Dragon #405, MAGAZINES, Dragon Magazine
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Editorial:
Wild Times
By Christopher Perkins
Illustration by Kerem Beyit
During the planning of 4th Edition, we explored
many alternatives to the “Great Wheel” cosmology of
earlier editions, with the goal of making the planes
more accessible to players and more likely to be used
as adventure locations. We also had the notion of
tying monster origins to the planes: Natural creatures
come from the natural world, immortal creatures
from the Astral Sea, elemental creatures from the
Elemental Chaos, and so on. Then someone asked,
“Where do fey come from?”
Well, when a mommy fey and a daddy fey love each
very much . . .
Ultimately, we turned to Earth’s faerie myths for
the answer. Much has been written in literature about
faerie circles, seelie and unseelie courts, and invisible
realms where boggles, barghests, and bogeymen take
little boys and girls. Out of these myths came the idea
of a world parallel to our own, a demesne populated
and governed by fey of all types and demeanors, from
the ethereal eladrin to the debased fomorians.
My significant contributions to the 4th Edition
cosmology are few and far between. It was my idea to
make Ioun, previously known for
ioun stones
, the god
of knowledge. I will also take credit for coining the
word “Feywild.” And that’s about it.
While listening to James Wyatt, Rich Baker, Matt
Sernett, and others ponder the story possibilities of
a fey “mirror” of the natural world, the one image
that immediately sprang to mind was the Palace of
Spires in Porpherio’s Garden, illustrated by Timothy
Truman on page 22 of UK1
Beyond the Crystal Cave
,
the classic AD&D
®
adventure module by Dave J.
Browne, Tom Kirby, and Graeme Morris. Ye gods!
That was an odd adventure!
“It will quickly become apparent to the DM
that this is no ordinary adventure.” These words
appear in the Dungeon Master’s notes, presaging
an unusual series of encounters that emphasize
roleplaying over combat. The adventure mixes old
English mythos with a story inspired by William
Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet
, and as the designers
point out, a party of 1st-level characters can sur-
vive the adventure using wit and wisdom, while a
well-armed party of higher-level characters would
be hard-pressed to fight their way through the fey
beasts and strange magical guardians of Porpherio’s
enchanted realm.
You could say that
Beyond the Crystal Cave
was
the first official D&D
®
adventure set in the Feywild.
Granted, in 1983 no one knew the Feywild existed!
Nevertheless, Porpherio’s Garden has many traits in
common with the plane, and the garden’s mysterious
keeper—the Green Man—has qualities comparable to
4th Edition archfey, including a proclivity for magic
and a tendency to be secretive.
Although it’s two editions out of date, module UK1
stands the test of time—a particularly ironic state-
ment when you discover the nature of Porpherio’s
Garden and realize how slowly time passes there. You
could easily run the adventure today using 3rd or 4th
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TM & © 2011 Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved.
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DRAGON 405
Editorial: Wild Times
Edition stat blocks and give players a real sense of
what the Feywild is like.
Of the four major outer planes in the 4th Edition
cosmology, the Feywild is by far the least explored,
but that’s about to change. A new D&D Encounters
™
season kicks off this month, and we’re trading the
political cauldron of Neverwinter for a return visit
to Porpherio’s Garden. I promise you, this season is
very different from the ones that came before—there’s
combat, but there’s also a lot of magic, mystery, puzzle
solving, and roleplaying opportunities. To support
the season, we’re releasing
Player’s Option: Heroes of
the Feywild
™
, which you can use to create characters
for D&D Encounters or give the characters in your
home campaign a wild edge.
The magazines are also celebrating the Feywild
this month by paying homage to some other inspira-
tional products and adventures. One such product is
FR2
Moonshae
(1987) by Douglas Niles, with its stun-
ning cover that practically screams “Feywild!” We’re
revisiting the Moonshae Isles with a fantastic Back-
drop article in
Dungeon
®
and new character themes
in
Dragon
®
. We also have 4th Edition updates of the
archfey Baba Yaga and her infamous dancing hut,
ushered into D&D’s timeless lore by Roger E. Moore
in
Dragon
#83 (1984).
If you’re a DM, I hope this month’s offerings
inspire you to lure your players into the Feywild and
explore all that the mysterious plane has to offer. If
you’re a player looking for a wild time, use our
to find a D&D Encounters game near you.
See what lies beyond the Crystal Cave. I promise, you
won’t be disappointed!
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DRAGON 405
CON f E s s I ON s O f A f u L L - T I M E W I z A R D
CON f E s s I ON s O f A f u L L - T I M E W I z A R D
Not Fair Assault
By Shelly Mazzanoble
Illustration by William O’Connor
as having a +583 in niceness. Doesn’t matter if I’m
a sucker for his stupid, low-fat brownies and cup-
cakes decorated with little spiders on top. He’s the
one who called for this madness! He’s the one who
orchestrated that playtest!
I was so naïve, D&D Players. I actually believed
that those twenty-three glorious minutes of Kevin’s
life were not all in vain. After Kevin’s death, R&D
and Organized Play would surely realize that cre-
ating adventures like this was a terrible idea! How
could this be fun for the player? Why give Dungeon
Masters more incentive to kill PCs? Why widen the
divide between PC’s and DM’s?
I was wrong.
Super wrong
.
No, R&D and OP didn’t scrap the program and
start over. They didn’t lower the dragon’s hit points
and decrease the number of minions. You know
what they did?
They went back and made the challenges even
harder
. They gave the DM’s even more power. And
then they bundled it up in a neat little package and
called it—Dungeons & Dragons Lair Assault.
At first I was excited about D&D Lair Assault.
I thought it sounded
fun
. Ha! Even I fell into their
trap! I didn’t know that the game I had playtested
would eventually be making its way into stores to
Do you remember when I was in mourning for my
beloved minotaur barbarian, Kevin Rogers, who
died unfairly in a playtest? Big bully Mike Mearls
made fun of him because he said Kevin was a
dumb name for a minotaur and he deserved to
die.
Deserved to die!
This is really painful for me to
remember, but I’ ll do it for you, D&D Players of the
world. Why? Because I am your Player-in-Chief and
I fear I may have forsaken you!
If you happen to be privy to my D&D diary
(and some of you are probably thinking “oh we are,
every month, right here.”) you would know that
I never really got over Kevin’s untimely demise.
Perhaps because I feel responsible. He was my
character, after all. I made him, I played him, and
I subsequently buried him. RIP, my furry, bull-
headed buddy.
I can’t take all the blame, of course. It’s not in
my nature. I also blame my Dungeon Master. And
whatever lunatic wrote that clearly unbalanced and
TPK-friendly adventure. And okay, sure, I blame the
big white mama dragon who was ultimately respon-
sible for the fall that ended up killing Kevin. But the
person I blame the most?
Chris Tulach, D&D Organized Play Manager.
That’s right, I said it. I don’t care if we’re friends
in real life. I don’t care if I have often described him
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CON f E s s I ON s O f A f u L L - T I M E W I z A R D
pit tactically gifted players against dungeon masters
with big, old chips on their shoulders.
soon I started hearing stories from the new batch
of playtesters around the building.
OMGthat wassofreakinhardIalmostpeedmypants
twice!
Perhaps I’m paraphrasing. Whatever. But people
were talking, and it didn’t sound good. The bursts
of laughter and sweaty palms over their foreheads
couldn’t mask the truth. Players, we were going
down.
“so about this whole D&D Lair Assault thing,”
I asked Chris Tulach (who will now be known as
Tulach because there’s a lot of Chris’s in this story).
He was standing by my desk with a plate of his
homemade, low-sugar, non-fat, absolutely delicious
brownies. (Tulach likes to tweak recipes—min/
maxing the ingredients until they create some-
thing oddly tasty and bad ass. same as he does with
his characters.)
“What about it?” he asked. “I mean other than it’s
awesome.”
“It seems sort of . . . tough,” I mumbled, shooting
crumbs all over my keyboard. “Kind of broken if you
ask me.”
Tulach laughed. “Nah! You’re just bitter about
Kevin. But look at this way. His death wasn’t all for
nothing. He helped make for an even better experi-
ence for all the minotaurs who will follow him off
suspension bridges into battle.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said, taking another
brownie. “You guys just went and made it harder.
I’m trying to bring peace between the players
and Dungeon Masters. This will surely tear them
apart!”
“Not a chance,” Tulach said. “It’s good to have
some rivalry in D&D. And contrary to what you
might think, players
want
a challenge. DM’s are just
giving them what they want.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, grabbing a copy of the first
Lair Assault and f lipping it over to show him the
copy on the back. “What’s this mean, then? How do
you explain
that
?”
Tulach read it out loud. “ ‘The players think their
characters are invincible. It’s time for you to show
them otherwise.’ ” He shrugged. “What? It’s funny.”
“Oh really?” I asked. “You think it’s time to show
me otherwise?”
He smiled. “If you’re up for it. Which I doubt you
are. see ya!”
And with that he took his brownies and f litted off
to antagonize someone else.
I continued reading the back cover. “Gather your
players—the tacticians, the rules experts, and the
power gamers…”
Well, I’m none of the above, but I am a girl with
mission. A girl with a mission who grew up watching
soap operas. I know how to exact revenge! The time
had come to avenge the premature death of Kevin
Rogers. I was sure I could find some tacticians, rules
experts, and power gamers. I only needed to look
right next to me.
“Hey, Chris,” I said to my cube mate, Chris Lind-
say. “You feel like a game of D&D Lair Assault
sometime soon?”
“sure,” he said, without taking his eyes off his
computer screen. “Just tell me when.”
Assembling my party would be a piece of cake.
Asking people around here if they want to play D&D
“sometime soon” is like asking me if I want to hit
the Nordstrom Half-Yearly sale. umm… yeah. Been
there, done that, emerged victorious. I can only hope
the same is true for what I’m about to schedule next
friday afternoon.
Chris Lindsay helped me round up the rest of our
group which included Josh and Mark from Game
support and Bart—because we carpool and if I’m
going to stay late on a friday he might as well too.
“Just remember,” I told Bart. “This is war. It’s
serious business. We don’t have time for your care-
less, willy-nilly ‘I think I’ ll just wander over to this
strange looking portal and put my finger in it’ ways.”
“That’s exactly the type of player you need for
D&D Lair Assault,” Bart said. “You know you’re
going to have to take some risks if you want to sur-
vive.” He said this last part like Vincent Price at the
end of the
Thriller
video.
“Ohhhhh, spooky! I can handle it,” I said. “I’ve
been putting a lot of thought into my character. she’s
going to be very, very risky.”
It’s true. I did put a lot of thought into my charac-
ter. A lot of thought about who was going to help me
roll her up. Like I said to Bart, this was war. sure, I
could do it. But would she be the best possible char-
acter she could be? I can’t trust myself not to get all
magic missiles
and
burning hands
here. I needed an
expert’s opinion.
“A wizard?” Chris Lindsay said when I asked for
his advice. “Way to think outside the box.”
“This is too important for me to go out of my com-
fort zone,” I explained. “I need every advantage here.
I’m not just going to be a wizard. I’m going to be an
amazing wizard. With your help.”
Now, I don’t know what it’s like for you when you
ask coworkers for help, but imagine saying, “Hey
there, Bob. You’re really good with Powerpoint. Can
you help me animate this slide?” And the next day
Bob comes back to work with not one but
three
dif-
ferent versions of an entirely animated Powerpoint
slideshow.
“I have a few options for you,” Chris Lindsay said,
coming over to my side of our two-foot wall. “I made
a warlock version. Don’t panic! It will still be famil-
iar, but maybe a little more bad ass.”
“Wow, when I asked for help I didn’t mean for
you to just do it.” I really didn’t, but I’ ll admit I was
kind of glad he did.
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No vemb e r 2011
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DRAGON 405
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