TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 99: September 1994



part 2/5



New Weapons: This one on the other hand, will definitely be of interest to people who want cool new crunchy stuff to kit out their characters with. The scarcity of raw materials means athasian weapons aren't generally that great at raw damage output, compounded by everyone having higher constitution. So they have to get inventive with their weapon design, giving them tricks that are just a significant as the damage like entangling, being extra good at disarming, being able to switch between P, S & B damage types, making it easy to strike from behind and gain the appropriate bonuses, or more attacks per round than a regular weapon. Most of them have one benefit you can use if proficient, and another you only gain access too if specialised, giving fighters a chance to actually be cool for a change. So this is pretty neat because it's encouraging combats that are more than just rolling dice back and forth until someone runs out of hit points, with dramatic moves that could turn the tide in various ways and get someone to surrender without being killed. Other campaign worlds could definitely be improved by incorporating more of those ideas as well.



Enemy of My Enemy: Dark Sun adventures have always been on the linear end, (which is odd since the higher power level should make it easier for players to break out of any artificial constraints) but this one really takes the biscuit by having a prelude which describes exactly how the entire adventure should play out right down to the PC's reactions. They start off as slaves in the gladiatorial arena. A So-ut smashes the place up, giving them a chance to escape. They have to pick up some supplies, (with what money, as they're just escaped slaves and there's no treasure listed earlier on in the adventure for them to pick up, yet it acts like they're going to take the legit route here rather than thievery) get out of town, avoid dying of thirst for several days, negotiate with elves for access to the first oasis you see, get to another village, and then fight off the templars & defiler who are out to recapture you before you're allowed to stay. If you take any choice other than the very limited ones allowed, some of which are oddly specific, you'll probably die. The kind of adventure where actually playing it after reading it seems pointless because it allows so little freedom at any point, (plus the baffling plot hole at the beginning) so you might as well improvise your own and it'd probably turn out more fun even without any notes. Sloppily written and thoroughly yawnsome.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 99: September 1994



part 3/5



Templars Of Tyr: This article is misleadingly named, because it stats up 6 different templars from nearly every city-state except for Tyr. (who's templars are at a severe disadvantage now they've lost their powers. ) With one exception, they're not very nice people, because the sorcerer-kings they serve are not very nice either, and what's more, despite thousands of years of doing this, they still actively promote abusers into positions of power even though it makes their city-states less competently run. But what do you expect when their own powers are built on ravaging the ecosystem. Any conservation lessons are hard-won and forgotten at the first emergency, of which there are a lot of on Athas. There's still plenty of variety in fashion choices and the ways in which they'll exploit and screw you over, but expecting niceness is deeply foolish, as even the one who enforces the rules consistently and fairly is still enforcing rules made unilaterally by Lalali-Puy. Have fun avoiding their attention, and if you do fight them, don't do it in a way that'll bring down the whole might of their respective city's bureaucracy upon you. I think this is sufficiently dark to be usable, even with some of the ridiculous postapocalyptic haircuts that remind us Mad Max is a big part of the world's DNA.



Lightsabers: After all the little challenges and annoyances of Athas, we follow us with a Star Wars one that's also high on the mundane details and low on the action. Luke might have been able to build a lightsaber out of a bunch of scraps with minimal training, but you will not be permitted too under the D6 system. Instead, you need to meet 5 different prerequisites and make three rolls with different stats to build one successfully, then roll some more to repair it regularly to keep it from breaking down. If you get hold of someone else's lightsaber and try to use it, particularly if you lack any force powers, you're as likely to do yourself an injury as your opponent. The kind of article that's doing it's best to bog down a high action, cinematic movie series with tedious little details that make sure your characters will never get to be as cool as the ones on screen even if they play for years. Very boring indeed and annoying how completely they're missing the point of the licence.



Weasel Games: Four columns in, and Lester has reached the point where people have read the first one and started to react to it. It's a lot harder to be an effective backstabbing weasel when everyone knows you are one. So you have to know when to switch it off, let their memories fade just enough to let down their guard so you can betray them again. When you do, he has two new tools to try so you can survive to continue to backstab. The first is whining. Starscream did not survive 65 episodes without knowing when to act pathetic in the face of his schemes failing yet again and neither will you. As long as they underestimate you, any punishments you do get are less likely to be severe ones. The other one is shifting the blame. A good traitor becomes adept at spotting the signs of impending treachery in others and snitching, currying favour by uniting everyone else against some scapegoat. So this shows how quickly incessant treachery hits diminishing returns. Outside Carceri or the Abyss, it's not an optimal way to prosper long term. Like spicy food, you should only serve it sometimes so it keeps it's impact. As fun as it might be to play the diabolical schemer, you can't go all Snidely Whiplash the whole time in a long running campaign without stretching credulity and being backstabbed in turn. I can't argue with that.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 99: September 1994



part 4/5



Into The Dark: After three and a half years of regular reviews, James heads off to other pastures, but not before giving us one last particularly interesting theme. The works of William Shatner, with a particular focus on why nothing else he tried ever had the cultural impact of Star Trek. Is it his limitations as an actor, his choice of scripts, his even worse own attempts at writing and directing, or his obnoxious behaviour when the cameras stop rolling? Well that's a pretty can of worms to open for sure. Let's see what evidence the prosecution presents for it's case.

The Devil's Rain is a particularly slow and depressing bit of 70's satanic horror, in which Shatner gets turned into a zombie, which at least removes the worry of getting good line readings from him. John Travolta also appears in a pre-stardom role that doesn't give him much chance to strut his funky stuff. Not really notable to fans of either unless you're an extreme completist.

Kingdom of the Spiders sees Shatner cast as a vet trying to stop a horde of worryingly organised spiders. It's ok, if somewhat eco-preachy. Storytellers just can't resist making it all really our own fault. If only we'd understood all the ramifications and taken a different path.

Visiting Hours also has the veneer of a morality tale, but sticks the landing even less. A misogynistic slasher that attacks victims of domestic violence for fighting back? (and everyone else who tries to thwart his attacks) That could in theory have been made to work, but in this case is just an excuse for violence porn filled with basic horror cliches like PoV shots and jump scares. James just hopes the actors got decently paid for this waste of celluloid.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is here to show what happens when all the random elements align in the right way. An intelligent script that draws on lore from the series, letting Kirk face both an old enemy and his own aging & fears of death with subtlety. (and more than a little intentional ham) It's one of the big high points in Star Trek history, and James is just irritated that they threw away big chunks of the character development (and Spock's death) in the next one.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, on the other hand, shows us what happens when Shatner directs himself. Nursery rhymes, weak humour, and a plot that never properly explains itself. (what does god need with a starship?) Final my ass. Good thing there are plenty of decent episodes released after that.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 99: September 1994



part 5/5



The Living Galaxy: Many people dream of going to space to escape the rules and regulations of modern society and start a new life. However, there is a big flaw in that logic. If anything, you need to have even stricter regulations just to survive in a place where the atmosphere is poison or nonexistent, as one breach could kill everyone. Gun control is almost definitely going to be a thing, and certain things that would get trivial punishments on land could be capital offences. If a spaceship or station is owned by a private company rather than a government, the odds of things getting dystopian increase even further, as profit-driven capitalism tends to be pretty ruthless even with external government restraining it. When all the infrastructure belongs to the company and you can't even quit without being able to pay for your trip to somewhere else, the worst excesses of company towns are likely to show up. This is one future that seems just as plausible now, looking at the spacebound ambitions of Elon Musk and the way he treats employees on earth. Another way space travel is likely to be far stricter than earth is quarantine and vaccination procedures. Bringing a new disease onto an enclosed environment full of people who haven't had any exposure to anything like it in years could devastate the whole community, so new arrivals may well face several days of complete isolation and a battery of tests. Anyone who rankles at mask wearing in the modern day is unlikely to be able to get through all the training and regulations needed to get chosen for a space mission. So this is a pessimistic, realism heavy bit of writing that feels more like the old ARES articles than a TSR one. Space travel in the real world is not going to be all laser guns, zero-g acrobatics and fast-paced adventure hijinks, but a rigid experience in which you're just a small part in a bigger organism you can't survive outside of and your schedule is strictly planned years in advance. A fairly interesting article that still holds up decades later, but obviously isn't particularly fun gaming. Like strictly tracking encumbrance and rations, it might be interesting for a while, but eventually you'll want some fantastical macguffins that bypass at least some of that hassle to get a sense of progression. After all, we have to deal with enough of this tedium in the real world.



An issue that's weirdly heavy on the low-key realism heavy aspects of worldbuilding for multiple settings and systems, to the point where it overdoes it for my tastes. All buildup and no payoff makes jack a dull boy, and this material needs trimming down a fair bit to make progress in a session. Let's find out just how much of next issue should have been left on the chopping block as well.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 49: Sep/Oct 1994



part 1/5



80 pages. I know clarinets can be pretty piercing, but that's no reason to poison the person playing them, unless the player is really terrible and persistent in playing at unsociable hours. It looks like we're going to be flexing our amateur dramatics muscles this issue. Let's hope there'll be room for improv rather than an overly rigid script.



Editorial: The cover story this issue has a particularly protracted genesis that Barbara recounts in the editorial. Valerie Valusek was fed up with always drawing artwork to other people's stories, so she and Barbara decided to do it the other way around for a change. Then it took a full 6 years to find a writer willing and able to take the illustrations she came up with and craft a coherent adventure around them. That's development hell for you. Just got to keep the dream alive because you never know when opportunity will finally knock. Let's hope it was worth the wait, as I recall the last adventure that took forever to be accepted didn't overly impress me.



Letters: First letter is another of those ones on what series of adventures they're using, although in this case it's mostly planning ahead and seeding rumours throughout the campaign world for ones they'd like to use in the future. Their choices definitely incline toward's Dungeon's more whimsical adventures.

Second wants more detail in general on adventures. Full info on spells & powers every time instead of having to look them up, more images of the outside of buildings as well as their layouts. The kind of thing that would make each one longer and each issue have fewer adventures, so Barbara definitely can't make any promises on that front. I don't think it's a co-incidence that 4e moved in that direction with it's statblocks only after the magazine went all electronic.

Third is more praise for the many adventures of Willie Walsh. May he keep on mixing up ideas and telling interesting stories for many more years to come.

Fourth wants them to keep on including lots of variety in their adventures. That's what keeps the game from becoming dull and ending, even if not every adventure will be to every group's taste.

Fifth also thinks one group's excessive roleplaying is another group's great evening. It's not just the quantity but also the quality of the acting and the emotions evoked so figure out what pushes your player's buttons and get stuck in.

Finally, some errata questions for last issue. They changed the recommended character level for To Bite the Moon in response to playtesting, but forgot to do so everywhere. The lower range is the right one.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 49: Sep/Oct 1994



part 2/5



The Dark Place: Alien continues to be a popular franchise around here, so here's another adventure that specifically references it, forcing you to hunt down a single scary enemy that uses stealth and hit & run tactics so you can have multiple encounters with it before finally beating it. A wizard summoned a Yugoloth he wasn't equipped to bind and became it's dinner. Trapped on the prime material, it cut a swathe through the local town, who had no magic weapons to hurt it with despite their numbers, until the place wound up abandoned. Now it lurks in the ruins, and the PC's are the latest people to pass through. Will they have what it takes to beat it, or at least banish it back to the lower planes, or become yet another meal in it's belly? This seems like it could be quite effectively scary, particularly if the DM plays up the atmospherics of the ruined town. The PC's have free rein to wander where they choose, and might find some helpful stuff along the way, but the map is designed so the climactic final encounter will probably be one of the last places they'd naturally look. The only other monsters are a non-hostile ghost and maybe a few skeletons animated by the yugoloth as distractions that'll be no threat at the intended level. An effective demonstration of how less can sometimes be more, particularly when it comes to horror, and fiend's ability to teleport at will is what really makes them scary, not just their combat powers. Have fun with your jump scares. A pretty strong start to the issue, this is definitely one I'd enjoy using.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 49: Sep/Oct 1994



part 3/5



Side Treks - Two for the Road: In the course of killing things and taking their stuff, an eligible young adventurer may find themself with more stuff than they can carry, particularly if the DM remembers to properly track encumbrance. You may want to use some of that money to buy mounts, hirelings and wagons so you can get around more quickly and carry more stuff with you. Of course, buying these things is a whole other challenge, as you try to get good ones for a good price and avoid being swindled. If you don't watch out you could wind up saddled with this one, an ex-smuggling wagon which has a pair of gremlins living in the secret compartment. They'll sneak out at night, steal small things, play pranks on the PC's and generally be a minor ongoing irritation until you manage to catch them. The kind of thing that could be over quickly if they think to search for secret doors & traps and roll well, or stretched out over a whole load of sessions with plenty of other stuff going on at the same time. The kind of adventure idea that's only going to come up on the grittier end of the campaign spectrum, as if you're handwaving most of the equipment and journey stuff, or all the PC's have bags of holding and are flying & teleporting around the world it won't ever be an issue. Since people who are nitpicky about tracking little details are also less likely to see the funny side of this, I can't see it being welcome in that many groups. Unless you really want to annoy your players, I'd be cautious about using it.



Lenny O'Brien's Pot O' Gold: Straight from one annoying trickster to another. As should be obvious from the title, it's time for another helping of the many annoyances a leprechaun can inflict upon the party. Lenny lost his extradimensional treasure holding pot in a recent flood. When he found it, the magical radiation from the pot had turned the surrounding mud into a colony of mudmen, which are notoriously too dumb to fall for the typical fae tricks and too tough for him to fight. Just asking the first group of passing adventurers for help went badly, so this time he'll steal one of the PC's magical items, lead them on a chase to the mudmen, and then hopefully grab his pot of gold back while you're busy fighting them. If they manage to catch him before then, he'll do the typical granting three wishes (and they all get reversed if you're dumb enough to take the 4th) trick. While this might still be annoying to play through, it's much less irritating as a read than the last one because the lead character is decently fleshed out and has an entirely relatable motivation for his trickery that isn't just doing it for the lulz. The surrounding worldbuilding is also surprisingly solid, both lore-wise and working with the game rules rather than against them, so you won't have to railroad the players to get it to turn out the way the writer intended, and it has enough flexibility built in to still work out overall if the players try a different approach or roll really well in the chase section. Despite the inauspicious starting ingredients, this manages to win my approval with charm and attention to detail.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 49: Sep/Oct 1994



part 4/5



North of Narborel: They made a big deal about the cover story having a 6 year gestation period, but this adventure has even older roots. Can Seapoint Be Saved was a decent enough adventure from 1983 that was somewhat overshadowed by appearing in the same issue of Dragon as the epic nine hells special by Ed Greenwood. But Chris Perkins not only remembers it fondly enough to run it for his group, but also add a load of stuff and send his revised version here. Many of the names are changed, the town map is expanded, and all the extra details inflate it from 8 to 14 pages long. The pirate's lair is still exactly the same, and the overall course of the adventure hasn't changed, but the whole thing is slightly more refined and gives you more material to work with, particularly when it comes to roleplaying the NPC's. It takes an already good adventure and adds lots of little iterative improvements. Still not any kind of worldbeating classic, but it's nice to see something that isn't just another stand-alone adventure unconnected to anything and be reminded of the days before Dungeon split off from Dragon. Gives me a little something extra to think about and the fun of comparing exactly what's changed or stayed the same between the versions.



Side Treks - Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Looks like they're in the mood for lots of little adventures again. But as with the gremlin troubles, this may be short in page count, but can be stretched out over quite a few sessions interleaved with other adventures. What do summoned creatures think about being ripped away from whatever they're doing, ordered to fight or perform some menial task, and then teleported back to their previous situation once they finish? Generally they're not too happy about it, but when your summoner could be anywhere in the multiverse, retaliation can be tricky. Now the PC's get to find out what it feels like when the shoe is on the other foot, and one of their number keeps on disappearing at odd moments to serve the whims of a quite distinctively attired wizard. Can they figure out the rules of the spell and how to no longer be susceptible to it, or enough details about who and where he is to pay him a visit with the rest of the party and get revenge? Muahaha. The kind of complication that you can put in any time, and have a large amount of leeway in how you use it, how frequently it recurs, and how difficult you make tracking your conjurer down. The sort of petty annoyance the players can really get invested in solving, and find it far more satisfying when they do than finally defeating some mysterious evil overlord they never even meet before the final confrontation. This is the kind of sadism I could have a lot of fun with, so I strongly approve of this idea.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 49: Sep/Oct 1994



part 5/5


Castle of the Blind Sun: So what happens when you get a bunch of images, and three people try to assemble them into a story, one of which is just a kid? You get a lot of plot elements that sound like mad libs. The famous bard Gangwolf ( :groans: ) retired to a magical castle built by his adventuring friends after losing his sight. Several years later, a scam artist seduced and poisoned him, but couldn't get through the magical defences to the treasure room. Now she's living in the castle, having cursed most of the elves in the forest to eternal sleep, and is trying to finish his musical notes off and pass them as her own songs, with not much success. Can you figure out how to get through the castle's obtuse magical defences and not only defeat her, but also find out how to lift the curse? Get ready for a whole musical themed adventure. Harpies, Korred, recommended music to play for various encounters and lots and lots of terrible pun names for the characters, oh my. It's not hugely railroady, but it is very whimsical and there's a whole ton of backstory built up but relatively little page count spent on the actual adventure part of the adventure. It feels like it was probably pretty fun for them to write, but would be less so to actually play through, particularly in an otherwise serious campaign. Still a much more palatable read than the many polyhedron adventures that are irritatingly jokey, lack any kind of depth to the backstory and also completely linear, but not one I'm interested in personally using.



Phil Foglio is working for WotC before everyone else at TSR is absorbed, and contributes a highly amusing advert for their customer service department.



An issue in which both the adventures I like and the ones I don't are still interesting reads, rather than yet more boring dungeoncrawls. Even when they're actively trying to be comedic or annoying, at least you have plenty of choices in the precise kind of annoyance you inflict upon your players. That averages out to make this issue decent enough overall. But they could be doing so much more. Well, we have big round numbers coming up for both magazines, so let's see if they've put together any particularly impressive special features in celebration.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 100: October 1994



part 1/5



33 pages. The Lady of Pain, Lord Soth, Alias, Anthraxus, some Paranoia Troubleshooters and lots of the TSR staff walk into a bar. I'm surprised the bar is still standing after all that. A silly cover, but one that draws on a wide range of TSR's history. Hopefully the levity inside won't be too annoying and they'll manage some genuinely nostalgic celebration of their life so far. Let's see what they have to say about the past, and what hints they'll give to the future.



Notes From HQ: Unsurprisingly, the editorial is a short tour through their history. From humble beginnings in 1980, the RPGA has grown to a five figure organisation, and the newszine has increased in size and frequency with it. They've got all sorts of members from all around the world and have published all sorts of articles. Hopefully they'll not only continue, but the issues of Polyhedron will become collectibles that cost considerably more to purchase secondhand than they originally did. Arr, I think ye'll be mostly on a losing streak there, like so many things from the 90's that were made with collectability in mind. They may know where they've been, but they have no idea just how much technology will change the world in the next few decades. There's still a good few years of seeing how they'l react to changes in the world and the company, and I'm looking forward to seeing that turbulence, so on with the show.



Lightning Strike: The war of the lance has been over for a good generation now. A whole load of kids have grown up for whom the struggles for the fate of the world are just stories. But evil never sleeps, and Takhisis has learnt from her past mistakes. This time, the people she's been recruiting are firmly on the Lawful Evil end of the alignment spectrum, and trying to keep their activities a secret until they're ready for the big takeover. Are the people of Krynn ready for the Knights of the Lilly, Skull and Thorn, intentional dark counterparts to the Solamnic orders? Not by the looks of this little bit of fiction, framed as a letter between members of the new forces, and intercepted but not believed by a Knight of the Crown in the postscript. So this is one of the first teasers for the upcoming 5th age material, that will completely upend not only the political status quo of Krynn, but also the laws of physics, sending them out of contact with the gods for years and forcing them to develop a whole new magic system, then deal with the two different ways of using magic co-existing when they finally come back. A pretty wild ride that unfortunately most of their customers won't follow along with. Oh well. We already know that this experiment won't work out long run, but maybe we'll get to see a few more interesting 5th age articles in here to further supplement the Dragon ones. Those brief changes of scenery are always welcome even if their contents aren't actually much use to me.



The Tyaonon Ranger: We've seen considerably more Star Wars in here than Dragonlance, so it's not surprising they're doing another article for it this issue. You might find this ship for sale at a suspiciously low price for it's quality secondhand. As Admiral Ackbar would say, it's a trap. It's a smuggling vessel, and it's original owner will use it to nobble you coming and going, framing other people for crimes he committed, using it's secret security flaws to steal it back, and selling it secondhand multiple times for more profit. Owning it will make you a target for legal authorities, him, and the various other people it was sold too and then stolen back from. I guess if you're looking to live in interesting times, that's pretty ideal, as you'll never run out of plot hooks, and ones that come to you as well rather than needing to be sought out. You could get a lot of adventure out of this single page setup, so I strongly approve of this one. When you only have a small page count to work with, you should concentrate on packing the greatest density in, something they've definitely become slacker about in recent years.