At what Cover Price do you Drop?

[The Lost Muse]

I do not subscribe to Dungeon or Dragon for two reasons:

1) I write all of my own adventures - and those few adventures I do get are published by Green Ronin Publishing.

2) I spend a good deal of time reading about RPG related stuff on the internet, and don't have time to read a magazine as well.

3) I have not been able to find Dragon or Dungeon in a bookstore and flip through a copy, and when I go to a gaming store, it is for specific products.

 

[kaomera]

$20. I'll buy nearly anything at $20 or less.

(Assuming I see a copy some time within two or three days after payday, otherwise I'm broke... )

 

[Vocenoctum]

Actually, at the moment, pretty much any price is too high to pay for Dragon. I can sit down in the bookstore with it and consume all of the content thats interesting to me in about 5 minutes . Most of that time is spent reading the comics and looking at the ads. The articles are usually of no interest to me anymore. I only used to buy the issues with DM advice on worldbuilding and such. Now all of that, what there is, is in Dungeon.

I'm currently a subscriber, and also finish the magazine in 5-10 minutes. Some of the stuff is interesting, some might even be useful, but dollar value wise it's probably not worth it for me.

Heck, even if it's something I like and will use, it's hard to remember which issue it's in anyway. At least with a book, I have a theme.

 

[FunkBGR]

As long as the quality keeps up, I'll keep buying it.

I refuse to subscribe - my FLGS needs my money, and Paizo gets some of that too, so everybody wins because I get a great magazine that I take home, read, put on a shelf, and pick up again anywhere from a week to a couple years later to use for something.

Dungeon even moreso, as the Adventure Path stuff has been highly worth the money I've paid.

 

[Imruphel]

(snip) Heck, even if it's something I like and will use, it's hard to remember which issue it's in anyway. At least with a book, I have a theme.

Yep, both magazines desperately need a proper index.

Back to the original question, I am not sure there is a practical limit for me. I have to wait two to three months for my subscription copies of both magazines to arrive (I live in Singapore and it was the same, or worse, when I lived in Australia) and I frequently buy copies of both magazines in my FLGS anyway.

My "rule" with RPG purchases is that as long as it works out cheaper than a movie ticket on a dollars per hour with the book basis. Something like the FRCS has proven to be absurdly cheap: I've spent scores of hours with that book which originally cost me about SGD60... or less than SGD1 per hour and thus much cheaper than a movie.

 

[Technomancer]

This is an interesting thread. One question... several people have mentioned that 5 bucks is their cap for a magazine: why is this? What would a magazine have to do to get you to spend more than 5 bucks on it? Or is it just a matter of principle about the fact that magazines tend to be on flimsy paper stock and filled with ads?

It's pretty much that (flimsy paper, filled with ads), but it also has to do with a comparison to other magazines. I can get just about any other magazine I want for under $5, so it seems like $7-8 is too much.

 

[JoeGKushner]

$8.50 is about right for a glossy full size magazine. Anything more than that needs to be double sized or full of porn, or both.

I can see it now.

"Getting it on with Planar Races" Want to know where all those tieflings and other breeds came from? Check out these new centerfolds and wonder no more!

"Alien Anatomy" While the sucubus looks human, her g-spot is in an entirely different spot. Our guide shows you where!

"Female Adventurers Need Love Too" Rub her just the right way to make those battle aches and pains go away!

Yeah, more cosmo in D&D I tell ya!

 

[diaglo]

$5 is my limit.

$5.50 was mine.

i haven't subscribed to Dragon in years.

 

[Maggan]

If the magazine delivers content to match a price tag, I will consider buying it. For me that's a simple equation. I won't disregard a magazine just because of the price, if the price is high, then I will want content to go with that.

That said, I don't buy the fancy computer games magazines, because their content don't IMO match their steep price here in Sweden (many go for $15 in the news stands here).

I buy Dragon and Dungeon at the present price level, and would probably hike along to say $10 without wanting any significant changes.

/M

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I have been a loyal customer of Dungeon since issue #7, first buying at my FLGS, currently on my tenth year as a subscriber. I don't see dropping my subscription anywhere in the near future unless the price becomes prohibitive.

I used to subscribe to Dragon, but its just too much. Information overload. Even with a proper index it would be too much to digest. So I let my subscription lapse. Whenever I think about starting it up again I look at the big stack of them in my gaming room and realize how little of the information there was ever used in my games.