TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 25: Sep/Oct 1990



part 5/5



A Rose for Talakara: As the cover indicated, this adventure does indeed go full gothic, but in a slightly different way than I expected. An extremely powerful wizardess and her skeleton warrior lieutenant have ruled a secluded volcanic valley from a crumbling castle for over a century. Like all skeleton warriors, he loathes his undead existence and wants to get his hands on the circlet that holds his soul so he can finally rest in peace. He has to obey her every command, but has been serving reliably long enough that he gets a fair bit of leeway on the day-to-day operations of running the place. So he subtly seeds clues for adventuring parties in the surrounding kingdoms using his retinue of Shadows that will hopefully lead one of them to come there and engage in killing & taking of stuff, as they do best. In the meantime he cultivates black roses and leaves one at the site of every person he kills, because even if he's stuck as an undead monstrosity, he's still a chivalrous gentleman. So this is an adventure that's all about style, as both the main characters are melodramatic drama queens who's personal foibles, combined with considerable power warp the surrounding area to make things all about them. It would fit into Ravenloft seamlessly, but still works outside it as well. Some of the encounters are pretty tricky, but because one of them secretly wants the players to succeed, there's also several weak spots that'll make the adventure much easier to get through for observant players who use stealth and roleplaying rather than just charging in the front gate. Another one that's probably not for starting DM's, as building the descriptive detail and atmosphere between fights is definitely more important than the hacky bits. But if that is your thing, here's one you can really shine with.



Another set of adventures that are interesting because they're definitely not intended for every campaign, particularly with the addition of a Marvel one to the familiar D&D scenarios, but that makes them all the better to read collectively. Hopefully at least one of them will suit the game of any particular buyer. Time once again to see if they have anything particularly festive in the oven next issue.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 56: Nov/Dec 1990



part 1/5



32 pages. The background is in color, but the main character is in black and white? It's more commonly the other way around, but I guess either works as a means of creating emphasis. And simply inverting familiar tropes can be a good way to make them feel fresh, at least for a while. Let's see if this issue repeats familiar topics, manages to put fresh twists on them, or manages to come up with something completely original.



Notes From HQ: Advertising is nice, but nothing beats the personal touch and getting feet on the ground. They managed to sign up 200 new people to the RPGA this Gen Con, twice that of the whole membership drive over several months. The number of tournaments, seminars, awards, etc was once again up from the previous year as well, so this is mainly a list of people who made particularly significant contributions without a huge amount of detail. They only manage to squeeze in future plans right at the end, talking about the 4th membership drive, which is focussed on increasing the size of existing clubs, and encouraging people to fill in Raven's Bluff's harbor district, as apparently there hasn't been enough emphasis on it's nautical side for their tastes yet. Seems like the bigger they get, the more there is to do, to the point where it's increasingly difficult to fit it all in. They really could do with a page count increase soon, just like Dragon and Dungeon at this time.



Letters: First up is Lisa Stevens thanking the newzine for publishing their Ars Magica promotion, but pointing out that they've moved address recently, so if you want to write to them, it's already out of date. Hopefully it's because they're doing well and needed to expand.

Second is a complaint about them using obscure monsters in adventures without telling us where to find the full write-up. Does the Fiend Folio really count as obscure now?! One of those things that's much easier to solve now with a quick google, so you can easily get a list of what books you still need to buy.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 56: Nov/Dec 1990



part 2/5



Winter Holiday: The adventure this issue goes full festive themed in a Star Wars Holliday Special style. The evil forces of G.R.I.N.C.H are attempting to spoil the winter festival of YOUR world. (as long as it remotely resembles earthly climate, so that's Athas ruled out. ) The PC's become pawns in their machinations, recruited apparently to save it, but set up to fail and take the blame instead of the real culprits. Will they realise in time and turn on their employers? Eat the magical pears and be teleported to the north pole. Ride the iconic reindeer sleigh, fight a pair of giant turtledoves, four collies, six geese, and other things that would be easily spoilered by knowing christmas lore, and hopefully save the day. It's all very silly indeed, and sprinkled with a little dated casual racism too, but it's still better than last issue's one, because at least it's not a complete railroad, and it's not pretending to be an adventure you're supposed to take seriously and then bait & switching you, turning you into the butt of the jokes. Still not saying it's good, but it's cheesy groan-inducing bad rather than throw the whole magazine at the wall in disgust bad. If you've been at the sherry too much as a group it might be tolerable.



Bookwyrms: The Realms has already had one big metaplot event to justify the changes between 1e and 2e. Now they've got the taste for it, and are going to make a regular thing of advancing the timeline and changing things around. Round two! The Horde invades from the east! What will your characters do?! It's better than the first in many ways because it actually gives the PC's an opportunity to get involved and make a difference on a local level rather than just being stuck on the sidelines losing all their spells and watching gods clash. Their actions could save a good deal of lives and property for whatever town they're in at the time the invaders arrive. But it's worse in another because it's just a blatant rip of a real world event, and one that can easily devolve into yellow peril racist nonsense. To their credit, they are writing it in a way that makes it clear that no side is purely heroes or villains, with each book in the trilogy showing things from a different point of view. I'm sure a native reading them could find all sorts of things that are either wrong or grossly oversimplified about chinese and mongolian culture in them, but at least their hearts are in the right place. Plus it actively encourages learning about other cultures both IC and OOC by opening up a huge new area to explore, and creating more reasons for OA and regular AD&D characters to crossover with each other and form mixed adventuring parties. It's just a shame that this came as the OA gameline was winding down, so ironically, contact between the continents actually decreases after this in subsequent FR supplements. We'll be seeing a lot of this sort of shallowly diverse representation over the 2e era, one or two books on a culture, then moving on again. I suppose it's still better than the near total absence of multicultural setting stuff after WotC took over. Another of those persistent problems that never really goes away, as there's only so much media one person has time to consume, and long term, things will trend back towards the lowest common denominator because that's what sells to the largest audience and remains profitable.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 56: Nov/Dec 1990



part 3/5



The New Rogues Gallery: This column has nothing to do with Raven's Bluff for the first time in a while, instead stealing from movies to tell a story of an evil twin sabotaging his good counterpart's life. Dante Greyshadow is a cold, calculating and charming assassin who'll competently carry out nearly any commission if you've got enough cash to spend. Except where his paladin twin brother is involved, at which point he's a petty little bitch who'll pretend to be him to implicate him in crimes, kill his friends, and generally do his best to ruin his life while leaving him still alive to suffer and maintaining plausible deniability about who's responsible for these woes. He's assisted in this by the scheming wizard/priest of Set, Rezhyk, and the brooding, laconic Drow thief Clint of the East Wood. :groans, boos, throws popcorn at the screen: This is a little silly, but it's also definitely a lot more gamable than most of these, as it gives a clear plot hook that your PC's can easily be caught in the middle of, be it as collateral damage, manipulated by the schemes of the bad guys, or asked for help by the good guy. And a little silliness and referentiality can help with making things memorable. It's just when a whole adventure is composed of comedic references at the expense of plot that it becomes a problem. Besides, changing names is much easier than coming up with whole new sets of stats. I could definitely make this work to my satisfaction.



Small Cons And Us: Don & Linda Bingle remind us that the way to really rack up your IC & OOC XP in the RPGA is to attend lots of conventions and participate in as many tournaments as scheduling makes possible. This means not ignoring smaller conventions near to you because they're not a famous name with a big budget and learning to appreciate their charms. You may find you actually prefer a slower pace and the opportunity to have extended conversations with people without being constantly distracted or drowned out by everything else happening around you. This is part description of what you can expect to see at these smaller events, and part warning of the common pitfalls to avoid if you're thinking of throwing your own little gathering and want to actually get credited for the adventures you run. Even more than music, it's the grass-roots stuff that's crucial to the survival of roleplaying as a hobby, as nearly everyone is an active player rather than just an observer and making money from it is only an option for a tiny fraction of the participants. Neglect that, and the whole thing falls apart. This both makes for interesting reading, and is surprisingly full of concrete practical advice. If you want to get good at something, it really does help not only to put in the time, but also get multiple perspectives instead of sticking to the same small clique where everyone is used to playing together. Of course, you also need a certain degree of privilege in terms of money and free time to have a chance of competing on this level, and it's also a reminder of that. Like horse-riding or playing golf, competitive tournament roleplaying is not a hobby for the poor. Oh well. Just have to accept that you'll probably never catch up with them point-wise and concentrate on just having fun. That's the most important thing really.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 56: Nov/Dec 1990



part 4/5



The Living City: We saw just a couple of issues ago that the number of Bards is way up in 2e. So it makes sense that there'd also be a musical instrument shop in Raven's Bluff to supply their needs. Black Dugal's Music Shoppe (sic) produces both stringed and wind instruments, to high quality at quite reasonable prices. He also has a few magical ones able to cast various low level spells three times a day if you play the right melody. You can commission something a bit more powerful, but you'll probably have to gather some of the rare and expensive ingredients yourself. Alternatively, you could be hired as a courier to deliver one of them to some other wealthy client almost anywhere in the Realms. Once again, this has plenty to offer adventurers in terms of plot hooks and potential missions, as you'll have to put in the work to get the cool equipment upgrades. (which will hopefully make you appreciate them more) If you've got the complete bard's handbook and have gone for some of the multiclass bard with kit options there, your party could definitely have a long and mutually profitable relationship with this shop.



Going To Town: A short little Boot Hill article reminds us that even though they couldn't get enough signups to run tournament modules this year, the staff here still have a soft spot for it. So here's half a page of random generation stuff for when you need to generate a small town, but are stumped for ideas. It could really have done with being a bit bigger, but if that's all they're getting, that's all they can publish. Another attempt at diversity that isn't really going anywhere due to general apathy.



The Everwinking Eye: Ed spends a third issue in a row on the quirks of Maskyr's Eye, revealing some, but not all of the secrets to the history that he hinted at in the past couple of instalments. The ability to slowly dole out these little hints at a bigger world and let you speculate what's next over the months is how he built a fanbase in the first place, and he definitely hasn't lost his touch at that. We find out what's happened to Maskyr's staff, and the extra tricks it's current owner has up his sleeve. Some linguistic quirks of the locals and how they got started, which make about as much sense as any trend ever does in real life. And the dangers for people who try to get into another, still occupied wizard's tower in the area. All of these are interesting, but still have plenty of room for further expansion. Does he have any more on this location, or will he be moving onto another topic next time? Either way, I'm sure he'll give us much more than his fair share of good adventure ideas in here as well now he's settled in and got comfortable.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 56: Nov/Dec 1990



part 5/5



Word Search: As is often the case with festive issues, they fill a page with your basic word search packed with D&D terms and creatures. No particularly clever format, just a big square with words hidden horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Another familiar thing that'll fill maybe an hour or so at most if you really want to find everything listed. At least they got it in on time this year.



Gen Con 1990: Another reliable returnee after the big conventions is a couple of pages of photographs where we actually get to see the people behind the newszine, along with the competition winners and a few of the most outrageously dressed other attendees. Like many of the production values, these have definitely increased in quality, so we can actually see things like hair and clothing texture properly. 1990 is still a long way from the present in terms of fashion choices. A mildly interesting historical footnote that reminds us how much everyday things have changed in the past 30 years.



The GEnie Unleashed: We finish off with a single-pager that gives RPGA members in the USA a special offer to get online, communicate with people all over the country and enjoy TSR's services more cheaply. They're still charging several dollars an hour, but at least that's better than charging by the minute. Another reminder that the internet was growing at an exponential rate while coming down in cost year on year back then, but still has a long way to go in terms of ubiquity and convenience. It's longer and harder to get from zero to a million regular users than it is to get from a million to nearly every potential customer, because that's how word of mouth exponential growth works. In the meantime, it's pretty likely that there'll be several more years of articles like this, that are aimed at people who have no idea at all that online communication via computer even exists yet. Another mildly interesting historical footnote.



Wolff & Byrd give us some suitably festive poetry wherein the ghost of St Nicolas bemoans what's happened to the old festival in his name. A case even they're reluctant to take on, for not only would it be hard to win, but how would you enforce the judgement on the whole world if you did?



An issue that somehow has both more than it's usual share of useful, significant articles, but also silly humor and tiny inconsequential ones as well. Still, that means plenty of variety overall, which is welcome. Time to see what trajectory the next year will follow in turn.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 26: Nov/Dec 1990



part 1/5



76 pages. A wolf, a full moon, and a man growing claws and fangs? I do believe we may have a lycanthropic scenario on out hands. How very spooky, if a touch late to be seasonal. Still, if it's meant to be a surprise to the PC's at first, all the better to keep it so. Let's find out who's responsible, and how contagious their particular strain is.



Editorial: The editorial once again reiterates their desire to keep variety up, both continuing to publish non D&D material, and doing more small adventures. That is, presuming they can get suitable submissions, which is always in doubt. To encourage that, they're running a competition to come up with a snappy name for the short encounters column, which will hopefully help give it an identity and keep it regular, like the ecologies in Dragon. Give us something to look forward to to tune in again, even if we probably have enough adventures for a full campaign already.



Letters: The first letter quibbles about the rules for moonmelon mutation. The parents can be cured with the right treatment, but any kids you've already had are stuck that way forever. Not that forever means that much in a universe where shapeshifting magic is commonplace, and reincarnation spells only mildly rarer.

The second reminds the rest of the readers that they can only publish what's submitted. Be the change you want to see. That refrain definitely isn't going away any time soon, is it.

Third is from Barbara's daughter, who's friends don't believe she's really the daughter of Dungeon's editor because she has a different surname, and wants to get her name in print to prove it to them. A woman, not only having a full-time job, but also bearing children out of wedlock?! : Pops monocle: Well I never heard of such a thing! It's no wonder they find her story implausible! What is the world coming too?! Jeeves, pour me a stiff glass of brandy. I feel quite out of sorts.

Fourth is another complaining that some recent adventures are too deadly, and wondering what playtesting took place on them? Unless the writer did it with their own group before submitting it, absolutely none. They don't have the time or budget for that. This is why they wind up with ones that read well, but might not work out for many groups in actual play.

Fifth praises them for doing non-D&D adventures, and asks them if they'll do a TMNT one. Since it's a licensed property, and Palladium are noted for being litigiously obstreperous, I somehow don't think that specific example is going to pan out.

6th, 7th & 11th are also very happy about the Marvel experiment, and want more, more more! Just a shame that they also have to rely on advertising to keep the magazine going.

8th, 9th, 10th, 12th & 13th provide the opposing viewpoint, and want all the non D&D stuff excised pronto or they may stop reading altogether. Yeesh. It's only one adventure out of half a dozen, it's hardly as if they've stopped catering to you altogether. Do you treat every single film that doesn't have a straight white male protagonist in the same way?

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 26: Nov/Dec 1990



part 2/5



The Inheritance: As usual, we start things off with a fairly typical site-based challenge. One of the PC's relatives dies and leaves them a castle in the will. The only problem? You need to clear out the hobgoblins that killed him in the first place. The twist? If you don't do so within 30 days, (more than half of which will be taken up just travelling there assuming you're using the Forgotten Realms map provided and starting from Waterdeep) it becomes the property of the state by default. As with Raven's Bluff, nice legal system you got there. This means no pulling 15 minute workdays, as if you go back to the nearest town mid-adventure to heal and restock, you'll easily run the clock out. The hobgoblins are a well organised bunch that draw upon the author's own real life military experience for tactics, and are given plenty of backstory and personality detail of their own. It's almost a shame to kill them so quickly and never see any of it in actual play. I guess it'll depend on what tactics you use, as this is another one where a frontal assault with melee weapons would be a very bad idea, but their real world tactics will fall before a group with a decent amount of magic and the cunning to use it in out of context ways. Even once you win, the adventure's not over, as you still have to get back in time to properly stake your legal claim, and may find that holding onto a prime bit of real estate is an expensive endeavour, (especially if you damaged the building in the process of conquering it) what with property taxes, the relatives of the hobgoblins coming to get revenge, and other adventurers trying to kill you and take your stuff in turn. It's all very strongly on the gritty low level side of adventuring, where the PC's are just one of many adventuring groups roaming the land, logistics & legal consequences are big issues, and any triumph is a plot hook to more challenges along the line. If you follow all those secondary plot hooks, this could tie you down to the area and keep you in work for a good long time. All in all, a pretty solid starter.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 26: Nov/Dec 1990



part 3/5



Operation - Fire Sale: The non-D&D adventure this issue is a Top Secret/S.I. one. The recent fall of the Berlin wall has substantially changed the geopolitical balance in Germany and the various espionage agencies present are working overtime to adapt and wind up on top. Someone is leaking military secrets at the NATO base in Bremen. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to plug that leak ASAP. The result is very much in the style of a mansion murder mystery, only on an army base, and just maybe everyone will get out alive. The real culprit knows you're onto them and will do their best to frame someone else. Everyone else is just going about their day to day lives, with a timeline of what will happen if you don't interfere. Will you find the real clues, or fall for the red herrings? If you do catch them, it turns out they're being blackmailed in turn, and you have to go and kick the ass of the real mastermind to solve the problem for good. That obligatory shooty climax aside, it's a combat light, roleplaying-heavy adventure that gives you plenty of opportunity to ham up the various NPC's personalities. It also means that if you get the wrong end of the stick you could fail completely while surviving, and get amusingly chewed out by your superiors later when further evidence emerges that disproves your conclusions. That's something you don't get to see very often here, regardless of system, so this definitely wins my approval.



Caravan Guards: Sometimes, you can choose whether or not you accept an adventure or not. Sometimes, you don't get that choice, or at least not obviously. While on the road from one place to another, the PC's come across a group of merchants travelling in the same direction. It can be dangerous on the road, so they'll offer to pay you to act as guards. You continue on your way, have a few conversations, face a couple of random monster encounters, maybe even the start of a romance subplot, then night falls and they all turn into Bhuts and try to eat you. Just can't trust anyone, can you? It's a hard life being an adventurer. Seems like more than half your potential employers are either disguised monsters, are lying to you & using you as pawns even when it would be easier to achieve their objectives honestly, or simply plan to stiff you on the deal to get out of paying afterwards. Oh well, I guess it all just means more XP in the long run. One of those kinds of adventures that you don't want to use very often, because otherwise the players become too paranoid to form emotional bonds with the NPC's and engage with any apparent roleplaying encounters because they know the other shoe is going to drop eventually. Not that it's bad individually, as it puts plenty of effort into building the individual personalities of the NPC's before they reveal their true colours, and talking about how their powers and hungers affect their day-to-day lives, but diminishing returns will rapidly set in if you overuse adventures of this type. Starscream might have been able to get away with betraying Megatron every week, but somehow I doubt your players will be as slow to learn their lesson.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 26: Nov/Dec 1990



part 4/5



Deadfalls on Nightwood Trail: As they said in the editorial, here's a two page encounter that you can easily put in nearly any campaign to spice up their journeys between more significant locations. A Spriggan and an Ettercap have joined forces to create more elaborate traps and string them up along a forest path where prey might well wander. If the PC's aren't in complete paranoia mode or powerful enough to have magical detection on as default, it's pretty likely they'll stumble into them, leaving some of the PC's strung up or netted and the others struggling to free them while the monsters attack and do their best to have everyone for dinner. A reasonably interesting demonstration of how different creatures working together intelligently can be more dangerous than the sum of their parts. It'd fit pretty seamlessly into the previous adventure too. Now, can they come up with a good name for these kind of little roadside encounters and get enough good submissions to keep them as a regular thing? There's definitely no shortage of demand for them, as long as PC's have to travel to get from one place to the next, a few filler encounters will always be handy to earn a few more XP and make the world feel like it doesn't revolve around one thing.



The Curse and the Quest: For a third adventure in a row, we have an adventure which comes to the PC's, so they don't really have an informed choice in whether they participate or not. There was a letter complaining about their players turning down too many missions a few months ago, so I guess this is the editors overcompensating in response. The PC's come across a dead body by the side of the road with a book. If anyone touches the book, they get cursed to be attacked by an exponentially increasing number of incorporeal horrors every day until it's too much for even the highest level party. Fortunately, one of the previous victims figured out and wrote down what it takes to destroy the book and free yourselves of the curse, if you can only get to the right place at the right phase of the moon and perform the right ritual. Double fortunately, the full moon is just a few days away. Better get cracking then. So you have to negotiate both the challenges of the wilderness, and the humans who own the land you're passing over, who will not be particularly sympathetic to the plight of some rando adventurers trespassing, and then figure out how to use the book to venture into the weird extradimensional place where it can be unmade & the curse lifted. While not as linear and restrictive as some of the worst Polyhedron adventures, this is still far more railroady than any adventure we've seen in Dungeon apart from Irongard, and while this offers more freedom of movement than that in terms of map routes, it has several horrible pixelbitch puzzles near the end that have very specific solutions, and if you mess up, you'll either die by running out of time and being swarmed or be trapped forever. In fact, you can destroy the book, and still be trapped forever to die of starvation all too easily if you don't think ahead or talk to the right NPC's. It's all a little irritating and worrying, and I hope it doesn't herald adventures like this becoming a regular thing. Not my idea of a good time.