Aslan (fanzine)

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Aslan was a role-playing game fanzine published in York, UK in the late 1980s that ran to 13 issues. The title refers to both a character in The Chronicles of Narnia and an alien race in the Traveller (role-playing game). The fanzine grew out of a long-running fantasy role-playing game which took place at the University of Sussex, UK. The editor and publisher was Andrew Rilstone, who was assisted by Martin Wykes initially. Rilstone later went on to edit Interactive Fiction, a journal that took his ideas further.

Aslan became known for its intellectual analysis and its anarchic humour. It took a stance opposed to much of the role-playing games industry of the day, which at the time was concentrating on expanding into the children’s games market. As a reaction against the use of heavily pre-plotted scenarios in many commercial game products Aslan promoted the concept of player-centred narrative. This allowed the actions of the players to determine the course of the narrative rather than requiring the story to follow a predetermined plot.

The zine has been credited with popularising freeform role-playing games in the UK.