Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8909924" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron UK Issue 1: July 1998part 4/5Bare Bones: It's the first issue of a new magazine, so we're not getting through this without a regular column giving basic roleplaying advice. There's a bunch of basic ingredients that turn up in plots over and over again. You need a hook to get people interested, plot devices to move things along, maguffins (sic) to do awesome things with to resolve sticky situations, (careful about letting the players keep those afterwards) red herrings to muddy the water, twists to keep the players guessing and it should all build up to a crescendo somewhere near the end of the session. Very much on the storytelling end of RPG design, rather than creating a dungeon full of dangers, giving the players free reign to explore and letting the dice fall as they may. Perfectly reasonable advice, but not telling me anything new, like the many other times they've started a series like this from scratch. It takes several more leaps before they have a chance of getting beyond familiar terrain, and since I know there's only 8 issues of this branch of the newszine, I doubt it'll get there even if it carries on for the whole run.Reviews: Prayers from the Faithful does have plenty of new spells, but it's also about establishing their place in the world and what various Forgotten Realms clergy actually do with them day-to-day. What does your religion really mean to your character in a provably pantheistic world and why did they choose it, other than the general fear of going to the wall of the faithless if they didn't pick one at all? As D&D becomes more focussed on roleplaying and less on hack & slash, these kinds of questions become more important. The Dragon Reaches of Marakush is the new setting for Chivalry & Sorcery mentioned earlier. It seems like yet another Tolkien with the serial numbers filed off setting. Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, lots of attention to things like languages and social classes in the worldbuilding, aimed at one system but easily adapted to others. Pretty well done if you like that sort of thing but not breaking any new ground conceptually. Robo Rally Grand Prix moves us from RPG's to boardgames, showing this column is going to be more of an all-purpose reviews one than it's Dragon equivalent. It's all good dirty wacky fun as you zip between multiple locations through portals and try to get to the finish line first while avoiding oil slicks. Jakandor: Island of War gets the closest thing to a negative review here. It's an interesting concept, but doesn't really have the depth to fill a whole campaign like they want and regular PC's are more likely to just pass through and not engage with the cultural subtleties. Battleground: Prelude to Waterloo is the latest in a popular series of computer wargames. It gets the most detailed review here, although quite a bit of it is explaining the history of the series and basic things like multiplayer LAN gaming rather than the actual gameplay. I guess it was still a new idea at the time. Another reminder of just how much the internet has improved over the past 20 years, opening up a load of new opportunities when it comes to PvP games. (if you can find anyone else who wants to play that specific game with so many options out there) The trilogy of sahugin focussed monstrous arcana adventures gets a 9/10 and a review that's pure praise. Good artwork, opportunities for roleplaying, horror elements, but still enough fighting to keep PC's from getting bored. You could fill many months of a campaign with this. College of Wizardry finishes the column off much as it started, only looking at the day to day life of a wizard when not out adventuring. Enjoy a grab-bag of sample setting info, new spells and mini-adventures aimed at your aspiring arcane spellcaster. Another of those fairly niche products they only got around to producing because AD&D is so saturated with supplements by now.</blockquote>

Verification