A Replacement for DRAGON?

[Tinner]

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

 

[GreatLemur]

Count me in among the "I want a new Dragon and I don't care who publishes it" crowd. I'm a lot more interested in new, modular crunchy bits than adventures set in somebody else's world. It'll be a shame not to see new Warlock invocations and martial adept maneuvers among all that crunch, but I'm plenty open to interesting new classes and subsystems that Wizards of the Coast didn't create.

 

[Vrecknidj]

At only 4 issues per year, and with so much non-D&D content, Knowledge Arcana isn't exactly the answer to your desires.

However, we do have WotC content. If someone wants to publish an adventure with critters from any of the books, including PI, Knowledge Arcana can do it.

Just sayin'.

Have you checked issue 9? There's a cool adventure in there. And we've had a few cool adventures in recent issues too.

Dave

 

[Davelozzi]

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.

Drop the "most likely" and this would sum up my position exactly.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Never bet on Internet Angst.

DO a pre charge ransom model with 1K (1/50th the number of subscribers Dragon had right) and see how quickly you get a greenlight.

 

[Nellisir]

Drop the "most likely" and this would sum up my position exactly.

Ditto. I think it'd be hard for a new magazine to match the existing quality, materials-wise, of Dragon & Dungeon. I picked up a few of the early d20 attempts, and the cheap paper and cheap art were major turnoffs. I'd be -interested- in a 3rd-party OGL magazine, but it'd have to be -good-, -quality-, and -really- use the OGL for me to buy more than one issue.

I'll be honest, the free pdf copy of each issue of Pathfinder, with a subscription, is a MAJOR attraction. That switched me from "might pick up a few copies" to "will probably get a subscription" (plus the first adventure path sounds like something I'd actually use!)

Paizo, quite simply, has a huge headstart, and they can use Dragon and Dungeon to "launch" their new endeavor. Meet the new gorilla, same as the old gorilla....

 

[WhatGravitas]

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.

And that's the reason. Without the D&D license, they don't have that much materials. Remember, the best articles are stuff like the "Core Beliefs" or the "Demonomicons" -without license... nothing. The class acts? Only for core without license. Tie-ins? Gone. What's left? Generic core crunch. Perhaps some players' advice. Some ads, reviews... but they would lose the prestigious access to newer books and, most importantly, the flavour.

As much as I like the crunch in Dragon... without the access to fluff, it'd devolve in a "monthly Complete Whatever". Erik Mona made Dragon great, but it involved embedding a load of fluff into it. Without the license... yeah. I'm sure Paizo could pull something great with it... but to full the entire magazine without "fillers"? Perhaps not that good.

The Pathfinder, incorporating about half of it as AP and the rest of it with articles are probably the way to go.

Too bad, we won't have a place for freelancers now...

 

[haakon1]

360

And that's the reason. Without the D&D license, they don't have that much materials. Remember, the best articles are stuff like the "Core Beliefs" or the "Demonomicons" -without license... nothing. The class acts? Only for core without license. Tie-ins? Gone. What's left? Generic core crunch. Perhaps some players' advice. Some ads, reviews... but they would lose the prestigious access to newer books and, most importantly, the flavour.

I just had an interesting plot idea. What if "360", as in the missing next Dragon issue, and turning the tables 360 on WOTC, continued to be published. No license, just do it. Arr, there be pirates/civil disobedience, we own it, the Man don't.

I'm thinking someone could publish it from China or Venezuela, someplace that really doesn't care who owns the rights to the flumph. It would be neat to see WOTC in a huff over "untraceable" articles signed by Kire Anom or Yrag Xagyg. Of course, Hasbro would get an injunction on it being physically imported, so we'd be back to a web publication soon enough . . .

 

[DaveMage]

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?

Nope.

 

[eyebeams]

I have a feeling that much of the emotion comes from people wanting the print magazines to be around -- not actually because lots and lots of people wanted to read them regularly. It was somehow comforting having these publications around, even if you didn't pick them up regularly.

Is there a market for a print RPG magazine? I think so, but I don't think it'd be an all-d20 one without official content. Smaller hobbies have print publications that do okay.

I think you'd need the following:

1) Industry leader cooperation. The top 5 must consider the magazine to be *the* magazine of the hobby. You need to rely on "see the interview in RPG Magazine" showing up on their sites. This will be difficult because of the fractious nature of the hobby.

This is the critical thing. Unless the magazine represents itself as the hobby flagship *right out of the gate* and creates significant anticipation as such, it won't really succeed.

2) Weighted segmentation of the subject matter, maybe 40% relevance to D&D gamers (not just d20, but the traditional fantasy genre), 40% general genres and other popular games (White Wolf, SF, etc.) and 20% indie/small press.

3) Web content, including editorial blogs and a newsfeed.

4) A core editorial staff that do more than filter submissions, so that there's some continuity of content. This staff needs to have a positive but *independent* relationship with companies. RPG journalism is basically in the toilet because it's either wild speculation from the outside or corporate promotion. Compare with computer game journalism.

5) A comprehensive marketing and promotion campaign, ramping up to a first issue with book trade sales, hobby trade sales and some base submissions.

6) Top of the line presentation. That means production values that might not be Dragon quality, but are a step up from Polymancer.

7) because of the above, you'd need a significant amount of money.