TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 45: January 1989



part 1/5



32 pages. And stay down! It takes a full team of adventurers to keep a troll in the fire long enough to overcome it's regeneration and finish it off for good on this cover. They obviously haven't learned when to tactically apply their blasty spells for maximum efficiency. Let's see what this issue has to say on the topic, and if it'll still be relevant many editions later, with the state of charop considerably more advanced.



The Critical Hit: Errol isn't here, and so someone else submits a review instead. They decide to take a good look at the two Forgotten Realms products covering Waterdeep. (Just the two? How long ago that seems) The City System is a big boxed set with one large scale map of Waterdeep, and a whole bunch of zoomed in ones that cover various districts, which can be put together to make a MASSIVE map that shows every single street and building. It definitely looks impressive, and a lot of effort obviously went into it's construction. However, FR1: Waterdeep & the North is the one that actually gives more immediately game usable information to get you playing there. If you're a completionist you'll want both, but there is a fair bit of repeated information between them, and if finances are an issue, you should definitely go for FR1. Of course, either is definitely preferable to Volo's so-called guides, but they don't know that yet. I guess this is a reminder that even before the Realms became oversaturated with lore from multiple editions of supplements, there was still a fair bit of recycling and redundant writing going on. The lazy and unoriginal will always be with us.



Notes From HQ: The editorial this time deals with the joys of delegation. They've mentioned the creation of regional directors a couple of times, but never fully listed and explained what they're here for. Now they have a full set. So if you have a problem with a convention or general running of tournament games near you, there's an extra layer of people you can call instead of going straight to the top of the RPGA, who are obviously busy creating this newsletter and other TSR related functions. Now get out there, and get back to playing and trying to recruit more gamers. If you do well enough, we might be able to add even more layers of hierarchy! Having worked hard to get things more organised over the last year, they've got their sights set on world domination. Nice to see some optimism and ambition.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 45: January 1989



part 2/5



Letters: The first letter praises them for the recent improvements in formatting and artwork, including tiny details that they worked hard on, but most people wouldn't notice. Now they just want a bit more variety in the game systems covered. Since there's an equally loud contingent on the other side who want things all D&D, all the time, that continues to be a precarious needle to thread for the editors.

Rather than publishing specific letters, the rest of the column is devoted to a Q&A of the kind of questions they get over and over again. No matter how many times they answer them, they'll have to do so again in a year or so for the newbies. There are a few idiosyncratic ones I haven't seen before though. They may well implement multi-year memberships to ease bureaucracy. And if Dungeon has rejected a module, you can still send it here, or vice versa, as they have different editorial staff with different standards for what makes a good module for their target audience. Just don't forget your SASE, and don't nag us to reprint sold out issues. Neither of those are changing until the electronic era makes them moot points.



On Your Feet: Arcane Academe joins the graveyard of advice columns past, and a new challenger appears. Peter Hague decides to do a quite specific bit of DM advice on judging and scoring players in tournaments. You should remember to judge them not just on the amount of drama they produce, but how well it fits the character. This means scoring the quieter characters in the team that might otherwise be overlooked appropriately, because they were written to be played that way. Otherwise you often wind up with a group composed entirely of dominant personalities in the final round of a tournament, which has it's own problems. Not an issue I've had to deal with myself, but I can see why it would turn up repeatedly in convention spaces and need to be compensated for. So this manages to be interesting and not overly rehashed due to it's specificity, but not very useful to me personally. Maybe someday it'll matter. In the meantime, It means I look forward to seeing what other insights he has to offer, and how long he'll last in the position before giving up or being replaced in turn.



The Living City: Despite their tendency towards squishiness as you gain levels, many adventurers still have a fondness for their animal companions. So it's no surprise that a city an adventurer-heavy as Raven's Bluff would have a pet store dedicated to selling exotic animals that might be handy in a scrap or general wilderness wandering. Equally unsurprisingly, the owner is a retired mid-level adventurer with his own closely bonded companions, in this case a pair of Blink Dogs, who will use their powers quite effectively to deal with any adventurers who think they can rob him. The strong LG tendencies of both the owner and the Blink Dogs ensures all the rest of the animals are well trained and cared for, and he won't sell to anyone who seems like they'd mistreat their companions. It's all about as humane and ethical as a business like this can get. Hopefully the PC's won't ruin the place and can act like responsible customers long enough to reap the benefits.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 45: January 1989



part 3/5



Working for the Wizard: This issue's adventure is a good old-fashioned fetch quest. A wizard needs spell components fast and in secret, which means the traditional hiring of adventurers by fair means or foul to do the job for him. If they take the job, they get teleported straight from one location to the next, Sliders style, with strictly defined time limits in each one before the next portal opens and they have to move on even if they failed. As with Sliders, things do not go smoothly, and they find themselves appearing in the middle of other people's stories and having to get their bearings fast if they want to succeed in their mission. There's a definite sense of humour in the predicaments the characters find themselves in and the colourful NPC's they'll meet, and it pushes at the limits of my tolerances for goofy crap and railroading, but manages to stay on the right side overall by making the challenges genuine and allowing you to succeed or fail at each individually and get varying degrees of reward at the end if you survive. (not that it really matters if you're playing it as a tournament one with pregens) Well within the boundaries of what I'd consider usable.



The Balloon at Beffu: Dawn Patrol gets a new scenario for the first time in a few years. With this and the Battlesystem one last issue, it's good to see them remembering their wargaming side that once upon a time was bigger than the roleplaying. So here's one of the last battles in WWI, a shootout over a spy balloon on October 10th, 1918. Five SPADS vs four Fokkers. ( :tries very hard not to snigger at the names: ) The allies definitely have the edge by this point in the war, but depending on the tactics, the Germans still might manage to pull off a better result than in reality, and delay their surrender by a few weeks more. It's interesting for the variety, but also shows how short WWI was in the cosmic scheme of things, and how tapped out they are for new scenarios. Unless you go for M.A.S.H. style fuzzy continuity you're going to have to wind down a campaign and start again with new pilots after a while. Unless we had a multigenerational air combat and pilot advancement system that took us from the start of aviation to the modern day, Great Pendragon Campaign style, with all the changes in technology and playstyle contained within one system that implies. But that would be a pretty ambitious project that's way beyond my field of expertise to write. Anyone who wants to take that idea and run with it definitely has my blessing.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 45: January 1989



part 4/5



Brawling in Style: In the course of pursuit of adventure, one will inevitably find oneself in a bar talking to nefarious potential sources of plot hooks. At times, this will not work out, and things will degenerate into violence. In the interests of not being banned from the establishment and having to seek out your plot hooks elsewhere, you might wish to settle the disputes in a nonlethal manner. So here's a system for brawling with improvised weapons, particularly the kind you might find in such an establishment. It all seems pretty similar too and compatible with the similar section on unarmed combat in the Complete Fighters Handbook, which is good to see. Worth bookmarking then.



Slay It Again, Sam: Since Dispel Confusion had it's remit taken by Sage Advice, detailed rules quibbling has been relatively light on the ground here, replaced by quibbling about the administration system surrounding the tournament games instead. So along with the wargaming, here's another blast from the past, as they look at exactly what it takes to stop a regenerating creature in AD&D 1e. As is often the case, a strict reading of the RAW produces results somewhat different from the way most groups actually played it at the table, especially since there are multiple different types of regeneration, each of which works slightly differently in itself. Another testament to the troubles that exception-based design and sloppy editing can cause. The kind of thing where it's definitely quicker and easier to start all over again with a new, better edited corebook than to hunt down all the different minor references and make them all fit together. Mildly irritating, and definitely not deserving of being the cover article. Mary mary quite contrary, I don't want to see how your troll limbs regrow, even if you do dress them in pretty maids outfits.



Fun In Games: Rick is feeling even more whimsical than usual, with joke magic items like the ring of protection from carrots 15' radius. Unless you're in a particularly terrifying april fool's scenario and facing Bugs Bunny, in which case it might be your only shot, this will just sit on your finger and occasionally be a nuisance at inns. The ring of toothache controlling and the ring of liquid cooling, on the other hand, seem like eminently practical inventions, especially in a world without proper dentistry. Guess that once again, the comedy articles can provide things that aren't combat focussed, but which would be valued by the NPCs far more than a +5 sword that drains levels on a natural 20. The rest of the article is even more jokey stuff involving using food items as minis, and the terrors you can subject your PC's too by doing so. Once again there is some useful stuff in here, but good god is it a slog extracting it from the cavalcade of bad jokes. Does he ever ease up on that?

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 45: January 1989



part 5/5



New Rogues Gallery: Huh. Now here's a real turnup for the books. Palladium were regular advertisers in Dragon, but never actually got any articles published, even in their most permissive era for non TSR systems. However, here's one in Polyhedron. Erick Wujcik has done an official TMNT adventure for the RPGA, and here's the pregens from it. Say hello to the Sewer Rats, who ironically are mostly mice. Sandy, the leader, who has a quite handy set of psychic powers to give him a social edge over the others, but remains as scrupulously ethical and law-abiding as possible for a mutated mouse that lacks official human ID. Jo, the master of disguise, who acts as the face of the group and has all kinds of hammy personas in his make-up bag. Ace, the food-loving party guy who's recklessness gets everyone else into trouble. Totally bogus dude. Andy, who's a human mutated to look mouse-like rather than the other way around, and is scared the rest of the group will abandon him if they ever find out. Unlikely, since he has badass electrical powers that make him a great asset to the team. Kim, the only actual mutant rat, who delights in playing the big strong guy and calling all the others wimps. And finally, Yancy the Muskrat, the comedic coward of the group, who's actually even stronger than Kim, but good luck trying to get him to fight unless it's a real emergency. All seem very genre-appropriate, and I can easily think of multiple 80's cartoon characters that fit each archetype here. If I were presented with one of these and expected to get in character quick from reading the description, it wouldn't be too hard, which makes them a definite success at their intended use. I wonder if we'll get to see the actual adventure they appeared in in a future issue. Either way, this is definitely a pretty entertaining look at a game they haven't covered before, and quite possibly will never cover again, building characters that current D&D couldn't even come close to emulating. You can see why people would be looking elsewhere to scratch their itch for different playstyles and power options.



With both the return of an old feature and trying out a couple of new ones, this gives a nice fresh start to the new year. There's more silly elements than I'd expect for a non april issue, but they don't go so far as to ruin the experience. Let's hope they can keep that up and have another strong year. On we go to the next one then.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 15: Jan/Feb 1989



part 1/5



67 pages. All the mighty power that elephant spellcaster has, and it still has to deal with the irritation of flies. Or maybe it summoned them on purpose for some inscrutable reason, in which case that's a lot of lightshow for such a minor spell. Let's see if the PC's will be helping him along his way, or doing his best to foil his evil plans.



Editorial: They've got the result of their questionnaire back and it confirmed their suspicions. The majority of their readers only use a tiny fraction of the adventures in the magazine, which is why they make sure to choose ones that make for good reads and plundering for parts, not just using as is. There's a very mild preference for increasing average adventure length, but not so much to make them actively change their editorial policy. Solo modules and ones in specific settings are definitely contentious topics, so both will be used sparingly while making sure most of the stuff they do is generic AD&D adventures. Basically, not a lot's changing, because they're at the right kind of balance now. Maybe a few more ambitious experiments, but not at the expense of general accessibility. Nothing much to report here then.



Letters: Our first letter is just an elaboration on their questionnaire answers. A good mix of all lengths of adventures is preferable, with the exception of froofy and goofy ones that aren't really adventures at all. Anything fae related in particular needs to watch themselves carefully. Not surprised at all. Trickster adventures do tend to annoy people.

The second is also very much in favor of variety, and gets annoyed at the people who want to remove solo adventures and worldbuilding. The magazine is far better value for money than individually sold adventures, and a big part of that is getting things you need, but didn't know it yet rather than just things you want.

Two letters complain about the hassle of converting monsters between D&D and AD&D. What goes wrong if you use them as is?

Fifth, a request for more themed issues, but fewer spoilers on the covers. Both entirely sensible and reasonable requests.

A request to put a humour page in like Dragon has. Barbara politely declines this one. We want to stay a more specialist publication, and not waste page count on that kind of frivolity.

Finally, another round of complaints that some of the modules are way tougher than the recommended party level. They're definitely not going away anytime soon.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 15: Jan/Feb 1989



part 2/5



The Statement of Ownership sees Dungeon continue to grow at a fairly steady pace from 20,000 to 35,000 over the past year. They're well clear of Polyhedron now, and approaching 1/3 Dragon's circulation. Will they keep going and break half next year, or start to level off? Tune in again in 6 issues or so to find out!



The Wreck of the Shining Star: We've had a couple of sunken ship adventures that take you beneath the waves. Now we have one where the ship ran aground instead, so you don't need water-breathing magic just to access the adventure at all. This does not mean it's devoid of environmental hazards though, as it's falling apart and slippery, so you might fall through the decks into the hold below. Plus the obligatory undead haunting the place with a tragic backstory that you'll probably never find out about, because you're a bunch of wandering psychopaths who attack on sight instead of trying to find out if there's a peaceful way to free them from their eternal torment. So this is another one very much written to entertain people merely reading the magazine and not actually using most of the modules. Maybe the PC's will do something that makes all the extra historical depth useful, but if not, this'll be a fairly short set of encounters. Very 2eish indeed.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 15: Jan/Feb 1989



part 3/5



In pursuit of the Slayer: Buffy? Lina Inverse? Thankfully not, as either of those would be way beyond the capability of any normal group of PC's to defeat, particularly if backed up by the rest of their respective teams. This is another one packed with backstory, and expects you to pay attention so there's at least the possibility of a peaceful resolution. As they wander, the PC's come across a scene of devastation caused by the Slayer. Hopefully they'll decide to pursue him and stop him from causing more havoc. If they do follow his trail and pay attention, they'll pick up clues along the way that he was actually a hero until recently, so something might be up with his sudden change of heart. Turns out he's been possessed by an evil magic item. If the PC's go full murderhobo and just kill him & take his stuff, they'll rapidly find one of their number turning on the rest of them and have to deal with that, plus massively reduced objective XP for the adventure as a whole. Basically, this is a combination of chase & detective story that's designed to punish mindless hack & slash players and reward actually roleplaying and engaging with the NPC's. It once again shows that the 2e attitude towards adventure design started before 2e actually did, and was pretty common amongst designers of this period, reacting against the simple dungeon crawls of a decade ago. You have to hope that your group has kept up with the designer's increase in sophistication, or they'll find themselves left behind as grumbling grognards wondering why so few adventures cater to them these days.



The Dragon's Gift: The oriental adventure this issue is also one that will not work well if the PC's try mindless violence and unadulterated greed. The celestial bureaucracy once again shows itself to be full of privileged creatures who use their wealth and powers to naughty word with their inferiors. A dragon has recently shed his scales (& some other body parts too) in the process of going up an age category. In his great generosity, he sends out a letter requesting for someone to take out the trash collect these valuable and magically powerful ingredients to enrichen the mortal world with. If you take the bait, you'll have to trek through a bunch of encounters with his servants and other spirit creatures, each with their own annoying quirks, some of which are servants intentionally placed to test you, so killing them will piss off the dragon and you'll get no reward, while others are not affiliated and you can slaughter to your heart's content. (but of course you don't know which) If you do make it to the dragon, you'll still have to suck up to him for the privilege of taking away what is junk to him, because he's just that kind of guy. The whole thing definitely seems designed to test the limits of your capability for irritation and remind you how low humans are on the food chain around these parts. Being both linear and trollish, this is precisely the kind of thing I loathe playing through. To quote Firefly, they can go shove it up a 狒狒的屁眼.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 15: Jan/Feb 1989



part 4/5



The Glass House: The Forgotten Realms is gathering steam nicely, and here's another module set there. The PC's are travelling along the sword coast between Waterdeep and Leilon, and here's a bunch of things they could encounter along the way. It has a main plot of a ranger slain by a frost giant returning from the grave for vengeance. You can help him, or get out of his way. If you fight him or leave him alone, you'll still have to deal with the frost giant and his followers on your own, which is also a reasonably interesting little dungeoncrawl with some cool twists in it. On top of that, there are several other unconnected encounters placed at various points along the road. It's basically a way to stretch the journey out over a session or two and make it interesting in itself. The individual encounters are easily stripped out and used separately in other game worlds. Nothing hugely ambitious or world-changing here, but the kind of compact, practical stuff that's more likely to actually get used in a campaign than the big adventures, put together in an interesting way that makes it more than the sum of it's parts. And given the sheer quantity of Realms material published, I'm sure there's an adventure that'll give you reason to make this trip in the first place. Putting together an adventure path from 1st to 20th level shouldn't be hard at all.



Roarwater Caves: Another adventure that feels like a reaction against the static dungeoncrawls of old where an orc with a pie can sit in a 10x10 room forever until the players open the door. A group of Xvarts living in a tidal cave are getting fed up of their bugbear and kobold neighbours. So they plan on attracting some adventurers to the area while they take a convenient leave of absence, and whether the PC's win or lose, they'll still be in a better position afterwards. The entrance to the caves is submerged at high tide, so if the PC's enter at the wrong time and don't keep track of time they'll be trapped in there overnight unable to retreat and rest up, neatly solving the 15 minute workday problem static dungeons have. The enemies aren't particularly powerful, but they are intelligent and reactive, with relationships between the various creatures living in the cave complex and their movements detailed, and a timeline for what happens if the PC's don't clear out everything fast in one go. The whole thing looks to me like a quite specific rebuttal to the flaws of the Caves of Chaos, saying, no, this is how you do a dungeoncrawl against a conglomeration of bickering humanoids and how they'd react to incursions of adventurers being a regular thing in-setting. It's all quite pleasingly self-aware, while still being pretty easy to put into any generic campaign. Take that, Gygax!

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 15: Jan/Feb 1989



part 5/5



The Elephant's Graveyard: After several adventures that are self-consciously modernist in thinking, we go back to an old classic for inspiration. The legend of the elephant's graveyard, a hidden place they go to die which if found will net you an all you can carry buffet of ivory. The PC's come across a map that supposedly leads there and head off hexcrawling to find it. The result is pretty much exactly as you'd expect, a homage to those victorian novels and pulp comics featuring heroes that wear short shorts despite the dangers of the jungle, dastardly villains with no apparent motivation, dramatic cliffhanger sequences and narrow escapes, including the problematic bits like tribes of cannibal savages and the whole idea of using elephants for their ivory in the first place. It's good for what it is, with a nice mix of plot-driven bits & character freedom and clever design that keeps the players from just going there over and over and collapsing the economy, but yeah, it is a bit dated, and if you're not completely on board with the whole killing things and taking their stuff being crucial to the way the game functions and separating it from real world social issues even when they're real world things rather than fantasy monsters you'll probably want to skip this one.



Very much a mixed bag in this issue, with a mix of linear & open adventures and old & new design tendencies in writing. I guess that's diversity of a sort, but it's definitely one where not every adventure will be to your tastes. As usual, it's once again time to move on and see just how quickly things will change in terms of tastes and politics as we catch up to the present.