Dragon 326

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

never mind...

 

[lior_shapira]

As long as we're complaining on shipping times At least people in most civilized countries can find Dragon/Dungeon in their FLGS. In Israel my FLGS (which is the only one I know of in Israel) doesn't bring Dragon/Dungeon, they claim that they'd have to sell it at such a price (about 15$ per issue) that it's not worth importing it.
And an international subscription is soooo expensive I can't afford it, so I'm s***ed on both fronts

What I would have liked to see, is the option to buy back issues of Dragon/Dungeon at subscription prices, or slightly above that. Or perhaps a year's pack of magazines (the 2004 collection). That way it would be shipping-wise economic

lior

 

[Saurstalk Tryst]

I think I'm in the minority here, but I'd love to see Class Acts go away. I usually find one, at most two of the classes articles in each issue worthwhile. The overabundance of flaws articles have really been the biggest waste. How can so much space be devoted to a variant rule from Unearthed Arcana, while epic, psionics, and Oriental Adventures are virtually ignored?

Winning Races has, on the other hand, been a delightful surprise. When I first heard about it, I groaned, thinking "gee, we need another playable race like a hole in the head". But seeing the grippli and lupins converted to 3E has made it more than worthwhile. This month's was a bust, though. I have no interest in Savage Species-style class progressions.

I actually like the idea of flaws and would like to see this developed with more regularity. HOWEVER, I agree that epic, psionics and OA have been horrifically neglected. FURTHER, I agree with other posters that a bit more regularity to Planescape would be nice. (Heck, a bit on Spelljammer and Dark Sun would be nice, too.)

Winning Races and Prestige Classes are always nice to see included. I also like the new approach to "Themed Magic Items."

What I miss are actual Dragon Magazine "theme" issues where everything tends to tie together in some fashion. Granted, Dungeon Delver, Labryinth and Sewers all have some relations, but it would have been great to have seen the spells, feats, PrC, race and Class Acts offer tie-ins, too. Heck, committing to a broad-based theme shouldn't be to off-putting for your subscribers. But I'm not in your shoes and may have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.

 

[Alzrius]

I finally got my copy today, so I can make mention of what I thought.

While I like Dragon, I don't think the current format is the best one. The monthly theme this month was given three articles, and only one had a bit of crunch (two magic items and two feats). The rest of the monthly articles had nothing to do with the theme.

While I think that there is some merit to the idea of having a lot of smaller articles that independantly cover the crunch, leaving room for the fluff, trying to divide it so clearly isn't helping matters, IMHO.

As it stands now, I feel like the monthly themes are being somewhat underrepresented due to them taking up far less than half of the magazine's pages (even after figuring in ads and such). While it makes sense to have colums like "Silicon Sorcery", "Winning Races", and "Novel Approach" (three articles I love) not be about the theme, it seems nonsensical to have the sections on new spells, magic items, and feats be likewise divorced from what the flavor of the month is.

It's great to have the crunch be more codified so it doesn't choke the fluff to death, but the current format goes too far. Things need to be reintegrated just a bit more. Class Acts has got to go though.

Oh, and I just want to add that it was great seeing Ravanna again. After a hiatus of two-hundred-forty-two issues, the rakshasa god returns to Dragon!