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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8875325" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 129: April 1998part 4/5Jungle Tales 2: The first tale foretold events to come in the Living Jungle. This one tells us about the recent past, how a young Shu named Booda became the unlikely chief of the Simbuki tribe. Orphaned from one tribe, cast out from another, he had a pretty unlucky life, but he never lost courage and became a skilled shaman over the years. When he heard that the old chief of the Simbuki had died without leaving an heir and were holding an all-comers competition to determine the new one. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he and his Saru companion Urg entered and did surprisingly well, their racial special abilities helping them get through the tests where many others failed. Several others got to the finals, but he was the only one willing to grasp the spike of the sacred tree and pass the final test. (ie, the only one who's player was willing to retire their character and start a new one, as being a chief leaves no time for adventuring.) So this turns out to be a demonstration of how being a top player in a Living setting may get you some prestige, but you still won't be permitted to fundamentally alter the structure of the game, because they'll make you retire your character if it looks like they're getting too powerful and prestigious rather than let you play them as a chief and maybe try to institute democracy and a program of technological advancement. There are still certain playstyles you can only really enjoy at home, including domain play, because Birthright never got anywhere near the level of popularity to run a Living setting there. (and even then, the domain level bit would be better covered by a PbM game than linear tournament adventures at conventions) Agriculture, Invention & Society In Malatra: Speaking of technological advancement, they follow that up with a list of what basic technologies are available to what tribes. If you want to get hold of something outside your own specialties, you'll need to find someone from an appropriate one and barter with them. Given the climate, pretty much everyone has easy access to cocoa, coffee, tobacco and sugar so at least we know there's no shortage of vices to get hooked on. Access to metals are much more regional, with fools gold and copper being fairly common, brass, gold and silver rather rarer and restricted to specific tribes and iron completely unknown. Cotton and hemp are also pretty niche at the moment, but could become more cultivated in the future. They do have rubber but it hasn't occurred to anyone that it can be used for more than making bouncy balls so that's something you might be able to exploit if your judge is feeling generous. A fairly low key bit of worldbuilding that is useful for setting expectations, but not particularly exciting if you're looking for cool new stuff to add to your character. But then again, you knew your equipment was going to be pretty limited when you first made your character. Hopefully that already self-selected out the worst kind of munchkins. Bestiary adds a bunch of new races that are also permitted as PC's to the Living Jungle roster. There's always room for another tribe when each individual one is so small. Lacerials are malatran saurials, although it's unclear whether they were brought here in a separate incident from the one involving Moander in the western realms or not. In any case, there's a mere 60 of them split between the 4 subraces, not really enough for a viable breeding population. Out of touch with their gods, on a strange world where they struggle to communicate with the natives, they're quite understandably prone to depression. Only Bladebacks, finheads and hornheads are available as PC's, flyers are understandably forbidden due to the effect easy flight from 1st level has on railroads. All have the somewhat nerfed level limits common to Living Jungle races, in sharp contrast to their generous ones in the complete book of humanoids, and dual-classing is forbidden to them on top of that. Mildly frustrating but not surprising.Oscray (nice pig latin ya got there) are an orcish tribe that's obviously descended from Spelljammer Scro, reminding us that the Living Jungle has that whole ancient aliens theme going on in the background. They've lost most of their spacefaring technology but still have a decent cache of brass weapons that give them a definite edge in a fight when the enemy only has wood or stone. They're smarter, not affected by bright light and have somewhat better level limits than standard orcs, making them actually decent threats and a better than average PC choice down here.Impala Katanga have the speed of their deer counterparts, but also the fragility and general skittishness, making them not the most reliable of adventuring companions. In large groups, they have a special power to cause confusion when they all scatter at once, but that's another thing you won't be in a position to use as a PC. Still, even if double speed ground movement isn't as cool as flight, there's quite a lot of monsters you can make an easy getaway from while the rest of the group suffers a TPK. Let's just hope you don't get stuck with the same players and their new characters in a future tournament. Hedgehog Katanga are slower and tougher, so they're stalwart companions as long as you don't wind up fighting back-to-back with them or going on an aquatic adventure, as they're terrible swimmers and understandably scared of water. Better not put them in a group with that tribe that can't sleep properly unless they're floating.</blockquote>

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