The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I like collecting RPGs and seeing what different companies are doing and this time I'm glad I did. Sometimes you order something and it arrives and you want to send it back immediately. This was not one of those times. The Magic Frontiers RPG is published by a company I had never heard about until this past year - Event Horizon Publications (www.magicfrontiers.com). I liked some of their ideas in their Rolepaper magazine and saw an ad for Magic Frontiers on the back cover. It arrived quickly, which was great. Nothing worse than sitting around for 4-6 weeks to get something you wanted yesterday.

The book is 330 pages but it has a decent index and table of contents. It is broken into chapters with headings and page numbers at the top so it is easy to navigate while refereeing, although perhaps some sort of fancier bar across the top would be nice in future books. Each chapter segues into the next and one thing that stands out is that it is written so that people who are new to roleplaying (I have GM'ed for 18 years) could easily pick up the concepts and roleplay.

Magic Frontiers is set in the far future. It combines archaic weapons and armor like spears and wooden shields with advanced ones like laser machine guns and plasti armor. Characters can literally be anything you can imagine from humanoids to mineroids. There is a system for generating your own races with their unique traits as well as a pre-generated race section at the back of the book where you can select from a variety of races. My group all wanted to be Molgur, this race of assassins that was enslaved and now seeks vengeance against their former masters.

Combat comes in two types. There's a basic section where you use a combat table from the book along with some weapon and character modifiers to find out what number you need to roll on a d20. It works really well since characters can attack with all kinds of things - weapons like swords and guns, natural attacks like fangs and spiked tails, magical attacks like spells and mind powers. The second part is an advanced combat section but rather than getting more difficult to run - the advanced combat teaches you to run combat without looking at the table, which turns out to be easy and very intuitive after awhile. Advanced combat covers steeds getting into the fight too. It also explains transport combat which can range from starship battles to tank fights to sub wars to cannons mounted on the back of dragons. It even explains how to mix transport combat with character combat. And it is a lot of fun. I'm not sure how balanced combat is with a group of really high level characters. We haven't made it that far yet. My group is mostly 7th and 8th level characters but so far it works really well.

The magic in Magic Frontiers comes in three types - AEM which stands for Arcana, Elementa, and Mindra (mind, body and soul). There are lots of powers to choose from and they are well balanced into the rest of the game. Power professionals use points to summon their powers and they can regain their points several ways depending on what they are. Shamans for instance gain more points back when they are active, while warlocks need their rest. One thing my players love about the magician profession is that when you kill another magician you temporarily suck up their power and can use the stolen points as a one shot reservoir of magic.

If you love robots, you will really like this way of creating them as characters. It takes some time to make sure you are selecting the right Parts and Programs for your characters but once you know what hardware goes with what kind of robot it goes quickly. Although most players I have found want to play Automatons, which are shapeshifting robots. But cyborgs have also been popular since you can combine them with a strange race like a Cyborg Insectoid.

The transport section is one of the bests. Not only does it cover a huge range of stuff like hydrocarriers, gun cruisers and hover cars, but each entry inspires new adventure ideas (this is really important in this game. You can really tell it was written by someone with a lot of refereeing experience and a great imagination). I read the entire book straight through in one sitting and was inspired to start playing right away. Chapter 8 is the Systems chapter and it covers building your own transports giving them shields and cannons and just about everything else you could imagine. One of my players kept buying freighters and having lounges installed on them inside the cargo bays. He would invite other characters into dine and then go into orbit and open the bays, later scavenging the goods off the decompressed patrons.

The ABCs section covers encounters. There about 150 or more of all kinds. My favorite is Biak's Floating Head of Death, a robotic overseer that quells disruptions on worlds. There are beasts of burden and steeds. Lots of different citizens (ABC stands for Aliens, Beasts and Citizens). Most are illustrated and they all inspire adventure ideas. It's amazing. If you have ever gone to a great movie and thought it was exceptionally cool, that is all I can think of to explain Magic Frontiers.

The Technology section is well rounded with advanced and lowtech equipment. It is broken down into Armor, Weaponry, Illumination, Helmets and Accessories, Clothing, Survival Gear, etc. The more advanced weapons use lasers, grav (short for amber bursts of gravity) and electro (a pulse type attack form).

The Travel and Movement section explains character movement and transport movement like starship travel times. It also has information about obstacles like blast doors. The Adventures chapter explains how to run adventures (as I said easy enough for beginners to understand but not remedial for seasoned referees. I enjoyed it). If that weren't enough there is an entire chapter on some of the coolest hightech and enchanted items around. If you get it read the entries for Robe of Change, the Ghostwinds, and Zeluut's Maze - my favorites. The Ghostwinds are these universal spirits that make great adventure elements.

Overall I rate Magic Frontiers two thumbs up. The interior is black and white. Plenty of illustrations. Tons of adventure ideas. If you ever run out, you can get more adventure ideas at the web site (www.magicfrontiers.com). The weekly frontier news they post is awesome and consisitently inspirational (just not neat, but cool). It is good value at $28 since you get free shipping which would otherwise be expensive if you live outside the U.S. I don't know how widespread the game has become but they may have the next big RPG. I hope their future supplements are as thoughtfully entertaining.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Explorer Edition Magic Frontiers RPG
Author: Wyant, Editor Hancock Category: game Company/Publisher: Event Horizon Publications Cost: $28 Page count: 330 ISBN: 1-883788-56-0 Playtest Review by Scott Peters on 02/26/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Far_Future Space	I like collecting RPGs and seeing what different companies are doing and this time I'm glad I did. Sometimes you order something and it arrives and you want to send it back immediately. This was not one of those times. The Magic Frontiers RPG is published by a company I had never heard about until this past year - Event Horizon Publications (www.magicfrontiers.com). I liked some of their ideas in their Rolepaper magazine and saw an ad for Magic Frontiers on the back cover. It arrived quickly, which was great. Nothing worse than sitting around for 4-6 weeks to get something you wanted yesterday. The book is 330 pages but it has a decent index and table of contents. It is broken into chapters with headings and page numbers at the top so it is easy to navigate while refereeing, although perhaps some sort of fancier bar across the top would be nice in future books. Each chapter segues into the next and one thing that stands out is that it is written so that people who are new to roleplaying (I have GM'ed for 18 years) could easily pick up the concepts and roleplay. Magic Frontiers is set in the far future. It combines archaic weapons and armor like spears and wooden shields with advanced ones like laser machine guns and plasti armor. Characters can literally be anything you can imagine from humanoids to mineroids. There is a system for generating your own races with their unique traits as well as a pre-generated race section at the back of the book where you can select from a variety of races. My group all wanted to be Molgur, this race of assassins that was enslaved and now seeks vengeance against their former masters. Combat comes in two types. There's a basic section where you use a combat table from the book along with some weapon and character modifiers to find out what number you need to roll on a d20. It works really well since characters can attack with all kinds of things - weapons like swords and guns, natural attacks like fangs and spiked tails, magical attacks like spells and mind powers. The second part is an advanced combat section but rather than getting more difficult to run - the advanced combat teaches you to run combat without looking at the table, which turns out to be easy and very intuitive after awhile. Advanced combat covers steeds getting into the fight too. It also explains transport combat which can range from starship battles to tank fights to sub wars to cannons mounted on the back of dragons. It even explains how to mix transport combat with character combat. And it is a lot of fun. I'm not sure how balanced combat is with a group of really high level characters. We haven't made it that far yet. My group is mostly 7th and 8th level characters but so far it works really well. The magic in Magic Frontiers comes in three types - AEM which stands for Arcana, Elementa, and Mindra (mind, body and soul). There are lots of powers to choose from and they are well balanced into the rest of the game. Power professionals use points to summon their powers and they can regain their points several ways depending on what they are. Shamans for instance gain more points back when they are active, while warlocks need their rest. One thing my players love about the magician profession is that when you kill another magician you temporarily suck up their power and can use the stolen points as a one shot reservoir of magic. If you love robots, you will really like this way of creating them as characters. It takes some time to make sure you are selecting the right Parts and Programs for your characters but once you know what hardware goes with what kind of robot it goes quickly. Although most players I have found want to play Automatons, which are shapeshifting robots. But cyborgs have also been popular since you can combine them with a strange race like a Cyborg Insectoid. The transport section is one of the bests. Not only does it cover a huge range of stuff like hydrocarriers, gun cruisers and hover cars, but each entry inspires new adventure ideas (this is really important in this game. You can really tell it was written by someone with a lot of refereeing experience and a great imagination). I read the entire book straight through in one sitting and was inspired to start playing right away. Chapter 8 is the Systems chapter and it covers building your own transports giving them shields and cannons and just about everything else you could imagine. One of my players kept buying freighters and having lounges installed on them inside the cargo bays. He would invite other characters into dine and then go into orbit and open the bays, later scavenging the goods off the decompressed patrons. The ABCs section covers encounters. There about 150 or more of all kinds. My favorite is Biak's Floating Head of Death, a robotic overseer that quells disruptions on worlds. There are beasts of burden and steeds. Lots of different citizens (ABC stands for Aliens, Beasts and Citizens). Most are illustrated and they all inspire adventure ideas. It's amazing. If you have ever gone to a great movie and thought it was exceptionally cool, that is all I can think of to explain Magic Frontiers. The Technology section is well rounded with advanced and lowtech equipment. It is broken down into Armor, Weaponry, Illumination, Helmets and Accessories, Clothing, Survival Gear, etc. The more advanced weapons use lasers, grav (short for amber bursts of gravity) and electro (a pulse type attack form). The Travel and Movement section explains character movement and transport movement like starship travel times. It also has information about obstacles like blast doors. The Adventures chapter explains how to run adventures (as I said easy enough for beginners to understand but not remedial for seasoned referees. I enjoyed it). If that weren't enough there is an entire chapter on some of the coolest hightech and enchanted items around. If you get it read the entries for Robe of Change, the Ghostwinds, and Zeluut's Maze - my favorites. The Ghostwinds are these universal spirits that make great adventure elements. Overall I rate Magic Frontiers two thumbs up. The interior is black and white. Plenty of illustrations. Tons of adventure ideas. If you ever run out, you can get more adventure ideas at the web site (www.magicfrontiers.com). The weekly frontier news they post is awesome and consisitently inspirational (just not neat, but cool). It is good value at $28 since you get free shipping which would otherwise be expensive if you live outside the U.S. I don't know how widespread the game has become but they may have the next big RPG. I hope their future supplements are as thoughtfully entertaining. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Explorer Edition Magic Frontiers RPG