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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8516270" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 87: September 1993part 4/5Bartering Made Easy: Dark Sun evidently isn't getting enough reader submissions, as this is merely a promotional excerpt from an upcoming book that's of no use once you've bought the thing. Like many a desert culture, Athasians treat the price label on items at a market as merely a starting suggestion - if you just pay that straight away word will soon get around that you're a soft touch and then the starting prices will be even higher. If you enjoy the process of haggling you can string it out into a whole minigame detailed here, pushing the price up or down in 10% increments over multiple rounds before finally reaching a conclusion somewhere in the middle. Because this is taken from Elves of Athas, elves are extra awesome at haggling, as they are at so many other things. So yeah, this is very specifically aimed at elf fangirls who love to spend entire sessions shopping. (Living in a valley is like, totally optional. )There's definitely a fair few of those working in the TSR offices and playing 2e, as also demonstrated by the existence of Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog. It's an interesting example of them taking D&D away from the dungeon and making something other than combat more crunchy and involved. It loses a few points as an article for being recycled, but it's still an interesting development worth commenting on, as a precursor to later edition's skill challenges. Just needs making a little more generic and less dependent on a single ability score, so you can't just reliably win by pumping your charisma to the max. Into The Dark: James once again demonstrates his cynicism about what he reviews. There's a lot of Sword & Sorcery films out there, and most are formulaic low-budget drek. Get ready for one of those columns who's main purpose is to warn you away from most of the things in it. Dragonslayer is a familiar one if you're a long-time follower of my Let's Reads, <a href="http://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/lets-read-ares-magazine.752756/post-20793095" target="_blank">as they did a big special feature on it in ARES magazine at the time.</a> It gets the highest score this time round, as it does actually have decent writing and special effects, but it's still ponderously slow and dominated by shades of brown. Peter MacNicol works much better as a comedy actor than a heroic lead. It's not going to make many people's top ten fantasy movies this far in the future.The Warrior & the Sorceress is a blatant rip-off of Yojimbo with added fantasy elements. If you watch them back to back you'll see just how formulaic and obvious the copying is, while lacking the quality of the original. Or you could not bother, since it's already been done for you.Lionman II: The WitchQueen is one of those cases where James is baffled how the first one got a sequel given it's quality. Turns out it was bankrolled by the guy playing the villain, making it a vanity project. Like most vanity projects, it may have some good ideas, but many of the technical aspects are lacking, the quality of the rest of the actors is highly inconsistent, and the english dubbing does not improve matters. Another one probably bettered by many youtuber movies on a smaller budget. Deathstalker III: The Warriors from Hell is mildly improved from the first two instalments, but still, this is another case where it's puzzling that they got this far in the first place, and will manage a 4th one before petering out altogether.  I guess when you're this low budget, you don't need that many sales to turn a profit, and a good cover can lure in a lot of suckers at the video rental store. Sorceress also gets a low overall rating, but a slightly more positive review, as it at least manages to be interestingly bad with it's cheesy dialogue and immature humour. When they don't take themselves too seriously, it's easier to forgive the bits that don't work.</blockquote>

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