309vas - More Rpg Magazines & Fanzines

More RPG Magazines & Fanzines Jim Vassilakos ([email protected]) http://members.aol.com/jimvassila In issue #303 I splayed upon these pages a brief overview of a number of RPG magazines and fanzines. Unfortunately, as some of you so astutely pointed out, I didn’t get them all. So here’s an update to that article. Enjoy & please let me know what else I missed this time.

More Paper Magazines & Fanzines

Living Greyhawk Journal http://www.wizards.com/rpga/ main.asp?x=articles/rx20000121a A new D&D3e magazine published by the RPGA & WotC, LGJ focuses specifically on the World of Greyhawk.

Polyhedron

http://www.wizards.com/dungeon Since 1986, Dungeon has concentrated on publishing AD&D adventures so that Dragon could focus on the articles w/ supplementary rules and add-ons. Since last year, the magazine has transitioned to D&D3e.

http://www.wizards.com/rpga/main.asp?x=publications Back in 1981, when this magazine originally came out, it was called the RPGA News. It was only named Polyhedron about a year later, at issue #4, when the RPGA became a division of TSR. The magazine has been published by TSR (and later by WotC) ever since, and to this day it remains the mouthpiece of the RPGA. One of Polyhedron’s major features has been the living city campaign, which is a city in the Forgotten Realms by the name of Ravens Bluff which was designed largely by the magazine’s contributors, all RPGA members. Since the success of the living city, Polyhedron has announced other living campaign areas. The content has been, of course, almost exclusively focused on AD&D and more recently on D&D3e. Note: Separate from Polyhedron during its early years was Polyhedron-UK which was published in the United Kingdom. I’m currently looking for issues is anyone reading this has any they wouldn’t mind parting with.

Games Games Games

RQ Adventures

Dragon http://www.wizards.com/dragon If you don’t know about this magazine, you are a strange duck among gamers. Originally evolving from the Strategic Review back in the 1970s, The Dragon has been covering D&D, AD&D, and now D&D3e ever since. Though not exclusive to these games, the D&D lineage has been its primary focus, though it may now be transitioning to a d20emphasis. Regardless of it’s current direction, it continues to be the dominant RPG magazine up to the present day.

Dungeon

http://www.sfcp.co.uk/G3/index.htm Published out of the UK, G3 covers the entire industry.

Games Gazette http://www.dreamwater.com/game/gamesgazette Publishing games reviews since 1980, this UK magazine covers just about everything.

The Hobbit Hole [email protected] Published by James Shipman & edited by Brian Penn during 1999 & 2000, the Hobbit Hole covered Tunnels & Trolls. To the best of my knowledge, four issues were published before the fanzine folded.

Knights of the Dinner Table http://www.kenzerco.com/comics/kodt/default.htm This, of course, is the hilarious series of comic books put out by Jolly Blackburn, a long-time industry goofball and the founder of AEG & the much lamented Shadis magazine. The storylines involve the bizarre exploits of various groups of tabletop roleplayers, though it must be admitted that they usually end up bashing each other like LARPers (only without the foam padding). Always poking fun at gamers and the gaming industry, KoDT can’t be recommended highly enough! Subscribe yesterday if not sooner!

http://www.ibar.com/rqa This Runequest fanzine has been defunct for some years according to the folks at Wizard’s Attic who used to carry it. Don’t suppose anybody can provide more info.

Seal of the Imperium http://www.tekumel.com/tita/items_fanzines.html Published by Carl Brodt of Tita’s House of Games in Berkeley, California, this magazine covers M.A.R. Barker’s World of Tekumel.

Scrollworks http://www.scrollworkspress.com Scrollworks began as a GURPS newsletter published by Christian Walker of San Bernardino, California. Since then it has morphed into a fanzine, and if my hunch about Christian is on-target, it will keep growing until it becomes a professional magazine. This is one to watch.

Shred http://www.shredmagazine.com Published monthly by Lester Smith and associates since March 2000, Shred is a generic rpg magazine not really covering any particular systems. Note: There is some question in my mind as to Shred’s current status. Hopefully they haven’t folded.

Star Wars Gamer

Games & Education

http://www.wizards.com/starwars/ article.asp?x=gamer,3&c=gamer This is a new magazine put out by WotC covering the d20 version of Star Wars.

http://www.rpg.net/edu Published from 1993-98 by David Millians of Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia in association with GAMA (The Game Manufacturers Association), this html newsletter (originally put out on paper and known initially as Gaming & Education) covered the use of games, simulations & RPGs within the academia. Html back-issues are available online.

Unspeakable Oath http://www.tccorp.com/pagan/pp_annotuo.html Put out by Pagan Publishing for the past ten years, this Cthulhu fanzine started out as an amateur project by John Tynes while he was still in college but has progressed to the point that I think it’s now safe to call it the top Call of Cthulhu RPG magazine out there. If you’re running CoC on a frequent basis, you’ll likely find The Unspeakable Oath an indispensable resource. Note: UO recently went on a 3-year hiatus, but they purport to be coming out with the next issue any day now.

Valkyrie [email protected] Published by Partizan Press of the United Kingdom since 1994, Valkyrie covers a variety of rpg systems. Note: Valkyrie went on hiatus for a few years and then came back under the editorship of Jay Forster. Not sure as to its current status.

More Online Zines: Academic Gaming Review http://www.gis.net/~pldr/index.html This html zine has been filling the hole left by Games & Education since 1998.

Annwn/Annuin http://www.ereworn.freeserve.co.uk Published by Tim Hartford, this fanzine purports to focus on cultural, historical and mythological gaming, which is to say that adventures are based on historical research but are tied to no particular RPG system. Another oddity is that Tim seems to have dispensed with the notion of issue numbers, making the “zine” basically a website which is periodically updated.

Apocalyptic Post http://hermes.spaceports.com/~othrgams This is a very new and very cool zine for Gamma World. It is put out in both html & pdf.

Chimera http://www.chimeramag.com Published by Robert Posada of El Segundo, California, only the first issue of this rpg fanzine was on put out on paper before Robert decided to convert to an html format. I’m not sure what’s currently happening with Chimera.

Gamegrene http://www.gamegrene.com/ Lots of opinion & news articles on the gaming industry, but is it really a magazine? I’m still trying to decide, but go take a look and let me know what you think.

Wounds Unlimited http://www.woundsunlimited.com Starting out as a bi-monthly html gaming magazine about a year ago, Wounds Unlimited was the brainchild of Chris Hussey, an Earthdawn gamemaster who wanted to take his fan-site to the next level. Despite these humble beginnings, the writing is surprisingly good (as to be expected given that A&E’s own Spike Jones is one of the contributors), and the bredth of the magazine is considerable. Wounds Unlimited doesn’t focus on any particular game system but rather takes in the whole of the modern rpg industry, publishing its share of generic adventures as well as interviews with various insiders. All in all, it’s a good read.

Regarding my Unsolicited Advice: Regarding my preference for PDF over HTML, Spike commented (in #305) that HTML is better because it allows editing after downloading. Paul countered (in #306) that PDF is better for printing. Both are excellent points. I guess that for myself, personally, the most important criterion is ease of downloading and preservation of the document as a single download. The problem with html zines is that they exist on a single server spread out over a number of different files. Each article is a separate file and each picture is also a separate file. If you want to download such a monstrosity to your home computer, it would take a bit of effort. This wouldn’t be such a problem if things on the web stayed on the web, but as we all know, disks crash and fanzine editors have a tendency to lose interest, and once this happens, all the articles slide away into the electronic dustbin. PDF zines, on the other hand, don’t end up lost, because people download them, so there are always multiple copies floating around. A random disk crash or an editor losing interest isn’t going to remove the zine from the population of gamers who may want to read it ten or twenty or even a hundred years down the line. If HTML zines would distribute as ZIP files with all the necessary articles and pictures archived within a single download, to me that would be every bit as good as PDF, but unfortunately, that doesn’t happen, and that is the main reason I prefer PDF over HTML.

RPG Magazine/Fanzine Index Program Project As I mentioned in issue #297, I’ve been working on a program which I hope will help gamers become aware of the wealth of material in RPG fanzines. To this end, I’ve been typing into the data files a massive index of every rpg magazine and fanzine I can locate. Here is the latest version of my want-list (zines that I’m looking for). Email me if you’ve got any of these you’d like to sell to a reasonably good cause.

AAB Proceedings: got 'em all Abyss: 2, 4-8, 13, 35, 51+ Acolyte: any Ad Infinitum: 2+ Adjutant: VG1-VG2, VG4+ Adventure Gaming: 14+ Adventurer: 12+ Adventurers Club: got 'em all Adventures Unlimited: 7+ Alarums & Excursions: 2-10, 1214, 16-17, 19-24, 27, 29-34, 36-51, 53-72, 74, 76-79, 85, 90-96, 99102, 117-118, 145, 149-152, 154156 Alien Realms: 4+ Alien Star: 9+ Alliance Address: any All of the Above: 0, 2+ Amberzine: 1-4, 6+ Ann Arbor Wargamer: 1-7, 12+ Apprentice: 7+ Arcane: got 'em all Arduin Grimoire: got 'em all Ares: 18+ Armadillo Droppings: 1-25, 27+ Australian Realms: 1-19, 23+ Autoduel Quarterly: v1n2-v2n3, v5n2, v7n1 Awakening: 1-2, 4+ Balrog Banter: any BattleTechnology: 22+ Beaumains: 1-4, 7+ Beholder: any Between Worlds: 7+ Black Mole: any Blood Guts & Beer: any Breakout: 1-22, 28, 30-32, 35+ Camelot '94: 1-2, 6, 9+ Captain's Log: 4-7, 17+ Carnel: 1-3, 4, 6-7, 9, 11-13 Challenge: got 'em all Character Chronicles: any Chimera: got 'em all Codex: v1n1, v1n4+ Concepts: 1, 4+ Continuum: any Coreward: 1, 2+ Cosmic Balance: any Crypt of Cthulhu: 1-87, 90+ Cryptych: v1n3, v1n6, v2n3+ Cthulhupalooza: 1, 3+ d8 magazine: 2, 4+ Dagon: 1-13, 26 Dark Star: v1n2+ Daughter of Dool: any Dead Elf: any Deaths Dance Taken Slowly: any Delusions of Grandeur: any Demon's Drawl: any Demonground: got 'em all Different Worlds: got 'em all Dragon's Horde: got 'em all Dragon: got 'em all Dragonfire: any Dragonlords: any Drune Knoll: any Drunk & Disorderly: 1-27, 32+ Dungeon: 3 Dungeoneer: got 'em all Dungeoneer Journal: got 'em all Dungeonier Digest: 5+ Earthdawn Journal: 3-6

EdgeWork: got 'em all Elsewhere: 1, 5+ Enclosure: 3+ Encounters: 2+ Encyclopedia Harnica: got 'em all Experimental Game Group: 1-10, 13, 15, 17, 20-22, 24, 26 Eye of All-Seeing Wonder: 1-4 Familiar: v1n1 Fantasy Chronicles: 3+ Fantasy Gamer: got 'em all Fantasy Tome: any Fantorgn Scrolls: any Far & Away: 1, 3+ Far Traveller: got 'em all Fiery Cross: any First Encounter: 1-2, 8+ Fractal Spectrum: 1-4, 6, 8-10, 15, 20+ Future Roleplayer: 3+ Future Wars: 1-32, 35-37, 40+ Galleon: 2+ Game News: 9, 13+ Game Oracle: 1-2, 11+ Gameplay: 2-3, 5-6, 9, 14+ Gamer's Forum: 1-4, 9+ Gamer's Guild: 2+ Gamer: got 'em all Gamers Connection: 1-2, 4-11, 14, 18, 21-22, 25+ Games & Education: got 'em all Gamesman: 1-6, 8+ GamesMaster International: 1, 7, 9-10, 14, 16+ Games Unplugged: got 'em all Game Trade: v1n7, v1n11+ Gaming Maximum: 4+ Gaping Portal: 2+ Garemag: 1-2, 4+ Gateways: 1, 15+ GM Magazine: v1n03, v1n06, v1n08, v2n08+ Good Games Guide: 2+ Green Goblin: 1-13, 17, 19, 23, 25+ Green Mountain Gamer: 1-4, 6+ Grey Worlds: 4+ Gryphon: got 'em all Guardsman: 1, 6+ Guildsman: got 'em all Harnlore: any Haven Herald: 1-4, 9+ Havoc: 1+ Heroes: got 'em all Herozine: 1-3, 5-8, 10-15, 17+ High Passage: got 'em all Hit Points: 1-6, 8+ Hobbit Hole: got 'em all Horror Gamer: 2+ Hungry Maggot: 1, 3+ Hyperactive: any Idolum Quarterly: 4+ Illusionist's Vision: 3+ Imagine: 16-17, 24 Imazine: 1-20 Imperial Lines: got 'em all Imperial News Service: 3+ Imperium Staple: got 'em all Inferno: 1-3, 5-9, 15-16, 18+ Infiniverse: v1n01-v1n02, v1n06v1n14, v1n16+ Interactive Fantasy: 1

Interface: v2n3+ Interplay: 2-3, 9+ Interregnum: 21, 25, 29-33, 35 Iron Orchid: any It's Clobberin Time: any Ivory, Peacocks & Apes: 2+ Ivory Tower: any Jour. Senseless Carnage: 1-8, 10+ Jour. Travellers Aid Society: got 'em all Journeys: got 'em all Judges Guild Journal: got 'em all Jumpspace/Voyages: 12, 14, 16+ Kage: 0-1, 3-11, 13+ Kfan Uzargou: any Last Province: got 'em all Little Wars: any Living Greyhawk Journal: got 'em all Lost Legends: 2+ Luminary: 1, 4+ Maelstrom: 1-2, 4+ Magic of Palladium Books: 1-4, 9+ Mars: 3, 6+ Masters of Role Playing: 4-5, 9+ Mechforce Quarterly: v1n1-v2n1, v2n3+ Mega-Mag: 0, 9, 10+ MegaTraveller Journal: got 'em all Morningstar Rising: 7+ Multiverse: 1, 3-4, 6+ Mythic Masters: got 'em all Mythic Perspectives: got 'em all News from Bree: 1-16, 24+ Next Stop Jupiter: any Nexus: got 'em all NorthCoast RolePlaying: 10+ Nuts & Bolts: 1-11, 14+ Olympus: 2+ Opifex: got 'em all Orc's Revenge: any Other Hands: got 'em all Owl & Weasel: any Papyrus: 17+ Parsec: any Pegasus: 13 Polaris: 2+ Polyhedron: 128, 133 PsychoBabble: got 'em all Pyramid: got 'em all Quasits & Quasars: 1-8, 10+ Quick Quincy Gazette: any Re:Quests!: 1-24, 26-33, 35+ Red Giant: 1, 3+ Rhiannon: 6+ Rifter: got 'em all Rolepaper: got 'em all Roleplayer: 1-4, 6, 8-10 Role Player Independent: v1n04v1n05, v1n07-v1n08, v1n10, v2n05+ RQ Adventures: any Runestone: any Scrawls from the Sprawls: any Scream Factory: 1-11, 13+ Scroll: 2, 4-5, 14+ Scrollworks: 8 Seal of the Imperium: v1n2+ Security Leak: 1-3, 6+ Sedated: 2+ Serendipity's Circle: got 'em all

Shadis: 54+ Shadowland: 2 Sholari: 2+ Shred: 8+ Signal-GK: 14+ Silver, Swords & Slaughter: 6+ Silver Griffen: 1-28 Skullcrusher: any Sorcerer's Apprentice: 6, 18+ Sound & Fury: 4+ Space/Fantasy Gamer: 9-76, 86+ Space Gamer: 1 Spell Book: 1-12/84, 02/85+ Spellbound: any Spinward Times: any Starburst: any (the traveller zine, not the sf-entertainment magazine) Stardate: got 'em all StarDrive: v1n2+ Starry Wisdom: 4+ Starships, Starports & Veh.: got 'em all Star Wars Gamer: got 'em all Star Wars Journal: v1n16+ Strategic Review: v1n1-v2n1 Stroke & Dagger: 2, 5+ Supernova: 1-25, 27+ Sword & Blaster: any Tales of the Reaching Moon: 1-6, 8-9 Tech Factory: 1-8, 10, 14+ Tempestuous Orfice: any Terra Traveller Times: 28-30, 32+ Terror Watch: v1n3+ Third Imperium: any Tiffany Star: 9-11, 14-21, 27, 29+ Timeout: 6+ Tortured Souls: any Tradetalk: 1, 8+ Transactions of the R.M.G.S.: got 'em all Traveller Chronicle: 1-3 Traveller Digest: 1-4 Troll: got 'em all Trollcrusher: 11-12, 22, 24+ Underworld Oracle: 7+ Unspeakable Oath: 16+ Valkyrie: 22+ Variant: any VIP of Gaming: 6+ Virtual Lore: 4+ Vision: 3+ Visions: got 'em all Vortext: 7 Wargaming: 1-3, 5+ Warlock: 4, 6-8, 10, 13+ Warpstone: 4-6 Wereman: 1, 3, 5 Whisperer: 4+ White Dwarf: 3-7, 9-10, 205, 243, 247, 249, 251+ White Knight: 1-9, 11-13, 15+ White Rabbit: any White Wolf/Inphobia: 2-3 Wild Hunt: 47, 54, 65, 69, 97, 104, 125, 130, 143, 163, 165, 167, 188+ Working Passage: got 'em all World Builder: 1-8, 13+ Wyrm's Footnotes: 1-9, 15+ Xataxombs: 6+ Ye Booke of Tentacles: 4+ Zeppelin: 1-63, 71+

This is the latest version of my want-list. If you’ve got any of these you’d like to sell, please contact me.There are over 3000 magazine & fanzine issues currently indexed in the program’s data files, and still there’s much to be done. In any case, I hope it’ll prove a useful resource for gamers once it’s released. -Jim