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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8995249" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron UK Issue 5: June(?) 1999part 4/5Justice is on the Cards: The centrepiece of the issue is unsurprisingly tied into the cover, giving us a full colour 4-page look into the new Judge Dredd CCG and the process of it's development. A bunch of the main culprits give their sides of the story. Colin MacNeil was brought back to do the art with an offer he couldn't refuse. His wife Karen took on the job of go-between co-ordinating things between the business side and the creative side. Jeremy Norton was said marketer, as well as the ultra nerd doing his best to keep all the cards accurate to the lore of the comics. Along with Robin Elliot and Simon Lucas, who manage to avoid being interrogated here, they've produced something they're pretty proud of, that hopefully will get plenty of sales so they can produce further expansions. Your typical promotional article with a humorous framing device to make it a little less obvious, the fact that this is in colour when the rest of the magazine's contents are B&W shows that it's probably paid promotion. Well, CCG's are big business now so they can afford to speculate, and a place like this is probably comparatively cheap for the potential returns, as there's a lot of crossover between RPG gamers and CCG ones. At least they put the effort in to make it tolerable to read.Megabyte: Star Wars X-Wing Alliance gets a review that has a fair number of positive points, particularly compared to previous Star Wars games of recent years, but it ultimately left unsatisfied by the linear and derivative story. No matter how good the graphics and sound get, that kind of lazy writing will always be with us. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the other hand gets a delighted perfect 10. The controls are a significant step up in complexity to previous games in the series, but the way it introduces you to them is perfectly paced and incorporated into play so they soon feel completely intuitive. The story is full of interesting characters and emotional moments, but it doesn't force you to do everything in one precise order and there are tons of optional secrets to reward people who take the time to explore Hyrule. Even cynical brits can't deny the sheer craftsmanship that went into it's creation.Mystra's Prize: The second adventure this issue takes us to Arabel in the Forgotten Realms. The PC's are hired to steal a pendant that once belonged to Mystra from where it's being exhibited in the temple of Tymora, ostensibly because another evil party is planning to steal it as well, so you need to steal it first to keep it safe. In actuality, the other party is also good, and the whole thing is a prank by Elminster because that's the way his sense of humour runs, plus you've got to give adventuring parties chances to earn some XP so they'll be useful when the real threats arrive. Having been given your mission, you're actually given relatively free reign on how to go about it. You could look for a sewer route to get in and out of the temple sneakily. You could hire a horse carriage or a boat to use as a getaway vehicle. You could hire a guy who draws maps so you have more information without having to scope it out yourself and risk attracting the guard's suspicion. Along the way there are several street encounters you could have. A well informed burger salesman. Some random harlots who's names are a very topical pop culture reference will invite you to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLIiF15wjQ" target="_blank">slam your body down and wind it all around</a> with them, and rob you if you let your guard down. Depending on your gather information skills you might or not find out that the people currently escorting the pendant have been replaced by Cultists of the Dragon, who also plan to fake their deaths and abscond with the pendant at a suitable time, so you don't have to feel bad about killing them in the process of your own heist. However you do finally get hold of the pendant and escape any pursuers, you'll eventually encounter a robed young lady along the way. This will turn out to be Mystra herself, who'll want her pendant back and won't take no for an answer, using her full godly powers if they're dumb enough to try and fight her to keep it. So like the other adventure this issue, this is one where the challenges are entirely manufactured to mess with the players rather than accomplish any wider goal, and it climaxes with an encounter with a famous NPC you can't do anything to. I know that technically all RPG adventures are just made up to challenge the players OOC, but it feels very weird and meta that it happened twice in a row IC. So this is better than most tournament adventures in the middle, with a decent amount of worldbuilding to support your ability to choose your path, but has a deliberately annoying deus ex machina ending. I'm not sure what to make of that. Overall, probably not one I'm going to use.</blockquote>

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