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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8507291" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 86: August 1993part 1/532 pages. Well, we're now halfway through Polyhedron's run numerically. Probably not in terms of page count, and since we're only a fifth of the way through Dungeon, we're nowhere near halfway through the journey overall, but it's still a decent landmark. The rider and wardog on the cover also look like they've got a lengthy journey through mountainous terrain still to go. Better not spend too much time staring pensively from a vantage point then. It may look good on a cover but it won't get you that XP.The Third Degree: This column goes for a licensed game this time, with the RPG of Larry Niven's Dream Park novels. This is interesting because you're essentially playing a game within a game, as both the people plugged into VR in the park, and their shorter-term characters in various more fantastical genres. Seems like it would also be a good fit for a Matrix game then. Like Over the Edge, it's more focussed on roleplaying than combat, and the system is fairly light as a result. People who want ultra detailed cross-genre emulation should stick to GURPS or something, but if you want to be able to create characters quickly and get down to actually playing, this could be worth checking out.Notes From HQ: First half of the editorial gives props to people who started out volunteering for the RPGA, and have gone onto be paid writers for TSR and other companies. John Terra, Tom Prusa, Nicky Rea and multiple members of the Bingle family have all worked their way up, built connections through their time here, and are now reaching a wider audience with their work. Good for them. Hopefully their success will encourage other aspiring writers to stick it out through the hard years trying to get a foot in the door.Second half continues their midlife existential crisis. Do they want to change their name? Should they continue to focus so heavily on conventions, or find other ways to connect gamers throughout the world? If they do cut down, what do they fill the space with? As with the name change, they're probably not going to make big changes because the demands of lots of users tend to average out towards the status quo, but hopefully it'll generate interesting debate in the letters page in the meantime.Letters: First letter is by Rick Loomis, who praises them for talking about PbM games, then points out all the ways the article was factually inaccurate. He should know, because he was running a company doing them 10 years earlier than it said and knows the ins and outs, what does and doesn't work with the format intimately. Someone really ought to write a book detailing the history of PbM games before all the big players in the scene die of old age, because I strongly suspect big chunks of that were only known by their participants and most of the paper records have already been lost.The other one is your basic list of likes and dislikes. Into the Dark & Living Galaxy good, Everwinking Eye bad. Run more non D&D games at conventions plz. The last bit, you can solve yourself by volunteering as a judge, as that's the main limiting factor there and one person could do several slots over a weekend and still have time for sightseeing.</blockquote>

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