I had a lot of fun running this for our family game. My niece (playing a bard) and my siister-in-law (a real life school speech therapist) had a lot of fun interacting with the troll singer. Didn’t work out with the daughter of the innkeepe, but they prevented any combat.
TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon
(un)reason
Legend
Polyhedron Issue 83: May 1993
part 4/5
Playing By Mail: We've seen more mention of the internet in Polyhedron than we had in Dragon at this time. So it's mildly surprising that we have another article promoting PbM games, soon to be one of the big casualties of the internet doing it both faster & cheaper. Who's going to keep on spending several dollars per move on games that update monthly, or fortnightly at best when you can just send an email, or do things in real time with a MU* client? Strangely enough, many of the PbM's back then were increasingly relying on computers to adjudicate them, particularly the ones that fall more on the wargame end of the spectrum than RPG, and have strictly proscribed options of what you can do per turn. This did at least mean you could have hundreds of participants in the same campaign at once, but your ability to communicate was limited unless you spent a load more money on letters or phone calls to other individual participants to discuss & co-ordinate your actions. It shows that they were making incremental improvements in running them over the years, but like digital vs film cameras, they couldn't compete with something that changed the paradigm. As with previous times they've covered this, it's interesting to look back, but a good reminder of just how much more money and hassle gaming at a distance was back then. I wouldn't want to go back to that.
Into The Dark: No introduction this month, as we continue on with more medically themed movies, in the loosest of senses, as these doctors definitely do not adhere to the hippocratic oath.
Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon is a mexican film based on an Edgar Allen Poe story. As might be expected, the doctor is insane, the inmates are mostly running the asylum unchecked, and the reporter who investigates becomes another victim of the madness. There's plenty of trippy imagery and interesting setpieces if you like that sort of thing, but not too much in the way of plot. Sounds very much a product of the psychedelic era and the impact is probably improved if you partake a little while watching.
Dr. Cyclops sees a myopic doctor subject snoopers in his laboratory to an experimental shrinking process. They have to escape the now terrifying mundane hazards of the area, survive and figure out how to get back to normal. The special effects are actually really good, particularly for 1940. It might actually be worth checking out.
Doctor Butcher, M.D. on the other hand is just gross cannibalsploitation. Explorers in the southeastern asian jungle have to deal with savage tribes which are probably mostly just white people in makeup. James finds it thoroughly stupid and gratuitous even then, and I dread to think how badly it's aged. Hard miss.
part 4/5
Playing By Mail: We've seen more mention of the internet in Polyhedron than we had in Dragon at this time. So it's mildly surprising that we have another article promoting PbM games, soon to be one of the big casualties of the internet doing it both faster & cheaper. Who's going to keep on spending several dollars per move on games that update monthly, or fortnightly at best when you can just send an email, or do things in real time with a MU* client? Strangely enough, many of the PbM's back then were increasingly relying on computers to adjudicate them, particularly the ones that fall more on the wargame end of the spectrum than RPG, and have strictly proscribed options of what you can do per turn. This did at least mean you could have hundreds of participants in the same campaign at once, but your ability to communicate was limited unless you spent a load more money on letters or phone calls to other individual participants to discuss & co-ordinate your actions. It shows that they were making incremental improvements in running them over the years, but like digital vs film cameras, they couldn't compete with something that changed the paradigm. As with previous times they've covered this, it's interesting to look back, but a good reminder of just how much more money and hassle gaming at a distance was back then. I wouldn't want to go back to that.
Into The Dark: No introduction this month, as we continue on with more medically themed movies, in the loosest of senses, as these doctors definitely do not adhere to the hippocratic oath.
Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon is a mexican film based on an Edgar Allen Poe story. As might be expected, the doctor is insane, the inmates are mostly running the asylum unchecked, and the reporter who investigates becomes another victim of the madness. There's plenty of trippy imagery and interesting setpieces if you like that sort of thing, but not too much in the way of plot. Sounds very much a product of the psychedelic era and the impact is probably improved if you partake a little while watching.
Dr. Cyclops sees a myopic doctor subject snoopers in his laboratory to an experimental shrinking process. They have to escape the now terrifying mundane hazards of the area, survive and figure out how to get back to normal. The special effects are actually really good, particularly for 1940. It might actually be worth checking out.
Doctor Butcher, M.D. on the other hand is just gross cannibalsploitation. Explorers in the southeastern asian jungle have to deal with savage tribes which are probably mostly just white people in makeup. James finds it thoroughly stupid and gratuitous even then, and I dread to think how badly it's aged. Hard miss.
(un)reason
Legend
Polyhedron Issue 83: May 1993
part 5/5
The Third Degree: Jeff gives us a negative review this time, as he examines Millennium's End and finds it somewhat wanting. The art is amateurish, the crunch heavy and clunky, and the writing tone smug and condescendingly superior. Take the role of paramilitary mercenaries in the war-torn future of 1999 and meddle in global politics for fun and profit. No pretences at heroism, just good old fashioned killing and exploitation for money & power without the veneer of alignments and nonhuman species to soften things. A classic example of teenage attempt at grimdark maturity, thinking you can do better than D&D by making things more realistic. If Zack Snyder wanted to make a film based on an RPG, this'd be the one he'd pick. Ouch. If he disliked it that much at the time, imagine how cringy it looks in hindsight, now all that premillennial tension stuff is well and truly over. I think we can safely leave this in the past, there's better systems around if modern day action is your thing and the setting's not much to write about either.
The Everwinking Eye: As is often the case, Ed follows on directly from last issue, bringing the history of Zhentil Keep up to the present. it took several decades for the Zhentarim to worm their way into the power structures and do their big takeover, but when they did it was quite the bloodbath, purging the people in power while the majority of the loyal soldiers were out fighting orcs, then sealing the gates so the remnants got massacred. Amazingly enough, this did not make them popular with the neighbours, or leave them with a strong military capable of projecting conquering power, so their expansionist ambitions were soon curtailed for another generation. Things were shaken up when Manshoon seized power from the lord who killed his father, with the aid of Fzoul Chembryl and some beholder allies, bringing in a new generation of hungry young Zhentarim that rely more on magic than massed physical force as a power source. Now he, Fzoul and Lord Chess have a … complicated power sharing relationship, which will be elaborated upon in other books. It's a paranoid life, being an evil overlord. Unless you get rid of the human element and rely entirely on undead & constructs, you still need to keep key people on your side and delegate certain tasks to keep the lights on, food, housing, etc. Neglect the logistics in favour of maniacal cackling and you rapidly wind up poor and hemmed in with the country decaying and common people plotting rebellion. While not brilliant at that, they're definitely doing better than Gilgeam, who despite being a literal god is laughably inept at governing and expanding rulership beyond what he can conquer personally, and saw his personal power deteriorate over the centuries along with his number of worshippers. Once again, this paints a picture of them as dangerous, but not unbeatable, and prone to weakening their position long-term due to their own cruelty. It also reminds us that the amount of magic in the Realms varies quite a bit in different countries and eras, as it's useful, but also dangerous and unreliable. When a bunch of dead & wild magic zones pop up, the reliable fighters wind up in charge, while other times turn into full-on magocracy. You have plenty of choice as a DM to adjust the tone of your game without departing from canon simply by when and where the PC's go adventuring.
Bloodmoose & Company can't resist making a Rocky & Bullwinkle reference.
With both the Raven's Bluff and wider Forgotten Realms material focussing more on antagonists than general worldbuilding, this issue is fairly interesting, but shows their need to escalate after more than 5 years adding things onto the same world. It's the same boredom that led to the elections in the RPGA, and the general increase in big metaplot events in the books. When will the need to keep things interesting for the hardcore start confusing and driving away the casuals? Onto the next issues, to see if they get any letters praising or criticising these articles.
part 5/5
The Third Degree: Jeff gives us a negative review this time, as he examines Millennium's End and finds it somewhat wanting. The art is amateurish, the crunch heavy and clunky, and the writing tone smug and condescendingly superior. Take the role of paramilitary mercenaries in the war-torn future of 1999 and meddle in global politics for fun and profit. No pretences at heroism, just good old fashioned killing and exploitation for money & power without the veneer of alignments and nonhuman species to soften things. A classic example of teenage attempt at grimdark maturity, thinking you can do better than D&D by making things more realistic. If Zack Snyder wanted to make a film based on an RPG, this'd be the one he'd pick. Ouch. If he disliked it that much at the time, imagine how cringy it looks in hindsight, now all that premillennial tension stuff is well and truly over. I think we can safely leave this in the past, there's better systems around if modern day action is your thing and the setting's not much to write about either.
The Everwinking Eye: As is often the case, Ed follows on directly from last issue, bringing the history of Zhentil Keep up to the present. it took several decades for the Zhentarim to worm their way into the power structures and do their big takeover, but when they did it was quite the bloodbath, purging the people in power while the majority of the loyal soldiers were out fighting orcs, then sealing the gates so the remnants got massacred. Amazingly enough, this did not make them popular with the neighbours, or leave them with a strong military capable of projecting conquering power, so their expansionist ambitions were soon curtailed for another generation. Things were shaken up when Manshoon seized power from the lord who killed his father, with the aid of Fzoul Chembryl and some beholder allies, bringing in a new generation of hungry young Zhentarim that rely more on magic than massed physical force as a power source. Now he, Fzoul and Lord Chess have a … complicated power sharing relationship, which will be elaborated upon in other books. It's a paranoid life, being an evil overlord. Unless you get rid of the human element and rely entirely on undead & constructs, you still need to keep key people on your side and delegate certain tasks to keep the lights on, food, housing, etc. Neglect the logistics in favour of maniacal cackling and you rapidly wind up poor and hemmed in with the country decaying and common people plotting rebellion. While not brilliant at that, they're definitely doing better than Gilgeam, who despite being a literal god is laughably inept at governing and expanding rulership beyond what he can conquer personally, and saw his personal power deteriorate over the centuries along with his number of worshippers. Once again, this paints a picture of them as dangerous, but not unbeatable, and prone to weakening their position long-term due to their own cruelty. It also reminds us that the amount of magic in the Realms varies quite a bit in different countries and eras, as it's useful, but also dangerous and unreliable. When a bunch of dead & wild magic zones pop up, the reliable fighters wind up in charge, while other times turn into full-on magocracy. You have plenty of choice as a DM to adjust the tone of your game without departing from canon simply by when and where the PC's go adventuring.
Bloodmoose & Company can't resist making a Rocky & Bullwinkle reference.
With both the Raven's Bluff and wider Forgotten Realms material focussing more on antagonists than general worldbuilding, this issue is fairly interesting, but shows their need to escalate after more than 5 years adding things onto the same world. It's the same boredom that led to the elections in the RPGA, and the general increase in big metaplot events in the books. When will the need to keep things interesting for the hardcore start confusing and driving away the casuals? Onto the next issues, to see if they get any letters praising or criticising these articles.
(un)reason
Legend
Dungeon Issue 41: May/Jun 1993
part 1/5
80 pages. Definitely looks like we're in a comical mood this issue, as an unfeasibly large alligator tiptoes behind an old man and his collection of singing mushrooms. At least he's planning on using proper table manners, as he's brought a knife and fork. Let's see if we can judge this book by it's cover, or the contents will be distinctly less amusing.
Editorial: Dungeon catches up with Polyhedron by letting you propose adventure ideas to them online, rather than spending several weeks for messages to go back and forth through the postal system and having to remember to include a SASE. Still probably not a huge saving in money at internet rates then, but at least it's good for the planet. Smart writers will write anything lengthy out before logging on and then copy/paste it into the submissions form. Now that brings back memories.
The rest is your basic thanks for the fact-checkers and playtesters who volunteered their time to improve the adventures this issue. Also a promising sign that the contents will be good this issue. Definitely looks like they're working on improving their organisation at the moment.
Wooly Mammoth Games advertise mammoth dungeons in the obvious place. If you've got an itch for those massive sprawling old school complexes that the magazine doesn't really scratch anymore, this is who you want to call. 4500 rooms per level in the largest version?! You could spend a whole campaign exploring that, and I mean an AD&D one, not a 3e+ one where you max out your levels within a couple of years if you do xp by the book.
Letters: First letter is generalised praise, with particular attention to The Ghost of Mistmoor. A bit late to be talking about that one, but he is writing from Australia, so it's to be expected.
Second is considerably grumpier, complaining about the increasing rise of adventures that tell a specific story rather than just giving you a location and letting your PC's attack it however they please. Dungeon may have been affected less by that than Polyhedron, but even here, adventures are much more linear and plot based than early issues. What a co-incidence they have one solution to that just a couple of pages ago, and another plot free adventure coming up later on in the magazine.
Third expounds on the need to be a responsible gamer when playing with kids. There's still a fair number of parents who've bought into the satanic panic. We need to show them that killing things and taking their stuff is a wholesome family activity that improves vocabulary, math and teamwork skills, not something that'll turn them into lazy degenerates who smoke pot and confuse fantasy & reality.
Fourth is one of the many people who wants psionics kept out of their generic fantasy. It's fine in Dark Sun where people know what they're dealing with, but in a regular game most creatures have no defence and it short-circuits a lot of plots with easy low-level mind-reading, teleportation, etc. How are you supposed to run a mystery plot under those conditions?
Fifth is another example of how to string adventures from the magazine together into a coherent campaign. Good to see plenty of people are actually getting some use out of these.
Finally, someone who's submitted a lot of adventure ideas, all rejected so far, and is getting a bit irritated by the formulaicness of the rejection letters. I know you have a lot of adventures to look through, but a little feedback would be nice, otherwise how can I improve? At least you're actually getting rejections. Far too often, both job hunting & dating seem like just screaming into the void these days.
part 1/5
80 pages. Definitely looks like we're in a comical mood this issue, as an unfeasibly large alligator tiptoes behind an old man and his collection of singing mushrooms. At least he's planning on using proper table manners, as he's brought a knife and fork. Let's see if we can judge this book by it's cover, or the contents will be distinctly less amusing.
Editorial: Dungeon catches up with Polyhedron by letting you propose adventure ideas to them online, rather than spending several weeks for messages to go back and forth through the postal system and having to remember to include a SASE. Still probably not a huge saving in money at internet rates then, but at least it's good for the planet. Smart writers will write anything lengthy out before logging on and then copy/paste it into the submissions form. Now that brings back memories.
The rest is your basic thanks for the fact-checkers and playtesters who volunteered their time to improve the adventures this issue. Also a promising sign that the contents will be good this issue. Definitely looks like they're working on improving their organisation at the moment.
Wooly Mammoth Games advertise mammoth dungeons in the obvious place. If you've got an itch for those massive sprawling old school complexes that the magazine doesn't really scratch anymore, this is who you want to call. 4500 rooms per level in the largest version?! You could spend a whole campaign exploring that, and I mean an AD&D one, not a 3e+ one where you max out your levels within a couple of years if you do xp by the book.
Letters: First letter is generalised praise, with particular attention to The Ghost of Mistmoor. A bit late to be talking about that one, but he is writing from Australia, so it's to be expected.
Second is considerably grumpier, complaining about the increasing rise of adventures that tell a specific story rather than just giving you a location and letting your PC's attack it however they please. Dungeon may have been affected less by that than Polyhedron, but even here, adventures are much more linear and plot based than early issues. What a co-incidence they have one solution to that just a couple of pages ago, and another plot free adventure coming up later on in the magazine.
Third expounds on the need to be a responsible gamer when playing with kids. There's still a fair number of parents who've bought into the satanic panic. We need to show them that killing things and taking their stuff is a wholesome family activity that improves vocabulary, math and teamwork skills, not something that'll turn them into lazy degenerates who smoke pot and confuse fantasy & reality.
Fourth is one of the many people who wants psionics kept out of their generic fantasy. It's fine in Dark Sun where people know what they're dealing with, but in a regular game most creatures have no defence and it short-circuits a lot of plots with easy low-level mind-reading, teleportation, etc. How are you supposed to run a mystery plot under those conditions?
Fifth is another example of how to string adventures from the magazine together into a coherent campaign. Good to see plenty of people are actually getting some use out of these.
Finally, someone who's submitted a lot of adventure ideas, all rejected so far, and is getting a bit irritated by the formulaicness of the rejection letters. I know you have a lot of adventures to look through, but a little feedback would be nice, otherwise how can I improve? At least you're actually getting rejections. Far too often, both job hunting & dating seem like just screaming into the void these days.
(un)reason
Legend
Dungeon Issue 41: May/Jun 1993
part 2/5
Pleasing all of the People, Some of the Time: The complete results of the survey are pretty similar to the early results, just in greater detail. Some D&D worlds are more popular than others, but nearly all of them are more popular than the idea of adventures featuring other real world cultures. There's a lot of quiet racists who play D&D, and the surveys don't get censored like any obviously vitriolic letters. Another potential conflict is that their younger readers are much more favourable to the idea of trading cards than older ones, which will only be exacerbated in a few years time when trading card games become big business and start to cut into the RPG section of game shops. Curiously enough, younger players are more likely to find their attempts at comedy more cringe than funny. Completely unsurprisingly, humans are the most popular race by a modest margin, but there's no strong class preference apart from the people who think psionics doesn't fit their idea of fantasy. Like any survey involving lots of people, the answers average out fairly conservative, and so they're not planning on making any big changes as a result. They'd need to expand their international readerbase if they wanted more people voting for multicultural representation.
Deadly Treasure: As they said in the letters page, the first adventure is a good old trap-based dungeon-crawl where you try to deal with the sadistic imagination of the wizard who created it and get out wealthier than you came in. (although the backstory is still considerably lengthier than Acererak's in the original ToH.) Upon feeling death approaching, Zathis the Insightful spent all his accumulated wealth & magical items setting up an adventure that would challenge the hardiest of souls. Said treasure isn't simply waiting at the end of the dungeon, but actively incorporated into the traps, their powers set to be triggered by the PC's actions. This means getting the maximum profit out of this adventure involves not merely brute-forcing or bypassing the puzzles, but deconstructing them so you can take the valuable magical items home. (while avoiding the cursed ones, as of course there's a few of those thrown in as well) If the players don't realise that, they'll only get a fraction of the possible reward even if they get through it alive. While sadistic, this adventure plays fair in that all the items stick by their regular rules, and there's no effects that the PC's couldn't replicate if they had access to the same spells & items. This makes it a good example of a rules as physics based challenge, that rewards players who have lots of supplements and a mind that can recall obscure details from them to figure out what they're up against and how to deal with it. If you're designing your own deathtrap dungeon on a budget, this is much better inspiration than the arbitrariness of the truly old school, even if it is pretty linear in layout. Given the limit on word count and detail they go into for each room, I can forgive them not making it larger and more mazy.
part 2/5
Pleasing all of the People, Some of the Time: The complete results of the survey are pretty similar to the early results, just in greater detail. Some D&D worlds are more popular than others, but nearly all of them are more popular than the idea of adventures featuring other real world cultures. There's a lot of quiet racists who play D&D, and the surveys don't get censored like any obviously vitriolic letters. Another potential conflict is that their younger readers are much more favourable to the idea of trading cards than older ones, which will only be exacerbated in a few years time when trading card games become big business and start to cut into the RPG section of game shops. Curiously enough, younger players are more likely to find their attempts at comedy more cringe than funny. Completely unsurprisingly, humans are the most popular race by a modest margin, but there's no strong class preference apart from the people who think psionics doesn't fit their idea of fantasy. Like any survey involving lots of people, the answers average out fairly conservative, and so they're not planning on making any big changes as a result. They'd need to expand their international readerbase if they wanted more people voting for multicultural representation.
Deadly Treasure: As they said in the letters page, the first adventure is a good old trap-based dungeon-crawl where you try to deal with the sadistic imagination of the wizard who created it and get out wealthier than you came in. (although the backstory is still considerably lengthier than Acererak's in the original ToH.) Upon feeling death approaching, Zathis the Insightful spent all his accumulated wealth & magical items setting up an adventure that would challenge the hardiest of souls. Said treasure isn't simply waiting at the end of the dungeon, but actively incorporated into the traps, their powers set to be triggered by the PC's actions. This means getting the maximum profit out of this adventure involves not merely brute-forcing or bypassing the puzzles, but deconstructing them so you can take the valuable magical items home. (while avoiding the cursed ones, as of course there's a few of those thrown in as well) If the players don't realise that, they'll only get a fraction of the possible reward even if they get through it alive. While sadistic, this adventure plays fair in that all the items stick by their regular rules, and there's no effects that the PC's couldn't replicate if they had access to the same spells & items. This makes it a good example of a rules as physics based challenge, that rewards players who have lots of supplements and a mind that can recall obscure details from them to figure out what they're up against and how to deal with it. If you're designing your own deathtrap dungeon on a budget, this is much better inspiration than the arbitrariness of the truly old school, even if it is pretty linear in layout. Given the limit on word count and detail they go into for each room, I can forgive them not making it larger and more mazy.
(un)reason
Legend
Dungeon Issue 41: May/Jun 1993
part 3/5
Side Treks - The Well of Lord Barcus: The short adventure is also on the whimsical end of the old school spectrum, as it's one of those magical wells that gives you a random blessing or curse if you toss a coin into it. Some are temporary, some are permanent, many are comedic, such as gaining the ability to fly, but only at a speed of 1, or making you taste bad so monsters won't use their bite attacks on you more than once. To spice things up a little more, the area is also haunted by a guy who stole from the well, and got cursed to never rest until he returned the treasure. If they hang around after nightfall his ghost will try to possess a player to return the treasure, or failing that simply beg them to do it for him. Will they be nice enough to help him find eternal rest, or just use magic weapons to kick his ass and be on their way, leaving him to reform later, trapped there until wiser adventurers come along? So this is one where there might be a best solution to the scenario, but it won't ruin the campaign if the PC's get it wrong or get an unlucky roll on the offering table, as the penalties for doing so are fairly mild. Unless they make the same mistake and try to scoop up the well's offerings, which will lead to a much trickier adventure trying to get the curse removed. But either way, this one is very unlikely to be a campaign-ender no matter how poorly they roll, and even a failure will still make for an interesting story. That makes it very usable in a wide range of campaigns as a bit of light relief between more dangerous missions.
A Way With Words: After two adventures that are intentionally playing to the old school crowd, they flip round and do one that's comedic and whimsical, but a very new school way. A gnome wants his stolen book of poetry back. He thinks it was the snake owning mopey goth girl who attended one of his readings. He's technically correct, but when they go to get it back, they find out it was stolen from her by kobolds who thought it was a book of spells. Now they're reciting poetry badly thinking they'll produce magic effects some day soon if they can just improve their pronunciation a little. Make your way through several other minor encounters to get to them, endure their mid-combat poetry, retrieve the book, and have a poetry reading to celebrate. Barf. Barf on a raft while wearing a scarf, while half the party tries not to laugh. This is short, twee and linear on the same scale as the very worst polyhedron adventures, which is even more annoying to see in here because I expect better of them. Nul naughty word points.
part 3/5
Side Treks - The Well of Lord Barcus: The short adventure is also on the whimsical end of the old school spectrum, as it's one of those magical wells that gives you a random blessing or curse if you toss a coin into it. Some are temporary, some are permanent, many are comedic, such as gaining the ability to fly, but only at a speed of 1, or making you taste bad so monsters won't use their bite attacks on you more than once. To spice things up a little more, the area is also haunted by a guy who stole from the well, and got cursed to never rest until he returned the treasure. If they hang around after nightfall his ghost will try to possess a player to return the treasure, or failing that simply beg them to do it for him. Will they be nice enough to help him find eternal rest, or just use magic weapons to kick his ass and be on their way, leaving him to reform later, trapped there until wiser adventurers come along? So this is one where there might be a best solution to the scenario, but it won't ruin the campaign if the PC's get it wrong or get an unlucky roll on the offering table, as the penalties for doing so are fairly mild. Unless they make the same mistake and try to scoop up the well's offerings, which will lead to a much trickier adventure trying to get the curse removed. But either way, this one is very unlikely to be a campaign-ender no matter how poorly they roll, and even a failure will still make for an interesting story. That makes it very usable in a wide range of campaigns as a bit of light relief between more dangerous missions.
A Way With Words: After two adventures that are intentionally playing to the old school crowd, they flip round and do one that's comedic and whimsical, but a very new school way. A gnome wants his stolen book of poetry back. He thinks it was the snake owning mopey goth girl who attended one of his readings. He's technically correct, but when they go to get it back, they find out it was stolen from her by kobolds who thought it was a book of spells. Now they're reciting poetry badly thinking they'll produce magic effects some day soon if they can just improve their pronunciation a little. Make your way through several other minor encounters to get to them, endure their mid-combat poetry, retrieve the book, and have a poetry reading to celebrate. Barf. Barf on a raft while wearing a scarf, while half the party tries not to laugh. This is short, twee and linear on the same scale as the very worst polyhedron adventures, which is even more annoying to see in here because I expect better of them. Nul naughty word points.
(un)reason
Legend
Dungeon Issue 41: May/Jun 1993
part 4/5
Mammoth Problems: Seeing that this was a spelljammer adventure, I was justly afraid it'd be a 4th whimsical adventure in a row. But thankfully, apart from some mildly goofy names it's entirely serious. The PC's come across a rotting ship floating abandoned in the void. What horrible things happened to it, and what lurks within? Not too surprisingly, it's haunted by the ghosts of it's crew, killed in the elf-ogre war. That they're ogre magi is a little unusual though, and gives them quite a few extra tricks up their sleeve compared to regular ghosts. Each of them has distinct personalities and methods of attack that they'll use to get rid of any intruders and go back to their eternal brooding. Except for one, who's a little less moribund than the rest, and will try to secretly possess one of the PC's and use them to get away until they next encounter another living ogre mage for him to jump into. It's entertainingly written, could easily be turned into a regular waterbourne adventure, and has the potential to introduce an interesting long-term antagonist for future adventures. That's much more the kind of thing I'm likely to use in a campaign. Good luck building a suitable place for it.
Hopeful Dawn: This adventure returns to the somewhat comedic theme, as this is basically a Scooby-Doo story in Greyhawk, complete with very hungry dog encounter. The thieves guild in Veluna decide to disguise themselves as Tanar'ri to discourage the population from interfering with their larcenous activities. This backfires, because now they have the priesthood of Rao on their case and hiring adventurers to deal with the problem, not just the regular guardsmen. Will you be able to see through their costumes in the dark of night, and if so, will you bother capturing them for punishment by the legitimate authorities, so they can explain their plan and complain they'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky adventurers, or will you think you're dealing with extraplanar monsters right up to the point after using excessive force to keep them from teleporting away and killing them? Although the basic concept is a little silly, the adventure itself is still fully usable in a serious game, has plenty of flexibility in how you solve it, and includes a decent amount of worldbuilding for the city of Veluna that could be useful in your campaign long-term. After all, there's several other modules already set in the same area, and it wouldn't be hard to turn them into an adventure path. Expose them to the idea of demons and Tharizdun cultists early on the campaign as a fakeout, and it'll have more impact when they run across the real thing a few levels later. Once again, this is a degree of lightheartedness that's still well within the bounds of usability.
part 4/5
Mammoth Problems: Seeing that this was a spelljammer adventure, I was justly afraid it'd be a 4th whimsical adventure in a row. But thankfully, apart from some mildly goofy names it's entirely serious. The PC's come across a rotting ship floating abandoned in the void. What horrible things happened to it, and what lurks within? Not too surprisingly, it's haunted by the ghosts of it's crew, killed in the elf-ogre war. That they're ogre magi is a little unusual though, and gives them quite a few extra tricks up their sleeve compared to regular ghosts. Each of them has distinct personalities and methods of attack that they'll use to get rid of any intruders and go back to their eternal brooding. Except for one, who's a little less moribund than the rest, and will try to secretly possess one of the PC's and use them to get away until they next encounter another living ogre mage for him to jump into. It's entertainingly written, could easily be turned into a regular waterbourne adventure, and has the potential to introduce an interesting long-term antagonist for future adventures. That's much more the kind of thing I'm likely to use in a campaign. Good luck building a suitable place for it.
Hopeful Dawn: This adventure returns to the somewhat comedic theme, as this is basically a Scooby-Doo story in Greyhawk, complete with very hungry dog encounter. The thieves guild in Veluna decide to disguise themselves as Tanar'ri to discourage the population from interfering with their larcenous activities. This backfires, because now they have the priesthood of Rao on their case and hiring adventurers to deal with the problem, not just the regular guardsmen. Will you be able to see through their costumes in the dark of night, and if so, will you bother capturing them for punishment by the legitimate authorities, so they can explain their plan and complain they'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky adventurers, or will you think you're dealing with extraplanar monsters right up to the point after using excessive force to keep them from teleporting away and killing them? Although the basic concept is a little silly, the adventure itself is still fully usable in a serious game, has plenty of flexibility in how you solve it, and includes a decent amount of worldbuilding for the city of Veluna that could be useful in your campaign long-term. After all, there's several other modules already set in the same area, and it wouldn't be hard to turn them into an adventure path. Expose them to the idea of demons and Tharizdun cultists early on the campaign as a fakeout, and it'll have more impact when they run across the real thing a few levels later. Once again, this is a degree of lightheartedness that's still well within the bounds of usability.
(un)reason
Legend
Dungeon Issue 41: May/Jun 1993
part 5/5
Old man Katan and the Mushroom Band: After an issue that's been very heavy indeed on various kinds of humour, the cover story is by far the weirdest and most whimsical of the lot. Old man Katan lives in a swamp and is plagued by Campestri, mobile mushrooms with terrible singing voices. The PC's happen to be passing while he's having a bath, and the Campestri steal his clothes. This leads you on a Rube Goldberg contraption of an adventure through the Glitchegumee swamp, discovering how the most unexpected of things can have complex knock-on effects on an ecology. Can you uncover what's behind the sudden influx of giant mosquitos and rebalance nature, preferably not by killing everything and restarting the whole ecosystem from scratch? Despite it's lighthearted exterior, there's actually a fair bit of clever thinking going on under the hood to connect things up, so the events you have to deal with aren't just wackiness for wackiness' sake. If the PC's are willing to use their brains and engage with the puzzles it'll actually reward them, rather than just stalling like the tournament adventures that break if you think even slightly outside the box. Obviously it won't work with the grimdark or hack & slash crowd, but this does look like fun if you have a suitable party, and it's an entertaining read regardless. I can see why they'd pick it out of the slush pile, as it stands out even in this issue.
The complete book of gnomes & halflings is the back-page advert, which sets off the contents of this issue perfectly.
Not sure if this is one of the best issues overall, but it's definitely one of the most interesting, with it's unusually high quantity and variety of humorous ideas making it very memorable. Not sure why they couldn't have done it in april, but I guess the ways of publishing are mysterious and prone to things being delayed due to someone not getting revisions in quick enough. Oh well. Back over to Polyhedron to see if their sense of humour and selection of submissions to choose from has improved at all.
part 5/5
Old man Katan and the Mushroom Band: After an issue that's been very heavy indeed on various kinds of humour, the cover story is by far the weirdest and most whimsical of the lot. Old man Katan lives in a swamp and is plagued by Campestri, mobile mushrooms with terrible singing voices. The PC's happen to be passing while he's having a bath, and the Campestri steal his clothes. This leads you on a Rube Goldberg contraption of an adventure through the Glitchegumee swamp, discovering how the most unexpected of things can have complex knock-on effects on an ecology. Can you uncover what's behind the sudden influx of giant mosquitos and rebalance nature, preferably not by killing everything and restarting the whole ecosystem from scratch? Despite it's lighthearted exterior, there's actually a fair bit of clever thinking going on under the hood to connect things up, so the events you have to deal with aren't just wackiness for wackiness' sake. If the PC's are willing to use their brains and engage with the puzzles it'll actually reward them, rather than just stalling like the tournament adventures that break if you think even slightly outside the box. Obviously it won't work with the grimdark or hack & slash crowd, but this does look like fun if you have a suitable party, and it's an entertaining read regardless. I can see why they'd pick it out of the slush pile, as it stands out even in this issue.
The complete book of gnomes & halflings is the back-page advert, which sets off the contents of this issue perfectly.
Not sure if this is one of the best issues overall, but it's definitely one of the most interesting, with it's unusually high quantity and variety of humorous ideas making it very memorable. Not sure why they couldn't have done it in april, but I guess the ways of publishing are mysterious and prone to things being delayed due to someone not getting revisions in quick enough. Oh well. Back over to Polyhedron to see if their sense of humour and selection of submissions to choose from has improved at all.
(un)reason
Legend
Polyhedron Issue 84: June 1993
part 1/5
32 pages. That woman looks altogether too enthusiastic jumping off the top of the castle. I hope there's a safety net underneath, someone to cast feather fall, or some other method of ensuring health & safety is maintained. Given Raven's Bluff's level of technological inconsistency, I wouldn't count on it though. Let's find out how sensationalised and misleading this cover is inside.
Take a Byte: This column isn't just promotion this time, (although there's still a fair bit of that) as it talks about the intersection of Wargaming and RPG's on computer. In the tabletop scene, the two are long connected, although the number of roleplayers has outstripped the number of wargamers for over a decade now. On computers, the boundaries between large scale abstracted wargames where you move units without ever seeing them as individuals and real time action adventure games like Zelda or Faxanadu are much more solid, partly because you simply can't have enough moving sprites on screen without slowdown and flicker to make a war scenario convincing. But computers get better every year, and SSI are trying to bridge the gap from both ends. Upcoming releases like Clash of Steel and War in Russia are primarily strategic games, but they hope to put in more RPG elements like cutscenes and advancable units. Meanwhile, they're doing a conquest game in Mystara where you might control individual PC's, but they're engaging in large scale schemes rather than dungeon delving. In hindsight, we know that eventually these two threads will merge into things like the Dynasty Warriors series, where you have wargame scenarios and RPG storylines, but any pretence of historical realism is abandoned for super awesome PC's that can mow down thousands of enemies in a single scenario. Even the highest level D&D characters can't come close in DPS output or staying power, and if you tried to have that many combatants at once, it'd take hours to run every single round under most tabletop systems. An interesting example of how trends in playstyle follow changes in technology, as new things become possible or new ways of abstracting things make a playstyle fun for a mass audience where most people would have found it tedious before. System matters. What else will it be possible to make fun in the future that doesn't quite work now?
Notes From HQ: This is another round of complaints about people not following procedure. Not every tournament at a convention is approved by the RPGA, and only the ones that are will earn you points, so double check before you enrol and don't complain to us about anything that happens in one that has nothing to do with us. They're particularly peeved about a particular convention which lied and said an adventure was approved when it wasn't, as that means all the people who participated won't be getting points through no fault of their own. To make verification easier, they've set up an online database, so you can easily check if an adventure has jumped all the bureaucratic hoops and is sanctioned for this particular convention anywhere you've got internet access. They continue to be ahead of the rest of TSR on this front because necessity drives innovation, and it's obvious this is a persistent problem. Now if only the general price of the internet would come down so their boards were even more accessible. Still, every person encouraged to log on for the first time by reading things like this accelerates the expansion of the internet as a whole a little further. Maybe next year. Or even this september.
part 1/5
32 pages. That woman looks altogether too enthusiastic jumping off the top of the castle. I hope there's a safety net underneath, someone to cast feather fall, or some other method of ensuring health & safety is maintained. Given Raven's Bluff's level of technological inconsistency, I wouldn't count on it though. Let's find out how sensationalised and misleading this cover is inside.
Take a Byte: This column isn't just promotion this time, (although there's still a fair bit of that) as it talks about the intersection of Wargaming and RPG's on computer. In the tabletop scene, the two are long connected, although the number of roleplayers has outstripped the number of wargamers for over a decade now. On computers, the boundaries between large scale abstracted wargames where you move units without ever seeing them as individuals and real time action adventure games like Zelda or Faxanadu are much more solid, partly because you simply can't have enough moving sprites on screen without slowdown and flicker to make a war scenario convincing. But computers get better every year, and SSI are trying to bridge the gap from both ends. Upcoming releases like Clash of Steel and War in Russia are primarily strategic games, but they hope to put in more RPG elements like cutscenes and advancable units. Meanwhile, they're doing a conquest game in Mystara where you might control individual PC's, but they're engaging in large scale schemes rather than dungeon delving. In hindsight, we know that eventually these two threads will merge into things like the Dynasty Warriors series, where you have wargame scenarios and RPG storylines, but any pretence of historical realism is abandoned for super awesome PC's that can mow down thousands of enemies in a single scenario. Even the highest level D&D characters can't come close in DPS output or staying power, and if you tried to have that many combatants at once, it'd take hours to run every single round under most tabletop systems. An interesting example of how trends in playstyle follow changes in technology, as new things become possible or new ways of abstracting things make a playstyle fun for a mass audience where most people would have found it tedious before. System matters. What else will it be possible to make fun in the future that doesn't quite work now?
Notes From HQ: This is another round of complaints about people not following procedure. Not every tournament at a convention is approved by the RPGA, and only the ones that are will earn you points, so double check before you enrol and don't complain to us about anything that happens in one that has nothing to do with us. They're particularly peeved about a particular convention which lied and said an adventure was approved when it wasn't, as that means all the people who participated won't be getting points through no fault of their own. To make verification easier, they've set up an online database, so you can easily check if an adventure has jumped all the bureaucratic hoops and is sanctioned for this particular convention anywhere you've got internet access. They continue to be ahead of the rest of TSR on this front because necessity drives innovation, and it's obvious this is a persistent problem. Now if only the general price of the internet would come down so their boards were even more accessible. Still, every person encouraged to log on for the first time by reading things like this accelerates the expansion of the internet as a whole a little further. Maybe next year. Or even this september.
(un)reason
Legend
Polyhedron Issue 84: June 1993
part 2/5
Letters: The first letter suggests that twinning with a club in another country and exchanging letters & things that are hard to get hold of in the other place is a good way to build international understanding and make the world a better place in a small way. Another thing the internet will make massively quicker and cheaper over the next few years.
Second is that depressingly common tale of a girl who had a few bad experiences at cons and now just buys RPG books to read not play. Jean assures her that not all gaming groups are that bad, after all, she made it to the top of the RPGA. Just use the classifieds section here or the bulletin board in your local game shop to hunt for a new one and take care when screening your responses.
Third asks what the hell service points are. You get them for helping with RPGA organisation & admin stuff and running charity events. Don't be surprised if you have fewer of them than you do player or judge points. You'd have to specifically go out of your way to earn many of them.
Finally, someone giving a list of their likes and dislikes, some of which seem to miss the point of what polyhedron is for as a facilitator of organised play. Not every subscriber also buys Dragon, so they kinda need to keep the convention stuff in here, even if that does result in some redundancy if you read both.
The New Rogues Gallery: A couple of months ago they reported on Mellisa Eldaren's election to the role of Lord Speaker. Now we get full stats. It seems a little odd for a 22 year old to get into one of the highest offices in the city, but I guess D&D adventurers do regularly go from nothing to terrifyingly powerful quite quickly, and in that respect Raven's Bluff is still a little more restrained than most home campaigns, as it's taken her 3 real and in game years to reach 7th level. (ignoring that the FR timeline advances 2 years per real year in the supplements at this point, because they were never that good at interdepartmental co-ordination.) As she's worked her way up through the tournament adventures in game, she doesn't have any particularly interesting magic items, but apparently the promotion to public office came with ability score boosts, as her total is considerably higher than the standard 84 points regular PC's are stuck with. Another demonstration that when it comes to hard crunch and continuity, their editorial standards aren't the greatest, and they're entirely willing to deliberately make exceptions to the RAW for their favourites, which further reinforces the feeling that it's a stacked deck where there's different rules for normal PC's and NPC's or admin's pets. Now that's one area they improved immensely after WotC took over. (at least until 4e) So this is a reminder that linking your metaplot to the result of tournaments regularly throws up weird results, and continuity in a shared world is an almighty headache to deal with, regularly disrupting people's attempts to give their characters some kind of arc whenever a big crossover happens. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that, either as a player or an admin.
The Living City 1: Yet another modern day thing Raven's Bluff lacks is any kind of socialised medicine system. Magical healing is still strictly cleric only(unless you manage to steal The Symbul's Synostodweomer), so you need to be either in with a specific deity or pay through the nose if you need any serious medical attention. But there are enough genuinely nice gods that you can find some places that'll treat anyone and only worry about payment afterwards. The Bandaged Wound is one of those. It's main administrator is actually a wizard, which neatly solves questions of ecumenical dominance and lets him employ priests of any religion with useful spheres. The other two highest level clerics both belong to Mystra, which isn't an obvious choice if you primarily wanted to be a healer, but I guess she's less strict than most gods and has a really good sphere selection so it's a good one if you weren't really certain what you wanted to do when you started adventuring, but really don't want to wind up in the wall of the faithless. They're all solidly united in their desire to help the needy, so there's no politics or dark underbelly here to provide adventure hooks. So this'll mainly be useful as a stop between other adventures rather than a source of them, particularly at the levels where you can't cure diseases, curses and other more esoteric maladies yourself. Spending a few hundred gold pieces is a much better idea than labouring under a persistent penalty for several levels, particularly if it's severe enough that you probably wouldn't survive the fights needed to gain enough XP. Useful, but a little bit dull.
part 2/5
Letters: The first letter suggests that twinning with a club in another country and exchanging letters & things that are hard to get hold of in the other place is a good way to build international understanding and make the world a better place in a small way. Another thing the internet will make massively quicker and cheaper over the next few years.
Second is that depressingly common tale of a girl who had a few bad experiences at cons and now just buys RPG books to read not play. Jean assures her that not all gaming groups are that bad, after all, she made it to the top of the RPGA. Just use the classifieds section here or the bulletin board in your local game shop to hunt for a new one and take care when screening your responses.
Third asks what the hell service points are. You get them for helping with RPGA organisation & admin stuff and running charity events. Don't be surprised if you have fewer of them than you do player or judge points. You'd have to specifically go out of your way to earn many of them.
Finally, someone giving a list of their likes and dislikes, some of which seem to miss the point of what polyhedron is for as a facilitator of organised play. Not every subscriber also buys Dragon, so they kinda need to keep the convention stuff in here, even if that does result in some redundancy if you read both.
The New Rogues Gallery: A couple of months ago they reported on Mellisa Eldaren's election to the role of Lord Speaker. Now we get full stats. It seems a little odd for a 22 year old to get into one of the highest offices in the city, but I guess D&D adventurers do regularly go from nothing to terrifyingly powerful quite quickly, and in that respect Raven's Bluff is still a little more restrained than most home campaigns, as it's taken her 3 real and in game years to reach 7th level. (ignoring that the FR timeline advances 2 years per real year in the supplements at this point, because they were never that good at interdepartmental co-ordination.) As she's worked her way up through the tournament adventures in game, she doesn't have any particularly interesting magic items, but apparently the promotion to public office came with ability score boosts, as her total is considerably higher than the standard 84 points regular PC's are stuck with. Another demonstration that when it comes to hard crunch and continuity, their editorial standards aren't the greatest, and they're entirely willing to deliberately make exceptions to the RAW for their favourites, which further reinforces the feeling that it's a stacked deck where there's different rules for normal PC's and NPC's or admin's pets. Now that's one area they improved immensely after WotC took over. (at least until 4e) So this is a reminder that linking your metaplot to the result of tournaments regularly throws up weird results, and continuity in a shared world is an almighty headache to deal with, regularly disrupting people's attempts to give their characters some kind of arc whenever a big crossover happens. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that, either as a player or an admin.
The Living City 1: Yet another modern day thing Raven's Bluff lacks is any kind of socialised medicine system. Magical healing is still strictly cleric only(unless you manage to steal The Symbul's Synostodweomer), so you need to be either in with a specific deity or pay through the nose if you need any serious medical attention. But there are enough genuinely nice gods that you can find some places that'll treat anyone and only worry about payment afterwards. The Bandaged Wound is one of those. It's main administrator is actually a wizard, which neatly solves questions of ecumenical dominance and lets him employ priests of any religion with useful spheres. The other two highest level clerics both belong to Mystra, which isn't an obvious choice if you primarily wanted to be a healer, but I guess she's less strict than most gods and has a really good sphere selection so it's a good one if you weren't really certain what you wanted to do when you started adventuring, but really don't want to wind up in the wall of the faithless. They're all solidly united in their desire to help the needy, so there's no politics or dark underbelly here to provide adventure hooks. So this'll mainly be useful as a stop between other adventures rather than a source of them, particularly at the levels where you can't cure diseases, curses and other more esoteric maladies yourself. Spending a few hundred gold pieces is a much better idea than labouring under a persistent penalty for several levels, particularly if it's severe enough that you probably wouldn't survive the fights needed to gain enough XP. Useful, but a little bit dull.
Similar Threads
D&D General
50th Anniversary- Are You Not Entertained?
