There’s a reason every review I see of the Kobold Quarterly magazine compares it to the Dragon and Dungeon print magazines from years passed, even opening a PDF of the book and seeing the cover makes me immediately think of seeing those issues in my local book store. The comparison goes well beyond the cover, however, through the whole interior of the publication that screams nostalgia while providing tons of new content for our favorite systems. Wolfgang Bauer is the main man behind KQ and he was kind enough to offer up a review copy to many RPG bloggers for issue #11.
The editorial for this issue is a testament to the quality of KQ, discussing the one gold and three silver ENnies that were won, including a silver ENnie for Best Website which was a category filled with great candidates (haha)! Snarky bits aside, this should be enough on its own to tell you exactly what to expect from the publication. One of the elements that surprises me the most is precisely how much effort has gone into making it feel exactly like an old school gaming magazine, right down to having a letters column early on that really gives you a feeling of the RPG community as a whole when you’re reading it. It’s a shame that much of the discussion has to do with which edition of D&D people want to read about, but even despite that it’s still great to read other gamer’s thoughts and for gamers to have another platform to be heard from. No matter how prevelant blogging or forums become, a letters column in a magazine will always have its own unique flavor and associated tingly feeling that comes along with it.
The articles themselves present you with a literal truck load of interesting ideas for you to use in your games, even the system specific articles come with so much written material in addition to the mechanics that you can easily gain something from nearly all of them no matter what you play. There’s an interesting take on adding sanity and mental disorders into your D&D games, which is a concept very near and dear to our hearts (and seeing the Red Eye of Azathoth ad right beside it only increases that excitement). Another article introduces the Uvandir, a different take on the classic fantasy dwarf race followed by one that brings lycanthropy to your PCs with some very enlightening takes on it from both a player’s and a GM’s perspective. Considering the issue’s release in the fall, it should be no surprise that a werewolf article is followed up by an in depth discussion of vampires – their physiology, psychology, societies, and naturally the best methods for their extermination.
The article that spoke to me the most in this issue is easily the GM round-table titled “Running Across the Screen”, which features the highlights from a Q&A with many of the best GM’s in the business including Monte Cook, Robin Laws, Mike Mearls, Chris Perkins (DM to the stars), and James Wyatt. To put it in the most simple terms, I have yet to NOT learn something when any one of these guys talks about running a game, and I don’t expect that to change any time soon. Reading their answers to even simple questions like “What does being a GM mean to you?” or “What’s the most difficult part of being a GM?” can lead to all kinds of interesting revelations and new ideas for running my own games. For this article alone the issue would probably be worth it, but just to add some more value stack on top of that a handful of book reviews not just about fantasy books but all kinds that would interest people like me (including one written by Guillermo Del Toro) and an article by Monte Cook about how rules interact with roleplaying with a funny anecdote thrown in.
This issue isn’t done yet, oh no! There’s also an introduction of the wish spell back into D&D for your 4th Edition games, as well as a great discussion of bringing torture and fear into your game and your player’s heads with some great random effect tables for Pathfinder and 3.5. Another article provides some alternative forms of treasure to spice things up instead of just giving out magic wands and potions, followed by a handful of racial paragon paths for specific races like the minotaur, kobold, and hobgoblin. This still isn’t all of the content in just one issue of KQ, but I do have to mention the Pathfinder spell-less Ranger class simply because of the hilarious quote used at the beginning, “Aragorn didn’t cast spells.” You’re damn right he didn’t!
A new issue of Kobold Quarterly comes out four times a year, one for each season, but you can also check out a ton of great and original content every week on their website. I’m a big fan of the magazine and highly recommend that you check it out!
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