Trade Paper Back format (twist on PnP)

I have been doing research on just such a project for the last 3 month. My idea is a little different but otherwise it’s a quarterly magazine whose primary focus is in playable content rather than just articles about games. I’m in the process of developing a business plan to evaluate the viability.

Other than my magazine having fewer pages my plan differs from your idea in that I would pay a small but amicable mount for submissions, something akin to what pyramid and other publishers offer.

I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag until I have a cat and bag so I’ll say no more. I just wanted to give you a heads up to let you know you might have some competition in this field.

I like the idea of a magazine because it keeps people informed on what has been published.

I would rather more have an E-zine/OR/magazine, free/OR/paid, which would talk about all the Print & Play market. This way, it would increase the exposition of the P&P games. Might also have some ratings, price, location and comments about each new game.

I don't like much the idea of having games in a magazine or book. My first impression is that it will seem like simple and cheap games since you cannot easily supply components (especially in a book) and you cannot really submit an heavy game. Most games in books are games you can play with a pen and paper. Also in a magazine, the player does not choose which games he want, while if he could get some information about games available, it might convince him to buy the games he want.

Besides keeping track of new games and reviewing games, you could give information on how effectively build your print and play game. What are the generic components available you can find and use. Interview a P&P designer.

Still having an e-zine could be harder to get exposed than if you sell it as a magazine. You could also do both to reach people outside you distribution area. You could also distribute your magazine as a CD-rom. This has already be done but I am not sure if it really succeeded. The CD is packaged with a cardboard sheet containing the title and the right size to fit in a magazine stand. You could supply some P&P games on the CD as a promotion. Or supply demos of P&P games since many P&P games offer a demo before you can buy the game. Or you could include free P&P games.

I think the common point in all the ideas above is that it needs to be cheap. P&P are cheap games ( in their component), the magazine should be somewhat cheap too. I would strongly suggest black and white printing.

The problem of components (quality, and inconvenience of p&p) could maybe be trimmed down a little if you made it easy for your readers to get a hold of a piecepack, and made sure that some of the games used it. Maybe offer a piecepack with a yearly subscription or something...

But I think there is already a lot of places where you can get piecepack games...

Good luck with it.