I bought it off RPG Now and like it. I am not a big fan of the horizontal format since I printed it out and read it. I am much more comfortable with handling a vertical product. The horizontal format is good to read on the computer but that is about it.
First, thanks for the comments and criticism. It helps guide us in making better products.
As for the format, I am new to it as well. We mainly took a cue from WotC since they put forth the resources to see what their customers would prefer for their mags before they took them digital. I am still on the fence, since I print out the .pdfs I own as well, but I might see someone only printing out the pages that serve them at the game table (the landscape format, IMHO, is better in that respect - especially for those that need the extra elbow room).
We will see about future issues or take a consensus.
I love the cover art, but the credit inside just gave the artists name and no background. I would like to know a little more about the artist. In addition, I would like to know why you chose the picture for your first cover.
Well, it is hard to gather info on an artist when we purchase art from a stock art website. The original is a computer rendering, but then I used Painter Essentials 3 by Corel and gave it the painterly, oil feel using different types of cloning brushes and adding my own artistic flare. As a small company, this is the way we cut corners. If we paid an artist for the cover normal rates, we would had have to charge our customers about $2.95 instead of charging just for the content (a.k.a. our time writing and organizing the issue).
We chose the cover for a simple reasons - we wanted the first cover of Dragon's Hoard to be a dragon. Preferably with a giant pile of treasure, but again, we have to get what art we can find at this stage of our company.
I know you do not have big plans for this but I hope you would expand it to about 40 pages and publish it in print. Probably others and I would like a paper 4E magazine we could purchase monthly and read.
Overall, this is good. The content is interesting and the layout is professional.
-benensky
You might see bigger issue in the future, especially when we go off on tangents when working on bigger projects. We tried doing a bi-monthly magazine with our Poor Gamer's Almanac for 3.5, but for the amount of work for the return did not pan out.
We initially figured that, "since there was a lot of people who posted their creations on forums or websites for free, they would like to help us put out a professional and FREE magazine." But, sadly enough, people were apathetic to that idea. I still have hopes for Poor Gamer's Almanac for our 3.5 audience, but we wanted to take Dragon's Hoard in a different direction.
I would like to take it to paper as well, but we do not have the time or resources at this stage to do that. Also, the GSL (Game System License) for 4th Edition prevents us making subscription products (they do not want competition for their sub. service).
However, the possibility is still there for expansion and we shall see what direction the sales take us on future issues. I hope this answered all your questions and feel free to continue your comments on this and future issues.
