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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8891337" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 130: June 1998part 2/5Elminster's Everwinking Eye: Ed once again manages to come up with a place brilliantly designed as both an adventure location and a place you could actually see yourself living. The Land of Two Princes is dominated by two noble families, the Amcorths and the Beldrists, locked in an eternal battle for dominance. However, this contest has strict rules. They can't fight each other directly, nor shall they cause collateral damage amongst the common folk, (no point being rulers if you haven't got people to rule) victory shall be determined by the number of the other side currently captured by their hired warriors. This keeps the land itself safe and prosperous, ensuring that while the person at the top may change frequently, power overall stays within the hands of the families. (and of course they'll unite ruthlessly against any outsiders trying to take over, making for a fairly stable two-party system despite not being a democracy.) If you want a fairly low fatality land full of knightly shenanigans to keep things interesting this looks perfect. Swear allegiance to one side or another and carry their crest and you'll never be short of challenges in the endless game of thrones. That sounds like the recipe for a long and fun campaign with the right group. This is all well above average even by Ed's standards as a place with a distinctive flavour, balancing game usefulness, real world satire and generally being fun to read. It's a joy to still be finding more lesser known gems in his writing here.City Stories: This month we look at the temple of Chauntea in Raven's Bluff. Now, we already looked at the nearby druid circle dedicated to her in issue 119, but as a nature deity that spans both the wilds and cultivated areas, she has places dedicated to both. (and as a very popular greater deity, the congregation to fill both at once as well) There's definitely some tensions between the two about just where the proper balance between nature and civilisation should lie, but as followers of a good deity, they rarely become too cutthroat about it. As these guys have a proper temple building rather than just a bunch of standing stones, the map this time is larger and more detailed, but there's less detail on the political wranglings of the church than last time, and some of that is repeated. So there is a certain amount of diminishing returns between the two, but you're still getting some new setting info that makes the Realms a little more filled in and easy to run straight off the shelf. Another solid but unexceptional entry in this series overall. Keepers of the Mystic Flame: Another article repeated from the March issue of the Trumpeter, bringing the new knightly order to a wider audience. Unlike the other one, there's no rules refinements here, just verbatim copy & pasting, leaving me with nothing further to say.</blockquote>

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