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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8083718" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 31: Jul/Aug 1986part 2/5The Plebe Zone: They've been relying on the generosity of volunteers for the past few months to try and catch up with all their work. The work, and getting to meet their heroes, could have been reward enough for them, but they get to have their experiences immortalised in here as well. Just like everyone else, they had nightmares with the computer, which really needs to implement autosaves and external backups, for losing huge chunks of your work of your work the night before the con starts and having to hastily recreate it from memory is no-one's idea of a good time. But they managed to pull things together in the end, and even introduce some ideas that might help things go smoother next year (presuming staff turnover doesn't wind up with them getting forgotten by then anyway) Nothing too unusual here. The amount of work to do seems to expand with the number of hands available, so it always comes down to a scramble at the end. That's just the way human groups normally work, no matter how big they are and how high their budget is. The Big Con (and me): Skip Williams once again gives his perspective on the convention madness. Despite having gone through this before, he still manages to get himself in a pickle, getting roped into doing as much work as he can physically handle, if not more. He also falls prey to their seemingly cursed computer system, losing big chunks of work and having to recreate it from an old backup. A lot of wordcount is devoted to his interactions with Penny Petticord, which isn't surprising at all as we know in hindsight they'll get married in the future, and it seems they have a relationship based heavily on tormenting one-another in small amusing ways. Ah, the sweet flowers of romance. This is far more entertaining a read than it has any right to be and gives us another amusing behind the scenes of how things are(n't) organised in the TSR offices. In their efforts to create things that are fun for us, it's important that they create an office environment where they can still have fun in their personal interactions as well. Ravager part 2: Our second instalment of this adventure actually covers both rounds 2 & 3 of the original tournament, which shows how long even 5-6 pages of material can take when it's largely comprised of tough combat encounters. There's still plenty of variety in them though, with straight battles, ones you can talk your way through if you think to try, and puzzle encounters that are much quicker and easier if you were paying attention earlier on and picked up the corresponding clues. (while still not being completely impossible as a straight fight.) There's still the feeling that you could fill in a lot of the connective tissue and make this a full length adventure instead of jumping straight from one mini dungeon crawl to the next, but it's well designed for what it is, being neither too dependent on puzzle traps that require you to think exactly like the designer, or a mindless hack-and-slash fest. I'd have no problem using this one in a campaign.</blockquote>

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