Just a note to say that you can vote for what Zobeck article will appear next in Kobold Quarterly, and make your own suggestions, in this thread.

The first note about Kobold Quarterly #4 has appeared in the wider press at WIRED. The blurb appears in the GeekDad blogs, and it made me cackle with glee.

This review, allow me to quote it to you:

"The sole remaining professional roleplaying game magazine, Kobold Quarterly became number one by beheading all of its competitors in spectacular urban swordfights."

I can't top that, though I am tempted to get it tattooed on my forehead.

If you don't subscribe (and it's just $16!), whyever not?

The next issue has gone to subscribers, with the Ecology of the Cloaker, an angel who has fought her way through Hell, and a mithral dragon.

It includes several articles by Open Design patrons, and some great new feats for fighters, plus drunken fey, gnome variants, cartoons by Stan!, and the Gangs of Zobeck by yours truly with eyebite79. And more, of course. The thing weighs in at 72 pages!

You can pick up a single copy at Paizo or DriveThruRPG, or treat yourself to a subscription for either the PDF or the print+PDF version at koboldquarterly.com. Subscribe before April 18th, and you get a free copy of the Havenmine Gauntlet mini-adventure and a copy of 2 detailed NPCS from the NeoExodus setting!

The success of the Kobold Guide to Game Design (Vol. 1) in PDF has prompted a paper edition. This is a digest-sized edition with a clean layout on heavy paper, and yet is slim enough for reading just about anywhere, with essays on game design basics and advanced topics. This particular volume is focused on worldbuilding and adventure design.

You can pick up the print edition of the Guide to Game Design at the Kobold Quarterly store.

As a way to say thanks to everyone who has supported Kobold Quarterly as a subscriber this year, I've given them all a Easter egg: a free adventure from Highmoon Media Productions!

No, it's not a trick, a scam, or a teaser for anything else. No, we are not launching a line of kobold-flavored adventures. No, it's not an epic, but it is fun.

The adventure is called the Havenmine Gauntlet, it is written by Adam "Trans Am" Daigle and naturally, it features kobolds.

Most people will have to pay actual cash dollars to get a copy, but not KQ subscribers! Anyone who becomes a new subscriber from now until April 18th gets a freebie copy too. So, um, why not subscribe? A PDF subscription is just $16 in our worthless American pesos. That's, like, 2 euros or something. And print+PDF subscriptions are likewise a bargain at 33% off the full retail price.

PS. If you are a subscriber and didn't get your copy, let me know your correct email address. A few bounced like bunnies.

It's Superbowl Sunday, so I will naturally have an appearance today at 3:30 at Wordsmith Hall in Second Life. It's essentially a chat forum about writing and game design, and anyone can attend online.

What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its residents. One of those residents is Michael A. Stackpole. He hosts writing groups and other events at ThirdLife Books and Wordsmith Hall.

What is ThirdLife Books?
ThirdLifeBooks is the hub of a community of like-minded individual interested increativity and exploring their full potential across a variety of mediaand areas of interest. It's a home for readers of fantastic fiction,for writers both beginning and accomplished, gamers, podcasters and anyone else who enjoys intellectual stimulation, is curious and just enjoys hanging out with a lively group of their peers. ThirdLife offers classes, writers' groups, contests, meet the author events, and other reasons to get together.

How to attend.
If you would like to attend this event, sign up for a free account at Second Life, then download and install the SL software on your computer. Once you have an account, fire up the software and click on this link, and you will be taken to the castle.

Everyone attending this event will have the opportunity to join the Second Life Kobold Army, and receive a special (FREE) t-shirt only available during the event.

Ok, I said I was not going to run fiction in Kobold, but apparently I'm a big fat liar. Because Richard Pett's short story about liches is a freebie up on koboldquarterly.com, and is called
"The Tale of Joshua Cane."

Check it out.

The subscription rolls are bursting at the seams for Kobold Quarterly, and subscriber #1000 is Frank Gawryla of Knoxville, Tennessee!

He wins a lifetime subscription to the magazine, a copy of the Arabian Nights Open Design project, a copy of the Kobold's Guide to Game Design, and a t-shirt featuring our Kobold mascot.

The best part is, today's also the day Frank GM'ed his first game session. Or as he put it "Today is the greatest day of my gaming life!" (Well, ok, I think that was about the prize-winning.)

But still, I'm kinda thinking it's a gaming milestone day all around. Congratulations, Frank!

I was really hoping to have 1,000 subscribers by Gen Con. It turns out we're going to get there, um, right about now. The magazine is very close to rolling the subscriber odometer over to 1,000 subscribers.

Hey, that's great, you say, everyone likes big round numbers but what about prizes? I'm glad you asked! The 1000th subscriber will win:

• A Lifetime Subscription to the Magazine! This is a print sub if you are a print subscriber, or a PDF sub if you are a PDF subscriber.
  
• A copy of the Six Arabian Nights Open Design project, written by Jeff Grubb, David "Zeb" Cook, Joshua Stevens, and Clay Fleischer, and yours truly. Six adventures set in Dark Arabia that can be used as a mini-campaign.
  
• A Kobold t-shirt featuring our mascot, Jiro.
  
• A copy of Kobold's Guide to Game Design, a compilation of essays on adventure design.

If you want to win, subscribe today! You could be the 1000th member of the Kobold Army. And 1000 kobolds is what, like a CR 30 encounter? Unstoppable!

Just wanted to let folks know that there's a web enhancement for the "Ecology of the Lich" article by Richard Pett, now available over on koboldquarterly.com.

No stat blocks, just a really twisted NPC setup for a newborn lich.

The Winter issue of Kobold Quarterly has gone off to subscribers, in PDF form! Huzzah!

This issue is bigger than last time, at 60 pages, and features stunning cover art by Cris Griffin. With all that extra room, there's room for more articles as well, including:

• an interview with Ed Greenwood that covers novels, sex, and gaming,
  
• "the Ecology of the Lich" by Richard Pett
  
• "Hardboiled Adventure" by Keith Baker
  
• "Star & Shadow Magic" by Wolfgang Baur
  
• "Arbeyach, the Prince of Swarms," by Ari Marmell

There's also articles on cinematic action, ancestral spirits for sorcerers, rules advice from Skip Williams, how to optimize your power attack, cartoons, a peek at the flying cities of the Arabian realms, and more.

Erik Mona calls KQ “the spiritual successor to Dragon Magazine” for good reason: we’re offering gamers the goods! Check out the latest issue, or subscribe.

Subscribers: As always, a few emails bounced; if you don't have your issue, please send me your updated email address. New subscribers, expect your copies in the inbox as soon as I can work through the backlog.

Kobold Quarterly is currently running a promotion, offering a cool set of seven FREE Q-Workshop dice with any new US subscription. Details over on koboldquarterly.com: check it out.

Oh, and there's a bit of a new look to the magazine as well.

The print edition of Kobold Quarterly #2 is officially sold out. I mailed the last issues to new subscribers today.

The issue is available as a PDF from Paizo.com and Your Games Now.

If you want to guarantee yourself a copy of the print edition of #3 (and trust me, it's looking great), subscribe today.

There's a Digital Front podcast review of KQ#2 up! I'm always happy when reviews appear out of the blue.

Better still, there's a transcript of the review as well. The review comes from a patron and the founder of Purple Duck Games, mark_gedak.

The second issue of "the little magazine that could" has shipped to subscribers. Onward!

UPDATE: The newsstand version of issue #2 is now available at paizo.com.

Kobold Quarterly news has kind of piled up lately, and it's almost all good.

The best part is that there has been enough interest that a second issue will definitely be produced, and many of the industry's best writers and artists are contributing to it.

Here's three quick news bits, from the kobold perspective (Everything looks taller from down here).

1. 3E co-author Skip Williams has signed on to write the "Ask the Kobold" column, which begins in issue #2. His many years of experience with rules questions and D&D design make him the perfect choice to answer reader questions. You can submit your rules and design questions to him at "yesage" at that company that sent out a billion CDs. I'd spell it out, but that always summons the spambots.
   
2. The print run for issue #1 has sold out! Yes, it's true, they're all gone. PDFs are available at paizo.com, and all subscriptions going forward will start with issue #2. One-year subscriptions are still just $16.
   
3. Speaking of subscriptions, they are now available priced in Euros for all Eurozone subscribers. Makes it easier to see what you're getting, and keeps the declining dollar at bay.

That's the news from the kobold mines — I'm hard at work getting articles and art put together for issue #2, which ships in October. Thanks to everyone who has supported this little venture.

So the great majority of the print copies are off to subscribers, and now I'm trying to figure out how to reduce costs. It turns out there's a minimum circulation required for the US Post Office to provide the periodicals rate to a publisher, and Kobold Quarterly isn't quite big enough yet. Maybe next issue, but more likely with issue #3, I may be able to drop the shipping cost and use some of those funds to either pay more to writers and artists, or to print some interior color.

I'm an optimist. Gotta be, to get into the magazine biz, even in a small way. In the meantime, I'm filling out a form and talking with the USPS folks fairly often.

As a result of all this, I now have a rate for back issues; they cost $8 each, plus shipping of $3 in the US, $4 to Canada, and $6 elsewhere. I'm willing to combine shipping at that rate as well, so if you want to copies to Canada, say, it would be $16 plus $4 shipping. Thanks to everyone who inquired; I'll keep sending them out while supplies last.
US Back Issues:

For back issues sent elsewhere, please send PayPal to the magazine name@gmail.com.

I counted up the subscribers to the paper edition of Kobold Quarterly last night, and the print run is more than half sold out, one week after launch. That's less impressive than it might seem: the print run is tiny, by magazine standards.

The upside is the small run will make it insanely collectible if the magazine survives a year or three. It also means that if you were hoping for a paper magazine to fill some of the void left by Dragon's departure, now's your chance to pick one up. When this issue is gone, it will not be reprinted.

US Paper + PDF Subscription

Canada Paper + PDF Subscription

Worldwide Paper + PDF Subscription

Or you can skip the paper entirely and save with a pure PDF subscription, delivered directly to your inbox:
PDF Only

As you may have heard, the tiny little magazine has been unleashed to its subscribers. Single issues will be available soon are available now at paizo.com and on the Free City site.

And then there's the paper subscriptions that so many folks have asked about. These will be a limited supply, and first-come, first served. When you subscribe to the paper edition, you get both the PDF and a paper copy. The 4-issue subscriptions are $36 for the US, $40 for Canada, and $56 for everywhere else, including all shipping and handling.

US Paper+PDF Subscription:

Upgrades: If you already have a PDF subscription, you can upgrade simply by paying the difference; this button shows that you've already subscribed. The upgrade is $20 for the US, $24 for Canada, and $40 for everywhere else.

Thanks for your support!

Good news for Kobold Quarterly — the PDF subscription is still available, of course, but it looks like I'll be able to do a short press run of paper copies as well!

Given the nature of the beast, these will be in extremely limited supply. Why? Because (alas) I do not have a staff to handle distribution and returns through the usual channels; I can only sell them direct. More work for me, harder to reach the hobby stores, but the upside is, they will be more collectible. :)

Expect more details on paper pricing soon (and yes, PDF subscribers will be able to upgrade to PDF + paper, if they choose). For now, if you want me to add you to the mailing list for news on KQ Paper Edition, by all means send an email to the magazine name at gmail.com and I'll add you to the list.

The PDF subscription button is below for your convenience. Our kobolds are standing by.

PS. Ian in Wyoming, your email is bouncing. Please get in touch with Kobold World Headquarters with a valid address so we can deliver your magazine. All is well in Wyoming.