Kickstarter - Ares Magazine - Update From the Source (Sci Fi Fiction and Board Game Magazine)

I posted previously about the Ares Magazine Kickstarter. The idea of a SciFi fiction magazine with optional game included (it comes in both flavors) I find intriguing if not a little bit exciting. My initial posting on it did raise some questions in the comments section.

Carmen Andres was kind enough to give some further details and background on the project via an email, which I will share below:

Thank you for sharing news about the Kickstarter campaign for Ares Magazine with your readers! We greatly appreciate your interest and support.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve added several new reward levels--and we’re most excited about the addition of two subscription-based levels. The ITHACAN gives pledgers six issues chock-full of quality science fiction wrapped around a unique board game for $120—that’s $60 off the cover price. The ATHENIAN is for collectors: two copies of the first six issues for $235, which is $125 off the cover price.

We want to provide customers with a range of products to best suit their tastes, so we also offer pledge levels to allow separate purchases of the fiction magazine or the game.

We pay all of our fiction contributors a fixed price per word. We have a small editorial staff that reads each story and assesses it on the bases of preferred genre, quality of writing, and originality. Two of our staff members have worked as staff on magazines, and one has worked on the staff of a newspaper. All of our editors are mad science fiction fans.

Game designs are paid for at a flat rate depending upon completeness and pedigree of the design. Ares Magazine is a project of OSS Games, which has almost two decades of experience in designing and marketing games.

Again, we appreciate your interest and support. If the above information is valuable to your readers, we hope you will continue to share news about us and our Kickstarter campaign. Let me know if you have any questions or would like more information!
                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Best regards,
Carmen Andres

Web: www.aresmagazine.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AresMagazine
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1488075951/ares-magazine
 

Consider this a question (and hopefully answer) thread. Post your comments / questions below and let's see if we can't get you some answers.

As for me, I might go for the 6 issue subscription. Can't be more of a risk than the majority of the Kickstarters I've backed ;)

A Kickstarter to Bring Back "Ares Magazine" - Sci Fi Fiction with a Board Game Too

Somewhere packed away in storage I have an issue or two of the original run of Ares magazine, before it was folded into the back of Dragon Magazine and then lost altogether. I wan't a big sci-fi guy back in those days, so Ares was relatively unappreciated by me.

Now, there is a Kickstarter to bring Ares Magazine back to print with an all new issue #1, complete with board game! I think The General used to do the same.

I know I wont get to play the included board game anytime soon, but I still have fond memories of the board games included in the occasional issue of The Dragon.

$6 bucks to back for an issue without the game, $20 bucks to have the issue with the game.

Here's the pitch:

Bringing you 80 pages of amazing new science fiction and a complete board game in a bi-monthly periodical. 

What's the big idea? Our big idea is to fill a void with a new magazine that combines a standalone, unique, playable board game with a collection of spectacular, new science fiction in each issue. We need your help producing issue #1.

 Screw it, I'm in for $20 :)

Grab Those Dragons While You Can...

Expect them, and I assume Polyhedron and Ares to go "Poof!" sooner than later.

I listen to the birdies when they talk, and the current word is that they will soon be gone from archive.org.

Maybe WotC will upload them to DnD Classics... or not. If they do, they should use the scans that are currently up, as they are sharp and clean. Hell, the work is already done on them.

Classic Dragon, Polyhedron, Ares Magazines (Others) Available for Free Download

Now, I have no idea about the legality of the uploaded works at the following link, but I do know about the quality of the articles in these out of print - alright, defunct - periodicals. Overall, extremely high quality. Get them here. (I assume the legality is a "gray" area on many of these titles)

Hey, look, Omni Magazine is there too. As is Cracked! Awesome!

(Edit: Also The General and The Space Gamer!)