Zines. The word conjures up images of unearthed arcanea, underground lore and the days when we knew less then we thought and learned more than we knew. Maybe I’m waxing poetic but over the last few years the hankering to not only read zines but also make them has surfaced again. So I am doing a game zine.

Not an ezine, though there would be a pdf version of it, but a real honest to goodness printed on paper, Xeroxed, and stapled zine. Not a super gloss single focus publication nor a mimeographed anything goes fanzine but something in between.

No I’m not turning neoludite and shunning all ezines, blogs, ASCII files and etexts, it’s just that I want to make something I can hold in my hands and read on the crapper. Having access to a printer that does Booklet Printing and purchasing a Big Assed Stapler have solidifed my resolve.

Living in Portland OR I am fortunate to have the Independent Publishing Resource Center close by when I’m ready to get into the thick of the deed. One great web sites to jump into the world of zines and zine making is The Zine and Ezine Resource Guide .

The inspiration for doing a game zine is both a long yearning to do another zine, and places like Warpspawn, Games Cabinet, and the freebies section on PBEmporium. Games cabinet hasn't been updated in nearly a year, which bums me out. Warpspawn has so much going on all the time with new rules sets coming out I think we could easily get a full game or so in an issue with variants and the like.

Id also like to tap into reviews, articles about micro and macro strategy games as well as puzzle games, cheap ass style games and other games that make the mind work for its keep.

Id also like to make the zine freely distributable, that is while the articles themselves are copyrighted to the authors who wrote them anyone who grabs the pdf of the zine could print out copies for themselves and their buds so long as its not altered in any way and no fee is charged for the zine itself.

I have no aspirations whatsoever of making a dime off this project, I've been in too many projects to know that if you think your even going to break even on costs your mostly off your rocker. So knowing that going in I am thinking the cover price should be 0$. Im at a point in my life where the cost to do this as I see it being done would be less than many of my other projects.

With the PDF of the issue available folks can grab it, print it out and run off a few copies to seed to their game circles, local game stores, or where ever they think it would be good to have them. I myself would be able to run off and staple about 100 copies or so. Guerilla Distribution.

If you are interested in this drop me a line at tom@wsmf.org .