Guardians of Order has announced that it plans to change the format of its Ultimate Fan Guides for anime properties, which combine information for anime fans with sourcebooks for anime gaming with the Big Eyes Small Mouth roleplaying game.  Future releases in the line, beginning with the Slayers and Utena books in 2003, will be reduced in size to match the BESM format (6' x 9'), drop the Ultimate Fan Guide logo and have different internal formatting, and be cut in price from $25 to $20 each.  The goal is to make the products look more like game products.  According to Guardians of Order president Mark Mackinnon, while the ultimate fan guides have been successful at attracting sales from comic stores and the book trade, they have not sold well in the game market.  He believes that's because 'retailers and consumers didn't realize that the UFGs were BESM supplements.'  The changes in format and trade dress are designed to address that.

 

MacKinnon has also announced an ambitious slate of nine new game products for Silver Age Sentinels, the Guardians of Order superhero roleplaying game, for 2003, plus more SAS miniatures.  The game products will include a villain sourcebook, From the Files of Matthews Gentech, and Emergency Response #2 for spring;  Path of the Just, a superhero short story anthology, for summer; and Empire City, a city setting sourcebook, Roll Call #3:  Country Matters, featuring femme fatale NPCs, Artificer's Almanac, Emergency Reponse #3, and Whispering Winds, an occult and magic sourcebook, for fall.