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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8392123" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 69: March 1992part 4/5Into The Dark: James decides to go for the theme of a very specific monster this issue. Zombies! They're actually a fairly recent addition to the folkloric roster, less than a century old, but have become very popular both in their own right, and also as mooks for other varieties of undead & spellcasters. There's plenty of both good and bad movies featuring them to choose from.White Zombie was the very first zombie movie, made back in 1932. Like many old, low-budget movies, it somehow manages to be both too short and too slow paced for people used to the modern style of writing & editing, but still has some genuinely creepy moments that hold up today, particularly where the people are actually being turned into zombies for the first time. It's important to know your history.Day of the Dead is the third in George Romero's long-running series where the zombies are very obviously metaphors for humanities own cruelty to one another, and the biggest danger is the stupidity and greed of the other people you're sheltering with. Sometimes the monologuing can be a bit heavy-handed, but they're still classics for a reason. Most modern day zombie films show definite influence from him.Gates of Hell lacks the cleverness of the previous two, and so ups the amount of gore to overcompensate. Lots of largely interchangable characters who's only purpose is to die in various ways, and bad editing is not the way to get people invested enough to care when the bad stuff happens, and that's kinda important for true horror to work. Horror of the Zombies is also cheap and stupidly written, but this time in spanish. The zombies are so slow and weak that no reasonable person would ever be caught by them, leaving things distinctly unscary. Not really worth all the hassle of subtitles or even worse dubbing to get through.Return of the Living Dead gets the highest marks here, as it takes the zombie movie cliches, subverts them, and adds plenty of dark humour. Just don't bother with the sequel, as it's a waste of time by comparison.Gamma World Game Loot: The attempt to give Gamma World 4e a decent amount of promotion continues with a look at their treasure tables. In keeping with the current attempts to make it work more like D&D, they have exactly the same kind of treasure types, with A-O for lairs, and U-Z for stuff carried by individuals. The treasure itself isn't hugely changed though, a motley mix of everyday things from the modern era that might seem wondrous to them, and things that are genuinely fantastical like laser guns and holocubes. (and a few things that were sci-fi in the 80's, but now seem mundane like an electronic map of the world on a tablet. ) So this continues their attempts to get the many readers who only play D&D to diversify by making switching seem as familiar and pain-free as possible. It all feels pretty cynical, and of course is of no use once you actually buy the books. I'm not particularly thrilled by this.</blockquote>

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