Dragon Magazine Issue 138: October 1988

part 3/3


Fiction: Between lightning and thunder by Nancy Varian Berberick. A rather melancholy story, combining the sadness of a declining race, the horrors of war, and the rather more banal horrors of bullying into a seamless whole, and saying that sometimes there may be no good answers, but you should still try and go on living, because suicide is an even worse choice. Hey ho. Not sure if I like this one, as it has good goals, but approaches them in a slightly after-school special kinda way. Still, it's an interesting one, that isn't all flashy heroics, so that counts for quite a bit. I think that I approve, overall.


The role of computers: Star command is a sci-fi roleplaying game. Like the more common fantasy ones, you build a team of characters from a selection of classes, and then do some asskicking, which is both ship based and hand-to hand in this case, and level up your characters and ships. It's more than big enough to accommodate months of play. They both recommend this, and give you quite a bit of play advice.

Questron II is a 3D adventure. It gets a rather short and vague review that assumes you are already familiar with the first game in the series.

Bards tale III balances familiar locations with drastic changes to the world, as you need to beat the new big bad before he completely mucks things up. There are plenty of new character classes, but you can also use your old ones from previous games. While it does what it does well, the reviewers have recently been spoiled by games where you can negotiate with your enemies, and the pure combat gets tiresome to them. Ho hum.

Power at sea is another one that gets repetitive after a while. A naval simulator where you control a fleet of ships, there's only so much you can do tactically, particularly where landings are involved. Not that they actively dislike it, but it doesn't have huge amounts of replayability.

Shanghai is a computerised version of Mah-jong. No great surprises here, but like chess, this is a game you can spend a lifetime mastering, particularly when playing two player. Combined with the good graphics and ease of learning, they give it 5 stars.

Wooden ships and iron men, on the other hand, should have stayed a boardgame, getting a snarkily negative review. Just don't buy it.


Role-playing reviews is doing horror again. No surprise at all there.
GURPS Horror shows yet again how solidly designed and flexible the GURPS system is. With three sample settings, and plenty of elements, it can certainly be used to build a horror game, but the utilitarian writing means you'll have to add your own atmosphere to actually make games scary. Seems fairly par for the course for them.

Beyond the supernatural, on the other hand, has plenty of atmosphere, but not very well designed rules. Ken makes it pretty clear that you'll have to tinker with this one a bit, but the setting is quite cool, offering a consistent explanation for all kinds of supernatural weirdness in the same game. The GMing advice and sample adventures are also not the best, but there are more than enough cool elements for you to create a good game from. Looks like palladium are the same as they ever were then.

Cthulhu Now, on the gripping hand, gets an unreservedly positive review. Both system and setting work together to update the mythos hunting to the modern day. (or at least, the late 80's ) With lots of odd little real world details, and several excellent adventures, it keeps things scary and challenging even with the extra equipment.  

S. Petersen's field guide to cthulhu monsters also gets plenty of praise. The sly humour that pervades the book goes down a treat with Ken, and the illustrations are generally of high quality. Once again, they merge the IC and OOC perspectives to entertaining ends.


TSR Previews: Not a very impressive list of releases this month. Most of the attention is on last month's products, including one they missed last time.

Prince of Thieves is the 18th AD&D adventure gamebook. You steal so much, how are you supposed to figure out what's made someone REALLY mad. Time for a little swashbuckling derring-doo.

Anyway, this month, AD&D gets another bunch of prefab design assistance in the Dungeon master's design kit. Lots of blank sheets and advice on how to use them.

Marvel gets the second installment of it's epic guide to all the superheroes out there. E to M, 256 pages of bizarre creations. I wonder how much errata that'll need.

The rest of this month's stuff is all on the literary side. Dragonlance is getting it's first trilogy reprinted in a single compiled book. 928 pages of papery goodness. Wouldn't like to read that in the bath. Agent 13 also gets a new format, with his original story turned into a graphic novel. Pulpilicious. Bimbos of the death sun is also being reprinted, having massively exceeded expected sales. Is a reprint really worth mentioning again?


The game wizards: A newbie takes the reins here. Scott Haring is eager to talk about his first completed project, get his name out there. Empires of the Sands might have had it's map borked in the first printing, but they're fixing that, and sending out replacement copies to people who ask for them. He also engages in some errataing and justification of his decisions. And here we run into some fairly substantial controversy, as he reveals his belief that NPC's should not be bound by the rules PC's are. Yes, quite a few of them are impossible for you to replicate. Suck it up. Hmm. This is interesting as another snapshot of where company policy is currently at. They might care about their customers, but they aren't particularly concerned with maintaining editorial control over rules minutinae. The scene is very much set for the onslaught of contradictory splatbooks the next edition will bring. Time for another crap filter upgrade.


Dragonmirth continues the cruel jests, some where the jesters get to be the butt of the joke. Yamara and co waste time talking when they should be killing. Incidentally, Barbera Ward ought to sue paper mario. Snarf strikes gold at last.


The I think you think I think boardgame? That's rather a tonguetwister. Imagine having to ask for that in a shop. No wonder I don't remember it.


A pretty strong issue, particularly in the themed section. In addition, the general quality of the presentation seems to be improving again, with more colour bits, better incorporated photography, neater layout. They're still trying hard to please us. And still succeeding at least some of the time. Question is, are they pleasing more or less people than last year? Not long until we find out again. On we go.

Dragon Magazine Issue 139: November 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. Looks like the recent improvement in quality hasn't just been subjective to me. Sales are up again, pushing over that crucial 100,000 mark. That's nice to know. What's even nicer is that the format is vastly improved, using actual type rather than a microsized photocopy. Guess they want everyone to see the good news. Will they keep it up next year? Keep on peeling, keep on revealing. (That doesn't sound right somehow. Reeling? Maybe. Congealing? Definitely not. But I digress.)

In this issue:


Alias and that Saurial paladin. Now there's a novel for you. A textbook example of the impractical cheesecake cover too. Hee. You can't spend 15 minutes lacing up sideless leather trousers (I speak from experience here) in the dangerous wilderness when wandering monsters strike at night.  


Letters: A letter asking where the map to Dragotha's lair is. They can give you a large scale reference, but you'll have to make the close up one yourself. Whether he has a simple cave or an elaborate labyrinth filled with traps is up to you.

A letter asking what happened to the info on ordering back issues. Check their mail order catalog.

A letter asking what's going to happen to psionics and the anthologies. The first will be back in a supplement after some reworking, the second will not for the forseeable future.

Some questions on the new Merchant class. No great surprises here.


Forum: Jeffrey C Weber thinks that allowing wizards to specialise in different types of magic is a rather good tool to differentiate them, and allow them a little more power, but at a cost to spells outside their speciality. Hello mr foreshadowing. How often are you going to turn up here in the next few months?

Michael Drake gives us a bunch of sample ways to differentiate clerics. I think we've established by now that this is very much in next edition, so this is not so much of a surprise.

Scott A Shepard has thoughts on the balancing of magic-users. Don't we all. Just don't sweat it too much. Obsessive tweaking ruins the fun for most people.

Amod Lele is insulted by the idea that people who play primarily for fun are "lesser" gamers than those who play it to be challenged, or create something deep and artistically meaningful. If it's not fun, the other aspects mean little.  

David Moyle also thinks Steve Allen was being pretentious. You choose games full of challenges and puzzles because that is what you consider satisfying and fun. Others think otherwise.  

Ed Friedlander is back yet again, reminding us too keep our campaigns from becoming too unfriendly to newcomers. Pregens definitely help in this respect, as does explaining stuff in a non patronising manner. Absolutely right, dear, : pats head: Run along now.

S. D. Anderson is also back with the beats from the renegade master, pointing out how little power the people have compared to a character with a decent array of magical items. Even if they don't have +5 everything, they can still be pretty untouchable. Meanwhile, poison is way overpowered for it's cost. Both need fixing in some way. Any ideas?

Douglas Porter is also engaging in statistical analysis of capabilities, particularly those of dragons. In his opinion, they need a serious powering up. You too will get your wish answered come next edition.


Phantasy star. I guess having a computer games column in here has got the magazine enough attention that the guys in sega's marketing division have noticed them as well.


A gamers guide to DC heroes does exactly what the marvel heroes index did a few months ago.  Only shorter, because there's been less attention paid to it in here. Copycats Definitely an article I can't think of anything interesting to say about.


Lords & Legends gives us some more entirely original (as much as anything can be) characters. This time, the theme is wizardly ones.

Aylegard, Queen of the unicorns is your typical chosen one. Now it's her job to ensure their health and safety, protect the wilderness in general, and look incredibly hot while never ever getting laid. Custom designed for players to hate, methinks.

Eelix is a rather blatant rip-off. A formerly dumb guy raised to supra-genius intelligence by a lab accident that he's never been able to replicate. Now where have we seen that before? He has a ton of cool magic items, and is entirely willing to make more if the characters do him a favour. Is that plot hook I hear you say?

Elayne Mystica is an outcast (due to sexism) albino from a tribe of underground humans, who was trained by elves, became an outcast a second time for developing psionic abilities, adventured for a while, got too powerful for the rest of her party, and now owns her own demiplane. The amount of Aaaangst she has over this oh so hard life is not revealed. I sense the author would love to write a whole series of novels about her escapades.

Shugar is another blatant PC, with magic items that cover for his weaknesses, and tragic elements to his backstory that in no way interfere with his badassedness. Ho hum. Can't say I've been hugely pleased by this collection.


Where Wizards meet: Mage guilds. Given how tricky studying to be a spellcaster is, a tutor is obligatory. It'll be a long time before magic is ingrained enough to manifest spontaneously round these parts. So sharing the responsibility may not be as common as with thieves and clerics, but it's hardly rare. Here's another article on the idea. This is less concerned with the training of apprentices, and more with the social organization of working spellcasters. It includes a sample wizards guild, along with a map, and large quantities of setting detail. A long and elaborate article, this is a pretty good place to start from in designing your own, as it will probably need a bit of adaption to fit into an existing campaign. Pretty pleasing, as it's another good example of their improvement at building campaign worlds at this point.


Bazaar of the Bizarre:  Back to the spellbooks this month, as they give us some more tricks for exceedingly powerful spellcasters.

The book of black circles is a very interesting item indeed. With spells that allow you to detect magical potential in ordinary people, prevent them from advancing in magical power until they prove themselves worthy, and enforce a magical hierarchy, it is designed for a very particular kind of wizardly guild, and putting it in your game encourages a very particular kind of story. This is a strong thematic choice that may not be for every group, but is pretty cool, and definitely worth considering.

Laendar's book of metamorphoses is rather more self-explanatory. A big spellbook full of shapeshifting magic, including two new spells, it also has an awkward curse that takes place slowly, and is exceedingly hard to get rid of. This is another one that makes for dramatic stories, as the transformations it can inflict take place slowly enough that a race against time quest to cure them is a very viable option. Both of these are definitely intended for games where roleplaying is more important than pure hack-and-slash combat optimization. Overall, a very pleasing entry, that feels very much in the upcoming 2E spirit.


Speaking with the spirits: More call of cthulhu coolness here. Seances were rather popular around the turn of the last century, so of course Cthulhu by gaslight had some stuff on them written. But cutting for space happened yet again, and now their loss is the magazine's gain. Do you really want to sit in a circle and call up the dead when OOC, you know exactly what mind bending horrors lurk out there? Eh, you gotta go sometime. As this is CoC, you may not be dealing with the spirits of the dead at all, but insubstantial extradimensional horrors that'll take you over and use you for their own ends, and these get statted up for your use. As this is from an actual book, the quality of writing is pretty good, although thematically some of the elements don't mesh perfectly with the mythos setting. I suppose it depends how much of a purist you are. And it doesn't hurt to surprise people anyway in a milieu like this.

Dragon Magazine Issue 139: November 1988

part 2/3


Oh look - a harmless statue!: Now there's a phrase you'll never see an experienced group of adventurers say. They're almost as bad as skeletons for coming to life at awkward moments. So here's 30 ways that you can make your animated guardians a little less obtrusive. Recessed into walls, dressed up dummys, silly poses, many of these are rather amusing. This will of course have the long term effect of making your players even more paranoid. Generally, I'm rather fond of this kind of article, and this is no exception, as it also gives you plenty of ways you can mechanically customise your monsters. Another short article that'll give you hours of fun.


Ars Magica! Now this is advancement. This is turning out to be a very good year indeed for new games.


Fiction: The visitor by Llynne Moore. Hee. Bait and switch. Always a fun way to get people to remember you, if not always particularly favourably. So it goes here, in a story which builds the drama up and up, into purple prose territory, and then deflates in in one swift rush of humour at the end, with almost as much finesse as Harry Turtledove managed in issue 113. Which is pretty amusing to me, anyway. Taking things too seriously is one of the great dangers of writing, and mocking those who take themselves too seriously one of the great pleasures. Which this manages just fine, with lots of very D&D specific tropes mentioned. Woo.


The new, Improved druid: Hmm. New druid powers? Interesting. In actual fact, this is a substantial nerf disguised as a power-up. Reducing the range of creatures you can shapeshift into? Codifying poison brewing abilities in a way that substantially reduces their power, and competely ignores the many non-damaging penalties you can inflict with chemicals. Spells which seem out of theme (druids do not manipulate undead. ) This is not a good article both in terms of mechanical and thematic design. I very strongly disapprove. One to avoid.


TSR previews: D&D gets GAZ9: the minrothad guilds. Want to be a merchant prince rather than a dungeoneer? Let's hope they figure out how to make another playstyle fun.

AD&D gives Kara-Tur it's own full boxed set. Zeb Cook must be very happy that he gets to keep revisiting and adding to this.

Marvel Superheroes is picking up the pace with it's third gamers handbook following hot on the heels of the second. M to R get to find out all their powers. And now we must fight.

Novelwise, as mentioned earlier, we have Azure Bonds. Alias and crew gotta do what they gotta do. Will you enjoy reading about it too? Dragonlance is still recycling material on the other hand, with our third installment of the graphic novel conversion of the first series.

And finally, on the wargaming front, the Sniper system gets the Bug Hunter game. As inspired by Predator and Starship troopers. Now that's how you don't do alien relations.


Buck Rogers has yet more upcoming products next year. They really are going to push this for everything they can, aren't they.


Hand-to-hand Against the rules: Nerf time again. They've introduced tons of new martial arts in the magazines, plus a few general revisions. But here, the writer wants to reduce the access many classes have to these powers. He also wants to save us from ourselves, by fixing the problem of classes specialising in them when it would provide markedly less benefit than specialising with a weapon. This article actually turns out to be better thought out than first impressions would indicate, if rather conservative in terms of enforcing training requirements and social divisions. Not every member of each class should have the same attitude, especially in a setting where members of one class often pretend to be members of another. A mixed bag of suggestions here, some of which I like, and others which I don't. Guess I'll just have to do the usual plunder and discard routine then.


Jetboots, don't fail me now: Star Frontiers' article this month attempts to solve that old chessnut of making exciting chase scenes when everyone of the same race moves at the same rate. And fail, because the solution used still results in a fixed movement rate for a particular individual, only now that rate varies slightly based on their attributes. So success or failure in a chase is still pretty much fixed. And they don't even take encumbrance into account. A not particularly good bit of filler.


Sage advice: Can a spellcaster memorise a lower level spell in a high level slot (No, unless they use metamagic. That would let you cast particular spells more often and mess up the game balance)

Can you be hurt by your own fireball (Oh yes. Muahahaha! Don't forget the volume of the fireball splays out if there isn't enough room for it to expand properly. Fireballs in dungeons are responsible for many adventurer casualties. )

Are there restrictions on magic-users trading spells ( Only whatever costs indivdual magic-users impose. Aren't you glad you don't have to deal with an overarching organisation imposing stupid union rules like thieves, assassins, monks, druids, etc. )

Can rangers wear plate mail (If they don't mind the stealth penalties. )
How do rangers get MU spells (from the justified ancients of mu-mu. Kick out the jams, y-all!)

What level do rangers cast spells, do they get bonus spells for high stats, can they use items for magic users once they can cast spells (Rerun questions. Change the channel luv)

How can a ranger build a stonghold if they can only own what they can carry ( If someone else technically owns it. )

Do elven rangers surprise chances stack (no, use the best.)

Can dual class fighters and rangers specialise or not ( Depends if you take material from dragon as official. Remember, Gary's stuff isn't official anymore, no matter how much he claimed it was at the time. )    

What do I do with characters made before the new rules (We'll forgive you if you retcon them, just this once. )

Can you get proficiency in two weapon fighting ( We do not recommend it  Keep whining and wait another 12 years)

Is specialization in swords in general or a specific type (One type. Again, you'll have to wait a bit for weapon groups to come into style. )

Can you specialize in more than one weapon (No. Bad twink. )

Does weapon specialization count as a magic bonus (no)

Why can't assassins use shields anymore (they can, just not during assassinations. Union regulations, again.)

Do you have to roll to hit when assassinating (depends if you're abstracting the process or not. The jury is still out on this one. We suspect they may choose to scrap assassins altogether rather than answer it)

Can you backstab or assassinate with missile weapons (Skip says No! kids. Other writers will subsequently contradict him. Skip sometimes wishes he could cap all those bitches asses. )

Can you backstab with two weapons (Once you've attacked once, the element of surprise is gone, so nope. )

Do you multiply strength or magical bonuses on a backstab (No, only the dice.)

Do super high level thieves get more than 5x damage on backstabs (no)

Why can't thieves use longbows ( Not stealthy enough, and not thematic)

Do you add elves chance to surprise to their move silently odds (no. use the best roll. Don't keep on.)

How far can a thief acrobat fall (oh, pointless minutinae, oh mindless tedium. whyeyeyeyey. Miaow. )

What races can become thief-acrobats (any that can become thieves. Of the base classes, that means any at all, doesn't it.  How generous are we! )

Do thief-acrobats pay extra for training (Nope. Skip likes thief-acrobats. They're cool. Skip does not like assassins. They're not cool. Skip is very partisan. Boom boom muthafuckers and I'm not talking about Basil Brush here.  )

Do gauntlets of ogre power give you the bonuses to your acrobat skills. (only in your arms, so it only affects your pole vaulting rating. )

Does evasion affect missile attacks (yes)

How can thief acrobats multiclass (same as regular thieves. Have you no power of inferance at all? )

Can assassins become thief-acrobats (no, as they're part of the same class group. )

What races can become cleric/thieves (originaly only half-orcs, but in our benevolence, we have opened up a whole load more in UA)

Are druid/illusionists possible (Theoretically, but there's currently no class other than humans which can be both, unless you allow winged folk (issue 51 ) in your game. And given how twinked they are, that would be a bad idea. )

Who can become magic-user/assasins (lots of elf subraces. Fear them. )

Can a dual classed cleric/fighter use edged weapons (Skip is a maverick! Skip says yes! Skip forgets how annoying gods are. This is in contradiction of previous rulings and common sense and skip may get slapped for it. )

Can you combine specialization and backstabbing (No! Only single classed characters may specialize. Not sure if specialized characters can dual class though. )

Can multiclassed fighter/mages wear plate (As long as they don't mind not being able to cast spells. Which rather defeats the point, doesn't it. )

Can barbarians and cavaliers multiclass (they have to be human, so not at the moment. This may change as more races are introduced )

How do demihumans add another class after play (They can't. Oh, woeforous fate. I have chosen my path, and now I am bound to it, unto level I max out and beyond. )

When can fighter-illusionist specialize (only if they are human, and newly adopting the fighter class)

Do multiclass casters stack levels to determine spell power (No. Note that this is far less crippling than it would be in 3rd edition, because of the exponential nature of the XP tables)

How do proficiencies work for muticlassed characters. (They get all of them, but have to spend them separately.)

Can humans become triple classed (if they have the obscene stats needed)

Can a dual classed fighter make multiple attacks. (Depends. They might be forced to forfeit all their XP for doing so if they do it at the wrong time)

Half orcs still haven't had their errata from issue 35 added to the PHB (Sigh. Well spotted. We really ought to get round to that. )

Do elves get their full surprise chance while wearing elfin chain (Nope. Even they aren't that good at armourmaking. Makes you wonder why they bother. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 139: November 1988

part 3/3


The dragon's bestiary: Ed Greenwood makes a random little contribution for the first time in rather too long.  

Lock lurkers, like ear seekers, are one of those creatures specifically designed to annoy cautious adventurers. Much of their body is concealed on the ethereal plane, and usually they look like little coins. Ed wastes no time in reminding us he's the king of odd little ecological details, giving us tons of uses for these things, both alive and dead.

Lybarde are another weird feline thing. Their tails slow opponents. When you consider their close relations are Displacer beasts and Nonafel, this makes perfect sense. What other ways can we manipulate time and space to give as their schtick?

Metalmasters are not quite what you would expect. They do, however, mess with your equipment. Fun fun fun. The illustration is pretty damn good too.

Serplar are another thing that keeps the infestations of slimes and oozes that threaten D&D worlds under control. Large pink wormy things, they're better avoided than fought, since they're dangerous but not too fast.

Thylacine's are almost, but not quite like the real world creature. Filtered through the medieval bestiary mentality, they get intelligence and rudimentary shapeshifting, and some weird combat tactics. This has definitely felt like an old school Ed contribution. Nominally set in the Realms, but easily applicable to other games, and full of interesting little details, this is a great reminder how to pull this stuff off. How very pleasing.


The role of books:
Sheepfarmer's daughter by Elizabeth Moon is the start of the Paksenarrion books. A farmer's daughter flees an unwanted marriage by becoming a soldier, and then has lots of interesting adventures. Welcome to another pretty cool series.

The three minute universe by Barbara Paul is a decidedly crappy star trek novel. It uses almost exactly the same bit of bad science as the plot driver as the new reboot movie, and then has a bunch of other irritating anvilicious elements. Avoid.

The heavenly horse from the outermost west by Mary Stanton tries and fails to do for thoroughbred horses what watership down did for rabbits. While the story isn't bad, the worldbuilding doesn't convince the reviewer, and it all seems a little over-precious.

When H.A.R.L.I.E was one: release 2.0 by David Gerrold is a nicely updated rerelease of a cool bit of hard sci-fi. The possibility of computers gaining sentience and exercising their powers over the world is a common one by now, and here's a good early example of the subgenre.

Child of the grove by Tanya Huff gets an ambivalent review. While what is there is good, the big gaps in the narrative leave the reviewer wanting more. But there are many far worse flaws, really.

The nightingale by Kara Dalkey is reviewed in a manner which imitates it's writing. How very droll. Seems good enough, though.

The blind knight by Gail Van Asten mixes arthurian legend with later medieval setting. It manages to do so fairly well, putting it's own spin on what might happen next.


The ecology of the spectator: Say hello to our third look at the beholder subraces. Curious that they're getting more attention in the ecologies than Dragons. And curious that they occupy such widely varying ecological niches as well. Standard beholders are marauding destroyers, cutting swathes through all that oppose them.  Eyes of the deep are lurking predators in a hostile environment you're unlikely to even see. Spectators are almost benign, if rather weird in mindset, and you're unlikely to fight one unless it's being employed by someone. As an ecology should, this fills in the details of their lifecycle, and what they do when not being summoned. As you'd expect, this is rather strange. They really should do some more extraplanar ecology stuff. We have the basic books needed to giver people a framework. Filling it in would be a cool thing to do, and let people's imaginations really run wild.

Also notable is the increasing use of greyhawk locations and personages in the recent ecologies. With Gary well gone by now, they grow increasingly comfortable with allowing all and sundry to write there, just as Ed's done with the Forgotten realms. That's definitely a development that will have reprecussions in the future. Overall, this is a very interesting ecology, with it's inventive ideas, variants, and a new spell for our use as well. One for both players and DM's.


The game wizards: Back to the really big issue everyone's been wondering about for months here. The next edition of AD&D. Playtesters have reported tons of ideas. Zeb's been trying to change things, Jon's been trying to keep them the same, and of course there is much conflict in general about how much to change. It's all been a bit wearing. Entertaining, but not hugely informative, this is basically just a bit of blogging, not really revealing any specifics about what will be different. Definitely not a patch on the leadup to the release of the 1st ed DMG. Will anything provoke the same kind of furor afterwards as the female dwarven beards issue? (Demons & Devils, of course.) Come on, stoke our fires. It'll be good for sales.


When the tanks roll: Top Secret continues it's more military focus, with talk about coups. When and why are they most likely to occur? Here's a hint. Don't neglect the basic utilities. That's just begging for trouble. This strongly reminds us that the new edition has stepped away from realism in both system and setting, with Orion and Web being virtually 80's cartoon organizations in the unambiguity of which is good, which is bad, and the tactics they adopt. Which also means Orion seems rather standoffish and reactive. If you want to make the world a better place, you can't just watch for villainic influence and then foil them. And in a world without supernatural stuff, the excuse that you don't interfere in mundane politics carries rather less weight. There's still plenty of valuable advice in this, but it is tinged with that annoying shallow cartoon morality that I might have accepted at the time, but laugh at now. Not only are they shying away from real world religion, they're also bowdlerising real world politics due to overcautious company policy. So it's an interesting but not very pleasing way to finish things off.


Snarfquest is on vacation again because Larry Elmore is overworked. Dragonmirth also strains the sanity. Yamara wishes halflings had infravision like the rest of the demihumans.


Definitely an issue that strongly foreshadows the changes to come in the next edition, both it's good aspects, and it's bad ones. Which isn't too surprising really, but shows how much they've planned ahead, and are setting things up so as to make the readers more likely to accept those alterations in mechanics and tone. Still, the magazine as a whole seems fairly healthy, with sales up again, Roger struggling less to keep everything running, and the amount of rehash stable or even declining slightly. They certainly seem to be in a fairly healthy position for the changeover. So let's see how it all goes down.

Dragon Magazine Issue 140: December 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. Another classic Elmore illustration fills up this month's cover with sumptuous detail. Another clerical special fills up the inside with new stuff for said class. Rather a conservative choice, really. But then, they've been getting complaining letters when they try and do adventurous stuff. Considering exploring new things is one of the big reasons to become an adventurer, a surprising number of people would rather stick with the same narrow setting and rules conventions. Roger is not amused about this. It's hard enough to avoid rehashing stuff as it is. Stuck between the new people who still need to read the basics, and the grognards  who want to chug along in the same rut for the rest of their lives. Even the differences Dragonlance has from straight generic fantasy are too much for some people. Come on, where's your spirit of adventure? We want to have fun creating new worlds. We can't do that if you don't buy them.  


In this issue:


Letters: A letter pointing out probable errata. : peers: Ayup. That's errata alright. Clear as the nose on mah face.

A letter asking if Little Wars and Heritage Models are still around. It's been nearly 10 years. Pay attention, man! Didn't you read issue 22/13 where they said they were merging them?

A suggestion that they put a coming next time somewhere in the magazine. Roger says no, given the fluidity of their schedule. Future editors, of course may change this.

Another suggestion to put early issues of the magazine on computer. They'll get round to it, but once again, not for quite a few years yet.

A letter asking if it's ok to photocopy stuff from the magazine for personal use. Roger is magnaminous. It'd be too much hassle to stomp on things like that. But if you sell it, then beware our psychic hamsters and their van, roaming suburbia, probing people. Or something. I may be mixing my urban myths here.


Forum: Dean Wright is in favour of powering up dragons. He is also in favour of the DM as (hopefully benevolent ) dictator. If the players don't like the way he runs games, they can get lost.

Steve Allen is disgusted by the idea of weapon specialisation, and hopes it's eliminated entirely from the next edition. He's also another person who thinks magic-users are more than powerful enough if they use their brains. So he's against more player empowerment on both sides of the fence

David Cohen disagrees with the portrayal of Saturn in issue 133. The original myth was merged with closer history, to create a more morally ambigious being. This is a good demonstration of how ripping gods from their context and transplanting them wholesale to fantasy realms doesn't have the same verisimilitude.

Delmar Watkins sells the virtues of co-DM'img. Two minds are definitely better than one here, because you can split the party without slowing things down, cope better with absences, and are less likely to see egregious dictatorial abuses of power.  

Michael Norrish thinks that the flexibility of games like GURPS are the way to go. Ideas such as spell point systems, and differing spell lists for clerics could be incorporated into the game and remain balanced if done right. I'm guessing he liked Skills & Powers then


Paranoia crosses over with a western. Silly as ever.


TSR Previews: Another not particularly huge list of releases this month.
AD&D is filling out both it's big settings further. The Forgotten Realms fills in Thay, in FR6: Dreams of the red wizards. Plenty of adventures to be had trying to foil that shower of bastards. Dragonlance gets DL16: World of Krynn. Designed to serve as both an introduction for new players, and to tie up loose ends for those who played all the way through the module series, will this split focus work?

Top Secret gets TSAC6: Covert Operations Source Book. Bringing back the reality to your espionage with info on lots of actual events and organisations. Events may or may not match the actual reality, since this stuff was supposed to be top secret.

Marvel Superheroes squeezes out the final volume of it's gamers handbook just in time for christmas. Phew. Now people can grab the whole lot of them as a present.


Sage advice takes on top secret this month. Once again, it's the old edition, not the new one, that's getting the attention.  

Are Temporary reductions percentages of your score, or 100. (your score )

How do you handle wounds in the field (You put up with them until you get to a hospital. No mid-mission healing round here. )

Does willpower help you resist poison (not usually)

How can you die from poison (Cumulative exposure. )

How do you check for sleep gas. (regularly pinching yourself)

How do Chlorine and nerve gasses affect you. ( irritatingly)

I want stats for heavy military gear. (Tough. Even though other writers are rapidly putting the lie to the words, Skip will continue to insist they have no place in the Top Secret game. )

What happens if you use a combat style the enemy doesn't know (they're at a substantial disadvantage)

Can players look at the charts when fighting hand to hand (yes. The rules should be an open book to them)

What happens in projectile vs HtH cpmbat. (usually, the shooter pwns the slasher)

How long does it take a chopper to get airborne ( In an emergency, always too long)

What happens if you dip lead bullets in teflon (if doesn't stick very well)

Do you roll a new difficulty each time you force a door (if its been broken once, chances are it'll be easier to break again)

What are the chances of having your disguise penetrated. (depends how good the disguise is)

What are the chances of an enemy running away when losing (Courage score seems tailor made for that purpose)

How do you learn to forge stuff. (That's a tricky crossdisciplinary business. Governments like making these things diliberately awkward to do, as is their right)

How much do false documents cost (You get what you pay for. If you're with an agency, they set you up with even better for free. )

Does the defender need a sword to not autolose at swordplay (no, but they do need something to block with)

What are the chances for train derailment (See the orient express module. Logical place to put it. )

The flamethrower is missing stats ( See the Top Secret Companion)

How do you improve your languages (same as any other AOK)

What is stopping power (how well a weapon knocks you back or out)

The military record rules are confusing (That's because it's a realistic emulation of military bureaucracy )

What do you roll when trying to create a diversion (a bit of everything)

What's with departure times ( Errata)

What are your chances of getting away at an airport (depends how long til your flight. This is why they normally make you book in advance and hang around for hours. )

What are the ranges of airliners (If it aint a few thousand miles, it's barely worth the name)

How much does water travel cost, and what is a water mile ( Quite a bit. Remember, you're not traveling straight, but round lots of little jiggly bits on a river or coast. )

Do the involuntary hit response rules work like they seem too (yes)

What's the modifier to a course if your skill is 17-84 (none. Only extreme scores do anything. )

What do you gain for doing the silent killing course (coughs and points downwards)

Sawn-off shotguns are way too accurate (you're right. That should be a minus, not a plus. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 140: December 1988

part 2/3


The savant: Ok, so it's not exactly how Gary would have done it. But at least you get to see this long mooted character class at last. This is an attempt to make a PC level Sage class, able to both adventure and have masterful knowledge of many fields. They're another split class, combining with some other spellcaster so they have slower advancement, but considerably more miscellaneous powers. Which is pretty cool really, as it gives you another way of making a character who is powerful, but not primarily a combatant. It would also require very little modding to allow it to split-class with warriors or rogues instead, and I would be entirely willing to consider that. Seems like split classes are becoming quite the fashionable option, allowing you to give your character more customisation while not completely removing yourself from the more heavily supported baseline ones. You can see why they developed kits in the next edition, to make this kind of thing more standardized and accessable. The demand is very much there. Since I like customisability, I approve of this development.


So many gods, so little time: Building a pantheon. A topic tackled by no less than Ed himself, back in issue 54. Rather big shoes to try and step into and rehash. And indeed, this tackles it with less detail and far fewer specific ideas than the previous version, making it not really that interesting to me. There are a few new ideas, but really, if you're going to do something again, you need to do it bigger, better or sufficiently differently to make an impression when the previous version is still around for the consuming. Sorry, but this just ain't up to it.


Fantasy clerics and clerical fallacies: Gregory Detwiler gets statistical on us to point out that clerics wouldn't completely remove the risks from everyday living, even if there were a lot of them. They'll always be a small fraction of the population, with numbers decreasing exponentially for each level increase. Spells are decidedly limited commodities, you need to be pretty high level to get the ones that are most useful for a community, and even then you can only cast them a few times a day. Even if you filled up all your slots, there's no way you could save or raise everyone who needed it. And if you want to increase your power, you've got to go adventuring, which means you won't be available if an emergency happens while you're absent. A good example of the rules of the game are the physics of the universe style thinking, which is something I generally enjoy. Lest you forget, PC's are seriously exceptional in D&D, able to cope with threats that would mow down hundreds of peasants. But they can still only be in one place at a time. There's a big world of mundanity out there between the spectacular creatures and places. Don't completely gloss over it, or the special ceases to be so.


As the cleric turns: A nice little revision here, smoothing out the undead turning table, and extending it to cover higher levels. There's been a lot of new creatures introduced since the first monster manual, and many of them have had turning difficulties not in sync with their overall power level. Fixing that, and extending the turning tables so they scale better is a small thing, but this looks like it would improve your game a bit, particularly if undead are regular encounters. No objection here, especially since the article pays attention to similar revisions in earlier issues of the magazine.


Specialization (cut down to size): The two Len's gang up on us to once again present the case for nerfing weapon specialization. The primary problem seems to occur when first level characters are permitted to double specialize. They're too powerful when they can use their chosen weapon, and near useless when they can't, because they don't have other stuff to fall back on. Seems to me that the problem isn't the precise numbers, as the Master set BD&D rules for weapon mastery are far more powerful, but the allowing it at 1st level. Looks like it's one of those well-meaning but tiresome articles that winds up letting spellcasters eclipse the fighters even more. Seen it before, will see it again. Yawnaroo.


The beastie awards: Our computer columnists finally have enough people voting to present awards for the best games they've covered. Might and Magic wins comfortably overall, with Bards tale coming second. Unsurprisingly, most of the other big votes also appeared in the column over the year. Next year will be bigger and better! Be ready, folks! Hrum. Before you know it, this'll be business as usual too.


Roll on!: When they invented the supertwinked method V for Unearthed Arcana, they didn't include numbers of dice rolled for all the various multiclass combinations. They said there wasn't the space. Well, what is the magazine for if not supplementary material like this. And since it only takes them 2 pages, I'm not sure if it was a problem in the first place. Not that I was ever very keen on the idea of 9d6 for prime stats in the first place. I think I'll leave this one alone as well.


Fiction: Flesh and blood by Mary Frances Zambreno. Fighting over children. There's something you see quite often in stories, but not so often in RPG's. When romance and breeding are kept largely in the realm of GM fiat, it's no surprise that the games wind up not focussing upon them. Apart from Pendragon. Maybe exalted DB's. I'm sure there are others. But I digress. This is one of those stories that starts off simple, but rapidly gets complicated, with the protagonist not being particularly heroic. Once again, it's the job of the fiction to remind us of the moral greys that your game can contain.


The game wizards: Jim Ward decides to do exactly the same thing he did this time last year, and use this column as a way of letting you know about their biggest projects for the next year. Best laid plans, and all that. I wonder how many of them will actually arrive when he says they will.

January gives us a second Tom Clancy licensed boardgame, Red Storm Rising. He seems to be quite the flavour of the month.  Dragonlance starts a new module series, DLE1: In search of dragons kicks of a trilogy of new discoveries. Once again, the big flying lizards take centre stage. If you can find them. Amazing how good things that big are at hiding.

February sees the Forgotten realms statting out lots of it's NPC's, in Hall of Heroes. If editorials are anything to go by, expect huge chunks of them to not be PC legal. Meanwhile, Top Secret kicks off it's own epic module trilogy to compete with Gamma World's. Welcome to the Web of Deceit.

In March, 2nd edition finally starts to arrive. This time, it's the players handbook that's first out the gate. Doug Niles also finishes his moonshae trilogy, with Darkwell. Will there be McGrimDarkness™ involved?

April sees dragonlance go prequelific with the start of a new trilogy. See how the stars got to where they are. Well, quite a few of the main characters died in the first trilogy, so this is the only way they can satisfy fan cravings without divisive resurrections. Watch out for continuity errors. It also sees the return of Tom Wham, with the Great Khan Game. What tricks do you have up your sleeve to solve this one?

May will hopefully see the new DMG arrive. All the errors taken out, rewritten for clearness, better looking, less flavour. Also revised and expanded is the Dungeon! boardgame. Been quite a while since we heard anything on that. How will it fare in a market quite different to the one it was born in. A new boardgame, High-Rise, seems to be trying to tap into the monopoly/sim city market. And Buck Rogers starts getting novels, courtesy of our great CEO, (roll of thunder, stab of organ music) and her brother.

June completes the new edition with the first monstrous compendium. A ton of loose leaf sheets, so as they add to them, you can put everything in a single file in alphabetical order. Course, for that to work, you'd need every monster to have it's own double page spread. Shoulda thought that one through a bit more carefully.    Marvel superheroes also gets revised for clarity and released in it's own boxed set. And our non-rehashed release this month is Cities of Mystery. Another one with lotsa bits to cut out and put together yourself. Don't see much of those anymore.

July's biggest releases are a pair of boxed sets. AD&D gets Greyhawk city, while D&D receives Dawn of the Emperors. Another onslaught of setting detail, including all kinds of odd little bits and pieces you couldn't put in a book.  

August sees the 2nd ed supplement mill kick up a gear, with the second monstrous compendia. There's a hellofa lot of monsters that need updating, so the gaps between releases are shrinking. Another quirky release are the Dragonlance Trail Maps. In a push to make their setting seem more real, they're releasing maps in the same format as real world ones. Slim fold-out things you can stick in your jacket pocket. Just the thing for if you stumble through a magic portal unexpectedly.  

In September, the first 2nd ed specific setting is unleashed upon us. And quite a doozy it is too. Spelljammer! AD&D in Spaaaaace! Take that, unadventurous naysayers! On the less imaginative side, we have a second volume of compiled D&D art. Guess more people bought the first one than you'd expect.

October gives us a proper Dragonlance boxed set. They try some more to make it a full world, rather than just a backdrop to a specific set of adventures. Marvel super-heroes continues to rack up the supplements as well.

November has something old and something new as well. The Battlesystem is revised for the new edition, now written to be more easy to understand and focussed upon using minis to represent your battles. Far more important though, is the Complete Fighters Manual. Welcome to the birth of kits, and the rise of the splatbooks. :dramatic music: None shall be spared! You will be customized!

December gives us another splatbook straight off the bat, with thieves getting their turn next. After all, it's the non-spellcasters that need more differentiation the most. The others'll get their turn soon enough.They also finish off the Dragonlance prequels. That is, if they can get them written in time. Eh, Tracey and Margaret have proved up to the job before. And now they have more writing experience. Why shouldn't they be able to pull it off.
Whew. I'm exhausted just reading all that. And it's just a fraction of their total output. Just think how hard the team must be working to produce this much. No time to waste here.

Dragon Magazine Issue 140: December 1988

part 3/3


An assortment of knives: Weapon porn has always been part of D&D. Having dozens of different kinds of polearms stretches right back to the strategic review. But so far, knives and daggers have managed to be passed by for bigger and more impressive looking weaponry. No more. Now you can choose from 7 new varieties of knife, each with their own little nuances of damage, speed and cost. Apart from throwing knives, which can be rather scary if you have a nice bandolier full of them, thanks to their high RoF, (Magic missile? Hah. They call me Brett Riverboat.) these don't seem particularly unbalanced. So another bit of power creep by increasing breadth of options. Meh.


The dragon's bestiary: Ed is in fine fettle again this month, with another assortment of cool monsters that would later appear in Forgotten Realms books.  

Glyptar are the souls of Maedar trapped in formations of crystal. Since they've often spent millennia doing sod-all underground, they are often of dubious sanity when found. Since they do have some quite neat abilities, freeing them might pay off, or might not. It'll be a lot of fun finding out.

Magebane are magic eating parasites that attach themselves to wizards and make their spells malfunction. Like rust monsters and brain moles, they won't do any direct damage, but this becomes very irritating, and rather dangerous if there's another pressing threat at the same time.

Quezzer are scarily fast alien bug things. Definitely a horror movie in there, given the way they behave and the odd way they move. Unsurprisingly, you can harvest their bits for magic items involving speed.

Scythetails are another odd thing that don't have a particular earthly analogue, but are almost natural animals, with a few unique realmsey touches, and lots of tricks that make them more dangerous than many creatures of their hit dice. And as usual, they are a delight to read about.

Xantravar are even stranger looking, with their closest relations probably somewhere in the beholder family, or possibly Pelins. Maybe flumphs. No, I can't untangle D&D's creature families. How does he come up with these things? How would players react confronted with them? (kill it with fire! Baaaad idea.) Should be fun finding out.


Through the looking glass: Several columns in, and Robert is learning the hard way what the Lessers had too a couple of years ago. Piracy may take a different form in mini's than it does in computer software, but it's still very much an issue, and can reflect badly on the reviewers if they fall prey to it or appear to condone it. Plus, people have an irritating habit of writing in in vitriolic fashion, and much as you'd like too, you cannot reply in the same way. We also get some advice on planning projects, several reviews of scenery for your battles, and Robert's personal experience of this year's Gen Con. Looks like all the promotion paid off. Still fairly entertaining progression on this front.


The role of computers is also dealing with the effects of convention season being upon them. This means lots of new games to tackle.

F/A-18 Interceptor & Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer are a pair of flight sim games that get a joint review. Actually, they're owned by the same company, and there doesn't seem to be a huge amount to choose between them. Basically, it depends which system you own, and if you want the big name attached.

Global Commander is the opposite of a wargame, where you have to figure out how to prevent and defuse conflict between the various UN nations. This amuses the reviewers, but it still makes for a fun and tricky game. Monitor communications, engage in diplomacy, and if all else fails, shoot their missiles from the sky. Now, if only someone could make an RPG that encourages similar kinds of play.

Road Runner is of course, a game based on the cartoon. You play the bird, avoiding the coyote and trying to get round the tracks in the time limit. This is fun for a bit, then starts to pall. Another so-so conversion.

Might and Magic goes mac. This is not without improvements, and they spell out the differences between this and the previous versions. Is this really worth a full review?

Penguin Land is a typically quirky sega classic. Rescue your eggs and guide them through the mazes while avoiding the hungry bear. You can even build and save your own custom maps.  

PT-109 is a torpedo boat sim. They do review a lot of sim games in here. Guess that's another genre that has since lost a lot of it's adherents.


Role-playing reviews goes back to the forgotten realms. It's been around for over a year now, and has a good few supplements, so let's sort between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

FR1 Waterdeep and the north works well as a guide to the city itself, but details of the lands surrounding it are still rather sketchy. It concentrates more on providing atmosphere and sample characters than detailed maps and locations, which means the DM will still have to do some work to run adventures in it. Still room for plenty more supplements filling in this region.

FR2 Moonshae gets a more evenly distributed treatment. This may be a problem for low level parties, as the random encounters include creatures of all power levels. Better be ready to run. Doug has done a good job of making the isles somewhat separate from the main continent in tone, but not completely so, and you can play it either as a sandbox, or join in the local iteration of the epic battle of good vs evil.

FR3 Empires of the sands is the same size as the other two, but covers a much wider area, so there is considerably less detail. Even so, some of the bits have the air of filler material. The three countries are very different, but all have plenty of room for adventuring in. Money, magic, and wild frontiers. Which will you hunt for most eagerly?

A couple of interesting tidbits are also found in the short and sweet section. Jim rebutts a comment by Greg Stafford on his recent review. Just because Runequest already has rules for unarmed combat, doesn't mean ninjas shouldn't get more kewl powerz in that area in their supplement. Quite the opposite in fact. Hee. Ars Magica also gets a small but positive review. The quality of the game is recognized, but it's future success does not seem to have been anticipated. Another one worth noting.


Dragonmirth reminds us that it's the type of armour you're wearing, not how much of your body it covers that counts. Fea gets a familiar in Yamara. Snarf attracts the attention of claimjumpers. Well, he was warned.


A fairly average issue, with both good stuff and bad stuff aplenty. It would probably register as better to a new reader, who hadn't seen the previous coverage of many of the topics. Once again, the reviews and previews are some of the most interesting parts to me. Hopefully the coming of the new edition will put fresh spins on the various ideas they repeat, and bring in some new ones.

Dragon Magazine Issue 141: January 1989

part 1/3


108 pages. Another year, time to put some more old chessnuts to rest. No more Allycia and Scud. No more world destroying adventures of Waldorf. No more harpy biology. And definitely no more sodding debate on if female dwarves have beards. We haven't published stuff on that in years, so stop sending it in. Instead, it's back to humanoids. Another thing that has previously had a special on it. Do they have some new ideas? Or is it going to be 1982 all over again. Page turning time.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter suggesting they do a holographic cover for their 150th issue or some similar special occasion. Since it's expensive and awkward to do, Roger is skeptical about if that would be worth it. Not very Visionary of him, eh?

Someone asking why there's no articles for Dragonlance. Like BD&D, Greyhawk, and a ton of other things the magazine could cover, it's because people don't sodding submit them. It's not some conspiracy, honest.

Another question about the value of old stuff. Good question. How long is a piece of string, as ever. Hold on a few decades more, and it'll definitely go up in this case.

Another recycled question. Another group wants to try break the record for longest continuous session. Roger, once again, plays the spoilsport. For health and safety reasons, we do not recommend this.

And finally, someone upset because the role of computers skipped an issue. Honestly, it was only one issue. You don't have to go getting paranoid that quickly. A little variety is good for the brain.


Forum: Walker White continues the illusion handling debate, with another lengthy bit of opinion. You've got to keep the changes you make logical, so people are more likely to believe them.

Brad Shimzo introduces 4 new martial arts for the Marvel superheroes game. Another relatively unusual occurrence around here.  

Mark Hunter dislikes the way many Dragon articles do not take each other into account, and are mutually incompatible. He's also not keen on the idea of adding new attributes. Perception should stay purely derived.

Douglas M Burck has some more sound strategies for aiding the survival of low level magic-users. Remember, spells can be combined to good effect, and even cantrips are invaluable. He also goes into some detail about the nature of different kinds of spellbooks.

Larry Madden has some more talk about ways for spellcasters to make a living, and rubbishes the idea of dual class 1st level fighter/magic users. It's not a practical option, in or out of the game.

Timothy Makinson chooses to debate the issues of weapon lengths and two-handed fighting, of all things. Well, it's one people can study themselves. That means realism nigglers can have a field day on it.

Aaron Goldblatt thinks, as a jew, that real world religion should stay the hell out of D&D games. Similarly, modern values cause substantial amounts of moral dissonance, and making your world too like them is not a great idea.

Darrell Anderson Talks about weapon and armour restrictions, coming to the conclusion that clerics are better overall than fighters or magic-users, and a certain amount of rebalancing wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Jimmy B Ellis points out that according to the RAW, a fighter can only specialise in one weapon. This means that you can't pour all your slots into several things to the exclusion of all else. Not that many future writers won't ignore that rule as well.


Sage advice goes back to greyhawk for some retro setting reexamination.

Where are the clashing rocks and other special locations (wherever your DM wants to put them. They're supposed to be a surprise. )

Which areas are best for adventuring in. (All of them! Would Gary, in his endless genius, design a place that is unsuited for adventurers? (oh yes he would!) Oh no he wouldn't! (oh yes he would!) Shut up, you. Panto season was last month)

Where was the weather info (Issue 68. No, we will not reprint it for you, so don't even ask.)

How big is hepmonaland ( We dunno. Buy more greyhawk stuff, and maybe we'll give it it's own line, like the various forgotten realms continents)

Which modules are set in greyhawk ( WGAGDQSTEX. Try pronouncing that. It will summon a great elder grognard if you can say it right 7 times while looking at your reflection in a bottle of mountain dew. If your character dies in the ultimate old skool game they run, you die as well. Bet you wish you'd listened to Jack Chick now.  )

How can elven clerics wield swords in the random encounter table (Legacy code. We didn't have the heart to tell them they couldn't use them anymore )

What is the symbol of the knight on the cover (The city of Fax. Just what you need to send a message)

Why doesn't the map show the countries borders (Because they fight so much. The map'd be out of date in no time. )

When do the GDQ modules happen (In default canon, they happened in CY576. This is quite a few years ago now. You are of course free to ignore this for your own games. )

Can I use non-oerth deities from legends and lore (Eh, it's your funeral. You want to dilute our themes, go ahead. It's not as if the place isn't a kitchen sink already. )

What's the scale on the map (1 hex= 30 miles. Or 10 leagues for the pretentious amongst you. )

Does Zuggtmoy have the usual demon powers (Yes. Being a unique and special snowflake does not weaken her in any way. )

What's Oerik's lattitude (see page 18. )


The Dragon's bestiary: Blacktrolls are, yeah, trolls, only even more eeeevil. Smarter, tougher, with quite substantial magical powers, they're another good demonstration of how the stakes go up substantially when you go extraplanar. The omnipresent fricken teleport without error is a particular pain in the butt. Really, who decided to make that a default at will power for entire broad genera of monsters?

Caiveh are yet another humanoid feline race. Based off lions, they're another low level monster with a few tricks up their sleeve, that could probably gain class skills if the DM wanted.

Cynamolgus are another form of dog men, in another case of inspiration deficit disorder resulting in filler. Far better to fill in the ones we have than keep on adding new ones.

Diurge are decidedly scary people from the negative material plane. With a consistently high general class capability, psionics, and the obligatory energy draining, they seem good ones for a world-conquering plotline.

Jor are another upgraded version of orcs. Adapted to swamps, they have natural talents at stealth and assassination. A good backstabbing is just the thing to really piss off a party. Muahaha.

Rocktrolls are a second even tougher troll variant, living in the elemental plane of earth. Well, not much apart from fire and acid kills them, so it's no surprise they'd go all over the place and adapt to weird environments. They also have quite decent stealth skills in their natural environment. Seems like they want to encourage you to play your monsters that way.

Dragon Magazine Issue 141: January 1989

part 2/3


Orcs throw spells too: From stealth to spellcasting. Although they can't match up to humans and elves, many of the humanoid races detailed can get rudimentary spellcasting abilities, more commonly priestly than wizardly. And even a couple of well chosen spells can seriously improve the odds of a whole team of monsters. Be rather thankful they're quite rare, given the lack of formal education in their societies. Quite a long article, this gives plenty of design and statistical advice, to help you build them, flesh out their religious practices, and customise them appropriately for their racial tendencies. Many of the gods have ridiculously strict advancement criteria, which is an amusing example of their self-defeating tendencies. All in all, this is a pretty good article, giving us lots of extra depth without overlapping previous material. Very handy.


Boulder-throwers and humanoid hordes: Giants. The subject of the very first module series. Curiously, they're a race that is usually played as dumb, but can get quite substantial benefits from being played smart. This gives us tactics that are good for fightery races, thus completing the symmetry. They're quite good at ranged attacks, tremendously strong, and can often move faster than their foes. This means they can choose when they attack, and control the terrain. Much shorter than the last one, this still has plenty of neat tricks up it's sleeve, to help keep them challenging even once the PC's are loaded up with magic items and tricks, and remind you to vary the capabilities of your adversaries. Once again, pretty pleasing.


Hey, wanna be a kobold?: Ahh, the joys of people opening up races to become PC's. Few things are sweeter, or more potentially destabilizing to game balance. But lets face it, kobolds are not overpowering at all. If you don't use your brains, they'll be rather weedy. Still, they're considerably better in terms of stats and abilities than gully dwarves, more versatile than half-ogres, and a lot more applicable to campaigns in general. This also includes the stats for orcs, goblins and xvarts. In general, they are rather less capable than they would be in 2nd edition, and it's pretty clear why they usually lose to the PC's, but they are good enough that you could still have a fun game with them incorporated. Definitely a good contribution here.


Fiction: The ulfjarl's stone by Mickey Zucker Reichert. Ahh, the vikings. A decidedly ruthless culture in a lot of ways. The icy arctic snows require strong men to survive there, and even stronger ones to lead them. And often this requires a little more strength than simply prowess in battle. So here's a story that shows off the norse attitude to life, death, magic and riddles. Not connected to the issue's theme, but still fairly appropriate to it, this continues the fairly strong showing.


Role-playing reviews:
Megatraveller gets a rather long review, as befits a boxed set of this size. The reviewer seems considerably more impressed with this than they did with Traveller 2300. The advancements in timeline have made the setting rather more unstable, and as a result, there are considerably more adventure hooks wherever you may go. The career system is considerably expanded, with lots of the paths introduced in supplements (and this magazine) incorporated and they finally have a decent in play advancement system. Some bits are simple, some bits are possibly still a bit too complex and clunky, but as a whole, it's considerably better than previous editions.

GURPS Space gets a rather shorter review. Obviously, since it's a generic sourcebook to help you build your own settings, it isn't even trying to compete on that front. This just gives you lots of rules and example stats for creatures and objects. It does so in the usual clear and concise way, with well designed rules. No great surprises here.


Adeptus titanicus! Giant robot battles in warhammer 40k. Now there's a concept with a substantial wahoo! factor. It gets a tremendously pretty full colour four page spread of advertising devoted to it as well. Ooh, you are tempting.


TSR Previews: D&D seriously delivers on the Gazetteer front, with GAZ10: Orcs of Thar. Another one opening up a ton of new PC options, and their fun society. Now you can play things from the other side. Maybe that'll teach your players a little sympathy for the monsters.
 
AD&D also gets a fun and not completely serious adventure, with Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw. Martial arts action ahoy! Slightly more scary is Lords of Darkness, a module full of little adventures featuring the undead. Shouldn't be hard to drop in all over the place.

Novelwise, we have Weasel's luck, a Dragonlance book, and Red Sands, a general book. Two very different protagonists wind up in rather different adventures, but both find their experiences pretty harrowing. What is an adventure without challenge, eh?

Dragon Magazine Issue 141: January 1989

part 3/3


The role of books: War of the maelstrom by Jack L Chalker is the third book of a profoundly fucked-up trilogy. I hated this when I read it, and the reviewer manages to pick several further holes in it's fundamental design and attitudes that illuminate just what a terrible book this is on several levels. Steer well clear unless you enjoy mind-rape, sexism, and poor plotting. And if you ever find yourself in a game like this, get the hell out after the first session. No excuses.

The fairy of ku-she by M. Lucie Chin is a tale of the chinese celestial bureaucracy, a byzantine organization full of powerful creatures working under their own idioyncratic rules and internal politics. This is a rich ground for adventure, especially when romance and duty collide. Plenty of fun ideas to be drawn for OA games here.

The armor of light by Melissa Scott and Lisa A Barnett is an espionage adventure set in elizabethan england. Walter Raleigh, Cristopher Marlowe and plenty of other historical figures make appearances in this high action adventure, full of magic, double agents, politics, and all the usual spy tropes that keep a story like this speeding along.

The sorcerer's heir by Paula Volsky is the second book in the trilogy, and builds up to a nicely grim climax that seems pretty insoluble. Will the heroes be able to solve it, or will it all end in tragedy?

The crystal warriors by William R Fortschen and Greg Morrison transports two opposed platoons of soldiers to a fantasy world, where they have to come to an uneasy truce to survive. With an interesting crystal based magic system, it'd probably translate better to GURPS than AD&D, and has both properly developed characters and military tactics.

The quest for the 36 by Stephen Billias features that rather familiar name Dexter Sinister, although from the description, I don't think it's the same one. (terrible puns have a strange attraction) It's another quirky one, with lots of silly names and odd bits while still telling a fundamentally serious story, drawing on real jewish mythology. Another one that's good inspiration for the stranger side of Top Secret games.

Song of the dwarves by Thoraninn Gunnarsson (now there's a fitting name for the writer) is a retelling of norse myth. Weaving the various sagas into roughly chronological order, it goes quite a way towards making them accessible to english readers. Now you can see where Tolkien got quite a few of his ideas from.

Also notable in this issue is a lookover of a whole bunch of star trek books. The next generation is just starting to hit it's stride, and a whole bunch of books based on both that and the original series are coming out in a regular production line schedule. This means many of them are crap of course, especially the one written before the new series was conceptually finalized.


The game wizards: Great. Buck Rogers fiction as well. Looks like he will creep into every department, until the realities of his sales become too great to press on against. This is all about the fiction coming up this year in general, which means there's quite a bit of overlap with last month's column, but it goes into more detail about the books. Dragonlance, Forgotten realms, general books, and the choose your own adventure ones, all lines are getting at least a trilogy, and some rather more. Unlikely many people will buy all of them. But that's probably not their aim at this point. As long as they can please all the people some of the time, the companies finances should stay in good shape.


The role of computers has tons of little reviews squeezed together this month. Many of them aren't very good. AAARG! is a game of giant monster rampage that gets completely panned. Alien Syndrome does not convert from the arcade to the home entertainment system very well, and there's a whole bunch of mediocre sports sims. It's not all bad though. Tetris is back, in full colour, with it's iconic music, and now increasingly recognised as a full-on classic. Moebius: Orb of celestial harmony is the kind of roleplaying game they ought to be covering, with both graphics and gameplay quite up to par. But overall, they seem to be trying to cram too much in, and not staying on topic. This is not a hugely pleasing development from my point of view.


Through the looking glass: Horses are this month's special topic. They're the kind of thing that shows up regularly, but can often be glossed over. Just slap a brown coating on it, and call it a day. But as we have seen in forum threads, there are also people who are scarily obsessed with horses, their colour variations, manes, hooves, the way they move, and write extensively about this. It can be most amusing. Thankfully the writer doesn't go quite that far. But this is an interesting little romp through the colours and nuances you can give them even when staying within the bounds of realism, and some magical ideas. The more little details like this you fit in, the cooler your stuff will be. A very welcome diversion from the more common areas of study.


The marvel-phile: Off to alternate reality land again. Earth-S has considerably fewer superheroes and villains than Earth-616, yet somehow, this bunch made history diverge considerably more from the real world. Most of them were detailed in the gargantuan gamers handbook, but it seems a few of them slipped through the gap. So here's stats for Master Menace, this dimension's Dr Doom analogue, and this dimension's Sorcerer Supreme, Professor Imam. (rather a tautological name, doncha think. ) Each has their own quirks in their personalities and abilities. A fairly standard entry in this series. Since they've filled in virtually everyone in the history of the company, I'm guessing from now on this'll be mostly about recently introduced characters, and any changes in existing ones. As long as there are dozens of different comics coming out every week, it's not as if they'll ever run out of material.


Snarf gets into a western style shootout. Dragonmirth shows how better things may come from disappointment. Yamara develops a personal hatred for the skanky villainess.


Once again, things seem to be switching around in quality, with the themed section being more enjoyable than the reviews and regular columns this issue. Still, overall, this is quite a decent issue. The changes in staff do not seem to have impacted on the overall quality of production values, and there's lots of stuff that is generally useful for people's games. They seem to have a decently built up slush pile of articles at the moment. Lets hope they can keep on using them to best effect.

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 1/3


84 pages (32 page insert missing) So second edition is just a few months away. (while the release of the books may be staggered, it certainly isn't by the length that the 1st edition ones were. ) They want to promote this quite a bit. Unfortunately, whatever twonks scanned the Archive in thought that this wasn't worth preserving for posterity. Thankfully the good readers of this thread came through for me, so I have been able to get hold of it. Still, it does mean the main issue is rather smaller than usual. Oh well, hundreds more to go. 16 pages is just a drop compared to that.

In this issue:


Letters: A letter asking them to repeat their critical hit system article. Roger gives a maybe, with a side order of I disapprove of this idea. We know which side his bread is buttered on.

A bit of historical nitpicking. Remember, the number of a century is one higher than the numbers in it, confusingly.

Two questions about Moldvay's undead article. One is easily answered, the other is left for you to sort out. Is precalculating xp really that hard for you?

A letter pointing out the snafu in snarfquest's numbering system. These things do happen.

A letter praising them for doing more roleplaying focussed, system free articles that are useful to all gamers. I think I can get behind that one as well.


Forum: Eric Parish is another person who thinks that balance by campaign is a better idea than balance by encounter. If magic-users weren't weak at low level, there'd be a lot more of them. And that would make it much harder to keep the world recognisable.

Jason Kasper has a rather dubious suggestion on how to get magic-users through those awkward first few levels. Bloody deus ex machina mentors. I don't approve.

Jim Amos thinks that XP for treasure might not be a good idea in all circumstances. Foreshadowing ahoy.  

Alan Clark also thinks that there should be means to accumulate XP other than killing and taking of stuff, particularly for the classes which should eschew material things like paladins and monks. Plus it causes fewer economic problems.

Robin D Brock also has a strong opinion on the XP for other actions debate, being in favour. This seems to be quite the flavour of the month to debate.

S D Anderson returns to the debate he started, to give another fairly well thought out bit of pontification. You ought to make the system encourage characters to excel, not be a bunch of bet-hedging jobsworths.

Marc Sanders tackles the thorny subject of demihuman level limits side on, pointing out that being able to advance in multiple classes simultaneously is a huge benefit. Does this balance out the overall limits? Over the course of the campaign, maybe.

Timothy Emrick is very much in favour of perception being incorporated into 2nd ed in some form. Oh, if only that article had come a year or so earlier, before most of the stuff was finalized. Things could have been rather different.

Ilya Taytslin thinks that level draining undead should stay as they are, so as to keep them genuinely scary. Can't have the PC's getting overconfident, can we?

Mike Speca is also being conservative in terms of class changes. Ordinary fighters have a versatility in terms of how they are roleplayed that the various specialists can't match. Hmm. I suspect that once again, they might be trying to prime us for the lack of changes in the next edition.

William H Stoddard does some nitpicking over explosive magnitudes, and the recent DC heroes article involving them. There are some serious dropped numbers in the math here.


Sage advice: How long does a dragon stay subdued (Until they think they can get away with killing you all or escaping. Be vewy vewy wawy. )

Is the tarrasque really as nasty as you say it is (Skip says YES! If you aint got that wish, don't make that trip. Steer well clear, or drop it in the lava, because you can't kill it by conventional attacks. )

Hangman trees are ridiculously tough! (oops. Now that is errata. They're still no pushovers though. )

What does beholders anti-magic eye do. (no magic works while they're looking at you with it. Period. On the plus side, that means they can't kill you, turn you to stone, and disintegrate you simultaneously. So look like a wizard, and then hit like a fighter, and you might have a chance.)

Why do demon princes hide their amulets on the prime material (because the abyss is full of treacherous maniacs. If they're schitzo like Demogorgon, they can't even trust themselves. To be extra safe, they hide them all over the place)

Is there an AD&D module with a spaceship. (S3. Get the reprinted version now! )

Is the temple of elemental evil bigger than the players handbook (metaphysicaly, yes. Practically, no. )

I don't understand the psionics system. (Don't worry. In just a few months we'll get rid of it, and rework it into something comprehensible. )

Are levels of mastery equal to your character level (no, they're equal to the number of levels you gained since you got the power )

Do thieves have to conciously activate hear noise (yes. You want autoscanning, get an elf. Good for 'elf an' safety, innit mate. Never know when a secret door might be a bother. )

The index in the DMG is wrong (no, you're reading it wrong. )

What does c in front of a weapon mean. (Circa. Not perfectly precise. No standardisation mate. Let the buyer beware, innit. The weaponsmiths guild aint as all-controlling as the scribes guild or the assassins guild. )

How do you pronounce drow (it rhymes with cow. But don't call a priestess of lolth that, for a lengthy flaying may ensue. If you get off on that kind of thing, make sure you get someone to youtube it, and pay for your ressurection in advance. )

Do you have to sell gems and jewelery to get any XP from them (no)

How many GP will a container hold (not enough to carry a dragon hoard. This is why sensible adventurers get bags of holding ASAP)

What happens when you're at -1 hp (Nothing. Yet. )

What does a one way door look like from the wrong side (that is so stupidly context dependent I can't even begin to answer it. What does the back of a creature's head look like?)

What's a composite bow (one build out of several layers, duh. The wonders of advancing technology, even if it doesn't actually make your life easier, eh. )

What's on the cover of the manual of planes (an astral dreadnought. Bet you wish you were psionicaly actually there now. )


This means war!: Mass combat for gamma world. Cool. It's heavily derived from the War Machine as well, although it uses rather smaller numbers. This actually makes it simpler to do the math on, and hopefully pretty quick and understandable. Overall, it looks pretty good, although there is the usual problem that if you're doing this as a one-shot, it'll take rather longer to convert the groups into army stats than it will to actually fight the battle. The bit on guerilla warfare may be a bit iffy, and it could definitely stand a few expansions and refinements, but overall, this is a pleasingly ambitious thing to kick off the issue with. Hopefully, we'll see a follow-up or two on this in future issues.


The well educated spy: Another review by any other name. The Spymaster's handbook by Michael Kurland is a good way to put the grit back in your espionage. A well researched book on the technical details and history of espionage, it has an understated sense of humour, and is curiously positive about a business that can get exceedingly mucky. Goes to show, you can't judge a book by it's cover. It's interesting that despite the huge 2nd ed bits, this issue actually has more non D&D focussed stuff than the last couple of issues. I do wonder why they didn't save this for a full book column, but it's still an interesting diversion.


The ecology of the kech: Another fairly mundane creature this month. Kech are one of those ambush monsters that works by imitating the sounds of a person in distress, luring adventurers into traps. Even if they fail to kill you, they'll make the party that much more paranoid for next time. And if one princess gets killed because you thought they were the doppleganger, that's one princess too many. Muahahaha! But yeah, this isn't the most interesting ecology. It's another humanoid that has human level intelligence, yet is perfectly happy to just hang out in the forest and kill anyone dumb enough to stumble across them. They do get a bit tiresome, and you wonder how they manage to survive, or possibly fail to wipe out humanity, depending on your perspective. No ambition. :shakes head:


Role-playing reviews: A bunch of mini's stuff here this issue. Even with Through the looking glass taking a break, they're not neglecting that side of their demographic.

Chaos wars is Ral Partha's wargaming system, taking advantage of their extensive miniatures line. It's still a compact little system, not perfectly balanced, but easy to learn and get playing with new people. With genres mixing freely, and spellcasters kicking ass, it seems like good fast and loose fun, if not suited to rules lawyers.  

Warhammer fantasy battle 3rd edition is one of the real big dogs of this era. With rules more than 10 times the size of the last review, tons of supplements, and of course, white dwarf magazine regularly giving new scenarios, creatures and optional rules, it's the wargaming equivalent of D&D. The third edition isn't that different from the second, and it can get complex and bloated at times, but really, it got this big because it's great fun to play and add too, with a strong setting to put the battles in.

Warhammer Armies is smaller, and considerably better presented than the corebook. There are lots of little tweaks, prefab armies and troop types, including many player favourites. As a first supplement, you could do a lot worse.

Interestingly, the Battlesystem gets a short and ambivalent review. It's the first time in a while that they've been actively critical of TSR products in here. Hmm.

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 2/3


TSR Previews: AD&D kicks off the new series of Dragonlance modules, with DLE1: In search of Dragons. Once again the forces of evil are becoming more powerful, and a new set of adventurers have to step up to keep the cosmic balance going. Oh, if only the old heroes were still around.

Top Secret gets TS4: Brushfire Wars. Lots of little military based adventures, many involving real world terrorist groups. Now that's definitely going to seem dated if you try running it these days.  

Gammamarauders gets Revenge of the factoids. More biological warfare fun with a silly slant. Now with a comic based on the series as well! How long will that one last for?

Tom Clancy continues to make substantial profits from cold war geopolitics, with the Red Storm Rising game. How did his books deal with the fall of the berlin wall?

Finally, in the book department, R A Salvadore gives us our second dose of Drizzt'y goodness. Streams of Silver is part two of the Icewind Dale trilogy. Can they find the legendary dwarven halls?



The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition preview: Yay! Thanks to reader generosity, I do have access to this little bit of historical foreshadowing now. Skimming it, it's obvious that although it was included in the magazine, it wasn't designed by their layout staff. And it actually looks a bit scrappy by comparison, with it's single column type, huge margins, and skimpy use of artwork. They could definitely have condensed this down to 28, possibly even 24 pages without losing anything. But anyway. As with the astral plane article, reviews, and other big deliveries, I shall divide up my review using the headers that they use.

The cover is the only bit with any colour. On it, they display not only the three corebooks, but also the character record sheets, the Dungeon Master's screen, and the covers to volumes 2 and 3 of the monstrous compendia. Guess that shows they already have follow-ups aimed to support all segments of the game, pretty near completion and ready to roll. Are you ready for the supplement treadmill?

Introduction: Ahh, here we get our first bit of possible controversy. Wanting to clean up the rules so they're better organized and easier to learn and reference during play is one thing that they've consistently championed all through the development process. However, the other big change in approach is a new one. They consciously reject the "There is One True Way to play the Official AD&D™ Game" proclamations made by Gary in the early 1st ed days, in favour of actively encouraging you to houserule and pick which bits and pieces from the supplements you use in your campaign.  They're also pretty open about the fact that this edition is going to change even more over it's lifespan, as they continue to learn and write new stuff. Actually, I do have to say that sounds more appealing to me than the idea of freezing the game in amber, I've never been a very enthusiastic chess player. But I can see why some people would take that as a personal snub, even though Gary was the personal architect of some pretty big changes to the game in UA and OA, and would probably have made more if he was still part of the company.

What we've been doing: And here they affirm that most of the changes are purely due to public demand, and the reason it's been so long between editions is because of a combination of finding there was more corrections and tweaking needed than they thought at first, and the need to make sure they properly tested all these adjustments. All pretty consistent with what we've been reading in the bulletins from the top since 1985. They seem to be pretty much on the level here, given the conservativeness of the changes, the fact that only a few that everyone agreed on got made all adds up. No objections here.

The new Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide: Hmm. This is probably the biggest bit of selling the new edition by crapping on the old one here. But then, given that even Gary admitted that the organization of the 1st ed PHB & DMG could do with some improvement, probably not unwarranted. They talk quite a lot about the choice between structuring it as an instruction manual and a reference book. Since basic D&D, particularly Mentzer ed, already does the step by step intro to roleplaying thing quite well, I think I agree with the reference manual choice. It is Advanced D&D still. Readers shouldn't feel patronised.

The Monstrous Compendiums: Ahh yes, the loose leaf folder approach to assembling your monster collection, as suggested by Stuart Malone way back in issue 30. I still think that could have worked, if they'd only made sure that full alphabeticality was maintained by giving each monster it's own two page spread. (With some more condensation of multiple subtypes of the same monster into a single entry.) Having fewer creatures covered with greater depth and customisability, so we don't need crap like different humanoid races for the 1/2, 1-1, 1, 1+1, 1+2, etc hp ranges, and don't have multiple creatures filling the same role;  would definitely have made things more elegant.  But then, which ones do you cut in a situation like that? If one person was doing it, you could probably hammer something out. But with hundreds of clamouring voices, all with their own little personal favourites they'll fight to the death to keep, you soon wind up with barely any streamlining at all, which is soon negated as yet more cruft is added to the system. So it goes.
Anyway, other notable tidbits are the fact that this time, they're leaving all the extraplanar creatures out until later. An understated hint towards certain controversies they'll have to deal with next year. And the fact that they're only introducing new monsters to make sure each letter of the alphabet has an even number of creatures amuses me somewhat. They certainly think they've planned this out well enough, even though they're making a few elementary errors.

The Big Changes: Ahh yes, updating the maximum press so that 18/00 keeps track with the accomplishments of real world strongmen. I find that rather amusing. But you still run into the limits of their tables when portraying really big or otherwise powerful creatures, instead of providing a formula for infinite extension. And their lift capacities seem stupidly small for massive creatures that weigh tons. We'll have to wait another decade for that little improvement.  The rest of this bit is a demonstration of how much more attention spellcasters got back then. The considerable increase rogues get in flexibility and customizability gets only a few lines, compared to the massive bits on the new school specialisation and sphere systems. And of course, warriors actually got nerfed in the change, with the removal of double specialisation and the more twinked subclasses. If anything, they're the only ones that are even less interesting now. Roll on the complete fighters handbook. Similarly, it seems a little strange that they would only cut out a single race (half-orcs) from the corebook, especially when they're doubling it's size and adding so much. Course, they don't mention the real reason why, because mentioning rape in a positive preview would be impolitic. Still, at least THAC0 has been made official, and the combat table smoothed out so fighty sorts get benefits from leveling quicker and more evenly. That's definitely a good point. And of course, there's the elimination of sexism in the strength tables. That'll please a few people. So it's mostly good changes here, but also a few clunkers and some more that don't go nearly far enough. Which are which is of course a subject for much argument.

What's new: More than half of this section is devoted to nonweapon proficiencies. Now this is an area that IMO, they definitely didn't go far enough on, and the fact that it was treated as optional in the corebook, but a huge number of supplements and gameworlds took it as standard really put horrible stresses on the system. The tiny number of them that you got was never enough, especially after a load of supplements added their own "must-haves" for particular roles, and it's no surprise that a lot of the complete handbooks gave out lots of bonus ones with kits, and interpreted the bonus language rules to allow you to spend those slots on other skills. Once again, I am reminded that at one point in the development process, Zeb wanted to fold thief skills into the nonweapon proficiency system, and I think that could probably work if you rolled them in and divided the number of % points they get per level by 5, allowing thieves and bards to become the generalised skill monkeys as well, getting several slots per level to pick up new ones and enhance existing abilities.
One thing they have rolled properly into the skill system is the Ranger's tracking ability. While they can still do it best by far, now anyone can pick it up if they have the slots. And once again, they've tinkered with the modifiers. Actually, that probably is an improvement. As is the rest of the stuff. New equipment. Cleaned up mobility and visibility rules. The little advantages of ten years of consistent play.  

Shifting gears: And finally, it's a little more fear allaying. The new system is entirely compatible with the old characters, and you don't have to ditch your old illusionists and assassins unless you really want too. You don't have to make the changes all at once, you don't have to throw out the old rulebooks. It's not a big deal. Not sure whether to feel reassured or patronized, but it definitely contrasts sharply with the aggressive conversion strategy of the 2-3 changeover, and the clean slate reboot of the 3-4e one. Goes to show, there are very different ways to go about an edition change, and it definitely affects how the customers respond.

So all in all, it's a pretty straightforward, no frills little bit of advertising. It could definitely have stood a bit more prettying up for maximum selling ability, but it more than does the job both in showcasing the good points of the change, and hinting towards the controversies and problems they'll face in the next few years, with bowdlerisation, supplement bloat, and excess options confusion. We aren't going to be surprised by the big course of history here. It's just a matter of how interesting and amusing I'll find the little details. On we go then, to see the real thing.

Dragon Magazine Issue 142: February 1989

part 3/3


The role of computers: Empire comes out on two new systems, and gets reviewed again. This concentrates on the differences, such as graphics, the new method of copy protection, and design errata. Rather a dull review really.

Ikari warriors and Karnov get converted from arcade games. This is a good reminder why arcades were big business back then, as they do suffer a bit in the change. Still, neither are bad games, so it's more stuff for your ROM'ing pleasure.

Contra gets nul points because it's copy protection scheme was stupid, and it refused to co-operate with their computer at all, so they couldn't play it. Hah. Rush'N Attack also gets a load of copy protection griping. Egads, they're doing a lot of that this issue. Odd theme to choose to focus on, if understandable if most games back then used some different idiosyncratic means of trying to prevent piracy.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is another puzzle/Adventure game from the people who brought you maniac mansion. While not as good overall, it does have some refinements in terms of interface design. Oh, if only they could go back and apply them to the old games.

Battlehawks gets 5 stars. A simulation of WWII fighter planes, you can play from both sides, and do several tricky missions. The degree of research and realism is quite considerable. They really are rather fond of Lucasfilm at the moment.

Microsoft flight simulator version 2.0 also gets a pretty good review. People are certainly sparing no expense on making stuff like this. Course, that's easier to do when you consider how expensive the biggest games are to produce back then.

PT-109, Falcon AT, and Final Assault are also simulation games, covering Boating, yet another flight simulator, and mountain climbing, respectively. Man, this onslaught of tiny reviews is getting tiresome. This column isn't as much fun as it used to be.

Star saga 1: Beyond the boundary merges computer game and choose your own adventure book in a rather distinctive looking fashion. That sounds like a curious play experience, but the reviewers enjoy it. Certainly a change of pace.

Pharaoh's revenge gets the same marks as the last one, but a rather more negative review, as they point out that the graphics are seriously outdated. Oh, how very superficial.

Wizardry IV finally gets a review, a year after first being covered. Since they already went into plenty of detail back then, this is another brief synopsis, pointing out that this is not for newbies, and very hard indeed. Hmm.

Shufflepuck cafe is a computer game of the sport, with light sci-fi trappings. Using a mouse provides a reasonable approximation of a real paddle. It does seem like it would be more fun two-player.

Finally, we get a rather cheeky little plug, as they review the clue book for the D&D Pool of radiance game. If you're stumped, put some more into the companies coffers, and get plenty of spoilers on how to win the game. Save it for if you're really stuck.


Made-to-order clerical orders: Statistics time again! Just how common are clerics and faithful citizens in D&D worlds? The answers, as is often the case, don't quite add up. When there's dozens of gods in an area, all competing for worship, it's easy to wind up with either only one or two priests per god, or a proportion of the population being clerics that seems a bit untenable in a medieval society. (unless of course, there are enough high level ones to create food magically for all the hierarchy. ) This is one of those cases where I respect the methods of the author, while not being particularly keen on their conclusions, and is definitely an area you should customise for your own campaign, rather than taking this in slavishly. It does have a nice little map, a new spell, and lots of Realms specific examples, and isn't bad, but it's not one I can see myself using.


Arcane lore: A whole grab bag of druid spells from various freelancers here this month.

Animal/bird call are cut down versions of the usual summoning spells. They may bring the creatures, but they don't control them. At 1st level, you'll have to use your brains and exploit their natural tendencies to make them useful.

Coalstone is another low key, but tremendously handy little trick. Like continual light cast on an object, only with the additional benefit that you can use it to burn stuff like an actual coal, having one of these in your pack is a huge benefit every evening. The kind of thing you can see becoming a commonplace utility spell in any society where magic isn't too rare.  

Druidsight lets you see through the eyes of an animal and order them around. Just what you need for when you've run out of shapeshifts for the day, and need to do some inconspicuous spying. Once again, they prove that what wizards can do, druids can do sooner, and with more side benefits if you apply the powers cleverly.  

Hailstone proves that there are still some things wizards are better at, being a nature based relation of magic missile, only not as accurate or damaging. Still, any blasty spells are better than none, and it isn't annoyingly context dependent like call lightning.

Sense Direction lets you know which way north is. Elementary, really. Nuff said.

Sharpleaf lets you turn easily available plant parts into dangerous weapons. Be is as melee, missile weapons, caltrops, or simply tools, they can bring the pain quite adequately.  

Shatter Stone and metal lets you not only destroy the weapons of your opponents, but do so explosively, adding injury to insult. A classic of screwage that'll annoy and scare players even more than a rust monster. They are producing a lot of seriously handy powers in this installment.  
Sink into earth lets you do a bit of safe underground hibernation. Very thematic.

Splinter wood is like the metal one earlier, only lower level and affecting wood. No matter what your equipment is made of, a powerful druid can ruin it. So much for technology. Go the pure magical force route or something.

Stonewood lets you make wood as hard as stone, duh. Exactly which of the shattering spells now affects it is not clarified. Since it is fairly high level, I would incline towards conservatism. Things that look like one thing and act like another are a good source of screwage and counter-screwage.

Thunderclap is also pretty self-explanatory. The ability to inflict permanent deafness as an AoE attack is not to be sneezed at at all. It may not be as damaging to your HP as fireball or call lightning, but it is a bit trickier to get rid of. If you don't have a cleric, you'd better have money to burn.

Tracking lets druids effortlessly outclass rangers at one of their specialities, just as knock and levitation lets wizards marginalise thieves. Here we go again with the power creep.

Warp stone or metal completes the symmetry of object screwage, being lower level than the shattering one, but higher level than warp wood. Even if it's not as damaging, you can pull some clever tricks by choosing the directions in which the object is warped. And possibly even express your artistic side as well.

Weather dome gives you a mobile AoE forcefield against unwelcome weather of all types. It's a bit expensive to use every time there's a bit of drizzle, and that'd be the kind of thing which puts you out of touch with nature if overdone, but it is rather nice to have as an option.

Wind and rain protection does pretty much the same thing, only on a single target for a much shorter duration, at lower level. The two spells were done independently by different people, and boy does it show in their design choices and overall power disparity.

This is an article exceedingly full of versatility increases, and in many cases outright power creep. Definitely a fun one to read, but also another one that reinforces the current spellcasters are way better than other classes attitude. There is very little magic can't do quicker and better. And the edition change is going to do nothing to fix this.


Dragonmirth offends those on high. Yamara starts metaplotting. Things go from bad to worse for Snarf.  


Another mixed bag, with some good articles, but the reviews seem to be fluctuating in quality rather. Another fairly average one overall, it is nevertheless a reminder that the magazines used to be easier to get through, and eventually, they will become so again. But in the immediate future, the issues are only going to get bigger. It's still going to be several years before I can get this millstone off my neck, so I'd better think of new ways to keep it interesting. Onward! 2nd ed itself is going to be a lot more interesting than some old preview!

Dragon Magazine Issue 143: March 1989

part 1/3


108 pages. Now this is a nice cover. A dragon in the sights of a fighter jet. Do ya feel lucky? Will the missiles have any effect? It'll be interesting finding out.

In this issue:


Letters: This month's letters page is a whole host of errata and rules questions. The lifecycle of Spectators. Name changes and body changes. Tactics for dealing with Metalmasters. Attributing the wrong name to the wrong illustration. Incredulity at how crap kobolds ability scores are. All pretty inconsequential stuff in the greater scheme of things.


Forum: Ed Friedlander gives a system for speeding up the resolution of when characters are bombarded with missile weapons. These will average out the amount of damage you take per round to a substantial, but survivable amount for high level characters, making army firefights actually a reliably calculable threat to them.

Bob Tarantino things people shouldn't look down on ordinary D&D. Simplicity in mechanics is not a bad thing, as it lets you concentrate on roleplaying. And really, who uses weapon speed factors anyway?

Thomas W Gossard reminds us once again to remember to apply the logical consequences of spellcasting to our worlds, this time in matters of law enforcement.  

Daniel W Howard is allowed to reply immediately to this commentary. He agrees with it in principle, but remember that any society with pretensions to human rights will likely restrict when spells can be used to expedite the legal process. (and most  which are tyrannical will be wary about training ordinary guardsmen with that kind of power. ) Even in countries with security cameras everywhere, they aren't really used to their full potential. (thank god)

Timothy Koneval is also interested in magical substitutes to real technology, and the uses they could be put too in probing the physics of their universe. Even the Greeks managed some surprisingly accurate theories. Don't underestimate the supposed primitives.  

K B LaBaw is not happy about the sidelining of evil characters in the new edition. There's already more stuff for good ones, and getting rid of assassins just makes that worse.

John C Tiedermann also has a good deal of fun playing the bad guy, and thinks other people shouldn't be afraid to try it either. What have you got to lose? It's only a game.

Christopher E Brogan has a separate campaign in which they play evil characters as a way of blowing off steam. Sometimes you just want to smash stuff, and damn the consequences.

Darren Hennessey also enjoys the idea of playing reversed D&D, with the players taking the role of the monsters, and trying to figure out how to deal with those damned heroes.

Stanley Bundy, on the other hand, has a real world example of what happens when evil gains the upper hand, destroying a community of players. Plus it gives fuel to the people who say D&D is satanic. We really don't need that after all the work we've done to gain acceptance.

Eric Sonnestuhl suggests that magic-users with high int should be able to memorise more spells than they can cast. That would make them more versatile without hugely increasing their power. Interesting idea. I wonder how it would turn out.

Wendell Works makes the rather prophetic suggestion of dividing magic-user spells into common, rare, and unique ones, based on how easy they are to get hold of and learn. Are you paying attention, Monte?


TSR branches out into books which have nothing to do with their gaming lines. Diversification is the foundation of a stable financial base, and all that.


Sage advice did greyhawk last month. This month it's focusing on dragonlance. Will the forgotten realms be next? We shall see.

What are the addresses of Maragret Weis and Tracey Hickman  (You'd better wise up. Margaret Weis doesn't want stalkers knocking on her door. Send your letters to us and if they're safe, we'll pass them on. )  

When will dragonlance tales 2 be out (it already is)

How do you pronounce Raistlin (it rhymes with waist-bin. Not that I'm saying he's fat, but....)

How many dragonlance modules are there (16, with 3 more planned. )

How many provinces are there in solamnia (6)

How did Tanis get up to 12th level ( DM favoritism breaking the rules again. Bloody writers. Honestly, can't we have one set of iconic NPC's that are PC legal.)

When will the dragonlance trilogies be available in hardback (again, they are now.)

Can dargonesti be PC's ( Not yet. Keep begging, bitches. We like it. )

How can nonhumans be paladins on krynn (Because the krynnsh gods have different standards. If they went elsewhere they'd lose those benefits. Yes, that is totally unfair. )

Can neutral clerics cast druid spells (No, druids are outlaws in krynn. They get the spells their god says they can have. )

Can you become an illusionist on krynn (only if you're a renegade, and don't mind being hunted and killed. )

Why can't black robes cast blasty spells (to teach them to be subtle)

Why could Raistlin cast them then (because he was a disgusting twinky rulebreaker, both IC and OOC.)

What are the game effects of raistlin's decay vision (none, it's just flavour text)

I can't find dragonlance stuff in the shops (oh noes! You'll have to order it direct from us then.)

Do wizards who change order or lose levels have to take the test of high sorcery again (no)

Where is the staff of magius and the timereaver spell (in DLA. You need to buy the crunch books as well as the fluff books  )

What's the range of an orb of dragonkind (1d4x10 miles)

Is Lord Soth immune to normal weapons. Can he summon demons (yes, and probably. )

What do the numbers in the battlesystem in DL8 mean (oh, that's easy. )

Are Paladine and Takhisis Bahamut and Tiamat. (Yes. No. Sorta. It's all a bit metaphysical. )

Where in the abyss did takhisis go too (Again, this is one of those areas where there are cosmological conflicts. This is the problem with trying to set all your worlds in one universe. It causes problems with the writers and their tendency to put plot over rules. We ought to hire a stricter editor.)  

Why can silvanesti be paladins, but not cavaliers (because they're a bunch of extremists. And you wonder how good can be as problematic as evil in Krynn.)

You left some stuff out of DL2 ( Once again, it's all the editors fault. )

Where the hell is thobardin (Just south of skullcap.)

How do the dreamshadow bits in DL10 work (You run each player's dream separately, but the other players play their dream selves. You do not reveal who the real person in each dream is. )

How do restricted spheres work (Skip rules for maximum leniency. Can you dig it? )

How often do you have to save using an orb of dragonkind (once each time you activate a power)

Solamnic knights confuuuuuuse me ( Oh, woe. You're really going to hate 3rd edition then )

What are tinker gnomes ability score ranges (sucky wisdom, everything else is OK.)  

Can krynnish demihumans be multiclassed (yes)

Gold has no value on krynn? My poor brains! (Ahahahahaha! Yup. Not only
that, but you've got to divide by 22 to determine thing's value in steel pieces. Better get that calculator out)

How many towers of high sorcery were there (5)

Why can't PC's get above 18th level (same reason the githyanki lich queen eats them when they get above 11th. The gods don't want anyone getting too strong and messing up their world, (just look at what Raistlin did) so they remove them forcibly before they become a threat. )  

Do the gods of magic have clerics (not yet. Once again, we may change our minds at some point. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 143: March 1989

part 2/3


And nobody knows but you: Back to world-building again, with a strong reminder that the only things your players know of the world is what you tell them. Even a single page quickstart of basic world knowledge will help enormously in this respect. A bit of general knowledge, a bit based on class, a bit based on race, just the thing to encourage them to play in character. Damned good idea. Pages and pages of detail will just bore many players, so you've got to find the optimum amount of quick and significant detail, and then fill in the rest in actual play. I really ought to make one of these.


Out of the textbook, into the game: A slightly more familiar bit of advice here. Everyone steals from others in creating their own worlds. The question is how well you do it, and who from. And remember, if you take inspiration from real life events, they can't get you for plagiarism. This shows you that it is remarkably easy to reskin them for your game, even if the scenarios seem superficially very different. And if they start deviating from the real world scenarios once you've set them in motion due to the actions of the players, then that's all for the better, really. Another pretty solid article, even if I'd encourage people to skip the commonly covered bits of history, and go for more obscure ones to steal from.


Telling it like it is: From world building to adventure building. A subtle change of focus, but an important one. From stealing from history, now we adapt play structure to the ends of roleplaying. Even if you're playing a sandbox game, and not a closely plotted adventure like this article seems to assume, controlling the pacing of a session so the players encounter plenty of interesting things to do is critical to keep them coming back. Even if there's months of game time between each important event, the action should keep flowing for them. This article manages to take a quite different tack to the previous ones we've seen in the magazine, encouraging you to learn voice control, public speaking techniques, and distinct voices and emotions to develop the mood of your campaign. Stuff which would become common advice in later supplements, particularly white wolf ones. The 90's is just around the corner, and all the balls are lining up. And this is certainly whetting my appetite for those days. Very interesting indeed.


The highs and lows of fantasy: Yet more progress here. The split between high and low fantasy, and how the high fantasy people are increasing in proportion in the D&D fanbase has already got the odd mention in the letters and forum. But here, they really try and codify the divide, which of course means it's being drawn to the attention of people who were just getting on with playing, and not bothering so much with theoretical stuff. And as with any single axis system, particularly one described in only a few pages, it oversimplifies, lumping together several traits that do not always co-incide. And they put Conan squarely in the high fantasy side, which shows that this writer has a rather stricter view of what is low fantasy than current common opinion. Interesting, but not entirely pleasing. There is also going to be a good deal of pretentiousness and windbaggy debate over the next decade that I suspect will soon grow dull. Oh well, at least it'll be a different form of dullness. That has to count for something?


To be continued: Or "Welcome to Second edition. Please keep your hands and heads inside the train at all kinds."  Actually, that's a bit disingenuous, as this article actively tries to prevent you from falling into the traps of railroading. Remember, you can set up a scenario, but you can't control how the players react to it, or how the dice will fall once you get into encounters. You should make sure that a game isn't dependent on a single person being present, for you never know who is going to die or quit the game. On the other hand, you should make sure your world is filled with plot hooks aplenty for the characters to grab onto, many of which are too big and complicated to solve by just wandering around killing things. Similarly, in the real world, solving problems often sets up new, different problems (Or the good old "You killed my father! Prepare to die") so success is no reason for the game to end. Overall, a pretty good article, this is nevertheless a foreboding of things to come, including several official modules which do not heed the advice here. Still, a strong ending to a strong, and very appropriately timed themed section.


TSR Previews: D&D's Gazetteer series has been so successful they're continuing it beyond their original plans with GAZ11:The republic of Darokin. Another real world time period is juxtaposed on the Known world, while somehow it's advancements do not spread elsewhere. Still, you can have plenty of fun playing merchant empires engaged in Machiavellian schemes.

AD&D supports their novel lines with FR7: Hall of heroes. Now you can see just how much the characters from those stories break the rules. As if that wasn't enough for you, you can play out the removal of a whole bunch of classes, as the rules of the universe are changed IC and OOC in WG8: Fate of Istus. Byebye Monks. Byebye Assassins. Byebye Barbarians. Byebye Cavaliers. Convert or die. There is no place for you in the new order. Man, that sounds like the kind of thing that many players would rebel against if run through.

Top Secret gets TSE1: Web of Deceit. Start another module trilogy in seedy San Christobal. Where will it take our intrepid agents next?

And on the novel side of things, in both senses of the word, we have Illegal aliens, by Nick Pollotta and Illustrated by Phil Foglio. Aliens, space marines, mutants, and comic misunderstandings, oh my. Sounds like fun.


Fiction: The other Option by Dylan Brody. Once again, unto the test. Win, lose or cheat, a hero always has to face challenges. But not everyone wants to be a hero. Sometimes, they don't even want to be a fighter. Preposterous! Ludicrous! How could you not want to save the world from impossible odds and be lauded as a hero by an adoring population? What kind of coward would run away from glorious destiny? One such as the protagonist of this story. Befriending a monster and then riding away on it instead of killing it? Pfaugh, what a crock! Bartender! More mead! Do any of you nancyboys have what it takes to win my daughters hand?!


Through the looking glass: Robert Bigelow returns to give us some more crafting tips this month. A dedicated work board will save you tons of mess and smooth along your creative process. Choose your knives wisely, and handle them carefully, you could do yourself an injury with those things. Get a good set of files as well, and you can increase your precision, and reduce your chances of injury further. Similarly, clippers, drills, clamps, all are an invaluable addition to your arsenal. And magnifying devices will let you see details and paint your miniatures with a precision impossible with the naked eye, allowing you to give your work real style. If you're going to do something, you might as well do it right, and this'll certainly help quite a few amateurs sharpen up their act. I definitely appreciate this kind of advice.

The reviews section is mostly less interesting. A rather large red dragon, designed to be hung up as a mobile, but needing a thicker wire to keep it suspended. A whole load of cut out figures. Several bits of terrain. A collection of egyptian gods, which can be used as animal-headed monsters of all kinds. And finally, Chaos Warriors! (squee) Warhammer gets iconic. Now I know things are getting close to when I started playing. Heroquest was another great gaming gateway drug that has since disappeared.