Dragon/Dungeon for November

[renau1g]

Sadly I think Paizo is making far too much money now than they ever did in the Dungeon days and would likely never go back. I remember Lisa Stevens mentioning how much they lost in the artwork spend when WotC took back the magazine from them. In my dreams they would come back to do the work, but likely far more opportunity for them with Pathfinder/Golarion.

 

[mudbunny]

No character build or monster builder update?

I am poking to see what I can find out.

 

[tentfox]

I am poking to see what I can find out.

Thanks Mudbunny, I checked the calendar for October and saw that the update was not listed on that either so this by no means means that there is no update.

If you could find out what is going it as well that would be amazing

 

[JoeGKushner]

A little over a week ago I received ye old boilerplate:

"Dear Joe Kushner,

This email is to remind you that your annual subscription with D&D Insider will automatically renew in 30 days."

If I don't see a DDI update on November, it'll be time for me to put my money where my mouth is an cancel my annual subscription. Continuing declining content and no tools updates? Uh... no.

 

[Zaukrie]

I just re-upped, but I think I made a mistake. This content gets less and less every month. It's almost gone, as far as I'm concerned. I should have canceled, I think. Brutal. Awful. They really don't care, I don't think.

 

[Reaper Steve]

What offends me most is how they use holidays as an excuse not to provide content. If holidays really did impact their ability to generate content, then it would manifest itself differently because of the lead time required. They [should have] made November's magazines a couple months ago. A better (but still weak) excuse would be: "Due to the higher than normal number of holidays in November, February's D&D mags will have less content." Of course, that would highlight the absurdity of it all.

It's also lame that the compilations at the end of the month (which provide no new content) count as 2 days worth of content.

Regular magazines wouldn't even try to pull this kind of stuff. In this case, the advantages of the digital format are being abused to the maximum benefit of the publisher.

At the very least, can my subscription fee be prorated by the number of days with no new content?

 

[Mengu]

I'd like to see a shift in direction for Dragon. I don't really need fluff. I make my own, but I won't object to there being some inspiration out there. I don't really want any new crunch. There is plenty of bloat already. The flow of new crunch should be controlled.

What I want is a series of revisited articles. Maybe one or two a month. Fix some mistakes, improve some junk, reduce some taxes, etc. I know a lot of people dislike "errata" and want to play the game as published. I understand that desire, relearning is taxing, and can be confusing. But we're in the software age of D&D. CB makes many changes very simple, and seamless. If some dragon article fixed your character's hit points, next time you level up and print a character sheet, it'll all be fixed. If the way a power works is changed, it'll be right there on your character sheet.

This would be a chance to create more versatility without bloating the existing options, by promoting junk to desirable. A plethora of feats, powers, and items clutter the CB but never see light of day. Why not start making something out of those.

Some of the flavor of classes and certain mechanics can be incorporated as rules modifications. Class features can be added. Avengers, Monks, Battleminds, etc. could get a feature to use their primary stat for basic attacks. All Wizards and Invokers could be updated to respectively have Magic Missile and Sun Strike as features. A 4th level utility could be added to warlocks for a per encounter bonus to intimidate. An 8th level resurrection feature could be added to Runepriests. With Essentials they have managed to incorporate some of the flavor of classes back into the mechanics without tipping the balance of things.

Many paragon paths are seriously lacking in punch, especially Sorcerer and Barbarian ones. A minor tweak here and there to existing paragon paths to make them more desirable than multiclassing into fighter for a fighter paragon path, would be a better path than creating a bunch of new paragon paths, though I wouldn't mind some of each.

Racial stat issues could also be easily updated with Dragon articles. If there is a Wilden article and a Deva article coming out, why not use this chance to introduce their alternate stats, and maybe alternate racial powers if they have them?

There are lots they could do with Dragon content. They just aren't doing it currently. Whether I like Essentials or not, I like their bravery in the steps they are taking. I hope they can bring some of those sweeping changes in with Dragon magazine content too.

 

[Solvarn]

Shell

The realities of business are what is to blame for most of the problems with the D&D brand.

I think that bringing new players into the game starts at the gaming table. In 2008, 54% of Hasbro's consolidated net revenues came from their top five customers (Walmart, Target, Toys'R'us, etc). I don't know how well they deal with the FLGS. I think they really need to make an effort to develop and cultivate talent like they do for Magic tournaments.

I'll be interested to see how the Red Box does, I think this is their attempt to tap into those lucrative relationships with their top five retailers. The box is designed to take home and play alone. I get the feeling that they are sniffing around, trying to determine what course to take. I also know that Hasbro aligns itself around brands, so the whole nostalgia kick is a real effort to tie into the roots of the brand and re-establish it.

I think D&D is on a razor thin profit margin based on the way a lot of the stuff comes out to us and what I see happening to a lot of the content and staff. I'm a little saddened as layoff season comes up this year as well.

I'm hoping that they can strategically realign and start churning out more money. You can say whatever you want about greed, a rosier financial outlook will cause more investment in the brand and better production values. And better content.

 

[wedgeski]

Sadly I think Paizo is making far too much money now than they ever did in the Dungeon days and would likely never go back. I remember Lisa Stevens mentioning how much they lost in the artwork spend when WotC took back the magazine from them. In my dreams they would come back to do the work, but likely far more opportunity for them with Pathfinder/Golarion.

I thought Wizards extended the Paizo license so they could work through their backlog (at least, as far as finishing the current AP at the time)?

 

[karolusb]

I'm hoping that they can strategically realign and start churning out more money. You can say whatever you want about greed, a rosier financial outlook will cause more investment in the brand and better production values. And better content.

I would hope for it too, but I don't see it happening. When Wizards was printing money (Pika Pika) Hasbro wasn't happy anout thier margins, and that ended years ago. D&D will never be as profitable as Monopoly, and Hasbro won't be happy until it is.