Dragon #325 has arrived

[Dinkeldog]

I haven't gotten mine yet, either.

 

[Henry]

On that note, why doesn't it stack automaticly?

Guessing lack of foresight, because it seems to be an obvious one to stack, and there are always things that get missed in a product. In fact, the Mystic Theurge started life that very same way - because there was an obvious hole in the mutliclass system regarding the power levels of split-casters, and it helped to address it.

 

[Piratecat]

I didn't mean to argue politics, but obviously the issue was too close to political. It won't happen again.

Thanks. No worries. It's an emotional subject, so one we try to stay away from.

- PCat

 

[MKMcArtor]

Yeah, I'm gonna let my Dragon sub drop as well.... Can't stand having to wait three weeks or more for my sub to come, when it is sitting right there on the rack. Guess I'm one of those immediate gratification type guys.

As you might imagine, we on the editorial staff find this situation distressing. We are aware of the problem and I've heard that those higher up the food chain at Paizo are working on it, but that's basically all I know.

What bothers me about it is that if someone is already feeling some negative emotion about Dragon even before he or she receives it, that reader (being human) likely lets the momentum of those negative emotions tint his or her perception of the magazine when it finally does arrive. That leads to disgruntled readers, which ultimately leads to sad editors. ...and nobody wants a sad editor.

 

[Rahkan]

I wrotet he offending article

It's not my intention to bring politics into this, no. In fact the reason I find it distasteful is that the phrase is so clearly political at this time. I know that I personally will have a hard time reading the spell when I get the magazine and not seeing some sort of political affirmation in it, and I'd rather something like that not be in the magazine at all. Is it really so difficult not to name a spell "shock and awe" to avoid the political connotation?

I'm Rahul Kanakia, I wrote the offending article (yes I did look in this post just to find my name) and none of my spells was originally titled "shock and awe". I haven't seen the issue yet, so I don't know which spell they renamed, but please do not hate on me.

 

[BOZ]

so i wonder who is the offender then? did the editor try to be clever without thinking of the implications? or is that name not even in the magazine and someone just made a mistake?

 

[thalmin]

I'm Rahul Kanakia, I wrote the offending article (yes I did look in this post just to find my name) and none of my spells was originally titled "shock and awe". I haven't seen the issue yet, so I don't know which spell they renamed, but please do not hate on me.

This is the spell used during the surprise round only to keep someone flat-footed.

 

[Ant]

A solid issue though I was in two minds over "Mordenkainen's Art of War!" While I enjoyed the meta-gaming tactics discussed I was hoping for something a bit more, well, Mordenkainenesque. It looks like the editing staff were looking for a snappy headline for what could be seen as a slightly dry article and decided to slap the moniker of Greyhawk's favourite mage on it.

I can just picture it ....
Dragon guy #1: "Hey, we've got this submission about the tactics of using heavy-hitting spells."
Dragon guy #2: "Cool. Let's run with it. What should we call it?"
Dragon guy #1: "Hmm ... how about 'War Magic'?"
Dragon guy #2: "Good, but how are we going to get those miserable, old Greyhawk veterans to read it? You may as well call it 'The Lightning-Rail Riding War-Forged's Art of War'!"
Dragon guy #1: "Ummm ... I'm sure Mordenkainen's been in a war or two ..."
Dragon guy #2: "I like how you think, my stalwart companion! And now, to the alehouse and the buxom wenches contained therein!"

 

[Corinth]

I routinely get my copies of Dungeon and Dragon about two or three weeks after my FLGS gets their copies. It's bloody annoying to have to wait while others get to make use of the new hotness straight away.

 

[Erik Mona]

A solid issue though I was in two minds over "Mordenkainen's Art of War!" While I enjoyed the meta-gaming tactics discussed I was hoping for something a bit more, well, Mordenkainenesque. It looks like the editing staff were looking for a snappy headline for what could be seen as a slightly dry article and decided to slap the moniker of Greyhawk's favourite mage on it.

I think that's about exactly what happened. It won't happen again (at least not with a Greyhawk NPC!).

And we're well aware of the distribution problems. We've recently taken several steps to alleviate this problem, so I hope that things will get smoothed over in the course of the next couple months. We're very much "on the job" and are doing everything we can to solve this very annyoing issue.

Thanks,

Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon