Tuesday, March 17th

In this newsletter

Joey Royale’s Pizza Party returns this Wednesday, March 18, at 8 pm EST,  live on YouTube: Sewer Rats Inc

Our old friend J. Yamil returns to the Pizza Party to share his new project, “Tales from the Tape Deck.” From the Kickstarter:

Tales from the Tape Deck (TTD) is a rules-lite roleplaying game system that fits in a cassette tape box! Tales from the Tape Deck is a mashup of ruthless, fast-paced, old-school gameplay and a narrative-forward approach. For fans of Mork Borg, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Shadowdark.

Meldar16 is a dynamic duo making some innovative games with great graphic design. I just picked up the murder mystery masterpiece “I Got a Knife,” and it is the real deal. They developed a great resolution system named Die vs Die, which makes TTRPGs very accessible to all players. 

From their site: https://meldar16.com/

Meldar16 Games is the brainchild of Melanie C. Green. Originally using Meldar16 as a personal art handle and then as a co-publisher for indie comics, she started making D&D adventures and zines in her Atera Redux series. While making her first non-D&D ttrpg, she also upgraded her partner Sean, from mere editor to co-writer and dishwasher. 

Bring your napkins- it’s gonna be a mess!

Join the GHI Discord: https://discord.gg/5CjzBnsAt

Arcane Sword Press

Magazine Madness continues with Adventure Gaming Magazine by Manzakk Publishing

On December 30th 2025, the gaming world lost a legend- Tim Kask.  A lifelong gamer who started with simulation board games in the 1960s,  went on to become the Editor of TSR in 1975 after playing Chainmail. From there, he oversaw The Strategic Review (pre-Dragon Magazine), the OD&D supplements, and then established Dragon magazine. He fired the talent at TSR. He ended up leaving in 1980, a pivotal year for the company. Why did he leave? Well, other sources can get into deeper detail than myself within a  limited word count, but my understanding is the change of focus for the company. Well, where is a person who edited significant works of the hobby to go next? Well, start their own gaming magazine of course!

Enter Adventure Gaming Magazine: A back-to-basics product that feels more along the lines of early issues of The Dragon. Actually, I would say that during the short 13 issue run of Adventure Gaming, there are three notable eras:

• Early period (#1-5; the Hex background cover)
• High (#6-10; The full art covers with gloss finish)
• Late (#11-13; Full art cover without gloss finish)

So why categorize the magazine like this? Well, those early issues are cool but somewhat visually sparse. You can tell that Mr. Kask was still developing it, but each issue does feel like a notable increase in layout quality and content. Once we hit issue 6, the gloves came off and we were swinging high! For a monthly magazine, the material is very well written and of good variety. Maybe too spread out? But it falls in line with Mr. Kask’s interest: fantasy role-playing games and tabletop simulation games. So in an issue you would find both alternate rules for a medieval variation of RISK or diplomacy along with an original Traveller adventure published by none-other than Marc Miller, the game’s creator (the infamous Stranded on Arden adventure!) In fact, there was a lot of support for military simulation board games in this magazine which made this very close to The General (future installment of magazine Madness!) One thing I also appreciate is that while the variety was there, it was still more or less 40-560 RPG and MilSim games overall. Some fantasy scenarios would be system neutral, but with conversion advice at the end for AD&D, Runequest, and Adventure in Fantasy (!!!) The magazine felt like a good look into what games were exciting to Tim Kask at the time, which is fun to experience his enthusiasm for them.

As a Traveller-pilled guy myself, there was usually something for me to find, and usually of good quality- although the Hardware Wars feature on real-world science to speculate on the function of beam weapons in Traveller might be a bridge too far (for me) but I’m glad it’s there! I can’t imagine how easily accessible information on how lasers work were easily accessible to teens in 1981, let alone sandwiched between movie reviews and game scenarios. Tangent aside- even with the variety going out for my realm of interests, I did find myself becoming more pulled into topics in the publication simply because they were well-written. Truly, the quality of writing here surpasses most of the other magazines I’ve looked at so far. You can tell care went into the quality of this magazine, which really shows in contrast to the issues of Dragon being published around the same time! 

What else is in there? 

• There would be a showcase of miniatures that were coming out under the familiar “Phigure Photos” used in early Dragon magazine, 
• Comics including Finieous Fingers also from Dragon Magazine, 
• media reviews, 
• game and game adventure reviews,  
• original short stories,  
• etc. etc. the usual. 

But the letter section, if felt, was well done, with the editor responses not being snarky or condescending as compared to other magazines. You get the sense the Tim Kask was always trying to improve on the magazine with each issue. One thing I noticed in issue 9 (probably the issue that really stood out to me) is that there was a readership survey asking “Do Adventure Games Discriminate Against Women?” asking for feedback about the prevalence of harmful stereotypes and the experiences of women gamers, offering to keep people anonymous. 

I think this is pretty forward-thinking, and considering that Adventure Gaming was mostly staffed by women- this really highlights that this magazine was ahead of its time in this regard. Unfortunately, this feature never came, as the magazine officially stopped publishing around the time of its planned article. I’d be curious to see if this article was ever written or published elsewhere. Tim Kask received a brief push back in 1977 for publishing some poorly aged gender-specific rules for D&D, so seeing him being forward thinking and inclusive in this way in 1982 is awesome. If you are curious about the history of women representation in tabletop gaming, Jon Peterson wrote a fantastic article for Medium called The First Female Gamers about it (include link). However, by the “late” period, the print quality dropped and the lack of a tear out adventure scenario, but the articles were still cool, with some issues having certain themes or focuses, like Cowboys, or the game Illuminati. Then it ended! No warning!

So what is the final Verdict? Adventure Gaming is easily one of the best written and most diverse of the magazines I’ve covered so far. While it has similar topics and articles compared to others, The articles it does have are well written and researched (with sources cited!) Adventure Gaming  also focuses on a wider range of tabletop games by providing variations for those games which I haven’t seen anywhere else. This is an easy cover-to-cover for me and definitely wasn’t the slog some other magazines were. Its also a great look into the era of tabletop gaming with the letters, response articles, and the decent GM advice. Recommended!

Next week: Ares Magazine by Simulation Publication Inc (SPI), then TSR!

• Note: It was supposed to be Adventurer Magazine “The Superior Fantasy & Science Fiction Game Magazine” by Mersey Leisure Publishing in the UK, but  I am currently trying to De-stink my issues. 

Just a reminder: Game Submissions for ArcaneCon are open! Submit your games before May 30th so you can get a discount on your badge! I have also updated the ArcaneCon webpage with all of the current info about the new location, states, and more!

Until next time!

-Bryan

Ham & Egg Publishing

Crowdfund Your F#@king Life: Second Edition out now!

Ahoy! This week, I am stoked to announce that Crowdfund Your F#@king Life: Second Edition is finally here! Since dropping the first one as a free community resource in January 2025, I intended to follow up with a second issue right away, but life had other plans. Lots of them apparently. 

So now, ahead of issue 2–which you can get the articles for early on my patreon–I thought it would be a good time to revisit the first issue. 

Crowdfund Your F#@king Life: Second Edition has been revised and expanded. It includes more helpful links, killer sidebars that round out the zine, and a bunch of cool public-domain and other art pieces to give it a real classic ‘90s zine feel. 

As always, the PDF of Crowdfund Your F#@king Life will forever remain “$FREE.99”–or pay what you want–on DriveThru RPG. You can snag a physical copy on my Etsy. 

Here is a description of the zine: 

Crowdfunding is a lot of work. It is also how many creators who dream about bringing their projects to life get to do so. It is pretty cool when you think about it. However, for many folks, getting started can be daunting. The good news? It doesn’t have to be. 

Crowdfund Your F#@king Life was written by a former traveling blender salesman with six years of crowdfunding experience. This zine reads like a one-sided conversation between old friends, meant to help you navigate launching your first campaign. It is filled with helpful information, heartfelt encouragement, and a sprinkling of profanity. 

So, if you are only in it for the money, keep walking.

If you are ready to do the work, have some fun, and bring your creative dream to life: 

Let’s F#@king Go!

ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th

Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon. 

It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs. 

That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes

• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!

It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!

ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th

ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.

Your editor this week has been Bryan Larkin of Arcane Sword Press

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.

– Arcane Bryan