Most Missed Defunct Gaming Magazines?

[Teflon Billy]

Eric Hotz's First Encounter.

The magazine that really made me into a gamer.

Each issue was about 15 pages long, and had a wierd "Choose yoru own adventure" type thing, a bunch of articles about a bunch of different games (Making Halflings more like Hobbits for D&D, a dozen new guns for Top Secret, that kind of thing) all illustrated by Hotz himself.

I played D&D, Boot Hill, Top Secret and Star Frontiers with my buddies, but this magazine clued me in that their might be a larger gaming {i]world[/i] out there that didn't involve a trip to Milwaukee

It was, measured by any modern yardstick, not very good. But it's the one I miss the most.

 

[Algolei]

If there is anything I miss it's the early feel of "The Dragon." It was focused on D&D, but occasionally had articles on other games to expose their audience to them. They had regular articles on related topics like fantasy books, book characters' D&D stats and reviews of gaming products.

I'm with you guys on this one. But that's like missing Dragon Magazine before 3rd edition--which I also miss.

 

[The Other Librarian]

Omega World was the only one I actually played & DMed, but it remains one of my favorite games.

Hijack-

Don't know if you want a Pbp, but lookie http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107757!

-unhijack, and a second for Polyhedron.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Traveller's Digest / MegaTraveller journal.

No mag for any game that I have owned was as cover-to-cover useful.

I used to get that back when it was Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society. Heck, I had the first issue, now long lost.

The Auld Grump ...This is Free Trader Beowulf calling anyone...

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Autoduel Quarterly, esp. in its small format

Ah, I miss it. After they went big, they had the Year of the Four Editors.

I miss Command. It's not technically a gaming magazine, except in that it could come packaged with a wargame. It apparently stopped being published a few years ago...at least, I couldn't find it in any bookstore.

Brad

 

[Greg K]

The magazines that I miss

Dragon when it still ran articles for games other than DND (including non-house games).

Challenge

Different Worlds ( I still have the issues with the X-men and Teen Titans for various systems)

Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer

White Wolf before Inphobia.

White Dwarf when it was not a house organ.

 

[warlord]

I miss the old Dragon magazines they were something you could sit and read and apreciate. It had engaging fiction like "the ecology of X" sieries and good core classes. The new Dragon isn't half as good as TSR's and just bombards you with poorly written prestige classes coverted from kits look at the Al-Qaudim Prcs. Also they don't respect histry at all I want more on Dark Sun & Al-Qaudim & Greyhawk don't give me that "fairly obscure 2nd Ed. setting" crap you wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for people like me who liked and bought the "fairly obscure" settings you should be trying to please the people who have been with since the start not todays misguided everquest obssessed RPGers.

 

[Ranger REG]

you wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for people like me who liked and bought the "fairly obscure" settings you should be trying to please the people who have been with since the start not todays misguided everquest obssessed RPGers.

AFAIC, the defunct TSR know how to spend money foolishly but don't know how to earn them wisely. So while we got a lot of quality works from the designers' office, in the management office they're scrambling to find every penny to keep the business afloat. At the same time, their warehouse in Wisconsin was filling up with unsold/returned products (see an early Ryan Dancey interview regarding his tour of the old TSR building).

End result: WotC bought TSR.

Personally, "fairly obscure" settings should be outsourced, while WotC should stick with the bread-winning money machine. AFAIC, Forgotten Realms is more popular than Dark Sun. Heck, Greyhawk is more popular than Dark Sun.

BTW, I'm not like your people, though old as I may be. WotC know that D&D is overdue for a change. That's why we have 3e. Personally, it is a vast improvement over 2nd and previous editions. Though I disagree with the timing of releasing a 3.5e after three years, they managed to clear up a few stuff. Granted, not an amazing revision, but that's what you get for not having enough time to review the ruleset (personally, a revised edition should have been released after five years).

But I'm digressing from the original topic, so here's my answers:

I missed Polyhedron (the "definitive d20" magazine) and Star Wars Gamer.

I missed the earlier version of Dragon when it featured non-D&D support material for TSR's products. I also missed the ARES section of Dragon.

 

[johnsemlak]

I miss Polyhedron when it was a monthly magazine mailed to RGPA members as part of their membership. Lots of great stuff, especially in the issues before #100.

Yeah, I definitely miss the old Polyhedron. Probably because I remember reading it as a kid and devouring each issue from font to back; back then I didn't have nearly as much RPG material to go through anyway.

 

[D_Sinclair]

I've seen three magazines I miss mentioned here already, those being the RPGA version of Polyhedron, Battletechnology, and Autoduel Quarterly.

To that I'd add Interface and Punk 21, a pair of magazines dedicated to supporting Cyberpunk 2020.

I'll have to dig in the garage to check the titles, but there were two other battletech magazines I miss two. IIRC, the titles were Mech Factory and Future Wars.

I also miss Protoculture Addicts, from the days it was actually dedicated to covering Robotech.

Of course, any fan of the giant robot warfare genre should also be missing V-Max and Mecha Press