TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 69: Jul/Aug 1998



part 3/5



Challenge of Champions II: This probably wasn't intended to be a series when they did the first one, but it stood out from the crowd quite handily and got several letters praising it, so when current ecologist-in-chief Johnathan M Richards created another one, it seems a no-brainer to accept it. The basic formula is the same as the first one, a D&D world in which adventurers are common and aware of the basic class divisions, so there's an actual adventurer's guild regulating them and running competitions for whatever rewards you see fit. You have 10 challenges, each of which has a time limit of 15 minutes to solve or fail at, which means you can easily fit the whole thing into a single session. You could run the challenges in a vacuum, but there's also a betting pool and a bunch of other parties going through the same challenge, one of which will try to cheat, so watch out for trickery. It turns dungeon-crawling into a sport, rewarding people who like to engage with the rules as physics. Of course, it wouldn't be a sequel without trying to be bigger and better than the first one, so this is 18 pages long where the first was only 14, most of which goes into giving bigger and better illustrations than before, with only two on a page so you have fewer worries about having to either cut up the magazine to turn them into handouts or give hints as to later challenges. So this doesn't have the surprise factor of the first one, but it does have a decent amount of incremental refinements and there's still no-one else doing anything like it around here. I think this is pretty secure in it's place and has room for further sequels in the future.



Nodwick's party scores nul points on the Challenge of Champions due to their over-reliance on sacrificing the henchman over any other strategy, which does technically work but isn't what the judges want here.

 

[Richards]

I can confirm this hadn't originally been planned as a series, but the editors were fine with me continuing to submit a new sequel every couple of years because they did tend to be fairly popular. But it was my own kids who initially demanded I come up with more of them, because they kept wanting to try to beat their previous scores.

Johnathan

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 69: Jul/Aug 1998



part 4/5



Side Treks - Stumping the Party: After a full length adventure packed with puzzles, they follow straight up with a shorter tricksy one for dessert. An ettercap and it's spidery minions using the remains of a previously captured merchant wagon as a lure. If you rush in to try and help you'll find yourselves webbed up and struggling to move at all while they try to make a meal of you. If it looks like they're losing, they'll retreat to their web-filled cave lair, which is obviously even tougher to navigate if you don't have any superhuman climbing powers or class A flight. If you get through it in one go you'll be able to rescue some survivors from the last group of people to head this way. So while this has more use for your fighting skills than the challenge of champions, it'll still be much easier for a group that's invested in perception boosting and mobility powers over another +1 on their weapons. A pretty solid bit of filler material with enough little hints of worldbuilding that you could make use of longer term to keep it from blurring into the background. Another one I've got no problem with, even if it's not exceptional like the last two.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 69: Jul/Aug 1998



part 5/5



Sleep of Ages: Eric L. Boyd has been contributing frequently to Polyhedron over the past few years before moving onto full books, becoming one of the biggest names in Forgotten Realms material after Ed himself. Now he brings that love of obscure lore in here as well, with an adventure with one of the longest infodumps before you actually get to the playable part yet. Beholders FROOOOOOM SPAAAAAAAACEEEE have been a big part of Tethyr & Calimshan's history, conquering city states and being overthrown again repeatedly. One of their most effective enemies were the knights of the crescent moon, but they weren't popular with the peacetime rulers. So they disbanded, with many of them actually staying, but going into suspended animation in case heroes were needed to deal with a massive threat in centuries to come. Surprise surprise, that time is now. A gnome archeologist manages to figure out their location, which ironically attracts the attention of the modern day beholders & their minions. Now he's their prisoner and you have to save him, defeat the monsters invading the halls of the sleeping legion, wake them up, and convince them you're on their side. (in any order, but some are much easier than others)

So while this is technically a dungeon crawl, it's one where you're not expected to kill everyone and take everything that's not nailed down, but stop the previous set of invaders before they do too much damage, while also having to deal with the old defences they haven't set off yet. That gives you plenty of room for the full gamut of fighting, exploring & roleplaying. The flavour he puts into his godly column is firmly in force here as well, making this firmly aimed at the hardcore in both lore and mechanically. There's lots of forgotten realms specific, high power monsters with extensive lists of spell-like powers and psionics, making this one definitely not for beginners or people who don't have a good head for detail. So this is pandering to people like me after many years of them trying to keep most adventures accessible to people who prefer to play core only and I love it, but can see how it wouldn't be to many other people's tastes. Another early sign of the direction that they'll take 3e in mechanically and the people who'll be responsible for that.



Nodwick's party have way too much sadistic fun trying every method of waking the magically asleep.



With three long adventures that are all doing something exceptional in their own ways, this feels like a very significant issue indeed, showing a strong move away from the standalone stories of previous years to focussing on both the fine details of the rules and drawing more on the built up lore of their settings. They're moving away from keeping it simple for the newsstand buyers to actively catering to the hardcore players in a way that TSR never did. If this continues and Chris continues to make ambitious sweeping changes it looks like the next few years in here are going to be pretty awesome. Let's see if next issue keeps up the momentum.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 131: August 1998



part 1/5



48 pages. You can accumulate all the magic weapons, armor and items you want, but at some point you'll be caught without them and forced to resort to fisticuffs again, as they show on the cover. Well, Polyhedron UK did just fill a big article with optional martial arts rules. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar made it's way over here. Let's see if they'll be recycling material, or it'll be a completely different incompatible set of options.



Notes From HQ: Despite the membership drive going nowhere fast, making it pretty clear they won't be going back to monthly anytime soon, they're still pursuing new projects and figuring out ways to speed up response times in general. If you all sign up to the internet and do all your ordering of tournament modules through their online portal they can cut the deadline to get them to a mere month before the convention you want to run them at. It's win win for everyone in both cost and efficiency so why wouldn't you do it? They're still working away on the Living Galaxy, but are also releasing a Living Rolemaster campaign called Run out the Guns! (which is being run out of house, so I suspect we'll see about as many articles on it as we do Threads of Legend ones) What we'll hear far more about are their ambitions to create a new living world that will hopefully be so awesome it eclipses the Living City, which I strongly suspect will become the 3e Living Greyhawk campaign in all it's complexity of linking real world areas to Oerdian ones. Knowing that won't actually launch for another couple of years reminds us that no matter how much technology may speed up the basics of communication & commerce, developing a big creative project still takes years of wrangling, compromises and people changing their minds. If you rush it it simply won't have the depth and probably fall flat. It's still going to be a long journey full of surveys, playtesting and tweaking before they get to third edition and it does look like a little more of that process will be talked about in the newszine.



Table Talk: They give up on the thermometer here, as the membership drive obviously isn't going anywhere as well as they'd like. Instead they're celebrating the best of this year, with one page dedicated to the winners of the Origins awards and another to the highest scoring RPGA players. The nature of the scoring system means there's a lot of equally ranked people in the middle parts of the charts, so a system with a little more granularity might be preferable. Notable new games include Delta Green, In Nomine, and the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG, while Knights of the Dinner Table takes the best RPG related magazine. There's still lots of interesting gaming going on, even if not as much of it is under the RPGA umbrella as they'd like.

Since it's the middle of convention season, they only mention each one with very short descriptions. The most notable one was Ben Con in Colorado, which raised over $10,000 for charity, an order of magnitude above their nearest competitor. Depending what it's being spent on, that could go a long way. (or not so much if they want to buy property or a mobility vehicle)



your 1nitiative: First letter complains in detail about how their tournament scoring system doesn't actually reward roleplaying, with predictable results in actual play, particularly in multi-round ones where mostly the ruthless gamists get through to the finals and people who want to give their characters personalities left in the dust. If they want to make the actions at the table reflect what the game is called, they need to revise that.

Second is from New Zealand, and wishes they'd reprint a bunch of the more whimsical articles from both Polyhedron & Dragon. Well, the Dragon ones will all be made easily available again soon thanks to the epic CD set of the first 250 issues. Old polyhedron issues will continue to be much harder to get hold of.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 131: August 1998



part 2/5



Pillars of the Realm: The many new knightly orders introduced in the march edition of the Trumpeter continue to trickle out to the wider newszine. This time it's the ecumenical order dedicated to serving all good and neutral religions and mediating between them fairly, while rooting out evil. As usual, there's lots of copy-pasting involved, but they do change the emphasis on some of their aspects here, playing up the idea that they may have to go undercover as part of their heroics, as well as giving more information on the various special honors they get for performing awesome deeds. Just because they're knights doesn't mean they have to be obvious in their heroics, there are many more subtle religions in the Realms. A decent enough bit of refinement of the previous material.



Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Ed has a fair bit more detail to give on the Land of Two Princes and the eternal rivalry that defines politics there. One important bit of neutral ground is the Starshroud, a magical mist enshrouded dell that puts the dead & severely wounded in a state of suspended animation so you can find someone to heal or raise them later without worrying about time limits. (although there's still the risk of other people going in and interfering with unguarded bodies) The frequent conflict keeps property prices low, as there's lots of abandoned forts & keeps that you could simply move into as long as you're strong enough to beat whatever beasties are currently there and fend off attacks from the next group of adventurers. It also means priests of Tempus are extremely common here, doing their part in keeping the conflict going in a stable manner by healing people on both sides and making a tidy profit in the process. Messing with them is another quick way to get people on both sides to agree you're a bad egg, not sporting at all and become fair game for everyone. Another instance of Ed coming up with a cool idea for a country and then extrapolating outwards to come up with the logistical details that would make a place like this actually function, which also manages to create more adventure hooks in the process. You could have plenty of fun both playing by the rules of the game or trying to reform the political structure entirely.



With Great Power: Marvel superheroes are back, so it looks like it’s time to get the band back together, with the old column name coming back with the suitably alliterative Dale Donovan writing it. What makes it different from the old one? It’s more about your narrative role than precisely how many tons your superstrong hero can lift or MPH your flyer can fly. This means your role in the team is the thing you should build your character around. Why do they choose to be a hero and how do they relate to the other people on the team? Do they juggle a secret identity with heroing and if so how well, or are they full-time secret agents for some organisation or perpetually on the run. This in turn means it’s best to engage in character creation as a group rather than individually before the first session, because the game won’t work very well if you all come in with brooding loner types. So this is telling us straight away that the new game is aiming straight at the narrativist end of the gaming crowd. If you want to spend hours juggling large amounts of points between advantages & flaws to get exactly the character you want go to the Champions system or GURPS. Whether that’ll be a selling point or an instant hard pass depends on you. Will people send in any edition-warring letters, and if so, will they print them? Since I don’t recall seeing any in Dragon, it doesn’t seem likely.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 131: August 1998



part 3/5



Marvel Tales: So how did we get from there to here. The old line stopped releasing material in 1992 but it looks like TSR still had the licence. (or at least, no-one could make a better offer to Marvel in the intervening years) TSR probably started a new one shortly before they collapsed. But unlike Buck Rogers, WotC were eager to add this IP to their roster and continue development, see if they could prove the SAGA system was adaptable to genres other than romantic fantasy. Mike Selinker was the guy assigned to be lead developer shortly after the changeover, which came as a bit of a surprise to him as he’s not a huge comics nerd, but it’s always nice to start a project knowing there’s a definite audience for it. The important thing in his mind was to make it fast to play, after many experiences with game that take hours to play out a few rounds of combat, but still have plenty of ways you can twist the rules if you draw the right kind of cards. Since this is a promotional article, he obviously thinks he’s succeeded at that job, and the approval guys at Marvel seem happy too, but it remains to be seen what the general public thinks. So they’re making it clear that this is a very different game from the old edition, but don’t seem too antagonistic about the comparison. It’s not that the old way sucks, they just wanted to do something different this time. Save that for D&D where getting the majority of the audience to go along with the switch is genuinely important to their bottom line and failing to do so requires another hasty edition change to a version that plays things much safer rules-wise.



Summer Jobs: Penny Williams (nee Petticord) returns to the newszine she used to run after a very long absence indeed, to give us our first Marvel SAGA adventure. All the PC’s are young mutants who’s powers have recently manifested. Since Professor X is currently dead again and the Legacy virus is rampaging through the mutant population, they’ve been recruited by the millionaire philanthropist Mr Xaine, who claims he can keep them stable with his experimental implants. While technically true, that means he can also shut down your powers at any time, and he’ll have no hesitation in doing so and selling you off for experimentation if he feels you’ve outlived your usefulness to him. How long will you keep doing errands for him before realising something is very wrong around here and it would be the heroic thing to turn on him or at least be pragmatic and make an escape. So this is a bit short and basic, as it’s obviously designed as a single session introductory adventure for new players, with pregens aimed at us the readers, to give examples of how you build characters, but it’s not a railroad, giving you a decent number of scenes and different ways you could get from one to another & resolve them in noncombat ways. That continues to be a big strength of the SAGA system whatever genre they turn it to.



The Balanced Super Team: Once again they try to hammer in that this is a game built around teams of superheroes, not a bunch of characters rolled up individually and then thrown together, so you should think about that when creating yours. They then list a bunch of the common powersets that turn up repeatedly in these kinds of stories. We’ve had several articles like that before. The difference from the old days is that instead of just one role, they now think in terms of a powers axis and a social axis, with players picking one from each independently, often with quirky results. (after all, very few superheroes get to choose precisely what their powers are and conflict between their nature and the situations they’re thrown into is a key part of comic storytelling) That’s been standard in White Wolf games for a while now, and Steve Kenson has done a fair bit of writing for them, so I’m not surprised he’d bring that here as well. This shows that roleplaying as a whole is still developing in sophistication, and a change in people at the top has made them more open to taking on ideas from other companies. They’re continuing to present a consistent picture of how this game differs from the previous edition and how you ought to play it, which is something I approve of.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 131: August 1998



part 4/5



Target Man: After four articles for the new Marvel game, they still have room to show the love to the FASERIP version. Target Man is basically an archetypical Defender before that character role was formalised in MMORPGs and then ported back to 4e. Regeneration, toughness and the ability to absorb kinetic energy & emit it in concussive blasts later incentivise him to jump in front of any attacks on civilians or squishier teammates and save the day. This handy but not particularly spectacular powerset tends to get him stuck in the sidekick role, not helped by his somewhat ridiculous costume. This means he's liked but not particularly respected, which does cause a certain amount of simmering resentment in him despite genuinely loving to save lives. Will that ever boil over and make him quit the heroing business or engineer some crisis to get the respect he deserves? That's a pretty solid plot hook to make him interesting in your game. This definitely falls in the usable range quality-wise.



Spotlight on John Hinkle: Dragon brought back profiles at the start of this year. Now Polyhedron is getting in on the act with it's own regular column, obviously focussing on people who are somewhat less famous, but still doing invaluable work for the RPGA. John Hinkle is the regional director for Kansas, Great Boo of the Boo tribe in the Living Jungle, writer of adventures like The Punishment of Pennell and generally helpful person. He brings a good dose of whimsy with his writing, but takes showing up seriously, having only missed 3 Gen Cons since 1979. He juggles all this with a family and a day job in managing medical documents, which at least means he has unlimited printer access, which is probably handy for preparing gaming materials as well. Seems like a good example of how if you want something to get done, you should give it to someone who's already busy. A reasonably entertaining start, although their photography could definitely do with improvement. I look forward to seeing who they pick next and if any of them will be people I already know, or it'll be all unsung heroes given a brief time in the sun.



You Might be a Power Gamer if: They might be more encouraging of charop at WotC than TSR, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still take the piss if you get excessive about it, as this lighthearted single page list of the most common exploits shows. Doing some of them is understandable, but doing all of them every time may get you kicked from a table even if they’re individually all perfectly rules-legal. Don’t be that guy. You might “win” the game, but is it really winning if no-one wants to play with you anymore?



My Lord Tiger: For a second issue in a row, we actually manage two adventures, although this is only a 2 page one that's unlikely to last a full session. Greg Detwiler shows us how dangerous a man-eating tiger can be in the SAGA system, where you don't escalate exponentially in power with XP, particularly when played as a cunning predator that uses hit & run attacks. As with Chris's SAGA adventure in Dungeon, the universal resolution system means he can give more equal weight to noncombat challenges like surviving in the jungle, keeping your horses from being spooked by the tiger and stealthily setting traps to catch him rather than engaging in a straight-out fight. So this seems a little mundane compared to most of the D&D adventures we've seen lately, but does at least provide a bit of variety and show how using a different system can facilitate a different kind of play. It's just a shame it's not a bit longer.



Instant ID: Living settings may be bigger than ever, but they still run plenty of one-shot tournament adventures with pregens as well. So here’s another round of yer basic advice about how to play them. Don’t get too hung up about playing a particular class, there’ll probably be only 6 characters to choose from and other people might well have gone first. Read through the sheet properly, particularly if there’s multiple pages and make a note of the important things both statistically and roleplaying-wise. Figure out a good voice for the character and get stuck into the roleplaying straight away, there’s not much room for subtlety in a tournament timeframe. Whether you win or lose, do it with grace & style, no-one likes a gloater. Nothing new or surprising to learn here.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 131: August 1998



part 5/5



Internet 101: As they said in the editorial, WotC is embracing the internet and they want to bring all of us along for the ride. So here they walk you through the basics of using the internet. First, you need to pick an internet service provider (ISP). Sign up to one, make yourself an email account so you can send messages back and forth, then start looking for things using a search engine, with google not being on their list of example ones showing just how much the web is still in it's infancy. Since this is long before they start getting algorithmic with searches and customising them to your history, you're reminded that the specific keywords you use really matter, with synonyms that mean the same thing to us getting very different results in a browser. Then they give us a bunch of sample websites that have contents that might be useful for a game, most of which are still active today. It might seem trivial to younger people who've grown up with the internet, but it's a good reminder just how recent this whole field of technology is and just how much it's changed over the past couple of decades, going from a curiosity you signed onto occasionally to integral to our everyday lives. How else will the world change dramatically in our lifetimes, and will it be for better or worse?



The PBeM File: We continue the basic advice on how to use the internet with some for aspiring play by emailers. Despite being called that, many games don't just use email, but some kind of chat software, which means you don't have to make sure you type in everyone's address before every post and can fairly do dice rolls, even ones that would be impossible with physical polyhedrons. This means you can often join a room to lurk and get a feel of how things work before you start trying to set up your own game. Remember that things naturally run on a slower pace than tabletop, (although faster than old PBM's) and adjust your expectations accordingly, but don't be afraid to push people to go a little faster if you ever want to finish a scenario instead of just chatting until someone disappears off the face of the web and the game stalls. Similarly, don't be afraid to assess your potential players and simply not pick some of them if they're flaky, a bad writer or show themselves to have entirely the wrong attitude for the kind of game you want to run. All pretty basic stuff, but since everyone is a beginner here really that's understandable, and most of the advice remains relevant despite the technology advancing. Lurk moar and figure out how things work will never not be relevant.



DM Tips: Last time, this column looked ahead to the changes 3e will bring. This time, it goes back to the old school, looking at the idea of playing solo using the random dungeon generation rules in the DMG appendixes, determining the dispositions of the things you encounter down there purely with the random reaction table and rolling all the combats for both sides yourself. It turns play into a tactical experience where you have to think carefully about how much resources your previous encounters have consumed and if you should retreat to the surface to rest and heal up. Despite everything being built randomly, it's surprising how often you get an emergent narrative from the way the dungeon is built and the kinds of monsters you encounter. It hones your mapmaking and general mathematical skills, forcing you to take things like encumbrance seriously with no distractions from other players. It's a good way to better understand what D&D was built to do on a mechanical level and does well, stripped of the roleplaying elements that accumulated around it as the years went by. Another very specific bit of advice that's much more interesting to me than the basic ones about getting into character we see every year or two. Like the last issue of Dungeon, it shows that the people at WotC care more about the actual rules of the game than TSR and are eager to delve deep into how you can best exploit them, which is a trend I'm fully behind.



A pretty strong issue with a very interesting themed section, showing them introducing a new game and having a clear idea what they’re doing with it. (even if a Living Marvel setting seems unlikely with all the extra approvals needed. ) Once again they’re showing clear signs of caring more about rules details than TSR as well as being more eager to adopt new technology. Looks pretty likely we’ll see more interesting tidbits about how we got from 2e to 3e next issue.

 

[(un)reason]

The Raven's Buff Trumpeter 2-8: August 1998



9 pages. Fiendish problems continue to take a pretty dominant position in the newspaper. They're still attacking both Raven's Bluff and Mossbridges, but the Golden Rooster patrols are getting better at being where they're most needed and repelling them without high casualties. A new complication has arisen in the interdimensional conflict though, with something called a soulstorm hanging over Raven's Bluff for the past few weeks. This screws with conjuration and divination magic, which is a nuisance for the city's wizards, but at least it also probably interferes with the fiend's summon powers so they can't spawn cascade their way to victory. Maybe if they manipulate it correctly they could do a mass banishment or something to sort out this problem once and for all and move onto the next bit of metaplot.

Issues of mundane civic governance go on though. The elections have yet more candidates, including Miss Harmony of Milil, who gives a giggly twee interview to the paper that leaves me uncertain whether her player really wants the job or is just doing it as a joke candidate, but either way, the character is clearly not the brightest tool in the shed. Simon Regulus takes the job of Wizard's Guild Chancellor, Delshara Windhair is the new Orlumban ambassador, while Uldred Deepaxe has decided his underkingly duties are more important than his Knight's council post and has bowed out after finding and training a suitable successor. The number of these roles which are occupied by PC's continues to increase.

One thing that has been a worry for a while but isn't anymore though is civic finances. The House of Desires unexpectedly paid their taxes in full and then some, delivering over 3 million gp to the city's coffers. This is why you legalise and regulate prostitution & drugs rather than forbid them entirely. It's much less hassle and makes the government more money than futilely trying to stamp them out. That's some real world political commentary without it being obviously partisan.



Still more knightly orders to add to the roster. The Order of the Rose (not to be confused with the krynnish knightly order of the same name) is an advanced sub-order of the Knights of the Dove devoted to healing, which means they're mostly comprised of priests & paladins, because who's going to spend the three slots to purchase the Healing nonweapon proficiency out of your class group and still not be as good as the spellcasters? (and psionics aren't allowed in the Living City, so you can't go the psychometabolism route) You're expected to tithe and spend a decent chunk of your nonadventuring time ministering to the needy, but this not only makes you popular, the gossip you pick up in the process gives you a bonus Local History proficiency. If being a healing specialist is your thing, they seem like a decent goal to aim for.



Living City Q&A: Does a phylactery of faithfulness help priests on the outer planes? (no more than usual)

How much plant matter is needed to make each plantlance? (a single discreete, fully planted plant. No carrying pots around, you gotta work with what's available.)

Can I be brought back to life if disintegrated? (only with a Wish to recreate the body)

When can I use a yo-yo of fate? (if you have it in your hand before the roll. No retroactivity here.)

Can a Wizard rememorise spells more than once per day with a potion of vitality? (no)

What do ioun sones do if you're lying down? (float above your head. They know how to reorient to avoid bumping into things.)

Can a multi-class thief backstab with a non-thief weapon? (no)

Do dual class characters get a full set of new proficiencies at 1st in their new class? (no)

Can priests of tymora share their luck power with others? (yes)

Are dex bonuses limited by heavy armor? (not in this edition, but thanks for the idea)

Does magical armor have encumbrance? (not at first, but it will come crashing down if you exceed your overall limit.)

Do magic shields boost your saving throws? (yes, but only from the front.)

Can Starshine or Moonbeam be cast indoors? (yes)

Can I be half sea elf or drow in the Living City? (yes, but you get no mechanical benefits)

Can charmed people do research? (yes, but keeping people charmed for extended periods of time is an evil act, so doing it in Living campaigns will get your character taken away from you)

Can I specialise in a weapon and unarmed combat (eventually, but it's gonna cost ya)

Can a Dual-class fighter/monk continue to specialise? (since both classes can, we'll make an exception to the usual rules and say yes.)

Do Dwarf bonuses against goblinoids apply to wrestling (yes)

How many potions can I drink at once? (we don't do miscibility in the living city, so go wild)

Can I stack ioun stones that do basically the same thing if they look different? (yes)

Can a thief have more than a 100% skill rating (yes, but there's always a 5% chance of autofailing)

Can powerful enough PC's detect invisibility like monsters? (yes, but remember that it takes an action to do so)

What nonweapon proficiencies are allowed in the Living City? (just under a page's worth from basic sources only)