Tenkar's Tavern: A Little Help (for Information) From the Tavern...

Thursday, June 11, 2020

A Little Help (for Information) From the Tavern...

After a brief "conversation" with Erik I have permission to help enlist the Tavern to help me with a pet project of mine. For the record, I don't intend to make a dime off of this and the whopping $10/year domain name registration is my only out-of-pocket cost.

A couple years ago I had an idea to start a blog that was dedicated to a relatively narrow focus: OSR Zines. No reviews, no affiliate links, nothing but news of new issues and letting folks know what zines are out there.

The thing is......I'm not really sure what is out there. Current, discontinued, new issues.....I only know about what I stumble across and for older & discontinued issues mostly. This is where I could use the Tavern's help.

I'd appreciate finding out about new/current fanzines, especially new issues. There is a contact form at OSRZine.com and I could easily be emailed through my gmail (FrugalGM). Links, pointers, pictures of issues, etc are all helpful. I did populate the site with some Zines....two years ago, so you can see examples of the info I've been looking to put up on the site.

Any assistance would be most appreciated. I plan on doing updates on the weekends.

8 comments:

Matthew SchmeerJune 11, 2020 at 2:32 PM
Hey Chris, feel free to swipe my list at https://rendedpress.blogspot.com/p/old-school-zines.html. I've been adding links to the top of my list but haven't sorted it in quite a while. I had plans to create a sortable database using Google Forms and Google Sheets, but the amount of effort I would need to put into implement my plans far exceeded my free time to track down and input all the info that would make it useful beyond a barebones list of links. At any rate, I'd be happy to pass the torch to someone else, as I've been maintaining my list since around 2010 and I know there are zines I've missed. I have around 25GB of saved, free fanzine PDFs from the 3.5 era (like The Silvan Trumpeter and Revisiting the Three Kingdoms Quarterly) to more recent efforts like Matt Jackson's Lapsus Calumni and J.V. West's Black Pudding.
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KyleRovagugJune 11, 2020 at 6:50 PM
What about RPGs that were made for ZineQuest but were not actually Zines (the whole ZineQuest thing confused me because of this)?
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dkabqJune 11, 2020 at 10:12 PM
When I try to go to osrzine.com, I get

This site can’t be reachedosrzine.com’s server IP address could not be found.

:(
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David AndersonJune 11, 2020 at 11:17 PM
TY. Combines my love of zine w OSR.
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RogerJune 16, 2020 at 7:09 PM
Are you aware of this RPG Zine group on Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/groups/551466285487694/?fref=mentions
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Thursday, June 11, 2020

A Little Help (for Information) From the Tavern...

8 comments:

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