragonlance, Planescape, First Quest, and Magic: the Gathering game worlds, and like every writer, also dreams of creating his own world, where he doesn't have to worry about line developers and continuity people interfering with your creativity. It is important to avoid getting typecast, and he certainly seems to be trying to do that. Let's hope his attempts didn't disappoint you.


Well, this issue has certainly been much higher on the continuity front than any issue in ages. Which has definitely been a pleasant change, even if as usual, not all the individual articles were great. I've now got more than enough D&D lore mastery that all the outside references were familiar to me, and everything within here is usable. I think I can return an overall positive verdict on this one. Now let's see if they've got their sense of humour back after skipping that last year.

Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 1/7


100 pages. This issue marks the end of the era of regular as clockwork 124 pagers. From here on out, the page count goes up and down (mostly down) from issue to issue unpredictably. Their comfortable early adulthood is over, where you can get drunk every weekend, live on Ramen for months on end and still get up and go next morning, and now it's time for all the aches and pains of middle age to set in. Still, at least that means I should be able to get through these last few years more quickly. Let's hit that accelerator.

Connecting with that is a rather amusing cover by Todd Lockwood, which features the hordes of belts, buckles & stupid adornments style that would become de rigeur throughout 3rd edition. A belly button ring, an eyebrow ring. A stud through the lip. Earrings that look like they'd slit her throat if she shook her head too hard. Lets not forget the belts. I count at least 29 on her. Really, who ever thought stuff like this was cool or practical for adventuring in? Even Alias would look askance at wearing this. At least trenchcoats are practical, weather resistant and have plenty of room for holding equipment. Of course, it could be an april fool that got taken seriously by the WotC art department.  But somehow I doubt it. Welcome to D&D's first mid-life crisis. You'll never be a hip young thing again. Accept it.


Scan quality: Generally good, colours slightly faded.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Once again they get neurotic about the amount of humour they should have in their april issues. You've been doing this over 20 years now. It isn't exactly rocket science. You need at least one leftfield one that people will talk about and remember, but maybe won't get any game use out of, and then you can mix serious and funny ones around the rest of the issue how you want. How hard is that? Well, I guess if you're not getting the submissions, it might be a bit tricky, but they certainly seemed to have no shortage of them in Roger's day. Don't tell me the whole gaming population has suddenly gone boring. Or maybe they've just intimidated the interestingly weird ones away with their dogmatic submission guidelines. In any case, this says nothing they haven't done before. They could have skipped this and had another much needed page for articles.


The complete dragon ball Z boxed set on VHS?! That'll eat up a LOT of shelf space. Tenchi miyo, on the other hand, is down with modern technology. Hooray for DVD's.

Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 2/7


D-Mail: We start off with a request for more articles with house rules and adventure hooks. We have enough standard stuff by now. Let's present a few more easy to use options.

Another request for more Campaign Classics. It's one case where demand seems to outstrip supply. If only all creators stuck with their children like Ed does.

Yet another letter about the possibility of a dragonlance movie, although they mention that a cartoon might be a better idea. Special effects are so annoyingly expensive to do well.

And finally a letter from someone who regularly uses minis in their game and is pleased to see a column back in the magazine. As with people who are fans of settings, there's plenty of them out there, not entirely satisfied with the amount they're being catered too.


Nodwick tries to get through to his employers, only to find they're well aware of what assholes they are. Apart from Pyffany. I though clerics were supposed to have a high wisdom.


Forum: Paul D. Thomson thinks mages are one of the most powerful classes, even at low level, because of the many many noncombat things they can do. Yeah, that's going to be the rub many times throughout the next edition too.

Derek Groen wants 4 base classes, plus good rules for creating your own. Then they can sell tons of examples while having a consistent base for keeping them balanced. A boy can dream, can't he.

Neil Palmquist wants the monk back, along with all the other 1st ed classes that got dropped, including the UA & OA ones. And all the old proficiencies incorporated too. BloAT!

Peter Donis-Forster defends alignment. It has very specific effects on your game, and characters should have restrictions on how they act. It helps define them as a character rather than just an extension of you.

Ken Butler dislikes the idea of a real time based combat system, but does want psionics as core. Hey Ho. Another mixed bag, as must be where opinions contradict.


Dungeoncraft: Ah yes, religion. An integral element in worldbuilding, and one that has the most potential to go horribly wrong or just get glossed over. We've been here before. Fortunately, this is one element where Ray improves on previous articles, spelling things out in a clear, step by step fashion, with examples, and referencing the principles he established in previous columns. The specific example of a supreme nature goddess with a broad enough umbrella to cover clerics & druids, including the darker side of nature; is rather generic, but I suppose you don't want anything too leftfield here. More interesting is the continued emphasis on making sure that for everything you design, there is a secret associated with it. Of all the advice he gives, that seems most unusual, but also likely to have good long-term payoffs. And the twist at the end, that Mind flayers were created by the moon goddess and are intended to eventually replace humans and other creatures from the nature one as the dominant lifeform, is positively inspired as a long-term campaign hook. So this is one of his stronger entries, and shows the continuity of this column building up nicely. If he gets several years to do this, and continues to improve, then I should miss him when this ends, as all things must eventually do.

Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 3/7


Sage advice: How much holy water is in a standard vial (half a pint. Individually, they may not weigh much, but they soon add up.)

Booze is a bitch. Would you give into temptation when dying of dehydration? ( Quite possibly. It's complicated. )

Can you get rid of poison by hasting someone (no. The aging is physical strain, not actual time passing. It does not heal you. or progress any stuff that would progress in a real year's aging. Trying to work logically from that assumption in any way will just waste your time. Casting it on children is a very bad idea. This stuff'll burn you out faster than crystal meth. They don't call it adventurer's crack for nothing. )

Why the hell did you remove the subdual rules from dragons. Were you making a political statement? (No. We standardized the rules, so now they apply to everyone.  No more (well, less) exception based design. That's a good thing! )

Don't the planescape rules essentially make everyone immortal (no, because petitioners lose their memories and class abilities. They're about as you as you would be if you were reincarnated. )

Can you get magic resistance, cast anti-magic shell on yourself, then resist it and cast spells through it (No. It either works or it doesn't. You can't have your cake and eat it too. )

How much does a 2x4 board cost (not much)

Is a halfling falling on someone a missile (No, it's a charge.)

How do you get your hand in a 2 inch wide pouch (turn it sideways)

What happens to the energy undead drain (off to the negative energy plane it goes. Schlorp schlorp entropy consumes a little more of the universe)

Does casting call lightning within obscurement electrify the whole cloud (no. Just apply the RAW, stop trying to use real world physics. This applies to any other spells your players try to "creatively interpret" as well. Just say no to physics, kids! )

What happens if a nymph has kids with my character (boys are your race, girls are theirs. They're like those weird amazonian fishes. No need to worry about weird half-breeds here.)

How can I improve my olde english vocabulary (LARP moar)

You said you can't catch arrows. My friend so can and he has the scars to prove it. (Skip hardly thinks stopping an arrow by having it go through the middle of your palm counts as catching. In any case, D&D isn't a martial arts game. Go play something else if you want to pull stunts like that. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 4/7


Mage vs Machine: Hmm. This might not be as long as last issue's special feature, but it is considerably more special. We've had the odd intrusion of sci-fi into D&D, but not for a while. And this has the potential to fill quite a few more sessions than Barrier Peaks, despite being only half the size. Machine life appearing from another planet or dimension and trying to take over the world may not be inherently evil, but it is going to cause substantial disruption to the natural order, and make druids and rangers in particular rather pissed off. This gives you one of two options. You can declare them anathema, and do your best to eradicate them from the world, or you can figure out how to have organic and technological things live alongside one-another, and hybridise into cyborgs and cool stuff like that. I'd obviously incline towards the cyberware option, but this gives you the option for either or both to exist in your campaign. They detail 4 different kinds of machine life,  3 low level and one massive robotic destroyer, with the intent that they form a larger hive structure and work together to explore and tactically defeat organic life. And on the player's side, we have two new wizard kits, one dedicated to destroying them, and one dedicated to understanding them, and never the twain shall share a party; 7 new nonweapon proficiencies to allow you to understand how they work and take advantage of that, 7 new spells to help you detect and interfere with them, and 9 technological artifacts for players to salvage after defeating the creatures. This is both a substantial and rather pleasing article, that does stuff they haven't done before, but still leaves room for further expansion. I think this actually counts as a classic article, that opens up new avenues for them. That definitely deserves some pretty strong praise.


Wizard societies: Didn't we just have some secret societies 2 issues ago? Well, I suppose this theme is suitable for all classes, except maybe clerics, who's loyalty to their god is supposed to supercede anything else, and unless they're a particularly strange god, they want everyone to know openly so they can get more worshippers. Still, there is the issue of diminishing returns here. There's also the issue that this isn't as mechanically robust as the previous set of examples, and most of them are obviously intended purely as NPC adversaries rather than useful for PC's. So this is one of those articles that isn't terrible, but does suffer quite a bit by contrast. I prefer the previous implementation, plus this feels like another good example of their willingness to rehash lately, so I'm not satisfied by this.


Nodwick gets a two page spread featuring the Little tomb of horrors (bop she bop, trangalang lang, look out, out out Look OUT!, etc) Can you guess who gets screwed over the most? Can you? I think you can. He really ought to switch sides. At least Acererak is a decent conversationalist.

Dragon Magazine Issue 258: April 1999


part 5/7


Wyrms of the north: Ed draws on a less common trope this month, that of identical twins who pretend to be a single person, which allows them to seem smarter, more prepared, and more omnipresent than any one creature, however active. This becomes particular scary for dragons, when combined with invisibility, trap-setting and long range communication. So this month's dragon(s) aren't the scariest Ed's ever detailed, but they are a real Gotcha! moment if played right, with each having different sets of prepared spells and magical items, and more than enough intelligence to use them tactically. In addition, plenty of effort is put into showing how their personalities contrast, but still have plenty of similarities, and how they'll likely interact with PC's. Twice the fun, hopefully more than twice the number of encounters, which also means more efficient use of page count.


The ecology of the flail snail: Last april, the monster hunters association failed to get the better of flumphs. They still haven't lived that down, or properly replenished their coffers either. This year, it's the flail snail, another oft-mocked monster, that is their target. Far more than last time, this is played for laughs, with the humour becoming increasingly broad and character based, and the monster being almost an afterthought. Even the footnotes have jokes in them. It's still just about usable, but this is a bit too far towards straight-out zaniness for my tastes. Really, if they carry on like this, their organisation'll break down completely in a few episodes. I don't approve.


Rogues gallery finally moves to another setting, giving Ravenloft a turn. They've had another fairly interesting time lately, with Lord Soth losing his hold on his domain, and eventually losing it altogether to his lieutenant. And most of this is covered in another novel by James Lowder. So let's take a look at the characters that drove this nasty conflict.

Azrael Dak is the foul-tempered werebadger dwarf that'll wind up in charge when the dust settles. With him at the reins, the elves of Sithicus are going to find their lives even more unpleasant than before. And as he has an item that lets him hear anywhere in the domain, it's not easy to conspire against him. As usual in Ravenloft, you're probably screwed, and it's the style with which you face your fate that'll determine if you live, die, or become a cursed abomination for the rest of eternity.

Inza Magdova Kulchevich is a decidedly tricksy Vistani wizard/thief who's spoiled rotten by her mum, and has no hesitation in manipulating and stealing from anyone she encounters. It's people like her that give the gypsies a bad name. She's also bad with animals, which is a real red light to anyone with any common sense. I'd definitely steer well clear of those kind of wiles.

The Bloody Cobbler slices the soles off bad people's feet, and then uses them to make shoes for those who need a little help getting back on the moral path. So he's essentially one of those mysterious supernatural beings of dubious morality responsible for Ravenloft being a place of ironic punishment for your misdeeds. This also means he isn't screwed like the Darklords are. Interesting. This adds new shades of grey to their decidedly dark worldbuilding.

The Whispering Beast is another ironic hunter, targeting liars and oathbreakers for extended psychological torture before finally taking them away. This of course helps to spread his legend in a way a quick response wouldn't. Both seem pretty true to the kinds of legends they're trying to emulate, and very suitable for use in actual play. After all, PC's are bound to screw up at some point, and if not, there's always the NPC's they're connected too. Their power levels seem about right to make them scary but not unbeatable as well.