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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9253249" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron 94/153: Sep/Oct 2002part 9/10Combat & Freeform Experience: There’s a lot of very interesting rules tweaks packed into this section. Relic weapons have penetration against normal armor to reflect their superior construction. Grenades have larger splash & scatter radiuses than usual to make for interestingly chaotic combat. Since there’s no magical healing, they introduce Reserve points, another interesting little mechanical development that will be used in other d20 variants like Iron Heroes in the future and give you a bit more long-term staying power without affecting how much you can take in a single fight. You can also get forcefields that’ll absorb the first few points of damage you take in an encounter, but they’re easy to hit and take several minutes to recharge after that, making them no panacea against a determined assault. Radiation will often trigger mutations, but on average, you’ll accumulate more bad ones than good from uncontrolled exposure, which means characters may well get worse as well as better in an extended campaign. ( but in more interesting ways than ones like warhammer that go heavy on the crippling long-term injury tables. ) Poison is slightly scarier than the D&D default. XP is given in flat amounts to the whole group based on how well they did that session, which means advancement rates will start off faster than regular D&D, but end up much slower at higher levels, just like old school advancement used to do it. Once again it’s all very efficient, as it’s from one of the official designers of 3e who really knows how the rules work and how to tweak them, but isn’t overly concerned about fairness and balance in this instance. This continues to be a considerably better implementation in a more concise package than the White Wolf d20 version. Relics: This is a condensed version of equipment from previous editions that once again goes heavy on the randomness, both in what you find and what condition it’s in when you do. Will it be broken altogether, only of use to an expert in repairs. Will it be functional but need recharging? Will it appear fine, but have hidden defects that mean it’ll blow up in your face at an inconvenient moment? Who knows! Aren’t you just itching to find out?! A whole load of quirky armors, relic drugs, grenades, guns, melee weapons, tools, and for those of you who’ve been reading polyhedron from the start, powered armor so you can get your Iron Man on for as long as the fuel cells last. Unlike in D&D it looks like the intention is that equipment is easy come, easy go, and your characters may fluctuate in power quite a bit from session to session depending on what gear they have on hand and working independently of their level. A very different playstyle for anyone brought on board by the new edition. (and we know from sales figures there are quite a few of those) Will it convince them that the old ways can be fun too, or be ignored? Hopefully we’ll have some feedback in the letters pages in future issues.</blockquote>

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