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Meh
I'm a big Mongoose fan boy, but the premiere issue of their house organ magazine falls beneath the benchmark they have set for themselves - or perhaps more accurately, the benchmark that I have come to expect from them. I should note some potential bias in that I am much more interested in their generic fantasy materials than their Armageddon and B5 lines. This may have coloured my perception somewhat, considering the heavy slant of this issue towards those properties.
Style
The premiere issue is 72 full-color pages, printed on nice glossy paper of a decent weight. The layout stresses function over form, favoring a three column format that works quite nicely. A few initial sections use a two column format, but the change doesn’t seem to be too jarring. There is a reasonable amount of art where appropriate, although I am unsure as to how much of it is new and how much was reprinted from their other products (or in the case of the numerous previews, will be reprinted). Certainly the art included with the articles containing new material appears to be new. Text density is rather high overall. As Mongoose is a UK-based organization, there are a few odd phrases that may seem a bit awkward to North Americans (e.g. "It will still get proofread, but it shows willing.").
Organization is fairly poor. Articles are presented rather haphazardly, with sci-fi material mixed in with fantasy and generic articles seemingly at random. Preview material also intermingles with regular articles. Although this is not a real problem with a 72 page publication, it would be nice to be able to flip to a desired article by finding the relevant section in the magazine rather than using the index. It would also make it easier to skip through areas of disinterest in a subsequent reading.
Substance
The magazine opens with the typical index and editorial. Oddly, the editorial was written as if the reader could have read it prior to purchasing the magazine. As this first issue was bundled with The Slayer's Guide to Minotaurs, and hence was shrink wrapped with same, I found that a bit odd. Not a real problem, but it implies a lack of foresight.
Several regular features follow. Two pages feature Mongoose releases for the month. Q&A follows, with questions and answers on several of the Quintessential books. I'm not sure how useful such an article is in a publication such as this, but I have seen similar materials in Dragon magazine, so I suppose I will defer judgment to the individual reader. This is followed by a single page of submission guidelines.
Next up is one of the greatest wastes of paper I have ever seen in an RPG publication. Tales From Mongoose Hall is a regular feature (groan) which details the exploits of a gaming group comprised of Mongoose employees. There are some boxed roleplaying tips which may be of moderate use to some (and bloody obvious to others) that are drawn from the article, but do we really need to read about a Mongoose-run Babylon 5 campaign for four pages? This is a regular feature, so I'm sure we'll have at least several more issues of this drek - at least until more submissions come in, and they hopefully cut the article for space considerations.
Finally, we get to some useful content. The following four pages detail the Undercity in Judge Dread, along with an Undercity Long Walk Judge prestige class and an Undercity Dweller prior life. This material appears to be new and specifically written for the magazine.
We then reach the first preview, a six-page excerpt from the Babylon 5 Minbari Federation source book scheduled for October. Not being a Babylon 5 fan, I am unfamiliar with the material or its potential use. It details an Alyt prestige class and provides some detail on the planet Minbar itself.
This is followed by another monthly column, which appears to have no focus other than to let Jonny Nexus ramble on for a page and provide a bit of humor. Perhaps some direction will become more apparent as the issues progress.
The Nuke Browns appears to be more new material. Four pages detail the Armageddon: 2089 squad, new technology via their 80mm autocannon, and a new Birdshot WarMek.
Yet another six-page preview follows, this time for Encyclopaedia Arcane: Tomes and Libraries. While the Babylon 5 material in the Minbari preview appeared that it may actually be useful in and of itself, this section is quite the opposite. Unless you have a dire need to know why libraries exist, what materials a book can be printed on, or some ideas on presenting a library in a fantasy world, this section will be of no use to you. I still feel the end product may be promising, as it's rather a unique topic to be covered in any detail, but this excerpt certainly doesn't encourage the reader to rush out and preorder it.
Ah, now for the reason I purchased this issue in the first place: The Coming of Conan. The three page preview from the developer includes a bunch of random thoughts on how to make D20 fit into a Hyborian mold, and a small crunchy bit on the Vendhyans. Unfortunately, a serious editing gaff ruined the article. Most of the first page was duplicated on the second page, and some portion of the end of the article was deleted, as it ends in mid-sentence. ARGH!
Dynamic Story Generation follows, a six-page article on a reasonably different way to design and prepare for adventures, as well as adapting to change based on surprising player actions. I found it relatively interesting, but no doubt your mileage will vary. At least it's not another preview...
Whoops, spoke too soon. Combat In Magnamund follows, with four pages of crunchy bits from the upcoming Lone Wolf RPG. While a preview, there is a good bit of crunch provided, so you may find this section useful whether or not Lone Wolf is your cup of tea.
More new material follows, this time in the generic fantasy vein, with three pages oriented around dungeon delving. New feats, tools of the trade, magical items, and spells round out the bulk of the article. Armageddon: 2089 players will probably enjoy the next six pages, which detail armour upgrades. I am unfamiliar with the system, but this section looks rather meaty.
Sigh, another preview. At least this one features some semi-nude female artwork. (Yes, my life is that empty that I derive pleasure from looking at hand-drawn half-nude females. Shut up.) Macho Women With Guns makes a dynamic return in this fourth iteration. The world background is revealed in a fair bit of depth, but there is not enough information to encourage a purchase of the game. I am well aware that the concept has always been awash in camp and humor, but the background just seems moronic and stale to me, and not amusing. MWWG has always been a niche game at a budget price. I think Mongoose releasing it as a $39.99 core book may be a mistake, but we'll see soon enough.
The magazine content closes with a seven-page Babylon 5 scenario. I am unfamiliar with the B5 universe, so I won't even try to examine this section in more depth.
The issue closes with a two page Mongoose product listing, a subscription notice (and at $49.99, the discount is far less than what I am accustomed to), and the Open Game License. Oddly, I noticed the d20 logo on the front cover, but I see no mention of the d20 logo license anywhere. I am not sure if that is an oversight on their part, on my part, or simply not required, but I thought it was a bit odd.
I should add that advertising is actually fairly minimal, and most of it is for Mongoose products anyway. It is expected that the first few issues will have minimal advertising, as advertisers need to be shown that the product will have a large enough market to be worth advertising in, so we will see how this progresses over subsequent issues.
Conclusion
With so many previews, it's rather tough to recommend this magazine. It reads more like a newspaper flier than a magazine. Mongoose really needs to up the content and lay off on the self-promotion somewhat. Sure, it's a house organ, but people don't want to pay $4.95 for glorified advertising. There has to be more meat to dive in to. They need to focus more on supporting existing products and less on hyping upcoming products. There needs to be more incentive to buy the issue.
Another potential issue is supporting various game lines that are relatively different. Fans of different lines will have only partial support in any given issue, which may lead some to believe the $4.95 price tag isn't worth it for a few pages of new content and pile of previews for products they aren’t interested in. Slaine fans, for instance, were left totally in the cold this issue. As Mongoose expands with more game lines, this will become more problematic. I can't see this magazine surviving in the long run in its current format. It's of too little use to too many people.
This premiere issue is bundled with a free copy of The Slayer's Guide to Minotaurs, a $9.99 value, so this issue is probably worth picking up if you're into fantasy gaming at all. I felt that this was a worthy enough inclusion to bump the substance rating up a notch. I certainly don’t feel that it is “every roleplayer’s essential monthly purchase”.
