Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9365924" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 99/158: June 2003part 1/8105 (120) pages. What is your wish master? Words that should strike chills into the heart of any players that hear it, knowing that the meaning of their words is likely to be twisted to screw them over in all sorts of ways. Time to see how one of the classics gets interpreted in an edition where things are supposed to be carefully balanced and if we’ll still have characters capable of going on adventures afterwards. Editorial: The new adventure path continues to weigh heavily on their minds. They seem to have hit a snag somewhere in the production pipeline though, as the next instalment isn’t arriving until issue 102. Anyone who already started playing will have to put their campaign on hiatus or do a few filler arcs until the main plot picks up again. This is exactly what David Howery was worried about all those years ago! You’ve got to keep them coming at a rate equal or faster than the average group can get through, or the GM will just wait until the whole series is out before even trying to run them, which makes a big chunk of the magazine useless in the meantime. But anyway, this time Erik is giving his perspective on the playtests as a player. It is indeed turning out to be a pretty lethal game, particularly when he’s not there. This is the big problem with having flakey players, it punishes the people who do show up more than the ones who don’t, unless someone else plays your character while you’re away and you have to live with whatever the consequences are. The larger and more rotating a group is, the more you need a Caller or some other method of keeping people in line, helping everyone know what order they act in and getting them to decide on actions before their turn comes around so a decent amount actually gets done in a session. Despite being on the vangard of RPG periodical design, it’s more old school than you’d think in the Paizo offices.Prison Mail: First letter is yet another one who thinks they shouldn’t shy away from including drugs and sex in adventures where it fits the plot. Why should parents get worked up about that anyway when they’re already killing things and taking their stuff every session?Second is very pleased by everything in issue 97, and also has no trouble personally with vile & dark stuff, but accepts that others might not be so open-minded. Seems like half the problem isn’t people having a problem with seeing it themselves, but not wanting other people to know about it. Third is one of said 14 year-olds whos parents would remove anything too spicy if they ever found out about it. Don’t be too obvious about it, but genuinely mature elements like showing both the short-term benefits and long-term dangers of drug abuse are very welcome. Fourth is a more philosophical one from a person who’s been gaming for 19 years, and intends to keep on doing so for the rest of their life. It’s not a phase or something you grow out of, particularly when the game itself keeps on growing and evolving with you. (unlike monopoly or chess) Fifth is someone who bought one of the many 3rd party D20 adventures that have appeared on the shelves lately, and found they paid twice the price of an issue of Dungeon for something smaller and far more poorly written than any adventure they’ve ever seen in here. For short adventures, they just can’t be beaten. You should see the number of adventures they have to reject to keep it that way. Finally, someone who really liked Godlike and wants to know why it was missing last issue. It was always planned as a limited series and reached its natural conclusion. Go buy the books if you want any more material. Downer, on the other hand, does not have an ending all planned out and will keep on running as long as the art director remains employed here and can come up with amusing plots.</blockquote>

Verification