Dragon Magazine Issue 151: November 1989

part 2/3


The RPGA takes command of ravens bluff, making it into a living city. Buy it now, play a part.

Our statement of ownership this year show's it's been a very stable year. Circulation has increased by just over 2,000, creeping up to 106 thousand. However, the number of subscriptions has increased by over a thousand, while the number of newsstand copies has declined slightly recently. Curious fluctuation there. Guess more people have decided they definitely want it reliably every month. Probably a good sign.


The ecology of the kappa: Our latest oriental special continues with a themed ecology. Kappa are decidedly odd little buggers that have appeared in the magazine once before, long before OA came out. They may not be that big, but they can really mess your day up. They're another creature that while intelligent, seems completely incapable of applying that intelligence constructively. They may be able to learn to speak and write multiple human languages fluently with a fraction of the exposure people need, but all they do with that ability is harass, trick, steal and kill (all very politely, though. ) What are you to do with them, since they refuse to become productive members of society. Guess it keeps the adventurers in work. The ecologies have definitely gone downhill in both quality and frequency this year, and this shows no sign of reversing that trend. Where's the drama, wheres the society, wheres the rules interpretations, where's the new perspectives? Bored now.


Soldiers of the law: Freeze, scum! Law enforcement is just as important in oriental lands as western ones, despite the lawful alignment restrictions of many classes. Far too many samurai, monks, kensai and sohei put their own personal codes of honor above the law of the land. And for Yakuza, that is pretty much a given, and entirely to be expected. Whatever force is responsible for judging who is what alignment obviously has no objection to this state of affairs, or they'd all be losing their powers a lot more than they do. But enough of the metaphysics. This is about how they deal with the consequences of this on the ground level. Often, they don't manage too, with yakuza gangs becoming the de facto law enforcement in less salubrious areas, settling disputes with ruthless efficiency. Where the ruler does have a tight grip on the population, they have to balance the need for non lethal enforcement of the law with ruthless effectiveness to deal with the more powerful characters wandering around. This article is useful for both DM's dealing with players, and for setting up a campaign where the PC's are the law enforcement themselves. Full of quickly set up encounters, this looks like quite a helpful one, giving you stats, new honor awards, and new ways of applying familiar classes. I look forward to an opportunity to test it.


Earn those heirlooms: Hmm. Someone thinks that some OA characters getting cool stuff as an inheritance at random is unfair, and makes them overpowered compared to both western characters and the rest of their party? Well duh, that was entirely the intention. You did see the bit at the front encouraging you to use twinked new ability generation methods when playing oriental characters, and compare the descriptions and powers of the oriental classes with their western counterparts. Fairness was not a particularly high point on the agenda, while randomness was. But some people are obsessed with bringing balance to a system, even when it's such a big task as to be pretty futile. So it is here, with a system to nerf the inheritance rules. A not particularly great one, using unneeded mathematical steps that could have been handled more elegantly by simply setting the numbers differently instead of having to do extra steps of addition and division. Worra loada point missing crap. No desire to use this one at all.


TSR Previews: Buck Rogers' first trilogy draws to a close, with Armaggeddon off Vesta. It ends dramatically, of course. But the bigger question is if we'll see another one.

Both our AD&D products are Dragonlance ones this month. Well, FR was over represented last time. Guess it just turned out that way. DLE3: Dragon Keep finishes their new series of modules, where you save the good dragons of Krynn. Nowhere near as epic as last time. Bigger, and even less directional is Time of the Dragon, the new boxed set. A whole new continent for you to play in, that will be relatively free of metaplot meddling.

Top secret also completes a trilogy this month, TSE3: Web Wars. This is what happens when you set your schedules at the start of the year. Will the villains have a secret escape route ready so they can scheme to defeat Orion another day?

D&D tries to cater for that tricky second adventure market with B12: Queen's Harvest. Head from Thyatis to Karimeikos and gradually take the training wheels off.

Marvel Superheroes gives us MU5, the fifth part of the gamers handbook. Less than half the size of the first four, this brings you up to date. You'll have to do all the alphabetical insertion to the main binder yourself though.

And we also have one independent book as well. Too, too solid flesh by Nick O'Donohue. Shakespearian sci-fi murder mystery? Sounds interesting and a bit meta.


The dragon's bestiary: Wang-liang are our sole submission here this month, albeit a rather long and detailed one. Closely related to ogre magi, they're another vaguely demonic looking creature, with a huge grudge against humanity because they know our greater breeding rate is going to push them to extinction eventually. By many standards, they're not bad creatures, with plenty of honour and a commendable lack of greed, but of course, shapeshifting and tricking people with the intent of making their lives a misery is not good for the alignment. This is one of those contributions where the writer seems a little too attached to their creation, giving you lots of warnings on how not to use them, and how awesome their elders are. I do find this a little tiresome. But then, I'm an honourless human dog, so what would I know. Let's kill 'em all! To arms! Don't forget the invisibility penetrating glasses!
 

The ecology of the Yuan-ti: After a year that's been fairly light on ecologies, here we have a double whammy. This is promising. Rather a far-reaching ecology here, as they give them a life cycle that is an enormous great plot hook to adventurers. Unfortunately, it's also the kind of hook that'll turn them into one adventure ponies, as a thousand year cycle sounds cool when it's in a book, and you can be sure it's the protagonists that get to do the acts of big heroics, but is problematic in an actual sustained campaign world. And indeed, while the Histachi would make it into the next edition, quite a bit of the other stuff here would be ignored in favour of allowing the yuan-ti to mate directly with humans to keep up diversity in their bloodlines. Once again, I'm not very keen on this one, and despite being in the oriental section, it doesn't seem connected to that theme either. What is going on here? How did one of the strongest and most consistently entertaining parts of the magazine turn into a liability like this? Most bemusing.


The beastie knows best: Welcome, one and all, to the second annual beastie awards! This year, we keep it in house, with the big winner being the Pool of Radiance Computer game! If you haven't got it already, we recommend the Apple version in particular. Second in our esteem is Ultima V. Despite being well over a year old now, it's still garnering considerable amounts of votes. Will it and it's successors continue to get critical and commercial acclaim? Dungeon Master also wins awards for the second year in a row, and Tetris, Sim City, Gold rush, and lots of other familiar names from last year's reviews get their just deserts. Not a huge amount of commentary I can do on this one, so I'll leave it at that. If you can think of anything that was unjustly passed over, I'd be interested in hearing about it.


Role-playing reviews: Last month Ken decided to review a load of adventures from systems not particularly noted for them. This month, Jim is doing much the same thing, albeit with less preamble. Co-incidence or planned, I wonder?
 
Something rotten in Kislev is of course for WHFRP. Three linked adventures, in which the characters have to deal with undead, and the fact that they may be a lesser evil needed to hold off the forces of chaos. The adventures are a rich ground for tricky roleplaying, and the visual presentation is pretty good too. Plenty of scope for misinformation, moral greys, etc, here.

Tournament of dreams is a pair of pendragon adventures. A fae tournament where the virtues of the characters are tested, and an adventure of questing and single combat, it seems admirably tailored to the themes and rules of the game.
 
Harkwood is a GURPS fantasy adventure. Set in a relatively low magic region, it's also designed primarily for fighters of the mounted armoured sort, with a tournament and plenty of intrigue taking place. To foil players who read ahead, it gives you 6 different villains to choose, so they'll still have to figure out who's really behind things. Once again, the visuals and setting-building are pretty good, and in general it's a very flexible adventure which the players can take all kinds of tacks to solve.

Lords of darkness, on the other hand, gets a rather mediocre review. Many of the adventures are poorly labeled in terms of suggested levels, and others are so sketchy as to not really be much of a help. The attempt to make undead more scary is heavy handed and poorly integrated. It does have some good points, but it's definitely the weakest of this month's selection.

Dragon Magazine Issue 151: November 1989

part 3/3


The role of books: The outlaws of sherwood by Robin McKinley manages to put it's own distinctive spin on the Robin Hood legends. Not particularly historically accurate, it still tells an interesting story of a group of people becoming lifetimes in their own legends, or something.

Catastrophe's spell by Mayer Alan Brenner makes the common mistake of trying to cram too much into a single book. Shoulda given each of the main characters and plotlines their own book, then you'd be getting critically acclaimed and filing a whole shelf on the bookstores.

The scholars of night by John M Ford combines spycraft with stagecraft, with moderate success. While there are a few flaws, on the whole it manages to be a distinctive and fairly satisfying delivery. Just go back and reread it, so you can spot the references you missed first time round.

Shadow games by Glen Cook gets a rather tangental review, as he talks about why his books might be of high quality, but he finds them thoroughly unpleasant reading. Military brutality for it's own sake, and a world where it seems unlikely things will ever get better is not to his tastes.

A dirge for sabis by C J Cherryh and Leslie Fish also gets a mixed review. The attempts to fuse magic and technology don't really work here, partially due to the design of the magic system, and partially due to the writers throwing too much stuff in the mix. Meharoonie.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner manages to take the swashbuckling adventure tropes, and tell a story in a rather different style than is usual to the genre, with lots of depth and clever use of language. While there may not be overt supernatural elements, this is not a drawback.

Gameplay by Kevin J Anderson, gets a pretty negative review. From the confusion of the last installment in the series, the reviewer's opinion turns to annoyance as the rules of the universe are revealed to be so far from the usual gaming setup as to break his suspension of disbelief. Unless the final book makes some fairly substantial changes, it's not going to hold any drama for him.


The role of computers is fairly light on reviews this month, mostly comprised of previews and reader submitted stuff. They've been busy counting the votes for the awards or something. They're also eagerly looking forwards to 16, 32 bit and beyond systems becoming the norm. (They also announce the release of the Sega Genesis, woo.) Better graphics and more power are always good. Not gonna argue with you there. The problem, as ever, comes when the programmers try to use more power than the system has. And as we've found, that's still an issue decades later, with gigabytes of RAM to draw upon. Gotta live within your means. But anyway.

Silpheed is a 3D arcade shoot-em-up. You need to both master dogfighting in space, and figure out which upgrades to get between missions to enable you to cope with the final showdown. The reviewers are still struggling with this one and give it 5 stars.

Thud Ridge is a flight simulator game where you bomb the crap out of vietnam. It gets a fairly mediocre review, with a relatively simple control scheme, and another irritating copy protection scheme. I don't think we want to be reminded of this little bit of history.

Strider is the NES version, which is rather different from the arcade game, with it's ability to tackle the levels in non-linear fashion and puzzles involving one way tubes and finding items. This combination of action and puzzles appeals to the reviewers, and if it was longer, they would have given it a 5 star mark. Guess they're just getting too good for these games.


West end games gives us a decidedly pretentious teaser. Revolutionising the definition of RPG's? I'll believe it when I see it.


Through the looking glass: Robert takes the time to promote his other job, being vice president of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society, and their recent conventions. Minis are still pretty popular, and there's several new games of note this year. Limeys and Slimeys? Sounds amusing.

More formally, he gives Tactica a fairly harsh slating, giving it 1+1/2 stars. Shiny presentation masks absolutely terrible editing and rules assumptions. It might work if given a complete reworking and new edition, but for now, you really don't want to bother with this one.

On the other hand, Featherstone's complete Wargaming gets 5 stars. One of the great old men of wargaming provides his wisdom on wargaming and real history in an accessable manner. You can find out quite a lot about the hobby from this, and it even includes a game inside of it's own.

The rest of the column is fairly standard minis reviews. A Tank. A bunch of magic-users, both human and elf. A set of dwarves, and their natural enemy, an orc with a spear. Once again, the photo quality is not particularly great, with way too much black making details tricky to discern. So the usual mix of interesting and dull bits here.


At close quarters: Top Secret's article this time is a bunch of optional rules for those of you who would prefer a bit more realism in your games. Curiously, these actually make the game more cinematic. Quick drawing rules. Using guns at HtH range. Multiple action rules. Letting you use luck points to succeed at actions. They have a rather idiosyncratic idea of "reality rules" Well, anything the players can do, the enemies can too. If you use these little optional rules, you know exactly what you're getting yourself into. They did mention them in the previews. Nice to see the magazine catering to the toolkit approach. Let's hope it won't be a year before it does so again.


Paranoia has metaplot as well in the crash course manual. The computer is dead? Happiness is no longer mandatory? Hit the reset button quick! And never mention this again.


The gamers choice: Another set of awards here. Voted for primarily by Polyhedron readers (damnitt, we still don't have a thread for that magazine), and administered by the RPGA, we saw our evil overlord :Organ music, wolves howl: step into the spotlight to present them this year. Mertwig's maze, Macho women with guns, GURPS 3rd ed, Cyberpunk, and Rocky & Bullwinkle do well for themselves. Buck Rogers ties for best sci-fi strategy game with Merchants of venus, which can be interpreted as good or bad, when you consider the vastly greater amounts of promotion it got. Polyhedron itself wins best gaming magazine, which seems mildly iffy. And Pool of Radiance proves popular with this crowd as well. Oh, if only the awards were being run by people not connected with the companies, so we could be a little more sure of their impartiality. Once again, not sure what to make of this. Any opinions?


Son of the ultimate addenda: Errata, errata, you keep sending in letters about it. Once more, unto the breach, as we try and fill some more little rules holes in the Marvel superheroes system.

What happens if someone with Internal Limbo captures someone else with internal limbo (If you put someone's b hole in your a hole, it gets rather tricky to find anything inside there. Just the way to escape that dick Sarda.)

Can you combine super leaping with atomic gain? (yes, but not very well. Square-Cube law strikes again! It's much better if you shrink instead.)

What happens if you have hyper speed without travel powers. (you go faster, but don't get any further without getting tired. Pretty lame, really. )

What happens if you combine hyper speed and hyper running. (You go very fast indeed. )

What are the stats of an energy doppelganger  (Generally the same as the copied person. Such is the nature of being an imitation)


Yamara has yet more communication problems in the course of her adventures. Dragonmirth is very ironic indeed.


A bit of a clunker of an issue, really. The Oriental theme does seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel rather, the ecologies are unexpectedly weak, and apart from the awards, the rest of the issue is pretty much business as usual, with little to distinguish it. Hungover from the big celebrations, or something. Let's hope they've recovered in time for another blowout at christmas.

Dragon Magazine Issue 152: December 1989

part 1/3


116 pages. So we come to the end of the decade a very different magazine than we started it. The name has changed, twice, the staff has pretty much had a complete turnover, and the format and readership have had similarly sweeping changes. But they're still the biggest magazine in the roleplaying sphere, devoted primarily to providing cool stuff for D&D players. And whatever else they may do, that involves going into dungeons, killing things, and taking their stuff. So what better way to celebrate and reaffirm that core principle than with another underdark special. The first was one of their most successful themed issues ever. Can they repeat that, or will diminishing returns set in as it did for oriental stuff last month. Either way, let's resolve this cadence and start on the next symphony.

In this issue:


Virgin games centres give us a double page christmas spread. Damnitt. Stop rubbing it in. I want to be mainstream again.


Letters: Another letter from another person even more stupidly badass than Waldorf. Cower, puny mortals!!!!! Roger grows weary of this, but with so much public response, you've gotta do something.

A letter from someone who actually used the Outrages from the mages joke spells in their game. This has proved to be of much amusement, and the odd moment where the spells actually turn out useful. This pretty much assures their future in the next few april fools issues.

A letter mostly in praise of P N Elrod's familiars article, with a couple of little terminology quibbles. Research, research research. No amount is ever enough to satisfy everyone.

A question about when the various colours and other types of dragons appeared in the magazine. In many cases, it was quite a while ago. But we're still not going to publish any more under the same or near identical names. Find new barrels to scrape.


Forum: Toby Myers thinks that if a game doesn't cover a particular thing brilliantly, steal a subsystem or set of modifiers from another game that does it better. He's done it repeatedly to great success. Long live frankengames!

James R Collier thinks that while magic might replace the big developments, technology still has it's place in D&D worlds, especially for things that you have to do in large quantity. Magic is crap at mass production.

Jason Dunn tells a fairly dramatic story of a powerful mage who thought he could take on a whole cavern full of humanoids. While he made it, it was a close call. A combination of action economy and the odd magic item means low level characters can deal with a much smaller quantity of powerful ones with a little tactics.

Daniel J Stephans II thinks that the nerfing of the cavalier in issue 148 was a terrible idea. All their abilities make perfect sense for the concept! Not even slightly surprised to see one of these.

Jeff Cliber thinks much the same thing. Down with homogenisation and the removal of awesomeness in characters! Is anyone going to stand up for the Barbarian as well?  

Alex Martin is not amused by all the controversy surrounding D&D, and thinks that the way to fix that is to talk openly about what you do, while also being a normal, well adjusted person. Easy for you to say. Not so easy for all of us to do.

Dan Humphries is not amused about the idea of allowing evil characters because it's likely to cause the problems outlined in the last letter. Overhearing conversations results in awkward misunderstandings, and then things escalate. Better not to pretend to be mass-mudering treacherous psychopaths.

Michael J Natale, on the other hand, thinks there is nothing wrong with exploring the darker side of things in gaming. Do writers become psychopaths for writing villains. Do actors go mad trying to portray them? I seem to remember people using these same counterarguments against Katherine Kerr back in 1985. How little things have changed.


Sage advice: Which polearms do double damage against charging creatures (The ones with straight spikes. Co Mon Sense. Do you have it?)

   Can you see magical radiation. (Not unless you have appropriate powerz. )

   How do you find out exactly how many charges an item has (not easily. A lot of the time, you'll have to just trust the DM, and hope it doesn't run out at a crucial moment)

   Can you taste a potion and find out what it does immediately (If you're willing to risk it )

   Why don't the XP tables go above 20 (because we want you to stop there. The game just cannae handle it if you go much higher. You want really high power games, play BD&D instead )

   Do clerics stop getting better at turning undead at level 14 (yup. Again, you want high level scaling, play BD&D. It's far better suited to that. )

   What happened to the -10 rule (it's still around)

   Does a cloak of poisonousness have a save (No. Instant screwage. Hee Hee. Don't matter if you're black or white. )

   How quickly can you become invisible again after attacking (next round)

   Who can use an amulet against undead. (Anyone! Bitchin!)

   Shouldn't staff-spears have a chance of being +6 (no)

   What's the risk of using a helm of teleportation. (Landing in the wrong place, just like the regular spell )

   What level can a wizard specialize (normally only 1st. Allowing them to do so afterwards is purely optional, and remember, they'll have to erase a load of spells to do so. )

   Can nonwarriors have % strength (No change here dear)

   Do halflings get combat modifiers for their size (wait till next edition dear. )

   Can you wear clothes if you have strength 1 (Hee. I can't think of an answer to that that isn't funny. Well, maybe apart from the classic words of Richey Edwards about anorexia.
I want to walk in the snow
And not leave a footprint
I want to walk in the snow
And not soil its purity.
Now there's a downer for you. Let's get away from that pronto.)

   Why are there spell failure chances for wis below 9 (if you've had it drained, you don't completely lose your deific connection)

   Can nonelven characters find secret door (1 in 6! Wark! 1 in 6! Basic training! Pieces of eight!)

   Do gnomes get poison resistance like dwarves (no)

   Do you need to spend a slot to fight with two weapons (Hmm. That'd nerf it even more. Skip quite likes that idea. )

   What's the range limit on undead turning (240 yards, plus line of sight)
How long does druid shapechanging take (3 segments. Lest you forget AD&D rules. that means 18 seconds. Realisticly, you could do all sorts of stuff to them that you can't in the rules. )

   Rouges make different checks for setting snares to warriors (First, it's rogues, not rouges. Skip will rouge the next person to make that mistake with their own blood. Second, that's another mistake. Use dex for both.)

   Does 90% cover protect you from spells (only if it has a physical manifestation like a fireball )

   Can you use special powers on a surprise round (This is very much recommended.

   Taking out your enemies before they can act is the best way to fight.)

   Does the lifetime henchman limit count if they graduate rather than died (Technically, but you may want to house rule that )

   Can you pick how many people you Hold (yes)

   How much does one day's food weigh (Way too bloody much. Skip hates extended arctic adventures)

   Can specialists cast spells from opposing schools using scrolls (yes)

   What's the initiative modifier for protection spells (+3)

   Do specialists get an extra spell per level! (No, per spell level they can cast. That's somewhat less. )

   Fools gold has errata (Yeah? It's a tricksy spell. Obviously it got recursive. )

   Do bards have to learn a musical instrument (Depends what style of entertainer they are)

   Can you attack with one weapon and parry with the other (no. This is D&D, not swashbuckling adventures. You want off-hand protection, use a shield.)

   Can tongues communicate with animals (They have no language. So they will just look blankly at you. )

   How near do you need to be before attraction/avoidance takes effect (1 foot.)

   If you cast light on chalk, do you write glowing messages.  (No. That's what faerie fire is for. )  


The ecology of the umber hulk: Another underground special, another monster than dungeoneers are likely to encounter. Umber hulks are important in the underground ecology because they actually create quite a lot of tunnels. They're smart enough to engage in some nasty tactics in the process of killing you and taking your stuff, but generally ornery enough that you won't be able to keep them from attacking for any length of time. They can be used in quite a number of ways, both alive and dead, and this does have the usual advice on that kind of stuff, making them both more dangerous, and more desirable to kill. Seems like a return to playing it safe territory, with an ecology that's competent, but hardly groundbreaking. Still, better that than the failed attempts of last issue.

Dragon Magazine Issue 152: December 1989

part 2/3


In a cavern, in a canyon: Mining! One of the biggest producers of both valuable materials and future dungeons for adventurers to explore. Where would we be without it? And amazingly enough, this is a topic the magazine hasn't covered before as well. This is promising. But could also be very dull. Curiously, it manages to be both, capturing both the months of grindy tedium, and the interesting bits that happen during that time, as you find cool stuff, monsters find you, you have to deal with collapses, pockets of bad gas, seams running dry, and the omnipresent legal crap from other people when you actually try and sell the stuff. Seems like the kind of thing that would be good to incorporate when you've got to the domain management stage, and can skim through several years in a single session building up a history with the aid of a few dice rolls. Once you've done your share of killing things and taking their stuff, you've got to give back to the community, ensure that future generations have things to kill and take the stuff of. Not a classic, but certainly not a bad article either. Good to see them fill in another avenue for adventuring in a fairly plausible manner.


The wanderers below: More random encounter tables? Now taking advantage of the stuff in the Dungeoneers survival guide. This time tailored for specific regions of the underdark based upon what major features and dominant humanoid creatures are in the vicinity. I can get plenty of use out of that. A two page article that does what it says, no more, no less. The underwater one is a bit sketchy, but that's proably because there's not enough aquatic underground creatures to draw upon. Otherwise, the 9 tables are interestingly interconnected, and cover a decent range of creatures. Just be ready to run if you're a low level character, for monsters of all power levels occupy the same regions, not divided into neat depth levels like some dungeons. So much for the safety gloves, muahaha.


Reichstar? I don't remember that. Anyone have any info on it?


Role-playing reviews decided to go modern military this month. Tactics, all sorts of cool weaponry, and evil dictators to kill. For dungeon crawlers, it's like a home away from home. Just remember, you don't have magic healing to save you.  

Twilight 2000 is another possible future that is now well into the past. WWIII is not going particularly well, and your soldiers are stuck behind enemy lines. This leaves your characters free reign to take any actions they choose to survive, advance the cause, and get home. This highly focussed premise lets you get into action easily, and the design, using lots of little booklets in a boxed set, helps avoid so much flipping slowing things down. It's built up a whole load of modules in recent years, expanding on the setting options quite considerably. It definitely puts it's own spin on combat heavy modern roleplaying.

Commando is the millitary sourcebook for Top Secret/ S.I. If you want to get in, your characters need to be the best of the best. But fear not, this is not material for twinks, the enemies will be similarly badass, and both sides will have pretty scary equipment. Pleasingly, the reviewer not only points out errata, he also consults the designer to get an official response for said errata. That's one advantage of working for the same company.

Brushfire wars is a set of little adventures for said Commandos. Since they are heavily military oriented, they're only really useful in an appropriate campaign. And they are pretty tricky. No froofy narrativist stuff here. Let's get planning, then hit 'em hard and fast.

GURPS high-tech is actually focussed on modern day and near past weaponry, and other equipment. It has the same reliable clarity and detail as the rest of their supplements. No adventures here, but it shouldn't be too hard to convert them from the other games covered with these tools.


Heroquest imitates D&D by putting out an advanced edition. Games workshop like making lots of money.


Servants of the jeweled dagger: What would one of these themed bits be without an examination of some of the natives. We had Drow in issue 129, and Svirfneblin in 131. Mind flayers got attention just a couple of issues ago. Goblinoids are well covered. So Duergar seem like a good choice for a humanoid race that needs a little depth building. Superficially, they may seem slightly more similar to regular dwarves than Drow do to regular elves. But with their acceptance of trickery, magical abilities, and near complete lack of any kind of sense of humour or affection make them rather less pleasant to spend time around. This is another of those ones that seems pretty familiar to me because most of it's ideas were repeated in later 2nd ed books mentioning them. Add to that the fact it's not very long, and my world is very much not rocked. Yawn. Looks like diminishing returns is already becoming a problem for this topic as well.


Fiction: The first notch by R A Salvadore. So the master hack (if that isn't a contradiction) gives dragon magazine some fiction. Set in the Realms, what seems like a basic dwarves vs goblins scenario becomes a more complicated one, in which both sides have to work together to survive an ettin. He manages a nice line in both banter and dramatic combat sequences, establishing individual personalities, and resolving things quickly and efficiently. A quite palatable little read, and one that hews closer to D&D than most of their fiction. I actually rather like this. Let's hope he can keep the schlock-o-meter from going into the red.


Cyberspace by I.C.E. What with cyberpunk and shadowrun coming out around the same time, it looks like we have a bit of a fad going on. Obviously, not all of them will survive, as with any bandwagon.


In quest of adventure: Hmm. Questing to achieve goals for some higher power, or atone for some misdeed. Certainly something with plenty of literary antecedents. This could stand a little more incorporation into D&D. On the other hand, it's also something that could be handled very wrongly, as the crappy fiction at the start of this article shows. Arbitrary railroading for some piddling infractions while ignoring other ones is a textbook way to get a pissed off party. On the other hand, getting levels restored or a bud raised is a very expensive business, and doing a quest for that kind of thing rather than paying is a much more dramatic option, that can lead into all kinds of spin-off adventures as you encounter people along the way, and take on their adventures as well. This is a good demonstration of the fact that it's much easier to build adventures for a character if they have some strong principles or goals, as you have carrots and sticks to work with and riff off. It's also a good reminder that if the characters are becoming too powerful, you can reduce them in capability by removing stuff or putting them in a situation where they can't use it without making things worse, allowing you to reestablish a degree of drama without starting a whole new set of characters. So if you wanna kick it second edition stylee, this is a good article to draw upon. If not, treat with great caution.


Palladium reminds us that they liked TMNT before it was cool and got it's own show and movies. Don't think it's going to be all kid friendly like the new stuff.


The game wizards: One of the few people still present who was part of the company nearly from the beginning, Jim Ward is now one of the most senior figures in TSR, and has responsibilities to match. This includes a whole bunch of silly little things, like making sure the mail goes to Lake Geneva, USA, not the original Geneva in Switzerland. And not getting out of touch and remembering how to have fun, and produce games that are fun for you. He makes a few jokes about becoming an evil dictator, which probably are less funny if he's being leaned upon by TSR's real evil overlord :wolves howl, organ music plays, evil laughter: And he gives a few hints as to next year's upcoming products. Despite the touches of humour, this isn't as informative as the last couple of years end articles, and feels like worrying foreshadowing. Soon the problems you jest about will be happening in all seriousness. And you will be the one responsible for passing down the cycle of pain, making sure someone produces all the Buck Rogers stuff. How do you justify that to yourself? Definitely something worth thinking about.

Dragon Magazine Issue 152: December 1989

part 3/3


The role of computers: Dragon Wars shows that even 8 bit systems can have pretty decent graphics. Another adventure game where you start from nothing, and become a serious badass and overthrow the evil ruler of the land. Assemble a party, learn a wide variety of spells, and get exploring. The usual mix of fighting, puzzle solving and talking to annoying villagers ensues. They give it 5 stars.

The Kristal is based on a stage play, of all things. Take the role of Dancis Frake :rolleyes: and engage in space piracy. Piloting, swordfights, and the incredibly annoying problem of landing. It does have a few programming glitches, but overall, is another fun tricky game for you to grab for christmas.

Indiana Jones and The last crusade - The graphic adventure is one of the many tie-ins to George Lucas' big summer blockbuster. A point and click adventure puzzle game, you find items, solve puzzles, and talk to people to progress through the game and get top score. This'll probably take quite a few playthroughs, and consulting a hint book for the last few points. With a whole bunch of different tricks to master, they give it 5 stars. Lucasfilm do seem to put quite a bit of effort into these things.

Beyond the black hole is a stereoscopic 3D game Put on the 3d glasses, and enjoy a distant, far more sophisticated descendent of Pong. It also gets 5 stars for it's spectacular visuals and interesting gaming challenges. They are being generous today. Ahh, the joys of gimmicks. So glad we can do proper 3D games without needing stuff like that these days.


TSR Previews: Another all D&D schedule this month. On the generic side, we have the updated battlesystem rules. Are you ready to add a little mass to your combat again? No? Wimps.
More significantly, we have the complete fighter manual. Splatbooks may have been around for quite a while, but here's where they really start making their mark. Say hello to kits, lots of new toys, and all the bloat that goes with them.

The forgotten realms is really doing well again this month. The third monstrous compendium compiles a ton of creatures, many of which probably got their first appearance in the magazine, and updates them as per usual. They give us the trail map for Kara-Tur. FR9: Bloodstone lands shows you how to play really high level adventures of your own. And Pool of Radiance becomes a novel, having already been a computer game and a module. How many people will have both the desire and money to snap all these 4 up?

Regular D&D continues to quietly do increasingly strange things, with PC2: Top Ballista! Not a very informative name, this bemused me when I first heard of it. Still, skyship flying techie gnomes have potential, otherwise we wouldn't return to them. Hopefully these guys'll be less irritating than their krynnish counterparts.


Worth a thousand words: If you've been checking the letters page over the past year or two, you'll note that several people have asked for the addresses of artists, so they can communicate with them. And though they may have some trepidation, they've asked their regulars, and some of them have consented. So now you can send mail direct to Dennis Beuvais, Larry Elmore, Carol Heyer, Daniel Horne, Keith Parkinson, Ken Wilding and Robin Wood. Or actually turn up at their house, in 5 of these cases. Let's hope this is just fan mail, and the occasional freelance job offer, not opening the door to some psycho stalkers.  If any of these people, or anyone who knows them personally is reading, I'd be very interested in knowing if the results of this were positive or negative. Strange business, really.


Spiderman to wed Vanna White: As you might guess, this is our Marvel article for the month. Although really, it's applicable to any modern day game where the PC's have the potential for worldshaking deeds. Realistically, they'd be in the newspapers and TV regularly, treated like celebrities, asked to do sponsorships, and all the other crap that comes with it. Something that will become the central theme of an entire gameline in less than a decade, with the release of Aberrant. What are the legal repercussions of mind control, super intelligence, superheroes in government positions. What happens when you try and claim insurance for acts of super-villains or the people trying to foil them. So welcome to the arrival of gritty iron age realism. A short but significant article, that packs enough ideas into it's length to inspire years worth of scenarios. Feels like it was intended as filler, but is very much not. Well done to whoever picked this one out the slush pile.


Through the looking glass: We get a bit more colour photography than usual this issue, which is nice. For some reason, that seems to scan clearer. Just the usual set of reviews this month. Some pieces to construct outdoors hex terrain from GHQ. TSR's Cities of mystery boxed set gets a rather positive review. Greenfield garrisons gives us a house and inn. Probably best used if you have a regular game table that isn't constantly being cleared off for other purposes between games. A trio of vehicles intended for the OGRE game. It's been ages since they talked about that in here. Good to see it still going. Some goblin cavalry with wolves. A batman and joker pair that gets a 5 star result. A four pack of mechs for Battlemech. A boxed set of 10 Draconians for those of you who're still playing Dragonlance. And some British colonial soldiers. Pretty much business as usual here.


Make the most of your missions: Merle Rasmussen returns to give us an article on the game he created for the first time in years. If anyone should know about the game getting stale, feeling like you've exhausted all the options and are just doing the same thing over and over, it's him and Gary. And Gary isn't contributing here anymore. So he gives lots of advice on his own adventure creating techniques. Curiously, he seems to have taken a leaf from Tolkien, frequently engaging in the worldbuilding first, and then letting the story flow from that. After all, a good location gives you all kinds of ideas to work from. Stealing from other people's ideas and adapting them is also a big source of material. But it does all boil down to the same few story ideas in the end. So why not get a book on dramatic tropes, and go straight to the source. He might not be one of our most entertaining writers, but the years of practice have honed him into a pretty competent and confident designer. As this is pretty system free, it's good advice for everyone, not just modern day espionage people. And the sample ideas given show a fine mastery of the art of punning. A good combination of old and new school aesthetics. Seems a fairly decent way to close a decade.


Shades, the ultimate adventure multi-user game? Man, this telephonic networking thing is really starting to grow in popularity. Now if only they could get all these little networks to all connect together and operate off the same protocols.


Dragonmirth has plenty of food related humour. Yamara meets Ogrek the undisciplined. A very smooth operator indeed. Muahahahaha.


A solid average or slightly above this issue. With both the reaffirmation of a bunch of old elements, and the reaching out towards new ones that will become standard next decade, it feels quite appropriate as a bridging episode. While they may be repeating old ideas a bit, they are both coming up with new ones, and new spins on old ideas. You can see why they chose to create ever more exotic settings as a means of avoiding rehash, and making the same old races and classes feel fresh. It's all a logical progression, even when in hindsight, it might not have been the best idea. Oh well. Plenty of positives, plenty of negatives to come. I will let them wash through me. Hopefully my mind will not be washed away by the power of the tide, broken and left as debris on the bottom of the cliff of creativity.

Dragon Magazine Issue 153: January 1990

part 1/3


108 pages. So we've finally made it to the 90's. Cyperpunk is in. The internet is starting to seriously grow into more than just a glimmer in a few people's minds. The overall darkness quotient in gaming is up. Metaplot isn't quite the monster it will become in a few years time, but it's certainly getting there. In the meantime, roleplaying is spreading out in all directions, upwards, downwards, and several odd angles. And one of those is gods. We've had rules for playing them in D&D since 1986, but they've never got any expansion in the magazine, apart from the odd sage advice question. Let's hope this themed issue fixes that little oversight.

In this issue:


Letters: Another forward thinking suggestion. How about putting the magazine on CD, and sending it out that way? It would save transport costs and allow for more colour on the cheap. Roger continues to be conservative. You might save money in the long run, but changeover costs would be a bitch, and he's feeling lazy at the moment.

A suggestion that an article containing a transcript of play might be a neat thing to put in the magazine. Once again, Roger is skeptical. They still don't have the technology to do stuff like this easily, and it'd have to be a damn good one to merit inclusion, because these things can get loooong and stupidly tangental.

A letter from a German gamer eager to see a translation of the new edition. Funny you should mention that. It should be arriving right now!

A letter asking what happened to Judges Guild. They are very much deid sonny, largely thanks to us. But their game lines live on! Whether you support them is up to you.


Sage advice: What spells do clerics know (Any allowed by their spheres. Yeah, why play a wizard when clerics outclass them in most areas. )

   How is bless different from chant and prayer (they affect different things. Read closely, because you need to know what you'll have if you stack them )

   Can you suspend bless' duration between melee (no)

   What happens if you bless cursed items (recycled question. Go away now)

   What happens if you bless weapons. (nothing, unless it hits a rakshasa)

   How does blindness and deafness affect spellcasting (more recycling? Have you people learned nothing from Skip? )

    Can you cast command and turn undead in the same round (no, they use up the same action type. We really ought to formalize this. )

   Does being at deaths door have any lasting effect (no. Once they've got 1hp, they're straight back to full performance. Doncha just love D&D)

   Can you put a gyph of warding on a weapon and hit things with it. (no. They have to touch it, not it touch them. Subtle difference there, but important)

   Can you move paralyzed creatures (With great mischief. )

   Can light spells break a demon's darkness ability (What demons? This is second edition. No demons here. You can, however cancel out a Tanar'ri's darkness power. )

   Create water only makes a few piddling inches of water? ( No, you forget your minis scale. )

   Does protection from evil move with the caster (Yes, but don't try to barge past creatures. It's bad manners )

   How badly messed up are you after being raised ( Lets just say you won't be up and killing things straight away. )

   What are the stats of animated rocks ( Better than most weapons, but not as good as an actual elemental. So it goes)

   Can call lightning affect underwater creatures. (only if they're close to the surface )

   What are the disabling effects of being burned by heat metal (none. Abstract HP system strikes again!)

   Can a wall of fire be used to surround someone (yes indeed. Not a nice thing to do, but pleasantly dramatic. )


Forum: Alex Iwanow agrees with Jeremy Gilliam that D&D is simpler and less realistic than AD&D. That's the point. However, that does not mean it's less fun, or that there is less roleplaying while playing it. That all depends on the DM and players, and sometimes, removing mechanical bits makes this run easier.

Rusty Ballinger gives his suggestion for balancing out demihumans while still allowing them unlimited progression. Varying multipliers based upon their various lifespans. This would only be a balancing mechanism in games which span long periods of time, but it would work. You'd need to structure your game so regular character turnover and characters of widely varying levels in the same party didn't cause problems. Better start putting sandcastles in that sandbox.

S D Anderson disagrees with Richard Emerich in great detail, using numbered points. There are better ways in which to run convention games. Much of it seems to boil down to not taking crap from players or letting one person dominate the game. Prepare prepare prepare.

Ed Friedlander continues to be a prolific forumite as well as a contributer, talking about the responses to his Dragon upgrades. He's pleased to see other people making clever monsters as cunning and prepared as they should be. Fear their diabolical plans.

Michael Norrish also thinks cleric's powers and behaviours should reflect their gods. If they don't, then their powers should go byebye. Simple enough.


The goals of the gods: Yeah, we've chosen our topic for the month. So what events are big enough to attract the attention of a deity, with their enormous cosmic power, and living space considerably less restricted than the average genie? Since they are also frequently petty, egotistical and vengeful, the answer is you'd be surprised. And since a lot of their interest is in playing cosmic games with/against other gods, once one has noticed you and taken an interest, the odds of others interfering in your life as well goes up exponentially. But this is as much about the way gods deal with one-another and their capabilities as it is about their goals. We get a strong reminder that they are not invincible or infallible in most mythologies. Skilled and lucky humans can best them, although they often wind up regretting it. They will dally with mortals, often producing exceptional offspring with the potential for great deeds and becoming full gods themselves. They can be overthrown, although again, not easily. It also has some slightly cleverer advice, such as pointing out that if their power is derived from worshippers, the ones who's portfolios are most important to everyday life are likely to get the most attention, and therefore wind up in charge. On the whole, I think following this advice in your campaign building will be beneficial for your game. Even at the top end, they're just people with limits, and personal likes and dislikes. If they weren't, they'd never do anything, and might as well not be there. And where's the fun in that?


As above, so below: Ahh, here we have another problem with gods. When there are multiple pantheons with mutually contradictory origin stories and overlapping portfolios, how do you resolve the conflict? This is particularly a problem when you try and put monotheistic and polytheistic stuff into the same cosmology. Someone has to be wrong, and whichever side it is ain't going to be happy. The solution usually involves ruling in favour of the big one or two in some way, since monotheism is currently in vogue in the real world, and then leaving the big god distant, while the local pantheons bicker and interfere with people on a regular basis. This article chooses to draw heavily on babylonian dualistic myths which also got combined with many lesser gods to show how this might work. Not with quite as much style as it would later be managed in D:tF or Witchcraft, but still, perfectly serviceable. And another thing they haven't mentioned in the magazine before, which is pleasing to see. Course, if you design your world from scratch, you don't need to worry about this crap. And it's only really an issue if you want a kitchen sink universe using all the monsters in the books anyway. So this may or may not be a problem for you, but once again, forewarned is forearmed. Once again, I don't have a problem with this.

Dragon Magazine Issue 153: January 1990

part 2/3


Following in their footsteps: The Greek gods again? Yawn. So overplayed. The title is very appropriate in this case, as they encourage you to flesh out your characterization of priests of various gods by playing them as mini-me's of their masters. All together now. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS! Do priests of our own god go around creating things and personally smiting anyone who breaks the rules of the bible? And actual historical priests of the greek gods were more oracles and the like. Plus there's also the fact that a lot of the time, they weren't priests of a specific god, but more a general spiritual intercessionary. And that's not even getting into the tendency of many gods, like mortal rulers, to be hypocrites who hold their servants to standards they themselves flout with impunity. I think this falls into the category of fail. Remember, diversity and specialisation within a hierarchy leads to maximum effectiveness. Trying to force all your employees into a cookie cutter mould will not be good for your cause, and should be reserved for dumb and/or oogy alien gods who have no appreciation of human frailty.


Your place in the grand scheme: The alignment debates are raging a full force in the forum at the moment. It's no surprise that when supreme forces and cosmology are brought up, the place of good and evil, law and chaos in D&D's system becomes an issue to examine. Question is, is it defined by people and gods to some extent, or does it only define them, with good and evil being forces you can objectively measure the quantity and quality of in a person, place or action? Yet more pontification on how to handle clerics, gods, alignment and philosophy in your game, hopefully without offending anyone. Some of the bits I agree with, some I don't, but even in opposition, you define more about what you do like and intend to do in your own design process. Just remember, ability and ambition are not strongly correlated statistics, (probably my biggest gripe. ) and the people in charge are not often the most insightful. (It'd be a better world if that was true)


Fiction: Firebearer by Lois Tilton. Still in theme here, with this little piece putting a slightly different spin on the legend of Prometheus. Deliberately low key, the protagonist of this story might not actually change anything in the long run, but they still tug on the heartstrings, creating a bittersweet little story that reminds us that even a small gesture can make a big difference to someone else's suffering. Another little life lesson that we would do well to try and imitate in reality.


The game wizards: Elminster is back. Funny how we've actually seen less of him in the magazine since the realms got a full game line. But he's as mischievous as ever, taking time to mock things like Alias' attire on the front of Azure Bonds, and the upstart new gods of magic and superdickery. (What? ) The events of the last few years require a big hardcover book to update things for those who haven't read all the novels, and give us a grab bag of new material, serving as a stop-gap until they can justify a full new boxed set. Spheres for speciality priests, updated 2nd edition changes (oh, those poor assassins guilds) lots of new geographical details, the works. Course, there's plenty more coming to make this stuff out of date again, with the Horde rapidly sweeping across the steppes, soon to hit the eastern realms, bringing massively increased OA crossovers in their wake. Jeff once again demonstrates that he can make pimping fun, and also that he finds Elminster rather more scary to deal with than Ed does by now. Still, it's obvious that the Realms is a healthy gameline at the moment. You're going to have to get running to keep up with this lot.


The role of books is getting in on the theme this month. Which is somewhat unusual for them. How nice of them to join in.

Quest for apollo by Michael Lahey has an interesting combination of elements, as serious story, humour, and huge numbers of literary and historical references get combined into the search for the sun god. (because without him, the sun won't work properly, which'll kinda put a crimp on the world. ) The result is fun but flawed, with a twist ending that doesn't quite work. Better luck next time.

Darkunders way by Tom Deltz combines celtic and native american myth in low-key but well realized style, as his existing characters discover there's more than one alternate magical dimension out there. It looks like this series continues to build nicely.

Tantras and Waterdeep by Richard Awlinson are of course parts two and three of the Avatar Trilogy. They don't get a particularly favourable review. Far too many events hinge on fiat. Elminster's death isn't convincing at all, the pairing of Midnight and Cyric works awkwardly as a party, and the whole thing feels driven by the bigger metaplot events rather than a proper story in it's own right. Such are the problems of writing to a preproscribed brief on a tight deadline.

The barsoom project by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes is a sequel to Dream Park (reviewed in issue 52) It doesn't quite live up to it's predecessor, mainly due to a bloat of plotlines, but it's still interesting as both theoretical speculation and a multilayered suspense plot with impressive visuals.

The jehovah contract by Victor Koman sees a private eye hired to assassinate God. (As Terry Pratchett would later parody in Hogfather) This contentious premise is mitigated by a likable protagonist, but it's logic runs out near the end, and it goes out with a whimper rather than a bang.

The steerswoman by Rosemary Kierstein creates an interesting, deliberately atheistic world, divided by gender, and driven by technology as magic. Sharing information vs keeping it secret isn't the usual axis of conflict in these stories, and the other alien worldbuilding touches add up to create a quite distinctive story.

Starbridge by A C Crispin sees her branch out from collaborative fiction and create her own world. A whole bunch of alien first contacts happen in quick succession, and our protagonists have to keep things from getting out of hand and manage peaceful diplomatic relations with some decidedly strange creatures. The setting established seems pretty good grounds for conversion to gaming.


The ecology of the manticore: Ahh, this is much more like it. An ecology that both tells an entertaining tale, and lampshades a few mythological tropes. Why would a rampaging monster attack heavily armed and armoured knights over defenseless peasants? Well, in manticores case, it's so they can regrow their tail spikes. That iron's gotta come from somewhere, and unlike Xorn, they can't dig it out of the ground themselves. As they have strong feline components, trying to train them is a complete waste of time, but that doesn't stop people from trying. The story also uses a bunch of recognisable D&Disms such as wizards and clerics being for hire, and resurrection being treated as, if not commonplace, a purchasable commodity that most people are aware of. A thoroughly enjoyable ecology. Lets hope they've got their groove back for the new decade.


Through the looking glass: Another bit of crafting instruction this month, as we get some tips on how to build your own dragon. Although the way he handles it, it seems easier to create dracoliches, working as he does by building the skeleton out of wire and then covering it with epoxy. The results will be pretty light for their size, and a surprisingly small base point will be all that's needed to secure a rearing or flying model. Just make sure you get the centre of gravity right, and don't sit on it, because it'll deform horribly. With three pages of full colour photography taking the sample model from skeleton to completion, this is a pretty little column, and shows that building stuff like this is surprisingly cheap as well. You make it seem surprisingly appealing. I think this counts as a success.

Dragon Magazine Issue 153: January 1990

part 3/3


The voyage of the princess ark! What a way to kick off the new decade. One of the coolest series they've ever done, and one that plays a huge part in building up Mystara's setting. I'm going to enjoy this. Welcome to the journals of Prince Haldemar of Haaken. We start of with a huge and amusing statement that everything you know is wrong! The map we saw in the Master set, while geographically fairly accurate, was annotated by someone who had barely been beyond Thyatis, and just made up place names based on in-jokes and their relations and pets. Sounds like the kind of thing that could really happen. Academics are like that.

We then fast-forward several months, into the future. To explore beyond the known world, they've somehow managed to fix up an entire flying skyship with a crew decently equipped with all classes and plenty of magical gear. This certainly isn't your usual adventuring party. They're starting off at a level of epicness most campaigns finish before reaching. How are they going to be challenged by whatever they face if they're already this powerful?

 Their first couple of months is spent exploring the coast immediately to the south of the known world, just past the inner sea and the isle of dread. Labeled as the four kingdoms, there's actually nothing but jungles and savages there. They lose quite a few men to the various threats, but collect a man eating plant, and raise one of the lost crew as a zombie servant to handle catering.

So it's immediately apparent that these guys are from the pragmatic bastard school of adventuring. They take whatever the DM throws at them, and figure out how to turn it to their advantage, even if the results look somewhat strange. And I already know that they accumulate several more bits of weird stuff before I came in to the story, so I'm very much looking forward to finding out what happened in the episodes between here and there. With proper continuity, it looks like I'm going to enjoy this even more than I did first time around.


Your best chances: Ability generation statistics again, only updated to the new edition. At least they didn't call it What are the Odds a third time. Just what is the probability of being able to join each class with each of the 6 dice rolling methods. For straight 3d6, the chances of joining the big boys like paladins and rangers is well under 1%. The others increase the probability dramatically, but even for them, your average ability scores will still be somewhere between 12 and 13, so it's best to specialise. Looks like the average 2nd edition character will actually be less twinked than one using UA rules. So much for power creep being a linear progression. In another interesting touch, the writer (our frequent forumite Ed Friedlander) also introduces a method VII, roll 18d6 and assign them to each score.  A method I developed independently, and am quite fond of using myself. A pretty well presented set of statistics, and one that refutes accusations of 2nd ed being power gamey compared to 1st. Sure, you can break it more with the right kits and other stuff from supplements, but at least you'll have to work at it.


The role of computers: Their finest hour: The battle of Britain sees Lucasfilm's game division continue to excel. George must make a lot of money keeping this stuff in house. Course, in this case he can adapt the x-wing flying system, as this focusses on the airborne side of things. Learn to fly a whole bunch of different planes, with very different capabilities, and then engage in bombing runs, dogfights, and similar nerve-wracking experiences. While there is a bit of flicker and slowdown when too many things are on screen, that probably makes things easier in those hectic situations. And it doesn't stop them from giving it 5 stars.

Swords of Aragon combines individual roleplaying and strategic level battle as you attempt to take over the country. Normally, that's the kind of thing you have to foil, so that's a refreshing change. Assemble armies, form alliances, and complete missions. An ambitious goal, but the excecution is a little lackluster, with neither the combat system nor the resource management being particularly user friendly, and the computer blatantly doesn't have the same limitations as you. They want to like it, but overall, found it a little too frustrating.

Space Rogue combines space combat with a certain degree of roleplaying and trading. Raid ships, sell their stuff to the various factions, and try to get somewhere decent. A fairly short and favourable review.


A funny thing happened to me on the way to the mission: Looks like Merle is well and truly back in the saddle, with a second set of roleplaying and worldbuilding advice for Top Secret in succession. In reality, random crap happens to even the most meticulous planner, and learning how to compensate for that (and in this case figure out what is an enemy agent scheme, and what is just another case of everyday randomness and incompetance) is another thing that makes the difference between a genuinely organized and successful person and an obsessive compulsive twit who's day is completely ruined whenever things aren't just so. Most of this article is a huge list of things to throw at your players, easily adapted to any modern day campaign, and many just as suitable for your fantasy and futuristic ones. It does encourage you to pick and choose them, rather than rolling purely randomly, but that also seems relatively easy to houserule. When you're getting bored of the same old wandering monsters, incorporating these ideas'll definitely liven your players day up. Muahaha.


Awash in phlogiston: So spelljammer is out. And like anything that pushes the envelope, there are going to be people who don't get it. Some just don't like it, and our stalwart game designers can shrug and tune them out. But it's the ones that want to like it, but have rules questions that eat up your time, that can really wear you out. And you can't pawn them all off on Skip. Once again unto the breach. Yes, there was only supposed to be one neogi deathspider and mindspider. Yes, there are some more ships statted that don't have illustrations. No, there aren't any new spacefaring proficiencies ...... yet. No, there aren't phlogiston flow charts missing, we never put them in in the first place. We shall make sure these unclear bits are fixed in the next printing. Like most errata articles, this isn't very interesting. Jeff tries to slip in a few bits of humour, but they don't work nearly as well when they aren't coming from Elminster. File under regrettable necessity.


TSR Previews: Not a very long list of products this month, but a decent variety. Spelljammer gets it's first module, SJA1: Wildspace. Seems to be custom designed to get existing PC's from another campaign involved in the new shinies. You do know you can never truly go home after this.

Dragonlance gets it's turn to have a monstrous compendium focussing on it's monsters. MC4 details draconians, and all manner of other weird creatures. Some of them are probably new as well.

Greyhawk gets it's first product in a while, WG12: Valley of the mage. Just what is that damnable mage playing at? You'll have to be pretty high level to venture in a and find out. Watch out for the stubby gnomes.

The Forgotten Realms gets The Halfling's gem, by R A Salvadore. See Wulfgar, Drizzt, and the rest of their ensemble cast get into yet more trouble.

And if standalone's your thing, there's Dark Horse, by Mary Herbert. A woman dressing up as her brother and going to avenge his death? With an intelligent magic horse? Oh, the drama. Sounds a bit twee really.


Dragonmirth gets a darker and more complex background, like everything else this decade. Yamara gets a tempting offer to switch sides.


Another mixed bag of cool and dull stuff. They didn't give me what I wanted with the themed section, but it wasn't bad material, nonetheless. The princess ark stuff is of course a welcome addition to the roster, and I look forward to them developing that over the next few years. Still, this has proved once again that there's plenty of stuff well within their remit that they aren't covering. And they will have to get round to it if they want to keep the rehash at bay. Let's build and support those settings. How many articles has Dragonlance had in here since it's release? Not nearly enough. Let's keep searching, for that perfect blend. :fade-out to smooth jazz:

Dragon Magazine Issue 154: February 1990

part 1/3


108 pages War! Huh! What is it good for? Having another fighter centric themed issue without actually calling it that! 5 new articles about kicking ass and taking names. Could be good, could be nothing special. Still, little has changed in the overall format, so I have little to say here. Cover's nice, though.

In this issue:

Crystal power? Genuine quartz set in solid sterling silver? Rassenfrassen load of new age crap. Even grimdark is preferable to this ponciness.


Letters: A letter from someone who is very cross indeed about one of the recent letters in the forum. That kind of vulgarity should have no place in this magazine. What ARE your criteria for selecting them? Roger gives a straight answer, but I can sense his undercurrent of amusement. The point of the forum is debate, so he picks letters likely to provoke it. By that criteria, he's succeeded admirably this time.  

A letter asking why Dungeon magazine doesn't run contests. Wouldn't this be better answered by them, not us? In any case, they have far more submissions than they need. They don't need to prod the wasps nest of amateurs that this kind of thing would bring in.


Sage advice does another 1st edition session. More evidence of their friendliness towards the old stuff compared with the modern staff)

    Can a magically terrified creature fight back (only if it's cornered. Rats, extremis, you know the drill. )

   Can lightning bolts be cast vertically or diagonally (yes. Pew pew pew pew. Just watch the angles don't bounce back, and remember your pythagoras to determine how far it goes in each direction.)

   How do you handle stinking cloud. ( It's pretty gross, whether you make the save or not. )

   Can you seal someone's mouth with hold portal (no. Inapplicable target.)

   Do you have to check to see if dispel magic affects your own spells (no. It works automatically )

   What's the area of phantasmal force (pretty damn biiiig )

   What's the area of cone of cold (not so big)

   Can unseen servants fly (yup. Not as fast as arial sevants, though. But at least they don't go bonkers on you. )

   Can you cast spells if you're polymorphed (only if you have a suitable voice and digits )

   What can keep mordenkainen's disjunction from working. (it's certainly not impossible. )

   Who gets affected first in a group of sleeped creatures (caster's choice)

   Does anti magic shell destroy spells (no, it only suppresses them. Very different results)

   Does haste double the speed of magical locomotion (no. You really don't want to do the locomotion at double speed. It'd be horribly squeaky, for one thing. )

   Isn't weird overpowered (Not really. Very subjective. Remember, it's not real. )

   Does magic missile ever miss (No. If it did, this wouldn't be proper D&D. )

   Does stoneskin protect you from Ice storm hailstones (No. It's magic. )

   Can you repair a simulacrum (Not easily.)

   Can you magic jar a simulacrum ( Again, not easily. )

   Can you complete components of spells separately (No. You disrupt the pattern, the spell goes kaput)

   Can you be multiply charmed ( Yes. Too many conflicting loyalties may cause freakout, of course.)

   Just how does invisibility work exactly? ( Oh, you craaaazy rules lawyers, always thinking up angles we haven't covered. Don't worry, Skip has it all under hand )

   How high can you go with levitate ( As high as the duration lets you. You only want to go half that, otherwise you'll be coming down terminally though.)

   How many spells does a 1st level magic-user have (Never enough. Never enough.)

   Do spells end when their casters die (Wouldn't have many magic items around if they did)

   How long can you hold a touch spell ( Until you next touch someone or stop trying. Watch out, because touching your friends by mistake may ruin this friendship. )

   Where are the rules for spell malfunction (they're different for every spell, so you'll have to make them up yourself. You encouraged to be as evil as you can.)

   How often can you sleep (Good question. Skip doesn't want to encourage the 15 minute workday, but.......... )


Editorial: Hmm. Roger decides to put his ramblings on a page of their own, rather than a sidebar with other stuff, thanks to legal being a pain in the butt. This is an interesting change, and one I know becomes standard with later editors. That's worth noting. Here, he talks about the end of the cold war, and it's impact on post-apocalyptic gaming. He notes that games covering it have got more serious in recent years, but I think that's more due to general trends than people taking the end of the world more seriously in particular. Don't worry, people will soon find other reasons to predict the end of the world. It's virtually hard-coded into us. Comes with the whole mortality gig. In the meantime, let's enjoy the increasing popularity of modern day games. Goes to show how immersed in gaming he is, if his thoughts on huge current events are how that'll impact gaming. Most amusing.


A big hairy tusked guy with a club saying Watch for us soon? What's all that about then? Ahh, the joys of cryptic teasers.


The game wizards: Oh dear. It's James Ward justifying their new family friendly policy of gamemaking. It's a game integrally based around killing things and taking their stuff. This is always going to be a bit problematic. But still, he has his orders. Devils and demons are out. Nipples are staying firmly covered at all times. Blood and guts are staying offscreen. Raping and pillaging isn't even going to be mentioned as forbidden. And they are going to resolutely pretend that D&D is a PG game in which violence is secondary to role-playing and exploration, and all the PC's are heroic. Heeeere we go. The 2nd edition changeover has been fairly sedate up till now. Most people probably hadn't even noticed that the extraplanar creatures were consciously censored. But now they do. If you thought all the letters from angry mums were tiresome, you aint seen nothing yet. Guess this is turning out to be a more significant issue than I first thought. A short article, but of course, pebbles can start an avalanche. I wonder how long it'll take for the letters and forum pages to be filled with responses to this. :rubs hands:


Forum: James R Collier has some more suggestions on how clerics ought to be further differentiated from wizards and each other. Their gods shouldn't design their power granting systems with so many abusable loopholes. Pretty much the opposite of the 4e approach.

Charles Bingham is another person who finds it easy to convert stuff between D&D and AD&D. The people trying to put one above the other are missing the point and quite a bit of fun they could have by combining the best bits.

Michael Griffith encourages you to play your evil enemies as sneaky sadistic bastards, not mindless frontal attackers. All's fair in love and D&D battles, as long as you don't break the actual game rules.  

Amy M Traub tells us about her own gaming group, which features 5 kender, including a chaotic evil half kender half dark elf mage. :makes sign of the cross: It burnssess, it does. She also uses the dreadfully annoying true neutral as lawful good one day and chaotic evil the next method of balance. Seems like a textbook example of badwrongfun gaming to me. No thanks.

Jim O'Brien is finding that his local players are getting increasingly shallow and stereotyped in their roleplaying. What the devil. Aren't you supposed to get better at stuff the more you practice? Yes, I know you're getting older and have other things in your life, but that's no excuse to get lazy. Might as well not play at all if you're not going to put the effort in to do it properly.

H. K. McCoy thinks that you don't get enough nonweapon proficiency slots under the normal rules. He proposes that you should be able to get some more by paying an xp surcharge each level. I don't object to either concept.

Dragon Magazine Issue 154: February 1990

part 2/3


Warrior kings and empire builders: So you want a domain? In D&D, you can get a little place of your own to rule relatively easily once you get to name level. But what if you're not content with that? It's conquerin time! This article focusses on two of realities most successful empire builders, Julius Ceasar, and Charlemagne, their techniques and foibles. Being a conquerer requires considerable logistical and negotiation skills as well as personal badassedness. They really ought to represent that kind of thing better mechanically, because at the moment, wizards and clerics seem far better suited to being leaders of an army. Still, it's full of ideas that seem appropriate to members of any class, and indeed reality as well. (yes, I'm looking at you, George W Bush. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. ) You've got to strike a balance between accessability and not micromanaging too much. You need a strong team of assistants, but watch out for grand viziers taking over, making you nothing but a figurehead. You need to make sure you don't extend your grasp beyond what you can actually hold, with things like supply trains being crucial. All fairly familiar stuff, solidly presented. Can't get particularly worked up about this either way.


TWERPS! Take that, stupidly complex acronymic titles! Another amusing parody hits the adverts pages.


The making of a paladin: Great. More on this irritating subject. :sigh: A relatively short article that feels more like an extended forum piece, this rebutts some of the recent controversies around them, with some talk on their training, and how they differ from clerics and regular fighters. The writer takes the approach that getting into classes is not an easy business, requiring years of training from youth rather than being derivable from divine inspiration or picked up on the job. Not the best approach from a dramatic story point of view, and also one that fosters the view of Paladin as elitist asshole detached from everyday problems and compromises. Not very keen on this one, as it very much does not solve the stereotyping and characterization problems that bedevil the class. No help here. Moving swiftly on then.


All in the family: Heraldry! There's something we haven't seen covered since 1981. And since this new article draws heavily on the new proficiency system, there's vary little rehash involved. Unfortunately, this leads to a textbook case of supplements spreading slots too thin, with 8(!) needed to get all the skills involved. Not a very well considered bit of mechanics. No-one's going to bother with that. Well, not unless the guild has it's own draconian enforcement methods to keep the nobles in line and employing their services, which this certainly presents hints towards. Overall, it's an entertaining but decidedly problematic article, with lots of cool little flavour bits, but decidedly dodgy crunch meaning they may not work out well when applied to your game. Y'know, Roger, as an editor you're supposed to spot and fix issues like this. I guess the system's still new, they haven't had time to see the bugs develop yet.


John Denver says plant a tree for your tomorrow. More crap completely untargeted advertising. Go AWAY! We get enough of this from Michael Jackson. We do not need sensitive acoustic guitar playing on top of the eco crap preaching. And don't you even think about joining in, Ozzy. For the supposed prince of darkness, you don't half have a bunch of soppy preachy ballads in your back catalogue. I'm watching you. Erm. Sorry about that folks. We now return you to your scheduled reviewing.


For king and country: Hmm. Army based gaming. There's something you'd think we'd have more on than we do. We've had quite a bit of stuff on playing and managing an army from the top down, since D&D does have extensive wargaming roots, and the name level stuff presents that as a default option. We've had several editorials from Roger about gamers within the real world military. But roleplaying as a standard grunt or a special forces troop within an army? Somehow we've managed to get this far without the magazine mentioning the idea, save in relation to Top Secret, a few reviews of modern games, and as your backstory in Traveller. And it's such an easy setup to create adventures for, because you have someone actively issuing your characters with missions without the railroading complaints. This article takes a fairly gritty simulationist approach to the topic, with tables where you roll to enlist, to find out your odds of promotion, what duty you're assigned too, and what happens during a particular year. You may want to fudge these a bit to ensure the group can stay together if not playing a solo game. It also sticks closely to the medieval fighter-centric view of armies, where they don't take advantage of the awesome benefits having magical healing and artillery in your arsenal to win wars. So it's a well written article on it's own terms, with plenty of detail, that is at the same time, very poorly suited to D&D worlds and campaign gaming. There is a good campaign to be had with this idea, but you'll have to find somewhere else to draw from if you want to avoid an awkwardly disjointed experience.


The deathgate cycle, the new heptology by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. They can really churn them out.


How to win wars and influence people: Thomas M. Kane gets a second article in on the theme. This is another one drawing heavily on realism issues, pointing out that logistics are usually a bigger enemy to overcome for an army than the supposed human foe. Disease, horrible terrain, disorganised command chains, morale issues, this is why zombies really revolutionise fantasy warfare. With plenty of quotations by Sun Tzu and other noted generals, they once again remind us that real battles bear very little resemblance to D&D ones, and are more commonly exercises in who can get the drop on the opponent and break their spirit rather than head on fights that end when one side is all dead. It's no wonder that adventuring party seems a far more glamorous option than army grunt. So with all the themed articles this month being at mediocre or below, this has not been a good issue so far. Let's hope the other features manage a bit better.


Role-playing reviews: Genre mashing! In the infant days of roleplaying, people piled everything they could into D&D, largely due to lack of other options. However, these days, we have systems specifically designed for very particular blendings of genres, instead of just a straightforward kitchen sink. And let's face it, this isn't a bad thing at all. So Ken's chosen remit this month is to examine some of these experiments, see which ones have turned out best.

Space 1889 sees GDW put a very different spin on space opera from Traveller. Drawing heavily on the works of Jules Verne, H G Wells, and other proto pulp and sci-fi authors, it sees the british empire extending their reach to the rest of the solar system in steampunk spaceships. The combat system seems designed to facilitate swashbuckling adventures where you're far more likely to pass out and have to escape or be rescued than killed outright, and you can integrate the board game into the overall ruleset for extra airship battley fun. And the settings of mars and venus are well developed and full of adventure hooks. It all seems like good rip-roaring politically incorrect fun. Very tempting.

Shadowrun of course merges cyberpunk with D&D flavour fantasy to create a game more popular than any of the pure cyberpunk games out there. Demihuman PCs. Various monsters, including Dunkelzahn the dragon CEO and all the undead people love to tell stories with. All the cool powers you're familiar with from years of gaming, plus cyberware enhancement and netrunning minigames. It's no wonder it appeals to a broad range of people. It is however, a bit mechanically dense and clunky, with disconnected subsystems all over the place that take quite a lot of learning. Ken is a bit dubious as to if it'll be worth it. Wait 'til the next edition unless you can take the steep learning curve.

Course, it's easy to forget that AD&D has quite a lot of clunky bits bolted on itself, it's just that we're used to them from years of play. Spelljammer adds more than it's fair share of these, as thy have to figure out ways of handling gravity, air supply, ship combat and interstellar flight that are fun and not too bogged down in realism. As with Shadowrun, the familiar elements should help ease the transition to new vistas. There are several new PC and NPC races, and quite a few existing monsters get repurposed for the new environment. You can have weird and wonderful adventures in in a setting more akin to some medieval fantasist's idea of space than the real thing, or you can just replace the hollow asteroids and ruined spaceships for regular dungeons and carry on pretty much as usual. Once again, even the official designers are swinging back towards freewheeling, house rule happy fun in their gaming. Ken is positively giddy with the possibilities, and I'm pretty positive he's not just saying that to be a company shill this time. Roll on the supplements.  

In another amusing footnote, we find out that cyberpunk authors are becoming aware of the RPGs based on their work just as quickly as the fantasy ones, with Walter Jon Williams providing an official conversion of his Hardwired novel for the Cyberpunk system. This comes highly recommended as well. Interesting. They don't miss a trick. D&D's new system for making faerie folk available as PCs seems to be pretty decent as well. All in all, a very positive set of reviews, with a well above selection of notable products. This has been a fun bit of reviewing.

Dragon Magazine Issue 154: February 1990

part 3/3


Fiction: Raistlin and the knight of solamnia by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. (Or just Racy Hickman :rips bodice: if you go by the misspelled contents page ) This is a little prequel piece in which our delightfuly 'cesty little canon pairing engage in a little small scale heroism, lifting a curse and learning a few moral lessons, which, this being a prequel, they'll fail rather to take on board. Story of their world. An amusingly chaotic intro in which kender get all the dread they deserve segues into an adventure where the heroes win by brains rather than brawn and the supposed good guys are proved to be prideful jackasses, again. :shakes head: Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from these two. If you like their work, you'll like this. If not, you know what to do by now.


The role of computers: Mines of Titan is a sci-fi RPG set on Saturn's moon. A pretty open ended game, your theoretical goal is to earn enough money to leave. In the meantime, there's tons of things to do. You can gamble. You can go bounty hunting. You can talk to people and get all sorts of missions. Choose your buddies carefully, and make sure you train up before tackling the hard missions. Another way to eat up hours and hours of your life.

David Wolf: Secret agent gets a fairly negative review because it's mostly animated cut-scenes where you have no power to influence the plot at all. The bits where you do have control are ridiculously easy as well. Lame. Go rent a movie instead. This is what happens when you try and build a game around a gimmick instead of strong gameplay design.

M1 Tank platoon, on the other hand, gets 5 stars. Not only do you have to pilot a tank, you get to control a whole platoon and co-ordinate their actions against the enemy. This is one instance where you really need to read the manual, which as it's 200 pages long, means this game won't be for everyone. But with both great graphics and a huge tactical challenge with near infinite options, it's just the thing for a bunch of jaded reviewers.

Star fleet II: Krellan Commander sees you attacking the humans you were saving in the last installment. it's another enormous game, so much so that you'll need to adjust your computer's buffer settings to avoid crashes, and it'll still be sluggish unless you're on a high end machine. But once again, that doesn't mean they don't like it, just that you should think before buying.

Several other notable new games mentioned in the news section. Ghostbusters II. Double Dragon! And the second dragonlance conversion, Dragons of flame. They also seem to be getting over their griping about copy protection phase. That's a vague relief.


Novel ideas: Hmm. Looks like we have a second new column starting this month. The book department is one of TSR's most profitable divisions now, with it's relatively low materials costs, and mass market penetration even among non gamers. Actually, they've recently found out that they're the second biggest sellers of fantasy books in the whole country. So why not give it a little more promotion. Better than throwing good money after bad. And so the magazine becomes a little less about roleplaying, and a little more a mouthpiece for promoting whatever TSR is up to at the moment. On the plus side, I finally get to find out a bit about Jeff Swycaffer, along with Mary Herbert and Robin Bailey, as they profile the writers behind some of their recent and upcoming books. The books they've written, a little about their lives, their literary influences. It's been a few years since they last ran profiles on people, and this is fairly interesting reading, although I get the impression that they did some serious cutting to fit them all into a couple of pages. Like the mini's column, I actually rather enjoyed this as a change of pace, but am all too aware that it could soon become a waste of space. How very awkward. Guess I'll just have to keep judging them on a month by month basis.


The voyage of the princess ark: Another 5 weeks in the life of Haldemar and co this month. Due to a divination, they choose to head northeast, to see whatever is out there. This leads them to a mountainous island where they encounter trouble negotiating the landscape due to their maximum flight height, and then they nearly die when a dragon attacks. Along the way, they have to sacrifice another of the crewmembers. The plot definitely thickens. Once again we see that despite their power, there are more than enough things out there in Mystara able to challenge them. Plus the fact that they choose to save the life of the member of a rival noble house over a loyal crewman makes it even more clear what kind of "heroes" we're dealing with here. They're not going to breeze into a town, solve all the puzzles, kill the biggest evildoers, and then breeze off into the sunset with a cheering crowd behind them, leaving the world a cleaner, happier place. They're going to bounce from one scrape to another, frequently making hurried escapes from whatever they've pissed off this time. And the adventure is going to be all the more interesting and unpredictable as a result. This time round, we also get some player-centric crunch, with a spell described in the journal being statted out. Need some help with your navigation. Use this. It's good for your entire fleet of skyships. You can also reverse it, which makes for great hidden locations. If you've made it to companion level play and want to protect your domains, you should be able to see the value in this.

Dragonmirth reminds us that the reality behind monopoly is just as cutthroat and grim as that behind D&D. Yamara gets married. Wackiness ensues.


TSR previews: Dragonlance is once again our biggest export. DLA1: Dragon Dawn is the first of a trilogy of adventures set in Taladas. Good to see them once again giving their new properties plenty of push. Ansalon, on the other hand is stuck in the past. The Prequel trilogy has proven so popular that they've decided to give us another three books. This time, it's Riverwind who's history we get to see in greater detail.

D&D rolls out it's creature features fast and hard, with PC3: The sea people. Jim Bambra lets you mix merpeople, sea elves, tritons, dolphins, etc to create undersea parties that rival regular ones in racial diversity. That's unlikely to get a follow up.

Lankhmar gets revisited for a quick adventure. Nigel Findley does LNA1: Thieves of Lankhmar. Will his distinctive style translate to the old S&S milieu?

Flint Dille also seems to have been a busy bunny lately. He delivers his sister (:wolves howl, rumble of thunder:) a Buck Rogers graphic novel, and an agent 13 book, Acolytes of Darkness. Several big names are involved in their creation, including Frank Miller, Buzz Dixon, and Dan Spiegle. Very interesting indeed.  
 

Who was that masked android?: Our token non D&D article at the end this time is a Marvel Superheroes one on secret identities, and their preservation in the face of investigation. Let's face it, if it weren't for narrative convention, and a decent supply of mindwiping and retcons, there would be far fewer supers with their disguises intact. (And it'd be another order of magnitude or two harder 20 these years later, with the huge increase in surveillance and recording technology, both government and private. ) In contrast to the recent Top Secret articles, this is a crunch heavy examination of the various factors affecting your chances of being discovered, well tied into their universal resolution scheme. The bigger your impact, both as a person, and a superhero, the greater the chances someone'll come along able to put two and two together and say, hey, if you took his glasses off, doesn't he look exactly like .......... ? Anyway, I found this another article that's both useful and likable, with it's easily determined divisions, and plenty of examples.


With a truly rubbish themed section, and several other very problematic articles, this is a bad issue overall, but in an interesting way. The Princess ark is still fascinating, and we're seeing the start of the early 2nd ed controversies, which is also fun to read about, but with lots of crap articles, and strong signs that the magazine is being interfered with in unpleasant ways by upper management, it makes for an unsatisfactory experience overall. Stressful times man. Let's hope there are some improvements ahead.

Dragon Magazine Issue 155: March 1990

part 1/4


116 pages. After 4 years of staying stable, the page count starts to creep up again. Have paper costs decreased? Are they getting more advertising in? Are the sales going up? I don't think it's that last one. In any case, that means more stuff for me to read and review. The 90's are definitely going to take even longer to get through than the 80's. And that's not even counting the frickin insert, which is missing again. :mutter mutter mutter: Okay, that settles it. I'm easing off the gas right now, rather than waiting for the burnout to hit. I've managed daily installments for over a year now without a break, I don't want to ruin that good track record. Let's see if this issue has anything that'll cheer me up.

In this issue:

Letters: A letter from a new sculpting company looking for employees. At least, it looks that way to me. Hmm.

Someone curious about the witch NPC class. Roger is quite happy to point out the last two issues they appeared in. You'll have to find them yourself, mind.

A letter from someone who's noticed some of the displacer beast illustrations have insufficient legs. Sloppy artists, again. Send them to remedial fantasy anatomy classes.

An amusing suggestion for naming your dumb rampaging fighters/barbarians. Name them after the sound their weapon makes. Roger is amused, but a touch bewildered. How very 60's Batman.

A letter from someone who really likes many of the covers, and wishes they included a little more detail about the artists and methods of production. Bah. Write to them yourself, see if they want to give away trade secrets.

Connected to this, a letter asking where the hell the arrowhead on issue 150's cover is. You'd never spot it if you don't know it's there, particularly with the scan resolution I have to investigate from.


Sage advice gets to be a fetching shade of peach this month. Not that this does anything for the readibility. But that was never a problem, anyway.

   Are demons and devils dropped forever? This sucks! ( We're carefully considering all the options. We don't want to annoy anyone. So we'll work out a compromise solution that merely annoys everyone a little bit. )

   Do shamans get bonus spells for high wisdom. (Only if they learned their powers, rather than getting them innate.)

   Can I photocopy the monstrous compendia sheets (yes. But if you sell it, the TSR rules nazis will kick your door down with their jackboots, and exact their brutal revenge. )

   Are the new dragons really THAT badass? ( Not quite. We have our reasons for making all these changes.

   Will we gets stats for tiamat and bahamut (2nd ed don't stat deities. Another casualty of the bitchin brigade. )

   What can dragons dig through ( Anything common in their native terrain. Dig it, baby. )

   What's the age category of a random dragon. (We suggest 2d4. Otherwise horrible random deaths may result. )

   Why can dragons have AC better than -10 ( Because they're over a thousand years old. When thousand years old you are, ignore rules binding lesser creatures you may.)

   What is the spell detect gems (It's not a spell, it's an innate power. As to why dragons have it, that should be obvious)

   What's an alignment of nil (editing error. We were considering making nonintelligent creatures unaligned rather than true neutral, making the distinction between those that consciously maintain a balance and ones that just don't give a shit about morality, but it fell through. I'm sure you're intrigued to know that little tidbit)

   Do fireballs do extra damage against white dragons (wait till next edition dear. It's only 10 years. You can get way more badass, and they won't even go up an age category in the meantime. )

   Why are fire giants only immune to nonmagical fire. Why doesn't dragon breath count as magical (Because we don't want to nerf wizards, and we don't mind nerfing red dragons sometimes, because they aren't PC's)

   Where are my wolverines, whales and sharks ( In a minute dear. Compendia 2 and 3 will be in the shops before you know it.)

   How smart are werebears (smarter than the average bear)

   What's the xp for noble genies ( Really not enough. Better to be their friend than their enemy )

   Shouldn't liches be limited to 10 HD (No. They're monsters now. They scoff at your mortal HD limitations. On the plus side, they don't get con modifiers anymore. Well that's interesting to consider)

   Shouldn't soldiers be tougher than farmers (have you seen what farmers put up with in D&D? Random plains encounters are way meaner than random city ones. )

   Why was the huecava renamed (oops. No-one'll care, especially when the new version is more intuitive to pronounce.)

   How strong are korred. ( Worryingly)

   How much damage do cat's rear claw rakes do (enough to kill a wizard, no trouble )

   Do orcs have too many chiefs and not enough indians ( Great. More errata. Pass Skip the historical revisionist whitewash )

   Can rope trick be cast sideways or down (honestly, you let them cast lightning bolts at an angle, and suddenly we get a load of copycat questions. Skip is not amused)

   How many pinches of dust of disappearance do you normally find (how long is a piece of string. How big is a pinch. When is being invisible around someone sexual harassment? These are all questions with highly variable answers.)

   Does a wizard raising their strength with a wish still suffer the temporary penalty (yes)

   Do you get a bonus for attacking someone while they're spellcasting (no. They can still get out the way)

   Can you memorize the same spell more than once simultaneously (yes, but not advisable)

   I still don't get the difference between spells known and spells memorized (Skip has been more than generous with you. Skip is giving you one last chance to pull your boots up and fly straight. Otherwise Skip will do what skip does, and show you what he can really do with his sagely knowledge. )

   Unearthed Arcana is different from it's source material in Dragon (Our playtesting, we had it. And we used it. Course, that's all in the past now, thanks to Lorraine (:Roll of thunder, organ music, wolves howl: ) Williams. Do not mourn for us. But be glad that we lived. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 155: March 1990

part 2/4


Forum is another big one this month.  
S. D. Anderson sorta rebutts the people picking apart his scenario where an itemed up fighter slaughters a horde of not so well equipped enemies. Yes, you're right that if they surrounded him, they'd probably win. But there are bottleneck situations where they wouldn't get the chance. The rest of his comments get very dull and nitpicky. Bleh. Let's just enjoy the game instead of dissecting it.

James Wise uses the emergent method of determining class and alignment, as espoused in N4. This means characters are more likely to stay in character. I very much approve, having used that method myself.

R. J. Wenzel reminds us that the point of monsters is to be defeated. If every monster was a supra genius with a vast xanatos roulette of contingency plans running at all times, the players aren't going to find things very fun. Similarly, in his game, spellcasters and magical monsters are rare enough that conventional forces and defences still work most of the time. Let the PC's be truly exceptional, like they should be if you want to replicate heroic stories.

Ahmed G. Amin doesn't allow resurrection in his games. Let death keep it's sting. Blah da de blah.

Larry Lidz wants to get rid of alignment and ban druids from making leather armour.   Someone else really ought to be playing some game other than D&D.

Wesley Crowell reminds us that politely and clearly explaining things is the solution to parent rage. Acting as if you have something to be ashamed of, on the other hand, will definitely make it worse. Way of the world.

Gregg Sharp thinks that japanese animation is a rich source of gaming appropriate material to draw from, that is almost completely ignored at the moment. Muahahahahahaha!!!! :wipes tears from eyes: Man, that's another good reminder how much things are going to change in geek circles in the next few years. I wonder how long it'll be before we get a letter complaining ZOMG D&D is totally being animeised this suks. In any case, a surprising number of familiar names are mentioned, including Dragonball (no Z yet) Ranma 1/2, Dirty Pair and Urusei Yatsura. There's entire countries full of cool stuff out there, just waiting to be translated. Don't get stuck in the same old cliches the local media uses.

Bob Keefover suggests that there ought to be a stage magic nonweapon proficiency. Both real wizards and rogues would find that to be of great use, one for imitation, and the other for economy. I'm pretty sure that appears in a supplement or two at some point.  

Dan Silvinski continues to fight the AD&D vs D&D war. He chooses the greater complexity of AD&D. Seems like that's getting rather more press than the probable AD&D 1st vs 2nd war that could have happened.

Robert Morrison, on the other hand, chooses D&D. Once you add on the companion, master, immortal and gazetteer stuff, the question of which game is simpler and has less options is decidedly less clear-cut. And he still believes that the D&D planar and weapon mastery systems are superior to their AD&D counterparts.

David Howery responds to the people raging over his revised cavalier, justifying his nerfs in a lengthy point by point manner. Yawnarama. How little things have changed.


Wild in the woods: Despite being about as mysterious and magical to the average D&D player as glass windows, elves are still technically fae creatures. Which means a special on them is likely to involve pulling some of the ridiculous number of elf related articles they get from the slush pile, just to placate that insatiable demand. So, they haven't done an article on wild elves yet. Fresh from poncing up the paladin a little more, Eric Oppen sets out to demonstrate exactly why there aren't any wild half-elves. Along with not being very bright, they're a dour humourless xenophobic lot who'd be much happier if all the so-called civilised races just vanished from the face of the earth. If it weren't for their dramatically different environments, they'd get along surprisingly well with duergar. A very good example of neutral not meaning apathetic good or ruthlessly selfish evil without the sadism, but actual neutrality. They seem perfectly aligned with chaotic neutral as presented in issue 106's paladins article - Me and my tribe are the only Real People in the world, and we're not going to trust anyone else further than we can gut them from with a well placed arrow. (which I guess makes them perfectly suited for a certain kind of adventuring party. ) A well focussed, but curiously unlikable article, he seems to have got into character a little too well when writing this, making it come off as hostile to the reader, not just the other creatures IC. Still, it is interesting, so it's certainly not a total failure. Just a little strange.


The elfin gods: Or, see this freelancer do a mediocre pastiche of Roger Moore's elf god naming conventions from issue 60. Set the random syllable generator to flowing and melodious, and let's look for gaps in their portfolios that need filling. Meharama. And since none of these guys and gals made it into 2e's Monster Mythology, I suspect the official writers feel much the same way. They're not even updated for the new edition with sphere lists for their priests. Come on, it's been nearly a year now. Get your acts together!


In the frost and the snow: More elf subraces? Dearie dearie me. Can't they spend a few generations in a landscape without morphing to match it. I guess with such long lifespans, they have to magically accelerate their changes to survive. Still, now  the Uldra (see issue 119) have a little company oop north. Like them, they're rather better at the nature connection thing than their relatives in less hostile climes. And like both wild and valley elves, they're an isolationist xenophobic lot, not the kind of people you want to invite to any party that doesn't involve killing oogy underdark thingies. Once again, the hostility of the creatures within spills over to the writing, although not as much as the last lot, making them seem uninviting to use as PC's despite having several neat quirks. Vaguely baffling, really, and very much inessential. I am left with little desire to use these guys either.


The folk of the faerie kingdom: Vince Garcia decides to do something a little ambitious, and give mini-ecologies and encounter ideas for every fae creature in the books, including some edge cases. Since many DM's have trouble running noncombat encounters, he gives tons of ideas on how to incorporate them into your game. (Honestly, when they're tricksters, they hardly need to be evil for the players to have a noncombat encounter, get a profound dislike of them and want to wipe them from the face of the earth. ) These are actually damn good, with plenty of variety, and bunch of amusing mythological references. If that wasn't enough, he also introduces a new version of the druid with a more faeish tinge to their powers, and quite a few of the more wonky bits filed down. While probably slightly weaker overall, they are more balanced with other classes, and their special powers are more suited to everyday use, particularly the hierophant level ones. (going to the elemental planes and summoning elementals back may be spectacular, but it's generally a rather brute force solution, and planar travel without being able to bring the party along has problems of it's own. ) Overall, this is a very pleasing article indeed, useful for both DM's and players, and sneaking in some revision without presenting it in antagonistic way like the barbarian and cavalier articles. He's definitely proving a writer to take note of.


West end games finally reveal the name of the game they've been teasing for months. TORG! Wha? More info coming soon.


The ecology of the satyr: Hmm. This is a creature that's likely to be problematic for the more family friendly TSR of these days. And indeed, they scrupulously avoid all mention of the R word, or even that the very concept exists, merely presenting their amorous tendencies as extreme enthusiasm (if not always success) in attempting seduction on anything remotely female. They also fall into one of the other traps that material from this era was prone to, that of including substantial amounts of goofiness and comic relief elements. Well, I suppose that's one way of defusing the threatening aspects of sexuality without completely removing them. I suppose it could have been a lot worse. Another ecology that is an interesting read, but leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, designed as it is with elements specifically intended to annoy and confuse players trying standard tactics on them. Shoo. Away wi' ye! Go try yer luck on the kender wimmin. You'd fit right in round those parts. Bleh.


Thank you for your cooperation: Wouldya like to take yet another survey? This one is focussed on espionage games, rather than the magazine in general. Their Top Secret output has declined rather in general, and this is obviously them figuring out whether to put more in, or cut it out entirely. Tricky decision. What path will they take? You ought to know by now which path I'd prefer they take, but that means little. Still, hopefully they'll be able to give people what they want a bit better. Makes me wonder if this is just the beginning of a whole series of these on various genres.  On we go.

Dragon Magazine Issue 155: March 1990

part 3/4


The game wizards: Anne Brown takes over the column this month, creating her own fictional mouthpiece, the mouse Bixby, to communicate the news. This time, it's Greyhawk city's turn to be destroyed by events in a module, unless the PC's do something. Well, as long as it really is them that do the saving, not some deus ex machina NPC, that's not a bad thing. Also looks like they're still making fold-up buildings as visual aids, which is fairly neat. Another attempt to liven up a fairly standard teaser piece, this isn't as successful as their banterings with Elminster, but is a lot better than nothing. If only Greyhawk's iconic NPCs had planewalking connections with earth, then maybe they'd get better press.  


The voyage of the princess ark: A fairly quiet couple of weeks for the Ark this installment. They repair the damage from last month's debacle, and set down in a nice quiet bay, only to be followed by the dragon and attacked again. Fortunately, the locals have weapons designed specially to deal with dragons, and drive the bastard off. It may be back. Immediately seeing an opportunity, Haldemar recruits replacements for his fallen crewmembers amongst the locals, and of course, buys up a load of their weapons as well. Next time they see that dragon the shoe's going to be on the other foot. They meet, greet and trade, and set off again, seemingly in pretty good shape. Guess not every episode is going to end dramatically, and not every country they visit is going to wind up hating them.
On the mechanical side, we get two treats for us. The bolas of sunlight are just what the doctor ordered for chasing away things that are scared of the light. We also get to find out just how common spellcasters are in Alphatia, with entire squads of low level magic-users armed with blasty wands a staple of the army. Now that's how you make artillery capable of taking on way higher level creatures in D&D. Mystara is very definitely a high magic setting, with cleric and wizard powers fully integrated into the operation of society. You want realistic medieval stuff, go somewhere else. While this hasn't been as dramatic as the first two installments, it's still ticking over nicely. They'll be in deep shit again before you know it.


Editorial: Roger's little soapbox is used this month to talk about running games set in your own hometown. This allows you to have lots of fun with common references that the rest of the world wouldn't get, and get extra pleasure from sticking it to the man, or the school bully if that's your situation. This is the kind of thing that you might not think of, but seems like a no-brainer once you do. I've done so before (for an AFMBE one-shot, in case you're wondering), and had a great time. Once again, this is a new idea in the magazine, and one that shows how modern games are still increasing in popularity. Nice to see it appear here, and hope you've got a good game out of it too.


Fiction: Father, dear, father, come home with me now by John Morressy. Another story that slyly subverts fantasy tropes here, with the roles familiar for a fairytale, but the people inhabiting them rather different. Course, evil little girls have an entry of their own, but that's neither here nor there. The fiction once again proves to be an above average part of the magazine, less prone to rehash due to simple low volume of it compared to the gaming articles. I can see myself pulling a trick like this, albeit with caution. Teeheeheeheehee. Are you my mommy?


The marvel-phile: Jeff may have moved on to other things, but many people still regard this column fondly. Among them is Dale A Donovan. And since he's part of the staff now, that means he can write new ones. So the fan becomes the creator, and the cycle of life continues. Will the new ones be a pale imitation of the old? Guess we'll just have to see.
For this first one, things seem much the same as ever. Captain Britain has changed a bit in recent years, as like Green Lantern, he discovered that some of his weaknesses are purely psychological. He's also been tied in with a bunch of old mythology, encountering people from the arthurian cycle of myths, and generally being all latest in a long line of heroesey. We get updated stats for him, and new stats for Roma, daughter of Merlin. Looks like things are going to be back to business as usual, albeit rather more topical, since they've long since statted up all the established characters. So once again I'll get to find out about lots of amusing comic universe plotlines I missed at the time. Good to see superheroic gaming is still healthy around here.


TSR previews: A real set of riches here this month. On the generic side, we have DMGR1: The campaign sourcebook and catacomb guide. Long product code, long name. Hopefully it's advice on world and dungeon building will lead to equally long campaigns.

The Forgotten Realms gets Forgotten Realms Adventures. A big hardcover that looks like a grab-bag of cool stuff. Setting info, spells, the machinations of the bloody Harpers and Zhentarim. Some of it will be useful, some won't. We also head off to the far west, in Ironhelm, the first book of the Maztica trilogy. Doug Niles has done the UK, now he puts his own spin on the discovery and oppression of native americans. Sounds aesopalicious.

Dragonlance, having opened up a new continent, now shows how it connects to the old stuff, in Otherlands. It's a long trip, but somebody's gotta make it. It also gets to part 4 of the graphic novelisation of the original series. Course, this is barely starting the second book of the first trilogy, due to the way the different formats work.

Spelljammer gets it's very first module SJR1: Lost ships. Aka Dungeon crawling in spaaace, as has proved popular in Space Hulk. What horrors brought them down, and still lurk within?

Completing the list of settings, Greyhawk gets WGA1: Falcon's revenge. Another module trilogy? No setting can escape them! Ahahahaha!

We're also getting The best of Dragon Magazine games. Six of the bits of fun that appeared in here over the years. Not hugely useful to me, but old stuff was a lot harder to get hold of back then.

Marvel Superheroes gets MLA1: After midnight. The start of yet another trilogy, this time focussed on the more gritty end of things. Can your designers not count above three?

And finally, on the standalone novel side, Jeff Swycaffer produces Warsprite. Two highly advanced robots land on earth, and the good one needs to stop the evil one. Hmm. Sounds curiously familiar. How does this one play out?


Role-playing reviews is another busy section this month, tackling the Star Wars system. In the two years since it first got reviewed, it's accumulated a hell of a lot of supplements. George Lucas does seem rather good at handling his merchandising spin-offs.

Star wars sourcebook was the first thing released, and is basically just a grab-bag of stuff that didn't fit in the corebook. Stats for characters from the movies, new gear, maps of places, minifiction. Once you've got it, it'll be hard to run the game without it. Just the thing to snare you into stepping on that treadmill.

Star wars rules companion adds a whole bunch of new crunch, and revises existing stuff in light of more playtesting and reader responses. It adds to the game, but along with the errata, does tone down the cinematicness a bit. The battle between trying to emulate the movies and "what's that guy's story" pointing to some boring schmuck in the background has already begun.

Star wars campaign pack is a GM screen, and another booklet with a little grab bag of stuff. GM'ing advice on running long term campaigns. A starter adventure, and a bunch of outlines for some more to keep you going. Not quite a full module's worth, but it'll help until you get some actual modules, which there are also plenty of.

Tatooine manhunt draws heavily from the first movie, taking you to Luke's home to save a hero of the rebellion from shitloads of bounty hunters. Course, your attempts to find him might be used by them to get him, ironically sealing his doom, but that just makes things more fun. Screenshotalicious.

Strikeforce Shantipole sees you working for Admiral "It's a trap!" Ackbar to evacuate a base being invaded by imperial forces. PC's, running away? Surely not! Should be interesting to see if they play along.

Starfall is tailor made for if things go south in another adventure like the last one. Thrown in prison, it's up to the players to escape from a star destroyer. Map based, as well as plot based, since this kind of adventure requires lots of player ingenuity, and designed so it's reusable, should they be dumb enough to be captured again, this definitely seems like the designers thought things through before making it. Muahahaha.

Battle for the golden sun, on the other hand is the first module to step away from the events of the movies, and gets a mediocre review. Head to a water world and use the force to follow the railroad. Yawnaroo.

Otherspace, on the other hand, does make an interesting change of pace, although it introduces an alternate dimension I don't remember being used anywhere else in the EU canon. Course, that means you'll have to actively engage your puzzle solving abilities instead of blasting your way out. Hopefully your players won't complain about being bait and switched.

Scavenger hunt gets a rather less favourable from Jim than it did from Ken last issue, as he finds it somewhat scattershot, with signs that diminishing returns may be setting in, and that the various little episodes aren't perfectly stitched together. Hmm. Since Ken wrote some of the other modules in this series, I wonder who to side with.

Riders of the maelstrom sees things return to the status quo, with another fast paced, somewhat railroaded adventure. Even rebels have to deal with Space Pirates, and once again, you'll have to do as much sneaking around as you do combat. Guess that's just the way they like it.

Having ploughed through all that, Jim is probably pretty tired, and does the Galaxy guides 1-3 as a batch review. Each elaborates on the places and people from the films. It's a big universe out there, but it still needs a lot  of filling in. Let's get a few more novels and video games and prequels out so we have more to build on, instead of having everyone winding up in the same grotty cantina.

Dragon Magazine Issue 155: March 1990

part 4/4


The role of books: Sword-maker by Jennifer Robertson continues to build up her world and characters, including the relationship between the hero and his intelligent sword. That's certainly a topic that can be useful for gamers, and the story is pretty strong too.

The lost years by J M Dillard is another instance of fail in Star Trek fiction, as it tries to tie together a bunch of continuity events, and gets nitpicked to death by the reviewer over it's inaccuracies. Sounds like you ought to be doing the line editing for the series then.

Laying the music to rest by Dean Wesley Smith sees another debut novelist with a refreshing and distinctive writing style get good marks. Whether he turns out to be a one trick pony or future works become more homogenised remains to be seen.

Rusalka by C J Cherryh draws upon russian folklore, but way the elements are handled feels rather more similar to her previous novels than anything from those stories. The supernatural creatures are also kept mysterious and poorly defined, and the result isn't among her best work.

The shining falcon by Josepha Sherman, on the other hand draws from the same sources, but with more depth and faithfulness. The character are more fun to read about, and the stuff would be easier to use to convert creatures for gaming.

Gate of darkness, circle of light by Tanya Huff steals a song from Mercedes Lackey, and uses it to create a quirky, lighthearted bit of modern fantasy. Now that's referentiality for you. Please don't sue.

People of the sky by Clare Bell draws upon Hopi myth, of all things, in another fantasy/sci-fi story set on another world, but with connections to this one. Like Tekumel, it's very distinctiveness and depth might make gaming in this world a little tricky. Still, once again, they're pretty positive about it as a book.

Once again, as a result of our novel's references, we are exposed to the dread world of filk in the shorts section. Curse you once again, Mercedes Lackey. :shakes fist: Other than that, it's pretty much business as usual. Big names fall, new names rise, the cycle of existence continues to turn.


The role of computers: Citadel shows once again that back in the early 90's, macs were still a healthy gaming platform. A 1st person perspective 3D adventure game, it may be in black and white, but it has both good visual design, and a complex character development system where you choose their parents and guide them through a whole lifepath before playing, traveller style. The action part of the game is similarly distinctive and complex, with multiple windows used to good effect in allowing you to select various options. Looks like it's another 5 star result. They do seem to be getting increasingly generous with those.

Taskmaster is also an interesting adventure game, full of choices in how you construct and direct your character. The graphics may be a bit outdated, but it's still fun, and rather easier to get into than many RPG's where you start off wimpy and have to do some serious grinding to get up enough power to do the fun bits. You still shouldn't forget to save regularly though.

The Atari Lynx gets 5 stars. A colour handheld game system the size of a video cassette, with games up to 8 megabytes big? Amazing! It kicks the gameboy's ass into last year! Ha. You're about to find out just how important battery life, convenience of carrying, and games available is in people's estimation of a system, over raw power. Once again, it's easy to be smug in hindsight. Still, interesting to see them diversifying.

Knights of Legend gets our second ever nul points, as the disk swapping and overall bugginess of the game was just too great for them to derive any enjoyment from play. Tch tch. The writing is on the wall for floppy disks, they just don't have the capacity needed these days.

Savage sees the commodore 64 push it's limits to try and compete with the 16 bit boys, with this fast paced little arcade fantasy game. They find it entirely satisfactory. Once again, goes to show, doesn't it.

The clue corner this month is entirely devoted to Ultima IV. Man, that's been out for aaages. What's all this about? Has it recently come out on a bunch of new systems or something? Or are people just still stuck at various places, unable to figure out how to finish it. Must have been pretty popular to sustain interest for this long.


Dragonmirth doesn't suspect a thing, as is often the case. Yamara tries to adapt to deified life.


Through the looking glass: Robert returns to minis reviews, with the odd strange bit thrown in. An instructional video showing you how to make terrain for your minis games? Very quirky, albeit probably pretty useful. It's certainly a lot easier to follow than most instruction manuals. The rest of the column is more standard, but still covers a fairly wide range of minis. Three tanks and an APC, for your near future overrunning needs. The heroes from the Dragonlance Chronicles finally get mass produced representations, several years later than they intended. Good things come to those who wait, apparently, because he gives them a 5 star rating for their detail and faithfulness to the artwork. Grenadier give us a big chunky fire giant that'll tower over most of your minis. M-3 have another set of futuristic vehicles for the surprising number of games that use them these days. And Tabletop Games finish our column off with the sinister barbarian Alaric Mancleaver, who he forgets to grade. The photography is fairly decent this time round, apart from the fire giant, who is rather occluded. He seems to be settling into a fairly predictable rhythm here. On we go.

Another one with a decidedly saggy themed section, and a mixed bag in the rest of the issue. As with the last time they expanded, it looks like there's going to be some growing pains, as they try to figure out what their readership wants and how best to give it to them. In the meantime, we may be getting lots of tiresome filler mixed in. Which of course makes me wonder just how funny and useful the humorous bits'll be next issue. Can they still get up the energy to party when working this hard? Even at this rate, I'll find out soon enough.