The Life and Times of The Familiar (part 1 of many)

Recently, on the Steve Jackson Games forums, one of my fellow members started a discussion thread about publishing a professional RPG magazine. As soon as I was able to push down my first thought, For Goodness Sake Man, Don't Do It!, I thought that the would be publisher might gain some insight from my experience publishing a professional RPG magazine.

The Familiar magazine, for those who do not know, was published from 1987-1989 as a fanzine, and then again from 1994-1997 as a prozine. We closed our doors in the summer of 1997 due to the loss of our primary advertiser, TSR, Inc, the then publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. Truthfully, TSR's failure didn't kill the magazine, it was a one-two punch in the gut to be sure, but we could have weathered it had it not been for the industry wide shake up that happened while TSR reorganized its dept. TSR's financial problems led to a series of industry wide slow pays, and no pays.

When it became obvious that the magazine couldn't pay its debts, we tried a couple of things to reorganize and refocus, but they didn't work out. In the summer of 1997, after a failed attempt to return to print as a trade magazine in partnership with AEG, the magazine for all practical intent closed its doors.

We had talked about writing up a post mortem for The Familiar, but that never happened because at the time we were all a little bitter about what happened, and I, for one, was dealing with the crushing debt left over from the loans and leases that we had to start the magazine to begin with.

Even though its been 10 years, I still miss publishing The Familiar, not enough to do it again mind you (you learn not to try to pet the dog that bit you) but enough to long for the days attending parties at GenCon, and to miss the smell of a freshly printed issue when you first opened the box.

My purpose here will be to try to give potential publishers a chance to learn from our mistakes and to match or exceed our successes.