25 Years Ago...

Finally. This took longer than I wanted it to, but life happens. This issue is about magic and sorcery, rather than having a racial theme as the previous two did. So, this should be an interesting change of pace. It's the first issue of the 3e era to focus on magic, too. The cover art is pretty straightforward; there's a sorceress casting a spell while a dragon of some sort coils itself around and near her, not squishing her like Kaa in the Jungle Book. The editorial talks about the price increase in the magazine and how you really shouldn't be worried about that extra dollar. A dollar is quite a jump for a magazine in that time. But at least the subscription price hasn't changed...yet. In Scale Mail, among other things we get a discussion of fonts, a promise that the iconic characters from the Player's Handbook  will be statted out later this year in Enemies and Allies , and an RPG version of the 2000 presidential election (Gore vs. Bush). Which is about as coheren...

  Continuing the magic theme of this month's Dragon Magazine, we have the Tower of Deception . This one's a little bigger than the last one, and has the following description: A false beacon for weary sailors, this tower is the last resting place -- make that  restless  place -- of many a missing seaman. So, this is more of a haunted type of place, likely with a few ghosts and the like. There's also what looks like a maze on the very first level, not to mention a bunch of shipwrecks surrounding the tiny island. You would think those alone would discourage sailors from landing here, but you never know. That maze on the first level is actually tough. You want to reach the staircase that is in the tower just to the right of the entrance. And if you end up reaching the center, there's a trap there. What sort of trap? Probably something deadly enough to turn you into some sort of undead. But it looks like you have  to go through the trap to get to the staircase. Yikes. Th...

We get another Cliffhanger today: The Proper Count . This one is for 7th-level characters. It's set on the eastern coast of the Greyhawk map, but it can be set anywhere that has a bunch of fishing villages. They recommend a cleric, since things move fast and there isn't much time for healing breaks. And it uses the Lighthouse map from the Map-a-Week archive, which is handy. So, the adventure involves a pair of fishing villages that have a friendly rivalry; they hold a contest every year to see which village catches the most fish, with the winner getting custody of a silver trident until the next year's tally. The judge every year is a gnome lighthouse keeper, Perri. Unfortunately, Perri has vanished, and there's a sea serpent lurking about the lighthouse. Needless to say, the villagers aren't thrilled about either of those two things. So, adventurers are required to get rid of the beastie and find the missing gnome. The party could be looking for the gnome, or wond...

We're back in the wonderful world of Greyhawk with the fourth installment of the Living Greyhawk Journal. Yes, this is issue #3. There was an issue #0 , remember? So, this if the fourth. It's 32 pages long, so there's going to be plenty of stuff in here, I'm sure. We start with Campaign News. The Fright of Tristor is available, a freebie sent to all RPGA members. There is a hint that they might do more of these freebies, but as far as I know, they never did; apparently, this one wasn't as successful as they had hoped. They'll continue the look at the City of Greyhawk in the following issue (they skipped it this time). One of the magic items they sent out in a scenario has a major bug, apparently, and a replacement certificate is necessary. So...if you have the original magic item, it doesn't count and you can't use it in other Living Greyhawk games. Okay, then. They are also releasing some 'adaptable' scenarios which can be played in any region....

This should have been posted last night, but life happens. This short adventure was made available online on Feb 2, 2001. It's called One Last Riddle , and it's only six pages long. It's for characters of betweeen 5th and 7th level. That's a bit unusual for 3rd edition; most of the adventures I've seen have a specific level in mind, rather than a range. Oh, and it doesn't use a map. It's about a sphinx that died last night. The adventure starts when the party is just chilling out somewhere by the road. Any road; this adventure fits in any campaign and any setting. Sure, why not? Suddenly, the ghost of the dead sphinx shows up, challenging the party with 'the last riddle of Ujaset'. That's the dead sphinx's name. The riddle is as follows: “What is half of dragon, but has not a wyrmling’s strength? What is half of canine, but has not a mongrel’s length? What is it that is of two halves, but has but half to stand on? If the party can figure it o...

  Welcome to February, and we start off with our first map of the month: The High Mountain Wizard's Tower . I'll just quote the description from the Map-a-Week Archive... Ancient glaciers and other challenges of this tower's unforgiving location deter those who would plunder its magical secrets. That sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately, we get none of that on this map; all we get is a very minimalist, four-level wizard's tower that could be on any hillside based on the artwork. It's rather disappointing. So, let's look ahead to what's on tap for the rest of the month. We have the usual Dragon magazine (280), as well as Living Greyhawk Journal #3. Our main product (and the only D&D product released in February, 2001) is Monsters of Faerûn, a collection of Forgotten Realms monsters. And there's a web enhancement for it, so I'll try to make the book and the web enhancement coincide this time. It shouldn't be that difficult.