One evening during GenCon 2019, Liz and Alex were drinking a beer at a roadside dive somewhere by Eagle Creek or Brownsburg, IN (not sure which, but there were no sidewalks). Liz was explaining the charm and appeal of The Adventure Zone podcast, and it struck Alex that this conversation was not particularly far removed from the sorts of discussions we’d have talking shop about literature or editing.
Since grad school, we had been kicking ideas back and forth for a new collaborative project. At one point we landed on launching a sci-fi/fantasy imprint, but that idea didn’t catch us. At some point towards the end of the year, Alex was flipping between Taco Bell Quarterly, Teen Vogue, and a stack of early Dungeon magazines, and that GenCon conversation came back to mind. What if there was a place we could have the same kind of invested, earnest, and studious conversations as we were trained to have in literature and craft, but applied to Tabletop Role Playing Games? What if we could platform some of the people who were already modeling that kind of intellectual work? And what if we could do it in a way that reclaimed Young Professional culture from the dull-eyed capitalists who barely appreciate the aesthetic in the first place?
This is how The Journal of Dungeoneering for Hip and Attractive Professionals came to be. And while it has been a rough year in the making, we’re proud to bring you the conversations, art, and experiences we’ve collected. Imagine it as a conversation between friends at a smoky Indiana dive bar. Imagine it as something your GM would cook up to add flavor to your weekly play session.
Because you’re hip, you’re attractive, and you’re a professional. This is our dungeoneering manual. We want to hear from you, so send us an email at editors.jod4hap@protonmail.com and look out for our next call for papers. Let’s get adventuring.
The Journal of Dungeoneering for Hip and Attractive Professionals 