TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 89: Nov/Dec 2001



part 3/6



Rivers of Blood: Another tie-in adventure straight away as we’re off to 10th century eastern Europe to supplement the themed stuff in Dragon 290. Several different chieftains are fighting for control over the lands around Kiev, (Plus ca change) and the PC’s get to play an important part. They’ll be expected to side with the underdog, and protect the village of Ovotsk. However, they’re sufficiently outnumbered enough that whether they win or lose the battle, it’s obvious they can’t win the war and so the remaining villagers flee. You have to lead a ragtag bunch of refugees along the Dneiper, which unfortunately means going through dangerous rapids, a haunted wood and the witch fens. An ogre wants you to pay tribute to the spirit of the river, which is entirely real and will be another much tougher combat encounter if you kill him instead of paying up. The witch will lure some of the dumbass villagers away so you need to rescue them before they become lunch. Finally you’ll reach the town of Sarbas, which thankfully is owned by a relative of your boss so they’ll be very hospitable. While resting and recovering, you find out that the warlord you fought on the battlefield earlier is selling the slaves he took here, giving you a perfect opportunity to deal with him one way or another without all his army and rescue even more villagers. So this is less basic than the previous adventure, but it’s even more linear, being very much a tournament style adventure where you may get various degrees of success or failure, but if you don’t go in the direction it expects you to or try something too smart the whole thing falls apart because there’s nothing written outside the rails. That’s not satisfying setting-building at all. Dealing with two sub-par promotional tie-ins in a row leaves me rather irked with this issue.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 89: Nov/Dec 2001



part 4/6



Headless: Didn’t we just have to deal with rolling heads in Polyhedron. Now we have to deal with headless undead in this adventure? I guess that’s two monsters from one body, which is very efficient use of resources for a necromancer. Maybe you could make the spirit into some kind of incorporeal undead as well and stretch it even further. Actually, it turns out that we only have to worry about the wraiths and spectres, as the heads are needed by a Derro savant trying to build a gate to the abyss and win Orcus’s (who you’re not expected to fight in the adventure, but is fully statted out just in case the PC’s really screw up) favour and the bodies are just waste byproducts. She needs a LOT of them to make it work though and obviously that attracts the attention of heroes one way or another. Off you head to the icy mountains of Sterich to stop them, preferably before the final ritual is completed and the deadgate is opened for business. Despite the big bad being a Derro, the dungeon was originally a frost giant one and so it’s built on a massive scale, with relatively few rooms, but all the rooms and corridors at least double normal size. (no worries about how the big monsters get in or out here) Rather than trust minions who might rebel, many of her minions are simulacrums, including multiple ones of herself, so you’ll already have beaten multiple weaker versions of her before you get a nasty surprise facing the real thing. So this is a fairly typical James Jacobs adventure: a well above average number of creatures that can inflict permanent damage upon your characters, some clever exploits of 3e rules minutia and a climactic final encounter where you really don’t want the creature trapped in another realm of existence to come over here. Like Steve Kurtz, he has a definite set of things he does over and over that most writers don’t and he’s sticking to them. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends on whether you like those particular tropes as well.



Nodwick’s party abuses speak with dead to beat the final encounter in puntastic style.

 

[Richards]

"Headless" gave my party their first TPK...which I managed to sidestep by having their dead PCs "wake up" in the Abyss with no memories of their previous lives, working for Orcus. They went through three adventures doing missions for Orcus before they were restored to their previous lives (with full memories), and then had to go back and undo all that they'd just done for Orcus. That adventure turned our whole campaign around, as it then became focused upon taking down Orcus permanently in his home plane of Thanatos.

Johnathan

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 89: Nov/Dec 2001



part 5/6



Rage: After a long brutal adventure where you’re in distinct danger of coming out with fewer levels than you went in, its a relief to see them do a short, lighthearted one as contrast afterwards. A barbarian annoyed a troll witch by killing her son, so she decided he deserved a fate worse than death and stole his rage as a revenge. He’s still no slouch in a fight, but being polite and well-spoken all the time is just so not him and he’d be rather pleased if some fine chaps like the PC’s would assist him in returning to his usual temperament. So you’ll have to go to her lair and either fight her and her two surviving sons, engage in some kind of negotiation to get her to lift the curse, probably requiring a whole other quest for suitable compensation, or sneak inside and break the mirror that his rage is trapped in. A short, very fairytale styled adventure that works best if you really ham up the roleplaying of the barbarian both before and after he gets his rage back, this manages to have plenty of comedic potential while still being a serious challenge that you could solve in multiple ways and doesn’t try to railroad you into any of them. Quite a satisfying read in a retro kinda way, this is one I’d have no problems using in any edition, unlike the previous one, which would function very differently if converted to anything other than 3e.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 89: Nov/Dec 2001



part 6/6



Wedding Bells: Another idea that they did several times in the previous edition but have only just gotten around to doing here. The PC’s are invited to the wedding of their friend, but of course things won’t go smoothly and they’ll have to intervene to save the day. Along the way, they’ll be attacked by an unusually well-equipped band of Gnolls, which is foreshadowing that has clues as to the rest of the adventure if the PC’s think to ask. A little later they’ll come across a halfling woman searching for her lost son, which is also downplayed for comedy but important foreshadowing, as he’s been kidnapped by the issue’s cover star to be subjected to unspeakable torments, then being healed so she can torture him again, before eventually becoming dinner. When they get to the village, they’ll be tested before being allowed to enter in ways that may make more hack & slashy parties say screw this, start a fight and miss the whole rest of the adventure whether they win or lose. Once they have gained the trust of the villagers, they’ll soon start getting asked for help with all sorts of minor fetch quests, which will culminate in rescuing the halfling from the harpy. To do so in a timely manner, they’ll need to be able to get information out of a satyr that was raised by a villager but became an outcast as his fey nature and powers became increasingly dominant, strongly implying that he mind-controlled and had sex with the wrong person. So this is an interesting but intentionally problematic little adventure that pushes hard on the limits of what they’ll allow in terms of depicting rape and torture. There’s still a fair bit of bowdlerisation and ambiguity, giving you room to lighten it up in your own campaign, but it’s pretty obvious what they’re implying. Since this is by official 3e writer Jonathan Tweet, it feels like another bit of testing the waters for their full-on embrace of vile darkness next year. If there had been too many complaining letters, would they have scrapped it? Will there be any complaints at all? Another good reason to keep a close eye on those letters pages. Probably not one I’d use, but more for reasons of being irritatingly linear and easily short-circuited if the players do the wrong thing rather than the darkness, which I have no objection to as long as it’s done well.



Maps of Mystery is a particularly cool double bill this time, showing us maps of the city of Womthan, (barely a village by modern standards, but you know what fantasy worlds are like when it comes to scale) both on the surface and the secret tunnels underneath. Between the sewers, thieves guild stuff and the hidden crypts probably filled with undead you could run several different adventures here before they explore it all. Make sure you only show your players the first one, unless they’re playing TMNT expys.



Between all the subpar promotional tie-ins and the sharp uptick in linearity, this issue was bad, but in an interesting way, showing them actively picking a type of adventure I dislike despite probably having better options in the slush pile. Was this the fault of the editor, or was the promotional stuff shoehorned in by order of someone higher up? Will they do it all again next issue, or will they be freer to actually put the adventures they want in when they’re not pushing the big book releases for holiday season? Just how much room will they have for adventures anyway once they start sharing with Polyhedron? Time to start another year and see just how dramatic the changes they have in store are.

 

[(un)reason]

Well, it’s been three and a half years of meandering through the history of roleplaying and I’ve hit the point where Dungeon and Polyhedron merge and start doing minigames. To keep things interesting for myself (and because I haven’t had the chance to actually play since the start of the pandemic) I figured it’s about time I got to grips with these new online gaming platforms that have been growing in popularity lately. So I’m going to pause between each issue with a minigame in and see if anyone is interested in playing a short campaign on Roll20. Hopefully we’ll be able to try at least some of them and find out how the rules handle in actual play.



But for now, on with the show.



Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 90/149: Jan/Feb 2002



part 1/12



180 pages. Well, we’re definitely getting our money’s worth this time, with an issue larger than any they ever did for Dragon. And it’s not even any kind of special occasion either. That should keep people from complaining about getting less of what they signed up for due to the merger. Presuming what they give us is any good of course, because no amount of quantity will satisfy if the quality’s not there. Let’s see how long it takes me to get through something like this and if the effort will feel worth it at the end.



Editorial: This is in full damage control mode. You may be suspicious of some of the sudden changes they’ve made, but they’re all good ones, honest! Same amount of Dungeon content plus added RPGA news, D20 minigames and a new column of even more compressed encounter ideas called Critical Threats, since both the side treks and regular adventures have shown definite signs of inflation recently. So this is their most dramatic format change yet, switching things up much more suddenly than the gradual introduction of new features over the course of 1998. Now they just have to get enough submissions to keep those columns going and hope that the majority of the responses will be positive. But we’ll have to wait until next issue at least before the letters page can really weigh in on that. What did you think of the change at the time and which side were you reading before the merger put both in your hands?



Letters: First letter likes the maps of mystery, but doesn’t think there’s a need for adventure paths when it’s easy enough for individual DM’s to do it themselves. Some DM’s are more inventive than others. You can make a lot of money out of catering for other people who can’t or don’t want to do their own work.

Second is from their ex-boss Peter Adkison, who’s very pleased with their gaming tokens. Much more convenient than minis, particularly when it comes to putting lots of small creatures in the same square, or one thing riding another one. Keep doing more, including ones to represent furniture and other landscape details.

Third is irked by them doing too many Forgotten Realms adventures in issue 88. They’re not that hard to convert, you know. Well, maybe the first, but not the second.

Fourth is very displeased that they gave “Mistress” Luxora any airtime at all. Maybe if this was a White Wolf focussed magazine, but that romance stuff should stay well away from our D&D! This argument definitely seems like it could run and run if not actively censored.

Finally, strong praise for Headless. James Jacobs has done it again and they can’t wait to see how their players will cope with all the horrors of Sterich. Goes to show, there’s a lot of people who rather like his darker take on D&D design.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 90/149: Jan/Feb 2002



part 2/12



The Elfwhisper: We’ve had a few adventures over the years where the elves get special privileges, quite possibly to the irritation of everyone else. To redress the balance, here’s one specifically designed to screw the elf in the party, hopefully take them down a peg or two. The PC’s are engaged in what seems like a simple bandit bounty hunt when your quarry goes into a cursed forest. Any elves in the party are at risk of being hypnotised by the song and joining the cursed choir of ghosts and shadows eternally. Can you not only make your saves or restrain the vulnerable party members, but also figure out how to communicate with the ghosts, find out what their deal is and break the curse? (and maybe even get the reward for the bandits that you originally came for in the first place) The kind of adventure where none of the individual elements is original, but they’re put together in an interesting way that makes the final product distinct from all the other hundreds of adventures I’ve reviewed so far, with multiple objectives you can succeed or fail at independently and some interestingly nasty stings in the tail if you pick the wrong tactics. This falls solidly into the usable pile, even if you’ll only get the best out of it with a fairly specific party composition.



Nodwick remains acutely aware that any attractive female you meet mid-adventure will probably try to eat you. Yeagar is not so cautious despite all his previous experiences.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 90/149: Jan/Feb 2002



part 3/12



Totentanz: Straight away, we have another adventure full of spooky stuff where having a high will save is definitely a good idea. The barony of Luzern has recently become a cursed zone, with all the people fleeing or becoming undead. Once again it’s time for some heroes to venture to the core of the no-go area, figure out why this is happening and pacify them one way or another. Fortunately, there’s plenty of refugees so it’s not hard to pick up the basics. Dancing skeletons, going through the motions of life during the day and partying it up at night. It would almost be cheerful if the music they made wasn’t a horrific cacophony to living ears. (at least, the ones that made their save and escaped) When you get there, the number of skeletons is too great to fight head-on, but thankfully they stick to their daily routines unless you’re dumb enough to attack them first, with the real danger being lured to remove your flesh and join them in their eternal dance at night. There’s a decent amount to explore in the town, including several magical items that’ll make the final confrontation much easier if you take the time to find them, but eventually you’ll have to go to the baronesses castle, where the big bad lurks with the magical artifact that lures everyone to abandon the weight of flesh. No chance of laying him to rest peacefully by resolving his issues with a bit of therapy this time though. You’re going to have to kill him and smash the artifact, which thankfully is a load-bearing one so all the undead it created collapse once you do. Another adventure that’s pretty decent on it’s own merits, but loses a point or two for being so similar to the previous one. If it were October that might be forgivable but otherwise you really need to mix up the kind of plots more. Heck, even within the horror genre you could still mix up the psychological horror, mystery, cosmic, splatterpunk etc more than they’re managing here.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 90/149: Jan/Feb 2002



part 4/12



Critical Threats: We kick off the new column with a distinctly edgelordy werewolf cleric of Malar who likes to be known simply as Oblivion. (not the name his parents gave him, but he killed them, so who else is going to use the one on his birth certificate?) He loves ripping things apart with his claws & fangs, but is at least canny enough to prepare a bunch of buffing spells and cast them before he intends to pick a fight. He’ll openly go into crowded towns in daylight to proselytise, daring any priests of more benevolent faiths to say something in response. Even his fellow worshipers of Malar will wind up as dinner if they challenge him. (which is all perfectly fine as far as Malar is concerned as it weeds out the weak) He definitely falls into the cartoonishly evil end of the villain spectrum rather than having any kind of point to what he does that might make him relatable, so you can kill him guilt-free as long as your group is tough enough. He’s definitely useful as a combat encounter, but hopefully future instalments will have a little more depth of personality.



Prey for Tyrinth: Another adventure that has a lot of overlap with a previous one this issue. While you were busy trying to lay all those elf ghosts to rest, there was a secret door to a room that had a Water Naga inside. Well, here’s another short adventure with a water naga, albeit a 5 page one with a more complex and mazy cave system and greater depth given to it’s tactics. Still, they’re the same EL overall, so if you wanted to make the previous adventure a little longer, you could swap this in in place of H9 and your players would be none the wiser. So this is basically a demonstration of modular design, reminding you that you can make adventures larger or smaller, easier or harder to suit your players by cutting out parts from other adventures and stitching them together. Just watch you don’t add or remove so much that characters wind up the wrong level by the end of the adventure as a whole, because that’s much more of an issue this edition, particularly in long adventures.



The Statement of Ownership shows a pretty decent gain on last year as they go from 40,000 to 47,000, putting them at a new high overall. Dragon may never quite get back to it’s mid 80’s peak, but it looks like the best days for Dungeon might be yet to come. That would definitely explain why they switch their schedule to monthly next year.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 90/149: Jan/Feb 2002



part 5/12



Tears for Twilight Hollow: An issue of record-breaking size deserves at least one adventure of similar scale. Freed from editing three magazines at once, Chris Perkins has the time & energy to deliver this 45 page mammoth with the help of similarly prolific White Wolf writer Angel Leigh McCoy, with Brom on the cover art just to push the boat out a little further. Like the other two adventures this issue, an isolated place has been cursed and the PC’s will either wander through and be drawn into the adventure or hear rumors and be specifically attracted there in search of heroic deeds to do. The problem is somewhat larger and more subtle this time though. Twilight Hollow is still there, the people are alive, but it’s shot through with darkness, as a priestess of Loviatar has taken control of the place masquerading as one of Ilmater, keeping her childhood friend who became a paladin in perpetual suspended animation, her soul fuelling a Devourer and attracting other unpleasantness to the area, which she of course tells them they have to suffer stoically through. You’d think they’d spot the difference, but obviously the creeds of Ilmater and Loviatar have quite a few parallels despite their alignment differences. Ilmater himself is not fooled of course, but as usual for gods doesn’t interfere directly, instead sending cryptic visions that’ll point the PC’s in the right direction if they’re not proactive enough investigators on their own. There’s definitely plenty to investigate, with 10 pages spent fleshing out the village and another 9 on various locations in the valley around, some of which would be a full adventure in themselves in a smaller scenario before you even get to the main course: finding the secret catacombs under the village with the hidden temple of Loviatar smack bang in the middle.

In a lesser adventure, this is where things would degenerate into a static dungeoncrawl. But even here there’s a decent amount of detail about the movements of the dungeon creatures, plus info on what will happen if you stop to rest and heal instead of clearing it all out in one go, (which will be a significant issue given the number of potential encounters) as obviously the priestess won’t take too kindly to anyone discovering her secrets and will do her best to make your name mud back in the village. (and just killing her without any compelling evidence of her perfidy will have the same result) So this isn’t one with any particularly epic scope in terms of size of the area covered or potential wider impact on the world, but it is unusually detailed at all points within the adventure, able to give the characters and the world they inhabit the depth needed to let the players choose their path and still have an interesting story whatever route they take. As such, it won’t be joining Tortles of the Purple Sage, Umbra and Empire of the Ghouls on the list of all-time classics that really push the limits of what you can do with an adventure, but it’s still very playable and could fill quite a few sessions if you take your time with it and don’t discover the hidden temple straight away. If you like big 2eish sandboxes I can definitely recommend it.