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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8498115" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 84: June 1993part 5/5What's In A Name: Oh god, they're trying to make a mascot for the RPGA. Choose one of the 6 twee looking potential candidates, all drawn by Gary M. Williams so there's no real variety in terms of art style, and submit a name for them. Two different dragons, three faeish sorts and one vague blob person with a d20 for a head. Mildly more choice than your average political election, but you're still not going to make any significant difference to the overall way things are run with your vote. Winner gets a year's membership extension and the smugness of being able to point to the mascot on every issue (until the next big revision) and say they were responsible for it. I wonder who's idea this was in the first place. In any case, it's mildly irritating, but in an interesting way, and like the elections gives me something else to look forward too. Will the audience at the time be more enthusiastic about it than I am?Beaming Into Mecca: The Mecca arena in Milkaukee that is, as while we've seen a few letters from Israeli gamers over the years, there's been absolutely zero signs of any RPG penetration into Muslim-dominated middle eastern countries in any of TSR's products. Gene DeWeese talks about his convention appearances, Star Trek in general, and how he got into writing for them. He was a fan of the show right from the start, and one of the people who bombarded Paramount with letters when it was first cancelled. He published a wide variety of books before getting into the licensed fiction market, including one for TSR, but his Star Trek books have been the biggest selling and most referenced whenever fans meet him in person. Despite his success, he's still not so big that he can just get any idea published - he still has to pitch them to the executives and often has to shop them around several companies before he finds a buyer. He also has to deal with the sexist & racist complaints of his fans for including competent diverse protagonists, even though Star Trek is supposed to be a time when those prejudices don't exist anymore. Another of those things that hasn't changed 30 years later, but the internet has given the worst of fandom a louder voice. So despite making a comfortable living, he's still a working author, not a celebrity who can afford to not publish anything for years and then have a bidding war when they do. Even the biggest author working in licensed fiction will still be subject to various restrictions that someone who owns their own IP doesn't. He seems pleasant enough. Bloodmoose & Company have to face up to the cruel realities of death and taxes hitting at the same time in their final appearance. No happy ending here then, but an unusually realistic one.A very Living City heavy issue indeed, between the 4 setting articles and revising the character creation guidelines on top of that. The longer things go on, the more it seems to be absorbing their other convention related activities. Will they ever get another Living setting off the ground? The Gamma World one seems to have been a non-starter. It also shows how important Polyhedron was to the Forgotten Realms becoming by far their biggest setting, building up it's hardcore fanbase and adding lots of detail beyond Ed's own contributions. Will next issue have more of the same, or be a diversion into a more novel theme? I guess we'll see tomorrow.</blockquote>

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