The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I was happy to see that another magazine is out there to complete with Dragon magazine to provide me with D20 information for use in my D&D and other games. Here are my thoughts on Campaign Magazine's first issue.

First, I like the logo and the cover art by Elmore. Sure, it's a rehash of some Sovereign Stone stuff but given that Sovereign Stone is discussed inside, I didn't mind seeing it hear. The magazine's logo is attractive and catches your attention.

Inside the magazine is black and white. The paper is of fair quality but nowhere near as nice as Dragon or most major magazines out there. At times some of the artwork is a little hard to see. This is especially true for the graphs on p.30-31 and the computer screens on p.69-71. In this case either some pages with color should have been included and/or the pictures should have been made larger in my opinion.

With regard to content I found some plusses and minuses.

On the plus side, I liked the Elder Sons prestige class, Company of the Golden Sword, By the Numbers, and the several BorderWorlds Campaign Setting/Sci-Fi articles from p.42-68. These are the kinds of generic plug-and-play type articles I was hoping for and received. These are easily adapted to most campaigns and already have given me some ideas. The product reviews are pretty good too, though given how long it's been since D&D 3E came out a number of the reviews were for older products and not the latest batch of stuff. The D20 questions interview was also good.

On the minus side, several pages on computer games seems wasteful given the many computer gaming magazines out there with much nicer paper and color. A mention of these new games in the news section and some URLs for more information would have been fine. The Sovereign Stone, Deadlands, Fumble Charts, and Trembling Hill adventure are all previews of things available elsewhere as complete products and are OK but there are just too many of them here. One per issue would have been fine. Some more original material would have been better, say regular articles on new spells, new magic items, prestige classes, skills, feats, monsters, or other goodies.

Lastly, the closing editorial from John Wick seemed out of place a little. Sure, he has a right to vent and complain about how one of the D&D designers thought his 7th Sea system sucked but it would have been more useful if he had talked about what he really did and didn't like about D20 and compared that to other systems rather than saying it's basically just a "task resolution system". Mind you, I think 7th Sea is cool and have a number of products. Like many gamers, I don't just play D20. I wish Mr. Wick had talked a little bit more about why he thinks say D20 is better/worse in different areas than 7th Sea rather than go on a rant. Just my opinion. At one page, it can neither make or break the magazine.

So in summary, the magazine has a lot of potential and at least 36/80 pages are of the variety of content I find useful for general use in a D20 game. Dragon magazine in comparison is $1 more but of higher production quality and has a larger page count, though not necessarily more useful page count. Dragon also has more ads, for better or worse. I liked the sci-fi theme here and hope that they continue to have themes to orient campaign settings, new goodies, and adventures around. A good job so far and worth it in my opinion.

Campaign Magazine #1
Campaign Magazine #1 Capsule Review by Jim Zecca on 05/10/01 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) A good start with some fairly useful articles and reviews Product: Campaign Magazine #1 Author: Jon Leitheusser (editor) Category: Magazine Company/Publisher: Corsair Publishing, LLC Line: D20 Cost: $4.99 Page count: 80 Year published: 2001 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Jim Zecca on 05/10/01 Genre tags: Fantasy Science Fiction Space	I was happy to see that another magazine is out there to complete with Dragon magazine to provide me with D20 information for use in my D&D and other games. Here are my thoughts on Campaign Magazine's first issue. First, I like the logo and the cover art by Elmore. Sure, it's a rehash of some Sovereign Stone stuff but given that Sovereign Stone is discussed inside, I didn't mind seeing it hear. The magazine's logo is attractive and catches your attention. Inside the magazine is black and white. The paper is of fair quality but nowhere near as nice as Dragon or most major magazines out there. At times some of the artwork is a little hard to see. This is especially true for the graphs on p.30-31 and the computer screens on p.69-71. In this case either some pages with color should have been included and/or the pictures should have been made larger in my opinion. With regard to content I found some plusses and minuses. On the plus side, I liked the Elder Sons prestige class, Company of the Golden Sword, By the Numbers, and the several BorderWorlds Campaign Setting/Sci-Fi articles from p.42-68. These are the kinds of generic plug-and-play type articles I was hoping for and received. These are easily adapted to most campaigns and already have given me some ideas. The product reviews are pretty good too, though given how long it's been since D&D 3E came out a number of the reviews were for older products and not the latest batch of stuff. The D20 questions interview was also good. On the minus side, several pages on computer games seems wasteful given the many computer gaming magazines out there with much nicer paper and color. A mention of these new games in the news section and some URLs for more information would have been fine. The Sovereign Stone, Deadlands, Fumble Charts, and Trembling Hill adventure are all previews of things available elsewhere as complete products and are OK but there are just too many of them here. One per issue would have been fine. Some more original material would have been better, say regular articles on new spells, new magic items, prestige classes, skills, feats, monsters, or other goodies. Lastly, the closing editorial from John Wick seemed out of place a little. Sure, he has a right to vent and complain about how one of the D&D designers thought his 7th Sea system sucked but it would have been more useful if he had talked about what he really did and didn't like about D20 and compared that to other systems rather than saying it's basically just a "task resolution system". Mind you, I think 7th Sea is cool and have a number of products. Like many gamers, I don't just play D20. I wish Mr. Wick had talked a little bit more about why he thinks say D20 is better/worse in different areas than 7th Sea rather than go on a rant. Just my opinion. At one page, it can neither make or break the magazine. So in summary, the magazine has a lot of potential and at least 36/80 pages are of the variety of content I find useful for general use in a D20 game. Dragon magazine in comparison is $1 more but of higher production quality and has a larger page count, though not necessarily more useful page count. Dragon also has more ads, for better or worse. I liked the sci-fi theme here and hope that they continue to have themes to orient campaign settings, new goodies, and adventures around. A good job so far and worth it in my opinion.

Campaign Magazine #1