An Open Letter to Dragon and Dungeon Readers

[jaerdaph]

Personally I'm not real happy about Polyhedron getting dropped, but I totally understand the sound reasons why you have to do it.

Hopefully this will be an opportunity for somebody else to step up to the plate with a d20 System/d20 Modern magazine...

 

[Tortoise]

The “New” Dragon

Starting with Issue #323, Dragon Magazine opens its pages to a new era of utility and power. In addition to its usual complement of material that provides D&D roleplaying gamer with the tools they need to raise the level of their play experience, DRAGON will widen its coverage to include articles and information about all aspects of the D&D brand. Whether you knock down dungeon doors in the tabletop RPG, command warbands with the D&D Miniatures game, invade the Underdark online with your closest friends, or enjoy reading about the exploits of your favorite characters, the ‘new’ Dragon magazine is THE source for information and content about your favorite aspects of Dungeons & Dragons. Starting with issue #323, Dragon will contain a bonus quarterly Catalog detailing upcoming D&D releases from Wizards of the Coast, so you’ll have the scoop on the latest products all gathered in one place.

And lest you think we’re skimping on RPG content, the ‘new’ Dragon will have something for every RPG’er, no matter what character they play. With features like the new Class Acts—which provides content for every core D&D character class EVERY issue—and Winning Races—a column that offers a new PC race or monster class progression each issue— Dragon will continue its tradition of providing the best D&D RPG content to its readers.

The “New” Dungeon

Beginning with issue #114, Dungeon magazine becomes the ultimate resource for Dungeon Masters. Each issue will contain three adventures, one each for low-, medium-, and high-level play. So, no matter the experience level of your party, DUNGEON’S got you covered every single month. In addition to the high-quality adventures you’ve come to expect from the magazine, Dungeon will expand its offerings to include articles and other content written specifically to help DMs take their game to the next level. From old favorites like the ever-popular Dungeoncraft by Monte Cook, to new features like the Campaign Workbook—a section devoted to providing tools specifically designed to enhance a DM’s ability to create lively and adventurous campaigns—the “new” Dungeon offers experienced DMs and players interested in taking up the reigns of Dungeon Mastering everything they need to be successful.

In order to provide this in-depth offering, Dungeon will now focus exclusively on Dungeons & Dragons—delivering even more high-quality D&D coverage. We listened to your feedback, and it was clear that by trying to serve D&D fans, the d20 market, Star Wars fans, and the RPGA, our magazine wasn’t completely succeeding at delivering the highest quality experience for any of those groups. We know that many of you subscribed to Dungeon for the complete mini-games and articles about Star Wars d20 and D&D Modern. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of you to offset those who left the magazine due to the decrease in the D&D content each issue. The D&D players felt we weren't giving them enough D&D content, and the Polyhedron readers felt that we shorted the d20 stuff. For this reason, after careful thought and some soul searching, we’ve decided to end the long run of Polyhedron Magazine and focus on being the best resource for Dungeon Masters. Regular RPGA updates will transfer to Dragon magazine to reach the largest number of D&D gamers around the world, and we’ll continue to include RPGA Player Reward adventure codes for each Dungeon adventure. With Network material in both magazines, Dragon and Dungeon will support the RPGA like never before.

Finally, each issue of the magazine will feature Wil Save, a regular column of gaming observations penned by none other than Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame.

Thanks for the information. The change in store for Dungeon is long overdue. MAking it the DM resource it should be is a great step in the right direction. I am 2 issues away from the end of my Dungeon subscription and would have been quite content to let it lapse if not for this news.

I'm curious to see what Dragon will be like. I'm one of those who thought that the Poly content would have been best served by being in Dragon instead of Dungeon. Looking at the history of Dragon when I first began picking it up (back around issue #52) it seems that what I saw as great about it then has gradually gone away. Becoming simply a mouthpiece for Wizards of the Coast and D&D alone has allowed some of the flavor to escape. Poly had some of that flavor and I wouldn't mind seeing it mixed into Dragon occasionally without being labelled as a subsection.

I've already seen some people groaning about Wil Wheaton writing for the mags and all I can say to those folks is this ... Wil grew up and has gone on to other things. He is not Wesley Crusher (thank goodness). Give him a chance. If you want a preview of his sense of humor and his real personality then check out his website. You might be pleasantly surprised. Besides, it can't hurt the hobby to have celebrity support and participation. I'm looking forward to him coming aboard.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Paizo guys - a question. Can you give us an update on the web site? I know you have made some moves into adding more content there (e.g., the Challenge of Champions V handouts). What else is planned? Thanks!

 

[Jai Kel]

I believe I just received my last issues of both Dungeon and Dragon because I let my subscription die. Only Dungeon had some small hope of getting renewed by me, but while an initial proponent of merging Poly and Dungeon, I have found myself thinking that more Dungeon would have been much more satisfying.

With this announcement I believe I will re-subscribe to Dungeon.

I'll wait and see about Dragon...

 

[BryonD]

Dragon:
Overall sounds good. I do not have any desire for expansion into the non-tabletop-RPG stuff. But I certainly see me maintaining a subscription here. Computer gaming and other side topics have been in and out for a long time and have never been a BAD thing before. I'll take them.

Dungeon:
Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah
The product I wanted returns. And you are even giving me a Wil Wheaton page so I can put post-it notes in each issue without worrying about covering up anything important.

I expect to re-subscribe very soon.

Any chance there will be a simple way to take up new supscriptions that start promptly with the new format?

Thanks

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Dungeon: Not surprising either, and completely eliminates my desire to ever pick it up again. I've never understood why so many D&D players were so opposed to sharing content with other games and so dependent on a single source for gaming ideas, but then again our group mostly does our own and doesnt use that many packaged adventures. Biased or not, this completely bites for me. The minigames and even short articles on d20 games that are not D&D kept me going on this magazine and almost had me re-subscribing instead of just buying so many off the rack. Now I'll just have to thank you for the time I'll save by completely skipping Dungeon on the rack in the future.

I couldn't have said it better, so I'll just echo these sentiments. The one silver lining I can see in this decision is that if in a year or two Dungeon joins Polyhedron in the periodicals graveyard, the reason will be unambiguous.

 

[Faraer]

I also am apparently outside the largest segments of the Dragon audience (but what about your *potential* audience?) -- pandering to powergaming players even more than before repels me (and I suspect will work against WotC's drive for new players, since the rules-fetishist culture is a major barrier to many non-roleplayers). Covering all aspects of the D&D 'brand' is inevitable and I think it's churlish for RPG-only people to begrudge that as with Star Wars Gamer and Polyhedron-in-Dungeon.

Erik Mona's comments give me more hope: a magazine with Realms and Greyhawk each issue (and prestige classes aren't content to me) as well as good adventures (including some named-world ones by people who understand those worlds) is one I'll buy.

 

[diaglo]

as an aside and probably Off Topic.

who is Wil Weaton and why should i care?

if it were Gary Gygax or Skip Williams or even Tom Wham i might be even more giddy.

but what makes Wil so special?

you've got me on this one.

 

[billd91]

We'll continue to support the Living Greyhawk campaign in Dungeon with "Living Greyhawk Approved" articles similar to the City of Hardby we ran in #109. Dungeon #114 also has an adventure usable as an introduction to the LG campaign, set in the city of Greyhawk. Dungeons #117, 118, 119, and 120 will contain a massive four-part poster map of the World of Greyhawk similar to the FR map published in Dragon a couple years ago. Wolf Baur's got a module on tap set in the Land of Black Ice, and I've also got Sean Reynolds at work on a Greyhawk adventure. Greyhawk fans will have lots to like about the new Dungeon (as will Eberron and Forgotten Realms fans--lots of exciting stuff for those settings coming up as well).

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine

Well, that's good. It may keep me as a subscriber after all. I was quite happy a number of months back when Dungeon was going to cut down the number of mini-games, host Living Greyhawk material, and some Star Wars and d20 Modern. I'll be very sad to see all Star Wars support go from the magazines.

Like some other respondants on this thread, I'm surprised that so many D&D players were so vehemently opposed to sharing a magazine with any other games. I remember the days when Dragon was a general gaming magazine even if most of its content was devoted to D&D. Scenarios for Squad Leader would pop up, game reviews, articles for Traveller, stories about the background to Diving Right. I stopped subscribing to Dragon after many years because it dropped too much non-D&D content. Since then, I've only picked up select issues that grab my fancy for specific articles.
What ever happened to general game magazines. Or for that matter, if those magazines don't have enough of a consumer base, whatever happened to general gamers who played many different games?

 

[billd91]

as an aside and probably Off Topic.

who is Wil Weaton and why should i care?

if it were Gary Gygax or Skip Williams or even Tom Wham i might be even more giddy.

but what makes Wil so special?

you've got me on this one.

Wil Wheaton is an actor. He played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: Next Generation. And even though his character was extremely annoying from time to time, his blog has been very popular with the fanboy and gamer crowd.
I think it's good to get a regular column from someone outside the gaming industry. Fresh perspective and all that.