Dragon Magazine Issue 246: April 1998


part 6/8


The wizards three: Another little serving of inoffensive whimsy and lechery from the wizards three. They have a slightly better idea of what happened to Dalamar, but of course, they can't meddle in the affairs of other worlds. And since he is technically a bad guy anyway, they'd rather stay at Ed's and scoff the stuff he so generously provides rather than go on an epic adventure anyway. Once again, the only drama comes from Elminster's continued teasing of their new apprentice, which grows a bit tiresome for me, and probably a lot more so for her. Cosmic enlightenment? They're just mucking you around.

The spells also undergo severe woobification, with all of them 1st level. The usual array of minor mischiefs and similarly weak attack effects easily surpassed by the standard magic missile & sleep array. Once again, it's all rather unsatisfying, and makes me wonder why these changes have been made. Was it Ed's decision, or the new management that's led him to dumb his stuff down so more players will be able to get their hands on it. In any case, it's not a good ending to the run of this series, as easily the weakest entry. I guess fourth wall breaking crossovers just don't work well when they're cutting down their setting selection.


The dragon's bestiary: Hmm. Backconverting monsters from the 5th age Dragonlance stuff. I can see how there'd be a demand for that kind of stuff. There are some people who are annoyed at the whole 5th age business, but are still reading the novels and want to play the game. And they are trying to cater for as wide an audience as possible for this beleaguered gameworld.

Daemon Warriors are moderately scary undead hordes. Adventurers shouldn't have too much trouble, but of course anything immune to nonmagical weapons is deep trouble to normal people, as no size of army'll help. And like draconians, they have destructive deaths just to make them even more of a pain. Seems to be a personal fetish of Margaret & Tracy.

Fire dragons are yet another stupid rampaging monster that might look scarier than normal dragons at first glance, but is seriously lacking in the intellect and magical capacity. Chaos doesn't seem to be particularly imaginative really. Couldn't you just reskin existing monsters?

Chaos wights, on the other hand, are really really scary and cool. If they kill you, they erase your life from the memory of everyone who ever knew you as well. Which means no-ones going to even know to try and raise you, but may also be their eventual downfall, since the only legends of fighting them will be ones where the heroes win. So it's one cool idea and a bunch of filler. Seems about par for this world.


Dragonmirth is full of snark. Swordplay gets the wrong kind of hot oil. Oooh, this is gonna make a mess.

Dragon Magazine Issue 246: April 1998


part 7/8


Roleplaying reviews: Zero is a rather interesting little game from our other reviewer Lester Smith. Somewhere between Paranoia without the humour and Star trek if you were a rebel Borg,  you were once a happy part of the collective, but suddenly woke up with individuality, and have to do your best to survive in a world that suddenly and inexplicably hates you. The rules are similarly minimalist and offbeat, with you having to choose between number of skills you know, and being able to adapt to new situations. Like Paranoia, it seems like it would struggle to accommodate long campaigns, but could be good for a one-shot.

Mediums: Speakers with the dead for Wraith, on the other hand, could make for very long-term games indeed, as you can get a full career as a mortal, and then eventually transition into being a wraith. (and then become a risen or spectre, and back again)  It has a lot of writers, and consequentially feels a bit unfocussed, but that just means it'll be good for being interpreted in different ways and causing flamewars, like many old white wolf products. And crucially, you don't have to worry about your fricken shadow constantly undermining everything you do like you would if you're a wraith. It's a hard life, being a game writer and stuck with previous design that's already proven to be a mistake and trying to work around it.

Tribebook: Stargazers reminds us that white wolf could get pretty silly at times. Buddhist werewolves? That's just an excuse to give your flesh-ripping engine of death kewl martial arts on top of everything else. Still, White Wolf has got better as lampshading their cheesier urges over time, and that proves the case here, with the combination of W:tA animism and real world eastern mysticism actually fairly coherent. You don't have to be a twink to want to play one, but it can't hurt.

The great modron march showcases some of the weirdest bits of the planescape setting, using the big cosmic event as a backdrop for a whole bunch of little adventures of various levels. In theory, you could play all of them, but in practice, they don't really happen in order, plus you know how slow the AD&D leveling system is, so you'd have to add other ones in between, and in the meantime, the march would move on. Really, you're unlikely to use more than one or two with a particular set of characters.

Faces of evil: the fiends evokes considerably less wonder in Allen. Far too much of it is rehashed or overly conservative in approach, and amusing IC writing can only go so far. They could do much better now they're not bound by that sodding code of ethics.

Dreams and nightmares is for Changeling:the Dreaming, and explores their own weird world away from the one we know. (while making it clear that the PC's are never actually going to get back to Arcadia without ceasing to be characters as we know them) As should be expected from WW, the editing continues to be a source of contention with the reviewers, and as expected from the topic, the continuity is a bit scattershot. Still, there's plenty of material to add to your campaign. And given changeling PC's tendency towards amnesia, it's pretty reusable as well.


Re:Views: The Pocket Warrior is an experiment with format, fitting three little booklets into a CD jewel case which cover rules, creatures and setting with more detail than many books with twice the page count. Of course, if you have poor eyesight, you might as well not apply, but it's a brave design choice that stands out in this era of bloating page counts, and deserves credit. Of course, an actual .pdf on a CD would be able to go thousands of full colour pages with the right compression settings, but that's neither here or there. In the meantime, if you like easy to learn universal systems, drop a few dollars, give them your support.


KotDT shows up again, this time to abuse and drive off the newbie.

Dragon Magazine Issue 246: April 1998


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Unusually, Ravenloft takes front position this month. I Strahd: The war against Azalin has P. N. Elrod do for the sequel module what she did for the first one. Most amusing, and likely to suffer from diminishing returns just as the module did. They also get Champions of the Mists. The characters from books finally get statted out, the way the FR and DL ones have been a few times.

Speaking of the Realms, they're also putting their novels above their game products. Realms of Mystery is yet another short story anthology. Get to see faces new and old face little puzzles and probably overcome them. A little more epic sounding is The Fall of Myth Drannor. Another one where you probably don't get to have much influence on how things turn out, due to metaplot paradoxes being a bitch to deal with.

Greyhawk continues to return with a vengeance. The Players Guide to Greyhawk does what players guides do. Stuff to properly integrate you into the setting like country descriptions and new kits. As ever, whether Gary approves of the new direction is very much in question.

Dragonlance reaches The Last Thane, by Doug Niles. The dwarves bicker like idiots as the chaos war rages, to their detriment.

Our latest monster spotlight starts it's trilogy of adventures. A Darkness Gathering sees the Illithids finally put in motion their sun extinguishing master plan. Sweet. They've been hinting about doing this for years. Nice to see them actually get round to it.

The Odyssey line gets Jakandor: Isle of Destiny. A low level adventure for a spellcaster. Hmm. Nope, can't work up any interest for this one.

Dragon Dice introduces the treefolk in their 8th Kicker pack. Once again the balance of power shifts as a new foe enters the arena. Choose your weapons. Earth and Water? Mud Wrestling! Yay!

Alternity gets a pack with a GM screen, character sheets, and a bunch of other loose leaf gubbins. Shoulda got a boxed set, then we wouldn't have to buy this separately.

And finally, 5 years after the last one died, Marvel Super Heroes gets a new, rather different RPG. Considering FASERIP was their second most successful line for years, I'm not sure why they wanted to monkey with it so much, but there you go. Enjoy.


Profiles: Elaine Cunningham says without irony that the reason she writes about elves so much is that she's a cat person. In a post Pratchett literary environment, this seems more than a little risible. But then, gaming fiction is mocked for many reasons. Drop in an ocean really. Add on writing furry fiction, and even with the positive slant they try and put on this interview, I am groaning and rolling my eyes. Having never read her stuff, I now have even less desire to do so. I suppose the article has served a purpose then, if not the intended one.


Well, it looks like the new direction is going to include substantially less goofiness in the magazine, even if behind the scenes, their actual play is as filled with weirdness and messing around as ever. Combined with the emphasis on following more strictly to a formula, and I'm once again left feeling that this is an era to be dipped in and out of, rather than ploughed through. I wish I could be more non-linear in my reviews. Instead, I'm going to have to get through a load more on an edition that's already looking pretty complete as it is. Waiter! Next course please!

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 1/8


124 pages. Who decided muddy green was a good idea as the primary colour for the cover? That's not going to stand out very well. Turn up the saturation! That'll keep it from looking too realistic. Yeah, I'm not too sure about this cover. Maybe it's another one that didn't scan well. Odd that the latest issues should have that problem more than the early ones. Maybe they were getting bored by the time they got this far. Well, we're almost at the end of the Archive issues. I shall definitely be interested in seeing how things change once we get past them. To the articles!


In this issue:


Tenchi Muyo! El-hazard! More classic anime out now and advertised here. Still no DVD's to save space with, I'm afraid.

Mage: the sorcerer's crusade! Another white wolf game gets it's historical edition.


The wyrms turn: Ahh, the great irony that a legend rarely seems legendary until it's over. This is certainly the case with Greyhawk, which was persistently a second stringer until it got cancelled. Yet they're coming back now, while Mystara, Spelljammer and the rest are down for the count. Really, this is just another reminder that they'd like to give plenty of support for the various dead campaign worlds in the magazine. But chances are, they'll actually wind up giving the Realms more support than everything else put together, because Ed shows no signs of running out of inspiration, and people are still showing plenty of interest in what he and his companions have to say. Theory, meet reality. You might not be the best of matches, but you'll have to learn how to get along with each other if you want to get anywhere in life.


D-Mail: A letter pointing out Rick Swan got the authors of his reviewed products mixed up. Tut tut. What do we pay these editors for?

A mostly positive point-by-point letter picking apart issue 243. That's my job! Well, apart from the positivity, anyway. You can keep that.

A letter encouraging you to give your magic weapons names and histories. People'll stick with something if you give it sentimental value, even if it's not the obvious choice. Unless they're ruthless twinks, and do you want to game with them anyway?

Two letters about Alternity and what should be done with it. One is optimistic enough about it's success to think it'll get it's own magazine. Oh, if only that were the case. If the hobby could support a whole bunch of magazines devoted to different systems, it'd be much healthier than it is.


Nodwick is introduced to the rest of the team. Signs continue to point to this being a bad gig. He ought to get out now while he has the chance.

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 2/8


Forum is well and truly in it's new more focussed, change directed swing now, with a new header and the question of the month at the beginning rather than the end. This time, it's psionics that are the big issue. Should they stay or should they go now? If they stay there will be trouble. But if they go it will be double. So you've gotta let us know!  

Gary Sturgess thinks Alteration needs some serious pruning for the next edition. It's got so many spells that belong elsewhere really, simply because the writers were lazy. As a result, it's rather overpowered and thematically blurred at the moment. Absolutely correct.

Lloyd Brown III thinks intelligence ought to be decoupled from your ability to learn skills. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmm. No.

Kenneth Rath isn't talking about 3rd ed, with a load of discussion about the ballistics of missile weapons combined with flight. It does take a bit of trigonometry to accurately model. May be a bit complicated for many gamers.

Paul Benfield wants the XP and psionics systems fixed, but the magic one mostly left alone. The classes need more even advancement. Yup. You can have that one.

Paul Hoyak doesn't think D&D needs a new edition, it's good enough as it is. I knew  there would be one. He's particularly not keen on making all the old books obsolete. Sorry man, there's just too much built up crap. We need to make sacrifices.

Bill Logan has many suggestions, including the idea for the new saving throw system. But plenty more that weren't taken up. Once again, we now know who's idea another little piece of the big picture was.

Bill Johnson points out just how much magic there IS in Tolkien. Yes, but they don't rub it in your face. Gandalf uses his brain more than his fireball blasting. And remember, the classes are based on them, not the other way round.


Sage advice finally finds the time and money to get rid of the nasty spiky decor from the dark times too. Good to see the end of it. Guess Skip's finally got his groove back. And a new love of italics as well. The private sage aint shuttin his mouth anymore. Bow chicka wow wow and all that.

How long does it take to banish an elemental (The same time it took to summon it. You'd better have something to keep yourself from getting hit in the meantime, cause excorcist is not a safe job. )

Can you stack invisible mail with other non AC increasing defensive buffs (if it makes sense)

Just what can you do when only partially broken out of a web (Again, common sense. Note that webs are springy and tend to go back to being an obstruction even if one person breaks out)

Pain touch makes no sense as a divination. (No. It's necromancy. Buy a new updated copy of the book where we've already fixed this problem :teeth ting:)

What happens if you cast transmute bone to steel on a dead person before bringing them back to life (Skip recommends against allowing benefits from it. Screw the rules lawyers, gotta screw those rules lawyers. Skip don't want any competition round these parts )

Can a ring of spell turning deflect a cursed scroll. (no. You brought it on yourself by reading it, so there's no-one for it to be reflected back on)

Does charm person or mammal have a save (yes. Read the spell better, dummy)

Who saves against random causality (the person holding the item affected)

Can chill touch repel ravenloft undead (yes)

Do you have to touch stone to stone shape it. (yes. You want a larger area, you'll need to cast move earth instead)

Shouldn't fireball deal pressure damage to fire resistant creatures (What pressure. It's magic, ooooh. Logical extrapolations don't work)

Can an ottilukes telekinetic sphere be used to fly (sure. Won't be a comfortable ride though, particularly if lots of things are inside being jostled around. )

Can protection from normal missiles work against point blank shots (yes. So much for holding a gun to someone's head. Not that that ever worked under the rules anyway. Damn escalating hit points)

Can rope trick be used to bypass a wall of force (only if it's a moving wall. Rope tricks can't move their entry point. )

How do you decide if an exploit is a legitimate piece of cleverness or a horrible bit of twinking that needs to be stamped upon. (Rule zero, biatch. Skip cannot substitute for common sense. You've gotta decide what's good for your game, and what's bad. Don't listen to those pesky players, you can't trust them an inch. They only want to beat you.)

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 3/8


What the hell is a Baatezu? Well, the writing is certainly on the wall for those unpronounceable second edition fiend names. Soon they'll be back to being demonized and treated simply as boring big bads to kill.


Out of character: Peter delivers another solid but unexceptional bit of writing this month. Why did your character become an adventurer? Was he born to it, did he choose it, or was it thrust upon him unexpectedly. The most interesting ones are rarely the emotionless connectionless hyperoptimised monsters. Yeah, this is a familiar one, and all the literary examples given are very familiar ones as well. Definitely an article for the less experienced player, reminding us of the kind of things they do every few years. Meh. Let's move on.


Rakasta of mystara: Oh joy. As he did with lupins last year, Bruce Heard now provides a whole load of subbreeds of rakasta with different ability modifiers and class capabilities. Which means you can have whole teams of cat-men vs dog-men, and still have well differentiated parties. This is useful. As with the previous one, it wouldn't be hard to file off the cultural fluff and transplant them to other worlds. There aren't quite as many subbreeds here as the lupins got, but that's due to the nature of the source material. Instead, most of the variants are clearly derived from one breed of great cat or another. Of course, there are plenty of other cat-humanoid hybrids out there, and this makes for complicated relationships which aren't glossed over here. Suffice to say they aren't very fond of rakshasa, and will get rid of them terminally if they find out one is among them. Just as with lupins, the breeds get special abilities (including the obvious 9 lives one for domestic rakasta) that actually make them a good deal more varied than a standard race party, while also retaining a common set of strengths and weaknesses. (if anyone's going to be shooting for a 15 minute work day, it's a party containing one of these guys) So this is another article that could pretty much take over your game, given the popularity of cats and the amount of cool crunch contained within. Ed may win in terms of sheer quantity of writing, but Bruce manages a density of useful information that far exceeds his page count. I hope he still has a few more contributions to make to the magazine before the end.


The Taltos: Well well, Tom Moldvay's back. Ok, he wasn't gone as long as some of the old guard, but still, we haven't seen him since 1994, when he finished his series  revamping the various varieties of undead. And here we see he's a fan of Steven Brust as well, giving a new class which is practically designed to replicate Vlad Taltos. Well, as a real jack of all trades with some distinctive elements, he's impossible to do in AD&D without cheating, as we saw in issue 220. So he gets to join Drizzt as a character so cool that he gets new rules so you can copy him. Even more interestingly, we get a full 7 kits for this new class, instantly giving you a whole bunch of different variants on the general principle of spirit-fighting jack of all trades, and removing my usual problem with introducing new classes at this point. I'm not sure how balanced they are, as their abilities are versatile in some ways, but limited in others compared to regular classes, but they are pretty intriguing and certainly worth investigating further. I wonder if the frequency of new classes is another thing that'll increase now they've got rid of the old TSR rules.


Heroes of cerilia: It's birthright's turn to get a load of Players Option support for their various classes and races, making them more distinctive, but also more twinkable. Elves get even better in in woodlands, halflings get to kick the ass of undead, dwarves can move silently underground, and humans get 5 different racial subtypes, each with their own buyable abilities. It is what it is, and you know by now I'm not interested, so I think this is a case where I shall skip lightly through this article and move on.

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 4/8


Wyrms of the north gets a new, more legible header style. And once again Ed provides another exceptional dragon, making it seem like they're more common than the ones who keep to all the rules. A dragon afflicted by a magical binding that forces her to defend Candlekeep against any thieves or invaders, even beyond death, and stuck with that job even though her body's long since rotted away? Yeah, that's going to be an almighty pain in the butt for adventurers to deal with, especially as she respawns, and no-one knows how to stop this. And no surprise that she's also intimately familiar with the place she's trapped, and of dubious sanity from the centuries of loneliness. A horror story almost worthy of Ravenloft, really, only without the ironic justice. In terms of writing quality, this is pretty much business as usual, with Ed's more irritating quirks very much in evidence. Give us something lower level characters can engage with please. Otherwise the Realms may become increasingly unfriendly to new players.


Fiction: Reunification by Jeff Grubb. Another bit of Forgotten Realms fiction this month, using previously established characters. And in this case obviously following on from and referencing previous adventures, although not to the point of impenetrability. And as with Troy Denning's work a couple of issues ago, it showcases the interesting relationships the gods there have with their followers. Since atheism is not a very sensible choice if you're at all concerned about the hereafter, you may have to pick a god who seems like the least worst choice. Meanwhile the gods have their own issues with noninterference and plausible deniability. What they say they want may not actually be what they want. So again, as with Troy's work, this shows there's more moral complexity to the Realms than there may seem, despite them having objective morality. And it is gradually becoming less generic as time goes on, as ideas are introduced that build off the previous ones rather than having real world sources. There are some benefits to relying on staff writers who have built up a relationship with each other over years and developed their own distinctive office culture.


Bookwyrms: Between the rivers by Harry Turtledove does his usual historical setting with a spin thing, in a Bronze age society with gods who are active, and often vindictive. Of course, the protagonist holds to slightly more modern values, and the conflict between reason and obedience is a primary driver of the plot. This also serves as a metaphor for being a mindless drone or a free-thinker in modern society. And I don't think it'll surprise you which side the author is on. Where ARE the books encouraging you to be mindless drones?

Ship of magic by Robin Hobb is very much a fantasy slice of life, with heroes that are flawed, and villains that have explainable motivations, and their plotlines intertwining in an interesting manner. The main complaint is that it's clearly written to the word count, and then cut off to make a new volume when it gets there regardless of the state the plot is in. Given how thick these books are, that's obviously driven by marketing wanting to make sure she covers tons of shelf space at your local bookstore. After all, thats a big part of getting those megasales these days.

Touched by the gods by Lawrence Watt-Evans is another story where there's lots of active gods, or at least used to be. While a recommendation, this is another one where the weaknesses of the book are given plenty of attention, to the point where it feels like a proper review again. Are they listening to the reader's complaints? Well, it wouldn't be the first time.

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 5/8


Rogues Gallery once again follows up on the fiction earlier in the issue. Kate Novak details the characters that she and her group played, and her hubby DM'd for. What are we to make of that? Well, it's probably not scraping the barrel, but it does have the danger of getting cheesy and self-indulgent. Still, they obviously had a lot of fun, and that comes through in the writing, which goes quite some way towards mitigating my scepticism.

Dwalimar Omen is the wizard of the group, and is older (well, relatively, given the presence of demihumans) and higher level than the rest of them. As with many old wizards, he can be subtle and quick to anger, but he's not so powerful that he can just blow off his companions, and it's pretty obvious that he does have some affection for them. He also has quite a distinctive appearance that the illustration captures decently. So far, they're no doing too badly.

Minder is a dwarf who's been stuck in a Golem body. Since Alias was also a woman who was actually a construct, this makes me wonder about Jeff & Kate's personal fetishes. She does have a bit of angst about not being able to smell or taste anymore, but hey, immortality and immunity to nonmagical attacks make up for that. There are far worse fates.

Foxilon Cardluck is our halfling thief, complete with drug issues (which have been bowdlerised in amusing fashion. ) He's managed to kick the habit, but still gets tempted from time to time. He also shaves his foot hair, which does seem a little weird. I guess they've got to buck the stereotypes in more ways than one.

Ishi Barasume looks like a 1st edition OA holdover, with Bushi and Monk abilities in a way that doesn't look strictly legal to me. But then, she's sharing a party with a Golem, and what are the rules for that? She has the usual Oriental obsession with honor, and a disgrace which gives her a good reason to be away from her homeland and questing for a way to redeem herself. And as long as they have more adventures to tell, that plot hook is unlikely to be resolved.

Vartan Hai Sylvar is the elf, but he's also the cleric, which does buck stereotype a little. He's pretty twinked, and got to be the avatar of his god during the Time of Troubles. (which did strain their relationship a little. ) He could be a mary-sue, but has enough character flaws and genuine struggles to avert that. This collection of characters is actually proving pretty good.

Priam Agrivar is the paladin, and is another member of the party with addiction issues, having fallen into drink after a pretty spectacular failure. This means he has more sympathy than many paladins for people who can't manage the same kind of moral standards as him. He's also not celibate, having got into a relationship with Ishi. He could actually be decent company. So overall, I do approve of this collection, as they've obviously been built up organically and well treated over the years, rather than just whipped up for a single novel then forgotten about.


Bazaar of the Bizarre gets to be green under the new format. It does look a good deal better. As with last issue, we're getting a load of stuff that's likely to be useful in a more everyday environment.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

Aprons of the alchemist protect you from explosive experiments. Common sense really. A good one for wizards, as they give an AC bonus, but don't exactly count as armour. Way to get round your normal restrictions.

Nalkar's Apron is an absolute lifesaver, albeit one that requires rather expensive maintennance. Like most charged magical items, this'll be a real problem until very high level.

Tools of Art are another basic skill booster. Of course, they're cheaper than weapons with the same plus, despite probably being rarer. Supply and demand is of course dependent on the demand bit.

Magic Tar reduces your ship maintenance by several orders of magnitude. Well, it should sell for a good amount to the right people. Boat building is so expensive that an extra 500gp isn't too hard to spring for.

Flags of the Warsmith make fixing stuff much quicker and easier. Which is something we've had before, but is still useful. It does have some awkward stipulations though. May well be another one it's better to sell on.

Nalkor's tape measure lets you automate your tailoring processes. Trade the personal touch for being groped by an invisible force. Yeah, that'll make you popular with the customers.

Glasses of the Architect don't seem to do much, unless there's some architecture specific terminology I'm missing here. Can someone explain this one to me?

Barrels of Potion Storing let you deal with the problem of having dozens of bottles in your backpack and having a devil of a time finding the right one. Like any mass storage device, this is tremendously handy if you track encumbrance.  

Jadon's mortar dries really fast. Now those builders have one less excuse for hanging around drinking tea with their arses hanging out. It may even be useful for remodelling dungeons as you go. Now that has even more tactical tricks than flaming oil.

Knives of Decoration let you carve stuff quickly and easily. It only works on wood though, so no swashbuckling in combat pisstaking, unless you're fighting treants. And I don't think you'll want to carry one around just in case of that eventuality. This isn't as fun as last month's collection.  

Nalkor's Book of Servants generates lots of unseen servants. If you're sparing with it, it'll last for a lifetime. If not, you'll wear it out. Manage your resources folks. Long term planning is nearly always the better option.

Fitting Dolls assume the shape of a person, to help you in creating bespoke garments. Maybe you could also use them as a decoy, but I can't think of any real combat use for them.

Easels of Pageturning are yet another way wizards can freak the mundanes and make their lives more convenient. It's like having a remote control for your books. Now all you need is a speaker function too, since shortsightedness can be a real pain for wizards.

Changing Molds let you produce lots of different weapons without paying for different molds. Which will probably cost more than buying all the molds, given how expensive magic items are. A bit pointless really. Well, at least it saves on storage space.

Molds of 1000 Candles are not nearly as impressive as their name. Bah. You'll need quite a bit of patience to get that much out of them.

Pots of Metal Melting do what they say on the tin. Simple and easy. But probably a bit tricky to use in combat.

Diamond Scales let you instantly value any gems you find. That'll help settle arguments and save money on valuers. Keep it in house as much as possible to profit.

Diamond Scales of Chalacha put the power in the hands of the merchant, allowing you to over or undervalue commissions as you choose. Muahahaha.

Dan's Dough Doubler does exactly that. Another boring logistics multiplier to make your provisioning a little easier. This really is getting a bit tiresome.

Jeremiah's box of Knife Sharpening makes me lose the will to live. Really. The personal touches, they do nothing.

Vials of Nalkor let you identify potions. Again, very handy to have one of these along for the ride, instead of risking poisoning or 8 tedious hours casting identify.

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 6/8


Dragon's bestiary: A new header here as well, as their revamps sweep through the whole magazine. But not a new topic, as we've had quite a few frogs in the magazine's run, including a couple quite recently in issue 237. Come on, couldn't you wait a little longer before you rehashed this one.

Archer frogs, like archer fish, knock you down and suck you up. Nature does tend to reuse the same tricks over and over if they work, doesn't it.

Ghoul frogs, like ghoul worms, aren't actually undead, merely translucent. Again, just make it a template. They aren't particularly offensive and the don't make good eatin', so just leave them as a flavour encounter.

Leech toads suck your bluuuud. Like stirges, one probably won't kill you, but they come in large groups to suck you dry.

Spined toads are also pretty self-explanatory, adding the defences of hedgehogs to their usual amphibious tricks. Seems like all these ones have been made by combining one existing creature with another basic monster idea. This makes this entry feel very formulaic and tedious indeed. Someone is churning out crap primarily for the pay rather than inspiration. Seems rather worrying that the average quality of new monsters is decreasing as the rate they give them to us increases. Guess it's another sign we rather need a new edition.


Dungeon Mastery: Along with the skill system in general, languages can be a real pain in the butt in AD&D. And given the modularity of proficiency slots, if you do buy one after character creation, you can seem to go from nothing to full fluency straight away when that isn't the case with real learning at all. The solution here is to go with a BRP style percentile rating in languages that you can increase slowly on a month by month basis. Which is a moderate amount of bookkeeping, but far less annoying than many of the alternatives, and only really becomes a problem if you're trying to learn a ton of different dialects in short succession. Which if you're adventuring over wide areas might become an issue, but it's supposed to be challenging, isn't it. While this introduces unconnected new crunch, it's a better than average example of it's type, and feels curiously old school in it's approach. With the new class, the openly devilish new advertising, and this, it looks like they are actually going back to their roots in several interesting ways. I wonder how long it'll take them to formally adopt the back to the dungeon slogan that they use next edition.


Dragonmirth has a star trek crossover. There is no escape. Swordplay tries their hand at medicine. This isn't going to work.

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 7/8


Roleplaying reviews welcomes Chris Pramas to the fold. What's with this rapid reviewer switching? When that happened to the computer column, it was just a year before they got cancelled. This does not make me confident. So let's see how his voice and opinions differ from our previous incumbents, and if they'll be swapping back in subsequent months. Unusually for a new reviewer, he doesn't bother introducing himself, and gets straight down to business. But they do take the time to revamp the appearance, and bring back the 1-6 pip rating system. The show must go on!

Tribes of the heartless waste is a region expansion for Birthright, with a player and DM book. Obviously, it's off to the barbarian lands, to see if you can face down the gnoll hordes, take care of the Awnsheigh, and unify the squabbling domains. It has a pretty decent set of new crunch appropriate to the culture and climate, and enough adventure hooks and bits left open for a DM to spring plenty of surprises on the players over the course of a campaign. So that's most of the obvious bases covered for the line. Shall we move on?

Earthforce sourcebook is for the Babylon Project, and improves quite a bit on the artwork of the corebook. The writing is still rather dry though, and the new crunch just makes the system even more complicated. Chris does thoroughly enjoy the ship & space combat rules though, which keep PC actions significant while scaling up nicely. Overall, he does recommend it, and hopes the line keeps improving.

Lordly domains is for Pendragon, and of course is about managing any land your knight may own. If you do it right, you'll expand your holdings and pass it down from generation to generation, making it as important as the actual characters. As with most pendragon books, it gets an excellent review, and adds plenty of depth and setting detail to a game that can already span a pretty epic scope. It even includes a decent prefab adventure, which most domain management systems don't really manage. Once again they come up trumps.

Libellus sanguinus 1: masters of the state is for Vampire: the Dark Ages. They don't think that the historical lines merit full splatbooks for every clan, so they're condensing them into 4 packs of 3, each clan getting 30-odd pages. It does suffer from the tendency to assign vampiric influence to many historical events, and Chris is uncomfortable with the idea of playing Tzimisce as represented here. They're all monsters, that's part of the fun. Let go of your humanity. Embrace the darkness.

Crisis of faith is for Heavy Gear, and puts all the timeline advancement in a single book, instead of scattering metaplot gumph all over the place in unrelated sourcebooks, as has happened in AD&D settings. Now that is a sensible idea. The presentation is pretty good as well. Course, there is the usual question if this'll make the setting less accessible to newbies. Guess they'll just have to risk it, or the line won't survive anyway.


The world of darkness kicks it's metaplot into high gear. The time of judgement is coming and the blood is growing thin. Soon ravnos will rise, and he will be ravenous.


Re:Views: Stuper Powers! sees Lester tackle a game with a nonstandard format for a second month in a row. A simple comedic superhero game using a comic book format? With dubious and often scatalogical powers? Oh I can so see that working, although it might be hard to find a parody power that hasn't been used seriously at some point. The system is simple, easy, and gets out of the way, and there's enough adventure ideas to get you going for a few issues. Seems like a good one to introduce young boys to roleplaying with.


The knights of the dinner table are not in the same boat as bob marley. Hoody Hoo

Dragon Magazine Issue 247: May 1998


part 8/8


TSR Previews: Some fairly substantial yet distinctive releases coming in july. AD&D gets a CD character generator, including all the corebooks and several supplements. Accelerate your ability to build and keep track of characters quite considerably. Our other generic product is the complete opposite. Return to the Tomb of Horrors sees them start to seriously cannibalise their old adventures in a search for more profit. See them try and jam together old skool meatgrinder and modern plotting with limited success.

The Realms gets a triple bill this month. Mostly rehash though. Murder in Cormyr and the Dark Elf Trilogy get reprinted. And the Villains lorebook brings more characters from novels into your game, should you be so inclined to give your players a chance to kill them. Yawn.

Greyhawk continues to kick off again with The Adventure Begins. They try and make the adventures more customisable this time round. Down with the Railroads!

Dragonlance can't resist getting prequeliffic again, with Spirit of the Wind, part 1 of the Bridges of time series. See what happened between the time periods covered in detail so far. Riverwind gets the spotlight again. Meanwhile, the 5th age gameline continues, with Citadel of Light. More info on Mystics and their new centre of learning. Should be helpful.

Alternity kicks off it's first campaign setting quickly, wanting to get all the critical stuff out before it gets cancelled. StarDrive gets both it's core setting book, and it's monstrous compendium. They really are following the same format as the D&D books a lot more closely than they did with Buck, Top Secret or the Amazing Engine. They live in hope that it'll work out this time.

And finally, we have another intriguing double bill. Xena and Hercules get interlinked Endless Quest books. Sounds like it could be fun. They are pretty perfect material for roleplaying.


Profiles: Jeff Grubb is our second returning profilee. (see issue 111) He's done a lot more since then, and the focus of the profile is much more on his game work than on his earlier life this time round. He's created Spelljammer and Al-Quadim, but his real fame and popularity (especially with other game designers) is due to his ability to write in other people's worlds, producing fun stuff that fits in with the wider universe and it's themes. A skill which is much more in demand than simple creative talent. Combining your logical and creative abilities can be tricky sometimes, but it is crucial for producing the best work. He's still happily married to, and sometimes co-writing with Kate Novak, the lucky git. Definitely an interesting profile, both in the facts it reveals, and the way it phrases them.


This issue definitely seems to be an attempt to go back to the old school, with a new class, new unconnected subsystems, and several revisitings of old topics and characters, some more welcome than others. The result is reasonably entertaining, and the reviews are better than they've been in a while as well. Of course it does trouble me that this means they're going to be even more repetitive in the topics they cover in the future, but I can survive that. At least now they know where they're going.

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 1/8


124 pages. Another birthday rolls round. They still aren't saying how old they are, but there's no doubt that it is their birthday, with more dragon related articles than they've had in quite a while. And a slightly goofy cover picture that still manages to be more practical and sensible than bareback riding with a Dragonlance. You have a flying creature, the best way to enhance it is with an attack that has an even longer range than it's natural breath weapon, and strafe enemies from the air. Pew pew pew! Time to take potshots at this month's articles.


In this issue:


The wyrms turn: Why'd it have to be Dragons? Because it alliterates in a snappy manner, and because it's one letter further in the alphabet than Castles & Crusades. Actually, I wonder how much deep thought went into Gary & Dave's choice of the name, how much brainstorming and arguing went on before they settled on that as a title. But anyway, the important thing is that they're big, scary and alien. D&D started off with a lot of weird monsters, and while it has accumulated more over the years, the ratio of weird stuff to more conventional humanoids and human antagonists has gone down over the years. Sometimes, you don't really want an enemy you can negotiate with, or at least, not in good faith, you want a monster you know you're trying to trick, hunt, and eventually kill. After all, we have to keep our murderous urges satisfied somehow. Who knows what might happen otherwise? People say computer games RPG's etc etc cause violence, but really, we have far less physical fighting than we did a few centuries ago, so all this distraction and education must be doing something right.


D-Mail: We kick off with some pretty extensive commentary on recent issues. This then digresses into a complaint about wizards being stereotyped, and a load of extra recommended reading that the articles missed out. This gets a pretty positive response from the staff, plus a note that you can now talk to them online with a scheduled chat. The net begins to bring audiences and creators closer together.

A second, mostly positive bit of commentary. Their emphasis on immediately useful articles is definitely pleasing some people.

And finally, another praising letter, this time on the fact that the April issue was humour light this time. No silly letters, and the articles were all usable. They say they intend to continue in that vein. WotC is a less goofy company than TSR in general. Eventually people will start missing that though.


Nodwick gets some small satisfactions. Such is the life of a henchman.


Forum gets onto the thorny business of alignment. Even more than psionics, this is likely to result in some heated debate in a few months time.

Scott Hall goes back to issue 66, and suggests weapon damage should be a function of class, rather than weapon. A Narrativist! Burn him! Yeah, I think this is a bit out there for the general gaming public.

M. Kant thinks weapons that are superior IRL ought to be superior in the game. And isn't that a can of worms in itself. I don't feel optimistic about getting interesting responses to this one.

F Matthew Fagan wants the DMG supreme again. Oh, and don't duplicate info between the two. That's just a waste of pages.

William De Franza wants gnomes removed from the core, multiclassing eliminated and simulated by hybrid classes, and detailed riding rules. A bit out there, but 2 of those'll turn up in 4e. Hmm. That is a strange one historically.

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 2/8


Out of character: Peter gets in on the birthday theme with an article on making dragons suitably cunning and prepared for the players. When they're on the ball, you are well and truly screwed, particularly once they've built up their spellcasting and magic items. So this is one of the many articles from this period that's good in isolation, with Peter's writing style making it fun to read, but oh so very rehashed when taken in the wider sweep of the magazine, where there have been a wide variety of articles and forum letters saying much the same things. And as before, I have to remind us that there are young dragons around, and many of them won't get the chance learn these lessons and survive for centuries, and also that spending decades asleep can wear down those preparations quite a bit. It should be possible to catch them off guard, especially if you're living in a world where there aren't that many adventurers, so dragons can go years without getting any significant challenges and have the chance to get lazy. So hey ho, this isn't particularly consequential. As with cutting the april fools material, I worry about this because it means people are less likely to remember these articles. You do need a certain number of off the wall ideas along with the sensible stuff to maintain attraction, and they are not providing them.


The return of the missing dragons: Or maybe they are. Jesus christ it's a blast from the past get in the car! The color wheel dragons were one of the less impressive add-ons from the old days, originally appearing in issue 65. But very little dies forever in D&D, especially now we're developing computer versions of books, and extra especially when the original writer is still around. And that's exactly what happened here. Richard Alan Lloyd returns 16 years later to convert his creations to 2nd edition. All get the usual extra amounts of ecological detail and general powering up you would expect from the current formulae, but remain pretty faithful to their previous versions. His writing has improved quite a bit in the meantime too. The combination of this and the nostalgia factor means I definitely like these better the second time around.

Yellow (salt) dragons get the chance to permanently blind you, plus water and weather control powers. Since the sea is one of the biggest sources of salt, but also absorbs it pretty well, this means they incline towards coastal regions. They make plenty of practical uses of the real world properties of salt.

Orange (sodium) dragons are even more interesting chemically. Again, the applications of real world principles are cleaned up a bit mechanically, and they're surprisingly fond of water. ( boom badaboom) The info on their eating habits is quite good.

Purple (energy) dragons, as before, are the scariest of the three. Their concentrated lightsaber energy weapon now has the power to inflict semipermanent injuries, and their fire based & hypnotic powers make them quite able to come ahead in negotiations. There are far worse big bads out there.

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 3/8


Building a better dragon: Such as a dragon using these optional rules. Having had our requisite dose of machiavellian planning advice, we now have some more mechanical variations for them to make sure your players don't get complacent. Pick or roll randomly from this list of 50 powers (what, couldn't find enough for the full 101? ) , and then stack that on top of their regular abilities. Most of these are from mythological sources, and so feel appropriately draconic, and are simple enough in their mechanical implementation. And it's not all bad for players. You could get permanent magical abilities from drinking or bathing in their blood, and even more cool bits and pieces from their body. (of course, you could also wind up being transformed into a dragon yourself, which might be considered a good or bad thing. ) Given the level of sadism here, I find myself enjoying this article. Sure, not every dragon should be unique, just like not every magical item should have a name, but some should. And this is sufficiently different from previous articles on this topic to merit it's place.


Crystal confusion: Back to the old school again for an article on gemstones. These last got significant articles on them in issues 72 & 83, making this a fairly forgivable bit of rehash. And it's their equal in length, so I can't bash it on that ground. However, I can criticise it on grounds of artwork, which manages to be inferior to both of the previous ones in quantity and quality despite the recent increase in colour pages in the magazine. Plus one of the old ones was done by Ed, who of course took the opportunity to add a ton of fantastical details that made it so much more interesting to read. On the plus side, this does cover more varieties of stones than the old articles, but that means it goes into less detail on each. So when I add it up, the degree of overlap isn't so great that this is useless, but I certainly wasn't entertained by it, and it shows up some areas that the old magazines did better.  They certainly never had pixelated jaggies in their artwork like this one. :bleah:


The dragon of Vstaive Peak: Birthright gets a unique dragon detailed again this year, just as with the last few birthdays. Since the line recently got cancelled, I suspect this'll be the last time barring the occasional nostalgia article. Still, they go out with one that's both impressive, and has a certain degree of pathos. A dragon that's fused with a mountain, so his power is vast, but his mobility is also seriously limited. (plus usual deleterous effects to the sanity, nach.) A cautionary tale for birthright rulers as much as anything, given their connection with the land. With a rich description, plus plenty of detail on the history, treasures, and political ramifications of him becoming active again, this is pretty specific to the world, and would take a bit of work to convert to elsewhere (except perhaps Ravenloft ), or even to another region, if the PC's domains are far away and they have to reason to go near Vstaive peak. But at the same time, it is very enjoyable to read, and the fact that he's trapped gives lower level adventurers a chance to engage with him without being instantly destroyed. It all adds up to a good bit of adventure design for a world that needs it's plot hooks kept fairly open-ended.

Dragon Magazine Issue 248: June 1998


part 4/8


Wyrms of the north: Ed once again makes the exceptions more common than the rule in this column. This time, it's not even a proper dragon he's covering, but a person transformed into a dragon. Well, I suppose it keeps him from getting bored as much as it does us, even if it is cheating. Her tale is smaller in scale than Master Fire Worm's, but obviously has more of a personal element to it, as she has a pretty tough life even before being transformed. Mind you, as a priestess of Shar, you ought to expect demeaning treatment and backstabbing. And really, trying to get turned back by proving yourself valuable? That's not going to work. It just makes it all the more obvious that you're a better tool in your new form. (as well as a longer lasting one, likely. ) So this is another instance where they've been cursed with awesome, and are going to have to learn to live with that. Look on the bright side, you could simply be cursed. This once again shows that Ed can keep a topic interesting long after anyone else would have given up, become dull or started repeating themselves. The magazine would still be a poorer place without him.


Fiction: The quest for steel by Ben Bova. Orion makes his second appearance in the magazine. Following on from last time, where he helped out Beowulf and discovered Excalibur, he's now off to meet King Arthur. Only to find that when history is in flux, his incomplete memories can be as much a liability as a benefit. Unlike the first instalment, which was completely standalone, this not only makes much more sense when you've read it's precursor, but also obviously intends to have further follow-ups. And once again, the contrast between Orion being able to take on any physical threat, but all too helpless against the machinations of the creators is a big source of drama. The question is not if he'll succeed in what he tries, but what course of action he'll take, and the consequences it'll have. So really, this is better inspiration for something like Exalted or Nobilis than D&D. This doesn't have the novelty of the first one, so it doesn't thrill me as much as that, but it's still better than all the forgotten realms fiction they're suddenly bombarding us with. (which is itself better than the Dragonlance stuff from '96) And it does leave me wondering where they'll take this series next. They may have cut down on continuity in the comics, but between the fiction and the ecologies, the amount of recurring characters is increasing elsewhere in the magazine.


Bookwyrms: The masterharper of pern by Anne McCaffrey is a prequel set in her now very busy world, filling in the history of one of it's most well known characters. This of course means he has to face some fairly substantial challenges to grow up to be the badass we see in earlier books. There are some apparent continuity errors though, which can only really be resolved by making one or another of the narrators unreliable. Writer sloppiness, or intentional?

Wolf's Bane by Tara K Harper gets picked apart, with it's pacing flaws, inconsistent naming conventions and whiny main character. it has potential, but really needed an involved editor to hack big chunks off to make it a better story.

The dragonstone by Dennis L McKiernan gets an even more scathing review, as the entire main cast seem to be playing a stupid game involving passing multiple idiot balls around, blundering through their quest and engaging in awkward romantic pairings. Sounds like it would be most entertaining given an MST3K reading.

Wizard of the winds by Allan Cole is a fairly interesting arabian fantasy that also maintains a pretty nasty amount of genre appropriate IC sexism. (while making it clear that the author doesn't share these prejudices. ) If this isn't a deal-breaker, (and it is a woman doing these reviews) it is pretty good, and is left open to become an extended series. (or at least a trilogy, as googling reveals. )

The prestige by Christopher Priest does get a pretty positive review though. While it may seem to have flaws at first, the twists at the end make sense of them, and telling the story from multiple viewpoints is used to full effect to make the story more interesting. Do not switch your brain off when reading.

Shards of a broken crown by Raymond Feist gets a blue sidebar marking it out as a special recommendation. Well, they have increased the amount of colour quite a bit this year, why not do a little experimentation? They still say it's not quite as good a story as the previous instalment in the series, but it does make the setting better for other groups to adventure in. Not sure If I want to be tempted by that or not, but I am interested in googling more details.