# Early 80's role playing game fanzine titles.



## Ming (Jan 11, 2016)

Really old folks question. 
White Dwarf
The Beholder
Dragon magazine (TSR's evil empire publication)
Trollcrusher
...I know there was loads more...


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2016)

I only remember White Dwarf off the top of my head (it was a long time ago!), but you are right there were quite a few around.


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## Ming (Jan 11, 2016)

I had a fine collection of polyhedral dice back in the day! It's amazing how gaming has changed. I do miss the old meet ups. Carrying 5 big rule books round someones house, lead figure colouring, arguments over who said what.


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2016)

Ming said:


> I had a fine collection of polyhedral dice back in the day! It's amazing how gaming has changed. I do miss the old meet ups. Carrying 5 big rule books round someones house, lead figure colouring, arguments over who said what.



I used to have a sort of spin-off hobby in terms of painting the figures (I expect quite a lot of us did!  I know that myself and OH have a fair old collection of painted figures between us, originating from long before we met)

It wasn't just RP mags either iirc, there were ones specifically dedicated to tabletop strategy wargames (whether futuristic/fantasy like Warhammer or more historically/realist based) too.


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## Gromit (Jan 11, 2016)

I miss Thrud the Barbarian. I'd probably think it crap if I read it now though.


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## Ming (Jan 11, 2016)

Epona said:


> I used to have a sort of spin-off hobby in terms of painting the figures (I expect quite a lot of us did!)
> 
> It wasn't just RP mags either iirc, there were ones specifically dedicated to tabletop strategy wargames (whether futuristic/fantasy like Warhammer or more historically based) too.


Totally! There was a store in Liverpool by the Mersey Tunnel in the 80's which was the center of wargaming and roleplaying gaming where i grew up. They had lead figures (35m) on offer me and my gaming mates would buy. White undercoat on first, then colour, then spray on coating. It's a hobby within a hobby.


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2016)

Ming said:


> Totally! There was a store in Liverpool by the Mersey Tunnel in the 80's which was the center of wargaming and roleplaying gaming where i grew up. They had lead figures (35m) on offer me and my gaming mates would buy. White undercoat on first, then colour, then spray on coating. It's a hobby within a hobby.



Enamel or Acrylic?


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## Ming (Jan 11, 2016)

Gromit said:


> I miss Thrud the Barbarian. I'd probably think it crap if I read it now though.





Epona said:


> Enamel or Acrylic?


Just the spray on one. You spent a long time with a brush with one hair. You've got the rest bit green. Shield...not bad. Red highlights....black highlights...COOOL!!!...dry....SPRYAYYYY!!!!


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2016)

Ming said:


> Just the spray on one. You spent a long time with a brush with one hair. You've got the rest bit green. Shield...not bad. Red highlights....black highlights...COOOL!!!...dry....SPRYAYYYY!!!!



I meant in terms of the paints, a lot of my friends at the time used acrylic paint which I think was more popular for that sort of job, but I'd gone into the whole figure-painting venture with a large supply of enamel paints already to hand, so as I am sure you can imagine it was something we all used to argue about frequently!   I used to get through brushes a lot quicker than my friends (because I would have to clean them in white spirit/turps as my paint was oil-based).  I think I often got better results though. 

I hear you on the 'brush with one hair' thing


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## Ming (Jan 11, 2016)

Epona said:


> I meant in terms of the paints, a lot of my friends at the time used acrylic paint which I think was more popular for that sort of job, but I'd gone into the whole figure-painting venture with a large supply of enamel paints already to hand, so as I am sure you can imagine it was something we all used to argue about frequently!   I used to get through brushes a lot quicker than my friends (because I would have to clean them in white spirit/turps as my paint was oil-based).  I think I often got better results though.


Enamels. Definitely! But sprayed after. Little pots of paint. Little brushes. I love computer gaming but i do think the dice and the brushes have there own charm.


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2016)

Ming said:


> Enamels. Definitely! But sprayed after. Little pots of paint. Little brushes. I love computer gaming but i do think the dice and the brushes have there own charm.



I am struggling to remember what I used to use to coat the things after painting, I doubt I sprayed anything though as I used to do it in the kitchen with my mum squawking about any potential mess (I was about 16 at the time and still living with the parents).


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## Ming (Jan 11, 2016)

Epona said:


> I am struggling to remember what I used to use to coat the things after painting, I doubt I sprayed anything though as I used to do it in the kitchen with my mum squawking about any potential mess (I was about 16 at the time and still living with the parents).


Polyurethene I think? Spent ages painting the little orc. Left it on the window to dry. Spray....Get 2 quid per figure at The Mersey Tunnelers. 80's madness.


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## Epona (Jan 11, 2016)

Ming said:


> Polyurethene I think? Spent ages painting the little orc. Left it on the window to dry. Spray....Get 2 quid per figure at The Mersey Tunnelers. 80's madness.



I grew up near Guildford, and there was a similar shop (I think it was just called The Game Shop, or it may have been The Model Shop, can't quite recall - thinking about it, I am leaning towards The Model Shop) just on the edge of town, it was the local RPG shop (shelves full of rule books and quest packs for all kinds of universes and rule-sets) plus every other tabletop game you can imagine plus military and fantasy and sci-fi and other figures to collect and paint, racks of paints and different gauge brushes, and the really complex airfix kits, and model trains and accessories (Hornby etc.) and collectibles - basically a hobbyist centre of interest.  What older teens and adults want a toy shop to be - it was awesome   They always used to have a large display of painted figures.


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## DotCommunist (Jan 11, 2016)

White Thief is still going strong but has literally become a very expensive glossy catalouge with the odd bit of events coverage and so on plus a battle report thrown in. Nothings as good as it used to be


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## FridgeMagnet (Jan 11, 2016)

Dragon had a companion magazine called Dungeon. IIRC the latter had more in the way of actual scenarios, so given that I didn't play AD&D I never bought Dungeon.

Like early WD, Dragon was pretty wide-ranging. It was mostly TSR but they had things like computer game reviews; the first review of Doom I read was in Dragon. Many of the articles were also written in quite a broad way so you could use them in any game. WD was still better though.


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## FridgeMagnet (Jan 11, 2016)

IIRC I never saw all that many fanzines in the gaming shops. If you had a great idea for a game or a scenario or something, it wasn't much more effort to just produce an actual booklet and sell that, rather write an article for a regular fanzine.


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## Smangus (Jan 11, 2016)

Runequest mmmhmm no idea of any fanzine names though.

Gary Gygax & Co changed my world more than any drugs could. Lol, lost weekends and mates playing through the night, good training for what would come next


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## discokermit (Jan 11, 2016)

i had every issue of Imagine (AD&D magazine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
found it the best.
neil gaiman wrote for it.


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## Mungy (Jan 13, 2016)

none of my mates played  role play games, so i only ever read the magazines wondering what it'd be like to play. i had a fine collection of painted things 
my mates never got it. they were shit mates


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## Pingu (Jan 13, 2016)

i the Imagine magazines
plus tales of the reaching moon which was aimed at runequest players


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## BlueSquareThing (Jan 13, 2016)

Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society!

There was a British mag in the late 80s that did a wide range of games (this was after WD had become Chaos Spiky Bits R Us) as well but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Glossy covers.


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## Lazy Llama (Jan 13, 2016)

Dark Star - Traveller fanzine written by a guy that worked at Games Workshop on Dalling Road (when it was a games shop...)
Dagon - Call of Cthulhu RPG fanzine
JoTAS as BlueSquareThing mentioned. 
There was a Car Wars one, I think too.
Big list of them at Google Groups
There was one which I used to love but I can't remember the name, it might have been Dark Star. Might even have them packed away somewhere.
I've still got a copy of GDW's "Fifth Frontier War" - a Traveller-universe boardgame


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## Lazy Llama (Jan 13, 2016)

Ah it was 'Alien Star' that I liked.


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## Ground Elder (Jan 13, 2016)

I was just going to post Alien Star. Think I got a couple of other Traveller fanzines as well, but can't remember what they were called. Still got (as in haven't got round to Ebaying) my Traveller stuff - rule books, supplements, Ashanti High Lightning, Snapshot etc. I'll dig it out later as the time has come to get shot of it 

Car Wars


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## Lazy Llama (Jan 13, 2016)

I had/have a copy of Alien Star signed by Willie Rushton who I met at a Games Day at the Royal Horticultural Halls (1981?)


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## Ground Elder (Jan 13, 2016)

Think I probably bought a copy at the same event


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## Ming (Jan 13, 2016)

Slightly off topic but a gaming mate of mine got a monster in the Fiend Folio (The Lizard King). I always found the monster on the front of that book (Githyanki I think) funny because it had testicles on its elbows.


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## Pingu (Jan 14, 2016)

yeah its a gith on the front cover


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 15, 2016)

Gromit said:


> I miss Thrud the Barbarian. I'd probably think it crap if I read it now though.


I had a Thrud book, kind of a collected comic strips thing. It was actually pretty good, I think the humour stood up for the most part.


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