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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8674707" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 108: June 1995part 2/5Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Precisely a year after starting, Ed decides we have enough material on Turmish to satisfy most readers, and rounds out the tour with treasures from S-V. The small, tall houses of Sambryntyn, with the usual small stashes in the attics & basements, plus a magic key that supposedly leads to a dragon hoard if touched to the right place. Swordslake Creek, once conquered by an Illithid who used his full cephalopod intellect to embezzle lots of treasure before being defeated by overwhelming force. Tarnring, a mostly tapped out mining town that once also contained a magic school, and still has a whole bunch of statues of wizards past. Is there some secret order to the way they're positioned? Ulver's Lance, home to a thief that only takes a few coins from each house a night and leaves no traces otherwise. What's their deal and just how much have they accumulated slowly over the years. And finally, Velorn's Valor, named after a powerful warrior who's shield still hangs on the council wall, and has a portable hole on it's inside surface. Someone recently rummaging around inside it found a treasure map. Will you be the adventurers they send to follow it up and see if the treasure is still there? As usual, lots of whimsical ideas that are easily scaled up or down in challenge rating to fit your group. Now let's hope his next destination has a decent amount of contrast with this one, because these ideas have been getting a little samey lately. Races of Cerilia: Another new setting, another promotional excerpt. :sighs: Not that it's bad in itself, but when the forgotten realms has this big a lead and is getting further ahead with multiple articles of new material every issue, it makes it seem like the writers of the other settings just don't have the same passion for their creations. But anyway, time for Birthright. After Athas and Planescape drastically changed the aesthetics of the setting and what types of characters you can play in them, this might seem a little underwhelming and generic by comparison. But there is actually quite a bit going on under the hood to make them distinct. They're going extra celtic with the feel, making all the demihumans more alien and less likely to be treated like humans with funny hats, all living together happily in the same integrated settlements. Dwarves are more stonelike, which means they weigh around 200-300 pounds despite their small size, and are able to handle much more encumbrance than a human of the same strength stat, but this may also become a nuisance in places the floor isn't designed for them. Elves are literally immortal unless killed violently, and spending time in their courts is pretty mind-bending for shorter-lived races, in mythical faerie style. Half-elves are usually accepted by their elven parents, but face quite a lot of bigotry in human settlements. Halflings aren't just naturally good at stealth, they can see into and travel through the shadow realm, letting them sneak into seemingly impossible places and travel overland faster than any horse. They keep the source and limits of their capabilities pretty secret from other races. So after the likes of Al-Qadim and Planescape went for racially integrated settings where drastically different creatures have learned how to get along with each other more than usual, and even literal embodiments of ideologies are capable of being polite about it to their opposition in Sigil, this seems to be intentionally aiming at a more … essentialist crowd, making a world where it's objective truth that some people are genuinely better than others because of the purity of their bloodlines and deserve to rule because of it, other races are weird and incomprehensible, segregation is the natural order of things and none of them really trust each other. In a post-Trump world that reads like a whole string of unpleasant dogwhistles. A mixed adventuring party of wandering adventurers is very much the exception, as most people with class levels are nobles more concerned with the governing of their lands. You can see why they've never even tried to bring it back for 4 or 5e, as it'd take so many changes to fit modern standards of political correctness, starting with the name itself as to be unrecognisable. Whew. On top of that, there's also the more subtle mechanical changes to examines. Ability modifiers are more extreme in general, both positive and negative. Class limits are also rejigged both up and down, with everyone apart from dwarves having unlimited advancement in at least one class. Some multiclass options are available that aren't to core ones, particularly involving multiclass priests, but there are no triple class options, which i think is because that reacts badly with the domain management system. Lots of little alterations who's full effect will only really be seen when they're all put together in actual play. It's obvious that lots of effort has been put into making it an interesting setting and making the domain mechanics work, the question is whether it's still worth engaging with given the inherently problematic core premise of blood purity and everything that comes with it. People who take that seriously are much more of an issue than in the 90's and do you really want to engage with the premise ironically as escapism then find you've attracted people who sincerely believe in it into your friend group?</blockquote>

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