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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8326148" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 60: June 1991part 4/5The Living City: What is it with Raven's Bluff and dancing bears?! This is the third article they've done connected to that idea. Must be like bullfighting in Spain, something that remains popular because it's part of their stereotypical cultural identity, despite any humanitarian protests (not that there's been a huge amount of that either, with the one set of protest singers being treated mostly as a joke) and there being plenty of more entertaining alternative pastimes in a world filled with magic. So, the Dancing Bear Inn. It has indeed not only contained dancing bears, but has a small pit fighting arena in which all kinds of brutal entertainment that would be forbidden on both humanitarian and health & safety grounds in modern day earth takes place. You can also bet on the outcomes of these entertainments, but make sure you can pay up unless you want to be the subject of the violence instead. Unsurprisingly for such a rough and ready place, most of the serving staff are at least moderate class levels, including a cleric as one of the serving wenches, which I'm sure comes in extra handy for patching up gladiators so they can go a few more rounds in a night. Starting an unscheduled fight probably won't go well for the PC's. There's certainly both fun and profit to be had here as long as you're not of a delicate disposition, but watch your back. Another article that reminds us that while not a dystopian place where evil rules supreme like Mulmaster, Raven's Bluff still isn't remotely civilised by modern standards, and is unlikely to become so as long as adventurers from all over the continent are drawn there. Unlike the real wild west, the dangers here replenish as fast as adventurers can clear them out, so you're never going to get out of that frontier town mentality. Changing that would truly be an epic quest for high level characters. Into The Dark: James admits that he's writing these columns months in advance, so he's not even trying to be timely in terms of what releases he covers, and hasn't got to see any responses to the first ones yet. He's just an RPG writer doing this as a side gig, so he has to rent these films in a shop like the rest of us, without any special behind the scenes access or comp copies. Given Polyhedron's relatively niche readership that's unlikely to change any time soon, so calibrate your expectations accordingly. Let's see what he's picked out for us this month. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter puts a fairly interesting spin on the hammer horror formula, where a vampire hunting organisation has to figure out which one of many variants they're dealing with this time around. A valiant attempt at franchise building, mainly hampered by the woodenness of the lead actor. When all the supporting cast are more interesting than them, you wonder why you're bothering to put them centre-stage. Battle Beyond the Stars is too busy making references to other, better movies to produce a solid plot and special effects of it's own. For all the flaws in it's writing, there's good reasons Star Wars became a blockbuster franchise starter and all it's imitators from the same era have long since been forgotten. No matter how ludicrous the premise, never wink at the camera if you want the audience to get emotionally invested in your product. Fiend without a Face gets a mixed review, with some interesting and unusual monsters, but dated themes, shoddy editing and cheap use of stock footage. It's reasonably entertaining if you switch your brain off, but don't expect it to hold up to deep analysis, or even MST3K level. Tremors is the first film James gives a full 5 stars too, which makes perfect sense. It might be B-movie fare, but it really brings it's A-game to characterisation, writing & soundtrack, and makes good use of it's limited special effects budget to build tension instead of just shoving the monsters in your face. It comes highly recommended. Now they just need to figure out how to avoid diminishing returns in the sequels like most horror franchises, which is much easier said than done.</blockquote>

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