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[Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon
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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8313584" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Polyhedron Issue 59: May 1991</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 4/5</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A New World to Conquer: Our second promotional article this issue is for Dark Sun. The desert world where everything is psionic and arcane magic is destroying the ecosystem. Can you free the city-states from the cruel grip of the sorcerer-kings and make it a better place, or will you merely struggle to survive between all the social and environmental hazards? Your equipment is limited, but your basic ability scores are jacked way up, everyone starts at 3rd level, and the enemies are similarly scary in response. It's easily the biggest departure from regular D&D rules and setting assumptions they've done so far, as well as the highest production values they've tried, with the concept art by Brom playing an integral part in it's development rather than being commissioned after they'd already done all the writing. Unsurprisingly, Jim Ward is involved, which makes perfect sense, as Dark Sun is a merger of the AD&D and Gamma World aesthetics with a less comical veneer, and he always was one of the biggest twinks on staff. With sample NPC stats and a new monster, the Psi-Shadow, this lets you know exactly what you're in for if you buy this, although I don't think even they knew how convoluted and metaplotty it'd wind up in the supplements at this point. (the full details of what, why, and how common sorcerer-kings were definitely seems to have been added on after the initial writing) It's a pretty good teaser, making it clear that they're trying to push the limits of what you can do with the D&D system, and produce something completely distinct from the 4 fairly generic worlds they're currently supporting. Their ambition may exceed their reach sometimes, but they're putting out both far more quantity and variety of material than WotC now, on much more specific subjects. Who's going to be nostalgic for generic mishmash supplements like Tasha's Cauldron in 25 years time? Give us new settings that do something different and relevant to the modern day.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A Friend In Need: The adventure this issue is a whimsical one with nonstandard pregen PC's. Take on the roles of a Sprite, Sylph, Swanmay, Centaur, Werebear, & a regular elf just for good measure and save the woodland creatures from some fairytale cliches given interesting combinations. A handsome prince is searching for his bride. The (evil) sorceress with a magic mirror offers to help him in his search, secretly intending to use a love potion to make him fall in love with her instead. On the journey, he meets a dryad and falls in love with her instead. By amazing co-incidence, her tree gets struck by lightning and she passes out. The prince takes her away from her tree to get medical attention (not realising this just makes matters worse.) The evil sorceress pulls a sleeping beauty routine on both of them, and the PC's have to rescue them in a hurry. (with obligatory waking with a kiss) It's frequently silly, and the influences are very obvious, but it is willing to subvert expectations and give you some freedom in how you solve the challenges, so it's definitely not the worst they've ever done in here. Like the one where you played as magic items, the set of nonstandard PC's definitely strengthens the adventure as a whole, and while it could be played in a regular campaign, it'd lose a fair bit of it's charm without them. That means it's probably not one I'd wind up using under normal circumstances, but I don't have any particular animosity to it either, unlike some of their so-called humorous adventures which are just annoying to read.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 8313584, member: 27780"] [B][U]Polyhedron Issue 59: May 1991[/U][/B] part 4/5 A New World to Conquer: Our second promotional article this issue is for Dark Sun. The desert world where everything is psionic and arcane magic is destroying the ecosystem. Can you free the city-states from the cruel grip of the sorcerer-kings and make it a better place, or will you merely struggle to survive between all the social and environmental hazards? Your equipment is limited, but your basic ability scores are jacked way up, everyone starts at 3rd level, and the enemies are similarly scary in response. It's easily the biggest departure from regular D&D rules and setting assumptions they've done so far, as well as the highest production values they've tried, with the concept art by Brom playing an integral part in it's development rather than being commissioned after they'd already done all the writing. Unsurprisingly, Jim Ward is involved, which makes perfect sense, as Dark Sun is a merger of the AD&D and Gamma World aesthetics with a less comical veneer, and he always was one of the biggest twinks on staff. With sample NPC stats and a new monster, the Psi-Shadow, this lets you know exactly what you're in for if you buy this, although I don't think even they knew how convoluted and metaplotty it'd wind up in the supplements at this point. (the full details of what, why, and how common sorcerer-kings were definitely seems to have been added on after the initial writing) It's a pretty good teaser, making it clear that they're trying to push the limits of what you can do with the D&D system, and produce something completely distinct from the 4 fairly generic worlds they're currently supporting. Their ambition may exceed their reach sometimes, but they're putting out both far more quantity and variety of material than WotC now, on much more specific subjects. Who's going to be nostalgic for generic mishmash supplements like Tasha's Cauldron in 25 years time? Give us new settings that do something different and relevant to the modern day. A Friend In Need: The adventure this issue is a whimsical one with nonstandard pregen PC's. Take on the roles of a Sprite, Sylph, Swanmay, Centaur, Werebear, & a regular elf just for good measure and save the woodland creatures from some fairytale cliches given interesting combinations. A handsome prince is searching for his bride. The (evil) sorceress with a magic mirror offers to help him in his search, secretly intending to use a love potion to make him fall in love with her instead. On the journey, he meets a dryad and falls in love with her instead. By amazing co-incidence, her tree gets struck by lightning and she passes out. The prince takes her away from her tree to get medical attention (not realising this just makes matters worse.) The evil sorceress pulls a sleeping beauty routine on both of them, and the PC's have to rescue them in a hurry. (with obligatory waking with a kiss) It's frequently silly, and the influences are very obvious, but it is willing to subvert expectations and give you some freedom in how you solve the challenges, so it's definitely not the worst they've ever done in here. Like the one where you played as magic items, the set of nonstandard PC's definitely strengthens the adventure as a whole, and while it could be played in a regular campaign, it'd lose a fair bit of it's charm without them. That means it's probably not one I'd wind up using under normal circumstances, but I don't have any particular animosity to it either, unlike some of their so-called humorous adventures which are just annoying to read. [/QUOTE]
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