ATTN "Gargoyle," James Garr: permission to mention Beyond Monks in Asgard 7?

[RangerWickett]

James, one of the articles submitted for Asgard issue 7 is a martial artist class. Now, since I respect the work you did in Beyond Monks, we tried to find an alternative name other than Martial Artist, but nothing really good came up. So, I want permission to have the article state:

"Just as this class overlaps with the core monk class, it also overlaps with the martial artist class in Beyond Monks: The Art of the Fight, an electronic download available for purchase from Chainmail Bikini Games. No trespass on the material in that product is intended, and in fact, the approach taken to martial artists in this article differs from that in Beyond Monks in many ways. In particular, Beyond Monks regards the defining niche of a martial artist to be unarmed combat, while this article considers it to be unarmored combat."

I just wanted to make it clear that we're not trying to step on your toes, but if you prefer for us not to mention your book, I can just run the article without that disclaimer. What would you prefer?

 

[Gargoyle]

Put in a full page ad for Call of Duty and you can do anything you want.

The name being the same is ok. It's a very generic name, and we don't have a problem with other "martial artist" classes out there. No disclaimer is needed. (I couldn't think of a better name either!)

 

[RangerWickett]

You'll have to talk to Russ about advertising, but thanks for OK'ing the name usage. The class is Hong's work, so I'm sure it'll be nice to see how the two different versions stack up.

 

[hong]

As RWickett said, I'm the guy who wrote the martial artist article, and I put in the disclaimer after some discussion with him. Yeah, there aren't really any good alternatives to "martial artist". It's pretty blah as class names go, but the alternatives are worse.

I should say that I actually bought Beyond Monks back when it was first released. For anyone interested in kung-fu chop-socky goodness: get it! It's a durn impressive piece of work. Hopefully I was on the mark with my one-line summary of what it's about. Also, when Asgard 7 comes out, hopefully you'll find that I haven't just stolen your work wholesale.


PS. Still waiting for your reply, RW.

 

[RangerWickett]

D'ah! My bad. Okay, I'll just reply here, so I don't forget and put it off.

Basically Hong, I try to keep the limit to two prestige classes per issue, max of three. Since I always put one in of my own (as penance), I'd prefer if you just sent along one.

Also, I hope you don't mind, but I want to change the article a small bit. Where you said that people can just use the martial artist to emulate the monk, I want to change it to say, 'The monk and the martial artist are related the same way that the paladin and the fighter are. Both do similar stuff, but the monk and paladin use magical powers, and the martial artist and fighter both rely on physical skill.'

Would that be cool? This way people won't be encouraged to kill off their 17th level monks mid-game.

 

[hong]

D'ah! My bad. Okay, I'll just reply here, so I don't forget and put it off.

Basically Hong, I try to keep the limit to two prestige classes per issue, max of three. Since I always put one in of my own (as penance), I'd prefer if you just sent along one.

Okay. I'll send you something in the next day or so, and you can decide whether to put it in this issue or the next.

Also, I hope you don't mind, but I want to change the article a small bit. Where you said that people can just use the martial artist to emulate the monk, I want to change it to say, 'The monk and the martial artist are related the same way that the paladin and the fighter are. Both do similar stuff, but the monk and paladin use magical powers, and the martial artist and fighter both rely on physical skill.'

Would that be cool? This way people won't be encouraged to kill off their 17th level monks mid-game.

The thing is that a few of the feats in the article actually emulate monk class abilities, like Still Mind, Leap of the Clouds, fast movement, etc. I wrote it up on the assumption that this was going to be a monk-replacement class, thus I felt justified in doing this. If you had players with monk and martial artist PCs in one game, one or both of them might feel that the other guy is stealing their schtick.

Still, I guess it's up to individual DMs to decide for themselves. As long as there's a mention that the two classes overlap, it's cool with me.

 

[Tharkun]

Where can we put submissions for Asgard anyway? When is it coming out?

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, this will be one of the least on-schedule issues so far; it's late because very few people submitted articles of their own free will, so we had to post a few reminders and requests. Now we're nice and set, though I would prefer a little more material next time (we're going to have padding thanks to GenCon reports).

You can propose articles (or send whole ones) to me. I'm the point of contact for Asgard magazine. Just drop me a line at RangerWickett@hotmail.com, and we can discuss things. All submissions are voluntary, but it's a nice way to get your work out for others to see, and provide some free publicity to yourself.

The current issue (Asgard #7) will be out before the end of the month.

 

[Gargoyle]

As RWickett said, I'm the guy who wrote the martial artist article, and I put in the disclaimer after some discussion with him. Yeah, there aren't really any good alternatives to "martial artist". It's pretty blah as class names go, but the alternatives are worse.

I should say that I actually bought Beyond Monks back when it was first released. For anyone interested in kung-fu chop-socky goodness: get it! It's a durn impressive piece of work. Hopefully I was on the mark with my one-line summary of what it's about. Also, when Asgard 7 comes out, hopefully you'll find that I haven't just stolen your work wholesale.


PS. Still waiting for your reply, RW.

Thanks for the comments. I look forward to seeing the class.

 

[Tharkun]

I actually have had a few ideas for some articles but didn't know where to say "hey look at this" now I know...must resist...dang it. And knowing is half the battle!

Failed my will save.