TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[el-remmen]

Dungeon Magazine Issue 52: Mar/Apr 1995



part 3/5



Welcome to the Krypthome: :sighs heavily: I guess it is april. Time for one of those comedy adventures filled with whimsical NPC's seemingly designed to test your patience to the limit because you can't just slaughter them all without taking an alignment hit. A wild mage has set up home in a forest, and his experiments are racking up an increasing number of oddities in the surrounding area. A pair of goblins found the secret entrance to his treasure room while he was out and have stolen a bunch of magical items. They've then used them to kidnap a dwarf and send a ransom note. His friends obviously don't want to pay that, and ask the next set of wandering adventurers for help. If you accept, you have to deal with the comic relief prattling of the dwarves along the way, the tricks and traps of the goblins when they get there, an upside-down waterfall, moss that honks when you touch it, multiple jump scares that have no real danger at the end, and if you get through all that and stick around afterwards, the eccentricities of the wizard when he does finally come home. Basically, nearly every single thing in this is saccharinely whimsical to the point where I can feel my teeth ache just looking at it. It's not a railroad, so that puts it above either incarnation of the caves of confection, but it still makes me roll my eyes repeatedly. Only for using with very little kids who'll still be amused by this kind of comedy.



The Hurly-Burly Brothers: As should instantly be apparent from the title, this one also has definite comedic elements. A pair of ogres have found themselves in possession of a Quaal's feather token that turns into a Roc, a crumbling tower, and a giant scorpion. They've put the scorpion at the bottom, rigged up a net and rope mechanism to slowly lower people into the scorpion pit, and are now going to grab some passers-by in the Roc's claws and put them in said deathtrap, then watch and laugh as their victims die horribly. Basically, a Batman '66 or James Bond scenario where one of the PC's gets captured and has to figure out how to escape the deathtrap, or at least stall proceedings enough for their friends to catch up, only unlike in the movies your last-minute escape isn't a foregone conclusion. Less irritating than the previous adventure, but still only one for the more theatrical DM who can get the players into the right spirit by going full ham with the roleplaying of the ogre brothers. It's also only a single encounter, so don't use it thinking it'll last the whole session and have other stuff prepared for afterwards. Since it's the kind of thing that you can use nearly anywhere when they're travelling between more intentional adventures, that shouldn't be too hard. Overall, neither good nor terrible.

Both of these sound great to me! I think the goofier elements can be downplayed while keeping a lighthearted spirit that can be a needed break from grimdark drudgery or vanilla treasure hunts.

 

[Richards]

The Hurly-Burly Brothers: ... It's also only a single encounter, so don't use it thinking it'll last the whole session and have other stuff prepared for afterwards.

That's exactly what I did when I ran this adventure, following it up with "Pakkalilir" from this same issue.

Johnathan

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Magazine Issue 52: Mar/Apr 1995



part 4/5



My Lady's Mirror: So we've reached our first sequel adventure since issue 17's return of Flame. Turns out we're returning to the scenario of secretive highlander style immortals amongst us from issue 42, whiling away the centuries with their machinations until it all goes a bit pear-shaped. You thought all of them had died in the last adventure, but there's always one who escaped notice, or drank the potion of immortality later than the others so it hasn't worn off yet, or some even more implausible plot contrivance to ensure there's always another story for adventurers to get involved with. Once again it's time to investigate a large castle filled with weirdness, some of which is hostile and some of which you shouldn't fight, but which is which is not always clear, as there's a lot of plot threads going on at once. Thankfully, making it a sequel means they can spend less time on the exposition text and more time on the actual meat of the adventure, so although they're about the same page count there's more rooms and more action in this one. So this turns out to be an improvement on the first in a similar way Wrath of Khan is to The Motion Picture, not losing the atmosphere entirely, but speeding up getting to the parts that are actually useful for the DM when running the adventure rather than wasting it on stuff that looks pretty, but will probably never be seen in actual play. From that perspective, if you've already got through the first one it would be a waste not to use this one with the same group as well. Even without the other one it still works decently as a stand-alone adventure. I have no problem with this, so the only big question is if there'll be any further follow-ups, and if so, will it be the odd-numbered ones that suck?

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Magazine Issue 52: Mar/Apr 1995



part 5/5



Laughing Man: The final short adventure sounds like it might be a comedy one as well, but turns out to be deadly serious for the players. A man was shot in the back of the head while laughing, and became a unique ghost who's laughter also has a banshee-like save or die effect. He's spent the past few years tormenting the man who killed him, who has also become a unique ghost unable to pass on until someone else takes ownership of the Fang of the Nosferatu, a deeply annoying magic item that should be familiar to Ravenloft players. Now the two are locked in a cycle of one trying to give the dagger away, and the other ruining it by ghostly mischief, or if that fails, just manifesting, laughing and making everyone save or die, which tends to sabotage the deal even if some of the potential customers survive. There's plenty of potential for interesting roleplaying in this encounter, but sooner or later, you're going to have to fight one of the two, and many of the group may die or wind up ageing several decades. Then if you win, you have the question of what to do with the dagger, because taking it is a bad idea, and just leaving it lying on the ground where anyone could pick it up even worse. Maybe you could build a dungeon full of traps and ominous warnings in every known language around it, defer the problem for a few generations. Or go on an epic quest to find out how to destroy it permanently. It's all pretty brutal, so don't use it unless you've got players which are emotionally prepared to deal with an encounter that doesn't pull it's punches and may leave them permanently weakened even if they survive, then screw with them further if they aren't careful when they win. Don't want them ragequitting because being several decades older or a slave to vampiric hungers messes up their character concept or something.



Some of these adventures are jokey and some aren't, but they're all quite plot-heavy and 2e feeling, with the plots more important than the mechanics and some very unbalanced stuff being allowed through as a result. People who take the ideas and use them in entirely different systems will probably get something out of this, but for ones that prefer the 1e or 3e ways of writing adventures, this'll be pretty unsatisfying. I guess D&D is a wide church. Let's move on and see which section of the choir the next issue is preaching too, and if the gods involved deserve to have been forgotten.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 106: April 1995



part 1/5



32 pages. Just some dwarves, forging some weapons. A pretty familiar scene to any long-term adventurer, particularly if you're of a race with a longer than human lifespan. Time to see if said weapon has any particularly interesting powers inside, or merely the normal benefits of reliable skilled craftsmanship.



Notes from HQ: Winter Fantasy continues to be a place where TSR tries out new things with slightly less pressure than the enormous crowds of Gen Con. The Living Jungle's first adventure did quite nicely here, contrasting with the outside weather. The Spellfire and Blood Wars CCG's also had plenty of players, reminding us that TSR did actually get decent sales of these, and only lost money on them by expecting them to be even bigger smashes and overprinting. They don't neglect the old school either, with events for Desperado, Allies & Axis and Dawn Patrol attracting more people that you'd expect. They gave out prizes for last years's decathlon, although obviously not all the winning teams involved attended. This one all seems to have gone pretty smoothly, with even the weather being unusually nice for the time of year. Another reminder that RPG's as a whole continued to grow over the 90's even as TSR started to struggle. If I'm lucky we'll even get to see some of that in here after the point where Dragon went all D&D.



Forgotten Deities: Like last issue, the god this time is dead, but someone else has stepped into the empty space and started granting the spells to keep the cult going. Ibrandul, also known as the skulking god or lord of the dry depths. (which implies another god of the underground seas where aboleth and the like lurk) Both underdark monsters and more morally ambiguous adventurers worshipped him, but unfortunately not enough of either, which meant he was weak enough that Shar could kill him and take his stuff during the Time of Troubles. Since she's a full-powered god rather than some rando marilith, this does not end tragically for her, and her new worshippers get gradually integrated with her orthodox church over the next few decades. Their unique tricks include general abilities to navigate and survive underground, creating fire lizard servants, and becoming increasingly scaly themselves as they gain levels, which also explains why they never became a particularly mainstream church, because it's hard to proselytise when you avoid the light and get all innsmouth lookish. Another interesting little story of the Realms' past that might still play a part in adventures today, albeit with a different flavour to Ed's own writing, more concerned with the big picture than all the little flavour details. Gods are far less regional than adventure hooks for every specific village, so they're more likely to get used in actual play.



Letters: Our first letter is from the charity CARC, their latest recipient of a benefit fundraiser. The mentally handicapped of Chicago's carers can relax that their support network isn't going to just disappear, this year at least. Looking them up, I'm mildly surprised that they're still going and their name hasn't been changed by the turning of the euphemism treadmill in the intervening decades.

The second letter is another newbie who wants to start playing in the Living City but isn't sure of the rules. Just make a character that sticks to the point buy rules and turn up, we'll put it in the database afterwards. No, you can't have any psionics though, not even in a special auction, as that would be favouritism. They do have a map, but it's rather out of date now, so they're going to do a new one with much more detail giving locations to the many places that have appeared in the newszine over recent years. Don't touch that dial!

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 106: April 1995



part 2/5



Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Ed takes his alphabetical tour of Turmish villages from M-O, indicating that there's still several more columns to come on this topic. The very Tolkienesque Merrydell, filled with toy-making demihumans and houses covered with ornate decorations. Somewhere amongst this chocolate box of ornamentation is a key that opens the box containing the spellbooks of Meldarth the Mighty. Openly parkouring over people's houses in search of it will probably not be viewed kindly though. The hillside town of Moonhunt Down, home of the tomb of the Lord of Rubies. Bringing out all the rubies he's supposed to have amassed in one go would destabilise the economy and crash their price, so probably best not to do that. The town of Nonafel, another one founded by a wizard who's treasure cache remains unlooted because it's packed with teleportation traps, so one false step means months getting back here even if you survive the dangers wherever you're sent, and what adventurer has that much patience? Finally, the relatively easy Obelner's Well, where all you need to do is find the hidden tunnels leading off from said well. Better pick a time when the water level is low to try or be able to breathe it if you want to find everything. While individually these are still good, they're definitely starting to get repetitive, with different wizards using basically the same tricks in different places. You can have too much of a good thing, and I think I'm hitting that point here.



In a Strange Land: We take a break from the Realms to go back to a literary source of adventure hooks. Gulliver's Travels has already inspired many a giant or tiny creature based adventure, even if the size differential is usually toned down for the sake of mechanical balance. Here we look at the second half instead, and what interesting adventures could be had in the lands of the Laputans or Hounyhnhnms. A flying city where the inhabitants have grown decadent and lazy, obsessed with abstract philosophy and scientific experiments, forgetting how the technology that brought them supremacy was created? There's a lot of adventure potential in that, even if you remove the specific parody elements where Swift pokes fun at english culture, university academics and colonialism. A land full of sentient horses and dumb humans also has it's adventure hooks, as even though they might consider themselves superior beings to any biped, there are still things hands can do that hooves and mouths can't, so they might have to trade with outsiders if it's too complex to train the Yahoos to do them. A breath of fresh air against the background of recent issues that are nearly all Living setting material and regular columns by regular writers. They still don't get that many reader submissions compared to Dragon or Dungeon do they. So while this may still be humorous, it's a better pedigree of whimsy than most of their adventures, and a better implementation than Dungeon trying to do Shakespeare. A few more like it would not go amiss.

 

[Davies]

The town of Nonafel, another one founded by a wizard who's treasure cache remains unlooted because it's packed with teleportation traps, so one false step means months getting back here even if you survive the dangers wherever you're sent, and what adventurer has that much patience?

... one who routinely preps a teleportation spell of their own for just that eventuality?

 

[(un)reason]

... one who routinely preps a teleportation spell of their own for just that eventuality?

That's still a pretty effective form of level gating on a dungeon, going from every false move meaning a massive trek just to try again to just needing a day's break to rememorize your teleport spell.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 106: April 1995



part 3/5



Bugging the Hunters: Greg Detwiler isn't quite as prolific as Ed, but then again who is. He's still made many contributions over the years, and here's another interesting one. More Bughunters monsters for the Amazing Engine? Probably won't see any more of those so this is very welcome.

Anglers are basically a more serious wolf in sheep's clothing, shaping their tentacles into something people are likely to pick up, which then turns out to be sticky, so they can pull you in and eat you. Nothing an experienced dungeon-crawler will be surprised by.

Danglers stick inconspicuously to ceilings, and then grab you with their arms and eat you. Another one who's effectiveness is heavily dependent on surprise and the right kind of terrain, because with low ceilings and good light, you'll have no trouble fighting them, but in caves where they can reach you but you can only attack their arms they can put a real crimp in your day.

Gulpers are giant salamanders that lurk in swamps and swallow you whole. More mundane than the last two, but still nothing to take lightly, particularly if you're heavily armored and can't float, limiting your manoeuvrability in that terrain.

Hexapod Horrors are more overt battle forces, combining the worst aspects of beetles and praying mantises in a three meter long, heavily armored package. If you don't break out the heavy artillery, odds of survival seem slim.

Killer Stars are massive starfish with vicious maws. They can operate in air or water, but are deadlier underwater. Even if your forces pacify the land on a new planet, dealing with stealth attacks from the seas will be a problem for a long time.

Musties are intelligent bipedal weasels with powerful spike guns that don't work with human fingers. The first of these things that could theoretically be persuaded to switch sides, they're still bloodthirsty carnivores and hyperactive annoying ones at that, which would try the patience of most PC's trying to keep them pointed in the right direction. At least Kender only steal stuff due to their alien mindsets.

Nukers are massive, three-turreted intelligent tank robots that are some of the Shaper's biggest guns. The kind of challenge it takes tactics and a whole platoon to fight, as they're fast, smart and have long range blasting attacks. Your odds as a clone in the trenches don't look good.

Rauisuchid unsurprisingly resemble the earthly dinosaur, only bigger and nastier, able to swallow man-sized things whole. The Shapers might not be able to violate the laws of physics enough to create Godzilla, but they're going to give it a good college try.

Sharkskippers combine sharks and mudskippers, creating a vicious leaping fish that's good at jumping onto boats and nomming on the sailors. If you aren't prepared to shoot them out of the air first jump you can rapidly find yourself swarmed and skeletonised.

Sirens use psychic powers to hypnotise and draw people in range of their tentacles, so blocking out sight or hearing won't protect you from their call. There's no counter developed by the military yet, so you'll have to do your best to figure one out yourself or lose a lot of clones in the process. This game is a lot more brutal than D&D became over the years.

Giant Tardigrades aren't very fast, but their claws are pretty nasty and they're nearly impossible to kill by force, temperature based attacks or starvation. If there's lots of them in an area it's best to retreat and wait for them to go into hibernation again then seal it up.

UFO's turn out to be more Shaper creations in this system, floating sky jellyfish things that drain anything electrical and making fighting other beasties even harder without your high-tech gear. Lasers will just make them stronger so you'd better have some actual missiles available to have a chance at fighting them.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 106: April 1995



part 4/5



Video Drone: Another attempt at a video review column? Interesting. As usual when it's an entirely new set of people, they do it all differently, a different title, a four point scoring system instead of the old 5 star one, and a different format where two people give their contrasting opinions on the same film. TSR's fiction editor Brian Thomsen and his wife Donna will be your Siskel & Ebert on this journey. Will they be covering ground James did already, and if so, how different will their opinions be?

The Puppetmasters is a recent adaption of the Heinlein story, basically invasion of the body snatchers, only a secret government organisation is aware of the aliens and figuring out how to strike back, with Donald Sutherland getting a little typecast in the lead role. It's shot more like a spy/action thriller than a horror movie, while Brian likes, but Donna is ambivalent about. I guess hunting evil with the help of cool technology is a fairly male power fantasy.

Bodysnatchers: The Invasion remakes the old classic, but with a very 90's naming convention to make it more edgy and contemporary sounding. This time, they're on a military base instead of a small or large town, which changes things in a fairly interesting way. A pretty decent updating to modern (at the time) production values. Now all we need is a white wolf licence. (or just hack Demon: the Fallen to do the job.)

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1956) was covered by James in the old review column just a year ago, so I'm slightly surprised to see them rehashing it. Brian mildly prefers the two new versions of the story, while Donna thinks nothing tops the B&W ambience of the original for inspiring nightmares.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) also gets re-reviewed here. While not a complete loss, both Thomsens agree that this is the weakest of these four movies, mainly of interest for people who like to compare & contrast like them. You can probably skip it without feeling you're missing much.



Gothic Heroes: In the World of Darkness, most famous people are not vampires, wizards, or stalwart heroes fighting against the forces of darkness, but remain ignorant, although they might be mind-controlled behind the scenes by memory erasure or posthypnotic suggestions. Gothic Earth has none of that tasteful restraint. Harry Houdini? He has genuine magical talent. Tesla? A descendent of Frankenstein using the same techniques for the cause of good. Edison? A powerful mind devoted to the betterment of mankind and totally not a plagiarist. Meanwhile Fahreda Mahzar, aka Little Egypt, an exotic dancer at the same trade fair as these three? A succubus, there to lure men to their doom and trap their souls for all eternity to power her magic. So this not only shows the dated attitudes of the 1890's, but the 1990's as well, being extremely pro scientist and anti sex worker and not afraid to blatantly alter history to fit that agenda. I guess I shouldn't be surprised with the TSR code of conduct in force, but it is a reminder just how much attitudes have changed since the rise of the internet and the increase in diverse voices having large platforms that followed. It's interesting reading to see what they've done with the people, and how it differs from other real world with hidden supernatural settings, but also comes off as both cheesy and overly conservative by modern standards. Even back in the 90's, there were better alternatives, and TSR was chasing trends rather than setting them in this field.



Weasel Games: What is this, bring your wife to work month? Having mentioned her several times in previous columns, Lester gets his wife Jennifer to give her perspective on his behaviour and why she sticks around anyway. Initially she tried to be the straight woman and play things fairly, but after a while of putting up with him she snapped. Not having any hope of actually beating the more experienced weasel, she instead goes for the kamikaze approach, doing something that isn't optimal for winning, but sabotages the play of someone else. (often him ) and enjoying the chaos that causes. Sometimes, doing the suboptimal but unexpected thing even wins the game as a whole. Another demonstration of game theory where the lesson part is pretty small, and most of the entertainment is in the actual play stories. Having fun is more important than winning in a game, and if one person wins all the time, other people will either change their standards of success or stop playing. Best not to make them lower their standards so far that it stops being fun for you as well.