Gaming Magazines of the Past

I purchased digital copies of issues 27 and 28 of The Space Gamer from Warehouse 23 this weekend.  Those are the first two issues of the Steve Jackson Games run on the magazine.  Looking through the contents of these two issues has really made me nostalgic about the gaming magazines of the past.  I would frequently purchase an issue or two of something off the magazine shelf whenever I visited Starbase 21 back in the 80s and 90s.  I would continue that trend after that time with other stores and other magazines even when I had a long gaming slump after 2000.

I discovered my first role-playing magazine with Dragon.  I do not remember the exact issue but it was a relatively early one.  I would buy up every new issue at the store and eventually got a subscription.  I had a pretty impressive stack of issues going and I made the unfortunate decision at some point to remove the articles I found worthwhile and get rid of the other contents.  I have an old binder or two somewhere that has all of these articles; I hope I still do at this point.

I would pick up many more magazines over the years.  I enjoyed The Fantasy Gamer and would have preferred it stayed separate from The Space Gamer but I will take it either way honestly.  Nintendo Power also had a similar appeal to me with the maps and walkthroughs of games.  Shadis was a long time favorite of mine as well as Vortext.  Pyramid was a good magazine but it never grabbed my attention like old copies of The Space Gamer.  Finally, The Rifter was a great Palladium Books house publication. I wish that they would have focused that energy on updating old product and releasing new content but a new grab bag of useful articles was always welcome.  

Unfortunately, none of these magazines still exist today.  I know most everybody has moved to forums and a web presence.  I get the reasons why and I do not hate the forums.  I frequently several of them and post quite frequently at times at The Ruins of Murkhill.  I just wish there was still one good general gaming magazine around.  It is similar to the difference between a book and an e-reader for me.  Nothing beats the crisp, new smell of a new magazine (or book) in hand.  I could really go for laying on the couch with an issue in hand reading it until I got drowsy and decided to take a nap.  

The House of BTS

I frequent the Palladium forums from time to time because I enjoy several of their games.  As I was reading the responses to a "sell me on BTS" thread I started, I was given the link to The House of BTS.  Even thought I do not own or play BTS yet, I found the fan site to be extremely well done and should be of use to others; here is what you can expect when you visit.

Home Page

This page has a short introduction, some great quotes, site news, and a list of the following pages.

BTS Books

Descriptions of the official BTS material from the original edition plus the second edition. This section also includes a list of Rifters with BTS material, RIFTS books useful for BTS, and the unreleased source books for BTS. 

Adventure Ideas

Five pages of adventure ideas to keep your campaign moving! These are always a big time saver for me.

Creations

Custom content for BTS such as characters, NPCs, Commissions, The Supernatural, Special Equipment, and skills added by the site author.

House Rules

This is a description of the house rules used by the site author.

Horror RPG Tips

A section of advice for running horror games with topics such as being a good BTS GM, being a good BTS player, when investigative skill rolls fail, and using sewers - think dungeons - in your game.

Inspirational BTS Material

This section covers additional material that might serve as inspiration for your games.  The subjects covered include movies, books, comic books, tv shows, video games, and music. I spend quite some time browsing this section because I am a big time fan of horror movies.  There was an excellent selection of old and new offerings to choose from.  I discovered some books that I had not been previously aware of also.

Links Worth Investigating

Obviously, this is a list of links to other sites that are of interest to people visiting The House of BTS.

Who Am I?

A little bit about the host of The House of BTS.

Contact Me

A form to fill out for rules questions, suggestions, tips, comments, etc.

In short, if you are a fan of horror gaming - probably horror in general would work also - or Beyond the Supernatural specifically then you should check out The House of BTS.  This site is basically what every gaming fan site should strive to be.  I was a little discouraged by the first couple of responses to my sell me thread but after visiting The House of BTS I am sold!