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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8189718" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 46: March 1989part 2/5Junk Bonds: The adventure this issue is also pretty goofy, a Top Secret/S.I. one where the PC's get tangled up in a WEB attempt to manipulate hollywood for their nefarious ends. They're putting secret codes in the latest James Bond equivalent that they'll use to co-ordinate with their agents around the world. Orion gets wind of this while it's still in production, and the PC's have to sneak around the set and editing rooms and disrupt the work of the enemy agents, preferably in a subtle enough way that nothing happens to the oblivious cast and crew. The result is a somewhat farcical romp through spy and hollywood tropes, full of meta stuff lampshading just how different espionage is on the screen to real life. Like most comedy modules, it's also irksomely linear, involving very little actual detective work by the PC's. Their superiors find all the clues and just send them from one scene to the next to do the dirty work. It's fairly amusing to read, but not at all the kind of adventure I'd actually want to run or play in. It'd fit right in the more self-aware episodes of an 80's cartoon like Transformers or Tiny Toon Adventures where the writers weren't afraid to poke fun at their own writing room and production processes, but it'd be horribly disruptive to a group that started at Sprechenhaltestelle and had been playing a serious long term campaign up to then. The Living City pt 1: Any adventurer-heavy city needs a rough and ready dive bar where you can have a good brawl and pick up the latest underworld gossip that might lead to further adventures. Skully's Bar & Bait (so named because it also does a brisk trade in fishing equipment for the hard-drinking dockers) definitely qualifies. If you don't have a decent constitution, you'll definitely regret spending a night on the town here. As usual, this is packed full of flavour and possibilities for adventure, with several well detailed NPC's. Skully himself, the owner, who as usual for this city is an experienced adventurer with a tragic past and a whole load of tricks up his sleeve to deal with troublemakers. Mab Hardbutter the bartender, an experienced thief with a strawng naughty wordree accent :wurzels intensifies: who's (mostly) gone straight. And Erny the Mop, a crippled thief who had a promising career until he took a chariot to the knee, and now serves as the resident spy and rumormonger of the establishment, always keeping his ears open while pretending to be just a grumbling old drunkard. All are described well enough to be instantly playable with distinct voices for the ham actors amongst you. This one wins my seal of approval, being very usable and entertainingly written, as well as being an interesting juxtaposition of things that actually makes sense for a coastal city. I could definitely see myself transplanting it to other settings.</blockquote>

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