TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 51: Jan/Feb 1995



part 1/5



65 pages. Unleash the Kraken! Or some kind of giant squid anyway, as it looks like we'll be adding to our portfolio of underwater adventures. Make sure you're well equipped, because drowning before you even get to the real challenges of the adventure is a very undignified way to go. Time to see what challenges this year's crop of adventures brings, and if they'll push at the limits of your player's capabilities in any way.



Editorial: Huh. Barbara winds up leaving Dungeon the same month Jean does Polyhedron. I wasn't expecting that. So in one fell swoop, their number of female-led magazines goes from two to zero. Equality isn't a straight line of progress. Just as with Polyhedron, the deputy editor moves up to the top, and Wolf Baur doesn't have any immediate plans to make drastic changes, but we shall see how long his tenure lasts and if he'll be content in this position for as long as his predecessor. Another reminder in quick succession that this is the year that TSR's long stable period draws to a close, as gradually declining sales and their own management issues catch up with them. There's still plenty of interesting and often quite experimental books to come, but finding them now in hardcopy is trickier than the ones of 5 years ago. Hopefully those stresses'll produce some things worth remembering in here.



Letters: First letter is from someone who runs games in Rolemaster, but still buys Dungeon for the ideas. As many many people have said before, they're the important thing, not the stats.

Second is from someone annoyed about them recycling an old adventure from Dragon in issue 49. This isn't the place for nostalgia. If they're going to do stuff like that they should be putting it in a dedicated Best Of. Just wait until a few editions later, when a substantial fraction of the adventures are just updates of old modules. That'll really get tiresome to review.

Third only started reading a couple of years ago, but has made extensive use of their adventures and gives us another list of which ones they went through. Linear advancement through ones of recommended character level does not appear to be on the agenda.

Finally, someone reminding all the stumped DM's out there that they hold ultimate power to make their campaign fun or not. They just need the will and imagination to use it. Be direct in asking your players what they want, then come up with a suitable response. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 51: Jan/Feb 1995



part 2/5



Nbod's Room: Unusually, the cover story is also the first one. Even more unusually, it's a one-on-one adventure as well, which are normally among the smaller ones in here. Through a combination of a ghost and several portals, spooky stuff happens in a particular room in a particular seaside inn that was once frequented by a notorious pirate. Any PC staying there overnight is going to be sent on a Christmas Carol-esque trip without the rest of the party to a tropical island and have to figure out what they need to do to lay the angry spirit to rest and get home. Thankfully, there is plenty of treasure in it, and they don't pull the old "it was all a dream, or no-one will believe it happened because there's no evidence" tricks, which may work fine on TV, but fall flat in an RPG where everyone knows the supernatural is real. Unlike most solo adventures, it's actually a very open-ended experience as well, and while it works best if the PC uses their brains rather than hack & slashing their way through all the challenges, it doesn't rule it out either. So this is a quirky single session adventure that you pull out when the rest of the group doesn't show up, or you want a little extra time with a particular player between the usual sessions, as you can easily use it in many places without disrupting the regular continuity of a campaign. It stands out quite a bit from the average adventure in here stylistically, and is useful in difference places, so it's not a repetition of something they've done before. Good to see even after 8 years of doing this they can still find and include new variations on the basic adventuring formula.



Side Treks - Journey to the Center of the World: Now that's an ambitious title the players would have every right to get excited about when they see the DM breaking it out, hinting at epic underworld journeys, massive caverns, lava rivers and lost lands with dinosaurs & whatnot. The reality is a little underwhelming. Center-of-the-World turns out to be the native name for a really big mountain in some tropical country you're exploring, and there's rumors that it's an elephant graveyard as well. Elephants aren't that great at climbing, so that doesn't make much sense, but hopefully that'll just make the PC's even more curious to investigate. Turns out the crater at the top is actually a dragon graveyard instead, which could be even more profitable if you can get the old bones to someone looking to make magic items, but first you have to deal with a senile white dragon which isn't quite ready to depart this mortal coil, and still pretty dangerous in a fight. Trickery or bribery would probably be better options than a head-on battle. So I'm a little irritated at the bait and switch, but this is still a decent enough adventure idea that seems very expandable into a lengthy series of back and forth treks to get all the treasure out, with all the logistical challenges and dangers from potential rivals that entails. It can easily be connected to several other adventures mentioned from previous issues, which is an extra plus. Now where's a full book that takes the same title, and turns it into a proper adventure path spanning many levels?

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 51: Jan/Feb 1995



part 3/5



Ailamere's Lair: A second adventure in a row featuring a dragon that you're not really supposed to fight. That is a curious theme. The PC's are hired by a bard to investigate sightings of a previously unknown type of dragon, preferably without killing it, but getting hold of as much information about it as possible either way, with pay determined by the number of specific questions they manage to answer. Basically, their assigned mission is to make a nature documentary. Let's hope the results of their adventures end up more like David Attenborough and less like Steve Irwin. Unsurprisingly, there are a number of reasons this probably won't go smoothly that the players will have to use their brains to solve. The big one is obviously that dragons are not only smart, but have superhuman senses as well, making any lengthy investigation without being spotted and investigated in turn very hard. The other is that once you get nearer, you'll find the dragon has been expanding it's territory into human lands, demanding tribute. Will you maintain journalistic detachment and continue to document the whole process from the shadows, or get involved and try to save the day by negotiation or violence. The bulk of the story XP awards definitely nudge the PC's towards a talky solution where the dragon and humans can learn to co-exist, but it doesn't railroad it, and in fact offers an unusual degree of flexibility to experiment with different solutions and try again if you fail, courtesy of a magical item that offers limited time rewinding powers. (that they don't get to keep after the adventure for obvious reasons) Another interesting adventure that tries hard to diverge from the basic formula of forming a party, then going out to kill things and take their stuff that D&D is built around. This is some of the good end of the 2e focus on roleplaying and experimenting with worldbuilding.

 

[el-remmen]

Ailamere's Lair: A second adventure in a row featuring a dragon that you're not really supposed to fight. That is a curious theme. The PC's are hired by a bard to investigate sightings of a previously unknown type of dragon, preferably without killing it, but getting hold of as much information about it as possible either way, with pay determined by the number of specific questions they manage to answer. Basically, their assigned mission is to make a nature documentary. Let's hope the results of their adventures end up more like David Attenborough and less like Steve Irwin. Unsurprisingly, there are a number of reasons this probably won't go smoothly that the players will have to use their brains to solve. The big one is obviously that dragons are not only smart, but have superhuman senses as well, making any lengthy investigation without being spotted and investigated in turn very hard. The other is that once you get nearer, you'll find the dragon has been expanding it's territory into human lands, demanding tribute. Will you maintain journalistic detachment and continue to document the whole process from the shadows, or get involved and try to save the day by negotiation or violence. The bulk of the story XP awards definitely nudge the PC's towards a talky solution where the dragon and humans can learn to co-exist, but it doesn't railroad it, and in fact offers an unusual degree of flexibility to experiment with different solutions and try again if you fail, courtesy of a magical item that offers limited time rewinding powers. (that they don't get to keep after the adventure for obvious reasons) Another interesting adventure that tries hard to diverge from the basic formula of forming a party, then going out to kill things and take their stuff that D&D is built around. This is some of the good end of the 2e focus on roleplaying and experimenting with worldbuilding.

Isn't this the one with the "save point" magic device?
I played in this back in 2E days and it was the adventure that broke up our (already contentious) gaming group. Basically, the dragon killed a PC and the group was split between revenge on the dragon and going on our way because the PC brought it on himself by doing something way too risky (I don't remember now exactly what it was). Unfortunately, back then "buT tHaT's WhAT My cHArAcTeR WOuLd do!" was the height of our role-playing mantra and everyone refused to take an OOC moment to discuss a way forward.

The game kinda fizzled out from there.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 51: Jan/Feb 1995



part 4/5



Side Treks - The Witch of Windcrag: Our second side-trek this issue is somewhat less expandable. Your basic Basic D&D mini dungeon crawl where you hear any one of a tableful of rumours and go investigate. From the name, you're probably expecting some kind of cackling crone, maybe with a penchant for eating children? Surprise! It's just a single harpy. Double Surprise! She has some wizard class levels, adding spellcasting on top of her natural charming and flight powers! If she rolls well on casting a sleep spell she could take out a whole low level party, reminding us why you bring hirelings along at this level to act as meat shields. So this isn't an impossible challenge at the expected level, but does look very swingy, with success or failure largely dependent on who gets the drop on who and how well they roll in the first round. The kind of thing they'd actively work to eliminate from the rules in later editions. Whether this will work for you or not depends on if that kind of old-school unfairness is a feature or a bug in your campaign. Nothing exceptional, but a good palate-cleanser after the last three adventures being very 2e feeling and heavy on encouraging noncombat approaches.



The Bandits of Bunglewood: Another alliterative title in quick succession, and another set of monsters who are enjoying the increasing permissiveness of the rules when it comes to gaining class levels. Chris Perkins takes us back to Tucker's Kobolds territory, a place that should be familiar to long-term readers, but never fails to annoy no matter how high level you are, because they use tricks that bypass your AC & HP to be effective at any level unless you have specific countermeasures prepared. Say hello to The Seven Jekks. Urto, Irki, Blepp, Snog, Zark, Neglu & Liklik. They may seem like your typical puny comedic annoyances, but each is fully statted up like a PC with various class levels, nonweapon proficiencies and preferred tricks. They've strewn various tricks & traps throughout the bunglewood, so anyone just blundering through it will have a very bad time. If you can stand up to them regardless, they'll retreat to their lair, which is cramped enough that full-sized PC's suffer penalties the whole way through on top of the various defences. So this is one of the most formulaic scenarios ever, repeated in various iterations so many times over the years, mainly notable because it treats every monster with the same complexity as a PC rather than being interchangable mooks. It feels like a precursor to the design philosophy of 3e, where they actively embrace stacking class levels and templates on everything so you can never take a monster's capabilities for granted, no matter how many of them you encounter. I guess he's one of the people you can thank (or blame) for that, since he'll be sticking around throughout the whole process. Not terrible, but more interesting as a part of overall trends to analyse than as it's own thing.

 

[(un)reason]

Isn't this the one with the "save point" magic device?
I played in this back in 2E days and it was the adventure that broke up our (already contentious) gaming group. Basically, the dragon killed a PC and the group was split between revenge on the dragon and going on our way because the PC brought it on himself by doing something way too risky (I don't remember now exactly what it was). Unfortunately, back then "buT tHaT's WhAT My cHArAcTeR WOuLd do!" was the height of our role-playing mantra back then and everyone refused take an OOC moment to discuss a way forward.

The game kinda fizzled out from there.

Yup. Not an idea you'd want to see in every adventure, but it makes for a pretty interesting twist in this one.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 51: Jan/Feb 1995



part 5/5



The Last Oasis: After an issue full of adventures that offer a decent amount of freedom in how you wander and react to the things you encounter, they can't resist putting one irritating railroad in where the PC's actions to a lot of the events are presumed rather than giving you a proper choice, and others will have basically the same thing happen next regardless of their choices so they feel kinda pointless. The PC's are hired as guards for a desert caravan in Al-Qadim or any similar area, as they've been having a lot of bandit trouble lately. A sandstorm sweeps up, and the PC's are buried in it regardless of what they do. Instead of just dying, their spirits leave their bodies and they get to explore the borderlands between life and death. (which is basically just another desert, only spookier) They have to realise what's going on, and then get back to their bodies before their shadows disappear completely, indicating that they've died for good. Some of the dead denizens will be helpful, others try to trick you or have you for dinner, and figuring out which can be trusted will make subsequent encounters easier or harder, but not affect their overall order, which eschews any mapping for purely narrative logic. The kind of adventure that feels like it's based on a specific story, and is going to push you into playing something like that story even if it has to completely disregard the established AD&D cosmology as well as player agency to do so. As usual when Dungeon tries this kind of adventure, the writing is still of higher average quality than Polyhedron's railroads, but that still doesn't leave me with any actual desire to run this. It just doesn't feel like it was meant to be a D&D adventure in the first place, and is being shoehorned into the system awkwardly. No thanks.



A mixed bag of relatively short experiments that mostly manage to be interesting whether I'd want to use them or not. They still have far more good submissions than they need, which means that there's room for a new editorial direction in a few months while not hurting overall quality. Let's see if the new management will have the courage to try stepping away from the purely episodic, or it'll continue being business as usual for a while longer.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 104: February 1995



part 1/5



32 pages. When you're fairy size, your basic farmyard animals like sheep or cows are a massive terrifying challenge if you tried to fight them head-on, which is obviously why they work on their magic and trickery skills instead. We've seen one adventure in Dungeon where you're shrunk to tiny size. Will Polyhedron be getting in on the act too, or will the PC's have to face some more annoying whimsy while remaining regular size themselves? Time to explore the undergrowth of TSR's most obscure products again.



Notes from HQ: Another round of trying to solve common problems with their Living settings here. The number of players continues to grow, but keeping things accessible with the amount of lore accumulated over years is an increasing challenge as well. They're creating primer packets with character sheets and all the info you need to get started, at a very reasonable price. :teeth ting: Make sure you fill them out carefully the first time, or make a photocopy before starting to fill it in, otherwise you'll have to pay to order some more character sheets, because they're not made of money. They also have to nag us to fill out the scoring sheets properly as well, because if your writing is illegible, you miss out crucial details, or don't use your full name as it appears on your membership card, you won't get the points added to your account. Finally, they still have the persistent problem with judge/player ratio, made worse by some people saying they're going to judge at the start of the convention and flaking. If more people don't judge they'll have to run ridiculously large parties and the adventures'll be too easy, or cancel some slots altogether. Maybe if the RPGA adventures were less linear and allowed more DM agency to improvise they'd attract more judges. But then that raises questions of fairness in scoring so there's going to be problems either way. This is all the kind of stuff they might be able to reduce, but can never be solved entirely, so I have no doubt we'll be seeing it's like again next year. Bureaucracy is the most eternal battle of all.



Forgotten Deities: The second of these is much shorter than the first, a mere half a page on Karsus, an ancient nature god with a particular focus on reincarnation. This means his specialty priests get access to the appropriate spell at considerably lower level than regular clerics, but can't cast raise dead. Like many a neutral nature god, he has no objection to bloody sacrifices, as death isn't considered a big deal when the spirit is just going to come back again, and some of his clerics may select the specific sacrifices for not so neutral reasons. This makes him an interesting choice for both PC's and potential antagonists to worship, with the possibility of intra-faith conflict without either side losing their powers. This seems nicely usable both mechanically and flavourwise, if very inconsistent with future mentions of Karsus in other books. I guess that's the problem with worshipping forgotten gods. When they actually show up and you find out about the man behind the god it may turn out they're very different people and most of your theology was made up by priests who've never had any personal contact with them. What happens to your faith then? Do you obey the personal commands, or stay faithful to the ideology you've known for years even if it means losing your powers? There's a lot of adventure possibilities to be found in that scenario.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 104: February 1995



part 2/5



Barely finished a second Living setting and they're already working on the third? That's a serious acceleration of schedule. The Living Death will fittingly launch this halloween, giving you plenty of time to register for the first events and build anticipation. How will they manage to make character generation even more restrictive than the already pretty heavily nerfed rules in the Masque of the Red Death boxed set?



Letters: Unsurprisingly when a long-running member of staff moves on, the letters pages are extra long and full of tribute from co-workers and regular members. First up is her co-conspirator Skip Williams. She proved she could stand up to his abuse and give as good as she got, so they had plenty of mutual respect by the end. The RPGA grew enormously during her tenure and released new issues on time consistently, so she was definitely doing something right.

Second is from one of the big convention organisers praising her endurance. 80+ hour a week workloads with lots of unpaid overtime? Would you do that if you didn't genuinely love and believe in what you do?

Third is someone from her hometown who knew her before she got the job and moved to Lake Geneva. Even then, she was known for her organisational ability and willingness to teach new gamers the ropes. There'd be a lot fewer people sticking with it if she hadn't helped them through those awkward first sessions.

Fourth is regular writer Nicky Rea, also praising her ability to remain friendly and engage with people for ridiculously long periods at conventions where others would long since have succumbed to grouchiness. Never skimp on your Con score whatever your character concept as it's always useful.

Fifth is even more frequent writer Ed Greenwood, also praising her general friendliness and her ability to give good hugs in particular. Couldn't get away with doing that to strangers these days between pandemic social distancing and accusations of sexual harassment.


After all the eulogies, they still have a bunch of letters hashing out oversights for the Living Jungle. Shapeshifters gain AC bonuses for dexterity in human form only. Wizards get some choice of new spells after adventures, but the selections will remain pretty limited. Saru's racial bonuses to unarmed combat and the tumbling proficiency do indeed stack. Everyone except for Saru share a common language. Tribal bonus proficiencies do not bypass your usual class restrictions on weapons & armor, so they'll be useless to some classes. Keep sending them in, we'll keep on patching those loopholes.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 104: February 1995



part 3/5



Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Ed continues to have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of little plot hooks to make all the little villages of Turmish interesting places to visit. The buried treasure of Banthar, another former bandit stronghold where people stashed away their ill-gotten gains and died before actually getting to use them. The comically named Bistal's Bottom, favored by worshippers of Oghma because of a cave that imparts hidden lore at the cost of being teleported somewhere random on the planet. This just means more opportunity for adventure as long as you're decently prepared. Centaur Bridge, which has a nearby abandoned mansion full of ghostly monsters, so make sure you're equipped to deal with the incorporeal. The hilltop village of Dauntshield, another place that's seen better times, and probably has some brigand treasure buried nearby. The prosperous town of Gildenglade, where the elves carefully maintain a carbon neutral policy that ensures the health of the forest despite their main export being woodcarving. And finally, the small hamlet of Holdensword, built around an improbably large castle now only inhabited by Helmed Horrors. Clearing them out would give Name level characters a nice base to settle down in. Any of these could easily be expanded out to fill multiple sessions of exploration, and that's not counting the wandering monsters just getting between each of them. He continues to be able to pack in a ridiculous density of ideas in a couple of pages, with Bruce Heard's Mystara work in Dragon the only other writer coming close.



Dangers from the Dark Side: Vampires get everywhere, including Star Wars. Only here they drain your Force points rather than your blood. Yup, we're going into schlock horror territory as the PC's encounter something that mysteriously kills it's victims and leaves them spiritual voids. Will they jump to the right conclusion and be prepared to fight it, or cling to foolish rationality like Han Solo and believe they're still in a sci-fi setting until it's too late? Don't waste your time with garlic or crosses, because they do nothing against this galaxy's superpredator. If your GM's tastes run more to slasher movies, beware Warkin, a wookie that has embraced the Dark Side and can meld with shadows to disappear and then pop up again in improbable places. Without any moral compunctions to hold him back, his wookie strength and claws are easily able to rip a normal human to shreds. If there are any wookie PC's in the group, they'll have heard of him and feel honorbound to foil his depredations. To finish this off, they then detail three new force powers exclusively for dark siders. The ability to create and command force wraiths, so you can have insubstantial spies and assassins anywhere. The ability to rip a hole in the fabric of space and teleport, which you wouldn't think is inherently evil, but apparently star wars teleportation works on Event Horizon logic. And the ability to taint an object so light-siders suffer pain just from being near it and damage from touching it. This is why a group needs at least one non magic user to be a balanced team, so they can handle problems like this. This all feels like it should have been in the october issue, as it feels like a completely different genre to regular Star Wars material. Not unplayable, but the kind of thing you want to consider carefully before using if you want to maintain a consistent tone for your campaign and not turn it into a kitchen sink of fantasy stuff with a Star Wars veneer.