How many issues of Alarums & Excursions do you own?

Posts: 943 · Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 1:36 am

Please answer the poll for the number of issues, and if so inclined post your issue numbers here.

For those not familiar with A&E, it is an APAzine (Amateur Press Association zine). Contributors can type up their own contributions and send them to the editor for copying and collating. It started in 1975, and is still going according to this website: http://thestarport.com/xeno/aande.html

Assuming over 30 years of montly publications, they should be over issue 370 by now.

I have six issues (44-46, 64, 70, 72; from the years 1979-1981) that I purchased recently from two different sellers. These are first issues I've read.

My initial reason for buying these was a shot in the dark at trying to track down the issues with fiction by J. Eric Holmes. There is evidence of a two part story called "The Adventure of the Lost City" (Grodog has a copy of the story from Holmes, but does not know the A&E issue; the 1986 "Maze of Peril" author blurb refers to a story in A&E). No luck so far. If you have any other A&E issues, could you take a look through the indexes? (Grodog has also suggested I contact Lee Gold)

However, the old issues have proven to be fascinating reads on their own. In the issues I have, Dave Hargrave and Steve Marsh were among the regular contributors. They function much like an early version of Dragonsfoot, with articles/campaign journals and then comments by others. And then comments on the comments...

Posts: 827 · Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:45 am

#375 now shipping.

Posts: 943 · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:44 pm

*bump*

For posterity, here's some of the notable contents of the above A&E issues (which I sold recently on Ebay):

General:
From the title page: “This fanzine is set up as a monthly discussion apa for SF fans and others interested in role-playing games”

Each issue has approximately 150 pages and 40 contributors. Some of the more recognizable names are listed below.

Contributors review current RPGs and discuss rule changes and additions. There is, of course, much focus on Dungeons and Dragons and the new AD&D, Gary Gygax, and Dragon magazine, but contributors also discuss Chivalry & Sorcery, The Fantasy Trip and other games.

Issue #44: includes 2 pages by Steve Marsh, contributor to many TSR products (“Analects of a Mad Sage”); 6 pages by Ed Simbalist, co-author of Chivalry Sorcery (“Kismet: Role Playing Modes of Gaming Wilderness Tourney”); 2 pages by Wilf Backhaus, also co-author of C&S (“One Frost Giant’s Icicle”); 3 pages by Phillip McGregor, another C&S sourcebook co-author (“Morningstar Mutterings”); a 3 page review of the Arduin Trilogy by Mike Gunderloy; 2 pages by Greg Costikyan, author of the TOON RPG by Steve Jackson Games (“We’re Looking for a few good DM’s”) 11 pages by John Sapienza (“The Golden Dragon”); 8 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments). Cover by Glenn Blacow.

Issue #45: includes 4 pages by Dave Hargrave, creator of Arduin (“The New Arduin Chronicles”); 3 pages by Steve Marsh (“Analects of a Mad Sage”); 14 pages by John Sapienza (“The Runelord Writes #4”); 8 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments). Cover by Ken Murphy.

Issue #46: includes 4 pages by Dave Hargrave, creator of Arduin (“New Arduin Chronicles #4”); 5 pages by Steve Marsh (“Heroquester #5”); 11 pages by John Sapienza (“The Runelord Writes 5”); 8 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments). Cover by Peter E. Dixon.

Issue #64: includes 9 pages by Dave Hargrave, creator of Arduin (“New Arduin Chronicles”); 1 page by Steve Marsh o (“Analects #5”); 15 pages by John Sapienza (“The Golden Dragon” and “Dragonsgold”); 10 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments). Cover by Ken Murphy.

Issue #70: includes 13 pages by Dave Hargrave, creator of Arduin (2 different installments of the “New Arduin Chronicles”); 4 pages by Ken Rolston, who has various TSR, Avalon Hill and Paranoia! game credits (“Dungeon Register #8”); 1 page by Phillip McGregor, a C&S sourcebook co-author (“Morningstar Mutterings”); 12 pages by John Sapienza (“The Golden Dragon #30”); 10 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments. Cover by Phil Alexander.

Issue #72: includes 1 page by Steve Marsh (“Analects of a Mad Sage”); 10 pages by John Sapienza (“The Golden Dragon”); 8 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments). Cover by Artemis Gail.

* * * * * * * *

Jonathan Tweet has a good introduction to A&E on this webpage: http://www.jonathantweet.com/jotgameae.html

Posts: 1007 · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:11 am

zhowar wrote:

*bump*

For posterity, here's some of the notable contents of the above A&E issues (which I sold recently on Ebay):

and at a extremly good price BTW (for you not the buyer Laughing

)

Brette:)

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:31 am

None....

Posts: 1756 · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:46 pm

Me neither - in fact to my shame I did not know much about it at all.

Posts: 1193 · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:08 pm

I owned about five of them a while ago but ended up selling them for about $5 apiece to Brette I think. The copy quality is really poor that they're arduous to read. I'm sure there are some gems in there but it's hard on the eyes to fish through so many self-submitted articles with such poor copy quality and almost no organization. It's kind of like Usenet in paper form; I'm amazed that it's still going strong. I give credit to Lee Gold.

Posts: 1007 · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:11 pm

VermilionFire wrote:

I'm sure there are some gems in there but it's hard on the eyes to fish through so many self-submitted articles with such poor copy quality and almost no organization. It's kind of like Usenet in paper form; I'm amazed that it's still going strong. I give credit to Lee Gold.

That pretty much sums it up I think...

Brette:)

Posts: 943 · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:50 pm

VermilionFire wrote:

I'm sure there are some gems in there but it's hard on the eyes to fish through so many self-submitted articles with such poor copy quality and almost no organization.

Well, in the older issues each article is copied (mimeographed?) on different color paper and this color is listed in the index with the article title and author, which really helps finding articles quickly in the 150 pages of each issue. On the other end, if all you have to go on for content is titles like "Analects of a Mad Sage", the index isn't going to help that much is it?

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:36 am

150 pages in each issue?

Posts: 1007 · Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:35 am

sometime more, the problem with an index (and I've thought about this) is that alot of the smaller zines ramble or have lost of small things, like monsters, magic items, comments, etc and its very hard to have an index that has any real type of descriptive order

Brette:)

Posts: 4717 · Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:47 am

I had 1-76 or so a while back. They didn't do much for me. Even the cover art was usually borderline.

Posts: 37 · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 11:05 pm

Out of curiousity, were there ever any articles pertaining to Metagaming's "Fantasy Trip" system published in A&E? I happen to be working on a comprehensive index of all articles published in various game magazines (including obscure fanzines) pertaining to TFT and have only recently (thanks to Zhowar's auction, interestingly enough) been made aware of A&E's existence.

Don't suppose anyone ever published an article guide for A&E...? Kinda doubt it, but I have to ask. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Posts: 943 · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 11:51 pm

Charles, I think there may have been some discussion of The Fantasy Trip in the issues I had; however (as you know) I no longer have the issues so I can't be sure. I'm not familiar with TFT, either, and it's possible I'm confusing it with discussions I've read elsewhere. The "articles" in A&E can be very similar to Forum postings...

Improvstone bought the issues from me, so he might be able to tell you more.

Posts: 2938 · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:27 pm

An A&E question and this seemed like the best place to put it Very Happy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarums_and_Excursions states:

Quote:

Alarums and Excursions (A&E), is an amateur press association started in June 1975 by Lee Gold (at the request of Bruce Pelz, who felt that discussion of Dungeons & Dragons was taking up too much space in Apa-L, the APA of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society)[1]

Has anyone tried to dig up the old pre-A&E D&D discussions in the Apa-L (Brette? Very Happy

)?

(I've just put a query into the librarians there for info on early D&D discussions in their APA-L, too).

Posts: 1007 · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:53 pm

grodog wrote:

An A&E question and this seemed like the best place to put it Very Happy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarums_and_Excursions states:

Has anyone tried to dig up the old pre-A&E D&D discussions in the Apa-L (Brette? Very Happy

)?

(I've just put a query into the librarians there for info on early D&D discussions in their APA-L, too).

I had thought of it, one on the "things to do" list... and while I have seen A&E for sale I don't think I have seen any of the APA-L at all... if they do turn up I doubt they will be in the roleplaying section but rather the book section of ebay....

Brette:)

Posts: 255 · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:26 pm

zhowar wrote:

Issue #72: includes 1 page by Steve Marsh (“Analects of a Mad Sage”); 10 pages by John Sapienza (“The Golden Dragon”); 8 pages by Lee Gold (“Tantivy” and editorial comments). Cover by Artemis Gail.

* * * * * * * *

Jonathan Tweet has a good introduction to A&E on this webpage: http://www.jonathantweet.com/jotgameae.html

Once you start Reading the John T. Sapienza, Jr. materials in A&E (and The Wild Hunt if you can find it) you will suddenly start seeing his influence all over both TSR and Chaosium products.

Honestly, he is the person I would have picked to write a third edition. It would have been everything that fans wanted rather than what they got.

Posts: 19 · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:28 pm

Ethesis wrote:

Once you start Reading the John T. Sapienza, Jr. materials in A&E (and The Wild Hunt if you can find it) you will suddenly start seeing his influence all over both TSR and Chaosium products.

Honestly, he is the person I would have picked to write a third edition. It would have been everything that fans wanted rather than what they got.

More material went into my gaming binder from John T Sapienza Jr. than from any other non-TSR source that I can think of. Logical and well thought out. Truely great stuff.

Stuart

Posts: 827 · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:07 pm

agree stephen + stuart. history only credit to headline figures -v-