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...

*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

None....

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.

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?

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:)

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.

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

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

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? )?  

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

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.