A Replacement for DRAGON?

[JoeGKushner]

But free still beats da pay.

Heck, SJG tried out d20 Weekly for a low price and were blasted out of the water because people were getting the same type of stuff from free from various sites.

It might be possible to do a niche within a niche style magazine but if I don't see White Dwarf doing any RPG articles, I kinda wonder about that. Anything outside a good looking 'fanzine' like Warpstone seems improbably at best.

 

[Mark CMG]

But free still beats da pay.

Well it might reach more people but that doesn't speak to the value of the material or its perceived value. My SRD 3.5 Revised has great added value and has been purchased by well over one thousand customers, yet the orinigal SRD and even html versions are online for free. I think saying that free beats pay is a false generalization.

Heck, SJG tried out d20 Weekly for a low price and were blasted out of the water because people were getting the same type of stuff from free from various sites.

Does SJG charge for Pyramid?

It might be possible to do a niche within a niche style magazine but if I don't see White Dwarf doing any RPG articles, I kinda wonder about that.

White Dwarf has a focus and purpose that has nothing to do wth GW RPGs.

Anything outside a good looking 'fanzine' like Warpstone seems improbably at best.

I have never heard of Warpstone but I do not think your statement speaks to the point I am making.

 

[Stormborn]

Well it might reach more people but that doesn't speak to the value of the material or its perceived value. My SRD 3.5 Revised has great added value and has been purchased by well over one thousand customers, yet the orinigal SRD and even html versions are online for free. I think saying that free beats pay is a false generalization.

Does SJG charge for Pyramid?

In reverse order: Yes, SJG charges for Pyramid.

I think your comment about percieved value is important. If the choice is free or pay people will choose free, but they tend to see things they have to pay for as more "valuable."

I think the thing that no one can really speak to is how succeful any RPG mag would be in the absence of Dungeon and Dragon. Any previous attempt had that to compete with, such is no longer going to be the case. OTOH, any e-zine format will have WotC's Digital content to compete with, and so must have something to drive it.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, obviously both Dragon and Dungeon magazines stood out.

They have an established history.

I mean new startup magazine circulation. Pretty hard to build readership these days.

 

[Veander]

$14 a month for Pathfinder is going to be a bit much. $168 a year, so I'm not exactly sure who's happy shelling that out kind of cash for one adventure every year. I know they're idea is interesting, but... I dunno what gamers can afford that aside from the usual upper middle class ones. IN any event, this makes me wonder what a good replacement would be. I can't imagine anything digitally would be an answer. I don't like online mags as it is, so WotCs idea is already bad for me.

I would totally like to see who could replace Dragon and Dungeon. It wouldn't be official, but who cares?

 

[variant]

Yes. I would be interested in not only reading it, but writing for one.

The idea though would be to able to get it into mainstream bookstores (Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, etc), have a worthwhile name, and have high quality content (both art and articles).

Is there a publisher with the ability to pull it off?

I wish Paizo would consider such a magazine. The costs would be lower than Dragon due to not having to deal with a license.

Nothing digital will ever fill the void for something such as Dragon or Dungeon. People that want a magazine, want an actual magazine. They do not want a PDF that has to be read on a computer.

Nothing free will fill the void either. Free already exists in this world and it will not become popular. People go buy the old motto of you get what you pay for.

 

[Priest_Sidran]

It's possible, but it's sure to be an uphill battle.
Being "official" house organs was a strength for Dragon and Dungeon no doubt. Combine that with the history of both publications, and that's a lot of exposure.
Even non-gamers are aware of Dragon magazine. It's demise was even reported on Fark.com today!
To attain that level of exposure would require some serious marketing. And that kind of marketing is going to cost some serious coin.
The other thing that really made Dragon and Dungeon special to a lot of people is that they could submit material and have it become "official."
No non-WotC magazine can offer that. Personally, it's not a draw for me, but judging from the testimonials people have offered here in the last few days, that was a big deal for a lot of people.

That said, I think a viable d20/OGL magazine could be done, but it would take deep pockets, some intensive and creative advertising, and some incentive for fans to re-create the community that surrounded Dragon & Dungeon.

YMMV

Financially it would take clout to get a magazine as polished as Dragon, and Dungeon were. Restarting the Asgard Magazine (in print form) might be a nice start. Finding investors would be another great start. Equally finding the type of artist, and editorial staff would be a requirement.

Only a few companies that exist now could handle a magazine of that nature, and I think that they would be making the moves to get it started, including letting us know that it was in the works. An OGL Only magazine is not as hard as some people are making it out to be. It might actually blossom due to the large amount of 3rd party publishers, Authors, and Artists who are looking for such work. As for the customers, being able to use the OGL material to write their own material would be far more appealing (to me) than having the content I write be Official. It would have to be a print magazine, and it would have to be a full color gloss, otherwise people would be let down by it. I could see it being functional, and I would even be willing to put some money into such a venture, should a company start taking the idea seriously.

It would be nice to see a combined 3rd party publishers front going into the creation of this, meaning that Malhavoc (and thus White Wolf), Mongoose, FFG, Green Ronin, and all the others work with a combined effort towards filling the gap. Even going so far as to having White Wolf publish it under one of their divisions would be ideal (for me). As long as its OGL material, comics, topical material, related to the market, and occasionally offered something from Wizards, or Paizo on a advertisement based level ( I.E. an artical relating to a release from either company).

 

[Arnwyn]

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?

Nope, for me.

I only purchase(d) DRAGON for WotC's IP, which is what I considered valuable. A bunch of OGL generic rules material, though? No way - that stuff is a dime-a-dozen already. (And the mechanics was certainly not the reason I ever purchased DRAGON.)

A replacement for Dungeon, OTOH, is what I'd buy. I have no problem with 3rd party adventures (in fact, I prefer them to WotC's stuff), so that's something I would buy. After Dungeon, Necromancer Games is my prime source of modules.

 

[Mark CMG]

I think the thing that no one can really speak to is how succeful any RPG mag would be in the absence of Dungeon and Dragon. Any previous attempt had that to compete with, such is no longer going to be the case. OTOH, any e-zine format will have WotC's Digital content to compete with, and so must have something to drive it.

Great points.

They have an established history.

Fair enough.

I mean new startup magazine circulation. Pretty hard to build readership these days.

For a print magazine? Maybe not so much hard as expensive. For an eZine, I'm not so sure it would be either.