Dragon Magazine Issue 176: December 1991

part 1/5


124 pages. Ooh. Elves vs Gnolls riding leucrotta on the cover! Does that mean we're finally going to get a themed issue on gnolls? No, it's just another half-assed double bill of elf features. After the yearly ones on dragons, they're now comfortably in second place ahead of dwarves for racial features. Still, maybe they'll be good ones, even if the topic is getting a bit overdone. Come on, give norkers their turn! Or maybe one on the symbiotic relationship between mites and snyads. A special on the quasielemental plane of dust. Push yourself. Plenty of things hinted at in existing books but still unexpanded on. This is what imagination is for.


In this issue:


Letters: Only a single letter this month, a rather long and grouchy one about the lack of african based game material for D&D, topped off with the fact that what there is so far is mostly egyptian. As is often the case when people complain about the lack of variety, Roger agrees with them, pointing out the few contributions the magazine has made over the years, and begs all you freelancers out there to send stuff in! Hopefully we will get a selection at least akin to the bounty hunter submissions to make up a decent themed issue with in the near future. Once again he tries to stave off rehash by specific appeals to the readership, which is pretty neat.


Editorial: Ooh. Continuing on from the letter, Roger finally tackles race and gaming. Well, sorta. No mention is made of non-white people actually roleplaying, but he does talk about the dumbness of other races in fantasy games actually being less different than the many other cultures found in reality, especially once you start going back in time. The values and technology people have can vary widely, even without any significant biological differences, simply due to random variations and the butterfly effect. The same ought to apply to your fantasy cultures. Also, you should learn to live in harmony with people from around the world and embrace their differences in reality. (says an ex-soldier) So an important lesson, made a bit sickly by saccharine moralising. Overcome your prejudices, and learn to think outside your own cultural box, and both your gaming and real world friendships will benefit. You've probably seen this idea often enough before, probably with suitable inspirational material playing in the background. (yes, you again Michael Jackson. ) Like badly played lawful dick paladins, the fact that it might be right doesn't make it any less annoying when handled wrong.


Servants of the seldarine: So it's another elven special. How many is that now? Only 3? You surprise me. Not that they haven't got plenty more articles as part of other issues as well, including the fae special that turned out to be nearly all elves anyway. Anyway, here we see them attack a very particular issue. The complete priest's handbook and Legends & lore have been out for a bit now, so people have a decent idea what creating a speciality priest entails mechanically. But demihuman deities haven't got their gods converted over to the new system yet. And by now you should know exactly what this article does. Aerdrie Faenya, Corellon Larethian, Deep Sashelas, Erevan Ilesere, Hanali Cenalil, Labelas Enoreth, Lolth, Rillifane Rallathil and Solonor Thelandira all get their requirements, accessable spheres and granted powers detailed. However, they do have quite significant differences from their later official writeups in Monster Mythology. More attention is paid in particular to their granted powers and extra restrictions, which are far more interesting and idiosyncratic in this version, rather than just being free extra spells. In fact, having given the two a good comparison, I'll say I prefer this one, which feels like it was given more care in design, and not compressed and simplified because they had hundreds of gods to fit in a 128 page splatbook. Finally, we're getting good 2nd edition crunch in the magazine. I have to say I'm quite pleased about this.


If you need help - ask the drow!: Another trip down to undermountain in the company of Laeral it seems. Ed and Steven continue to work at making the Realms a living world, with new monsters moving in to occupy cleared out areas, cave-ins and new excavations changing the terrain, and existing characters gaining levels. And in the process encouraging the gotta collect 'em all problem and forcing you to skip between dozens of books and articles to keep track of everything that's going on. It's always so much easier to remember this stuff when you were the one who wrote it in the first place. But as is often the case, my inherent pessimism is won over by the sheer amount of fun Ed is obviously having. Drow aren't all Lolth worshiping psychos. There are actually a (not so, if you read the novels) surprising number of good Eilistraee worshippers amongst them, hiding amongst the cities and trying to do good, or exiling themselves to the upper caverns. And it seems Skullport has a decent number of them, engaging in cautious trade with the surface world, thwarting worshippers of Ghaunadaur, and trying not to be killed by both good and bad guys. It's all crammed to the brim with plot hooks and adventure opportunities, as is often the case with his stuff. Whether you want combat, roleplaying or exploration, he's got you well covered.

Dragon Magazine Issue 176: December 1991

part 2/5


Forum: Terry C Parlett praises the idea of manoeuvres for fighters. Giving people more of a feel of control is a good thing for the game in his opinion, and allows cool descriptions to really mean something. Now all it needs are a few clarifications.

Dave Wile tells us that if we set boundaries for our players, and we need to have consequences when they break them, otherwise they won't work. If they're incompetent, they should die. If they're psychotic, the law should be on their tracks. Simple as that.

Michael Kellam shows us the way to stop players from engaging in random slaughter. Make sure the people they kill have connections to other people who will miss them. They can't kill everyone, can they, and if they do, more will come of increasing power.

Tony Quirk points out that killing the wrong people will have mechanical penalties for quite a few classes. Byebye cleric & paladin powers. And without magical healing, a party will have to be much more cautious in picking their battles.

Mare Blanchard also reminds us that the only way to stop characters from slaughtering NPC's at the slightest provocation is to make sure there's consequences for doing it. Another one we've heard before, and likely will do so again. It's a lesson we have to learn even in real life, and it's one we have to learn again separately for internet interactions, for some reason. Ahh, the joys of a compartmentalising brain.  


The voyage of the princess ark: Looks like this christmas, it's a step into full on western gaming as the Ark reaches Cimaroon county. They go to a saloon, endure the bawdy entertainment, watch a gunfight, and go a-prospectin for cinnabryl. There they face goblin desperados, enjoy a wagon-chase, and rescue a village of oppressed tortles from exploitative miners. Meanwhile, the Ark is trapped above the clouds by stormy weather, and faces several Heldanic warbirds. While amusing, I think this a is a step too far into direct pastichery for my tastes. You're supposed to pick and combine real world elements to make something new, not just steal straight and plonk something in without attention to the stuff around. I mildly disapprove.

Rather a grab-bag of crunchy stuff this month as well. We have deck plans and stats for Heldanic warbirds. We have info on Cimaroon. We have stats for their six-shooters, and a whole load of related skills such as staredowns and quick-drawing. As with the story part, this is entertaining, but not quite up to the standards of recent issues, as they get a bit silly. Not the series' best instalment.


V:tM gives us the anarchs cookbook. Row row fight the power, watch out for the sabbat boogeyman. Soon you'll be sidelined as people prefer to play the genuine rebels, not brats who talk big and run back to hide behind daddy's cape when things get tough.


Propping up your campaign: Hmm. This is a topic they haven't really covered before. While in LARPing, the use of props to enhance the mood is pretty much standard, it doesn't get much attention round here. About the closest is probably issue 135's reviews section, where Ken did go into detail on products which come with visual aids. So another cool idea that seems obvious gets a good filling in by Spike Y Jones. While it concentrates on modern day games, which are obviously easiest to cater for in this respect, it also mentions past and future ones as well. They don't have to be actual objects, photographs will do just fine, and are pretty easy to get hold of. (and even more so now than then with a camera in every phone and effortless copying of the digital data they're comprised of) And theres plenty of cool little things you can find in antique shops that would make good props. Even a scribbled picture is better than nothing. And there's several meta tricks you can pull, like arranging to have someone call or otherwise interfere with the game, that work really well for horror games in particular. So there is indeed quite a few ideas they've never suggested before, that can make a nice impact on the quality of your games if used sometimes. Another case of the magazine providing just what it ought to be.


TSR Previews: As is often the case, the start of the year sees things slow down a bit. Dragonlance is the only line getting more than one book. DLR2: Taladas: The minotaurs is another of our combined location and race splatbooks. They get the usual cool new stuff and filling in of roleplaying depth. Meanwhile, way back in time, Dark Heart sees us focus on the young life of Kitiara. How did she wind up opposing the heroes of the lance? Bad company, it looks like. Seduced by the glamour of evil. Silly silly woman.

Dark Sun gives the players a chance to play a (minor) part in the overthrowing of Kalak, in DS1: Freedom. You read the book, now enjoy the module, along with it's interesting format experiment and DM's screen. All aboard! :toot toot:

Ravenloft sees one of it's more iconic series start up. RR3: Van Richten's guide to vampires sees Nigel Findley do what he does best. Horror + Ecology = surprising win. Tons of ways to customise them, keeping them scary and mysterious for even the most powerful party.

The Forgotten realms is fairly quiet this month. MC11, their second monstrous compendium appendix, should keep your addiction fed for a while. 64 more pages of quirky creatures to challenge players with. Good luck finding places to fit them all in.

Dragon Magazine Issue 176: December 1991

part 3/5


The role of computers: Another tiresome bit of explanation this month, as they remind people that they get far more letters and games than they can ever cover in this space. Don't send more ranty letters when your original one doesn't get published. They just have no luck. Phone calls in the middle of the night, games companies leaning on them to get higher marks, lying company service lines, seems their life is one wave of irritations after another. And they're hardly public figures either. This is why celebrities get secretaries and bodyguards. As 4chan has demonstrated several times, in the internet era anyone can wind up having to deal with the negative aspects of celebrity without getting all the money if they do something sufficiently notable. It's a rather thorny issue.

Heart  of China is a rather pretty looking multi-pathed adventure game. Rescue the daughter of your rather unpleasant patron from an even more unpleasant oriental warlord. Time is ticking, and your initial character is predictably hotheaded and troublesome. Have fun unlocking all the different ways things can go if you use different characters and make different choices.

J. B Harold Murder Club is of course a murder mystery, where you have to interview a whole bunch of subjects and figure out whodunnit. As with the previous game, you have a lot of options, some of which are better than others. They get a bit cross about one of the cases including a rape without the box having a warning. Ah yes, the great violence/sex double standard strikes again.

Phantasy Star II doesn't get quite as good a review as II, but is still a big, interesting adventure with a multigenerational twist to it, and multiple endings as well, giving it plenty of replay value. The increases in technology are being applied to good effect at the moment.

Our conversions this month are A-10 tank killer, Thexdar, and Space quest III. Mac stuff continues to get near equal attention to the PC. I wonder if this column'll still be going when PC's have reached dominance.


Fiction: Time for an experiment by Michael G Ryan. Oooh. A time travel story where everything all slots together neatly, but things don't actually make sense until the end. Those take quite a bit of effort in writing. An elf seeks a macguffin, and goes through quite a bit of hassle to get his hands on it, including being betrayed by himself from the future in disguise, so as to ensure everything turns out as planned in the end. I think that's more than enough twists and turns to make this a very enjoyable little story. This is turning out to be quite a consistently positive issue.


Role-playing reviews does some more boardgames. They seem to be doing that more frequently these days. Once again, it's because they like a bit of variety. And it's not as if the two things are so dissimilar that you can't learn from what works in board games. Judicious stealing is one of the easiest ways to progress through life.  
 
The awful green things from outer space of course, is a Tom Wham creation, originally appearing in issue 28 of this very magazine. Obviously, he retained the rights to it himself, because it's now published by Steve Jackson Games. It seems to have increased in visual quality and sophistication since then, but retains it's strong sense of fun. Like most of his games, both randomness and skill play significant roles, keeping it fun and surprising through repeated play. So when exactly did he leave TSR again?

Scotland yard is another fun one suitable for short breaks. One person plays a criminal while the others play detectives hunting him down through london, both with limited movement resources and a time limit. Obviously, the more people playing, the harder it is for the criminal to win. An interesting challenge where working together is important.

Battle of the bulge is another rather familiar game, covering one of the more amusingly named battles of WWII. Set up your armies and fight, see if the Germans do any better this time around. Another one with plenty of replayability despite the seemingly limited premise.

Dragon Magazine Issue 176: December 1991

part 4/5


The marvel-phile: Cut characters time here. Another year has been and gone, and 128 pages just isn't enough. So here we get to see which new characters weren't considered important enough to make the grade. La Bandera, a young mutant revolutionary with social-fu power to rouse mobs. Windshear, an insecure young British hero with control over air. And Witchfire, an apprentice nature based spellcaster who's not afraid to speak her mind. As is too often the case these days, these are characters I've never heard of before, and am unlikely to do so again, thus proving why they were the ones cut from the book. They'll be first on the chopping block next time someone like Scourge strikes. Can't work up any enthusiasm over this lot. Just another way to make up a few pages in the magazine without having to rely on freelance material.


Orcs nest wish us merry christmas in their own easily imitable fashion.


Playing in the paleozoic: We've already had extensive looks at the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, and the weird animals that inhabit them in the magazine. Now Greg Detwiler takes us back a little further, to fill in the paleozoic. Lot's of increasingly odd things back there being discovered as archeologists do their work. And now you can kill them and take their stuff, not that they'll have much treasure to take. Another good example of Roger's attempts to work around a subject over the years while minimising direct rehash.

Giant Opabina are exceedingly slow and rather odd looking water creatures that occupy the same kind of niche as crabs today. Their lack of armour means they aren't nearly as dangerous though. Enjoy your wading experience.

Electric Agnath may be primitive fishes, but they're hardly defenceless. The water is hardly safe, since it is where life originally came from. Watch where you step in the water.

Eurypterid are giant water scorpions. They're pretty wimpy compared to modern top predators, but they're still a decent challenge for basic set level adventurers. And if you can't breathe underwater, their grapples will have a definite home team advantage.

Eogyrinus are proto-crocodilian amphibians. Slow on land, they'll attack from ambush, and chomp your feet. Once again, they're not really that scary compared to modern animals or D&D predators. Ironically, it might actually be a good idea to start off with the more primitive eras and move forward in play.

Eryops are another slow amphibian with half-decent adaption to life on land. If they can get their teeth on you, it'll hurt, but even heavily encumbered characters'll be able to outrun them. Might not be a bad idea unless you're xp grinding.

Cyclotosarus bring things a little further along the timeline, towards reptiles taking over from amphibians. Course, not having scales, it's AC is rather lower than full crocs.

Cacops sees them start to develop half-decent land speed and protective bits on their body. They're still going to be outcompeted by things with scales, but it's not for lack of trying.

Giant Platyhystrix are one of those things that show reality is often stranger than fiction. With a dimetrodon like sail on their back, and an oddly expanded ribcage, they're better at operating on land and regulating their temperature than most cold-blooded things. But once again, that advantage will probably not be enough against a team of co-operative warm blooded tool using mammalian killers.  

Estemennosuchus have an amusingly shaped hard head, and graze on stuff, occupying the same kind of niche triceratops will do a few million years later, once the size war has really taken off.

Erythrosuchus also have rather large, dinosaurian heads, and a bite to match. That's a 1 hit kill if they get a good grip on you. Not everything was wimpy back then. I'll make them suitably rare on the random encounter table.

Plus, he gives us generic stats for Armoured predatory fishes and general Therapsids. And then a bunch of random encounter tables for various terrains, so I don't even have to make my own. Along with Tom Moldvay's reexaminations of the undead, this makes this one of the longest running and most useful irregular but connected features. Now, if only they could find some game useful animals in the ediacaran period. Then we could keep this going without rehash a little longer.

Dragon Magazine Issue 176: December 1991

part 5/5


Sage advice: Does anti-magic spell stop psionics (No, completely different type of energy)

Can a hasted psionicist use two powers per round (no. Too twinked, blah blah blah)

Does invisibility work on infravision. Does it work at night. ( yes, yes. Bored now. )

Can you disbelieve mirror image (no. Knowing it's an illusion (which is pretty obvious ) Won't help you tell which one is real )

If you polymorph an object, does it keep it's powers (as long as it's suitable to apply them. Same principle as polymorphed casters only being able to cast if they have voices and hands )

Do you have to cast 80 magic missiles to make a wand of them with 80 charges? That would take AAAAAAAges (Yes. Giving back to the adventuring community takes more effort than taking from it. Maybe now you'll appreciate the effort all those ancient wizards went too a little more. )  


Novel ideas: Ah yes, the cleric Quintet. Bob Salvadore's most notable B-series, giving him a break from the Drizzt stuff while still filling in the Forgotten Realms. Starring a cleric who's not sure why he's a cleric. Also featuring a Dwarf who wants to be a druid, and communicates more effectively than many characters with a thousand times his vocabulary. A monk who would probably have been the star, were it not for the editors not wanting a class removed from the game to get too much spotlight. An imp who goes through several masters, and is quite possibly the real brains of the bad guys. And plenty of dilemmas and threats, most of which get neatly resolved at the end of each book, leaving only a few open for the next one and making sure it always seems like a happy ending, as per editorial policy. Curious business. He really doesn't want to be typecast, but TSR does want more money. Still, this did get several reprints, so it can't have been a failure, just not quite the same degree of success. Another straight bit of promotion, but quite a nice one, making the books seem quite likeable, and pointing out how the stars of each series are different from one-another. That's a welcome improvement from the usual for this column.


The game wizards: Great. More trading cards. Guess they're still profitable as well, as here comes next year's collection. So here's some more production details for the super geeky amongst you. The number of cards which ones were rare ones and the kind of things they tried to include this time. Lot's of odd options like kits and specialist wizards, lots of characters from specific game worlds, and quite a few original creations too. Traps, cities and a few terrible in-jokes. No end in sight here. Yawn.


Dragonmirth shows us that to attract girls, you need a really pimped out ride. Ogrek helps Yamara pack for her trip in his inimitable style.  Robinson gets big chunks of his memory back in twilight empire.


Through the looking glass: The iraqi war subplot continues to be only a minor part of this column, taking up just a fraction of the first page before they get to the reviews. Like the real thing, it's turning out to be a bit of a disappointment. Looks like we won't be adding many more great battle scenarios to our repertoire any time soon.

Our minis this month are a wizard who summoned something he really wishes he didn't. A tower for another, more competent wizard. A larger castle for nearly anyone to use. Two pairs of lords and ladies to be in charge of said castles. A whole bunch of kings from various lands. And a trio of a female Ranger, Paladin and elf fighter from Julie Guthrie, bringing the badass without the cheesecake. Looks like it's back to the basic fantasy stuff this month after recent excursions to modern and cyberpunk.


The greyhawk wars boxed set. Great. Another big module that'll have metaplot reprecussions on the entire setting, invalidating big chunks of previous books. Just what we need.


An issue with lots of very good features, but rather dull regular columns. I suppose that highlights the tension between celebratory issue and business as usual. After all, christmas comes every year, so it can quite validly be both. Still, the really good presents are the ones we don't get every year. No matter how good you get, it never gets easier breaking out of your mould and trying new things. Still, if Roger has his way, we should get a few new additions to our repertoire next year. And with the halfway point of this journey within sight, I'm still willing to keep sifting for forgotten gems. To 1992!

Dragon Magazine Issue 177: January 1992

part 1/5


124 pages. Another year, another special on good game mastering. Y'know, perhaps you ought to have a regular column for this kind of stuff to go with the ones for monsters, magic items and spells. Just a thought. Oh well, on with the show, with another rather nice chess themed cover drawing us in. They do seem to work quite well. Let's hope they grab potential new readers as well.

In this issue:


Waldenbooks double advertises here with some ridiculously plunging cleavage. She must have disproportionately small nipples to avoid showing even a peek of them.


Letters:  As with last month, a single letter about an important topic, and it's rather long reply gets nearly all the space here. Should people be able to charge for DM'img? Roger comes down fairly strongly in the negative. It's fraught with problems, and seems likely to break up a group originally founded on friendship. It's very tricky to sell something when plenty of people are willing to give it away for free. And then there's the legal issues to consider. Making profit off their IP is exactly the kind of thing TSR has to stamp down upon. It's roughly equivalent legally to charging for playing videos to people. Best thing to do is make sure the costs for books, snacks, accommodation, etc are shared amongst the whole group, rather than one person having to bear the whole weight of putting everything together and making gaming a comfortable and enjoyable experience. Too damn right. As someone who winds up in situations where I'm putting all the effort in for very little return from others far too often for my own good, I do increasingly crave and appreciate the company of people who know how to be team players and can have work divided amongst them in a manner that makes them more productive than the sum of their parts. The individual benefits we get from working together are the true value of a society, not the money.

Oh, and Waldorf is finally officially dead for good, courtesy of an army of nilbogs. 'Bout time. That was dragged out easily as long as the dwarven beards issue. Will this truly be the end, or will april see him forced to beat this dead horse some more by public demand.


Editorial: Or see Roger try and appropriate Kinky for non-sexual purposes, and fail embarrassingly. Like middle aged people trying to spice up their sex life, or one person and their sockpuppets trying to force a meme on 4-chan, this is painful to watch, even as he tries to send a message I fully approve of.  That is: try some weird games once in a while, it'll be much more fun than sticking to D&D all the time. Bunnies & Burrows, Metamorphosis Alpha, Lace & Steel; all break some of the unwritten rules of gaming and are the better for it. But once again, Gah! Major cool roll failure in the delivery. He's gonna feel the bite from that in future issues. An editorial that is highly amusing to read for all the wrong reasons.


Keeping the party going: Or how exactly did we get into this adventuring lark anyway? A question every party should have an answer to, but surprisingly many don't. And if members of the party all have different motivations arrived at without consultation, then the chances of the party being torn apart at some point increase dramatically. So this is an article strongly in favour of collaborative group character generation, with lots of examples of social groups that could be binding the party together. Be it family, religion, schooling, destiny or simply the prospect of lots of money, your choice will substantially impact the kind of missions you go on, how the characters will relate to one another, and how the campaign will progress. Another bit of roleplaying advice that seems obvious once you have it. What other figurative wheels of roleplaying design are we still missing?


That's progress: This topic, on the other hand, we've seen plenty of, both in articles and the forum. Inventing stuff is a haphazard business, as you need both ideas and the existing materials and infrastructure to implement them. (Take Leonardo da Vinci's designs for helicopters, for example) It's not as simple as just bringing an idea back from the modern day, as you should make absolutely clear to any cheeky players who try it. The physics might not be the same, the materials probably won't be optimal, especially if you're jury rigging something in the middle of a dungeon, and even when you know what you're doing, the first few times are likely to be filled with flubs. Of course, this shows up one of the substantial weaknesses in the AD&D ruleset, forcing adjudication of the success of this kind of idea to be largely handled by DM fiat. And while this article gives you plenty of real world examples, it's not particularly helpful on incorporating them into your game mechanically. Guess they can only take you half the way.


Secrets of the masters revealed: Now this is a bit better again. Examining other fields and seeing if they have any good ideas that can be adapted to yours is one thing I've promoted several times. And the techniques for successful fiction writing don't have perfect overlap with the ones for fun gaming, but it's closer than, say, archaeology. The stuff on worldbuilding in particular is very appropriate, as are the optimal work habits. Organising your ideas, always having a notepad available to jot down ideas that come at random times, researching stuff instead of just pulling it out of your ass, persistence persistence persistence and don't forget the editing. Actually, this also has quite a bit of crossover with the writers guidelines they put up every year or two, when people ask how they can get published in the magazine. So they're hardly big secrets to regular readers. Still, once again, this is good advice that you will profit from taking on board. I can't count the number of times I've struggled through writers block since starting this, to the point where it holds far less emotional sting than it used to. As with the last time, I encourage you to break your own procrastinating ways and get to work actualising your own ideas, for life is short, and if you put things off, before you know it, you'll be dead with nothing to show for it.


Defend yourself: Oooh. We finish off the themed section with a short but very cool article indeed. The idea that instead of using attack rolls to see if the monsters hit the players, you flip the math around, use flat values for the monsters and have the players roll to see if they manage to defend against the attack. It's a small change, but one that has a significant psychological effect. Not only does it make players feel more empowered because they're the ones rolling the dice, but it can also speed combat along, providing you trust the various players to handle all the attacks directed at their character simultaneously. This is one that we'll see again, as it also got used in the 3e Unearthed Arcana optional rules. Looks like they are once again serving as a good collecting and filtering ground for ideas. Major woo here.

This entire era of Dragon, from 1991 until around 2000, with the previews of 3e, is when I was buying Dragon on autopilot. I hadn't missed an issue since 50 (and had bought 45-49 when I bought 50). Occasionally I would swear off buying it, especially towards the end of TSR's existence, but then I would always grab an issue before it vanished. I was barely skimming through them, though. The "Princess Ark" stuff held no interest for me at all. I'd rarely read the fiction in Dragon anyway.

An article would come along from time to time that would pique my interest (the "Paleozoic" article in 176 is a good example), and make me wish for a moment I was still running a game. Still, the magazine seemed stale to me. The quirky, freewheeling nature of it ten years previous was long gone, and it had settled into a slick, colorful, D&D-focused mode that would last much of the rest of its print run. The internet was not there to provide a ton of competing content, so it wasn't a matter of being jaded. Perhaps if I'd had a game going then, perhaps if Gygax had still been working for TSR and producing official material for Dragon, I would look more kindly on that entire period of Dragon.

I recall buying Dungeon sporadically then, and Dungeon was a more enjoyable, inspiring read for me.

Dragon Magazine Issue 177: January 1992

part 2/5


The game wizards: No great surprise that they're going to give the D&D rules cyclopedia a load of promotion here. This is one of those articles which goes into detail about how harrowing the writing process was. It was such a sacrifice having to write to a predetermined size book when there was so many cool things from various supplements they wanted to put in it. Many compromises needed to be made. But even with the cuts, it's still vastly comprehensive, far more than any single book they've ever done before. Steven Schend makes sure to thank all the people who helped him make it as good as it is.   Mwah, mwah, big hug everybody. (even the people who don't work here any more, who made valuable contributions to previous versions. ) Now rush out and buy it, make all our hard work worthwhile. But don't think we've made all those earlier supplements useless either. You can still buy them too if you like. Amazing how much work a project that has so little new material can be. Still, cynicism aside, compilation can be worth the price, and that is probably the case here. Here's to many fun years of gaming outside the supplement treadmill.


If I ruled the world: Once again with the causes for going Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! (see how my breath control has developed since the anti-paladin days) What makes a man a mad scientist? Is he born that way, is it forced upon him, or does he become one by studying for 3 years at the university of Insane, Minnesota. (other courses include megalomaniacal politician, whackjob cult leader, detached from reality diva, and utterly incomprehensible bureaucrat. ) What are his ambitions, how does he justify the more unpleasant aspects of his plans to himself,  and how does he plan to get the resources to carry out said plan? (apologies to all the female megalomaniacs out there) So plenty more fun DM'ing advice here, helping you build villains which make sense in abilities, plans and resources. Suitable for all genres, and with decent examples and a bibliography, this is another pretty fun article, illustrating the slippery slope that leads to over-the-top villainy well. The illustrations are notably good Baxa ones, making this quite a nice package overall. Just the thing to blow up your campaign world more effectively with.


The role of books: User unfriendly by Vivian Vande Velde (no way is that her real name) is one of those books that uses computers as a magic box, able to do things impossible in reality in the names of the plot. This breaks the reviewer's suspension of disbelief, and the characters aren't too interesting either. When the minor characters have more interesting adventures offscreen than the main ones, you have a plotting problem.

Shadow by Anne Logston embraces the cheese that any adventure starring an elf going by that cliched name would struggle to avoid. He engages in cheerfully roguish schemes, and is maneuvered against in turn in this fun little swashbuckling romp. Looks like Drizzt is starting to spawn cash-ins like any success.

The Crafters, edited by Christopher Stasheff & Bill Fawcett is one of our shared world universes. This is another one that doesn't really work, largely due to an insufficiently broad setting bible and editing. If all your writers wind up producing the same kind of story, then you haven't given them enough material to work with.

Old nathan by David Drake is another negative review. It's all window dressing with no window, substituting silly voices for characterisation. Mr Bunnel does not seem to be in a good mood this month.

Being of two minds by Pamela F Service does rather better, putting an interesting twist on the bodyswapping/sharing trope. It's in the young adult section, but handles the situations and the way people react to them in a mature enough way for the reviewer to still recommend it.

The encyclopedias of monsters and ghosts by Daniel Cohen are nonfiction pieces drawing legends together and giving opinions on them. Ah yes. You really should have one of these in the house. They're full of ideas to steal for your game, as we've seen before.


The heroic worlds role-playing game quiz: Or let's add a bit of variety to our brain-teasers. Instead of just another crossword, we have a multiple choice questionnaire. Most have around 5-6 options to chose from, but some are more complex, based around matching one set with another. Many of them are based around non tsr games, and you'd need a pretty encyclopaedic gaming knowledge to get them all right. Another diverting little bit of filler that'll probably give you more opportunities to go "did you know" in the future.


The voyage of the princess ark: The Ark leaves the savage baronies behind, and ventures over the kingdom of Rob Roy ( I keed! I keed!) This is one of those ones that doesn't have a particular earth analogue, instead being a showcase for a class like Alphatia and Yavdlom. In this case it's Druids who are large and in charge. And lest we forget, neutrality does not always mean nice. They have pretty harsh standards for their monarchs, and if they fail the tests, they get "absorbed" into the forest. In their attempt to help the king, Haldemar violates one of those conditions, which results in his being sacrificed. This definitely leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. Damn immortals and their stupid conditions. It's alright, because the circle of life goes on, and we have some poetry to commemorate the departed. Yeah, I'd be seething if I was in his place as well. Fuck destiny. Fuck the cycle of nature and cosmic balance. I want to make things better, not have them just carry on as they are.

We get lots of cool new related crunch this month. Druids get several new tricks and spells, which bring them slightly closer to AD&D druids. We also get Druidic Knights, neutral counterparts to Paladins and Avengers with access to druid spells and social benefits with woodland creatures. They're probably not as badass as their lawful and chaotic counterparts, but are a bit better than regular Knights. We also get a new BD&D version of the Bard, which are basically slightly reskinned thieves. They're a bit underpowered really, but still nicely flavorful. If you already have a thief in your party, it can't hurt to give your characters a little more differentiation.

We also get lots of letters this month. It seems that the D&D line is definitely expanding this year, with new novels, rules for werewolf PC's, timeline advancements, and other stuff. Keep buying stuff, and they'll keep producing it.

Dragon Magazine Issue 177: January 1992

part 3/5


Sage advice's new typeface is looking increasingly silly. The topic this month is dark sun stuff.

Can dark sun wizards be specialists (yes. We reserve the right to retcon this in future books)

How do dragon's magic harm animal life (Buy the supplements to find out. Till then, just use a fiaty save or die. Athas is a nasty place. )

What spheres do clerics and druids have ( Quite a different selection to people on other worlds. Generally not as good, either. Unless you become a templar. Being a baddie gets results. )

Do templars get bonus spells for wisdom. What weapons can they use. (Yes, and any their master says they can. This is subject to changes even more frequent and whimsical than the average deity.)

Can sorcerer-kings automatically read their templar's minds (No, but given their huge spell and power selections, it would be triviality itself for them to do so. They can root out any traitors without too much trouble as long as they don't get too generous with their gifts. Given monkeysphere limitations, that means a priesthood around 120-130 seems about optimal for maximum oppression without pockets of rebellion forming secretly within it. )

How far can templars be from their master and get spells (Anywhere in the world! )

Can a wild talent have attack or defense modes (if that's the power they rolled )

How do sleep and hold interact with the new races (generally they work, with a few exceptions. )

Athasian halflings are weaker than regular ones! Everyone else is pumped as well. This blows. ( yarly. Don't forget though, you can houserule. )

The 18% rule is messed up by athasian stat boosts. ( Yes, but it was pretty messed up anyway. Skip will provide you with a sample revision that may help. )

Can thri-kreen use sign language ( Sure, if they adapt it. Being four-handed, they could even make an extra elaborate sign language no-one else could speak.)


The role of computers: Copy protection strikes again! This time, they cover another awkward angle. That of certain cheat tricks having the potential to completely bork your disc. This means that if you want to use them, it's strongly advised to use copies, which runs into problems of it's own. A set of problems that cease to be an issue once CDs and DVDs become the dominant medium, and many games are loaded entirely onto your hard drive, so you don't need to insert the disk to play. Still, it is a good illustration why I don't miss that era of computing at all. Thank hardworking humanity for technological advancement.

Might and magic III:Isles of Terra is another strong entry in this series. Still a big adventure, but there are a lot more conveniences than there used to be, like automapping and various new action options. They give you plenty of hints on how to play and what to buy first. The number of franchises keeps on building.

Gateway to the savage frontier is another SSI Forgotten Realms game. It only gets 4 stars, simply because it hasn't improved upon their previous games at all. Just churning out new adventures formulaically won't get you praised, even in TSR's own magazine.

Martian Memorandum also gets a less than glowing review. While the graphics and sound are quite good, the gameplay is awkward and controls are inconsistent. Compared to last month's pick, it feels slapdash and rushed out.

Wing Commander II doesn't get the 6 star treatment it's precursor did, but still manages the full 5. Twice as big as the original, and allowing you to transfer your characters from it, it builds on the good features of it quite nicely. It does require quite powerful system specs for the time though, so not everyone will be able to buy it.

Space Quest I gets rereleased with upgrades that take advantage of the new technology. This is definitely considered a success by the reviewers.

Spider-Man for the Genesis is a decidedly interesting take on his powers. Climb walls, negotiate open levels quickly with web-slinging, recharge your web-shooter by taking photos of the things you're fighting and selling them to the papers, watch out for the random appearances by Venom, and try to get it all done in an overall time limit. This was the demo game in my LGS for ages, and had some most frustrating bits in, particularly level 4, with the gorilla and sandman. Ahh, nostalgia. Haven't thought about that in years.


Ediolon, city in the sky for shadow world. Now there's a fairly common (but still cool) idea.

Dark sun steps outside the city-states with Slave Tribes. Yeah, they don't have it easy either.

Dragon Magazine Issue 177: January 1992

part 4/5


Forum: Harald Jeffery proposes docking your PC's charisma if they show no sign of being able to negotiate peacefully with NPCs. That or a Hound of Ill Omen. Aleaxes probably aren't a bad choice either. Hey, bad boys can be cool too. How many serial killers have fan clubs in reality, in contravention of all common sense?

Ian Johnsson shows somewhat more finesse in his attempts to get annoying players to accept NPC's right to exist. But if they still refuse, just let them be outlaws, feared by all. It is fantasy, after all.

C. J. Calo thinks the best way to make an NPC invaluable without having them step on the players is to make them primarily a source of information, not combat prowess. Making them able to kick the ass of all the PC's singlehandedly is only for the most anvilicious situations.

Jeff Ibach Is baffled how this situation began. Why keep trying to use NPC's as part of the party is the PC's obviously don't want them. And why give them equipment better than the PC's at all. That's just asking for trouble. And also, remember turnabout is fair play. Now they have all these cool items, they're open to being robbed in the night and left for dead. Ahh yes. Turnabout is ALWAYS fair play. Muahahaha. One guaranteed method a GM has of dealing with any problem.

William Lee Williams talks about the problems and benefits of using pregenerated materials. As usual, there's both benefits and drawbacks. With the vast amounts around these days, you get lots of different ideas and perspectives, albeit at a price.  Of course, other people may also have read those ideas. Even if your players don't cheat, them owning the modules themselves does alter the experience a bit.

Angelo Barovier is also talking about the problem preexisting worlds present. The biggest one, of course, is the inability of PC's to make a difference to the setting. He also suggests using the Almanac style of keeping worlds vibrant and progressing forward day by day, which will of course be taken up by the known world/mystara shortly. Looks like this little idea, like the loose leaf monster sheets one, had it's origin in this magazine. Now that's something I get to say a good deal less these days.

Rick Tazzle goes back to the decanter of endles water article from issue 171, with some more defensive uses for it. Shoot it down the mouth of anything with breath weapons. Or make the ultimate industrial power source. One of them could provide the motive energy for a whole factory. Now that's how you change the world with a single item.

Toby Martin points out the many conflicts inherent in the various OA classes. They have to juggle a whole bunch of social and personal restrictions that drag the party apart if enforced strictly. Sounds about right. This is why adventurers are so frequently rebels, and also why just allowing players to make their characters in a vacuum leads to problems along the line. Gary did deliberately design the barbarian to be a pain in the butt, and zeb was just following in his footsteps here. Whether you see these conflicts as an obstacle to adventure or an adventure in themselves is up to you.

Stefan Schultz brings up the old argument about how much a serfs life sucked under feudalism. If it wasn't so bad, why did so many people flee it as soon as industrialisation made large cities an economically viable option?

Joe Piela speaks out in favour of scale mail, using his actual experience as a professional armorer for the SCA. What an awesome job to have on your resume. If anyone would know about it's protective qualities and ease of repair these days, it's him.  

Beejay Johnson (O_o o_O [^0^] ≥O≤ ) wants half-ogres back. With neither them nor Barbarians updated to 2nd ed, the big dumb smashy guy niche has lost it's best fits. They'll be back soon. The splatbooks are rolling out at quite a comfortable rate, bringing everything up to date.

And finally we have another anonymous letter from a female reader complaining about the blatant sexism in her not so friendly local game shop. Gaaaaah. How many years have we had this problem repeated. Patronising behaviour bad. Don't make me have to come over there and hammer it in with an actual hammer.


The marvel-phile: More cut characters this month. Once again, we see the sexism inherent in the system, as all 3 of the characters are female, and 2 are ones I've never heard of before. Marvel really has no luck with that. (and DC doesn't do much better. Girls come and go, but it's the same old boys club that get to keep their regular titles as it has been for the last few decades. And as long as both the writers artists and readers are also mostly male, that's a pretty intractable problem. So anyway, here's the usual potted stats and descriptions for Madame Hydra, Lady Deathstrike and Saturnyne. A villain who's the 6th to hold that title and is in love with a SHIELD agent she fights a lot, another villain who has serious daddy issues and is also strongly defined by her obsession with Wolverine, and a dimensional overseer who isn't nearly as impressive as say, the beyonder or Galactus, and who's alternate versions all fancy captain britain. Looks like they still aren't passing the bechdel test in many issues. I believe this is where I sigh heavily and shake my head. So who did get in this year, and what was their gender ratio like?


Defenders of the hearth: Hmm. Following on from giving the spheres for the elven gods, this month we have an article doing exactly the same thing for the halfling gods. Is this the start of a new series I smell? So here's what you'll get if you worship Arvoreen, Brandobaris, Cyrrollalee, Sheela Peryroyl, Urogalan or Yondalla. As before, spheres, granted powers and restrictions vary substantially from the later Monster Mythology versions, and in some cases, the interpretation of their portfoiios does as well. (Urogalan is particularly different. ) This does make for an interesting session of compare and contrast, and is also another efficient bit of crunch for the readers in general. I approve, and wonder who'll be next in the cycle.

Dragon Magazine Issue 177: January 1992

part 5/5


Fiction: Human voices by Jean Lorrah. Or the little mermaid, played kinda in reverse, albeit with just as much angst. Pining for a member of another species, especially one that can't even live in the same environment as you, is just asking for trouble. It all ends tragically, just as the narrator knew it would. Actually, the narrator makes this as much about her as the story she's telling, which does put a different spin on the whole thing, and contrasts very sharply with the recent Disney movie. A short one, but quite good, with the artwork once again complementing it well. Seems like we're going through another period of improvement in that area lately.


TSR Previews: A lot more generic stuff than usual this month. CR1: Wizard spell cards compiles all the spells from various supplements, and puts them ready to be selected and arrayed for less wear and tear on character sheets. Muahahaha! Betcha fireball and lightning bolt wear out first. More idiosyncratically, they're also compiling a whole load of the cardboard fold-ups that appeared in previous products, in GR1: Strongholds. More kudos to Dennis Kauth. Get several, so you can build really big settlements. With this, and the recent skirmishsystem and greyhawk wars, I wouldn't be surprised if we see another spate of ZOMG they're turning D&D into a minis game. If that's not enough, they're starting a new series of one-on-one modules, for those of you who can't find a bigger group. HHQ: Fighter's challenge kicks it off. Another attempt to make more newbie friendly material.

D&D is also still on a baby's first adventure kick. Quest for the silver sword doesn't even have some arcane product code. Just a basic item retrieving plot. Off you go then. Come back in one piece please.

Dark sun starts to release setting expanding supplements. DSR1: Slave tribes shows you how to wander the desert and not die horribly, and what you're likely to meet out there. They're only enslaving you and treating you like crap for your own good. Now get grubbing for cacti flesh, worm.

The Forgotten Realms revisits another big seller in Pools of Darkness by Jim Ward and Anne Brown. Will the new crop of heroes enjoy the success of Alias and co?  


Think BIG: A second article from regular forumite Thomas M. Kane this month. We've had stuff on horses and flying mounts before. Now we have one on riding elephants. Tee hee. Just the thing for when you want awesome adversaries. Course, it's not that simple, with keeping them presenting vast logistical problems. Food, handling and training are big issues. Like some of Katherine Kerr's old articles, this doesn't seem sure if it wants to be encouraging you to try this, or warn you off doing so, and in the process leaves me ambivalent about the article. So I guess the choice is yours, you just have more information now. Hmm.


Special delivery from outer space: Ooh. An article for GURPS. Another nice little diversion from our usual fare. Like the runequest ones often are. this is a shiny toys one, giving you a bunch of gadgets aimed at a sci-fi game.

Temporal compressors are a decidedly cool piece of kit, that gives you the chance to do stuff in a hurry, and has rather harmful effects on anything half in, half out. They go into quite a bit of hard sci-fi info, which is pretty cool.

Biological factories are implanted into you, and allow you to synthesize stuff for free, although usually only one compound. You can then make a pretty penny on the black market.

Watcher-floater cameras are of course one of the awesome devices used by totalitarian states for surveilance. They fly, they swivel menacingly, they may also have disintegration lasers fitted so criminals can be instantly punished. Ah, the joys of cinematics.

Video glasses are one of those things that show how tech has advanced, since we could do even better than they imagined now fairly cheaply. An iSight camera, a cellphone transmitter and a several gig SD card could be discreetly incorporated into a bulky set of glasses no trouble. So an amusing end to another short but fun article, in a system they haven't covered before. Just the thing to keep the magazine open feeling.


Dragonmirth manages to slip in a little satire at TSR's legal policies. Yamara has an annoying crossover. David Bowie gets in trouble in Twilight empire.


Through the looking glass: We continue the slow build-up to the gulf war special this month, as Robert celebrates the anniversary of Operation Desert Storm. Once again, this all feels a bit strange, despite being less than 20 years ago. I doubt we'll be seeing anything similar on the Afghanistan invasion in 10 years time, so this does seem like a slightly tasteless curiosity already, like the women in gaming stuff from issue 3. While minis connected to this aren't reviewed this month, they do have quite a few photographs of them. Once again, really not sure what to make of this.

On the reviews side, we have grenadiers new fantasy wargame, which gets quite a good review as a game, despite the pieces not being the best quality. Ral Partha has licensed stuff for both D&D and Battletech, once again showing what a big name they are. Black Dragon Pewter produce another wizardly diorama, full of little details. RAFM give us a dark elf fighter and Drider, (not using the actual Drow and Drider names, of course.) The viking forge give us 3 Dwarf Comanders, while Alternative armies produce their natural enemies, a gang of hobgoblin raiders. Thunderbolt Mountain minis have another diorama, putting an interesting spin on that whole knight rescuing princess captured by dragon thing. And Stan Johansen Minis finish us off with a bunch of Cossack riders. Nothing much to say here.


Lots of high quality articles in this one, and also lots of high quality artwork as well. Looks like the increase in general editorial standards over last year is still going on. Guess Roger is still improving his skills at picking the right stuff out of the slush pile and cleaning it up for public consumption, with the various departments working together to deliver a neater package. Once again, the regular columns are probably less interesting than the features, but not to as big a degree as last issue. Looks like we could be getting into another golden age, if we're lucky. The 1st ed holdovers are pretty much gone, let's enjoy the stuff 2e has to offer.

To follow up on my last post, I think this project you're doing is pretty amazing. It's gotten me interested in looking back on Dragon, and re-evaluating some eras of the mag's run.

I still can't shake the feeling that after Gygax's ouster from TSR and thus from Dragon, the magazine seemed somewhat rudderless to me. I realize that's an unfair assessment, but it's one I have had since the time it happened.

Certainly there were a number of good editors afterward, and yeah, I know Gygax wasn't the editor in the first place, but his presence was so large it seemed to be imbued in Dragon, as well. Again, I know that's a very subjective feeling.

However, Gygax's personality was reflected in everything TSR did, and everything it was. Gygax seemed to be all over the place as far as his interests, and we saw that type of intellectual restlessness in books like the 1e DMG, and in Dragon. The company and, presumably, the editors of Dragon were following his lead, or at least the precedent he set...until he was gone. Afterward, Dragon became increasingly rigid in what it covered. While creativity was still there, it was limited to TSR games, which wasn't too bad until TSR began to jettison more and more games that weren't D&D, and thus, by default, every genre that wasn't heroic fantasy or swords & sorcery.

Eventually D&D became a sub-genre of fantasy itself, and I couldn't help feeling that there was a stagnation that set in once D&D began to draw upon itself for inspiration. We would see fewer and fewer articles like the one in issue 50 dealing with Kzinti, we would see Giants in the Earth disappear, we would see the oddball April Fool's articles that gave us stats for Popeye and Bugs Bunny go away...no more Boot Hill, no more scifi, no more modern day...TSR was taking itself and D&D more seriously, partitioning it off from outside influences. That's what made me less and less enthused with not just Dragon, but with D&D itself.

Dragon Magazine Issue 178: February 1992

part 1/5


124 pages. Another fighter special this month. Round and round we go, as they refuse to add any new actual classes this edition, so we have to figure out how to make the most of the existing ones. Still, it does seem that the themed issues covering regular topics tend to be of higher average quality these days, so there may well be enjoyable and useful material herein. Let's see if they can make playing fighters more interesting again.


In this issue:


Wizards spell cards! I remember these. Damn cool, and save quite a bit of character sheet scribbling, until you lose them or want to memorize the same spell more than once. Not that I ever did that. You've got to have some variety in your blasty spells, cause you never know what is going to be immune to each one.  


Letters: A whole bunch of different bits of errata here this month. Tactical errata about the fighter stuff from issue 169. Mathematical errata about the probability of getting spells in Dark sun. More fighter issues, caused by the irritating discrepancy between books in who can specialise in what when. An unfortunate name misspelling. And some hitchhikers guide errata, of all the mad things to bother with. (especially given the casualness that facts and continuity are treated with in that series. ) I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's a hard life, working to the deadline.


Editorial: Oh god. Roger is continuing to invite ridicule with his attempt to appropriate the concept of Kinky in a gaming sense. Toon is the primary target, but shadowrun, paranoia, tekumel, jorune, elfquest, cthulhu, TMNT all get mentioned. That's such a broad net as to imply D&D is the gaming equivalent of the missionary position, and virtually everything else is kinky, which I think is pushing the metaphor well beyond breaking point, and also ignoring the amount of seriously gonzo stuff that D&D has incorporated right from it's early days. All goes to show that what you consider normal and weird is a seriously variable business, even in a single person over extended periods of time. Even the bible is pretty fucked up at times. Still, the stuff on breaking out of your own mould remains valid, even as the rest of this is risible and easily deconstructed. I wonder what he'll have to say to us next time.


The three faces of chivalry: Back to this almighty headache, I'm afraid. Paladins, cavaliers, and properly differentiating between the two when they're drawn from pretty much the same source, and often worked alongside each other. Both have pretty strict codes, although paladins have more to lose if they break them. And that distinction is what Len Carpenter picks to focus on. In an ideal world, you'd be able to balance temporal and spiritual pressures, no trouble. But in a world where adventurers are needed, and both gods and kings are frequently demanding and of questionable sanity, plus evil has it's own benefits that can seem all too tempting,  this is a very real choice that you can use to shape your roleplaying. Will loyalty to your lord, serving your god, or pursuit of glory and love take priority for your character? If it's a paladin, you'd better believe your god'll know about anything you do wrong, while a temporal authority isn't so omniscient, so ordinary cavaliers can get up to some nasty stuff without losing everything, especially once they're too powerful to just dismiss casually. Pretty valid points, really, if not paradigm shaking. It also once again tries to deal with the problem of UA cavalier-paladins, which deserves credit. Not a terrible way to start things off, anyway.


Bazaar of the Bizarre: Since war is one of the biggest drivers of technological advancement in reality, that people would regularly be seeking a magical edge in fantasy worlds is no surprise. Even one moderately powerful item can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Both the battle itself and the logistics of moving and maintaining troops can be seriously expedited, if not to the extent having a high level cleric on the team. I wonder what angles these will tackle that problem from.

Battle Standards are pretty self explanatory. You hold them up, they buff all your troops as long as they're visible. Or maybe debuff all the enemy ones instead. Either way, substantial advantage your side, but make sure they're well protected, because smart enemies'll realise this and try to take them down.

Bigby's Demanding Ram is somewhat less amusing than it's name. It's just an extra damaging battering ram, no coming to life or ironic price for it's abilities at all. Most disappointing.  

The Cask of the wind spy means a general doesn't have to rely on wizards quite so much for battlefield reconnaissance. On the other hand, it's neither as fast or powerful as an arial servant. Maybe you can get a cleric to make an upgraded version. But then it might go insane and come back to kill you. Compromises, compromises.

Durimal's philters are potion concentrates. Just add water and you have enough from one tiny bottle to affect 80 people. Now that's pretty damn handy for an army leader. They're probably cheaper than buying 80 potions too, so in a magic high campaign, these'll see plenty of use.

Excellent rods of engineering give you a whole bunch of powers to make buildings, and knock down other people's. This'll see plenty of use until it runs out of charges at an awkward time.

Fodder dust is another easy to transport concentrate, just add water for tons of food. Course, that won't be much help in a desert, and I wouldn't be surprised if it tastes like pot noodle, but nothing's perfect. It's probably better than dwarf bread.

Ipsissimo's black goose is a rather cute, but still effective mechanical guardian. Real geese can be scary in a way far greater than you'd think from their size, and this follows in their footsteps, protecting your territory from all comers and making an awful racket while at it. Easily my favourite of this collection.  

The Iron forge of the armies takes care of that other great logistical hassle armies face, equipment maintenance. Still, it's only a force multiplier, not complete automation, and is a pain to transport itself. Unless you have a whole bunch of magitech conveniences, it won't be ideal.

The Manual of stratagems is another slightly quirky item that exemplifies the idea of beginners luck. Learn from the tactics it teaches, for the book'll soon stop helping you. And then you pass it on. At least it doesn't just disappear like old DMG ones.

A Quartermaster's chest is another supply aider, albeit a moderately costly and unpredictable one. It'll be a benefit over the long term, but frequently a pain in the short one. Just the thing I enjoy giving my players.

The Talisman of mire lets you create a swamp around you. The defensive benefits of this should be pretty apparent. Just don't use it when fighting lizard men, and don't let them get their mitts on it. Hmm. That's another pretty good plot hook, actually. This collection has been rather good in terms of inspiring me to think of variants and actual play uses for these items, which is a definite plus point. I can see myself getting quite a bit out of this lot.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;387255To follow up on my last post, I think this project you're doing is pretty amazing. It's gotten me interested in looking back on Dragon, and re-evaluating some eras of the mag's run.

I still can't shake the feeling that after Gygax's ouster from TSR and thus from Dragon, the magazine seemed somewhat rudderless to me. I realize that's an unfair assessment, but it's one I have had since the time it happened.

Certainly there were a number of good editors afterward, and yeah, I know Gygax wasn't the editor in the first place, but his presence was so large it seemed to be imbued in Dragon, as well. Again, I know that's a very subjective feeling.

However, Gygax's personality was reflected in everything TSR did, and everything it was. Gygax seemed to be all over the place as far as his interests, and we saw that type of intellectual restlessness in books like the 1e DMG, and in Dragon. The company and, presumably, the editors of Dragon were following his lead, or at least the precedent he set...until he was gone. Afterward, Dragon became increasingly rigid in what it covered. While creativity was still there, it was limited to TSR games, which wasn't too bad until TSR began to jettison more and more games that weren't D&D, and thus, by default, every genre that wasn't heroic fantasy or swords & sorcery.

Eventually D&D became a sub-genre of fantasy itself, and I couldn't help feeling that there was a stagnation that set in once D&D began to draw upon itself for inspiration. We would see fewer and fewer articles like the one in issue 50 dealing with Kzinti, we would see Giants in the Earth disappear, we would see the oddball April Fool's articles that gave us stats for Popeye and Bugs Bunny go away...no more Boot Hill, no more scifi, no more modern day...TSR was taking itself and D&D more seriously, partitioning it off from outside influences. That's what made me less and less enthused with not just Dragon, but with D&D itself.

They do address this. We see in the editorials that Roger repeatedly tried to increase the amount of non D&D stuff covered, only to be met with apathy from the freelancers and general public. This culminates in the Dragon Project stuff of next year, which is the last time they seriously tackled the issue before giving up. Combine that with whatever pressures they were getting from higher up in the company, and it was probably as annoying for them as it was for us.

I do agree that one problem of this era is that the articles seem to be aimed at a lower average age group than the ones a decade ago, and there's also fewer ones that really wildly experiment with the structure of the game, and multi-part epic articles. (which seems ironic in the age of metaplot.) And what experimentation is being done is mostly a closed shop by the official writers. I suppose it's another consequence of their quite harsh fansite policy and bowdlerising code of conduct.

Quote from: (un)reason;387291They do address this. We see in the editorials that Roger repeatedly tried to increase the amount of non D&D stuff covered, only to be met with apathy from the freelancers and general public. This culminates in the Dragon Project stuff of next year, which is the last time they seriously tackled the issue before giving up. Combine that with whatever pressures they were getting from higher up in the company, and it was probably as annoying for them as it was for us.

I remember those editorials. There are any number of reasons why they weren't getting as wide a variety of submissions as before - I'm inclined to think a big reason was that as TSR tightened up what they defined D&D as being, the gamers (and thus, freelancers) who wanted more variety moved on to other games. This is one of the reasons I felt d20 really helped the game, despite the eventual glut - it returned that freewheeling feel. It's too bad that freewheeling feel never reached Dragon. I'll credit WotC for the OGL, but I'll fault them for foot-dragging when it came to letting the OGL directly manifest in their house organs, Dragon and Dungeon.

Quote from: (un)reason;387291I do agree that one problem of this era is that the articles seem to be aimed at a lower average age group than the ones a decade ago, and there's also fewer ones that really wildly experiment with the structure of the game, and multi-part epic articles. (which seems ironic in the age of metaplot.) And what experimentation is being done is mostly a closed shop by the official writers. I suppose it's another consequence of their quite harsh fansite policy and bowdlerising code of conduct.

I agree with this entire assessment, except in one regard - I don't think it was necessarily that Dragon was aiming at a younger age group; after all, my friends and I were 12-13 when we first started reading Dragon, and I knew plenty of other players the same age who liked the mag. I think it was that it aimed at less-well-read gamers as time went along and TSR started creating its own D&D-based fiction.