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[Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon
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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8079617" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Polyhedron Issue 30: May/Jun 1986</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 1/5</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>32 pages. What are those Drow doing up on the surface? Doesn't look like they're having a very pleasant time of it. But given they're usually the villains, that's probably for the best. Will they be bucking the trend even in this pre-Drizz't era, or will it be the PC's job to foil them in the adventure inside? Let's find out for sure. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Notes From HQ: Convention season has rolled around again, and they still haven't quite caught up from last year. If they aren't careful, it'll put them even further behind and they'll never get back on schedule. In the end, it's not the paid staff that'll determine if they succeed or fail, it's the efforts of ordinary RPGA members volunteering to help out for free, or maybe an extension on their membership so they can stick around and work for free some more, that really keeps them alive. Oh well, as long as everyone's having fun, what's a little exploitation between friends? I'm sure we'll be hearing next issue what they actually got up too, and if all this extra help let them pull off their plans successfully this year. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Nienna & Friends: Our cover stars this issue are much more racially mixed than the previous instalments. The titular Nienna is a half-drow fighter/mage who's rebelled against the dark side of her heritage and become a wandering adventurer. She travels with a human cleric and two grey elves which take advantage of the raised level limits for superhuman stats in Unearthed Arcana to be considerably more powerful than demihumans used to. It's rather an unbalanced party, so the stronger ones must be looking out for the weaker ones in combat, or the DM isn't giving them particularly threatening encounters for their average level. Her nemeses are her evil Drow father, and his equally diabolical Drider best friend, who they've fought repeatedly, but not killed, which is a very un-D&D plotline. So I very much doubt these characters have been stress-tested by actual play, and their plotline and stats show definite cliched mary-sue tendencies. Definitely my least favourite of this series so far.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In Search of the 12th level Mage: So in the average D&D world, how big a proportion of the NPC's have class levels, and what are the demographics of high level characters? Given the small overall populations, it needs to be a fairly substantial percentage just so you can fill out all the followers you get when you hit Name level. Roger Moore goes into a deep delve of the tables in the DMG and comes out with some benchpark numbers for your campaign to use or intentionally deviate from. 90% 0th level humans, 5% 1st level, 2.5% 2nd level, then halve each time after that until you hit Name level, at which point you have to deviate from the progression for high level characters to exist at all. Fighters are the most common class, with wizards & clerics equal second, then thieves, and everything else a tiny minority. Curiously, Greyhawk is somewhat lower magic and more rogue-heavy than this, as it's intended to be a more gritty campaign world than Dragonlance or the Forgotten Realms. So this is a very interesting little discovery, that takes you behind the scenes and points out some stuff about the AD&D implied setting that was in the books all the time, but most people would have missed. It's amazing what you can discover by applied analysis of statistics and why a designer shouldn't neglect them, otherwise your world may end up dramatically different than you intended.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 8079617, member: 27780"] [b][u]Polyhedron Issue 30: May/Jun 1986[/u][/b] part 1/5 32 pages. What are those Drow doing up on the surface? Doesn't look like they're having a very pleasant time of it. But given they're usually the villains, that's probably for the best. Will they be bucking the trend even in this pre-Drizz't era, or will it be the PC's job to foil them in the adventure inside? Let's find out for sure. Notes From HQ: Convention season has rolled around again, and they still haven't quite caught up from last year. If they aren't careful, it'll put them even further behind and they'll never get back on schedule. In the end, it's not the paid staff that'll determine if they succeed or fail, it's the efforts of ordinary RPGA members volunteering to help out for free, or maybe an extension on their membership so they can stick around and work for free some more, that really keeps them alive. Oh well, as long as everyone's having fun, what's a little exploitation between friends? I'm sure we'll be hearing next issue what they actually got up too, and if all this extra help let them pull off their plans successfully this year. Nienna & Friends: Our cover stars this issue are much more racially mixed than the previous instalments. The titular Nienna is a half-drow fighter/mage who's rebelled against the dark side of her heritage and become a wandering adventurer. She travels with a human cleric and two grey elves which take advantage of the raised level limits for superhuman stats in Unearthed Arcana to be considerably more powerful than demihumans used to. It's rather an unbalanced party, so the stronger ones must be looking out for the weaker ones in combat, or the DM isn't giving them particularly threatening encounters for their average level. Her nemeses are her evil Drow father, and his equally diabolical Drider best friend, who they've fought repeatedly, but not killed, which is a very un-D&D plotline. So I very much doubt these characters have been stress-tested by actual play, and their plotline and stats show definite cliched mary-sue tendencies. Definitely my least favourite of this series so far. In Search of the 12th level Mage: So in the average D&D world, how big a proportion of the NPC's have class levels, and what are the demographics of high level characters? Given the small overall populations, it needs to be a fairly substantial percentage just so you can fill out all the followers you get when you hit Name level. Roger Moore goes into a deep delve of the tables in the DMG and comes out with some benchpark numbers for your campaign to use or intentionally deviate from. 90% 0th level humans, 5% 1st level, 2.5% 2nd level, then halve each time after that until you hit Name level, at which point you have to deviate from the progression for high level characters to exist at all. Fighters are the most common class, with wizards & clerics equal second, then thieves, and everything else a tiny minority. Curiously, Greyhawk is somewhat lower magic and more rogue-heavy than this, as it's intended to be a more gritty campaign world than Dragonlance or the Forgotten Realms. So this is a very interesting little discovery, that takes you behind the scenes and points out some stuff about the AD&D implied setting that was in the books all the time, but most people would have missed. It's amazing what you can discover by applied analysis of statistics and why a designer shouldn't neglect them, otherwise your world may end up dramatically different than you intended. [/QUOTE]
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