| |  | | |  | Tabletop Weekly’s holiday gift guide |
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|  | Looking at Dragon magazine
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Ham & Egg Publishing | Get Haunted Industries | Arcane Sword Press | Solarian Games (Tabletop Weekly) |
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Hey Ho, Let’s Go Home |  | Ahoy Pals!
Hambone here with a few festiv-ish things to chat you up on this week.
First and foremost, Crawl for the Cure: Ethermeet 2025 was on Saturday, December 13th, and thanks to your support, we raised $3,825 to be donated to the American Cancer Society, which is massive. On behalf of everybody involved, THANK YOU! |
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| | Secondly, Geo Collazo, my creative partner for over 20 years, had a late-night idea for a heartfelt holiday short story he was eager to tell, so, with the help of one of our longtime collaborators, Zack Giallongo, we turned it around in record time. Here is the synopsis:
Ham & Egg Publishing proudly presents its debut short story zine, Hey Ho Let’s Go Home, a holiday tale where four very familiar ghosts help Charlie, a young runaway, navigate the holiday blues. It’s the Dickens classic cranked up to eleven with D.I.Y. spirit, as Charlie discovers what really matters in life, and learns the true meaning of the punk rock ethos.
A heartwarming tale for all ages that proves the best gift is finding your way home. Written by Geo Collazo with art by Zack Giallongo, you can get it now for $10 (PDF included) at https://www.hamandeggpublishing.com
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Finally, if you wanted to catch up on some of our other killer Ham & Egg Publishing titles, we’re having a 25% off sale (except anthologies and Hey Ho) on our site!
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The 28 mm revolution! | Get Haunted Industries on Mold Mold Mold |  | I have always been intimidated by the world of miniatures. First, many game-specific models are ridiculously priced. Second, I never thought I had the patience, skill, or quality materials to make something I would be happy with. Third, the minis on the racks didn’t inspire me. Then I went to Under the Dice, and everything changed. Hive Scum, Smash Bash, Wittle Goblin, BlerzCraft, and so many other inspiring maniacs showed me the way. Underground DIY 28 mm revolution, baby. Kit bash whatever you have laying around and throw everything you fear about painting out the window. Do it cheap, challenge yourself, and expand your mind.. I implore you to check out Mold Mold Mold by Nick Borelli. Part art book, part how-to, Mold Mold Mold puts a new lens on miniature creation, painting, and presentation. Its creators like this Borelli that move “hobby” into “art”, and, holy cow, it’s inspiring! Uncap the crazy glue and get weird! | | |
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| | In my continuing coverage of gaming publications, I’ll be pivoting from independent-published modern zines I enjoy to stone-cold classics of yesteryear. This Week: The Dragon! | | |
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Released after TSR stopped publishing The Strategic Review in 1975, they split their efforts into two magazines from its ashes, Little wars to support their wargame releases and The Dragon to support their RPG releases. The most impressive thing to me about his magazine was the fact this dense publication was monthly and lasted for years and years, while Little Wars lasted around two years! Right out of the gate, it was already full of fun articles related to D&D and the emerging RPG scene. When i go back and read old articles from early issues, there are three things I look for: From The Sorcerer’s Scroll column, specifically the ones penned by Gary Gygax: What I like about the this column is where you see the hot-and-cold personality of Gary Gygax come to life whether it be critical of other RPGs he saw as competitions or as illegitimate copies of HIS game (which we know isn’t the entire truth!), criticizing some D&D clubs about running the game wrong, and then the eventual development of AD&D to combat these factors, it’s interesting to see the ranting and then the recanting of those rants in different issues. Paired with books and podcasts that delve into the history and culture of TSR at the time, it’s a great resource for understanding a driving force behind RPGs Sage Advice: If you are going to read anything in an old Dragon Magazine, make sure to read Sage Advice. Before forums, Reddit, and being able to email creators directly, this was the only means for players and referees to ask for rule clarifications. And boy, there are some funny questions but even more insane answers! My personal favorite? Sage advice from The Dragon #31: Question: “In AD&D, how much damage does a bow do?” Answer: “None. Bows do not do damage, arrows do. However, if you hit someone with a bow, I’d say it probably will do 1-4 points of damage and thereafter render the bow completely useless.” That’s some “Um ACTUALLY” level of correcting a genuine question from a customer. You can read a complete collection of Sage Advice here
The Advertisements: There is some serious gold to be found in the early days of table top RPGs. You’ll see some very interesting products including games Gygax would be critical of in the same issue’s From the Sorcerer’s Scroll! You will also see advertisements for games that never came out including one that is nearly legendary, K Society’s Imperial Earth!
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There are hundreds of issues, but a good look at the magazine is The Best of The Dragon vol.1. It covers a great span of the early days of D&D from 1975-1978 with articles that support early TSR RPGS beyond D&D like Metamorphosis Alpha and fun articles like “How Heavy is my Giant?” Fun fact: The impact of Dragon magazine led to fellow unionist Jayson to create Gygax Magazine for a period in the mid-2010s which continues the spirit of Dragon magazine, which is also worth checking out!
That’s it for now! Next Week: The Dungeoneer by Judges Guild!
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| | Solarian Games | Holiday gift guide on Tabletop Weekly |  | So we do this podcast / livestream every week, have I told you about it? It’s called Tabletop Weekly. We just did our holiday gift guide for 2025, so I thought I’d share some of the fun stuff we found and talked about.
Tabletop Weekly livestreams every Sunday, usually at 9pm Eastern time. Lately we’ve been going on earlier since our guests have been in Europe. Next week we’ll be very early, at 1pm Eastern, to host Eric Rubin, who has just released the Russian language edition of Top Secret! You can see all the shows at https://TabletopWeekly.com
Here are some of the gifts we covered with our guest Kay Schaefer from Gamers Online: |
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 | | | Dungeons & Dragons Christmas tree ornaments | | |
| Old World Christmas has a selection of D&D ornaments including Dungeon Master from the D&D cartoon, mimics, beholders, and the Mentzer Red Box. | | |
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|  | | | BuckNaked3D is selling their original creations on Etsy: a Treant Dice Tree & Roller that’s also a dice tower, and a Tree Goddess “dice tray” that’s not a dice tower, but looks amazing.
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|  | | | They look like dice, but the faces themselves spin -WHUT
You can have a whole set of polys in one die. Or just spin it when you need some stim. Stupidly fun. | | |
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 | | | Game Wizards by Jon Peterson | | |
| Jon Peterson is the pre-eminent historian of the tabletop gaming scene. His book Game Wizards chronicles the decades-long debate between Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson over who really created Dungeons & Dragons. | | |
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|  | | | This customizable GM screen is only 6″ high, so it won’t block your view AND it folds up to fit in your pocket. | | |
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|  | | | Brian Cook has been drawing butts on things since 2016, and since then it’s kind of blown up. There’s a Butts on Things jigsaw puzzle and a family / party card game where you collect sets of butt cards.
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 | | | Adventurer’s travel bag | | |
| A hundred bucks really isn’t bad for this tough shoulder bag that ‘s big enough for a full set of books, has loads of pockets, and even a foam insert for your minis and straps to hold your battlemat. | | |
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|  | | | It’s a simple idea but I really want one of these. The P’KUP card lifter is a small cylinder with suction that can lift one or more cards at a time off the table without bending or damaging them. | | |
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|  | | | There are lots of ice molds you can find online in the shape of gaming dice. I chose this one because it’s a complete set. You can also search for other molds if you want a single giant piece of ice, so dig around! | | |
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Your editor this week has been Jayson Elliot of Solarian Games. We’re well into Chanukah now, Chag Sameach! An early Merry Christmas as well, Joyous Kwanzaa, and happy holidays all around.
Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of, less of, or just ideas you’ve got. If you like the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com. See you next week! -Jayson |
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