Gateways Magazine?

[Ceronomus]

Still slowly picking up the magazines but haven't been able to find a single one of the newsletters. I still miss Gateways though, it was the first professional publication that I ever wrote an article for.

[RPGPundit]

Hi there,

I just now found this site —and this question— while googling an old article of mine. Although the reply is 9 years overdue, I hope it finds the audience it was seeking.

Gateways ran as an independent pub for 13 issues from 1986 to 1989. At a time when The Dragon, White Dwarf and other general industry magazines were becoming company-specific house organs, Gateways stepped into the vacuum and covered all games and all genres. They specialized in franchise tie-ins (gaming had only recently discovered licensing), with a special focus on designers and creators.

(Just one example of the transmedia sampling the publication offered was a package on Speed Racer. It not only looked at the history of the cartoon, but interviewed the writer and artist of the new comic book, previewed the just-announced live-action movie —which would remain in development hell for another 20 years— and offered scenarios and official stats for including the Mach 5 in a half-dozen RPGs and boardgames such as Car Wars.)

Gateways also had in-depth (and inside baseball) interviews with industry personalities from Gary Gygax and Erick Wujcik to, well, everyone. I eventually wrote a two-part history of role-playing games for the pub, and talked to all but one principal designer in the business for the article.

The magazine reached its peak in 1988 when it gained national distribution. Sadly, it folded when a joint publishing deal with Palladium Books fell through in 1990 after only one issue (Gateways Special #1).

In a way, Gateways prefaced the current interest in transmedia, and its publisher went on to work with Disney, Sony and other corporations in coordinating the content in their movies, shows, books and games.

Awesome! Thanks for letting us know about this. And welcome to theRPGsite!!

[Voros]

Gygax Magazine is toast. RPG zines in pdf format with print copies for the hardcore seem to be doing well though (Fight On, Black Pudding, Vacant Ritual Assembly).

Gateways is probably available somewhere out there on the interwebs but I haven't seen it.

Speaking of Wujcik, the Amber book mentions on the title page that there was an Amberzine that you can write away for, anyone ever seen or read those?

[RPGPundit]

Speaking of Wujcik, the Amber book mentions on the title page that there was an Amberzine that you can write away for, anyone ever seen or read those?

Yes. I had them all.

I have to say, though, they weren't all that awesome as a gaming resource. They were thick (though small) books, and looked at first glance like they'd have to have a ton of material, but it would turn out that it was more of a kind of literary fanzine than a gaming zine.  Each issue usually had one or two short (1-5pg) articles of actually game-related material, and then the other 95% of the book was either literature (Zelanzy stuff, other known fiction), fan-fiction, or long game-session literature/reports.

[Voros]

Interesting. I guess that shows the different idea of what a zine was back then. More open and personal that most of what you see today which is very gameplay focused. Which I actually prefer. I remember picking up music zines in the 90s and finding pages and pages of spiel about the writer's weekend or some such. Seems like that lack of focus has migrated to rpg podcasts these days.

[finarvyn]

I think that the Zelazny estate had put some pretty tight restrictions on what kind of material could be in Amberzine. (I still own the whole set, by the way.) For example, standard Amber fiction was a no-no, but "campaign game logs" were okay. The ADRP game is such that not much was needed as an expansion, but Erick did answer questions about the game in Amberzine if folks sent them in.

[JRReynolds]

Jape I just posted in our gaming alumni site on FB looking for your article, at least the second half of it. Gateways folded before the second half came out. I met the writing partner you are most associated with at a con in Alabama in the early 90s and she said you had indeed written the second half. While your writing accolades are many, that article has stuck with me these many years. A tip of the hat to the first half of the article sir. I had no idea at the time who the Bloom Brothers were, Loraine, or the evolution of TSR. I am hoping to find it. Jean Rabe is in our alum group and I honestly feel she is my best bet to have a copy. Many thanks from a long time fan.