Gaming Frontier's Themed Issues?

[JoeGKushner]

I know that Campaign is running themed issues and was wondering if Gaming Frontiers had their own take on this? What I was actually thinking about wasn't so much a themed issue as a "This is how we would do it" scenario. Take something, like guns in fantasy. Approach the different companies that've contributed to GF. Ask them to give you the game mechanics of how they'd handle it.

It's be like seeing the different Naval Guides on a much smaller scale. I used fantasy guns because I know Monte has his version, Iron Kingdoms has 'em, Green Ronin, and I'm sure others will follow. Well, there are historical ones in CoC and I'm sure modern ones in Spycraft.

Other minor areas that would be interesting?

Dungeon Construction.

Big Bad Guys-Demon Lords, Devil Lords, etc...

Adding Steampunk to Fantasy (or heck, technology to fantasy. One of my favorite articles from Dragon for 2nd ed was the one that introduced the Sheen)

Alien Races in fantasy. Not necessarily alien like technologicaly advanced, but more like Alien from the Movie, or creatures from Beyond our Imagination like Cthulhu or Mind Flayers. You know, Aberrants.

War: How about some military titles from different countries? Different ranks for mercenaries? Medals? Badges? Etc...

 

[GamingFrontiersRob]

GF Themed issues

We discussed doing themed issues. We decided against it for a number of reasons. First and foremost was that Campaign was already doing it. Dragon magazine has done it for years. We wanted to be different. Second reason: it would be nearly impossible to get a decent amount of content AND a decent number of publishers involved in the same project. You have to remember that most of these companies are part time occupations and each company has it's own product line and agenda. The only reason we get so many people contributing to our little book is that we allow them to contribute what they WANT to contribute. If we started dictating themes I believe we would get a lot of "sounds cool but I don't have the time". And third, we're not in the business of creating the ultimate rules set or playing OGC cleanup. We publish a book that is a sampler of good, solid, original content from equally, good, solid, original companies and freelancers. I would rather leave the themed stuff to the people who have the staff to do it.

That being said, I believe there is good precedence for an article or series of articles that compares and contrasts rules sets offered by different companies. A nice chart showing the differences and similarities between all the naval rules, maybe. Or a gun chart displaying the varied statistics. This wouldn't burden the publishers at all but would really be nothing more than a collected report of existing content. How interesting is that? You tell me. I would rather use the space on a new prestige class or set of monsters myself.

Robert J. Williams, President
United Playtest, Inc.