Odyssey

Welcome to Odyssey!

Odyssey is an independent (and demonetized) publication that covers various aspects of gaming, including indie tabletop games, homemade trading card games, and odd-ball Internet RP.

Odyssey was originally conceived as being part of the Substack ecosystem, but the push toward monetization (and the platform's overall problematic political posturing) has pushed this zine to build this on a different platform, one where control is kept by the creator, and the emphasis is on content, not profit.

The idea for Odyssey came to the zine's founder when he was still publishing issues of Free Radicals Magazine. Free Radicals Magazine, another independent zine (now defunct), began as a literary zine, with three (3) issues published. Free Radicals Magazine later evolved into a speculative writings, world-building, and gaming publication, but COVID, life, the economy, and mental health issues got in the way.

After the OGL fiasco and the recent release of Dungeons & Dragons, our zine's founder, G. Michael Rapp, decided there need to be an independent zine dedicated to all things independent gaming, with a special focus on independent (and other kinds of) games, their design, and their communities: And, thus, Odyssey was born.

The hope is this: Odyssey will explore gaming to show what is out there and what opportunities and challenges exist for independent games (and others), their designers, and their communities.

Odyssey is a free, semi-monthly publication, and it is available on this website (and on Itch in PDF form) for free. Odyssey's first issue will release mid-March 2025, depending on content and time constraints.

If you’d like to support a community-centric and independent-gaming-minded publication, consider checking out our Submissions page (linked here).

If you wish to learn more about this new project, please reach out to our editor-in-chief, G. Michael Rapp (gmichaelrapp@gmail.com or @gmichaelrapp Threads/BlueSky).