ARTS, MUSIC & CRAFTSMANSHIP

• The Apothecarian - This is a section that might feature more 'potion'-style crafts. Perfumes, candles, lotions, essential oils, teas, that kind of thing. A spotlight interview with someone who makes these kinds of things would be ideal (in contrast to a Craftsman's Guild feature that be more of a blacksmith or carpenter). If you make anything like this, let us know!

• Craftsman's Guild - I don't want to make it seem silly with "Crafts & How-To's", but think tutorials, specifically focusing on handmade CRAFTS, like blacksmithing or carpentry, weaving and spinning, quilting and book-making, or an otherwise dying art that we want to keep alive (or is just really fiking cool). We've included jewelers, artisans and more, so if you're using a less-than-traditional medium, this might be the spot for you.

• Dragon's Gallery - This will also feature a gallery of fan art eventually, but it can also be a spotlight interview for a notable graphic artist -- in the past, we've had folks like Brian Kessinger, Wendy Sullivan and Emily McGovern.

• Shuffle Spotlight - a themed music playlist, though the theme could be whatever you like, something like 10-20 songs, including blurbs on why it’s in there, either for thematic/stylistic reasons. Best for music buffs.

• Spinner's Wheel - this segment is for Cosplay & Costumes. A spotlight interview on a pro cosplayer has become the standard, and the featured artist is also our newest #BDQMCoverBabe. In the past, we've featured Joker's Harley, Kawaii Bro Cosplay and Prop Troopers.

• Wandering Desna - this is essentially a 'travel' section, named for the Dungeons & Dragons deity. This could featuring travelers (such as our previous interview with Go Big Emma!) or recipes, especially if ‘travelling abroad’ tastes of a different culture, or geek-related recipes, like the Doctor's fish fingers and custard, Sansa's Lemon Cakes, etc.

GAMES

• Dungeoneer's Tips - Game Master tips for running the Game, product reviews for tabletop RPG products (such as RPG-focused music sets, dice, minis, TTRPG service) and ideas and tips for your home game night. Send us your questions! Or volunteer as one of our on-call Storytellers to help blooming GMs learn how to make sure everyone at the table is having fun. EVERY ONE.

• Gamer Review - new Tabletop/Video Game review, especially small brand indie games from Kickstarters, card games, Steam findings, and indie fun times. If you have a game you'd like one of our pros to playtest and feature, let us know! Or if you're a game-reviewer yourself and wish to be published, we'd be happy to assist. Send us your review and you just might get featured!

• The Night Guard's Puzzler - one of the newest segments in our magazine, we include a crossword puzzle at the end of each issue with clues that relate to each of our articles, and a few fun vocabulary words from our Drake's Library segment. If you are a puzzlemaker and would like to help us design puzzles (word search, crossword, cryptographs or anything like that...) let us know! We'd love to feature it! If Thieves' Guild gets enough content, this may be absorbed into that, but I generally like the idea of a puzzle section. I'm old school like that.

• Riddles In the Dark - similar to our Storybook Corner or the Night Guard's Puzzler, I'd love to have a page of fun riddles, especially the old classics or new ones you might have invented! Who doesn't love a good riddle?

• Thieves' Guild - this would be ideal for RenFaire/viking/pirate weaponry-style merchandising, and I had the thought for a "Thieves’ Cant" segment where we could feature cryptography puzzles, ciphers or spot-the-difference art pieces of the fantastic variety.

WRITING/REVIEWS

• Ask Legion - exactly what it says on the tin. Asking for reader feedback, putting up results of polls, shenanigans. should be a page-ish. At present, we are running an RPG via Twitter poll, and we'll post the results here so that you can follow along! Check our pinned tweets for more!

• Bardic Review - musical theatre, acting, or music album reviews. Should be significant for pop culture reasons, or else particularly geeky in content (such as a filk artist or pop culture-centric musical or new play). This is also a great place for RenFaire bards, voice actors and the like to share content. We've done reviews in the past for Hamilton, a Farscape-inspired album, interviews with the Cog Is Dead, Mikey Mason and more!

• Dung Heap - Some films are 'so bad they're good', while other films are just... Awful. This segment is full of trashy, nostalgic gossip and unabashed Nerd Rage. Something like a bastard love child of Cracked.com and the Nostalgia Critic, the Muckraker digs through the Dung Heap to pull out a prize... Either a diamond in the rough or something that should probably be left there. You know, so that you don't have to do it yourself. While we love this segment, we have yet to get a permanent Muckraker! Would you care to wade into the HEAP to see what kinds of treasures of questionable value you might find?

• Fool's Errand - much like Bardic Review, but specializing in "Comedy & Parody". Examples would be things like A Very Potter Musical, 50 Shades of Black, Terry Pratchett, that kind of thing. Reviews of new content, or interviews with the creators would be ideal, and maybe even an in-house comic strip.

• Dungeon Spotlight - an artist, creator, or other notable figure of geek/pop culture. If you have a personal connection to someone that would fit that (like, say, Matthew Mercer or Mark Hamill or Alice Cooper...), LET US KNOW. This includes comic books, steampunk, authors, actors, or the like.

• Fresh From the Forge - self-published/independently-published writing. This is a great place for authors, poets or comics makers to promote their latest creation, provided it fits the theme (science fiction, fantasy or geek culture oriented, particularly if made by a female creator, or featuring geeks of color or LGBTQ+ characters).

• In Memorium - Recently Deceased, or Late Great Hero. Artists and writers and voice actors and game masters that pass on tend to be mere blips on the radar for some, but mean a lot to people in their field. I feel they should be honored without being plastered on the cover for click bait, and it would also be nice to do homages to past greats (like Jim Henson and Vincent Price) whom the younger generation might not know about, to keep those classics known and loved.

• Popcorn Critic - film reviews. Films should be recent releases and fit the theme -- comic book movies, science fiction, fantasy, or significant for pop culture reasons, particularly if they have female creators, geeks of color, or LGBTQ+ characters.

• Storybook Corner - would eventually feature short stories and/or a serialized story, but we've also been curating a vocabulary list full of odd, fun and/or archaic words for the linguistics nerds every issue. Until this happens, we will keep the vocabulary list as Drake's Library, because the Drake likes collecting words. It's a dragon thing.

• The Writing On the Wall - this is, essentially, an opinion editorial, or a list of quotes on a topic, or perhaps a rant or dissertation. Kind of a 'food for thought' type thing. We've posted short stories, a farewell to Ringling Bros., and even commented on some unsung biracial representation in the past, as well as a piece on mental health being disregarded in our college system. This is an open space to share something that maybe isn't getting heard elsewhere, whatever that might be. 

MISCELLANEOUS

• Anachronisms - RenFaire, cyberpunk, steampunk, alternative history tracks, all of those things. It could be an interview with someone in the scene, costuming tips for historical accuracy, a history lesson or piece of culture... What have you. We've featured a number of steampunks and a few Rennies in our magazine already, but know that pirates, time-travelers, dystopians and the like are always welcome here!

• Alchemist's Table - Updates on weird science and projects. Magick in particular would be interesting (to differentiate from UpScale), be it fantasy or practical. Or anything that appears magickal - after all, any properly advanced science is indistinguishable from magick. Could also be a great place for lore, supernatural gossip, conspiracy theories and the like.

• Con Circuit - List of conventions, comic-cons, expos and the like for the upcoming quarter. I would love this to be its own insert eventually, but let’s start with the big ones and keep adding to this list as we go on. IF YOU KNOW A WONDERFUL CONVENTION NEAR YOU, let us know about it and we can add it to our list!

• Dungeon Decor - this segment is essentially "Home & Gaming Dungeon Decor", although we've also featured some really geeky workplaces. Aurelio Voltaire’s Goth Decor book? Definitely the type of thing featured here. We've featured traditional artists who focus on a geek/gamer aesthetic and their impressive-as-hell nerd cave, a D&D-inspired vape shop, and even a geek bar! If you got a cool space, e-mail us!

• On the Horizon - Upcoming Films & Book Releases. Don’t forget! Rocky 23 is out this weekend, MCU film premieres, new Dresden Files & Game of Thrones books never. It would be ideal if we could get someone designated to get an opportunity to see/read things before they come out for advanced review, but it'll be a while until we get that kind of clout. If you HAVE that kind of clout, e-mail us!

• Upscale - Tech Updates! Whether it's a commentary on Google’s eventual crawl to take over the world, Linux upgrades, why you should buy a Tesla, the craziest invention you saw at Burning Man, or who’s buying out Twitter this week... things like that.

To show appreciation to our contributors, if you do get published, we offer a page of advertising as a small thank you and run it for a full year, a free digital copy of the magazine, and a special discount on a Goblin Care Package with your issue (pay only for the cost of printing). Repeat contributors get an exclusive staff t-shirt to commemorate your time with us! If you would like to pitch an article or would like to advertise with us, e-mail us!

~Blake the Drake
Resident Dragon & Goblin Wrangler
​blakesdungeon@gmail.com