TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

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.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 128: February 1998



part 2/5



Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Ed is not embracing the digital world, preferring to keep his communiques strictly to letter or irl, which co-incidentally is also the name of this month's spotlighted village. They're particularly notable for being a hotbed for gem mining, including lots of ioun stones and other magical sparklies. While not every family there is rich, there are many that are very rich indeed. This leads to lots of conspiracy theories about what they actually do with all that money, why they stick to small-town life instead of constructing massive mansions or moving away, as well as why the place itself isn't larger. I guess they must like it that way. Once you reach a certain level of wealth that you and your family can be comfortable and secure in perpetuity, why waste it on flashy stuff that won't make you any happier? Anyone who's in thrall to the capitalist ideals of constant growth and ostentatious consumption simply wouldn't understand that mindset. So this is one that almost seems too nice, particularly in the rough and tumble border kingdoms. Until some sucker sends an army to conquer it, at which point they break out the laser shooting floating jewels and hordes of ultrapowerful golems, kick the asses of the invaders and use the more subtle levers of wealth to economically cripple the offending country for decades. It's like Ian M Banks's The Algebraist all over again. This definitely seems like a place where a more sneaky group of adventurers could pull off a heist and come away with a nice profit, but doing so repeatedly would rapidly increase the odds of picking a target out of your league and facing the consequences, because they have a lot of resources that they can bring to bear to protect their relaxed communal lifestyle. Another example of the things only he can manage, making a place nice without being weak or boring. I wish more of the adventures in here & Dungeon would at least try to thread that needle.



City Stories: The irregular series on temples continues by looking at Tyr, god of justice. In a world like this, justice is meaningless without the strength to back it up, so this is another temple that has it's own armory, training grounds and all the other stuff needed to train and equip paladins to go out and fight for what's right. But once caught, they also need to be able to properly assess guilt or innocence and proper punishment, so there's also more emphasis on book learning than Tempus or Helm, with writings by various notables stretching back a good 600 years. As usual, they have a nice full-page map of the temple, a description of the most important NPC's, and some stuff on their customs and day-to-day life there. It all presents a picture of a stable place that's been doing this for a long time and is well integrated into the community. There's just one big problem with this, as they made a big deal in the Trumpeter a couple of months ago about how the high priest had been possessed and the whole thing was infiltrated by Mask worshippers, forcing them to tear down, rebuild and reconsecrate the temple when it was uncovered. So this is an instance where the two articles are both decent enough on their own, but put together are a big editorial fail, showing that they aren't checking and co-ordinating what's being published in polyhedron and the online newsletter. If people aren't aware of the big metaplot developments, they might as well have not happened. Put so closely together, it all seems very sloppy. That should inspire some complaining letters in the near future.



Welcome to Star*Drive: The era of Alternity is upon us again. No surprise that they're trying to promote it here as well, hopefully get a Living setting going if they can get you guys to actually contribute. So here's one of your system free setting synopses to get interest up. The Year is 2501. Humanity has spread to the stars, which is a ridiculously vast area to explore, so we'll focus on a particular region with half a dozen PC-suitable species called the Verge. There's a high ratio of inhabitable planets here, which we get a whistle-stop tour of. Do you want to settle a garden world, terraform a barren one, seek your fortune, get involved in politics, or just pack off to fight in one of the simmering little wars that threaten to break out as soon as people have recovered from the last big one. It's all very colonial era writ large, as galactic civilisation isn't joined up at all and there's lots of competition for the best currently unsettled bits. Unlike their previous attempts at sci-fi, this is very much designed so you can play D&D IIIIINNNN SPAAAAACEEEE!!!!!, complete with lots of opportunity for killing and taking of stuff if that's your bag. We shall have to see if the Living adventures stick to that formula or anyone tries something a little more progressive with them.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 128: February 1998



part 3/5



The New Face of the Enemy: Play by Mail games have never been the primary focus of Dragon or Polyhedron, but they have been a persistent undercurrent right back to the very earliest days of roleplaying, another offshoot from their wargaming ancestors. Their popularity has always been limited by the time and expense needed to play them, with each turn taking a week or even a month and every action costing money you need quite a particular mindset to persist and derive pleasure from playing. But with the internet, you can exchange letters pretty much as fast as people can write them, and send them to as many people as you want at no extra cost. This has led to a massive boom of new players, particularly at the RPG end of the field rather than the wargamey one, where you can have extended conversations in a naturalistic fashion and don't have to wait for everyone to make a move before you can go to the next turn. There's almost definitely some grognards grumbling about all the storygamers coming in ruining everything, :cough:nisarg:cough: but that just shows the more things change, the more they stay the same. An interesting little article that's quite heavy on links, which unfortunately are all dead now apart from the one to rpg.net, showing just how much technology changes gaming, but also how ephemeral things on the internet can be. Our current forums only stretch back to 2002, so any PbP games that were running back then are now lost to the ages. If you really value the stories you told then, I hope you copied the text and saved it in a local copy.



Character Generation Software: Last article had more than a few dead links in it, but this one is even more frustratingly dated, as the downloads of character generation software for various systems they link to would in theory still be useful now if you could get your hands on them. 5 AD&D ones of various quality levels, 3 much better ones for Shadowrun, Earthdawn & GURPS, evidently their creators have more passion for what they do, a purely generic one, and an entirely online one that doesn't work for them, because Java applets aren't particularly reliable. Another interesting example of how the internet is creating communities sharing game material, sometimes selling it even if their legal right to do so is dubious. Which companies embrace the web straight away, which ignore it and which try to stomp on online fanworks and the effect that had on their long-term fortunes is a particularly interesting bit of history that I hope someone was keeping notes on and might make into a book someday.



Robots For Dummies: Now there's a series I wasn't expecting them to parody in here. But looking it up, the for dummies books have been going since 1991 and sold well right from the start, so it's an entirely valid cultural reference for the era, although they won’t get around to covering D&D until 2005. Anyway, here's a lighthearted, system free look at how robots work, applicable to games from Paranoia to Star Wars to Shadowrun. They vary widely in size and sophistication, but all are programmed to obey and be helpful … as long as you know how to give orders correctly. Watch out for boot times, bugs, viruses, need for software updates at inconvenient times, overzealous following of one order at the expense of everything else and people who know the emergency override passwords, turning your loyal servant against you. If you're a regular consumer of genre media all of these should be pretty familiar tropes, so this is more a brief refresher than anything hugely educational. But I'm sure there are some younger readers who'll actually learn something from it. They are trying hard to increase their membership at the moment, so they can't aim everything at cynical long-term readers like me who can predict the patterns in stories fairly accurately before they even start.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 128: February 1998



part 4/5



Virtual Seattle Player Package: Several years later, Virtual Seattle still has a small but dedicated player base, but the Heintz's have grown tired of all the admin stuff and want to be able to enjoy just playing again, so they're handing the lead developer role to Wes Nicholson. who plans to keep the basic tone of things the same, but obviously has to keep up with the flow of supplements and decide which bits are allowed. Betaware is currently only allowed if you get hold of it in adventures, not to buy, although it will eventually go into regular circulation after a big metaplot adventure later this year. Initiation is allowed, but only slowly, so don't think you can blow all your karma on it to the exclusion of everything else. Yes, you can pre-conjure elementals before a run unless it specifically drops you into the trouble cold. No we aren't going to implement certificates for everything like Living City, unless we get bigger or someone really makes it necessary by abusing the system. (but stay honest on your character sheet please) You can buy new spells & gear between adventures but more complex downtime activities would also require us getting bigger and having more volunteers to handle the admin. Unlike the real world reorganisation the RPGA is going through, the changes to this setting look pretty gentle and incremental. There may be a little power creep due to technological changes, but probably less than in the real world, where computers get orders of magnitude more powerful year on year. After all, we don't have anyone revising the rules to make them more balanced if someone figures out how to exploit them.



It's Technical Billy: We continue to try to catch up with all the things they missed over the last year, with the winners of the competitions for sidekicks and tech devices. Let's see if they managed to get anything particularly ingenious.

Kishiko Masamoto is your basic adorable little girl who’s been trained from birth to be a ruthless cyborg ninja assassin by her megacorp executive adoptive father, who carefully makes sure he’s the only person in her life who ever shows her any kindness. Convincing her that he really only sees her as a tool and would sacrifice her life to save his own seems difficult but more rewarding than just killing her. Getting her to add lesbian stripper to her job title even moreso. But how many Shadowrun teams have a face man that skilled in social engineering?

Personal Universal Translators are Star Wars’ attempt at babel fish. But although they might translate the words, they won’t provide the context and diplomatic phrasing a good protocol droid would apply. Let’s hope you have enough cultural knowledge to figure out which type of trap the Berrite ambassador is warning you about.



Dragonlance 5th Age Contest Winners: Continuing straight on from last article, it looks like they did get enough 5th age submissions to make the contest meaningful. Good to see at least a few people were won over by their attempt at a more narrative focussed game.

The Toenail Of Chaos is a shiny toenail shaped rock that does indeed cause chaos wherever it goes. It’s attached itself to a Kender village, and is proving impossible to get rid of or destroy whatever they try. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch of whimsical kleptomaniacs. See how they like the boot being on the other foot.

The Chaos Cloud, on the other hand, just pops up anywhere and also causes random changes to anything caught in it. Better hope it doesn’t just roll around you in the middle of the night so you have a chance to avoid it. That’s a definite downside of a more narrative game, encouraging the DM to pull stuff like this without so much as a saving throw. In the hands of a bad one, who knows what they’d do to you without a chance to resist.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 128: February 1998



part 5/5



Powers That Be: As they said he would a few months ago, Eric Boyd hops from Toril to Oerth to give them a little more spotlight time. Certain WotC staff were big Greyhawk fans back in the day, so they're bringing the setting back even if it wasn't the most financially successful previous times around. (in sharp contrast to most of their more pragmatically driven changes) The format remains the same, but unlike their more successful counterpart they aren’t delving into new hidden lore, just talking about already well-known gods, at least to anyone who already cared about the setting. So it looks like this is more outreach to the people who don’t already know about Greyhawk than new lore for the hardcore, as Polyhedron has never really had much in the way of Greyhawk stuff before.

The first god picked is Boccob. Gods of magic are a pretty popular choice for adventurers, as they’re generally pretty powerful while also being less morally restrictive than the average god. This is even more true of Boccob than Mystra as he seems a pretty detached deity to the average man on the street. Worship him and you can pretty much do what you like as long as part of that involves seeking magical knowledge. (and with enough magical knowledge, you can accomplish nearly any other goal more easily, so it’s win-win) There is a catch though. For all his knowledge and power, even he can’t stop entropy and he sees a future in which magic gradually declines in power until it can only do a fraction of what it used to, (which looking at magic in 4 & 5e compared to older editions has already come true ) then is eventually forgotten for mundane technology. The higher level you become as a cleric of his, the more likely you are to become aware of that and be sucked into his eternal attempts to turn or at least slow the tide, which may lead to existential despair for a mortal mind. There’s a reason his ascended archmage assistant Zagyg is called The Mad, after all. So this has a decent amount of atmosphere even if it’s plot hooks are a bit high level for most parties, reminding us that Greyhawk is a darker and more neutral-aligned setting than the Forgotten Realms, with fewer neat novel-mandated happy endings. You can still gain high level, tons of magic items and even immortality as an adventurer, but the world itself remains less cozy & caring and in the end it’s all going to fall apart or be destroyed by Tharizdun. Will you stick with it anyway and try to make it a better place or head off to other planes of existence when you get the power?



Play. Test.: For many years, the lack of playtesting in even official TSR adventures, let alone ones used in magazines and tournaments was a running joke. This is one of the most obvious things that WotC looked at and decided had to change ASAP. That means you too RPGA! Living City modules now require at least one certificated playtest with feedback scores averaging 7 or better before they're approved for general release. Other Living settings don't have the number of submissions to be quite so strict, but they'll also be encouraging more playtesting for those and one-shot adventures as well. On the player side, you can gain XP for doing so as well, so volunteer now and save others from terrible writing and sloppy mechanics! This is a development I definitely have no problem with, given the number of adventures I've slated in here. I guess it won't stop ones that are just linear and boring from appearing, but just weeding out the worst bits of poorly thought out writing is still a step in the right direction. Now they just need a new system built from the ground up with tighter rules to really make their higher standards make sense.



Another issue full of updates and changes, reminding us that their hiatus came just when the internet was massively exploding in popularity, bringing all kinds of little changes to the world around at the same time. That means they're putting lots of effort into taking advantage of those opportunities, because they really don't want to fall behind again and be cancelled for good. Looks like it might be a while longer before they find some kind of regular routine. This continues to be pretty interesting reading for me then. Time to see what they get around to doing next issue and if it'll feel long overdue.

 

[(un)reason]

The Raven's Buff Trumpeter 2-2: February 1998



5 pages. Religion continues to be both the cause of and the solution to much of the Living City's problems. The gaggle of evil cultists seeking the Heart of Bane have mostly been arrested, but the temple of Lliira is facing all kinds of trouble. They managed to win a place on the clerical Circle through their heroic actions in the war, which has led to much bitchiness from followers of Sune and Sharess who think they deserve one as well. Spend a bit more time building yourself up and less trying to cut rivals down and maybe you'll have a chance. They also had to fend off attempted theft during their recent costume ball by one of the several alu-fiends that recently married adventurers. Everyone knew that was a bad idea! But some idiots believed they could be redeemed by the power of love or were just too horny to consider the consequences. Who knows what other problems they'll cause before the city authorities get fed up of it and have to organise something to root them all out. In more positive news, at least one attempt at redemption is working out so far, as a priestess of Talos was persuaded to turn over a new leaf and switch to worshipping Lathander by adventurers rather than simply killing her. Let's hope that's not also a long con that'll lead to further newsworthy events.

There is still a fair amount of more secular news though. It looks like there might be an adventure involving an extended underdark trip brewing, and Lord Blacktree is looking for volunteers. Do you think you're tough enough to go without the sun for weeks or months at a time? Or would you prefer to stick closer to home and make the roads safer again, as apparently bandits are proliferating even though the war is over. That's often a problem when you have lots of ex-military people who can't find a regular job. And the wizard's guild is building a new larger facility, which I'm sure will be of great concern to the neighbours. Let's hope it lasts a few years before being blown up by some experiment gone wrong. Even back to business as usual is still pretty busy compared to most places.



Living City Q&A: Does Living City use Chance to learn spells & max number knowable by intelligence? (yes)

Are multiple enlarge spells cumulative? (no)

Can half-elves become crusaders? (if the specific god allows both those things as worshippers, absolutely)

Can Prayer buff Thorn Spray (yes, but not as much as you think, as the bonus is per target rather than per thorn)

Can priests change deities (yes, but it'll cost them, and their new employer may not trust them for quite some time)

Can non-elves cast spells in elven chain? (no)

Can Rangers two-weapon fight in Elven Chain (yes)

If a polymorphed creature gets pregnant, what species are the offspring? (this is too big a can of worms to deal with, so we're going to ban shapeshifted pregnancies entirely in Living campaigns. Wait until next edition, then you can stack templates to your heart's content in your home games)

Do I have to follow racial ability score minimums? (yes)

Do druids gain bonus XP for high enough ability scores? (yes)

Can multi-class clerics use weapons not normally allowed? (no, no and thrice no!)

Can you use multiple links from a chain of silver links in one round? (no)

How does multiclassing interact with the Chaos Spell's saving throws? (for now, the better option)

If you dual wield a weapon you're specialised in, do both get all the bonuses? (yes, if it's light enough to dual-wield in the first place)

What size of weapons can I dual-wield? (two light or one medium & one light. Or a katana & wakizashi because samurai are kewler than everyone else.)

Can non-specialty clerics cast the special spells from sourcebooks? (only if we allow specialty priests of that god)

Can priests of Moradin craft nonmagical weapons that hurt things only hurt by +1 weapons for the whole team? (no)

Can gnomes & dwarves use medium weapons one-handed? (dwarves yes, gnomes no)

Can dual-class fighter/clerics improve their punching proficiency further? (yes, but using the skill of both will cost XP until your new class exceeds your old one)

Can you still disrupt wizard's spellcasting even if they have a stoneskin up negating the damage? (yes)

How can I abuse polymorph other? (in as few ways as possible please)

If I'm dropped to negative HP and then healed to positive, can I get straight back in the fight? (no, you need a bit of bed rest first)

Can one PC raise another from the dead? (only during the same adventure they died. Otherwise you'll have to pay full market price at the temple.)

 

[(un)reason]

The Raven's Buff Trumpeter 2-3: March 1998



10 pages. The majority of the news is devoted to the noble classes attempting to reassert their dominance after being decimated by the war. The surviving houses are now under extra pressure to find suitable people to marry and produce new heirs. Maybe some up and coming adventurers would fit the bill and would relish the opportunity to marry into old money and improve their social status? Of course, there's also the question of what to do with those abandoned manors where no extant heirs are to be found, and what lurks within them. At least one family was engaged in demon summoning and secret sacrifices to evil gods, and even though it might have ended badly for them, that doesn't mean there aren't still dangers lurking in there for anyone trying to reclaim them. Once again, this seems like prime opportunities for adventurers to go in and make a difference.

The religious problems continue, but take up a smaller part of the wordcount this time. This time it's the temple of Lathander that's been unexpectedly destroyed by a very suspicious earthquake. Being optimistic sorts, they look on this as an opportunity to build a bigger, better one, and have employed a famous sembian architect to do the honors. Let's hope the people behind the destruction don't strike again and turn the whole thing into a mess of ever escalating costs. There's also the ongoing suspicion about the two establishments devoted to the worship of Sharess in the city. Would you want your kids going to her services? Do we really have the energy for that much hedonism? Even with the Code of Conduct gone, they're not going to immediately leap to encouraging pansexual orgies in the official FR books.



There's no OOC rules questions this issue. Instead, a full 7 pages are devoted to expanding the knightly orders and their specialist sub-orders. If you want to join any of these, now you have the full requirements, behavioural restrictions and benefits.

The Blood Guard are Griffin Knights who've finally earned their own griffin, although the admins reserve the right to disallow it in tournaments. They need to donate 10% of their income to the order, but get a 20% discount on weapons & armor, resistance to fear effects and cheap raising if they die on a mission. (as long as the body is recovered.)

Dove Emissaries take the pacifistic agenda of the order and promote it in foreign lands. This means they're unavailable for play for 3 months out of the year, but you can choose which months, so it'll only be a problem for the most prolific of tournamentgoers. They have fairly stiff requirements in terms of social proficiencies, but will get another bonus one when they qualify, plus a potion of extra-healing every mission instead of a regular strength one.

The Pillars of the Realm are servants of the Clerical Circle devoted to protecting and upholding religions in general, rather than any one faith. This means they have to support and protect all but the most obviously evil religions regardless of their personal feelings on them and settle disputes between them on top of the usual knightly stuff like tithing and going on specific missions. In return they get a bonus ancient religion proficiency, discount access to magical healing at any temple and a token of faith that gives a slim second chance at saving throws.

Golden Crown Roosters are an upgrade path from the regular ones that doesn't require them to switch to a whole different order. If you've spent at least a year as one already, have at least 100,000xp and have generally proved yourself not only heroic but also actively promoted & recruited for the order, you get a neat badge and your own room with an actual bath, so you don't have to wait for the communal ones to be free to stay clean & shiny-armored. Oh, the luxury.

Knights of the Hawk are trained as undercover agents to protect Raven's Bluff against more subtle threats. This means they aren't bound to the same kind of obvious code of honor as other knighthoods, but still need to be ready to adopt any guise and go anywhere at a moment's notice to fulfil assignments and keep full records of their actions so their superiors can judge if they were justified afterwards. They get an appropriately sneaky bonus proficiency, contacts in law enforcement and the right to order their martinis shaken, not stirred as a reward.

The Keepers of the Mystic Flame are a somewhat mistrusted secret society devoted to protecting arcane magic from misuse. Considering part of the initiation is swearing a magically enforced oath that results in instant death if you reveal the secrets of the order to outsiders, they'll probably remain misunderstood even with current attempts to improve their image. They do get a couple of interesting minor magic items for joining, their own secret language and room & board at the temple of Mystra though so I guess high risk, high reward. Hopefully some players like that kind of style enough to apply.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 67: Mar/Apr 1998



part 1/5



80 pages. Scarecrows with pumpkin heads? In april? At this latitude? Localised entirely within your cornfield? Looks like they're failing at seasonality again due to the massive surplus of horror submissions. Let's see if there are any fresh ideas inside, or they'll be as rotten as autumn fruit by the time spring rolls around.



Letters is very small this time, with only two submissions, both sent via email. First praises them for doing a Dragonlance Saga adventure, but nitpicks how snow shoes actually work. When you live in Canada, you get plenty of first hand experience of these things.

Second talks about their favourite adventures of recent issues, favouring ones that are larger and involve traveling between multiple locations over one trick ponies. Got to keep them from getting bored as variety is the spice of life.



Editorial: When a magazine has been going for this long, it does get difficult not to repeat yourself. Chris talks about some of the most overdone creatures, that have appeared repeatedly in here and get even more disproportionate numbers of submissions. Evil wizards, liches, lycanthropes, vampires and especially dopplegangers, they just keep on coming, often being used in very similar ways. It's not that you should stop using them entirely, as after all, he's had adventures published featuring every single one of these, plus the equally cliched kobolds with traps, but if you do you need to be aware that you're being held to higher standards than if you use thouls or bhaergala and come up with a way to use them that isn't just an imitation of something we've seen before. Don't try to imitate his writing style to get published either. Chris knows he's awesome and is flattered that you would try, but you'll never be him, so work harder on developing your own distinctive style. He continues to have a lot more tongue in cheek egotism than any previous editor, which makes for an interesting read, but also makes me worry at some point he'll start to believe his own hype.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 67: Mar/Apr 1998



part 2/5



Witches' Brew: As usual for the first adventure in an issue, they pick something that's conceptually fairly simple. You're hired by a wizard to gather potion ingredients. Can you get hold of baneberries, black peat bog tar, shrieking mandrake root and deadly nightshade and get them back to him while they're still fresh? Seems simple enough until you read up on your folklore. One can only be collected during the full moon, another only keeps it's magical potency if you don't let any moonlight touch it, and of course the mandrake shrieks can be lethal so you need some form of heavy duty ear protection. Things are already looking like a genuine logistical challenge to get them all in the right order. Then there's the witch of the title, who wants the ingredients for herself and will actively interfere in your attempts to gather them with increasing viciousness as the adventure goes on. (unless you decide to go kill her first and then sort out the ingredients afterwards, which might actually get things done quicker. ) Nothing original here, but it's a well put together sandbox that signposts what you need to solve the puzzles while also putting enough time pressure on you that you never feel like you're just wandering around aimlessly. Both the villagers and the monsters get a decent amount of flavour and while there is a default sequence of events it's easy enough to sequence break it if the players come up with an interesting plan instead of just reacting to immediate events. All in all, a pretty good start.



After many years of refusing to put any kind of dragonmirth analogue in here, they finally start including comics, which is a refreshing change to see. Familiar faces Swordplay riff on the whole witches' brew concept, but can't come up with a suitable rhyme to cast the right spell.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 67: Mar/Apr 1998



part 3/5



Side Treks - Eye of the Storm: There's a lot of profit to be made in solving problems you've created yourself. What better time to sell lightning rods to a village than when there's a huge storm a-comin'? They'll be too busy frantically fitting them to their houses to haggle over the price or question why someone with the equipment to save the day just happened to be passing. Unless a particularly paranoid group of PC's just happened to also be passing by at the same time. So what we have here is a double layered encounter with an obvious threat and method of solving it, and a second objective that the players might not even realise exists, instead thanking their "benefactor" and going on their way once the storm is over. A fairly interesting bit of writing that uses a rare subclass, introduces a new monster, and has two very different potential action scenes packed into three pages, this definitely doesn't feel like a rehash of a previous scenario and is definitely one I'd enjoy using.



Training Ground: They can't just do dungeon crawls filled with traps and puzzles anymore. They always have to come up with justifications why the place exists and why the PC's would want to go down there beyond the basic joy of killing things & taking their stuff to accumulate personal power & wealth that take up a significant percentage of the pagecount. Here's one where the tension between the 1e and 2e parts of the writing are particularly obvious. You have a tricky puzzle dungeon filled with traps, constructs and monsters that are in suspended animation until you enter their rooms so you don't have to worry about what they eat or where they go to the toilet. Then you have a secondary plot about how the Zhentarim (or other similar evil secret society in your campaign) want to get hold of all the stuff inside the dungeon. The PC's are alerted to this by a rather convoluted sequence of events in a nearby town, and hopefully engage with them enough to get involved. Of course where's there's one Zhent, there are probably more, and you'll encounter the remains of the previous party they sent in and quite possibly another one if you take too much time going through the dungeon. It's an awkward fit though. It all feels like the dungeon was created first then the plot elements were stapled on afterwards to fit the current fashions in adventure writing. The final result is an interesting read, but also rather clunky in a "how do you do, fellow kids" kinda way. There's more than enough good elements in here that I could get something out of it, but the whole package isn't one I'd just use as is.