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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009542" data-attributes="member: 9860">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.</blockquote>

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