Kobold Quarterly closes down

Wolfgang Baur has announced the end of Kobold Quarterly. There will be refunds for people who are still due copies.

It’s a fact that in every fantasy roleplaying game, whether it’s Pathfinder RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, or Castles & Crusades, a kobold’s life is short. They’re wily and quick, but they have few hit points. Sooner or later they go down — fighting.

It seems the chore of running the magazine while being a father and having a full time job got to be too much. However, the “Kobolds” will continue to work on design and publishing adventures, sourcebooks and campaign materials. These will be available in print and electronic formats.

Money does seem to have been something of an issue. The FAQ on the closure addresses the chances of doing a Kickstarter to add funds but still mentions how exhausting running the magazine is.

He adds;

I always hoped that Kobold Quarterly would someday be my full-time gig, but it was not to be. My sincere thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the magazine, starting with our stalwart subscribers, advertisers, authors, and artists. Thanks also to those who bought only an issue or two; for us, every sale was crucial to our continuing. The magazine may be going away, but the Open Design goal of creating new ways for people to publish their RPG ideas will continue.

This is a very sad day for me personally, and I know this comes as a disappointment to many of you. The line on small press magazines these days is, “every issue is a little miracle.” We finally ran out of miracles, but it’s been an absolutely stellar five and a half years with Kobold Quarterly’s contributors, subscribers, and readers.