TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 68: May/Jun 1998



part 2/5



The Artist's Loving Touch: In a fantasy world, one thing to be suspicious of is when a sculpture or painting is a little too perfect. How many times has it turned out that they were actually people directly trapped in the form of artwork by magic instead of the product of a keen eye and much painstaking work with your hands? Romero Selejian is the latest ageing sculptor to stumble across a shortcut and decide continuing to make a living was more important than the lives of others. So he's employed a trio of wererats and their jermalaine minions as kidnappers to find suitably interesting subjects for petrification. The rise in mysterious disappearances will soon attract adventurers one way or another. Whether you investigate the auction house, ask round the streets & taverns for rumors, or just go straight for poking around any abandoned buildings in town, there's plenty of ways into this little mystery story, making it nicely open-ended and suitable for a decent variety of groups. Hopefully they'll be able to figure it out, track him down, kill him or turn him over to the legitimate authorities and realise that the magical gloves he used for petrifying people are also reversible, so you can free everyone rather than having to settle for the Vampire Princess Miyu style bittersweet ending. (although the people who bought the "sculptures" will still be annoyed at their artworks being recalled, which could have consequences in the future.) Both a good idea and decent implementation, but it all feels too short, leaving me wanting more. This could definitely be improved upon by adding a little more detail of your own to make it more than a single session adventure, and if I were to use it I'd do so.



Maps of Mystery: Last issue they started doing comics. This time they bring in a proper regular column. (the boundary between a side trek and a short regular adventure has always been pretty nebulous, so the branding doesn't mean much) The idea of just doing a prefab map without all the creatures within detailed has come up a few times in the letters page. (and done in Polyhedron as well as Uninhabited) It provides a middle ground between full adventures that take up a significant pagecount to detail and single line plot seeds where the DM still has to do all the construction work themselves and is particularly useful if you know how to write adventures, but your cartography skills aren't the strongest. It expands the ways they're useful and increases the average efficiency of the magazine, so I'm very interested in seeing if this'll catch on and how frequently it'll appear.

First one is a simple two-level fort built into a hillside. There's an obvious throne room at the back, with a pit trap conveniently placed to drop people into the dungeon if supplicants displease the ruler. The rooms aren't just all uniform squares, the routes between them are non-linear and you can infer their purposes by looking at their relation to one-another, making it look like a place that's lived in, not just a series of obstacles to kill invading PC's. A pretty strong starter. Another way in which Chris is really putting in the effort to shake things up around here after a full decade of the formula staying exactly the same.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 68: May/Jun 1998



part 3/5



Convergence: Another new system hits the shelves, and once again they give Chris the job of coming up with an adventure for it, since he's repeatedly proven that he does his homework (unlike certain other staff members) and won't drop thematic or mechanical clangers like putting saturday morning cartoon comic relief sidekicks in Athas or treating the Tarrasque like an apocalypse level threat in Council of Wyrms. There might still be cringy bits, like everyone having codenames that wouldn't look out of place as handles on modern day social media sites, but at least they'll be ones that make sense in context.

Anyway, the PC's are hired to retrieve a scientist and their findings from a distant space station. They've got an alien artifact to analyse and want to make sure that Insight gets the info within and makes first contact. Of course, it wouldn't be an adventure if things went smoothly and Voidcorp already knows about it too. Their strike force gets there before you, takes over and pretend to be the station's legitimate authorities. Will you realise something is very wrong with the situation in time and be ready to deal with their attacks, make your way through the station to defeat the enemies and rescue the surviving civilians? As usual for Chris, he goes for quality rather than quantity in his adversaries, making sure they have detailed plans & personalities and don't risk themselves unnecessarily when they can communicate over vidscreen and use traps. If it looks like the PC's are winning easily, their morale will break and they'll try to get out of there to be scheming and unpleasant another day. As with his 5th Age adventure he's taking pains to make this not feel like D&D, but instead draws more on claustrophobic sci-fi stuff where the PC's will be on the back foot much of the adventure and have to use their wits rather than raw force to win the day. I think this counts as another success from him, both as an adventure and in providing a whole load of worldbuilding details that could be built upon and lead to future plots. He does seem to have an impressive variety of tricks up his sleeves that he's able to pull out now he's not being held back by another editor. Just how long can he keep up the energy to play multiple roles at once?



Side Treks - One Winter's Night: What's that Lassie? It's time to rescue another trapped person in imminent danger? Let's get going then, no time to waste! As the title implies, it's getting dark and chilly, the PC's are travelling through a forest when a young boy in a panic rides by them. His uncle was trapped under a tree trunk while logging and wounded. They need to get him out and soon, because there are wolf-riding goblins in the area that could make an appearance any time. Does your party have the raw lifting power to move 850lbs of tree straight off, (an instance where a large party with mounts and hirelings will have a big advantage) or will you have to try something creative involving levers, magic or careful cutting around the problem. Unless you're very quick in getting it off and leaving the vicinity, the goblins will catch up with you either during the rescue or while you're carrying him away, giving you a pretty decent combat challenge due to their speed when wolf-riding and use of ranged weapons. Nothing groundbreaking, but all competently done, and it engages with the details of the lifting/carrying/encumbrance mechanics, which is an important part of the rules many adventures forget about these days. It's nice to have some challenges that have actual mechanics to their resolution that aren't combat. This can have a thumbs up for both of it's sections.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 68: May/Jun 1998



part 4/5



The Trouble with In-Laws: If you're going to break the law, you need to be doubly sure that the people you're breaking the law with can be trusted otherwise the odds of getting away with it go way down. When the son of a lord married a commoner (shock, horror!) his father hired ruffians to kidnap & ransom the girl to teach him a lesson. Said rogues promptly turned around and blackmailed him for more money to keep who was ultimately responsible for this misfortune a secret. Then adventurers get involved and who knows what's going to happen next. So here we have another detective story where you might solve the obvious problem but miss the more subtle one, leaving the true villain free to try again in the future, have suspicions but be unable to pin conclusive proof on the lord, forcing you to choose whether to solve this extra-judicially or leave it for now, or find solid evidence, get the best ending and send everyone involved to prison. It manages to pack 2 little dungeon areas plus a decent amount of opportunity for investigation & roleplaying into 11 pages, making it feel pretty dense but still with plenty of room to add more detail. Another fairly good one if you like that very 2e writing style.



Side Treks - Al-Kandil: Everyone knows that when you get a magic lamp with a genie in you should be very careful with the wishes you make. The genie is rarely in there willingly and you may have to deal with them either trying to pervert the wishes or escape. So it proves here, only with an interesting twist. The "genie" isn't actually a genie, but a regular wizard trapped inside the lamp. If someone frees him they'll wind up taking his place and having to do the job instead. So he'll be as helpful as he can with his powers (no world-changing wishes this time folks) and try to form a friendship with the PC's before eventually asking them to free him, then either get out of there or kill them depending on how badly the PC's treated him. The kind of plot hook that's short in page count but could play a substantial part in your campaign over two different arcs - the time with the genie, and the time where one of the PC's is trapped in the genie role and the PC's have to figure out how to solve that. (if indeed they do, as the job does come with at least modest reality warping powers, plus immortality. If the PC's agreed to do a regular timeshare on being inside the lamp and not abuse their power to order the occupant around it would be a substantial asset to the group. ) This could definitely have some interesting ramifications on a campaign depending on how well the PC's handle it and how smart they are at figuring out and manipulating the rules of the lamp. So it's another one that has an interesting mechanical challenge that isn't combat and doesn't neglect the roleplaying opportunities either. I strongly approve of this development, and would definitely like to use it at some point.

 

[(un)reason]

Dungeon Issue 68: May/Jun 1998


part 5/5


Stepping Stones: Lisa Smedman decides to go full celtic, with an adventure revolving around a set of magical standing stones and the fae that live just a step away in an odd direction. The PC's come across a treasure map with a cryptic riddle written on it. If they interpret it correctly, they'll get the idea that there's treasure in them thar stones if they can only get hold of the Crown of Lapis, which is buried very close to them in a position that'll require some basic astronomy knowledge to figure out. Of course, first they have to figure out which of the several sets in standing stones in the area they're referring to, which will require some detective work, probably encountering the local centaurs along the way, who's reaction varies widely depending on the racial composition of the party. If you're mostly elves it'll be easy, but one with dwarves may well wind up in a fight and have to continue their search the hard way. Then when they get to the stones they have to deal with the korred that come out from them and dance around them, which once again could turn into combat (or the PC's being mind-controlled, joining in the dancing then waking up next morning with a stinking hangover and most of their stuff nicked) but could also be resolved peacefully if the group stays calm and talks fast. Finally, once they've dug up the crown and followed the instructions, they get the nastiest twist of all. The stones are actually petrified trolls, and speaking the command words turns them all back at once. They do have a load of valuable gold orbs in their possession, but you'll need to separate them from their grip, not just turn them straight back to stone in a panic to get maximum profit from the adventure. Probably not going to get through that encounter without a fair bit of violence then. A pretty linear sequence of events and quite whimsical as well, but at least one that allows for plenty of roleplaying and nonviolent solutions while not breaking either if the players are pure hack & slashers. Middle of the road in quality for a Dungeon adventure, but still solidly above most Polyhedron ones in both writing quality and freedom of choice. Meh.



By Merklan's Magic: Straight from one single-sessioner with a strong fae theme to the encounters, to another one of similar size with a plant theme. Story as old as time, a wizard is doing experiments and creating increasingly smart and capable mutant plants, one kills him & takes his stuff and now the area is being overrun by them. As soon as they cause a bother for a trade route, adventurers are hired to find out what the problem is and deal with it. Wander through the woods and you'll have to deal with half a dozen encounters in any order. Thornslingers, needlemen, mold men, boring grass, a shambling mound, plus a werespider who's just as irked about the sudden influx of plant monsters as anyone and will join up with the party if they talk to her instead of attacking. Venture a little farther off the beaten path and you'll soon come across either the evil treant that's the big boss of all the other plants, or the wizard's old house, which contains a mix of old traps & guards from when the wizard was alive and new monsters. Talk to the Grandfather Plaque on the front door, which is getting a bit bored and would rather be moved somewhere more inhabited, fight a spouter, some nightshades, flying cleavers, unseelie fae and a particularly malformed plant mutant. Mostly straightforward combat stuff, but with enough trickery and roleplaying encounters to keep it from getting too monotonous. Another solid middle of the road one to fill a session, get you more XP and keep a campaign going between bigger events.



Nodwick is ordered by Yeagar to use the Grandfather Plaque as a guard for his booze stash. At least he can be sure he'll get plenty of visitors to talk to even if it's not the most dignified posting. Sure beats being put on the end of a 10' pole and being used to test out traps.



Easily the freshest and easiest to get through issue in a long time, as it becomes apparent that Chris is going to be the first editor to make any serious alterations to the format of the magazine since it started over a decade ago. Standalone adventures of various lengths are still going to be the main course of the magazine, but at least they're not the only thing on the menu anymore and it's nice to have more choices. Let's get to the next issue and find out if these changes turn out for the better or worse in the long run.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 130: June 1998



part 1/5



48 pages. Something big is lurking beneath the ocean waves and it sure doesn't look friendly. We're going to need a bigger trident. Time for another nautically themed issue then. Will we spend more time above or below the waves and either way, what will we find there this time?



Notes From HQ: Convention season is coming up again, so the editorial is a mix of self-promotion and updating us on changing procedures. Their internet capabilities continue to increase, so now you can order adventures entirely online, with shorter deadlines before the conventions for doing so because stuff only has to go through the postal system one way. Some adventures may even be sent entirely as .pdfs, although don't even think of printing out more copies than you need then using the treasure certificates for your own characters without actually playing the adventure, as such cheating will result in harsh sanctions if caught. New technologies bring new ways to cheat the system, which requires new countermeasures in response. Same old story. In more positive news, they actually have enough Judges for all the scheduled games at Gen Con, preparations for RPGA summit are also going nicely and they've added a pair of adorable ruffed lemurs to the animals sponsored by their charity events. All this effort at improving their promotional skills is actually having some effect in boosting engagement, even if they aren't bringing in as many new members as they'd like. Can they keep up the momentum next year though? There's only so long you can work everyone extra hard because you've just got out of a crisis.



your 1nitiative: First letter is generally complementary of the recent changes they've been making, but wonders where the Trumpeter has gone. We already told you it had gone online once. Guess you weren't reading that closely if we have to tell you again.

Second is from Peru, from someone who used to be a member but let it lapse because there were too few other members there to have any Living events. Has the internet improved matters? Well, they're definitely trying. There's also plenty of third party chatroom based RPG sites springing up now. Maybe one of them has a culture more to your tastes.



Table Talk: Another round of fairly inconsequential promotion and corrections here, with one big exception. The rules for creating silver bullets in the Living Death campaign. With magical items strictly limited by certificate, some people have obviously been getting increasingly inventive in coming up with ways to hurt monsters. They're not actually that expensive to make if you have the right skills, but you can't get hold of them in large quantities and they do less damage than regular bullets anyway, so only load them in if you know you're up against creatures that will laugh off normal weapons. Plus not all monsters are vulnerable to silver anyway, so don't be surprised if all that hard work turns out to be for nothing and you have to stick to the solution the designers intended.



Drive Me Crazy: This is identical to last issue, only now in cyan rather than green. Keep on pushing those recruitment drive incentives. Nothing further to say here then.



Table Talk CT: The excursions this month are somewhat closer to home, the familiar names of ConnCon and Egyptian Campaign. Whether you're on the east coast or the plains of the midwest, there's a decent sized convention for you to attend in the spring. ConnCon was definitely the more raucous of the two, but there were plenty of games both RPGA and independent for all sorts of systems. Neither writeup is very long so once again there's not much for me to comment on here. The important thing is that they had fun, even if the attendee's memories of what exactly happened are probably pretty hazy by now. Roll on next year, and all the subsequent ones until the pandemic put them both on hiatus, which is still ongoing as far as I can tell.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 130: June 1998



part 2/5



Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Ed once again manages to come up with a place brilliantly designed as both an adventure location and a place you could actually see yourself living. The Land of Two Princes is dominated by two noble families, the Amcorths and the Beldrists, locked in an eternal battle for dominance. However, this contest has strict rules. They can't fight each other directly, nor shall they cause collateral damage amongst the common folk, (no point being rulers if you haven't got people to rule) victory shall be determined by the number of the other side currently captured by their hired warriors. This keeps the land itself safe and prosperous, ensuring that while the person at the top may change frequently, power overall stays within the hands of the families. (and of course they'll unite ruthlessly against any outsiders trying to take over, making for a fairly stable two-party system despite not being a democracy.) If you want a fairly low fatality land full of knightly shenanigans to keep things interesting this looks perfect. Swear allegiance to one side or another and carry their crest and you'll never be short of challenges in the endless game of thrones. That sounds like the recipe for a long and fun campaign with the right group. This is all well above average even by Ed's standards as a place with a distinctive flavour, balancing game usefulness, real world satire and generally being fun to read. It's a joy to still be finding more lesser known gems in his writing here.



City Stories: This month we look at the temple of Chauntea in Raven's Bluff. Now, we already looked at the nearby druid circle dedicated to her in issue 119, but as a nature deity that spans both the wilds and cultivated areas, she has places dedicated to both. (and as a very popular greater deity, the congregation to fill both at once as well) There's definitely some tensions between the two about just where the proper balance between nature and civilisation should lie, but as followers of a good deity, they rarely become too cutthroat about it. As these guys have a proper temple building rather than just a bunch of standing stones, the map this time is larger and more detailed, but there's less detail on the political wranglings of the church than last time, and some of that is repeated. So there is a certain amount of diminishing returns between the two, but you're still getting some new setting info that makes the Realms a little more filled in and easy to run straight off the shelf. Another solid but unexceptional entry in this series overall.



Keepers of the Mystic Flame: Another article repeated from the March issue of the Trumpeter, bringing the new knightly order to a wider audience. Unlike the other one, there's no rules refinements here, just verbatim copy & pasting, leaving me with nothing further to say.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 130: June 1998



part 3/5



Magic For Mariners: There's plenty of real world superstitions about the figureheads of ships. Enchanting one seems another good way to give yourself an edge on the dangerous seas, that could theoretically be transferred from one ship to another if you're the type that loots everything. Just don't try to install more than one at once as I'm sure that violates some rule on item slots.

Figureheads of Speed give you a substantial boost in movement rate & manoeuvrability for up to 8 hours a day. Do you use it first thing every day or save it for any dangerous chase scenes that might crop up where it'd really make a difference?

Figureheads of Ramming, on the other hand, are definitely going to be saved for a fight, so your only worry is if you have a second one in the same day before you've recharged. Better hope you're not in a place where the rolls for random encounters come too thick & fast.

Figureheads of Guidance give you an impression of what lurks beneath the waves. It won't reveal fine detail, but it's more than good enough to easily navigate around rocks, reefs, sandbars and other things that could be a serious nuisance to a careless party.

Figureheads of Ferocity buff the combat abilities and morale of the crew rather than affecting the ship itself. Since they can be activated three times a day and last for half an hour each time, it'd take a very busy day indeed to wear out their powers. 6-8 encounters per long rest doesn't really make sense in this edition.

Figureheads of the Serpent animate to help you out in a pinch. If you're in a ship with oars they'll turn some of them into smaller snakes as well. Definitely a nasty surprise for any pirates who board you thinking you'll be easy prey. These all seem quite practically useful if your campaign involves lots of sea travel.



Strange Bedfellows: Our adventure this month is another one for a specific setting that feels more like an outline than a complete module, at only 4 pages with unusually large borders. We're off to Hogunmark in Birthright to defend the borders against the White Witch and the Blood Skull Barony. In practice, that means an escort quest taking a wizard out into the wilderness and defending him from a couple of wolf attacks while he's in a trance attuning himself to the leylines. That's all that happens. So while there's some interesting backstory stuff here, there's less actual meat to the adventure in 4 pages than most Dungeon Side Treks manage in 2. It badly needs some expansion if it's going to last even a single session. It feels less like something to actually play, and more promotion to remind people that the setting exists and does actually have quite a distinct flavour, since so few of them bought it. This is the writing equivalent of eating candyfloss, all space and no filling.



Bestiary: Crustaids are gigantic coral-like creatures with tentacles long and sharp enough to be a threat on a ship combat scale. There are a lot of them around Evermeet and they'll obey the elf queen's commands, which means the safe route for ships to get in and out can be changed easily. Still not an insoluble problem for invaders, particularly if you have a figurehead of guidance from a a few pages back, but a good example of the tricks you can have up your sleeves when you have a country full of near immortal wizards tinkering with biology. This time the decathlon submissions have come up with something both inventive and very specific, which I approve of.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 130: June 1998



part 4/5



Tying One On: Continuing with the nautical theme, Spike Y. Jones gives us a 4 page primer on real world knot-typing techniques. If you know nothing about sailing you might not see the connection, but anyone who's spent any time on a boat will know how crucial proper control of your ropes and rigging is. You need some knots that are secure no matter what the weather throws at you, while others are easily removed at a moment's notice, strong but only from specific angles, or deliberately leave some slack for safety reasons. They get through 14 examples here, but you could easily fill a book with them. (which they helpfully reference) The kind of system & setting free article you'd expect to see more in Dragon, it's a pretty interesting diversion to find in here. Do you have the patience and dexterity to master the art of knotwork, maybe even invent some new ones? Now there's a whole different hobby you could also devote years to mastering. Maybe in another lifetime, if there is such a thing.



Strongwind: A second adventure in the same issue? Curious. They've only done that once before. (issue 81) I guess they have increased page count recently, giving them a little more leeway in their choices. Unlike the other one, this does actually feel like a full adventure, at 8 pages and an equal number of encounters. The ships coming in & out of Raven's Bluff (or whatever other port town the PC's are passing through) have been suffering from an unusual amount of piracy. The PC's are hired to deal with it. First they need to find a suitable merchant ship, with three different options given. They need to fight off a bunch of ruffians looking to press-gang them, decide if they want to bribe their chosen captain to get better accommodation or not, then set sail. They'll encounter an abandoned ship drifting in the wind, with only a single juju zombie to fight as foreshadowing. Get briefly distracted by a sirine's singing, (hope you remembered to pack your earplugs) then it's time for the main event, the ghost ship of Captain Strongwind, feared pirate of centuries past. Can you beat him and his crew, and will you realise that once he's gone, his ship will dematerialise soon after, so you'd better get any looting done fast or wind up dunked in the drink, probably having to abandon your winnings to avoid drowning. A linear single session tournament adventure, but a fairly decent one, offering choices that actually have significant consequences in later encounters and degrees of success or failure, as well as converting easily to a home campaign not set in Raven's Bluff. I think this falls in the usable quality range overall.



The Isolation Blues: If you don't regularly go to conventions and play in Living campaigns, why are you in the RPGA? What do you get out of it if that scene's not your bag, or you live somewhere without many conventions? (as many letters from international gamers bemoan.) Well, there's still Polyhedron, for one thing. Then there's not only the adventures that appear in the pages of Polyhedron, but other ones you can get for free as part of your membership. You can find new players via the Classified ads, the online services, or setting up your own events locally. You can use all the advice contained herein to make your home campaign bigger, deeper and cooler, then share your experience to make other people's campaigns better as well. Sounds a bit sappy to me. This all feels like an attempt to keep people who are on the fence at the moment from leaving. Their membership has declined quite a bit over the past couple of years and the new drive doesn't seem to be having much effect so far. They can put an optimistic face on, but that can only take you so far. Just another promotional fluff piece. The space could have been better used providing more actual game material.

 

[(un)reason]

Polyhedron Issue 130: June 1998



part 5/5



Living Galaxy Countdown: Well, it took them a long time, but they're finally going to do an actual campaign under the Living Galaxy name. We're off to the Argos system in the Star*Drive universe, zooming in on the planet Marybelle. It's been inhabited by humans for a century now, but only now is the atmosphere approaching breathability without a suit, with plenty of terraforming still to go before it has a a complex self-sustaining ecosystem. That shows that while their technology may be much more advanced than ours, they still can't just snap their fingers and transform an entire world. There's still a lot of work to do before it stops feeling like a frontier. Which as it's a Living setting, they need you to fill in the finer details of. You know the address by now, so let's get those submissions in! Ultimately, this is another reminder that the RPGA is built on the backs of it's volunteers. If you don't write articles & adventures for a Living setting, then judge them at conventions, it'll die a quiet unmourned death. Let's see how well this does over the next few years.



DM Tips: Ooh, here's the origin of another of those house rules that'll become canon next edition. We saw a fair number of those in Dragon and it's nice to know I'll be able to trace a few more of them back in here. Critical confirmation rolls, which ensure that your odds of getting a crit continue to increase as you get better at fighting in general, while still keeping them a relatively small proportion of hits. It's a more elegant solution than detailed tables full of various crippling effects, which rapidly stack up on your characters and make their adventuring lives untenable without the aid of magical healing. Still, even a single extra roll is more than some players prefer and they'd streamline crits even further for subsequent editions. Along with the idea here that did make it, there's several others on critical fumbles and weapon breakage that weren't so successful, but are still interesting to see. Another good example of how rules gradually progress, with lots of different experiments that gradually increase complexity that then get cut back down again keeping only the bits that work best. That still leaves this one unusually historically significant overall.



Powers That Be: This column gets in on the issue's theme, covering Procan, Oerths's most chaotic sea god. He brings the sun and the storms, so you'd better stay on his good side if you want to make it to the other end of your voyage. That or direct your worship to Xerbo & Osprem instead, who also have oceanic portfolios but are a little more consistent in their favors. If they moved up in godly power and he went down maybe the oceans themselves would become more sedate on average. But then again, would you really want that as a group of wandering adventurers? Those shipwrecks are a prime source of challenges and treasure once you're high enough level to survive underwater for a while. His specialty priests seem like a pretty decent option for PC's as well. They may not be able to use heavy armor, as that's more of a nuisance than protection if you fall in the water, but they have a good selection of pointy objects allowable as weapons, access to 10 major spheres & 7 minor ones, plus plenty of watery granted powers as they go up in levels. Given how changeable the sea can be, they're not the sort to waste time on overly elaborate trappings and ceremonies, which means the stereotype of stuffy dogmatic clerics should also be noticeably lacking. Nothing hugely surprising in this one, but it all seems pretty solidly usable in game.



A pretty decent ratio of good to bad game articles in this one, but the promotional ones are becoming increasingly aggressive and repetitive as WotC try to get them growing again. If they get much more pushy at preaching to the converted it may well become alienating in itself. Lots of work still needed to balance these factors as they gear up to create the new edition. Let's see what clues next issue has about their role in D&D's larger history.

 

[(un)reason]

The Raven's Buff Trumpeter 2-6: June 1998



7 pages. Waukeen is back! And just after the church had finished renovating too. Now they have to decide if they're going to switch it all back or not. It took multiple groups of high level adventurers invading the abyss and facing hordes of terrifying tanar'ri, but they managed to get in, get out, and rescue a whole load of less powerful people also trapped in there along the way. Now there's a heroic tale for the ages. (as soon as they've finished interviewing everyone involved and writing it up accurately)

Of course despite this bit of good news as the headline, there's still plenty of other problems. Just because they beat one set of fiends, doesn't mean the rest have gone away. In fact, there's more than ever, between the ones seeking the Heart of Bane, the ones here for sport/revenge and the Baatezu worming their way into the power structure under the guise of solving the problems caused by all these pestilent Tanar'ri. It's just a mercy that Yugoloths don't seem to be involved as well. The guard are getting better at fighting them, but even when they win, there's more casualties on the human side than the fiendish one. To come up with a more permanent solution, the wizard's guild has created the new position of Dean of Planar Research. I'm sure he'll need some assistants to gather information and perform experiments. That seems like a good feed line for some more adventures. Maybe the Selune Orb, another powerful artifact that was recently found by adventurers will hold the key, as Selune & Bane are pretty much opposite alignments.

There's also a fair number of more down to earth troubles as well. They already lost a load of records to fire last year. Now their record offices have suffered a rash of burglaries. What information has been taken and how do the thieves plan on using that knowledge?

Finally, they step OOC for a bit to talk about the changes to high level stuff. We saw Melissa Elderan hit retirement point recently and several other of the most played characters aren't far behind. To string that out, they're changing the rules so getting a government position only puts your character in semi-retirement, limiting them to playing in 6 tournaments a year. You can mix up enjoying your high level character for big events and playing a new one as well if you still want to keep up a busy schedule. If people show there's enough demand (and write enough decent high level adventures to fill it) they might even relax the rules further. Well, when you've played a character that long, you do get attached to them. The WotC staff are probably some of the biggest players as well, so they'd be in a position to change the rules when they become a problem to them.



Rogues Gallery: Azoth Malishar is a powerful fire elementalist who's definitely been buffed compared to his stats as a PC. The son of a Raven's Bluff father & Thayvian mother, he spent his early years as a refugee, as they all tried to stay one step ahead of his mother's former master. This kind of stressful lifestyle is good for gaining XP, and he was a decent level before even getting out of his teens. When he was 22, he encountered a mysterious spirit that prophesized that he should go to Raven's Bluff to prepare himself for the many trials to come. This turned out to be entirely accurate, and hundreds of adventures later, he's one of the most powerful wizards in the city and definitely the most powerful fire specialist, which gives him considerable political influence. Wouldn't want to mess with someone capable of causing that much mass destruction. On the other hand, if you get on his good side, you could learn some pretty cool spells and get plenty of advice on how to survive when you're being hunted by a powerful evil conspiracy. This is why it's best to be nice to strangers no matter how eccentric they seem. You never know when one is going to be capable of unleashing a whole slew of fireballs at your ass.



Living City Q&A: Does Seeking Sword have to roll to hit? (yes, using the caster's THAC0)

Can a Priest have no deity? (a cleric can be vague about their commitments until they hit 5th level, as 1st and 2nd level spells don't need to be granted by an external being. A specialty priest needs to make it clear who they worship right from day 1.)

Who is affected by a Holy Word? (everyone who isn't the same alignment as you, but extraplanar creatures have it worst.)

Do druids have to stick with specific animals for their Wild Shape? (no. they can choose as the moment needs.)

Do gnomes & halflings using a bastard sword 2-handed do 1 or 2 handed damage? (only 1 handed. Small size hurts their leverage no matter how strong they are.)

Do swashbucklers get their AC bonus when wearing elven chain? (yes)

Is elven chain +0 magical? (no)

Can you crush things with weighty chest as a combat move? (no)

When can a bard countersong? (You need to have an action readied beforehand to completely stop it. Otherwise you'll have to wait until next turn to disrupt it, which may well be too late if it's a mind-control power. )

How about the Wand of Fire Extinguishing? (If it isn't in your hand, it won't activate. Depending on your weapon choices and number of limbs, this may or may not be a significant hindrance.)

How do pearly white ioun stones work? (Prism's heal HP damage, even if it was sustained before it was equipped, while spindles regenerate body parts as well, but only damage sustained while you were wearing it. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.)

Is cure moderate wounds allowed in Living Campaigns? (no, even though it's from Polyhedron)

Can I put a Glyph of Warding on my weapon? (no. A ship or caravan, on the other hand…)

If I'm dual-classed, what old proficiencies can I still use? (any that are in a group your new class also has access too. Otherwise, you'll suffer the usual failure to gain XP in an adventure where you use them.)

Your ruling on touch spells was wrong! (so it was)

Can you combine shoes of the woodland with horseshoes of protection? (yes, but make sure you take them off before turning back, or you'll ruin both. )

What rolls does incense of meditation enhance? (most of the ones you make, but not all of them)

Can priests of Tempus change their holy weapon (no. You can upgrade the specific weapon you're wielding, but you need to stick with the same kind of weapon for the rest of your career.)