d20 Magazines: Hit or Miss?

[Skald]

I'll spare you all a poll and just ask the general questions:

What is the general consensus among the forum toward independent d20 magazines, such as Asgard Magazine found here on EN World and Campaign Magazine by Corsair?

How do you feel they compare to official d20 publications such as Dragon and Dungeon Magazine?

Is the market overrun with other d20 magazines I am unaware of?

Do you find their d20 content useful?

What do you think of the quality of the d20 material found in them?

Would you consider submitting d20 material to one of them on a regular or irregular basis?

If you have a d20 company or product to advertise, would you be willing to do so in an independently published d20 magazine?

If the magazine is offered to the d20 public for free (like Asgard) does this make the idea attractive for gamers?

I was considering the possibility of putting some effort into organizing a free PDF style d20 magazine for Skald Books, but won't do so if there isn't enough or any interest.

Thank you for any replies.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

If the magazine is offered to the d20 public for free (like Asgard) does this make the idea attractive for gamers?

Thank you for any replies.

This is about the only question I can answer and my answer to it will tell why:

Nope. There are free emagazines out there, but it's not sufficient to attract me to it. I like magazines that I can hold in my hand and read while I'm on the toilet, at school, in the car, etc. Printing out the magazine makes it no longer free, which kills the whole free aspects.

I can't speak for other gamers in my area except for my group. For them, just about all online game content is worthless. They just don't get on the web looking for the stuff.

 

[Skald]

<bump>

Thanks for the reply Doc. I'm just looking for more.

 

[sppeterson]

I'm with Doc on this. When I float around the web I'm usually just taking a break from something and prefer short articles or columns I can read in less than half an hour. Message boards, news sites, and review sites do a nice job with that. For a magazine I'll sit down for a couple hours and read it or take it to a cafe so my wife doesn't frown at me for keeping her home all the time.

I *would* like to see a good d20 focused magazine in stores on a regular basis. Something like Gaming Frontiers but, er, a bit more like a magazine price. I sorta suspect that only WotC could get the distribution and market penetration to make that profitable though.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

I find them to be mostly "miss". Production values and layout/design are usually quite horrible. Maybe they might have 1 (or 2 at most) articles of interest. I never print the whole magazine out. I skim through it on the computer as fast as possible (to save reading time since most is of little to no interest to me), print whatever article I find useful, then delete them.

Specifically, out of the 5 online d20 mags I've read: I found nothing of interest in Realms of Evil's first issue and have found only two useful articles in the first four issues of Asgard (orc scarring rituals and point building your race/creating custom races, which was excellent).

They offer even less useful information than Dragon, which is very hit and miss (so much so I gladly let my subscription lapse; wish I could get my money back from the April Fools, Gnomes and d20 Annual issues---sheesh! ).

Dungeon magazine, even if you don't like the adventures as written (and I usually don't), is generally a good resource for salvaging maps and is now more interesting than ever with the inclusion of Polyhedron's "d20 mini-games" in each issue. I doubt I will ever get the chance to play any of them, but I enjoy reading them and always find something I can insert into my D&D game (like the scientist class from Pulp Heroes and the Action Points from Shadowchasers). Thanks to Polyhedron, I might even subscribe!

Just had to say it: Erik Mona is doing an *excellent* job with his new duties as editor of Polyhedron.

 

[Vaxalon]

Miss.

In every d20 magazine I've seen, including all three issues of Asgard, I've found one page I wanted to have, printed it out, and tossed the rest.

 

[Morrus]

Hmmm... maybe I should rethink Asgard. I'll give it another issue, since there's one nearly ready to go. It does get an awful lot of downloads (thousands), though.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Hmmm... maybe I should rethink Asgard. I'll give it another issue, since there's one nearly ready to go. It does get an awful lot of downloads (thousands), though.

Yes, it does, but how many of those downloading it actually read the whole thing, saved it to disk or printed the whole thing out? Perhaps a poll is in order? I think it has potential but needs an overhaul.

 

[Mark]

Why not meld Asgard into Natural20 Press (keep the distribution through EN World) and have Skald underwrite the production (and production costs) then split the revenues? Otherwise it's two competing mags with less useful content, instead of one trim mag that takes advantage of both entity's strengths... *shrug*

Obviously with thousands of downloads there a good deal of interest. Asgard's production values are limited mostly by MoRuss' time, skill and volunteered help but the high profile of EN World as a prime distribution point for an Ezine is about the best available.

Just two cents...

 

[Ulrick]

Mostly Miss.

I've checked out a couple d20 online magazines but they just seem to have stuff the simply doesn't interest me.

I occasionally pick up Dungeon Magazine after I've flipped through it to see if I could use something in it. Even then I like the ideas it can generate, and I do use the adventures within on occasion.

As for Polyhedron, I despise it and the RPGA horse it road in on. I can't believe I waited six months from when I signed up before I cancelled my membership--at least I got my money back. I didn't get one issue--at all, even when it combine with Dungeon. I bought the January issue of Dungeon/Polyhedron--looked at Dungeon--liked it; looked at Polyhedron and wondered what happened to the fantastic magazine I'd heard about.

I've still maintained my subscription to Dragon Magazine, but I'm not certain why. It's really strange, I don't know what to think of Dragon anymore. I remember when I first started buying Dragon around issue #200, back then it seemed like the Magazine had a lot of "crunchy" bits. Sure, every now and then the magazine had some bad issues but overall I was fairly satisfied.

Then just before 3e came out...the magazine went to crap. I was going to let the subscription run out. But the magazine became good again. It seems like it has its ups and downs. And everytime it goes down and I no longer want the magazine it goes up.

I think the main reason why I kept my subscription was I found out that the LGCJ was going to be included. I am a Greyhawk Fan, and I thought the articles on Death Knights were fantastic.
But yet I'd rather just get LGCJ by itself.

It's just not fair

From my observation, it seems like d20 magazines are suffering from too much quantity and lack of quality.

Ulrick