Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8245413" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 52: March 1990part 4/5The Living City: For any city to remain functional, it needs a system of waste disposal. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it, and it can be very profitable, especially when used as a cover for organised crime. After all, if the law comes sniffing around, they'll be distracted by certain other odours and probably not spend longer than they have too in the vicinity. It's no surprise that this instalment is a little darker than usual. Even the legitimate operations of the garbage dump are powered by underpaid undocumented immigrant labor, which is a far cry from the somewhat twee artisanal shops than we're used too here. Meanwhile the guy in charge is a bitter small-time crook who'll target anyone who comes here that looks like they have money. There's certainly a lot a motivated team of adventurers could do to improve this place. It's not all grim though. They actually put genuine effort into recycling what they get, which is still better than many modern day governments, and for the things that are both dangerous and useless no matter how much you process them, there's a sphere of annihilation hidden in the basement. (kept secret and heavily guarded, of course, because if it was stolen it would have serious ramifications for functioning of the whole city. ) Definitely some interesting plot hooks here, plus they reference previous instalments in this series and add connections between them, which retroactively makes them more useful as well. It's a real strength of the Forgotten Realms in general, and it's good to see that they're applying it here as they build up the amount of detail. Expanding Into Europe: They've had several complaints over the years that it costs a lot more to be a member outside the USA. Here they strike back, solving that problem for their european members at least. Now they can send issues in bulk shipping to their office in Cambridge, then send the individual issues at local postage rates, which definitely makes things cheaper. Of course, this means you have to learn a whole new set of addresses, and possibly staff names, but that's a small price to pay for a literal reduction in price. While they're at it, they also promote the new European edition of Gen Con, which while not as big as the original, is still hopefully going to draw several thousand gamers and host tournaments for all the active TSR games. When growth stalls out in your own country, increasing your international audience is what really makes the difference in having a long lasting career, and eventually the influence from your international fanbase will feed back, making what you produce more cosmopolitan. A sensible thing to do that I approve of.</blockquote>

Verification