TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 56: Nov/Dec 1995



part 5/5



The Land of Men With Tails: Another adventure that builds on previous ones here (and makes sure to list them so new readers know which issues to backorder), as David Howery takes us back to the Dark Continent for some african inspired exploring. A previous adventuring party hasn't returned, so the rich dad of one of them hires the PC's to investigate and hopefully rescue them. By amazing co-incidence, he's the only one of his group that's not dead yet, and you'll find the bodies of his companions if you follow the trail successfully. This leads you through mountain, swamp and several hundred miles of tropical river, facing disease, giant bugs, crocs, leopards, hippos and headhunters, until they reach the villages of the titular men with tails, who don't actually have tails, just a distinctive form of tribal dress. They definitely remember seeing the previous expedition, but warn you that following them will lead to a ruined city inhabited by evil dwarves, from which none return. You obviously won't let that stop you, and press onwards to explore the ruins, where the linearity finally lets up and there's plenty of bits to explore and weird monsters to fight before you get to the climax. Just like last adventure, it ends with you having to foil a magical ritual or face an enemy above your paygrade, as they want to sacrifice the captured adventurer to summon a giant ape and use it as a weapon of conquest. Still, the whole thing is better handled here, as even if you fail, that's still a whole other achievable adventure if you use clever tactics or run away and get help, unlike the curbstomp of 6th level characters vs a 30th level dragon. (and it's not going to break the game if one of the PC's gets hold of the ritual and uses it themselves) It's not completely rigid like the last adventure, actually has plenty of treasure (if you can figure out how to get it home) and it gives much more of a sense that you're traversing long distances through challenging terrain than the Dark Sun material, but it is still much more linear than his previous adventures in the same setting, showing that general trend continues with both staff and freelance writers. This doesn't enrage me like the previous adventure, but leaves me pretty ambivalent overall. We've definitely seen better years in here.



An issue in which the short adventures are pretty pleasing, but the long ones less so, showing that large scale sandboxes are now thoroughly overtaken by more linear adventures that go from one encounter to the next and only offer any significant choices of route or action near the end. If you want branching storylines where player agency really matters you'll have to do it yourself, because they're not being very helpful at that. Maybe next year they'll listen to the people complaining in the letters pages? Nah, who am I kidding. We already know this doesn't end well for them, it's just a matter of getting through the next year and seeing how they rebuild after that. On we press then.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 114: December 1995



part 1/5



32 pages. Well, here we are. 2/3rds of the way through Polyhedron, and just past 1/4 of the way through Dungeon as well. It hasn't been without it's struggles, but I'm definitely making better time than my first trek through history. Let's hope I can keep it up, for in a dangerous world like the one on the cover, every fight could be your last no matter how high your level. Time to finish this year, and see what new challenges 1996 has to offer from this route.



In Memorium: I might still be going against all the odds, but there's plenty of people who's lives ended prematurely over the years. Here's an obituary for Steve Glimpse, RPGA mainstay and dwarf player extraordinaire. He attended Gen Con every year from 1981 onwards, and that consistency soon resulted in him building up relationships with the staff, becoming a judge and eventually a co-ordinator. He was responsible for many a table having a good time, and it's a huge shame that he died young from skin cancer. Get your blood tested and weird lumps checked out regularly folks, as the sooner you catch them the better your odds, and remember, the fun is the most important thing in gaming. If you're not making friends and having fun along the way, why are you even doing this? Go do something that makes you money or improves the world in a more tangible way instead.



Death's Teeth: The adventure this issue is at the start of the magazine, before even the editorial, which is slightly unusual. What's even more unusual is that it's the first Dragonlance adventure to ever appear in here, and it's a proper site based dungeon as well rather than a linear sequence of encounters, which they haven't done in many years, and even Dungeon is doing somewhat fewer of these days. A throwaway encounter in DL12 is expanded out to a full 5 pages, giving the ghosts individual stats, proper personalities and a way to lay them to rest without fighting them. Do you have the courage to venture within the two ruined towers of the Death's Teeth bay and find out what's within? The fact that Takhisis's ogre patrols are afraid of the place might give you pause, but if you're powerful enough to take them on without breaking a sweat what's the worst that can happen? Well, you could have your body taken over and your soul destroyed, but only if you're both completely unwilling to listen to the plight of the ghosts and very unlucky. An atmospheric little place that has plenty of opportunity for emergent narrative, but doesn't force a particular story on you, and would also work well in Ravenloft, this is an interesting little throwback, reminding us that even though Dragonlance was hailed as new school epic story focussed writing when it was first released, that's over a decade ago now and adventure styles have evolved even further since then, with energy drain and save or dies appearing much less frequently, considerably fewer areas detailed per page and a lot more padding in the writing style. As with the other adventure since the hiatus, I definitely prefer this style to their short, linear tournament ones.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 114: December 1995



part 2/5



Notes from HQ: They're still dealing with pushback from their attempts to impose more rules here. Apparently enough people have complained about the idea of a strict limit of 6 PC's per tournament that they're delaying that policy and asking for more feedback before making it final. They're not compromising on the strict regulation of magic items though. Get all your old ones properly certificated or lose them, because the deadline for that draws ever nearer. Then hopefully they'll be able to focus more on the fun bits, like how to join all those knightly orders they introduced a few months ago. Not everyone is satisfied with staying a golden rooster forever. This is much the same tone as last issue then. Change is coming, but it always takes longer and involves more tedious repetition to the people who weren't paying attention first time than you'd like.



A World of Your Own: Roger's campaign outline this month is even more brutal than last one. A world in which the sun went out, and the gods used up most of their magical energy to keep the whole place from freezing to death. (still better than dying because you have no worshippers, after all) Now the gods are weak, large swathes of species are extinct, others have been intentionally transformed to better cope with the eternal darkness, and people are only just starting to adapt and rebuild. What treasures are to be found in the ruined places, and what weird new things are emerging? (and will you play one of them) Flying goblins, pseudo-vampires & ghouls evolved from humans, necromancers are highly in demand to make up the labor shortage, everyone is getting a crash course in fungi cultivating, day-to-day life looks very little like before. There are some dungeons, but since part of keeping the planet alive involved bringing lots of extra tectonic heat to the surface, nothing like the deep networks in the last issue. There's definitely room for tons of adventure here, both the gritty survivalist type, and the epic quest to find out what happened to the sun and bring it back to life. (or at least, get the world a replacement one) Might be a tough sell to some players who want a more traditional fantasy world, but I'm sure there are enough people who like their ultra-darkness literal to get a game going anyway. Have fun expanding on the weird little details of the new ecology, as that seems like it could easily fill a lifetime.



Winter Fantasy Game Convention: Winter Fantasy is one of the most important conventions for the RPGA, as it's where they hold their big election contests, and this year is another big one. So here's a full 6 pages of previews and preregistration details, so you know what adventures and seminars are taking place and can plan out your weekend well in advance. Which of the 12 AD&D adventures, 5 for other systems and 14 seminars will you put in the 9 timeslots, and will you leave at least one open just for wandering around and seeing the sights? It does look like another instance where you're spoiled for choice. Hope you've got the stamina to keep up, because gaming non-stop from 8am-midnight several days in a row would need another holiday afterwards just to recover.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 114: December 1995



part 3/5



The Raven's Bluff Trumpeter: The ongoing big plot events continue to move slowly in here. Discount Merlin's gives up on trying to satisfy the petty regulations of the NIMBY's and buys a big plot of land about a mile to the south of the city where they can arrange the monsters however they please. ConCentric in march will apparently be the first time you can actually take your characters through there. Just remember that the level limit around here is 12 so there's no point grinding to rush through the high levels only to have to start again at 1st.

The adverts for mercenaries also gradually move from buildup towards payoff. Who is their target and what adventures will players who signed up face? As long as they're not part of a secret plan for someone to attack and take over Raven's Bluff the council of lords are ok with it, but some members are still suspicious. This definitely isn't over yet.

In unambiguously good news though, a whole bunch of adventurers that had disappeared mysteriously reappeared just as mysteriously, released from Ravenloft by the magnanimity of the Dark Powers. Hopefully they'll be given the proper counselling to recover from the trauma and get back to less stressful adventures soon, and they have enough info to share that anyone else sucked into the mists will be slightly better prepared.



Forgotten Deities: Another entry where gods operate in a similar way to real world corporations, appearing under multiple names aimed at different demographics, and engaging in hostile takeovers of others working in the same field, but keeping the old name when appearing to those worshippers. Ssethh, also known as Merrshaulk elsewhere, is the god of snakes & yuan-ti. During the time of troubles, he managed to kill Vaerae, another demigod with a snaky portfolio, which he's now using to expand his worship among humans. Doing some googling, this shell game turns out to have even more layers in future books, with egyptian god Set imprisoning Ssethh (with names that similar, who's surprised by this) and using both alternates for his evil schemes, because it's handy to have both LE and CE worshippers when you're LE personally and want to maintain plausible deniability for the underhanded stuff you do. This is why it can be hard to find out how your cosmology really works, because even good gods will lie to their worshippers. (or at least, massively oversimplify because telling the whole truth would be like explaining quantum physics to pre-schoolers. ) This is all pretty interesting, if rather convoluted and unlikely for your players to unravel IC. Another example of how the Realms is bigger than any one story and there's always some more secret societies plotting evil to foil, even if their odds of ultimate success are slim with the even larger number of heroes wandering around.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 114: December 1995



part 4/5



Jungle Tales: Speaking of cosmologies that are incorrect, another Malatran tale says that the world rests on the back of a giant toad, and rainbows are it's tongue trying to catch the sun. Maybe in the same universe as the Discworld there is such a creature, but we already know from the Realmspace supplement that Toril's planetary structure is far more prosaic. If they ever get off that plateau and interact with the wider world they're going to be disabused of that notion pretty quickly. On the other hand, the second short story, explaining why the Shu never fight one-another, is more likely to have some grounding in real events from the distant past. Three of them tried to pick a fight with a powerful spirit pretending to be another Shu, got their asses soundly whupped and ordered not to try anything like that again. Since spirits are immortal, you never know if it could still be around, keeping them honest. Better keep spreading the story to be on the safe side. More mildly whimsical system-free setting building here then. Not as useful as fully statted out new characters and locations, but still better than nothing for keeping the setting alive & growing.



Larger Than Life: A second Dragonlance article this issue? That's very unusual. Unfortunately, while the previous one was completely serious, this one revolves entirely around Krynn's irritating surplus of comic relief short people. Kalack Hammerstrike and Flubub, a dwarf and gully dwarf who both want to become wizards, have bonded over that and teamed up. Of course, they've got no hope of success under 2e rules, but they don't know that, and their attempts to find someone who'll take them seriously and try to teach them are bound to lead to interesting adventures of some kind. Maybe if they went all the way to Zakhara and came back Krynn's first Sha'irs, as that's rules legal if very implausible. So as is not uncommon for Krynn, this has a goofy exterior, but is probably going to involve tragedy long term as their dreams are dashed by the inherent racism of their universe & the people in it and they fall into angst. A good reminder why this place is not one of my favourite settings.



Dragonlance Fifth Age: The two previous Dragonlance articles are put into context by this one. They haven't released any new supplements for it for several years due to poor sales, although the novel line has steamed away uninterrupted. There's still a definite market for stories set in that world, but AD&D is perhaps not the correct laws of physics to portray them properly. (and by now, has plenty of other settings competing for the same headspace. ) They've decided to do the opposite of Mystara, move it away from the AD&D cosmology (which will turn out to be literal, as Takhisis steals the planet and hides it away from the other gods) to a universe where your fate is decided by a hand of cards instead of rolls of the dice. The old magic stopped working, but people are rapidly figuring out the new secrets of sorcery & mysticism. Dragons are fewer but MUCH bigger, more forces of nature than something to be fought directly. In hindsight, it's another of TSR's experiments that didn't quite work and was abandoned after a few years, with the next edition of Dragonlance using pretty standard 3e rules, but at least it was an interesting experiment, and a few of the elements like a more spontaneous approach to casting spells made it back to the main line. If they hadn't tried it, RPG history would be a little poorer. Now, will they actually support it at all in here or Dungeon? Will there be a Living 5th Age location? Are there any more obscure bits of lore a completist would really want to know about in the next year or two of issues?

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 114: December 1995



part 5/5



On Your Mark: Another year, another round of their now traditional decathlons, encouraging clubs to compete at events which will build up the RPGA. The basic details remain the same, there are far more than 10 events that you can participate in, but you'll only get points for 10 of them. The weighting has been shifted around a bit from previous years. Up to 4 tournaments as before, but the max number of writing events you can enter has been reduced to 5, so you have to enter at least one service event as well, and there are considerably more options in that field. Evidently not enough groups were even trying to do those, so they want to make it clear how important they are to the health of the RPGA as a whole. Will you go for most new members recruited, most sanctioned tournaments, most tournament rounds run or most money raised for charity? Don't think it's an impossible challenge to win, because only 16 of their hundred-odd clubs bothered to participate this year. The majority of their users are as apathetic as ever then, despite the chipper attitude they present here. If you participate in a full 10 events you'll definitely be in with decent odds.



What shall we play?: Last issue they listed the Living tournaments currently fresh off the presses. Now they do all the other tournaments for various campaign worlds in alphabetical form. 38 generic adventures, 5 Forgotten Realms, 5 Dark Sun, 4 Ravenloft, 3 Al-Qadim, 1 Spelljammer, 1 Masque of the Red Death, 1 Red Steel, 1 Council of Wyrms, 1 Planescape, 1 Celtic. Another of those snapshots of how popular various settings are with writers & conventiongoers, and your odds of finding a group who wants to play the same thing. Good luck trying to hunt down any of these now, with their tiny print runs.



Another fairly slow issue with a fair bit of repetition as they continue to try and reorganise their living settings and make the changes stick. But the resurgence of Dragonlance is fairly interesting, as are some of the other bits of worldbuilding, so they are still making progress. Let's see if they can get over the hump, or next year will slow down even further as things fall apart for TSR.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 115: January 1996



part 1/5



32 pages. Not a good idea to upset the pumpkin merchant in the Living City. Even a lowly street vendor has pretty good odds of being armed and having class levels. If they're a spellcaster, you never know what they could have protecting their cart. Time to see just how strictly they'll be enforcing the rules this issue, and if any weird and fantastical new additions will be permitted.



The House of War: They've been slowly building up to a big war in the newspaper for most of last year. So it's no great surprise that they do a big article on the temple of Tempus in Raven's Bluff. Despite being chaotic neutral, he's actually a surprisingly responsible deity, with a strong code of what kinds of battle are and are not acceptable. His temple is also a large, well-organised defensible fortress that works with the community it's in to encourage it to be strong and war ready. This is why he's a greater power while Garagos was killed and is now mainly remembered in a festival where Tempus's worshippers celebrate the anniversary of his defeat. It's all a matter of understanding the long view. Can't have a decent war without the supply chain to have lots of strong healthy warriors with good equipment and periods of peace inbetween the fighting to rebuild. Plus if you slaughter all the noncombatants on the other side after winning where are you going to get your next generation of people to fight? So they'll heal people on both sides after a battle, help them rebuild, take in any war orphans, look after them and train them to be soldiers or clerics themselves to keep the cycle going. Superficially wholesome and heartwarming, but pretty creepy when you look under the surface, this is what happens when your anthropomorphic personification of war actually has some brains and wants to keep conflict at a level that's sustainable long-term. Blessed be the arms dealers, for they give greater strength unto all. Well, at least it's an ethos and it provides plenty of reasons for adventurers to keep busy. Between the map for the temple, the stats for it's inhabitants and the wider talk about the faith there's definitely lots of useful stuff for a game here, and it also gives you a greater insight as to why the Realms remains technologically static. The war god doesn't want people developing chemical weapons or nukes, as ironically that'd make war too deadly and there'd wind up being less war overall long term. And if you think destroying him would let the world become more peaceful, just look at what happened in Athas, where there were no divine beings to keep the whole system from spinning wildly off course. Once again ethical questions become an enormous headache when you think long-term and have to juggle millions of variables for the least worst option rather than just killing anyone who's causing a problem right now & taking their stuff like your basic wandering adventurer.



Bantam Knights: It's been 5 issues since they introduced the idea of knightly orders and they still haven't given us the full details of how you join them and the benefits for doing so. This issue they at least fix that for your basic Knights of the Golden Rooster. They raise the prerequisite for joining from 2nd to 4th level, (although they're not kicking out early adopters) which is framed as an IC drive to improve standards. They still cost 1000gp and two real dollars in administrative fees to join, and now also require a tithe of 10gp per tournament you play in to represent lodging, training, pensions, etc. In return you gain fame points faster than a regular character, require three fewer honor points to move up to another knightly order, (if they ever get around to detailing those) get to attend swanky parties and serve in the city watch. So this puts a little more detail into the idea of them as plucky contenders strutting around the city, trying to make a name for themselves, and many of them using it as a stepping stone to more prestigious knightly orders. They're not as strictly regulated as the other orders, but that gives you more leeway to go off on quests to prove your skill & valor. Hopefully they will give us the chance to take those further steps in the near future, because if the progress of these ideas seems slow to me it would have been even more frustrating for people reading each issue for updates and champing at the bit to join up in real time.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 115: January 1996



part 2/5



Mercury Limited: In between all these big additions to the Raven's Bluff social order, they still find time to publish some more little establishments by regular members. Like this newcomer to the scene, a luxury carriage company enabling the rich to be taxi'd around the city in style and safety. The stylings are more victorian than medieval, but that's nothing new to the Realms by this point. Since they're new, they actually only have one vehicle, which means they'd be in big trouble if it were stolen or crashed. The fact that they had trouble with the merchant's guild when trying to set up initially also adds to the suspicion that someone will try to sabotage them in the future. That definitely seems like a feed line for a future adventure. Also notable is that this has another appearance of a character who's trans via reincarnation, going from male human to female elf in backstory after being killed while adventuring with very little fuss. That's the third character in here, compared to zero in Dragon or Dungeon. Despite the tightening of the Code of Conduct in general, it's interesting that they've repeatedly let that idea slip through. So while less significant in the wider scheme of things than the last two articles, this is still pretty interesting and worth including if your own campaign happens to wander in this direction.



Say, Aren't You?: Just a few pages ago, they mentioned Fame Points without clarifying what they are. Now they do the article explaining that. (and both articles are precisely a page long, so it would have been no problem to put them the other way around, so what were the editors thinking?!) The details aren't particularly complicated, although it does add another half a dozen numbers to your character sheet as it's not just one number to measure all-purpose notoriety, but separate ones for different social classes, the temples, the government and the city watch. If in doubt as to whether an NPC recognises you, roll d20 vs your appropriate fame category and they do if it's equal or lower. As mentioned earlier, people who engage with the various knightly orders, guilds and other social structures will accumulate fame points faster than ones who just wander around adventuring on their own. Now let's see if this turns out to be useful in actual play, or just another little bit of bookkeeping slowing things down.



A World of Your Own: After taking the grimdark thing as far as the code of conduct will let him around here, Roger decides to do something completely different this time. Take the Amazing Engine's Magitech setting, add a pinch of Over The Edge, put them both in an AD&D shaped pot and boil them up. The result is an alternate universe Madagascar where dwarves and lizard men rub shoulders with the human inhabitants, multiclassing rules are extremely relaxed, (but only for the natives, visitors from other worlds are still stuck using their own rules) and many prehistoric animals that are extinct in our world are still wandering free. There's plenty of opportunity for adventure in both the high-tech, rapidly growing capital city and the large amounts of wild land still to be found everywhere else, with both environmentalist and colonialist themes to examine. This combination of elements is very interesting indeed, but it's also an irritating reminder of how bad AD&D is at emulating characters built in nearly any other system, making it a poor fit for a modern day setting where characters need to be able to advance independently in a broad set of skills to function. MotRD has already ran up against that limitation hard, and it's even more troublesome here. Having left the straightjacket of sci-fi behind, it seems like Roger is winding up stuck in a new one of his own making.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 115: January 1996



part 3/5



Port of Call: An Everway article in here? After Dragon just completely dropped any support for non TSR games? Now that is a turnup for the books, and a reminder that the people at WotC were hardcore D&D fans even before they bought the company out. Pleasingly, it looks like this is exclusive material for the newszine as well, not just a promotional excerpt from the books. So here's an overview for the city-state of Caryllon that's interesting not just for what it describes, but how it says it. Lots of brief subdivisions listing not just obvious things like population and tech level, but more abstract ones like the virtue, vice and long-term fate of the city if the players don't interfere to change things. The place itself looks pretty full of adventure opportunities, a mercantile port town with plenty of corruption and unfair bureaucracy that can catch an outsider out, but also offers just as many chances to turn your luck around and make a fortune off someone else. Paladiny types won't enjoy that at all, but more roguish ones will thrive here. A reminder that Dragonlance 5th age wasn't the only game experimenting with card based methods of resolution around this time, nor was Planescape the only multiverse wandering setting and other companies are doing quite a few interesting experiments with rules and format. If you can find it, this is well worth checking out.



Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Elminster returns after a brief break engaging in more dangerous adventures, which I'm sure you can read about in an upcoming novel, to once again raid Ed's pantry and drop tidbits about the border kingdoms. Beldargan gets the greatest wordcount, an upland herding village with lots of oddly divided fields with high zig-zagging fences and narrow awkward gates to keep the animals from wandering, which also serve as a pretty decent way to slow down any large scale brigand assaults and give the townsfolk plenty of time to organise a defence. There's plenty of little water-carved caverns amid the hills and streams, and also a magically hidden emerald mine that supposedly could make you more than enough of a fortune to retire on if you could penetrate the defences. If you're in the mood for a more urban adventure, you could head to Blackalblade, a wealthy place full of hot-tempered locals willing to scrap at the slightest offence. Just be ready to get out of town if you're outnumbered and the city watch show up, because they'll probably side with the locals over a wandering group of adventurers and take the time to issue some punitive fines on top. If they try that on the wrong group of high level adventurers they'll probably find themselves with a new government, going by the neighbours. Another pair of entries that show this region isn't particularly stable, but people have been living there long enough that it's become their norm and the things they build are adapted to the turbulent lifestyle. If you go somewhere and find it's all change since last time just tip your hat to the new constitution, take a bow to the new revolution and get on with the business of adventuring.



The ongoing cataloging of tournaments focusses on multi-round ones this time. 16 3-round ones, 7 of which are generic, 3 Greyhawk, 2 Forgotten Realms, 2 Al-Qadim, 1 Oriental Adventures & 1 Spelljammer. 32 2-round ones, 12 generic, 6 Forgotten Realms, 6 Ravenloft, 1 Birthright, 1 Oriental Adventures, 1 Dark Sun, 1 Dragonlance, 1 Greyhawk, 1 Spelljammer, 1 Al-Qadim and 1 with an unexplained abbreviation. (MZ?) So the demographics between the different sizes of adventure are actually quite different, with Kevin Melka & Keith Polster's Rats series singlehandedly skewing the 3 round ones in particular. As they found people weren't actually ordering the big ones much, I have to wonder how many people managed to not only play these, but survive all the way through the elimination phases. I guess that's one way to separate the casuals from the hardcore even in an organisation already skewed towards the hardcore.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 115: January 1996



part 4/5



Forgotten Deities: Eric doesn't have a huge amount to say about his deities this issue, and squeezes two of them onto one page rather than padding things out with an oversized illustration. Lurue the unicorn and Nobanion :cough:Aslan:cough: the lion. Neither have any real organised priesthood (at least in this world) and neither seem particularly bothered about that either, looking after their respective animals, foiling any overt plans by Malar and that's it. One of those little reminders that the 4th wall of the Realms isn't particularly solid, and there were even more crossovers when it was purely Ed's home game and didn't have to worry about Intellectual Property issues. If you want to put more of those back in and have your PC's take a trip to Finland or Narnia you wouldn't be breaking the spirit of the setting, so don't get overly uptight about sticking precisely to the letter of the lore in the published books.



Dragon Dice Tournament Rules: Huh, so this is getting proper tournament rules but Spellfire & Blood Wars aren't. That is interesting. It winds up covering 2 pages, half of which is general errata that will apply to any game in subsequent reprints, and half of which is procedures for multiple round competitive games making sure everyone is playing on a standardised number of points, then dividing people up into blocks of 16. (and how to deal with odd ones out) First round is best out of 3, then subsequent ones are single elimination matches. All seems pretty self explanatory even to someone who doesn't know the fine details of the game's rules. Let's hope they actually get used a decent amount before the game disappears from general consciousness.



Network FAQ: Looks like this year is continuing straight on from last one in their drive to make the rules more strict and get everyone following them. Yes, you need to bring your membership card with you if you want to play in Living games and get points so don't lose it. Remember to fill out all the forms afterwards properly and don't vote for yourself or you also won't get points. Don't try to get in on an expired card, it may work in the short term but they'll find out as soon as the postgame stuff is put in the database. Don't try to squeeze more than 6 players in as a judge, you may think you're being kind, but again, it's a pain running groups that size, you'll get the whole adventure voided and no-one will get any points. Get certificates for all your magic items and no trading them between characters except through legitimate traders at conventions. Basically just another way of saying what they've already said several times over recent months, plus a few old favourites that have been rules for years, but people keep on forgetting anyway. This grows increasingly tiresome to read repeatedly.



A Knack for Adventure: In issue 212 of Dragon, they pushed the nonweapon proficiency system to near breaking point with psychic proficiencies, giving you one minor supernatural power at the cost of pretty much all your mundane skills at starting level. (and who's going to be able to defer gratification for a full 12 levels to buy one after that?) Here they do another variant on that, with various mundane abilities that don't quite fit with the existing skills either. Ambidexterity (which you bought with weapon proficiencies in the complete fighter's handbook, but consistency, in our AD&D?) perfect memory, perfect pitch, light sleeper, speed reading, etc. All cost 2 or 3 slots, making them also pretty hard to pick up beyond starting level in a system where you only gain one new slot every 3 or 4 levels. Another reminder that the Feat system they added next edition was sorely needed, and they probably would have added something like it even if WotC hadn't taken over, as there were so many things introduced in supplements you could customise your characters with in nonstandardised ways, but they didn't give you remotely enough slots to do that properly and the Skills & Powers books showed them that a more point-buy based approach to character generation could be popular with players once the kinks were worked out. In the meantime we have another interesting but not remotely balanced (mostly on the underpowered side of things, since this is also nominally for MotRD) collection. I guess it's like digging up trilobites. All those strange body shapes might not have been optimal for long-term survival, but life had to go through them to get where we are today.