I'm getting bitten by the 'zine bug and would like to know what 'zines are your favorites and why? Which zines really enhance which games? Have you contributed to a zine? If so, which one and how?

There is already one called A Thousand Thousand Islands which I'd like to collect, but they are proving difficult to find.

I like black pudding primarily for the art.

My favorite OSR zines:

- for general gaming articles, in the tradition of Dragon and Different Worlds:  Fight On! (issues index at https://www.fightonmagazine.com/), Knockspell (index at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2017/05/knockspell-magazine-master-index.html)
- for adventures:  Echoes from Fomalhaut (and Gabor's EMDT works in general, at https://emdt.bigcartel.com/), Saving Throw zine #1 (at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/288750/saving-throw-fundraiser-fanzine-for-james-d-kramer), and for mega-dungeon design, The Twisting Stair (at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-twisting-stair-3-spring-2018.html; issue #4 is in development now)
- the World of Greyhawk setting is supported by three fanzine publications:  the Oerth Journal (at https://greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal/), Visions of Greyhawk (at https://canonfire.greyparticle.com/visionsofgreyhawk/), and The Grey Grimoire (at https://thegreygrimoire1.wordpress.com/)

I've co-founded Knockspell and The Twisting Stair, and contributed to them, The Oerth Journal, Visions of Greyhawk, Fight On!, and Saving Throw (issue #2 is in development now too, to benefit Anthony Huso).

Allan.

I really like Crawl!, myself. There's a lot of variety in content and plenty of stuff for players as well as Judges. I've never contributed to a zine, although I have tons of ideas for my own. I'm just really bad about starting projects and not completing them.

Fight On! is always looking for new contributors!

Thanks grodog!

In years past, I would collect physical or pdf copies of gaming magazines like: Star Frontiersman, Frontier Explorer, The Black Seal, Worlds of Cthulhu, and The Arkham Gazette. But I'm not positive that these count as "zines" in the modern Rpg culture sense of the word.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but modern "zines" seem to have more of an emphasis on micro-settings combined with open-source rules mechanics? I've seen mention of a few Kickstarted "zines" - I think that at one point, Kickstarter was promotionally pushing a wave of zines. But I've not seen a clear definition of what a "zine" is in this day and age, or if the definition remains the same.

I recently picked up copies of "The Scoundrels of Brixton" - which I have yet to read through. And from what I understand, TSoB counts as a "zine" product. It looked promising.

For Old School essentials their Zine Carcus Crawler is really great.  Has character classes, additional rules, etc

Strahd Loves, Man Kills was great for Ravenloft stuff but I don't think it is available anymore. There were maybe ten issues of that.

Hull Breach for Mothership is also great.

One of my favorites, which was completley unexpected was Centipedes by Chuffed CHuffer, it was an amazing read for sure. Also any of the thousand thousand islands are must reads.

Quote from: radio_thief on December 04, 2024, 01:34:23 PMOne of my favorites, which was completley unexpected was Centipedes by Chuffed CHuffer, it was an amazing read for sure. Also any of the thousand thousand islands are must reads.

I'll try to find Centipedes back issues. I'd love to have the full run of A Thousand Thousand Islands but so far I have not been able to find more than 1-2 issues.