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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8597925" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 48: Jul/Aug 1994part 3/5Them Apples: The people complaining in the letters about too much whimsy will not be pleased, as we go straight from a second lighthearted adventure where you're expected to roleplay your way through a lot of the challenges to a third. A human orchard-keeper is jealous of his halfling neighbours growing skills, and hired someone (actually a shapeshifted wooddrake who would have done the job for free anyway because it loves creating chaos) to sabotage them. Now there's poisoned trees, a hill giant has kidnapped some of the halflings, and there's more havoc to come. Can you both solve the immediate problems and root out the ultimate culprits so there won't be another set as soon as you leave. As you're only basic level, you can't use raw force to get through this, so talking or sneakiness is the order of the day. This is the silliest adventure in here so far, with lots of exaggerated goofy NPC's, but thankfully it's less railroady than the last two as well, giving you much more freedom of how you approach the problems without spoiling the adventure as a whole. It feels very much like D&D for kids, consciously written to have something to run when introducing young people to the game. As such I can see how it could be useful, but it's yet again not something I'm very likely to be using at any time in the near future. This issue isn't turning out very well at all so far. Melody: Straight away, we have another short adventure that's definitely on the more twee end of things. A bard found a harpy egg (after killing it's parents) and decided to see if it could be more than a ravenous monster if raised properly. Interestingly enough, this actually worked, although it involved a lot of lying to her about her true origin and keeping her ignorant of just how powerful her mind-control abilities are, and she's grown into a civilised and well-groomed young lady who wouldn't dream of eating other sentient beings. However, it wouldn't be an adventure if there wasn't cause for conflict so while travelling between towns they were attacked by ettins. Her adoptive father was killed, she was taken prisoner and forced to sing for their supper, and now the PC's are the latest people lured in. Will they be able to keep their wits about them enough to listen to the warning lyrics, not just the hypnotic melody, and not be easy prey for the ettin ambush? Then if they survive that, what do they do with the captive? Do they engage in knee-jerk fantastical racism and kill her as well, let her go free and be on her way without any concern, or investigate this interesting anomaly further and make her a recurring NPC? Another one where the combat is a relatively minor part of the adventure, and the interesting part is engaging with the worldbuilding and moral questions raised as a result. Does it make more sense to try and integrate intelligent monsters into society than driving them away or exterminating them? If you do so, how do you deal with powers like mind control & flight, as well as weird limitations and problematic dietary needs? A multi-species metropolis would be an absolute nightmare balancing accessibility and security needs for things with vastly different body plans and capabilities. Which is probably why most games shy away from that and make most playable races just humans with pointy ears or forehead ridges. So despite once again being very twee and 2eish in writing style, this does earn points for being actively antiracist, falling on the side that just maybe, there are better long term solutions to the problems of the world than killing things and taking their stuff. It may take generations of work and developing some custom magic to overcome the logistical hurdles, and some little white lies, but it'll all be for the greater good in the end. This first one this issue I'd actually willingly use.</blockquote>

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