(un)reason
Legend
Polyhedron Issue 128: February 1998
part 1/5
32 pages. Here we are. Another year, another issue, another binary digit. Each new piece of information takes up increasing amounts of data because you have to use increasingly long codes to point to them. How do you comprehend that vast stream of facts and get some use out of it? If you take it all in unfiltered, will you become a god, or just go insane? Fittingly, the cover takes us to cyberspace in a very 90's style. Cables cables everywhere. Wifi is still just an infant idea slower and less reliable than plugging in and dealing with the tangle, desktops still dominate over laptops. Let's see what their vision of the future looks like in hindsight.
your 1nitiative: First letter understood the references in their christmas staff listing and just wants everyone to know that like Captain America did. Darmok & Jalad, beaming with pride.
Second wants some clarifications about the recent changes and their targets. Doubling the readership just gets them an annual. It'll take even more than that to get the regular release schedule back to monthly. Dungeon still has more than triple theirs and they're not even considering accelerating that yet.
Third wants to know the addresses of TSR writers and send fanmail. Yeah, we've had that request before. Turns out it's a bad idea, which is why they have a PO box you can send it to now, and they'll pass it on once they're reasonably sure it isn't something creepy.
Finally, someone who wants more spells and more Dragonlance stuff in general. The spells, you can buy an epic compendium of now. :teeth ting: For more Dragonlance stuff, they've got their own online newsletter just like the Trumpeter. Unfortunately, unlike the Trumpeter, this link has not survived the passage of time, so unless someone has saved them, we can't get to read them.
Notes From HQ: The editorial gets in on the theme, going hard on pointing out the benefits of embracing the online world. If you order tournaments online, you only need to do it a month before the start of the convention, although if it's an exclusive one that hasn't been approved yet, you still need to submit it for approval 6 months before, but just grabbing some prefab ones to fill out the lineup is now much quicker, and the system will automatically tell you if they've already been ordered somewhere near you to prevent clashes. If you're similarly punctual with submitting all the paperwork afterwards, you get a discount on your next order. Your rankings should update quicker and you can check them any time for free just by logging on. Presuming the whole thing doesn't crash of course. Yup, this is one area where the internet is an unambiguous improvement, at least until it becomes mandatory and they remove the non-online methods of contact entirely, leaving you stuck if the connection goes down. Then you may well wish you still had the good old post office or landline and wish you kept some of the old guard around who still know the old ways of running things.
Table Talk: The news this month is still firmly focussed on the decathlon and membership drive. They need more places running tournaments, more charity events, more volunteers in general. Contact them and let them know how you can help so they can delegate tasks appropriately. Then if you do, make sure you do the assignments on time, otherwise it'll result in a last minute scramble for someone else. They might be under management, but human nature remains the same, which means lots of apathetic people, many that mean well but forget or procrastinate on important tasks and a few working way too hard to make up for that. They might be able to get a few more reliable regulars and promote them to positions where they can do some good, but there'll still be plenty more passive consumers at the bottom of the pyramid.
part 1/5
32 pages. Here we are. Another year, another issue, another binary digit. Each new piece of information takes up increasing amounts of data because you have to use increasingly long codes to point to them. How do you comprehend that vast stream of facts and get some use out of it? If you take it all in unfiltered, will you become a god, or just go insane? Fittingly, the cover takes us to cyberspace in a very 90's style. Cables cables everywhere. Wifi is still just an infant idea slower and less reliable than plugging in and dealing with the tangle, desktops still dominate over laptops. Let's see what their vision of the future looks like in hindsight.
your 1nitiative: First letter understood the references in their christmas staff listing and just wants everyone to know that like Captain America did. Darmok & Jalad, beaming with pride.
Second wants some clarifications about the recent changes and their targets. Doubling the readership just gets them an annual. It'll take even more than that to get the regular release schedule back to monthly. Dungeon still has more than triple theirs and they're not even considering accelerating that yet.
Third wants to know the addresses of TSR writers and send fanmail. Yeah, we've had that request before. Turns out it's a bad idea, which is why they have a PO box you can send it to now, and they'll pass it on once they're reasonably sure it isn't something creepy.
Finally, someone who wants more spells and more Dragonlance stuff in general. The spells, you can buy an epic compendium of now. :teeth ting: For more Dragonlance stuff, they've got their own online newsletter just like the Trumpeter. Unfortunately, unlike the Trumpeter, this link has not survived the passage of time, so unless someone has saved them, we can't get to read them.
Notes From HQ: The editorial gets in on the theme, going hard on pointing out the benefits of embracing the online world. If you order tournaments online, you only need to do it a month before the start of the convention, although if it's an exclusive one that hasn't been approved yet, you still need to submit it for approval 6 months before, but just grabbing some prefab ones to fill out the lineup is now much quicker, and the system will automatically tell you if they've already been ordered somewhere near you to prevent clashes. If you're similarly punctual with submitting all the paperwork afterwards, you get a discount on your next order. Your rankings should update quicker and you can check them any time for free just by logging on. Presuming the whole thing doesn't crash of course. Yup, this is one area where the internet is an unambiguous improvement, at least until it becomes mandatory and they remove the non-online methods of contact entirely, leaving you stuck if the connection goes down. Then you may well wish you still had the good old post office or landline and wish you kept some of the old guard around who still know the old ways of running things.
Table Talk: The news this month is still firmly focussed on the decathlon and membership drive. They need more places running tournaments, more charity events, more volunteers in general. Contact them and let them know how you can help so they can delegate tasks appropriately. Then if you do, make sure you do the assignments on time, otherwise it'll result in a last minute scramble for someone else. They might be under management, but human nature remains the same, which means lots of apathetic people, many that mean well but forget or procrastinate on important tasks and a few working way too hard to make up for that. They might be able to get a few more reliable regulars and promote them to positions where they can do some good, but there'll still be plenty more passive consumers at the bottom of the pyramid.