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I really have no idea what the business concept behind TSR’s late-run science fiction RPG, Alternity, was.  Perhaps they’d long ago abandoned or lost the rights to Star Frontiers, but it seems incredibly odd not to do a revamp of that universe since it already had a strong fanbase and solid universe. Whatever the case, Alternity was created in 1998 and failed almost as quickly as TSR’s bottom line before being salvaged from the scrap heap by Wizards of the Coast.  Although the staff at TSR survived [roughly], Alternity did not, and the game has become more of an oddity...

The first thing that strikes me about Dragon #67 is the cover, which is a bit of a divergence from the standard stuff people were growing used to from Dragon.  Instead of the basic adventure fantasy and S&S images, we are greeted with a fantasy dinner party complete with sword-wielding Viking slicing a turkey down the center.   What exactly does this mean?  I guess you’d have to ask the artist, Jack Crane, or perhaps the Kim Mohan who was the Editor-in-Chief.  Whatever the case, I’ll accept it for face value, a bit of old school tongue-in-cheek humor for the...

I’m not sure how many of you out there ever tried the XSOLO series of modules from TSR, but there are a couple that are very fun.  I’m not really certain Lathan’s Gold is one of them, but still, it has some nice artwork in it and I’m tempted to take out my dice and give it a shot just to see. Written by Merle M. Rasmussen [is that a real name?] and produced in 1984, the module takes your character into the Sea of Dread [a favorite setting of mine and one that I’ve played in as recently as...

I have to say, I always love me some Pathfinder.  I certainly don’t play it as much as I once did, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t respect the work the company does or the quality of the product [which is why I still subscribe to the Adventure Paths because they are just too filled with crunchy goodness to pass up!] Today I’m going to have a look at Adventure Path #4, Legacy of Fire. Written by Erik Mona, with new fiction by the lovely and talented Elaine Cunningham, this book takes us into the deserts where we can...

Now, I think each of you know that Dragon Magazine had certain ‘ages’, meaning that there are plateaus of greatness involved in the magazine.  First and foremost, you had the inception issues, the first two dozen that helped define a budding RPG industry, and afterward, from issue 25-100, you had what could arguably be considered the Golden Age of Dragon, where the magazine was nearing the pinnacle of everything it could be and TSR ruled over the RPG universe. Today’s issue hits within the wheelhouse of the Golden Age, as Dragon #89 is an absolute masterwork.  I mean, if you...