Quote from: fonkaygarryBackhanded advocacy of sex offenders?  Check (no shit.)

Eh?

As someone who missed out on the whole Magic era because I was immersed in Squad Leader, Up Front, Third Reich and the like at the time...I gotta know more about this.

but i think "inquest" had one good ahern comic, something about a kid going to miskatonic u.

but not much else good came out of that mag.

Quote from: KenHREh?

As someone who missed out on the whole Magic era because I was immersed in Squad Leader, Up Front, Third Reich and the like at the time...I gotta know more about this.

They did a series of writeups on the historical backgrounds of monster archetypes.  One month they did the incubus, writing a lot about the sexual mores of the middle ages.  All good and interesting (especially to a kid whose total knowledge of the middle ages came from between the covers of the PHB.)  Then, near the end, the writer dropped a line about how unjust it is to register sex offenders.

Didn't sit right with me then, doesn't sit right with me now.  However you feel about it, the middle of a goddam gaming rag isn't the place to have that debate.

Quote from: beeberbut i think "inquest" had one good ahern comic, something about a kid going to miskatonic u.

I remember that one.  I think that had more to do with Ahern being a funny writer than InQuest being a funny anything.  It's odd, looking back, how some of their editors would bend over backwards to fit the "house style".  I remember one of their regulars started his run talking about his daughter and old college buddies.  Pretty quickly he devoted all his space to jokes about older sisters and obese cats.

French Magazine Casus Belli was superb.  Published monthly it included news, reviews, great comic strips and a pull-out section full of adventures.  It was such a great magazine that the boom years of the French RPG magazine almost exactly match the years during which Casus was published.  It was absolutely tireless in promoting home grown french games and arguing for a wider perspective on gaming than dungeon crawling.

Knights of the Dinner Table is a pretty decent game magazine now. It was better during the first couple of years after HackMaster's release, when they weren't as shy about putting out HackMaster-specific material. But the comic itself is still a great read, and some of the game articles are worthwhile. The movie review section sucks ass big-time, though.

It seems there is an 'early on' vibe going for most magazines.

A lot of them were really good and then changed.  I have to agree with that.

Early White Wolf, used to grab those at the local game shop along with the old Dragon Magazines.  Hell it was a Dragon Magazine add that got me to buy Vampire: TM when it was first released.

Shadis I had a subscription to for a while.  But it all went downhill after Jolly left and the product quality (articles and actual magazine) did that spiral towards the ground.  I didn't renew either.

Challenge was another I bought.  Back when I was playing a lot of Twilight 2000 and Traveller.  Ah those were the days.

Quote from: ColonelHardissonKnights of the Dinner Table is a pretty decent game magazine now. It was better during the first couple of years after HackMaster's release, when they weren't as shy about putting out HackMaster-specific material. But the comic itself is still a great read, and some of the game articles are worthwhile. The movie review section sucks ass big-time, though.

  The fact that they have dotted lines along the movie review page so that you can cut it out really annoys me for some reason.  If you're going to publish the guy then stand by him.  If I was that writer I'd be hugely pissed off at the whole attitude of "well, we're not going to fire you but everyone knows your page is complete shit! HAHAHA!"

  It's also a magazine that deeply depresses me because it really is full of stuff that people should be able to come up with by themselves like generic fantasy NPCs.  It also bothers me that it's such a company magazine that they never give any coverage to new games by other companies... they just fill the magazine with old boardgames and old RPGs to make it look as if they're not mainly in the business of flogging their shitty RPGs and supplements.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalThe fact that they have dotted lines along the movie review page so that you can cut it out really annoys me for some reason.  If you're going to publish the guy then stand by him.  If I was that writer I'd be hugely pissed off at the whole attitude of "well, we're not going to fire you but everyone knows your page is complete shit! HAHAHA!"

Actually, I saw it as a big "fuck you" to all the people who hate that column. "Hey, we hear what you're saying, but rather than actually give you something useful or lighting a fire under the guy's ass to make him actually put some thought into his column beyond 'I hate every movie ever!', we're gonna do what we want because it amuses us, personally, and we don't give a fuck that you hate it! So there!" That column is bad, and seems more about how clever the reviewer thinks he is; he seems to emulate reviewers like Seanbaby or the guys at Shock Cinema, but the difference is that they're actually funny and articulate.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalIt's also a magazine that deeply depresses me because it really is full of stuff that people should be able to come up with by themselves like generic fantasy NPCs.  It also bothers me that it's such a company magazine that they never give any coverage to new games by other companies... they just fill the magazine with old boardgames and old RPGs to make it look as if they're not mainly in the business of flogging their shitty RPGs and supplements.

The generic NPCs irritate the shit out of me, and that's one of the elements that made me take a dimmer view of the magazine. At first, those NPCs had HackMaster stats, which made them useful, since premade HM stats for NPCs are actually kinda hard to find. Then they went to a generic format that is simply not interesting.

I have to admit that I actually like their coverage of old games. I've actually run across some games I had way back when that I'd forgotten about, and now I have the info to get 'em again (Carrier Strike being one). They do cover new games by other companies, though, in "Brian's Picks" or whatever it's called. The coverage is basically just a paragraph, but it's one of the first things I read in the magazine.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalFrench Magazine Casus Belli was superb.  Published monthly it included news, reviews, great comic strips and a pull-out section full of adventures.  It was such a great magazine that the boom years of the French RPG magazine almost exactly match the years during which Casus was published.  It was absolutely tireless in promoting home grown french games and arguing for a wider perspective on gaming than dungeon crawling.

To me, Casus Belli is the role model of a perfect RPG magazine. A perfect mix of features, and a (at least back then) perfect presentation.

Second place would be Arcane. Strangely, I like the French adaption Backstab, which outlived the British original, a lot less.

Third place: White Dwarf (~ issue 50 to 100). I, too, miss their shotgun approach. But I am also pretty aware that my admiration for WD is due to a serious case of nostalgia. The mix of features and presentation was certainly less than perfect. I am not sure I would like to read a magazine like that today (while I think that Casus Belli's formula could be applied to todays market).

Fourth place: ZauberZeit, a German "fantastic media" magazine with a strong focus on RPGs. It had some of the best magazine adventures I've read.

Fifth place: Pyramid (the print edition).

Runners up:
Dragon, back when it had a Reviews department (I liked their approach of ignoring current releases in favour of grouping reviews around a theme, eg. "espionage games" or "post holocaust games and settings"). The reviews were pretty decent, though the rest of the magazine was only "ok".
Dungeon, back when it was b/w. Some of the adventures were great, some of them sucked. Today's Dungeon is prettier on the whole, but has fewer adventures per issue (= fewer plot hooks and situations to mine), more space taken up by stat blocks, and maps that don't photocopy well because of all the color.

Dirk

Quoteand maps that don't photocopy well because of all the color.

Well you can download them and print them in battlemap size glory!
That´s progress, baby!

"Xeroxing" is dead.