Columns You Want To See

[JoeGKushner]

1. Legend & Lore: It's been a long time away. Heck, pretty much skipped third edition. With the new way they handle NPCs, I'd love to see them do various characters from history and myth for the new edition, especially those old monsters as their iconic status where it was generally one monster instead of a type of monster.

2. Creature Catalog: This one is also older than dirt and was done once for 3.5. It's a whole lot of monsters, essentially a mini-monster manual, but very handy.

3. Dragon's Beastiary: A smaller version of the above but much more often in play.

4. Bizzare of the Bazzar: Looks like this is upcoming but I want it to be monthly.

5. Pages From the Mages: Rituals man! The game needs rituals. Ed's old spells were some of the greats and brought life to the Forgotten Realms long before the boxed set ever came out.

6. Demonomicon: We've got one down and another coming up. More please.

Any other old favorites out there?

 

[Rechan]

Not an oldie, but something I want to see:

Features of the Area.

With 4e's exception based design, you can just drop little fantastical terrain or other objecets in the game that are part of the area and are inherently magical or at least interesting.

Little things like more fantastical or mundane terrain. Or things like this:

• Anyone adjacent to this Magic Circle on the ground is pushed 1 when hit by a close or area attack originating from inside the circle.
• This magical statue of a shield-baring defender offers protection to all. Being adjacent to this statue provides cover versus all attacks.

Yes, it seems like such small effects that anyone can come up with, but since they're so small and easy to come up with, generating a list of 50 or so should not be difficult. Especially when you try to get really creative (The Mirror Crystal, DMG 68, is my favorite).

Encounter Spice

This is similar to the above, but a little more different. These are features to encounters that provide rewards (Major or Minor quest equivalent of XP). Things like:

• There's a hostage who needs to be rescued. If the hostage is still alive at the end of the scene, it's worth a reward.
• The cultists have a black gemstone that bolsters their powers. If it's destroyed then it is worth a reward.
• Great glowing runes are inscribed on one wall of the cavern. If someone takes the time to read them out loud (probably requiring an Arcana check) then it weakens the undead, reveals some history and pays out in xp.
• Horntooth needs to be taken alive. Do it, and it's worth a reward.

(above examples stolen from Rob Donoghue.)

 

[ronin]

I was really looking forward to the "Designing Skill Challenges" article but it doesn't appear to have made the cut this month.

 

[mattdm]

5. Pages From the Mages: Rituals man! The game needs rituals.

Yes. The Ritually Speaking article was excellent, and I hope there's more of it. Honestly, I think I'd pay $5/month if all the magazine did was print a couple of dozen new rituals every time.

 

[HelloChristian]

I always liked the Role of Books column from way back. i liked reading reviews of good fantasy/sci-fi novels.

A long time ago, Dragon used to run reviews of miniatures. The column was always intelligent and well-written. In my own feeble way, the "I dream in 25mm." column in Iridia seeks to emulate it.

 

[Jack99]

I was really looking forward to the "Designing Skill Challenges" article but it doesn't appear to have made the cut this month.

November 7th instead.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I always liked the Role of Books column from way back. i liked reading reviews of good fantasy/sci-fi novels.

A long time ago, Dragon used to run reviews of miniatures. The column was always intelligent and well-written. In my own feeble way, the "I dream in 25mm." column in Iridia seeks to emulate it.

There were some good painting articles in there too.

 

[Glyfair]

3. Dragon's Beastiary: A smaller version of the above but much more often in play.

In the old days this was one monster, which is short for an article today. In 4E, it's viable because one monster can include half a dozen variations for roles and levels.

This should be monthly.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In the old days this was one monster, which is short for an article today. In 4E, it's viable because one monster can include half a dozen variations for roles and levels.

This should be monthly.

Not always one monsters. Sometimes it was themed. Some great stuff in them der pages and yes, it should be monthly!

Oh, and to add...

Themed Issues: I always love the halloween issues. So much good horror stuff. I remember the collosus of 2nd edition as well as the plethora of vampires. Great stuff there. The various annuals with a focus on dragons and all things dragonic are also top notch. Love to see the Iron Dragons updated for 4e for the next issue. And while new, the classics revisited issues were very solid works as well.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

A lot of ones posted are great, especially like; Features of The Area.

One I would like to see would be; Setting Travelogue:

-Gives advice for different styles of Campaigns and Settings.
-Gives optional rules for those Settings.
-Has special rules, monsters, items for those Settings.
-etc.

Basically building radically upon what is in the DMG when it comes to other campaign settings.

This would be personally very, very, very nice for me since it would cut down on my work as a DM. Since I rarely set up campaigns in settings that are normal D&D-fantasy.