Vintage UK RPG Fanzines?
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
I'm a Canadian gamer, who discovered the hobby back in 1980. I also
avidly collected "White Dwarf" magazine including back issues, and it
was with some fascination that I saw that WD had something that "The
Dragon" (really, the only other magazine rival, other than "Different
Worlds", and "The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society") did not
have; classified ads from many other gamers, and ads for fanzines by
gamers for sale. After reading through the contents of the latest
'Dwarf, I would pour over and over those adverts, thinking enviously
to myself about the collective energy available in the UK which I had
not seen demonstrated in anywhere else.
Not having a great deal of money back in my early days of high-school,
it took me some time to gather enough funds for a money order to send
off to Esdevian Games [it seemed to make more sense to send off to one
location, a prominent game store with full page ads in the back of WD,
to save on postage], where I asked for and received a grab-bag full of
UK fanzines.
Three months later, like a kid waiting for a Captain Midnight Secret
Decoder badge, my package arrived from Esdevian. Inside the envelope
was a colourful riot of colours of indivual zines and fanzines.
Sorting out the mass, I found I had individual copies of "The
Beholder", "Red Giant", "Dagon", "Quasits & Quasars", and a few others
that I drooled over.
Some of the RPG zines were pretty professional looking (heck, "The
Beholder had a cover cover with a taped spine!) while others were
little more than badly done mimeos, and were riddled with spelling
errors and bad jokes, like dungeon corridors that spelled out words I
assumed were rude UKisms. However, what shone through all of these was
the enthusiasm and creativity of the authors, publishers and others
involved in these home-brew publications, and I read through these
items over and over again.
Unfortunately, over the years and with many moves, I have lost many of
these paper treasures from that single order I put in, and I never did
follow-up in tracking down other fanzines.
Which is why I am writing; does anyone have a master list of all these
great UK fanzines, and are any available today, either in individual
copies, else as compilations or even collected together in CD-Rom/PDF
format? If not, is anyone planning on doing such a thing? It would
seem to me that such material would be a vital part of gaming history,
and it would be a shame to see such creative efforts disappear
forever.
::Brian::
Tim Ellis
>Which is why I am writing; does anyone have a master list of all these
>great UK fanzines,
I'm not aware of any master list - indeed I think you would have been
lucky to find any such list even back in the days that they were being
printed
> and are any available today, either in individual
>copies, else as compilations or even collected together in CD-Rom/PDF
>format?
I'm not aware of any OOP fanzines still available today, and I suspect
that the nature of the beast is such that many of them were pre-PC,
making re-prints and electronic copies somewhat tricky (as well as
"Dragon CD" type problems getting permission from authors to reprint
material - although I doubt any had contracts (not sure if this makes it
easier or trickier mind you!)
Paul Mason's Imazine has issues 25 to 38 (1996-2002) available on line
at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/panurge/imaz1.htm or
http://firedrake.org/panurge/imaz.htm (this also appears to have links
to issues 21-24)
Issue 1 of "The Excellent Prismatic Spray" (for Dying Earth) is
available from
http://www.dyingearth.com/downloads.htm
>If not, is anyone planning on doing such a thing?
There has been talk of a "Best of 'Tales of the Reaching Moon'" CD-Rom
to follow the final issue (Due very soon) but I don't know if that is
still planned, or what the timescale is.
>It would
>seem to me that such material would be a vital part of gaming history,
>and it would be a shame to see such creative efforts disappear
>forever.
True. Of course Imazine got its self an ISBN (or is it ISSN for
magazines?) number and deposited copies in the National Copyright
libraries, and I believe a number of other 'zines did likewise, or were
requested to provide copies following reviews in 'zines that were held.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tim Ellis EMail t...@timellis.demon.co.uk |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Guy Robinson
>> Some of the RPG zines were pretty professional looking (heck, "The
> Beholder had a cover cover with a taped spine!) while others were
> little more than badly done mimeos, and were riddled with spelling
> errors and bad jokes, like dungeon corridors that spelled out words I
> assumed were rude UKisms. However, what shone through all of these was
> the enthusiasm and creativity of the authors, publishers and others
> involved in these home-brew publications, and I read through these
> items over and over again.
My favourite fanzine was the Doombook of Chaos that I liked so much
that I contributed to it. The small fanzines were classics and I
still hoard away the copies that I tend to buy at 70s/80s Gamesdays in
London.
> Which is why I am writing; does anyone have a master list of all these
> great UK fanzines, and are any available today, either in individual
> copies, else as compilations or even collected together in CD-Rom/PDF
> format? If not, is anyone planning on doing such a thing? It would
> seem to me that such material would be a vital part of gaming history,
> and it would be a shame to see such creative efforts disappear
> forever.
I searched for the "Doombook of Chaos" on Google and found that that
only place that mentions them is my own online role-playing fanzine.
So it does look like there is no comprehensive list. However we could
could build one ...
From memory my list of fanzines include:
Doombook of Chaos
Torturers Apprentice
Demons Drawl/Telegraph Road
Other people must be able to expand on this list.
--
Guy Robinson
[all standard disclaimers apply]
Tim Ellis
>From memory my list of fanzines include:
>
>Doombook of Chaos
>Torturers Apprentice
>Demons Drawl/Telegraph Road
Dragonlords
Lankhmar Star Daily
The Acolyte
drunk & disorderly
Quasits & Quasars
Green Goblin
Tempestuous Orifice
Runestone
Iron Orchid
Dagon
Tales of the Reaching Moon
Trollcrusher
Hyperactive
Imazine
Danse Macabre
White Rabbit
Now Eat The Rabbit
And I know I'm missing some there...
Jim Lucas
--
The Jester
http://www.iol.ie/~jayeffell/
"Tim Ellis" <t...@timellis.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7WDRFHAf...@timellis.demon.co.uk...
Tim Ellis
>Does The Owl & Weasel count as a Fanzine???
>
My introduction to Fanzines was "The Wanderer 3" and "DragonLords 1"
that I sent off for out of the same White Dwarf...
James Wallis
wrote:
>Does The Owl & Weasel count as a Fanzine???
Definitely.
The lists posted so far have missed both of mine:
WEREMAN
Sound & Fury
--
James Wallis
Director of Hogshead Publishing Ltd (www.hogshead.demon.co.uk)
Posting this from his home address (ja...@erstwhile.demon.co.uk)
Ian Sturrock
<ja...@erstwhile.blockspam.vcisp.net> gibbers
>On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 03:34:49 -0000, "Jim Lucas" <jes...@boinet.ie>
>wrote:
>
>>Does The Owl & Weasel count as a Fanzine???
>
>Definitely.
>
>The lists posted so far have missed both of mine:
They also missed out the one fanzine I ever contributed to, Norst Claw.
Possibly the worst fanzine ever. My Caveman class was pretty good
though.
--
"Such a day, rum all out - Our company somewhat sober - A damn`d confusion
among us! - Rogues a-plotting - Great talk of separation - so I looked sharp
for a prize - Such a day took one, with a great deal of liquor on board, so
kept the company hot, damned hot; then all things went well again." (Teach)
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
> Jim Lucas <jes...@boinet.ie> has previously posted
> >Does The Owl & Weasel count as a Fanzine???
> >
> Yes - but before my time, I'm afraid (or pleased?) to say...
>
> My introduction to Fanzines was "The Wanderer 3" and "DragonLords 1"
> that I sent off for out of the same White Dwarf...
Wasn't "Owl and Weasel" the forerunner to White Dwarf?
Meanwhile, I remembered a few more:
Alien Star (mostly Traveller material)
New Beholder
Secrets of the Koan
Palantir
Illusionists Vision
::Brian::
Phil Masters
<ja...@erstwhile.blockspam.vcisp.net> wrote:
>The lists posted so far have missed both of mine:
>WEREMAN
>Sound & Fury
I thought that you were trying to forget about at least one of those?
Anyway - has anyone mentioned *Superhero UK*?
--
Phil Masters http://www.philm.demon.co.uk
Conjuration: RPGs & Ken Hite in Cambridge, 2003:
http://www.conjuration.info
*-* DIGDUG: Ego in the Service of Excellence *-*
David G. Bell
<89021c84.03011...@posting.google.com>
mis...@mcmaster.ca "Brian Christopher Misiaszek" wrote:
> Tim Ellis <t...@timellis.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:<JvlNraAD...@timellis.demon.co.uk>...
> > Jim Lucas <jes...@boinet.ie> has previously posted
> > >Does The Owl & Weasel count as a Fanzine???
> > >
> > Yes - but before my time, I'm afraid (or pleased?) to say...
> >
> > My introduction to Fanzines was "The Wanderer 3" and "DragonLords 1"
> > that I sent off for out of the same White Dwarf...
>
> Wasn't "Owl and Weasel" the forerunner to White Dwarf?
I think so -- I vaguely recall something around A5 size, very much a
fanzine in physical style (but good production quality), about what
Games Workshop was doing.
--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.
"Let me get this straight. You're the KGB's core AI, but you're afraid
of a copyright infringement lawsuit over your translator semiotics?"
From "Lobsters" by Charles Stross.
James Wallis
<ph...@philm.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:34:21 +0000, James Wallis
><ja...@erstwhile.blockspam.vcisp.net> wrote:
>>The lists posted so far have missed both of mine:
>>WEREMAN
>>Sound & Fury
>
>I thought that you were trying to forget about at least one of those?
I'm trying to destroy all physical evidence that it ever existed.
Phase II then involves planting memes to suggest it was a work of
genius, ahead of its time, etc. etc.
John Secker
<t...@timellis.demon.co.uk> writes
>Guy Robinson <guy_ro...@my-deja.com> has previously posted
>>From memory my list of fanzines include:
>>
>>Doombook of Chaos
>>Torturers Apprentice
>>Demons Drawl/Telegraph Road
>
>Dragonlords
>Lankhmar Star Daily
>The Acolyte
>drunk & disorderly
>Quasits & Quasars
>Green Goblin
>Tempestuous Orifice
>Runestone
>Iron Orchid
>Dagon
>Tales of the Reaching Moon
>Trollcrusher
>Hyperactive
>Imazine
>Danse Macabre
>White Rabbit
>Now Eat The Rabbit
>
>And I know I'm missing some there...
>
News From Bree
Tortured Souls
Demons Blood
The Dungeoneer
Sacrificing The Goat (I've only got Issue 1 of this)
The Beholder
Plus a lot of Trollcrushers. And that's just what I have sitting in a
pile in my bookcase. All A5 format, early 80's at a guess.
--
John Secker
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
Thanks for your ongoing additions to this thread on vintage [circa
1980s] UK RPG zines. So far, the list of zines include [in addition
to a few more I had mentioned to me in a private email, and some I
found in the back pages of WD's classified ads]:
Alien Star
The Acolyte
Balrog Banter
The Beholder
Booklet of Many Things
Boris
Cruel Worlds
Cult of Anubis
Dagon
Danse Macabre
Demons Drawl/Telegraph Road
Doombook of Chaos
Doomed Dwarves Journal
Dragon's Breath
Dragonlords
drunk & disorderly
Explosive Rune
Green Goblin
HTK4
Horse Manure
Illusionists Vision
Iron Orchid
Hyperactive
Imazine
The Impaler
Lankhmar Star Daily
New Beholder
Norst Claw
Now Eat The Rabbit
Owl & Weasel
Palantir
Quasits & Quasars
Rage in Eden
Red Giant
Runestone
Secrets of the Koan
SEWARS
Skullcrusher
Sound & Fury
Starquester
Superhero UK
Tales of the Reaching Moon
Tempestuous Orifice
The Thing that Came from the Dungheep
This Way Up
Thunderwind
Tome of Horrors
Tortured Souls
Torturers Apprentice
Trollcrusher
The Wanderer
Wereman
White Rabbit
The Writings of a Converted Wraith
Are there any others? And does anyone actually still own any of
these? Any opinions/reviews 20 years after the fact?
::Brian::
Brett Easterbrook
> >>
<huge snip>
> Plus a lot of Trollcrushers. And that's just what I have sitting in a
> pile in my bookcase. All A5 format, early 80's at a guess.
Please Feel free to sell/trade em to me, I'm looking for em all;)
Brette:)
Nick Brooke
"Pavic Tales"
Yog-Bear
Sound & Fury
Remember me James?
Paul Maclean
www.yog-sothoth.com
James Wallis <ja...@erstwhile.blockspam.vcisp.net> wrote in message news:<r2b92v0fil5ictefh...@4ax.com>...
Nick Middleton
"Brian Christopher Misiaszek" <mis...@mcmaster.ca> wrote in message
news:89021c84.03011...@posting.google.com...
John Secker
Easterbrook <beaste...@hotmail.com> writes
then, they are like something from another era, not just 20 years ago -
a time when you could go into Games Workshop (the Manchester one, the
second anywhere, I believe) and browse through lots of that sort of
thing, plus RPG stuff from all sorts of suppliers (remember Judges
Guild?). The 'zines themselves are from another age, too, all heavy
irregular typing, with the occasional correction in ink, all
mimeographed and stapled by hand. I've just looked at Trollcrusher 7,
and there is an advert for Asgard miniatures - they were the first range
of fantasy figures that I ever saw, and I still have the harpy, the
cockatrice, the basilisk and the rest. The human-sized figures are 18p
each, by the way.
It got me to wondering - nowadays, where everyone has Word and half of
us have some DTP package, it must be ten times easier to produce a 'zine
- but it seems to me that there are none, or very few, around these
days. Is it because making it too easy takes the fun out of it, or is
the hobby dead, or what? Has the Web and Usenet taken the place of the
'zines?
--
John Secker
James Wallis
>Well, well - I knew you sounded familiar -
>
>Sound & Fury
>
>Remember me James?
Cut me slack: it's been eighteen years. I remember you're a gamer.
These days I prefer to look forward, not back.
Ian Sturrock
<jo...@secker.demon.co.uk> gibbers
>Tortured Souls
Surely a prozine? Colour covers & occasional colour interiors, in the
mid-80s? Official tie-ins with Games Workshop?
Matthew Bloomer
<ja...@erstwhile.blockspam.vcisp.net> wrote:
>James Wallis
>Director of Hogshead Publishing Ltd (www.hogshead.demon.co.uk)
Is this an out-of-date signature, or is Hogshead Publishing's new
management not quite as new as one might think?
--
# Matthew Bloomer, philosophy undergraduate #
# of Derwent College, University of York #
# maj...@btinternet.com / mjb...@york.ac.uk #
# http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mjb135/ #
John Secker
<shubni...@goatweb.com> writes
>In article <uvVz4TAjUfJ+Ew$w...@secker.demon.co.uk>, John Secker
><jo...@secker.demon.co.uk> gibbers
>>Tortured Souls
>
>Surely a prozine? Colour covers & occasional colour interiors, in the
>mid-80s? Official tie-ins with Games Workshop?
>
are "colour" only in the sense that the paper they are copied onto isn't
white, but the whole production is classic fanzine (typed text, ink
drawings and corrections, all mimeographed). Certainly no colour inside.
It even has an errata sheet, a little scrap of paper stuck onto the
relevant page with sellotape. The editorial in Issue 1 (by Simon
Forrest) explains how "This magazine is meant to be different. Most
fanzines print .....". So he certainly thought he was starting a
fanzine. Maybe it was taken over by GW later, or they started one with
the same name. There's no publication or copyright date in the issues I
have, but one of the hand-drawn pictures is signed "Graham Majin '78"
which is highly suggestive.
--
John Secker
Jim Lucas
Psychobabble and White Elephant.
And in answer to your 2nd question, as Mr Wallis can testify, we have a copy
of the 1st Owl & Weasel....
--
The Jester
"Brian Christopher Misiaszek" <mis...@mcmaster.ca> wrote in message
news:89021c84.03011...@posting.google.com...
Yog-Bear
oh well - all the best for the future.
P.
Matthew Bond
"John Secker" <jo...@secker.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:EU9J2VAN$EK+...@secker.demon.co.uk...
Tortured Souls was also the name of an A4ish sized Glossy covered magazine
published by... errr... Beast Entz IIRC... in the mid 80's. Black covers
with red and white artwork in the main.
Matt
marc gascoigne
- Mystic Crystal (Jason Kingsley, now head of Rebellion, owner of 2000AD)
- Spitting from the Battlements
- Storm Lord (big in its day)
- Storm Ruler (SL v.2)
- Thunderstruck
- Underworld Oracle (the inspiration for us in starting Dragonlords)
If I could get into the attic I'd no doubt have another three dozen. At
one time it seemed everyone in the hobby did their own zine too. Ah,
where's Mike Lewis when you need him? Or a copy of that Simon Billeness
zine (name escapes me) that just listed/reviewed all the other zines, from
the RPG and Diplomacy hobby?
BTW, Tortured Souls:
Originally was a fanzine-ish version of that TSR scenario-in-a-mag thing
Dungeon or whatever it was called. Simon Forrest and Paul Cockburn ended
up as GW employees in mid-late 80s, and managed to do a deal to keep TS
going as a GW-distributed product.
Later,
Marc Gascoigne
fanzine editor, class of 1980
Tim Ellis
posted
>If I could get into the attic I'd no doubt have another three dozen. At
>one time it seemed everyone in the hobby did their own zine too. Ah,
>where's Mike Lewis when you need him?
Which reminds me - Lion & Lamb Chronicles - A Norwegian APA zine, whose
contributors (other than the Editor) were all British - The editor (and
one or 2 of the Contributors) used a version of English called "Spelling
Reform 2" - wich ment they spelt wurds foneticaly - which sometimes made
reading a bit tricky!
>Or a copy of that Simon Billeness
>zine (name escapes me) that just listed/reviewed all the other zines, from
>the RPG and Diplomacy hobby?
20 Years On?
>
>BTW, Tortured Souls:
>Originally was a fanzine-ish version of that TSR scenario-in-a-mag thing
>Dungeon or whatever it was called. Simon Forrest and Paul Cockburn ended
>up as GW employees in mid-late 80s, and managed to do a deal to keep TS
>going as a GW-distributed product.
Was Paul connected with Tortured Souls? I know he was behind GM
Publications, which started when Imagine Folded and was distributed for
a while by GW - I even got GW vouchers to repay my Sub when it folded!
--
+--------Tim Ellis-----------EMail t...@timellis.demon.co.uk-------------------+
| Oh, right! I almost forgot to plug Gloranthacon VIII, March 7-9, 2003 in |
| Toronto, Canada! (www.gloranthacon.com for details) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
John Secker
<t...@timellis.demon.co.uk> writes
>>BTW, Tortured Souls:
>>Originally was a fanzine-ish version of that TSR scenario-in-a-mag thing
>>Dungeon or whatever it was called. Simon Forrest and Paul Cockburn ended
>>up as GW employees in mid-late 80s, and managed to do a deal to keep TS
>>going as a GW-distributed product.
>
>Was Paul connected with Tortured Souls? I know he was behind GM
>Publications, which started when Imagine Folded and was distributed for
>a while by GW - I even got GW vouchers to repay my Sub when it folded!
>
Forrest, are Warwick Frearson, Chris Johnson, John Barrett, Graham Majin
and Lynne Forrest.
--
John Secker
James Wallis
<mjb...@york.ac.uk.nospam> wrote:
>On Fri, 17 Jan 2003 01:18:47 +0000, James Wallis
><ja...@erstwhile.blockspam.vcisp.net> wrote:
>>James Wallis
>>Director of Hogshead Publishing Ltd (www.hogshead.demon.co.uk)
>
>Is this an out-of-date signature, or is Hogshead Publishing's new
>management not quite as new as one might think?
I'm still in charge till 31st January, mostly tying up loose ends. The
new management takes over on 1st February.
--
James Wallis
Director of Hogshead Publishing Ltd (www.hogshead.demon.co.uk)
John Dallman
t...@timellis.demon.co.uk (Tim Ellis) wrote:
> >Or a copy of that Simon Billeness zine (name escapes me) that just
> >listed/reviewed all the other zines, from the RPG and Diplomacy hobby?
>
> 20 Years On?
Inflammatory Material? The title mutated to Flames after a while.
---
John Dallman (not speaking for the BRS) j...@cix.co.uk.
"A lot of our SAN loss is pre-paid these days. We have, after all,
got used to space travel, chaos theory, nuclear weapons, genetic
engineering and the Holocaust."
marc gascoigne
Simon's zine-about-zines was indeed 20 Years On. His later Inflamatory
Material was a chattier personal zine, rather than a games hobby mag per
se. Rather like Year of the Rat (Ian Marsh) and Thoughts (Mike Lewis), the
two ex-Dragonlords sequels, or Graham Staplehurst's The Winds Twelve
Quarters - trade or send a letter, no real fantasy game content, maybe
some Diplomacy-style postal games.
As to Tortured Souls, hmm, perhaps my old brain is conflating TS with
Games Master. The latter was certainly kept going by Paul and non-GWites
after he joined GW. Yes, I think I got those two combined. Simon F did
join GW (was WD editor for a time late 1980s); I suspect the same deal
applied.
Marco
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
> Missing from list off top of my head:
Snipped, and added to the following updated Vintage RPG fanzine
listing:
Aerial Servant
Alien Star [Traveller]
Aslan
The Acolyte
Balrog Banter
The Beholder
Booklet of Many Things
Boris
Cruel Worlds
Cult of Anubis
Dagon [Call of Cthulhu]
Danse Macabre
Delusions of Grandeur
Demon's Blood
Demons Drawl/Telegraph Road
Doombook of Chaos
Doomed Dwarves Journal
Dragon's Breath
Dragonlords
drunk & disorderly
The Dungeoneer [US zine with UK distribution]
Explosive Rune
Green Goblin
HTK4
Horse Manure
Illusionists Vision
Iron Orchid
Hyperactive
Imazine
Inflammatory Material [aka Flames]
The Impaler
Lankhmar Star Daily
Lion & Lamb Chronicles [Norwegian; English contributors]
Mystic Crystal
New Beholder
News From Bree
Norst Claw
Now Eat The Rabbit
Owl & Weasel [forerunner of "White Dwarf"]
Palantir
Pavic Tails
Psychobabble [Irish]
Quasits & Quasars
Rage in Eden
Red Giant
Runestone
Sacrificing the Goat
Secrets of the Koan
SEWARS
Skullcrusher
Sound & Fury
Spitting From the Battlements
Starquester
Storm Lord
Storm Ruler [Storm Lord v.2]
Superhero UK
Tales of the Reaching Moon
Tempestuous Orifice
The Thing that Came from the Dungheap
This Way Up
Thunderstruck
Thunderwind
Tome of Horrors
Tortured Souls
Torturers Apprentice
Trollcrusher
20 Years On [then contemporary reviews of RPG zines]
Underworld Oracle
The Wanderer
Wereman
White Elephant [Irish]
White Rabbit
The Writings of a Converted Wraith
> If I could get into the attic I'd no doubt have another three dozen.
Yes, please!
>At
> one time it seemed everyone in the hobby did their own zine too. Ah,
> where's Mike Lewis when you need him? Or a copy of that Simon Billeness
> zine (name escapes me) that just listed/reviewed all the other zines, from
> the RPG and Diplomacy hobby?
Others have said this commentary/review zine was called "20 Years On."
And to comment on your previous comment, as I mentioned in my other
message thread, "Raiders of the Lost Fanzines", the fanzine network
seemed to act as a primitive form of postal Internet, connecting
together persons and ideas that were far flung in the early days of
our hobby. I don't know if anyone in the hobby at the time, and here
on this forum would agree with this, however.
[as an aside Marco, I noted with some interest your name even appears
in the letters section of an older copy of "Thunderstruck" that came
all the way to Canada twenty years ago and is still in my
posession...]
::Brian::
Tim Ellis
>Now Eat The Rabbit
Should also be listed as "Irish"
John Secker
Christopher Misiaszek <mis...@mcmaster.ca> writes
>And to comment on your previous comment, as I mentioned in my other
>message thread, "Raiders of the Lost Fanzines", the fanzine network
>seemed to act as a primitive form of postal Internet, connecting
>together persons and ideas that were far flung in the early days of
>our hobby. I don't know if anyone in the hobby at the time, and here
>on this forum would agree with this, however.
>
the fanzines seem to have died out, and maybe this is the reason - the
Internet does the same job a lot better. I think there are other
reasons, too, to do with the maturity of the hobby, which tends to mean
there is no longer the wild flowering of a bewildering variety of ideas.
--
John Secker
Guy Robinson
I think the internet does do discussion a lot better than fanzine or
prozines (consider the letter pages of White Dwarf, for example) but
fanzines do still exist.
However there are two key problems with fanzines today, whatever the format.
The first is publicity. Not everyone knows about the fanzines available
today as there are no real central and/or essential conventions any more.
Even web fanzines can't guaranteed to find large audiences as you can only
search for what you reasonably expect to find.
The second is quality. Some people are daunted by current products which
have improved a lot since the earlier days of the original Judges Guild and
the TSR modules. Therefore people don't necessary feel empowered to
publish.
--
Guy Robinson
[all standard disclaimers apply]
marc gascoigne
> > If I could get into the attic I'd no doubt have another three dozen.
And Brian said...
> Yes, please!
Ah, go on then...
** Adventurer's Anonymous
** Alice (Sequel to This Way Up)
** Amulet
** The Bat
** Black Rider
** Blood Guts & Beer (RQ)
** The Bubonic Plagiarist
** Cerebretron (SF games)
** Clobbering Time (superhero rpgs)
** Conflict of Chaos
** Dark Elf
** Dead Elf
** Dragonfire
** Drune Kroll
** The Fiery Cross
** Grimlord
** Grim Reaper (T&T!)
** Ground Zero
** The Guilder
** Hacking Times
** Harvest Time
** I Don't Wanna go Back in the Box
** Intellect Devourer
** Journal of teh Senseless Carnage Society
** Lokasenna
** Manic Depressive
** Miser's Hoard
** Monsterous Perversion
** Obscurity Inc
** Oracle of Almost All Knowledge
** Orc's Revenge
** Out of the Mist (merger of Shadowfire/Mystic Crystal)
** Protoplasm
** Rapscallion
** Die Rubezahl (sequel to Monsterous Perversion)
** Runeriter
** School for Scandal (hobby news zine)
** Seventh Sin of the Salamander
** Shadowfire
** Space Operations (Space Opera)
** Spawn of Chaos
** Spectral Visions
** Swansea With Me (v1, ed Matt Williams, sequel to Tales from Tanelorn,
not to be confused with...)
** Swansea With Me (v2, ed Alex Zbyslaw, a chat zine, published at the
same time as the above!)
** Swordplay
** Tales from Tanelorn
** Trizine
** Utter Drivel
** Vacuous Grimoire
** Voom Vat
** White Rabbit (Irish, sequel to The Guilder)
** The Wild Hunt
** Wyrm's Claw
** Zadragorzette
Enjoy, reminisce, feel very old, whatever.
marc gascoigne
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
> I said, rashly...
>
> > > If I could get into the attic I'd no doubt have another three dozen.
>
> And Brian said...
>
> > Yes, please!
>
> Ah, go on then...
Thank you very much, Marco!
I have have snipped, shuffled, and intercalated your most recent
contribution into the following alphabetized listing: one hundred and
twenty-six vintage RPG fanzines...
The only letters of the alphabet *not* represented in zine titles are
K, X and Y, which appears to me a most curious omission!
***BEGINNING OF VINTAGE (mostly) UK RPG FANZINE LISTING***
The Acolyte
Adventurer's Anonymous
Aerial Servant
Alarums & Excursions [aka A&E; US APA with UK contributors]
Alice (Sequel to This Way Up)
Alien Star [Traveller]
Amulet
Aslan
Balrog Banter
The Bat
The Beholder
Black Rider
Blood Guts & Beer (RQ)
Booklet of Many Things
Boris
The Bubonic Plagiarist
Carnel [begun 1994]
Cerebretron (SF games)
Clobbering Time (superhero rpgs)
Conflict of Chaos
Cruel Worlds
Cult of Anubis
Dagon [Call of Cthulhu]
Danse Macabre
Dark Elf
Dead Elf
Delusions of Grandeur
Demon's Blood
Demons Drawl/Telegraph Road
Doombook of Chaos
Doomed Dwarves Journal
Dragonfire
Dragon's Breath
Dragonlords
Drune Kroll
drunk & disorderly
The Dungeoneer [US zine with UK distribution]
Explosive Rune
The Fiery Cross
Grimlord
Grim Reaper (T&T!)
Green Goblin
Ground Zero
The Guilder
Hacking Times
Harvest Time
HTK4
Horse Manure
Hyperactive
I Don't Wanna go Back in the Box
Illusionists Vision
Imazine [now online]
The Impaler
Inflammatory Material [aka Flames]
Intellect Devourer
Iron Orchid
Journal of the Senseless Carnage Society
Lankhmar Star Daily
Lion & Lamb Chronicles [Norwegian; English contributors]
Lokasenna
Manic Depressive
Miser's Hoard
Monsterous Perversion
Mystic Crystal
New Beholder
News From Bree
Norst Claw
Now Eat the Rabbit [Irish]
Obscurity Inc
Oracle of Almost All Knowledge
Orc's Revenge
Out of the Mist (merger of Shadowfire/Mystic Crystal)
Owl & Weasel [forerunner of "White Dwarf"]
Palantir
Pavic Tails
Protoplasm
Psychobabble [Irish]
Quasits & Quasars
Rage in Eden
Rapscallion
Red Giant
Die Rubezahl (sequel to Monsterous Perversion)
Runeriter
Runestone
Sacrificing the Goat
School for Scandal (hobby news zine)
Secrets of the Koan
Seventh Sin of the Salamander
SEWARS
Shadowfire
Skullcrusher
Sound & Fury
Space Operations (Space Opera)
Spawn of Chaos
Spectral Visions
Spitting From the Battlements
Starquester
Storm Lord
Storm Ruler [Storm Lord v.2]
Superhero UK
Swansea With Me (v1, ed Matt Williams, sequel to Tales from Tanelorn,
not to be confused with...)
Swansea With Me (v2, ed Alex Zbyslaw, a chat zine, published at the
same time as the above!)
Swordplay
Tales from Tanelorn
Tales of the Reaching Moon
Tempestuous Orifice
The Thing that Came from the Dungheap
This Way Up
Thunderstruck
Thunderwind
Tome of Horrors
Tortured Souls
Torturers Apprentice
Trizine
Trollcrusher
20 Years On [then contemporary reviews of RPG zines]
Underworld Oracle
Utter Drivel
Vacuous Grimoire
Voom Vat
The Wanderer
Wereman
White Elephant [Irish, sequel to The Guilder]
White Rabbit
The Wild Hunt [US APA, with UK contributors]
The Writings of a Converted Wraith
Wyrm's Claw
Zadragorzette
***END OF VINTAGE RPG ZINE LISTING***
>>Enjoy, reminisce, feel very old, whatever.
I'm looking more at this listing with tremendous envy...and enormous
astonishment.
So many zines...so many people thinking and writing and drawing and
typing about RPGs...where *did* they all go? Where are all the
editors and writers now? Still in the hobby, or consumed by the Real
World?
::Brian::
Andy & Sue
Descending Darkness (3 issues)
Polaris (only 1 isue...)
Andy
"Brian Christopher Misiaszek" <mis...@mcmaster.ca> wrote in message
news:89021c84.03012...@posting.google.com...
Adam Canning
ab001...@blueyonder.co.uk says...
> > Rage in Eden
> > Rapscallion
> > Red Giant
> > Die Rubezahl (sequel to Monsterous Perversion)
> > Runeriter
> > Runestone
> > ***END OF VINTAGE RPG ZINE LISTING***
Should we count Raven's Eye or is that not vintage enough?
Adam
Robbie
wrote:
Hardly vintage. Anyway, have you seen a printed copy?
I'm still unable to view the electronic version. :-(
Robbie
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
> > the fanzines seem to have died out, and maybe this is the reason - the
> > Internet does the same job a lot better. I think there are other
> > reasons, too, to do with the maturity of the hobby, which tends to mean
> > there is no longer the wild flowering of a bewildering variety of ideas.
> I think the internet does do discussion a lot better than fanzine or
> prozines (consider the letter pages of White Dwarf, for example) but
> fanzines do still exist.
I don't know that I agree entirely. Certainly more persons can
connect and share ideas. But the utter brevity and triviality of some
of that exchange which approaches banality is appalling for many
newsgroups and online fora. When I write for the APA "Alarums &
Excursions" (I've been doing this off and on now for 10 years, and I'm
now working on issue 59 of my sub-zine "Age of Menance") and reply to
other persons' submissions, I have time to think and ponder and then
provide a thoughtful reply, and not simply dump whatever's in my
frontal lobes into my reply. Flamewars and Trolls in A&E are much,
much common (and in fact rare) in contrast to the online exchange of
ideas that I see in such places as rpg.net.
> However there are two key problems with fanzines today, whatever the format.
>
> The first is publicity. Not everyone knows about the fanzines available
> today as there are no real central and/or essential conventions any more.
I was going through some back issues of White Dwarf magazine [it's a
snowy Sunday afternoon here in Canada with flurries outside], scanning
through the small ads, when I suddenly noticed something that may have
bearing on this.
Some time in 1987, between issues 94 and 95 (I can't tell which,
missing 94 in my collection) White Dwarf suddenly stopped running
classified ads entirely. As far as I can tell, no explanation was
given for this policy change.
I suspect this change by White Dwarf had a dramatic impact on the UK
RPG fanzine hobby.
With the stoppage of this magazine's classifieds, the primary means of
connecting this early "postal internet" of fanzines, fanzine editors
and fans suddenly dried up. There was suddenly no longer a central
exchange or "bulletin board" for persons in the hobby to connect to
one another. Fanzine editors and potential fans/writers/fresh blood
were suddenly cut off from one another.
Other than the major RPG conventions [such as Gamesday or Dragonmeet]
which occured only a few times a year, and only reached out to a
handful of the total number of gamers, there would be simply *no* way
for outsiders to connect with this amateur network. And, unless they
were in the fanzine network already, there would be no way of fanzine
ediotrs to connect to others. I suspect several fanzines ran on
inertia for awhile longer with the loss of this central exchange [or
tried to keep it up with other magazines such as Adventure or GM,
which actually had fanzine review columns], but I suspect from the
data dribbling on from the vintage RPG project this did not happen
long enough for either BBS's or the real Internet/WWW to bridge the
gap.
> Even web fanzines can't guaranteed to find large audiences as you can only
> search for what you reasonably expect to find.
True enough, but at least they could advertise on some of the
newsgroups like this one and others frequenly visited.
> The second is quality. Some people are daunted by current products which
> have improved a lot since the earlier days of the original Judges Guild and
> the TSR modules. Therefore people don't necessary feel empowered to
> publish.
This is a harder matter to argue against. Since the WWW is not only a
written, but also a visual media (simultaneously "cold" and "hot", to
use media specialist's Marshal McLuhan's metaphor), visitors demand
not just good ideas, but also visual content and knowledge of layout
and design, many could be intimidated of trying to provide online
gaming knowledge content if they lack the skills and means to produce
a slick product.
And while before simple access to a photocopier (or mimeograph), along
with agility with scissors and glue and a typewrite could allow anyone
to produce an RPG zine, it's not only much more expensive to provide
an online version of a zine than the old fashioned way [paying for
expensive computer software, hardware, and paying for a host machine
to house the site and the expected bandwidth of hits], but also
demands a specialized skill-set with knowledge of HTML, facility of
blending various graphics and text files, plus a great deal of time
for routine site maintainence to ensure no broken links, that things
look good on all web-browsers, etc.
In contrast, once a paper zine was done and out, it was done, except
for the accolades (or jeers) directed subsequently to the fanzine
editor.
::Brian::
Brian Christopher Misiaszek
> much common (and in fact rare) in contrast to the online exchange of
Oops...that should be "less common"; mea culpa.
::Brian::