Discuss what you like, dislike, etc about the second issue. Feel free to leave your thanks to Eldo and staff for an excellent job, as well.
Kickass.
Just a few niggling issues:
"The Horror" really left me hanging. It gave one good example of how to implement it (I've done similar to great effect), but could have benefitted from being a little more general. Thanfully, WitchHunt elaborates, but had the end read "more on horror later in the issue!" or somesuch, it would have alleviated much of my initial sense of disappointment at the brevity of the article.
"The Gates of Hell" is good and all, but it seems more like a summary than a review. If I want to know specifically what material is covered in the book, then the review suffices, but it doesn't really give me any idea how well this is achieved. I would have preferred to at least hear something like "the wording in the spell seed descriptions is rather ambiguous, and leaves the DM at somewhat of a loss as to how they can be applied in play". Nevertheless, it was well written, and served a purpose, albeit not the one I'd expected.
No real issues with anything else in the issue, except...
More! It's an awesome periodical, but it seems over too quickly...
'Course, if that's a problem, maybe I should stop bitching and really think about making some contributions of my own.
Quote from: Salacious Angel'Course, if that's a problem, maybe I should stop bitching and really think about making some contributions of my own.
Truer words hath never been spoken, my man...
;) Then I'll do just that.
But where's the discussion thread gonna be for the next issue? I want in!
Y'mean this (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?15980)?
Quote from: Salacious Angel"The Horror" really left me hanging. It gave one good example of how to implement it (I've done similar to great effect), but could have benefitted from being a little more general. Thanfully, WitchHunt elaborates, but had the end read "more on horror later in the issue!" or somesuch, it would have alleviated much of my initial sense of disappointment at the brevity of the article.
Heh, I'm flattered that you took my little story and editorial to be anything more than it is. :) I wasn't really going for the full-blown article per se. :)
It was listed in a way that made it initially indistinguishable from magic, I mean from a full-blown article, at least until you'd hit the end of page one of the article and wondered where the rest was. ;)
Excellent issue. Lots of thanks to ElDo and his staff (Natural 20, Raelifin and Epic Meepo, if I'm not mistaken)! Praise goes to all writers (I had the praises written out for each article individually, but then my post vanished, sorry guys).
As a minor point, I wouldn't put two reviews next to each other, especially not as the opening articles of the Guide.
As another minor point, I thought there would be a Theme Wars article in this issue (hence I thought I could safely refer to the terms Ethocentric and DivSet)? Wasn't CYMRO dealing with this?
Túrin
Quote from: TúrinAs another minor point, I thought there would be a Theme Wars article in this issue (hence I thought I could safely refer to the terms Ethocentric and DivSet)? Wasn't CYMRO dealing with this?
Túrin
The DivSet wrap-up was something like 27 pages, so we're saving that for a "special edition" when we're content lite.
That's why we put in the blurb, so all is well. :)
Something I just noted: on the Index page of the new issue, the Contributing Authors line hasn't been changed. It lists the same people as in issue #1, which is slightly off.
Something else which I noted as I was looking for this thread so as to post the above note: why is this thread in the Dragon's Den and not in the Campaign Builders' Guide subforum? Even Campaign Elements and Design, Meta and the Cogs seemed more likely places to me, so I had a hard time finding this thread.
Túrin
Quote from: TúrinSomething I just noted: on the Index page of the new issue, the Contributing Authors line hasn't been changed. It lists the same people as in issue #1, which is slightly off.
Something else which I noted as I was looking for this thread so as to post the above note: why is this thread in the Dragon's Den and not in the Campaign Builders' Guide subforum? Even Campaign Elements and Design, Meta and the Cogs seemed more likely places to me, so I had a hard time finding this thread.
Túrin
I've posed these questions to the appropriate authorities in the past; Meeps is going to get me a revised version as soon as he can, and I have no clue why this thread is in the wrong forum.
heh... whoops! my bad :weirdo:
It doesn't have much advice on actually designing settings. The advice on scaling is nice, but how does stuff like that actually affect play? Does it really matter? Is this a function of play style?
That would be very valuable content.
I, unfortunately, lack the expertise to write such articles on settings.
Scaling is important in determining the distance between two points. Why is this important? Mainly for travel times in games, but also for developing internal realism for the system. I don't think play style factors in at all, really. For horror or romance, for grit or high fantasy, it never hurts to ask "Are we there yet."
I think you're looking for the same thing I am when it comes to the guide - world design theory and practice. Existing content doesn't do any good, because we're builders! We want to make it ourselves! It's only the meta-advice that really makes an impact.
Correct me if I'm wrong there. I just made muchos grande asunción (and my Spanish sucks ^_^).
[blockquote=Raelifin]I think you're looking for the same thing I am when it comes to the guide - world design theory and practice. Existing content doesn't do any good, because we're builders! We want to make it ourselves! It's only the meta-advice that really makes an impact.[/blockquote]Mostly theory, but it can often be advanced through practice.
That doesn't mean ready content; more like advice on what kinds of content are good for which purposes, how do they interact, and that sort of stuff.
(I usually don't measure distances in anything but days of travel; my point about play styles and such was more generic, as in I want some content on how setting desgin affects them. That said, travel time is not important for all styles. It can often be handwaved when skipping to the next interesting event. Also, games spanning very long time periods (e.g. Ars Magica or Pendragon) usually make specific distances less important.)
I already let ElDo know, but I grew quite frustrated with the hidden hyperlinks, mainly the ones in the art. They made it difficult to use the Hand tool to scroll through the pages, which is generally the prefered method of reading PDFs in Reader.
Even still, the guide looks good. I'm waiting to hear what people think of my little rules addition in there.