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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8620185" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 100: October 1994part 5/5Shadowrun Archetypes: Shadowrun gets something more mundane, but curiously quite historically significant. Physical Adepts weren't in the original corebook, but added on in a supplement and then incorporated into the core of subsequent editions. They channel their essence into enhancing their body rather than casting obvious external spells, letting them function as superskilled martial artists or low level superheroes. Just as in D&D, that's probably not the most optimal build, but it's a fun one conceptually, so once introduced it remains fairly popular nonetheless. I don't think this is their very first appearance, but it is interesting to see here. (and it would be extra interesting if it was. Can anyone answer that?)Pumpkin-Charley: Ravenloft contributes an unpleasantly ableist bit of poetry where the narrator torments a mentally handicapped man, culminating in him getting his head stuck in a halloween pumpkin, to become a spooky bit of folklore in the tradition of Jason Vorhees or Leatherface. He does not get any comeuppance for his cruelty at the end, and is just openly telling his story to the tourists like it's funny, which is particularly worrying. That's a big naughty word yikes, and you should be ashamed for writing this J. Robert King. This is just bizarrely mean-spirited, lacking any of the morality play aspect of most horror stories. If they were in any way consistent about their code of conduct this should never have got published in here. Alien Technology: WEG's Shatterzone is another one we haven't seen in here before. They get one of those mad science pods that messes with your genome. Will you die horribly, go mad, gain awesome superpowers, or some mix of traits that may be advantageous in some respects, but also awkward and deforming in others? Like drinking from magical fountains in old school dungeons, it seems very much like a crapshoot, so only risk it if you're not too attached to your character concept and are fine with starting a new one if the dice don't go your way. Well, it's been a while since those were common so this gets my approval as another interesting bit of variety in an issue that's already been very heavy on that. Troubleshooter Exam: We finish things off with a typically absurdist quiz for Paranoia. Which answer you pick doesn't really matter, because most of them have no right answer, and you're a commie mutant traitor who's going to annoy someone and die soon anyway, unless you blast them first. You know the drill by now. No surprise that they're still firmly stuck in the Zap playstyle given the rest of their output.With far greater quantity and variety of material than usual, this issue stands out quite a lot as a big celebration despite being no larger than a regular issue. Some of the individual articles are still annoying, but even the bad ones are mostly annoying in interesting ways. If they took inspiration from this and made the regular issues denser as well I would be quite pleased. But I guess that would require more freelance submissions, particularly for the non D&D material. We shall just have to see how much that continues to be a struggle for them.</blockquote>

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