JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Gaming Frontiers Volume Five hits the mark on several important issues and brings some new energy to the periodical.
First off is the massive series of articles on orcs, Legacy of Blood that are linked by Ed Bourelle, written by great writers. These are some of the big names now like Wil Upchurch, and Joseph Carriker. This was Ed Bourelle's book that was meant to come out from SkeletonKey Games some time ago and previewed in an earlier Gaming Frontiers.
In essence, this is a Complete Guide or a Slayer's Guide and is almost forty pages long. It has NPC's, it has history, it has habits, background, raiding ideas and other material that is focused on the GM's use of Orcs, as opposed to players taking over the Orcs as PC races. It's a good piece and it works well and gives the issue a meaty feeling that can be refereed to several times.
For me, some of the highlights of the issue were the timely excerpts and previews. While En Route II isn't brand new and When the Sky Falls is a dinosaur in d20 terms, A Warlord's Mind, an article with several spells from Arena by Bastion Press, Heroes of the Golden Age, information on The World of Morningstar including an example of one of their powerful races, the Meadow Elves, and The Wages of Sin, bonus material for Atlas Game's Crime and Punishment, all hit the spot.
I don't mind previews and looks at material that's going to be on the market. It helps me decide if something looks good or not. The material on Crime and Punishment for example, introduces Character Flaws that provide Benefit and Penalty in one swoop with ideas on how to incorporate the material into your character's background.
Things that didn't do anything for me personally are Getting Creative With Monsters by Monte, mainly because it's an online article that I've read before, and Hammerdog Games Nearside Project scenario. D20 Modern Games use a great system and can be fun but relying on Gaming Frontiers to help rely this setting is dangerous as this is a quarterly magazine and interest generated in one issue may not carry over to the next. The use of photographs also doesn't do anything for me for NPC's and locations. It's one of the main reasons I avoided a d20 Cyberpunk book that ran $35 bones a while ago and it's one of the reasons I can't find myself drawn into the material here.
Not that I have anything against d20 Modern. I find that at root, it's just as strong, if not stronger than it's fantasy counterpart. This plays off well in the adventure Loser's Prize where a man from our time winds up in a fantasy setting, inventing guns and other explosives and putting the wizards on edge as people see a new, strange type of mage with different abilities. Of course, nothing's ever easy and all sorts of people, including the agency that the modern man worked at, want him. It provides a good evening or three's worth of adventure and should provide the GM with some options to cross the genres if he wants.
The World X project comes along nicely this issue with the Kingdom of Urmir and the Grand Duchy of Luma by Chris Negelein. Some background, some campaign ideas and even a PrC help round out World X more. The nice thing is that druids are one of the lynchpins of the kingdom's strength. The druids fight in the army, they help make the decisions that rule over the land. They take an active hand that I rarely see in published material outside of the 'advisor' role. I hope to see more of this world as things continue.
The editing this issue took a hit though. Look at the Assistant Editorsr (yes, spelled that way right on the first page) and numerous other misspellings and grammar errors. Not a problem for everyone, but anyone whose able to read this review is able to read Monte's site and has seen his material before. Paying for it doesn't make it better. Some of the material, like When the Sky Falls, is also out of date and unlike the bonus material for Crime and Punishment, is reprinted material as opposed to new.
Gaming Frontiers continues to push forward and includes a mini-sourcebook on orcs in addition to it's usual assortment of great material. Hopefully next issue can build on the timely factor and eliminate the material already available on the web. The orc mini-book is a great addition to any GM's resources for orcs and if they can continue with this tradition of full fledged mini-books, they may have found a new niche.
First off is the massive series of articles on orcs, Legacy of Blood that are linked by Ed Bourelle, written by great writers. These are some of the big names now like Wil Upchurch, and Joseph Carriker. This was Ed Bourelle's book that was meant to come out from SkeletonKey Games some time ago and previewed in an earlier Gaming Frontiers.
In essence, this is a Complete Guide or a Slayer's Guide and is almost forty pages long. It has NPC's, it has history, it has habits, background, raiding ideas and other material that is focused on the GM's use of Orcs, as opposed to players taking over the Orcs as PC races. It's a good piece and it works well and gives the issue a meaty feeling that can be refereed to several times.
For me, some of the highlights of the issue were the timely excerpts and previews. While En Route II isn't brand new and When the Sky Falls is a dinosaur in d20 terms, A Warlord's Mind, an article with several spells from Arena by Bastion Press, Heroes of the Golden Age, information on The World of Morningstar including an example of one of their powerful races, the Meadow Elves, and The Wages of Sin, bonus material for Atlas Game's Crime and Punishment, all hit the spot.
I don't mind previews and looks at material that's going to be on the market. It helps me decide if something looks good or not. The material on Crime and Punishment for example, introduces Character Flaws that provide Benefit and Penalty in one swoop with ideas on how to incorporate the material into your character's background.
Things that didn't do anything for me personally are Getting Creative With Monsters by Monte, mainly because it's an online article that I've read before, and Hammerdog Games Nearside Project scenario. D20 Modern Games use a great system and can be fun but relying on Gaming Frontiers to help rely this setting is dangerous as this is a quarterly magazine and interest generated in one issue may not carry over to the next. The use of photographs also doesn't do anything for me for NPC's and locations. It's one of the main reasons I avoided a d20 Cyberpunk book that ran $35 bones a while ago and it's one of the reasons I can't find myself drawn into the material here.
Not that I have anything against d20 Modern. I find that at root, it's just as strong, if not stronger than it's fantasy counterpart. This plays off well in the adventure Loser's Prize where a man from our time winds up in a fantasy setting, inventing guns and other explosives and putting the wizards on edge as people see a new, strange type of mage with different abilities. Of course, nothing's ever easy and all sorts of people, including the agency that the modern man worked at, want him. It provides a good evening or three's worth of adventure and should provide the GM with some options to cross the genres if he wants.
The World X project comes along nicely this issue with the Kingdom of Urmir and the Grand Duchy of Luma by Chris Negelein. Some background, some campaign ideas and even a PrC help round out World X more. The nice thing is that druids are one of the lynchpins of the kingdom's strength. The druids fight in the army, they help make the decisions that rule over the land. They take an active hand that I rarely see in published material outside of the 'advisor' role. I hope to see more of this world as things continue.
The editing this issue took a hit though. Look at the Assistant Editorsr (yes, spelled that way right on the first page) and numerous other misspellings and grammar errors. Not a problem for everyone, but anyone whose able to read this review is able to read Monte's site and has seen his material before. Paying for it doesn't make it better. Some of the material, like When the Sky Falls, is also out of date and unlike the bonus material for Crime and Punishment, is reprinted material as opposed to new.
Gaming Frontiers continues to push forward and includes a mini-sourcebook on orcs in addition to it's usual assortment of great material. Hopefully next issue can build on the timely factor and eliminate the material already available on the web. The orc mini-book is a great addition to any GM's resources for orcs and if they can continue with this tradition of full fledged mini-books, they may have found a new niche.
