The Sign of the Old Kingdom

From the dusty barricade the watched the riders approach, reptilian claws pounding salt wind from the desert. The one-eyed elf ceased her squint. "No scavengers, these, nor zombies either. Their shields bear silver devices, a twenty-petaled rose ..."

Hrunax the Wolf lifted his massive bone bow for a shot, but a craggy ancient hand fell gently on his shoulder. Aethra's brow rose: the old mage had slipped from his reverie and stood, tears rolling down his cheeks. She had known the wizard a century and never seen him cry.

"The emblem -- the sign of the old kingdom. Our wait here has not been in vain!" The mage held his staff aloft and called out in a high voice, the Tongue of the Making, and stars seemed to glimmer through the noonday sky. Clarion came the responding horn, and the knights rode toward them, to rejoin the broken enclaves of the past ..."

I just received my print copy of Fight On! Issue #2 in the mail today and, quite simply, it rocks. I've had a PDF copy for some time, since I contributed to it and editor Ignatius Ümlaut graciously sent me one to peruse until I received a physical copy from Lulu.com.

I don't think I adequately explain how much more impact holding this 88-page magazine in my hands has on me than simply reading the PDF on my computer screen. I think we often treat the sense of touch as a poor cousin to sight and sound and hefting this thing out of its shipping box reminds me that we do that at our peril. If ever there was any doubt in my mind about the utter imbecility of Dragon's migration to a purely electronic format, it was finally chased away upon receiving the latest issue of Fight On! and touching it today. From the beautiful cover by Kevin Mayle to the back cover by Del Beaudry, this issue is a remarkable labor of love by (mostly) amateurs, in the truest sense of the word -- and I can touch it. Simply amazing!

Victor Raymond recently pointed out to me that, at 88 pages, Issue #2 of Fight On! is larger than most issues of Dragon from the Golden Age of the hobby. Indeed, there's been more old school gaming material published in the last six months than there has been in many a year. Something is definitely in the air. Whether this is just an Indian summer for traditional RPGs or a new spring is still unclear, but I intend to enjoy it nonetheless.

Fight on!