Questions for Lee Gold

[calithena]

As some of you already know, Lee Gold, legendary editor of Alarums & Excursions, is our dedicatee for issue #6. The shaping influence of A&E on the hobby can hardly be overestimated, and in addition it's been running continuously since 1975. Anyway, James Maliszewski recently interviewed her here:

grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/04/interview-with-lee-gold.html

Rather than re-invent the wheel, James and Lee have given us permission both to use that material in FO! #6 and to solicit additional questions, if there are any. So, ask away, either in this thread or by email to iggyumlaut at gmail dot com. Thanks!

[grodog]

1. 'twould be great to learn more about the sense of the earliest days of the hobby: what it was like when D&D was new, how the "west coast" crowds played differently from the LG and Twin Cities crowds, etc.

2. Would it be possible for A&E back-issues to be made available in a .pdf archive?

3. Some info about the contributor demographics of A&E: who's contributed the longest (outside of Lee, of course)? who have been the most well-known contributors? how many contributors have gone pro? how many pros still write for A&E?

4. What systems has A&E supported the most, that don't otherwise receive much support (i.e., A&E is one of the primary support channels for X, Y, or Z games, because they're OOP, or the creators write regular support for A&E, or whatever).

5. What does Lee think of this whole retro-clone/old school movement: is that something that she's seen come and go in boom/bust cycles before, or is it a relatively new (or old?) phenomenon?

6. Outside of A&E and The Wild Hunt, the D&D fanzine phenomenon never really seemed to have as broad a base of support and publications in the US, as compared to the UK. Does Lee have thoughts on why the fanzine phenomenon seemed to inspire so many more zines in the UK vs. the US? Is she familiar with the UK D&D fanzines? If so, does she have any favorites?

Thanks for the opportunity to ask Qs Sean!