The POLYHEDRON Volume 2, No.2 CONTENTS The POLYHEDRON FEATURES Gift Cata log Changes ........ ............ ... ... ... .... ....... ....................... 3 Volume 2, Number 2 INTERV IEW wi th Gary Lee "Jake"Jaquet Part 2 of three parts ............... ... ... ... ....... ..... ..... ................. 4 Issue #5 The Round Table Point: Impressions of an RPGA Tournament/Counterpoint . ................. ...... ... B Bag of Tricks Publisher: E. Gary Gygax Tips for D&D® and AD&D'" players ... ... ..... .......... ............... 10 Editor-in-Chief: Frank Mentzer Spelling Bee: Crysta/br it tle and Energy Drain Editor: Mary Kirchoff Our series on AD&D'" spell effects continues ............................... ... .. ..... 11 Contributing Figure Painting Editors: Bill Hoyer Figure painting advice from the expert, by Michael Brunton . .. ....... ......... ... 12 Tom Robertson RPGA Charter Members The Elite, Part 1, A-L ........................ ... .......................... ..... ..... 14 Cover Artist: Bob Walters More Conventions ............. .......... ........................................... 15 Contributing TOP SECRET ®, BOOT HILL'" and GAMMA WORLD™ Game Updates ............... .. ..... 15 Artists: Darlene (pg. 3) REGULARS Bob Walters (pg. 6) Notes From HQ . ............. ... ... ... ...... .... ... ..... ....... ... ........ ..... ... 2 Dave Trampier Notes From Overseas ... .. .. .. ....... ..... .. .... ....... ..... ....... .. ..... ...... 2 (pg. 11) White Rabbits . .. ........ ...... ............. ..... .............. .. .... ..... .......... 3 Laura Roslof Letters .. .. ... ... .. .... ..... ... ....... ................. ............ .. .. .. ....... 3 (pg. 12) Where I'm Coming From . ............................. ................. ..... .. .. .. 7 Stephen D.Sullivan Notes For The Dungeon Master ..... ... ... ... ....... ... .......... .. ....... ..... ...... 7 Dispel Confusion ......... ............. ..................... .. .... ............... 10 (pg. 15) Codebook ................................. .................................. .... 13 Other credits: Nor ... .... ....... ..... ..... .. ..... ............. ......... ........ .. 16 Illustration (pg. 5) courtesy of Dragon Publishing Illustration (pg. 7) courtesy of rave or complain, write to her. Can 't tell Grenadier Models what you want unless you say some ­ Photo (pg. 8) courtesy of Dave thing ... Conant Are you reading this newsletter? Are Photos (pg . 6-7) courtesy of The Cons are coming! The Cons are you getting what you want out of it? If Gary L. Jaquet coming! School's ending! Campaigns not, write something! COMMUNICATE! Cartoon (pg. 16) by Roger Raupp are starting! Hope to see lots of you at Widener in June, Parkside in August. o_~:._o Mary Kirchoff has taken over as Editor. I am now Editor-in-Chief. You wanna The POLYHEDRON (th e official newsletter of TSR's ROLE PLAYING GAME ASSOC IATION '" Network) is published bi-monthly by TSR Hob­ bies , Inc. The mailing address is POB 509, Lake Geneva, WI 53147 ; telephone number (414) NOTES FROM HQ NOTES FROM OVERSEAS 248-3625. The POLYHEDRON welcomes unsolicited sub­ Members ' Meetings coming up soon! We'd like to tell you all about what's missions of written material and artwork. How­ See you at the GEN CON® East and GEN happening in the lives and games of ever, no responsibility for such submiss ions can CON game conventions, at our usual members overseas. However , they be assu med by the publisher in any event. No Saturday night get-togethers with spe­ haven't told us, so we can't tell you. submissions will be returned unless accompa­ nied by a self-addressed stamped envelope of cial guests (do the initials EGG mean You might like to know, however , that sufficient size. anything to you?), refreshments, gener­ we have members in Australia, England , al discuss ions, questions & answers, and France , Germany (West) , India , Mexico , The POLYHEDRON is mailed free to all RPGA'" more . members. Membe rsh ip rates: 1 year $10; 2 years The Netherlands, New Zealand , The $18; 5 years $40; lifeti me $200. All prices are RPGA Tournaments coming up at the Phillipines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, subject to change without notice. Changes of same two conventions, plus one at CWA South Africa, and Sweden. address for the delive ry of subscriptions must be con in Chicago , May 21-22. Write for We've also received requests for RPGA received at least 30 days prior to the effective more info. date of the change in order to insure uninter­ information from folks in Brazil, Costa rupt ed delivery . Missing and presumed gaming: We've Rica , Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Jamai­ got wrong addresses for 3 members, and ca, Japan , South Korea , Malaysia, Nor­ All materia l published in The POL YHEORON we'd like to know where you are; we have way, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and becomes the exclusive property of the publisher things for you. Please contact us if you upon publication, unless special wr itte n arrange ­ Zaire . ments to the contrary are made prior to publi­ read this; anyone who knows these folks , YOO-HOO! WHERE ARE YOU? Se­ cation. Sampletell them or tell us: file riously folks , write to us so we can spread more information about more DUNGEONS & DRAGON S, D&D, ADVANCED Ponch Fenwick (Bx 5447, Eglin AFB , DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and TOP SECRET FL) things from more people on a truly inter­ are registered trademarks owned by TSR Hob­ national basis. As you can see, the Net­ bies, Inc. GEN CON ® and RPGA'" are service John James Mcinnes (Bx 44 , Nav­ work is growing steadily; the potential marks owned by TSR Hobbies, Inc ."' "" desig ­ comunit, FPO NY) for exchange of ideas between cultural nates other trademarks owned by TSR Hobb ies, Inc. ©1982TSR Hobbies , Inc. All Rights Reserved . Gilbert Winters (Winds .or , Ontario, groups is there . TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CAN) ~ IT! We'd love to hear from you! ~ 2 Issue #5 The POLYHEDRON for high level characters . There's a Bard along , for instance . It was an RPGA GIFTCATALOG tournament , again used at South . CHANGES R-7, R-8, R-9, and R-10 are a mam­ TSR BELT BUCKLE WHITE RABBITS moth seven-part series (two in each of Previously listed price : $5.00 plus the first 3, one big finale) I'm currently postage . writing for the GEN CON East and GEN NEW PRICE : $6.00 CON RPGA Tournaments. They 've got POSTAGE : $1.50 dwarves in them ; sorry , no more clues. The modules are all quite late . We We're finally getting rolling in produc­ NEW! RPGA BELT BUCKLE overestimated our production capacity , tion ; our new editor's getting the hang of A solid brass version of the TSR Buck­ so they 'l l all come out a little slower than things , and we're expecting a designer le, however , this one features our own we expected. Namely , R-3 (Egg of the on staff shortly . Honest to gosh, the RPGA logo . Suitable for belt up to 2" Phoenix) by July 1, R-4 (Doc 's Island) by newsletters should be right on schedule wide . Unlimited quantity . August 15, R-5 in October (sometime) , by midsummer . First plans for "bimonth­ AVAILABLE : JUNE 15, 1982. R-6 by December , and R-7, R-8, R-9, and ly" meant Feburary , April , and so forth, PRICE: $6.00 R-10 by mid-1983 . Blame my big mouth but the Winter edition (#3) didn 't get out POSTAGE: $1.50 for the delay ; I shouldn 't have given ex­ until February , so ... anyway, you 've got act dates the first time around . #4 by now , this one is the "April " issue, My R-5 module "The Great Bugbear next (#6) comes "June ," hopefully by Hunt " was used for the GEN CON ® July ; and lo and behold , the "August " South AD&D Open tournament , and is a issue (#7) should be out - in August! wilderness tournament adventure . The We'll keep it up from there . players are trying to find a stolen spell­ We pushed the directories out quickly, book somewhere in a 20 square mile but at the end of this year we'll be print­ area. ing a FULL directory of all members and Module R-6, "The Eye of the Bog " by known clubs . Each member will get a list Eric Shook , is a fascinating expedition of everybody - which should fix every­ through different reality probabilities, thing up. IQ; and has started discussing playing tech­ their own changing preferences , in the LETTERS niques in the "Notes for the DM" column ; long run. TSR editor Jon Pickens ' D&O BASIC col­ " Perhaps this is just idle curiosity on umn started last issue. Members ' sug­ Letters to the editor may be sent to The my part, but will you please tell me how POLYHEDRON , POB 509, Lake Geneva, gestions for AD&D play will be gratefully the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ® game accepted , nevertheless ; note the new WI 53147. got started? You can help me win a bet " Round Table" column as a forum for against my know-it-all brother who says general discussion. " I have now received the first three that it started from a past knowledge of Art 's getting better. TELL US if you still issues of the RPGA Newsletter and I Mark Twain's book , A Connecticut Yan­ don't like it - and tell us if you do! must say that I have been very pleased kee in King Arthur's Court. " with them all. I truly think that the RPGA " I have been adventuring for almost - PM, Arizona Network fills a void in our growing hob­ three years now and feel that a collective Gary Gygax co-created it, combining by . I would like to make some sugges­ entity is needed to coordinate the prolif­ war-game techniques with fantasy . This tions and ask a few questions. eration of the many FRP games that was the first known attempt at creating " First , I am curious as to the type of flood the market. I naturally assume that rules to cover all imaginable actions . The article you seek from your readership. your primary motivation is toward organ­ new game style was called Role Playing , Are articles concerning good DMing and izing D&D players and variations , and I and took many months and thousands of role playing preferred to articles of fic­ sympathize with the Tunnels and Trollers hours of playtesting to develop , which of tion and variations? and the Runequesters and the Travellers , course drew others into the history of the "As for suggestions , I am of the opin­ but the overwhelming majority of new game 's beginnings .