Edit: Wizard seems to have fixed many of the issues with the images and maps as well as fixed a few editorial errors. - Sig

The first article I want to talk about is the new Dungeon adventure The Haunting of Kincep Mansion.  The adventure itself reads nicely and seems like it should be a fun use of undead, but I have to talk mostly about the art.  Not that it’s bad, but that the resolutions suck. 

The maps look pixellated as all get out, and most of the art does too.  Like it was scaled up from smaller resolutions or else the resolution was deliberately lowered to prevent people from electronically distributing them? 

Below is an example.  I took a screen shot using Snip-It for Windows and didn’t alter the image at all, just so you can see it at its native resolution. 

Simply put, it’s awful.  All the maps and most of the art are like that.  This is a shame because all the rest of the Dungeon and Dragon articles have had pretty decent resolutions.  Maybe it will be fixed when the collected magazine is published?

The second entry is an excerpt from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.  This excerpt details a “dry, not-quite-desert land” called Elfharrow, which is filled with xenophobic elves.  For Forgotten Realms aficionados, Elfharrow encompasses the area formerly known as the Misty Vale and now know as Dead Vale, the destroyed cities of Halruaa and Sheirtalar, and parts of the coastline of the Shining Sea, all locations just south and west of the Shaar.  It certainly sounds like an interesting area and already gave me some ideas to use in a campaign--feral elves topping the list.  (EDIT - The .jpg map file that’s linked is apparently broken.)

The last new article is a Design and Development column featuring Rob Heinsoo (Senior Developer) and Peter Shaefer (Associate Developer) discussing the changes to monster creation.  In short, they felt that 3E overreached by making monsters all follow the same detailed rules as player characters and actively sought to strip those away, bringing 4E monsters, ostensibly, in line with monster creations from other game systems.  This is one of the more serious disagreements between players of 3E and 4E.  I tend to side with the 4E developers on this, so long as they continue to trot out “Racial Traits” for the various other humanoid races and, hopefully, a lot more articles like last month’s on using Warforged as a race.  I know there will be others who disagree with this philosophy, and primarily from a simulationist point-of-view, but this is one change I really like.