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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8999011" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 137: July 1999part 3/5Techie Toys for all Ages: Gauss Grenades emit an electromagnetic pulse that thoroughly messes up all electronic gadgets in the area. In Shadowrun, this can be very expensive and potentially lethal if large parts of your body are replaced with cyberware. Adding one to your equipment could well make the difference between success and failure in a run, but make sure you don't catch your decker in the blast radius. There are also larger gauss missiles, which are probably too large and expensive for PC operation, but make good plot devices for you to save the city from. Tactomorphic Digital Sheathing is silly putty with extreme memory that can be used as a skinsuit by small aliens in the Men in Black universe. Just pour it over your target, give it a quick burst of cold, peel it off and put it on yourself. Accurate right down to the fingerprints, although retinal scans may still be a problem. The putty tries to go up all your orifices, which seems definite cause for a bit of neuralysing if you're not into that. This seems to strike the right balance between useful but also awkward to use and gross for the source material. Of Sigil and the Sea: A big city like Sigil must have a fairly reliable water supply for it to support so much humanoid life. Yet open bodies of water are conspicuously lacking on the map in either of the sourcebooks dedicated to it. But here's some more info on the biggest one they do have, a 50' wide heavily polluted canal that serves as the coolant and dumping ground for a lot of the industrial stuff in the Lower Ward. The end of it is one of the few places you can easily jump off the edge of the city, which means it's a common destination for the suicidal or in immediate danger to make a quick escape and hope their random destination is better than their life now. A particular type of flower only grows on the little islands at the edge of the estuary, which means it's acquired symbolic meaning for those people seeking a new start. A suspension bridge built over it has become the anchor point for a particularly large and flexible gate, letting ships come in and out of multiple worlds by bringing the correct gate keys. Not every ship is welcome though, and the wreck of an Arcane & Giff ship that somehow annoyed the Lady of Pain sits in the harbor, with no-one foolhardy enough to try and salvage the treasure within. Will your PC's risk being mazed for it? There's also the more mundane docks and industrial stuff that keep supplies moving, (and properly taxed by the Fated) and your typical rumours that some kind of sea beast lurks in the harbour and takes the odd docker or dabus as food. (entirely true) A pretty interesting bit of worldbuilding that packs a bunch of new adventure possibilities into a small space while still leaving room for you to develop them further, this is on much the same quality level as Ed's column, which is high praise. Planescape could definitely do with someone like him regularly championing it's cause. Horses In Combat: Horses aren't actually that useful in exploring unknown lands. Sure you can get to some places faster, but other terrains they'll be more of a hindrance than a help, plus they spook easily, require carrying a whole load of extra food if not in a place with good vegetation and risk going lame at inopportune moments. But they sure can inflict lots of damage to your enemies if properly trained so some people are willing to put up with all those drawbacks. This piece manages to be a fairly well-balanced look at the cool maneuvers you can pull off with a mount, but also the annoyances involved in their upkeep. You can do the familiar double damage on a charge, they can send people behind them flying with a well-timed double kick, they can rear up and trample, which also lets you use the downward momentum for extra damage with your own weapon. Plus there's the general intimidation factor of towering several feet above your opponents, which shouldn't be underestimated in stopping some fights before they even begin. But remember, all this is only possible if you can form a bond with your mount and communicate clearly with them, otherwise you'll find yourself thrown off or kicked in the nads at an inopportune moment. Mundane, but not useless advice, and it's on a less commonly seen subject so it doesn't feel particularly rehashed. There's room for increasing the amount of mount/pet related content in most D&D campaigns.</blockquote>

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