[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Ten

Day Ten: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.)

Technically speaking, the first gaming magazine I ever bought was the Dragon Magazine Archive CD-ROM. I lucked into finding this in early 2000, shortly after it was released. I say "lucked" because it's quickly become a highly sought-after piece of gamerabilia. I still have these and now use Adobe to read them, as the interface is a little buggy on these new-fangled computers. But hey, I still have the first 250 issues for reference, right? I've even used them since changing over to 3.x edition, so they're still useful and helpful. Plus, they're fun to read.

Then there was this, the first actual hardcopy Dragon Magazine that I purchased was this one: Issue #278. Why, you ask?

Because DWARVES, that's why.

I stumbled across this one day walking through one of the (then) local game shops, saw the "Dwarves" headline and I was sold. Yeah, I was still playing 2nd Edition D&D at the time and most of the 3E stuff in the issue wouldn't come in handy for another couple of years. But the issue contained Dwarven language information and sample battle cries. This was the one that prompted me to collect--ultimately--the other 108 issues. Yup. I have all the others. At least, I purchased/subscribed all the others, from 251 on. Double copies on some issues.

Of course, at last count I'm missing about 8 issues somewhere. I suspect a former GM still has some mixed in with his packed-up 3.x stuff. So, now I'm stuck trying to fill holes. Of course, the missing issues are also some of the most popular issues and replacing them is proving to be more than difficult. But it will happen. Oh yes, it will happen.

And it all started with #278.

'Zines--Print and E-*

As Tim over at Gothridge Manor mentioned, a man named Christian has started something with his Loviatar 'zine.

As you may recall, I mentioned once that my love of 'zines goes all the way back to my high school days. I fell out of the collection of these shortly after high school, but after my discovery of Loviatar, I've started collecting them again.

There's not a lot of RPG-oriented 'zines out there, at least, what I consider to be 'zines. (Kobold Quarterly, in my estimation, is a magazine, not a 'zine. Once you have some slick production value, it loses the homey-ness of a 'zine.) Perhaps the blog has replaced the 'zine of old, doing what the 'zine used to do. Slowly, though, it appears that there is a resurgence of interest in the old 'zine: colored cardstock covers, etc. in all their hand-made goodness. Print-wise, at least. Some of our colleagues out there are using electronic media to disseminate their fine 'zines. (See Lapsus Calumni for an example.)

Because of my love for these things, I'm starting a new little sidebar feature on the blog: I'll be trying to collect links for current RPG 'zines, a card catalog of sorts. For this, I'll be asking for your assistance: If you know of a 'zine -- print or electronic -- let me know. If you publish a 'zine, let me know and I'll add yours to the list. There's also an argument to be made that Fight On!, Knockspell, and Oubliette could be added to this list. If you think so, make that argument to me and I'll add them.

IT CAME!

It came! It came! It came! Itcameitcameitcameitcameitcame!!!

I've been wanting to pick up an issue of Loviatar for a couple months but only now was financially-able to take the plunge. Yeah, I know, $3 isn't much, but there you have it. The descriptions of the first three issues have intruiged me and issue number four certainly did not let me down.

Well, it did, but only a slight little hiccup. More below.

What is Loviatar? It's a great little digest-sized hardcopy magazine in Old School fashion. Don't take my word for it; head on over to the website and check it out for yourself. Christian did a nice job with this and was very accomodating with my shipment request. He was also quite kind when I started crying about losing some content...but again, more on that below.

The picture really doesn't do it justice; the cover is a great, striking yellow (perhaps canary?) but unfortunately the color scanner is down at the office and this is the best I could do. I hope you'll forgive me, Christian.