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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8991156" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 136: June 1999part 4/5the House of Spice: Growing spices is generally somewhat less dangerous than hunting animals for their body parts, but it still has a decent amount of adventuring opportunity. Some only grow in very specific climates, requiring long trips to collect it and then take it somewhere you can sell it for a high price, plus the knowledge of how to preserve them properly to survive said trips. Since there's plenty of rolls for wandering monsters on even the safer roads in the realms there's once again plenty of reasons a bunch of adventurers would be hired by this company. The big difference is the framing. The previous article was your typical OOC factual delivery. This one is mostly second person narration in an arabian nights style, as the founder is apparently from one of the realm's several middle eastern inspired areas. Actually, he was born here in Raven's Buff and is ginger, as it reveals at the end, but he pretends to be more exotic than he is. Given his flair for the dramatic, he unsurprisingly turns out to be a high level bard, who moved into the spice business because it was more profitable than just singing songs & telling stories, plus it was easy to combine the two as spices are fairly low encumbrance for their value. His wife is genuinely from far flung lands, and it goes into great detail about how hot she is even after having 6 kids with him and how many other men still hit on her, which publicly enrages him but probably also makes him secretly smug. Basically, he's the arabian equivalent of a weeaboo, going to distant lands, falling in love with the culture, adopting a native name, marrying one of their women and bringing the cuisine back home, setting up a whole trading empire to make that possible and make a profit. So there are plenty of useful ideas in here for a game, but it's presented in a weird and weirdly horny way, and not the flavour of weird horniness we're used to from Ed by now. Whether this'll be comfortable to use or not depends on how well it aligns with your own fetishes, as it could be pretty cringy if it doesn't. Still, at least it keeps things interesting around here.No Honor Among Thieves: This one, on the other hand, is much more basic. A sketch of “Blind Dick” Corder. (he’s actually only one-eyed, but the other one is getting a bit dodgy with age too.) A beggar who lives in a miserable leaky hovel and will do anything to earn a quick copper, he’s the kind of person most people will pointedly ignore and heroic parties try to save. No good deed will go unpunished, as he’s the kind of NE guy who’ll take advantage of any kindness to rob you, sell your information to anyone who pays or even <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KickTheDog" target="_blank">spitefully kill your pets</a>. In short, he entirely deserves to be in the position he is, and get everything that’s coming to him, because even if you did help him it only gives him room to be nasty on a larger scale instead of constantly struggling to survive. The amount of adventure you can get out of him is directly proportionate to how nice your players are and how many times they’ll put up with being betrayed before they lose patience and simply kill him. Will they be as forgiving as Megatron, or will they go more for the Galvatron style and blast first, make quips later. Definitely usable but also a mildly depressing read. Couldn’t we have a bit more punching up and less punching down.The Happy Hippocampus: The Living City setting no longer ends at the bounds of Raven’s Bluff. Now you’re encouraged to send in material on Sarbreenar and Procampur as well, and here’s our first Procampan business. Unsurprisingly, it’s an inn which is the kind of place new arrivals from nearby cities might want to stay. Once a brothel, (not a festhall, I note) it’s now a slightly more upscale establishment which stamps down hard on any groping the waitresses or brawling. One of the waitresses is secretly a priestess of Shar, which will probably lead to trouble long-term as she grows more powerful and ambitious. Other than that it’s a pretty well run place, with decently described NPC’s that give you enough info to roleplay them quickly, a full map of the joint in case the PC’s decide to do some breaking and entering and multiple potential plot hooks they could pick up on if they make it a regular. Solidly above average but not exceptional as these entries go, this ticks all the boxes that make the information useful for actual play, but doesn’t depart from formula.</blockquote>

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