What about publishing games as Magazines?

[Andy Kitkowski]

Something I was thinking about: Magazines.

Sure, the paper is a little thinner, and overall it can sustain more damage by folding, tearing and the like, but magazines are often colorful, and tend to last a long, long time. Magazines tend to sell for cheap as well, although it's very much due to all the advertising dollahs thrown into them.

Has anyone looked into printing their game in the format of a magazine, through a magazine publisher?

Just curious.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I have not looked into it myself, but I think you've got a few misconceptions working here at the very least.

Magazines are "often colorful" and "sell for cheap" because they have advertizing in them. The ads generally more than pay for the costs of a magazine. They could, techincally, give them away for free, but they sell them anyway. At least some magazines, anyway, like Vogue. Yoiks. Lots of ads.

So, that shoots down a whole mess of what you're taling about here. In reality you may be looking at a pulp paper black & white comic book sized booklet instead of a glossy full-color durable paper stock printing.

Just my view here.

[Valamir]

Wargames have been sold as part of gaming magazines since the dawn of the industry.  Some of them were so successful as magazine games they they eventually got rereleased as a boxed game.  Many are no collectable and go for ridiculous sums of money at auction.  Magazines with the game intact (or at least present) are worth a hell of alot more than same magazine sans game.

But these are all pieces of a larger magazine, not an entire game in a magazine format.   James West has a couple issues out of a comiczine including an RPG game but its more of a pamphlet then the magazine you're envisioning.

I suspect you need a pretty lofty printrun to make magazine publishing viable.

[Bankuei]

Not to mention the nasty head of distribution.  If you do decide to go for advertising, the hardest part is convincing advertisers that you can hit enough of their target audience to make it worth their while.

Chris

[geekspeakweekly]

Isn't this the same way most of the Judges Guild stuff was published in the early days. The paper was not the best but it served the purpose.  I have a stack of D&D modules from JG at home that have held up for two decades, and I still love them.  

Geekspeakweekly.com

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Guys,

Check out the Small Publisher's Co-op if you're interested in magazine printing. You have to print at least 2 1000-run publications a year, but it's dirt cheap. ($299 for a 1000-copy print run at 16 pages, and it scales very cheaply.)

[Jürgen Mayer]

I remember that the RPG Hunters, Inc. (by John Wick and others) was published in 6 or so issues of Shadis (complete with GM screen). Every issues had a part of the rules and an adventure of a 6-part campaign.

edit: corrected the name of the game - mad props to Michael S. Miller

[Michael S. Miller]

Jürgen, it's really spooky you mention Hunters, Inc. I was flipping through it not five minutes ago while the computer was busy downloading Kayfabe.

For what it's worth, Shadis was basically printed on newprint (perhaps one grade above newsprint) in those days (1996), and it's still holding up fine. Some of the ink is a touch smudgy, particularly in the color sections, but I remember it being that way when they were new. 8-)

[James V. West]

As Clinton pointed out, the Small Press Co-Op is a fantastic resource, very friendly, very open to, well, small press.

I publish my comic/rpg zine micro-style using a xerox machine or my laser printer. Definitely not glossy or color.

But this is a cool idea. Imagine a nice magazine with a stiff cover (like #80 paper or better) that features a complete game in each issue along with stuff for games previously published in that magazine.