The Crusader is a Journal dedicated to games and the gamers who play them. Within its pages lie a plethora of articles that touch upon many of our common interests. Though each issue sports at least one ‘crunchy’ bit rules article for Castles & Crusades and/or Gary Gygax's Lejendary Adventure, the magazine’s focus is much more broad. The Journal offers articles that range from the common and simple “How To” articles, to advice, fiction, poetry, humor, art and more. Feature articles include the following:

What's Inside:

Special Features
Dungeon Building 101
By Robert Doyel
An introduction to dungeon building as presented by the author of the recently released Engineering Dungeons.

Special Guest
James Ward and Frank Mentzer
Jim and Frank take a moment to remember Gary Gygax

Comics!
Trolls at Work a comic by Jason Walton and Steve Chenault
Snits from Tom Wham

Regular Columns
How it All Happened: Ghostly Happenings I
by E. Gary Gygax
Young Gygax has his first spiritual encounter of the ghostly kind when poltergeists haunt the attic above.

Alea iacta est or The Die is Cast: Remembering Gary Gygax
by Stephen Chenault
Steve remembers Gary Gygax, the origins of his first encounter and some thoughts on his parting.

Auld Wyrmish: Creating High Level Characters on the Fly
by Mike Stewart
This provides not only a system to create medium to high level characters for Castles & Crusades in a fast and simple manner, but also gives a quick system to give some background adventures to the character’s history as well. Yes, you rolled that your PC gets a +3 Longsword, but the system can also tell the player HOW the character got it.

Hammer & Anvil: Campaign Settings Part II
by Casey Cannfield
I take the concepts discussed in issue #7 and expand upon them, developing more details about the setting and fashioning elements to match my overall premise. I describe how I incorporate all of the different concepts into one main campaign theme.

Keeper’s Notes: Running a Game
by Davis Chenault
Playing Monsters and NPCs is a little more involved than you might think. That precious critical hit characters love so much goes both ways.

The Convention Blog: GenCon
By Stephen Chenault
Plunge into the maelstrom of the convention experience. Its as chaotic as memory serves.

Cover Art by: Jason Walton