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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8134370" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 39: Jan/Feb 1988part 2/5AD&D 2nd Edition Sneak Preview: The cover this issue was indeed hinting at one of the largest changes 2e will make. Bards go from being an overcomplicated proto-prestige class mess requiring multiple class switches before you even start properly back to a regular core class, the way they were in Strategic Review 6 before Gary got his hands on them. The details are subtly different though, both from the original version, and the final one that'll appear in the PHB next year. Spellcasting uses the wizard table at half progression rather than their own unique one at full caster level, inspiration and countersong will get subtle tweaks, and they don't mention the new ability to choose how you advance your thief skills at all. Maybe they're saving that for the main Thief teaser, or maybe they haven't thought of it yet. So this is a pretty interesting snapshot of where development is at the moment, and how important playtesting and editing will actually be to the 2e corebooks. We've already seen several different attempts at a specialist wizard system, all different from the one they'll finally settle on. There's more experimentation going on behind the scenes than you'd think for what turned out to be a relatively conservative update.Tym's Supple Leather Shoppe: Our second Living City location seems like it was stolen from a sitcom. A shy but talented leatherworker who's perpetually struggling financially because he doesn't have the self-esteem to charge what his work is worth, his loud, fat, nagging wife (who like many a bully, is actually a coward if someone does stand up to her), and the "friendly" local extortionist who drops in weekly to collect protection money and make things even more precarious for them. All you need is a few quirky supporting characters, a new scheme to better themselves or customer with an odd request each week, a jaunty theme song and a canned laughter track and it would have run for well over a decade back in the 80's, before dying sometime in the mid-late 90's when political correctness got going, and those old stereotypes looked increasingly gross and cringy. So this is certainly evocatively written, in that it manages to vividly describe a scenario and set of characters that are full of flavour and could provide years of adventure plots within a single page. It's just that it's also horribly dated, goofy and sexist. I'm definitely going to have to pass on using this one. It's the kind of interestingly bad that gives me plenty to say as a reviewer, but I would hope anyone I'm actually playing with would have higher standards than to revive.</blockquote>

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