Bonus! I got this after I put together this week’s posts and, well, I wanted to share, so happy Saturday. Umbra is a joint project by Exalted Funeral and Funeral Trance. The first issue of the magazine is currently sold out I think, unfortunately, but the second issue will be along later this summer along with a subscription option, so that is good.

What is it? Well, its a lot of things, a nice mix of RPG resources (OSR-geared, including a nice scenario called “The Island of Terrible Deaths”), heavy metal reviews and interviews, art and a little mysticism for flavor. The aesthetic is pretty zine-y, but the overall quality is high enough that I have no problem calling this a magazine. It is actually physically put together better than a lot of Dragon Magazines I own (the covers of old Dragons will fall off if you look at them funny).

When I talk about 1E D&D, I often talk about how the aesthetic has a quality of the forbidden. Umbra has this in spades. Pretend for a moment that it is 1983 or so. You’re in seventh grade. Your mom finds this magazine in your bedroom. There isn’t anything explicit in it, but I bet this hypothetical mom would be uneasy about it anyway, like it is a gateway into a larger, darker world that she doesn’t understand. That’s the sort of forbidden quality I am talking about – we know RPGs and heavy metal are fine, but people on the outside sometimes aren’t so sure. Capturing that vibe is something real special, and Umbra does it in style.