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Original D&D Discussion :: Dungeons & Dragons (1971-1978) :: Judges Guild and the Wilderlands (est. 1976) :: JG Magazine = no respect?
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Finarvyn
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JG Magazine = no respect?
« Thread Started on Nov 14, 2010, 11:59am »
I've got lots of old dusty gaming magazines from the 1970's-1980's and I love to dig 'em out occasionally and paw through them. Consider this:
  • Dragon Magazine ran for 280 pre-3E issues. There were 7 Issues as Strategic Review and 271 Issues as Dragon, however, only the first 80 or so ever hold my interest because there is less and less OD&D-compatible content.
  • White Dwarf ran for 93 issues before they stopped carrying OD&D-based content.
  • Different Worlds ran for 47 issues, with a lot of Chaosium content and I don't think much OD&D.
  • Nexus (Task Force Games) ran for 19 issues. This was mostly Star Fleet Battles and the like. No OD&D content.
  • Sorcerer's Apprentice (Flying Buffalo) ran for 17 issues, all of which was T&T content.
  • Ares (SPI) was mostly wargame content, died after 12 issues.
And I'm sure there are many others which escape my brain at the moment.

I mention these magazines because they were some of my favorite periodicals to read back "in the day" and the low issue counts give some feeling as to how tough it was to maintain a gaming magazine back then.

Heck, it's just as hard today.
  • Footprints is up to issue #16.
  • OD&Dities fizzled at issue #12, but is rumored to have a revival soon.
  • Fight On! is up to 10 issues and going strong.
  • Knockspell has 4 issues out, and I believe Mythmere is working on #5-6 at the moment.
  • TrollsZine (T&T) has 3 issues out and they are currently in production for #4
My point? Suppose I told you that there was a mostly-OD&D magazine which ran for 59 issues, had over 2900 total pages of content, and isn't on my list above? And that it was published monthly for most of its time?

It's the Judges Guild magazine. (The thread title was a bit of a spoiler, I'll admit.)

The problem is that JG kept changing names and starting their numbering system over again so no one seems to realize just how many issues there were, and just how significant an impact this had on the industry.

The Judges Guild Journal got its start as a tiny newsletter in October, 1976, and looked like a sheet or two of paper xeroxed. Then, the Judges Guild Journal and Dungeoneer spent from March 1977 through August 1980 alternating with one magazine one month and the other the next before the two were merged together. When The Dungeoneer Journal (merged issue) was born it displayed "issue 22/18" on the cover, but was actually issue #41 in my count. DJ ran though issue #25 (I count #44) before changing its name to Pegasus and starting their count all over again. Pegasus #1 is actually issue #45 and Pegasus #15 (released in 2004) is actually issue #59.

I'd love to see the Judges Guild Magazine get more respect in the gaming industry, and what I'd love to see is a single CD with all 59 issues in PDF format on it.

Wouldn't that be cool? :D
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #1 on Nov 14, 2010, 12:02pm »
Just for fun, here's the list of all 59 issues along with their year of publication.

Issue Cover Year
1 Judges Guild Journal 0/I 1976
2 Judges Guild Journal 1/J 1976
3 Judges Guild Journal 2/K 1977
4 Dungeoneer 1 1977
5 Judges Guild Journal 3/L 1977
6 Dungeoneer 2 1977
7 Judges Guild Journal 4/M 1977
8 Dungeoneer 3 1977
9 Judges Guild Journal 5/N 1977
10 Dungeoneer 4 1977
11 Judges Guild Journal 6/O 1977
12 Dungeoneer 5 1977
13 Judges Guild Journal 7/P 1977
14 Dungeoneer 6 1978
15 Judges Guild Journal 8/Q 1978
16 Dungeoneer 7 1978
17 Judges Guild Journal 9/R 1978
18 Dungeoneer 8 1978
19 Judges Guild Journal 10/S 1978
20 Judges Guild Journal 11/T 1978
21 Judges Guild Journal 12/U 1978
22 Dungeoneer 9 1979
23 Judges Guild Journal 13/V 1979
24 Dungeoneer 10 1979
25 Judges Guild Journal 14/W 1979
26 Dungeoneer 11 1979
27 Judges Guild Journal 15/X 1979
28 Dungeoneer 12 1979
29 Judges Guild Journal 16/Y 1979
30 Dungeoneer 13 1979
31 Judges Guild Journal 17/Z 1979
32 Dungeoneer 14 1979
33 Judges Guild Journal 18 1979
34 Dungeoneer 15 1980
35 Judges Guild Journal 19 1980
36 Dungeoneer 16 1980
37 Judges Guild Journal 20 1980
38 Dungeoneer 17 1980
39 Judges Guild Journal 21 1980
40 Dungeoneer 18 1980
41 Dungeoneer's Journal 22/18 1980
42 Dungeoneer's Journal 23 1980
43 Dungeoneer's Journal 24 1980
44 Dungeoneer's Journal 25 1981
45 Pegusus 1 1981
46 Pegusus 2 1981
47 Pegusus 3 1981
48 Pegusus 4 1981
49 Pegusus 5 1982
50 Pegusus 6 1982
51 Pegusus 7 1982
52 Pegusus 8 1982
53 Pegusus 9 1982
54 Pegusus 10 1982
55 Pegusus 11 1983
56 Pegusus 12 1983
57 Pegusus 13
58 Pegusus 14 1999
59 Pegusus 15 2004

NOTES:
(1) If a magazine was listed as Dec-Jan, I picked the earlier year.
(2) The JGJ began with letter designations, which were eventually dropped. I list both for historical purposes.
« Last Edit: Nov 14, 2010, 12:05pm by Finarvyn »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
Marv / Finarvyn
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #2 on Nov 14, 2010, 12:06pm »
> "JG Magazine = no respect?"

Absolutely!

One reason (at least partly true) is that's there's a lot of newsprint in there and those issues have very low $$ value. ;)
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Finarvyn
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #3 on Nov 14, 2010, 12:13pm »

Nov 14, 2010, 12:06pm, harami2000 wrote:
there's a lot of newsprint in there and those issues have very low $$ value. ;)
Sadly, I loaned out my early newsprint issues (actually JGJ #1-11) and am finding that they are kind of pricey to replace as well as being pretty fragile. Another good reason for a PDF.
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #4 on Nov 14, 2010, 12:30pm »
Mhmm... some are harder than others agreed, but it's still possible to pick up almost half that entire run, even including most of the content of the non-JG Dungeoneers (1976 onwards, btw) for just over £19:
http://www.asgi.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=1104 + http://www.asgi.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=1486
The later JG Journals for £1.49 each from the same source to take that over half way to completion.

As an interim, partial solution, a lot easier than tracing the copyright owner for all that content and paying appropriate $$ to each individual or estate, even if searchable .pdfs online or distributed on CD/DVD does sound a "good to have".
Have you asked at the obvious location?
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #5 on Nov 14, 2010, 1:25pm »
Maybe so on the value subject, but I find them very interesting regardless. Some of the articles are well written, and some are not. But it is fun to read from a historical point of view. Some of those dungeons would be killers for any edition of the rules.... One other magazine you should add to your list and that is Wargamer's Digest by Gene McCoy. There are at least two articles by Gygax and Arneson regarding D&D and Chainmail, plus one issue had the Battle of Ry for Tekumel.
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #6 on Nov 14, 2010, 2:37pm »
> Maybe so on the value subject, but I find them very interesting regardless. Some of the articles are well written, and some are not.

Indeed! And I'm not just biased by the likes of "Aardvarks in Fantasy Gaming". :P
My point was it's actually the lack of value which, if anything, makes people think these /aren't/ worth hunting down. Rather sad, if so, given that "value" is not a reliable measure of "interest" by any means.

> But it is fun to read from a historical point of view. Some of those dungeons would be killers for any edition of the rules....

Characters can get killed in recent editions? ;)

*nods* Plenty that's still usable as well as that "what did RPGs & gaming mean at that time" context.

> One other magazine you should add to your list and that is Wargamer's Digest by Gene McCoy. There are at least two articles by Gygax and Arneson regarding D&D and Chainmail, plus one issue had the Battle of Ry for Tekumel.

Even better IMO if widening the scope further as well as taking a Gygax/D&D-centric viewpoint in order to understand the background history/development further. Way too easy to miss various gems, comments, etc. surrounding the obvious (one page back from Gary's The Battle of Brown Hills, for example).
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #7 on Nov 14, 2010, 2:50pm »
[OT]

> White Dwarf ran for 93 issues before they stopped carrying OD&D-based content.

* 113, counting the last 20 issues of Owl & Weasel (as with SR->TD), albeit more for historical context rather than "tons of playable content".
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #8 on Dec 1, 2010, 9:55am »
I just picked up a batch of the Dungeoneer and Journal magazines (from gaming_fool off ebay - great guy!). Ill be reading them over the winter.

I had the Compendium of 1-6 back in the day and it is great to see all these new articles to look through for the first time. Borshaks Lair deserves its own review...maybe if I have time.

Now that I actually know the difference between D&D and AD&D and OD&D it will be interesting to see what version of the games these articles are written for.
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #9 on Dec 1, 2010, 10:29am »
I've been enjoying my Judges Guild magazines; I find I can read them cover-to-cover, unlike Dragons which I generally cherry pick articles of here and there.
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #10 on Dec 2, 2010, 11:02pm »
I was thinking the same thing a few weeks ago when I ordered Judges Guild Journal #16. Woefully underappreciated. I found an interesting Holmesque (i.e., DEX scores for monsters) scenario that won 1st place in the Mini-Dungeon category of a contest and was published in JGJ#16. The Treasure of Barlawn. Further description can be found here.
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #11 on Dec 3, 2010, 10:08pm »

Nov 14, 2010, 11:59am, Finarvyn wrote:

I'd love to see the Judges Guild Magazine get more respect in the gaming industry, and what I'd love to see is a single CD with all 59 issues in PDF format on it.

Wouldn't that be cool? :D


That would be beyond cool. The JG magazines are something that I am interested in but haven't been able to get my hands on. A single CD similar to the Dragon Magazine archive would be something I would buy in a heartbeat.

However, I have to see you magazine CD dream and raise you this: A multi-CD set of every OD&D based JG product that was ever released.
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #12 on Dec 4, 2010, 1:34am »
Check out gaming_fool on eBay, he has 10 or so issues of Dungeoneer and a few issues of JG Journal. Good prices and fair to deal with.

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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #13 on Dec 4, 2010, 6:16am »
I see that issue M is on RPGNow and other online PDF sales places. Too bad more of the early issues aren't for sale as well. (I suspect the "newspaper" format ones will be the hardest to put into PDF, and sadly those are the ones I'm missing.)
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Re: JG Magazine = no respect?
« Reply #14 on Dec 4, 2010, 10:58am »
The modules from Pegasus 1-12 are still available for download from the old Necromancer Games website:

http://www.necromancergames.com/judgesguild/downloads.html


Quote:
The long awaited installments from Judges Guild's Pegasus magazine have finally been posted! From Revelshire and the Azurerain Pirates to the Hanging out in the City State articles and the famous Ant God adventure module, they are all here! And all for free! Come and get em!

* Click Here to download P1: Black Ring!
* Click Here to download P2: Revelshire!
* Click Here to download P3: Isle of the Blest!
* Click Here to download P4: Isle of Tirnanog!
* Click Here to download P5: Silver Empress!
* Click Here to download P6: Azurerain Pirates!
* Click Here to download P7: Mini-adventures!
* Click Here to download P8: Damkina!
* Click Here to download P9: Nirang's Keep!
* Click Here to download P10: Ant God!
* Click Here to download P11: Wayfarer's Inn!
* Click Here to download P12: Ignoble Inns!
* Click Here to download the collected Hanging out in the City State articles!

Please note that all of these downloads are FREE and do not require the password from the boxed set!
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"Story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of an older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.”
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