Dragon Magazine & Dungeon Magazine on CD

Li Shenron · Feb 23, 2005

Dragon older issues were put on CDs and sold as PDF, IIUC. Does anyone know if there's any plan to do the same with Dungeon? What was included in the Dragon CD and what was the approx cost?

I hate reading from a PC, but I would definitely like to have a large range of DM ideas in a single CD, of which I could eventually print out those few pages that I'd find useful.

Mouseferatu · Feb 23, 2005

According to Erik, there are no plans to produce a Dungeon CD-ROM of the sort that was done for Dragon. Apparently there were a lot of hassles, including legal and rights issues.

It's really too bad. I'd happily pay for it.

TheBadElf · Feb 23, 2005

The Dragon Magazine Archive collection had issues 1-250, and IIRC sold for around 50 bucks. I've seen it for sale online recently, and I'd imagine it pops up on Ebay; it's very much worth buying.

As much as I'd like to see a Dungeon archive I think if it was going to happen we'd have seen it by now. I don't think the Dragon archive was as successful as WotC (or maybe it was still TSR at the time) would have liked; I heard rumors of high production costs (my rant over the horrible interface they paid big money to have developed would fill an entire post), mediocre sales, and legal problems related to authors' rights.

That being said, if WotC or Paizo or someone would release this product I'd buy it on sight. I know you're listening...

Li Shenron · Feb 23, 2005

TheBadElf said:
The Dragon Magazine Archive collection had issues 1-250, and IIRC sold for around 50 bucks.

That's not bad, about the cost of a book and a half, but 250 issues are A LOT. I can imagine Dragon being more popular than Dungeon which is for DMs, so if the first failed I doubt the second will be put on cd.

BOZ · Feb 23, 2005

i would of course love to see a, say, issue 250-325 plus the annuals update supplement. but that ain't gonna happen either.

MKMcArtor · Feb 23, 2005

TheBadElf said:
... and legal problems related to authors' rights.

Legal problems, yes. Author's rights, no. Dragon buys full rights to the articles from its authors.

TheBadElf said:
That being said, if WotC or Paizo or someone would release this product I'd buy it on sight. I know you're listening...

We are. Keep watching the magazines and Paizo's website. Humming the tune to When You Wish Upon a Star might be appropriate.

That is all I can say.

johnsemlak · Feb 23, 2005

MKMcArtor said:
Legal problems, yes. Author's rights, no. Dragon buys full rights to the articles from its authors.

Question -- has that been the case from Dragon Mag #1 and with every article ever published by Dragon? I too was under the impression that the legal problems wihte the Dragon CD-ROM stemmed from issues with Author's rights. But I must confess IANAL.

francisca · Feb 23, 2005

MKMcArtor said:
Legal problems, yes. Author's rights, no. Dragon buys full rights to the articles from its authors.

A few years ago when the whole Dungeon-on-CD topic came up, this was hashed out on these boards, by some of the people involved no less, in a "I really can't comment, but...." kinda way. In the particular case, full reprint rights were not bought by Dragon for a particular feature, which is probably why they purchase them in full today.

That was my take on the issue, anyway.

edit: actually, the thread started a year and a few days ago. Wow. Seems like forever.

MKMcArtor · Feb 23, 2005

johnsemlak said:
Question -- has that been the case from Dragon Mag #1 and with every article ever published by Dragon? I too was under the impression that the legal problems wihte the Dragon CD-ROM stemmed from issues with Author's rights. But I must confess IANAL.

That's not totally clear to me. It might certainly be one of the contributing factors. The main legal problem, as I understand it, had to do with other parts of the magazine being reprinted.

Pramas · Feb 23, 2005

johnsemlak said:
Question -- has that been the case from Dragon Mag #1 and with every article ever published by Dragon?

Oh, hell no. It's the way Dragon has operated for some time, but contracts varied widely back in the day. This became a major issue when the CD compilation was released.