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268 views32 pagesPolyhedron 037
Polyhedron Magazine Issue #37
Uploaded by
SpotCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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/ 32
szine
[EDRON Contents
About the Cover
Our cover this month shows the inside of
the Open Sealery, with proprietors Leif
and Kira Alltbeir serving a customer —
better double-check the reading on that
seale!Cover art by Valerie A. Valusek.
Special Module Feature
15 Film Noir — by Mark Acres. What agent of the Uknown lurks inthe decaying streets of.
Commwell,Hiois? T's upto you to find out, and defeat it. Art by Ray Van Tilburg
Features
8 Clerical Errors — by Erie Sculearski. A few tips on how to get the most from your clr.
21 Multi-class Characters: The Next Generation — by Vince Garcia, An alternate method
for handling hit points, profciencis, and experince
28 With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility — by William Tacy. The first in-
stallment of a new column on the MARVEL SUPER HEROES game, This month, Bill
looks et methods for creating tournament modules.
Departments
3. Notes From HQ — by Jean Rabe
4 Letters to the Editor
6 The Critical Hit — by Errol Farstad. A look ate cornucopia of play-ais forthe D&ED™
and ADED? games
10 Arcane Academe — by Jeff Martin. Advice for players who need to breathe some life into
their thief characters.
16 The Living Cir
market with tvo unusual owners
— by Rollin Ehlenfldt. We ist the Open Scalery this month, a fish
31 RPGA Network Tournament Winners List
POLYHEDRON" Newszine (the oficial newale-
ter of TSR, Ine:s ROLE PLAYING GAME
ASSOCIATION™ Network) is published bi
wothly by TSR, Inc. The mailing address for
tll correspondence it: P.O. Box 509, Lake Ge
eva, WI 53147. Telephone: (414) 248-3625,
POLYHEDRON Nevescine is mailed free o all
RPGAY members, US membership rater are $12
per year (hall: mail delivery only); foreign rates
NEWSZINE
Volume 7, Number 6
Issue #37
Sylvia Deering
Kim N. Janke
Jean Rabe
Roger Raupp
Stephanie Tabet
© 1987 TSR, Inc, All Rights Reserved
are $20 per year (surface mail) or $30 per year
(Gir mail). All prices are subject to change with-
‘ut notice, Changes of address forthe delivery of
membership materials must be received atleast
30 days prior to the effecive date ofthe change to
ingure uninterroped delivery.
POLYHEDRON Newszine welcomes unsalic
ited submissions of written material and artwork,
[No responsibilty for such submissions ean be
assumed by the publisher in any event. No
Submissions willbe resumed unless accompanied
by a slbaddressed, amped envelope of sfc
‘Unless special arrangements tothe contrary are
made prior to publication, materials submited to
the Publisher for publication in POLYHEDRON
[Nevwsrine are accepted solely upon the condition
thatthe materials may be eaited and published in
POLYHEDRON Newszine or sed in RPGA™
[Network sanctioned tournaments, conventions,
and events without cost tothe Publisher. All other
publication rights may be reserved bythe author
xcept that, upon publication, the Publisher is
{granted a fix right of refusal to purchase any
find all sich publiation rights offered forsale by
the author. Solely for purposes of submissions for
publication in POLYHEDRON Newsine and
{pon prior written egreenent, authors sony be
granted a non-exclusive right to wie TSR copy
Figited material with proper aknowledgement
however, any use of auch copyrighted material in
the eubrslason beyond the nowsrine without
"TSR further prior written approval i pris
ited
In the event an article submitted for publica:
tion in POLYHEDRON* Newszine contains
‘material copyrighted by TSR, Tnc., to uch an
‘extent as to make it impractical to separate those
tnaterals from the submission, TSR will retain
copyright ownership ofthe article upon submis:
‘on for publication
However, if TSR makes use ofthe materials
contained in the ati fr any product or com
mercial purpote beyond RPGA™ Network use
‘TSR will pay the author the then current fee for
sch product or purpose
‘All letters addressed tothe RPGA Network or
to TSR, Inc. willbe considered as submissions
And may be printed in whole or in part a the
dizeretion ofthe editor unless the sender speci
cally requests otherwise in writing
Unless otherwise stated, the opinions expressed
in POLYHEDRON Newstine ate those of the
individval auhors, and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of TSR, Ine, the RPGA Network,
rite stall
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D,
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS,
ADVANCED D&D, ADSD, BOOT HILL,
GAMMA WORLD, TOP SECRET, DRAGON,
and STAR FRONTIERS are registered trade
Inarks owned by TSR, Inc. “TM” designates
ther trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. unless
‘otherwise indiested, ROLE PLAYING GAME
‘ASSOCIATION, RPGA, and GEN CON are
service marks owned by TSR, Inc. MARVI
SUPER HEROES, SECRET WARS, and
‘Marvel characters are trademarks of the Marvel
Comies Group,
Ian £27 Notes From H
AT THE POLLS
believe the RPGA™ Network tournament voting system is one of
the fairest ways to determine who advances to final rounds and who
ultimately wins. Its possible, however, for an ill-mannered player
to skew the results in his or her favor. Any statistical system can be
corrupted simply by playing with the numbers.
‘This past GEN CON? 20 Game Fair a few RPGA members
complained that other members were carrupting the voting system
They believed a few RPGA members were voting themselves first,
then voting gamers (who did not play as well as other gamers in the
event) second and third, and were not voting for some of the better
players. Voting this way limits the number of points some of the
better players receive and therefore reduces some of the compe
This doesn’t happen often. ‘The vast majority of RPGA members
fare honest and use the tournament voting system the way it was
intended. Most of the members don’t try to find a way around the
system. They practice good sportsmanship and enter events to have
‘good time, They expend their energies playing and hoping they
advance rather than working the system to add to their chances. 1
commend these players because they truly know how to enjoy role-
playing games.
‘The scoring sheets from the GEN CON® 20 Game Fair do indi-
cate that a few members are playing games with the system. Per-
haps their voting techniques have helped them advance in the past
However, there were enough honest players at the convention to
offset those few members who used less-than-honest voting meth-
ods.
The RPGA tournament voting system is based on a series of
points. Each player is asked on his voting shect to rank the four best
players, one through four. When these votes are tallied in HO, they
are assigned points. Players ranked first get 4 points; second, 3
points; third, 2 points, and fourth, 1 point. Those players receiving
‘the most points advance to semi-final and final rounds.
If you want to cheat the system, follow this advice: Vote yourself
first, whether or not you believe you played the best. This gives
yourself 4 points when it comes to tallying the score. Next, vote for
the weakest player at the table, This gives him or her 3 points, And
while you're at it, vote another weak player third, which will give
him or her 2 points. Now choose one of the better players to mark
as fourth. This gives that player 1 point instead of the 2 or 3 he or
she deserved. And this creates more of a point spread between
yourself and the other good players. Unfortunately, ifeveryone at
the table uses this method the weakest players will win. Also, HQ.
will know you are playing games with the system; because this kind
‘of voting pattern shows up clearly on the tournament tally sheets.
Ifyou don’t want to cheat the system, I applaud you. Keep vot~
ing for the people you truly think played the best. This way you're
the winner even if you don’t advance.
‘Why did I just tell the entire membership how to cheat? Because
those members who complained about the situation had a legitimate
stipe, and T want everyone to be aware that there are some mem:
bers who think winning is more important than having fun. Also, I
‘want to prove to the point chiselers that HQ knows what they are
up to. We at HQ have taken steps already that will prevent point
chiseling. How we are doing this will remain HQ's secret
Why don't we just change the voting system? T suppose we could
devise another voting system, but there would be ways around it,
PoLvHEDRON
oo. If someone wants to better the odds or cheat the system, he or
she will always find a way to do it. They're just playing a different
game — hopefully a game the majority of RPGA members don't
want to play.
A Slogan for the City
[Now that the city has a name — Ravens Bluff it needs something to
go with it, something to set it apart from other cities in the Forgot-
ten Realms. This slogan, of course, needs to be created by the
members,
So here’s the challenge; create an addition to the Living City’s
name. Some examples from cities in the United States are “Chi-
cago, The City that Works,” “Milwaukee, A Great City on a Great
Lake,” “Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Love,” “Saint Louis,
Gateway to the West.” and “Medford, Mink Capitol of the World
‘Try to think of something snappy for the Living City,
ye deadline for the contest is January 30, and the winner will
receive a prize selected by HQ.
Rewarding the Authors
With this issue of the POLYHEDRON™ Newszine, the RPGA™
‘Network has begun to reward authors. In the past, the RPGA
Network has not been able to pay authors because of the network's
budget and need to keep casts down as it strives to become se
supporting. While the Nework still ean't afford to pay authors
cash, it wll be giving them gift certificates to show its appreciation
for taking the time to write for the POLYHEDRON Newszine. The
majority of authors will receive a $10 gift certificate to the Mail
Order Hobby Shop for each article. The authors of very brief artic~
les will receive $5 gift certificates, and the authors of the main
featured article or adventure will receive gift certificates of $20 to
$40. We will not give gift certificates for letters written to the editor Letters
Cleaning Up Our Act
T've been involved with the D&D® game in
‘one form or another for the past seven
‘years, and the one aspect about it that has
never yet failed to amuse me is the public
‘opinion that TSR has to constantly deal
with. The game has an aura of cultishness
‘among non-players. Whenever I casually
‘mention to friends that, yes, Ido play the
‘game, T always get a “Vou do?” as if they'd
finally discovered some dark secret about
me, But most of them know me better than
that and quickly dismiss the association. At
any rate, the game has yet to gain a positive
‘connotation. This is fine with me, and it
gives religious extremists something to talk
‘about. But in Tim Tollefson's recent article
in POLYHEDRON" Newszine entitled
“Let's Clean Up Our Act,” the writer looks
at the whole problem from a more con
‘cerned point of view, and I'd like to divulge
my reflections on the piece.
Mer Tollefson addresses the topies of vio-
lence and evil alignment right off the bat,
and the two are related. Frankly, Tcan’t see
how anyone can defend the point that the
game is too violent. It is tremendously.
Violent. But is this necessarily bad? An
‘example ofits violent nature can be viewed.
in the level systems of classes, Experience
points gained from killing other living crea~
tures are vital for the character’s advance-
ment. Now, before anyone accuses me of
‘being on the other side, I should ask again,
is this bad? The board game Monopoly
encourages the ruthless bankrupting of all
other players. The object of Risk is to con
quer the entire world and does not allow for
peaceful means of success, The game of
Life is based on the concept of becoming as
wealthy as possible, a concept that cannot
be too popular with many of our promin
religions. And so, yes, the D&D game is
very violent, But does that invalidate i as a
respectable pastime or even suggest that it
should be available only to adults? You see
ry point; games are diversions, for the
‘most point, not wish-fulillment exercises.
Personally, I don't encourage the wholesale
slaughter of people who are considered by
anyone else to be evil, that being the prem
ise most modules operate around. And that
has nothing to do with the enjoyment of the
game
Now, in my own campaign, evil charac
ters have been present, and no one in my
group, myself included, has done anything
to prevent or discourage their presence. It
would be silly to assume that there would
not be evil characters in a band of adventur-
ers seven and eight people strong. The law
of averages says that atleast one or two will
be below neutrality. Furthermore, their
presence has not diminished our enjoyment
fof the game one whit, That is because the
characters are played well and reasonably,
that is, with skill. The idea that an evil
character must be a stereotypical, card
board villain is silly. An evil character can
bbe just as interesting to play or DM as a
good or neutral character, They certainly
aren't forced to commit aets of vulgar bru-
tality everywhere they go, and most serve
their own self'interests while inadvertently
aiding the other characters, Assassins are a
‘much-maligned class, also, but our group
survived one (in fact, the assassin eventually
reached grandfather status and retired,
upset by the cruelty of his own profession),
‘One could write an entire article on the
anatomy of different types of adventuring
groups and realize that most characters in a
‘group act entirely independent of each other
when they are not adventuring. An assassin
performs his service indifferently, without
‘emotion; he is more a sociopath than a truly
‘malignant individual in most cases. If noth~
ing else, the class should be preserved in an
NPC status rather than ignored. Mr. Tolel-
son paints a picture of his typical group
indset. All of the good character clastes
live together in fruitful harmony and coop-
erate with the effectiveness of a squad of
marines. This is a fine approach, but with
the intense pressare adventurers are under
(what with their lives at stake), ie would be
‘more common for an adventuring group to
find itself occasionally torn by at least acca
sional arguments,
‘The subject of religion touches almost
every aspect of the game, and most players
have undoubtedly encountered it even if
there is no cleric in their group. Gygax, to
the best of my knowledge, didn’t include
God in the D&D game out of reverence for
Him insomuch as he did because of the
entire doctrine of the Judeo—Christian
faith, which has no room for granting spells
to priests, especially spells that could be
used to induce harm. Also, the Judeo=
Christian God is omnipotent and undefin
able, His exact purpose argued about by
‘many people. The presence of Satan would
bbe equally confusing and unfair, as assum-
ing that a band of good characters could go
‘on a quest to destroy him would be ridieu-
lous. Its really hard to believe that many
religious men and women could get worked
‘up about the gods that the characters wor-
ship, most of whom are oriented around
Greek Mythology in one way or another.
But then I’m assuming that the majority of
the game's most prolific critics are reason~
able, and they're not,
Mr. Tallefson, in his discussion of magic,
says that “anyone interested in the occult i
a weirdo and should be dealt with accord:
ingly.” Personally, I think that this state
ment is a bit careless, [have an objective
curiosity about people who are involved
With this sore of thing, but T chink such
statements as Tollefson’s are reactionary
and (o0 similar to statements non-gamers
‘make about us! I think it’s best not to pass
judgment on these people, however add
their practices may seem to us, considering
‘we'te in the same boat.
T bristle somewhat at the aspect of having.
to play the game a certain way just o keep
Reverend Bob or a child psychologist or «
parent group off my back. What we have to
realize is that however vocal these people
are, they are very much a minority of pub-
lic opinion and are only capable of influenc-
ing people too stupid to look at the game
objectively at any point. I'm not at big fan
‘of giving in to people or organizations that
‘want to impress their rigid, unimaginative
mediocrity into everything they see. It’s like
throwing scraps of meat to a lion; you're
‘oly going to succeed in whetting his appe-
tite for the main course
Whether your characters are good or evil,
moral or immoral, one of the richest sources
‘of enjoyment a role-playing game can offer
is the continuous trove of character interac-
tion. If you take a cartoonish approach to
the game you will find that your enjoyment
will be short-lived. Ifyou play your charac
ters creatively and intelligently, however,
the game will become a vast reservoir of
Brian Uecker
Yankton, SD
Suop bristling Brian, no one asked you to change
your gaming habits in order to ge ihe bible
‘hampers off your back, but it would be nice if you
‘changed your ways inorder to get them off OUR
backi. Cleaning up your act is hardly giving in,
since the extremists want fantasy role playing
games to cease to exit all together. It will, how-
eve, underscore the absurdity of ther arguments
‘and blunt the impact oftheir propaganda on the
general public
You made a good point, however, when you
suggested that Mr. Tllfson’s comment about the
occult was ar bad as some ofthe hinge that have
nano 127 ben said about gamers. We can't very wal ask
people to keep ax open mind about gaming if we
‘ourselves ere intolerant. On the other hand, the
DED? game is often condemned asa primer for
‘th cult, which itis definitely not. The occult is
«subject that rleplayers shold stay etay frm.
Congrats to Tim Tollefson for his article on
the anti-D&D game forces in issue #33.
You'll recall an equally good article by
Frank Mentzer in #26. I wonder, however,
if Tim is being a touch too conciliatory in
admitting there may be a basis to charges
that the game encourages violence and
sgreed. Ever read the bible lately? Read
Judges 19, last half, for an example of in-
‘credible violence (toward women), only
don't eat lunch beforchand or you will ose
it, Similarly, how about Acts 5 for greed (on
the part of apostles)? This last one shows
that the penalty for not surrendering all you
have to your church is death, and is dear to
the hearts of preachers of literal Christian-
ity, such as Jim Baker.
People, lets “clean up our acts,” but le’s
also do all we ean to counter the anti-D&D
lunacy, Iwas collecting anti-D&D game
‘material from the States, and I used to
laugh — until a Catholic school board in
my city banned D&D as “involving the
‘occult:” About 95,000 students are now
‘commiting an offense if they play D&D at
school! As part ofa university club, Ten-
countered freshmen from that system who
believed they couldn't play D&D because
they were Catholic. One guy actually
backed away from our display table in
fright! So you see, the misinformation ean
leave deep scars
Twas fortunate in doing something about
the whole mess by appearing on a network
"TV program here with Frank Mentzer,
‘This was a 90-minute talk show seen by
‘more than a million viewers, and in part
hhad a vote on the question, “Is Dungeons &
[Dragons a healthy influence on young
people?” The telephone vote results came
‘out to more than two to one saying “yes.”
‘They said it was not harmless; they said it
was healthy! (You can obtain a transcript of
this show for $3 (Canadian) from: SPEAK.
ING OUT, TV Ontario; Box 200, Station
