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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pseudopsyche" data-source="post: 5059052" data-attributes="member: 54600">I was just perusing the tables of contents for Dragon and for Dungeon, and I noticed a definite trend in the balance of crunch versus fluff.  If you look at Dungeon 173, the most recent complete issue, we see three adventures, a few how-to columns and articles (Dungeoncraft, Ruling Skill Challenges, the Adventuring Armies article), and then four pieces that contain either half fluff or almost all fluff: Ecology of the Mithral Dragon, Eye on the Realms, Explore Fairhaven, and Campaign Workbook.  It's Dragon that's almost entirely short articles chock-full of powers, with some Essentials and Role articles offering player advice.Even the crunch articles usually have a brief fluffy introduction, but the strategy seems clear to me.  The DM gets most of the fluff, since the DM has to decide what story elements to include in the campaign world.  The players gets mostly crunch, which they can run by the DM, and which the DM is encouraged to incorporate into their campaign.  Perhaps the idea is that crunch is easier for the DM to incorporate (and reskin), if you're going to create the expectation that DMs should say yes to including whatever players fancy from Dragon.</blockquote>