Dragon 397 - Table of Contents

[Zaukrie]

At 50,000 words, it is a shell of its former self. I would not say, at all, that it is back up. They delivered 1 adventure in February.

 

[Neverfate]

Release schedule of Class Compendium class articles as per Steve Winter's latest Dragon editorial

• Warlord (March)
• Fighter (April)
• Cleric (May)
• Rogue (June), and
• Wizard (July)

And the revision to Multi-class feats are coming "sooner rather than later" but no schedule yet.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

^^ link: Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Little Wars)

 

[wedgeski]

At 50,000 words, it is a shell of its former self. I would not say, at all, that it is back up. They delivered 1 adventure in February.

I think we should probably resign ourselves to its current state for the next few months at least. I too was extremely disappointed with February's output.

 

[delericho]

At 50,000 words, it is a shell of its former self. I would not say, at all, that it is back up.

Maybe, maybe not. Bear in mind that the electronic Dragon doesn't have adverts, and so should be shorter than the print version.

So, how does that 50,000 words compare with the 'active' word count of the late-Paizo Dragon? (Which, in terms of both size and quality, should be the target, IMO.)

They delivered 1 adventure in February.

I agree that that's a poor show, though. 3 adventures should be the minimum, being one for each tier.

 

[gourdcaptain]

If this is just errata behind a paywall for the warlord... That would be rather irritating.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I hope they don´t deliver a single adventure in DRAGON magazine... that´s what dungeon is reserved for...

I am really looking forward to the cleric and wizard article. Hopefully rituals make a great return there.

And of course, i am looking forward to the warlord, as this will show us if those articles are only a compiled and updated version of the former classes, or if we really get new content (like an at will that allows the use of an at will instead of a base attack or so...)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If this is just errata behind a paywall for the warlord... That would be rather irritating.

Hopefully it is a better compiled, better structured, and only slightly updated version.

I expect the cleric and the wizard to have a free ritual a day. And I somehow expect skill bonuses tied to the class. Maybe a feature here or there at later levels... but I could be wrong, as like you said, a too big update behind a paywall sounds wrong. Updates must be short enough to also fit into the free update document!

(An added line that allows the use of free rituals would not be out of this concept)

 

[MrMyth]

Maybe, maybe not. Bear in mind that the electronic Dragon doesn't have adverts, and so should be shorter than the print version.

So, how does that 50,000 words compare with the 'active' word count of the late-Paizo Dragon? (Which, in terms of both size and quality, should be the target, IMO.)

Not sure how it compares to the print edition. Keep in mind, that 50,000 word count is for the combined Dungeon and Dragon magazines.

Either way, where it fares poorly is in comparison with itself - for the first two years of DDI, we had 80,000 - 100,000 as the average word count, and sometimes well over that. For the last six months of 2010 we still had 60,000 - 80,000 as the average word count.

Suddenly, we're at 50,000 - 60,000. February clocked in at around 32,000 words. If you count the editorials and similar free articles, it got up to around 40,000, and up to 45,000 if you count the two missing articles that have showed up this week.

Still quite low, and without a single adventure released for the month - we had one 'adventure locale' (which was two basic encounters and some background for a location), and one expected adventure that is still missing.

Now, the quality of the articles and the content in them has been decent. I still hold out hope. But the current state of things definitely is a far drop from how things were a year ago, and not really a sustainable model for the magazine.

 

[delericho]

Not sure how it compares to the print edition. Keep in mind, that 50,000 word count is for the combined Dungeon and Dragon magazines.

Ouch. That really is quite poor.

Either way, where it fares poorly is in comparison with itself

Rookie DM lesson: it's better to give out too little and then increase the amount, than to give out too much and have to take it away.

The impression I got from the first couple of issues (prior to them going behind the paywall) was that they were close to the page count of the old magazines, and without the adverts. That is, we were getting quite a bit more. So, a reasonable drop wasn't too bad.

However, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the current combined total is actually less than a single print magazine. And that surely can't be considered acceptable?

(I know, I know, people subscribe for the tools, and the magazines are an added bonus, but still... if the future of D&D is in the DDI, then it has to rock, and that must include the magazines. Giving a bunch of D&D goodness every single month would be a great selling point. Giving dribbles of mediocrity... not so much.)

Still quite low, and without a single adventure released for the month - we had one 'adventure locale' (which was two basic encounters and some background for a location), and one expected adventure that is still missing.

The minimum should be 3 adventures per month, one for each tier.

Ideally, I think they should do five:

1 short zero-prep Heroic Delve
1 short zero-prep Paragon Delve
1 Adventure Path module (run 1 AP per year, lasting about 9 months, running across 15ish levels)
1 standalone adventure (H, P or E tier, whatever the AP isn't using)
1 setting-specific adventure (H, P or E, whatever's left)

This gives "something for everyone" - short adventures for the DM who needs something to run right now, longer adventures for DMs to drop into their campaigns, support for published settings, support for all tiers, and a monthly Adventure Path for the DM who wants a pre-canned campaign (and to generate buzz).

Now, the quality of the articles and the content in them has been decent. I still hold out hope.

A small amount of quality is better than heaping piles of crap. However, quality is extremely subjective, while word-count isn't. As such, it is dangerously easy for them to say they'll do 6 excellent articles per month instead of 12 poor ones, and then slip to doing 6 poor articles per month. Followed by "we'll do 3 excellent articles per month", and so it goes...

I really feel that the target WotC should be aiming for with the magazines should be to match the late-Paizo era, both in terms of word-count and quality. Make the magazines excellent, and they become a real selling point for the DDI. Make them poor (low quality or just too short), and they become a joke... in which case they're better off not doing them at all.