The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Alarums & Excursions (A&E) is the oldest independent role playing game publication ever, starting about 24 years ago (in 1975 and skipping only one month since then) and still going strong. It is an APA (Amateur Press Association) which means contributors pay to have their work (formatted independently and refereed to as "zines") published in A&E, receiving their issues free as a result. A&E is the birthplace of many games, supplements, writers, companies and game concepts, too many to mention or to insult by forgetting. Silent subscribers (those who do not contribute and pay for issues and postage) include small and large publishers, other writers, other publications and who knows who/what else. Contributors come from the world over: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, Japan and Norway. Pulling the various zines together is the one woman job of Lee Gold, an established game writer herself (author of; GURPS Japan, ICE Vikings, material on Japanese Gaki for Vampire: The Masquerade, Land of the Rising Sun RPG, Lands of Adventure RPG to name a few), among other things.

It helps to think of each contributor's zine as a separate fanzine. Every issue has a theme (ignorable theme or igtheme) but it is not the only nor mandatory subject for the various authors. Topics run the range of gaming issues: reviews, games in development, house rules, new rules, and supplemental background information (other topics include cultural and military history, fantasy and science fiction, rock music, military re-enactments, movies, martial arts, murder mysteries, filksongs, science fiction fandom, religion, physics, astronomy, and a number of other subjects, all of which can be easily tied into role-playing games if you take a sufficiently creative approach). Some zines contain "write ups" of actual gaming sessions that read like fiction, sometimes narrative, some as plays. Each issue contains some pieces of fiction as well, scifi and fantasy outside of actual game worlds is as welcome as any other fiction.

A varying amount of each issues content is devoted to the contributors commenting on each others work, and previous comments. A&E was a chatroom before there were such things. Ideas, advice, criticisms and humor are exchanged freely. Arguments do occur but are fairly rare and never taken personal nor do the last long. Due to their various capabilities and media available to them, some zines appear as just typed pages, while others are minor publishing miracles of formatting and graphics. Artists are also welcome to have their work appear on the cover.

Issues are published monthly, staple bound, with up to 150 pages of content. As things like page numbers are hard to set up ahead of time, each zine is printed on a different color paper and the colors are rotated to maintain separation. The table of contents is then coded by how many pages of what color a particular author's zine is. It functions well enough to find anyone's work without prior knowledge of writers zine lengths or content.

An issue of A&E costs US$2 plus postage. Send check or money order, in US or foreign currency, payable to: Lee Gold, 3965 Alla Road, Los Angeles, CA 90066. If you mail payment or a zine Express Mail, please check the box on the form that says "Signature Not Required". (There's a $1 charge for standing in line at the post office.)

No fixed cost subscriptions are possible, since postage and contribution credit may vary from month to month. Each month, your envelope will indicate how much money you have left. If there isn't enough money to send A&E, you will be notified -- and your balance will be returned at your request. The cheapest way to get A&E is to contribute. A contributor pays per page of the contribution and gets that issue free and the next issue for postage only. North American contributors have A&Es mailed First Class. Non-North American contributors have A&Es mailed Air Mail-Printed Matter.

My advice to every gamer is to check out and submit their own zines to A&E. I have found it inspiring for my own gaming and further writing (believe it or not I have been published by TSR, and gaming magazines large and small). Why just read when you can participate in gaming's oldest and grandest creative experiment?

If you have a contribution for A&E:

Mail it to Lee Gold, 3965 Alla Road, Los Angeles, CA 90066 on a floppy disk. Or email it to leeway@mediaone.net. Lee Gold will format and edit it. This may involve correcting your spelling and grammar. The cost is $1.50/page or fraction thereof.

Send camera-ready copy, and Lee Gold will photocopy it for you. The cost is $1.50/page or fraction thereof.

Handwrite it, and Lee Gold will type it up for you. She may also change your spelling and grammar, rephrase or insert comments, and maybe even make some typos. The cost is $3.00/page or fraction thereof, including printing your zine.

Print it yourself -- 85 copies. Unpaid for material will not be copied nor included in A&E. Send payment by check or postal money order in US$ -- or by check, or money order in your country's currency.

(Having been a contributor, I am compeled to protect Lee's integrity. She did not solicit nor did she see advance copy of this review. Any errors or mis-statements are mine alone. My goal, to turn as many people on to A&E as possible. Come on in and enjoy.)

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Alarums & Excursion
Author: Lee Gold (editor) Category: Magazine Company/Publisher: Lee Gold Line: na Cost: see below Page count: <151 pgs Capsule Review by Papyrus on 10/04/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Historical Horror Far_Future Space Comedy Anime Espionage Conspiracy Post-apocalypse Old_West Vampire Gothic Asian/Far_East Superhero Diceless Generic Live-action	Alarums & Excursions (A&E) is the oldest independent role playing game publication ever, starting about 24 years ago (in 1975 and skipping only one month since then) and still going strong. It is an APA (Amateur Press Association) which means contributors pay to have their work (formatted independently and refereed to as "zines") published in A&E, receiving their issues free as a result. A&E is the birthplace of many games, supplements, writers, companies and game concepts, too many to mention or to insult by forgetting. Silent subscribers (those who do not contribute and pay for issues and postage) include small and large publishers, other writers, other publications and who knows who/what else. Contributors come from the world over: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, Japan and Norway. Pulling the various zines together is the one woman job of Lee Gold, an established game writer herself (author of; GURPS Japan, ICE Vikings, material on Japanese Gaki for Vampire: The Masquerade, Land of the Rising Sun RPG, Lands of Adventure RPG to name a few), among other things. It helps to think of each contributor's zine as a separate fanzine. Every issue has a theme (ignorable theme or igtheme) but it is not the only nor mandatory subject for the various authors. Topics run the range of gaming issues: reviews, games in development, house rules, new rules, and supplemental background information (other topics include cultural and military history, fantasy and science fiction, rock music, military re-enactments, movies, martial arts, murder mysteries, filksongs, science fiction fandom, religion, physics, astronomy, and a number of other subjects, all of which can be easily tied into role-playing games if you take a sufficiently creative approach). Some zines contain "write ups" of actual gaming sessions that read like fiction, sometimes narrative, some as plays. Each issue contains some pieces of fiction as well, scifi and fantasy outside of actual game worlds is as welcome as any other fiction. A varying amount of each issues content is devoted to the contributors commenting on each others work, and previous comments. A&E was a chatroom before there were such things. Ideas, advice, criticisms and humor are exchanged freely. Arguments do occur but are fairly rare and never taken personal nor do the last long. Due to their various capabilities and media available to them, some zines appear as just typed pages, while others are minor publishing miracles of formatting and graphics. Artists are also welcome to have their work appear on the cover. Issues are published monthly, staple bound, with up to 150 pages of content. As things like page numbers are hard to set up ahead of time, each zine is printed on a different color paper and the colors are rotated to maintain separation. The table of contents is then coded by how many pages of what color a particular author's zine is. It functions well enough to find anyone's work without prior knowledge of writers zine lengths or content. An issue of A&E costs US$2 plus postage. Send check or money order, in US or foreign currency, payable to: Lee Gold, 3965 Alla Road, Los Angeles, CA 90066. If you mail payment or a zine Express Mail, please check the box on the form that says "Signature Not Required". (There's a $1 charge for standing in line at the post office.) No fixed cost subscriptions are possible, since postage and contribution credit may vary from month to month. Each month, your envelope will indicate how much money you have left. If there isn't enough money to send A&E, you will be notified -- and your balance will be returned at your request. The cheapest way to get A&E is to contribute. A contributor pays per page of the contribution and gets that issue free and the next issue for postage only. North American contributors have A&Es mailed First Class. Non-North American contributors have A&Es mailed Air Mail-Printed Matter. My advice to every gamer is to check out and submit their own zines to A&E. I have found it inspiring for my own gaming and further writing (believe it or not I have been published by TSR, and gaming magazines large and small). Why just read when you can participate in gaming's oldest and grandest creative experiment? If you have a contribution for A&E: Mail it to Lee Gold, 3965 Alla Road, Los Angeles, CA 90066 on a floppy disk. Or email it to leeway@mediaone.net. Lee Gold will format and edit it. This may involve correcting your spelling and grammar. The cost is $1.50/page or fraction thereof. Send camera-ready copy, and Lee Gold will photocopy it for you. The cost is $1.50/page or fraction thereof. Handwrite it, and Lee Gold will type it up for you. She may also change your spelling and grammar, rephrase or insert comments, and maybe even make some typos. The cost is $3.00/page or fraction thereof, including printing your zine. Print it yourself -- 85 copies. Unpaid for material will not be copied nor included in A&E. Send payment by check or postal money order in US$ -- or by check, or money order in your country's currency. (Having been a contributor, I am compeled to protect Lee's integrity. She did not solicit nor did she see advance copy of this review. Any errors or mis-statements are mine alone. My goal, to turn as many people on to A&E as possible. Come on in and enjoy.) Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)