Taylor Frank chats with us about his zines, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and their intersection, his DCC fan-zine, Dungeon Lord.
Zines, abbreviated from magazine, are small, independently created pieces of literature that allow for small side cultures to have a presence and a voice. In many ways they can serve the same function as a blog but there is still something special about a physical object. The first tabletop RPGs fit the description of Zines in a lot of ways. As the hobby developed zines continued to distribute fan-made content before that could be done via Internet. Now the Internet can be a valuable zine distribution tool.
Dungeon Crawl Classics originated in the Old School Renaissance which endeavors preserve and expand the experience of some of the first games. The first OSR games were the retroclone game like OSRIC that tried to stay very true to the earliest games. DCC doesn't stay as tethered to the past, instead trying to keep the charm of old games while providing a fresh, contemporary play experience. DCC has fostered a very active fan base that creates shares a great deal of content for the game including zines and software. DCC’s publisher, Goodman Games, supports fan creations in ways that few other company's do.
While some other DCC zines focus on developing a specific setting, Dungeon Lord collects any sort of entertaining materials including maps, character classes, poetry and art inspired by DCC. Taylor also creates single page zines that support charities. They can be found at his website and rpgnow.com. Submissions for For Dungeon Lord can be sent to deathmachinepress@gmail.com
This month we have a d50 random table, full of magical and mundane rings, created for you mostly by Taylor Frank.
The Free RPG Society: Lasers and Feeling is a single page game based on fiction like Star Trek (and a song by The Doubleclicks). It's fast, easy and has a very clever mechanic that allows the players to inform the GM on the complications they want to see. The One Shot Podcast has played it a couple of times with fantastic results that you can listen to here.
The Name of God Kickstarter is a game by Italian designer Alessandro Piroddi. It’s a short-form story-driven GM-less game using a deck of custom cards. The kickstarter has already doubled it’s modest funding goal and is now tearing through push goals that involve new cards by notable female designers. Check it out.
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