Polyhedron #144

Yes indeed, Polyhedron Magazine. There was one back in August as well (143), but it had no relevant content worth going over from a gaming perspective, just Realms info. This one, however, has several articles that include gaming stats, so I decided to pick up a copy and go through it.

For those unfamiliar with it, Polyhedron was the official magazine of the RPGA, and first saw print all the way back in 1981. It wasn't available in stores; you had to be a member to get it. The RPGA products aside from Polyhedron included modules such as The Egg of the Phoenix, also not available in stores until a later compilation brought several of them together in a 'supermodule'. Polyhedron included quite a bit of gaming material in its first few years, but it was the Ravens Bluff era that really gave it a boost. The Living City campaign was the official RPGA setting from the very late 1980s until...well, I had to look it up, but it lasted until 2004. So, Polyhedron does include some Ravens Bluff material.

Enough backstory; let's jump right in.

We begin with an introduction to the 'new' magazine, which is basically a format change much like that which transformed Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Although this looks more like the Living Greyhawk Journal than those worthies. It's interesting to note that in the editorial, they talk about the Living Greyhawk setting a bit, although it's still going to be focused on Ravens Bluff. For the other setting, of course, there's the Living Greyhawk Journal.

There's a three-page update on things that are happening in other parts of the world (our world, not the Realms) such as getting things organized and set up for the new Living Greyhawk campaign. What's interesting is that there doesn't appear to have been a unified, worldwide Living City campaign going on; the UK has something called 'Sarbreenar: The Living City', which appears to have filled that niche across the pond. So, Living Greyhawk will be the first such worldwide coordinated campaign. Sounds quite ambitious, doesn't it?

The first article is Secrets of the City of Ravens, and it is already a great article. One of the classic things about Realms articles in Dragon Magazine was the 'Pages from the Mages' series where Ed Greenwood would write up a few mysterious and forgotten spellbooks with new spells. For a while, it was pretty much the only source for new spells in 1st edition, and included such classics as Agannazar's scorcher, spell engine, and thunderlance. Here, we get a continuation of that tradition with the Sarkonagael, a book that includes several spells related to the Plane of Shadow. The new spells are abolish shadows, shadow bolt, shadow simulacrum, and shadow sight. They are all written up in the correct 3rd edition format. We also get some backstory on the book itself, which offers some adventure hooks to bring the book into your campaign.

Next up is the...Forgotten Realms 2000 Survival Kit. Like the section in the back of the Player's Handbook, this gives some information to allow DMs to start playing in the Realms even without any official campaign material. Instead of some monsters, though, this article gives some subraces that have slightly different ability score adjustments from the basic races, as well as some multiclassing options for monks and paladins that allow them to return to those classes. The Forgotten Realms deities are also included here and given domains. However, there are going to be additional domains in the Forgotten Realms campaign book, so some of the deities here such as Flandal Steelskin, Gruumbar, and Tiamat only have one or two domains listed; additional ones will be listed when the book is released next June.

Then there are a few new feats that demonstrate the new 'Regional Feats' category. These are feats that can be taken only if your character is from a particular region or city. The examples given here are Luck of Heroes, Mercantile Background, and Thug. Finally, there are several Realms-specific magic items given, items that all appeared in the game's earlier editions. Oh, and one new spell that is included because it's a spell that can be cast by one of the items mentioned; the spell is lesser ironguard.

So, it's only a few pages, but it gives a good bit of information and a way to start playing in the Realms right away, or convert your campaign if you've already got one going (as so, so many gamers did back then). Good stuff.

Elminster's Everwinking Eye is a regular column giving Ed Greenwood a chance to throw out Realmslore. This installment is part of a series on the Border Kingdoms, focusing on Oparl, the capital of Bedorn. That's a place I've never heard of. Greenwood waxes poetically for a couple of pages on this place, providing no gaming material but plenty of atmosphere.

Next we have an article discussing how to use feats to help define your character. Feats are the most obvious change in character creation in the new edition, so this article runs through the feats that would best serve each character class. Fighters get a lengthy discussion, which is apropos since they get so many bonus feats, and feats are the primary way to differentiate one fighter from another. Feat 'trees' are mentioned, with examples of building your character toward certain feats, thereby necessitating certain feat choices earlier in your career. Fighters can focus on archery, sword-and-shield fighting, two-weapon fighting, or exotic styles.

The rest of the character classes get shorter, but useful writeups; clerics get a longer one than bards, since clerics can fill multiple roles in the party (front-line fighter, item creator, support, etc.). Sorcerers and wizards get the second-longest writeup, with a discussion of both metamagic feats and item creation, as well as the potential of the Spell Mastery feat. All in all, it's a good overview that is useful for beginners (which is still pretty much everyone at this stage).

The next article has nothing to do with D&D; it's a class for the Call of Cthulhu game, which I know nothing about, so I'll skip it.

Up next is an Ecology article...the Ecology of a Dungeon. This is an article to help design a dungeon that is coherent rather than the classic 'funhouse' style. Things the DM needs to consider are the layout, why it was built, who built it, who is in it, where it is, how to get the characters there, and in some cases, the 'superdungeon' (what we now call a megadungeon). It's a useful article, but there have been many like it before.

Then we have some creatures for Gamma World. Skipping it.

The Ravens Bluff building entry for this issue is The Palace of Passion, aka the Temple of Sune. Well, Realms players will know what to expect from this. The article discusses more than just a temple, though; it also goes into the worship of Sune, holy days, etc. to allow the DM to incorporate the faith into his game more fully. And there are several minimally-detailed NPCs to flesh out encounters, too.

Bare Bones is a series of articles I'm not familiar with. Apparently it is entirely system-neutral, though. Here are some tips on how to train your 'thought brownies', which apparently are just the random ideas that pop up in your head. Interesting. We then get five pages of product reviews for various systems, followed by a page on interesting websites for gamers to use. Things like a page where you can design your own graph paper, for example. Hey, it was 2000, and most of us were still new to the internet. So this was useful then. Not so much now.

We close out the magazine with a six-page overview of GenCon and GenCon UK from earlier in the year, as well as listings of contacts for RPGA clubs in your neighborhood (if you were lucky).

So, that's about it. One of the big differences between this and Dragon magazine is the dearth of ads here. There were a few scattered about, but except for the inside covers there weren't any full-page ads distracting the reader from the content. I like that.

I'm not sure how many Polyhedrons I will be collecting; I only want the ones with gaming information relevant to 3rd edition, so we shall see. But tomorrow I'll go over the Into the Dragon's Lair adventure, and then finish the month with the remaining online content from October. Until then, peace.