Kobold Quarterly #22
Kobold Quarterly #22 is an epic fantasy magazine for Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, and more written by Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Wolfgang Baur, Steve Winter, Christina Stiles, Rob Heinsoo and published by Kobold Press (Open Design).
By Cape Rust
Learn more about Kobold Quarterly #22 here
Purchase Kobold Quarterly #22 here
Find other Kobold Press products here
Open Design has once again assembled a motley crew of creative folks to bring you, the gamer, an issue of Kobold Quarterly full of the type of information that GMs and players alike crave. While the cost of admission is a bit high, it is money well-spent.
CONTENT
This 84 page magazine has 22 different articles and regular features including Dragonkin (D&D 4th ed.) Monsters of Morphoi (Castles and Crusades), Blood Brothers: Rogue Archetypes (Pathfinder), Elven Archer Magic (Pathfinder), Weapons for a new AGE (AGE System), Dwarven Magical Rings (Pathfinder), Pathfinder Society Guide to Varisia (Pathfinder), Hold ‘Em for Questioning: Interrogation (Pathfinder), The Escalation Dice, The Scaled Steamhall (4th ed. D&D), Game Theories: The GM Influence on Character, Howling Tower: Total Party Kill or Total Buzz Kill?, Interview with Jason Bulmahn, Ask the Kobold, Free City of Zobeck: The Void of Veles, D20 Monkey, and 10 X 10 Toon.
OVERALL
Kobold Quarterly is a visually stunning magazine. In a world of e-zines and digital products, it is good to see that Open Design is willing to retain that “high gloss” feel. The folks over at Open Design are well-connected in the RPG world and are able to get quality articles from quality people, who are relevant in the industry.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
When I mention “High Gloss” I mean it, this product is beautiful. The cover art by Craig J. Spearing is stunning. It is one of those pictures that is a close-up yet it still evokes a sense of vastness. Besides, who wouldn’t want to wield a glowing sword and ride a dragon? Even the ads look good in this. Now the ads are a point of contention for many reviewers and there are quite a few of them. But when you look at the production value of Kobold Quarterly you can see that to maintain this level of quality and keep the magazine at a reasonable cost, you have to have ads. I felt a little overwhelmed by them in the beginning of this issue, then they seemed to taper off a bit towards the end. Bottom line, this magazine looks good!
Mechanics: 9 out of 10
I am not as familiar with some of the systems covered in this issue as I’d like to be so I can’t really comment on all of the mechanics presented. I can tell you that for the products that I do know I felt like this issue did the right things. The Dwarven Ringsby John E. Ling Jr. was a great example from this issue of solid, well-thought out mechanics. Magazine mechanics are a bit tricky to begin with and I have spent hundreds of hours looking through back issues of other RPG dedicated magazines looking for feats and rules tweaks that were not covered in original game materials. There can be the temptation to break all of those original rules simply because the suggestions will be placed in a periodical rather than a core rulebook, I was glad Open Design didn’t eat the apple. The Escalation Dice article by Rob Heinsoo was a really interesting concept and I liked that their suggested rules implementation was spread out over several major game systems. The Blood Brothers Archetype was well-thought out and deeply explored but that in-depth exploration (I did mention it was really good) pointed out a few flaws in the concept that could cause the GM problems if certain things happen to one of the blood brothers. Front loading these possible problems was smart, but adjusting the mechanic to avoid those pit falls would have been even better.
Value Add: 9 out of 10
Because of it’s high quality, this product is not cheap. The cost is justified and doesn’t really seem much more expensive than the magazine(s) that preceded it. I think the problem lies in the fact that these days people expect much cheaper (cost wise) digital products and want more content with less ads. I think many people are willing to sacrifice quality for quantity and I get the impression that Open Design simply doesn’t roll that way. The information in this issue is great for GMs and players alike and there is enough love given to various systems to spread out that value. I do have to wonder if the perception of the cost of the magazine might change if it was focused on one system mechanically augmented by general overall roleplaying advice…
Overall: 9 out of 10
This product does what it sets out to do. Every quarter it brings you interesting RPG information in a stunning way. Some of the articles were better than others, but they were all well-written and properly edited. It is easy to slam an article simply because you don’t like the subject matter rather than looking at all of those other factors that make something well-written and well-presented. If you are a Pathfinder fan, you will get the most for your money from this product, if you play any of the other systems covered your value added will diminish slightly, and if you hate RPGs and everything about them, why are you even reading this review….?
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