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[Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon
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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8496420" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Polyhedron Issue 84: June 1993</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 3/5</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Living City 2: The second location this month is one of the still small fraction of places run entirely by 0th level characters. Tragor's Tours & Souvenir Shop. But on a flavour level it's considerably more interesting than the last one, as it gives you a good overview of lots of other establishments mentioned in previous issues, and then adds four new tourist spots on top of that with their own minor mechanical quirks. Sleep in Ilmater's footsteps and you might be miraculously cured of various chronic ailments. Jump off the tower of luck and enjoy it's blessing for the next few days, but only from a very specific angle, otherwise you just go splat. Listen to the prophecies of the goat oracle, but don't try to find out who's behind the curtain. It all presents a picture of magical landmarks much more low-key, quirky and unreliable than the previous article. I guess you get what you pay for, as these tour guides are pretty cheap. More one for new arrivals to the city than a place you can form a relationship with and visit over and over again. Just wandering around and seeing the sights is nice for a bit, but you need an actual purpose if you're going to make an extended stay. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Living City Magic: We whiplash back from 0 level characters to high magic again with a trio of magic items tied into Raven's Bluff. Ambassador Carrague is one of those wizards who uses his powers to accomplish things we would do with technology, for the desire to save labor and enjoy the comforts of life are universal. </p><p></p><p>Carrague's Steam Machines are basically reinventing the train. Technically, they're not even magical, as only the power source differs from earthly trains. Unfortunately for him, Torilians are superstitious of anything that looks technological due to those annoying Gondites, so there's only a few prototypes of these in existence. It'll take a lot of work laying down tracks before you can ride anywhere in style in these. </p><p></p><p>Carrague's Decanter of Endless Steam is just a decanter of endless water, only hotter. This makes it a very effective power source on top of all the normal uses for large quantities of water, and much more dangerous in combat as long as you have some means of coping with the recoil. Just one of these running at full power in a generator could make a city a good deal more comfortable, at least until the long term changes in water level and greenhouse effect catch up with you.</p><p></p><p>Carrague's Iron Golem ditches that unethical business of summoning & binding elemental spirits and instead makes it operated by a VR suit elsewhere. Make sure there's a thick wall between operator and golem, for if you're spotted, trying to deal with attacks while it's mirroring your actions will be humorously awkward. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Character Generation: It's been three years since they first allowed you to create persistent characters for the Living City and take them through tournament adventures, gaining levels along the way. It's been going long enough, and had enough feedback that they've decided it's time for a revision, in the process taking things even further away from AD&D 2e RAW. From every level between 2nd and 10th, you gain at least one ability point. Most of them can be assigned to any score, but some automatically go to your charisma, as for some reason living city characters tend to have a deficit there. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> You can have any kit from the official books you qualify for, which is surprisingly generous, but psionics are completely banned, as if you can't be trusted to roll for ability scores, you definitely can't be trusted with rolling for wild talents, let alone the prospect of teleportation or astral travel at 1st level as a psionicist. They're still using Comeliness, four years into 2e, and they've made dual-classing even harder than it is in the corebooks with an extra XP surcharge when you first switch. As with last time, it's a weird mix of things that won't become part of the official rules until next edition and holdovers from 1e. It goes to show, people really wanted some way for you to improve your ability scores as you level up, rather than just rolling lots of characters, and having the ones with higher scores more likely to survive that long. (plus XP bonuses for high prime requisites compounding the unfairness) Curious that the RPGA would decide to pander to that before the official designers. So there's actually plenty of interesting stuff in here to analyse, and less outright banned than I expected. Let's see how long it lasts before they have to revise these rules again.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 8496420, member: 27780"] [b][u]Polyhedron Issue 84: June 1993[/u][/b] part 3/5 The Living City 2: The second location this month is one of the still small fraction of places run entirely by 0th level characters. Tragor's Tours & Souvenir Shop. But on a flavour level it's considerably more interesting than the last one, as it gives you a good overview of lots of other establishments mentioned in previous issues, and then adds four new tourist spots on top of that with their own minor mechanical quirks. Sleep in Ilmater's footsteps and you might be miraculously cured of various chronic ailments. Jump off the tower of luck and enjoy it's blessing for the next few days, but only from a very specific angle, otherwise you just go splat. Listen to the prophecies of the goat oracle, but don't try to find out who's behind the curtain. It all presents a picture of magical landmarks much more low-key, quirky and unreliable than the previous article. I guess you get what you pay for, as these tour guides are pretty cheap. More one for new arrivals to the city than a place you can form a relationship with and visit over and over again. Just wandering around and seeing the sights is nice for a bit, but you need an actual purpose if you're going to make an extended stay. Living City Magic: We whiplash back from 0 level characters to high magic again with a trio of magic items tied into Raven's Bluff. Ambassador Carrague is one of those wizards who uses his powers to accomplish things we would do with technology, for the desire to save labor and enjoy the comforts of life are universal. Carrague's Steam Machines are basically reinventing the train. Technically, they're not even magical, as only the power source differs from earthly trains. Unfortunately for him, Torilians are superstitious of anything that looks technological due to those annoying Gondites, so there's only a few prototypes of these in existence. It'll take a lot of work laying down tracks before you can ride anywhere in style in these. Carrague's Decanter of Endless Steam is just a decanter of endless water, only hotter. This makes it a very effective power source on top of all the normal uses for large quantities of water, and much more dangerous in combat as long as you have some means of coping with the recoil. Just one of these running at full power in a generator could make a city a good deal more comfortable, at least until the long term changes in water level and greenhouse effect catch up with you. Carrague's Iron Golem ditches that unethical business of summoning & binding elemental spirits and instead makes it operated by a VR suit elsewhere. Make sure there's a thick wall between operator and golem, for if you're spotted, trying to deal with attacks while it's mirroring your actions will be humorously awkward. Character Generation: It's been three years since they first allowed you to create persistent characters for the Living City and take them through tournament adventures, gaining levels along the way. It's been going long enough, and had enough feedback that they've decided it's time for a revision, in the process taking things even further away from AD&D 2e RAW. From every level between 2nd and 10th, you gain at least one ability point. Most of them can be assigned to any score, but some automatically go to your charisma, as for some reason living city characters tend to have a deficit there. :) You can have any kit from the official books you qualify for, which is surprisingly generous, but psionics are completely banned, as if you can't be trusted to roll for ability scores, you definitely can't be trusted with rolling for wild talents, let alone the prospect of teleportation or astral travel at 1st level as a psionicist. They're still using Comeliness, four years into 2e, and they've made dual-classing even harder than it is in the corebooks with an extra XP surcharge when you first switch. As with last time, it's a weird mix of things that won't become part of the official rules until next edition and holdovers from 1e. It goes to show, people really wanted some way for you to improve your ability scores as you level up, rather than just rolling lots of characters, and having the ones with higher scores more likely to survive that long. (plus XP bonuses for high prime requisites compounding the unfairness) Curious that the RPGA would decide to pander to that before the official designers. So there's actually plenty of interesting stuff in here to analyse, and less outright banned than I expected. Let's see how long it lasts before they have to revise these rules again. [/QUOTE]
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