Stuff I'd like to see in Pyramid

[griffin]

Here are some things I'd like to see in Pyramid:

Supporting Cast: Non-supers, at least for a while. I'd like to see some high-powered cinematic foes (or allies depending on the game perspective) for GURPS Cabal. I'd like to see some mana-punk characters. Perhaps a character or two for GURPS Transhuman Space (with stats in 4e and optionally 3e also).

Adventures: GURPS Adventures I'd like to see: Banestorm, Cabal, Cyberpunk, Transhuman Space, Technomancer. Dungeon Fantasy is fine also, but give it a rest for a couple of months (running one in late July/early August would be good). Adventures which include maps are always welcomed, especially high-quality ones. I'd like to also see GURPS Space adventures using a setting from GURPS Space Atlas IV. A fantasy adventure for Banestorm would also be nice.

Terra Incognita: I'd like to see a setting or two that's not an Inifinite Worlds setting. I'd like to see something described mainly in genre terms. A good fantasy one would be nice. One that is a SF Space setting would be good.

Reviews: The inevitable D&D 4e.

I'd love to see a series on using off the shelf products integrating them into game settings. Something like Off-the-Shelf Gaming (OSG). My first selection I'd like to see covered is Ronin's Freeport series. Several of the products have received favorable reviews. Perhaps a follow up to Tim Emricks White Ships and Black Hearts Pyramid article.

Suppressed Transmission: These are always welcomed.

That's all I can think of at present.

[darksaba]

I dunno, I don't really like suppressed transmission, I feel they often start well, sometimes even with an interesting premise, but then I feel they get stupidly complicated and uninteresting, I rarely ever read more than the first paragraph. After all I read Pyramid for enjoyment, and Suppressed Transmission feels too much like hard work.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by darksaba

After all I read Pyramid for enjoyment, and Suppressed Transmission feels too much like hard work.

Isn't hobby gaming supposed to be enjoyable hard work?

[GoodGame]

I think the Suppressed Transmission articles are decent. They work well when they suggest a solid conspiracy theory that is more than a simple what if.

The only thing I regularly ignore in Pyramid is the Random Thought Table (sorry editor!). Usually feels like a space-filler that's not worth reading past the first paragraph.

I'd like more GURPS-centric stuff, and more RPG-centric overall. I appreciate the occasional board game review, but I much prefer reviews of other RPG systems for perspective. Otherwise more rules, add-ons, settings characters, with characters the least wanted, though more fully fleshed one are prefered. Adventures would be nice. It seems that other than the recent DF one, they've been a long time coming. Support for recent GURPS releases is a good idea and free advertising; I wish there was more of it.

The reality check articles (forgot the title) where someone asks a serious question and the ramifications are explained somewhat in generic terms. Kind of esosteric, but the kind of stuff that is perfect for a GM that regularly tries to push the margin.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by GoodGame

I think the Suppressed Transmission articles are decent. They work well when they suggest a solid conspiracy theory that is more than a simple what if.

I generally don't read ST because I'm violently allergic to conspiracy and "high weirdness." I'm doing a terrible disservice to Hite's impressive breadth of knowledge and skills as an author, but there it is.

That said, I quite enjoyed the recent McGuffin article, particularly part I. I'm a sucker for things which are essentially about old movies.

Originally Posted by GoodGame

I'd like more GURPS-centric stuff, and more RPG-centric overall. I appreciate the occasional board game review, but I much prefer reviews of other RPG systems for perspective.

I assume you're talking purely about reviews here, because when it comes to the regular articles, I doubt it could be more RPG-centric. A quick check of the last dozen issues or so indicated not a single non-RPG-related article, and the vast majority of them were for GURPS.

Originally Posted by GoodGame

Support for recent GURPS releases is a good idea and free advertising; I wish there was more of it.

Practical concerns may prevent that. To write support articles, you need authors. Authors need the books, which are available to most potential authors no earlier than they are to anybody else. So the book needs to come out, people need to buy the book, get an idea for an article, write it, send it in, and we all wait for it to go through the editorial process to be published. They come in time (vis the recent wave of MA and DF articles), but there'd need to be wider dissemination of pre-publication files than currently exists to speed that up appreciably.

Originally Posted by GoodGame

The reality check articles (forgot the title) where someone asks a serious question and the ramifications are explained somewhat in generic terms.

Omniscient Eye. To judge by the ratings, it's been one of Steven's better ideas.

[b-dog]

How about some good villians like liches, vampires, and other nasties so that they can be used in campaigns along with some ideas for adventures. Also, how about some non-silly DF articles, the Nutrinomicon is only good for Munchkin style DF and would not work well with anyone wanting something more serious. Just my two cents.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

To write support articles, you need authors. Authors need the books, which are available to most potential authors no earlier than they are to anybody else. So the book needs to come out, people need to buy the book, get an idea for an article, write it, send it in, and we all wait for it to go through the editorial process to be published. They come in time (vis the recent wave of MA and DF articles), but there'd need to be wider dissemination of pre-publication files than currently exists to speed that up appreciably.

This is true. Plus, a support article for a technical book may require more checking. If HANS writes an article on guns based on High-Tech, Steven only has to see "Hans" and "High-Tech" and he knows it's going to hit a minimum yet high standard. Same with me writing Martial Arts articles.

You can bypass this more easily if you're a good writer - Phil Masters has cranked out a couple of Martial Arts-based articles since the book came out - but it's a slower process. I'd hesitate to write an article based on High-Tech without running it past Hans first, and even if I did Steven would probably nudge Hans to see what he thought about it. That'll eat time up as well.

Not saying support material needs the approval of the authors, but there is a reason it's heavily dominated early by the authors and by other known authors.

***

That said, I sent Steven another Martial Arts article recently, we'll see if he likes it.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by b-dog

How about some good villians like liches, vampires, and other nasties so that they can be used in campaigns along with some ideas for adventures.

Do you mean NPCs, or critters?

I could easily write critters, I have dozens statted for 4e for my games, but it might run across problems as they are heavily based on earlier 3e books and just converted and slightly changed. I don't know how kosher that is, so I haven't even attempted it.

I mean, would SJG really want me to sell my own version of Wraiths, slightly changed from Undead 3e, back to them? Probably not.

But still, I'd like to see more critters too. You're full of ideas, b-dog, you might take a crack at expanding one of your "idea" posts into a short article. Get the ball rolling. One-two good articles will give you DF supplement money for some time to come.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

Plus, a support article for a technical book may require more checking. If HANS writes an article on guns based on High-Tech, Steven only has to see "Hans" and "High-Tech" and he knows it's going to hit a minimum yet high standard. Same with me writing Martial Arts articles.

You can bypass this more easily if you're a good writer - Phil Masters has cranked out a couple of Martial Arts-based articles since the book came out - but it's a slower process.

Thanks for the compliment, but I think that there's a difference between those two books. Martial Arts is, among many other fine things, a toolkit. If you want to create a completely imaginary martial art, you can use elementary bits and pieces from the book, put them together with some (hopefully) atmospheric prose, and (if you've obeyed the toolkit rules) nobody can say that the result is "wrong". The thing is completely imaginary.

High-Tech, on the other hand, is a book more or less entirely about the real world. Writing an add-on to that requires real-world knowledge and, yes, fact checking. So would writing an article about a real world martial art (which I wouldn't attempt, because I'm really not qualified).

If we ever get to see the 4e firearms design system which Hans and David have tinkered with, and if it's as good as I'd expect, then anyone could write stuff about imaginary firearms statted up using that system. (Okay, well, the guns in Britannica-6 were roughed out with Hans's aid...) Likewise, when Thaumatology appears, I hope that we'll see a bunch of new magical styles, designed using that toolkit, and I don't particularly expect to have any say about the subject.

There's also a tendency to assume that stuff about fictional settings requires checking by the original creator, but that's weaker. I like to run Transhuman Space material past David if possible, but I can get away with not doing so...

[darksaba]

Originally Posted by GoodGame

The only thing I regularly ignore in Pyramid is the Random Thought Table (sorry editor!). Usually feels like a space-filler that's not worth reading past the first paragraph.

I on the other hand, rather like Random Thought Table. I guess you can't please everyone all the time.