Messageboard Golem
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Quarterly Publishers Digest
Gaming Frontiers Volume 3
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GameWyrd
Explorer
I was fairly certain that Gaming Frontiers could not continue in the same quality and at the same cost as GF #1 and #2. I was right. The price has gone up from $17.95 to $19.95 and the magazine’s lost its colour. It’s not a disaster; the magazine is still jam packed with interesting articles and illustrations. It’s not a disaster but it is something you notice, especially the loss of colour but at least in these shaky times for the hobby United Playtest are doing what’s required to keep going.
Keeping track of everything that’s going on has become one of the main reasons to pick up a copy of Gaming Frontiers. The magazine’s always managed to introduce me to d20 companies I’d never heard of before and I’m in the business of keeping track of as many RPG companies as I can. Actually, "magazine" isn’t a very good word for Gaming Frontiers. This point was made before but now in the new format it looks even more like a 144-paged book than ever before.
Issue #3 begins with a Deadlands adventure from Pinnacle. "The Outlaw of Kumeyaay Canyon" really needs to be a Deadland or similar setting. The wild west (or weird west, rather) can’t easily be represented in a Tolkien-esq fantasy. It’s a fairly good adventure though; typical Pinnacle style insofar that’s NPC heavy and not particularly linear. In fact there three suggested adventure ideas through which to involve the PCs with the NPCs.
In the Uncharted Territory we’re given a couple of "Places of Interest". The most interesting twist here is the guest writers are non-other than Thunderhead Games who not so recently became a part of Mystic Eye Games . So either this set of Interesting Places was submitted to United Playtest some time ago or the decision’s been made to actively maintain the Thunderhead brand name. Mystic Eye Games also featured in the previous section since Pinnacle made OGC use of the MEG’s Rusalka creature. Oh, right, the Interesting Places themselves; a familiar shop (cute idea), an orphanage, jail, sparring rooms and a shipyard. There are actually news feat tucked away in here: Blood Ritual gives the spellcaster a way to make the save test against their spell harder (and I think this needs to be capped) and Life Component which lets you replace material components by spilling more of your own blood.
Sovereign Press offers up an adventure too. "The Scorpion’s Tail" is a typical dungeon crawl. There’s a nice story wrapped around a scorpion shaped dungeon. It’s well written but make of yet-another linear beat’em up as you will.
The previous issue’s On the Home Front had an article on the Afterlife and this time round it’s all about burial rituals or varieties like cremation. It’s a nicely written essay style piece. It is more of an essay than pale excuse for morbid post-mortum relics and the game mechanics for the invariable power-ups. The article is all the better as a result. It’s nice to see a mixture of the more academic side of role-playing that "Grave Thoughts" represents with the mindless fun of dungeon adventures.
"Aliens from the Dinosaur Planet" is predictably a feature from Goodman Games. I’ve not had time to read their Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex product yet and wasn’t sure that there were aliens. They are and it’s good that they’re not all manlike ‘StarTrek’ aliens. They’re inhuman in appearance and in culture. This is one of the better features in this issue. It’s a good read, I think you can convert the stats for the aliens to fit them into other d20 words without too much hassle and the illustrations are by Andy Hopp.
The "Making Magic Items" article from Monte Cook is a must read if you’ve not found the original web copy. The author of the Dungeon Master's Guide answers a whole string of awkward questions about creating homebrew magical items. Even if you’re not a crunch fan the article is a good way to get a glance into Monte Cook’s train of thought.
The adventure which quickly becomes a battle against some orcs from Guildhouse Games has the rather unusual title of "In Pursuit of Magic". I suspect you could swap out ‘pursuit’ and slide in precursor since Guildhouse Games wrote the article just before the release of their A Mage’s Tale. Although the adventure style of "In Pursuit of Magic" isn’t particularly suited to my tastes I was impressed enough by the overall quality to add Guildhouse to my "to check out" list. If it wasn’t for Gaming Frontiers I’d never have heard of these people and in this time round in GF #3 there’s a decent sample of their work. It’s this which in my mind helps pull back the rather sizable cost of the magazine-cum-book.
I don’t think there’s been much from Gaslight Press since the release of their first Sun Scale campaign setting adventure. In Gaming Frontier’s Uncharted Territory section they’ve produced "Beyond The fields We Know" as a Guide to the Fey. Gaslight have done well to pull back the look and feel of European fey. The fey rules here are clearly more of the celtic feel about them than many other similar attempts – and as a Scot I can say that. Fey are a popular feature in many campaign worlds. The elemental wood rules (ghostwood, darkwood, earthwood, windwood, etc) for the fey can be used in any d20 system with or without the fey. This article is the best thing I’ve seen from Gaslight Press to date. I got a strong Asian vibe from Gryphon’s Legacy where the Sun Emperor rules the great dynasty. We’ll have to see how and if this mixes with celtic fey.
The Asian vibe is strongly present in the Monster Lab. "Monsters from the East" is the works of Green Ronin and is described as supplementary material to their Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts sourcebook. There are five entries in this small beastiary and they include the scary Te-No-Me wandering undead.
This month’s preview is of Bastion Press’ new campaign world Oathbound. The reviews of Oathbound are already out but this preview gives a good few pages from the actual book.
I’ve not been making mention of the various illustrations or comic strips as they pop-up through the magazine. I’ll make an exception for "Smoke & Dagger" which is an Ernor comic strip. It’s an anthro comic and looks rather good.
Freelance writer Andrew Hind pens another article for Gaming Frontiers this month too. This time round in "Era of the Warring States" we’ve another oriental feature. The article offers a good chunk of ancient history and then some bold game mechanics. Bold game mechanics because they offer large attribute modifications (+2 at the highest) to different cultures of the human race. They also offer the Charioteering as a feat and not a skill.
The second Monster Lab is a quick offering from Troll Lord Games and features rules for Trottigen Giants. A strange lot of giants they are. They’re neither aggressive nor warlike and instead they’re intelligent and wise. The challenge rating is actually down in print as 1/10. I don’t think that’s supposed to read as one/tenth though.
Comic book heroes is a genre that’s been getting a bit of attention lately. "Validus Populai" (latin for ‘the hero people’) is a system from Heliocentric Studios that’s been put into print by United Playtest the company behind Gaming Frontiers. Hero artwork is often eye candy and that’s the same here. There’s also the introduction of "power feats". This isn’t the game, it doesn’t come free with the magazine but it’s a good introduction. It’s something else to keep an eye on. If Gaming Frontiers does end up with a game of its own then there’s the risk of bias. On the other hand, a well supported d20 hero game is still a niche for the taking.
The adventure "The Lost Crypt of Shizaraht" is a dungeon crawl for four characters at 5th level. Actually, the term dungeon crawl is a little harsh this time round because in addition to crawling through dungeons there’s also a fair bit of NPC interaction (aka roleplaying) and problem solving. It’s really well written but I’ve come to recognise the name Wil Upchurch for that. The cartography also gets a credit. Whenever I see Ed Bourelle’s work I’m impressed. The maps are fantastic but it’s the Giger-esq art (page 94) of the stretched face is simply great.
There’s a long look at Monte Cook’s new Banewarrens "mega-adventure. It actually gives the rules for Latent Sorcery, letting you have the best bit from the whole book for "free".
I’ve been using the term "dungeon crawl" an awful lot in the description of adventures and so you might guess how I’d describe Hammer Dog’s "Darkspyre". Hammer Dog describe it as "a short suicide mission into the tower of the world’s most notorious archmage!" It’s actually for 4-6 characters of 6-8th levels and so should be a walk in the park compared to even the brief look of Banewarrens. Hammer Dog do this thing where they present the stats for monsters and items in a table/card format with stats and library numbers on the side. It looked good in colour. It looks cheap in black and white.
In the third of five Uncharted Territory sections Living Imagination Inc provides the cute subtitle "There’s No Business Like Sail Business" for their "Broadsides!" offering. What you get is a couple of tables for oceanic encounters, trade goods and the costs for shipping and operation. There’s a lot packed into a small space and anything to help boost the forgotten frontier (the water) of roleplaying is a good thing.
Atlas Games’s "Herbs" follows quickly as the next in the Uncharted Territory series. It does what you’d expect and is a quick botany lesson. The herbs covered have a wide range of in-game use and can be made into various magical concoctions or poison. Goblin Snot is a new poison made from Bog Fan.
The other commonly reoccurring feature in the magazine is the Monster Lab. The last visit to the lab is at the hands of Mongoose and gives us some scary trolls. It’s a supplement to the Slayer’s Guide to Trolls but you don’t need the book to make use of the new and fully statted trolls here. I’ll note the Shadow Troll because the picture is evocative and I think the creature really could scare the players (CR 6, though) and I’ll note the Eldritch Troll (smarter – Int 14) and spell slinging because it’s a crazy idea.
A rival to Ed Bourelle’s cartographical masterpieces can be found in the adventure "The Burning Tiger". 0one Games set the short scenario in their Seven Avengers’ world of Arthad. It is a short scenario but I could use the temple map in it many times over. Turn to page 126 and enoy.
This month Mac’s Corner looks at issues around the SRD for new d20 authors and how the descriptive texts and illustrations for WotC’s monsters are not open and you can’t use them. As examples he offers up the Beholder and Mind Flayers (who’s normal appearance are clearly associated to D&D) and how they might look if you keep the stats and their design as implied by their powers (tentacles and eyes, etc). It’s well worth a read. It makes a nice article for a quarterly magazine.
Jeffrey S. Carter looks at a handful of RPG supplements and has some things to say about them. About half of the products covered in "Gear" aren’t explicitly for d20 gaming. In fact, the highest plaudits go to Palladium’s books on "Weapons & Castles" and "Weapons & Armour" and aside from inventing the first generic system using a twenty sided dice I don’t think Palladium are d20 at all.
Maps and cartography are one of the highlights in Gaming Frontiers 3. It’s good then that the Open Game Content map of World X reaches maturity in this issue.
The magazine closes with Uncharted Territory and another Andrew Hind piece. This time we’re looking at the evil "order of the Crimson Aba". The order can be used as a villainous group in any given fantasy setting and comes with a detailed history. There’s also a new spell (Breath of Death), a new feat (Crypt Ears) and a new prestige class (Sons of Khast).
It’s still thumbs up for Gaming Frontiers despite the twin sets backs of the loss of colour and the slight price hike. This issue is worth reading and that’s the ultimate test. It would have been better if it was cheaper and came in colour but then it would have been better if it read itself to me or made the coffee. If Gaming Frontiers levels off at this stage and produces this quality consistently then I’ll be happy.
* This GameWyrd review was first posted here.
Keeping track of everything that’s going on has become one of the main reasons to pick up a copy of Gaming Frontiers. The magazine’s always managed to introduce me to d20 companies I’d never heard of before and I’m in the business of keeping track of as many RPG companies as I can. Actually, "magazine" isn’t a very good word for Gaming Frontiers. This point was made before but now in the new format it looks even more like a 144-paged book than ever before.
Issue #3 begins with a Deadlands adventure from Pinnacle. "The Outlaw of Kumeyaay Canyon" really needs to be a Deadland or similar setting. The wild west (or weird west, rather) can’t easily be represented in a Tolkien-esq fantasy. It’s a fairly good adventure though; typical Pinnacle style insofar that’s NPC heavy and not particularly linear. In fact there three suggested adventure ideas through which to involve the PCs with the NPCs.
In the Uncharted Territory we’re given a couple of "Places of Interest". The most interesting twist here is the guest writers are non-other than Thunderhead Games who not so recently became a part of Mystic Eye Games . So either this set of Interesting Places was submitted to United Playtest some time ago or the decision’s been made to actively maintain the Thunderhead brand name. Mystic Eye Games also featured in the previous section since Pinnacle made OGC use of the MEG’s Rusalka creature. Oh, right, the Interesting Places themselves; a familiar shop (cute idea), an orphanage, jail, sparring rooms and a shipyard. There are actually news feat tucked away in here: Blood Ritual gives the spellcaster a way to make the save test against their spell harder (and I think this needs to be capped) and Life Component which lets you replace material components by spilling more of your own blood.
Sovereign Press offers up an adventure too. "The Scorpion’s Tail" is a typical dungeon crawl. There’s a nice story wrapped around a scorpion shaped dungeon. It’s well written but make of yet-another linear beat’em up as you will.
The previous issue’s On the Home Front had an article on the Afterlife and this time round it’s all about burial rituals or varieties like cremation. It’s a nicely written essay style piece. It is more of an essay than pale excuse for morbid post-mortum relics and the game mechanics for the invariable power-ups. The article is all the better as a result. It’s nice to see a mixture of the more academic side of role-playing that "Grave Thoughts" represents with the mindless fun of dungeon adventures.
"Aliens from the Dinosaur Planet" is predictably a feature from Goodman Games. I’ve not had time to read their Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex product yet and wasn’t sure that there were aliens. They are and it’s good that they’re not all manlike ‘StarTrek’ aliens. They’re inhuman in appearance and in culture. This is one of the better features in this issue. It’s a good read, I think you can convert the stats for the aliens to fit them into other d20 words without too much hassle and the illustrations are by Andy Hopp.
The "Making Magic Items" article from Monte Cook is a must read if you’ve not found the original web copy. The author of the Dungeon Master's Guide answers a whole string of awkward questions about creating homebrew magical items. Even if you’re not a crunch fan the article is a good way to get a glance into Monte Cook’s train of thought.
The adventure which quickly becomes a battle against some orcs from Guildhouse Games has the rather unusual title of "In Pursuit of Magic". I suspect you could swap out ‘pursuit’ and slide in precursor since Guildhouse Games wrote the article just before the release of their A Mage’s Tale. Although the adventure style of "In Pursuit of Magic" isn’t particularly suited to my tastes I was impressed enough by the overall quality to add Guildhouse to my "to check out" list. If it wasn’t for Gaming Frontiers I’d never have heard of these people and in this time round in GF #3 there’s a decent sample of their work. It’s this which in my mind helps pull back the rather sizable cost of the magazine-cum-book.
I don’t think there’s been much from Gaslight Press since the release of their first Sun Scale campaign setting adventure. In Gaming Frontier’s Uncharted Territory section they’ve produced "Beyond The fields We Know" as a Guide to the Fey. Gaslight have done well to pull back the look and feel of European fey. The fey rules here are clearly more of the celtic feel about them than many other similar attempts – and as a Scot I can say that. Fey are a popular feature in many campaign worlds. The elemental wood rules (ghostwood, darkwood, earthwood, windwood, etc) for the fey can be used in any d20 system with or without the fey. This article is the best thing I’ve seen from Gaslight Press to date. I got a strong Asian vibe from Gryphon’s Legacy where the Sun Emperor rules the great dynasty. We’ll have to see how and if this mixes with celtic fey.
The Asian vibe is strongly present in the Monster Lab. "Monsters from the East" is the works of Green Ronin and is described as supplementary material to their Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts sourcebook. There are five entries in this small beastiary and they include the scary Te-No-Me wandering undead.
This month’s preview is of Bastion Press’ new campaign world Oathbound. The reviews of Oathbound are already out but this preview gives a good few pages from the actual book.
I’ve not been making mention of the various illustrations or comic strips as they pop-up through the magazine. I’ll make an exception for "Smoke & Dagger" which is an Ernor comic strip. It’s an anthro comic and looks rather good.
Freelance writer Andrew Hind pens another article for Gaming Frontiers this month too. This time round in "Era of the Warring States" we’ve another oriental feature. The article offers a good chunk of ancient history and then some bold game mechanics. Bold game mechanics because they offer large attribute modifications (+2 at the highest) to different cultures of the human race. They also offer the Charioteering as a feat and not a skill.
The second Monster Lab is a quick offering from Troll Lord Games and features rules for Trottigen Giants. A strange lot of giants they are. They’re neither aggressive nor warlike and instead they’re intelligent and wise. The challenge rating is actually down in print as 1/10. I don’t think that’s supposed to read as one/tenth though.
Comic book heroes is a genre that’s been getting a bit of attention lately. "Validus Populai" (latin for ‘the hero people’) is a system from Heliocentric Studios that’s been put into print by United Playtest the company behind Gaming Frontiers. Hero artwork is often eye candy and that’s the same here. There’s also the introduction of "power feats". This isn’t the game, it doesn’t come free with the magazine but it’s a good introduction. It’s something else to keep an eye on. If Gaming Frontiers does end up with a game of its own then there’s the risk of bias. On the other hand, a well supported d20 hero game is still a niche for the taking.
The adventure "The Lost Crypt of Shizaraht" is a dungeon crawl for four characters at 5th level. Actually, the term dungeon crawl is a little harsh this time round because in addition to crawling through dungeons there’s also a fair bit of NPC interaction (aka roleplaying) and problem solving. It’s really well written but I’ve come to recognise the name Wil Upchurch for that. The cartography also gets a credit. Whenever I see Ed Bourelle’s work I’m impressed. The maps are fantastic but it’s the Giger-esq art (page 94) of the stretched face is simply great.
There’s a long look at Monte Cook’s new Banewarrens "mega-adventure. It actually gives the rules for Latent Sorcery, letting you have the best bit from the whole book for "free".
I’ve been using the term "dungeon crawl" an awful lot in the description of adventures and so you might guess how I’d describe Hammer Dog’s "Darkspyre". Hammer Dog describe it as "a short suicide mission into the tower of the world’s most notorious archmage!" It’s actually for 4-6 characters of 6-8th levels and so should be a walk in the park compared to even the brief look of Banewarrens. Hammer Dog do this thing where they present the stats for monsters and items in a table/card format with stats and library numbers on the side. It looked good in colour. It looks cheap in black and white.
In the third of five Uncharted Territory sections Living Imagination Inc provides the cute subtitle "There’s No Business Like Sail Business" for their "Broadsides!" offering. What you get is a couple of tables for oceanic encounters, trade goods and the costs for shipping and operation. There’s a lot packed into a small space and anything to help boost the forgotten frontier (the water) of roleplaying is a good thing.
Atlas Games’s "Herbs" follows quickly as the next in the Uncharted Territory series. It does what you’d expect and is a quick botany lesson. The herbs covered have a wide range of in-game use and can be made into various magical concoctions or poison. Goblin Snot is a new poison made from Bog Fan.
The other commonly reoccurring feature in the magazine is the Monster Lab. The last visit to the lab is at the hands of Mongoose and gives us some scary trolls. It’s a supplement to the Slayer’s Guide to Trolls but you don’t need the book to make use of the new and fully statted trolls here. I’ll note the Shadow Troll because the picture is evocative and I think the creature really could scare the players (CR 6, though) and I’ll note the Eldritch Troll (smarter – Int 14) and spell slinging because it’s a crazy idea.
A rival to Ed Bourelle’s cartographical masterpieces can be found in the adventure "The Burning Tiger". 0one Games set the short scenario in their Seven Avengers’ world of Arthad. It is a short scenario but I could use the temple map in it many times over. Turn to page 126 and enoy.
This month Mac’s Corner looks at issues around the SRD for new d20 authors and how the descriptive texts and illustrations for WotC’s monsters are not open and you can’t use them. As examples he offers up the Beholder and Mind Flayers (who’s normal appearance are clearly associated to D&D) and how they might look if you keep the stats and their design as implied by their powers (tentacles and eyes, etc). It’s well worth a read. It makes a nice article for a quarterly magazine.
Jeffrey S. Carter looks at a handful of RPG supplements and has some things to say about them. About half of the products covered in "Gear" aren’t explicitly for d20 gaming. In fact, the highest plaudits go to Palladium’s books on "Weapons & Castles" and "Weapons & Armour" and aside from inventing the first generic system using a twenty sided dice I don’t think Palladium are d20 at all.
Maps and cartography are one of the highlights in Gaming Frontiers 3. It’s good then that the Open Game Content map of World X reaches maturity in this issue.
The magazine closes with Uncharted Territory and another Andrew Hind piece. This time we’re looking at the evil "order of the Crimson Aba". The order can be used as a villainous group in any given fantasy setting and comes with a detailed history. There’s also a new spell (Breath of Death), a new feat (Crypt Ears) and a new prestige class (Sons of Khast).
It’s still thumbs up for Gaming Frontiers despite the twin sets backs of the loss of colour and the slight price hike. This issue is worth reading and that’s the ultimate test. It would have been better if it was cheaper and came in colour but then it would have been better if it read itself to me or made the coffee. If Gaming Frontiers levels off at this stage and produces this quality consistently then I’ll be happy.
* This GameWyrd review was first posted here.
Simon Collins
Explorer
This is not a playtest review.
Gaming Frontiers Volume 3 is, strangely enough, the third in a series of magazine-style books offering a variety of supplemental material from d20 publishers.
Volume 3 is 144 B&W pages for $19.95. Compare this with Volume 2, which was $17.95 for 160 full colour pages, or Mystic Eye's Hunt: Rise Of Evil, a campaign setting at the same price with the same page count. Within the 144 pages are several advertisements taking up about 7 pages. Several areas of white space are apparent but margins and font are good. Art varies from poor to superb, with most being poor to average. There are also a few comic strips and one-offs. The writing style again varies with the author. Editing seems good.
This is what's inside:
A 6-page d20 Deadlands adventure, Outlaw Of Kumeyaay Canyon, centred around the secrets of a mining shaft.
6 pages of locations for Thunderhead Games' Bluffside city setting, and one location suitable for Dragonstar.
8 page adventure, The Scorpion's Tail, for the Sovereign Stone setting, set in Western Dunkarga, for 1st-level characters. It involves the Taan.
6-page article on burial rituals.
6-page article on aliens for Goodman Games' dinosaur setting.
4-page question and answer session with Monte Cook on making magic items, with some extremely useful advice on figuring the market value of magical items and using Table 8-40 of the DMG with caution: "Some days I look at Table 8-40 of the DMG and wish it wasn't there at all." The highlight of the book.
5-page adventure, by Guildhouse Games, for PCs of levels 5-6, involving a cold-hearted wizard and a missing shipment of magical supplies.
12-page section covering Gaslight Press' version of fey for their Sun & Scale campaign. They treat Fey as more of a template and give them a very Celtic flavour. Their Fey live in Faerie, a part of the Ethereal Plane. The section has information on creating and travelling on magical faerie paths, accessing the Fey realm, items made of elemental wood, the fey court, fey currency, and a number of new fey creatures, each one attached to a court linked to a season.
5 pages of oriental monsters from Green Ronin.
A 5-page preview of Bastion Press' Oathbound campaign setting.
6-page article on Chinese warfare three thousand years ago.
2-page article on Trottigen Giants from Troll Lord Games.
6-page article on Heliocentric Studios' Validus Populia, a d20 superhero game.
13-page adventure for 5th-level PCs. The Lost Crypt Of Shizaraht involves the PCs in solving the mystery of an ancient forest crypt, with some nice maps and a couple of new creatures.
5-page excerpt from Malhavoc Press' The Banewarrens adventure.
5-page adventure, Darkspyre, from Hammerdog Games for PCs of 6-8th level. Can be run as an aftermath to their published adventure Assualt On Darkspyre.
3-page enhancement to Living Imagination's Broadsides module about adventure on the high seas. Covers ship operational costs, trade good prices, and oceanic encounters.
5-page enhancement for Atlas Games' Occult Lore, detailing a selection of new herbs and their uses.
5-page section on troll subspecies from Mongoose Publishing.
6-page adventure, The Burning Tiger, set in 0one Games' Seven Avengers setting, where PCs must investigate a tomb dedicated to a famous battle with a monstrous tiger. Strangely, the adventure is designed for two 5th-level PCs who should not play together until they reach the main room of the adventure.
4-page article giving advice on getting published in the d20 business - the article concentrates on monsters and the uses of the SRD.
2 pages of reviews on game accessories.
3 pages describing a jarldom for a new world.
5 pages describing an organization of evil mages.
Conclusion:
Though poorer in terms of content amount versus price than its predecessor, there are several articles here that are excellent in terms of quality, and I found it on the whole a more useful offering than Volume 2. I still have issues with the type of content found within, but it was definitely better with regard to the genericism of the offerings for those who do not own the settings of the different game companies than previous volumes.
Gaming Frontiers Volume 3 is, strangely enough, the third in a series of magazine-style books offering a variety of supplemental material from d20 publishers.
Volume 3 is 144 B&W pages for $19.95. Compare this with Volume 2, which was $17.95 for 160 full colour pages, or Mystic Eye's Hunt: Rise Of Evil, a campaign setting at the same price with the same page count. Within the 144 pages are several advertisements taking up about 7 pages. Several areas of white space are apparent but margins and font are good. Art varies from poor to superb, with most being poor to average. There are also a few comic strips and one-offs. The writing style again varies with the author. Editing seems good.
This is what's inside:
A 6-page d20 Deadlands adventure, Outlaw Of Kumeyaay Canyon, centred around the secrets of a mining shaft.
6 pages of locations for Thunderhead Games' Bluffside city setting, and one location suitable for Dragonstar.
8 page adventure, The Scorpion's Tail, for the Sovereign Stone setting, set in Western Dunkarga, for 1st-level characters. It involves the Taan.
6-page article on burial rituals.
6-page article on aliens for Goodman Games' dinosaur setting.
4-page question and answer session with Monte Cook on making magic items, with some extremely useful advice on figuring the market value of magical items and using Table 8-40 of the DMG with caution: "Some days I look at Table 8-40 of the DMG and wish it wasn't there at all." The highlight of the book.
5-page adventure, by Guildhouse Games, for PCs of levels 5-6, involving a cold-hearted wizard and a missing shipment of magical supplies.
12-page section covering Gaslight Press' version of fey for their Sun & Scale campaign. They treat Fey as more of a template and give them a very Celtic flavour. Their Fey live in Faerie, a part of the Ethereal Plane. The section has information on creating and travelling on magical faerie paths, accessing the Fey realm, items made of elemental wood, the fey court, fey currency, and a number of new fey creatures, each one attached to a court linked to a season.
5 pages of oriental monsters from Green Ronin.
A 5-page preview of Bastion Press' Oathbound campaign setting.
6-page article on Chinese warfare three thousand years ago.
2-page article on Trottigen Giants from Troll Lord Games.
6-page article on Heliocentric Studios' Validus Populia, a d20 superhero game.
13-page adventure for 5th-level PCs. The Lost Crypt Of Shizaraht involves the PCs in solving the mystery of an ancient forest crypt, with some nice maps and a couple of new creatures.
5-page excerpt from Malhavoc Press' The Banewarrens adventure.
5-page adventure, Darkspyre, from Hammerdog Games for PCs of 6-8th level. Can be run as an aftermath to their published adventure Assualt On Darkspyre.
3-page enhancement to Living Imagination's Broadsides module about adventure on the high seas. Covers ship operational costs, trade good prices, and oceanic encounters.
5-page enhancement for Atlas Games' Occult Lore, detailing a selection of new herbs and their uses.
5-page section on troll subspecies from Mongoose Publishing.
6-page adventure, The Burning Tiger, set in 0one Games' Seven Avengers setting, where PCs must investigate a tomb dedicated to a famous battle with a monstrous tiger. Strangely, the adventure is designed for two 5th-level PCs who should not play together until they reach the main room of the adventure.
4-page article giving advice on getting published in the d20 business - the article concentrates on monsters and the uses of the SRD.
2 pages of reviews on game accessories.
3 pages describing a jarldom for a new world.
5 pages describing an organization of evil mages.
Conclusion:
Though poorer in terms of content amount versus price than its predecessor, there are several articles here that are excellent in terms of quality, and I found it on the whole a more useful offering than Volume 2. I still have issues with the type of content found within, but it was definitely better with regard to the genericism of the offerings for those who do not own the settings of the different game companies than previous volumes.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Gaming Frontiers Volume 3
Edited by Robert J. Williams
Published by United Playtest
144 b & w pages
$19.95
Well, we all knew it couldn’t last forever. Gaming Frontiers #3 is the first volume to not only lose the color but suffers a price increase as well. What’s worse, this issue is late and several of the articles inside aren’t quite as useful now as they’d have been a few months ago. Does this mean that Gaming Frontiers is no longer as useful and full of goodies as it has in the past? In a word, no.
Now I’m not a true d20 coinsurer. I like D&D. There might be times when I try out something like Spyrcraft and I’m looking forward to picking up Silver Age Sentinels D20 to compare it against the tri-stat version but for the most part, I’m a D&D fan. Gaming Frontiers manages to capture my interest again with some very useful articles.
To me, one of the most overlooked roles in the campaign is characters deaths. Now I’ve been guilty of glossing over the burials and deaths of characters without much interaction in the campaign and for many characters, it’ll stay that way. When the need does strike however for more detail burials and funeral information, Grave Thoughts by Bryan Fagan will help me set the pace and provide details based on historical burials.
Now another article, Aliens from the Dinosaur Planet, normally wouldn’t have too much room on my plate but the stat blocks for the Shamburu Neonate Warrior can help fill out the ranks of some creatures while the technology can easily be explained as foreign magic items that require different style feats and abilities to craft. The Karnatt Slavers, ‘chimp-sized omnivores’, can make for excellent planar raiders whose technology includes slave boxes and skull rippers to make some great villains.
For those like me who occasionally delve past the GM shield and play a wizard character or for those GMs who’d like some more ideas on how magic item creation rules were first thought of, the section Making Magic Items by Monte Cook provides a lot of details that help player and GM come up with methods of making magic items while helping to clear the thought process behind the prices in the DMG for magic items.
When I want to add something a little different to my campaign involving the Fey, Beyond the Fields We Know by Richard Thames is an article that supplements the Valdan Wilds, a sourcebook for the Sun & Scale campaign. The article provides details on the Fey Realms, new magic items, races and details on the Fey Race. While the section does a nice job of putting the races into monster blocks, it fails to present them as character races so hopefully we’ll get some more details as Gaslight Press evolves.
In terms of something different, Monsters from the East brings in a few monstrous treats like the Possessed Boar. If you’ve seen Princes Monoke, then you know what this large creature is, a shadow worm ridden large board whose powers enable it to crush almost any opposition. The Children of Kodomo-no-Inari are small fey creatures that are fox like in appearance. The Funadama is a water elemental that looks like a dragon turtle and the Mogura-ninja, a ‘mole-ninja’ that hires itself out for assassinations. The section closes out with the Te-No-Me, an undead that hunts down those who do evil to the blind.
In a vein right alongside the Monsters from the East, the Role of History showcases the Era of the Warring States and here, Andrew Hind provides lots of details about this timeline in China and provides the GM enough information to get his juices flowing. The only bad thing is that there’s no list of recommending reading to help further a GMs knowledge of the timeline. Still, GMs can use the racial stats for the people of the time, along with the notes to start off some interesting ideas.
For those who hunger for more traditional monsters, the Trottigen Giants might not meant your needs. These powerful creatures are native to the pathways between Erde and Inzae and possess great power despite their (hopefully typo) low challenge rating of 1/10th. More useful, to me at least, is the section, There is More Under the Bridge, which presents troll varieties from Mongoose that were left out of the Slayer’s Guide to Trolls. Now in some ways, I find it ironic that this is the 2nd time I’ve thought the material in Gaming Frontiers has had some real value that could’ve been perfect in the Slayer’s Guide itself. I enjoy the different troll subspecies here, Bog, Deep Cave, Eldritch, and Shadow. Each one has background information, illustration and full stat blocks for ease of inclusion into a game. I’ll probably throw an Eldritch Troll into my own campaign as these creatures can be non-violent and are often on the search for magic and mastery over arcane abilities.
There’s a lot of other good stuff within the book that’ll make it’s way into my own campaign sooner or latter. Take adventures for example. Can you ever have enough of them? Now I’m not a Deadlands fan so the Outlaw of Kumeyaay Canyon isn’t going to cut it for me, and while I’m not playing a Sovereign Stone campaign, The Scorpion’s Tail has some elements I can pull whole into my own campaign. In Pursuit of Magic however, by Guildhouse Games, fits right into their new module/sourcebook, A Mage’s Tale, and The Lost Crypt of Shizaraht by Wil Upchurch fits just about into any campaign. Darkspyre and The Burning Tiger may see some use in my campaign but it’ll be a while.
The various sections on Uncharted Territory include some PoIs for Bluffside by Thunderhead Games, There’s No Business Like Sail Business by Living Imagination, Herbs, by Atlas Games, and the Order of the Crimson Aba by Andrew Hind. Now the PoIs can be used in almost any campaign setting and I’ll be adding them to Mithril in the near future as I’m always in the need for more places for characters to go to. The section on There’s No business Like Sail Business provides a lot of detail for those wishing to make money on the sailing business. Numerous charts help the Gm determine the price paid, price earned, type of good and what ocean encounters can happen. Herbs is another extension to Occult Lore by Atlas Games so when one of the players decides to take up the role of herbalist, between this article and the ones on D20 Weekly, I’ll be set. The Order of the Crimson Aba is a collection of spellcasters that’s more set to an Arabian era so it’ll be a while before I introduce these villains to my own campaign.
One section that’s tricky, On the Horizon, fails a little here as it covers Oathbound and the Banewarrens, both of which have been out and have numerous reviews and supplemental material available. I’m hoping that we’ll see some more ties into other books and perhaps even upcoming series in the future. It’d be interesting to get to see in print something like a preview of Mongoose’s Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolfs or other publications that are normally only PDF.
For those who’ve hated the fiction section and the review section, cheer on. Both are gone in this issue and the reviews have gone to the web page so more space is freed up. However, there is still some quick looks at useful items that d20 players should find useful like the various Weapons books that Palladium has resurrected.
Gaming Frontiers is still going to have a struggle ahead of itself but this issue is a good step in the right direction.
Edited by Robert J. Williams
Published by United Playtest
144 b & w pages
$19.95
Well, we all knew it couldn’t last forever. Gaming Frontiers #3 is the first volume to not only lose the color but suffers a price increase as well. What’s worse, this issue is late and several of the articles inside aren’t quite as useful now as they’d have been a few months ago. Does this mean that Gaming Frontiers is no longer as useful and full of goodies as it has in the past? In a word, no.
Now I’m not a true d20 coinsurer. I like D&D. There might be times when I try out something like Spyrcraft and I’m looking forward to picking up Silver Age Sentinels D20 to compare it against the tri-stat version but for the most part, I’m a D&D fan. Gaming Frontiers manages to capture my interest again with some very useful articles.
To me, one of the most overlooked roles in the campaign is characters deaths. Now I’ve been guilty of glossing over the burials and deaths of characters without much interaction in the campaign and for many characters, it’ll stay that way. When the need does strike however for more detail burials and funeral information, Grave Thoughts by Bryan Fagan will help me set the pace and provide details based on historical burials.
Now another article, Aliens from the Dinosaur Planet, normally wouldn’t have too much room on my plate but the stat blocks for the Shamburu Neonate Warrior can help fill out the ranks of some creatures while the technology can easily be explained as foreign magic items that require different style feats and abilities to craft. The Karnatt Slavers, ‘chimp-sized omnivores’, can make for excellent planar raiders whose technology includes slave boxes and skull rippers to make some great villains.
For those like me who occasionally delve past the GM shield and play a wizard character or for those GMs who’d like some more ideas on how magic item creation rules were first thought of, the section Making Magic Items by Monte Cook provides a lot of details that help player and GM come up with methods of making magic items while helping to clear the thought process behind the prices in the DMG for magic items.
When I want to add something a little different to my campaign involving the Fey, Beyond the Fields We Know by Richard Thames is an article that supplements the Valdan Wilds, a sourcebook for the Sun & Scale campaign. The article provides details on the Fey Realms, new magic items, races and details on the Fey Race. While the section does a nice job of putting the races into monster blocks, it fails to present them as character races so hopefully we’ll get some more details as Gaslight Press evolves.
In terms of something different, Monsters from the East brings in a few monstrous treats like the Possessed Boar. If you’ve seen Princes Monoke, then you know what this large creature is, a shadow worm ridden large board whose powers enable it to crush almost any opposition. The Children of Kodomo-no-Inari are small fey creatures that are fox like in appearance. The Funadama is a water elemental that looks like a dragon turtle and the Mogura-ninja, a ‘mole-ninja’ that hires itself out for assassinations. The section closes out with the Te-No-Me, an undead that hunts down those who do evil to the blind.
In a vein right alongside the Monsters from the East, the Role of History showcases the Era of the Warring States and here, Andrew Hind provides lots of details about this timeline in China and provides the GM enough information to get his juices flowing. The only bad thing is that there’s no list of recommending reading to help further a GMs knowledge of the timeline. Still, GMs can use the racial stats for the people of the time, along with the notes to start off some interesting ideas.
For those who hunger for more traditional monsters, the Trottigen Giants might not meant your needs. These powerful creatures are native to the pathways between Erde and Inzae and possess great power despite their (hopefully typo) low challenge rating of 1/10th. More useful, to me at least, is the section, There is More Under the Bridge, which presents troll varieties from Mongoose that were left out of the Slayer’s Guide to Trolls. Now in some ways, I find it ironic that this is the 2nd time I’ve thought the material in Gaming Frontiers has had some real value that could’ve been perfect in the Slayer’s Guide itself. I enjoy the different troll subspecies here, Bog, Deep Cave, Eldritch, and Shadow. Each one has background information, illustration and full stat blocks for ease of inclusion into a game. I’ll probably throw an Eldritch Troll into my own campaign as these creatures can be non-violent and are often on the search for magic and mastery over arcane abilities.
There’s a lot of other good stuff within the book that’ll make it’s way into my own campaign sooner or latter. Take adventures for example. Can you ever have enough of them? Now I’m not a Deadlands fan so the Outlaw of Kumeyaay Canyon isn’t going to cut it for me, and while I’m not playing a Sovereign Stone campaign, The Scorpion’s Tail has some elements I can pull whole into my own campaign. In Pursuit of Magic however, by Guildhouse Games, fits right into their new module/sourcebook, A Mage’s Tale, and The Lost Crypt of Shizaraht by Wil Upchurch fits just about into any campaign. Darkspyre and The Burning Tiger may see some use in my campaign but it’ll be a while.
The various sections on Uncharted Territory include some PoIs for Bluffside by Thunderhead Games, There’s No Business Like Sail Business by Living Imagination, Herbs, by Atlas Games, and the Order of the Crimson Aba by Andrew Hind. Now the PoIs can be used in almost any campaign setting and I’ll be adding them to Mithril in the near future as I’m always in the need for more places for characters to go to. The section on There’s No business Like Sail Business provides a lot of detail for those wishing to make money on the sailing business. Numerous charts help the Gm determine the price paid, price earned, type of good and what ocean encounters can happen. Herbs is another extension to Occult Lore by Atlas Games so when one of the players decides to take up the role of herbalist, between this article and the ones on D20 Weekly, I’ll be set. The Order of the Crimson Aba is a collection of spellcasters that’s more set to an Arabian era so it’ll be a while before I introduce these villains to my own campaign.
One section that’s tricky, On the Horizon, fails a little here as it covers Oathbound and the Banewarrens, both of which have been out and have numerous reviews and supplemental material available. I’m hoping that we’ll see some more ties into other books and perhaps even upcoming series in the future. It’d be interesting to get to see in print something like a preview of Mongoose’s Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolfs or other publications that are normally only PDF.
For those who’ve hated the fiction section and the review section, cheer on. Both are gone in this issue and the reviews have gone to the web page so more space is freed up. However, there is still some quick looks at useful items that d20 players should find useful like the various Weapons books that Palladium has resurrected.
Gaming Frontiers is still going to have a struggle ahead of itself but this issue is a good step in the right direction.
Psion
Adventurer
Gaming Fronties Volume 3
Gaming Frontiers is a periodical publication that contains a variety of d20 system related articles, contributed from a variety of publisher. Gaming Frontiers is published by United Playtest, Inc.
A First Look
Gaming Fronties Volume 3 is a 144 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.95. This is relatively inexpensive for a product of this size.
The cover has a digital image of a man in futuristic garb imprisoned in some sort of church while an official examines his futuristic weapon. The picture is by Luis Corte Real, who you may recognize from some early Malhavoc and Mongoose works.
The interior is black and white with a variety of artists; presumably the various contributing publishers put their own artists to work on their contributions. In addition, Tony Mosely, RPG comic-strip artist that you may recognize from the pages of Dragon, has several strips in this volume.
The interior layout is nice and the interior text is dense. Sidebars are nicely offset.
Though Gaming Frontiers makes itself out as being more than just a magazine -- and in many ways it does resemble a typical print product -- it does have a few advertisements by the contributing publishers.
A Deeper Look
Gaming Frontiers Volume 3 contains a number of contributed articles from a variety of d20 system publishers, including product promotions, excerpts, and additional material.
There are six adventures in the issue, including one adventure for Deadlands and one for the Sovereign Stone setting, as well as four generic d20 fantasy adventures. In Pursuit of Magic (by Guildhouse Games) is a typical rescue scenario in which the players investigate a missing caravan. The Lost Crypt of Shizaraht (by FFG's Will Upchurch) has the players investigating strange happenings that stem from the unearthed evil in an ancient crypt. Darkspyre (by Hammerdog Games) is a short mission that can be added to that company's adventure Assault on Darkspyre. The Burning Tiger (by 0one Games) is a short adventure set in 0one Game's Seven Avengers setting.
There are a number of excerpts and additional material from a variety of products. The introductory encounter from Malhavoc Press' Banewarrens is included, in which the players face a drow that causes havoc by awakening magical abilities in unsuspecting citizens. There are some new creatures for the Broncosaurus Rex game, as well as other "cutting room floor" material. There are as new troll variants that were dropped from Mongoose's Slayer's Guide to Trolls (which sadly seemed more interesting than much of the material that was included in that product). Green Ronin brings us Asian-fantasy inspired creatures including a possessed boar that will seem familiar to fans of Princess Mononoke.
There are a few all-new articles and products. As a fan of Asian fantasy, I found Andrew Hind's article on the warring states period in China rather interesting. Other interesting article include one on adding your own spin to the description-free entries in the SRD and one on burial rites in a fantasy setting. GMs looking for a small quick setting may find the Isle of Ormenos to their liking.
Conclusion
Gaming Frontiers claims to be more than a magazine, and in some ways it is. You will find a larger variety of articles from a variety of publishers than you are likely to see in the pages of Dragon. If you only have limited exposure to a few d20 system publishers, it might be worth picking up a volume of Gaming Frontiers just to get a taste of what is out there.
That said, Gaming Frontiers suffers from the "grab bag" syndrome. I found some very good articles herein that I am likely to use. But I also found many articles that are so specific to the game worlds with which they are associated, you are likely to only get use out of them if you are already following those lines -- the Deadlands and Sovereign Stone adventures come to mind here. Further, some of the material is simple excerpts of dubious value or material you can get free online, such as Monte Cook's magic item creation FAQ.
-Alan D. Kohler
Gaming Frontiers is a periodical publication that contains a variety of d20 system related articles, contributed from a variety of publisher. Gaming Frontiers is published by United Playtest, Inc.
A First Look
Gaming Fronties Volume 3 is a 144 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.95. This is relatively inexpensive for a product of this size.
The cover has a digital image of a man in futuristic garb imprisoned in some sort of church while an official examines his futuristic weapon. The picture is by Luis Corte Real, who you may recognize from some early Malhavoc and Mongoose works.
The interior is black and white with a variety of artists; presumably the various contributing publishers put their own artists to work on their contributions. In addition, Tony Mosely, RPG comic-strip artist that you may recognize from the pages of Dragon, has several strips in this volume.
The interior layout is nice and the interior text is dense. Sidebars are nicely offset.
Though Gaming Frontiers makes itself out as being more than just a magazine -- and in many ways it does resemble a typical print product -- it does have a few advertisements by the contributing publishers.
A Deeper Look
Gaming Frontiers Volume 3 contains a number of contributed articles from a variety of d20 system publishers, including product promotions, excerpts, and additional material.
There are six adventures in the issue, including one adventure for Deadlands and one for the Sovereign Stone setting, as well as four generic d20 fantasy adventures. In Pursuit of Magic (by Guildhouse Games) is a typical rescue scenario in which the players investigate a missing caravan. The Lost Crypt of Shizaraht (by FFG's Will Upchurch) has the players investigating strange happenings that stem from the unearthed evil in an ancient crypt. Darkspyre (by Hammerdog Games) is a short mission that can be added to that company's adventure Assault on Darkspyre. The Burning Tiger (by 0one Games) is a short adventure set in 0one Game's Seven Avengers setting.
There are a number of excerpts and additional material from a variety of products. The introductory encounter from Malhavoc Press' Banewarrens is included, in which the players face a drow that causes havoc by awakening magical abilities in unsuspecting citizens. There are some new creatures for the Broncosaurus Rex game, as well as other "cutting room floor" material. There are as new troll variants that were dropped from Mongoose's Slayer's Guide to Trolls (which sadly seemed more interesting than much of the material that was included in that product). Green Ronin brings us Asian-fantasy inspired creatures including a possessed boar that will seem familiar to fans of Princess Mononoke.
There are a few all-new articles and products. As a fan of Asian fantasy, I found Andrew Hind's article on the warring states period in China rather interesting. Other interesting article include one on adding your own spin to the description-free entries in the SRD and one on burial rites in a fantasy setting. GMs looking for a small quick setting may find the Isle of Ormenos to their liking.
Conclusion
Gaming Frontiers claims to be more than a magazine, and in some ways it is. You will find a larger variety of articles from a variety of publishers than you are likely to see in the pages of Dragon. If you only have limited exposure to a few d20 system publishers, it might be worth picking up a volume of Gaming Frontiers just to get a taste of what is out there.
That said, Gaming Frontiers suffers from the "grab bag" syndrome. I found some very good articles herein that I am likely to use. But I also found many articles that are so specific to the game worlds with which they are associated, you are likely to only get use out of them if you are already following those lines -- the Deadlands and Sovereign Stone adventures come to mind here. Further, some of the material is simple excerpts of dubious value or material you can get free online, such as Monte Cook's magic item creation FAQ.
-Alan D. Kohler
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