In February 2024 we presented the all-new KNOCK! Magazine Bundle featuring KNOCK!, the Merry Mushmen‘s magazine for old-school fantasy games. Dubbed “an Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac and a Compendium of Miscellanea for Old School RPGs,” KNOCK! showcases breathtaking layouts, dazzling color, and a barrage of articles, essays, tables, rules, maps, monster stats, and adventures that range from weird to – well, no, they’re all uniformly weird. Every overstuffed 200+-page issue features the most audacious designers in the Old School Revival. Keep these lavish ebooks close by for perusing, daydreaming, and prepping your next session.
KNOCK! is edited by Éric Nieudan, a game designer (Macchiato Monsters) and sf-fantasy writer based in Dublin, Ireland. The arresting page layouts are the work of publisher Olivier Revenu, a game designer and independent graphic designer in the Basque country. Olivier broached the magazine idea to Éric in winter 2018: “My OSR project is nothing revolutionary; to publish a revue, not a magazine. So no news or reviews, but a compendium of theory articles, thoughts about game systems, scenarios, play aids, random tables, bits of settings, etc. Sure, all of this is already on the internet, but I want to make something you can read old school, like sitting by the fire. […] It’ll take you several weeks to read, taking your time, bit by bit.”
Unlike later issues that present original content, the first issue of KNOCK! assembled already-published articles and blog entries from many OSR sites. Even at that, the issue took years to assemble; the issue #1 Kickstarter launched in November 2020. The issue #2 campaign followed six months later, with issue #3 funded nine months after that. Each campaign had more backers than the last. (The trend continued with issue #4, funded in November 2023.)
KNOCK! bills itself as “no theme, all mean.” The exhilarating layout, reminiscent of Mörk Borg, evokes the diversity and abundance of OSR blogs and authors. “We’ve been super lucky to reach the ‘modern OSR’ community and not just the nostalgic one,” Olivier said in a November 2022 Wyrd Science interview. “That’s actually where the most people are – those who are already into do-it-yourself, always active, busy, looking for and sharing new ideas.”
This all-new offer presented the first three issues of KNOCK! for an unbeatable bargain price. There were three complete magazine issues in our KNOCK! Collection (retail value $69) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks: KNOCK! Magazine issue #1, KNOCK! issue #2, and KNOCK! issue #3.
