TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 5: Mar/Apr 1982



part 4/4



Figure Painting: This column moves onto the most complex thing you'll need to do regularly. Faces. The nuances of human skin and hair tones, and producing a decent facsimile of them on a tiny lump of plastic with a clumsy brush. You'll never manage all the detail a real face has, especially if you've got a whole army to do, so the trick is learning how to imply detail with shading and layering. Once again, this isn't my area of expertise, but it makes for good reading, and is easily understood, so I'll assume he knows what he's talking about and following that advice would be a good idea. This is still a good way to fill out the newszine with regular content.



Codebook: Another three messages hidden behind basic letter substitution cyphers here, along with hints on how to crack them. it's all a matter of basic maths, knowing the frequency of letters in a particular language. Which is why computers are better at it than humans. Even artistic subjects are still underpinned by maths and can be broken down into statistics in great detail, allowing us to understand them more deeply than the original creator did. (from a certain perspective) It's just how our universe works. This is still pretty basic, and not that interesting to me. I'd much rather leave this stuff to the automated systems, thank you very much.



Polyhedron Charter Members part 1: A-L: Here they list 384 of their first members who've made significant contributions towards the founding of the RPGA. As with many kickstarters these days, they put in their time and money not knowing if it was going to mean anything, and they fully deserve the credit for their support. Since they're listed alphabetically and stop at L, I'm guessing there'll be a similar amount in the next issue as well. It is a bit of a sausage-fest, with slightly less than 1 in 20 female, but that's no great surprise. If you were one of them and are still going and reading this, I salute you. Your contribution has not been forgotten.



More Conventions: Another 14 USA conventions and 1 Canadian one get listed here, some of them adding special guests to the basics of where, when and how expensive they are. Most of them seem fairly standard book or wargaming stuff, but Ambercon stands out. A convention devoted not just to a single author, but to a single series/setting of his. That is interesting. I didn't realise it was that popular, although since it got it's own very distinctive RPG that still has fanatical fans to this day, (upon googling, the convention is still going too) I'm not totally surprised either. What did they actually do/discuss in them, and how did they keep such a specialist niche going all those years?



NOR dismisses the crashed spaceship and heads onwards to adventure.



The growth from issue to issue is starting to slow down at this point, but it certainly hasn't stopped yet. It still feels like it's fresh and exciting for them as much as it was the players as they added new spells and classes, and experimented with ways of organising the rapidly increasing membership. It's still very much a fun ride, so on we go with all haste.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 6: May/Jun 1982



part 1/4



16 pages. A dramatic little Gangbusters confrontation takes the cover. They're still at the stage where they want to cover a wide variety of games, and this is one they would obviously be doing articles on if they could get someone to write them. But they're still relatively small, so no-one's biting. Let's see what they do manage to add this time around, and what gets sacrificed to make way for it.



Letters: Our first letter is from someone facing the satanic panic in their school. Just stay calm and don't let the idiots grind you down, you'll win in the end.

Second, they clarify that the UK roleplaying organisation Turnbull runs is not the same as the RPGA, but they are affiliated. It's good to have someone local with enough leeway to compensate for the cultural differences.

Finally, we have someone looking for a carrying case for their minis. They do have some, but stocks are low at the moment. Buy now, so we're motivated to reprint them! :teeth ting:



Where I'm Coming From: One of those reminders that TSR is growing meteorically at the moment, but they aren't going to take that for granted. Many a toy company has relied on one big breakout hit, only to find themselves on the scrapheap in a few years time when the fad is over. They're not only producing a whole range of different RPG's, they're buying out the competition and taking their toys too. Yup, it's time to see the TSR-SPI buyout from a third perspective. I wonder how much Dragonquest will appear in Polyhedron? Meanwhile, they're also planning their recruitment drive, to turn as many casual buyers as possible into more invested hardcore fans that'll stick with them through thick and thin. I guess it must have worked, because we're still here, aren't we?



Notes From HQ: Gangbusters may not be gaining any traction with their readers, but Top Secret is managing a little. They still need more GM's for it so they can run tournament games though. Apparently there's never enough to go around, which I didn't realise until I saw the player/DM ratios on Roll20, and seems odd considering you only need 1GM for up to a dozen or so players. I guess the proportion of people who have a driving urge to create fictional universes isn't actually that large. They're also stepping up the production of various kinds of RPGA memorabilia. Buy now, because the print runs are small, and they'll be collectors items later. They may have started this for fairly altruistic reasons, but the need to make money to survive is creeping in there. Ask not what your RPGA can do for you, ask what you can do for your RPGA!

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that Top Secret did far better than Gangbusters. A shame, I really liked Gangbusters.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 6: May/Jun 1982



part 2/4



White Rabbits: This column shrinks to tiny size, as they're finally caught up with their schedules. No longer do they need it as a regular. Until next time something goes wrong, anyway. How long can they defy the cruel whims of lady luck? We shall see. :steeples fingers:



RPGA Interview with Jake Jaquet pt 3: The final part of this interview shows how important little things can be. The presence or absence of a The in your title. The difference between a ™ and an ® symbol in terms of intellectual property. The difference good font and layout choices make in attracting and retaining readers. The number of stats and amount of record-keeping your game requires. Basically a reminder that the things that decide whether something succeeds or fails are often not what you think they are, but little cosmetic decisions you might not even think about. Too much complexity, particularly dumped on a newbie all in one go, is definitely one of them. An advanced player might think the more, the better, but you can't just present them with a complete edifice with millions of awesome options, you need to give them a logical entry point. Also on his mind is the growth of computers. They have the potential to make writing, editing and layout a much quicker and easier job. But they also have the potential to make solo gaming a little too easy and crowd out tabletop RPG's and boardgames. Yeah, both of those are true. It won't be long before computer gaming is many orders of magnitude larger than tabletop, and that shows no signs of changing. But there'll always be a few people who crave that open-ended experience only another human mind can provide. His mind has certainly proved a good source of entertainment for quite a while.



Notes for the Dungeon Master: This column continues to slide in both usefulness and sadism, devoting most of it's length to the tedious debate of realism in roleplaying. This was getting old even in 1982, but this particular magazine is new, so it might be fresh to some readers. For me though, it says nothing new, and offers nothing that would actually be of any use in improving my gaming. It's amazing how quickly they're running out of ideas. You need to get some more reader submissions in to spice things up mate.



Weapons of the Ancients: Jim Ward, on the other hand, is nowhere near running out of ideas, because he can steal them from the most mundane of sources and still make them interesting. Take perfectly ordinary household appliances people in the modern day would take for granted, make them a bit tougher and more futuristic looking to justify how they survived the apocalypse, and then think how they'd be useful in an adventuring context. They manage to fill thousand+ page mail-order catalogs with this stuff, so there's easily room to fill several whole RPG supplements before it gets repetitive. I thoroughly approve of this. Inspiration can be found all over the place, you just have to know how to look at the world from an interesting perspective to make it seem fresh to other people.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 6: May/Jun 1982



part 3/4



Spelling Bee: Sigh. It's that time again. ILLUSION ADJUDICATION TIME!!!! I knew it was coming as soon as this column started, and it remains as tiresome as ever. If anything, this is even more obnoxiously niggling than the previous times I covered it, as they not only try to interpret the rules as conservatively as possible, but go hard on the Illusionists and Magic-users use completely different kinds of magic idea, which was never brought up at all in Dragon, and I'm glad it never made it out into wider circulation. It's no wonder that people don't want to deal with that and regular wizards will outnumber them by several orders of magnitude. If you're going to not only make them weaker (which they already are anyway), but also chip away at what few flexibility advantages they have as well, what really is the point? BOOOORING!!!



Dispel Confusion: Can Thieves wear studded leather? (No, too shiny for proper sneaking.)

Why don't D&D dragons have weak spots? (We don't like no critical hit systems and called shot rules round these here parts boy. Get outta town before we change our minds and fill yo' ass with buckshot.)

Can a monk wear Bracers of Defence (Yes, but it'd be embarrassing for them to use magical crutches rather than pure skill. Their vows are almost as strict as Paladin's.)

Can a Bard use Fighter weapons when they're a Thief? (they're not a Bard yet, so no, normal dual classing rules apply if they want to gain XP for that encounter. )

How do you calculate unique creatures' attacks & saves? (divide hp by 4.5. You'd think they'd be luckier in their dice rolls when gaining levels, but apparently not.)



An Ace Against Odds: Dawn Patrol makes another appearance in the newszine with this little solitaire scenario. Take the role of a German ace trying to take out three bombers on his own. You have the element of surprise, but if not careful, you can still wind up permanently grounded. The bombers get a fairly detailed description of the tactics they'll use, but with some random elements thrown in to make sure this has some replay value. Seems decent enough, and it's a welcome bit of variety. Curious that aerial wargaming is seeing more action in here than ground-based stuff. I guess it's just one of those quirks of demographics, as all it takes is one enthusiastic writer in the right place at the right time to skew the amount of articles. I recall Divine Right had a regular column in Dragon around this time. I wonder if that'll show up here at all.

 

[MNblockhead]

Nice! I have a the first issue, signed by Gary Gygax. But I didn't keep any of my other issues.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 6: May/Jun 1982



part 4/4



RPGA Charter Members: Unsurprisingly, this covers M-Z, another 360 early adopters who did their bit to build up the RPGA. The demographics remain the same as last issue, and there's still a fair few familiar names in there that're significant to gaming in general, but there's nothing much to say about this that I didn't say last time. On we go.



First Tournament Tips: With all these new people coming into the RPGA, it's inevitable that some of them are also new to going to conventions and unsure of how it goes. So here we have the experiences of a first-time organiser, showing us that it's not that scary or expensive to run tournament modules at your own convention, so give us a ring, write us a letter, and give it a go yourself. Just like starting a band, putting on a play, or organising a party, all it takes is a few interested people at first and who knows where it might lead. Well, they were coming out of the punk era, which was big on breaking down the barrier between performers and audience. What is roleplaying if not the same idea applied to fantasy stories? Everyone should have a chance to try things, to find out what they're good at.



NOR has to deal with a werewolf, and a lot of exposition in small font. Not sure which is scarier, really.



The first issue that really irritated me, as it features several of those tiresome topics that get repeated many times in Dragon and online forums, with little resolution or progression, all in one go. Probably just bad luck. What's not luck is that they're already reorienting themselves more toward beginners than experts, which is another reason fewer of the articles might be interesting to me. Oh well, Just got to get used to filtering and picking out the best bits again, because I'm sure there'll be a lot of that as the years go by. Just keep going in a regular rhythm and this too will be over before we know it.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 7: Jul/Aug 1982



part 1/4



16 Pages. Those adventurers look very cheerful. A roaring fire, a big chest full of treasure, what more do they need? Maybe a little help getting it home, for that stuff is heavy, but they can worry about that in the morning. If you're always thinking about the destination, not the journey you'll never be truly happy. Let's see what enjoyment can be derived from this particular step along the way.



Where I'm Coming From: After a couple of issues showing the new staff the ropes, the place is finally starting to feel like a smoothly running machine, with enough people to handle the workload and everyone properly specialised at their jobs. So this is Frank stepping back a little further from the day-to-day running of the newszine to concentrate on his promotion to Gary's right-hand man and chief architect of the new basic & expert sets. He'll still be contributing to some of the regular columns for the moment, but his baby is all grown up and eventually it'll have to fly or fall without him. This may actually be a relief to the other staff members. Does this mean they'll be sticking with his formula for a while, or putting their own stamp on things as soon as he's gone? More incentive for me to keep on reading.



Letters: Our first letter is from someone happily converted to playing Fight in the Skies. That's what they're here for.

Second, we have another person facing pushback from their parents for gaming too much. If your grades are suffering, they're quite right to be worried. Roleplaying should help you learn to do maths and get along with people, not become a substitute for human interaction.

Third, we have another complaint about the newszine's lateness. They're getting better, honest, but obviously some people are still slipping through the cracks.

Finally, they have that perennial problem of someone who wants to play, but can't find any other gamers in their area. Look forward to an article on play-by-mail games soon that may help.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 7: Jul/Aug 1982



part 2/4



Dispel Confusion: What use is the expert set? (If you want to venture into the wilderness, a hell of a lot.)

The Endless Quest books break the rules. (NPC's can do a lot of things you can't in any edition of the game. Deal with it. )

How powerful is a ranger's spellcasting? (1 at the first level they gain spells, so x-7 or 8 Best to use the slots for utility tricks, not combat.)

Encumbrance is a pain to calculate (Yes. Yes it is. )

What level should a ranged cure spell be? (It should not. That's horrifically game-breaking and not supported by mythic sources. Away with you, vile twink! )



RPGA Interview with Mike Carr: Time for the plane fighting guy to get his turn in the hot seat. He's been part of the team since 1974, before the company was even fully incorporated and a full-time job for anyone. He's less interested in the RPG side of things, but has still wound up making some fairly significant contributions anyway. In fact, they specifically got him to write B1 because he'd bring a beginners perspective to the module intended for beginners. He's a particularly avid conventiongoer, which makes him a good fit for working on Polyhedron, and keeps up his perfect Gen Con attendance record long after leaving game design behind. Gaming is a fundamentally social activity, and that's what he seems to be most excited about, using both wargaming and roleplaying as a way to bring people together all over the world, and ensure that they'll never get bored due to the combination of random and tactical elements producing more interesting games with fewer duplications of results than either on their own. Another interesting perspective on the early years of gaming.



Notes from the DM: Gary responds to last issue's realism debate. He could easily have made AD&D much more detailed and realistic, but intentionally chose not too. The one attack a minute thing is an abstraction. As with the article he's responding too, this is all stuff I've seen before in greater detail, many many times. Do we really need to go over it again?



Spelling Bee: Having gone into great detail on one type of spell in the last issue, they go completely the other way this time, with a load of little comments on various cleric spells. Most of the interpretations are obvious, but a few are outright expansions of the rules, because they're the official designers, and they can. Collectively they reinforce that clerics are the class you need not only to heal the party after a fight, but also to buff them before (and good preparation goes a long way in keeping you from getting hurt in the first place. ) Without one, your team is a lot less resilient, especially if you have multiple encounters in quick succession. Even before tons of supplements blurred their niches, clerics were better than wizards until you got to ultra-high levels. Don't underestimate them.

 

[(un)reason]

The Polyhedron Issue 7: Jul/Aug 1982



part 3/4



Campaign Clues: This issue's Top Secret article tackles the concept of long-term campaigns. The problem with most gamers starting off with D&D is that they bring that mindset to other RPG's, resulting in site based adventures where the PC's go in, get the information by unsubtle means and blow stuff up when they leave with no regard for the long-term geopolitical consequences of their actions. While making it too much like real spying would be pretty tedious, there's definitely something to be said for long-term adventures where the characters grow and change, and face more nuanced challenges than some cackling villain's secret lair. To make this work, you need to do more preparation than just bunging a bunch of goons in an illogical building layout. But the results will be worth it. Looks like the big push to get players out of the dungeon has started a little early here. That's pretty interesting to see. The advice is pretty decent for any modern day real world game too, emphasising the importance of doing your research and planning ahead. There's tons of adventure material prebuilt for you if you just know where to look. Definitely approve of this one.



Ranch Encounters: Boot Hill gets an article. That's quite pleasing to see. They really didn't cover it very much in Dragon either, so every little helps. Despite the game change, this is very D&D, as it's a table of random encounters your ranchers might encounter while movin' steers across the plains. The law might be days or weeks away, so you'll have to be prepared to defend your livelihood. Well, that's what makes the game interesting despite the lack of supernatural elements. It's a wild frontier to be conquered, by personal strength and cunning. As long as you can accept that other humans'll be your primary adversaries and not feel guilty about killing them, there's plenty of fun to be had here.



Notes for the Dungeon Master: This column tackles the thorny subject of what to do when a character dies, especially at higher levels. Starting right from first level every time is a bit much, but if the new character is exactly the same level as the old one, then what sting does dying have, and what incentive do they have to learn to play well and keep their character alive? Given the exponential nature of D&D xp tables, they'll soon catch up anyway. So they're still thinking in the mould of old school competitiveness where surviving and getting to high level is winning, and there's no do-overs if you naughty word up. Get that treasure, even if it involves a certain amount of deceiving the other players so you can get a bigger share, and therefore level up faster. The kind of thing that'll get gradually chipped away at over time, as other games become increasingly nonrandom in character generation, and save games get introduced to computer games, making people more concerned about "fairness" in terms of stats and encounter design, and less willing to start from scratch every time they lose. A long way to go on that front.