Dragon Magazine Issue 262: August 1999


part 7/7


Marvel Superheroes: This game decides to do Spiderman's symbiote again. Now this is one character that's definitely changed in the meantime. When we last saw it in issue 94, it hadn't even bonded with Eddie Brock yet. Now it has a well established rivalry, an kid, and a grandchild on the way. Ahh, continuity. Gotta love the way it gradually adds up, despite the efforts of some writers to keep the world static. It's stats are considerably simpler under this ruleset, partly because it's been established that some of it's quirks are specific to it, while others vary depending on it's current host and their subconscious, which wasn't clear before, and partly because the new system is generally simpler. So this is fairly interesting because it not only lets me draw direct comparison, but also take a good look at what's been happening outside the magazine. But they do use exactly the same image, curiously enough. And it is only a single page long, leaving me with not a huge amount to work with. So it goes in the entertaining, but not substantial enough to be filling category.


Dragonmirth finds a new spin on the Rapunzel jokes. KotDT engage in equal opportunity ruining of adventures.


TSR Previews: As I said last issue, there does seem to be some formatting switcharound, with several of last month's new releases also here. This leaves just three actual new things for me to cover.

First up is the Silver anniversary collectors edition. A whole load of reprinted classic modules, a previously unreleased cut from that era (L3: Deep Dwarven Delve by Len Lakofka) and the usual fripperies of author commentary and pretty posters. Just the thing for both curious new players, and grognards who's old copies are getting rather ratty from regular use now.

The Realms gets Silverfall: Stories of the Seven Sisters. Ed Greenwood does some fiction featuring all of them together for the first time, to face an epic threat. I love that they can foreshadow things like this for so long before actually doing them.

Dragonlance gets Brothers in Arms: The Raistlin chronicles volume 2. Back in time we go, to milk the biggest names they have a little longer. They might be dead at some point in the timeline, but as long as there's a few days that haven't been covered in exhaustive detail, someone'll find adventures to slot in there.


Profiles looses it's dumb capitalisation again. I suspect the editors are fighting over this. Anyway, this month's subject is Steven Schend. He's worked on the original FASERIP Marvel game, the Forgotten Realms, and now Alternity. His modus operandi is a combination of taking care of the little details, which is very important in a setting like the Realms, and looking to make things that really make you go wow. Sounds like he's one of the people who keeps Ed enthusiastic by allowing his world to surprise even him. And as we know, keeping things surprising is the hardest thing for any creative type, because as soon as it becomes a formula, it ceases to be surprising. And this profile does stick very firmly to the established formula for them. And in response, my writeup sticks closely to the formula for that. Yawn. Tell us something controversial.


Another issue full of articles that are either good or dull, but with a distinct lack of actively bad ones. Once again, it's business as usual. Which I'm sure is the way the Halflings would want it. Can't be having with surprises around here. Nice quiet life, that's what we want. Maybe a few monsters to keep the young'un's throwing arms in shape, but nothing they can't handle. Let's keep playing it safe for the time being. Let's move the count up one more number, no more, no less, save in the case of annuals, where you're essentially moving up an intermediate imaginary number. Two is too many, zero too few. Three is right out!

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. BING! After a couple of years of being a bit up in the air, shit just got real at Wizards of the Coast. 3rd edition is now officially announced to the world, and the countdown starts now. You can bet the volume of letters and forum posts will skyrocket in the next few months. And it already looks like they're going to make a bigger deal of this than they did the 2e update. Still, there are other things being announced on the cover as well, so it doesn't look like the magazine will be nothing but promotion. I can definitely say I'm interested in seeing how fast they dole out the teasers, and in what order, so this is not one issue where I'm going to hang around the contents page for long.


Scan Quality: Generally good, whitespace around pages, no index.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn doubles in size, to do some serious elaboration on the cover announcement. Just a year from now, your system will be completely renovated. And we'll do our best to incorporate your suggestions into it, to make it better. We've already been watching the forums with great interest, taking note of your suggestions. Obviously they're not revealing everything, and may still change things around, but they do slip more than enough details to get everyone talking. There's going to be a unified mechanic, the average character gets a fairly substantial power upgrade, there's more focus on action and high level stuff, and exceptional strength is scrapped like the speedbump it is, letting you get to superhuman prowess far more easily. They're practically baiting people to erupt in a fury about how 3e is going to be for powergamers and munchkins. This should be fun to watch. So this is quite a playful beginning, showing they're going to make some serious changes, but are fairly confident about them, having already done a whole lot of arguing and playtesting in-house. Let the flamewars commence.


D-Mail: No edition wars yet here, as they're still 2-3 months behind the new releases. Patience, my dears. In the meantime, we have the usual rollplaying vs roleplaying argument subverted. They're independent axes that you can be better or worse at, like chaos and evil.  Master them both and you can WIN THE GAME!!!!!

Our second one is someone complaining about the probability of producing intelligent dragons under Greg Detwilers model. You know, many mythical dragons weren't that smart. That didn't stop them from being legends. D&D has if anything, inflated their overall competency.

A request for more specific setting based articles. Unlike in the old days, where they said they'd publish more if people sent them in, they now say screw that, we're going to concentrate on generic stuff. Well, that and the forgotten realms, which is practically generic anyway. You want more specific flavour, you need to put it in your own campaign yourself. Another big sea change that comes with the next edition, already being put into implementation.

Some serious naming niggles. Unfortunately, this is one area where reality is often weirder than fiction, partly because some parents are just plain cruel to their children, and partly because what sounds perfectly natural in one language can be rather silly when directly translated. Plus there's the problem with famous names that would actually be common, but also break immersion in game. Jesus christ that can become a headache.

And finally, we have someone wondering what's happened to the mini line. Ral Partha's licence has expired, and they going to do it in house from now on! Which also means they're already making minis based on the classes and races that'll be core next edition. :cool: So this response shows how much they already have finalised and moving ahead. If they'd stayed with another company, that'd add extra weak links where info could get out early. Very interesting indeed. Where else will we be able to get extra teasers that aren't simply handed out.


Nodwick is used as cover. Oh woe. Just kill him and stick him back together like you usually do.

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 2/7


As 3rd ed is now well into development, Forum stops asking directly rules related questions. They're still directing debate a lot more blatantly than they used to though. This time the question is about when the DM should actively deceive the players. Nashty. My vote is for when there's someone or something actively trying to deceive them IC.

Tanner Neilsen thinks if you can prove something, your character can too. Ah yes, the real world physics arguers. They're still a substantial force in gaming.

Oliver Brochet brings up the old rules are there to be changed if they become an obstacle to fun canard. Yawn.

Andrew Galbraith is one of many people who thinks the distinction between demihumans multiclassing, and humans dual-classing is stupid, and the game works better if you drop it. Let people choose how they advance more organically.

Lewis Anderson's most significant house rule is "You said it, your character said it" Start openly discussing if you should kill someone right in front of them, and things will go downhill rapidly. This cuts down on the idle chatter pretty damn fast.

Jan Lundquist paises Justin Bacon's idea of turning spell memorisation into preparation. It just makes so much more sense! Go for it!

Phil Pike, on the other hand just wants us to go back to Jack Vance and play up the effort involved in memorising spells. Mind you, calling any magic system realistic is missing the point, as usual.

Stephen E. Eldridge thinks Read Magic ought to be scrapped as a spell, and turned into a proficiency, with the difficulty of deciphering a scroll dependent on level. Not a terrible idea, if rather prone to creating obligatory dump slots.

Mike Lewis thinks knowingly embracing the cheese and powergaming can be a lot more fun than a serious campaign. It's like complaining about an over the top action movie. The violence and unrealism is the point. Michael Bay approves.

John Wright is another person who thinks dragons STILL need a serious powering up. I hope you'll be happy with yourselves when you see what you get.


Dungeoncraft: Ray continues to talk about constructing your NPC's. Now, the interesting thing here is that he generates the ability scores first, and then decides on the personality. Well, that certainly is quicker on average than thinking up a personality, and custom tailoring their stats to that, and can often throw up amusing surprises that improve your game in the long run. He also encourages you not to fully stat out everyone, just note the important stats for fighting them, and whatever else might make them unique and crucial to the plot, and leave everything else out, which also means they take less space in your notes. Somehow, I'm guessing he's not part of the 3e design and playtesting teams, with their emphasis on designing all the monsters to formulas, and making sure all the derived stats, skill points and feat slots add up. So this is business as usual, quite possibly written somewhat in advance. These columns aren't current event based, and certainly wouldn't take a month to write, so he might well have most of the planned campaign done already. And it's obvious he's not part of their big plan for the future. We shall see what happens to him when the edition ends.

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 3/7


Sage advice: Do fire elementals have mass (yes. They have to stay on the ground, and can pick up and throw stuff about. It makes them all the scarier.)

Which dex subability reduces two-weapon penalty (aim)

Are kit based AC bonuses based on dex (varies from one to another. Read the description. Swashbucklers are, Ravagers are not, for example)

Does stoneskin change your appearance (no. Having concealable protection is a definite advantage. )

What happens if you fall in water while wearing a ring of free action (normal damage, then you have to find your way out. Don't try any clever physics extrapolations.)

Do zakharan mages get extra spell points for being specialists (Elemental mages can, Sorcerers can't)

Why do paladins and rangers get costs for orisons when they can't cast them. (ahh. But they can if they choose the right skills & powers options. So there.)

Does glassteel make things transparent. How do these things save ( yes. Better of both. It's both useful and cosmetically appealing )

Is a swashbucklers AC bonus weight or performance restricted (Performance. Go for their mojo and they lose it. )

Can a pearly white ioun stone regenerate limbs lost to green slime (yes)

Are ghouls and ghasts affected by holy water (yes)

What is the definition of a humanoid. (Funny story that. Let Skip give you a history lesson. Blah blah blah bl.......................
ah. Everything clear now? )

How does the language Primeval affect 10th level spells (-5 to difficulty. Rather handy, don't you think. )  

What penalties does a thief who becomes lawful good suffer (none but their own conscience. We've been through this before.)

You left out a load of detail about the new monks ( It wasn't me. )

Is a living wall undead (no, it's a construct. Albeit a semisentient, miserable insane one. )

What happens to someone stuck inside a daerns instant fortress when it shrinks (pop like a cork. Wheee! :splat: )

Can half-elf speciality priests multiclass. (maybe. The lord your god may be a jealous god, in which case no. )

Are spells only available to one god also available to allied gods if you ask nicely (no)

Can priests research wizard spells (probably not. Skip recommends conservatism in this area, for game breaking may ensue.)

Why do dwarves suck at turning undead. (because they prefer to hit them than scare them off)

Can Xothor really use ANY magical item?! (Pretty much. Still won't save them from things going horribly wrong with them)

Can priests of Eilistraee wear nonmagical elven chain (no)

Can Delvesons be multiclassed (no)

Priests of Thoth and Isis break the rules! (Special privilege. Chill, dude. The gods can do what they like to their priests. They just don't usually because they don't want to annoy other gods.)

Can a fighter dual class to paladin if they have the stats (no. Skip may allow them to switch, BD&D style if they're very very good boys though.)

Can a wizard tell what high level spells do even if they can't cast them (in general)

How do you roll a d13 (you don't. That would be very unlucky. )

What would you put as an epitaph on your tombstone ( Are you threatening Skip? You'd better not be. Skip is watching you. Try any funny business and Skip'll cap you faster than you can say collected colloidal collateral. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 4/7


Hearth & Sword: This month's main feature is a 16 page piece on the Anglo-Saxon gods. Now this is a slightly odd business, because they have quite a bit in common with the viking ones, only with different pronounciations, and substantial recontextualisation. Although we get a static picture of myths after the event, in a world lacking in fast communication and easy long-term recording and reproduction of information, it's pretty much inevitable that myths would differ even from village to village, and mutate hugely as time passed. That wouldn't work as well in fantasy campaigns where the gods are real and regularly interfere, and magic takes the place of many technological advancements. So what we have here is an alternate take on things they've already covered in Legends & Lore, but in an interesting way. Reality is under no obligation to be internally consistent, unlike fantasy worlds.

Nerthus is the chief nature goddess, all about making sure there's a bountiful harvest for people so they can be happy and healthy. This means turning serious miscreants into trees, so they can be productive by producing yummy fruit if all else fails. Her clerics are also fairly nonviolent, but with bonus sleep and charm effects, they can do nonviolent solutions quite effectively.

Eostre is the goddess of birth and spring, the new growth part of the natural style. Her priests are strict pacifists, so they're not really adventurer suitable, but they're incredibly good at midwifery, and can communicate with Hares for some reason. Choose life. Choose children. Choose not being a violent druggie.

Hred is the goddess of winter, and as this is an era where a nasty winter will kill quite a lot of people, she's not considered very nice. Her clerics don't get a great spell selection, but have access to wizards cold spells, and can enhance them quite substantially over the standard. Double damage ice storm is not to be sneezed at at high level unless you have the appropriate resistance spell.

Mannus is the ultimate big daddy of humanity, encouraging them to excel and gently weeding out the lazy and self-satisfied for the good of everyone else. His priests have a decidedly quirky restriction on their proficiency requirements, and are good at buffing, warding and cursing. Classic clerical support duties, really.

Woden is of course a younger Odin, demonstrating that Wizards taking over because knowledge of magic lets them do everyone else's job better than them at high level isn't purely a D&D conceit. Amoral and out for themselves, his priests get rune magic, but eventually lose an eye. This doesn't slow them down at all, as the other one gets super-perception. You can see why he'd wind up being considered cooler than all these mundane natural cycle goddesses in the long run.

Tir is also fairly familiar as Tyr in the Norse pantheon and Forgotten Realms, although he has yet to lose his hand. It's a hard life, being an honourable warrior god, which is why he encourages warriors to go out in a blaze of glory when age starts to get to them. Keep taking on bigger and badder challenges until something beats you, it's the only way to know just how great you really are. (albeit posthumously) His clerics get to kick ass and see through lies, illusions, etc. But not heal, because magical healing is for wusses.  

Thunnor is the unnabbreviated form of Thor, and even more of an impetuous hothead who loves a fight. His clerics get to go berserk, which is always fun, and shoot lightning bolts at higher level. Pretty much what you'd expect then.

Ing is the dutiful demigod son of the pantheon heads, wandering the world, and trying to do good wherever possible. He doesn't have priests of his own, but is the guy people often swear oaths on. And to round things off is talk about christianity in the dark ages and the way it interacts with them. (and eventually takes over) They did co-exist for a couple of centuries, but it certainly wasn't a comfortable one. There's plenty of room for adventures bringing them into conflict in interesting ways.  So this has been a fairly cool special feature, giving me plenty to think about in terms of taking existing things and giving them different contexts. The same people act differently in different contexts. The same idea applies to gods.


The Oerdian lesser gods: More gods? Well, I suppose we haven't seen quite as many of them as we have new kits in 2e. Although I might have to doublecheck that. Although the funny thing about that is the changes for being a specialty priest of some kind are more significant than the benefits and penalties for the average kit. This is worth thinking about. Anyway, it's Greyhawk time again, showing that this  resurgence really is it's peak in terms of popular support from freelancers, and possibly the public too. Like Star Trek, absence really has made the heart fonder.

Atroa is the goddess of spring and the east wind in particular, with general nature control as secondary. This also means she's all about the fertility, celibacy is strictly forbidden amongst her priests. As the priests also get regeneration at higher levels, and weather control spells are pretty cool in combat, they don't work too badly as adventurers either. Chauntea could learn something from that.

Delleb is the god of sages, not to be confused with the god of magic. He has a black dog for a companion, and indeed, the weight of using knowledge responsibly can weigh on his priesthood a bit, but he remains strictly lawful good so far. His clerics get an unusually large proportion of their spheres from the Tome of Magic, and are rather good at divination. The idea of surprising your enemy with unusual spells, while avoiding those kind of surprises yourself seems a clever one.

Kurell is the god of thievery and jealousy, engaging in many similar actions to Norebo, but for very different reasons. Where Norebo is fun-loving and playful, Kurell is a petty-minded vindictive little bastard who holds a grudge like no-ones business and hates anyone better than him at something. Like most gods of thievery, his clerics get to use some rogue skills, and their granted spells make being sneaky easy. Mind you, if they're sticking to their god's tenets strictly, they're likely to tear the group apart eventually, because you can be sure someone'll get something they're jealous of, and then it'll all gradually snowball.

So I think the notable thing about these gods is that they're all more specific or alternate takes on ideas that already have a god in charge of them. Which I suppose is how it works in greek mythology, with gods that are children of other gods putting their attention to a subset of their parent's portfolio. And it demonstrates how you can approach the same basic concept, and yet have it's embodiments have very different alignments and personalities. That does give this a certain value, and it does make a pretty good read, without making the clerics particularly under or overpowered. I think this is a positive result.

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 5/7


Heaven's trump: Ooh. A tie-in article. They're also releasing a book on playing Celestials this month, so why not include one of putting them into your game. Turns out they're just as likely to be subtle while on the prime material as their hellish counterparts, albeit for different reasons. Partly due to not wanting the general public to worry, and partly due to wanting to create heroes which can stand on their own feet and fight evil, they'll pretend to be human and set up missions for wannabe heroes in true Gandalf stylee. If they have to be coddled the whole time, they'll never grow up to really appreciate how good they have it, or why virtue is beneficial. Deus ex Machina appearances with the full trumpets and flaming swords outfit are a sign that you haven't planned things through carefully enough, or the opposition is cheating. (which yeah, demons do, it has to be said) Is it dishonesty to tell a few white lies if you're so much smarter and more knowledgable that you couldn't explain the whole situation and it's context to a mortal without spending several years that would be better spent actually doing good deeds, even though they might not understand the long-term ramifications? Would YOU be able to keep straight a story spanning thousands of years and millions of outer-planar beings trying to manipulate the fate of a world, developing ever more complex relationships of favors and vendettas, doublecrosses and awkward alliances of convenience along the way? Given how long it's taking me to completely grok a magazine lasting thirty-odd years, I might well have to go for the cliff-notes version. So this is really a strong reminder that good is not a blunt instrument. They might not have to hide for the same reasons as evil, but getting the greatest good out of a complex situation requires careful on the ground involvement.


The western Wyrms: Which is not a sequel to Wyrms of the north, thankfully, contrary to my first thought. Instead it's an expansion for council of wyrms, making a whole bunch of other dragon races available as PC's. All of the other true dragons from the monster manual in fact. Now since CoW followed some fairly simple formulas in figuring out ability score modifiers, xp costs, class availability, etc, this wasn't hard to do anyway, and I did it myself for plenty of the dragon types in various supplements. However, this does use it's discretion in one aspect. Wheras the regular ones had XP tables strictly based upon how many HD the race has, this shifts things around, giving Shadow Dragons highly inflated XP costs and yellow ones a break, presumably because their spell selections and innate powers are above or below average in power respectively. Of course, putting the vast XP requirement disparities in the first level or two when you have the least amount of time to get the XP and treasure is one of the big flaws in the CoW system in the first place, and made it a real bother to get a long-term campaign going without including solo missions. But still, this is systematic flaw, rather than an issue with this article in particular. This is merely a symmetry filler, neither good or bad.


Fiction: Dux Bellorum by Ben Bova. Orion's attempts to keep Athur alive hit a fairly substantial obstacle, with an Immortal deciding to come down and involve themselves directly in the plot rather than just manipulating others. This results in a situation where he's pretty much helpless during the significant parts of this, and even when he does act, it's on the advice of others. Essentially, it's exactly the same deprotagonisation problem that Niall suffered from, way back in the day. That makes this interesting, but also frustrating. It's similar to the problem where at high levels, the spellcasters take over, and can beat the fighters without even breaking a sweat with a few buffs or a save or suck spell. So this really drives in how annoying being a pawn of cosmic beings is, and presents the kind of plot you really shouldn't subject your players too. Methinks the pendulum had better swing the other way next time if he doesn't want to bore me.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Quite a nice topic here. Items that are a mixed blessing, offering both boon and bane, often simultaneously. As I've said before, this is a trick I'm pretty keen on. When the two aspects have a nice thematic link, this is one of the coolest ways you can reward your players, as it automatically sets things up for the next adventure. And this is no exception, not only listing a bunch of items, but also a random table full of further ideas. Much better than interminable lists of mundane stuff.

Ansuit's Gauntlets make you strong but dumb. Now there's a very stereotyped combination that it may well be a no brainer to take. Just need to trust that your companions won't screw you while you're playing smashy guy.

The Uniform of Kheles gives you hallucinations, but makes you nearly immune to any illusions of an external source. One you should only wear if expecting an enemy of that nature.

Moil Bravura is a magical sword that sends you on 9 quests to fight energy draining undead before you can unlock it's full power. This may well lead to your death and/or losing lots of levels in the process. You could become quite the tortured hero as a result of this, and it'll certainly take over the campaign for a while.

Blackstone Amulets are quite nastily cursed, but if you can remove the curse, they become pretty kickass at dealing with evil influences. Another adventure in the making here.

Heramais pipes visit the symphony of the gods, and then make you obsessed with figuring out how to recreate it. If you can stick at it, and don't have the pipes taken away by friends growing worried by your obsession, you'll get there eventually. (and a lot quicker than it's taken me to write some real songs ) And then you'll be free to use them to play awesome music, or not as you choose.

The Armor of Torrentin has a mischievous invisible servant bound to it. Until you find out the command word, it engages in pranks upon everyone around. Still, this should only take one adventure to solve and then no more worries until the armor is passed on.

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 6/7


Rogues Gallery: The fairy court? Don't we already have stats for them in Monster Mythology? Rehash alert! Well, I suppose they aren't exactly as they were presented in Shakespeare. Still, I believe my appropriate answer is mutter mutter grumble mutter.

Oberon is higher level, and of more mundane classes than his MM incarnation, but lower ability scores. The picture is very David Bowie, complete with well-defined area. Easy there. Well, that fanservice quota won't fill itself.

Titania, on the other hand is definitely less powerful this time around, more of an equal to her husband despite still being technically superior in a hierarchical sense. Course, since the weather mirrors her mood, you really don't want to provoke her. This is the trouble with systems where you get to the top via raw magical power.

Puck wasn't in Monster Mythology, strangely enough, although there were several made-up trickster gods that filled his place, partly because they needed different ones for each race, and too many of them fill the same niche. Guess he's just too badass to be just one character in D&D. Or maybe they are all one character, only shapechanged. So this is a much straighter adaptation of a previously covered topic, that really, just makes me go meh. Where's the imagination in that?


Dungeon Mastery: Where the last column in this series was about toning down magic items to make them seem more special, this does exactly the same for resurrection. There's all kinds of complications that could be introduced to make sure that while they might come back, they'll still regret having died in the first place, and be a good deal more cautious in their adventuring next time. Or they could just say screw that and make new characters, particularly if the DM allows them to be of equivalent level to the other guys. So once again, I am left very very underwhelmed, which may or may not be intentional. As with the magic items one, this may be an artificially created problem anyway, encouraged by the system, as most other roleplaying games don't have the same ease of resurrection, and people don't expect them too. Which again, makes the solution very simple. And makes me long for the days when they covered other companies RPG's in the magazine. This era gets very wearing sometimes.


Marvel Superheroes: Ah yes, Onslaught. Haven't seen him around in a while. One of those characters that spent quite a bit of time being all mysterious and all powerful seeming, and was eventually eliminated by a reality rewrite. That sounds messy, but I guess that's standard for comics continuity. Having all the powers of two popular characters, plus more won't automatically make you as popular and long lasting as those characters put together. And they encourage you not to actually use him in game, despite giving stats. I mildly disapprove. Why bother giving him the spotlight in the first place then? Who's choosing which characters to update, the magazine writers or the company? It's not as if you're short of characters when it took you thousands of pages a decade ago. Use your time more wisely, or you'll never be as successful as last time.


Role models: Our lessons in using miniatures turns to creating your own terrain cheaply and easily. Cardboard and styrofoam are perfect for this, and if you're ordering stuff regularly, you get plenty of that as an extra. Cut it up, slap a bit of paint, stick the pieces together, and presto chango, cheap scenery. You don't need to make it perfect, just good enough for now. And once you have it, you can make your landscapes suitably dramatic for those climactic clifftop battles. Presuming you can get the minis to stand up and stay still on uneven terrain, which can really bog down a fast-paced action scene. (although not as much as kitten attack) As usual, they make it seem quicker and easier than it may be in reality, especially if you're not technically minded or don't have the raw materials lying around. Well, that's your problem, not theirs. It's simple if you know what you're doing. It's just the learnin' stage that may be tricky.

Dragon Magazine Issue 263: September 1999


part 7/7


The world of the Tsa: Another race that's already got the spotlight in the magazine gets a second one. The Tsa's notable features are their speed, short lifespans, and large broods, which result in a fast developing society with complex social structures that can leave humans confused and worried they're going to be outcompeted. After all, they're the only race that went interstellar on their own, and can fill up a world far faster than we could. Fighting a long-term war with them would be a losing proposition. Good thing they're so skilled at making friends with other races as well. Sincere sociability'll beat being a machiavellian manipulator more than half the time. So it seems plenty of thought has gone into both making their culture fit their biology, and making sure they aren't too disruptive to a group. They don't want to make the Kender mistake again. Although maybe they should have, given the two properties respective success levels. :/ Oh well, this is a pretty good article, like most of those in this series, with several interesting bits of crunch along with the setting expansion. With plenty of planets to come from, they can avoid monoculture as well. With another year to go before they get rid of this column, they should have a few more good articles for me yet.


This months design contest is for gods. You get a full 1,500 words for this one. How generous of them.


Dragonmirth mocks the modern youth. The puzzles are particularly devilish this issue. KotDT fail their min-maxing rolls.


TSR Previews: Council of Wyrms gets rereleased. Vaguely surprised this one was popular enough to merit that. I guess new PC types are always popular. In a similar vein, our new generic release is Warriors of Heaven. Celestial PC's for those of you who find paladins aren't uptight enough.

The Realms gets a double helping as usual. The Wyrmskull throne takes you under the sea of fallen stars to deal with the titular dubious artifact. What unfortunate effects does owning this one have? Meanwhile, R. A. Salvadore is going pretty high up in The Spine of the World. Wulfgar and Drizzt continue to have their issues. Will they get over them, or will it be left on a cliffhanger for the end of a trilogy to resolve?

Dragonlance gets The Siege of mount Nevermind by Fergus Ryan. Dwarves and gnomes working together. An unbeatable combination, even if more than few bad jokes will be told in the process.  

Alternity tries to boost it's popularity by releasing a fast-play thingy to help you get new people in. Incident at Exile gives you another simplified setup you can probably do in a single session. Anyone try this?


ProFiles: Bill Slavicsek is definitely one of our big names these days. Star wars, Torg, Council of Wyrms, Dark sun, Planescape, he's produced a lot this decade, and got his finger in all sorts of pies. He's been a writer, an editor, a designer, and now he's one of the head directors, putting him in a good position to put his stamp on the development of the next edition. Was his influence one of the things that helped draw people back into gaming? Or is it dragging things in a direction you hate? He certainly believes in what he's doing, and will continue to experiment with   design and pushing the limits of what you can do with gaming. And if you don't like it, the old games are still right there. One of our more interesting interviews from one of our more notable interviewees.


So yeah, I think this definitely counts as a significant issue, and one that's going to get quite a few responses in the next few months. It can't be that huge a surprise to most people, but everyone wants something different from the next edition, and there's everything to gain or lose. And as the rest of the issue has one of the highest rehash counts ever, I think I can say that it hasn't come a moment too soon. I just hope that they can manage at least a few cool new articles before the next edition drops, and I won't be dealing with a whole extra year of boredom. Well, let's continue the countdown.

Issues 257 and 263 were great. I enjoyed the Saxon pantheon and rune magic -both of which are a permanent fixture in my campaign.

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 1/7


116 pages. A sharply dressed floating bald thing with a big grin? Hang on a second. This seems very familiar. We know Joss Whedon used to play D&D, don't we. Co-incidence? Probably, since Hush only aired 2 months later, and TV turnaround times aren't that quick. Common ancestor? Well, they're certainly creepy anyway, which is exactly what you look for in an october issue. If this issue can be half as effective as that episode, it'll be well worth it. Let's draw those curtains, and shine a torch under our faces to tell a chilling story.  


Scan Quality: Indexed. Colour shading set too dark and sometimes hard to make out.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Writing songs for your gaming group? Yeah, been there, done that, posted them on the internet. My geekiness truly know no limit. Writing one in the middle of the session, on the other hand, that's just crazy. Unless you have a real talent for freestyling, that'll eat up the whole session with you not doing much, as with this month's editorial story. Still, it demonstrates commitment like virtually nothing else. Songwriting is unpredictable work at the best of times, and even an experienced songwriter can produce crap songs if inspiration is not with them. Much respect for anyone who manages to pull it off, such as the subject of today's editorial. He went above and beyond the call of duty for his gaming group. The cockles of my heart, they are well and truly warmed. That's a promising start to the issue.


D-Mail: We start off with another lengthy letter and response about playing evil characters. It's hard to play one when the adventures assume you're going to act heroically. But really, it can be a tremendous amount of fun. Dave Gross thinks this privilege should be reserved for DM's, though. Consider it a reward for going to all that worldbuilding effort.

A letter on the ways someone twisted cliches in their campaign. It takes surprisingly little tweaking to make the slave lords scenario unrecognisable, for example. And then you can use it over and over again. Muahahahaha.

A request to bring back Bahamut & Tiamat, with upgrades so they're competitive with 2e monsters. They're going to be a bit mean here, and not bring them back for 2e. On the other hand, they'll be among the first to get 3e stats! You'll truly know fear when you see how high their numbers go there, especially when you're still not sure how much the PCs'll also be upgraded.

A letter from someone who keeps the players informed about the world by producing an IC newspaper. This also helps them feel like they're genuinely famous and their actions have consequences. I think that's definitely worth a little anachronism.

A request for reprints. Once again, they wind up denying that request, but in an interesting fashion. They're thinking hard about how to make more old books available electronically. That would solve so many of their current problems. Course, in the long-term it'll create others, but they would have happened anyway, because other people would scan in and put up their books. The internet will spread into all aspects of our lives, whether we want it too or not.

And finally, we have a letter from someone who was skeptical about the man vs machine article at first, but won over by it's quality. See, the water's fine once you get in. Some people have become so conservative, and they're not even actually that old yet.


Nodwick prays for the coming of 3rd edition, where you can say no to being resurrected if you want.

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 2/7


Forum's chosen can of worms this month is how you use minis. Amazing how heated people can get over the presence of little bits of lead. Or not, as we'll find out later.

Bryan Rantala thinks that accepting payment from the people that set a mission doesn't make you a bad person. Sometimes there's no treasure in it, especially when facing unintelligent monsters, and an adventurer's gotta eat to live. If you can't keep your equipment in good nick, you'll soon lose your life in a pinch.

Arnold Arenas suggests a hybrid system combining modular spell preparation and mana points. This looks simple enough, if with the potential for serious overpoweredness. Go play an Erudite.

Rob Willey wants clerical and wizardly spell lists merged into one, and consolidated in terms of minor effects, with differences in what you have based on god worshipped or what's in your spellbook. I think you'll like Arcana Evolved.

Carl Rossi quotes monty python while saying he doesn't want healing to scale. They can just keep going through ever more ridiculous injuries that will take longer to heal. That could get rather comical.

H. Andrew Thompson suggests dividing HP into dodge points and body points, to reflect the two different abilities to cope with damage. Methinks star wars d20 is the variant you desire.

Martin Rosenkrantz gives his changes to initiative. It's not fair that spellcasters action times mostly get longer as they go up in level, while fighters get faster. Really? I though that was one of the few balancing factors they had.

Michael P. Kellam tells a story of insanely improbable dice rolls. Well, they did ask. Is it their fault no-one else took them up on this one?


Dungeoncraft: Having given us the town map, Ray builds outward slowly. Your first map should be small enough that the players can cross it within a week.  Now that's definitely an area where my design differs from his, as my initial maps are rarely smaller than a full country. The other stuff is pretty familiar though. Make sure there's plenty of varieties of terrain, locations to challenge the players with, and some safe places for them to go back too and rest up. Oh, and put some big scary boundaries on the edges of the map in case your players feel like wandering off into undeveloped lands. Yes, this may mean your geography looks oddly square later, once you have developed further out. Hey, if that's a problem Tolkien's maps suffered from, (the area covered by the hobbit looks rather odd once placed into LotR's larger scale map) I'm sure your gameworld can survive it. So this does illustrate the problems with bottom-up design, and the fact that you do have to put boundaries in even if you aren't railroading, just to keep players from either getting bored or killed. Realism can only go so far.

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 3/7


Sage advice: Why isn't there ecology info for mundane animals in the monster manual (because you can get plenty of that from a library)

What bonuses don't apply against a dracolich (All of them. It's the great equalizer. Strength and magic mean nothing. Only skill can help you. )

Are spell like abilities limited by normal level limits (yes)

Are weapon VS armor modifiers applied to THAC0 or armor class (THAC0)

Do saves for half damage happen before or after damage reduction (normally before. Watch out for exceptions)

Can a psionicist empower whole buildings (by the RAW, yes. Skip is skeptical if that was intended or not.)

What happens if you use psionic residue on the astral plane (nothing special. Time might not pass there for mundane effects, but psionics isn't mundane)

Can any character class learn an advanced martial art. (If they can find someone to train them. Don't make this too easy.)

What reach do big creatures have (enough to be a real pain in the ass.)

What does a symbol of spell loss do (1d4 random spells gone. Muahahaha!)

What AC do undead PC's have (Same as normal. PC's are different, blah blah blah.)

Do ravenloft domains use gunpowder or smokepowder (Smokepowder. Stay magical, little jenny. )

How do paladins tithe in foreign countries with no churches (Save it up, or give direct to the poor and needy as they encounter them)

What special benefits do saurial paladins get (Not enough. But it's not about the powerz. It's about the virtue. Don't forget it. )

Can pixies polymorph into anything? (remember the hit die limits for polymorph self. For pixies without class levels, that's a big deal )

What benefits does a suit of custom elven chain have (The normal. That's special enough, in case you'd forgotten)

How good is a bigbys grasping hand at immobilising things. (Not perfectly. It's only one hand, and therefore only has one point of grip)

What AC do Bigbys hand spells have (0 It's a good number. Took a lot of inventing, that number.)

Can you explain Duo-dimension a little better. Isn't it a little expensive. (Real life physicists spend billions on tricks that are considerably less impressive. You need to lighten up. Look! Skip's drawn you a pretty diagram! Ooooh. Pretty diagram! )

Can an unconcious character benefit from a ring of vampiric regeneration (no. No sadism, no gain. )

Can demi shadow magic duplicate permanent wall spells (no)

How much stone can stone shape shape when stone shape shapes stone (use the less generous interpretation of the formula)

Do multiclassed characters get XP bonuses for high ability scores (yes)

Where are you when using wraithform (the prime material plane. Not all incorporeal effects also make you ethereal)

Can you beat an undead creature with martial arts (Not by the RAW. Skip recommends changing that if you have a MA specialist PC. Otherwise they'll have to sit out way too many fights. See, Skip can be progressive as well as old Skool. Skip is the Sage for all Ages! )

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 4/7


Shop keep has to stop their games from being house-ruled into unrecognisability.


Countdown to 3rd edition: 10 months to go, and it's time for some serious teasers. Well, this is certainly going to ignite discussion. Which is just what they want, of course. So they start with the obvious ones, and then move to slightly more exotic quirks of the new rules. Higher number are always better. Class & level restrictions are out. Monks & Assassins are back. 4d6 drop lowest is now the default in chargen. Initiative is cyclical. Rounds are a decent length at last. Critical hits have a decent means of resolution. And clerics can now healbot almost too easily. A few details are misleading (druids don't actually get spontaneous conversion, the xp penalty on multiclassing can be bypassed in quite a few ways, and assassins are a prestige class not a core one) but this shows they're already solid on the big details of the new rules, it's merely the fine-tuning that's still subject to change as a result of playtesting. And in case you're wondering where I stand on these changes, let's go through them quickly 1: Like 2: Ambivalent 3: Like 4: Dislike. 5: Like 6: Don't care 7: Like. 8: Like 9: Like 10: Dislike. More positive than negative, but certainly not perfect. I think that's a pretty good overall summation of my opinion about the edition change in general. And with this rollout method, hopefully I'll get the chance to comment on individual rules quirks as they're revealed. That'll be a good method of clarifying my thoughts.


Harrowed heroes: As they said a few issues ago, they still have a few Skills & Powers articles to come before 3e sweeps that away, making some bits default, while abandoning others completely. And completely unsurprisingly, Ravenloft is the recipient this month. So here's another 10 pages of options, mostly repeated, but with a few quirky new ones, such as it being a real benefit for half elves if they favor their human side and can pass easily in suspicious little communities, and a whole extra set for the new classes and races - Half vistani, avengers, anchorites, arcanists, and so forth. I can only spot a couple that seem broken on their own, so this is better than the Dark Sun collection, but it does seem quite easy to create a character that is only nominally of their named class by buying lots of unorthodox options. As usual, if you're going to do that, you should probably start with a point buy system, rather than use one that's tacked on like this.


Saga of gothic earth: Two years ago we had an article on converting the SAGA system for Ravenloft. Now we have an even more specific one for converting it to Masque of the Red Death. Of course, since then, we've had a second official iteration of the SAGA system released, so they have more resources to draw upon. Ironically, this results in the system being even simpler and easier to start playing, as they recommend using a deck of regular playing cards, and Masque is considerably magic lighter than regular D&D. So they use the 5th age Sorcery/Mysticism straight, with the usual proviso that evil spells may well attract the attention of the Red Death. So as with the previous article, this seems fun and easy to do, while having a few interesting quirks that make the ruleset support the setting. There's probably other things the SAGA system could have done if it had got the sales to support further iterations. Sometimes you don't deserve the hand you're dealt.


The oerdian lesser gods: Raxivort is the god of Xvarts. Given how obscure a race they are, they're lucky to have one at all. His priests compensate for their races smallness by getting perfect stilt-using capabilities, which might seem imposing, but is really just comic. They then top that off by producing increasing amounts of smelly gas as they gain levels. Even Kurtulmak doesn't go that far to make himself an unintentional laughing stock. Greyhawk sure does have some goofy stuff in it, just like all the old D&D campaign worlds.

Sotillon is the goddess of the lazy, comfortable aspect of summer, when there's more than enough food ripening for you to lounge around and sunbathe much of the day, and then party at night. Her clerics get all the wizardly shelter creating spells as they advance in level, so they should be pretty popular despite their lack of offensive powers. So both the gods this time fall on the whimsical end of the spectrum. That's interesting to note as the overall level of seriousness increases around here.

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 5/7


Nodwick does what so many adventurers failed to do and finishes Strahd off for good.


Van Richten's Legacy: Our third Ravenloft article this month is an interesting little setting expansion, trying to make the core domains feel a little busier and more lived in. In many of the core domains, there have actually been several generations of people being born, screwed over and terrorised and then dying, and some of them actually know about the Darklords and hold serious grudges. This is of course entirely part of the Dark Powers plans, as they want them miserable and unsettled in their own domains, never able to truly achieve their goals. (The exception being those for whom loneliness is more depressing than being surrounded by schemers.) So here's a potential rival to Jacqueline Renier, and details on his followers, their lair, and unique magical items and spells. Stuff specifically designed to kick the ass of wererats is very prevalent. If they had a few more members and resources, they might even have a shot. As it is, they'll probably lose, but in an interesting way, especially if the PC's get caught in the middle, played by one side or the other. And if they win, things won't really be any better for the ordinary people in the domain. Oh well, at least it looks like we have all the ingredients for another adventure of reasonable length for low-mid level characters. That's not worthless, especially here where it can be hard to advance levels.


Fiction: Shadamehr and the old wives tale by Maragaret Weis and Don Perrin. Hmm. If I'm not mistaken, this is a sovereign stone story. Since neither the novels or the RPG have been released yet, this might be a first sighting. Very interesting. The magic system, on the other hand, is basically the same as Legend of the 5 Rings, which I find slightly suspect. And Margaret & Tracey have already done another book series with an elemental theme, which makes me wonder if they're running out of ideas. But all these are forgivable if the story is good. Unfortunately it has deeply cheesy dialogue, and is one of those stories that is merely a prelude to another one, which is a problem they've caused before in the magazine, and grows no less irritating with time. So this is again not particularly pleasant reading. They seem to cause more problems than most writers.


PC Portraits: Time for some dark brooding anti-heroes, as befits the season. They cover their eyes or faces, they wear huge shoulderpads or spikes, their expressions are grim or sardonic. This is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. For all they try to say D&D should be about heroes kicking the ass of evil, anti-heroes are too popular right now for them to resist. So here's a little blatant pandering for your pleasure. Must say I don't find any of them particularly sexy. Probably need a little more detail in the drawings for that. Learn from the Bradstreet way!


Dungeon mastery: What would October be without some advice on running horror campaigns? Although actually, this sees them recognise that horror games, particularly D&D ones, work better if they have a little light and shade. Ravenloft certainly adds both heroism and a dash of humour to the mix. So Lester Smith tries to advise us how to strike a balance between these three elements. This involves thinking about what kind of game you want to run, how far your players are comfortable going, and just how extreme you want the extreme parts of your game to be. With lots of sidebars elaborating on details, this is a fairly dry, dense serious bit of writing that belies the subject mood it wants to create. But then, that's always been Lester's style, hasn't it. He's written quite a few decent games using it, so why change now. Maybe he's a bit more playful when actually DM'ing. Certainly wouldn't be the first time a designer plays differently from the way they write. So this isn't bad, but is a bit dry. Guess it goes somewhere in the middle, as usual.

Dragon Magazine Issue 264: October 1999


part 6/7


Rogues gallery: Another instance of their increasing use of computer game material, with some characters from Planescape: Torment getting stats. Well, it did have some of the most interesting characters and plotting D&D games have produced. In hindsight it seems a fairly sure-fire choice. And it's definitely better than another forgotten realms novel.

Morte the floating skull gets to be a 10th level bard, with hit points that are impossible for a normal character of his stats and level, and dramatically different accuracies for his bite and headbutt. That is quirky. I suppose that's emulation for you. I suppose if he's irritating, hard to hit, and tough, you have an excellent distraction while the actual protagonist does the real work. It's a classic sidekick setup, especially when you're playing a silent hero, and need something hanging around to do exposition. And let's face it, he can hardly be more annoying than Navi.

Ravel Puzzlewell is a somewhat senile night hag, who's been imprisoned by the lady of pain, but could escape all too easily if her shit was together. She's eaten a whole bunch of magic items, which I assume she gives you if you fulfil certain conditions in the game. I can see how this one plays out all too easily. That's quirky for you. It too can become predictable, especially if you keep using the same voice actors.

Pharod Wormhair is a human, but pretends to be a tiefling for the extra street cred. He sells corpses, which means you may well encounter him when you die and come back. He also has tons of junk looted from them, which seems like another obvious opportunity. Do you get to kill him if he screws you, or will you have to talk for your plot coupons?

Fall-From-Grace is a succubus who's become Lawful Neutral, ironically, and joined the sensates. This does not mean she's given up on looking sexy, of course, only actually having any. But she does collect a wide variety of other sensations, and it looks like you can sell some of your more unique experiences to her. So this lot do seem very much in keeping with the planescape tone. I could see myself stealing them for my game.


Wolverine vs The Brood Queen: We've had fast-play introductions for D&D and Alternity fairly recently. I'm not at all surprised they're doing one for the Marvel Superheroes game. It's much smaller than the others though, at only 7 pages, and comprised purely of a single combat between our infamous canadian anti-hero, and the aforementioned xenomorph expy. No room for roleplaying or exploration here, it's pure asskicking with a few tactical options to liven things up. I suppose that gives them a real chance to show off the system. Since Wolverine has regeneration, he's pretty likely to win this fight eventually, but the alien queen will take a fair bit of pounding to finish off, and even with cards, things can be pretty swingy from round to round. As with all the fast-play games, this is really simple, even moreso than the old modules they used to do in the magazine, and won't do more than whet your appetite. Not sure if it'll get people buying or not. After all, those who've been reading the magazine regularly will already know about the game, and probably made their mind up. Those who haven't won't even notice. Unless they're also putting this in the middle of actual comics as well. Did they?


What a surprise. This month's contest is for ghost stories. Lets get those horrific juices flowing.

Shop keep has another case of why do they bother?


Role Models: Once again, they both provide new rules, and give you advice on how to implement them, before finishing up with a mini-scenario taking advantage of the new crunch. They're really getting this little formula down to a tee. This time, it's vertical movement, which can be rather tricky when using minis. Their solution? Bits of wire to wrap around your minis and hold them at the appropriate heights. Not a terrible solution, but one that will get very messy if you have lots of flying things or a zero-G environment to represent, and are moving them all around on a turn-by-turn basis. Still, unless you can afford quantum-locked supercooled magnets, or can fly into orbit just to play a game, it does seem like one of the better solutions. (the really simple one, stacking pogs, runs into problems when things are directly above each other.) This is fairly thought-provoking, as it presents a problem that doesn't have an immediately obvious solution, and requires some real world engineering knowledge to deal with, not just clever rules. Which is pretty cool, really. Anyone have other solutions to the 3D problem they'd like to share?