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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 7975484" data-attributes="member: 27780">The Polyhedron Issue 8: Sep/Oct 1982part 3/4Nerd's Quest: Looks like they've decided to add a bit of Dragonmirth style humor, with a silly little half page story that builds up to a multilayered groan inducing pun. The terrible things people can do to the english language. I really don't know if I approve or not. It's a bit more variety, so I think I can live with a page or two of this per issue. Rune Scry: We apply the lessons they taught in Top Secret about codes and cyphers to fantasy games here, giving us a message in a fictional alphabet to figure out. As with the previous code stuff, it's not something I'm particularly interested in, but it's a perfectly valid use of their space. Like putting crosswords and sudoku in the newspaper, it gives you something to exercise your brain when you don't have time for a full game. Spelling Bee: Rather than tackling specific spells this time, this column instead devotes a little time to reminding DM's to track spell components. If you don't, your spellcasters will be vastly more powerful than your muggles. Some of them are expensive, some are bulky, some of them are fragile, and some require whole quests in themselves to get hold of. So this is a reminder that the balance of the game was originally predicated on strict tracking of the passage of time and all the little possessions each character has, and if you don't do that, but instead prefer a looser, more narratively focussed game, the balance of the system rapidly falls apart, as those were thought of as important parts of the overall system. This highlights one of the disconnects between the original designers and later players who learnt from the books without all the context. The troubles with being hugely successful, and people wanting to use your system as a generic roleplaying game instead of the dungeoncrawling simulator it was originally designed as. Getting started in the Gangbusters game: Following on from the scenario, we have this one-page primer that confirms what I inferred about the system earlier, and reveals a few more details as well. It's a pretty light one, not bothering to give characters mental stats, so how smart they are is purely how smart the player plays them as, and the only fully defined skill is your driving ability, which I suspect will come up a lot in conflicts. So even more than D&D, it's a game where you can roll up characters quickly, and you'll need too, because one good spray with a tommy gun'll kill them. This makes long-term campaigns tricky, and I suspect contributed to it's demise. It's designed for short, lighthearted games, and doesn't have the advancement potential needed to keep people playing the same characters for years and growing without breaking the system or running out of ways to improve. Even if it sold decently at first, it would never have supported the vast array of supplements D&D accumulated over the years.</blockquote>

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