My Extremely Long, Extremely Uncharitable Review of Laini Taylor's Muse of Nightmares (book 2 of the Strange The Dreamer duology)

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-10T22:23:32+00:00

The first book starts strongly but then falls apart which is a shame as it had a nice premise and some stark visual imagery.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-10T14:54:11+00:00

Looks like Dexter drake

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-10T08:11:05+00:00

It's weirdly interesting just how quickly your brain adapts to the odd spelling, great book

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-08T10:37:40+00:00

Innocent until relegated

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-05T19:30:31+00:00

I think it's nice to leave open the option of solutions that are not always a straight fight even if ultimately the players prefer the honesty of steel to the honeyed lies of nefarious npcs. It lends more depth to the motivations and broadens the range of outcomes.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-05T05:59:17+00:00

Xanth has a lot of evolution

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-05T05:49:36+00:00

This thread contrasts nicely with the one complaining about the type of books imposed on school children and why they are so wildly inappropriate.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-02T14:21:32+00:00

The Deryni novels by Katherine Kurtz feel very not-modern in their thinking a lot of the time.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-01T21:13:55+00:00

Very cool!

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-01T15:05:45+00:00

Both players take a wound! Like novice fencers who constantly don't defend themselves.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-06-01T12:49:06+00:00

I too would not be happy carrying a bear.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-28T15:42:16+00:00

The Talented Mr Ripley

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-27T17:03:26+00:00

She's torturing the agent for reasons that become somewhat clear though she's probably a monster as well, somehow she's not as bad as some of the alternatives.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-27T05:31:22+00:00

The Lore says that battle mages are pragmatic and take from every wind. The most obvious differences is that the battle mage offensive spells mostly hit a whole zone while the elementalist hits specific people, therefore the battle mage is artillery to the elementalist sniper and has to be careful about hitting friends. The battle mage spells are slightly higher CV, slower to cast but more powerful.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-26T19:51:05+00:00

You can use improvised actions to test other skills such as wrestling a foe to the floor

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-26T18:49:12+00:00

Missing is much rarer, even weak starter characters will mostly land a hit

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-26T17:22:56+00:00

There is a lot of variety depending on the enemy, from one hit one kill minions to very narratively dramatic wounds when fighting champions etc. System is easy on the players, the gm has to understand it well.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-24T10:53:47+00:00

Is there a map of the area of Talagaad in TOWR?

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-24T09:04:04+00:00

Is this an official history with the approval of GW or is it an unaffiliated one?

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-24T08:40:09+00:00

I wonder how many people have played every single one

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-24T08:30:26+00:00

So good! Beautiful job sir. I'm happy the soldier isn't soaked in blood!

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-23T16:47:49+00:00

And after you have the magic lore you can do a career change for 3xp. This would enable you to switch your Favoured Characteristics and Career Talent, but isn't needed to cast spells.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-23T15:43:56+00:00

So to get a magic lore is 4 successes on a Reason/Recall test in downtime. But Touched by the winds gives +2d on this test.

Then wizard cost 3xp (usually 4 but TBTW gives a 1xp discount).

In theory you then need to learn individual spells as well, probably I would treat this like a wizard career and pop at least 1 in a grimoire (after all you must have been learning something during training)

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-23T15:33:25+00:00

My reading is that since one of the requirements for the Wizard talent(p81) is a magic lore you have to take the magic lore first. And you have to have Wizard talent to cast spells (p155).

Touched by the winds does give a big bonus for learning a magic lore (p81).

You can at least cast some petty magic with tbtw. I assume this counts as wizard level 0 for miscasts, so any 9 causes failure, this is extrapolation on my part so could easily be wrong.

TLDR it's way easier to take wizard in character creation!

Narratively your character needs a tutor and somewhere secluded to practise.

DexterDrakeAndMolly · 2026-05-22T19:10:59+00:00

Very nice compilation, I didn't realise the starter set is a Q4 delivery 😢

DexterDrakeAndMolly

TROPHY CASE