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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8017268" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 17: Mar/Apr 1984part 4/6Disguised Weapons: Unsurprisingly, there's always a market for new gadgets in Top Secret. Here's another 6 of them. Multipurpose tools that can also be used as weapons are great for a spy, as you can take them places you couldn't take an obvious weapon, or use them for their other purpose in your everyday undercover life and keep them around just in case. I have a definite fondness for these sort of things, and have bought several of them (the cheap joke shop versions, not the expensive serious ones) over the years. So a collection like this is pretty cool. As an extra plus, all of these look like they're within the bounds of physics and could actually exist in reality. (<<) (>>) Muahahaha, how very tempting. I shall have to investigate this further. Wishes have their limits: Time for another chunky helping of swatting the players on the nose with a rolled up newspaper and telling them NO! BAD PLAYERS! NO BREAKING THE GAME WITH PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER! The problem is so pervasive they couldn't even keep it to one article per month. So yeah, a detailed explanation of precisely how non-omnipotent wishes are in AD&D. What they can't do full stop, what is more powerful than them, and what can partially resist them. It all illustrates pretty effectively how limited even 9th level spells are compared to the spells of legend and literature, and that they could have designed many levels further up, giving them even more leeway to create effects both orders of magnitude larger in scope and somewhat greater flexibility. There's no reason the game should hit diminishing returns after 18th level other than failure of mathematical rigour. Hell, Birthright showed that you can introduce magic of much vaster scope even at low level as long as you multiply the costs to cast it accordingly as well. Another strong illustration of just how much better designed the system could be, and how often people had fun in spite of it, rather than because of it. There's still a long way to go, and a lot of stuff to add between then and now that'll show just how awesome characters can be and still have interesting and significant challenges. DM Talk: While disciplining the player's excesses is important, learning to be a good DM is just as important, for otherwise your games will fall apart over and over again, and you'll soon wind up with no-one to play with. This is less about knowing the rules than it is about knowing your players, and their skill level, likes and dislikes. Even if you're a skilled GM, if there's a mismatch, there'll still be problems. Aside from the definite playstyle snobbery putting Real Roleplaying over system mastery, this is a pretty standard bit of advice, neither particularly innovative or particularly annoying. Meh.</blockquote>

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