What else? The new Dragon ecology article is a bit of a dud. That's a bit of a shame. While a small part of me is happy that the Big Guys are making KQ look good by comparison, I had very high hopes for the online incarnations of the classic periodicals. So far, they're not meeting those hopes, but I'm in no position to complain about material they offer for free. Kim, Chris, Bart and the gang have months to figure out a new online/PDF formula before they start charging anyone for it.
Despite small disappointments, I'm in an unreasonably good mood. I'm writing. I've shed a few pounds. Three presents I bought myself showed up in the mail (a macabre seal, a Cthulhoid Mayan art piece, and a fine silver coin). I'm reading light-but-fun books. Boris Akunin's Turkish Gambit was exactly the sort of thing you'd love, if you loved 19th century Russian/Turkish war murder mysteries with romantic subplots and load of period flavor. Scott Lynch's Red Sails Under Red Skies is a great caper novel. And it made me laugh.
And fall is here, cold and red and wet. Time to curl up with an ablative coating of paper, and rustle the pages until spring.
Comments
I suppose you can't comment further, though, least Matthew Sernett find the journal -- professional courtesy and all that.
It just had repetition, very little crunch, and a lower level of craft than I expected. I think I need to reset my mental bar a little.
While on the subject of periodicals - I bought issue 2 of KQ yesterday. As far as feedback goes: I really liked the paladin variant class features variant and the honorary aristocrat levels rule, I didn't find the interview or the Ed Greenwood article particularly useful, and while I haven't done any playtesting, the assassin base class (and I do agree one was needed to replace the spellcasting version in the DMG) seems at a glance to be considerably overpowered as written (and the possibility of having a PC die due to a single botched 'assassinate' roll is something I wouldn't allow anywhere near my table - that stuff is for playing out). Belphegor was interesting, flavoursome, and well-written, but not something that I can see myself actually using a great deal during a game. The cover picture was nothing short of great, and is now my official monster art next time I need to show my players what a nightwing looks like.
I bought the issue for the ecology, since they're one of my favourite critters and a cabal of class-levelled greater barghests who prey on godlings and other powerful outsiders will be replacing the ur-priests in Scuttlecove when my Savage Tide campaign reaches that point. Mixed bag, really. Some of the background was wonderfully evocative, and the new feats add an entire new dimension to the creature, but the article as a whole is aimed, for obvious reasons, at lower-level characters than I plan to be using it against (not a criticism, just an observation), and the art style wasn't to my taste. There are a few editing mistakes too, particularly in the sample character description (size contradiction between the stat block and the fluff text, reference to a 'Great Hunt' that seems as if it should have been detailed elsewhere in the article, the odd grammatical error).
All up, worth the (cheap!) price, but not absolutely compelling. I'll probably buy at least some future issues, conditional on whether the content of a specific issue is useful to my campaign.
As for the lack of quality in the article, I would have liked to see a feat or three. Another special ability. A magic item. And some clues on how to fight a death knight and how to run one. But I chalk that up to everybody at WotC being so focused on 4e that they've forgotten there's still a system to support for the next year.
And THAT is the real shame of it.
However, this ecology article just wasn't...sagacious. It seemed like the result of an eleventh-hour brainstorming session that involved a lot of Post-It™ notes that were just kind of used as spurs for word count. But, as Wolf says, they've got time to improve.
Lastly, since I said it to one of my good friends the other day, I do wish they'd stop pointing out how horrible 3.5 is when we don't have 4th edition yet. It's like being reminded your car or house is a jelopy when the reminder knows full well you can't just go out and replace it. (Well, I could, but I'm no sunshine missionary.)
And fall here is still in the mid eighties!
You must be some kind of writer guy, with all those pretty words. :-)
Jeff
:P
The Mayan artpiece is called "El Profundo", and arrived in a box from Miskatonic University, filled with excelsior and a wonderful casting. It looks like this:
Given the nose to the grindstone work of the last few months, I'm very pleased with the quality of both of these.
http://www.ateliergargoyle.com/pages/sealgallery1.html