Stuff I'd like to see in Pyramid

[J. Edward Tremlett]

Originally Posted by Brass Bricks

I'd like to see more crunch.

More vehicles, more weapons, more gear, more armor, more variants, more Low Tech, more Ultra Tech. Mecha. Tanks. Airplanes. Blimps. Updated armor tables.

If it has actual stats, I'll probably like it.

More historical stuff. I know they were never GURPS top-sellers, but the world sourcebooks were really great. I'd like to see things along those lines.

These suggestions are all made of win.

Especially the historical things. They make great source material for other games, either as alternate settings or information that can bleed forward into the modern day.

[ronom]

Love crunch too! I'm a bit of a gear hog and will keep stuff around even if I don't use it in campaigns.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by ronom

Love crunch too! I'm a bit of a gear hog and will keep stuff around even if I don't use it in campaigns.

If you could have an all gear issue, what four or five articles would you want in it?

[tratclif]

And for those of you looking for gear, would an article with 4e stats for over 20 TL6 airships be of interest? Since it's my first article that got published ("Airship Buyer's Guide for 1922"), I was hoping for some feedback. I realize now I did a lousy introduction, but what else do I need to work on?

[griffin]

Originally Posted by tratclif

And for those of you looking for gear, would an article with 4e stats for over 20 TL6 airships be of interest? Since it's my first article that got published ("Airship Buyer's Guide for 1922"), I was hoping for some feedback. I realize now I did a lousy introduction, but what else do I need to work on?

Until you posted this I hadn't even read the article. It's just not a subject that interests me much. Here are some things that would improve it:

• A better title (especially if less narrow time span is used)
• More detailed adventure seeds - what to do with airships in an adventure
• A couple more adventure seeds would be useful also
• A less narrow time span - what about modern airships?
• Notes on using these airships in an Infinite World campaign
• Pictures or diagrams [EDIT: Ignore this one. There are links with this]

The link to the earlier article was very good. You should have seen if you could add some detail to the earlier article touching on any areas that you felt could have been expanded. One thing the earlier article had going for it was the PDF maps. That was really a nice touch.

Keep writing. I didn't hate it, but I feel it didn't rate a 3 yet. A fairly modest rewrite would have gotten it there. I doubt anyone could rewrite it to get a 5 from me due to the subject, although David Pulver might be able to pull it off. A fairly substantial rewrite might be able to get a 4 rating from me.

Good luck with your next article. Although my criticism might sound harsh, if I didn't think you have potential I would not waste my time giving any feedback.

Regards,

- James

[Akicita]

Originally Posted by hannajackson

Pyramids are tombs of pagodas.

I'm pretty sure I wasn't cleared to know that. I shall do my best to forget.

[Greg 1]

Confession:

I am a lapsed Pyramid subscriber. In fact, I don't buy gaming magazines at all nowadays. Pyramid was the best gaming mag I ever found. Even so, it just wasn't doing it for me. I've been toying with the idea of resubscribing, just to check it out again.

What Floats My Boat:

CCG Games
Computer Games
RPG Games of almost any genre.
GURPS(!!!!!!!). Toolkitty rules articles are my favorite (e.g. Umana).
Articles about using historical periods for gaming.
Adventures. Not adventure seeds, but fully fledged adventures.
Locations (like Octavius' Tower)
Monsters.
Equipment. How useful it would be to have an article giving stats for different makes of modern cars, just as an example.

What Doesn't Float My Boat:

Board Games
Competitions. "Iron Ref" demonstrated the skill of RPG authors, but I want the best gameworlds they can design, not the best ones they can design in line with the rules of the competition.
Entire new gameworlds described in a few pages
NPCs, except as part of a location or adventure
"Silly" stuff, which covers almost everything that is labelled "humorous"
Supers
Suppressed Transmission. It is wonderfully executed, but doesn't help me.

[Greg 1]

Originally Posted by Brass Bricks

I'd like to see more crunch.

More vehicles, more weapons, more gear, more armor, more variants, more Low Tech, more Ultra Tech. Mecha. Tanks. Airplanes. Blimps. Updated armor tables.

If it has actual stats, I'll probably like it.

More historical stuff. I know they were never GURPS top-sellers, but the world sourcebooks were really great. I'd like to see things along those lines.

I am with you.

[demonsbane]

During my year of subscription to Pyramid, I was hoping some Fantasy material, both crunchy and fluffy. Some Cyberpunk and Ultratech stuff is fine, too, for me. With the recent arrival of Dungeon Fantasy, I expected to see some of this with renewed hopes. But my subscription is expiring in 3 days, and I'm not renewing it.

Not until I could check, seeing the weekly presentation pages and indexes of articles, something of this I want starts to really happening.

Most of the better articles pertain to years before my subscription. I mean: during this year of subscription I've picked some good new ones, but my general feeling about the content during my subcription, is it has been a bit dull, a bit lackluster for what I was expecting of it.

Of course I'm writing this not as a complain. This isn't a rant, but a friendly encouragement to create more useful and dynamic material. Or else, to lower the subscription cost ;-P

[Greg 1]

Update: I had a look at the table of contents of the last four Pyramids in order to post more concrete criticisms, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I will be subscribing to Pyramid to give it at least another trial run.

Here's my reaction to the articles:

Airship Guide for 1922: Potentially useful for all sorts of games set around the period.
Luck and her Accouterments: No idea what it is about. It needs a better description.
Instantly Trapped: Porentially useful for all sorts of games.
The Dark Reign of the Golden Pshent!: Again, not clear what it is about, but it looks like comedy and so not what I want.
The Luck College: Oo! Now that looks interesting and could be useful in all kinds of games.
Furry Friends and Fuzzy Foes: That looks potentially useful for quite a variety of games.
Infinite Technomancy: Sounds very good, but again, it isn't clear what it is about.
The Doorway Lambs: A horror adventure is always welcome!
Botswana Rising Revisited: I'm almost certainly not interested. I don't want a new world in a few pages.
There She Blows!: An Introduction to Whaling-Ship Settings in RPGs: Its a bit of a niche, but it might potentially be used in all kinds of games.
Pirate Werewolves and Vampire Ninjas: Tongue-in-cheek articles are not for me.

So, in summary, I'm going to say the opposite of what I thought I would say before I started researching. Pyramid is actually looking pretty damn good. I shall resubscribe and give it another spin.