Disappointment in thinning Dragon content

[Reigan]

WotC are not investing effectively in the brand. The endless sackings, increasing typos and errors in the print books, slothful progress on electronic tools and shrinking content of the online magazines are all symptoms.

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

Dungeon 181 which just compiled the other day has 93 pages. It has 3 adventures in it and has 2 plot hooks (which include background and NPC stat blocks) and has 3 or 4 other minor articles.

 

[tyrlaan]

WotC are not investing effectively in the brand. The endless sackings, increasing typos and errors in the print books, slothful progress on electronic tools and shrinking content of the online magazines are all symptoms.

Let's not get hasty.

First, there are these:

• D&D Encounters
• Game Day
• Board Games
• Podcasts
• Recorded gaming sessions
• Essentials

That (and stuff I am sure I didn't list) looks like some effective investment in the brand.

Second, endless sacking? I assume you mean layoffs. Layoffs or no layoffs, while it might impact the brand, is a bit of a tough stretch to support the claim that they're squandering the brand.

Third, increasing typos? Seriously, has it actually gotten worse or merely hasn't gotten better?

Yes, its disappointing we don't have more adventure tools yet. Yes, recent online content feels lacking. But I don't feel either of these warrant the interpretation you're suggesting.

 

[Riley]

It's getting sad. My DDI subscription will be up soon, and I may just have to cancel after the Essentials updates to the Character Builder.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Let's not get hasty.


First, there are these:

• D&D Encounters
• Game Day
• Board Games
• Podcasts
• Recorded gaming sessions
• Essentials

That (and stuff I am sure I didn't list) looks like some effective investment in the brand.

None of which are part of the digital content that WOTC is charging subscribers for. All of those things are either available to the general public, cost additional money, or both.

 

[DonAdam]

Things I'd like to see:

-I actually like the preview articles. I would love to see the setting-neutral Themes go up in the next month or two like Skill Powers did. Ditto for the non-combat stuff.

-Longer, more substantive articles rather than short ones. I don't need the dopamine drip of daily updates. Give me something meaty.

-Setting-specific stuff. There's too much ink spilled on the core world and on stuff that's meant to be useful regardless of setting. This contributes to the flavorlessness of different places. I'd rather have an article for a setting I don't use that makes me want to run a one-shot or mini-campaign in it than a throwaway bit of "flavor" that's about half a session's worth filler for a generic campaign.

-I thoroughly enjoyed the annotated articles with design decisions explained.

-In Dungeon, I'd like to see the Encounters adventures get reworked into full-blown modules. Not all of us can make it to those but would like to see stuff like Undermountain.

-More solo adventures! That's something I can get use out of regardless of my current game.


What I don't want is stuff that clutters my Character Builder. That is, I've got all the feats and magic items I could want. For most classes I've got all the (combat-related) powers I want. You're just increase the cost to me of searching for an appropriate option at this point. Increase the number of options you must, but look for areas where there are:

A) Fewer existing options

or

B) Less frequent decisions

(There's plenty overlap between the two.)

A is things like new class builds or variant class features. Or even classes. The Assassin was great.

B is stuff like Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies. There are lots of PP's out there, but I only have to choose between them once. Most can be sifted through quickly since they are fairly specific. They also have built-in flavor material. So I'd rather have 1 new paragon path than 20 new powers. Even setting-specific ones, since we're not seeing new books for existing settings. And for the love of Tempus, give me good iconic Monk and Avenger PP's.

 

[tyrlaan]

None of which are part of the digital content that WOTC is charging subscribers for. All of those things are either available to the general public, cost additional money, or both.

Completely true.

However, I raised those as a counter to the statement that they are squandering the brand, so they are quite relevant.

Now, had I tried to use these as arguments that they made the subscription service better, well then I'd be completely wrong

 

[Scribble]

I get the feeling the content calendar isn't totally finished yet... It seems like they just tossed a few things up there to get it up, and might be slightly behind finalizing everything... Possibly due to attendance at PAX?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Anyone know when the Character Builder will be updated with the Dark Sun and Psionic Power stuff? Its not even on the calender yet...

 

[Bagpuss]

Dungeon 181 which just compiled the other day has 93 pages. It has 3 adventures in it and has 2 plot hooks (which include background and NPC stat blocks) and has 3 or 4 other minor articles.

And? Are you claiming this is a good thing or a bad thing? Page count has considerably dropped from it's early days. 93 pages only looks good because the two issues before were so pitifully short at 73 and 80 pages, previously Dungeon has generally been over 100 pages, and was often more than 120.

Also I'm not sure it technically has 3 adventures. The Vault of Darom Madar is indeed a great adventure for Dark Sun and The Slaver’s Stone is the first Chaos Scar adventure in a while to be more than just a handful of encounters, but is still considerably shorter than the adventures they put out before the change in format. The Shrine of the Sea Demon hardly classes as an adventure, just an encounter site.