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Words from the Wise (Guys)

An Editorial Rant

Welcome

To the twelfth issue of The Guild Companion. The year 2000 appears to have arrived without serious upset anywhere in the world, and actually with the first month of the new year now over, it does not feel terribly different from 1999.

New Year's Resolutions

Nevertheless 2000 will be a momentous year for The Guild Companion.

The first change has already happened - we have relocated ourselves to a new server (and nobody noticed!).

The second change will be a new look for the home page. We've noticed that there are a significant number of visitors to the site who don't follow any of the links on the home page, and in particular, who don't click on the links to the current issue. As an experiment, I've added hot links on the home page to some of this month's articles in order to catch the eye of our more transient visitors. All being well, the complete new look for the home page will be up and running for the March issue.

The third change is that we will be strengthening our non-ICE related game coverage. I hinted in the December 1999 issue that we would be publishing several themed issues this year. Some of the content for those issues has already arrived in the form of excellent articles by Sean Punch (better known to GURPS fans as "Dr Kromm") and Tim Dedopulos from Nightfall Games. More submissions are expected to arrive soon. However just because we have persuaded luminaries of the gaming industry to write for us, does not mean that we are uninterested in your submissions. Far from it. We want and we need you to contribute articles, reviews, and fiction of all flavours. So get writing!

The fourth change is that this year will see more Words from the Other Wise Guys. Our webmaster has already committed to giving his guest editorial rant on the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons in March. Expect to see other staff members will be jumping on to the soapbox in future issues.

The fifth change is that we plan to make The Guild Companion into a profitable venture. We believe that after 12 issues, we have proven that we can deliver high-quality material on a regular, punctual schedule to a continuously growing audience. It is now time for The Guild Companion to start paying off its various debts. We will be introducing a number of new features and services to the site in the near future, and we will be charging a modest sum for these in order to pay domain name and site hosting costs. It is not our intention to charge for access to webzine issues.

Review Schedule

There is a wealth of great gaming products out there and more are scheduled to arrive as the year progresses. We're going to do our best to keep you abreast of exciting and innovative games and supplements. However we're going to need your help in this endeavour as we can't possibly read, play and review everything ourselves. We'll be expecting you to share your insights and experiences with new gaming purchases by submitting reviews.

Looking into the editorial crystal ball, the following (very tentative) review schedule is likely to be realised over the next few issues. Note we're actually expecting to have more reviews than just those projected here, but until our Reviews Editor gets her hands on them, I'm being just a little cautious.

  • March: TSR Jam 1999, Brave New World, Trinity (softback), Legend of The Five Rings RPG

  • April: Jovian Chronicles (3rd Printing), Alternity Player's Handbook, Spacedogs

  • May: Alternity Gamemaster's Guide, The Khiidkar Incident

In addition, we expect to be reviewing the Sidekicks Sourcebook for Blood of Heroes, Avalon for 7th Sea, Ravaged Planet for Brave New World, All Hands on Deck for Run out the Guns!, Marienburg: Sold Down the River for Warhammer, GURPS Y2K, GURPS Who's Who 2, GURPS Voodoo, GURPS Swashbucklers and various GURPS Traveller supplements, and tons of other products. If you are interested in reviewing any of these or indeed other products not mentioned in this list, get in touch now!

All the products on the above list have the virtue of being already published. We will be reviewing Bladelands, Spacemaster : The Privateers, and Shadow World Master Atlas (3rd Edition) in due course as well as Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition after GenCon, but scheduling them will have to wait until publication has occurred!

Farewell (for now ...)

Time for me to stop ranting and for you to start reading. Our next issue will be published in March 2000 but until then,

Keep gaming and have fun!

Nicholas HM Caldwell
General Editor
Co-author Mentalism Companion

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