Fenix is a full color gaming magazine from the cold north: Sweden. Six times a year for the past decade we have released a new printed magazine full of gaming material, reviews, interviews and even our very own comic strip. The magazine has only been released in Sweden, and most of the material has subsequently been in Swedish only.

The name Fenix is the Swedish version of “phoenix”. We thought it was a good name since we – Anders & Tove Gillbring - had just finished working on another magazine for a Swedish gaming organization. The phoenix reference felt appropriate, since the end of that previous magazine did not mean we were dead and gone – quite the opposite. After a couple of years doing a magazine for somebody else, and having to prioritize news from the organization above gaming material it was a treat to be our own bosses and make all of the executive decisions on the content.

The last three years we have included material in English as well, since Kenneth Hite started spoiling our readers with writing a brand new article to every issue (in the tradition of his Suppressed Transmissions). Last year we added Pete Nash to our mix, providing material for RuneQuest 6 (in the tradition of RuneRites).

We want to celebrate our first decade as a gaming magazine by releasing our best gaming material over the years – but this time all in English. In order to make it more accessible for an international audience, we have excluded all material to games only available in Swedish. The language in the printed books will have gone through a proper English filter as well, thanks to Pete Nash and Jessica Augustsson – both gamers with English as their first language.

It was hard to make the selection, but after hours of agony we decided to reach for the stars and go for three volumes from the start. Every volume will consist of at least one stand alone card- or board game, a couple of articles by the always impressive Kenneth Hite and at least one longer material (often printed in black and white in the original), such as an entire role playing game, campaign or setting. Last, but not least, Birger Barbaren, the very funny comic strip Åke Rosenius creates to every issue of the magazine.

Every volume will be available in three different formats: as a pdf-file, in soft cover or in a Deluxe edition (hardcover, inserts with gaming props printed on thicker paper and additional illustrations)

We have a wealth of material to choose from, and hope to be able to extend the scope of what we release with new articles along the way – as different stretch goals are reached. When you participate in our crowdfunding you will get special perks. Every time we reach $5.000 we will add a new article to a Bonus Anthology in pdf-format.

We have now unlocked Master Your Style by Tomas Alvin for Volume 1. The next stretch goal is The Devils Ship by Kenneth Hite to Volume 2 as well as a new bonus article to the pdf.

The Devil’s Ship –Kenneth Hite’s campaign material is suitable for any game of modern horror. The Devil’s ship is a strange, but yet eerily familiar and with a cargo of sins.

“From the mastheads to keel
She's a vessel surreal
It's one hell of a trip
On the black devil ship, aye!”

  -- Iron Mask, “The Black Devil Ship”

The waves surge, lightning breaks. Winds blow hard from the icy north, or hot from the tropic south. Lit by balefire, it crests the surf and rides down into the rollers, sheets snapping in the storm. Only the Devil’s ship could survive this night, as it has survived every night like this for centuries. If your ship sees it, your ship will wreck. If you hear a hail or a crackling radio message from its crew, you will die at sea maddened by the dark knowledge you were granted. The steel of the ship’s hull seems to steam under the lashing rain, as though the rivets were red-hot. Sonar and radar go mad, as though the ship was never there or loomed vastly, the size of an island.

They say that at night, if you sell your soul in the right way, mark it in the correct ledger or click the right box on the nameless website, you will receive a bill of lading. Your drayage is paid, or more likely you must sell everything you value to reclaim it. Because that bill lets you onto the docks where a twenty-foot steel box waits holding your heart’s darkest desire. Or perhaps the box shows up in a vacant lot, delivered by a black Peterbilt truck that unhitches and drives away before you can see the driver. But you know where the box is – and you must kill to make sure nobody can take it from you. Anything you want is in that box. Everything you want is in that box.

 

We will now start adding new articles. We will first add one title in Volume 1, then one in Volume 2 and finally get to Volume 3 – and then go back to volume 1 and keep adding new articles. If the campaign goes well enough, we will of course reach a point where we add a fourth volume in the "Best of Fenix"-series.

To celebrate getting fully funded we will add a new article to the Bonus PDF that all funders will receive, no matter which perk you have chosen. Every time we reach a full $5.000 in funding we will add a new article to a Bonus Anthology in pdf-format, only available to the funders of this campaign.

Diagoras Sector: An Interstellar War Zone – Kenneth Hite presents an interstellar war campaign full of classical inspiration and thoughts on how to construct the future we used to have, short-circuiting the Singularity.

Balthazar Ndoe and the Chronostat – Christoffer Krämer will introduce you to Balthazar Ndoe and the Chronostat. Timetravel with unintended consequences is on the menu.

Fenix American Action Generator – David Bergkvist helps you create your own action scenario in a style easily recognizable by anybody enjoying b-movies from the back alleys of Hollywood.

In this our first anthology you will find myths and legends of different kinds, some true to classic source material and others warped through a brand new filter. In this book you will find:

Once Upon a Time in the North – This setting by Kenneth Hite is a Western moved a century into the future and restaged in the far North. Can be played like anything from a classical western (northern) to pulp, cyberpunk or horror.

In episode 77 of the always great podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff they discuss nerdtrooping the Western, using this article as an example on how to do it. You find the podcast at:

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

City of the Golden Vampires – Kenneth Hite on one possible truth behind the lie and legend of El Dorado, with four possible stories to stage in that setting, each set in its own era.

In episode 81 of the brilliant podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff they discuss this particular article.

You find the podcast at: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Werewolves of Dacia – Kenneth Hite’s campaign setting is a riff on Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, warped through a classical sensibility with a hefty helping of werewolves.

In episode 74 of the brilliant podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff they discuss campaign setting creation through the lens of this particular article. You find the podcast at:

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Myths & Legends – David Bergkvist on how to use myths, legends and fairytales, and basing adventures on specific myths. The article also includes two creatures from Norse mythology: Vittera and Näcken.

Spell Singers to RuneQuest 6 – Pete Nash introduces a mercenary group of sword wielding, sorcery singers, which can be utilised as foes in established campaigns, or perhaps an organization that Player Characters can aspire to join.

Oz is Drowning – Global Apocalypse in Slow Motion – One of Sweden’s greatest design legends, Anders Blixt, presents this apocalyptic rpg-campaign in retro setting inspired by John Wyndhams The Kraken Wakes.

Auberond – In this fantasy campaign setting by Christoffer Krämer an elf like race must try to survive as their peaceful harmonic world turns into a hostile apocalyptic death trap.

Krak de Drak – Christoffer Krämer’s campaign combines the crusader kingdom of Outremer with an awakening powerful dragon and the role of religion in any setting inspired by the Middle Ages.

Birger the Barbarian – Fenix’ own comic has been a part of every issue of the magazine. Åke Rosenius, Sweden’s funniest gaming cartoonist, has created this sly, lazy barbarian, mostly interested in beer and women.

Fenix Fighters – The game developer Peter Hansson, most known for the card game Spank the Monkey, has created this boardgame for up to four players, each controlling a Fenix (Phoenix) ready for battle. Fenix Fighters will be included in the pdf and the books. In the Deluxe edition you will find a separate insert with the game props printed on thicker paper as well.

Added Strech-goals

The Doomsday Clock – Christoffer Krämer introduces an apocalyptic artefact and ideas on how to introduce it in your own campaign, or build a brand new campaign around it.

The Kings of Old –Christoffer Krämer on how to create the ruins in which the adventurers in your sci-fi fantasy setting are wandering – and how to make the history of their world make sense as well as being fun to play in.

Shadows of Babylon – Kenneth Hite uses the mythical city of Babylon as a starting point for an urban fantasy setting, with loads of scenario seeds. 

The Chamber – How do you seal off something powerful enough to threaten everything, man’s very existence – and warn future explorers? And how will the adventurers in your campaign handle the discovery? By Christoffer Krämer.

Master Your Style –Tomas Allvin on how to identify and control your Gamemaster style, giving you the opportunity to break old habits and surprise your players.

This horrible volume should hopefully send chills down your spine. Kenneth Hite’s game The Last Flight of KG 200 is quite possibly our most appreciated material in Fenix ever.

The Demons of Memory – Kenneth Hite on the demons affecting our memories and the hard to remember Nefastis Institute. Hite also shares his thoughts on how to use the material in different games and settings.

The Last Flight of KG 200 – Kenneth Hite’s horror storytelling game presents a desperate crew, flying out of the heart of darkness, into the heart of mystery. It might kill them all, or worse: reveal the truth they fly from.

Just Add Rum – Kenneth Hite provide you with everything you need in order to create pirates for your own campaign that makes sense, adding flavor and excitement to the rest of your world in the process.

The House That Jack Built – Martin Brodén Rother-Schirren incorporates Jack the Ripper with the Golden Dawn in a campaign setting where the Whitechapel murders are the starting point to an occult/horror campaign where almost anything can be added.

Smiles of a Summer Night – A horror scenario by Åsa Roos, set in present day Stockholm, Sweden during the Summer. The Mediterranean Museum is launching a new exhibition, including a mislabeled artefact...

The Many Faces of Horror – Pete Nash on three main methods of supporting horror tropes using the core rules of RuneQuest 6. In addition he introduces the horrifying monsters The Vengeful Ones, to be inserted into any fantasy or sci-fi-setting.

Celestial Storm – A Crusade for Fallen Gods – A freeform fantasy game for 3-5 players. Nils Hintze has written this a drama of galloping horses faster than the wind, duels with curved blades, dramatic poetry, cunning djinns and hopelessness.

Birger the Barbarian – Fenix’ own comic has been a part of every issue of the magazine. Åke Rosenius, Sweden’s funniest gaming cartoonist, has created this sly, lazy barbarian, mostly interested in beer and women.

Moral Dilemma – A complete humoristic Cardgame – Game Developer Christoffer Krämer, probably best known on the international scene for Gigantoskop's games Big Badaboom, Badaboom and Kablamo, has developed this card game for Fenix readers. Moral Dilemma will be included in the pdf and the books. In the Deluxe edition you will find a separate insert with the game props printed on thicker paper as well.

Added Strech-goals

More than Zombies – Åsa Roos on voodoo and how to incorporate this mythical religion into your roleplaying campaign, and how to adjust it for different settings. The article includes two scenario seeds.

Birger the Barbarian – Fenix’ own comic has been a part of every issue of the magazine. Åke Rosenius, Sweden’s funniest gaming cartoonist, has created this sly, lazy barbarian, mostly interested in beer and women.

51 Mythos Dooms – Since almost any Mythos entity might trigger the apocalypse, this column from Kenneth Hite offers a choice of dooms, one for every entry in the Trail of Cthulhu core rulebook.

Lovecraftian Horror –H. P. Lovecraft is as huge in the roleplaying community as he is unknown outside of it. Why? Martin Brodén takes a closer look at the man and his methods in search of an explanation.

 

Steampunk and space travel are two main ingredients in this volume.

Angels and Ministers of Space – Kenneth Hite on Newtonian angel powered space travel in an alternate 17^th century on the seven planets. An inspiring article fat packed with weird.

Ichneumon – A brilliant parasite steampunk rpg by Kenneth Hite. This game infects your existing steampunk game, living behind its scenes, warping its stories and affecting the characters.

Leviathan - Baroque Escapades in the Belly of the Beast – Leviathan is an rpg by Daniel Krauklis and the name of an interstellar ark starship floating through cosmos without anybody at the helm, populated by a race who no longer remembers its past.

The Red Planet – Christoffer Krämer outlines the Native Americans successful conspiracy to conquer and terraform the planet Mars during the upcoming 150 years – and how to put that campaign setting into play.

Roma Umbrarum – X-Files meets Gladiator in this horrifying fantasy campaign set in the city of Rome during the reign of the infamous Emperor Nero. Anders Blixt wrote this article for the second issue of Fenix.

AI: Automatic Intelligence – Johan Salomonsson and Johan Englund combines I, Robot and Das Kapital in this steampunk setting full of inspiration and scenario seeds.

Birger the Barbarian – Fenix’ own comic has been a part of every issue of the magazine. Åke Rosenius, Sweden’s funniest gaming cartoonist, has created this sly, lazy barbarian, mostly interested in beer and women.

Sodom & Gomorrah – Mastermind meets Battleship in this puzzling board game by Christoffer Krämer, where the player’s goal is to find the ten righteous in order to save the cities. Sodom & Gomorrah will be included in the pdf and the books. In the Deluxe edition you will find a separate insert with the game props printed on thicker paper as well.

Added Strech-goals

The Man You’re Looking At: a Who’s Who of Steampunk Spycraft – Kenneth Hite’s dossier – a Who’s Who of Steampunk Spycraft - lets steampunk gamers get down to brass tacks with an array of the real-life spies who flourished during the Belle Epoque.

Birger the Barbarian – Fenix’ own comic has been a part of every issue of the magazine. Åke Rosenius, Sweden’s funniest gaming cartoonist, has created this sly, lazy barbarian, mostly interested in beer and women.

The Restoration of Paradise Lost – Christoffer Krämer has turned the eternal celestial love triangle in to a roleplaying game, where the players take on the roles of angels, demons or humans.

Un-Made Men – Anarchy through the Steam –Kenneth Hite presents five fiendishly fantastic anarchist groups and six terribly terrific anarchists in this follow up to The Man You’re Looking At: A Who’s Who of Steampunk Spycraft.

You will be able to buy each volume separately, but if you buy them all you will get a better price. All volumes of Best of Fenix will be available in three different formats: as a pdf-file, in softcover or in a Deluxe edition (hardcover, inserts with gaming props printed on thicker paper and additional illustrations).

If you buy a physical copy of any of the books, you will also get thanked in that volume.

Every time we reach a full $5.000 we will also add a new article to a Bonus Anthology in pdf-format, only available to the funders of this campaign.

Shipping to Sweden is included. For delivery to the US, Canada or Europe, please add $10 if you buy a single book or $20 if you buy all three volumes at the same time. Shipping to other parts of the world will be $15 for one title, or $30 for all three.

Fenix is owned and published by the married couple Anders and Tove Gillbring. We have taken an active part in the Swedish gaming community almost, but not quite since the very beginning. In 1989 Anders published the first edition of the old west role-playing game Western (and the fourth edition of Western will be out this spring). Anders Gillbring is Fenix’ AD, the man behind the design of the magazine. Tove Gillbring is the editor in chief and copyrighter. Lukas Thelin is our inhouse illustrator, and his artwork has been a part of Fenix in every single issue ever released. Still, we could never have done it on our own. Fenix is the result of a collaborative effort from the Swedish gaming community and we are grateful to all the talented people that have participated in the magazine over the years.

If you support our crowdfunding you will be receiving what you ordered, whether it was a pdf-file, a softcover or hardcover book. We will finalize all of three volumes, no matter what. If we do not reach our goal (which we sincerely wish to avoid) we will be stuck with the higher printing cost of digital print in order to provide what we promise. If we reach our goal we be able to make a longer print run and thus hopefully be giving Best of Fenix a longer life span, making it easier to access at a later date as well.

We got a huge advantage compiling the anthologies to Best of Fenix. All the articles we have chosen already exist. Most of them have previously been printed in Swedish, but some were in English the first time around as well. We will not have to wait for artwork either, since the illustrations were published with the articles the first time around. We have chosen to include material that have received high praise when printed in the Swedish gaming magazine Fenix, so it is a selection based on actual feedback from our readers. Some authors as well as illustrators included have been allowed to make a touch up of their original material, thus providing a higher quality this second time around.

When we planned Best of Fenix we decided on 27 stretch goals. We have allotted time for these articles to be translated and edited as well in order to reach our deadline. Should the crowdfunding roll beyond that we will be adding a brand new volume to the mix. We hope you will forgive us if that additional title will have a later release date than the first three.

During Fenix’ first decade the magazine has never missed a deadline, and we don’t intend to break that cycle with these three volumes. We have vast experience in working with printing and distribution partners in Sweden, which we hope will benefit the upcoming books as well. The risk of printing errors and delays caused by bad printing files are minimal.

We are currently in the process of translating the articles included (and even some we hope to be able to unlock as stretchgoals). We are willing to let that take some time, and thus not promise to deliver the books until the end of 2014. We are eternally grateful to Jessica Augustsson and Pete Nash, who are skilled as well as kind enough to make sure that the texts you will be receiving won’t be riddled with as many flaws as our texts here on indiegogo.

We have received some questions about the crowdfunding campaign for Best of Fenix. Here you can find the most common. If you have any additional questions, please ask under the Comment section of our campaign.

1.  Why is the shipping cost so high?

Unfortunately the cost of shipping books from Sweden is crazy high. We are very sorry for this, not the least since it jacks up the total cost of our volumes more than we would like. If you find the shipping cost too steep, we do understand if you go straight for the pdf-files instead.

2.  What will happen if you don’t reach your goal?

All funders will receive the perks they have choosen, but we won’t be able to make a full print run and thus settle for digital print (another way of printing – you will still get a softcover or hardcover book if that was your wish).

3.  Have you considered releasing the best material to Swedish games?

To begin with, the less narrow selection felt better. Still, if the interest is high enough we sure hope to be able to provide it.

4.  I have all of the Swedish magazines already. Why should I fund this project?

You wish to get the best material compiled together in books as well. Or as a pdf-file, since we have not released them before. Or just to see the brushed up illustrations or extended texts included. But no, this will be the best material already printed in the Swedish magazine. It will not be brand new material.

5.  I heard you got gamerfriendly reviews, but I cannot find them in any in your proposed volumes?

Correct. We went straight for the gaming material, not making reviews, previews or even interviews part of the selection.