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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8499652" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 85: July 1993part 2/5Letters: First letter complains about a lack of letters in issue 81. Dragon always has more than enough until the very end, when the internet commentary replaces most direct replies, but both Polyhedron & Dungeon have regularly struggled on this front. Jean asks for more help, but I suspect letters will continue to come in drips and drabs rather than a consistent stream.The second is much more specific, as it complains about too many conventions only running exclusive first-run tournament modules, to the detriment of average quality. While you do need a decent stream of new ones, especially for the Living City where keeping PC's from playing the same adventure twice at different conventions is important for continuity & fairnesses sake, not running good adventures just because someone else got there first is shooting yourself in the foot. Jean is very interested to hear if this should be regulated in some way, and if so, how. Hopefully that'll stir up a good debate in the next few issues. The Everwinking Eye: More demonstration here of why the Zhentarim can appear terrifying, but are ultimately losers on a larger scale perspective. Like generals in WW1, they have no hesitation in throwing waves of minions after a single problem, which just means more opportunities to gain XP for a competent party and leaves them short-handed later even if they do eventually win the battle. This approach is also applied to the city guard, which does at least mean the streets are pretty safe, clean and crime-free, and there's low unemployment due to constant need for new mooks. It's not hard to get on in the ground level as a potential infiltrator if you have any talent for violence, but surviving the treacherous politics and working your way up is not safe or easy. As with the other Moonsea cities, there's oddly little pub culture, with anyone of any refinement preferring private parties where they can indulge their depravities without having to worry about unwelcome walk-ins, while what pubs there are are filled with foreigners and troublemakers who want an acceptable target. It's not all cackling villainy here, and at least there's less random mind-reading going on than Mulmaster, but as soon as you engage with the people in charge you'll find it's one set of rules for them, and another for everyone else. As before, this lampshades the ridiculous events that happen in the FR novels, and attempts to show the quieter logistical stuff that happens in between them. Also as usual, his magazine articles are superior to his full length novels where Elminster does cheesy overpowered naughty word and mows through villains with more high level spells per day than any wizard actually working by the rules could cast, but I guess you've got to write what sells. There's still plenty of room to take the toys he's created and play with them in other ways.</blockquote>

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