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N WSZIN



2

Ohio

Wanted: A group to game

with.

(

ha

ve played the

0&0

5

ga me

for

seven

years,

the A D D ~ game

for four years.

I also have

played

many others. Plea

se

write: Sean O'Connor, 3454 Folk Road ,

Lot

268, Springfield, OH

45

502.

Oklahoma Seeking AD&D game ad

venturers in the Tulsa

,

OK area.

I

pr e

fer older players, you need not be

experienced. OM has to years of experi.

ence, fellowship of three players have

11 years combined. The campaign is in

the true D D game fa sh ion . Call: J'lall

at 479·6427

and

leave a me ssage.

Pennsylvania

Wanted: Game masters

with AD&D game groups that meet

regularly in Beaver County or the im

mediate

vicin ity. Write

to Phillip

Held,

RD

11, Box 353, Hookstown. PA 15050,

01' c811412-575-4692.

Genghis Con

XI,

February 16·18

Gcnghis Con returns to the

Ramada

Hotel, Westminster, CO, staged by the

Denver Gamers Association.

Gaming

of

all kinds will

be

held, including

sane·

tioned RPGA Nctwork events,

minia

tures competitions,

and

a Puffing Billy

tournament .

Registration

is $15 for

th

e

weekend

un t

il Jan. 31, $20 thereafter.

For information:

Denver

Gamers Asso·

ciation, P.O . Box 11369, Denver, CO

80211,

or phone

303·433-3849.

Total

Confusion,

February 23-25

Thtal Confusion will be

held

at

the

Sheraton Worcester Hotel and Confer

ence Ce ntcr in Worcester, MA. Events

include AD&D game,

GURPS,

Battl

e·

Tech, Diplomacy, and Car Wars. Multi

pl

e and single r

ound

RPGA AO&O

game tournaments

will be ru n . Guests

will be R.A.

Salvatore.

Verne

Wetherholt ,

Jay

Tummelson, and

Steve

Glimpse. For more information contact:

Thtal Confusion, P.O. Box 1463, Worces·

ter, MA 01607.

p

o

L

Texas

ARGH (Association

of

Role

playing Garners

of H

ousto

n) is

looking

for RPGA'· Network

members

inter

ested in form

ing

a Network Club .

ARGH publishes " Arghazine;' a quar

terly club magazine , and we hope to

sponsor

a local convention

with

RPGA

Network sanctioned events. Help us

bring

the RPGA

Network

to Houston in

a big way

For

more info

rmation

, con·

tact

Stephen

Bonario, Association

Di

rec tor,

at

7829 Cook Rd.. Houston, X

77072, or call 713·666·6341.

Virginia Need adult DM with two open·

ings for AD&O

game

players in Rich ·

mond,

VA

area. Please hurry Bruce and

Diane Schabinger, 1808 Glencove

Lane,

Richmond ,

VA

23225.

General Wantcd: Penpals from those

long.distance pisces or from short dis·

tances. I'm mainly interested in the

Chimera Con

VI,

March 2-4

The campus

of the

University of

North

Carolina in Chapel Hill is the

site

of

this gaming

cx tr avaganza. Activities

include a one-round RPGA Network

tournament.

For information send

SASE to; Chimera Con VI, 625 Hinton

James, UNC·CH, Chapel Hill, NC

27541.

Egyptian Campaig

n 90,

March

24-25

This convention will be held

at

the

Student

Center

at

Southern Illinoi s

University in Carbonda le, IL. Events

include

an

RPGA AD&D

game

tourna·

ment , miniature judging, a nd a games

auction.

Prc

.

reg

is $8 for both days.

For

more information and a pre-reg form

send a bus iness -

si7.e

d SASE to sm

Strategic Games Society, Office of Stu·

dent Develop

ment

, SIU, Cat'bondale IL

62901-4425,

or

call John Hu

lts at

618·

457·8846.

ConnCon

90, March 31.April 1

The

Ramada

Inn in Danbury, CT is the

y

H

E

D

A&D game and computer products

I'm willing to learn

others

. I'm a 1

year·old male OM/player, a nd I'm

energetic when it

comes

to

role·

pla

Girls

are

welcome to write, too Hs

Gorbsky, 10 Hickory

Lane,

Garner

NY 10923·1906

Genera l I

am

not going to

make

it

college if

I

am forced by my

parent

move ALL

of

my 0&0 game stufT

when I leave. Therefore, [ am will

se ll my ENTIRE collectio n of modu

rule books, and everything e lse. A

everything is in mint cond ition,

so

even

shrink-wrappe

d.

This

stufT w

very

cheap, so call or send me a SA

today. Contact: Elton

C 'I\vork

, 32

Appleton Road, Scottville. MI 494

phone 616·757-2647 or

61 6

·757·394

General

Looking for

players and g

masters to s

tart

PBMs for the AO&

ga me, MARVEL SUPER HEROES

game, TOP SECRET/S. I.

...

game, P

noia, and

Star

Wars. All

agcs

welc

Contact:

Mutant

Foddcr, 141 Cam p

Ave., Yorkville,

NY

13495.

site of this event. It will rea tu re ro

playi ng, board games,

and

miniatu

battles. RPGA Network

AD&O tou

ments include

Grand

Mast ers, Mas

and Feature, and a benefit event. S

cial

guests include

Jean Rab

e, RPG

Network Coordinator. Preregi

st

rati

$15 and includes three free games .

a SASE with all inquirics to: Conn

c/o Hobby Center, 366 Main

Street,

Danbul'y, CT 06810.

OurCon

2, April 20-22

This

gaming convention will be he

the campus of the Universit

y

of No

Carolina in Chapel Hill.

This

year

will

ofTer three

RPGA Network sa n

tioned AD&D game tournaments.

Please

send a SASE for regi

stra

tion

materials. Write to: OUl'Con 2, 605

Jone

sferry Road, Box

SS

·7 ,

Carr

bor

NC 27510.

Craw ley Fest-Con 90, une 30

A gaming convention will be part o

annual Crawley Festival

in

Crawle

Engl

an

d. An RPGA Network tourn

ment will be among the

fe

a tu red ac

ties. For more

information,

contact

Crawley Fest·Con, 36 Deerswood R

W

es

t Green, Crawley, England, W

es

Sussex,

RHU7JN.

R

o

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About the Cover

A

s

hip

co

m

es out of hyper

space to

lind

itse

lf bomba rded by well

a rm ed sate llites, kicking off our

science fictio n series.

Art by Kevin Ward.

p

Publisher

Jack

B

euttell

Editor

J ea n

Ru

be

Associate

Editor

Skip Williams

Cartograph er

Guy McLimore

Production

S taff

Angelika I.okotz

Paul

H

anchette

Sylv

ia

Deering

Sharon Simonis

Debbie Pou

tsch

o L

ron ·

NEWSZINE

Volume

10

. Number I

Issue

51, January. 1990

SPECIAL

MODULE

FEATURE

1 0

T h ~

Caves

of Conf

ect ion -

by Ri

ck

~ i d

To sa tisfy a town's sweet tooth, a band of brave adve

nturer

s must face

the

forces that lurk within

the sugar

mines in this scenario for

the

A O ~

gam

or the O&D '

game.

Ill ustrated by

Jame

s Holloway.

FEATURES

7

The BOOT HllL Game -

by

Steve

Wjnter

Get rea

dy to d.

·u

w, pardner, this Wild West role-p layi ng game is b

eing

re -released in a bigger, better fo rmat.

a

On

A Roll

Dice

manufacturer

Lou Zocchi wanLS

to make

a

24

-sided die,

and

he

wanLS

RPCA Network members to give h im a reason to do it.

16 The Living City - by Wes Nicholson

The Network's

Au

stra

lian Regional Director gives us The Downunda

Patisserie, a ta steful Havens Bluff business.

8 Do You Speak Togo? - by Thomas Kane

This fantasy language based on J apanese will fit into

any oriental

role'play ing game.

22 T h ~ New Rogues Gallery - by Skip Olson

and

Lonnie Matney

Sandor the Smasher, dwarven king of Shalimar,

and

his

war

ham mer, Havoc

arc bad news fo r giunl.s a nd a powerfu l force for good.

23

The l iving

Galaxy

-

by

Roger E,

Moore

The

editor of DRAGON I) Magazine begins a column dedicated to science

fictio n r ole p

la

ying games.

27 Spy School - by

David

Myhre

Agents

attending the

O ion Academy

can

learn new skills unde r

the

direction ofcr8ck Orion operaLives.

EDITORIAL

4 Notes From HO -

by

Jean Rabe

Th

e Network is kicking ofT

the

New Year nd

the

beg

inn

ing of its 10th year

in operatio

n-wi

t h a membershi p dr ive_

S

e t t ~ r s -

from

the members

DEPARTMENTS

2

9

Classified Ads and onvention

Announcements

With Great Power - by William Tracy

A lesser-known division of

The

Avengers, called The

Great

L

akes

Avengers,

prese

nt

ed for your

gami

ng pleasure.

Inside

Front Mailer

over - Membership Form

Back Mal ler Cover - Tournament Request

Form

y

H E D

R

o

N



Notes rom

Q

It s Time For The 10 Year O ld

To

Grow

.

POLYHEDRON

- ---

-

p

o L

Ringing in 1990 is a

special

occasion for

the RP

GA'

Network

because

it

marks

our 10th year in operation. Th e Net·

work

h as change d

during

those years,

contin ually fi

ndin

g better ways to

serve

the members by offering more tourna-

ments a nd programs and by providing a

Newszine to m

eet

the needs of players

and jud

ges.

We're not quite

satisfied

yet. We're going to k

eep

working to

make

the

RPGA

Netwo

rk

better and

str onger. And we re goi ng to need your

help to

accomplish that.

The ma nagement

at

TSR, Inc . founded

th

e

RPGA Network

in

19

80,

and

ap

pointed

Frank

Mentze r the first Net·

work Coordinator.

The

first i

ssue

ofthc

Newszine, at

that

time called the

RPGA

Newsleller came

out

in the summer of

1981.

I t was

a IB-pa

ge

black

and white

quarterly magazine.

The

Network was

quick to involve itself in tournaments,

offering

Network

members

hips as

prizes

at convent ions such

as

GEN CON®

Game

Fair and

GEN

CON®

South

Game Convention .

Kim Eastland was

the second Net

work Coordinator, and during his te rm

th

e newsle

tt

er, now called

POLYHEDRON'· Newszine,

was

edited

by

Mary

Kirchoff,

who

is now

in charge

of TSR's book department. More

tourna-

ments were offered, and the Newszine

grew

in

size. Kim was followed by Linda

Krause, who held the position for only a

few months, and later by Penny Pe tti ·

cord, who implemented a formal

point

system for players

and judg

es

of

Net

work tournamen ts. 1 was

appointed

the

next Network

Coordinator,

coming

on

board

at

the end of March, 1987 .

Many of the Network s members have

be

en

with the or

ga

nization since

the

beginning,

and

have witnessed the

growth

in

our tournam ent program , t he

inception

of

RAVENS

BLUFF ·

,

Th

e

Living City,

and

improvements to

the

Newszine.

We

h

av

e

pi

ct

ured

a few of t

he

first Newszine covers

as

our contribu·

tion

to Network

no

stalgia.

We want to

celebrate

the Network s

an

niversary by doing something special

at GEN CON®Game Fair (we re not

revealing

what yet), and by s ponsor ing

a diff

erent contest

in each issue of

th

e

Newszine that comes out th is

year

. Our

first contest is:

y

H

E o

The 1990

Membership

r v

Remember

several pa

ra

graph s ago

when I sa id we needed yo

ur

he lp t

make

the Network

become bigger

st ronger? Well, here s yo

ur

chance

your

part

and reap

some rewards.

prizes we

arc

offering

are grea

t. A

everyone

who recruits a

member

w

Bu

t, please, don t

participate

beca

the prizes-

they re

just

our

w

ay

of

wa rd

ing

your efforts.

Participate

h

cause

you believe in

th

e

Netw

ork

want to

co

ntribut

e

to its

s uccess. I

maintained th

at

you only

get

out o

organization

what you put into it.

hope you take the time

to

put a lot

th is membership drive .

The

Netwo

needs more

members

so it can be m

of a force in

the ga

ming

in

d

ustry

w

wide. In add ition, more du es·payin

memb

ers

e

quat

es

to

more mon

ey

m

ing the Network can better its pro

and

produce more

produ

c

ts

l

ike Th

Gateway 1b Ravens

Bluff

,

The

Liv

City, which

pr

e

miered at

l

ast ye a

r

GEN CON

®

Game

Fair.

La

st yea

r

s membersh ip

drive wa

as

successful

as the

Network had h

We divided

th

e world

into

se

vera

l

r

gions,

ofTer

ing priz

es

for

each

regio

and giving

as

t he gr and

prize

a tr i

GEN CON

Game

Fair. We

r

e go ing

t ry something a little

diff

ere

nt t his

time, someth ing that won t put

as

a drain on the Network s budget y

will benefit everyone

who parti

cip

Rules, Regulations. Etc .

The con t

es

t will run from January

March

30. All membership

forms

p

marked by March 30 will count. Al

members of

th

e

Network,

includin

those

who

are recru

ited dUring

the

contest time frame ,

are

eligible to c

pe t

e

in the

membership

driv

e. Th

e

side front mailer cover of

thi

s issue

a membership form, wh ic h you can

photocopy an d give to pros pective m

bers. Plea

se

note the sponso

r li

ne o

bottom of

the

membership fo

rm

. Pu

your

nam

e a nd member

sh

ip

numbe

th is line on

each

f

orm

you g ive a pr

spective member.

This

is how

HQ

w

determ ine who brings in the most m

b

er s

. Do not collect

the

forms or m

Continued

on page

3

R

o

N



etters

Memberships, Money.

And

Missives

Every time I rend th is ma gaz ine

r

feel

guil ty because I don't send you submis

sions. So, I am se nding you th is letter.

Maybe so me of

the

rolc-players in the

U.S. don't know th at in

Spain

we playa

lot of games, and

that

some

games are

tran

s

la t

ed into Spanish, such

as the

D&D®game, MERP, RUNEQUEST, and

CALL OF CTHULHU. In fact, there are

people here who have played role

playing games s ince

the

begi nning, and

we even have

the

original

0&0

game

fir st edition rules.

The reason for the absence of Spanish

members

in

the

R P G A

Network is

that

in the Spanish ed ition

ort

he

0&0

game

, there is

n't any

pu blicity

about

the association.

Xavier Garriga

Ba rcelona ,

Spain

Th

e Network has

members throughout

the

world and is

be8inning

to set up

Re

gion

al

Directors in other countries.

Th

e Network even sponsored an interna

tional tourlla

men

t for members at last

summer s GEN CON J Game Fair. But

you re right, Xa vie

r

we hovell t been

publicized e

nough out

side

of

the United

States.

We

re

working

to change that, however,

through our

d v e r t i , ~ e m e n t s

in

DRAGOND Magazine,

by

sponsoring

Network lourflaments through TSR

distributors

in. many

COllfl/ries,

and

setting up overseas branch es. Such

branches already exist

in Finland and

Norway.

During the next several

months

you

will see more of

our

efforts to get noticed

around th

e globe. And

we

d be

happy

to

receive

publi

city suggestions from our

members.

I write

th

is l

ette

r to

protest

y

our

member

shi

p fees. American members

pay considerably less for

members

hips

than garners in

any

ot h

er

country. As

far as I

can tell,

there

is no r

easo

n for

th i

s.

While mailing costs

are

slight ly

higher to foreign

countrie

s,

this

does

not account for

the

dramatic difference

in price, not to mention

th

e loss of spe

cial offers. Does air mail really cost $20

more in postage? For only six issues?

DRAGON®Magaz ine ha s a flat ra te for

the United States and Canada and a

p

o

L

price of $20 more for a foreign

subscriber.

' bny Pace

Canada

7b begin with, U.S. Network member

ships always ha

ve

been lower pri ced

because we mail bulk, that

is a

U.S.

postal rate that is about the

eq

uivalent of

fourth-class and requires the sender

to

haue a minimum

of2oo

pieces

of

mail. III

addition, international rat

es

vary baRed

on distance. For example, a Calladian

one-year membersh ip is $22, while a

membership sent surface

mail

to other

countries is

$25.

Renewal rates are a little

Lower because we do flot ha

ue

to contend

with the price

of/h

e member

shi

p kit that

each new member gets. Further you must

consider that it costs more {or

us

to

mail

a membership

kit-complete

with pin ,

card, certifical.e, and other materials,

than

it costs to

mail

one Newszille, which

is another reason

why

postage costs alld

membership costs vary between renewalR

and new memberships.

The membership form on the inside of

the mailer couer of/his iSSlle li

sts

a va r i-

ety

ofplans

with different

pri

ces, which

we hope

will

be

mor

e

accommodating

10

our member

s.

In addition, we mentioned

in

response

10 Xavier s letter above

that

we

ar

e work

ing

to set up Network branches in CO W

t-

tries.

We

hope

this

is One

way

to bring

down

the

cost

of

niernatiOlwl

memb

er

sh

ips.

Needing An Incentive

I

jus

t finished reading Alan Block's

letter in issue 149 ,

and

I would like to

put in my two cen ts on the top ic of

th

e

past RPGA Network membership dr ive.

Every state seems to have local conven

tions

of

some type, a nd f

or

most me mo

bers GEN CONS Game Fair is only a

couple of

days

away by

ca

r. Tha t is,

unless, you live somewhere like

Hawaii.

For the past

th r

ee

years I have been

stationed in Hawaii , and for

the

pa

st

two years I have tried earnestly to form

a Network club.

The

response

ha

s been

abysmal. My fault? I

think

not.

Consider that mo st ofOhau is mili·

Continued

on

next page

y

H E D

1_\ \

""' """'"

POLYHEDRON-

Newwne (the

ollClaI

newslell(

01

TSR. Inc's ROLE PLAYING GAME

ASSOCIA

·

TION"

Nelwork) IS

publIShed

bo ·

monlhly by fSA.

Inc The ma1bng adchess lor

all

cOf'

espOndence

PO. Box 5 15. Lake Genella.

WI

531 47, Tele

phone'

(414)

248

·

3625

POLYHEDRON

Newszone oS

ma il

ed I,ee to a

RPGA"

membe rs

US

membershop ra

les

are

$15

flCr yell ' (bulk

mao

del,ve,y

only). IOfClgn rates ar

$25 per year (su ,face ma

il

) Of $4

5

per yea r

{all

m l l r ~

A

pflCCS

Jre subject to change wdhout

MI '<.:e

Ch,mges

of address for the delillery 01

membership ffii; Crrals must

be

,

ecl)llled

at leaS 3

days

prOOf

10 the

elfechve date

o l

he

change 10

'n sure J f \ , r 1 t - ~ r u p l e d dclivery

POLYHEDRON News.zrne wek;omes unsobcrt(

s-ubmiSSIOflS 01 wr<t\etl r n a t e r ~ and artwork,

No

r ~ P O n $ > b o

lor

such

s-ubmiSSlOfls C3n

be

as-

5UfTlC(j

by

lI e

publlsh r ,0

any

£ \Io

n t

No submrS'

SIOIIS

NIl

be

r"'"rned

unless accomparved

by

a

s e I I · a o o r ~ .

Slarnped eoveIope

0/ SUfliclenl

..

U ' ~ spocoa ,mar{ICfT.lI<I s

10 tie co."II'ary

ar

:naae::r or to

publicallCl" .

mllle als 5O.bmo1led

10

me Pt.ruhsher lor PI.bhC3liOO 'n POlYHEDRON

NewsLone are

accep1e(15OIeIy upon

The conGlIOO

tl>al the

e < > a < s

mily be ed.led aoa published oro

POlYHEDRON Ne-.o.-s.zrne or

used

III RPGA'"

Neiwork ,....o<;l·o ed

loornamenls

. convemoons.

and

eveoIs

wrthout COSI to the Pul:*sher. AI OCher

outoclll.OO fights may

be

reserved by the authof

c.r.eJ)ll lat. upon pubhcatoon.

the

Publisher IS

9 . ;mled 3 I"SI lighT 01 reiusallO

pu.d\ase

any and

$ir.1C:1 puU>(;ai Of1 f' 1llS

offered

IOf sale

by

The

,hot So:e y 10' p.lI))OSeS 01 SUbmoSlOf1S 101

oubIocm'Cl1 11 POlYHEDRON N( wszine

and

upon

proo< wllnen

ag reement .

au1hOfs

may

be Qramed

r K l , , · e c ' ' ' l I e

,iglll

to

"SII

TSR

copynQhted

maTe-

r• ,; y, fh propnr x ~ n o w : C ( o e m e n T . hOlNal/er. any

USI 01 SU'1

c ~ y g h l e d

ma

terial rn

lhe subm

o

sio

beyond tI,e

f\l

w"",,

rr.e without TSR's l

ur

th

er pr>Ol

VI/Hell appro',al

os pr oh b.1ed

In

100

elle;"ll an a,t:cle

subm:

tle d 10' p\Jo:'crUOO r1

POLYHEDRON Nc ,,"'U ;ne CO"t3'I1S ma:oILal COpy'

rrghte<.J hy

,SR.

Ir.c .

10

sucl'o an

c xt

o'll as 10 make

rl1Il1[)facl ;calto sep;lrate thO'S" ma:errals hom Ihe

submrS&:on. T$R Vi:

relaU1 copyr

,Uh

'

ownersh ip 0

lhi

art.cH:

upon subffi'SSlon lor

put;rk..ilIO()(l.

f lo-Never.

of

TSA rT\fl kes uw

ot

Iho mat erialS

COOIa:rred on tile ande for My prO<' LICI 01 COtM1&

C,a/ puroose beyonrJ RPGA.'" NeTwork usa. TSR

w

OiIV

the

authO<

T

he

then <.:urren Icc lor

such

prO(1)cI or pu.pooo

k>r.ers

addressed 10

RPGA Nc1YriOf

k

01

to

SA.

Ir>(;

.

w

il. be COI,Sidcreo as submrss:ons

and

may be

prrnled

,n

wt-.oIe

01

rn

part at Ihe diSCIehOn

u1 he 00I0r unless the ser-.de< soecrlic."lIly ',-quesl

OIherwose:n ...

Unless

otlleN.-.sc

SlaTed

.

he

upot'llOfl$

exp,essed

m POlYHEOHON Nl'WS.{cne ate

those

or

ltd

ontJ:IIldlJai

aulhofs. and 00 J"Kl Il()(:eSS.;Ir;ly .e11ceO

Ine oprlK)flS

oIISR. Inc. The

RPGA ~ e { w o t k III t

""

doslgnales

reg'Siered

tradcma

l ks owned by

TSR Inc

desognales :radem<irkS owno d by TSR. Inc .

Musl OIheo prodUCl na.'T\e$ arc tmdemafk$

owned by

the

oompan:es po.rbfi<;h.ng those

oroduct$

Usc

01 me

name

01 any orodocl wolnouT

mcntron of Iradernmk status no

be

con ·

Slr

u

ed

as a

chatle"{le

O

such

slatus,

"'1990

rS

R, Inc . All R,ghls Aesl fved,

R

o

N



6

tury personnel or their dependents. This

mea ns

that

t h

ere

is almost

nothing

th at

the RPGA'" Network can offer as an

incentive to join. Strike

one

:

military

personnel get

the

same 10 %

discount

that

RPGA Network members get.

Strike two:

there

are

NO

local RPGA

Network sponsored tournaments on the

island,

or

if there were they were the

best

kept secret

in th.: history of

man

·

kind . Stri ke

three:

convention space is

so expensive

that

there

are

no local

conventions.

Something

to consider is an increased

emphasis on member submissions. Arti

del . NPCs, ideas, etc. afC the cu rrent

S

t81)\e

of the POLY HEDRON'·

News:tine, but why n

ot

include an

er

·

rata column

fo

r RPGs?

In issue 149,

it was

stated that the

RPGA Network

must

become more of a

force in

the ga

ming

indu

st ry.

Perhap

s

expa

nding

the size of t he

POLYHEDRON Newszine by a few

pnges

and

s

tw

'l ing "Furum" C )

lum

n

to spur dialog between members would

ass

is t

in

th is

growt

h. Wh ile t

his may

seem trivia l to some,

the

POLYHEDRON

New

szi ne is my only

real contact with the RPGA Network

membership (and I know my situation is

not un ique).

Perhaps RPGA

Network submissions

could be put toge ther

into

a compu ter

udvt lltm'c

like

Pool of Radiance

or

HiUsfar:

With such a

game

put

into

general

distr ibu tion,

interes

t in the

RPGA Network is bound

to

grow.

Eric Scott Vaughn

Aiea, Hawaii

Eric,

to

our knowledge the Network

hasn t sponsored tournaments in Ha

waii, but let's work together

to

change

that. Convention

sites

are expensive, bId

there are places available-perhaps free

ofcharge-where you

could

set

up

a one

day gaming fe

st

for

a

start. Maybe

you

could use a place

on your

base. Some

military bases on the U.S. mainland

hold

Network

tournaments

.

Try

contact

ing

a

publi

c library or other public

building. By starling small, with a one

day event, you

at

least will meet

other

gomer

s

and

can work from there. Th e

Network

has

a pool o one- and two

round tournaments

avoilable for a vari

ety

o{ game

systems that are ideal {or

one-

day

conventions. Next, you men

tioned trying to start a Network club.

Thke

advantage of the

POLYHEDRON'

Newszine 's Classifled d service, where

you can submit an aduertisement look-

p

o

L

ing

for Network members in your Slate.

There's no charge {or the ad. In addi

tion, there is a Network play-by-mail

club which is still looking

{or

members.

It is: Dragonslayers Unlimited, e{o

Jeff

Young, 88

Mallard

Run,

Mau

mee,

OR 43537.

A s {or increasing the size

of

the

POLYHEDRON Newszine and putting

more emphasis on member submissions

(like we d id

with

last issue's larger-sized

anniversory

special), well, help

IlS

get

more members,

which means

more reve

nu

e

and we can do things like this more

often. In addition, the second Liuing City

prod/lct, which

has

been giuell the gree

light, will be comprised solely o{member

contributions.

Too

Many

Open

Thurnaments

Many a

member

has

ex

pressed t heir

troubles

, co mments, and tales about

the

Network

point

system, memberShip,

Hnd

the membership drive. I, lou, de·

cided to take the time to give feedback

and my own opinions.

Th e thing about being a member is

that you get to do all

of

this neat

stuff

(Le.

tournaments, co nte

sts, etc.> that

non ·members can t do . The problem I

sec

here is

th

a t

th

e Network h

as

opened

up too much. I mean in the way of tour

naments.

For

example: At the

19

89

GEN

CON® Game Fai r, 27

of

the total

36 RPGA Network sanct ioned tourna·

men ts

were OPEN

TO ALL. If you

ask

me,

that s taking

some of the private

privileges supposed ly on ly available to

us

as mem

bers. If a non ·member rea lly

wants to play in a tournament , he can

join

the

Network a nd see what he s been

mi ssing.

One reason that everyon Mr. Block

from issue

1

49 or lny others who

hav

e

written in-have failed to point o

ut

is

why

it's great to be a

member

: RPGA

Network clubs. People who a rc in Ne t·

work Clubs get a

tournament to play

in

at t he GEN CON Ga me Fair. Those

same

people got to help play

te

st the

AD&JY I2nd Edition

game.

Hey, I would

have loved to have play ested it.

As I n

ear

the end of my letter, I would

like to say the Network olTers more now

than it us

ed

to. I joined two

years

ago

a nd there wasn t an Introductory

Newszine or a fu

ll

-color

membership

pin

. If there are any doubts in your

mi nd why

you

shouldn 't join the Net

work, forget

them

.

Bill Black

Lex ington, K Y

y

H E

o

Bill, we open

many

tournaments to

generalgoming public at

G N O

Game Fair so people can

be

expose

Network euents, which hopefully w

prompt them

to join.

Also

,

the

Netw

is given sl lch

a lar

ge

area

at

the

go

{air

that

we probably couldn t

/ill i

solely with members. However, we

closing more events nex t year, and

memberlihip grows we

will

close sti

more.

A Special For Members

Jay

Tummelson, Li

nda Bingle,

and

have formed a company which has

quired

th

e r ights to a

number

of ga

products, including not on ly the

TIMEMASTER and S IAR

ACE

ro

pl

ayi ng games and modu les, but a

the SANDMAN

instant adventure

tery ga me

and

the WABBIT WAMP

and WABB IT S WEVENGE board

Our

company, 54

0

40 Orph

Inc., is st' \ing these prod

uc t

s by m

order

and

at

gam ing conventions.

have plans

to expand

th e available

modu les for the role-

pl

aying ga me

market a

TlMEMASTER board

ga

Naturally,

we also wilt be

working

tournament scenarios for our

game

systems sui table for RPGA Networ

sanctioning.

B

ecause

Jay, Lin

da,

and I have

s

fir st-hand again and aga in how mu

the

RPGA Networ k

and its

membe

ben

efit the

hobby

of

role-pl

aying

ga

ing

through

the

POLYHEDRON

New szine and t hrough sa nct ioned

na ments and product

s,

we

wa

n

ted

comp

any

to be the firs t

after

TSR

recogni:r.e

the

pivota l role

of

t he RP

Networ

k

and

discount

all retail ga

purcha

ses from

our company

to act

members of

the

Network. We even

extend thiA discount to sales of a n

vcmory ofC

H

1L

L r ole-

pl aying ga

m

and modules we have obtained, al

though

our

company did not obtain

rights to this system, a nd , thus,

su

plies

are

limited

to

existing copies.

Network

m

embers

need

only

show

the ir membership card

at

conventi

or include their membership numb

a mai l order form (avai l

ab

le from u

when

maki

ng a pu rchase to obtain

10% disco

unt.

Donald Bingle

Pr e

side

nt

54

40' Orphyte,

In

c.

PO. Box 2108

Naperville, IL 60567·2108

R

o

N



The OOT HILL Game

For a

Few

Gunfights More

by

Steve Winter

In

the

n

ext

few

years,

TSR, Inc. pl ans to

republish some of

its older

role'playing

games in new

formats

.

One

of

these

classic

reprints" is the BOOT I L L

game, the

very first role-playing game

published after

the

game. The

release is scheduled for Octoher, 1990 .

In

stead

of

the familiar

box,

th

e pack·

age will be a 124-page soft·cover rule

book.

There

won't

be any di

ce or

counters

or a

poster.size

map , bu t the

page c

ount

u

p from

36

in the boxed

version-will let

us do some

expansion.

Garners who played

the

origi na l game

remember that it was a nicely

detailed

set ofrulcs

for conducting Wild

We

st

shoo t

outs

and brawls,

but the

role

playing

aspects

were a

bit thin

. This

new

edition

\the third, not counting

the

change of

art

on

the

box

as

a

separate

edition) will expand

the

rules considera·

bly and still leave room for one or two

adventu

res.

The BOOT

HILL

game h

as

been a

favo

rite

of mi

ne since I

first discovered

it, Getting

to

work on the reprint is a

real plum

for me.

I

began

revisi

ng

sec

tions of the game years ago (around

1983, I think

) for my own use, pr ima rily

with an eye

toward

speeding up play for

conventions. Those

changes were all

well-received by the people who played

th

em,

and

I

just kept

adding things as

time

went

on_When

this

project was

listed on the

schedule,

I raised my hand

and

said ,

I've

got a whole box full of

ma terial at home-give th is one

to

me

and

the

work's

half

done."

With

th

at for a

lead

-in, yO I1 a re correct

in a

ssumin

g

that there

will

be :Klme

changes, Let me summari ze

th

e most

important

points.

The

percentile dice which

WCt'

C used

throughout will become a 20-s ided die.

With only a few exceptions,

eve

ry num

ber used in the game

was

di visible by 5,

80 this

change

has no effect on anything

e x ~ p t speed of play. P lus,

with

only one

die to roll. it will fall on t he floor or bowl

o,'er the miniatut-es

only

half

as

onen_

Slrangely enough, of all

the

change

r

plan to

make

, I expect th is one to get the

biggest reaction, g

ood and

bad. Some

people

are

very attached to the

ir

percen

ti le dice;

I'm

not one of

them

.

p

o

L

The

old characteristics of Speed,

Gun

Accuracy, Th rowing Accuracy, Bravery,

Strength, and Expel'ience are replaced

with

just

four: St rength (physical power

and

stamina),

Coordination (speed and

dexterity

),

Observation (

mental

sharp

nes.' and alertness),

and

Luck (that

inta

ngible so

mething that

keeps

some

peoplt, alive othel' s are moving

into Boot Hil \). Th e first three a

re

deter

mined

almoiSt identically to th e original

characteristi

cll,

except with a 20-sided

d ie. Luck is determined

by

rolli ng a d20

and divid ing by 2. Anytime one of these

character

istics is

ca

lled di

t"l-ctiy

into

play, the plnyer roll:; ld20. A res ult

equal to or les '> thtln

th

e charucteristic

score {which might

e

modili ed by cir

cumstances l weans success, while any

thing l s ~

menns fa il m e of one sort or

Imother.

Fast li nd eHSY

nre

the

key

goals.

Each

stat·ting c

haracter

also

gets

to

choose three skil ls from a list of 52 work

skills

and

five weapon skills. Work

skills

are

those related to e

arning

a

living in

the

everyd3Y world: assaying,

cow handl ing, gamb ling , and saddle

ma king,

to

name just

foUf.

Each of

these

skill s

ha

s a

IIco

re s

imilnr

to a

charact

er·

istic score , determined by modifying a

Id20 roll. Wo r k ski ll s

arc

u

lle

d

the

same

way

charucl

er istic scores are . Weapon

skills, on tht1 other hnnd, always start

with a score of

I

A character's weapon

s kill score is added directly to the appro

pr iate characteri

stic

Co

t'e when

the

c

haracter us

es

that

weapon.

The

five

weapon skills are r ifle, pistol , knife

swo

rd

, bow, and

br

awl ing.

The game is intentionally unclut

tered .

One

or the m o C<lmmon com·

pla ints about the old BOOT HILL rules

was

how t hey bogged down ill a gun

fig

ht

involving more

than

two charac

ters_ A

wester

n

gu

nfight

should be

fast

and furious, not llow and plodding. T h ~

game, after al l

, is

ahout

g

unslingers

with

l i h ~ n i n

rcflexes, not pikcmcn

dueling in a bog. The game

has not

been

simplified for the sa ke of beg

inner

s or

youngsters (though keeping

it

simple

can ' t hurt when

new

pla

ye

rs

are

needed

).

Instead, it's been streamlined

to

keep the important action moving at

a

sharp

pace.

The

proposed outline for the book

(with

explanatory notes) follows.

y

H E

o

C

hapter

1: Creating Characters (j

what you expect).

Chapter

2:

Gunfights (no sense wa

ing time, let 's

get

to

the

s

tuff

eve rybo

wanttl right away ).

Chapter

3: Fistfights (actually,

th i

chapter covers

all combat

that doesn

come under Gunfights,

including

bra

ing, knife fights,

and

explosives).

Chapter 4: The Wild West (this is a

s hort his

tory

lesson on

the

American

West

as

it

really

was and as Hollywoo

and

some great western writer

s have

portra

yed it ).

Chapter

5:

H

orses

(yes,

they get

a

chapter of

the

ir

own-

hor

ses

have ch

acteristics and can

learn ski

ll s

ju st

li

characte

rs

,

and

a good one is mighty

important).

Chapter

6:

Cavalry Indians

(

and

all sorts of

other

NPCs-

not

everyone

was a gunfighter).

Chapter 7: The Western

Campaign

(this may be

th

e most

important

secti

of all t includes tips on how to start

your campaign, how to keep

it

going,

what to fill it wi

th

, how

to

resolve pro

lems, and

where

to find new ideas).

Chapter 8: ? ? ? ? (this one's a sur

prise

th

a t

I'm not ready to

unveil yet,

but it will set this game apart from

everyth ing else like

it

).

Chapter

9: Adventures

(the

se may

reprints of some classic

modul

es

lik

e

allots

and

ullets

or urned u

sh

Wells 01

tournaments

from

pa

st

GEN CON

e Game

Fair

competition

s -

th

at decision is still

open).

Appendix

: Promise Ci

ty

and EI D0

r ado County (even

though

we ca n't

include a poster·sized

map

, we can

pu

in a good assortment or building

layo

suitable for photocopying and

arrangi

however the referee wants, plus

th

e

campaign map

at

reduced size).

That

's

t h ~

plan,

at

lea

st

so

far

, W

e'r

nlways

interested in hearing

what

ou

customers

want,

however, so

don't be

stingy with your stamps_ We

do care

what you

think, even if

we c

an

't

re

·

spond individually to

every

l

etter

. So

you have

an

opinion, let us know. We '

always here

when

the mailman

rin

gs.

R

o

N



8

n Roll

A

icey

Contest for the Membership

Lou Zocchi and his dummy, Woody,

pose during a visit

to

HQ.

For years, dice

manuf

acturer Lou Zoe

chi h

as

been looking for a n excuse

to

create a 24-sidcd

di

e. A few

tab

les in t he

D D 2nd Ed ition Game h

ave

24

entries; n

ot

cn

ough

to

j u

st if

y

an

expe

n

sive mold for a new

di

e .

Undaunted, Zocchi, president orGa

me science of Gulfport , MS, still

wanted

to make

the

die. So he approached lhe

RPGA'" Network,

asking it

s members to

create uses for his new dice.

Th e

Netw

ork is complying by sponsor

in

g 8 conte 'll. Zocchi ill providing the

pri r.e 24' liided d ice will

e

give

n

to

th

e

win ners before the dice go

on

sale at

mnjor

co

n

ventions

t hi s su mmer.

Specifics on the contest are presented

at

the

end of

this

article.

Zocchi , whose company exhibits a t

major gaming conventions in

the

U.S.,

produces 4

-,

6., 8

., 10

-,

12

-,

20

-,

a nd 100-

sided dice.

Zocchi maintains he ca n make a die

wit h as many sides

as he

wa

nt

s. " I was

at ORIGINS at Ba ltimore one year,

Zocchi recalls. "1 w

as

w l k i n ~ by t he

Ar mory booth a nd I h

ea r

d someone

ta lk ing a bout ha ving a

30

·sided die by

GEN

CONe

Ga me Fa

ir

. I went

home

and

got some cardboard . I cut it

into

all

kind

s of sh

apes

to

mak

e a 30

-s

ided die. I

cou ldn't do it. I went to GEN CON

p

o

l

Game Fa

ir,

and

there wa s t he 30-sided

die. I was fil led with admiration

.

Zocch i t hought a IOO·sided die would

be more market

able

, so he began work ·

ing on one . He s tarted by purchasing

several golfball l an d

counting

the dim·

pies

to

see if a lOO-sided die could be

made like a

golf ball.

But

most

ball

s

have

348

dimples,

not

a multi ple of 100.

Zocc

hi's d

etermi nation

eventually

prevai led, a nd

hi

s

lo o

-sided Zocchihe ·

dron hi t the

market,

I solv

ed

it me·

chanicall

y. It's si mple.

But

it's

an

indus tr ia l secret I don 't sha re. The first

time

I

laid it out

I

made

a 79·sided die.

With one

minor ad

jus tme

nt

I made a

l oo-sided die, I have

mad

e 50·sided

di

ce.

Now r want

to

make a 24·sided die .

Zocchi has mad e

improvements to

his

IOO·sided di e to

mak

e it more

random

.

The improved die goes on sa le th is

s

prin

g.

Zocchi's company h

as

been manufac

tu r ing dice for about 10

yea

rs. He has

turned the work into a science by p

ro

ducing dice he

claims

are more un iform

a nd more t ru ly random than dice pro

duced by ot her manufacturers. He ex

pla ined t h

at

some c

ompanie

s take the

dice

out

of t he molds, dip t hem in paint,

and

then toss

them

into something

si milar to a rock polisher. This

round

s

the

edges

on

all

th

e dice and

leaves

the

paint

or ink in the numbers so

all

th e

numbers can e clearly read. Zocc

hi

says

th

e t umb ling

pr

ocess unevenly

shaves

materia l off a die and makes it

te nd

to

ro ll ce

rt

ain

numbers mor

e oRen.

" We ink

our

di(. C by hand , he sa id ,

" It 's labor intenRiv

e,

but

it leaveR the

edges sha

rp

a nd crisp , which

th

e

edges do what they're supposed

to

do,

absorb

energy when t hey roiL"

or

c

ou

rse, his dice are more ex pensive than

round

-edged dice,

And

since ma ny

garners

choo

se

not to spend

the extra

money Zocchi a lso stocks cheaper dice

from other ma nu facturers.

Zocchi got

hi

s first

ex

posu

re Ul

ga m·

ing wh

en

he was s tationed with

th

e

U.s . Air Force in J a pa n in 1959. " I saw

an

ad in a

Sear

s and Roebuck

catalog

for a Gettysburg

ga

me. I wond erd who

would

want

Ul play

The

South, The

South would have

to

lose."

But

Zocchi

boug

ht

the game

and

discovered

the

action in war games didn 't necessarily

repeat hi

sto

ry,

y

H

E o

Several years la ler Zocch i becam

ga me te s ler for Avalon Hi

l l

,

ed

iloo

wargame magazine , The General

created

his own

game, Boule of

r

The game

was

published , s hi ned

hand

s

between

gam e com panies, a

finally came back to Zocchi,

who

p

chased the company Gamescience

began to cr

eate and

se ll his own ga

Zocchi ha s interests o

th

el'

th

nn ga

ing. He is a jazz musician, pl ays

th

e

s a ventriloquist (when his frie nd W

IS prese nt), and is a stage

ma

gicia n

i

ce

Co

nt

st Rul

es

Eac h entry must c

on

s ist of a table

24

item

s. Anything goes if it is

tast

tr easures,

combat ta b

les, ra ndom (

c

ur

ences, business inven tories, ct.

A ta ble mu

st

fit into one of

th

e

fo

ing ca tegories: medieva l/h istorica

rantasy ; science fiction;

es

piona

s u

pe

r hero ; ho rror; or hum or.

The contest is open

to

a ll Network

me mbers, a nd each member can sub

as

many tables as

he wants, Howev

each table must

e

on a se

pa rate

sh

paper. It is all right to include sever

e ntries in t

he

same envelope, All en

mu st

be

typed, double spaced. Co

mp

pr intouts

are

acceptable if

they

can

t llsi ly rea

d.

All

entrie

s become

the

p

erty of the RPGA Network. The bes

entries will e published,

The deadline for submitting ta

is

May 1s t, 1990.

The Prizes

Th ere will be up to 100 winners (

Zo

makes lots of dice and we want to g

away lots

of

prizes). So, while mult

entries

increase yo

ur

c

hances

to wi

th ey w

on '

t garner

you

more th a n

24-sid

ed

die.

In addition, the first, second, a nd

third place winners will rece ive a

ge

m"

loo

-sided Zocchihedron, whi

not

yet

in production.

And

,

th

e RPG

Network will give the fir st place w

a year 's extension of

hi

s

or

her

Netw

members hip,

and

will give

th

e seco

an d th ird place

winn

e rs a s ix·month

exte

nsio n.

Send all entries to: Dice Con test

RPGA

Network,

P.O.

Box 515,

L

Geneva, WI, 58147.

R

o

N



The Great Lakes Avengers

by

William

Tracy

The MARVEL UNIVERSE · is ever·

expanding,

and

one such expansion is

The Great Lakes Avengers, a lesser

known

chapter

of the Avenger

which

watches over

the

midwest .

In

addition

to the new

superheroes

listed below,

the

team

also

has as members Hawkeye

and Mockingbird.

Big Bertha

a.k.s. Ashley

Crawford

F A S

E R I P

TY TY GD RM TY

GD

TY

6) 6)

( O) (30)

6) (10)

6)

Health:

52

Karma:

22

Popularity:

1/0 outside

the

Great Lake

s

Resources:

RM

30)

Talents:

Unknown

.

Powers:

Alter

Ego. Through some

as

of

yet unknown means, model Ashley

Crawford is able to increase her body in

den

sity

and size. As Big

Bertha, she

has

a

weight and

body size

that

rivals

the

Blob. While in this larger form, she has

Amazing Body

Armor

against

physical

attacks

and

Good Leaping Ability.

As an

estab

l ished power stunt, Big

Bertha can catch bullets or blunt weap

ons

that are thrown at her in the fatty

folds of her dense flesh. She can then

expand

her muscles, causing the caught

projectiles to fly back at her assailant.

Th hit her assailant she must make a

successful FEAT roll on

the

Good

column. This attack only does a

maxi

·

mum

of Good blunt

throwing damage

.

Background: Very little is known

about

Big

Bertha

s

background

except

that she is a successful model

in

her

Ashley Crawford identity.

She has

con

tacts

in the

fashion world.

She

has not

demonstrated the use of any partieu

lar

Talents.

p

o

L

Mister

Immorta

l

F SERIP

RM EX G EX TY GD PR

(30) (20)

10) 20 )

(6)

10)

(4)

Health:

80

Karma: 20

Popularity:

11 outside the

Great Lakes

Resources : Unknown

Talents:

Martial Arts

Band E, Acrobat

ics

and

Tumbling

Powers: Immortality, Unearthly

rank.

Berserker, Good

rank

.

This

power

allows him

to

add a + 1 CS to Fighting

and

Strength when it is in effect.

Background: Mi

st er I

mmortal's

origin

and background

arc

unknown. He is

slightly mad and suicidal, not hesitat

ing to take wild risks in a fight.

Thi s

unbalanced

state

of

mind is prob·

ably caused-at least in

part

- by his

Immortality powers. He is short tern·

pered,

and

he usually enters a berserk

rage

when fighting someone who

has

ju st killed him .

Dinah

Soar

F A S

GD RM TY

(10)

30 )

6)

Health: 56

Karma: 22

E R

GO TY

10) 6)

Popularity: 110 outside

the

Great

Lakes

Resources:

Unknown

Talents Unknown.

I

TY

6)

P

GO

(10)

Powers: Flight. She can maintain

Typical air speed because of her wings.

Sonic

Generation

, Excellent rank. Her

hyper.sonies also can be used to disori·

ent or

calm

a person.

Background:

Dinah

Soar's past

and

origin

are

a mystery. Her odd physical

appearance

could indicate that she is a

mutant

or

a non·human. She is

not

able

to communicate verbally.

She seems to have a fondness for Mr.

Immortal.

H E D

Doorway

F A S E R I P

GD TY

TY

EX

TY

GD

I

(10

)

6 ) 6 ) 2

0) (6)

(1 0

)

(4

Health: 42

Karma:

56

Popularity:

11 outside the

Great Lakes

Resources:

Unknown

Talents:

Unknown

Powers: Fl i

gh t

, Feeble

rank.

He is n

able to

carry

anyone

while he flies.

Teleport

Other

s.

Doorway

can

some

how

cause

his body to become a

gatew

between two points in space. Only

normal·sized living beings

can

move

through

Doorway to

use

him

as

a tele

portation gateway.

Wh

en he is in his

ga teway form he only can be harmed

mystic,

mental,

and energy

attacks.

H

cannot

move

or

take any other actions

while people

are

using him as a telepo

tal.

This

ability has a Remarkable ran

power.

Background: Unknown

Flatman

F A S E R I P

TY

GD TY EX EX GD G

6) 0 ) 6)

(20) (20)

0 )

Health: 42

Karma: 40

Popularity: 110

outside

the

Great Lakes

Resources

:

Unknown

Talents:

Unknown .

Powers: Enlongation, Unearthly ran

Plasticity, Remarkable rank.

Body Armor, Remarkable protection

against physical attacks.

Duo-Dimension,

Remarkab

le

rank.

Flatman truly is nat.

Background: Fl

atman

is the Deputy

Leader of

the

Great

Lake

s Avengers.

Nothing else

is known about the hero.

R o N



1

The aves

o onfection

p

An adventure for 6

D D®game

or AD D®game characters,

levels 1-3

Illustration by James Holloway

o

L

y

H E

o

by

Rick Reid

Notes for the

OM

Thi

s ligh

thearted

adve

nture

is

des

for six l st-3rd level Basic D&D®

g

characters. Statistics for

AD&D®

g

monsters also are provided for OM

wi sh to run t his adventure

as

an A

game scenario; AD&D game sta tis

appear in shaded

area

s.

At

the

beginning of

th

e

adventur

is assu med

the

PCs will come to

th

Keep at Ongoin, intendin

g

to

rest

buy provisions. However, you shou

feel free to concoct another reason

the PCs to go there

if

it

8

uits your

better.

Introduction

Even the most stalwart band of a

venturers must stop sometimes fo

rest and provisioning , and accord

to

you r maps, the nearest city is t

Keep at Ongoin .

The Keep

at

Ongoin is

much

lik

eve ry

other

heavily fort ified city

you

have encountered in yo

ur tra

ci

s. The st andard

high,

thick

s

ton

walls surr

ound the town, a nd

the

only

e nt

ran

ce is a

pair of barred

wooden

ga te s.

Following

st a

ndard procedure , y

a

ppr

oach

the gates

a

nd

s hout for

entrance. After a wait of

aev

eral

minu

tes, you shout again.

St i

ll no

response. Getting imp

atie

nt. you

dismount and

bang

on t he gates.

Almost immedi

ate

l

y,

a muffled vo

from the other side replies, " Wha

t he password?"

Part I : Keep Ongoin

After the PCs

have

taken several

gu

esses

at

the pa

sswo

rd

, a

noth

er m

fled voice responds, "Try 'Pancake.

someone in

the party

r

eplies

"P anc

both

gates

swing open r

evealin

g

an

e mp

ty

cobblestone st reet leading in

the

center of town. If

the PC

s

pass

through the gates, they

are set

upo

a mob of villagers shouting

"S

weet

Swee t

s

Give us your sweets " A m

more t han 200 r us h from

their

hidi

places behind the open gaLes, swa

rm

over th e PCs, pull them from their

horses, and rip th rough their packs

clothing.

R

o

N



Villagers

(207):

AC

9; HD

1;

hp 3 each;

MV

120'(40');

T

1; 0 special; Save

as

Norma l Huma n; ML 6; AL N; XP 5

ea

ch; SA hit ind ic

ate

s

grab

and hold

until victim

makes an

open d

oo

rs roll, if

th

ree or more villagers hold a victim he

is

pulled

down.

~ 10; HD 1; MV 12; .;'AT 1; Dm g

l

Pummel/wre;;tre; THACO

2/); rnL

Ave.

8·10);

SZ

1\1; AL

NC (but cfUzed);

Xi>

L5

eacb

J

---- - .__ - - ---

After several mi

nute

s of this mayhem, a

shrill whistle bl ows and a troop of

g

uards rushe

s into t he melee, pulling

th

e villagers o

tT

th

e

charac

te r s

and

beratin

g

them

:

Leave th

em a lone;

the

y' r

e tourists " When

the

g

uard

s have

su

cceeded in

disentangling the last

vi llager from t he rnckus, a portly gen·

tleman

with a

long-,

cu

rlin

g

white

mus·

t ache approache ; the

part

y.

Turning

to

the village

rs

, now shnffiing a round with

downcast eyes

:tnd guilty

looks on

their

faces , he says, " Is

this any

way to treat

guests? I'm ashamed of you Now

I want

you to apologize to

these

nice people

right

now " Severa l of

the

villagers

mumb le insincertJ apologies whi le

the

gu ard

s help

th

e PCs

up

, d

ust ofT

th eir

clothing,

an

d hel p t

hem

ga

ther up

th eir

belongings . While

th i

s is goi

ng

on, the

villagers sli

nk

away, occasionally giving

the

pes a

hungr

y glance.

When order

ha

s been

re

s

to r

ed,

the

portly gentleman introduces himself

as

Farfel, mayor of Ongoin,

and

a pologizes

to the

group

for

the

actions of

th

e towns·

people. Theil with a wistrullook i

ll

his

eyes, he asks,

Ah,

you

don't

happen to

have any gumdrops, do you?

When

the

party ha s rep li

ed

in the

negative, t he mayor gives a

lo

ud sigh

an

d says:

Ah, I th ought not. Oh welL Pl ease,

let me escort you i

nt

o town while I

try to explain

the

behavior of

the

townspeople. You see, for

years

On·

goin

has had the reputation of

pro·

vidi

ng

th e finest sweets, candies, and

desser ts in the realm. In ract,

the

king

him

self

would

not

th

ink of

us ·

jng any o

ther

peppermint

can

dy for

his

indigest ion

but that

which we

manufact

ure

. Bu t now

that

has all

changed.

You

sec, we

obtain the

raw

materials

for our creations from a

series of most wonderful caverns to

the north

of town. Within t hese

caverns- dubbed the Caves of Con·

p

o

L

fection by the locals-

run

veins of

pure rock suga

r,

bubbling pools of

ca

ram

el,

and

n

at

ural springs or choc·

olate sauce .

Needless to

say, with suc h a

trea

·

su re at our disposa

l, it

was only

natura

l

that

our

vi

llage

sh

ould base

it

s economy on t he creation of

sweets

. Bu t several days ago, a

gr

oup

of

sugar

miners came

runnin

g back

into town with stories of ho rrible

creatures

th at had taken

up

resi·

dence in

the

caverns. A battalion of

gu a

rds

WIIS

s

ent

to invest igate,

but

never rd.uflwd. [ had no choice b

ut

to po

st the

mines ofT·limits, eve n

though

it me

ant the death

of

our

industry. The vi llagers, raised on a

diet of sugary

treats,

we

re dr i

ven

ha

i

r·

mad

by

the

absence

of their

accustomed diet a nd took to riot ing

and wo

rse things. In despera t ion ,

I

sent

away for a wagonload of

sugar

from

th

e closest village.

But

it, along

wi

th

ano

ther

wagon of kitchen uten·

sils, nev

er arrived

.

Attempts

were

made to provide substi t

ute

s, hoping

our

customers would not notice the

difference. B

ut as

you can see

the

r

esults

were le

ss th

an successful."

With this statement, the mayor points

out severa

l shops advertising such

thin

gs

as :

Salt

Cakes," Vinegar

Bun s," " Mu

st

ard Pies

:'

"

Br

ine ·filled

BonBon

s;'

Fish Ball

s;'

and "Meat

Wafers." All t he s hops have a l

arge

cl

osed sign in front.

"Th make

matters

worse

,

the mayor

continues, "This is

the year

my wife

is to host

the annual

Mayors ' Wives'

lea Party for a ll

the

mayors' wives

in

the

area. W

it

h

out

any teac

akes

or

lady fingers for the guests, her party

will be

the

social disaster of the year.

But,

th is is not your problem.

Unless, of course, you

want

to

take

on

th

e job of cleaning out

the

cave

rn

s- for which y

ou

will receive a

ha

nd

some r

ewa

rd

an

d

the und

ying

gr a

ti tude of the townspeople , not to

mention my wife. Well,

what

do you

say?

If

th e

characters

agree to

take

on

th

is

task,

th

e mayor shows

th e

m the road

lea

din

g

nort

h from town to

the

caverns.

If

they wish to obtain fur

the

r prov i.

sions, a trader's shop contains all basic

equi

pment at twice book price.

y

H

E

o

Part

: The

aves

of

onfeaion

A.

The

Entrance

After a journey of about a

half

hour,

th

rou gh rocky terra in

dotted

with

growths

of thick sh

rub

be

r

y,

you ap·

proach the race of a tow

erin

g cliff.

A

t he

clifT'

s base is a

da rk,

roughly

circul

ar entrance

about

12

reet in

diameter. 'l\vo vaguely humanoid

figures s tand

to

either s ide of the

entrance, barely concealed by

sc

ra

gg ly bush es. An

overpoweringly

sweet smell fill s

the

air.

As

til('

PCs approach

the entrance, th

see

that the

figures are

nothin

g more

than

wooden c

utout

s, pa

inted

to resem

ble fierce goblin s,

an

d propped up

against th

e clifT.

Th

ey will also see,

directly above

th

e e

nt r

ance, a crudely

painted wooden sign

reading

Cave o

C<lod Eats

-Mon

ste

rs Welcome

Hu

mans

Co Home." Loo

kin

g into

the

en t

rance, the characters see a 12·foot

12

·foot cave

exten

di

ng

30 feet north

a

ending in a

"T"

inte rsection. Wa lls,

floors,

and

cei ling

are hard and

rocky.

Closer examination r

evea

ls a spr inkli

of

sugar

covering

the ca

v

ern

floor.

B.

Equi

p m en t

Approxima

tely

10 feet in to

th

e ca·

vern , a se r ies of two doze n spikes

are

dri ven into

the

west wall at eye

leve

l.

Twelve

battered

metal

helm

et

and 12 la

nt

erns hang fr om

the

spik es.

The helmets were worn by

the

suga r

miners

as pr

otection in the event of

fall ing rock candy. They

ar

e

paint

ed

with names such

as S

tinky

: '

"Shorty

"\Vaffie·

ea

rs," and "Fred." The lanter

are

filled with oil

and

s till usa bl

e.

C. Billy

After a distance of 40 fee t ,

th

e caver

takes

a bend to

the

easl. As you

approach the bend, you

hear

a loud

slurping noise coming rrom a ro

und

the

c

orner

.

S

il t

ing on

the

cave floor, su ck ing on a

piece of

rock candy is a

young

boy

wit

red

hair an

d freckles. When

the

boy

nolices

th

e

party,

he hides his candy

R

o

N



12

and tells

them

to Get y

our

own." I

[the

you

ng l

ad

is qu

es t

ioned nicely or bribed,

he

reveals that

his name is Billy

an

d he

lives wit

h

his Grandpa in

Go

goin. He

tells

the PCs that he wa s tired of not

having a ny ca nd

y,

so he snuck away

a nd came to the mine to get some.

Billy

got

h is

can

dy f

rom the

rock

su gar veins directly a

head

. He brags to

the PCs th a t he snuck p

ast

all th e mon

sters wo rking in the

mine

a nd gr abbed

a piece

ofT

t he noor wi thout be ing no

ticed . If asked abo ut the

numbe

r

of

creatures

in the mine,

he puff

s up

hi

s

chest

and

sa y

s, Oh,

about a hundrod."

If

Billy is t

hrea t

ened,

grabbed

, or told

to go home, he s

tart

s yelling, "Ow Ow

Ow " in a loud vo ice and tr ies to run

away. The ensuing commotion is su re to

hr.ing

the

m ine

k r s

fro m the s uga r

mines

(area

E)

to

Inves

tigat

e.

If

Billy is

left alone, he follows the party for

aw hile, the n wanders oIT.

Billy:

AC

10; HO Ih; hp

2;

MV

120'(40');

t T

1; D 1 (ki

ck

or bite); Save

as

Normal

Human; ML 6; AL N;

XP

5

AC 10; liD

'

f ,; hp 2; I\IV 12;

t AT

L

-]

mg pummel;

THACO 20;

Int Ave.

(8·10); SZ M; AL N(Gl;

XP

15

CAVES

OF

CONFECTION

,,

'

/l)/l) ,

Straw /l) )/l.

t ~ ~ ·

Utensils & dishes

"Chocolate"

at ream'

Rock ~

#

Marshmallow

i e Y l e r

Ledie ok

ntlt

Shrubbery

1

square.

10 Ceet

p

o

L

D. Chocolate Stream

After several feet,

the

pa ssage

branches

off to the north lind con·

tinue

s

ca

st. From

the east

passage

yC; U pick up faint sou nds of digging,

pi cks ba nging,

and

occasional voices.

Th. the north, you detect a sweet, but

faint

, odor.

If the PCs.

ta

ke the north pa ssage, r

ea

d

t he followmg:

A

thick, cloying odor of chocolate

wafts from the

entrance of

this c

ham·

ber

. Inside

the

40·foot

diameter

room

an 8·foot wide stre

am of

thick, brown'

flu id flaw s sluggish ly from a n open ·

ing in

the east wall , runs across

the

chamber,

and

disappears into

a simi·

l

ar

ope ning in the west wall.

Several

buckets a nd ladles lie on t he floor.

Propped up aga

inst

the so

uth

wall

a rc

12

hu manoid figures, apparently

composed

of

the

same

brown

mate·

rial, wrapped in red bows. Across

from

the

st ream,

there

is

an

ope ning

in

the

no

rth

wall.

The s tream, which only runs to a dept h

of

three feet at t his particular spot, is

..

·1

I

y

H

E

I,

I

I

o

not

actua lly chocolate, bu t is comp

of run·off from the sugar

mines

mi

with

naturally·occu

rin

g s ubterran

vegetation

and minerals

giving it

taste,

appearance, and texture

of

r

chocolate. The

12

figur

es

are t he o

nal gu a

rds

sent to investigate the

turbance at the mine.

They

were

captured and dipped

alive in

the c

late

. Examining the figu r

es

reveal

sm a ll tag on each one

reading:

"To

Master, 1\vink-Eat In

Good

Heal

E. Sugar Mine

The passage opens into a

huge

ca

ernous area, almost

1

20 feet in d

ete r. The rough rock wa lla

are

imp regnated with thick

veins

of

clear crystaline substance with a

very sweet odor.

A

dozen lar ge,

h

dog·faced cr

ea t

ures work

th

e ve i

with picks and shovels, a nd load

debris

into wheelbarrow

s.

T

he

th

biggest cr

eatur

e whee ls the whee

ba rrows out an

opening

in

the no

wall.

Until

the party takes

Ome

action,

creatures (gnolls>will

not

be

aw

ar

their

presence. The sound

of

diggi

® -->1=1

R

o

N



and

pi ckin g echoes loudly throughout

th is chamber a nd mix es w

it

h the gno lls'

cursing and

gr

unting. Th e gnolls are

mining the rock sugar for

the

Snack

Dragon,

an

d

their

fear

of h is

anger

is

th

e only thing

that

keeps

th

e m work·

ing .

Ift

he

party m

ov

es to aUack ,

the

gnolls reciprocate, sw inging thei r picks

and shove ls. If

the

gnolls lose more than

half their

number, one gnoll t

hr

ows

down his pick , and in

cr u

de Common

cries

out, Th at's it We don't have

to

put up wi

th

th

is Come

on,

we'

re

go ing

on strike "

With

th a t, the other gno lls

toss down thei r weapons and foll ow

their

l

ea

der out the chamber and to the

cave entrance.

Any gnolls t hat

are

captured and

qu

estione

d reveal that the boss

of

the

cave

s is a "big li

zard

th

at

eats

like a

pig." The only

reason

th

ey

are wo rk ing

is that he

th r

ea tened to c at

them

if

the

y

didn ' t keep his appet ite sa ti sfied. If

the

part

y asks

directions to

th

e big boss, the

gnolls gesture in the di rec tion of

th

e

no

rth

passage. There

are

t

hr

ee wheel·

barrows, six picks,

six

s

hovels

, and a

lot

of rock sugar in the room.

Gnons (12):

AC 5; HD 2; hp 15, 13,

3@12, 10 2@9, 6

,2@

5,4;MV90 '(30');

IAT 1; D 2·7; Save as Figh t er 2: ML 8;

AL C; XP

20

each

AC 5; HD

2;

hp

15, 13 , 3@12, 10,

2@9,6,2@5,4;MV9; N

AT

1;

Dmg

2·

7; 1'HACO 19;

In

t Low (5·7 ;

SZ

L; AL

CE; XP 35 each

F. Kitchen of

Doom

A blast of

in t

ense heat emi na tes

from th is room, accompa nied by

clanging and

bangin

g sounds.

This 80·foot diameter room was used

as

a hakery, with heat provided by natu ·

redly occuring veins of

magma

which

flow a long

the wa

lls.

Se

ve

ra

l

la rge

iron

doors were built into

the

wa lls, and

the

item

s to be baked were

plac

ed into cav i·

ties behind

th

e doors and heated by

the

magma.

Two 40 ·foot long and 20·foot

wi de wooden tables, covered with bowls,

spoon

s,

and baking pans, are si tuated

in

the

cente r of the room.

The room is cu

rr

ently occup ied by

eig

ht bakery

zombies wearing white

hats

and aprons r eading " Ki ss

the

Cook." As they

are

able to

work 24

ho

ur

s a day and can

withstand

t he

p

o

L

i

nten

se heat,

the

Snack Dragon (area J

has programmed them to bake treats to

satisfy

his voracious appe

tite

. Raw

materials from the su

gar

mines (area

E),

the

chocolate s

tream

(area

D),

th

e

ma r

shmallow geyser (area H), and t he

orc rooms (a rea I), a re de livered here

to

be baked in

to

dessert s and goodies. Th e

zombies ignore the PCs unless they

interrupt

t hem from t hei r c

urren

t task

of baking dozens of gingerbread orcs

(cookies). If attacked,

they

reciprocate

by flinging

batt

er, pans, bowls, and hot

cookies.

On one

of the tables

is a

thick

leather·

boun

d tome entitled

Cook Book

of

he

Dead

.

I t contain ins

tructions

for s

um

·

moning a

Swee

t

lboth

Demon, a large

dessert . Anyone attempting

to rea

d

from

the

book will lind his hand perma·

nently

stuck

to

the

pages. Vi

ctims can·

not

put

down

th

e vo lume un t il

the

y

ha

ve

gathe

red

all

the ingre

dien

t.s

listed

in

the

recipe (over 2,000 obscure spices

and condime

nt

s) and mixed them ac·

co rd ing to in tru ction

s.

Zombies B): AC 8; HD 2; hp

16

, 2@14,

9, 2@8,6,4; MV 90'(30' );

NAT

1; D 1·8

(claw) or 1·4 (hurled object); Save

as

Fighter I ; ML 12 ; AL X;

XP 20

each; SA

a

lways

lose in itiative; SO

immu

ne

to

sleep

an

d charm spells.

AC 8; HD 2; MV 6; NAT 1; Dmg 1·8

(claw)

or

1·4 (thrown object): THACO

19; Int Non· 0); SZ ; AL N; x.p

65

each ; SA

always

lose initit ive; SD

immun

e to

skcp, e/wrm

hold. death

magic

poisons,

and co

ld , holy

wat

er

~ i t s 2·8 points damage

G. Gramps

A bobbing yellow light can be seen in

the north

passage

.

The

l igh t

seems to

be

moving in your direction ,

but

before you can take a ny action, the

stillness is s

hatter

ed by a gravelly

voice

yellin

g, "Billy Billy "

The

voice belongs to Billy's

(area

C)

gTandfather, who is looking for

the

wayward

lad. He

carries

a thick cane in

one hand and a lan t

ern

in

the

ot

he r

. His

eyes

ight is very poo r, an d if approached

by

the PCs, he lashes out at t hem with

his ca ne, mistaking them fo r monsters.

Gramp

s'

hearing is

just as

bad

as

hi s

eyesight. He

carries

an earhorn

tuck

ed

in his belt , wh ich

he

u

ses

only

if

reo

minded of its

pr

ese nce. Anything

the

y

H

E

D

PCs

say

to

Gram

ps is

lik ely

to be

in te

prete

d

as

a n ins ul t. If th e party is a b

to relay to

Gra

mps who they

are

a nd

th e

natur

e of

their

i

nt

e

ntions,

he star

in

on

one

of

his long·win

ded stories o

his own y

outh

when he

was

an adven

tur

er

, punctuating his

ta

le by gTabbin

one of the PC's swords and swi nging

wi ldly aro

und

his head.

If t

he

gro

up

can con

vi

nce

Gramps

t

they have indeed seen

Billy

a nd h

ave

gen

er

al idea as to his wh er

eabout

s,

Gramps continues south, shouting a n

banging on

th

e wal ls with his cane.

Gramps : AC 10; HD

Ln; hp

2; MV

90'(30');

IAT

1; D 1·4 (cane ;

Normal

Human; ML 6; AL N; x.p 5

AC

10:

HO Ih ; hp 2; MV 9; IPi r ;

Umg 1·4 (cane);

THACO

20; Int Ave.

I 8·1 ); SZ M; AL N(G);

XP

15

,

H M a r s

hm allow

luff

Th

e walls, floor and ce il ing of th is

40·foot diameter cavern a re covered

with a

th

ick, gooey

white

sub

st a

nce

There is a 12·inch

diam

eter hole in

the center of the floor a nd a n exit

directly ac

ross the chamber in the

north wall. A 6-foo t wide stone ledge

ju

t ts from t he east wall, about 12 fe

above the ground.

A large pile of sticks and

sma

ll

rocks s its on

th

e ledge; it resembl es

ne

st of some type. An

undistin

guish

a ble

lump

squats

in

the ne st 's center

The

e

ntire

affair is

covered

with

the

gooey white substa nce.

The PCs

are

in

the

cavern containing

t he marsh

ma

llow geyser. Thick

veins

su

ga

r, heated by bubbling

und

ergroun

pools, s

imme

r

under

the su rface unti l

th

e ir consistancy is

that

of

th

ick

ma r

s

mallow . Periodically,

th

e

bubblin

g

ma

er

up

ts

from

the

hole in

the

floor, spray

in

g the room and its contents

with

a

thick

coat

in

g

of ma r

s

hm a

llow.

The lump in

the

nes t is a m

ar shm

a l

low ha

rpy,

which h

as

grown

quite

fon

of

th

e taste of marshmallow. She at·

tempts to l

ure

the ch

ar acters

into

the

room with her song. I f s

he

is successfu

she wa its for t he geyser

to

er upt a nd

coat her hapless vict

im

s in marsh

ma

l

low, rendering them immobile. She

ca

then

eat

the

m at h

er

lei s ure.

Once

the

PCs

have

entered the room

check each round for

an

e

rupti

on. A l

2 on Id6 m

ea

ns

the

geyser h

as

e

rupt

e

R

o

N



14

and anyone caught in th e room

mu st

save ' IS. paralysis

or be rendered immo

bile. Even if the save is successful,

the

character's movemen

t a

nd

attacks

are

cut by half. The harpy is

immune

to the

efTects of

the

geyser, and wi ll only leave

h

er

nest. to

attack

in the event

th

at

the

major ity of the group is rendered immo

bile

,

or if they try

to

leave the room

.

If

the

harpy is defeated,

the

charac

ter > can sea

rch

her nest . Inside are 36

lti c

ky

gold pieces, a

bib

wi

th

a picture

of

a lobster on the front (new magic

it em

),

a

vial of

clear

liquid

(new

magic

item),

and

a

toothbru

sh.

Marshmallow Harpy; AC 7; HO 3 '" ;

hp 21; MV 60 {20 )l f lying 1

5

'/50 ; tAT 2

claws,

1

weapon, +

;;

pN:ia l; 0 1·411 ·4/ 1·

6;

Save

as

Fighter 6; ML 7; AL C; XP

50;

SA

so

ng

causes

saving

t hrow

'IS.

spell or

vic

tim is charmed.

AC i ; lID

7;

hp

21; j\IV 0, FI15 (C);

liAT3:

Um g

1·

/ 1·

/ 1·

6;

THA CO 1:3:

rot Low (5·7); SZ M; AI. CJ<':;

XP

14.00:

SA

can

sing in COnluut, SOllK casues

saving-

throw

vs. s pell

or

victim is

cIJarmcd- clwrf/ p<I

victims imme

di·

ately pl"Oceed

toward

the

ha rp

}"

and

allow

themselves to be s la in. t

he

c

harm

las ts

until

the s

fl

n) " s tops,

touch causes savc vs. spell or victim

is charmcd fOI" 20

+ 1d 10 h

ou r

s,

the

charm is broken when the hurpy is

sillin.

New Magic

I tems

Bib

of

Good Eating:

Wh

en

WOI'n

, the

wearer is compelled to

eat

only good,

nutritious meals,

forsaking any snacks

or sweets.

A

s

ucessful

save vs.

spe

ll

negates the bib's

elTects.

Potion

of

A ppetite Control:

Anyone

im ·

bibing this dear, colorless,

liquid

will

experience an immediate feeling of

f

ullness

for

a

period of 13·24

hours

(1d12

+

12), and has

nO

de

sire

for food

durin

g

that time.

I

JinSll

Orcs

After

a

distance of several

fee t, t he

no

rthern

pa

ss

a

ge

c

ur

ves

towa

rd

the

west

. The w

estern

passage is lit ter

ed

wit h bu

tter knives, fo

r ks , and soup

spoons. Ahead you notice several

openings carved

into the

north

and

f'Quth walls.

p

o

L

The openings

lead into

the rooms

or

a

tribe of jin

su orcs. If

the

p

arty

stops to

investigate the si l

verware, or

pa

ss

es by

the openings, the orcs

pour

out of th e

room

s

and attempt

to

capture and su

b·

due

them.

The orcs,

em

ployed as

guards, waiters, cooks, and dishwashers

by the Snack Dragon (area

J

arc a r·

mored in

pots,

pan

s,

and

roast

platte

l·s

and brandish meat grinders, potato

peelers

,

cheese gr a

t

ers, egg beaters,

a

nd

apple corers a s weapons (plunder from

th e

wagolls hound fo

r Ongoin).

The

orcs

attempt. to oVI'l"ll" hclm the PCs a

nd

c:l

ptur

e

th em alive

to

present to the

snack dragon. Du ring

the fighting

,

the

orcs cont inu a lly

call

fO l· the PCs to su r ·

render. Becau

se

of the overwhelming

numb

er

of orcs,

th

e PCs should be e n·

co

ur a

ged to do

so

.

Rooms

All

the rooms arc roughly 12·feet

square

and contain the

following:

1. A huge tub of soa py water and a tall

pi le

of

di

rt

y dish

es

. Six

orcs are wa

s

hin

g

dis

he

s in h

ere

.

2.

Numerous

ba

gs of

flour,

spices,

herbs

a nd seasonings.

Seve

ra l

barrels

co nt ai n

vin

egar

, va nilla

ex t

r

act,

sugar

water,

and maple syrup .

3. A

large fi

re

pit

dug in to t he cen

te

r

of

the

r

oom

is filled wi

th

burning wood.

Above

the

fire

is

an

iron

ca

ld r

on

being

stirred

by

two

orcs in

white apron

s.

Th

e

orcs

arc

boil

ing

refined

l'Ock

sugar to

make

ca ra mel.

4. A l

ong

wooden ta ble

piled

hi gh

wi t

h

various

types of cookbooks. Six orcs are

pouring

over the

books, jotting

down

no

tes an

d

recipes

.

5.

The e

nl i

re floor

of

t h

is room is lay.

ered

with l>truw

. '{'welve or

cs

a re ly in g

on t he floor, re sting from the ir

duties.

Each arc is alternately polishing

his

weapon

and licking a cinna

mon

stick.

6 Th i

s room is piled hi gh

with

a jumble

of

cook

in

g

ut

ens

il

s, k

it

chen

impl

ements

and

dinn

e

rw

are. Six orcs

ar

e attempt·

in g to m ake so me so

rt

of order out of th e

s

hamble

s.

Jinsu Orcs

(36): AC 6; H D 1;

hp

5 each ;

MV 120 '(40 '); IAT I ; ·6; Save as

Fi

ghter 1; ML 6; AL C; XP 10 each

AC 6; liD 1; hp 5

each: j\

·IV 9;

IAf

1;

Dmg

1.6;

THA

CO

19;

l

nt

Avc. (8·10);

I SZ 11.1 ; AL LE; XP 15 each

- -

y

H

E

D

J.

Lair of the Snack Dragon

As you a re

lead down

t h e

twist i

n

passage, a loud

roar of

"FOOOO

reverberates

do

wn

the corridor

f

ahead. T

he

orcs, now

vi s

ibly sha

hur

ry

you alo

ng through an

arch

s

et

into t he st o

ne

wall .

Sitting on an immense pi le

of

dishe

s, frosting bowls, no n

retu rn able bo ttles, wr appers, ca

plates, pie pans, cookie ti n s, and

candy mol ds is a large cotton·ca n

pink

dragon.

The

dr a

gon 's choco

smeare

d

jaws ar

e

firm

ly

wrappe

a

round the protruding stick

of a

day sucke

r.

Rows of

sugar donut

ring

h is

tw

in

horn

s

and

h

is long

spiked tail is

curl

ed protective ly

ar ound a pot of je

llybea

n s.

A

s

everely-s

tained

bib

is tied

aro

un

his

thin

ne

ck, a hsorbing l he freq

dribble of drool that l

eak

s from t

corner of

h is mouth.

Above

the

dr ago n, a large opening in the ce

a ll

ows

the moonlight to s parkle

hi s

sugar-coated

scales.

Th e

dragon

looks

you up and d

with a hun g ry eye, removes th e

suck

er

from

his

mouth ,

waves at

OICS, and iss ues a command, " Pr

pare

t he

kitchens I

have a

rec

ip

ca

r

mel

-

covered adventurers

di

pp

in

toasted

al

monds

th

a t

I'm

dyi n

t ry "

At this

comm

and

,

th

e

orcs

exi t

room,

leaving

you

to face the dra

With the same hungry g leam in

eye,

t he dragon ad

dr ess you.

I suppose good manne rs di cta

th

at

I should introduce

m

ys e lf

be

I

eat

you. 1 am

1Wink,

a very rar

snack

dragon.

Mo

st of

my

race, u

fortUnAtely. d ied

out

because t h

e

could n

ot

find enough sw

eets

to s

ta

in t hem. We h

ave qu ite

a

vorac

appet ite, you

kn

ow. But l

ucky

m

came ac ross

this wonderous

cave

my

travels.

It

contains enough

sw

ee

ts to sustain

me for years

. I

s

that

wonderful "

At

this poin t, if the PCs

take no

ac

ag a

ins t

the

d

ragon, he sta rts pokin

them

with his

sucker

stick

to see if

are "

ju

icy"

enough

.

Th

e c h ar acters

try

to defe

at

1\vink before

th

e orcs

tu

rn

in six

tu r

ns

to bake them. 1W

very

intelligent (but

gree

dy ) a

nd no

ea s

ily tr icked, nor will a n

out-an

d-o

attack be likely to succeed. One pos

sol

ut i

on wou ld be to

get

him to use

th

er

of the ma

gic i

tems fo un

d in ar

R

o

N



causing

him to

lose his appetite or de

sire for sweets

and

possibly vacate the

cave.

If the PCs attack

Twink,

he uses his

breath

weapon

in an attempt

to

encase

them

in a

tough

candy

shell.

A strength

of 18 or

better

is needed to break

out

of

the

shell.

Twink does

have one

weak

spot, his

stomach. Th

ere is a 5%

chance

that

any successful

attack

will hit his

stomach, causing him to

double

over in

pain for Id6 round

s.

Snack

Dragon

(Twink): AC 3; HD 6**;

hp 40;

MV

90'(30')/flying 240'(80'); AT

2 claws,

1

bite or

breath

weapon;

D 1·

6,1.6/3.24;

Save as

Fighter 6; ML 8; AL

N; XP 725; SA br

eath

weapon

usable

3X/day, cone of candy coating 2' wide at

mouth,

80'

long, and

30'

wide at end,

v

ictim

s

must save

vs.

breath

or

he

coated and immobilized for 2dl2 turns,

18

strength

to break out.

AC 3; HD 6; hp 40 ; MV 9, Fl24 (C);

IIAT

3; Dmg 1·6 + 111·6 +1/3-24 + I;

THACO 15; lnt Ave. (8·10); SZ L; AL

N(E); XP 1400; SA breath weapon 3/

I

ay, cone of candy coati ng 2' wide at

motlth,

80'

long, and

30'

wide

at end,

-- - -- - -

victim::; must save vs . breath or be

coated

and

immobilized for 2d12

t.urns, fea t of

strength

to break

Ollt

If

the

characters manage

to

defeat

the

snack

dr a

gon, or convince him to let

them escape,

th

ey can climb up the pile

of tr ash and exit out

the

hole in the

ceiling (this is how Twink entered).

Once

out

of the hole,

the

PCs can circle

around to

the front

of the

cave

and the

road back

to

town .

Part

Ill: The Reward

When

the

party

returns to the village,

the

mayor meets them to li s

ten

to

their

story. Unless the

PCs

have defeated

th

e

snack

dragon,

or

banished

him

from the

caves,

they

are not

eligible for

their

reward.

If

the

PCs were successful, the

mayor rings

the

town bell, calling

the

villagers

to

assemble. He relates

their

story

to

the townspeople,

hi

ghly prais

ing

the

PCs' bravery. When he gets to

the part of the story where the PCs

defeated

the dragon and

freed the caves,

the

villagers

sho

ut,

"Sweets Sweets "

and bolt for the caves, trampling the

mayor

and the PCs. After apologizing to

th

e party, t

he

mayor

invites them

to a

Enter the

Gates

of

Ravens luff

Ravens Bluff, The

living

City,

is

an ever<hanging city

nestled In the Forgotten Realms. It is a city filled with

memorable characters, fascinatrng shops and

businesses.

politkal

lntr

igue

, and,

of

course, adventure.

Ravens Bluff and the lands around it belong

to

the

ROLE PLAYING

GAME ASSOCJATI()I\f" Network, an

international

org

anIzation

of

role playing game

n t h u s i ~ s

The characters. bulkllngs, ancl adventures

in th

is

Gateway

rack

are created

by

RI'GA'"

Network

members.

Enter the gates of Ravens

Bluff,

a

c

ity

that

Is

evCf-

changing and growing, a

city you can be a part of

in the Forgotten Realms.

This new

accessory.

ateway

to RAVENS BLUff ', The Living

City

is

available only through

the RI'GA Networl< .

Call

' ·800-558-5977 to

order

) 'OW copy today

roo<;orrtN .,ALMS .

o o . , - ~ , . . c ;

c.AMt

AWlCW ,

OI GJ\

• _

· .._ ' ..

'ao

... " .......... . . •" ... .. ,""", ........

.. . T . . . . . . ..

p

o

L

y

H

E

o

banquet to

be

held in

their

honor the

following evening when the

villagers

have calmed

down."

The banqu

et is a rou s

ing

success,

consisting of every sort of delicacy

imaginable.

And

just when

you

thi

you could not eat another bite,

the

mayor taps his spoon

on

his wine

glass and

calls

for dessert. As you

gape in astonishment, six carts

draped in fine

linen are

wheeled

ou

in

front

of you.

The

coverings are

whipped off with a

flourish,

reveal·

ing life·size peanut·butter fudge

statues of your party.

"Dig in " the mayor beams, They

all yours " With weak smiles you

reach for a piece of ear. Seeing your

disappointed looks,

th

e mayor gives a

chuckle

and

nudges

you

with

his el

how, "I

think

you'll

like

the filling th

best;' he whispers, "Gold coin T hink

the cook said it was "

The

DM is free

to

assign whatever

m

etary

reward he

thinks

is reasonable

his campa

ign; 200-500 gp for each ch

acter is a good rule of

thumb.

R

o

N



I

16

The iving ity

The

Do

w nunda

atisserie

r - - - - . - - -

- ----

Downunda

Patisserie

.......

. ...

Legend

1 sq. =5ft.

0

Door

0

Warded Door

EjCD

•

6

Window

-

Mirror

0::::0

Oven

ill

D

Bread Bins

j

Cooling Rack

-

Bench

10

0

01

Cake Cabinet

@

p

0

l

Y

Desk & Chair

Beds

Couch

Lounge Chair

Bsthtuh

ookcase

Linen Press

H

E

0

- -- - - - - _

--

by

Wes Nicholson

Th

e Dowllunda

Patisserie

is foun

t h ~

middle

c l U ~ f

busines

s district o

R,well:: Bluff.

nearer the upper cla

area

than

the poor (IUnrtcr.

The pro

tor is

Jemima

ChiBoim, a

middle

-a

widow whose cutiullry skill

are

fa

becoming

Ii

legend. J

cm im1:t lives

a

the sho

p

with

her

three children. D

Allison,

and KarL

Derek

and

Alliso

help out around the shop, hut Karl

old enough to be trusted wi

th

all th

sweet temptation : .

The

shup specinlizes in

/ine

cakes

nny occasion. as well as

sma

ller cu

and fresh bread. Poople go to great

cfTorl tu buy 00 1 of

e m i m a ~

chees

loaves f r e ~ h from the oven,

and

t h

e

Ilre never any len

by 9:15 in the m

ing.

Othe,' p r o d u c i

are not as popu

out

arc still gobbled

up.

,Jem ima is uffectionately known

a

Mother Hubbard " to the local pop

because her shelves

arc always bar

closing time.

There

are three sections to the sh

The front section is open to the pub

and has

IU"ge glllss

cases

where 1:1 11

day's offerings a re displayed. The b

of

the

shop is divided into

a kitchen

preparation

area,

and is

near

a stor

room

wher

e nil the inwedicnt.'1 for

ma';;

de

licacies ure kept. Th is room

protected by a glyph ofwarciing wh

friendly cleric provided in

lieu of

pa

menl for a bir thday cake for her bis

Those breaking

into

the storage roo

must save vs. spells

or

be ch armed

they were

under

u arm person sp

Ch

ar

med individuals go sll'aight to

Ravens Bluff

chief

constable and tu

themselves in for their crime. Jemi

and

Derek know the key

to

the glyp

Many

wealthy residents

of

Raven

Bluffhavtl specilll·occ

asion

cakes

pr

pared

by Jemima

rather thnn

by th

own staff,

and thi

s has provided

Jemima with

enough

money

to

sen

Karl to school. Derek and Allison

missed out on formal school ing , but

both a re wi se beyond their

ye

ars.

The only magic item in the shop i

oven, which adjusts

itse

lf

automatic

so

that every cake and every loaf co

out perfect. The oven wa s a gift. from

wizard for whom J emima expertly

R

o

N



cooked

an

an niversary t'ukc such U.i

Havens Bluff

had never

seen , and will

neve r see again. Never to cook another

ca ke like

it

Wit" part of t he rl cul for t I lt

ov

en.

Th

e following item.,

arc

in

the i

hop

C\'cry mOIni ng:

Bread

Ch

cese

loaves

(al ways gone by

(9: 1

5)

Wholcmeallnaves

Kibble loaves

Small

cukes

19p

7sp

IOsp

fruit s lice (cherry, apple, a pri cot)

is]

Cup cakes lsp

Creom pull'" :lsp

Rock cakes (especial ly (,)1' dwarves)

bp

Mini ll pl)ll

ge

(especially for elves) , "p

Large

cakes

Banana

und walnut.

(i

n season)

Orange, Chocolate

with creum

Rl ack forest

Igp

15sp

Igp

30sp

When t,he mood

takes

her, J emimll

makes a batch of something ipecial,

such a s: rock cake with

dwarf

spirit

icing (3 b'P) or sponge cllke with essence

of pine

(3 b'Pl

.

These

specillls neve r las t

on the shelvcs for

mor

e than one houl".

rn addil ion, special ord ers are ac·

cepted, t.he price

ran

ging from 10 to

whatever the

custome

r can afford .

As t he shop is frequent.ed by pL

<l

pl e

from all over

town

, J emima

gets to

he ll I

mu

ch ubout

what

is go

ing

on.

She

is n

ot

a gossip, but "he is

II

mine of

informa tio n- if

her

customer s clIn ge

t.

her to

talk.

All ruces

are

welcome in

the

Downunda

Patisscrie,

but Je m ima

and

th

e children keep a

careful

eye on

all

halfling

s who enter. Haltlings are

tr

eated politely and

are

given personal

attention for

the

entire time

th

ey

are

in

the

shop; that is

hecau

se Jemima

doesn 't

want

the halflin

gs

to become

ove rl y te

mpted

by

her

wares

and

empty

th

e shelves' contents into their pockets

when she isn't. watching.

For reMons

unknown,

Jemima

is not

very well disposed toward adventurers,

and anyone

r ecognised a s un adventurer

will bc served politely, bu t quickly, and

gotten out of

the

shop.

Jemima Chisolm

o

Level Female Hu man

STH: 12

INT:

15

WIS: 16

DEX: 2

p

o

L

cos: 13

CHR:

17

COM:

1:1 ( 16 to nwn Qve r

4(

1)

AC

Normal:

10

AC

Rear

:

10

Hit Points: 4

Alignment:

Neutral Good

Weapon Profil

:ie nc ies:

None

Special

Abiliti

es: Cooking

Languages: Common, Elv l < h, Dwnrv·

ish, HaIn ing

,rcmima is 39 y

ea

rs old,

5'

4" lall. and

weighs

l29 p

ound

s . She

has

bright blue

eyes which

are

always twinkling and

<

lrawherry bl ond h

air

th

ut i:;

go ing

slightly b'Tay, She enme to Ravens OI utT

with

her th r

ee childr

en

a few

years

ago.

1'he only item

th

ey brough t with them

was

a gem which Jemi ma

used

to

buy

th

e shop. No one knows where she ca me

from or why,

and

unyone rude en

ou

gh

to

ask

will

be boiven t.he cold shoulde r. She

docs not speak of her dea d hw;band .

Apart

from this, she is a

bright,

friendly

per:;on who has a kind word for every·

one except adv

en t

ur er ll. She is well

known in the poor quarter, which is

su rprising since poo r peopl(l cannot

anord

her

wure l . Perhaps the rumors

that s

he onen

cooks a few

extra

batches

of

cakes a nd

the

m

to

the poor

quarter

ar e

true

. Jemima loves

hcr

three chi ldren a nd will do anyth ing to

prot

ect

them fro m "undesirable types."

Derek and Allison lire

kept

as busy

po:;sible to preven\. a ny s illy notions of

running

away

to

b<.'Come udventu

r

crs.

Karl goes to schoo

l,

and

Jemima has

high hopeI

that

he will hecome a clois·

tered cleric when he is old enuugh.

Je m ima's cooking is her only other

interest in life,

an

d she keeps the family

well fed.

The childr

en

are

rationed to

three small

ca

kes a week :;

0

t h

ey

don' t.

get fat..

erek Chisolm

o Level Male Hu man

8TH:

5

lNT:

12

wrs: 13

DEX:

6

CON: 16

CHA: 13

COM: 15

AC Normal: 8

AC Rear: 10

Hit Points: 6

Alignment: Neutral Good

Weapon Proficiencies:

None

y

H E

o

Specilll abilities: None

I,unguagcs:

Common, Hu.U1ing

1

Derek is

9 year

s old, 6 '4 ta ll. a nd

wl)ighs 197 pounds. He htl:; his

mother

cyes und

jet

black

hair

. He is th e d

rl

eil

ch ild a nd has had to be

the

lIla n

of

the

hOU:;l'

sine t'

the

family a r rived in town

He

doesn't

m

in

d this respon:;ihili ty

I';i nce it

gives

him a sense o

fp

urJlosc.

I

is ha ppy with his life a mi is devotcd to

hi s mother

and

siblings. De rek spoil s

Kllrl at eve ry opportullity. He al so due

his hes t to he

ad

otT

any

u n ~ llIan

t.I'yin g to sec his kid sisier. In Derek's

eye ;. no mun is good enough for

hC

I

an

nonc

ever

will he , He is a

wa

re

of hi

s

mother's fear that he willlC'(\ve for

a

li

of adventuring, but he ha s no such

intentio

n.

Allison

Chisolm

a Level Female Human

STH: 12

INT:

17

WIS: 13

DEX: 17

CON: 12

CHA:

17

COM:

18 (20 to men under age

25

)

AC Normal:

7

AC Hear:

19

Hit Points:

3

Alignment:

C

haoti

c Good

W

eu pon proficiencies: None

Spec

ial

abilities: None

(yet)

Languages: Common, Elvish, Dwarv·

ish, Halning

Allison is 17 years old, tall, and

weighs pounds. She has bright blu

eyes and fiery red hair. Allison is s

tun

·

nin

gly beautif

ul and

she k nows it , but

she is

no

t snobbish about it . She love:;

her family,

but

craves adventure, espe

cially

wi

th

attractive

young

men. Alii·

son does not have a

mean

bone in

her

body and is friendly to everyone she

meets. It is likely she will sneak

IIWOY

and join

a

band of

young

a

dv

e

ntur

e rs,

Magic fascinates her,

but

wit h t he

"

ri

ght"

teaching,

she wou ld make an

accomplished thief. Like Derek, Allison

spoils

her younger

brother. Allison is

th

e

on

ly fa mily member who will speak

of her father, but only if no other fa mily

me mbers

ar

e present

and

s he is

sure th

story will go no further.

Arv end Ch isolm was a

mercenary

wh

got drunk once too often an d killed a

noble

by

mistake . He was executed,

and

C')1 tinued on

page n

R

o

N



18

o ou

Speak Togo

A Language for Oriental Fantasy

by Thomas Kane

Kawamiya·Josef fingered

the

one token

that

remained

of

his

l

if

e as a gajin-an

iron manacle on

hi

s wrist. He s ipped

hi

s

tea and

watched

the

two bounty

hunters

experiment with ways of sitting

on

the

goza s traw

mat s.

One

grim slave

r s

quat

·

ted like a dog;

the other

was

trying

to

stretch both legs s

traight

out and lift

his torso with hi s hands.

Kawamiya·J05crs laced mail flexed

into supple curves

as

he

bowed to

his

dsimyo.

Neither

orthe

two

Westerners

bent, although

the squatting, bearded

onc extended his hand, perhaps expect·

ing the daimyo to

shake

it. Then

he

glared at Kawamiya·Josef. "You can't

translate

for us, you son of

an

otyugh.

You 're our runaway Get someone e lse.

You'll lie ri

ght and

left

.

Kawamyia

·Joseftold his lord what the

bounty

hunters

had sa id. The copper

rin

o

truth he

wore forced him to

be

honest. He saw the daimyo's sl i

ght

nod.,

and

that

one

movement both

instructed

him

to continue translating and indi

cated

severe

di

spleasure

with

the guests.

The

bearded

slaver put his hand

s

on

his hips. "Very weH, you know what we

came for. Say: 'Jo

e-yea

h, I mean

you

is our thrall, and we

want

him back. He

rows in our ga lley.' Say: 'Have someone

else

tran

slate, and we'll

make

a deal.' "

Kawamiya·Josefpondered on ways to

tr ans

late

that.

Requests

and proposals

were difficult to express in Kozakuran

because it

was

insulting

to

demand

things directly.

Both

slave·catchers

gazed hungrily at Kaw amiya.Josef. He

waited

several

minutes

, and

then trans·

lated

th eir r

emark

s

into

the euphe·

mis

ms

and

ornate

evasions of

Oriental

tongues.

"That's

not

what

I said

Completely

different words. You little cheat. I know

w

ha

t

you're

saying . I ca n

talk

to t h

ese

squinty ·eyed people, I'

ve

been

learning

their

language,

and

when we pay

our

little

visit

to t he whipster, I'm gon

na

tell him about every single lie you

spat." Then

the

slaver spoke in a

man·

gled version of Kozakuran , using un ·

grammatical words, which could

approximately mea n, "

Kin

g. You hire

scum·slave

servant

s to

tr an s

late. Do

what I tell you. We work together,

you

p

o

L

an

d I. I grasp

your

blade in token of

friendship."

The daimyo's face remained passion·

less

as

he

avenged

the

insult. He drew

his katana,

swept

it

through

the

a

ir

a nd

sheathed it again. all in one fluid mo·

tion. A head

tumbled

to

th

e floor.

The

living

bounty hunter

scrambled

back

·

wards,

shredding

the s

traw seat

in his

frenzy. "Josef Josef, I'm not

with

him.

Joe

, old buddy, friend, you can

talk

East·talk, please, tell

that

guy we

didn't

mean it. Kawamiya-Joser smiled and

said

nothing.

GMs

of

western fantasy

c

ampaigns

onen

include

ru n

es

or

words rrom Mid·

die

English

in their worlds, so GMs of

o

riental

campaigns might use

bits

or

East ern la nguages. Authentic names

and

phrases evoke t he s pir

it

of the Ori·

ent,

and when

gajin chara

cters

visi t

oriental lands,

languages become espe·

cially important.

The tongue

described

here is a fantasy language, based on

Japanese,

but including

severa l Chinese

words

and rhetorical

customs. Some

Japanese

grammatical rules have

been

simplified, so that Occidental OMs and

players can understand easily. This also

make

s

the langua

ge

adaptab

le to

all

oriental

campaigns. OMs

can

alter th i

s

language

to

reproduce

the

language of a

specific country. For

example,

in

the

AD&D: I game world of Kara·'1\lr, KOla·

kura and

Wa

would speak pure J apa

nese, Shou Lung and '1\1 Lung would

use

Chinese,

a

nd

the universal

Trade

' bngue

would combine both. This orien ·

tal tongue

is ca lled "'Ibgo," a word

which

means "Eastern-Language."

It

can add atmosphere to Bushido, AD&D

ga

me Oriental Adventures or any

other

oriental fa

nt

asy game.

'Ibgo can be espec ially usefu l

whe

n

gaj in PCs a.re struggli ng to le

arn

an

oriental

language.

You can insert

seem·

ingly trivia l oriental words into

the

adventure,

a nd then give western PCs a

written

or

ien

ta l document to

see

how

much they

remember. Pe

rh

aps

they

could find oriental directions for using a

magic machine or a

written

description

of a cleverly trapped dungeon.

Pronunciation

Since

orientals write in pictograms,

as

opposed to a phonetic alphabet, their

y

H

E

o

words

can be hard

to

render

into

letters. Therefore, severa l rules g

oriental

pronunciation.

Most cons

sou nd

the sa

me in

oriental

tongue

in

English.

Pronounce oriental

vo

like Italian ones-the "A"

as

in "c

the

"E" as in

"bed;' the

"I"

as

in

dium," the 0

as

in

"no,

"

and th

as

in "fluke." Some letters are

"lo

and should

be

enunciated for twic

much time

as the

shorter ones.

Th

indicated

here

by

doubling the

let

Remember to prolong these

sound

stutter them. "k k"

sounds

like "c

no

"ke·ke:'

"00"

is

pronounced "o

not

"o

uu." Obviously,

long Jetters

confusingly like short ones,

but

th

distinction matters. A "jooro" is a

tering pot, but a "joroo" is a legal

titute. "Shoojo" means "young gi

but a "s hoojoo" is an ape. Finally,

tals

place equal s

tr ess

on

each

sy l

The Japanese say " YO -KO-HA-M

while

gajin

tend to mispronounce

word "yo-ko-HA·ma."

Putting Them Together

Orientals create new words by m

ing

sev

eral

older ones.

The

new w

are

simply

descriptive mixes

and

contain metaphors or

amusing

ass

tions.

The

word for

"tax" is "lei"

indicates a

"big

br

other

" with dev

horns

inspecting

the

rice crop. "'lb

which

means " to

take

, combines

"

hand"

and "ear,"

because of the a

cient

custom

where

w

arriors rippe

their

ca ptives' ears. A tr i

be

of Sou

Sea island people named

westerne

the

obscenity that their

sailo

rs con

stantly

used. OMs

ma

y

make

up w

as

minor

re

wards

for PCs - a ll cha

ters

would enjoy having their nam

favorite say ings

made

part

of

the

guage.

Newly·invented

wor

ds

may

spire

whole adventures.

\Vizards

c

hir

e

adventurers

to

investigate su

natura

l invocations. with

the

PCs

sea

rc

hing

people's

nam

es,

since

t h

indicate the

traits and

histories of

owners.

The rammar

Oriental languages employ

an

e

tirely

different

structure

from

wes

tongues, in

which

words can be us

R

o

N



many

gram matical c o n t e x ~ s Th

e same

word

ca

n serve

as

a verb, an adjective,

or a noun . An

example of

th is concept in

English

might

be fight.

You

can

fight

so

meone

or wa

tch a fight. In Tog

o,

the word

hane

can mean

win

g,

winged,

or flew.

Or

i

en tal

se n

te nces

empl

oy

same word

or

der : subject ,

object , verb . Th is can be a nother way to

confuse gaj in , who

are

used to more

freeform sentences wi

th

verbs some·

where between subject and object . If

characters phrase their

statements

car

elessly, they may

say the

e

xact

oppo·

site

of

what t hey mean .

An orie

ntal language

ca n 1

('

spoken

fiv e ways: insulting.

abrupt,

normal,

polite,

an

d very pol ite . l i t e or ie

ntal

s

demonstrate their power by

spea

king

harsh

ly to lessers. People n

or

mally use

the

po

l i

te language

for

ta

lk

ing

to

equa

ls,

and

when co nve rsing with superiors, one

must constantly fawn and avoid the

point. Most we

stern

languages are pe.

remptory a nd painfully direct when

compared to eastern tongues. When

gajin use telepa thy or spells to com

muni

·

cate

with orientals, their messages will

seem haughty a nd crude. (fwes tern

characters s

tudy

an orientallanbruage,

the GM wi ll have to decide what level of

politeness t hey learn.

Verbs

and

djectives

Orientals Ilse short endings to express

different forms

of

verbs. Dictionari

es

and word lists usually

print

verbs in

th

eir infiniti ve form,

with the

ending

u. The en ding te can he used like

th

e

i'

;nglish Other ve

rb

s

en

d with

some form of the word masu

.

Thgo ha s

no words for yes

and

no, because

th

e masu

indicates

whether a verb is

positive

or

negative,

and

what te n

se

it

is in.

These

wo

rd

s a lso

make verb

s

und

eman

ding

enough

for polite

co

nyer·

ss

t-ion

s. Masu e ndi ngs a re s hown on

the

table below.

Verb Endings Tab

le

Thnse

Present

Pa

st

Probab le

Mean i

ng

Posi tive Negative

·masu

·mashita

·

ma

sh

oo

·

ma

se n

·ma

se n deshi ta

·mase

n deshoo

The J apanese use

an extr

emely com·

plica ted set of r

ules

for a

dj

ect ives, a nd

th

ese va r iations should be ignored in

gaming.

Th

make

an

adjective ne

gat

ive,

foll ow

it

with

the

word na i. For exam·

pi

e shita

nai

, means no t alive . In

pol

ite

levels of

conversation, Orienta

ls

p

o

L

.

use

th

e prefix.adjective

0

before refer·

ring

to

an

yone e lse's

po

ssessions. This

disavows an y in te ntion to st eal the

object under discuss i

on

.

The following sentences illustrate

grammatical'lb

go.

'fuga: Ki doku ho irmasll

Literal

trans lation: Bottle poison

holds.

Common: Th is bottle holds poison.

'fugo:

00

s

hita

na i ka?

Liter al trans la tion: King

not

alive is-

it-

true?

Common : Is

th

e k ing d

ead?

'lbgo: Anata na ossharmasu ireu.

Literal translation: You name say to

enter.

Common: If you

want

to

enter,

tell

me

your

name.

'fuga: Lung mekmosen deshoo

Literal

tr aMlation:

Dra

gon watching.

might·not ·be.

Common:

Ma

y be th e dr agon isn 't

watching.

A GM c

an

use t h

ese

rul es to m

ake

gajin PCs feel

app

ropr iately foreign

during

easte

rn adventures. Even

west·

erners who s

tud

y or

iental

languag

es

may make

em barr

assing mi

st a

kes.

These rules also help a GM imitate

y

H E D

1

f

oriental speech. When

gajin

PCs m

eet

fln

orie

nt a

l who speaks Common,

the

NPC

mi.c: ht

try to force western words

into eastern formats.

Oriental Numbers

Th

e orie

ntal

version of one, two,

th r

cc, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

t

en

is ichi, ni ,

san,

shi, go, roku,

s

hi

chi , hachi, kU,juu

.

Th{> Japanese

borrowed these number : 1 00} China, b

changed shi: ' or four, to

y

on; ' becau

se

in J apanese, the word sh

i

implies

d

ea

th. One hu ndred is hyaku;' one

thou

sand is sen

;'

and

te

n

thou

sa nd is

ma

n, These numerals

can be

added

together to make other

numbers

. For

example, filteen would be juu

go.

Vocabulary

Unfortunately, many

unr

e la t

ed

ori e

nta

words sound very s imilar. Many words

ha ve two pronunciations,

one

fo r

nor

·

mal

use,

and th

e other for f

ormi

ng

larger words. For

example,

the word fo

eas

t is h

igas

h

i.

When

it

is

used

as

part

of

anot her word, it becomes to;' a

in Thkyo, which

mean

s

eastern

·

capitol

.

Th ese compound fragm e

nt

s

have

been included to hel p GMs make

up new

oriental

words.

R

o

N



20

Word

List

English

Togo Compound English

Togo

Compound

English

Togo

Com

Fragment Fragment Fra

advance/move

okuru

forbidden kin

kin

power

chikara

riki

advice kokoruzuke fore

st

mOri mod private/me/l

walashi shi

al t l l f

,h,

fricnrl

torno t.omo

profit

,; ,;

ancient

furui

ko

from

k,H I)

ram

arne

Hme

anti·

hltn

h,

frulL/result ka

ka

ra nk/grade

dal

kai

ape

.;

hoojoo

gas

kiwi

kitai

r a

ys

hikuru

arrow

,.

,.

girl s hoojo

red

aka

scki

'

kawars kawars

give· kudasaiu

reflection utsuru

,;

bumhuo takt> dai

j , w l ) c ~ u m e

inl>;sh:Jmu

r ~ p l a c e

ku\\'nru ..

burrier

Stlki

k.

gold kin

kin nee

he;

he

;

big

(IOkii

dai

or

00 good

ii

ii

rice

paddy

han

cda d;1

be j{OUlru

guard

mamoru

' ha

ddiculc

waru

guchi

beautiful

utsukUlihi

b;

hand

' '

tisc LBtSll rits

best ichiban harmonious w. wa

river kawa

kaw

between

aida ma

a r t

shin shin room Hhi tsu s

hit

bird

tori

tori

hCll

vy

omoi juu

rooL'source

hUll

hoo

blllCk kuroi

koku

hell

..

,

osshllru

blue/we en

'

'

hero

I11CIJIn

sayings

,uu ,au

bow (weapon )

hiku

;"

hoi v

sili lei

scribe

daishoya

build koo koo

hor-se

urn. b.

sheep

hilsuji

,00

burellucrllt

k

k,o

h

ot

spr ing

(>nsen

onsen si

rH

'0

AAO

ba,

kau hai

h

ousemaid

joc

huu <elf ji ji

cannibal

shokujin

inn

yudo

~ I I

'0

bat

city ward ku ku inttlrrogale kiku moo shop

mise

ten

chariot.lcart kuruma sha islund lihimu

'

limull chiiliui

ko

chiefllong nagai

,hoo

jewel hooseki hooseki

smart

rikoo

child

ko

ko

kinlol

00

00 smoke eo

<I

~ j i n l

hei

JUllguage

go

snow yuki yuk

color/erotic

,

eo

iro

'ow

, a

SUIl society shakui shak

concentrate chuu i ch uu i

likellove

lIuku

ii

south its

contains hairu nyu lil

D/c

ncrg-y kat.:>u kal.Su lpeciul

toku

loku

cooperate

kyooryoku

k,o lightning deo

d,n

spir it ki

k;

<ow

IIshi gyuu

learn

na

rau Ilhuu

sture irome

I;owardly

shoshin lcgit_mate tadarlhii rei start.ling k,o

I;remarorium yakiba

mUKlc

hoka gai

stone

ishi

)cki

crossroads iku koo mun owko dan stop to>narll shi

dangerous nbunfli

k;

lIleMlUre hlJkaru kef struggle

urasou

'00

death

shi

shi

meat

niku

n

iku

sty

le

shiki shik

deity

kami

s

hin

m(...,t ing

kai kai

sun

hi

nich

disguise

,hu

,ha merchant

,.

,U

tale/opinion

~ ' u

sets

du

na

saru mercury suigi n

tolk hanusu

wa

doctur

;

middle

nak

n naka

teeth

h.

m

d,. inu inu

military

gun ...

,'Un*· temple

terti

ji

d"",

mind/psyc

he

; ;

time

jikan

down/hclow shila

.'

muon

t

;u

ki galsu (ichi-jikan

means

1:00, etc.)

dragon lung mother oknsan

town

murn

rink

nomu

;n

mountnin

yama

n

tree

k;

mok

dru

g k u ~ u r i

k u ~ u r i

m o u ~ h

/ o p e

ku chi koo trust

shin

shin

dual Micide

::;hinjull

mUll lC ougll.ku

onga

ku

up/above

'

jo

'

mimi

name

no

mei valley

tan i

ta nt

earth

tsuchi to nation kuni koku vault kinko

east

higashi

to

nenr chikai

kin

volcano kazan

eldest girl choojo neutral chullrilsu

warrior

gurU

in

eldest tlOn c

hoonan

"Ow atarlls

hi shin

water

mizu sui

cmerlo(ency

itlOl-:u

kyuu north kita hoku water

pot jooro

end/winter

owari owari

no'

hana

hana

west

nishi

,00

enter

ireu nyu ocean

,00

,00

white

shiroi haku

e\'ery

mai man

offmy

uo

wings

hane hane

evil

warui

aku

oil abllra

,U

with/attach tsuku

ts

uk

e x i ~ t

niku o,..n

akeru kai wom an onna

jo

exit

deguchi

out )ide

gai yo

u anata

'

m, m,

pa lace o-miya gu

fast

hayai

p r ~ o n

hito jin

fire

kaji

k,

pig

bula

to n

fish sakana sakana

plate

/dish t

k;

ki

nood

oomizu

plea

sure ta noshii

tanoshii

flower hana hana

poem

/s

pell

sh

i

shl

food/eat tahero

shoku

poison

doku

doku

fooVleg

ashi ashi

posseS8

,u

,u

p

0

L

Y H E

0

R

0

N



2

• This can also

be used

as a gene ra l Roll Name Roll

Name

Oomiya Big

Shrin

e

comm

and·verb

, meaning do what I

just

29 Hu 65

Ping

Oota-ku Lord

Data's

ward

said . When you request something 30

H

uang

66

Po

Ootaini

Big Valley

from a superior, it is pol ite to begin the 31 Hung 67 Pu Sanmon Mountain Gate (temple)

sentence

with

dooz

o,

which

means

32

Jang

68

Shang

Shinagawa Things-River

please.

33 Jen

69

Shaqui Shimoda Lower F ield

*' No

pun

intended. Thi s

has

no rela-

34

JUng

70

Shek

Shimojima Lower Island

tionship

to

firearms. 35 Ka i 71 Shih Shirokiya

White

Tree

Shop

t Th is word is often used in the names

36

Kong

72

Sui Taishoo Great Righteousness

of weapons . 37

Ku 73

Sun Takamatsu

High Pine

t t

This suffix is

roughly

equivalent to

38

Kuang 74 Sung Yamaichi First Mountain

the

Spani sh senor:' in that one uses it

39 Lan 75

Ssu

·ma

Yoyogi

Many

Generations

of

to indicate respect for anyone, not

ju

st a

40 Lao 76 Thi Trees

superior. Polite

orientals

faste n

the 41

Lien 77 Tung

Yuurakuchoo

Have-Pleasurc-'Ibwn

word

sa

n to any personal name or

42 Liang 78 Tho

Natural Features

profession.

A

scr ibe s hould be called 43

Lin

g 79

Thieu

Oaiyama Big Mountain

daishoya-san, and

Mr.

Oki is ad·

44

Lin

80

Ti

Yamanaka Amidst

the

Mountains

dressed Oki-sn n.

Orientals

ind icate

45

Liu 81 Tien

(a lakel

complete devotion by eliminating san

46

10

82

Too

Yamamoto Original Mountain

and pl acing the word sa rn a before a 47

Lu

83

T, u

name

. For

example

, n

deity

is called

48

Lung

84

Tsung

Japanese

amily

Names

sama-karoi:'

49 Ma 85

Tu

Akiyama Autumn

Mountain

50 Manchu

86

Tuan

Furukawa Old River

Chinese Names

51

Mao

87

Tung

Furuta Old Field

Most

garner

s have an in satiable need

52 Maspero 88 Thu

Hayashi

Wood,

53

Mei

89

Wang

Ishida Stone Fie

ld

fo r names. People, places, items ,

and

54

Meng

9

Wei

Is

hikawa

Sto

ne·River

t im es need titles, and

in

a proper o

rien

·

55 Min 91

Wen

Kawakami Upper R

iver

tal world, th is requ ir

ement

increases

56

Ming

92 Wu

Kimura Tree Vi lla

ge

manyfold. Oriental peopl e can have

57 Mu

93

Xian

Koizumi Small Spring

doze ns of names, indicating family,

58 Nai

94 Yao

Komori

Little Fore

st

rank, political

alliance,

occupation,

59

Nao

95 Yen

Kuroda Black Field

religion,

and

even status

as

alive or

6 Nieh

96

Ying

Miyakawa

Shrine River

dead. This leads shameful numbers of

61 Nien

97

Yu

Miyamoto Shrine Origin

role·players

to strin

ging

random

sylla·

62 Quiang

98

Yung

Miyashita

Below the Shrine

bles together in imitation of oriental

63

Pan

99

Vuan

Motomura

Original Village

words,

and prompted

DRAGON

Mags·

64

Pang

100

Zhen

Mori

Forest

zine to publish a list of Japanese na mes

Moriy

ama

Forest

Mountain

titled

Wuddya M

ean,

'J

ac

k Th e Sa mu-

The followin g table lists titl

es of

Nakamura Middle Village

rai,' ' '

by Barbara

C

urti

s, in issue '121.

places, dynasties, and legendary ka ·

Ogawa

Small Rivel'

However, m

any

oriental fantasies

are

tanas.

These name

s cannot be deter·

Oobayashi Big Woods

ba

sed on Chinn,

and

Chinese names

mined

randomly s

inc

e most of them

Ooizumi Big Spring

sound quite different fro m Ja pancse

have

a definite meaning which de-

Ookawa

Big River

ones. A table

of

com mon C

hin

ese names

is below. Each character will have

two

scribes

the

object or person

named.

Ooki Big

Tree

of

these,

the

family name (which comes

Name Meaning

Oomori Big Forest

Shim ou

ra

Lower VjJlage

first) and a personal one .

Cities, Places

Shorik i

Righteous Po

wer

Chinese Names (Roll d%)

Asahi

Morning

Su

n

Thchikaway Rising River

Chiyoda Field of One Thousand

Tamura Paddy Village

Roll Name Roll Nam e

Generations

Thramoto

Thmple Origin

1

Bang

15

Feng

Chome

White Eyes (city ward)

Thda Door to the

Paddy

2

Biao

16

Fu

Chuuoo·ku

Lord Choouu's

ward

'Ibyama

Door to

the

Mountai n

3

Chang

17 Fung

D

aito

Big

Paddy

Ueda U

pper

Field

4

C

hao 18 Keng

Kochi Lotl.y Wisdom

Yamadera Mountain

Tem

ple

5

Chen

19

Han

Komatsu

Small Pine

Yamakawa

Mountain

Stream

6

Che ng

20

Hang

Kyo Capitol

Vamashita Below

the Mountain

7

Chi 21 Hao

Matsuda Pinetrec Paddy

Swords

8 Chich 22

Hean

Matsumoto Pine Origin

9

Ching

23 Heng

Ma

tsumura

Pine

Village

Arne Lung

Rain

Dragon

10 Chiu

24

Ho

Matsushita Below

the

Pine

Kan

11

Chou 25

Hsi

Matsuzakaya Pine Hill Shop

Chiang' Male Bla de

12 Chu 26 Hsiang

Meguro Black Eye

Kiden Lightning Vessel

13

Chuan

27

Hslu

Nlkkoo

Sunshine

Mo

Yeh*

Female

Blade

14

Fei 28 Hsun

Ninomiya

Second Shrine

'

Indicates a Chinese name .

D

p

0

L

Y

H

E

D

R

0

N



22

The

New

ogues allery

Sandor the Smasher King

of

Shalimar

by

Skip Olsen and

lonnie

atney

Sandor The Smasher

th

level Male Dwarf Fighter

STR: I sn

INT: 16

WI S: 17 (magically raised)

DEX: 17

CON

: 18

eHA: 6 (magically raised)

CO

M;

AC

Norma l: -4

AC Rear: 1

Hit Points: 89

Alignment

: Lawful Good

Age: 146

Wea pon Profic

ienci

es: Dagg

er

, Axe,

Hammer, Broad Sword

Sp ecial Abilities:

Blind

-fighting, En

dur

a nce, Survival, Tracking, Mountain

eering

Magic

It

ems: H

olJOC, the mystical

war

hammer ',

helm of

alignmen t detection ',

g irdle of nvisibility, boots

of

speed,

scarab of de fen

se ',

tran sparent plate

armor·

New i

tem

Languages:

Co

mmon, Dw arvish, El

vish, Halfling , Gnomish, Goblin

Sando

r is a proud king , s tanding 4 '3

ta ll

and

we ighing 135 pounds. Unlike

others of

hi

s race , he keeps his gray

s

teaked

bl

ack beard

tr immed short.

However, he wear > hi.<;jcl blnck

hair

long. His piercing black eyes

and

scarred,

ru

dy complexion attest to hi s

rough, warrior's life. He has one notabl e

scar runn ing from the top of

hi

s head,

down his front to h is navel and down

his back to his

waist.

He received th is

when

he

was

cleaved by

a

grea

t sword

head to wa ist for a cr ime

he

did not

commit. Sandor was subsequently

ra ised by a mysterious de ity who

watches

over him. Sa nd or asked

the

de i

ty

to leave the sc

ar

,

as

it reminds

The Smash

er

of his unending fight for

justice.

The Smash

er

was horn Sandor

Breakenrock in

the settlement

of Deep·

mine in the Iron Mountains a nd soon

became known fo r his

strengt

h and

stamina. He spe

nt

long hours in the

p

o

L

mines, br

eaking

rocks and are with his

sledgehammer;

he produced four

tim

es

as

much

as

any of his co ·workers.

His

young

life cha nged whe n a

band

of orcs

bu

r ned his village and killed

the

women an d ch ildren wh ile the men

were

worki ng the mines.

Hi

s rage was

unstopp

ab

le, and thunder and lightning

danced

across th e sky

as he

tracked

down

the

orcs. Orc bodies crumpled

beneath his sledge

hammer

. So

great

was his destruction, t hat the orcs fled

fearing to ;tanti agai nst him. '

Still in shoc k and rage , Sa ndor

re

turned to the

min

es

And

co

nt inue

d

to

smash r

ocks

fo r three dnv s without rest

He finally o l l f l p from exhaust ion, .

and when he rlltUl'ncd

to Deepmine

he

saw the graves of his

pa r

ents and

s iblings.

During the next several years Sandor

wandered in

the

wildernes

s.

eventually

meeting a stranger who directed h im to

th

e keep of Eltan the

ran

ger lo

rd

, a

human who trained people to be

war.

ri ors.

Sa

ndor's tuition had been myster

i.

ously

paid

for.

However, Sandor's sword ski lls

were

far from exceptiona l, and he

was

some.

time

s "

punished

by

being

assigned

to

break roc ks in

th

e courtyard. He took to

h is punishment with rel ish. After

one

such

punishment session , and

as

he had

neared

the end of his training ,

Sa

ndor

was

summoned to Elton's chamber,

where the ranger presented

him with

an unusua

l gift.

" I took

you

in to my academy

on

ly

because

your

mysterious benefactor

he lped

me

once long ago,"

the

ranger

said.

"He left th is for me to give to you

when

you were

ready

for your destiny.

My hea

rt

tells me now is the time."

Sandor was overcome with awe when

he

saw

th

e W('spon, I huge war hammer

wi t h a lightning bolt engraved on its

head

. Through

the

next severa l months

he learned all the properties of the

hammer and that his " m

ysterious

bene

factor

was

an

unk

n

own

deity.

The dwarfs adventur

es

have bee n

numerous

and

led him to becoming king

of Sh

alimar

and a known scourge

to

all

evil . The Thorinson Clan of Ye

tam

(see

i

ssue 127)

are some

of his many

su bjects.

y

H

E

o

New Magic

It

ems

Havoc, Ihe Mystical

Wa

r

Hamm

e

unknown deity forged

Ha

voc tho

of years ago. The

hammer

was be

to have been

ca rr ied by a deity, w

been wlltching ove r

Sandor.

Havoc is Lawfu l Good, h as a co

ego of 30, a nd

commu

n

icates

te le

cally with its wielder.

Havoc is a +3 weapon; +4 vs. e

+5 vs. giant s. Havoc's

blows

de li

13 O d

lO

+;j); 5-16 (ldl2 +4) vs. e

23

(Jd6

+5)

vs. giants

If Havoc's wielder has

an

18 or

strengt

h , he can

hurl

Havoc up to

feet. Havoc returns

to

the

wielder

hand

whether

it st r

ikes

the

targe

Strength bonuses for dama

ge

a pp

whether

Havoc is

used as

a me lee

weapon or hur led.

When the wielder

cries

" Havoc

battle, a clap of thunder s pl

its

the

ens

and

all enemies within 100 f

e

the

wi elder must save vs. spells o

come una ble to at tock during

the

ing round. Enemies

who fail their

automatically lose in iti ativ e an d f

with - 2 uti;u:k 1'011

an

d

da

mage p

tie

s for

the

following t h

ree roun

ds

Any ev il cr

ea

tu re touching H

avo

suffers

8-64 (&18)

poin ts of damag

automatically fl

ees (jflt

survives)

IdlO

minutes.

All other be ings who touch Havo

without

the

wie lder 's perm ission s

3-24

(3d8) points of

damage

.

Havoc can detect euil co

ntinuousl

~ s t

a lightning

bolt

once per

day

, t

times per week , for 3-18 poin ts of

age; cu.re serious

wounds

once

per

d

thre

e t imes per week;

commune

wi

Sandor's unkno

wn gu ardian

deity

per month (nine questions).

Helm

of

Alignment DeteClion;

This

allows

the

wearer to to cast a know

alignment

spell at will , o

nc

e per tur

Scarab

of

Defense: This item

improv

the

weare

r 's armor cl

ass

one place.

These items

work in conjuction wit

protective items except ea ch ot her.

Transparent Plate Armor: Sa ndor's

un kn own dei

ty

gave him this

armor

The suit

is non ·magical and gives

th

wearer a base arm or class of O.

R

o

N



2

UUU

[ D \ V D [ ] l J ~ m D m ~

The Databa

se

Is

Your

Friend-heh

heh heh

by

Roger

E Moore

When t he

Traveller game

was released

by GDW

more than

10 ye

ars

ago,

it

gave me my first taste of the universe of

science·fi ction role-pl

aying

ga mes. Since

then , many suc h games have appe

ared,

each with its own style a nd flavor; bu t

t he majority

of

them are cut from

the

sa

me cloth-

space opera. Starships

drive into

the

endless

galactic

night.

Inte

r

st e

llar

em p

ires

spa

n t housands of

differe nt worlds. Alie n jungl

es

t

ea

m

wit

h

monstrous

and

hostile

life.

De

s

per

.

ate

men and women

stake

their for

tune

s

an

d lives on

th

eir

la se

r weapons

a nd wits. It 's the glorious , terrifying,

awe-inspi ring

futufe of

humanity.

But I discovered a basic fact about awe·

inspiring futures: they are compli

cated

.

It

took a lot of work to

brin

g t

he

galaxy

to life. It he lped. to have player s who

were fans of TV shows l ike Star Trek

and of movies like A lien and

Star

Wars.

These players

had

an easier t ime accep

t..-

ing the campaign as believable. But the

burden still fell on me, the game

ma

ste r,

to make th e campa ign wo

rk

.

This article

a nd those

th

at follow in

this co lumn , "The Livi ng Galax

y,

are

for everyone who is involved

in or

is

thinking of starting a science fiction

role·playing game

ca

mpa ig n.

Plain Talk

About

Data

Fantasy scenarios rarely in volve any

so

rt of

detective work or library re

search , except for

an

occasiona l visit to

the local sage. Only as PCs e

nt

er

th

e

high-tech cultures of

th

e

20 t

h Century

and beyond does research become im ·

po rtant

in game adventures.

If

you

don't do

your

homework in Cha08ium's

Call

ofC

thulhll

game,

t he M

i-

Go wi ll

have

you

and your

friends as a light

lunch.

Gs n

gsters mow down the un in

formed

in

TSR's GANGBUSTERS

ga me, and corporate

assassi

ns

termi

·

nate the careless

in

R. Talsorian's Cy

berpunk game. With

high techno

logy

com

es

a desperate need to know

the

facts, a nd you won

t

h

ave

a

detect lie

co

mmune

or

legend lore

spe ll avai lable

to you when you vis it ei ther Miskatonic

University, the Chicago Public Library,

or the Net . At

leas

t one PC is needed on

p

o

L

each t

ea

m who enjoys

the

smell of

Ii·

brary air

or

is

ade

pt at hacking into

data bases.

As the size

of

t he ro le-playing uni

verse expands, the

amount of

potential

information on that un iverse also

grows. In science fiction role-playing

games,

the

ability of

the

cultures in

vo lved to store an d ret rieve da ta is

assum

ed

to be a lmost unlimi

te

d . Data

isn ' t just useful t's everything. In the ·

ory, player characters in such campa·

ings should

have

the entire

su

m of

human a nd alien knowledge at th eir

fingertips, all

st

ored i

nside

t he n

eares

t

user-friendly

compute

r termina

l.

It

doesn't mutter

if the

PCs ar c

mutant

squ irrels in TSR's GA

MM

A WORLD

: )

ga me, modern-day monst er hunters in

Chaos

iu

m's Call ofCthulhu game , or

interstellar adventurers in GDW's Me-

gatraueLler

ga me.

Th ere is a lmost no way to d uplicate

th is sum of knowledge in ga me te rm

s.

Peopl e today talk about wall-to-wa ll

data

when descr ibi ng

the

probl

ems

of

dealing with more in for

ma

tion than

they want or need . How can a GM so

rt

through t he staggering

ma

ss of knowl

edge

ava

il

able

to P

Cs

in

theo

ry a nd

select the bita that they

absolute

ly need

to know, and make it all rea listic?

Imag ine, for examp le,

th

e problems

facing t he GM of a sh ipload of

star

far ing adventurers hot on the tr ail of

the

Lost Stars

hip

of th e Kojak

Nebula

.

The PCs

eagerly

lean over th e shoul der s

of

the

ir

c

omputer

wiz as he searches by

modem

fo

r more in

fo rmati

on.

"

I'm

trying t he following keywords "

ye lls

th

e computer wiz's player. " I

'm

trying : STARSHlp KOJ K NEBULA

L

OST

ST RSH1PS NEBULA and

BIG

TRE SURES

.

" Uhhh . . . s

ays the

GM, who made

up

th

e advent ure on the spu r of th e

mo

ment,

and now must decide how

much information to give out. How ca n

he make the adventure work now?

Limits

On

The Infinite

Before starting a science fiction sce

na r io,

th

e GM must decide what li

mits

ex i

st

on information ·gather ing in his

particular

campaign. Fortunate l

y,

some

basic limits already exist in

the

rea l

world, an d th

ese

adapt rea dily:

y

H E D

1. The more

in f

orm

atio

n that's avai la

ble to

the

PCs, the ha

rd

er

it

will be to

find the part of it

that they

need.

2. The more obscure the information

being sought, t he harder

it

will be to

find it anywh

er e

.

3. Th e more im

portan

t a piece of info

mation is, the harder it is t o find it.

(Thi s is one

oft

he many

versions of

Murphy's Law.)

4. If a particular piece of informat ion

is especia lly important to the PCs, b

ut

is on a sensit ive topic, som

eon

e may

have

elim inated

or

sabotaged m

any

databases'

references

to

that

particular

topic. Deli ber ate ly created false infor

mat

ion ("misin formation )exists and

for ma ny reasons , not

th

e l

east

of whic

are

nationa l

or

corporate security,

greed, crimina l inte nt,

and

p

aran

oia.

5. No matter how up.ta-d a te a data·

ba se is, it is always

ou

t

of

da te. If a

world does

not

ha ve

in

s tantaneous

trav

e l or comm

unication with the

res t

of

the galaxy, the particular da t

abases

found on thu t world will be rel

at

ively

complete ollly

co

n

cerning

t hat world.

GOW's Traveller game often

pl

ayed up

on this ou tdated-d

ata

th em e in its ad

ven

tu

r es. ("But

th

e

co

mput

er

said this

world didn't HAVE nuclear weapons

yet How can

it

use

th

em

aga

in st us?")

6. Incorrect data exi sts in euery data

base. Hu mans and

alien

s create li

braries

and

program computers,

and

to

err is

not

only hu man, it is unavoidable

7. Some data is si

mp

ly not ava ila ble

on

any co

mputer

syste

m or

in any

l i ·

brary fil es. This

in formatio

n , of course,

is almost always the most critica l infor

mation in

th

e

adventure.

It is the " big

secret " tha t the PCs are go in g to find

out at the end

of

their qu

es

t , and this

knowledge may well destroy the PCs if

t hey aren't careful. T

his

da ta isn't in

the files because no one knows about it

ye t (and GMs don't want to spoil

the

surp rise).

Th ink a bout these proble ms when you

are designing your scenario. You don ' t

want to totally frustrate th e players as

ifthey were play ing

in

an a l

te

rn ate

ver

sion

of

West End Games'

Paranoia

game, being driven to dis traction by

The Co

mpu

ter at every t urn . But you d

want to keep a r

ea

listic grip

on

how

much

u

seful data the PCs get at each

step of

the

game.

R

o

N



24

Information retrieva l is best don e by

keyword searches , the way you

flip

through an encyclopedia or

dictionar

y.

GDW's Traveller ga me

made

good use of

this conce

pt

by ha vin g gam e booklets

entirely

devoted to

computer

-

librar

y

references on subjects that might be

interes ting to adventurers (legends ,

unusual

planet

s,

al i

e n r

aces

, Imperial

history, va luable cargoes, etc .). As

eac

h

bit

of

da

ta was

called up ,

th

e GM would

hand

a sli p

of

pa

per

to the computer-

user wit

h

whatever d

ata

he was able

to

find

printed

thereon : very neat, simple,

and

clean .

Finding t he righ t keyword is tr icky,

th ough . Take th e PCs l

ooking

for the

Lo

st Sta r

shi

p of

the

Ko

jak

Nebula.

The

keywords STARSH P nd NE

BUL

will

produce

nothing usefu l to the PCs;

it '

s like look

ing

up

KANSAS

in an

encyclopedia

to

find the s

treet address

of a fr iend in Thpeka. BIG

TREASURES is al most ce

rtainl

y use

less. LOST STARSHIPS looks good, but

the database might bu ry the da ta

among u l isti ng of

hundr

eds of

other

ships lost in s

pa

ce

over

t he centuries.

The

people

who

put

th

e s

hipboard

com

pu

te

r 's

database toge

the r may not have

thoug

ht

t h

at

the Lo st

St a

rsh ip of the

Ko

jak

Nebu la was

even

important

enough to be worthy of

mention

(it

wasn 't very big, after a l

l)

, a nd nothing

at all may av ailable on it. KOJAK

NEBULA might be a good reference,

though

again

it

is h

ar

d

to

s

ay if

you will

find

that

lost

starship

in

that

one

sec

tion; it's like

huntin

g for a

de t

ai led

desc ription of

th

e wreck of

the R.M.

S

Titanic by looking under ICEBERGS or

NORTH ATLANTIC. The PCs might

ha ve

to

s

tart

checking computer

da ta

bases on

ev

ery planet t hey find , or even

(groan) trudge

over

to some local lib

rary

and ac tua lly look at a book.

Ib succeed in a da tabase search in a

science fiction game , the players mu st

be clever and able to second

·g

uess the

GM. The sh ip's computer da

taba

se

might not h

ave

much on the Lost S

tar

ship

of

the

K

oja

k

Nebula,

but if

you

went to the Kojak Nebula and looked

for

LOST

STARSHIPS references on

worlds in t h

at

r

eg

ion , you might fin d

somethi ng useful.

Pfio r

Proper

Planning

All this po ints up an impo

rtant

ru le in

d

ealing

with

the

Ga lactic Information

Explosion:

Plan

ahead_

Set

up the

elemen

ts to yo

ur

adventure before th e

PCs climb aboard

the

ir

stars

hip-

in

p

o

L

fact , long before t he

players

even reach

your home

fo

r

the

eve

ning's

game.

The sear

ch

for

informati

on can , in a

good adventure , power

the

players and

keep

th

em interes ted in

the

quest. Look

at

two

good

exa

mpl

es

of

adven

tu r

e

staging th

a t

ar

e closely tied

to informa·

tion re trieval : the old Traveller ga me

adventu re, Twilight s Peak, and the Call

ofCthulhu. module, Shadows of Yog

Sothoth. In each adventu

re

, the P

Cs

start with

littl

e clue as to t he adven

tu

r e's big secret. In

th

e

fo

r mer, the se·

cret is the location of an a lien base

hundreds of thous

and

s of years old ,

filled with items of inc redib le power

(there 's a

catc

h or two,

of

course). In th e

la

tt

er,

th

e s

ecret

is a

pl

ot to cause

Cthulhu's island to r ise and tu rn its

best

-

known

i

nhabit

a

nt

loose upon

th

e

world .

Do

t

he

PCs

st a

rt

out

knowing

everything they need to know?

Of

cour

se not.

The

y s

tart

with a mino r clue

that reveals a little about the main

secr

et

and

leads

to

ano

ther clue loca

ted

elsewhere , which tells a little more a nd

l

eads to yet

a nother

clu

e .

On e game designer described th is

pr

ocess

as

simi l

ar to peeling

an onion,

with layer upon layer of mystery

be

ing

slowly pull ed away to

reveal

t he

fi

na l

secret. In the Traveller module,

PCs

ca n

check differ

ent

library keywords to put

together

the

pieces of t he pu

zz

le th

at

will allow them to find the legendary

Twilight's Peak .

Each

pi

ece

of

in

fo

r

matio

n t

ha

t

the

PCs find

lead

s to its own mini

adventure in a well

-s ta

ged adventure

plot. Sometimes

the

PCs m

ay

reach a

dead end or red her ring in

their sea

rch

for

in f

orm ation . Sometimes they

di

s·

cover traps within

th

e in

fo

r ma tion

itself, set by t hose who

want

no one to

un cover

the

final

bi

g sec

re t

. But th ere

should always be a cha nce for th e PCs

to find what they need to know to fini sh

the adventure and m

eet

the big secret

face to face- and maybe get blown to

bits

by it.

B

ut th a t's what adventu r

es

are all abou t, right?)

The Sceptre of Zonos

Here's an example of an adventure

plot se t up for use with science

fi

ction

c

am

paigns

that

use space travel a nd

multiple

inhabited worlds. Each part of

t he advent ure is reac hed only by locat

ing

and

eva lua ting the data available,

then

fo

llowing up to see where ever

y

th ing comes out. I make no claims to

or igi na lity or brillia nce for th is adve n·

tu re,

but

you should get the basic idea

y

H

E o

on

u

si

ng

data ret

r ieval in

an adve

staging by looking it ove r. Al so

no

how

the

info rm

atio

n

that

t

he

P

Cs

at

eac h

ste

p of

the

w

ay

is

lim

it ed.

piece should

whet th

e pl

aye

r s' app

for

mor

e

data and

dr

ive

t

hem

forw

This

adventu r

e begin s

t

a comp

console on a st ars hip some wh ere b

tween worlds. Bored with r

outine

du t

y, a

computer·wise PC is sk imm

the

co

mputer

data

base

in

se a

rch o

ancient

legends and m

yste

ries

pa rt i

cularly

profitable o

nes

,

as

t h

ship 's maintenance bills

ar

e

ea

tin

everyone's s

al a

ry :

Fo llowing the discovery

of

pr eh

toric r uin s on Danfi rt h V II, a n a

chaeological team un

ea

rthed an

extraordin

ar

y nu mbe r

of

artifact

from

th

e

great

unde r

grou

nd

cham

bers there ,

among

the m the Sce

p

of Zo no

s,

which was kep t a t the

S

Museum at Zonas un til t disa p.

pear

ed during

a revolut

io

n.

Th

e

Sceptre

was

one of

th

e

IIne

st exa

ples of craft

sm a

nship known from

th e

ra

ce now called t he Nova Fo l

its reported value w

as

in the mil

of credi t

s.

Seve

ra

l legends were

a

tached to the Sceptre, chief am

on

th

e m

being that

the

Sce

ptre was

haunted by the s pirits

of

th e Nov

Folk . Little information

rem

a ins

the Sceptr e , as the revolu t ion

pro

duced consid

erabl

e c

hao

s.

A bett

k nown

exa

mple of m

yt

h

ma

king

a

prehistoric artifacts is t he

Infini

Eng ine of Birkoffs W

orld

, which

reported to be hau n ted by dead i

stellar ent ities th at were suck ed

i

ts

electroma

gne

tic hydr ogen sco

and d

es t

royed

fo

r fuel

The

Infi

nite En

gine is

merel

y a d

end

in

th e

ma

in adventure, being

a ncient ramscoop

starship

that

ha

thoroughly explored;

it

is now a to

at tractio

n on a minor wo

rl d

.

Th

e

ghosts in

the

engine

are

merely

ries spread by loca ls for the sake o

attracti

ng mo

re touri

sts.

Th e real adventure lies w ith the

tre

of

Zo

no

s. Th

e PC decides

to inv

gate before

tellin

g a nyone about it

punche

s in

th

e keywords

SCEPT

R

KONOS, KONOS, OANF RTH VI

NOVA FOLK.

Th

e GM c

orr

ectly a

n

pa ted all

of

the se keywords and ha

li

ttle

slips of

pape

r to

the pl

ayer, g

prev iously prepared bi

ts

of informa

on

th

e world of D

anfirth

V II ,

the

S

tr e

, a nd the now ·ex.t i

nct

No va Folk

R

o

N



died out

during

a

war in

which they

ca used

the

suns of their colony worlds to

nare

up a nd roast all inhabita n

ts

in

each system; only the

ir

homeworld

and

Danf

orth VU escHped).

Zonos

turns

out to be

the

only city of

any importance on Danfirth VII,

built

inlo t

he

very chambers once hollowed

out by

the

Nova Folk. The rest of

the

Eart

h·sized ice wor ld is uninh

ab

ited,

t hough robot mines a re everywhere.

'rho Scept re wag

last

see n in

the

Mu

seum of Zonoli , so

the

quest for the Scep

tre

should continue

there

.

The PC shares t his information with

his crewmatcs, who a ll decide to m

ake

their way to Danfirth VII and look for

the

Sce

pt r

e. One clever

PC

checks

the

computer databalle to Bee what sorts of

im

pOl·t. i

Dunfirth

VII

has

, so

the

PCs

can t

urn

a profit as merc h

ants

on thei r

way to t

he

adv en

ture

( I'll

try ·

F TH VlIIIMPORTS

).

Tho GM had

not

thought

of

an

answer to th is before·

ha

nd

,

but he

is ab le to improvise

after

a

quick glance at his more extensive

notes on

that wo

rld ( I

ndust

r

ia

l

minin

g

equipment, vitamin su pplements,

and

basic

machin

e

parts

for

stars

hip e ngin

es

are al

ways

needed.

.

The PCs eventually arrive at Danfirth

VII,

the la r

gest moon of a giant planet

p

o

l

s

imilar

to Jupiter. There

the

PCs sell

their cargo of vitamins and starship

widgets, then explore

the

city of Zonas.

The computer

at

the Museum ofZonos

has

more information on the Sceptre,

and the PCs lea

rn

of t he circumstances

surrounding its finding and disappear.

ance (though, odd l

y,

there are no

ru

mors

nbout the Sceptre being h

au

nted). Tho

Sceptre was isolated from the rest of the

museum's works for some reason, and

after a time was

taken

off display ; no

reason for thi s appears in

the

database.

The Sceptre vanished

just

hours before

the

mUflCum ifAclf was taken over by

revolutionary

Ruu

rd

s.

Little real damage

was done to the museum and its dis

plays,

as the

guards were fanatic nation

Al ists who wanted to prelerve

the

site

(

their

dc:scendants now run t he

mu

·

seum).

Th

e museum's former curator a nd

his staff also diSflppeared before the

guards arrived, and

it

j , c l j e v ~ d they

fled

the

city with the Scept re.

The PCs

are

l

earn

in

g a lot. U

nfortu

·

nat ely, t he computer

at the

mus

eu

m is

programmed

to note

whether anyo

ne

accesses its files on the &Cplre.

The

compu

ter

t hen releases a specia l m

es

sage

to t he museum's directors, a small

but

radical group

that

would like to

recover

the

Scep

tr

e for reasons of pres·

y

H

E

D

2

tige. This group

sen

ds

an agent

or two

to follow

the

PCs just in

case

t hey com

up with something. Foll

owing

people

like

this

is a common practice of t his

group,

as

the

PCs

are

not

th

o first

to

hunt for

the

Sceptre. The radical grou

has left

the

particulars of

the

Sceptre's

dillappenrance unchanged in

the

muse

um's computers to aid

nthers

in locati n

it

. How

eve

r,

the

gro up 's com

puter

ex

perts have carefully edited out refer·

ences to

the

Scep

tre being

h

aunted, as

th is be li

ef

is hardly a

pleasa

nt one.

If

a computer-

li t

e

ra t

e

PC tie

s i

nt

o a

non·Mulleum

database

and looks

up

ol

obscure news

arti

cles from

the

time of

the revolution ,

he

finds out something

else: The curator who

va

ni shed when

the

Sceptre did was co n

sidered st

r

ange

l

or

belief

that

the

Sce

ptre

was

haunt.ed. Most legends

and rum

ors

about

the Sceptre

originated

from

the

curator s

beliefs, which

became

s

trong

over time.

He co

nfided h is beliefs to hi

family a nd closest friends, who told

about his crazy ideas in t h

eir

memoirs

The

curator

eventually took the Sceptr

off public display, which

angered

many

local res idents, as

the Sceptre

was a

very pop

ular

attraction . Then came

the

revolution, and mention of

the

Sceptre

s lowly faded from

the

news.

R

o

N



26

Where do

the

PCs go next? A sea rch of

the local starport's database mig

ht

be in

order f

or

records

of

ship arrivals and

departures during t he revolution . H

ow

ever, the records from

that

time

are

in

complete and worthless,

The information search broadens.

and

a streetwise

P

locates a retirem ent

home

for

union employees of the star

port. Posing

as

a

galactic historian, the

PC finally finds someone who remem

bers seeing the museum curator and his

co-work ers

at

the starport on th e eve of

the revolution (t he PC has photos of the

museum personnel from computer files).

The old woman was a dock supervisor.

The curator, she ~ a y s was quite mad; he

clutched a ci()th,wl'upped

bund

le and

gave orders to his s taff as ifhe fcared

for his life, but he often spoke gibberish.

S

he assumed the stress of the

d

ay's

eve

nts had worn on the

ma

n. The mu ·

seum st aff boarded the ship, and it took

ofT.

Th at is all she know

s.

I f the PC is especia

.ll

y char isma tic the

old woman then confides in him .

She

ba s been ques tioned by th e direct

or

s.

whom she des

pi

ses. and has never told

them one secret. The old wom an 's eyes

sp

ar

kle. I know where t hat sh ip went;'

she says. " It

never

len

the syste

m; it

didn

' t have

an interste

ll

ar dr

ive. T

he

la st

thing

that crazy old man sa id as

they

w

ere

s

hutting the

door on his

ship

was, "lb

the su

n ' "

Th

the su

n?

Back

in the st a

r

port,

the

crew's astrogator checks the local s tar

system's layout

and

promptly finds that

a ti ny astero id lies in a dose orbit

around

the

sun. The a.ster oid ha s not

been

previously expl

ored

and is not very

impressive, being only a few ki lometers

long. Besides,

it

is

unbel

ievably hot, so

hot

that it

ca

n be approached only by

st a

rships, even space su its won 't

protect

crewm

en

from the star's rad

iatio

n and

heat. In a fi t of

excitement,

the PCs

boa rd the ir ship a nd t a ke off for the

asterord . But on t he way ou t, t he PC

commun ications officer hears a sad

report

on the local ne ws st at ions: some

one has

murd

ered

an

old

woman at

a

re t

irement

home

.

The

tr ip to t he asteroid is uneventful

after

that. The asteroid

appears

unre

markab

le except th

at it

glows a faint

red from the sun's heat. (This might be

a good time to

have the

ai r cond

ition

ing

overload and quit.) As

the

PCs ge t

doser,

th

ey discover two facts:

1. The

as

teroid is in captured rotation,

mean ing t hat it keeps one side a lways

facing the s

un

.

2. There is a tiny s

hip

appar ent ly

p

o

L

doc k

ed

to the " night sid

e

of

the

aste·

roid, shielded from the

su

n by

th

e aste

roid itself. Close in spection

and

another

c

omputer

check shows the sh ip is an old

in -syst em transport with ma rkings

ty

pi

cal of t he pre- revolut ionary govern

m

ent

of Da n

fi

r

th

VII.

We 'll assume the PCs approach the

asteroid

and study

it,

and

event

ually

send

out

a

crew

in space su

its to

cheek

out th e old ship. They can use space

suits

so long

as they stay

in

the

shadow

of

the

asteroid, out of th e sun's radia·

tion and h

ea

t. The

sh

ip is merely teth·

ered by cables to

the

asteroid to hold it

in

place. PCs who board the s

hip

find it

in

vacuu

m and a ll of

it

s c

rew dead

ex

cept

for

the

museum c

ur

ato r, who is

not aboard .

It

's

about th

is point

that

anyone

remaining on the PCs' st a rship

detects

a

new

st

ar sh i

p approac

hin

g

from

the

dir eet ion of Danfirth VII. An

other computer check reveals th e new

ship is an ar med p

ri

vate yac ht.

As

the

P

Cs

on their own ship d

eal

wit h

the

i

ntru

der, which

turn

s out to be

crewed by some of

the current

museum

stafTand its hi relings, the other PCs

access t he da tabase on the old st a rs hip.

Video and

aud

io interna l-sec

ur

ity tapes

are found and saved f

or late

r

inv

es t iga

tion .

The

i

ntr

uder

ship

flees for

the time

being after a

brief

exchange

of

lasers

and

missiles with the PC

s.

Th e tapes

are taken aboard t he PCs' sh ip and

played

back

. As

the

old woman

sai

d,

th

e

curator seems to be l raving' lun atic. He

is shown

by

the sh ip 's in

te

rnal camer

as

to be speaking

what

sounds like gibber

ish

at

t imes,

an

d his stafT seems

af

raid

of him_Finally, the tapes show

the

cura

tor donning a spll-cesuit , carefully open

ing the ship to vacuum (killing

th

e

sleeping crew)

and

leaving through the

airlock.

If anyone scans t he night side

of the

aste

roid for unusual

features,

a circula r

depression is located only a short dis

t

ance

away_

It

looks like a.c

ra ter but

is

too precise in shape to be n

at u

ral.

From this point on , the PCs are

not

like ly

to use the

ir

database

,

though

t hey

might recall from

ea

rlier checks th at t he

Nova Folk sometimes use asteroids

as

bases and bad learned to move astero ids

around th

eir colony systems. PCs

go

i

ng

to

the

circular area find that it is a holo

graphic project ion covering a dock ing

bay

large enough to pe

rm

it entry

of their

ship,

and

in they go _

The big secr et is only a short

di

s

tan

ce

away now. The

PCs

soon will l

ea rn th

at

the

Nova Folk were clever

as

well

as

ge

n

oc

idal (and suicidal). They figured

y

H

E

o

ou t how to create tremendous sola

fl

ares

by

fi

r ing enormous lasers ri

i

nto

a s

ta r

's

su

r face from a dose so

o

rb it

.

Fo

r some

reaso

n

the

Nova F

decided to

have

a civil war ,

an

d

th

un leash

ed th i

s w

eapon agai

n

st all

rebe l worlds, incinerating thei r po

tions in less

than an

hour.

The

hom

world had earlier and secretl y plac

asteroid

with a

su n

-bl

as tin

g super

around eac h colony world 's

su n

. In

cases,

the

homeworld Nova Folk w

able to ac tivate th ese flar

e-ca

using

weapons by sending a suicide sh ip

whose crew

activated th

e laser in

rebel system . The flare wo

uld

mel

asteroid,

de

s

troying it

completely,

scour the rebel world

minutes

late

Th

is pl

an

failed in

the Danfirth

V

syst

em, thanks

to

alert

defensive

s

s

hip

s, so

an

alte

r

native plan was

d

oped. The homew

orld

Nova Folk c

a truce and sen t a

sh

ip of amba. sa

to t he

rebels

of

Danfir

t h VII , offer

beautiful scepter to t heir ru ler as a

token of peace. The rebel leader d i

tr

usted the

gift

an

d had

it

l

ocke

d-u

War broke out again shortly therea

a nd biological warfare soon manag

slay

all

of

the rebels

as

well

as

the

oppre ssors on the homeworld .

The Sceptre

itself is a

mind

-read

and mind-control device programm

force

any

intellig

ent

being

graspin

to get to

the

a

ster

oid

as

so

on

as po

and activate the superlaser,

d

es

tr

o

a ll life in

the

system.

It

is, of cours

many hundreds of

thou

s

an d

s of

ye

t

oo

la te on its mi ssion. But what d

self-aware crystalline

device

know

about time?

The

curator's body lies

inside the m

ai

n control room,

dead

heart attack just

before

he reach

ed

su

per laser 's controls. Dan firth VII

saved

by luck.

Bu t now the PCs

have

arrived ,

a

one of

them

mi

ght

grasp t

he

Scept

n

ex

t .

What

will

happen to save

t

he

adv

ture

rs, not to mention the whole po

t ion of Dan

fi rth

VTI? Will

the

P

Cs

ca

p

tu re

or destroy

t he

mur

der

ous

m

se

um

staff? Ca n the PCs deactivat

Sceptre? Does t he

su

p

erlaser

even

work? These problems are for th e G

and players to resolve. But you saw

th e PCs often

came

back to

one

com

puter

database or another to advan

the plot.

Th

e database is

your

frie nd .

Mak

work for you in your next

adventu

r

R

o

N



py chool

Espionage

Cl

asses For Agents

by avid Myhre

Th

e TOP

S R T

game s

yst

em

docs not provide for

all

types of agents

to acqui

re

S pedal ty S ki ll s which could

e

ess

ent

ial to the c<l mp lction of espio.

na ge mis

sion s. However, g

ame

m

as

te rs

can

mak

e

that

provision by

sendin

g

th

e

agents to spy school.

ndercover Campus

New

agent train

ing at

th

e Ori on Acad-

e my l

asts

s ix w

eek

s.

Its operation falls

und

er

the

control of

the Ganyme

de Bureau

's G4 Branch .

Th

e Academy is in

the

So

uthea

s

tern

Un ited States and se r ves

the

needs of

t he Capricorn (

North

America

), Aqu

a r

iu s (

Central

A

merica

l,

an

d

Arie

s (So

uth

America)

Bureaus

.

The Ganym

ede Bu-

re

au operate

a

ddit

ion a l ag

en

t train ing

center

s

in oth

er Orioll

Bureau ar

eas.

The Academy is known locally

as

Langford

Seminary

College for Indepen.

dent St.udy. It. rese mbles a small , r ur al

CAmpu

s.

The largest campus bu ild ing is The

Mansion, which

houses

the dining

area

,

kitchen

, adm in ist.rati ve offices,

li

brary

, commun ications

center

, a nd a

small armory. Meals

are

served in

the

man

s ion's combination c

afeteria and

dining

room. In

the

eveni ng,

the

dining

room doubles as a mov ie

theater

wh

ere

espionage and

detective

films

are

shown

ni ghtly.

Ot.her, nondesc

ript

buildings a rc used

for cla

ss

rooms.

The

l

arges

t is a g

ymna

·

sium. Beyond

it

are

living quarter

s for

Academy

staff members

.

Because

th

e school is

next

to a

quarry

and

not. far from a

hunting

lodge (both

owned and c

overtly operated

by Orion),

demolition and

fi

re

arm

classes

arc held

without

fear

of the noi

se attractin

g t he

attention

of

ne

arby res iden

ts

. Survival

cla

sses

ar

e held in

th

e woods

surr

ound ·

ing t he Academy.

The Staff

The Academy's

director

is codenamed

Headmaster. He

has

been at t he Acad·

emy

longer than any of the ins

tru

ctors.

No one at t he Aca

dem

y k nows h is

real

name or exactly wh

en

he ar r ived at the

p

o

L

school.

It

is rumored

he

was

an

Orion

Fou n

da

tion Sec tion Dire

do r, pa r

t oft. he

ZODIAC.

Headm

as ter

is

5 8

tall , thin framed,

and ha

s thinning

gr

ay hair. His cold blue

eyes st are out. over a large, red handle·

bar

mous tache. His slight. Briti sh accent.

colors h is soft, bar itone voice. Headmas·

ter s

usual

attire

is a tweed s

ui t

,

alwa

ys

neatl

y prl'AAed , whi te shi

rt

, and a regi ·

me

nl-

al t i

c. H

C1

1(Jrll a ti lc r

only was seen

wearin

g a black suit once;

that

was th e

day after three new agents blew them ·

se

lves and an ins

tructor

into v

er

y s ma

ll

pi eC f s

dur

ing a demolition exercise .

Ot her cur ren t members of the Acad·

emy

stair

include instructors, security

personne

l,

technicians,

and

ge neral

stafL The Academy inst ru ctors al so are

referred to by Or ion codename s. NPC

instructor statist ics

are

not

presented

so

each referee

can

t

ai

lor

th

e inst

ru ct

ors to

hi

s or her campa ign.

Camisndo

te aches

demolitions

and

all the heavy weapon skills. He fill s in

to assist S

hamr

oc k in

tea

ching

sm

a ll

arm

s use to rook ie a

ge

nts. Ca misado

s

tand

s tall

an

d weighs 250 pounds.

When he demons

trates

how to use a

li

ght ma

c

hinegun,

he

handle

s

it

as

easily

as if

it were a rifle . Cam isado

calls all of his students

Tr

ooper.

Cyp

her te

ache

s t he spycraft subjects

of

cryptograp

h

y,

WEB procedures, Orion

procedures, in terrogat.ion, a nd

Span

ish.

A Colombi

an

native, he is a dedicated

man who

takes

ve

ry

seriously his reo

sponsibilities orturning raw recruits

into agents. Cy

ph

e r prefers

kn

ives to

gu ns because kn ives are silent. He

always carries

th rf e t.hrowing knives in

a hidden

belt

sheath.

Cyph

cr has been

known to have a special

interes

t in

agents who

hav

e fought aga inst t hose in

t

he dru

g

trade

.

Rumor

hal; it

that

his

broth

er

was k il led for

speaking out

against

the

drug cartels.

Ferret speci

al i

zes in cove

rt

skills

s

uch

as disguise, stealth, shadowing,

and

s

ur

veillance. He is

5 9

tall,

weighs

180 pounds, and ha s an

av

erage build.

He is in his

early

3

05

,

and

wears hi s

brown

ha

ir

cut

in a moderate style .

Because

he ha

s no

remarkable

features ,

most people do not remember

him

five

minutes after

th

ey

meet

him .

This

cult.i·

vated blandness is one of

the

reasons

Fe

rret has been so successful. He dou ·

y

H

o

bles

as

head of the schoo l 's secur ity

d

et

achment.

2

Gizmo teaches all of the Academy's

me

chani

cal skill courses, including

Tinkering.

Her

blond hair,

Southern

drawl, and down -home Al

abam

a outlo

conceal

th

e high inte lligence which go

her through

the

Massachu

sett

s Insti ·

tu t

e ofThchnology. She

usuall

y wea rs

light hlu e covera lls, t he pockets of

which arc

fi

lled

with

sc

rewdriv

e rs,

wre

nche

s,

wire

s, and

other ele

ctronic

o

ddities

. She repairs and

contr

ols the

Academy's vehicles. G i7;mo

ha

s

be

en

seen in

th

e company of Wheels on man

occasions.

Lilac t

ea

ches French ,

Italian

, and

ir s

t. Aid. She is from ra nce , on loan

from t he Ge

min

i (We ste

rn

Europe) Bu

rea u. The delic

ate

woman

appear

s cold

unemotional. and Uncarin g; attitudes

fostered by one of her previous

as s

ign.

ments when nil of her

te

am ma tes were

killed.

She ha

s been a

ss

igned to

th

e

Academy

to

ke

ep

her

out

of the field fo

a while.

Sh

e is

the

newes t. ins

tructor

,

h

av

ing arr ived

two

mont.hs ago . Lilac

also serves

as the

Ac

ademy

's s

taff

ph

ys

ician

.

Mr.

Ki

is

the

close·e

ombat and

musc

po

wered range weapons ins

tructor

. He

doubles by teaching exotic and obs

cure

weapons skills. From

Japan,

he is

ru

·

mored

to

be a Ninja. His s tudents know

hi m to be mys terious

and

in scru ta ble.

Mr. Ki

alway

s wears a wh ite gi with a

white belt. He is

unusu a

lly polite,

put

ting a Mr. or Ms. in fro

nt

of

ea

ch a

gent

codename

. Despite his s k ill

with

weap

ons,

Mr.

Ki refuses to use

firearm

s on

miss ions, believing

that

an agent.'s bes

weapon is hi s mind and

bo

dy, not his

pi stol.

Shamrock , a proud Iri s

hm an who

laughs

a lot, is

the curr

e

nt

small ar m

s

inst

ru

ctor. He was retired from active

duty three yea

rs

ago when he com·

manded a

Ti t

an Team

and

lo

st

most of

hi s lefl.Jeg

to

an anti .personne l mine.

Th

e

art

ificial limb

works we

ll e

nough

that new agents cannot usually tell

(1

1

INT check)

that

t he leg isn

t

real. Sham

rock wears a camouflaged

jump

suit.

with an enamel four·leaf clover pin on

the

collar.

Wheels teaches offensive driving

s kill

s. If

something has

ti r

es, Whee ls

co n drive

it

. He ha s been at

th

e school

R

o

N



28

for almost

three years

and

is "about

ready to

hit the road:'

although

the

other

ins tr

uctors

aren't

sure

what he

means by that. His dark blue

j l lm pslIit

normally open to the waisL exposes a

tie·dyed Tshirt. Wheels speaks like he

just dropped in from the sixties; his

vocabula ry includes the te

rms

Fal'

Out" and "G roovy," He has

been

seeing

Gizmo socially.

All inst ructors se rve a

minimum

of

onc yea

r,

but. no more than four ye ars.

The only exception is

Shamrock,

who

has

been assigned to the Academy per·

manently because

of

his

injury.

Security personnel

wear

da rk b

lue

jumpsuits and do not display a ny type

of

id en tificat ion on t hei r clothing. How

ever, each has a re

gu

lar SW· ' watch, ID

card, and card case. Gu ard s are typi.

cally

armed

with

dart

gu ns loa

ded with

sleep darts.

In

emergencies, oth e r weap

ons

are available in the armory and

stashed at va ri ous places th rou ghout

th

e

cumpu

s

groun

ds.

Gua

rds have

un

re

st r icted access

cleara

nces.

Academy technicians, such as me·

chanics,

armorers, communication

equipment operators,

an

d general

equipment repairmen, wear ,'Tay jump

sui

ts

also devoid

of

ide

nt

iri

cat

ion_ Each

ha

s

been throu

gh sec urity checks an d

are cleared for access into most

areas

of

the school.

General st afT members wear white

jump

ui t

s.

Th

ey fill

maintenance

a

nd

Bervice su ppor t positions, induding

meal preparations, clea ning, and

groundskeeping.

Th ey also

hav

e been

t hrou

gh

secu r

ity

checks and are

cleared

for access i

nto many

areas of the school .

Introducing The Academy

Th e Orion Academy can serve a

number

of uses in a TOP S E C R E 1 / S I ga me

campaign and,

wit h a

name change,

could be modified for use with

other

espionage

role

playi

ng

game;;. F or ex

ample, PC agents can meet at

the

sch

ool

and be

established

as

a team

. The Acad

emy

also can be

used

by

experienced

agents

who must go back

to

school to

learn new sk ill s or become more profi

cient

in old skills. PC

students

could

develop useful contacts with instructors.

In add i

tion

,

veteran

PC age nts or

wounded

agents

can

be

recalled

to the

Academy to teach classes

to

rookie

age

nt s

.

p

o

L

e Students

For

security

reasons,

no new agent

knows

the

location

of

the Academy.

Each agent is tr·ansported to the school

in a

private, windowless jet.

T

he ag e

nt

can

make a n e

du cated guess

about the

school's location, based on the nora and

fauna, but even this would be difficul t ,

as

plants

and animals from oth er parts

of th

e U_S.

and

from other

countries

are

placed on the grounds to confm;e CUriOl lS

rookie agents

.

Agents

who actually

decipher

the

Academy's

position gl-a

du

ate from spy sch ool with top honors.

When new agen ts

ar

r ive, they are

assigned codenames based on a part icu

lar theme_

For

example,

one

class was

named for melee weapons; Stille tto,

Swi

tchblad

e, Da

gg

er, and Dirk.

Stu

dents are

in

st

ruc ted to

use

on ly

their

Orion codena m

es

and not revea l

th

e ir

real names and back ,'TOltnds to a n

yone

in the Academy_ Students d

isregar

ding

the order are dismissed.

When

classes begin the students are

given "Treen jum psui ts, modified

Orion

comm

SW-l watches.

10 card

s,

and card

cases, which they are

requ

ired to

wear

and cany.

Th e S W·1 watches only have

the low power setti ngs. The 10 ca rds

hav

e a

non

-removable red

stripe ru n

n

ing

do wn th e center. The card (

ase

docs not have the explosive charge.

The

Curriculum

Basic curricul

um

,

so

me of which is

elective,

includes

operation of Or io n

Foundation eq u ipment, weapons use,

Orion

procedures and history, u na rmed

combat, WEB methods and procedures,

and various other espionage trlldecrall

s

kills

not normally learned as part of a

regu lar

profession.

Graduates

are given

a O-level skill in th ese areas.

The three

mandatory classes arc

First

Aid, Orion Prucedures"' , and WEB Pro

cedures '_ An

agent who

does not have

the First Aid skill

when he arrives at

the Academy will

learn

the s kill

at

0

level;

an

a g

ent

who

al

ready

has

the

skill at 0 or 1 raises it nne level.

In addition to th e mandatory courses,

student agents must study two ranged

weapon skills and two close

combat

skills from th e following lists.

Ranged Weapons

Basic Firearms/Pistol

Rifle

Shotgun

SMG

Knife Throwing

y

H

Close

Combat

Basic Melee

Knife

Club/Blackjack

Fencing

SpearlStaff

E D

Students

also

must

selec t onc ski

from each of following

ca t

e gories_

Spec ialty I

Spec

ialty

Animall'raining Pi c kpocke

Concealment

Shadowing

Cryptography

Steal

th

Disguise Su rveillan

In te n-

ogation

Su r

vival

Lockpicking

'I'l

-

acking

Technical

Technical

Basic Heavy Weapons

Bt·ibery *

Demolitions

Electronics

Escape Artistt·y*

Fingerprinting

,.

D

enotes

new s

kill

Gu nsmithi

Oriental

Martial

A

Securi ty

Systems*

Seduction '

S t r e e

Tinkering'"

The

fol low ing are new sk

il l

s not

in the TOP S ECRE T/S. .' game set

ORION PROCEDURES

AT'l': I NT COST:

2 3 5 PR

This ski ll is use d when an agent w

to

re m

e

mb

er tt

certa

in p

iece

of Or io

related informa t ion or to de te rmine

a n ite m of Orion-is sue equipment w

used properly. Actions which would

require an ORION PROCEDURES

include

trying to remember where

Pisces Bureau

headquarte

l

's

is loca

or if the agent

was

able to operate h

SW-I

properl

y to

reach

un

overhead

sa telli te .

w m PROCEDURES

ATI: lI2

INT

COST:

2 5 9 PR

This skill is

used

when an agent wa

to identify someone who mi g ht be a

known WEB agent. or recogniJle evi

dence

which

could lead to

u

WEB sp

sor ed operation. For example, a

successful WEB PROCEDURES rol

might allow

an agent to

connect

the

company

name of Spinner Enterpri

to

a WEB plot

currently

under inve

gation_

BRIBERY

A'IT: WIL

COST: 3 2 4

PR

Th is s kill a llows

an

age nt t o know

when,

how, what, and how

much

to

someone in a specific situation. The

Wea lth advantage gives an agent

a

modifier per point spent on

the

adva

ta ge when using Br ibery.

R

o

N



ESCAPE ARTISTRY

AT1': REF

COST:

4 5 6

PHI ;: 9

Th is is a specialty skill. with Luck pi ck·

iog as a

prere

q

uisite sk

ill . The agent

with

this

skill

can es

ca

ll

e

["rom

ropes,

handc

ufT

s. s t

l"Uigh

t

jackets,

a nd other

un comfortahle si t

uation

s by popping

joints a nd

relaxing

muscles. Double·

joinl ed agents get a + 15 mod

iller

to

t he

il

' skill check.

Clumsy

agu

nts

s

uff

er

a

-

10 modil1er penalty.

GUNSMITHING

NIT:

DEX COST: 4

2 4

PRE :

I

This is a mechnn ical sk i ll and require

Basic Tool Use as a prere

qui

site. 'l'his

skill enables an agent to rcpair UI mod·

ify fi relll 'ms and to construct silencers.

If th e age

nt

lacks the proper too ls, a

20

modifier is a pplied

to

I

epair

at ·

tempts.

A Gunsmithing likiU averoged

wi th a Me

ta lw

orking sk ill allows the

age

nt

to build firearm

:

if all the neces·

sory components and tools are avui lable

und

a

succe

ss

ful skill

check

is

mad

e.

T h ~

rcfm'ee ha s

the

option of

declaring

that a particular weapon is too badly

damaged to repair.

SECURITY SYSTEMS

ATT: INT COS1':

4 3 6 PRK9

This is a spt.'C ial ty s

kill

which enah les

an ngent

to

loca te , identify,

and

neut ra l·

i1.e

or

bypass

intrusion ~ t i o

sys·

tern . Lockpicking,

Demolition

,

or

Safecracking s

kills

arc needed to defeat

the

physical

security (locks)

of

the

ta r

ge t , therefore Lockpicking is cons idered

a

prer

e

qui

s ite.

Electronics or Surveil·

lance skills give a +5 modifier per level

to the Seclll"ity

Systems

sk ill ch(.'Ck rol l.

Usc whichever skill is

more

appropriate

for the modil1er ba sed on th e circum·

sb lnces.

SEDUCTION

A1'1': WIL COST:

3 3 6

PRE : -

This is i specialty skill which allows an

agent

to

attempt to

use his or he r physi .

cal

char

ms to learn information

01'

to

convince a target to do something. At ·

tr active Appearance III OWS a

+5

modi·

fier per

point

spent on t he advantage.

The Sen

sua

li ty advantage allows a +

to

modifier to

th

e WIL check. Unatt ractive

age nt s h

ave

a

5

modifi er

per point

spe

nt

un

the

disadvantage . Uncou

th

age n

ts

ha ve a -20 modifier. PreSence

cnn be +5 or -5 modifie

r,

depending

on the total of

the other

modifiers. All

modifier are

cumulative

when using

th is skill.

p

o

L

STREETSMAHTS

ATT: PRE COST:

3 2 5

PRE: -

Agen ts with this specia lty sk ill know

where the black Inarke t usuHlIy can

be

found

and

how to deal

with

it. They also

can gain information a nd se rvicc from

members of

th e crimi na clement. This

skill can lead agel1 ts to WEB crimi nal

ac t ivities si nce

the

y

can

move in

the

s

ain

e circles a s

the

W£ B agen ts. If an

agel1t with t his sk ill is

not fluent

in

the

language

of

th e ar ea, the sk i

ll

is used

at

112

the sk ill level.

TINKERING

NIT

1 2 INT COST: 5 3 6 PHE: 3,5,7

Th is is a mechanical skill with prereq·

uisites

j\·l t. Chanic, l\.lctalwor k·

ing, and Electron ic . This skill enables

an a g e n ~

to rework,

rebuild,

modi

fy,

improve,

or

construct u

quipment

on an

emergency

ba sis uut of

alm OSL anything

" found" while on :J mission. Devices

subjected Ln Lhe a ttentions of a Tinker·

ing agent may be smuller, have more

functions, or have a completely differ

ent

appearance. Th ey mig

ht

even work. If

the

agent lacks the proper tools, a -20

modifier

is

applied

to

th e Tink e

rin

g

attempt.

Age n

ts with

a Basic Science

Deb'Tee get

a

+

O

modifier;

those

wi t h

e it

her

an EIt.C tr ical

or

M

echanicnl

En gi·

neering Deg

ree

get a +20 modifier.

Modifiers arc not cum

ulati

ve. The sk ill

level in

Tink

e

ring

ca

nnot

be

higher

than the lowest level cu rrently held in

any of

the

t

hr

ee

prer

equisite ,;kills.

One

catagory of new skills,

called

UNUSUAL WBAPONS , is not one

of

the Academy fi forma l classes, and is

only taught in independent

study

courses to ,;tudents with an avid desi re

to learn about obscu rc weapons. No

more than two obscw'c wca pons should

be allowed pel'

agcnt team. With

the

referee's permiss ion , using an obscure

weapon as the agl

mt's

pr im

ary

(

perhaps

only) weapon could be

the

agent's

ego

signature.

WEAPON

WT.

COST($)

Bolas

3 50

War Boome

ra

ng 2

25

Plastic

Chakram

1 15

Meta

l Chakram

2 25

Chu·Ko·Nu

12

3000

y

H

E

D

BOLAS

/\'n : r.,

'lOV

COST: 514 5

2

P R I ~

Th is s kill allows the agen t

to

t

hrow

th

South AllIel'ical1 cnlangli ng weapon . ;

bola consis ts

of

two or

th ,

'ce balls

a t ·

tac hed to rope 'Itrands. When thrown

succesfifully,

it

entangles t he legi' or

arms of t he

ta r

get, causing Id6 points

bruise d

amage.

It will

ca

u se th e upper

1' lower body to be wrapped with the

rO lle, "cs t l'icting

the acti

o ns

0 "

move·

ment

s

of

the

target.

BOOMERANG, WAR

A1'1':

MOV

COST: 3 4 6 PRE:

This

skill is lIsed

to thro

w flat ,

curved

thl'owing missiles used by Austt'a lian

ahor igine

tribes.

"

Toy"

boomerangs w

return to t he thrower, but on ly do ld4

p o i n L

of

bruise

damage

and

have

a

CCV of 5. Wtlr and

hunt ing

boomerang

do

not return when

thrown .

C HAKRAM

A1'1':

MOV COST: 4

6

PRE:

Th e

se disks arc

similar

to plastic

deat

rin

gs, but

have

sharpened outer edges

to caas

e

cutting

or

slashinu

damagc an

do

l1

<)t contain

drugs

or poison. Pl astic

chakram can

be

safely cal

'r

ied

thro

ugh

a melal detector. Metal

chakram

do

mol'c damage . Both types arc ava ilabl

CHU·KO-NU

ATT: D ~ X COST

:

3 4 6

PHE

:

Thi s weapon is also

know

n as a

Chines

rep

eati ng crossbow. In well·trained

hands, it is ca pable of firing 12 bolts in

15 st.'Conds. The cho·ko·nu fires

s

pe

cia liy·made , light bolts thut calise

1d4 wound damage,

not

the 11.16

of

u

regu lar cros..'lbow boll. How(Jver,

the

ch

ko·

nu ha

s a magazin(J which

holds

12

bolts. Reloading

take

s two rounds. Th e

specinl

bolls

c

ost three dollars

ench a n

only ca n use standard tips . Other tips

will not feed

through

the ma

g-

tlzine. Th

cost of the cho-ko·nu is so high be

cause

th e w

ea

pon is considered rare .

r

HANGE

DAMAGE

CCV

20 35 50

Spec.

20

40

60

11.16

B

1

20 4

sn

o Id4 W

5

20 40f60

I

d6

W 10

40 100 200 Id4W

25

R

o

N



30

otes

from O

C )ntinued {rom page 4

and

mail

th

em in. Eac h new mem ber

should mail in his or

her

own fOI m and

payment

.

HQ will

reco

rd

the number

of

new members cDc h member brings in.

The

winner

s

will

be announced in the

Ju ly August issue of the New

sz

ine and

wi

ll

be

given

a special award a t

GEN CONe Game Fair.

Recruit members honestly. Tell them

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us

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th

is.

HQ does not

con

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s

and

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Prizes

'

rhe

G

ra

nd

Pri

ze is

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artwork used

as

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POLYHEDRON'" Newszine '50. Th is

piece or art he Newszine's firs

t

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rramed a nd

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April. This is a rare opportunity to

acquire an

orig inal piece

of art

by

Jeff

Easley, the TSR , Inc. staff

arti

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graces

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over

s

ohhe

AD&DS

2nd

Edition

Game books and other

prodUct

s. Th

e piece is a collector's

item

So

he said,

Jr yo u're so

powerful,

make

me

a dancing sword.

p

o

L

and feat

u

res

th

e

character

s rrom t

he

Living City's Thysmiths shop. The piece

ha

s a

wa t

ercolor background

wi t

h

an

an

ima tion eel

overlay

and is s igned by

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e

arti

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Second place is a $100

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Order Hobby Shop; and fourt h place is a

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ob

by Shop.

Everybody

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drive

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se members par ti

ci patin

g

recei ve a one·

month

extension on

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own memberships for

every

new memo

ber

they

recr uit. The more members you

recruit,

th

e longer you extend you r

ow

n

mem bership.

And iryou

recru i t a lot. of

m ~ m r

you could

win

one or our top

pn

zes.

Severa l

Network member

s told me

they

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st year

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had a chance to win. There's no exc use

now. r c

hallenge

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at least one person

to join

t he Net work

du

r

in

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he

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three month

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mig

ht be

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friend you

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e gamed with for

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ur

New szines a nd

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urnament

s

but

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be someone

who belonged years ago and let hi s or

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lapse

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T Sh

irt

Winner

Our last c

on

test was a competit i

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caption ror a ca rtoon

featurin

g a

dan

cing sword, a magic

u

se r

, and a fighte r.

We

received a multi·

tude or entries

from

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ghout

the

world,

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nearly

all

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th

e sword. One of

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unu

s

ua

l e

ntrie

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rd

-sized

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lookalike. The winner, who coinciden

tally

also was

th

e individua l

who

su

b-

mitted

th

e most entries, was Mark

Ericson of Wisconsin . His winning cap

tion

is dis

pl

ayed to

the

len.

What

Do You

Think

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nt

to the

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staff to

learn wh

at th

e members

think

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the POLYHEDRON Newszine. We

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H

E

D

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Set aside a few minu tes a nd jot d

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ine

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Welcome

Aboard

I'm pleased

to

announce th a t

the

N

work

has

hired

an

addi tional

staff

ber.

Ski

p Williams, associate

edit

o

th

e New ;zine,

has

come on

board

t

tournaments, New

szine

s

ubmissio

n

and

perform a myri

ad

of

other task

help keep

the Network running

smoot hl

y.

During the pa st fe w year

Netw

ork expanded its

tour

n

ament

gram

, improved

the

Newsz

in

e, beg

offering more se

rv

ices, r

ev a

mped

t

club

prOb'Tam, and incrC0 6ed the of

ings a t GEN CON®Game Fair and

othe r conventions. Bul we hadn't i

creased th e stafTto

help keep up

w

the workloa d. Fortu

na

tely, t hat si

t

t ion h

as

changed,

and

S kip

an

d I w

work to kee p up wit.h

th

is increase

workload, while still

trying

to impr

services

and

remain sane.

Skip

h

as

worked as a freelance ed

for t he Network for n

early

t he

pa

st

th ree yea rs, and ha s se rved as

an

e

fo r

the

Newszine s ince issue 1

4

. In

addit

i

on

,

he

ha

s

vo

lun teere

d

unc

o

u

abl

e

hour

s to

help the

Ne

twork

at c

ventions throughout

the

midwest a

wi

th other pr

ojects.

Skip

has co-author

ed seve

ral

Net

tournament

s. is DRAGON® Magaz

Sage Adv ice" co lumnist, and will

the

au t

hor of next

month

's Notes F

HQ column,

where he

will discuss s

mittin

g

arti

cles to

the

Newszine

an

conside

ration

for ruture Living City

products.

Next Issue

In POLYHEDRON

Newszine

1

5

, w

will

re l

ease

a list of

ou

r

RPGA Net

Regionll l Directors and

th

e ir addre

along

with the

s

tate

s and

countries

are

re

sponsible for. Al so f

ea tured

w

an

AD&D 2nd Edition

game

New

Rogues Gallery and an

advent

ure f

We

st End Games'

Paranoia

game.

Take

Ca r

e,

Jea n

R

o

N



The Oownunda Patlsserle

Continued rom page 17

all

hi

s possessions were forfei

te

d exc

ep

t

the ge m

that Jemima

h

ad

hidden. The

family left

in

s

hame

for what

Arvend

had done.

Karl Chisolm

oL

el Male

uman

STR:

9

IN n 13

WIS: 10

DEX: 18

CON: 11

CHA:

13

COM: 14

AC

Normal: 6

AC

Rear: 10

Hit Points: 2

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Weapon Proficienc

ies: None

Special

Abilit

ies : None

Languages: Common, El vi

sh

Kar l is 13

yea

rs old, 5'5

H

tall ,

and

weigh s 143 pounds. He has piercing

gray ey

es

and jet black hair. As the

baby of the fam ily he is spoiled, and he

loves it . He loves his famil y more for

wh

at

th ey do for

him than

loving them

f

or

themselves. Lik e all

te

en

age

rs

, he

kno

ws exac

tly

what he wa n

ts to

be-a

grea

t hero. Jemima is not worried about

this

,

as

she believes Karl will grow

out

of it .

Karl is dil ige nt in his less

on

s,

and

he

might become a cleric

when

he is

3

older-

depending

on whether his align

men t is acceptable to any temp le his

mother

allows

him

tojo

in

.

Ifhe

does

n

join a temple, he probab ly will he lp ou

in the

shop

when

he le

av e

s school.

Karl s ma in occupation

when

not st ud

ing is playing

Paper

s a

nd

Paychecks

with h is friends.

PCs can buy any tr

ea

t s

th

ey like in

the Downunda Patisserie , and if t hey

are

careful

an

d don t reveal themselve

as adventurers th ey migh t get some

u

se

ful

informatio

n from Jemim a or

from other cus tomers. If a ny PCs

man

a

ge to

get Allison

alon

e

and

off

er

her a

pl ace in

th

e party, she wi ll

join

as

a fir

level thief or magic use r provid ing a

party member will appt'ent ice her in

eit her cla ss or maybe in both .

RPGA'" etwork

L

et

The Network Wear On You

Be a sharp dresser and show

yo

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wearing one of the Network s new T-shirt

s.

The shirts, which are a

calion/polyester blend, display the Network's blue and green logo

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They are designed by Network member and artist Ray VanTilburg.

,

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For

Credit Ca rd Orders:

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Shipping & Handling:

Grand To tal:

(S8 per

shirt)

{ 3.00l

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Tournament Request Form

Tournament Types

'Iburnament types which can be requested a re Feature, Masters, Grand Masters, Benefit, and Team. Masters and.

Grand Masters

tournaments

are

open to

members

only.

1b participate

in a

Masters

tourname

nt

, a

judge

or

player

mu st

be

at least 3rd

level; for a Gr

and

Masters

tour

n

ament,

a

judge

or player

must be at

least

5th

level.

Masters and

Grand Masters

tournaments

are not available to first-time conventions. All proceeds from Benefit tournaments

must

go

to

a

charity

of

th

e

convention organizers'

choice.

Limitations

Convent

ions which

attract

fewer

than

200 ga rners are

usually limited

to four

Network tournaments. Exceptions

will

be made if those conventions provide some of t

heir

own Network-sanctioned events. large conventions are

nollim

·

itcd to four tournaments; use addit ional forms and include a

pa

ge number in the upp

er

left corner of each form to

request more scenarios. The Network cannot guarantee

that

a ll

tournament

requests will be filled due to limited

ava ilabili ty of some scenarios. All requests should be made

at

least six months in advance of the convention.

Tournament

ees

The Netwo

rk

will provide onc complete copy of a tou

rn ament fo

r a fee of $5 a round. For

exam

ple, a

three-round

AD&DS game

tournament carries

a fee of$15. If

the

convention provides some of its own tournaments, which

must

be approved by HQ before sanct ioning is granted, t hi s fee is waived. Convention organizers should

submit tourna

menls six to eight months prior to the date oftheir convention. The Network reserves the right to use submitted

tournaments for one year at conventions throughout the wor

ld

, and will frequently use

them

longer if the

authors

permit.

Additional

fe

es: Convention organizers requesting morc than one

co py

of a

tournament

will be charged $2 per round.

For exa mple,

an

additional copy of a three-round AD&D game tournament carries a fee of $6. These fees are neces

sary to help HQ cover postage costs.

Prizes

The Network provides gift certificates for tournaments it sponsors at conventions. For a three-round tournament. we

provide $15. $10. and $5 gift certificates for

lst,

2nd, and 3rd places. re spectively. For a two-round tournament, we

provide $10 and $5 give certificates for 1st and 2nd places. And for a one-round tournament, we provide

5

gift cer

tificates for 1st place. These certificates can be redeemed through the Mail Order Hobby Shop or at the TSR booth

at

conventions.

Tournaments Avai lable

The Network has

tournaments

for a variety of game syste ms. Here is a list of many of the systems:

AD&D®

ga

me, D D®

ga

me, GAMMA WORLD®game, BOOT HILL®

ga

me, TOP SECRETIS. I. game,

MARVEL SUPERHEROES'

ga

me, all produced by TSR, Inc., Paranoia

by

West End Games, Runequest by Avalon

Hill, GURPS by Steve Jackson Games,

James

Bond by Victory Games, 1\vilight 2000

by

GDW, 2300 by GDW, Mega·

Traveller

by GDW,

Space 1889 by

GDW,

Thenagers From

Outer

Space by

R.

Th lsorian Games. Teenage Mutant Ninja

'furtles by Palladium Books, Revised Recon by Palladium Books, Warhammer by Games Workshop. Champions by

Iron Crown Enterprises. Chill by Mayfair, DC Heroes

by

Mayfair,

Harnmaster by

Co lumbia Games, Star Trek

by

FASA, Ars Magica

by

Lion Rampant, and more.

Sanctioning

All sanctioned

tournaments

must use the Network's scoring and advancement

system-No

Exceptions. Further, scor·

ing sheets, which

are

provide

by the

Network, mu

st

be properly completed and returned within a

few

weeks after

the convention. All Network members who participate in sanctioned tourname nts are awarded po in

ts

in

the

Net

work's international ranking system of players and judges.

Send

this

form to: RPGA · Network P.O. Box

515 Lak

e Geneva

WI 53147



The

ROLE

The RPGA M

Network is

an international

organization of

gaming enthusiasts

PL

AVING dedicated

to

excellence

in

rOle-p laying games.

If

you're look

in

g

I for

Gamers

who

share

your

interest

in

role-playing games.

GAME

and jf you want to know

more abo

ut what's

coming from

TSR,

Inc..

join

the RPGA

Network.

It was created

just

for you

And

for about

ASSOCI

AT

I

ON

™

the

price

of

one game.

you

can enjoy all

of

r '\.1

Net

wo

rk

the following

.

As

a member

o f

the RPGA Network

you

will receive .

An attractive RPGA Network pin.

A Membership Certificate suitable for framing.

A

l-year

subscription to POLYHEDRON Newszine.

In

each bi·monthly issue of this award-winning 32·page

news-magazi

ne

you can exchange ideas with other

members,

gel

updates on RPGA Network meetings and

activities, and read exclusive illustrated articles about your

lavorite ro le-playing games.

An Identil ication Card with your membership number and

player and judge rankings.

A 10% discount on all your gaming needs from

THE

MAil

ORDER HOBBY SHOP Catalog.

The opportunity to attend-and even run-ollicial A

Network tournaments

at

local conventi

ons

and be

recognized

lor

your talents worldwide.

Inlormation on how to start your own local APGA N

club.

Information about

how

you can participate in

RAVENS

BLUFP',

the Living City. a

major

APGA N

project.

THIS APPliCATION

AllOWS

Y U

TO TAKE ADVANTAGE

OF

THE

FOUOWING RATES

IU.S. FUNDS ONlYI

UNTil DEC.

30,

1990:

ITE U.S. 0

Plan

I; 15

Basic

1

year

membership, sent

10

a U.S. address.

o

Plan 2: $24 Two year

membership

, sent

to

a U.S. address.

o R ~ n ~ a l $12 Sent to a U.S. address only,

1JE Canada 0 Plan 3: $22

Basic

1 year

membership,

sen t

to

a Canad ian

add

ress.

o Plan 4: $39 Two

year membership

, sent

to

a Canadian address.

o R ~ n e w a l $19

Sent to

a

Canadian address

.

1JE

Int'/.

o Plan 5: 25 Basic

1

year membership, sent to an overseas address by Surface Mail.

o

Plan 6:

$45 Two year

membersh

ip, sent

to

an overseas addr

ess

by

Surface Ma

il.

o Plan 7: $45 Basic

1

yea

r

membership

, sent to an overseas

address by

Air

Ma

i

l.

o Plan

8:

$85 Two year

membership,

sent

to

an overseas

address

by Air Mail.

o Renewal: $22 Sent to

an overseas

address

by S

urface

Mail.

o

R e n ~ a l 42 Sent to

an overseas

address

by Air Mail.

I

want to

Join

I

Rush me my e m b e f S h kit nowlt h. lVe che(:kt'd

below

rhe t

ype

of membership I desi

re.

as

wert as

hoW

I

am

paying

my

due s.

o

MEM8ERSHIP

PLAN 0

RENEWAL 0

o

RE-oPEN

EXPIRED

MEM8ERSHIP

Check to Indicate choice 0 payment: IPlNse type or print clearly

In Ink.1

o Check /payable to : "RPGA Network in the amount of S

o Money-()(der /payable to :

"RPGA Netw

o

rk"

in the amount of S

o Credit Card

{please complete box

below)

Credit Card Exp .

Date

_ _ _

Please

list your favori te games and note

whether you

are

a player

or

game master

eac h system:

VISA 0 MasterCard

Signature

Name

Address

Oty

State/Provo

Country

Day :

Evening:

Today's Date

_ _ _ Postal Code

In which languages are you fluent:

Area

Code Pho

ne

_ _ _ _ _ _

Area

Code

Phone

_

_ _

Year of Birth

Mall to: RPGA Network. P.O. 80x 515, La ke

Geneva

. WI 53147

Sponsor _ _ Sponso,'

RPG

... Network No.



RPGA M

etwork

Tearn

Request orm

Name of Convention _ _ _ _

Daws _ _

_ _ _

__

Location _

_ _

__

Con

vention

Coordin

ato

r _

_ _ _

Address

____

__________

____

_______________________________________________

Day Phone _______________________

vening

Phon

e _ _

Iburnament Coordinator __

Address ___________________________________________________________________

Day Phone Evening Phone _

_

Tournaments

Requested

Game

System No. of Rounds

Expected No of Players

Polyhedron 051

Documents

Transcript of Polyhedron 051