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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9069332" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron UK Issue 8: August 2000part 2/5Alternity Planet Generator: Last issue they gave us a system for random stars. Now they zoom in a bit and add the planets. Probably should have done it all in one go since both are just a few pages long but such are the whims of editors. Unlike the previous one, where I could immediately see where the science was wrong even by the standards of their knowledge back then, they are at least trying to reflect the latest discoveries, which show that our arrangement of small planets close to the sun and gas giants further out is not any kind of hard rule, and there are some very large ones very close to their parent star in other systems. (although the math on the tables does not account for the hot neptune desert, so it still definitely has it’s inaccuracies.) It also includes orbital eccentricities, which is somewhat of an improvement over just assuming everything is in neat circles with no overlaps. I’m still pretty sure I could whip up a better one easily with a bit of study of the current known exoplanet data, but this doesn’t irritate me as much as last issue. A Walk in the Forest: The Delta Green adventure continues in much the same way as last time, with several bits of weirdness that all ultimately turn out to be connected to Yellow Musk Creepers. First, you’re sent off to Dingle in Ireland, where Tsathogga worship seems to be springing up amongst the bored teenagers. This turns out to be the least of your worries, as puppet masters currently control the standing stones, using the ley line energy for their weird science. This is a threat to the yellow musk hivemind, so it sends a squad of infected paratroopers to blow the whole thing up. The puppet masters will respond by having all the controlled townspeople go full zombie and head to the circle immediately to stop them, making your attempts at subtle investigation moot. The paras will mow down the waves of townspeople and you’re faced with the dilemma of who to side with and how to minimise damage, while still probably not knowing exactly what’s going on. To top it off, the cultists have chosen tonight as the right time to summon as Formless Spawn, which if not stopped will turn this into a 4-way fight that leaves the village mostly destroyed. That’s a lot of plates to juggle at once and many groups will have a tough enough time just surviving through it all. However they get through that mission, when they get back, they’ll be called by one of the survivors from the last one. More weirdness is going on in Hollesey and being covered up. Investigating it will lead to eventually lead to the RAF Woodbridge base, which has been taken over by the Yellow Musk. Once again the people will be slow of speech and reaction, which should make it pretty clear something’s up. At the same time, two Puppet Masters pretending to be regular uninfected soldiers are also infiltrating the base with the aim of blowing it up. You’re supposed to run into them and find this out, which then puts you with the dilemma of deciding which group of mind-controlling parasites to side with over the other, which is predictably bad for your SAN score. Whatever you choose, you’ll now be more aware of just how many alien forces are manipulating the world and how even well armed special forces agents are no match for many of their powers. Well, that’s definitely in the Cthulhu mythos spirit, so this works decently as a story. However, once again some crucial maps are missing from the adventure so it works less well as an adventure, needing the GM to figure out a layout that fits with the room descriptions before they can run it properly. That’s a pretty annoying bit of basic carelessness.</blockquote>

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