Kvantum |
I'm surprised at this one... and yet kind of not. It's a magazine, something even the biggest publishers on earth are haing trouble keeping going after all, and Kobold Press/Open Design certainly doesn't lack for other things to be publishing, ones without all the difficulty of keeping issues on shelves.
(So what does it mean for things like Wes's article series on the Lords of Hell?)
John Benbo RPG Superstar 2011 Top 8 |
Shoot. I was excited the other week when I went into the local comic store and they had Kobold Quarterly on the shelf. I even remarked about it to the owner of the store how glad I was that they were carrying it. The store has cut back even on their Paizo published Pathfinder stuff but they've started carrying some Kobold Press stuff recently.
Fire Mountain Games |
1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Yeah. I got the announcement as well. My only regret is that we won't see "Super Science in Fantasy", the article promised at the back of #23.
Ah, well. I look forward to more Open Design releases, regardless...
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
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Wolfgang Baur Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Quarterly |
Cheapy |
Yeah. I got the announcement as well. My only regret is that we won't see "Super Science in Fantasy", the article promised at the back of #23.
Ah, well. I look forward to more Open Design releases, regardless...
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Check out our kickstarter! Creature Cards
I know! I was super excited about that one too.
Eric "Boxhead" Hindley |
Fire Mountain Games wrote:I know! I was super excited about that one too.Yeah. I got the announcement as well. My only regret is that we won't see "Super Science in Fantasy", the article promised at the back of #23.
Ah, well. I look forward to more Open Design releases, regardless...
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Check out our kickstarter! Creature Cards
Believe me, you two weren't the only ones...
Ravenmantle |
(So what does it mean for things like Wes's article series on the Lords of Hell?)
Wes's articles were my introduction to Kobold Quarterly and they were a major factor in my choosing to subscribe after the Christmas hoo haa. Oh well, that wasn't to be. Hopefully we'll see them in some form somewhere.
As for the magazine itself, I'm sad to see it go. Lots of top quality stuff going on in Kobold Quarterly. Hat's off to the crew for an excellent product.
Unimportant |
Cheapy wrote:Believe me, you two weren't the only ones...Fire Mountain Games wrote:My only regret is that we won't see "Super Science in Fantasy", the article promised at the back of #23.I know! I was super excited about that one too.
Add my name to the unofficial petition to get this article to print, some way, somehow.
And what a lousy way to start our Saturday gameday... :-(
Marc Radle |
Yeah, it's a sad day.
I said this in another thread, but I think it's worth repeating here as well. I've had the extreme honor of appearing quite a few times within Kobold Quarterly's pages and, like MANY people, I'm really going to miss the magazine :(
Of course, that does make the final issue something of a collector's item now, so everyone should pick up a copy for your collection!
And, on the bright side, Kobold Press itself is still going strong and there's LOTS of very cool stuff in the pipeline!
Jeff Erwin Contributor |
Jeremy Smith Publisher, Dreamscarred Press |
Distant Scholar |
Just saw the news at the KQ website. While working on an article pitch. Oh well.
Still, I did get my pitch for the Valhalla Calling contest in.
As a parent, however, I can completely understand the financial and time pressures that make the decision necessary. Family comes first.
So ... babies ate your kobold? :-)
David Haller |
Sad indeed - I actually had it in my Paizo cart and was considering subscribing just days ago!
Magazines are a tough gig; I was pretty surprised when I found out it was an actual, physical magazine (rather than just PDFs). I used to be in magazine publishing myself, but got out of it when the price of paper pulp skyrocketed about ten years ago.
I actually think piracy is a big factor here - in looking into subscribing to the magazine, I noted that ALL its issues were "out there", downloadable from torrent sites, 4shared and the like. A small outfit like Kobold simply can't set aside the man-hours to search around for this stuff and act against in. Kobold in particular *should* have had a rich back-issue business, as players seek old issues for specific articles, classes, feats and so on... but not if players can just go grab issues for free from a shady download site.
Hopefully, the next intrepid quarterly/monthly/annual (and it is inevitable that another will come along!) will be able to learn from and address these problems.
That said, good luck to Kobold on its new ventures! I'm enjoying their recent collection of game design essays, myself (I keep in in my briefcase as my "15 minutes of free time" reading material...)
Marc Radle |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I actually think piracy is a big factor here - in looking into subscribing to the magazine, I noted that ALL its issues were "out there", downloadable from torrent sites, 4shared and the like. A small outfit like Kobold simply can't set aside the man-hours to search around for this stuff and act against in. Kobold in particular *should* have had a rich back-issue business, as players seek old issues for specific articles, classes, feats and so on... but not if players can just go grab issues for free from a shady download site.
I'm not sure how much of a factor this was with Kobold Quarterly, but I agree 100% that these shady free download sites, torrents, 4shared etc ... piracy in general ... is a HUGE scourge in the publishing world. I know there are people who try to justify using them, but there really are no good reasons. Downloading stuff for free like this instead of paying the people who create the material their fair share is stealing, plain and simple, and it's wrong. Worse, it's really hurting the industry and the people who create the content.
Sorry for the little rant! Press
Amanda Hamon |
I am very sad to read this as well. I felt that this was one of the best magazines to fill in the void that Dragon going away left.
Same here. KQ will be sorely, sorely missed, but I think Wolfgang et al made the right decision. Family above all.
That said, I wonder if there are any other publishers out there who will decide to pick up the magazine mantle? It's kind of exciting to think about the possibilities ... even if its just a PDF venture.
Distant Scholar |
Same here. KQ will be sorely, sorely missed, but I think Wolfgang et al made the right decision. Family above all.
That said, I wonder if there are any other publishers out there who will decide to pick up the magazine mantle? It's kind of exciting to think about the possibilities ... even if its just a PDF venture.
Do you mean like Pathways or Wayfinder? Or do you mean something more general?
Amanda Hamon |
Amanda Hamon wrote:Do you mean like Pathways or Wayfinder? Or do you mean something more general?Same here. KQ will be sorely, sorely missed, but I think Wolfgang et al made the right decision. Family above all.
That said, I wonder if there are any other publishers out there who will decide to pick up the magazine mantle? It's kind of exciting to think about the possibilities ... even if its just a PDF venture.
Both are awesome. I think I'd just like to see more folks dip their toes into serial publications, not to supplant what exists, but just to provide the biggest variety of voices and outlooks possible.
Kthulhu |
Do you mean like Pathways or Wayfinder? Or do you mean something more general?
I'd prefer something more general. Pathways has a little new material, but the bulk of the magazine is reviews or interviews. And Wayfinder's focus is too narrowly on Golarion. I also liked the variety in Kobold Quarterly...I liked seeing the 3.X, 4E, AGE, Call of Cthulhu, and "system-less" articles in Kobold Quarterly. Even if it's for a game I don't play, I can generally find some good bits; and you end up getting different POVs than you would with a magazine that's solely devoted to just one system/setting.
Kobold Quarterly will be missed. And I don't really see any real replacements for it around the bend.
Ron Lundeen Contributor |
Legendarius |
It was a great magazine and I'm going to miss it. A lot of great articles and the production quality had been going up. I also enjoyed seeing ads for various game related products like back in the old Dragon/Dungeon days. They make for a nice time capsule for the state of the industry at the time of the issue.
Liz Courts Webstore Gninja Minion |
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As part of this year's Black Friday sale, Kobold Press has put all of their PDFs and back issues of Kobold Quarterly on sale for 25% off—get 'em while you still can!