Imagine (game magazine)

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Imagine
Imagine 02 300x437.jpg
Cover to IMAGINE magazine No.2: Wizard of Lemuria I. Art by Les Edwards
EditorKeith Thomson
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherDon Turnbull
First issueApril 1983
Final issue
Number		October 1985
30 (+1 special issue)
CompanyTSR Hobbies (UK) Ltd
CountryUnited Kingdom
Based inCambridge

Imagine (printed under the long title Imagine: Adventure Game Magazine) was a monthly magazine dedicated to the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game systems published by TSR UK Limited.

History[]

Shannon Appelcine explained, "TSR tried to horn in on the British magazine market in 1983 with Imagine magazine, but they folded it just two years later. Gary Gygax would much later claim that Imagine had usually been operated at a loss and was kept around mainly for its useful marketing of TSR's lines. White Dwarf's lead in Britain was pretty much unassailable."[1]: 143 

Imagine was published monthly between April 1983 and October 1985. The print run lasted for 31 issues (30 issues and one special edition) before its cancellation. Don Turnbull was cited as publisher and Paul Cockburn as assistant editor for the majority of the life of the publication.

Neil Gaiman wrote film reviews for several issues of Imagine in the early part of his career, taking over from Colin Greenland, and had his first short story "Featherquest" published here in May 1984. Gaiman's "How to Sell the Ponti Bridge", reprinted for the first time in M is for Magic was also first published in Imagine in March 1985.

Legacy[]

Some of the official AD&D material originally published in Imagine was collected and used in Unearthed Arcana.[2] Imagine was also responsible for several creative spin-offs, notably the Pelinore gaming world.[3] The magazine also featured the classic adventure game comic The Sword of Alabron in issues 1 to 16. This was briefly revived as a second story arc titled Auchter's Axe in issues 29 to 30 prior to the magazine's cancellation.

When some TSR UK staffers were made redundant, they started the publication Game Master in an attempt to preserve the experience of Imagine. Game Master included some popular features, such as Pelinore, and also ran various articles containing details on Imagine's closure, which criticized Gary Gygax and TSR.[3][citation needed]

References[]

  1. ^ Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '70s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 978-1-61317-075-5.
  2. ^ Paul Cockburn (January 1986). "Open Box: Dungeon Modules". White Dwarf (review). Games Workshop (73): 7. ISSN 0265-8712.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Ciro Alessandro Sacco. "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax". Kyngdoms. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
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