I miss print magazines.

[Hadrian the Builder]

Tom...it seems to me that your are describing a wiki with print-on-demand capability? Is that correct? I like that idea, and it may work for open source efforts. But I think it's not likely to work well for profit. Specifically, intellectual property rights and copyright issues would likely have a chilling effect on such an endeavor.
And version control...look at the diversity of house rules and campaign settings n these forums alone...
If I understood your idea correctly, then I don't think it's an effective model.

 

[Hard8Staff]

Knights of the Dinner Table is the longest running monthly gaming magazine out there. Lots of RPG articles every month.

 

[tomBitonti]

Tom...it seems to me that your are describing a wiki with print-on-demand capability? Is that correct? I like that idea, and it may work for open source efforts. But I think it's not likely to work well for profit. Specifically, intellectual property rights and copyright issues would likely have a chilling effect on such an endeavor.
And version control...look at the diversity of house rules and campaign settings n these forums alone...
If I understood your idea correctly, then I don't think it's an effective model.

Hi,

A wiki plus print-on-demand seems to implement the model. I don't know if the model works. The evidence of the last several years seems to show that the model doesn't work.

If that model doesn't work, what does?

There seems to be some market for print material, as Pathfinder seems to do pretty well with Adventure Paths and their module lines. They also provide PDF's. Does that model work because it doesn't provide more than a thin online product (the PDF's)? Does the 4E Dungeon+Dragon model not work as a tie to a printed product because of the the product is too online for the print version to work? Or is Hasbro simply too hamfisted to get the combined products to work?

Thx!

TomBitonti

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Those are great questions. I wish I had something substantive to suggest, but I don't work in publishing, so I don't know.

What I do know is that I miss my monthly rag, and I'm disappointed with Ezines. I'd love to see ezines lined to Self Publishing, Book Printing & eBook Publishing | Lulu.com, but I'm not impressed enough for Dungeon ad Dragon.

I really, really, want to bitch and moan about WotC/Hasbro's offerings...I resist and simply say that Dungeon and Dragon aren't working for me as an online product because they don't exploit the advantages of the online space?

 

[MichaelSomething]

What I do know is that I miss my monthly rag, and I'm disappointed with Ezines. I'd love to see ezines lined to Self Publishing, Book Printing & eBook Publishing | Lulu.com, but I'm not impressed enough for Dungeon ad Dragon.

Well this topic listed at least five different options to replace the Dungeon and Dragon Magazines. Do any of those fill the void?

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

OUt of all the great suggestions, surely one of them will. I'll need to subscribe and see what scratches the itch best.

 

[On Puget Sound]

I have to say I am much happier with digital magazines than I thought I would be. Find, Copy, Paste into Word, edit to suit, whether the article is this month's or last year's, has made them much more useful to my DMing than ink on paper could be. I still have a shelf full of old Dragons but I never remember to look there.

I would like to see better indexing of online content - adventures tagged and sortable by more than just level. I'd love to be able to sort across issues for: Outdoor, aquatic, aerial, underground, urban, planar, short to long, combat heavy to RP heavy, and tagged for any strong themes or structural traits, e.g. undead, constructs, lycanthropes, oozes, traps, rescue, war, mcguffen hunt, etc. This might eventually happen, but could never happen to paper.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I love online content, and in fact, I'm busily scanning all my old Dragon and Dungeon magazines since they're searchable.

There's something to be said, though, for the magazine format. Reading through the old Dragons, I like the mix of letters, ads, classifieds, editorial, and articles. The adventure paths have a lot of great content (and I subscribe) but they aren't the same. In a way, they're too focused. Magazines, even with clear editorial direction, have a glorious mixture of things in them. KQ, Fight On, and the few issues of Knights of the Dinner Table come a lot closer for me.

 

[Treebore]

Knights of the Dinner Table is the longest running monthly gaming magazine out there. Lots of RPG articles every month.

Thats true. I shouldn't have forgot to mention it since I have several dozens issues, maybe even over 100. I just forgot because it has been a while since I have subscribed. Plus the comic portion is consistently an entertaining read.

 

[Treebore]

OUt of all the great suggestions, surely one of them will. I'll need to subscribe and see what scratches the itch best.

Fight On! offers issue 2 as a free down load to check out. Yes, their layout/organization skills have greatly improved since then. Just judge by the content.


Fight On! Issue #2 Summer 2008 - PDF Version by Ignatius Umlaut in Games