(un)reason
Legend
Polyhedron Issue 42: July 1988
part 1/5
32 pages. Secret agents must maintain their immaculate suits and hairstyles, come high society soiree, mountain skiing, or tied to a villain's deathtrap! No surprise that Top Secret/S.I. is getting more than one token promotional article given how long the first edition lasted. Let's see if there's any cool new stuff exclusive to here to discover, or we should have left off after exhausting the main database.
Notes From HQ: Back in 1982, they did a membership drive to get things going, offering a bunch of prizes for the top recruiters, including the opportunity to meet the biggest names in the game industry. After a couple of years in which their growth not only stalled out, but actually slowly declined, they decide it's high time for another one. But since they've learned a lot since then, it's going to be bigger and better organised than the first. Rather than just putting all their eggs in the same basket, they're dividing the world up into regions (although 4 of them are for the USA, 1 for Canada, and the rest of the world is covered by the remaining 3, which shows how USA-centric their membership still is) each of which has their own prizes to be won. So don't feel intimidated because you live in a country where roleplaying hasn't really caught on yet, get recruiting! You still have a fair chance at winning something. Hopefully with all these new members, we'll then be able to run more officially sponsored tournaments, and therefore individual members will be able to level up faster. Good to see they understand the virtuous cycle of increasing network externalities. I wonder if they'll actually give concrete numbers of how many people the winners recruited this time around. Here's hoping.
Letters: The XP system continues to weigh heavily in people's minds. The first letter is another person who's unhappy with the system as it is, and thinks it needs to be scrapped or heavily overhauled to reward things other than just frequent con attendance. They're already working on it as they write.
Fresh from having one Bingle contribute last issue, highest ranked player in the system Don Bingle also writes in in favour of keeping things going. He'd enjoy going to conventions anyway, but the extra reward is nice. Healthy competition keeps people motivated. Just don't expect to be able to stay on top without keeping up the effort.
part 1/5
32 pages. Secret agents must maintain their immaculate suits and hairstyles, come high society soiree, mountain skiing, or tied to a villain's deathtrap! No surprise that Top Secret/S.I. is getting more than one token promotional article given how long the first edition lasted. Let's see if there's any cool new stuff exclusive to here to discover, or we should have left off after exhausting the main database.
Notes From HQ: Back in 1982, they did a membership drive to get things going, offering a bunch of prizes for the top recruiters, including the opportunity to meet the biggest names in the game industry. After a couple of years in which their growth not only stalled out, but actually slowly declined, they decide it's high time for another one. But since they've learned a lot since then, it's going to be bigger and better organised than the first. Rather than just putting all their eggs in the same basket, they're dividing the world up into regions (although 4 of them are for the USA, 1 for Canada, and the rest of the world is covered by the remaining 3, which shows how USA-centric their membership still is) each of which has their own prizes to be won. So don't feel intimidated because you live in a country where roleplaying hasn't really caught on yet, get recruiting! You still have a fair chance at winning something. Hopefully with all these new members, we'll then be able to run more officially sponsored tournaments, and therefore individual members will be able to level up faster. Good to see they understand the virtuous cycle of increasing network externalities. I wonder if they'll actually give concrete numbers of how many people the winners recruited this time around. Here's hoping.
Letters: The XP system continues to weigh heavily in people's minds. The first letter is another person who's unhappy with the system as it is, and thinks it needs to be scrapped or heavily overhauled to reward things other than just frequent con attendance. They're already working on it as they write.
Fresh from having one Bingle contribute last issue, highest ranked player in the system Don Bingle also writes in in favour of keeping things going. He'd enjoy going to conventions anyway, but the extra reward is nice. Healthy competition keeps people motivated. Just don't expect to be able to stay on top without keeping up the effort.