A Zine Nudge

Zine Quest 3 is going crazy with a ton of selections, but there are two that will fund, but I wanted to give them a nudge to get them over the funding line. 

This first one is by Frank Turfler Jr. Lair of the Manticore! Barrow NO. 13. Located deep in the marshes, protected by the dangerous local fauna and nearly impassable terrain, it is rumored that a terrifying Manticore has recently made its home here.

Rumors spread fast and suddenly there is an odd stranger at the Keep offering an extremely large reward for the live capture of the beast.

Frank's only $82 away!

The second is by Jeffery Jones, Scoundrels: Making Your Game Criminal. Running games involving crimes is fun. Many of our favorite movies, TV shows, and comics center around themes of heists, robberies, gangs, bootlegging, or even acts of extreme violence. Sometimes the protagonists are criminals trying to climb the ladder for wealth and power; other times they are “Robin Hoods”, nobly fighting injustices through their own criminal acts.

When you want to run games with a criminal focus, you'll find a lack of solid tools that support this kind of play. From sandbox adventures, to side-quests, to fleshing out existing adventures, Scoundrels helps you–the GM–run a successful crime-themed game each and every game night.

Jeffery is a mere $44 away.

Please take a moment and check these two out and give them the nudge to put them over their funding goal!

Game Store Finds: Zine Artifacts

I rarely go out these days, and even rarer do I go to the gaming stores. But yesterday I felt the need to go for a drive and I ended up 35 minutes away at a gaming store I visit a couple times a year. About half the time I go they have a small selection of older gaming items. I scored yesterday. I grabbed all of it except for two 2nd ed. GM screens. 

A Forgotten Realms map? I know I have one or two copies of it, but for a buck! Hell yeah I am getting it.

I'd forgotten how large the map is. It's as tall as Ivy. She tried to stand on her tip-toes and act like she was a giant, but she was still shorter.

I wasn't expecting to find zine artifacts! What!?!? I don't have a lot of knowledge of past zines so I did a little research. It looks like Griffon Magazine had a six issue run that ran from May 1988 to January 1990.

It looks like I know have issues #4 and #5. I haven't had a chance to look through them other than a flip through. The font is tiny, but surprisingly legible. 

Then this zine sized gem, Bounty Hunters Handbook. It looks to be from the same folks who did Griffon Magazine. This one looks to use similar format also. I was psyched to find these in the store. Completely unexpected.

Another old time magazine. I've never owned a copy of Polyhedron. Unfortunately this one was kind of jacked up. Someone carelessly jammed it into a tight protective sleeve and the back pages were ripped. 

It was tight because there were two other items inside. Silver Griffin (seems to be a theme forming) was the NRPA newszine. Never saw a copy before. 

I have a lot JG from back in the day, but I don't think I owned this one. Either way for $3 why not. It's in good condition. I have a special fondness for this adventure because my friend Rob Conley updated it for Goodman Games. Which happened long enough ago that it would be considered a relic. 

I know I have a copy of this, but I decided to grab it for an extra.

I didn't know what this one was. No title. Just knew it was Forgotten Realms. It's for a region called The Great Glacier. I know I don't have that one. Now I need to find the rest of it.

Not a bad run at the gaming store. I think my total was $22.

Kickstarter Zine Quest Selections

You may have heard there is this thing on Kickstarter called Zine Quest 2. All the cool kids are doing it. I wanted to share a few of the excellent zines I've found. Some will be bias because I am friends with the authors, but that doesn't mean their zines don't kick ass.

The creator of Dice Roll Zine #3 is Steve C. He's one of the guys I'm bias about. We game together and he's a cool guy. Man are his zines good. And big. My zines come in at 24 to 28 pages. Dice Roll Zine comes in at a punching weight of 40 pages. And it's full of good stuff. And he's also has a pledge level to get issue #2. Get it.


Hidden Hand of the Horla is written for Old School Essentials. I didn't need to hear any more to back this one. This Kickstarter is part of their 'Make 100' campaign. The premise is, you make a 100 of your thing and sell them. Cool idea. Ryan of Appendix N Entertainment has sold out of print copies, but there are unlimited amounts of PDFs. Grab a copy.


Here's another Kickstarter I am biased because I enjoy Dave Aldridge podcast, dpercentile so much. A fellow anchorite. Mudharbour is not just any zine, it's a kung fu fantasy zine. I shouldn't have to write anything else. I mean it's a kung fu zine. duh. It looks like he is using Black Hack for the base system. And there are a lot of interesting possibilities in here. Three Kung Fu dungeons? Whaaaat? I wanna know what a kung fu dungeon is.


The Hidden Necropolis is one I am very curious about because it uses the Five Torches Deep system. I have that system in PDF, but I've haven't played it. It's a 3rd level adventure that is written and playtested. He's has a stretch goal to convert it into 5e so you fifth edition folks, a few more pledges and you'll get a version for your game.


Phylactery says it focuses on the strange and bizarre. Cursed objects. Nefarious tomes of magic. Forbidden demon gods. And there is artwork by Karl Stjernberg, Adrian Landeros, and Ed Bickford. Amazing. It looks like a solid entry into the OSR zine scene.


The Forgotten Rites of the Moldering Dead isn't part of zine quest, but I had to put it here. There is one day left to get in on this one. Donn Stroud just makes good gamable material. Listen to this, RPG supplement containing tables to enhance and generate all facets of the dead, the un-dead, funerary rituals, and death rites. Huh? Huh? Come on, that is frick'n cool. He's also offering his former product, Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion. Get that one also. I have a small bookshelf on my desk for the RPG books I use the most. Lesser Key is on that shelf.

Alright folks. That's a wrap. Checkout these gorgeous pieces of art. These zines. These wonderful nuggets of gaming material. 

And oh, before you go, a shameless plug for me.


I heard Hunters in Death is pretty good also. 

Zine Vaults, a Kickstarter that Kicked Ass [Review]

A few months back +Carl Bussler and +Eric Hoffman, of Stormlord Publishing, created a Kickstarter, The Zine Vault.   I jumped in right away because I have quite a bit of interest in the OSR zine culture that has grown over the years.  And Carl and Eric do an incredible job with everything they do.  The Zine Vault scheduled completion date was November.  And last time I checked the calendar, it's November.  Carl and Eric delivered on time and, as always, produced an excellent product!

 There were five designs, six if you count a blank option, of Zine Vaults to choose from.  I got a sampling of all of them; Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Great Old Ones,  Sci-Fi, and Six-Guns & Sorcery.  Originally the boxes were going to have Zine Vault printed on the side, but that proved too costly from what I remember.  I was a bit disappointed by this originally, but now that I have the boxes I see it as an opportunity to personalize the boxes and to name the boxes for what is inside. 

Let's look at the inside of the these boxes.  They are made of heavy cardboard and lined with a dark matting.  Before the Zine Vault Kickstarter I looked around quite a bit for heavy boxes to store my zine, but I could never find the right size.  I found a couple of boxes that would have fit two stack of zines inside, but they were always Christmas themed.  I don't want a glittery, smiling snowman guarding my zines. 

Here's my stash of boxes I received.  Lots of boxes soon to be filled and given purpose. 

In the description, Zine Vaults are supposed to hold 6 zines.  I was able to easily fit 10, 24-page zines!  And if I chose to go over a little I think I could squeeze in one or two more without blowing the top off.  As a sire note, I just received my first shipment from Brave Halfling's Kickstarter, two copies of The Ruins of Ramat. 

So this concludes the Zine Vault tour.  I asked Carl and Eric if they would sell Zine Vaults after  completing the Kickstarter orders, and the answer is YES.  After all the KS order are complete, Zine Vaults will be available at Stormlord Publishing.  Indulge your zines, treat them with the luxury they deserve.

My History with One-Page Zines (or OPZs)

 +Christian Walker with his release of the tolling of the great black bell has sparked a surge of others getting into the one-page zines.  You've got +matt jackson producing The Ten Foot Pole, +Mike Davison  and his Boarding Action, +Tony T is writing Outpost Owlbear and +Wayne Snyder is penning Dark Ruins.  These are what I know of right now.  There might be a few more OPZs birthing out there as I write.  I hope so.

I love the excitement its generating and to no small part to Christian for inspiring others...again.  As I've said many times, without Christian's Loviatar, there would be no Manor and probably a bunch more.  Tonight I was putting together a binder for all the OPZs I've been getting and found all of Christian's older ones and I'd forgotten about a few of them.

The one I remember the best is One Square = 5' (6 issues).  I wrote a series of posts of solo adventuring through the on going adventure.  I believe I played only dwarven characters and they all met horrible deaths and all their names rhymed.  It was fun. 

Then Christian created a Call of Cthulhu OPZ called Shudde M'Ell Confidential (3 issues).  I love the look and layout of this one.  Has the feel of a 1920's newsletter.

And two more OPZs from Christian, I want to live in Los Angles (7 issues) and a letter from Los Angles (3 issues). 

I found another old one by Matt Jackson, Qwellian's Journal (1 issue).   And in a recent purchase from +Ron Yonts he sent along with the books a one-page adventure Calcified Caves of the Slime Yeti.

I guess I was just thinking how I thought all this OPZ stuff was new and once I got to digging around I found I've been getting them for years. 

Write on OPZers. 

Saved My Monday

My mailbox is my friend most of the time.  I enjoy going there when I know I've got a little something waiting for me. Today I wasn't expecting anything.  I had a few items I needed to mail out.  When I opened my post box I was very surprised and very happy.  +matt jackson and +Christian Walker saved my Monday.  Both sent me one-page zines.  They are good and fun to get. 
 

This is the 4th installment of Christian's the tolling of the great black bell.  Love that name.  Bonus points if you can identify where it comes from.  I'll give you a abstract hint...walnut.  muhaha  Go check out Christian's site, he does a video for each one.  He cracks me up when he says "Thanks for the Googles". 

Matt Jackson, inspired by Mr. Walker, has created The Ten Foot Pole.  His first offering features The Molted Branch.  It is very, very good. 

I plan on grabbing an empty binder to put keep track of these one page gems. 

Then I got more dice....I know, I know.  But these were gold and gold and ivory and if I'm gonna play a new game I need new dice?  Right?  Guys?  Back me on this one.  

Mail Call Appreciation

The past six weeks have been just killer, crazy busy.  I that time span I've increased my gaming schedule to play in two regular games a week and some weeks its up to three times a week.  I like the variety of games I'm playing:

• Monday night is 5e with +Rob Conley at the helm as we traverse his Majestic Wilderlands campaign world changing the political landscape of what will be.  
• Wednesday night I'm running a True Detective type campaign using Exoterrorists from +Pelgrane Press Ltd.  I've got two investigators, +Chris C. and +Ken H who are four sessions into their investigation.  And Chris has already declared he is never coming to where I live because its too creepy.
• The third night is irregularly scheduled.  Sometimes its +Erik Tenkar running +Joseph Bloch's Castle of the Mad Archmage.  Or playing board or card games around a real table with Rob and Dwayne.  Dwayne is creating his own game we sampled last time and it is very, very cool.  We just schedule to try version 2.0 next Saturday.

One of the thing I absolutely love is getting gaming stuff in the mail.  It's a borderline addiction.  These past couple of weeks I've gotten some excellent stuff and I've failed to give a proper shoutout to the products and the people behind the cool.

• First off I ordered a Fallout 3 guide.  I've never been one of video game guide books.  I'd rather play and miss stuff and be surprised at what I find than know everything up front.  BUT, I've ran through Fallout 3 about four times.  Then I saw someone on Google+ post a picture of the book and I instantly wanted one.  I love the look of it.  I just needed to make sure it had the map.  The book is fantastic.  It will be a template for when I run a post apocalyptic game.
• +Crawljammer Zine issue 6 hit my doorstep last week.  +Tim Callahan is one of the most talented guys in the OSR.  He and +Matt Hildebrand recently released a +Mythoard exclusive, Bizarre Tales.  Crawljammer is not a solo effor, +Sean Ellis penned two offerings, +Cory Gahsman (DM Cojo) and +Gilbert Isla each contributed articles.  And artists +Fred Dailey, +Christian Mojallali, +Sarah Richardson, +Nick Burchard, +Mike Cole, +Wayne Snyder, and +Jim Yoder all contributed to this issue.  Look at that list, that is a staff.  As always Tim produces an excellent product.  This issue is 32 pages so I larger than a normal zine.  But considering how much is in it he needed them all.  Grab a copy of Crawljammer if you haven't.
•  +Jim Magnusson has a Patreon, The Lost Monster Manual Page Postcards.  The Coot People is the latest offering.  First off you get Jim's art, that would be enough, but he adds an entire entry about the monster on the back of the postcard.  And the cool feature is the random table that is built into the frame around the picture.  I've laminated the ones I get to preserve them.
• Tropes: Zombie Edition by +Pete Spahn of Small Niche Games.  This game looks to be a blast.  Get a group of friends together, create a group of characters, throw them into a hat, randomly select your character (when he or she dies, select another from the hat) and see how long they can survive long enough in a zone overrun by zombies to find a way out.  I have the PDF, but much prefer the print version of Tropes: Zombie Edition. 
• Undercroft #4 from +Daniel Sell.  A zine from across the pond using LofFP system.  Contributors +Barry Blatt, +Marc Gacy, +Luke Gearing and +Anxious P. created another fantastic zine.  Accompanied by the artistic talents of +Matthew Adams, +Jeremy Duncan, +Jim Magnusson (this guy keeps showing up), and +Anxious P..  I just love the creepy and disturbing feel.  Daniel just started a Patreon page and that's how you subscribe to Undercroft.  I think it's a brilliant use of Patreon.  Head on over to the Undercroft page and select which patronage that suits your location.
• Last and no way least is +Simon Forster's post card map.  Simon is one of the OSR guys I really respect and enjoy his talents.  He's been sending me post card maps even before he started his Patreon Page, Maker of Maps, Writer of Stories Delver of Dungeons.  Consider becoming a patron, he just had a brand new human being and needs diapers!  heh, plus you get excellent maps from a very cool and talented guy.  I just don't want to see any "brown pudding" on the maps!

Zine Fatigue & Subscriptions

I released my 7th issue of The Manor a couple of weeks ago and the fatigue hit me over this past weekend.  It's an odd thing, but not uncommon.  I go to my day job, work there anywhere from 40 to 50+ hours a week.  At night, I work on gaming stuff about 10 to 15 hours a week and add an additional 10 hours average over the weekend.  That number gets higher at release time.

With the release over there is this weird lull in production.   Usually I have three things going at once so if I get stifled on one project I can work on another to keep me going.  But I noticed a couple of weeks after a product release I just need to take a step back and take a breath.  Hell, I didn't even go to my Monday Night gaming session this week. 

Like I said, this is not uncommon.  But I still find it strange to need a break from gaming.  With that said I have one piece done for the next Manor, a micro-adventure nearly done (and an idea for a series of them) and a project that needed completing a while ago.  In addition, I've been messing around with modern, supernatural themed type adventures. 

A Random Topic Change
Another subject I wanted to bring up was subscriptions.  I just fulfilled my first subscription.  It was a six issue run and at times I wondered if I would ever get there.  But I was talking with a fellow ziner, +Daniel Sell who produces the wonderfully creepy Undercroft zine, and we were discussing subscriptions.  And it got me to thinking of doing another round of them.

I wanted to just get an idea if there would be much interest.  Here's how I would handle it this time around.

• Like last time I would open subscriptions for a window of time.  I don't want to have to manage staggered subscriptions.  So if I opened it up again the subs would all start with issue #8.

• This time around I would do a 4 issue subscription.  Seems less daunting and I have a better chance of completing them before the post office increases their rates.

• I haven't worked out pricing.  I'm thinking $16 for 4 issues for US folks and then on up for Canadian and other worldly orders.

 If you would be interested in a subscription let me know.  I'll work on it this weekend.  I've put up a poll to the right. 

GM Games July Sales Report

Another pretty decent month for GM Games.  Although I haven't released anything in two months GM Game still managed to bring in 61 sales.  Bundles drove the sales. 

I added a new feature to the monthly sales report, total all-time sales column.  This way you can also see the total tally of sales.  I sometimes wonder about it and have to do too much math.  If I do it every month it should be easier to track.

Manor #7 is done except for my introduction.  I'll finish it this weekend and then send it off to the proofreaders.  I'm hoping to release it mid-August. 

Over the past few months I've had several folks contact me about wanting to start their own zines.  There are a lot of great things coming out of the OSR these days.  I'll write a in-depth post about the new zines that I've had the fortune of reading. 

Mail Call! Zine-pocolypse

Look at what came in the mail today.  Just take a look.  Over here.  Yeah, all the zines.  The best part....two of the zines are from new dudes still wet from the placenta. 

I got the 2nd issue of Crawling Under the Broken Moon.  Put a little space in your dungeon.  If you want to run a sci-fi DCC game, this is where you're going to want to start.  +Reid San Filippo looks like he's got something very cool on his hands.  Well done.

The Well of Souls is brought to you by fellow Pennsylvanian, +Carl Bussler.  This is an adventure for the DCC system.  I play in three different groups and not one uses the DCC system and I've got more DCC zines than anything else.  I guess I'll have to tell Ivy that I'm starting a 4th group.  Carl does an incredible job with presenting his adventure.  The zine itself is stylized with deckle edging of the pages, his choice of card stock and interior pages.  Carl did it all, wrote it, drew it and mapped it.

And the other newb to the zine ring is The Undercroft by +Daniel Sell.  You thought I was going to say this one was for DCC also, nope.  Daniel gets down with Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  For some reason I always want to write flaming princess.  As Daniel puts it, this zine is full of death & disease. 

Two out of three zines are new, the third one is still wet behind the ears.  But I think zines are kinda like dog years.  One zine equals 5 to 7 magazines. 

Please give these guys a look.  Grab a copy.  Support their work.  This zine thing is contagious. 

Cost of Zine Postage, Bundles & Singles

Here's another 'peek behind the curtain' post.  This one is focusing on the cost to sent zines out into the world.  It's something that needs to be seriously considered when your set you price.

To ship single issues:
$.70 to USA
$1.15 to Canada
$2.13to the World

To ship out bundles:

$3.29 or $3.50 to USA (depends how many extras I had on hand)

$4.79 to Canada

$10.72 to the World

Total spent on shipping the month:  

$124.81

Yeah, that's more than I've ever spent at the PO.  But it just means I've had a lot of orders and really enjoying it.  And if I ever need a job at the PO I think I can get references from nearly all the workers and have the postage rates memorized. 

My Zine Box Explodeth

I need to reorganize my zine box.  I keep them in +Brave Halfling Publishing's, Peter Mullen's, purple worm box.  I should have bought two or three of these when I had the chance.  Damn my frugalness.  Somewhere in the kitchen Whisk is laughing at that statement.

When I was organizing my zine box I noticed I had a few holes in my collection and have rectified most of those, but still need to print all the +Dyson Logos zines I purchased.  Click on the pictures below to see who is guilty of creating what.

Here is group one.  +Christian Walker has a couple of stacks that include his 13 issues of Loviatar and a collection of One Square Equals Five Feet, A Letter from Los Angles, and Shudde M'ell Confidential.  There are so many these days I can't keep track of all the new issues and zines coming out.  So much good stuff being created these days.

 This a mix of old and new stuff.  +Simon Forster out does himself.  He sent me a hand written, hand drawn map adventure.  It's fantastic.  And it was a complete surprise.  There is +Wayne Rossi's first issue of Dungeon Crawl.  +Nathan Irving's Secrets 1st issue.

List of Cool Stuff

Alex Fotinakes is the creative mine behind the full-sized zine, Wizards, Mutants, Laser Pistols.  He just released his 6th issue and I really dig this zine.  It harkens (yes, I used harkens) back to what I remember of some of the few 70's and 80's zines I saw.  Staples on the side, no fancy attempt at binding.  Inside is barebones fun and content.

 +Dak Ultimak's is the mastermind behind Crawl!, probably the best DCC supplement your going to find anywhere.  I believe he has nine issues out now, plus a special issue called Hack! Firearms!.  When he released these on PDF I think all his zines were in the top 15 spots for several weeks.  Dak and I run the RPG Zine community on Google+.  He and I are always up for trading zine for zine.

+Dylan Hartwell has created a series of incredible adventures.  The one he's probably best known for is his first, The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz.  And his most recent, The Big Book of Spiders, has inspired an adventure in my latest zine.  All of Dylan's adventures are accompanied by Dylan's artwork.  I really dig his creepy vibe he puts into each picture.  I've had him illustrate my own adventure, Knowledge Illuminates.  The best part is I met Dylan at a con this past year and I hope to do so this year.  He's got a good energy when he GMs.  It was very cool to see him GM one of his adventures I've been reading for the past couple of years.

+Pete Spahn is the man behind Brave the Labyrinth.  There is currently three issues available on RPGNow, pay what you want.  These are bad ass zines that feature the Labyrinth Lord system.  He features very cool map covers for each issue.  A ton of people contribute to Brave the Labyrinth.  Lots of interesting ideas to bring into your OSR game.  And it's not your average sized zine.  Since it is sold through PDF the page counts range from 24 to 50+.  If your going to print this puppy out, get a big stapler.

+matt jackson famous mini game, Edge of Space.  Matt was very generous and sent me a copy.  I know he is often asked about printing more.  This is a very cool space game that can get set up in a few minutes.  And Matt wrote the introduction adventure, Incident at Intrepid Station.  This is one of those product you need to own in print.  It is just that good.

Johnathan Walton and his friends have created a series of three booklets that are supplements for the Dungeon World system.  Including the Dark Heart of the Dreamer.  These three booklets and the core book of Dungeon World was gifted to me by +Tim Knight.  I've only leafed through these so far.  I need to sit down and give it a good read, but I think this is one I want to learn by playing.  I need to find a con and get in a game or two.  Or at least make it on time for the game...missed it at the last con.

+john yorio recently released his 2nd issue of 6 Iron Spikes & Small Hammer.  This is what old school zines are about.  This is another one of those old school zines that just hits all the right notes and just a pleasure to read.  John is very passionate about his zine and he should be, it is excellent.

+Johnathan Bingham created Delve!.  And here you though he was just another hot elf chick that liked pie.  Johnathan is one of the OSR's stable of top tier artists.  He illustrates Delve! with provocative illustration to go along with his gonzo adventure.  As of now he only has the single issue and I believe he's mentioned he has the second issue on its way, but when you're moving your family across half the world his attention is divided.  Johnathan has been a huge help with artwork for the Manor and he and his wife, Daisy, completed an incredible cover for my upcoming Manor Compilation. 

+Jason Sholtis, speaking of top tier artists, has created a pair of adventures.  His first being Zogorion, Lord of Hippogriffs and Secret Party House of the Hill Giant Playboy.  Both adventures have a intelligent humor that takes the adventures beyond the normal.  Jason and +John Larrey illustrate these adventures and do an incredible job.  Jason has been a HUGE help with The Manors.  He puts up with my pestering for artwork and he always creates something above what I imagined.

+Christian Walker and all his zines and one-page letters and I don't even have half of them.  The guy is the reason why I put out The Manor.  While most of his stuff you can no longer get, if you ever get a chance grab a copy do so and save it.

+Eldrad Wolfsbane created Back to the Dungeon zine that features the Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion.  He's even created his own retro clone called, Back to the Dungeon RPG.  Right now there are five issues out for you to download.  Go ahead and do it now and thank me when you come back.  I think you'll get a fantastic picture of what it looks like behind his GM screen.  This is a simple, no nonsense zine that is full of useful stuff.

+Greg Gorgonmilk takes the lead for Underworld Lore.  He's got three big, fat issues done and the fourth issue seems to be well on its way.  I say fat because the last issue was 80 pages long!  Holy crapping Canadians Batman, that's a big one.  And he manages to sneak in half naked pictures of Red Sonja.  Again, this is one of those old school zines that just kicks ass.  It's a got a ton of great info and includes a few Petty Gods.  The last issue was dedicated to Hyboria.  And it's free to download. 

+Simon Forster is fast becoming known as an elite map maker.  His maps and style just keeps getting better and he just produces fantastic stuff all the time.  Add him to your Google+ circles because he shares his maps all the time and I want to steal them all.  Simon sent me his adventure Faces of Evil, its hand written and the maps hand drawn.   It's fricking awesome.  It was an unexpected and much appreciated surprise. 

+Wayne Rossi, creator of Dungeon Crawl, is on his 3rd issue.  He gets help from some top-notched contributors like +David Przybyla, +Johua De Santo and +Dyson Logos just to name a few.  There are ton more.  So when you have that many creative people contributing to one thing, you know its going to be fantastic.  Dungeon Crawl has come a long way from its three stapled page first issue.  Wayne does it right and adds another gaming zine that should be on your list of must-gets.

+Nathan Irving recently released Secrets #1.  Nathan was also the winner of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day with his Illusionist class.  He said this was his first issue, but it looks like he's been doing this for a while.  This one has new spells, old spells with a twist, a big batch of magic items, monsters and a cool addition, a unique magic item for each issue on the back cover.  I'm really glad Nathan got into making zines.  I'm already looking forward to issue #2.

+Tim Callahan has developed this DCC zine, Crawljammer, that has more of a outer space slant.  He's just released his second issue.  I thought I had the first issue, but can't seem to find it.  This is why I needed to reorganize my zines.  Love the layout and look of this zine.  I've been wanting to get into something more modern or sci-fi lately and this issue has pushed me more in that direction.

+B. Portly has created his own RPG that is set in the 20s/30s called Detective & Daredevils.  He uses +trey causey's Weird Adventures for the setting.  I've had the fortune of gaming the Lester (Mr. Portly) in Trey's game and also had him run me through one of his games using his system.  You can tell he loves his nior and gaming.  It was a ton of fun.  Plus, he is another one of those art/writer guys who makes us look like slackers.  He's got a ton of cool ideas for running a game with rainy night outside, while you sit in a smoke-filled room with an opened bottle of whiskey on your desk when a long-legged dame walks in with a purse full of cash asking for help. 

This eneded up being a more involved post than I imagined.  And it's not even a complete list.  I know I have +Dyson Logos zines, Dyson's Dodecahedron.  I know I printed them out.    If you want a more comprhensive list of zines you'll find it at Rended Press.  Old Bookface likes to keep tabs on all of us.  Watch out for him. 

Mail Call! Zines! Adventures!

Look at what came in the mail today.  It was a happy mail day.

I wonder what could be inside?

A couple of zines and a trio of +Frog God Games adventures, from their One Night Stand series. Scott Casper's Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti, Kenneth Spencer's Death in the Painted Canyons, and Mr. Swords & Wizardry himself, +Matt Finch penned The Spire of Iron and Crystal.  I got these off an eBay auction from Pace Setter Games.  They shipped them fast and packed them very well. 

+john yorio and his 6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer zine!  I got that yesterday, but wanted to squeeze it into today's haul.  I've already looking through it and need to do a review soon.  I'm so far behind on doing reviews.

And another excellent zine, Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols.  Alexey Fotinake, Bob Richens and +Venger Satanis threw in for this issue.  I really enjoy WMLP because it such a throw back kind of zine.  It's just fun.  Reminds me of when I was a kid reading comics books in my fort, be it a blanket fort or wooden fort in the woods.

Today, my mail box has been very good to me.

Xerography Debt Reviews The Manor

In issue #34 of Xerography Debt Joel Biel reviewed the first three issues of The Manor. I thought it was an interesting review being it was from someone that I don't believe is associated with the OSR or even know what it is.  Here's the review.

This is a zine of homemade role-playing game adventures and rules supplements.  Very cool.  These have been pouring into my life lately.  The feeling of the adventures here is very small town and reminds me of the sort of made-for-TV horror movies of the 1980s or HP Lovecraft in the fact that a single creature like a Ghoul or Troglodyte is the ringleader terrorizing people unfamiliar with encountering monsters, rather than dozens of goblins or a dragon or a Lich.  It's encouraging, like it elevates the characters and role-playing rather than building to one campaign-defining combat sequence where the characters expect to win.  He writes elaborate personalities for the people who work at the potion shop and defines the economy around it and the public's various reactions, creating interactions around what, in my experience, is normally treated as the most mundane part of role-playing: shopping.  Smuggler's Inn is given a similar treatment along with an adventure that may result from your stay.  #3 include "Mine of Rot & Disease," another adventure whose title should likely not be revealed to your players!  Again, it's conceptually creative, redeeming a few cliched themes to catch your players off guard.  Lastly, we are treated to Pog Nog, a goblin street vender who specializes in things you just can't seem to find anywhere else...and numerous role-playing possibilities how things could go wrong with dealing with him!

There is probably close to a hundred reviews in Xerography Debt.  As first I couldn't find the review.  Luckily it has an index in the back.  I'm going to dig around in it and see what other zines look interesting.

Update on Issue #4 of The Manor

Finished the first round of edits given to me by the proofreaders.  One more to go, I believe he said he would get me the edits by Tuesday.  I'm hoping to be shipping contributor and subscriber copies out by the end of the week.  It looks really good.

Because of the extra size and weight this issue is going to be a little more expensive. 

• USA $5
• Canada $5.50
• Rest of the World $6

 Here's a sample of the art done my Mike Varhola for Incident at Butcher Creek adventure.  He did the cover as well at the interior art for the adventure.  Except the crappy picture of stalagmites, that one is mine

Then a Manor favorite, +Jason Sholtis did all the artwork for the second half of the issue which is a mini monster manual.  Jason penned one of the monsters, +Rob Conley threw in a pair as well as +Boric Glanduum, +Ken Harrison and myself.

Also included in each issue will be one or two random things in the envelope.  I know when I ordered zines I always got weird things included so you might get a few weird things.  Kinda fun to do that.  I think I have a cool idea.

I'll be selling this issue like all the others.  Print version comes directly from my home office, printed and put together by me.  You can buy the PDFs at Lulu and RPGNow.  This time around I am going to put bookmarks in the PDF.  I'll also do that for the previous issues.

Manor #4 Progress

It seems like zines are popping out everywhere these days.  Look what you started Christian.  So far Dungeon Crawl #2 has come out.  +Wayne Rossi is looking for submissions so get them in there before June 30th.  I just recently posted about 6 Iron Spikes & a Hammer being released.  I believe this is +john yorio 's first attempt and I'm looking forward to a copy.  And recently announced was Copper Droppings, I believe it is headed by +Michael Garcia and +Erik Tenkar.  Michael recently revealed the header.  It looks fantastic.

With all these new zines popping out I need to get #4 on the road.  I have been working on it a lot lately.  Like last issue I ran into a problem where the idea I had was too ambitious and needed to be tailored down.  Now that I've done that I think it serves the adventure better.  I should have all the text completed by this weekend.  Just need to finish the last section of the adventure.  Stat NPCs.  Then do my own read through before I hand it off to my proof readers. 

This was the original village map I had.  Twenty buildings, geographical locations.  And way too big for the space I have in a zine.  I like the map and will probably use it in a future project. 

This is what the current map looks like.  The Hamlet of Low Ridge is where the adventure begins.  There are two other locales that are included and needed details so space was precious.  As you can see the number of buildings was reduced from 20 to 7 which helped save space and made the adventure tighter. In the zine this map will be in b&w. 

The section Beneath the Manor, a mini monster manual is pretty much done.  Just need to do a read through and make sure all the stats jive.  The art is incredible.

I'm hoping to get more work done tonight.  Lairs need to be laired and monsters need to be monstered.  

Awesome Mail Call: EDIT

 EDIT: I erroneously contributed the homemade zine to Peter Regan, he had emailed me earlier in the week and when I got a envelope from across the ocean and automatically contributed to Peter.  When it was in fact from +Simon Forster who has been making some incredible maps of late.  I apologize to both Peter and Simon for my mistake. 

Yesterday was a shit day.  Huge piles of it everywhere.  Couldn't wait to get home and get away from work.  I get home and Ivy said their was mail for me.  I said, where's it at.  She said its over there.  I said no its not.  She said yes it is.  I said no its still not.  So she went over there and said, oh, its not here.  Maybe I left it in the car.  She went out to the car.  It wasn't there.  She searched the first over there place and it was over there.  How many of you have I lost yet?

It gets better.

So I get the mail and holy fricking crap, I got three glorious pieces of mail.  Here are the suspects.

The people who made my Friday much better are the following, from top, +Christian Walker, then +Dak Ultimak, and finally an excellent surprise from +Simon Forster.  Look at that beautiful creepy butterfly Dak sent me.  Love it.

First, let's take a look at +Christian Walker's offering.  The Shudde M'ell Confidential, number 1, is Christian's introduction into his combining Los Angles and Call of Cthulhu.  His story begins at the Pacific Palisades and a Methodist reverend Dr. Charles Holmes Scott wanting the area to embody the ideals of the Chautauqua Movement.  Then it moves along to introduce Nathaniel Eisen, a scriptwriter.  We get his background, but Mr. Walk-air is dangling the nugget for a future issue we will get to know what happen to Nathaniel, his brush with 'mind bending terror'.

Thanks a ton Christian.  Loved it and as always looking forward to future issues.  And welcome back to the fold.  I've missed your mojo.

The next guilty party for making my Friday better was +Dak Ultimak and his most recent issue of Crawl!  My first thought was, "Wow, this is really pink."  The cover art by bygrinstow is great.  Its a front and back cover which I want to do for a future issue of the Manor.  I think this one of the best issues just because I love the theme, TIPS! TRICKS! TRAPS!  The articles are all great.  There is a particular demon sword I took a shine to.  If you don't have the pink issue, go get it.  Crawl! is a fantastic zine.

And last and most surprising was this mini zine adventure from +Simon Forster.  This is all hand written.  Maps all hand made.  And look at the crosshatching on that map.  Amazing.  I would have gotten motion sickness doing all that.  And its double sided.  It's an 8 room mini adventure title The Face of Evil.  Thanks a ton Simon.  I loved.  You helped save my Friday.

I love getting gaming stuff in the mail.  Getting it on a Friday is a bonus because I can enjoy it over the weekend.  I am enjoying them all.

GM Games Warehouse

I thought you might like to take a look behind the curtain here at GM Games.  This is the first pictures ever of my warehouse, where all my print copies of The Manors and adventures I've published.  Several people have tried to get a glimpse at this, but I have it barricaded more than Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

As you can see my vast warehouse is none other than a old Christmas Card box.  It's sturdy construction and perfect size made it a no brainer to move in.  The Christmas Cards were evicted and no dwell in a corner lot some where in Pittsburgh.  I thought I would also give you a before and after picture.  As you can see the warehouse's inventory is low after a week of orders.

This is what the warehouse looks like after a night of restocking.  As most of you know GM Games prints all their zines in house.  The envelopes in the back are stamped and ready to go.  What you don;t see here is the mailroom.  It is off to the right.  That is where we keep all the creepy butterflies and other postage.

I hope you have enjoyed your tour of the GM Games warehouse, but I am going to have to ask you to leave now.  We are having trouble in our storage basement, apparently the sleestaks have tunneled in again and they are fighting with the displacer beast (hint hint) we are keeping there.

Construction of a Zine

Matt Jackson posted a review of the third Manor and asked me about the card stock I use and mentions the construction of my zine.  A few people during the week have contacted me about starting their own zine.  I thought I'd use this post to go over the physical parts, price and putting together a zine.  Along with a little advice.  Before I get started let me say there are many ways to go about doing a zine, I'm just sharing my experience.  Each one of you will have to find their own path, hopefully one less traveled.

Click here to get an issue.

   Starting Equipment
Get a good printer.  Don't be cheap.  Get a full fledged office printer, not a home printer.  There are plenty of good sales. Make sure it can do auto double sided printing or you're going to be re-feeding the pages through the printer again and that takes a lot of time.  Make sure the page yield per cartridge is high.  By high I mean over a 1000.  Ink is expensive.  You'll be burning through it quickly with dozens of copies with weird fonts and pictures. 

Long-armed Stapler:  I never knew the possibilities until I bought my long-armed stapler.  They run about $30+ depending on the store.  I have a simple black Swingline brand.  It uses normal staples.

Publishing Programs: I warn you not to put together a zine in Word.  Especially if it has pictures.  If you want to know what the 1st circle of Hell is like, try to format your zine in Word.  I went with Publisher, but there are several free programs.  Just get one that works for you.

Space.  You'll need some dedicated space for your zine.  You're going to fall in love with cardstock colors, so have room to store extra paper, printed issues, and a well lit space to put together your zine.  Make sure its clean.  No Cheeto or Dorito dust, or spilled beverages.  The owner has the privilege of staining the zine not you.

I'm not including any of these costs into the zine.  It's the start up costs before you can even think about doing it. 

Cover
The cover is typical card stock you can buy in any office supply or hobby store.  Just watch the measurements because some of them are slightly smaller than a normal page.  Card stock is usually 67lb paper.  I'm sure it can go higher, but weight is a consideration when shipping and 67 hits a sweet spot of being sturdy and not weighting too much.  For a ream of 250 sheets you can expect to pay around $15.  Some of them only come in 50 or 100 packs.  They seem cheaper, but when you average the price they end up being much more expensive.  That said, if you have to pay a bit more to get the color you want, go for it.

Paper
The paper inside is something I went over in a previous post, Experiment of the Paper Kind.  The paper I use is the typical all-purpose 20lb, 96 bright.  I have paper that is 92 bright and I don't like it because the ink shows through.

My Staples runs sales, where I'd buy two reams of paper and get rebated the entire cost.  Not sure how that works out for them, but for it works great for me.  Normally paper should run about $4 a ream.

I recently bought 24lb/98 bright paper and holy crap is it nice.  However, it costs twice as much as the 20lb.  I paid $8 for the ream, and my wife almost killed me.  There were other reams that went to 28lb and 30lb.  I plan on buying those in the near future just so I can compare.  I'll make sure I leave Ivy in the car for that purchase.

Back to the 24lb paper.  While you wouldn't think such small upgrades would make a difference, it does.  Feels and looks different.  I plan on using it in a future issue.  It may cost a little more, but I think it will be worth it.

Ink/Printer
I do all the printing in-house, which keeps my costs low.  I get rebated for paper, so that helps, and card stock works out to be .06 cents a sheet.

I have a Epson WP-4530 printer.  It kicks some ass.  It costs $38 for a black ink cartridge, but has a yield of 2400 pages.  That's just for text though.  Pictures suck up a lot more ink so lets cut it by a quarter to 1800 pages.  That means it costs about .2 cents to print/page.  I have six pages and a cover, front and back, so at 14 printed pages costs me .28 cents in ink. 

Cost of Printing Services
I could go to Staples and have them print copies of my zine.  I called Staples, these prices include the printing, paper, and cardstock, at 50 copies of a 24 page zine (6 half pages printed on both sides + the cover), would cost $97.26 or $1.95 an issue.  At 100 copies it costs $181.79 or $1.82 an issue.  I'm going to be optimistic and use the 100 copy cost.  This does not include any other costs except to get a printed issue in your hand.

I am not trying to make Staples the villain.  I get most of my supplies there.  Just a comparison.  Staples costs me $1.82 and issue.  I can print it at home for .34 cents. 

Envelopes
This is a weird expense.  Zines fit into a normal greeting card sized envelope, and there's a lot to choose from.  Wal-Mart has a box of 100 for $11.54 (or 12 cents an envelope), top open.  Staples has a box of 250 for $31.49 (or 13 cents an envelope), side open, self-adhesive envelopes.

I try to get ones that are sturdier since some of The Manor buyers are in United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia, to name a few I recently sent out.   And I want the zine to find its way there with minimal damage.

Postage
Postage recently increased. For domestic mail it went from .65 cents to .66 cents.  And they made creepier butterflies for the 66 cent stamps. This is for packages 2oz or under.  Should it weight over 2oz the postage leaps to 86 cent per stamp.  My zine weights in at 1.7oz.  I'm thinking I have enough room to add another page (which would mean 4 additional pages) into the Manor.

International shipping. Canada cost a $1.10.  The rest of the world as far as I have shipped, costs $2.05.  If I remember correctly the world postage was at $1.92 so it went up 13 cents.

Fees
I use Paypal for all my print sales.  For USA sales I charge $3.50 and Paypal takes out a .40 cent transaction fee. International, I charge $4.50 and Paypal takes out .48 cents.  So Paypal takes about 11% of what I charge for a zine.  When I did subscriptions at higher amounts the percentage was lower.

Other Costs
Other costs would include the little bit of pizza money I send to the artists who draw those fantastic pictures.  It's not a lot, but I like to give them something.  A show of appreciation.  And along with that and other contributors, I give them at least one contributor's copy or a CC.  I can't figure these into the costs exactly.  Since this is not a professionally run business and while I could account for all the CCs and pizza money costs, I don't.  Too much math for me.

Total Costs
Here are the total costs if I had Staples do the the printing for me.
Print Costs: $1.82 + .13 envelope + .66 stamp +.40 Paypal fee = $3.01 (a .49 cent profit)
International: + $2.05 stamp + 48 Paypal fee = $.4.48 (a .02 cent profit)

I'm no business man, but that sucks.  While I am not in it to make big bucks I would like to make enough profit so I can buy the next cool gaming book I see.  Or upgrade the paper I want to use.  Or pay for colored art for an issue (spoiler).

My costs printing it from home.
Print Costs: .34 + .13 envelope + .66 stamp + .40 Paypal fee = $1.53 (a $1.97 profit)
International: + $2.05 stamp + .48 Paypal fee = $3.00 ( a $1.50 profit)

Those are numbers I can work with. In a future post I plan on writing about what I do with the profits.

Advice
First, make sure its something you want to invest a lot of time into. It's not easy.  Well not for me at least, but its something I really enjoy doing.  So make sure the zine is a personal reflection of you and what you like about gaming (or whatever yours may be about).  That's why people love zines because they're personal.  Most of the things I include are directly from my games or stuff I think is cool.

Second, use your friends.  Not in a bad way, but all my friends have different talents they bring to the table.  Whether ts be a map maker, proof reader or content contributor, accept some help.  You'll have a ton on your plate as is.

Third, CCs.  As I mentioned above, contributors' copies are important to those who have helped. Hell, I even send a copy to my mother.  Again, it is a show of appreciation for the people who have helped.

Fourth, be generous.  Zines are not a money making project.  If I know someone is having financial difficulties or a bad day I'll fire off an issue, gratis.  If someone emails me and says they got my zine in the mail and it made their day, cool.  There are a lot of good people out there that will support you if you take the time to get to know them, and show you're willing to give them hand also.

Fifth, ties to the first, have fun with it.  Don't think you have to be bound by expectations or genres or conventions.  You're going to spend a lot of time on that little book, you might as well enjoy it.

Conclusion
There are many ways of doing a zine.  You can Google videos of people hand sewing the binding.  Photo coping the content.  Countless ways you can express you gaming mojo.  But if you plan on doing it, get the tools to make it a little easier for yourself.   I'm hoping this post gives you a sample of what it I needed to get things going.  By all means give it a try.  Its a blast.  And if you find its something you don't enjoy then move on to your next gaming project.

If you have any questions or want to know something in more detail you can email me at elder(underscore)sensa(at)yahoo(dot)com.

A Box Inside a Box

I got something very cool in the mail.  I got my storage box from Brave Halfling Publishing.  I got the Mullen version with the purple worm eating someone whole. 

It looks so shiny and cool.  Of course when I got it out of its mailing box I promptly whacked it against the side of my printer.  No dent though.  Whew. 

Can you see the little guy inside the purple worms mouth?  He ain't having a good day.  Bottom right, fighter is high tailing it outta there.  Even lost his sword.  Newb.  Mage is blasting the shit out of it, but they are going right through the worm and look to be getting close to their buddy inside.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to have friends.  Upper left another fighter is strolling behind.  Something tells me he's just going to go through his party's pockets for loose change after this battle.

But what does one do with such a good looking box?  Well you put stuff in it of course.  Let's take a look.

Look at that, it fits two stacks of zines side-by-side perfectly.  Big stack of Loviatar, little stack of Crawl!  Hmm, but I see something else in there.

ZOGORION, Lord of the Hippogriffs!  And what's that.  Oh yeah, my editing copy of the 2nd issue of The Manor.  Hugo looks good in yellow.  Working on the polish tonight.

But all good photographers have assistants.  Tonight Bug volunteered with the lighting and composition of the shots.  Al thought she didn't last very long.

She got sleepy half way through and decided it was time to take a nap.

Good help is hard to find these days.