Dragon #335: Wow. It was relevant!

[Mercule]

Not really sure what could make Dragon particularly appealing to me.

In the old days, I always liked the alt.classes. Today, there are more PrCs, and even base classes, in the WotC hardbounds than I know what to do with. I guess seeing an alt.Ranger that made it a bit more to my liking would probably get it, but I don't see that happening.

Another thing I still refer to are the races articles, that helped flesh those out. While the "Races" series didn't really thrill me, it fills that niche enough that I'm not likely to look to Dragon for that.

For 3E, you'd think more feats would be welcome, but I've got a bigger glut of those than PrCs. This is similar to why I don't find the "Class Acts" appealing.

The ecologies are sometimes interesting, but, again, there are hardbounds for dragons, undead, and aberrations. Likewise, a lot of terrains are covered by the environment series.

The Greyhawk, FR, etc. bits are good, but they are sometimes too setting-specific (especially the FR sites). Since I run a homebrew, I'm mostly looking to loot. So, Greyhawk good, FR bad (based on how generic each tends to be).

I'd rather read fiction somewhere else. It's not a turn off, but it's definitely not a draw, either. Video game conversions are a huge turn off, though.

The Campaign Components were awesome. I'd still buy any Dragon that had one in it. Showing us how to evoke is certain flavor from D&D is definitely a good use of the magazine.

Bazaare of the Bizarre (or whatever the new name is) was usually useful or interesting. Sometimes the items seem too flavored, but it's still interesting.

The articles of the old days that I really remember are things like Tesseracts, "Be Aware, Take Care", "Critical Hits, Bad Misses", pain, titles for powerful characters, etc. I've still got themed issues on what the gods want and what moves them, building a city, etc.

 

[Steel_Wind]

So you're saying that the latest issue of Dragon is relevent to you because you are running Paizo's latest release. Paizo has always flogged/supported Wizards latest releases with companion articles. The only thing that's changed is this time they're supporting their own book. Nothing else has changed.

Uhmm, no.

The point was that while Dungeon is ENnie award winning and highly relevant to many ENworlders, Dragon has been a good less tasty for many years.

Instead of adding adventures into Dragon (as was suggested) - they are cross-promoting Dragon with Dungeon on a consistent basis. That would be "new" in the sense of "never been done before in nearly 20 years" new.

They have done this in the recent past on a one-off basis only with the Lich Queen invasion and again with the Dark Sun special.

They are now doing it consistently and with malice aforethought (as it were) as a regular feature.

That would be "new" and, in my view "improved" too.

 

[jester47]

It makes sense that dungeon and dragon articles should be symbiotic.

 

[Mercule]

Just thought of a perfect article/topic for Dragon: Using only the core 3 books, and without introducing new mechanics, talk about how to make a cleric feel more priestly, religious, and a servant to a particular deity, rather than an odd fighter/caster. Include builds for, say, a warpriest, a priest of oceans, a priest of music, a priest of death, a priest of healing, and priest of love.

Follow that up with full-length articles on the other core classes. Show us how a druid is different than a cleric of Ehlonna, and why they have the alignment and armor restrictions. Give us some info on what separates the fighter from the barbarian and warrior, and show us how to build a swashbuckler.

There are, what, 13 core classes? That'd be the Dragon equivalent of the Dungeon Adventure Path. And if an equivalent page count was devoted to it (in one article or several), I'd subscribe just like I did for the AP.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I was buying every issue, until the the last couple of issues which have too much forgotten realms material. This better be a short wave of FR stuff, otherwise I'll lose interest.

In his editorial column in #335, Erik announced that the featuring of official setting specific material shall continue - like it or not. To quote Erik:

The official settings are part of what makes D&D D&D, and they'll be covered here in the pages of Dragon. With a vengeance."

This was in direct response to the question of "go generic" vs. "go campaign world specific". While generic is not really "out" - campaign specific is now officially back "in."

As Erik has mentioned in the past, this is a way for Dragon to do what nobody else can do (expand on and write about WotC protected IP) - as well as permit Erik a chance to do "Greyhawk stuff" that he otherwise would not get the chance to do.

 

[Mercule]

It makes sense that dungeon and dragon articles should be symbiotic.

Actually, no.

I actually somewhat resent the fact that I have to shell out for another magazine just to get information on the modules I bought in Dungeon.

 

[Mercule]

The official settings are part of what makes D&D D&D, and they'll be covered here in the pages of Dragon. With a vengeance.

Hmm... That's unfortunate, and I disagree with the basic premise. One of the lures of D&D is that it doesn't include a setting. In over twenty years of gaming, I can't say using a prepared setting has ever added value to my game. At best, they are neutral.

 

[Yeoman]

335 was pretty good, with the ecology and bardic articles, class acts was good as usual (but let's see some of the complete X and psionic classes!), and with some tweaking the cohort article was pretty nifty. I did not like the fiction, but I guess it's here to stay. Also after reading the interview with Greenwood, I'm really hoping d&d does not go in the direction he talked about.

One article I would like to see come back would be one from the early 3e days of Dragon. It had descriptions of character archetypes and showed how to tailor your character towards those ideas. (By showing class/prestige class selections, feat recommendations) A lot of newer players I talked with really liked those sections. Also I do miss the prestige class introduced every month.

 

[Henrix]

Thanks, Steel Wind!

 

[Nareth]

One thing that everyone has to remember is that what might be relevant for *me* in an issue of Dragon won't be relevant to all of *you*. The opposite is true. I occasionaly find that there isn't anything in an issue of Dragon that I can use right away in my campaign. It's the nature of the medium. You can't please everyone all of the time. Then again, I do once in a while find myself looking for that missing piece, and suddenly remember that I saw something in a Dragon that I had overlooked before.

As for the whole Setting Specific V Generic Setting debate, I feel that Dragon would be doing its readership a HUGE disservice if it ignored or dropped one of those to focus exclusively on the other. You have to remember that Greyhawk, the Realms, and now Eberron are the worlds in which a huge number of people play. To not provide anything that speaks directly to these players and DM's would be a fatal error. And, as someone who has run both my own homebrew and games in the Realms, I wonder just how hard people think it is to take something from a specific setting and modify it to fit in their own world. Waterdeep isn't your thing? Change the name of the city to one in your world, make a few tweaks to make it fit, and there you are. Instant city. The same can be done with monsters and other important aspects of the game. It always greatly amuses me when people say they can't use something because it was "Written for the Forgotten Realms". People who make their own worlds are so creative that I can't understand how they can be unable to convert something for their own use.

Anyway, not wanting to turn this into a rant, but look a little closer at Dragon when you read it. Even if it won't work for you right away, or is written for a specific world, you can still very likely use it with a bit of adjusting. It's all about imagination, which is something that pretty much any D&D player has in abundance.