The Inside Scoop on Gaming

GAMING FRONTIERS – for all things D20

Gaming Frontiers is a magazine-styled anthology of (as the tag-line says) ‘all things d20’. This essentially means that it is a collection of publisher submitted fragments designed to showcase their product. It reminds me most of glossy fashion mags (large number of adverts supporting classy presentation) than a usual gaming magazine.

Opening Move

Flicking through this hefty magazine (while Jeffrey Carter would love to call this an anthology or sourcebook I can’t quite bring myself to join him in this term) I was immediately impressed by the sheer quality of the layout and presentation. The font is clean and highlights are made in contrasting colors. Artwork varies (it is all supplied by the individual D20 publishers) but is clean with no printing errors to my eye.

There are 19 submitted pieces (including three pieces of short fiction) as well as a selection of in-house articles, editorial musings and reviews. There are also several cartoons (by Mosely) to round things out. So what do we get for our gaming pleasure: *The Draaugr (a new monster type by Rob Kuntz from the forthcoming Codex Germanica) *Minions (new monsters from Bastion press) *Wages of Sin (an ‘account’ of slave pits from Mystic Eye Games) *Dinosaur Planet (a short history and two PrCs from Broncosaurus Rex from Goodman Games) *Dinosaurs (some more dinosaurs) *Tomb of Orosh (an adventure from Skeleton Key Games) *Brotherhood of Twenty Axes (an organization/cult from 0one Games) *Feeling lucky? (House rules for ‘luck’) *Ehtzara (a PrC for Arcanis from paradigm Concepts) *Tale of Grakis (poetry from Bard’s Productions) *The Falling Star (a bar in Corvis from Privateer Press) *Incoming! (New arrows and the like from Bastion press) *The Grand Temple of Jing (a puzzle adventure from Hammerdog Games) *Sands of Death (an excerpt from the Gladiator sourcebook by Mongoose) *Interstellar Journeys (some sci-fi from Black Arrow Games) *Scourge of the Wynn’drel Wastes (a capsule setting by Andrew Hind) *Fisher on the Lake of Souls (a creepy psychopomp from Atlas Games) *Veiled Threat (a location from Guildhouse Games) *No Tears in Freeport (fiction from Green Ronin) This is a lot of content so I am going to summarize. Each piece will probably appeal to you inasmuch as you like the company that submitted it. For example, I think John Nephew is a great writer and editor and so like ‘Fisher on the Lake of Souls’; on the other hand puzzle adventures annoy me so ‘The Grand Temple of Jing’ holds no such charms! Separate from such personal assessments the each section does give you could content that you could use in your game directly (with the exception of the fiction and poetry which are mood pieces!)

Mid-Game

Given that Gaming Frontiers has no single focus it is very hard to provide a comprehensive assessment without running this review to an unacceptable length. So to give you an idea of how you useful you may find this anthology I am going to present some of my most and least favorite pieces. ‘Fisher on the Lake of Souls’ This is a very creepy vignette (cut from Touched by the Gods) which details a small god that deals in resurrections. While I will not be using the Fisher directly in my ongoing campaign Stench of Death rules to cover PCs that abuse Raise Dead and the like. ‘The Falling Star’ is an a-typical fantasy with the lives of the regulars twisting into a tight and nasty little knot. We have assassins, criminals, retired genocidal mercenaries and outcast elf archmages rubbing shoulders in a dive with style. Good stuff for any game and the color illustrations by Matt Wilson are almost worth the price of admission by themselves! ‘The Grand Temple of Jing’ presents the sort of puzzle dungeon that I detest. However the stat blocks for the two new monsters are paragons of clarity, designed to be referenced during play as opposed to during a careful read at home. Good and bad together! ‘Tale of Grakis’ represents the sort of epic poetry we have not seen since the middle of the Dragonlance Saga. If you can recite epic, rhyming verse (several pages) during your games good on you. In addition to such up and downs we can also garner several other useful d20 snippets form reading the various pieces: Rob Kuntz has a poor grasp of current D&D rules but with style and comprehensive imagination that perhaps over-rides such flaws; Bastion Press continues to have an art style I find incomprehensible and d20 SciFi is rather hard to do convincingly.

End Game

My core problem with Gaming Frontiers is that while the submitted pieces cover a wide-range of D20 publishers they are sadly not a complete list. The omitted publishers do hurt this product a little if we accept it’s twin purposes are to showcase the best of D20 and to present a forum for the majority of the publishers to share their wares with the consumer. We are missing WotC, Chaosium, Sword & Sorcery, Malhavoc and several others. Many of these publishers have web enhancements freely available, which could easily have been solicited by Gaming Frontiers. Without such big name contributors I have to say that content is lacking.

Conclusion

I have mixed feeling about Gaming Frontiers. On one hand it is excellently presented and edited and it represents an excellent idea (collecting the best D20 material.) However of the 19 pieces I will only be using three directly in my games (for those keeping score at home the pieces by Atlas, Green Ronin and Privateer which I would have used anyway!) The others all fail to capture my imagination or campaign style in some way (your mileage will obviously vary here.) So for $17.95 plus tax it is arguable that I gained 15-20 useful pages. Not cost effective!

However, if we factor in that reading the excerpts warned by off three or four products I was considering buying, it could be said that Gaming Frontiers saved me money!

Overall I rate Gaming Frontiers as having high points in Style and to be average in Substance. My core problem is that if I was back in my teen or college days and walked into a game store with $20 in my pocket I would chose a sourcebook by one of the companies that I already liked rather than spend my money on an anthology magazine. I feel that this is a very brave venture that I would love to succeed but I have my doubts! If you are gainfully employed (as I am) and see Gaming Frontiers in your local store I would recommend picking it up!

I have to note that I received my copy free after sending an email to Mr. Carter saying I could not make it to last year’s GenCon and requesting a preview copy from him!

Gaming Frontiers
Gaming Frontiers Capsule Review by Sion Rodriguez y Gibson on 01/04/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average) Glossy and overpriced, but it saved me money by warning me off a couple of publishers Product: Gaming Frontiers Author: var. ed. Jeffrey S.Carter Category: RPG Company/Publisher: United Playtest Line: D20 Cost: 17.95 Page count: 140 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 0-9716552-0-0 SKU: Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Sion Rodriguez y Gibson on 01/04/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Science Fiction	GAMING FRONTIERS – for all things D20 Gaming Frontiers is a magazine-styled anthology of (as the tag-line says) ‘all things d20’. This essentially means that it is a collection of publisher submitted fragments designed to showcase their product. It reminds me most of glossy fashion mags (large number of adverts supporting classy presentation) than a usual gaming magazine. Opening Move Flicking through this hefty magazine (while Jeffrey Carter would love to call this an anthology or sourcebook I can’t quite bring myself to join him in this term) I was immediately impressed by the sheer quality of the layout and presentation. The font is clean and highlights are made in contrasting colors. Artwork varies (it is all supplied by the individual D20 publishers) but is clean with no printing errors to my eye. There are 19 submitted pieces (including three pieces of short fiction) as well as a selection of in-house articles, editorial musings and reviews. There are also several cartoons (by Mosely) to round things out. So what do we get for our gaming pleasure: The Draaugr (a new monster type by Rob Kuntz from the forthcoming Codex Germanica) Minions (new monsters from Bastion press) Wages of Sin (an ‘account’ of slave pits from Mystic Eye Games) Dinosaur Planet (a short history and two PrCs from Broncosaurus Rex from Goodman Games) Dinosaurs (some more dinosaurs) Tomb of Orosh (an adventure from Skeleton Key Games) Brotherhood of Twenty Axes (an organization/cult from 0one Games) Feeling lucky? (House rules for ‘luck’) Ehtzara (a PrC for Arcanis from paradigm Concepts) Tale of Grakis (poetry from Bard’s Productions) The Falling Star (a bar in Corvis from Privateer Press) Incoming! (New arrows and the like from Bastion press) The Grand Temple of Jing (a puzzle adventure from Hammerdog Games) Sands of Death (an excerpt from the Gladiator sourcebook by Mongoose) Interstellar Journeys (some sci-fi from Black Arrow Games) Scourge of the Wynn’drel Wastes (a capsule setting by Andrew Hind) Fisher on the Lake of Souls (a creepy psychopomp from Atlas Games) Veiled Threat (a location from Guildhouse Games) *No Tears in Freeport (fiction from Green Ronin) This is a lot of content so I am going to summarize. Each piece will probably appeal to you inasmuch as you like the company that submitted it. For example, I think John Nephew is a great writer and editor and so like ‘Fisher on the Lake of Souls’; on the other hand puzzle adventures annoy me so ‘The Grand Temple of Jing’ holds no such charms! Separate from such personal assessments the each section does give you could content that you could use in your game directly (with the exception of the fiction and poetry which are mood pieces!) Mid-Game Given that Gaming Frontiers has no single focus it is very hard to provide a comprehensive assessment without running this review to an unacceptable length. So to give you an idea of how you useful you may find this anthology I am going to present some of my most and least favorite pieces. ‘Fisher on the Lake of Souls’ This is a very creepy vignette (cut from Touched by the Gods) which details a small god that deals in resurrections. While I will not be using the Fisher directly in my ongoing campaign Stench of Death rules to cover PCs that abuse Raise Dead and the like. ‘The Falling Star’ is an a-typical fantasy with the lives of the regulars twisting into a tight and nasty little knot. We have assassins, criminals, retired genocidal mercenaries and outcast elf archmages rubbing shoulders in a dive with style. Good stuff for any game and the color illustrations by Matt Wilson are almost worth the price of admission by themselves! ‘The Grand Temple of Jing’ presents the sort of puzzle dungeon that I detest. However the stat blocks for the two new monsters are paragons of clarity, designed to be referenced during play as opposed to during a careful read at home. Good and bad together! ‘Tale of Grakis’ represents the sort of epic poetry we have not seen since the middle of the Dragonlance Saga. If you can recite epic, rhyming verse (several pages) during your games good on you. In addition to such up and downs we can also garner several other useful d20 snippets form reading the various pieces: Rob Kuntz has a poor grasp of current D&D rules but with style and comprehensive imagination that perhaps over-rides such flaws; Bastion Press continues to have an art style I find incomprehensible and d20 SciFi is rather hard to do convincingly. End Game My core problem with Gaming Frontiers is that while the submitted pieces cover a wide-range of D20 publishers they are sadly not a complete list. The omitted publishers do hurt this product a little if we accept it’s twin purposes are to showcase the best of D20 and to present a forum for the majority of the publishers to share their wares with the consumer. We are missing WotC, Chaosium, Sword & Sorcery, Malhavoc and several others. Many of these publishers have web enhancements freely available, which could easily have been solicited by Gaming Frontiers. Without such big name contributors I have to say that content is lacking. Conclusion I have mixed feeling about Gaming Frontiers. On one hand it is excellently presented and edited and it represents an excellent idea (collecting the best D20 material.) However of the 19 pieces I will only be using three directly in my games (for those keeping score at home the pieces by Atlas, Green Ronin and Privateer which I would have used anyway!) The others all fail to capture my imagination or campaign style in some way (your mileage will obviously vary here.) So for $17.95 plus tax it is arguable that I gained 15-20 useful pages. Not cost effective! However, if we factor in that reading the excerpts warned by off three or four products I was considering buying, it could be said that Gaming Frontiers saved me money! Overall I rate Gaming Frontiers as having high points in Style and to be average in Substance. My core problem is that if I was back in my teen or college days and walked into a game store with $20 in my pocket I would chose a sourcebook by one of the companies that I already liked rather than spend my money on an anthology magazine. I feel that this is a very brave venture that I would love to succeed but I have my doubts! If you are gainfully employed (as I am) and see Gaming Frontiers in your local store I would recommend picking it up! I have to note that I received my copy free after sending an email to Mr. Carter saying I could not make it to last year’s GenCon and requesting a preview copy from him!