Dragon & Dungeon--Any Free Content?

[Qualidar]

The only potential critique is that a fair amount of the articles that used to be free are now pay. WotC used to publish short adventure modules and a few other things before DDI. Now that sort of stuff has dried up.

I think they're missing an opportunity there. I've bought the books and played a couple of times, but I don't have any real interest in running 4e. I do have enough interest to take a look at some free adventures, and if I like what I see I certainly could be persuaded to jump aboard. But there doesn't seem to be anything out there to do that.

I know that's just my personal situation, but I suspect there are plenty of other fence sitters out there that share the sentiment.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Aren't there several free issues of Dungeon and Dragon still available for download?

 

[UniversalMonster]

I think they're missing an opportunity there. I've bought the books and played a couple of times, but I don't have any real interest in running 4e. I do have enough interest to take a look at some free adventures, and if I like what I see I certainly could be persuaded to jump aboard. But there doesn't seem to be anything out there to do that.

I know that's just my personal situation, but I suspect there are plenty of other fence sitters out there that share the sentiment.

I guess I can't help in any way here but to tell you that you guys are totally missing out

 

[Zaukrie]

Businesses that give away their property don't last long as businesses (see Newspapers). While I agree WotC should have a few free starter adventures on line for free, I don't understand why they should give away a lot for free.

Personally, I'd have a column a week that was free. But, most of that content would be aimed at new DMs and new players.

 

[Phaezen]

Businesses that give away their property don't last long as businesses (see Newspapers). While I agree WotC should have a few free starter adventures on line for free, I don't understand why they should give away a lot for free.

Personally, I'd have a column a week that was free. But, most of that content would be aimed at new DMs and new players.

I count at least 9 free adventures in Dungeons 155, 156 and 157, as well as plenty of awesome free stuff in Dragons 364, 365 and 366

For what its worth in those 6 magazines the break down is:

165 Monsters
72 Magical Items
45 Powers
2 Races
2 Playtest Classes
26 Feats
7 Paragon Paths
2 Epic Destinies
34 Rituals
48 Backgrounds
54 Traps Hazzards and skill challenges

The Character Gen is free up to level 3, as is limited access to the compendium. All the class previews are free exceot for the powers. The artwork and maps for all the dungeon and dragon magazines is free.

Edit: and everything on this page:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4mst/features

The "Vicious Venues" and "Steal this Hook" sections are particualry usefull for DMs of all experience levels.

For what it is worth, all the RPGA stuff is currently free as well (except for the small bit of admin)

I am still trying to figure out this belief that WOTC owe us free stuff any more than any other company.

Phaezen

 

[The Little Raven]

Yep. VG Cats - Comics - Updated Monday

Cute. Too bad a news site charging for news has nothing to do with e-magazines charging for the content contained in the e-magazine, while giving away it's news for free.

 

[Sammael]

Well, they don't exactly owe us anything. However...

Once upon a time, every WotC-produced book had an index. No more.
Once upon a time, every WotC-produced book used new art. No more.
Once upon a time, every WotC-produced book came with a web enhancement. No more.
Once upon a time, WotC-produced books had more words per page and less white space. No more.
Once upon a time, WotC-produced books were errata'ed for free. At some point, they stopped doing this for 3.x (offering a lot of different excuses for doing so), and they are now offering some errata for 4E, but to have the most up-to-date stuff, you have to subscribe to DDI.
Once upon a time, WotC gave away a lot (perhaps too much) free stuff on their web page. Now they give away some, but most of it is in the form of product previews (which are advertisements... but since they got some people to buy not one, but two hardcover advertisements for 4E, I guess it's just a matter of time before the customers are expected to buy their advertisements).

So, can we agree that the company and the business model have changed a lot over the past two years? Perhaps more than people are ready to swallow so easily?

None of this affects me in any way, as I'm no longer a WotC customer, but I can understand the frustration of those who still are.

 

[The Little Raven]

Once upon a time, every WotC-produced book had an index. No more.

Once upon a time, I looked into a bunch of 2e and 3e books from WotC and found no index.

Once upon a time, WotC-produced books had more words per page and less white space. No more.

Once upon a time, they jam-packed their books full of ugly visual design, with massive rust-colored borders that added zero content but only allowed the argument that there was less white space and also used shifting text headers to squeeze text into areas that make it far less useful for at-game reference.

Once upon a time, WotC-produced books were errata'ed for free. At some point, they stopped doing this for 3.x (offering a lot of different excuses for doing so), and they are now offering some errata for 4E, but to have the most up-to-date stuff, you have to subscribe to DDI.

Once upon a time, people would actually vet their claims by doing the most basic of research before saying things that were completely wrong. I spent 2 seconds typing "D&D Updates" into Google. Is that so hard?

Official D&D Updates

Once upon a time, WotC gave away a lot (perhaps too much) free stuff on their web page. Now they give away some, but most of it is in the form of product previews (which are advertisements... but since they got some people to buy not one, but two hardcover advertisements for 4E, I guess it's just a matter of time before the customers are expected to buy their advertisements).

Once upon a time, people viewed free content such as maps, campaign hooks, encounters with locations, articles on D&D history, and such as content and not advertising, because they didn't approach the situation with obvious bias.

And could you please actually vet things you say, like calling a paperback book a hardcover? It's quite ridiculous when your claims can be disputed by 2 seconds with Google (or the fact that I own the book, which makes it abundantly obvious you've never even seen it), as it shows that you care more about the reaction you want to provoke from others than the veracity of your claims.

None of this affects me in any way, as I'm no longer a WotC customer, but I can understand the frustration of those who still are.

Yeah, I can understand people getting frustrated over things that aren't true, because it totally sucks to be ignorant about the facts.

 

[Zaukrie]

54 Traps Hazzards and skill challenges


I am still trying to figure out this belief that WOTC owe us free stuff any more than any other company.

Phaezen

I must not have been clear. I don't think they owe us anything free either.


I think I was pretty clear that businesses that give away their product for free don't make money.


The only free stuff I'd post would be to help get new players and DMs into the game. If that wasn't clear, sorry.

 

[Badjak]

I don't know. I'm kind of bummed about the WOTC site. I realize that there is some stuff that is free, but it actually is kind of hard to find, and mostly relating to minatures or other things. Certainly the magazines shouldn't be free, and soon as I get some time and money on my hands, I plan on buying a subscription, but it seems like there isn't that much marketing information on the site, I mean part of the benefit of their website is that it is advertising. It's suppose to convince me to buy books, and the free stuff I want is mainly details about what those books contain so that I can get pumped into buying them. Now it seems like that information is less. So I really less informed over all about what there coming out with and why I should buy it. The net effect basically is, I've stopped going to the site, which I think has lessened my ardor for buying books. Anyway, obviously a balance needs to be maintained between exclusives and ads, and I like the fact that they are making you pay for the stuff, because that generally means that stuff is going to be higher quality, but I think they've gone in the wrong direction. Mainly, because I used to hop on there site once per day to check for updates and now I don't. One thing that I think should be free was their design and developement articles (someone can correct if I'm wrong and these are still free, but I haven't seen them). It was the editorials on how WOTC did game design which were the biggest draw for me buying the books. I liken it to an aha moment. Like when I first read about their concept of minions on their website. In my head, I was like aha! that's a good idea. That fullfills a obvious need I've always had in my game. Now I want more and shall buy their books. Since the design editorials are now in dungeon magazine, I get bummed out. If they could only make those design articles free, then I would be a happy camper. Everything else I'll indeed shell money for, but those articles were basically advertisements for me anyway since they were my biggest draw to buying the books. Now that I don't have access to them, I tend to buy less.