Echohawk
Shirokinukatsukami fan
Some observations after reading through this month's release of Dragon:
WotC has decided to switch the format of the electronic version of Dragon and Dungeon away from a series of individual articles and back to a once per month PDF release. This was done last month as an experiment, and in this month's editorial, it is confirmed as their new release format. Actually "back" to a once per month PDF release is misleading. For a while there was a monthly compilation in addition to the release of individual articles, but this is the first time the format has been single issue PDF only.
The developers/editors are now thinking of 4th Edition in the past tense. The first line of an insert in the succubus article reads: "In the 4th Edition D&D game, the gray line between demons and devils was more clearly defined". Despite this, there is a reasonable amount of new 4th edition crunch in the issue: seven new magic items, three new monsters, one NPC stat block, a new curse and a new ritual.
Most of the articles are edition neutral, or have a small amount of 4th Edition content. Only two articles (the Ecology of the Succubus and a magic item article) have a substantial amount of 4e crunch, and of those, the succubus article also has a lot of fluff on succubi, albeit fluff largely about their place in the 4e cosmology.
After a Planescape (or at least planar-heavy) issue, the last page teases new Greyhawk and Mystara content for December: Backdrop: Hochoch and Ye Olde Creature Catalogue which promises the return of the decapus, magen, rhagodessa, and thoul. Based on recent Dragon/Dungeon content, there is clearly a move back towards wider support for campaign settings as well as rules editions.
WotC has decided to switch the format of the electronic version of Dragon and Dungeon away from a series of individual articles and back to a once per month PDF release. This was done last month as an experiment, and in this month's editorial, it is confirmed as their new release format. Actually "back" to a once per month PDF release is misleading. For a while there was a monthly compilation in addition to the release of individual articles, but this is the first time the format has been single issue PDF only.
The developers/editors are now thinking of 4th Edition in the past tense. The first line of an insert in the succubus article reads: "In the 4th Edition D&D game, the gray line between demons and devils was more clearly defined". Despite this, there is a reasonable amount of new 4th edition crunch in the issue: seven new magic items, three new monsters, one NPC stat block, a new curse and a new ritual.
Most of the articles are edition neutral, or have a small amount of 4th Edition content. Only two articles (the Ecology of the Succubus and a magic item article) have a substantial amount of 4e crunch, and of those, the succubus article also has a lot of fluff on succubi, albeit fluff largely about their place in the 4e cosmology.
After a Planescape (or at least planar-heavy) issue, the last page teases new Greyhawk and Mystara content for December: Backdrop: Hochoch and Ye Olde Creature Catalogue which promises the return of the decapus, magen, rhagodessa, and thoul. Based on recent Dragon/Dungeon content, there is clearly a move back towards wider support for campaign settings as well as rules editions.
