A Replacement for DRAGON?

[GMSkarka]

Since the announcement of the impending demise of DRAGON and DUNGEON magazines, there's been a lot of discussion via various industry fora about the feasibility of a publisher launching a viable replacement.

Conventional wisdom is that the population of gamers who will only purchase officially-branded product is far too high to make any attempt at launching a d20-fantasy-based magazine using the OGL worthwhile.

Given the amount of emotion that I'm seeing over WOTC's decision, however, I've started to wonder.

So tell me: With DRAGON and DUNGEON gone the way of the Dodo, would you be interested in an OGL-based magazine that attempted to fill that niche? Should someone give it a go?

 

[EricNoah]

Feel like it's been tried.

I think that Paizo's right to not simply roll their Dungeon and Dragon mags over to OGL. They need a new paradigm and I hope the Pathfinder thing is it, for them.

 

[Ranger REG]

Feel like it's been tried.

I think that Paizo's right to not simply roll their Dungeon and Dragon mags over to OGL. They need a new paradigm and I hope the Pathfinder thing is it, for them.

From what I read, it will resemble more closer to the Dungeon format than Dragon.

 

[EricNoah]

But with quite a bit of support material that's not directly adventure material. Like the additional AP-related stuff that appeared in Dragon Mag as the AP was being published in Dungeon. Stuff you can pull out and use in other adventures/situations/games.

 

[Ranger REG]

But with quite a bit of support material that's not directly adventure material. Like the additional AP-related stuff that appeared in Dragon Mag as the AP was being published in Dungeon. Stuff you can pull out and use in other adventures/situations/games.

I usually skip those AP articles in Dragon. There are much more interesting articles than that, for me.

 

[MarkB]

The 'official' part was good, but never an actual selling point to me. What made Dragon and Dungeon worth buying (at least over the past year that I've been subscribed to them) was the generally excellent quality of their content, which was a result of the excellent staff writers, editors and independent contributors employed by Paizo.

A replacement magazine by Paizo, offering similar content at similar prices, would most likely get my money. A replacement magazine by a third party with no track-record in this format probably wouldn't, without massive word-of-mouth in their favour.

 

[morbiczer]

A big selling point for Dragon and Dungeon was for me always that they had "real" D&D content. I liked to read about warlocks and scouts, about Greyhawk and the Realms, I liked to see mind flayers and beholders in the adventurres. This is gone now.

I'm pretty confident that selling gaming magazine with "true" D&D content is much easier than a OGL/d20 magazine.

 

[Vanuslux]

Feel like it's been tried.

I think that Paizo's right to not simply roll their Dungeon and Dragon mags over to OGL. They need a new paradigm and I hope the Pathfinder thing is it, for them.

It has been tried...but it's never been tried with the 800-pound gorillas taken off the market. Dragon and Dungeon not being out there changes the playing field for OGL zines somewhat. That's not to say that it would work...just that the odds are somewhat better now than they've ever been.

 

[EricNoah]

Losing the ability to weave all of the official material from books like PHBII, the various additional monster books, etc. into their adventures is in deed a great blow. For me it's more of an incentive to just avoid new WotC material, particularly anything that was published after CMP lost the eTools license. If it's not in eTools, I don't use it. Some things go in easier than others.

 

[Ranger REG]

The 'official' part was good, but never an actual selling point to me.

Heh. I remembered when everyone were questioning whether Paizo can publish an official D&D magazine. They had to make such a big campaign, even WotC had to make a statement.

I laughed AT those cautious readers. I guessed I'm more of a d20/OGL gamer than a D&D label fan.