OSRIC fanzine: Saving Throw

Miss Fight On! or Knockspell? I know I do!
 
Well Saving Throw is here to give you that ‘old school’ thrill again.

Here’s the blurb (from DrivethruRPG):

Saving Throw — a fundraiser fanzine to help James D. Kramer
You may know Jim Kramer from his Usherwood Publishing modules & supplements, or his work helping produce works like OSRIC and Knockspell. You probably didn’t know Jim had multiple brain surgeries to remove tumors, and the battle has gotten much harder. To help Jim and his family during this difficult time, a group of his friends, collaborators, and first edition enthusiasts banded together to make this fundraiser fanzine, where all royalties go directly to Jim and his family. 

This 60+ page issue of Saving Throw contains:
• Introduction by Ron Redmond
• Island Tables - random generation and inspiration tool by Steve Smith aka “EOTB”
• Sorcerer’s Stone - dungeon level by Keith Sloan
• Trolls of the Simpolo Swamps - leech-mated trollish variations by Joseph Browning
• Perladon Manor - adventure module by Gabor Lux
• By The Runes - fiction by Dan Rasaiah
• Magic Item Intrinsic Material Values - variant magic item value rules by Guy Fullerton
• Goblin Garbug Cavalry - new monster by Andrew Hamilton
• The Tiled Labyrinth - mini-dungeon by Guy Fullerton
• Lotus Blossoms - magical and special properties of these exotic flora by Keith Sloan
• Burly the Baker - ready-to-use NPC and cantrips by Gary Francisco
• Darkworld Troll - new monster by Bryan Fazekas
• Offig’s Tomb - treasure map by Steve Smith aka “EOTB”
• Lizard Man Lair - outdoor module and new monsters by Steve Smith aka "EOTB"
• Mephitic Geysers of the Intaglio Rift - treasure map by Allan T. Grohe, Jr. (“grodog")
• The Mere Beneath - dungeon level by Guy Fullerton, Allan T. Grohe, Jr. (“grodog"), and Henry A. Grohe
• Sarendra’s Crew & Kelurrin’s Crew - ready-to-use NPC parties by Allan T. Grohe, Jr. (“grodog")
• Rescue from the Sanctuary of the Leopard Goddess - dungeon module by Matthew Riedel
• Featuring illustrations by Jimm Johnson, James D. Kramer, Wind Lothamer, Gabor Lux, Denis McCarthy, Peter Szmer (soon), Del Teigeler, and Alex Zisch. 

For the lucky price of $13, you get two treasure maps, three referee tools, five new spells, six modules, at least nine new monsters, twelve ready-to-use NPCs, and more. Plus the knowledge that your purchase helps a family during a difficult time.
Thank you!

I have it, I’ve looked it over, and it’s the real deal.  Fight On!

Also: check out the OSRIC webpage.

Knockspell abandoning OGL and going over to AD&D

Knockspell seems to be undergoing some interesting changes:

Knockspell Magazine: Will be switching to a non-OGL format and re-focusing more toward AD&D than OD&D. Issue #5 will be a transition, since most of what I have for that issue is still OD&D. I'm doing the layout myself, so it will be rougher in appearance than before. Doing the layout myself is also making it go more slowly.

The above announcement by Mythmere can be found over at the S&W fora here. Later in the same thread, Mythmere elaborates on his plans for KS in this post:

A bit more information is obviously in order on the Knockspell changes:

The main reasons for a shift to AD&D is that Fight On! is already doing a great job on OD&D. Not exactly how I would do it (witness different editorial styles in the magazines), but still excellent. The most difficult task for Knockspell has been assembling enough material, largely (I think) because Fight On! draws more of it. That's especially true after the long gap between issues.

Swords & Wizardry will still have a strong presence in the magazine, but by drawing in AD&D as well, there is a better potential to bring in general articles about gaming as well as articles that are purely resource. This will make it easier for me to put together the magazine.

The other option, which would be to make Knockspell purely for S&W, would make it effectively into a "house organ" magazine, which is what killed the quality of White Dwarf. In the long run, I think that would be devastating for the magazine's reach and quality, plus making it more difficult rather than less difficult for me to bring in a full magazine's worth of articles.

Based on the comments here, I might back water on some of those proposed changes. I can still retreat from the plan at this point, since Issue#5 is effectively all S&W. However, I don't want it to become just a "house" magazine, and it definitely needs to use up less of my energy or I'd be doing nothing but Knockspell all the time. That's what collapsed me on it in the first place.

Matt

As a past -- and, hopefully, future -- contributor to Knockspell, my own work will continue to focus on S&W. I've also contributed to Fight On!, which will remain an OD&D-focused publication (although FO publishes articles for a wide range of older games). I'm a fan of 0e/Basic D&D these days, not so much AD&D, so I'm not sure what to make of the new direction that Matt/Mythmere is charting for Knockspell. It looks like both S&W and AD&D will be supported, which is great -- and, of course, it is a snap to use AD&D material with S&W (or the other retro-clones), and vice versa. So perhaps this is no big deal.

In any case, I look forward to checking out the next issue of Knockspell, and wish the best for Mythmere Games.

(Thanks to ChicagoWiz for bringing this news to my attention in this post.)

UPDATE (9:57 EST, December 23)!

It seems that Mythmere has reconsidered abandoning the OGL for Knockspell:

Based on the feedback from this thread, I think I'm going to keep Knockspell as an OGL publication. The various comments make sense, and I suppose the benefit of getting more authors from calling it "AD&D" wouldn't offset the downside of having open game content.

As to the increased focus on (what will now be called OSRIC and/or "First Edition" because of the above), that's still in play with the understanding that it DOESN'T mean S&W won't be in there, it means that I will include material in an OSRIC format if that's what the author wrote or wants, rather than treating S&W as if it's a universal format. A lesson of time is that people for the most part simply don't accept the idea that any sort of format is universal. Or at least, if they do, there is still a much stronger preference than I had thought for having one's particular set of stats used.

If I were to switch Knockspell to a purely S&W format, I'm certain that it would lead to a smaller page count, and when you're selling on lulu you get a worse and worse value as page count decreases. Most of the built-in cost is from their setup fee, not from adding additional pages. I could do a smaller magazine if I were willing to print a digest-sized little 'zine and mail it out myself, but I never handle money or commit to shipping things because those are both areas where my disorders can cause me to drop the ball in a big, big way.

Just in case you haven't heard...

The new issue of Knockspell is available...

The blurb:

Knockspell: The quarterly resource for old school gaming!

Knockspell Issue #4 contains a veritable cornucopia of gaming content for your retro-clone or out-of-print fantasy campaign! Here's a preview of the table of contents:

From Kuroth’s Quill Allan T. Grohe, Jr.

Beneath the Crossroads: an Adventure Joshua James Gervias

Artist Interview: Christopher Burdett

Megadungeon Adventuring Tactics Matt Finch

Isles on an Emerald Sea 3: An Adventure Gabor Lux

Random Tavern Generator Robert Lionheart

Artifact Type & Attributes Scot Hoover

Spell Interval System John Stater

Online Roleplaying: A Quick Overview Marcelo Frossard Paschoalin

Rats in the Walls: an Adventure by Jeffrey P. Talanian

Stealing the Histories Michael Curtis

Free-Form Rules as a Referee’s Toolbox Al Krombach

Rolling Along: Wheeled Magic Items James Bobb

Weird Weather and other Unexplanable Phenomena J Shoultis, J Larrey, J Hartleb

Review: The Dungeon Alphabet Allan T. Grohe, Jr.

Weapon Generator J.R. Cone

New Magic Items James Bobb

Knockspell #4 is now available in both print and pdf versions from Black Blade Publishing.