Gygax Magazine No. 1

     A month ago or so, I heard an announcement on the Roll For Initiative podcast that TSR was coming back.  Or at least a new incarnation of TSR.  For those of you who don’t know, TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) was the company co-founded in 1973 by Gary Gygax (co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson).

     The new company, founded by Jayson Elliott, and Gary’s sons Luke & Ernie, among others, launched in November 2012, and they just released their first product, Gygax Magazine. The quarterly publication launched yesterday at a special event in Brooklyn, New York and I put my order in for a one year subscription when I woke up this morning. I haven’t been this excited to receive something in the mail for awhile.

     Why? Well, growing up, along with comics and movies, D&D was one of my greatest loves. I didn’t get to play all that much, but that was OK, because I was perfectly content to study the rules and anything else I could get my hands on.  The main thing I was getting my hands on was Dragon Magazine. Nothing else then or since has captured the essence of D&D (and AD&D) for me.  I’ve got a decent collection of back issues from back in the day and nothing takes me back like flipping through one.  I can’t guess the number of time’s I’ve said, “Man I wish they’d bring back Dragon.”

     So what has the TSR crew done?  Well, it appears that I’m not the only one who missed that old school classic feel of Dragon Magazine. In both appearance and content, it looks like they’ve nailed it.  Here’s issue number one’s Table of Contents:

Gygax Magazine No. 1 Table of Contents
Copyright 2013 TSR Inc.

     I feel like it’s 1981 and I’m in the back of Book Villa browsing the latest Dragon. I admit that a tiny tear welled up in my eye when I saw that old familiar font.  If you gamed during the same era, you likely noticed Len Lakofka and Phil Foglio named among the contributors. Can this get any better? Actually yes, <cough> Erol Otus cover art <cough>.

     So, I eagerly await the arrival of the first issue.  If you’re even remotely interested in role playing games, support these guys by getting a subscription.  Let’s make it a huge success and  get this thing going monthly!

Copyright 2013 It Came From The Nerd Cave