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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8589334" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 97: July 1994part 1/532 pages. Don't hit the beer too hard as an aging swashbuckler. It's a fine line between keeping up that party animal reputation and getting so sloppy that any young buck can beat you in a duel. Not that that's likely to happen under D&D rules, with aging penalties pretty trivial compared to your boosts from gaining levels and magic items. Let's see how likely your players are to have a fair chance against him inside.The Living City 1: Straight away, they provide context for the cover. They're finally giving us full stats for Mayor Charles Oliver O'Kane. He's been heading up the government of Raven's Bluff for a full three decades now, with the help of a few potions of longevity from the looks of him. During that time the place has become noticeably more civilised and law-abiding, (although as we've seen elsewhere, said system of law still has a fair bit of corruption still running through it.) with piracy in particular reduced to a fraction of what it used to be in the city's vicinity. Despite the length of time he's been in charge, he hasn't become corrupt himself, with his strong Helmish faith keeping him dedicated to the cause of civic improvement. He's a confirmed bachelor, but because of the code of conduct we can't directly hint that he has any sexual interest in non-females, so he regularly invites different women to be his +1 at parties and political events, based more on gossip about who's an interesting up-and-comer worth getting to know than personal attraction. Since he's 15th level, and we saw at the end of last issue that even the most dedicated player has only made it up to level 9 over 5 years of Living City adventures, it doesn't look like he'll be replaced any time soon. Despite the various dangers around the edges, the Realms is fundamentally a cosy place with a far higher proportion of decent people in charge than the real world, and this just reinforces that. Whatever adventures you go out and face, you can feel pretty secure that your home will still be there when you get back, and they're not going to blow the whole city up unexpectedly in the metaplot. After all, there are literally thousands of adventurers here. Even if some of them die, the rest will definitely foil even a marauding dragon or army before too much damage is done.Notes From HQ: Speaking of deaths, apparently 11 people managed to get their Living City characters killed at ConnCon, which is a new record for a single event. (which does still demonstrate just how much less lethal their adventures are than old school ones like Tomb of Horrors, where many whole parties got TPK'd in the early tournaments.) Thankfully this was also because of record signups, showing that Living City events are still growing in popularity, with people signing up to them in preference to standalone tournaments because they actually have long term consequences. To continue that growth and make the place feel even more like a community they're adding Living City Bazaars to several big conventions this year, so you can buy stuff, meet people, join guilds, and generally shoot the breeze IC without having to worry about finishing a mission within 4 hours and being stuck with the same party of randos the entire time. If the first few are a success, they'll be delighted to make them another regular event. Along with adding the newspaper, it seems like they're still finding ways to expand the amount and types of Living City content they give us to keep things interesting and make sure their long-term growth continues. That's pretty pleasing to see.</blockquote>

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