The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Shred Magazine - Issue 1

Writing a review for Shred magazine is not a particularly easy task, because it's not entirely obvious whether it should be taken as a joke or not. At first glance, it seems to be very tongue in cheek, but when you sit down and read it, there is a considerable amount of meat on its bones.

In the editorial column, James M. Ward writes, "What you have in your hands is a wondrous experiment. It is the result of seven uniquely talented individuals getting together to make a magazine. We're aiming this publication at lovers of games - and especially 'hobby' games - everywhere. If you shell out your hard-earned dollars to pick us up month after month, we will do our best to strain your eyes with our sarcastic wit and deadly but amusing shots at the industry we all love so well."

The legal information on the bottom right corner of the same page gives the same indication: "The following legal statements are the only thing in this entire magazine that we take seriously... SHRED is a parody and, as such, a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule."

So what is SHRED then? Essentially, it is a generic RPG magazine. It doesn't contain articles that are targeted at a specific games system; instead it contains a series of no-so-serious articles that should be very easy to adapt to whatever game system you happen to prefer playing.

What's in the first issue:

Trickster and Trapster - Magical swords galore!: A conversation between a pair of low-grade demons on some ideas to make your generic magic sword somewhat more memorable.

Memnon's Myths - The First God: A creation myth that could be dropped into any fantasy civilization to add a bit more color.

The Weird Science Adventures of Dr. Symm - the World's Smartest Monkey: a cartoon dealing with a talking monkey, who just happens to be a doctor.

Historical Rip-Off Theater - The Great Pyramid: a ready to use map and corresponding location descriptions for the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

Jim Ward's Stylings -Breaking into the Game Business: a very tongue-in-cheek look at the process of getting RPG material published.

Smithing Games - The Concept Stage: a look at coming up with the concepts needed to write your own RPG.

Monty Haul - The Smallish Chamber of Doom: a somewhat diabolical death trap to use in a fantasy RPG.

Krytykle's Hits - 7^th Sea Role-Playing Game: a serious review of the 7^th Sea RPG line, written in a stereotypical Ancient Greek style.

A Puzzling Puzzle - Fantasy Role-Playing: an RPG related crossword puzzle.

The Nefarious Dr. Random - Potions: a quick and dirty system for describing potions and the like

Generally Gaming - GMing RPGs under a Time Limit: some handy tips on running an RPG session with only a limited amount of time.

The Armchair Adventurer - Vicarious Adventure: A look at the human need for adventure, and how RPGs, books and movies can help fulfill that need.

Parody Cards: the back cover has a pair of parody cards for Tale of the Five Rings and 9^th Sea (the images have been edited to alter the names of the original games, but it's quite subtle). Both of the cards are quite amusing, especially the "Boom" card for the 9^th Sea, which finishes with "The captain's blooming head has been shot off! Oh my!"

The Good

Shred is a very classy looking product. The glossy, full color cover is printed on fairly heavy card, which is much better than a lot of other gaming magazines that I have seen (including Dragon). Inside, the paper quality is very high, as is the quality of the printing. All of the graphic design is very crisp and the text is (with one exception) very easy to read.

Shred Magazine is put together by a group of RPG authors that have been around for quite some time, so the actual articles in the magazine are quite polished. They've managed to write with a fairly facetious tone, and yet hide some serious content in there as well. None of the material is hard to read and most of it is amusing enough to even draw a smirk to two. With a little bit of thought, a game master should be able to use a reasonable amount of the material presented in this issue with little or no trouble.

The Bad

There's not much to complain about. The only gripe I really have with the magazine is the font used in the last article is better suited to doing headings than for normal paragraph text. I know it's a minor point, but I'm a pedant like that.

Being a commercial product, there are 5 pages (not including the insides of the color cover) that are dedicated to advertising. While this is not an excessive amount by any means, they are all full-page ads, which tend to stand out from the rest of the magazine. While I can understand that this is perhaps one of the goals of advertising (in which case they have all succeeded in their intentions), they do come across as being slightly out of place, considering the tongue-in-cheek attitude of the rest of the magazine.

The Conclusion

While not everything in Issue 1 appealed to my own (admittedly somewhat eclectic) tastes, I particularly enjoyed reading the inaugural issue of Shred. So much so that I'm already thinking of scraping together enough extra money for a subscription. The not-so-serious tone of the articles may put some people off, but if you can overlook that (or you're like me and actually enjoy it), then there is enough solid material in here to actually be of some practical use.

If Issue 1 is any indication of what the lads are planning on doing from here on, then I really recommend picking up Issue 1 and having a read. I suspect you may be pleasantly surprised.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Shred Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 1
Author: Steven Brown, Timothy Brown, William Connors, Doug Niles, Lester Smith, James M. Ward & Stan! Category: Magazine Company/Publisher: MUSE Publishing Line: SHRED Cost: US$3.99 Page count: 32 Capsule Review by Geoff Skellams on 04/13/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Comedy	Shred Magazine - Issue 1 Writing a review for Shred magazine is not a particularly easy task, because it's not entirely obvious whether it should be taken as a joke or not. At first glance, it seems to be very tongue in cheek, but when you sit down and read it, there is a considerable amount of meat on its bones. In the editorial column, James M. Ward writes, "What you have in your hands is a wondrous experiment. It is the result of seven uniquely talented individuals getting together to make a magazine. We're aiming this publication at lovers of games - and especially 'hobby' games - everywhere. If you shell out your hard-earned dollars to pick us up month after month, we will do our best to strain your eyes with our sarcastic wit and deadly but amusing shots at the industry we all love so well." The legal information on the bottom right corner of the same page gives the same indication: "The following legal statements are the only thing in this entire magazine that we take seriously... SHRED is a parody and, as such, a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule." So what is SHRED then? Essentially, it is a generic RPG magazine. It doesn't contain articles that are targeted at a specific games system; instead it contains a series of no-so-serious articles that should be very easy to adapt to whatever game system you happen to prefer playing. What's in the first issue: Trickster and Trapster - Magical swords galore!: A conversation between a pair of low-grade demons on some ideas to make your generic magic sword somewhat more memorable. Memnon's Myths - The First God: A creation myth that could be dropped into any fantasy civilization to add a bit more color. The Weird Science Adventures of Dr. Symm - the World's Smartest Monkey: a cartoon dealing with a talking monkey, who just happens to be a doctor. Historical Rip-Off Theater - The Great Pyramid: a ready to use map and corresponding location descriptions for the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Jim Ward's Stylings -Breaking into the Game Business: a very tongue-in-cheek look at the process of getting RPG material published. Smithing Games - The Concept Stage: a look at coming up with the concepts needed to write your own RPG. Monty Haul - The Smallish Chamber of Doom: a somewhat diabolical death trap to use in a fantasy RPG. Krytykle's Hits - 7^th Sea Role-Playing Game: a serious review of the 7^th Sea RPG line, written in a stereotypical Ancient Greek style. A Puzzling Puzzle - Fantasy Role-Playing: an RPG related crossword puzzle. The Nefarious Dr. Random - Potions: a quick and dirty system for describing potions and the like Generally Gaming - GMing RPGs under a Time Limit: some handy tips on running an RPG session with only a limited amount of time. The Armchair Adventurer - Vicarious Adventure: A look at the human need for adventure, and how RPGs, books and movies can help fulfill that need. Parody Cards: the back cover has a pair of parody cards for Tale of the Five Rings and 9^th Sea (the images have been edited to alter the names of the original games, but it's quite subtle). Both of the cards are quite amusing, especially the "Boom" card for the 9^th Sea, which finishes with "The captain's blooming head has been shot off! Oh my!" The Good Shred is a very classy looking product. The glossy, full color cover is printed on fairly heavy card, which is much better than a lot of other gaming magazines that I have seen (including Dragon). Inside, the paper quality is very high, as is the quality of the printing. All of the graphic design is very crisp and the text is (with one exception) very easy to read. Shred Magazine is put together by a group of RPG authors that have been around for quite some time, so the actual articles in the magazine are quite polished. They've managed to write with a fairly facetious tone, and yet hide some serious content in there as well. None of the material is hard to read and most of it is amusing enough to even draw a smirk to two. With a little bit of thought, a game master should be able to use a reasonable amount of the material presented in this issue with little or no trouble. The Bad There's not much to complain about. The only gripe I really have with the magazine is the font used in the last article is better suited to doing headings than for normal paragraph text. I know it's a minor point, but I'm a pedant like that. Being a commercial product, there are 5 pages (not including the insides of the color cover) that are dedicated to advertising. While this is not an excessive amount by any means, they are all full-page ads, which tend to stand out from the rest of the magazine. While I can understand that this is perhaps one of the goals of advertising (in which case they have all succeeded in their intentions), they do come across as being slightly out of place, considering the tongue-in-cheek attitude of the rest of the magazine. The Conclusion While not everything in Issue 1 appealed to my own (admittedly somewhat eclectic) tastes, I particularly enjoyed reading the inaugural issue of Shred. So much so that I'm already thinking of scraping together enough extra money for a subscription. The not-so-serious tone of the articles may put some people off, but if you can overlook that (or you're like me and actually enjoy it), then there is enough solid material in here to actually be of some practical use. If Issue 1 is any indication of what the lads are planning on doing from here on, then I really recommend picking up Issue 1 and having a read. I suspect you may be pleasantly surprised. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Shred Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 1

Shred Magazine - Issue 1

What's in the first issue:

The Good

The Bad

The Conclusion