At what Cover Price do you Drop?

[Ranger REG]

Dungeon can get away with being $7 or $8 a little better, but I haven't picked it up in a while. I got all of the AoW stuff and I am currently running that. But I'm halfway through AoW so I don't need adventures at all right now, so I'm not buying Dungeon either. It may be a great bang for the buck, but it is a bang I have quite a bit of at the moment so I'm hesitant to spend the buck.

$8 for three adventures and no page increase? Nahhh!

It would be nice if they increase page count to go along with the dollar hike (for BOTH "official D&D" magazines).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I love Dragon. Dungeon is occassionally useful. I have a subscription to both because there is no store that either carries it or can keep it in stock in my area. I can't afford new books every month, but I love having new content to look at. $80 dollars a year for both monthly magazines is a hell of a deal.

I would never pay the full cover price for either any more, because at one point I added it up in my mind and figured I was already spending at least $80 a year on single issues on a monthly basis. Buying half a years worth of either magazine at retail on a yearly basis should make one at least consider subscribing. It adds up. Look at it this way, by subscribing you are paying for 6 months worth at retail cost and getting another 6 months for free. If you are buying 6 magazines a year or more at retail, do yourself a favor and subscribe. You may not like every single issue, but that isn't he point, the point is making our money stretch.

All this considered I think that if the subscription went over double what it is now, I drop my subscriptions. Until that time comes I'll be enjoying both magazines.

 

[skippy_the_witch]

1) Must have regular Greyhawk or pseudo-Greyhawk content (Demonomicon etc.); no Hawk and I fly;

2) Content must be sufficiently substantial to approach "mini-sourcebook" status, although such need not all be in the same issue. Example, the Dagon article works extremely well with the Livre Aquatha article and the Ecology of the Kraken article, those from about a year before Dagon. Example, the Far Realms mega article.

3) Articles that look to "do it all" must continue - articles that provide simultaneously fluff, PrCs, monsters, spells, maps etc. (but not necessarily everything in every article). The Demonomicon articles do a good job of this, as did the Far Realms article. I have no interest in narrow, niche articles - 10 new thiefly/gnomishetc. magic items! BLEH!

General advice:

1) The days when Dragon can offer a grab bag of this and that every issue are long gone. There are too many other sources for such. Dragon needs to do whatever it does extremely well and in a way that cannot be easily duplicated for free on the web. Coordinated content. In depth content. Content that expands on the canon of Wotc IP (with cool maps!). These are things D&D fans have only rarely been able to produce and/or distribute/get on the web for free. Dragon needs to go where the fans cannot otherwise easily go themselves via the web.

2) The First Watch, especially the expanded video game advert/articles, are the wrong way to go, as there are many other and more focused specialist sources.

3) Reviews are the wrong way to go (in case you think otherwise) as EN World and other sites have taken over the review function (better as the reviews are by multiple fans and not disguised puff pieces).

4) Small, collection of stuff articles need to be used with extreme caution as levening or filler around the more in depth articles, coordinated, completist articles. Class Acts, while greatly improved, needs to go. No regular "collection of stuff" articles unless such are coordinated with other content (which again need not be in the same issue always)

5) Mosty importantly, Dragon needs to redevelop a sense of community. Dungeon has done this with the APs. People talk about the APs consistently and thus Dungeon. Dragon needs to enter the conversation as regularly and not just as the place for Dungeon's AP overflow. How to do this? I think the foregoing is a start but I think ultimately it is catching lightening in a bottle.

YMMV

This proves the fact that different people find different things useful in Dragon. ANY Greyhawk material is worse than useless to me. I would rather have those same pages filled with blatant video game ads, because the artwork might spark an idea or two with me. Forgotten Realms material is usual the same way, but FR material is slightly less vanilla than GH (think fudge topped vanilla), so every once in a while, I will find something that I am able to modify and use. Eberron is the exception, as my campaign is technomagic, so I will admit to stealing much of the ideas from Eberron.

The recent core beliefs articles are also wasted space for me, as my current (and only) homebrew does not allow clerics of any kind, and the gods (and the upper planes) have been completely cut off. Besides, 90% of those articles is fluff, something which I am more than capable of creating on my own. But, I am happy that many people seem to find them useful. The demonomicon articles are only slightly more useful, as the prestige class of each of the demon's followers has sometimes been useful for mutant villians in my game.

Maps are ALWAYS a waste of space. I have NEVER used a published map in my entire 20+ years of gaming, UNLESS I am running a published module (which I haven't done in decades). As a matter of fact, if the map is an insert, it usually ends up in my RPG junk box (I have the bad habit of never throwing anything out).

I like those articles with ten unique magic items or whatever. I bought the Dragon with the magic face paints in it just for that article. I am not so much interested in new monsters and spells, but every once in a while, it does fill the bill (especially templates...if I can't take a MM creature and slap templates on it to do what I want, then I need to hang up my GMs hat).

I agree with the first, second and third advice points, but vehemently disagree with the others. The ONLY reason I subscribe to Dragon is Class Acts. I think my cost per issue is around $4 (rounding to keep math easy). Of the FOUR Class Acts, TWO have ALWAYS been useful to me so far. These are the kind of things I would easily have spent a dollar or two online for a pdf. Thus, half the class acts and a magic item article and I got my monies worth compared to what I would have paid online for same info (maybe with slightly more content) from purchasing pdfs. Having been assured by Eric and company that Class Acts would not be significantly changing is the ONLY reason I renewed my subscription.

As for the initial question asked, the current COVER price is much more than I am willing to pay for MOST issues of Dragon. Take the most recent issue (349), I found the article on bows slightly useful (as pnuematic repeating crossbows are used in my game), the thrall of dagon maybe useful if my players go near the ocean and I need evil mutants (but rest of article useless), the Horde article useless, ecology of ogre mage useful for the cereborg (psionic ogre mage), savage tide useless (not running adventure path...but three of last years articles for age of worms were extremely useful to me, so I do not begrudge the space), and ALL of the class acts VERY useful for my world (even the animal battle gear, as my halflings all bond with soem critter, usually a mount of some kind). Total useful pages...about 19 pages. I have been known to pay $4 for a pdf of that size, so put it in the win column.

Sorry to be so long winded. And please note, I am not bitter or upset when I see a core beliefs article or demonomicon, since these popular items allow articles that I find more useful to be published. Anyway, I will go away now.

skippy
The GM of The Cursed Earth

 

[delericho]

No, but posts from this forum, personal emails, and convention feedback are a good indicator of where the wind is blowing and are useful in our decision making process.

Guess I'll have to post more, then. I had held back, for the most part, since there's only so many times you can say "I'm happy with the current direction" before it gets old.