Dragon Magazine Issue 173: September 1991

part 1/5


124 pages. Hello to the beginning of another campaign world. Dark sun's been teasered for a bit, but now it's arrived. And in another indicator of their departments gradually coming to co-ordinate better, it gets a special issue straight off. Buck Rogers managed that, but none of the D&D settings have before. Course, that does mean the themed section is likely to be all stuff by regular writers, but that doesn't mean it'll be poor quality. I just hope it'll be more useful for actual games once they've bought the books than Buck's crap was.


In this issue:


Letters: Roger decides it's time to sluice off some of the ridiculous letters again, before they overflow and cause a dreadful mess all over the office. They do get a lot of them, it seems.

A really pissed off letter about issue 168's editorial. Your attempt at self justification was pathetic! Dear oh dear.

An absolutely hilarious continuation of the saga of Waldorf, drawing upon all the letters previously published on the subject. Someone's been reading the magazine for quite a while and doing their research. See, without continuity, you couldn't have absolute gems like this.

Another letter about 168's editorial, with a rather specific bit of niggling. Babies are such a big issue, and raising them rather awkward for active adventurers.

A letter from someone really miserable that he can't get girls to roleplay with him. You're in luck. Vampire only just came out. Although judging from this, that may well not solve the issue, but that's a problem with your social skills, rather than the game. If I can spend years doing dance training and not get any actual dates from it, you can definitely flub meeting people through roleplaying.

A very badly written letter asking how much damage bullets do in D&D. Less than you think, given inflating HP.


Editorial: Or Roger goes LARPing. Looks like things are on the up for that, with their third reference this year. Interphaze III seems to be a close adaption of D&D, using the same classes, and much of the same monsters and magic. They also had a whole bunch of games within the game, including an IC banquet, elven belly dancers, and stuff for the kids. He doesn't explain exactly how the rules differed so stuff could be resolved without dice, but he certainly had a good time, packing a hell of a lot in. Another good reminder that he'd probably like to cover a larger variety of stuff in the magazine, but if people aren't sending it in, that's not an option.    Oh well, can't fault his enthusiasm, even after all this time. As long as he's here. he'll keep on trying.


The monstrous side of the dark sun world: Welcome to the least generic AD&D world yet. Even more than Dragonlance, Dark Sun is defined by the elements it leaves out. Both in classes and monsters, there are pretty significant removals, particularly on the divine side. And existing things are also changed quite a bit. Dwarves frequently have obsessions other than mining or crafting. Elves aren't nearly as long lived, but a lot better at endurance running. Halflings are savage cannibals. Thri-kreen are much the same as ever, but have a lot more prominence, and human-giant and human-dwarf hybrids are relatively common, thanks to the Sorcerer-kings breeding programs. Oh, and everyone has psionics. So far, no great revelations that you won't also get if you buy the boxed set. As a stopgap until they get their own Monstrous compendium, they give you info on what stuff from other supplements is suitable. Gotta collect 'em all! So probably pretty nifty at the time, and decent as promotion, but not really very useful in retrospect. Bah.


A letter from the wanderer: Another article that would have been cool and new then but now seems rather dated. The undead of athas! Not just standardised collections of stats, but individuals all, frequently retaining all their class levels. Thanks to this and Ravenloft, that's actually become pretty ubiquitous in later editions, so this is another one that really has lost all it's impact with the passing of time. The writing is pretty good though, with Troy Denning demonstrating his way with words and descriptions. So once again, it's neat to read as a historical artefact, but about as useful as a calculator when you now have an iPhone. On we go then.


Random magic for organized minds: And so, like the Buck Rogers special, it seems the only still useful part of this themed section is the last article. Since Wizardry is mostly forbidden on athas, you'll have a hard time finding spells, and have to take what you can get. And that's where this bit of random tableage comes in, dividing spells up into (relatively) common, uncommon and rare. Something you can use with zero effort, and put an analogue of in your own game with minimal effort. One I'm strongly considering using myself.

Dragon Magazine Issue 173: September 1991

part 2/5


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Back to the Forgotten Realms we warp, to get another collection of themed items from Elminster. This time it's a dozen staves. Fighters are already well catered for in weaponry and armour, but wizards have got rather less in the past, despite it usually being them that makes the items. Good point. Since he's usually pretty good with these, that has me quite optimistic.

Rilantaver's Staff has three fairly low key but useful powers that'll make the wizard pretty popular with the whole party. Much better than a carelessly applied fireball wand backfiring on everyone.

The Staff of Battle lets you send things flying and stun them, making your wizard a lot more combat capable. It can also absorb magic missiles, apropos of nothing. Someone obviously had to put up with lots of enemies bombarding the wizard as soon as they start casting.

The Staff of Displacement has a whole range of mobility related tricks, and is another one that can protect other members of the party as well. Water, locked doors, chasms, all are no threat. Also pretty handy.

The Staff of Divergence, on the other hand is a bit passive for my tastes, being essentially an immunity to a certain attack type, with the added bonus of redirecting it on your enemies. When a PC has a power like that, chances are they won't be meeting many enemies that use the specified attack type anymore.

The Staff of Miracles lets you save lives and grants the occasional wish. All it's powers are rather charge intensive, which means you may well find yourself with some left, but not enough to power any actual abilities. Which does seem a bit wonky.

The Staff of Night lets you see in the dark, extinguish magical lights, and apropos of nothing, summon an umber hulk. Yeah, I'm not sure the connection is there. Guess you can't always be subtle.

The Staff of Scrivening lets you cheat the usual class restrictions on spells known, even letting you put priest spells in your spellbook if you can find an appropriate scroll. Now that's one that definitely has game-breaking potential. I'll bet Elminster has one of these in his collection.

The Staff of Silence is another largely defensive and utility device, but can also unleash the sounds it's absorbed to unpleasant effect. Another one that's likely to exhaust it's charges quickly if not regularly maintained.

The Staff of Spheres is one of Elminster's personal creations, a typically versatile utility device that allows you to transport all kinds of things conveniently. Offence, defence, and bad jokes are all well facilitated by this baby. See you in the fiction later then.

The Staff of Surprises is another one with an unconnected grab bag of useful effects. Whether these will save your life will probably once again depend on your brainpower, since none are hugely powerful.

The Staff of the Moonglow is another odd one, with a bunch of moon related powers such as concealment, greater attack bonus when exposed to moonlight, and being able to counter teleportation. I guess every wizard has their own pet peeves that they're determined to solve.

The Staff of Vision is pretty self explanatory, on the other hand. Invisibility detection, seeing in the dark, curing blindness. No great complaints or amazement here.


Magic mangling made easy: Nerf time! Greg Detwiler shows you how to reduce the influence magic has over your game, so that fighters and thieves can have a little more influence. A big chunk of this is devoted to going through the minutinae of the timing system. If properly enforced, spell casting times and weapon speeds make it a lot more likely that spells can be disrupted mid casting, with amusingly cruel results. Similarly, enforcing spell component tracking strictly (particularly when combined with encumbrance ) can substantially depower wizards. If you really want to be a bastard you can make the character allergic to one of their spell components. Ah, the joys of being supreme god of the universe. Another reminder that there really is no limit to your arsenal save your imagination, and AD&D's rules are simultaneously complex and flimsy enough that virtually everybody houserules them, and with a little effort, you can do whatever the hell you want to your players, and all they can do is complain or walk. One to use with caution, for creating balance by adding niggly restrictions is a textbook example of fun-sucking technique.  
 

The voyage of the princess ark: A rather different entry this month. Instead of the usual load of misadventures, we have a report on Hule by Raman. A decidedly nasty, expansionistic state, it's led by the Immortal of lies, Bozdogan. (aka Loki. ) The whole place is built on circles of deceit, with each step in the hierarchy lying to all the ones below for the greater glory of Bozdogan. They'll use any methods to get you to convert, or if they don't think you'll be amenable, to swindle you of everything you've got. Don't trust them an inch. In short, the whole place seems built specifically to serve as a good villain in known world geopolitics. Y'know, if you're going to lie all the time, the last thing you want is a reputation of being a liar. A little more subtlety would probably be a good idea. I know D&D is all about the moral conflicts, but do we really want a human nation this unambigously nasty? Oh well, the change of pace is nice, even if the thing it's describing may not be perfectly designed.

We also have lots of letters this time. Lots of people are worried what the new basic set and rules cyclopedia mean for the D&D game as a whole. Bruce does his best to assuage them. Very little is going to change ruleswise, merely the presentation. We also finally get the name of the planet the Known World inhabits. Mystara. Not that impressive a reveal, but still nice. Lots more stuff coming. Seems like basic D&D stuff is selling quite healthily these days.

Dragon Magazine Issue 173: September 1991

part 3/5


Out of your chair, into the action!: Looks like LARPing really is on the up, with a second article this month. Say hello to the New England Roleplaying Organisation. Looks like they take the sandbox approach to their playing, setting up the situation, and letting the players provide all the drama for themselves. Which most of them do in spades (although since there were 300 attendees, there were probably a few left out, simply by math. ) You fight using boffer weapons, and cast spells by throwing packets of corn starch at each other. If you do well adventuring, you can become nobility, and intrigue your way through your new associates, and hire assassins to take them down. So this is a good demonstration that this not only works, but has a pretty substantial established fanbase, and can run extended games without the drama llama ruining everything. Between this and the editorial, we should be seeing quite a few people try out LARPing for the first time in the near future. Get ready for some substantial demographic shifts.


Get your priorities straight: Hmm. Another attempt to improve upon the alignment system. As we've found before, it's not hard, and there are a number of ways to do so, depending on what aspects of morality you want to draw attention to, and possibly encourage in your game. Here's one that takes quite a different approach to the norm. Instead of some vague ideal like the standard 3x3 grid, or slightly more specific ones in SR6 or issue 24, it works by establishing your character's hierarchy of loyalties. Obviously, most evil characters put the self above any higher principles or attachments, while lawful good ones try and hold true to comrades, family, state and god simultaneously, and may well find themselves having to make hard choices. It doesn't integrate perfectly with the existing system, with some permutations not mapping to D&D alignments at all, but it does show how, for example, the githzerai can be chaotic neutral while still holding a few principles to a fanatical degree. Actually, I think it would probably work better replacing the existing system, rather than running alongside it, and could easily be slotted over some game other than D&D. In fact, it would make a good alternative to say, Pendragon's passion system or the NWoD's virtues, vices & morality, and would probably reward further tinkering with itself. A very interesting design experiment indeed, and one that pushes forward the idea that what statistically defines your character influences the way you play, and by changing the stats of the game, you can slant people towards certain choices and playstyles. Quite a few designers could learn from that. I like this article quite a lot.


The role of computers: Death Knights of Krynn is another of SSI's solid conversions of AD&D, allowing you to bring in your characters from previous games to kick Lord Soth & his cronies butts. This is one of those reviews where they give you a lot of hints, because the game isn't easy, and will probably take quite a bit of grinding and resource management. The biggest reminder, as is often the case, is to save at every opportunity. Man, you'd think people would start putting autosave apps out.

Space Quest IV also gets a good review, and is a lot funnier as well. Travel into the past and the future of the series to save your son. Full of humour, and with tons of things to discover, it looks like a good one for those who like lighthearted, snarky games.

Zarlor Mercenary completes a hat trick of 5 star reviews. A shoot-em-up for the Atari Lynx, it has multiplayer networking for up to 4 people, and remains fully functional even with that many playing. Now the tricky part'll be finding 4 people who own atari lynxes.


Sage advice: How can the aztec gods live on the prime material if deities can't visit there. (One god can get told off by their peers, but when it's a whole pantheon going around engaging in blood sacrifices and ignoring the usual social conventions, it's a little harder. It's like the cops don't go up to that dirty great ranch full of inbred hillbillies who run a moonshine racket, play their music really loud and fire guns at 3 in the morning. )

Similarly, how can Iuz live on the prime material (again, he's a chaotic evil half-demon who worked his way to demigodhood. He doesn't give a damn about your rules, and no-one's come along who can sort him out yet. Perhaps your adventuring team would like to give it a go. Go on, we'll be over here, watching. )

Why are god's weapons so badass (because they're gods. )

Why does the complete fighters handbook let paladins and rangers specialize (Power creep. They have to encourage you to buy it somehow.)

How many weapons can you specialize in (Again, originally just 1, but if you buy the complete fighters handbook, you can do all sorts of forbidden things. Our splatbook writers care nothing for the fine details of the game and it's balance )

I have a blatantly illegal character! Look at it! I'm so proud! ( Great. Another fine mess Skip has to tidy up. Stupid DM's not properly house-training their players. We oughta get social services in, have them taken away if they can't look after them properly.)

What's the speed of a touch attack (3)

Can you reflect beholders gaze attacks with a mirror (no. They're rays, not attacks based on you seeing them. )

Do liches keep their racial capabilities (probably)

Why do elf mages get to wear armour (special dispensation. Part of their sekrit magical training. )

How many daggers can you throw per round. (not as many as you think. That's supposed to be darts, not daggers. )

What can you backstab and when. (Things with backs that aren't aware of you. Simple as that. It's an assassination tactic, not something you do in the middle of combat. That would step on fighters toes. )

If you twink out you can get your chance of surprise above 100% (so it seems. But you still have a 10% chance of failure, no matter how good you are. )

I really like kender! I want to play one! (Great, another player that urgently needs housetraining. Take it away before it messes up Skip's carpet.)

Dragon Magazine Issue 173: September 1991

part 4/5


Fiction: A little knowledge by Jerry Oliton. Dark Sun's co-ordinated rollout continues, with this little piece that illustrates the harsh realities of Athas from the ground level, and gives lots of setting details without being too expository about it. A young half-elf gets enslaved, and has to figure out how their psionic wild talents work if they want to escape. We also find out that the sorcerer kings are bastards, and that has been passed downwards pretty effectively; magic in general is outlawed, preservers have a secret organisation opposing the big bads, but good luck finding it, and there are lots of interesting animals replacing the standard earth ones. Not bad at all, even if it doesn't emulate the actual IC physics of psionics that well. (Co-operative powers should have been considerably easier to access than they were) I think this more than adequately served it's part in persuading people to buy the new shinies.


Chill does ghosts too! How long before wraith comes out? Another three years. Bah.


The sociology of the Flind: Spike Y Jones not only gives us another ecology under another name, but he uses the same cast of framing characters again. We get to find out another chapter in the life of Brendan Farwanderer, as told to his youthful charges. A decidedly dark one, that then comes back to haunt him in the final paragraph. Flinds may be physically pretty similar to regular gnolls, with only a few generations of selective breeding separating them, but culturally they are quite different, and rather more dangerous, for they have brains and organisation on their side to help them kill and consume the flesh of their opponents. This is a particularly epic ecology, both in size and depth, and it makes me very interested in knowing if we'll see the characters involved again. It's tricky to have proper horror unless you're emotionally invested in the characters, and introducing them, letting them hang around for a bit and then ripping them away definitely qualifies. They may not be doing ecologies as frequently lately, but the ones they have done have been of very high standard. It's good to see them not just churning them out because they're an easy way to fill a few pages every month.  Now, let's hope they do get some more really good ones sometime in the not too distant future.


The same advert on three consecutive pages? Interesting way of doing things. Probably costs quite a bit too.


The role of books: The rocketeer by Peter David does fairly well for a film conversion, adding to the story nicely while maintaining the pulpy feel. As usual, they can both get into the characters heads more, and show bits that were cut. Time/space constraints do seem much less serious in books, for some reason.

Fallen angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn gets a fairly negative result, like the last one a couple of issues ago. For this reviewer, it works neither as a serious story or satire, and some of the plotting makes little sense. The brain eater is hard at work here. Choose your collaborators wisely.

Hawks flight by Carol Chase gets a pretty good review on both the worldbuilding and story fronts. Not drawing on any particular earth mythos too obviously, and full of depth, it's one that obviously took quite a lot of work. Unravelling everything may be a similar challenge for less experienced readers though. I think if we can handle Tolkien and Gygax's writings, we can get our heads round this too.

The fantastic adventures of robin hood, edited by Martin H Greenberg, is another of his anthologies that show a whole range of spins on the legend. This does of course mean there are huge jumps in tone and characterisation, as we're dealing with a vague public domain legend in the first place. Feels a bit like a cash-in on a certain obscenely profitable recent movie.

Street magic by Michael Reaves is one of those books that's too short, and splits it's attention too many ways for you to really get attached to the characters or world. Which is a shame, because what there is is pretty good. Never easy to get the length right, is it.

Extreme paranoia: Nobody knows the trouble I've shot by Ken Rolston sees the reviewer become the reviewed, in highly amusing and somewhat meta fashion. As an example of proper Paranoia play turned into a story, it succeeds brilliantly. As a conventional novel, it may be a bit too wacky and punful. Obviously depends on your tastes then.


Jandar Sunstar. The good elven vampire trapped in ravenloft. Oh, the angst. AAAAANNGGGST I say! Oh well. He can have yaoi buttsecks with Strahd and they can both whine about their respective lost loves for a while or something. Hee. That'll get the fangirls in.


Forum: Matt Barrett picks apart the argument that what assassins do is always evil. Killing things that are going to kill you if you don't get them first is entirely justified, even if you use stealth and take them out while unsuspecting. As Gary himself said, good doesn't have to be stupid. But the ends do not justify the means. Slippery slope, dude.

Michael Kellam bites on the Batman's alignment debate hook. I knew someone would. Given his current level of [strike]whoreswhoreswhoreswhores[/strike] darkness in characterisation, it's debatable if he's even good, and certainly not lawful. Once again, we are painfully reminded that Thiiiis IIIIiiis theeeee 90's!

Mark D. Krieter has to deal with the problem that one player is far cleverer and more motivated than all the others, and thus tends to outshine them and get more stuff and spotlight time. Yeah, that's a tricky one. You want to reward involvement, but at the same time, you don't want the other players feeling left out. An issue that I'm still struggling with myself.

John H. Goins thinks that vampire PC's, at least temporarily, and particularly if they're seeking redemption, is not a bad idea at all. And a heavy-handed horde of celestial being removing them from play is neither fun or fair, given the number of powerful evil things wandering around canon modules unmolested.  

Robert W. Heym ponders the morality of raising mindless undead. Is the body no more than a sack of meat once vacated? Is making them them as turning training acceptable behaviour for good clerics? Since they do say it's evil behaviour, I'm guessing there are some issues. Means and ends once again come into conflict.

W. N. Knierim, Jr wonders how it relates to issue 164's editorial if you like to play lots of different characters. It means you can't make up your mind, duh.

Elizabeth Caetta has written a 5 volume set of stories based on the adventures of her characters, that can never really be published. Now that's dedication. Also a good reminder of how things can be huge for one person, but absolutely minute in the overall scheme of things. Makes you wonder why we bother sometimes. It's all going to be eaten up when the sun goes, and we won't even be a footnote on the cosmic scale. I'll bet those 25 pounds of typed paper have already been lost or destroyed by something.

Dragon Magazine Issue 173: September 1991

part 5/5


TSR Previews: Dark Sun is here! The boxed set of blasted oppression. A bleak world, ruled by sorcerer kings, where everyone is psionic and starts at third level. New classes, new races, and very weird spins on old ones. What can you do to make this world your own? Well, for a start, let your PC's take the starring role in ending oppression, rejuvenating the world and becoming epic heroes, not the NPC's in The Verdant Passage, our very first novel, which straight away makes big changes for the better (for a certain value of better) Remember, metaplot is only an example, not something you have to follow slavishly.

 Greyhawk continues to get sporadic support with WGS2: Howl from the north. You have the 5 blades, now you have to keep them from the ice barbarians. Easier said than done.

The Forgotten Realms are still focussing on the Harpers, in Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham. Is there treachery amongst their ranks? Surely not. Still, once an assassin, always an assassin.

Ravenloft gets it's own book full of little anthology adventures. RR2: Book of crypts. What monsters does your wallet have the money to pay for? Grr, aargh.

Spelljammer continues the cloakmaster cycle. Nigel Findley takes us Into the Void. Don't trust the brain-eater! They might be able to play civilised, but they're reading your mind, talking down to your limited intellect and drooling at the thought of cracking open your cranium. You cannot deal with them as equals. Have you learned nothing from a life of sheep farming?

Marvel superheroes finishes messing around with the cosmic control rod in MSL3: Spore of Arthros. Let's kick some negative zone horror butt.
 
Buck Rogers goes for some timed drama in 25CS4: Phases of the moon. No surprises where this one is set. What is surprising is that it seems to be mostly negotiation based. How's that going to work? Probably not very well, as this is their last product before the line gets abruptly and unceremoniously cancelled. Seeya later, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. So much for that plan.

And finally, our standalone novel this month is The Cloud People, by Robert Kelly. A savior from the skies? Relying on heroes of destiny is risky gamble at best. They'll rarely be exactly what you expect. Did this one subvert the fantasy formulae in any way, or was it just more schedule filler?


Dragonmirth is down wit da dungeoneering. Yamara has yet more romantic drama. of the undead kind. David bowie gives us a great shot of his area in Twilight empire.


Through the looking glass: Return of the lead banning bill from beyond the land of sanity! We thought it was defeated, but in congress, things go though more revisions and appeals than any horror movie series. Beware! Do not assume rationality will prevail, or like the sensible character who doesn't believe in monsters, you'll be first on the chopping block. Proactiveness and being paired up with an attractive member of the opposite sex when you lobby will save your hobby! This little subplot continues to give and give.

Lots of actual reviews this month as well, as we lead up to staying at home painting season. ( O_o )
Stone mountain miniatures step into the future with two packs of alien soldiers.
Thunderbolt Mountain, on the other hand, give us a fairly large wizard piece to invoke wrath with.
Houston's Ships convert the USS Eagle to the Space:1889 game.
Black Dragon Pewter have changed address, and also give us a fairly statuesque female warrior.
Stan Johansen Miniatures are in a fusion cannon mood, for some reason.
Lance and Laser create a mini of the famous wizard Tamerlin from Talislanta. Now that's a privilege I don't think Elminster's had yet.
Alternative Armies release a pair of well-armoured and mounted mercenaries.
Grenadier release a whole set of different wood elves. They'll jump out of the forrest and get you happily.    
Ral Partha easily manage the most, and most official stuff. A Troll. Some Golems. Kobolds! Being licensed does have it's benefits. Get those kobolds in bulk if you want to properly emulate the game.


Another issue in which the themed section is the worst part of the magazine, with it being largely promotion that's a waste of space if you actually buy the products. There are quite a few other useful and entertaining articles here though, and some definite signs of the widening scope of the hobby, and the very different ways you can play which still count as roleplaying. So it looks like the problems in this era are largely management ones, as they have more than enough good articles to fill the magazine, but have to take on some dubious ones for commercial reasons. Maybe I should read the issues back to front if I want to enjoy them more. .eno txen eht otno ,llew hO

Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991

part 1/5


124 pages. Oooooooooh. It's october again, gentle readers. Won't you come on in to my humble thread. :steeples fingers: Don't worry about the door slamming itself behind you, it's just a draft. Maybe I ought to get that looked at, before our bodies start to shiver. So, Dark Sun got a special last month, now it's Ravenloft's turn, with our regular horror theme now officially sponsored by Strahd von Zaroviches patent 2 in 1 fang polish & bloodstain remover. Good for clothes, carpets, curtains and coffins. Use after every meal to ensure you have no trouble getting your next one :teeth ting: But I digress. Roll the projector! We have articles to view! What mere mortal could resist that?


In this issue:


Letters: A letter from someone wanting to contact one of the other writers for the magazine. Roger does what he usually does, and agrees to forward any letters, assuming they're not bombs or acid.

A letter asking about shadow dragons. They're hardly the most obscure of monsters. You just need a few more supplements.

A couple of tedious corrections, suitably erratad.

An index to all the ecology articles they've done so far, just as they did with all the classes a year ago, along with a request to send more in, for they seem to have a bit of a shortage at the moment. They're still popular reading, but they can't satisfy demand without a supplier. Go on, guv, gi's a fix.


Editorial: Roger talks about the aftermath of convention season here, just as he has every october since he became head editor. As usual, it was exhausting but fun, with more stuff going on than any single mere mortal could take in. Rare and OOP stuff is sold, sometimes for silly prices. Shiny new stuff is unleashed upon us, sometimes for free. White wolf make their first big impact on the gaming industry. And for yet another year, it was bigger than ever. Just how long will he be able to boast that? The usual array of amusing little personal tidbits and historical pointers here.


Are you having bad thoughts?: Another entirely official bit of writing kicks us off this month. Ravenloft screws over a whole range of spells to keep you from solving your problems and getting out too easily. Did you think you could get around that issue by using psionics instead? Fool! They will not let you escape, and if you use powers that are tinged with darkness, you will feel the same corruptive effects. So here's a couple of pages spelling out both the general restrictions and specific changes to your powers if you venture into the demiplane of dread. This was reprinted practically verbatim in the revised edition of the core boxed set, so I can't really work up any enthusiasm about it, other than a mild surprise that this was another bit of writing that appeared in here before getting put in a book. Learn something new every day, I guess.


Sage advice is even smaller than ever this issue.

Can a wand of negation deal with spells and already existing magical effects (no, it's very specific in it's use. Only get it out if you know you'll need it for an adventure.)

Can you drape a portable hole over your back to protect from backstabbing (ow, mah brains. Better say no to this one, otherwise who knows where it'll end. Hmm, what excuse can skip give? Skip knows! Skip'll say that people are not objects. That'll keep em happy )

What happens if you hide inside a portable hole when an enemy casts reverse time. (inventive. If you remember to shut the opening, it might just work. )

Can you use a carpet of flying underwater (Slowly.)

Can gauntlets of dexterity raise your score over 18 (Probably)

I've been thinking about weapon sizes. (What a co-incidence, so is Skip. Maybe we should get together, plan a rules revision. Skip likes that idea very much. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991

part 2/5


Out of the mists: Another collection of scary monsters, also with the official ravenloft seal of approval. Dr Van Richten may have catalogued these ones, but that certainly doesn't make them less dangerous. And just because they're from Ravenloft, doesn't mean you can't use them elsewhere as well. Let's face it, in actual modules, the demiplane of dread is considerably more porous than Athas. But anyway, let's see if they're any good.

Shadow asps are yet another magical way of guarding a tomb from any interlopers.  Their poison slowly turns you into a Shadow as well, so although they're pretty weedy, they can become an escalating problem to a party. A swarm of these coming at a party will provoke a suitable degree of terror similar to swarms of spiders or centipedes IRL.

Fenhounds are actually good guys, in that they only savage people who've made powers checks. Course, since even good people can wind up making them, especially if they're also spellcasters, and they have no appeals court, a party may well find themselves having their own recurring baskerville situation to deal with.

Psionic liches are scary mofos, just like their wizardly counterparts, with the typical array of powers, and probably minions, long reaching plans, elaborate lairs, etc etc.  They're one that would go on to official use and several appearances in supplements. As with regular liches, finding out where the hell their phylactery is is crucial, for revenge served cold is not very tasty actually.

Looks like this has been a pretty nice collection really, with stuff suitable for a wide range of situations, not just more boring straight-up fights. Do you want body horror or psychological stuff, little minions or big big bads, because both are provided for.


Cry Wolf: A few more monsters to scare your players with. Wolves certainly haven't been neglected in the magazine over the years, with both the regular and were varieties getting plenty of mentions. And they do have a long association with horror stories. Let's see if there's any new ideas to be had here.

Dread wolves are animated undead with a nasty rotting bite and regeneration. Their creator can see through their eyes, which means they can be rather useful for espionage as well as killing stuff.

Vampiric wolves take the already close relationship between the two creatures and blur it a little further. They vill drink your bluuud, and turn on their leader if they show weakness. Now that's definitely exploitable in a plot sense. They should be popular amongst not-too-bright evil overlords.

Stone wolves, on the other hand, are loyal, don't require any upkeep or toilet breaks, and can disguise themselves as ordinary statuary. (not that experienced adventurers will let their guard down around that. ) So it looks like all 3 of these are designed to be minions to some other vaguely horror themed big bad. I suppose wolves rarely do get the same kind of central importance in big plotlines as vampires and mages. Overall, this is pretty useful, but not particularly impressive. Guess that adds out to an average themed section then.


The marvel-phile: Steven Schend delves into the history books to give us another obscure villain who hasn't been covered yet, probably because he hasn't appeared in comics for over a decade either. Equinox! Heat and cold powers in one mentally unstable package! A bit gimmicky, but there doesn't seem to be any great reason why he's vanished when some other D-listers haven't. And he's less likely to be countered and ignored by a team effortlessly like a one-trick pony, so he could have a use. But no, this isn't anything particularly special.


Bugged about something?: Ahh, yes, giant insects. They've certainly played a substantial part in my low-level D&Ding, especially in places with lots of random encounters. This is a quick little realism in gaming article that looks like it was put in as a filler one, to fit around the number of adverts they have. Greg Detwiler does a decent job of reminding us just how badass real insects are, with their proportionate strength, various spiffy senses, ridiculous toughness, social organisation, etc etc. A bit insubstantial really, but the artwork's good. Meh.


The game wizards: I may have made quite a few Gotta collect 'em all quips in my time doing this, and there are more to come, but here they really are literally asking for it. Their trading card series has proven quite a decent seller, and so they fully intend to print new ones each year until it ceases to profit them. This is full of the kind of data that collectables geeks will love. Limited editions, the variations in their looks based on number and run, size of print runs, the kind of thing that makes you look smart if you can quote it to your friends. I actually find myself quite liking this article, unexpectedly, probably because I am a statistics geek. And the economics of collectibles is an interesting and potentially profitable area of study. Anyone know what these cards go for these days?


The voyage of the princess ark: Once again, Raman takes centre stage this month, being lured away by a ghostly creature that hungers for cinnabryl. Guess it's Haldemar's turn to play rescuer this time round. At least, once he escapes from another annoying political plot, probably from the Huleans. Oh, if only we could meteor swarm them at the first sign of trouble instead of having to be diplomatic.

Crunchwise, we have stats for the aforementioned errant spirits, who are produced as a result of people extending their lifespans unnaturally with cinnabryl. We also have info on the northenmost 4 of the savage baronies, their relationships with each other, and the looming spectre of Hule's expansion. To survive around here, they have indeed become pretty tough places, full of passionate and stubborn warriors. A rich ground for adventure, both personal and political.

Letterswise, we have lots of annoying nit-picking this month. Yes, time has passed since these areas were first detailed in all those out of print modules. Yes, the gazetteers aren't very standardized. Yes, keeping intelligent flying mounts in your army is bloody tricky, and you need to ensure they're well treated and given the respect they deserve. No, none of these are setting breaking. Chill out, dudes.

Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991

part 3/5


Novel ideas: Athas's promotion continues, in an article that probably ought to have been last month, but for their bimonthly schedule. This is another one that's telling me stuff I know already, that Athas has a nice 5-book series kicking things off, courtesy of Troy Denning, and they intend dramatic things to happen in the novels and change the setting on a regular basis. It also calls attention to the way they're consciously trying to avoid or subvert as many of the usual D&D setting tropes as possible. Maybe too many at once, actually. We've been through this with Tekumel & Jorune, where too many alien elements keep people from getting into things. Athas is probably less experimental than either of those, but it is relatively low on literary and historical antecedents. And it didn't really enjoy the same kind of success as Dragonlance or Ravenloft. On the other hand, it did last quite a few years, and was one of the first worlds to be revisited in 4e, so it's hard to call it a failure either. Guess like morality in Athas, it's more complicated than that. This is definitely worth more debate. I look forward to the next time this topic comes up.


Fiction: The blue eyed thief by Bob Liddil. We hear a lot about cycles of abuse. Sins inflicted on people are in turn emulated and performed on others, be out of vengeance, need, or simple habit.  You hear far less about cycles of redemption, people paying good deeds forward. Still, that's what this one is about. A young street-thief turned into a honest (well, almost) merchant by a little generosity and cleverly applied compassion, and then returning the favour a generation later. The kind of heroism that you can actually manage in the real world, if you're something like a teacher or homeless shelter volunteer. Don't think it'll be easy, or that some won't reject your help and continue being locked in their own self-destructive patterns, but you can make a difference. It may be a tiny one against the overall tapestry of the world, but you can make a difference. And this, in it's own small way, is a good reminder of that. So I think it does it's job quite nicely.


The role of computers: Quest for glory II: Trial by Fire combines a review with an interview with the makers of the game. Interesting. They talk about their design philosophy, and some of the technical details of it's creation. They've gone to plenty of effort to make this a fun adventure game that you'll have plenty of challenge completing, but hopefully won't get stuck on, and can improve your skills along with your character's. And they intend to release still better looking versions in the near future. Yay for ever increasing monitor resolutions.

Cybergenic Ranger: Secret of the seventh planet looks and sounds good, but is slow and boooooooring to play. Remember your design priorities, programmers. Fun must always be primary, otherwise all else becomes irrelevant.

F29 Retaliator is a flight simulator, but one that sacrifices realism for fun, making the planes rather easier to pilot than their real counterparts. Which is a good thing, really, since the amount of training to get an actual pilots licence is quite substantial.

Sonic the Hedgehog sees them instantly spot that this was created by sega as a conscious attempt at making a marketable mascot. Not that the game is bad at all. (although I always preferred Sonic 3. The series didn't really get going until he had a proper cast of supporting characters.) The high speed bits impress them, the non-linear level design still holds up today, (if anything, it's more so than many of the later games, especially once the series went 3D) and the rotating bonus levels are really cool for the era. Mario now has serious competition, and their battles will be good for the profiles of both sides. Let the lines be drawn, and the fanboys of both sides rage.

They also re-review a whole bunch of old games that have been recently released for new systems. Gunboat, Harpoon, Railroad Tycoon, and Wizardry: Bane of the cosmic forge. Most manage to improve on the previous versions in some way. Wizardry in particular is massively improved on it's original incarnation.


Dark Sun occupies the centre pages with a full colour photographed advert, including a fake weird creature skull. Any idea what monster that's supposed to belong too?  


The possibilities are endless: Oooh. A TORG article. Spike Y Jones suggests changing around a few of the default setting assumptions and seeing the potential for fun adventures that result. All it takes is for the initial blitzkrieg of the probability wars to have gone a little better or worse and the political landscape will look rather different. Similarly, giving the characters roles other than Storm Knights who awakened to their power in a recent crisis will alter the way the game goes quite a bit. This makes me think of Exalted quite a bit, where the default character choice is both the most powerful, and the least integrated into the world, and subsequent splats introduced very different ways of playing in the same world, each with their own distinctive social structures. It also makes me wonder about the cfhoice of making a game have multiple settings, or one default one that it takes quite a bit of work to convert away from. Is the ultimate victory of the AD&D line over the BD&D one because it had a whole bunch of settings and encouraged you to make your own, while the BD&D one became increasingly locked into the known world as the line went on? Is that also part of the reason why games such as Exalted, TORG and Rifts never managed to unseat D&D in overall popularity and versatility? Was the introduction of the Infinite Worlds meta-setting tying everything together part of the reason why GURPS 4th ed has only had a tiny fraction of the books 3rd ed managed? Was the increasing degrees of crossover between the various AD&D settings part of what caused TSR's downfall? Now there's a big intractable question for us to chew over. So I guess this is a pretty good article, both giving coverage to a new game, and providing me with plenty of thoughts on how to change play that are applicable to other games. Spike is proving to be one of the better contributors of this era.

Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991

part 4/5


Forum: Martyn Agass thinks that characters need a decent amount of customisability so their skills can accurately reflect their personality and goals. Spellcasters are decently provided for, as a rogues these days, but warriors still suck in this respect. Kits just don't seem to be enough for him.

Jason Dunn has a fairly lengthy contribution, covering several topics, and mentioning quite a few previous writers. The result feels like whislestop tour through his GM'ing philosophy. Anything is possible. Don't kill too often, but don't let players believe they're invulnerable.

Robert W. Heym is annoyed that TSR are devoting so much time and page count to their own game worlds, rather than giving more generic advice. Just go back a decade or forward a couple and your wish will be granted.

Salvadore Giraldi, on the other hand, finds preprepared campaign worlds a huge help. Even the big ones hardly cover every bit of the world, and it does make it easier for players to become attached to the world and impressed by the famous NPC's. So many people don't have the time to make complete games. The trick is to design campaign worlds so they assist your own creativity rather than stifle it.

Shawn A. Chesak holds an opinion somewhere between the previous two forumites. Yes, the proportion of generic stuff to specific worlds is probably too low at the moment, but that doesn't mean they should cut out the campaigns entirely. They do serve a valuable role for novice players.

Sandy Green speaks up in support of young people gaming, and Paladins and Demons playing a part in the game. Learning about morality in a non-preachy manner is important.


Amber! By Erik Wujik. The first big diceless system! Once again with the progress.


Defeating more with less: Or return of the Tuckers Kobolds part 3, Endor holocaust. Greg Detwiler shows us once again how enemies played smart are far more likely to live long and prosper. Basic tactics like taking cover and using missile fire massively increase your effectiveness, as real world armies demonstrate on a daily basis. Stealth, traps, hit-and-run attacks, stealing stuff, clever use of spellcasters, this all seems pretty familiar, albeit presented pretty well, and with plenty of detail. Still, it doesn't have enough new ideas to really stoke my interest. Seen this stuff before, will likely see it again. One for the new readers then.


TSR Previews: D&D continues it's revamp with the rules cyclopedia. The new basic set may not have made much impact, but this certainly did, even amongst people who have all the old boxed sets. (after all, if you've been playing regularly for 6 years, they're probably getting a bit ratty. ) Even now, it has enough devotees to jack the ebay prices up quite substantially. It also continues to fill out the hollow world, in HWR2: Kingdom of Nithia. Another once great culture preserved from the surface world. What strange stuff do they have for the salvaging?

The Forgotten realms is still concerned with Maztica in FMA2: Endless armies. Foil a horde of giant ants using the battlesystem rules? That's a new one for the system. Let's hope it handles it and produces a fun adventure, because that definitely seems like a cool change of pace. Back in the Realms themselves. R. A. Salvadore
tries to escape the endless Drizzt trilogies with um, a quintet about a cleric instead. Who's idea was that, and did they come up with the plot and realize it would take 5 books to tell, or decided to do a quintet first, and then churn out crap until the page count was filled? Meet Cadderly in Canticle. Times are about to get very interesting for him.

Dragonlance isn't so diverse, with elves elves elves taking centre stage in both modules and novels. DLS4: Wild elves does what it says on the tin. Scott Bennie tries to make their trials and travails interesting to adventurers. Meanwhile, Paul Thompson and Tonya Carter complete The Qualinesti, the final book in the elven nations trilogy. They do like their boy/girl teams for writing Dragonlance stuff, don't they. I guess they're trying to replicate the magic formula of the original series or something.

Ravenloft takes us to a blasted fantasy egypt, to face the deadly touch of the mummy darklord in RA3: Touch of death. Water shortages, mirages, jackals, vultures and undead. Thoroughly miserable place.

And finally, on the generic side, the complete series kicks off again with PHBR6: The complete dwarves handbook. An arsenal of cool kits and other stuff to really fill them out. Certain players will be rubbing their hands together.

Dragon Magazine Issue 174: October 1991

part 5/5


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Ioun Stones! Another thing introduced in the earliest days of the magazine gets revisited in greater depth, with lots of new variants. Like Mind flayers, this is a very welcome returning topic. Like the card deck one from issue 148, this is essentially an ecology article, giving us some ideas of where they could come from, and how they got made. Be it the middle of a star, or the border between the plane of earth & positive energy, it takes quite substantial amounts of energy and pressure. A smart wizard might be able to custom make them, but they also show up naturally, which is pretty awesome really. And not only is this a decent enough ecology, but it also casually throws in 28 new varieties of stone to put in your treasure piles. So it's both good reading and damn useful in actual play, providing you with treasure and plot hooks aplenty to keep your game well fuelled with adventure.


The dragon's bestiary continues directly on from the previous article, introducing a whole load of new creatures for the Quasielemental plane of Mineral. As with the paraelemental plane of ice (see issue 129) these guys have a strong crystaline theme, mostly being formed out of sharp geometric shapes, and aren't very keen on gross fleshy interlopers. (which will now be even more frequent since they now know there's not just vast quantities of gems, but Ioun stones to be mined round these parts) This looks pretty spiffy.

Glomus float around and use their many spikes to deal with anyone who disrupts their inscrutable cogitation. They reform if you don't smash them thoroughly enough, so be wary.

Shard also demonstrate that even weak planar monsters are pretty scary for mid level adventurers. They might be only flying crystals, but they're both sharp and dazzling. And they often appear in large numbers. They can certainly turn an invading party into bloody ribbons.

Spined shards are even more unpleasant than their single crystaled relations. With multiple attacks, blasty effects and an anti-magic field, they have a bit in common with beholders actually, even if they look quite different. Well, Tasmanian devils aren't less scary because they're very different from wolves.

Chamerol are enormous tentacled rock-tree things that grow right on the positive energy border. This means they have no shortage of fuel to grow to truly ridiculous sizes and spread their roots through the tough rock beneath them. Wonder what the things that parasitise their innards look like?

Energy pods look like more substantial relatives of xag-ya, feeding of both energy and minerals. Watch out for the explosive effects when you damage them.

Trilling chrysmal look like those biology textbook pictures of viruses, with a hexagonal body and spidery legs on one end. They're pretty cute, but have powerful offence and spell reflection abilities. Be glad they won't be laying their eggs in you.

Crystalle is a nicely old skool elemental ruler, with plenty of magic abilities, and a haul of ioun stones that'll make even archmages jealous. He's certainly not unbeatable, but with all his equipment, money and servants, it'll be a big ugly adventure to get to take his stuff.

Combined with the previous article, this adds up to a rather idiosyncratic special feature that does quite a bit to fill in another obscure corner of the planes. Something they don't do nearly enough of, and that I'm pretty fond of, so I'm definitely giving this set high marks. It's a big strange universe out there, and if our game can reflect at least a small fraction of those environments and the theoretical creatures adapted to them, it'll be a lot more interesting than another delve into our own tedious minds.


Dragonmirth makes several social faux-pas. Yamara tries to help joe with romance advice. Twilight empire finishes the fight, and wonders if they can fit in some more fanservice before getting back to the plot.


Through the looking glass: A different set of current events are focussed upon her this month. The Gulf War is pretty much over, and now people are looking for minis to recreate the fun of blowing Saddam's shit up on their own table. Hmm. Very interesting, if in slightly poor taste. I guess it's not disrespecting the memory of those who died if hardly anyone (on our side ) did. But more on that next month, as it looks like this bit of potential controversy is merely a teaser.

The rest of the column scrupulously avoids this topic and concentrates on fantastical & sci-fi stuff. A cheesecake female warrior with some proportional deficiencies. A sea elf dressed in stuff that also looks a bit impractical for swimming in. A doomgarde unit. (somehow it seems less scary with a french accent. ) Something which is either a mutated snake, or a very big reptile that we're only seeing the head and upper arms of. A whole bunch of adorable tiny mechs with even tinier pieces that will be a bit tricky to assemble and easily broken. A rather large-beaked owlbear. A rather eyeless looking displacer beast. A mangy, short-legged catoblepas. A whole bunch of minis from sculpting doyen Julie Guthrie. And a nuyen & scoop hungry news team from shadowrun. Quite a few of these get scathing remarks about their quality. Looks like he's got his groove back after that nasty ratings fixing business. Long may he continue his semi-detached reporting.


Synibarr gets an advert! Awesome! The advert does a perfect job of revealing what happened in it, and the gonzo characters you can play. Are you sold on it? \m/


Another issue that really drives home some of the many ways the hobby is spreading out around this time. Conventions are still growing in attendance and popularity, existing settings are developing nicely, and people are trying out a whole bunch of cool new ideas that'll go on to make their own mark in the next few years. Of course, on a longer scale, there's also some more signs of their eventual downfall, as they diversify to the point of overextension and strangle games with metaplot, but every sperm holds within it an old person dying from flaws that were present all along. The important thing is that they survive long enough to inspire creative offspring of their own, with different quirks and flaws, to live and die in different memetic environments. Or something. I think we're getting into torturous metaphor territory here, so I'll move on before I tie my own tongue in knots.

Dragon Magazine Issue 175: November 1991

part 1/5


124 pages. As hinted a while ago in the letters page, some people want more stuff showing us how to create and run our own campaigns. Looks like the freelancers were listening, for such is this month's topic. Power to the people, and all that. Keep that approach up, and you'll rarely want for the topics you desire, and can reduce rehash quite considerably. That gives us a positive beginning to this issue. Let's kick the proceedings off then.

In this issue:


Letters: A letter advertising the beginning of the Sci-fi channel. High hopes. We've got hiiigh hopes. You mean the one that recently renamed itself Syfy, to much derision, while also cutting down on the amount of actual sci-fi it shows, just like MTV, and has churned out more than it's fair share of crap TV movies. Oops there goes another crappy cable tv channel.

A letter about setting up pen-pal stuff. They stopped doing that ages ago because they had too many people writing in to handle.  It's all a bit of a pain, but they'll do what they can.

Another person asking about the record for longest continuous gaming session. Roger gives the same slightly exasperated reply he made last time. Can't recommend it mate. 'Elf an' safety regulations, innit. Sigh.

Another very rehashed question. What does TSR stand for. These days, not a lot.


Editorial: Giant Space Hamsters! Oh Roger, what have you wrought? Forever now will spelljammer be inextricably linked with them. 20 years later, people will still snigger when you mention their name. But they do have plenty of supporters, as this outpouring of reader responses shows. In prose, in bullet points, even in verse, they show their love and the many things they use them for. It's enough to make me want to grow more heads and limbs just so I can perform multiple simultaneous facepalms. They just can't resist putting big globs of goofy into their products these days. When exactly will it end? Guess I'll just have to hold on a few years more.


Inventing the "instant" Adventure: So they want to give us more help constructing our own campaigns. Hrmm. How do we go about that? Let's ask one of our experienced freelancers, like, oh, :draws name out of a hat: Arthur Collins. Arthur, how do you create adventures on the fly when your players go in an unexpected direction.
Well, Roger, I'm glad you asked. The easiest way is to have lots of ideas prepared that you can easily insert. And the best way to do that is to Kismif.
Kismif? What's that. Is it some king of acronym, or are you just making up words?
Why yes Roger. It stands for Keep It Simple, Make It Fun. A very important maxim you should all take to heart. I've written a little song to help you remember it.

Keep it simple, make it fun
Then it works for everyone
Keep it simple, make it fun
That's the way games should be run

You can have a million things
going on at once
The subtleties get lost
and people wander off

Keep it simple, make it fun
give the people what they want
Keep it simple, make it fun
Then it works for everyone!

Um, Thank you Arthur. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Why yes Roger. I've got six easy lessons and 24 ideas that are just spiffing at getting things moving again quickly and easily. And they can be yours for the small small price of $3.50! Would you like a preview?
I believe so, Arthur, since I'm the one who'll actually be selling it as part of the magazine.
Well, of course. Don't roll on a table, just pick stuff off a menu. Don't tell them why, when their speculations will be more fun than what you come up with. Don't rush, use the time one encounter takes up to think of the next one. And there's tons of ideas you can steal from other media, as ever. Would you like to know more?
I think that's enough to get their interest, Arthur. Looks like you've done a great job. Here's your pay.
Thank you, Roger. Until next time then.
Yes, until next time.


The perils of prehistory: Back to dinosaur land again. Now there's a pretty well covered topic. Another area where they have to struggle to find new things to say. Still, once again, they manage it, eschewing the statistics, which are already well provided for if you own issues from a few years ago, instead talking about the problems integrating time-travel into fantasy campaigns. Here we run into a very interesting issue. The assumption that evolution works in a way remotely similar to reality, and the gods and planes are created by human belief, rather than the other way around is a rather large one to make, and opens up a lot of cosmological questions that you can have fun answering, which may well then open up more questions. So this is one that gives you tools to radically reshape your campaign via going back and changing things, and the different ways things could go if you try it. Your imagination may be the limit, but a few pointers are definitely helpful in an arena this big. So it looks like Greg Detwiler is once again proving his worth as one of our regular freelancers. This is one area where each action can have consequences, and you can just let the players drive the story, getting into more and more tangles until they don't know what to do. Fun business. I quite approve.

Dragon Magazine Issue 175: November 1991

part 2/5


The perils of prehistory: Back to dinosaur land again. Now there's a pretty well covered topic. Another area where they have to struggle to find new things to say. Still, once again, they manage it, eschewing the statistics, which are already well provided for if you own issues from a few years ago, instead talking about the problems integrating time-travel into fantasy campaigns. Here we run into a very interesting issue. The assumption that evolution works in a way remotely similar to reality, and the gods and planes are created by human belief, rather than the other way around is a rather large one to make, and opens up a lot of cosmological questions that you can have fun answering, which may well then open up more questions. So this is one that gives you tools to radically reshape your campaign via going back and changing things, and the different ways things could go if you try it. Your imagination may be the limit, but a few pointers are definitely helpful in an arena this big. So it looks like Greg Detwiler is once again proving his worth as one of our regular freelancers. This is one area where each action can have consequences, and you can just let the players drive the story, getting into more and more tangles until they don't know what to do. Fun business. I quite approve.


Creative campaigns, a new recipe: Last month they made it very clear how Dark Sun differs from normal fantasy campaigns. Now they encourage you to make similarly radical changes to your own D&D games. Be it adding unusual new elements, or removing common ones, both can be neat ideas. Change the magic system. Integrate magic into people's everyday lives. Invent wacky new pseudophysics explanations for magic. Wait, we've seen these before. As is often the case, the last article in their themed section is the least interesting and groundbreaking. Guess they needed some filler to make up the numbers. Business as usual then.


The marvel-phile: 3-D man? Oh dear god, someone actually created a character based on those crappy red and green glasses. Once again, the cheese factor is burning out my brain. Needs. more. grimdark. :pants: It's not your fault, I know, it's the material you have to work with. But it does make me wonder how much crap there is in the bottom of the barrel for them to dig out and cover here. Dear oh dear.

They also cover another colour themed character: Blue Shield. This is considerably less silly, with the interesting way he started off as a gadget based hero, and then became able to use his powers without it. Heroic osmosis does seem to to be quite common in comic book universes, particularly where martial artists are involved. But once again, this doesn't have much new to offer me. Filler filler filler.


TSR Previews: Greyhawk has always been a war torn world in it's backstory. Now, get ready for this to really intrude on the metaplot in the Greyhawk Wars boxed set. You get a complete board game to play this out yourself, but of course, there is an official outcome of this war, and all the future supplements will reflect these changes and timeline advancement. Will you follow along their railroad, or branch off into alternate history?

The forgotten realms gets a game book and a novel this month, as seems to be standard for them by now. FR13: Anauroch takes you to the great northern desert, and the many destroyed empires and other adventure opportunities that lie within. Make sure you bring a cleric with food creating powers if you want to tackle these adventures. The red wizards are also being pains in the ass in Red Magic by Jean Rabe, the final book in the harpers trilogy. Guess who has to foil their actions. Go on, you'll never get it.

Spelljammer sees SJS1: Goblins return. You failed to take them seriously? Oh boy. They're a lot scarier when they have tons of cobbled together spaceships with various deranged weaponry. Another war situation that's too big for a single group to solve, but you can still play your part, and be annoyed at any metaplot mucking around.

Ravenloft also mucks around with other people's creations, as Lord Soth gets drawn into there without his original writer's consent in Knight of the Black rose. Will James Lowder manage to remain faithful to his original voice and characterization?  

D&D is still splitting it's time between reaffirming the basics, and exploring the hollow world. This time, DDA4: The Dymrak dread attempts to show newbies a little more of the known world. Blah.

Marvel superheroes gets a double helping this time round. MU7: the Gamers handbook gives us our third yearly update to the vast roster of characters we have to choose from. And MSL4: Stygian knight sees the cosmic control rod used in an attempt to, well, once again the name says it all. Foiling time! You know, if you'd just listened to Annihlus and given him his rod back, this whole mess would have been short circuited. How hard would it be to get off the railroad and do this one differently?


The voyage of the princess ark: As the Ark heads south along the Savage coast, they find themselves invited to a formal ball in Saragon. An excellent chance for Haldemar to get some dance practice in, and a chance to show events from lady Abovombe's point of view as well. Of course, things can't go smoothly for them, and they find themselves in the middle of palace intrigue, with spies, assassins and gnoll ninjas ( ) turning the evening into a combination of farce and grand guignol. An unusually funny episode, as we get to see romance (sorta, oh woe for the bowdlerising company policy. ) peer bonding, (over fried gnoll) and overdramatic death scenes. Bruce is obviously experimenting with what he can do in this series, and this is a definite hit. It really ought to be a TV series, because I can visualize this episode clearly now, and it would be really rather amusing.

Our OOC section fills us in on another 4 of the Savage baronies. Almarron, the deeply unstable new dictatorship. Gargona, the switzerland of the savage baronies with it's policy of neutrality and encouraging artists. Guadalante, aka cowboy country. And the aforementioned Saragon, with it's wizardly ruler, magical artefact shielding it's borders, and general magic-heaviness. Once again we see how we've gone from sorta medieval stuff to sorta colonial americas. The letters touch on this point as well, with some people vaguely dissatisfied at how far they've drifted from the low-magic, feudal style of play. They have to differentiate their three generic fantasy settings somehow, and Mystara got to be the one with really common magic that's fully integrated into everyday life. Go to Greyhawk if you want gritty, and leave us to enjoy our weird, and often rather amusing adventures around here.

Dragon Magazine Issue 175: November 1991

part 3/5


Fiction: Uktena's quest by Kit Wesler. Oooh. Native american stuff. And a timely reminder that now Vampire: the Masquerade is out, Werewolf: The Apocalypse will be following in quick succession. Get ready for descriptive names based on animals and achievements, often rather silly, to become a lot more common in the near future. Anyway, this combines the "young boy sets out to prove himself" and "Kill the dragon" plot seeds and puts them into a native american milieu. It uses the same method of killing said big monster as The Hobbit, features irritating and enigmatic little fairy creatures and is otherwise deconstructable to the point of absolute predictability. I really can't say I'm impressed by this one at all. Such is the nature of formulaic filler.


The role of computers shakes up it's format some more, putting a whole bunch of preamble before the reviews. Upgrades, protcol, news and requests. Oh, and recursive joke acromyns. It does feel a touch niggly, as they try and solve some little problems, but are still doing basically the same things. I can't work up much enthusiasm about this.

Castles is a typical top-down sim game where you build your settlement and engage in violence with rival settlements. You can play it as regular medieval kingdoms or add on fantasy elements. While no sim city beater, it's not bad either. This genre isn't going away any time soon.

Dragon Crystal is a roguelike adventure for the Game Gear. Make your way through 30 randomly generated levels, find food, defeat monsters, and raise a baby dragon from an egg. It's easy and simple enough to be fun to start, but hard to complete, as a good game should be.

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective is of course a puzzle-centric rpg game where you have to solve crimes with the finesse of the fictional detective. It's one of the first games to use actual video cutscenes using real actors, so even if the picture quality is a bit grainy, it definitely stands out. The clue hunting process is pretty interesting sounding as well. Good to see someone really taking advantage of the massive memory increase moving from floppies to CD's grants you.

The clue corner is tiny this month. However, we do have another substantial conversions collection. The faery tale Adventure, King's Bounty & Might and Magic  all get new versions on the Genesis. This generally entails a certain amount of simplification, due to the lack of a keyboard, but also improvements in the graphics and sound. Consoles are rapidly overtaking computers in terms of fun for your time and money ratio, and it's a long time before they'll start turning into multimedia centres themselves, bringing the streams back together again. Growing pains aplenty in this industry to come.

 
Forum gets a new, slightly more goofy looking header. Bleh. Some revamps, you just don't need.

S D Anderson weighs in on the issues of the day, as he has been doing for years. In this case it's to register his disdain about Craig Hardie's position. While creating your own campaign from scratch might have more creative integrity, a lot of us don't have the time, or do this because our primary goal is fun. That kind of worldbuilding is hard work, y'know. Plus if you're playing in a published world, it's a lot easier to transfer characters from one game to another. Good points, as usual.

Jose Pablo Zagal points out that it's the adventures that go wrong, and unexpected and amusing things wind up happening that are the most memorable. If you try and avoid that in your adventure design, then things'll get boring. And in the end, the memories are the only treasure that lasts after the game ends.

D. M. Burck thinks that the power level of the ships in the voidjammers article is more than sufficient for normal threats. And their boss kicked the ass of the lich queen. The rep he got from that is probably an important part of why others don't try it on too often.

Scot Eddy brings up the Star Wars twinking issue from a year ago again. Slow motion flamewars indeed. With more 10 options on how to deal with power armour twinks, this shows once again how easy it is for an imaginative GM to defeat any twink.

W. Norgielix brings up the issue of gunpowder in a fantasy game, and how wizards are likely to react again. Considering that a big part of their research should be finding sources of power that are less time-consuming, one would think at least some would adopt tricks like that.

Brian Dye supports including younger players into your regular campaign. It's more fun for you, and helps them learn how to do it properly quicker. It's easier to do anything if you have a good teacher.

And we also get an anonymous contribution, for the first time ever in here. Shows how long it's been since the magazine allowed any of those to get published. This is one about the validity of scale mail as an armor. Man, people are still worrying about that? Just how small a slush pile did they have to choose from those days?


Only the best will do!: Another year's conventions have flown by, and with them, awards ceremonies. Let's see what they rated highly this year at Origins. Genestealer is the only thing to get two awards, so it seems pretty diverse collection. Dungeon beats out Dragon as best magazine this year. Sandy Petersen joins the hall of fame. Ravenloft, Pendragon, Forgotten Realms, and AD&D's mini line aren't neglected. Nor are Shadowrun, Battletech, Illuminati or Wing Commander. Who's been snubbed this time? Well, V:tM was probably released after the cutoff point, so we'll see how that does next year.

Dragon Magazine Issue 175: November 1991

part 4/5


Sage advice also gets a new header. This one I don't mind. Looks like they've decided to spruce things up a bit around here. It's also rather larger than It's been in a while. Happy days are here again for Skip at sage towers.

How many weapons can a spelljammer really carry. (never enough. A familiar litany, surely. Ships have to worry about encumbrance even more than people do. )

Can damage done by a deathjammer be healed (yes. )

How do spelljammer and planescape interact. (stating how everyone in a bunch of infinite universes interacts is an impossible task, frankly.)

What happens if you put a cursed item in a spelljamming furnace (Skip's not sure, but it's unlikely to be pretty)

Can you spend extra slots from inteligence on weapon proficiencies (no. Only nonweapon. Bad twink.)

Can you be a wild mage and a necromancer (no. One speciality per person only. It's hardly a specialty if you're concentrating on multiple things. )

What can you aim for with nahal's reckless dweomer (any spell you know)

How do you make a shrine ( The tools you're given in the tome of magic look entirely adequate to the job. You should be happy you don't have to rely on fiat anymore. Yes, NPC's will still be able to make better ones. So what? They always have.)

What level is a multiclassed character for purpose of enemy spells (use your highest single level)

What does magic resistance protect you from (magical effects that directly affect you. Not naturally occurring similar phenomena, and not stuff that affects the world around you, which then indirectly affects you. Basic logical principles )

Do druid/rangers exist or not? (Officially, no. Here's rules for if you insist on playing them anyway. Skip's in a good mood today. )

Do druids worship a nature related deity, or nature directly (their choice )

What can druids resist charm from (only fae/nature spirity types. Anything else, they're on their own.)

Do wizards have to have read magic (only to read scrolls)

Why are shadow monsters still in the illusion school when they're partially real (Look! Swamp gas! :Throws cannister and disappears into the smoke:)

Is wall of fug an evocation (yes. It's powers are entirely within that school's remit. You don't get to change that just because you don't like the spell)

Why can't halflings get exceptional strength. (because Reepicheep fought a duel for it and won. So no exceptional strength for halflings )

How many attacks can you get per round fighting unarmed (Recycled question.

The answer has not changed. Yes, I know many monsters get one attack per limb. You're not a monster, are you? )

How long will a simulacrum live after it's creator dies (quite a while, if it's careful)

How long does it take to make the paper for a spellbook  (quite a while, unless you buy it. It's one of those things that's most economical to handle in bulk )

We seem to be missing some casting times (Dear oh dear. Skip thinks Skip'll blame Ed Greenwood this time around. Ed, It's all your fault. Make a mistake like that again and Skip'll cap you, mofo. Ahh, It's good to be back on top. )

What's with wyvern watches area (Eratta. We are serious about applying it this time round. )

If a demihuman leaves Krynn, do they keep their altered level limits (no. Blame the gods. But don't go and complain, unless you want to be smitten.)  


Role-playing reviews: Horror time again, a little late. Busy magazine, people miss deadlines, not enough room, whatever excuse, here it is now, let's rock.

Dark conspiracy gets a fairly good review. It's clearly written, has great artwork, a system with simple base mechanics but lots of crunch on top of it, and a fairly well designed and versatile setting. On the other hand, it's humourless, uses complicated math, and doesn't put much emphasis on the actual horror aspect, instead just focussing on the killing stuff. So it's good for if you want to play modern dungeon delves, or know how to run horror without mechanical support, but not too great for new players.

Vampire: the masquerade gets a fairly prompt review. And oh yes, the pretentiousness is looked upon somewhat askance. The rules and presentation may be a bit rough compared to later editions, but, oh, the ideas, and the way they emphasise their themes. Artwork may not be perfect, but the way they use it to tell a story throughout the book is genius. (and one thing they really could do again these days) The way they handle the stuff you have and encourage you to play your character's personality via mechanical carrots and sticks is indeed damn innovative. The amount of advice on roleplaying and campaign construction is orders of magnitude greater than other games at this point, and the whole thing comes with plenty of prepackaged conflicts, both external and internal. What monstrous things will you wind up doing to avoid becoming a monster permanently? Oh yeah. They've arrived with a bang, as we also saw at the conventions, and soon the roleplaying landscape will be very different. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to put on The Cure's greatest hits and bounce around to Let's go to Bed.

Blood brothers is a Call of Cthulhu supplement that brings schlock horror to BRP, with a bunch of short adventures based on classic movies. This may of course piss off purists, but it is fun if you're in the right mood. One for both april and october then.

Dragon Magazine Issue 175: November 1991

part 5/5


Rhyme & reason: My oh my? 15 years of a fantasy magazine and we never had an article on riddles before. That does seem like a rather surprising omission, considering their significance in the hobbit, and frequency they've shown up in other books in their reviews section, sometimes even being the centre of the entire story. Course, that may be because they're a pain in the butt which depend heavily on DM preparation, and player skill over character stats. This article uses some quite interesting formatting, with the relatively short expository bit on the top, 8 sample riddles in the middle, and the answers at the bottom, along with quite a bit of varicoloured artwork. It doesn't go into that much detail, actually, a tiny amount on the RL history of riddles, and a similarly small amount on actually using them in your game. It's all a bit insubstantial really, and doesn't help much with either constructing your own, or overcoming the problems of using them in your game. Rather an odd duck really. Still, they've done it now. There's a reasonable chance we won't see it again for another decade or so, which is fine by me.


Delivered by breath, scares heroes to death: Egads. Two riddle articles in one issue. Yeah, this is pretty scary. Shoulda put these in last month's issue and moved the ioun stone pair to here. This one has less new riddles, and more stuff on making your own and putting them into your campaign effectively. It is rather encouraging, perhaps even a little too so, demystifying the riddlecrafting process pretty well. It's really no harder than writing poetry & music, and uses a lot of the same brain areas, along with the crossword solving one. Once again, the primary problem with including them in your game isn't mentioned, (never make a situation dependent on your players making a single particular choice. ) but it's a pretty decent article taken on it's own terms. I guess with story gaming making it's big uprising, people have to make a whole bunch of new mistakes while exploring and learn from them. Oh, if only we could have hindsight without having to go through all the crap first. Best we can do is learn from the mistakes of others.


The role of books: Life on the border, edited by Terri Windling takes us back to the dungeonpunk town where folk rock is king. It obviously feels less innovative now a whole bunch of other writers have got in on the act, but it does have plenty of cool stories. Very nice to see this series continue.

Palaces & prisons by Ron Miller does not get a very good review. The plot and settig are rather shallow and don't hang together well. Looks like he should stick to being an artist for other people then.

Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham is one of our very own Forgotten Realms novels.  It's one of those small scale ones which help to make the Realms into the biggest, most filled in and flexible gaming worlds out there. Everyone can contribute, including you. Just don't expect total internal consistency.

Halo by Tom Maddox is a story of a computerised satellite developing intelligence, and the ethical and practical problems that presents. This allows them to tackle serious sci-fi issues in the plot and make them accessable, which is rarely a bad thing in my book.  

Vampire of the mists by Christie Golden is of course a Ravenloft novel. Like the original module, it doesn't quite work as a horror story, but it does indeed have plenty of AAAAAngst!!! and a good mix of sympatheticness and monstrousness in the characters. Guess it's not too terrible for Masquerade lovers either then.

Batman: Captured by the engines by Joe R Lansdale does pretty well, bringing the worlds greatest detective back down to street level with a strange little mystery story. It has stuff both from his perspective, and that of others, and manages to build an actual creepy atmosphere. Not often you see that in the actual comics.


Dragonmirth fails to grasp basic tactics. There is a certain amount of tabloid doctoring in Yamara. We confirm what was pretty obvious anyway. Dimensional travel is responsible for the heroes memory loss in Twilight empire.


Through the looking glass: Let's get military! Or not, as once again the real war talk only occupies a tiny amount of the column before they return to the regular reviews. We also have another amusing case of impersonation at the conventions, with people selling shoddy imitations of other companies minis. Seems like a lot of work for the money you actually get from it to me. But then again, what did that guy who impersonated Roger in 86 get from it? I suspect that they really do it for the thrill, and the money is just a justification. But then, if we were all perfectly logical, D&D would never have been created, and I wouldn't be doing this ridiculous amount of work for free. I guess I shall have to mark it down as another of the sillier little footnotes in this magazine's history.

Back to the reviews then. The HMS Intrepid gets converted to Space: 1889. A little dragon outgrows it's doghouse in adorable fashion. A good and bad guy struggle epically, frozen together forever. A team of snipers set things up for a quick kill. A nice little loghouse and barn. A japanese village for all your samurai and ninja figures to fight amongst. A large dragon that you'll have to assemble yourself. And a vampire & his ghoul minions, nominally for Shadowrun, but easily adapted, by the increasingly ubiquitous Julie Guthrie. As usual, it seems like they're going for variety in reviews to maximise the chances you'll want to buy them.


D&D rules cyclopedia! Finally, all 36 levels in a single book. Atsa gooda revisione. If only they'd put the immortals rules in there as well.


An issue where they not only show clearly how things are changing in the hobby at large, but some of the ways they've been different in the past. And the magazine seems to be making an effort to change with the times, even if some of the changes are a bit silly and not altogether desirable. Hopefully the changes will be sufficient to stave off boredom a little more. Let's finish this year, as we have the one before.