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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8128030" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 38: Oct/Nov/Dec 1987part 3/5Escape from Demoncoomb Mountain: The adventure this issue is a somewhat comedic curveball, featuring a single human and his 5 sentient magical items. Each player picks one of the items, (sword, wand, gauntlets, boots & ring) and you use your various powers to help your hapless human get through a fairly standard single session sized dungeon. If you disagree with the other items, the rules for ego control come into play (which is obviously why there's an odd number of them, to reduce the chances of a stalemate grinding play to a halt) Like most of the adventures in here, it's obviously designed as a tournament one, but it makes good use of the format, doing something unique while still being adaptable to a standard adventure, and providing inspiration for you to create your own quirky magical items with unique sets of powers and personalities. As it works on an unusually high number of levels, I definitely approve of this one. You can have nonstandard characters as PC's without breaking the system, sometimes very nonstandard indeed, you just need to use your imagination. Making the Grade: In the early days of the newszine, we had a few people worrying that roleplaying would hurt children's grades. Even more quickly than the satanic panic, it's become obvious that this is nonsense. Participating in any RPG will give you a seamless boost in your basic math and language skills, plus history if they're remotely realistic, geography if they involve travelling and mapping, religious education if you actually care about the source of your cleric's powers and what they do when not adventuring, etc. This particular teacher has introduced it to their school, and found it an excellent way to make learning fun. What's even more significant is it's ability to develop social skills and teach you how to work together effectively in small groups, which is incredibly useful in nearly any real world job. This is particularly noticeable with a certain kind of neurodivergence that struggles with social interaction, and tends towards obsessive focus on a particular interest, helping them learn to function in the world by giving them structured interactions with other people. Gee, doesn't that sound familiar? So this illustrates a struggle that's still happening today, between the fact that people actually learn better when education is also fun, and people who want to force learning by rote to score well on standardised tests, cut funding to the arts and anything else that doesn't have an obvious function, and seem to actively want to make education unpleasant for both students and teachers. A literally textbook example of how evil is stupid and self-sabotaging in the long run. If you genuinely want to get the most out of people, you need to learn how to effectively apply kindness, not push them to burnout in the name of efficiency, then replace them with a new set of people that don't have the experience to do the job as well. (and will never gain it if you make constant churn your standard operating procedure)</blockquote>

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