Thursday, January 13, 2011

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.

25 comments:

  1. This is awesome news Blair!
    For profit or not, I would love to contribute articles, artwork, or design. I cranked out my first fanzine when I was 16 and since then I have always been a huge fan of the format.
    I have a bunch of ideas, foremost is my "Complete Earth Man" class/race for the world's most popular fantasy game. I'm sure I could hand in something every couple of weeks, if that helps.
    Lemme know,

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  2. Sounds fantastic! If I can't have Planet Algol in a box, I'll take this! Heck, I may even get it together to try to contribute something.

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  3. I've got some illustrations I've done just for fun. You're welcome to use them.

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  4. I like the sound of it, and if I can get from under some deadlines will be happy to contribute for nothing more than a byline.

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  5. Killer. Though for my two cents worth about the title (missed that other post), Jeweled Throne sounds too much like Oaken Throne, the Black Metal zine.....though I guess that similarity will be lost on a large amount of people.

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  6. not that you should write off your job necessarily, but i would buy the heck out of that

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  7. Exciting news! If you want to sell sumptin' though, what about the Planet Algol sourcebook you've been talking about for a while?

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  8. [snake-man accent] YESSSSSSSSSSS! [/snake-man accent]

    Take care with the job, though. The economy isn't at its healthiest.

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  9. Sweet. If you end up taking contributions, I'll send some material for your consideration.

    I love print way more than PDF for whatever that's worth - hate reading stuff on the computer.

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  10. Sounds good. And the titel sounds and looks very nice! *allthumbsup* \m/ \m/

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  11. Terrific news!!
    Is there any possibility that you will consider international selling? I mean, up to europe at least ^^

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  12. Thank you all very much for your feedback!

    @ B. Portly: Thanks man, I'm looking forward to seeing it!

    @ Ben L.: Don't you worry...there will eventually be Planet Algol...possibly in a box; thanks for the offer, any idea what kind of submission you were thinking of?

    @ Atom Kid: Aww, shucks man, I'd love to see them!

    @ Trey: Thank you very much.

    @ Matt: Once again, thank you very much; I know between Nod and the Hex Crawl Classics you must be pretty busy, so I really appreciate it. BTW, I LOVE Pas Fortuna Basic...once I get my finances in order I'll be ordering Advanced.

    @ JJ: "...50% of Earth's population that are aware of both Oaken Throne and the OSR Blogosphere express concern regarding zine title confusion..." :D

    @ Dungeon Smash: I'm definitely not writing off my job! PS. Things that are metal: Chains; Rusty metal; Rusty chains; Nails; Rusty nails; Machetes; Circular saw blades.

    @ Cyclopeatron: When it's 90% perfect I will :)

    @ Melan: Funny you should mention Snake-Men... I'm certainly not in any hurry to be unemployed, although if I'm unable to keep my job or find one the government unemployment benefits would take care of me until I return to school in the fall; I'm just worried about going nuts with all the free time!

    @ Pat: Oh man, I'd love to see a submission from you!

    @ Mattias: Thank you!

    @ Il Male: You can count on it :)

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  13. Blair--this is very cool and let us know if we cna be of any help as in contributing illos, articles, or whatever. Love the Black Ziggurat touch to the logo. We're placing a new iteration of the Black Ziggurat in Zalchis, and we'd like to include a Planet Algol treasure-item in our D100 Table of Blogger Loot there as well...if that's cool with you and you have a favorite that you'd like to suggest.

    @Cyclopeatron is right: Please do consider doing the Planet Algol sourcebook. You could just transfer your posts over to Magcloud or Blurb and get *something* if you're concerned about how to produce it...as for quality--it's already high-quality stuff.

    Like always, if we can help--let us know.
    Be Well.

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  14. @ By The Sword: Thanks!

    @ Netherwerks: Check you email; of course you can use an Algolian item for your d100 table! Let me mull over a suggestion...I have a couple I haven't posted yet as well.

    The sourcebook will definitely happen...when the material is awesome enough.

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  15. Blair - this sounds mint and I'd be happy to contribute for free. Good luck!

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  16. Awesome! I miss the days of putting together punk zines and comix. I'd love to do some pro bono work for this just for the satisfaction of doing it. I'd be happy to contribute art, writing, or whatever. Looking forward to it!

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  17. @ Geordie: Thanks man...you do know how much I loev your one-page cities :)

    @ Johnathan: Thank you as well, your art is great!

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  18. Havent been too busy lately and I'd really enjoy making some ink drawings or something for you. I think i can step up my game and do your project justice. Shoot me an email if you like, its my whole name at gmail just like the blog.

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  19. that song is so bad-ass! the whole album really.

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  20. @ Ragnorakk: DEFINITELY! I really dig how the end of one side ends with a punk-ish thrasher.

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  21. Please oh please oh please oh please oh please make this happen soon!

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  22. This should definitely still happen.

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