Originally Said By: mrs
Is it not possible to get it to look straight at the contents of a table? 
Well, then dont use a where clause.
the ON section of your query:
SELECT * FROM tbl_promo JOIN tbl_master ON tbl_master.fld_promoRELATED = tbl_promo.fld_promoID
tells it to compare the tbl_master.fld_promoRELATED column with the tbl_promo.fld_promoID column and return results where they are equal
by adding the where clause:
WHERE tbl_master.fld_promoRELATED = promovar
and using a GET variables, you are telling it to restrinct the returned results to only where the tbl_master.fld_promoRELATED column is equal to the URL being used.
