Armor and shield, blade and bow, stealth and cunning, tactics and command—here’s the full set of illustrations from Martial Power!

In today’s Martial Power preview, we bring you a new creature haunting the Astral Sea--the Astral Dreadnought!

As announced in Digital Insider, we’re publishing our current editorial calendar to offer a forthcoming look at the Dragon, Dungeon and free content you can expect throughout the month.

Armor and shield, blade and bow, stealth and cunning, tactics and command—all of these are the tools of a warrior... and these Martial Power wallpaper are tools for you as well!

Adolescence can be difficult -- OK, it's always difficult. Does playing D&D make it easier to cope with bullies, crushes, and tests? Shelly digs into her middle-school diaries in a search for the answer.

Which Demonweb creature has three heads? If you answered the Skull Lord, you're wrong -- it was a trick question! The Skull Lord has three skulls but no heads. Look, it was just a joke, OK? No need to lose your head.

Tons of giveaways this Fall! If you are receiving this article by e-mail you could win Dungeons and Dragons books:

• November 10th: Adventurer's Vault (who won?)
• November 25th: Draconomicon
• December 10th: Manual Of The Planes

Learn more about this contest

I’m a goblin.  Now what?

There’s a little known fact about Dungeon Mastering. In the early days of the site Expy was given full authority over hiring. His first and last act in this position was to retain the services of a troupe of polymorphed goblins, who he allowed to write their own contract. Due to the terms of their contract they are employed by Dungeon Mastering for “infinity years” and are to be paid in a “new roasted beast each day, delivered on the back of a new non-roasted beast and accompanied by honey mustard dipping sauce of equal weight to the heaviest goblin”. In return for their substantial and bizarre compensation their sole duty is to respond to any letters we get from those who have been polymorphed into goblins and need advice to deal with the change. This has never come up, until now! I was making the daily delivery, roast celestial dire badger with 87,986.42 grams of honey mustard ferried by chimera, when I spotted the following letter:

Dear Goblin Polymorph team,

I was recently on an adventure to a region east of castle Greyhawk when I had the experience of being polymorphed into a goblin. (Or some kind of goblinoid anway- I still haven’t figured out the difference. These people all look the same to me.) Anyway, the thing is, I sort of enjoy being a goblin. I feel like I finally have a home. I get to loot, pillage, and listen to Enrique Inglesias all day and nobody in the tribe condemns such evil acts.

I don’t know how to break it to the rest of my adventuring party that I want to stay with the greenskins. I expect my group will mount a rescue attempt soon, probably killing dozens of my newfound brothers in the process and forever sullying the allure of latin music.

Will my party understand my decision to remain with the goblins? Please help.

-Gerard Duskhammer, dwarf-cleric-turned-goblin

So without further ado, here is the input of our crack team of polymorphed goblinoids.

Lenwë Ciryatan, former elven botanist, current hobgoblin archer writes:

“It is never easy to expose your inner self to your friends and family. The first step is to accept yourself, when you can look in the mirror and love who you are, you will be ready for others to love you. If you can dance to Enrique you are halfway there. The next most important thing is timing. You don’t want to burst it out in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner and then get into a shouting match with your father until Aunt Sally cries into the cranberry sauce. Hypothetically, that would be the most humiliating moment of your life. The sad fact is that even in the best circumstances some people just aren’t going to accept your lifestyle, some might even try to “rescue” or change you. Don’t let them control you, show your pride and crank up the Enrique”

Oswald Foxgar, halfling rogue turned goblin blackblade writes:

“Ah, yes, you can never get away from troublesome party members trying to stop your pillaging fun. Even once you become a goblin it’s tough to get away from. Here’s a simple trick I learned when I became a goblin. You way over to your tribe leader and you squeal like a toy in the mouth of a hyperactive puppy. You tell the boss man that your party is coming, fill him in on all their powers and weaknesses and you have the whole tribe set up a little ambush. When your former buddies walk right into the trap and the whole tribe leaps out, make it the whole tribe minus you. They fight each other in the usual way, you just watch. If your green-skinned pals live you just tell them that nature called right before the ambush and all will be well. If your old “heroic” friends win the day than you just run out and sing their praises for the rescue. Once they have divide up the loot of your former tribe you’ll be on your way. First time they stick you on night watch you just stab up your saviors while they sleep. Next head off to the next goblin tribe with a tale of you single-handedly killed the men who killed your tribe. As an added bonus you can expect to get a lot of fangy makeout sessions, goblin chicks love avengers of a tribe.”

Bonesplitter “Steve” Facebreaker, bugbear warrior cursed to live as a goblin skullcleaver grunted:

“Club break party skulls, make meat tender, taste good with honey mustard.”

So there you have it, Gerard. Our goblin polymorph team has really earned their roasted slaad carried by treant tomorrow. If you have a question for any of our polymorph team or you have been turned into a goblin and don’t know what to do contact imagoblinnowwhat@dungeonmastering.com or leave a comment.

Coming soon - Dungeon Mastering Online Tools
Watch the video overview on DungeonMastering.com

Jemiah Jefferson is writing a wovel for Underland Press. You can check out Firstworld and vote where the story should go.

One of the older online magazines featuring Filipino literature (and not restricted by genre) is Literatura. Each issue has a theme, whether it's gay fiction, futuristic fiction, children's literature, etc., and features a guest editor. The selections are usually drawn from the winning Palanca Awards texts.

Admittedly, the site isn't perfect. There are a couple of broken links and while the layout for each issue is creative and stylish, it makes for difficult navigation at times.

Anyway, here are some (note: this is not "all" the spec fic texts featured in Literatura) select links which feature speculative fiction texts:

• "The Last Days of Magic" by Ian Rosales Casocot
• "The Apollo Centennial" by Gregorio Brillantes
• "Subterrania" by Luis Joaquin Katigbak
• "Kaming Mga Seroks" ("We the Xeroxed") by David Hontiveros
• "The Kite of Stars" (The one-act play adaptation of the Strange Horizons story) by Dean Francis Alfar
• "Menggay's Magical Chicken" by Nikki Alfar
• "Espiritu Santos" ("Holy Spirit") by Pearlsha Abubakar
• "Suman" ("Rice Cake") by Corinna Esperanza Nuqui
• "A Monumental Race" by Arturo Ilano
  

Yey, it's the weekend:

• A round-up of Science Fiction in India.
• New Scientist tackles a question that never seems to get old: Is Science Fiction Dying?
• Booksquare talks about Social Networking and how it relates to promoting books/authors.
• Edward Champion covers the National Book Awards.
• This'll sound like spam but it's not: get credit at the Anthology Builder for answering their survey.
• Benjamin Rosenbaum gives a gender breakdown for the upcoming Tumbarumba.
• More P. N. Elrod on piracy.
• Jim C. Hines on The Dangers of Switching Series.
• Bruce Sterling has an essay on Steampunk for Gogbot.

As for your Friday book plug, here's something for the Bradbury fans:

The Day It Rained Forever by Ray Bradbury