Well, let’s start with that first question. Before I started tackling the whole college experience, I knew one thing: I wanted to work at TSR. They made games that I loved to play. Making games seemed like an awesome thing to get paid to do, right? So, with that in mind, I blazed my way through college, snagged a job at West End Games, then, in 1995, I got that job at TSR as an editor on the AD&D core team. I’ve been working in the RPG industry ever since that first job at WEG.

And you know what? It is an awesome thing to get paid to do.

As for the website, what I’m planning to do right now is continue with the excellent work that the amazing Scott Gable started, and I hope to add my own voice (and vision) to things as time passes. In short, I want to play, and I want to do so the goal of helping you all play, too. So, if there’s something you want to see, try writing it! If there’s something you want to know, ask about it. You can send queries, submissions, and questions to me at miranda@koboldquarterly.com, and I’ll do my best to get back to you quickly.

Now, before I start my next stint of seeing what fun stuff you all have sent my way and then sharing it with everyone here, I’m going to take this opportunity to thank Scott for all the hard work and effort he put into the website. Thank you very much, Scott, for all that you’ve done for the gaming community. I hope that your future projects bring you joy and allow the rest of us to continue to enjoy your efforts.

And, for those of you who have been supportive of Scott, Kobold Quarterly, and Open Design: Thank you! We’re all here to have fun. I hope that I can help give you more opportunities for fun here on this website.

We’re thankful to our customers, each and everyone one of you who sent a few dollars our way. That vote of cash and confidence allows us to pay our contributors and our printing bills, and keeps us out of debtor’s prison. Thank you. Seriously.

We’re thankful for our writers, artists, and cartographers. Do we have to explain this? We should. Without your vision, your creativity, and your drive, we wouldn’t have a magazine, adventures, or sourcebooks.

We’re thankful for our editors and layout designers. You give the work of those writers and artists and mappers a keener edge, a spin, a twist, and — sometimes — a little more than a just a quick polish. Thank you for making it look good and making it look easy.

We’re thankful for the folks who visited us at Gen Con and Paizo Con, and the volunteers who made it possible for us to actually, you know, entertain the public in a somewhat professional manner with a minimum of weasel-handling accidents. Customers lost hardly any fingers, and kobolds enjoyed the chance to meet so many of you. Wait, that sounds wrong. Not sure why.

We’re thankful for our printers. For putting marks on paper, and for not being in China. For delivering good-looking magazines, to spec, on time. Thank you.

We’re thankful for everyone who stuck up for the little guys. Thank you for making this a thoroughly wonderful, enjoyable, and exciting year. The kobolds hope that your year has been filled with things to be thankful for.

All right, folks, let’s eat! Pass the cornbread and the battered badger. Minions are starving from the speechifying. What can we pass your way?

Those of you who examine the “Coming Next Issue” art might hve noticed that Kobold Quarterly #15 doesn’t sport the art found in issue #14. But the new cover by William O’Connor — entitled “Merlin and Arthur” — was just too good to pass up. It’s a terrific painting by any measure, with hints of the druids within the issue, with details in the swaddling clothes and hidden symbolism. I hope you like it as much as I do, though I confess I compulsively read and re-read a modernized King Arthur collection throughout 6th grade. Knights rule.

The contents of the issue are just as amazing as the cover: druids, knights, traps, and a surprise interview.

The issue contains a remarkable collection of playable material and (we hope) some truly useful tools for your game:

• side-scrolling dungeons,

• expanded rules for mounted combat,
• 3 new druid base classes for Pathfinder RPG,
• an ecology of the giant ant (!)
• and a peek at the Black Chamber of the Cartways, the dungeons below Zobeck.

I hope you pick up the PDF edition or the print version as suits your fancy. I couldn’t be happier to welcome in the holiday season!

So tell me, what do you think of the new issue?

Here’s seven short takes on it from around the world.

Critical Hits: We don’t have to tell you that Kobold Quarterly is great, or that it’s been nominated for 3 Ennies (though it’s going down in the Best Website category!)…. All we have to tell you is the name of an article: “Secrets of the Gelatinous Cube.”

DriveThru RPG: There’s a fantastic article by Michael Brewer, Quinn Murphy and Jonathan Jacobs about Skill Challenges called “Swords Against Darkness”, which includes a few very cool skill challenges that can be dropped into any campaign. What I like about skill challenges is just that: they are small scenes that can be thrown into the middle of any game. ★★★★★

Stargazer’s World: “I had no idea what to expect. I have to admit that I was pretty much blown away by my preview copy. The 90-page PDF includes not only great cover artwork but top-notch content for not only d20-based games like D&D 3rd Edition, D&D 4th Edition or Paizo’s upcoming Pathfinder game, but even a lot of material that could be used in any system. I wasn’t actually expecting this.”

Gold The Series: The design is as attractive and professional as the writing; Kobold Quarterly is not an amateur fanzine, it’s a fully edited and professionally produced magazine (with ads), and that shows in the careful construction and reliable quality of every article and illustration.

The Dice of Life: For basically $4 (for the PDF) or $7 (print & pdf) an issue, you get a hell of a lot with Kobold Quarterly. While not every article might pertain to your gaming system, each article is an enjoyable read and has a wealth of ideas to inspire the GM in all of us.

Roleplaying Pro: [KQ] has plenty of content for all D&D systems as well as quality articles on more general roleplaying topics. For new Kobold Quarterly readers, this issue is a great introduction to the magazine. The cover art and interior art is spectacular.

Purple Pawn: Kobold Quarterly is absolutely top notch. …. The only thing missing is Finieous Fingers.

I’m very pleased with those reviews, as you might imagine, but naturally readers’ opinions count even more! What do YOU think of the new issue? Tell us your favorite article.

Kobold Quarterly is ready to kick things up a notch.

For the past two years, you, our readers, have stepped up to the plate for us time and time again. You were with us when we were black and white and barely 50 pages. Your submissions and passion for our hobby made sure Kobold Quarterly would be more than just another also-ran, fly-by-night game publication whose flame burns brightly yet briefly. And your constant feedback and support have ensured our magazine can make games better, one game at a time.

You’ve given us submissions. You’ve given us your money. Most importantly, you’ve given us your time and attention. And we’re going to repay you by asking for just a little bit more.

We need minions.

OK, no, we don’t actually need minions. What we do need is your help to get Kobold Quarterly in your friendly local gaming stores. It’s actually pretty easy, but we can’t do it alone.

We kobolds are smart and sassy. We know traps and tricks. But there’s only so many of us to go around.

A magazine lives and dies by the news-stand — and for Kobold Quarterly to grow, we have to find ways to get our magazine to the gamers who don’t know about us yet.

Understand this: we’re proud of our Web site. We value each and every reader who takes time out of their day to stop by our forums to chat with us about what’s working and what isn’t. We’re excited that our Web exclusive content is generating traffic and creating new subscribers every month.

And now we need to spread the word about the things we’re doing every issue. To do it, we just need you to answer two questions — either in the comments or e-mail to letters@koboldquarterly.com.

Does your friendly local gaming store currrently carry Kobold Quarterly? If so, great! Please let us know — and if you have it, give us your store’s contact information so that our advertising critters can remind these stores that we appreciate their business.

If your friendly local gaming store doesn’t carry us, let us know that, too. It doesn’t take a genius to realize there’s a dragon-shaped hole in gaming stores’ magazine racks that we’re dying to fill – but we’ll never know about the opportunity to build our circulation if you don’t tell us where these opportunities are.

Where is your friendly local game store? Give us a store name, an address or a phone number and we’ll do everything we can to make sure an FLGS near you has copies of Kobold Quarterly for sale.

Kobolds may be proud, but we’re not stupid. We know our limitations, and we know when we need help. So please, help us. Send an e-mail to letters@koboldquarterly.com or leave a comment so we can know exactly where we need to be putting our energy before the big Summer issue hits.

— Wolfgang Baur, Scott Gable, and Neal Hebert

The RPG Superstar contest is open to anyone who isn’t a previous winner or a published game designer, so all sorts show up, from the wildly creative to the number crunching madmen. The field is open to all comers, and it shows, with the full range of experience, talent, and drive on display. [More...]

And yet, the material submitted does follow Sturgeon’s Law, which says that 90% of any given field is junk (and that’s why editors have jobs). The Superstar slush pile in Round 1 is so brutal (it inspired me to write “How Not to Design a Magic Item” for the Kobold Guide to Game Design, Volume 2). There’s so many ways to go wrong…

But that’s why it’s so much fun to watch a new or unknown designer succeed. The judges have no names or information about the contestants when we’re going through the entries, and yet I see that the most talented contestants pack a lot of personality into of 200 words of Wondrous Items.

The key word, to me, is Wondrous. Magic weapons and armor are functional, scrolls and potions (and wands and staves) are just containers for existing effects, but the wondrous item category is a great one for showing off both imagination and mechanical skill. The designers with imagination seem to rise above the rest of the pack. Their items nail something so well that you want to see what else they might do in future rounds. I want a spotlight on those folks.

Frankly, I want them to submit queries and articles to KQ, because much as I love printing articles by big-name designers, it’s also exciting to hear from new names. Designers come and go from the RPG hobby over time, and I’m happy to see both variety and stability in who we hear from. Not sure I want to list all my favorite game designers here (though it is no secret that kobold diplomats have interviewed several of them). But I’m curious to hear what names on an adventure make you say “Yeah, it must be mine!” And if you don’t mind sharing your loathing with fellow readers, I’d be happy to hear which designers have made you groan.

In any case, in the interests of keeping things lively, this time out we have a few of those new names on the old table of contents. I promise we’ll have a few more next time. Mario Podeschi and Steven Robert are new to these pages, and so is John Ling, though you’ll certainly be familiar with his excellent work on the Monday Monsters series. Give their work a read and see how you like it. Better still, give us your feedback with a letter or a forum post.

And I’ll also note something that isn’t in this issue: the Ecology article is back as a 3rd Edition piece, and may stay that way for a little while. As of this writing, the current number of 4th Edition article submissions is pretty close to zero.

As always, direct your protests, goons, goblins, treasure fleets, couriers, courtesans, message spells, sealed letters, explosive runes, songbirds, and email to letters@koboldquarterly.com or to Kobold Letters, PO Box 2811, Kirkland, WA 98083.

Curious about the rest of the issue? Check out the Table of Contents or just pick up a print or PDF copy today.

Want to learn more about Kobold Quarterly Issue 8? Read on…

• KQ8 Editorial: New Voices
• Game Cryer: Review by Bill Bodden
• Kore Dice: Interview with Cartographer Sean Macdonald
• RPGAggression: Interview with Publisher Wolfgang Baur
• Atomic Array: Episode 015: Kobold Quarterly 008

Drop by Kobold Quarterly.com to pick up your copy today!

You also need a great setting and you need a great story, or it’s just not worth it. Players will forgive you for bad mechanics much faster than they forgive a boring plot or a dumb setting.

Let me speak in defense of rules first. The rules of a game exist to provide [More...]a sense of fairness to play. If baseball or chess rules were arbitrary or favored the home team, no one would play. Both sides in a competitive game must feel they have an fair chance of winning.

That’s not actually an argument in favor of strong rules in RPGs, of course. There’s no fairness between the DM and the players; the DM does control the environment, the monsters, and the NPCs. He could wipe the party out with a TPK rather easily and at any time. Despite many efforts to teach DMs to “play fair” with the players at the table… Well, killer DMs still exist, and even good DMs fudge die rolls both in player’s favor and against it (I am certainly guilty as charged, especially at conventions).

Necessary, but Not Sufficient
So, why don’t great rules make for great entertainment in RPGs? Why aren’t great rules enough?

The White Wolf folks had it right when they called their games the Storyteller system. All games are entertainment, and RPGs more than most depend just as much on story as they do on competition. “Competitive RPG” is right up there with “jumbo shrimp” and “friendly fire” in the Oxymoron Hall of Fame. Rules foster competition, but there’s no real competition in RPGs.

Now, RPGs do provide a shared sense of heroism and achievement. Who hasn’t been thrilled to slay a dragon or an arch-devil? But it’s not as if the DM is secretly hoping for a TPK every week. The DM is entertained when his adventure makes the players sweat it out, but they find a way to overcome everything he throws at them.

And in that sense, every DM is a game designer. His role is to keep others entertained on game night; buildingthe world, spinning up a plot, and hatching some monsters for new and deadly challenges is the DM’s joy, and hearing cries of dismay is sweet music. But really, he wants the heroes to triumph and their story to grow his shared world.

Invisible Rules
Now it’s possible for a bad set of rules to get in the way of having a good time on game night. Good mechanics are like good editing, or good layout: you don’t notice them, they have done their job.

When rules and mechanics hog the spotlight, they have failed. They are no longer enabling roleplayers to get on with having a good time. instead, those rules become the entertainment for rules hounds and power gamers to bend and twist to suit themselves. And everyone else wonders why they bother with RPGs when they could be playing board games or reading a decent book.

What’s my point here?

Just as Kobold Quarterly strives to entertain with articles that inspire players and DMs alike, we hope you take a step back to appreciate the part of the game that isn’t about the dice so much. (I know, I know, but the dice are so shiny!). It’s about having a good time as much as it is about mastering the rules and finding the loopholes. The rule that should be engraved on every DM screen is ‘If you’re the only one having fun, you’re doing it wrong”. The equivalent for players is simple: “If you are more worried about your stats than your character’s goals, you’re doing it wrong.”

I just know I’m going to get mail telling me I’ve got it wrong. But tell me what you think! Are rules really the most important element of a game session? Would sword & sorcery without the world’s most popular set of mechanics still be great?

Want to learn more about Kobold Quarterly Issue 7? Read on…

- Dungeon Mastering.com: What everybody ought to know about rogues
- Jonathan Drain’s d20 Source: Powder Burn: Firearms in Dungeons & Dragons
- Gnome Stew: Troy’s Crock Pot: At Full Gallop at the KQ Carnival
- Ogre Cave: Interview: Stan!
- Musings of the Chatty DM: Adventure Prep: Of Airships, Feys and Player Input
- Atomic Array: Episode 009: Kobold Quarterly 007
- Discuss at the KQ Forum.
- Subscribe to Kobold Quarterly.

Or pick up your copy of issue #7 now.

It’s a sad fact that most new magazines don’t survive, and KQ has at least as many foes as your typical kobold. Like our wily mascot, though, we’re beating the odds. We’ve outsmarted them and outlasted them, and I’m happy to say this coming year looks even brighter. Or at least as bright as it gets, down in the mines.

This issue is our Midsummer Madness issue, appearing on or around the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. I’ve always treasured the long summer days since moving to the Seattle area 10 years ago. The sun stays up long past bedtime, until 10 or 10:30 at night, and people get a little strange around this time of year. Everyone stays up late because, well, it’s light out and it’s hard to sleep.

And frankly, I’ve been staying up late as well, working on the magazine and finalizing the most recent Open Design project, Nicolas Logue’s Blood of the Gorgon, which went off to its patrons about the time KQ went to press. It’s glorious, with beautiful maps, a rich and engaging storyline full of cults, blood, and all the entertainment that a madman villain can bring.

The next Open Design project, Tales of Zobeck, will be just as exciting. It provides an anthology of about eight adventures written by a both professional designers and promising Open Design patrons. It also includes a gazetteer on the city of Zobeck itself, by yours truly. Tales of Zobeck will be the short version of the larger setting book I’ve been wanting to write for about two years, and I’m up to my eyeballs in it and loving it.

The summer madness has also brought new and weird experiences this summer. There’s no more Vancian magic in the new edition of my favorite RPG, when I know Jack Vance was a founding influence on Gygax and the original editions the game. There’s no more gnome PCs in the players’ book.

That one actually kind of hurts.

I love gnomes, because one of the defining characters in my high school campaign was a gnome who always thought he could beat the odds. Gotta respect him for trying. And for running an illusionist/thief. Man, the weird thing isn’t the new math involved in a new edition, it’s fighting off the nostalgia for the way it used to be.

I digress. Kobold Quarterly is heading to GenCon and I will have a surprise for those subscribers who stop by and visit the Open Design booth there, near either the Green Ronin or Paizo booth. Ask all you like about the subscriber prize, there will be no hints until 10 AM on Thursday, August 14th, when the dealer’s hall opens. Kobolds love to spring surprises and I promise no traps are involved in this one.

If you have comments on this issue’s articles, the state of the RPG field, or an opinion on whether the next issue should be 3rd Edition or 4th Edition, direct your couriers, message spells, sealed letters, and email to letters@koboldquarterly.com or to Kobold Letters, PO Box 2811, Kirkland, WA 98083.

Until then, I look forward to serving you nothing but the best in independent Wizards & Warlocks for another year, and thank you for your patronage.

Kobold-in-Chief