The Jewel Throne Zine

"... to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet...."

- Robert E. Howard

"Once prayed to my gods, searching for the whistled memories
Empty eyes are staring now, to my feet a land of sorrow
I'm the king, sitting in the dark hiding from the shadows of the wind
Wafts of might, wine of fire, I was called to taste

Silver horses brought us here, to the edge of the universe
We left the falling walls as the stars' collapse began
Now I rest on the highest steps, revealed the eternal frontier
As I gaze from the Jewel Throne to the portal of infinity

Fallen have the "chosen ones", debris remain in the dust
Far behind, beyond the sands, the wind sings to those who fell
Forever now, my hands laid down the poisoned weapons
I will pray to my gods, searching for the mysteries"

- Thomas G. Warrior

As I've previously mentioned, I've been mulling over doing a RPG zine as a means of getting past the stress related burnout that's been plaguing me recently (speaking of stress, as I was writing this my boss phoned me to talk about possibly being laid off, good grief!), and with the positive reaction it has elicited (and the possibility of having a buttload of free time soon) I've decided to do so.

I presented a selection of names for the zine I had been considering, and "Jewel Throne" won by a considerable landslide with two votes. Although I'm sure Netherwerks will be gratified to see that I managed to work a Black Ziggurat into the logo.

This zine will be digest sized, done in a underground metal/punk style, with dodgy illustartion by myself, and will focus of sword & sorcery, weird fantasy, science fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and science fiction gaming. The intention is to present a selection of D&D-compatible resources in those genres...one-page sandboxes, mini-dungeons, monsters, spells, technological artifacts, random tables, and so forth. Although I would like to include material compatible with Runquest, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, and other great RPGs, both old and new.

My original intent was to do this as a free-to-download present to the community. Now, with the potential of impending financial hardship, I'm reconsidering this solely as a means of mitigating the aforementioned scenario.

Several of you expressed interest in contributing; originally I was wildly enthusiastic about that, but with the possibility of this being a for-(meager)profit venture I can certainly understand any that would wish to rescind their offer; however, anyone who did contribute would, if it ends up not being a free-to-download production, receive fair compensation for their effort.

My plan is to begin working on material, with a two-week deadline before commencing with layout and than publishing in some form or other. If I end up printing this myself I have some ideas regarding pull-out maps that could be quite nice.

I'd love to hear any feedback regarding this project. Suggestion, criticisms, it is all welcome.