Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8799165" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 123: September 1996part 1/532 pages. Time to go full waugghh as the Raven's Bluff metaplot reaches it's climax. Unsurprisingly, the cover art is getting in on the theme, showing the hordes attacking the ramparts. I think we can be pretty certain the city will survive, since it's their most popular setting, but let's find out how hard-won the victory is and if any important NPC's will die and stay dead for good, leaving more room for players to take on important roles in the government. NEWScene: The new column about goings-on in the RPGA is another victim of the desire to be edgy and 90's in it's formatting, with the news printed in four very small columns. The only bit of externally submitted news is about DrakCon in Glasgow, and the extensive charity work they do on top of the gaming. 36 hour sponsored marathons, getting through epic multi-round tournaments in one sitting, they've raised a fair bit of money and had fun along the way. Closer to home, they list the winners of the Network awards and the Gamer's Choice awards, with the most notable being Daniel S. Donnelly for having written 20 tournament adventures for their loyal members to go through. (None of which I've got to review in here and most of which aren't even listed on rpggeek. Were they any good?) The games that won aren't too surprising though - Mage:the Ascension, Birthright, Paranoia, Warcraft II. That leaves me without any strong opinions about the proceedings. Maybe next year things'll be a little more controversial.your 1nitiative also gets 1337153d. All your letters are belong to them. Will they think a winnar is Polyhedron, or it's current editorial practices are epic fail?First dislikes Forgotten Deities and wants a regular forum where people can discuss their ideas about the RPGA. Well, I guess you've got both your wishes. (as long as enough people send in letters to keep this column going)Second is the SW Pacific branch manager, who thinks the Living City has become a bloated mess of kludgy house rules that needs to be retired. All the subsequent Living campaigns have learnt from it's mistakes and been better constructed from the start. Trouble is, any attempt to reform it upsets all the people who's characters would be arbitrarily altered in the process and so it all gets bogged down making minimal progress. I suspect this tension will continue to fester right up until the 3e changeover. Third wants to defend Polyhedron's convention coverage, which is the thing that really separates it from Dragon. Cut down too much on that and what's the point of it as a separate entity?Fourth is also frustrated with the Living City, and it's terrible adventures that seem to discourage roleplaying in particular, but would rather reform from the inside rather than blow it all up and start from scratch. If you cancel people or things just for doing a single problematic thing you'll never get anywhere, because perfection is an impossible standard to live up to. As long as human nature remains the same, the same old problems and debates will keep on recreating themselves even if you do start over.Fifth is from Chile, and obviously wishes there were more conventions around here, maybe a regional director and that the post was quicker & more reliable.  The RPGA is still nowhere near as international as it could be.Finally, another person annoyed at the powergamey and roleplaying low nature of Living City players/adventures. You get what you encourage, so the adventures need to be written to incentivise different things if they want to fix this problem. (and maybe allow GM's a little more leeway in general instead of forcing them to stick to a strict formula.)</blockquote>

Verification