Dragonfire Magazine Issue 1 by Andrew Babcock

Game Review

Seth Stauffer

One of the most significant aspects of tabletop role-playing is that the games are limitless. Anyone can dream up anything and add it to their games. Dragonfire is a new magazine that offers a variety of content and looks to add to the options available to gamers.

Although it is only 32 pages from cover to cover, the magazine contains a wide variety of material: reviews of YouTube content, better-than-anticipated original fiction, two one-shots, art, news, vendors, and more. In a word, the magazine is dense. Readers have a lot available to them.

One of my favourite offerings was the system-agnostic Arcana’s Haven, a living magical shop that rearranges its wares to serve customers better and even harbours profound secrets. I love it and would happily incorporate it into a fantasy RPG.

One persistent issue is formatting problems and typos. For example, periods appear to be missing in the’ Legendary Loot’ section. This looks like a formatting error that may have occurred when text is transferred from one document to another.

Another problem is that the gaming content isn’t labelled according to which game system it’s for. The two one-shots are probably for Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu, but it’s unclear. It’s not a fatal error, but knowing what game and edition the articles were written for would help players get more out of the magazine. 

For people who are wondering, the magazine allows submissions, which is a positive and potentially essential part of Dragonfire. One person is listed as an author for what appears to be almost everything in the magazine. That’s a lot of work for a solo endeavour and can cause burnout. Submissions can help ensure that this publication endures. So, what sets this effort apart from other gaming magazines? I’m not sure, but when I read, finding a niche for Dragonefire wasn’t my primary concern. Most of all, I wanted to see whether the magazine fulfilled its objective. I’d say yes. It clearly models itself after the classic D&D publications and offers a lot to inspire gamers. While it’s not without its warts, the magazine checked off every box in the Editor’s Edict. As long as the price point is reasonable, this can be an excellent resource for gamers.