Think about miscellaneous magazines from the TTRPG scene, like the Dragon Magazine, White Dwarf (previous to Warhammer conquering its pages), and Knock!
Let’s say you hold the first issue of a brand-new zine in your hands (or, more specifically, a PDF in your book reader). What content do you expect to find inside its pages? Reviews, gaming advice, new content for specific game systems, micro-adventures, interviews, random tables? Anything goes!
Also, what page length would you prefer, assuming bi-monthly or quarterly publication?
I love Knock! for about 50-60% of its content. The preservation of blog posts on theory, rules, and running the game are invaluable—especially when so many of them are disappearing due to internet rot.
The rest I’m not as interested in. I’m probably in the minority, but I don’t pick up magazines for adventures, new playable classes, or bespoke rules for individual games. I feel like that would only work if the magazine or periodical was exclusively for one game, and I’m not that dedicated to any one system to be the target audience. That’s the big risk when filling a magazine with playable content—it might subdivide the audience and leave part of the magazine not for the people it doesn’t interest. (Also: I’m just really picky and I like buying adventures as their own self-contained thing. It lets them breathe. And it’s easier to recommend to others. "Oh, go buy Curse of Mizzling Grove! rather than, “Oh, go buy issue 4 of Knock!, it’s on page 33.”)
I like interviews in magazines, but it depends on who’s being interviewed and how good the interviewee is. Most rpg magazines get good candidates but they don’t ask any hard or insightful questions that I find exciting or compelling.
A clear identity and writers with strong voices. That’s basically it. I don’t need a magazine to be any one thing, or provide any thing specific. It’s editors should decide what they want it to be, and then find the best writers/artists/designers to make that vision real. If they don’t have something they care about to say, why should I care about it?
I think I woud like to see reviews for different kind of adventures with hints on how to handle some stuff in them, from the GM’s point of view.
Maybe something like reports on how it went through the playthrough for them. The stuff that worked well and the stuff that worked less.
The time it takes to run.
Interviews, reviews, and gaming advice are all good! I think I’d also like to see the editors/writers just sit and talk about a topic for a little bit and give their thoughts. For me at least, I’m not looking for gameable content so much as I’m looking to hear other people’s perspectives and ideas.
i have a very different take. the internet is a great place for interviews, reviews, and musings. but if i am going to buy a hard copy of something, i want:
ART. very nice art. very big. also great layout for fun. not just character art. landscape art, maps, things to spur the imagination, and things that are useful. like a great portrait basically = a playable NPC. like, you look at the portrait, you show it to your players, and you just run with what the artist gave you. same deal with landscapes, maps, monsters, etc.
CONTENT. something to bookmark, like, have the magazine on hand or even… rip out the page (like i used to do with dragon magazine!) and put it in THE FOLDER. like, a table of … npcs, things found at the bottom of a pond, monsters, whatever.
LONG READ. i don’t have the patience for long reads on devices. but a nice essay (not like a 5 paragraph musing), well thought out. something to take a highlighter to because its so thoughtful and has things i want to implement. this would include long interviews that are edited down for maximum impact… NO SMALL TALK. i get that on podcasts.
IN SHORT: I want it to be a reference work. not something temporary, like what are the kids saying this month.