Steel_Wind
Legend
The Problem with Dragon
There was a recent thread here on ENWorld which indicated there appeared to be widespread dissatisfaction with Dragon Magazine. This got me to thinking: What is Erik going to do to fix this? What should he do? This lead me to the wider question and sneaking suspicion that I didn’t really know if he could do anything, for the reason that, just maybe, Dragon has lost its relevancy.
There was a time – 20-25 years ago, when Dragon was the central place where gamers communicated with one another. Where we got our ideas, read reviews, heard about new products and read new rules for the first time.
It was a great resource and even for several years in the mid-80’s after I had stopped playing AD&D for Rolemaster, still, I purchased Dragon faithfully.
But a lot has changed since that golden age. From my perspective:
1 – Dragon is no longer a meaningful source of gaming news. Like all print publications, the timeliness of “news” in print has been made nigh impossible by the Internet.
2- Dragon is no longer a place where gamers “come together”. I’m not sure this was ever true as its pretty hard to “come together” while reading a magazine where the info flows only one way for the most part. Whatever the case, to the extent this was true – again – the Internet has replaced it. To be blunt, ENWorld, RPG.net and the Wizards forums have replaced that element and it's gone for good.
3- Dragon is no longer the main source for new rules. This is a major change and it is one that WotC has unleashed all on its own. With the Open Gaming License, the flood of new rules of a more “hobbyist” nature such as Dragon used to print a lot of has never been greater. We don’t need Dragon for this venue anymore.
But it’s more than that. I appreciate that there are a lot of people that don’t use non- WotC products and so the OGL has had a minimal effect on them. But in the golden age of Dragon during 1st edition, we only got a new hardcover rule book once a year – if that. Right now, the publication schedule of WotC brings those new rules to us at a rate faster than we can almost read. Every month or every other month – we are getting a new big fat official D&D rule book. And that is a huge structural change.
So…no. I don’t find Dragon’s new rules, new PrCs or new spells all that germane when I am inundated with new rules, new PrCs and new spells faster than I can literally read them from other sources, official and unofficial. In that environment, the usefulness of Dragon to fill that niche has been utterly destroyed by a policy of WotC that has us swamped in crunch.
4- Dragon is no longer a place that meaningfully reviews products: If it ever did, that is. The complaints of Dragon being a house organ were legion in the early 80’s and after a while they stopped pretending it wasn’t. Paizo published or not, that’s all Dragon really remains. I would actually like to read reviews of non-WotC products in it – but Editorial management at Dragon has indicated in the past that it is unlikely given that these products are of limited appeal to their readership.
So what are we left with?
A– non-fiction: There is only so much non-fiction you can do of a gaming nature before it becomes a re-tread of an article done long ago. Near as I can tell – they are into the third or fourth retreads in some cases at this stage.
B- Fiction: maybe some people enjoy this – but I don’t really read the fiction very often.
C- Magic Items: Bazaar of the Bizarre remains very useful. But it isn’t enough to persuade me to bring this to the cashier every month.
D – The New Character Class Pages: This really does not appeal very much to me at all. Sounded nice in theory – has not worked well in practice. Ditch it Erik.
E- Sage Advice: Interesting, sure. But WotC puts it up on its website for free. Why am I buying this?
F- Ads. Yes. Ads for new products is still something I find useful but …that’s not enough to justify me forking over money every month.
G – Misc Special Features: Yes. There are some specials like the Dark Sun issue I thought was cool and the Githyanki stuff was neato too. I bought them and smiled. But this reduces the magazine's relevancy to those special one-offs for me.
What about Dungeon?
In contrast, from my perspective, I buy Dungeon every single month. There is never a doubt as to whether I will buy it or not or whether I will find is useful. You see, Dungeon gives me something that no one else is supplying right now – and that’s quality RPG adventures.
In the 21st century, crunch has inundated us and adventures are rare. So the adventures are what I prize the most.
In the 80’s, Adventures were commonplace and Rules were rare. So Rules were what we prized the most. We’ve come full circle.
I mentioned in jest on another thread that maybe what Dragon needed to do was become Dungeon. I’d buy two Dungeons a month happily. Now – this was tongue in cheek at the time, but the more I think of it – there is a real grain of truth there.
Solution: Make it more like Dungeon
Why *not* put one adventure back into Dragon every month? Wouldn’t that increase the value of the magazine to you?
“Isn’t that what Dungeon does already”, I hear you say. Yes. But that does not mean that the adventures in Dragon could not be the *special* ones.
For one – put the Adventure Path in Dragon – not Dungeon. Poof. One adventure only and you’ve given me and 10’s of thousands of others a reason to purchase Dragon that we otherwise never would have. Problem solved at a stroke.
If not the Adventure Path approach, what about the retro approach? Retro is where it’s at, it seems these days. Why not use Dragon as a venue to include a “Return to” series of modules. Revised and updated modules from Dragon and Dungeon Magazine’s past. It does not have to be as big as Maure Castle.
“Return To the Halls of Beoll-Dur.” sound fun? “Vesicant, Remastered. ” grab you? Wouldn’t one revised and revisited adventure like those 1st edition classics – with new art and maps – make you want to buy Dragon again?
It seems to me that by moving some great articles out of Dragon and into Dungeon they removed the last of the reasons that I had to buy Dragon at all. Why not return the favor? Put one adventure into the pages of Dragon and keep both these publications strong and healthy.
I don’t know about you, but if they did something like that, I’d be filling out my subscription coupon in a flash.
There was a recent thread here on ENWorld which indicated there appeared to be widespread dissatisfaction with Dragon Magazine. This got me to thinking: What is Erik going to do to fix this? What should he do? This lead me to the wider question and sneaking suspicion that I didn’t really know if he could do anything, for the reason that, just maybe, Dragon has lost its relevancy.
There was a time – 20-25 years ago, when Dragon was the central place where gamers communicated with one another. Where we got our ideas, read reviews, heard about new products and read new rules for the first time.
It was a great resource and even for several years in the mid-80’s after I had stopped playing AD&D for Rolemaster, still, I purchased Dragon faithfully.
But a lot has changed since that golden age. From my perspective:
1 – Dragon is no longer a meaningful source of gaming news. Like all print publications, the timeliness of “news” in print has been made nigh impossible by the Internet.
2- Dragon is no longer a place where gamers “come together”. I’m not sure this was ever true as its pretty hard to “come together” while reading a magazine where the info flows only one way for the most part. Whatever the case, to the extent this was true – again – the Internet has replaced it. To be blunt, ENWorld, RPG.net and the Wizards forums have replaced that element and it's gone for good.
3- Dragon is no longer the main source for new rules. This is a major change and it is one that WotC has unleashed all on its own. With the Open Gaming License, the flood of new rules of a more “hobbyist” nature such as Dragon used to print a lot of has never been greater. We don’t need Dragon for this venue anymore.
But it’s more than that. I appreciate that there are a lot of people that don’t use non- WotC products and so the OGL has had a minimal effect on them. But in the golden age of Dragon during 1st edition, we only got a new hardcover rule book once a year – if that. Right now, the publication schedule of WotC brings those new rules to us at a rate faster than we can almost read. Every month or every other month – we are getting a new big fat official D&D rule book. And that is a huge structural change.
So…no. I don’t find Dragon’s new rules, new PrCs or new spells all that germane when I am inundated with new rules, new PrCs and new spells faster than I can literally read them from other sources, official and unofficial. In that environment, the usefulness of Dragon to fill that niche has been utterly destroyed by a policy of WotC that has us swamped in crunch.
4- Dragon is no longer a place that meaningfully reviews products: If it ever did, that is. The complaints of Dragon being a house organ were legion in the early 80’s and after a while they stopped pretending it wasn’t. Paizo published or not, that’s all Dragon really remains. I would actually like to read reviews of non-WotC products in it – but Editorial management at Dragon has indicated in the past that it is unlikely given that these products are of limited appeal to their readership.
So what are we left with?
A– non-fiction: There is only so much non-fiction you can do of a gaming nature before it becomes a re-tread of an article done long ago. Near as I can tell – they are into the third or fourth retreads in some cases at this stage.
B- Fiction: maybe some people enjoy this – but I don’t really read the fiction very often.
C- Magic Items: Bazaar of the Bizarre remains very useful. But it isn’t enough to persuade me to bring this to the cashier every month.
D – The New Character Class Pages: This really does not appeal very much to me at all. Sounded nice in theory – has not worked well in practice. Ditch it Erik.
E- Sage Advice: Interesting, sure. But WotC puts it up on its website for free. Why am I buying this?
F- Ads. Yes. Ads for new products is still something I find useful but …that’s not enough to justify me forking over money every month.
G – Misc Special Features: Yes. There are some specials like the Dark Sun issue I thought was cool and the Githyanki stuff was neato too. I bought them and smiled. But this reduces the magazine's relevancy to those special one-offs for me.
What about Dungeon?
In contrast, from my perspective, I buy Dungeon every single month. There is never a doubt as to whether I will buy it or not or whether I will find is useful. You see, Dungeon gives me something that no one else is supplying right now – and that’s quality RPG adventures.
In the 21st century, crunch has inundated us and adventures are rare. So the adventures are what I prize the most.
In the 80’s, Adventures were commonplace and Rules were rare. So Rules were what we prized the most. We’ve come full circle.
I mentioned in jest on another thread that maybe what Dragon needed to do was become Dungeon. I’d buy two Dungeons a month happily. Now – this was tongue in cheek at the time, but the more I think of it – there is a real grain of truth there.
Solution: Make it more like Dungeon
Why *not* put one adventure back into Dragon every month? Wouldn’t that increase the value of the magazine to you?
“Isn’t that what Dungeon does already”, I hear you say. Yes. But that does not mean that the adventures in Dragon could not be the *special* ones.
For one – put the Adventure Path in Dragon – not Dungeon. Poof. One adventure only and you’ve given me and 10’s of thousands of others a reason to purchase Dragon that we otherwise never would have. Problem solved at a stroke.
If not the Adventure Path approach, what about the retro approach? Retro is where it’s at, it seems these days. Why not use Dragon as a venue to include a “Return to” series of modules. Revised and updated modules from Dragon and Dungeon Magazine’s past. It does not have to be as big as Maure Castle.
“Return To the Halls of Beoll-Dur.” sound fun? “Vesicant, Remastered. ” grab you? Wouldn’t one revised and revisited adventure like those 1st edition classics – with new art and maps – make you want to buy Dragon again?
It seems to me that by moving some great articles out of Dragon and into Dungeon they removed the last of the reasons that I had to buy Dragon at all. Why not return the favor? Put one adventure into the pages of Dragon and keep both these publications strong and healthy.
I don’t know about you, but if they did something like that, I’d be filling out my subscription coupon in a flash.
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I can remember reading it and when I was done starting counting down the days to the next one. Hmm...I'll have to think on this now and figure out what combinations of things caused this.
