''Interactive Fantasy'' is a magazine was published in England by

Hogshead Publishing Hogshead Publishing was a British game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History In October 1994, James Wallis founded Hogshead Publishing, a company which specialised in role-playing and storytelling games. Wallis ba ...

that focused on

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s, especially game theory.

Publication history

Paul Mason, in his paper ''In Search of Self: A Survey of the First 25 Years of Anglo-American Role-Playing Game Theory'', maintained that in the 25 years following the publication of ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' (1974) and the subsequent rise of role-playing games, discussion of the theory of role-playing and storytelling had been largely absent: "Most of the writing on role-playing appeared in ephemeral publications with very low print runs. As a result the ideas were only weakly disseminated. As new magazines emerged, the same ideas (particularly 'realism and playability') were continually gone over. For many it felt like the hobby was marching on the spot." In 1994, James Wallis and

Andrew Rilstone Andrew Rilstone is a game designer and blogger who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Andrew Rilstone was the editor of the influential fanzine Aslan in the 1980s and early 1990s. James Wallis, Rilstone and Richard Lambert auth ...

set out to change that, co-founding what Wallis described as "a serious magazine about games design and storytelling systems." With Wallis as publisher and Rilstone as editor, they produced the first issue of a magazine titled ''Inter*action''. As Mason noted, the magazine immediately had to be retitled "following legal threats from a computer games company." The second issue, called ''Interactive Fantasy: The Journal of Role-Playing and Story-Making Systems'', was published in November 1994 by Hogshead Publishing, a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based company that Wallis and Rilstone had formed. Contributors included

Greg Porter Greg Porter is a Democratic member of the Indiana House of Representatives, representing the 96th District since 1992. He is a member of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus. References External links Gregory Porter at ballotpedia.org*' ...

Robin Laws Robin D. Laws (born October 14, 1964 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist. Career Robin D. Laws ...

, Pete Tamlyn, Brian Duguid,

Jonathan Tweet Jonathan Tweet (born 1965) is an American game designer who has been involved in the development of the role-playing games ''Ars Magica'', ''Everway'', ''Over the Edge (game), Over the Edge'', ''Talislanta'', the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dra ...

Greg Stafford Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018), usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism. Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of Glorantha ...

Allen Varney Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...

, and

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in New York City), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wa ...

, and articles in the magazine — especially Costikyan's essay "I have no words and I must design" — were frequently cited in scholarly papers. However, the enterprise was based on a "poorly thought out business model", and it almost immediately ran into financial difficulties. After only four issues, the magazine ceased publication.

Reception

Game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that the magazine "immediately received some good attention because of its thoughtful and analytical coverage of roleplaying." In the September 1995 edition of ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' (#221),

Rick Swan Rick Swan is a game designer and author who worked for TSR. His work for TSR, mostly for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, appeared from 1989 to 1995. Swan also wrote ''The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'' (1990), published by St. Martin's Pre ...

commented that "the high-gloss ''Interactive Fantasy'' aims for the eggheads." He concluded that the magazine was worth a read, given that "The lengthy reviews, despite their verbosity ..are usually more interesting than the games themselves."

References

{{Reflist Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Hobby magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1994 Magazines disestablished in 1995 Magazines published in London Role-playing game magazines