D&D General Dragon+ Content Going Away -- Whoops, It's Gone!

WotC's online ezine, Dragon+, ended a few months ago. Until now the existing issues were still accessible, but as of today, November 15th, WotC announced that "Dragon+ will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available".

If you wanted to save any of the content, do it quick, because it goes away today!

[Edit -- and the content is now gone].

Update for Dragon+ Users

Earlier this year we announced that thelatestissue of Dragon+ would be its last. Here's how to stayinformed on coming D&D products, get tips, and more.

www.dndbeyond.com

Earlier this year we announced that the current issue of Dragon+ will be its last. Dragon+ will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

From 2008 to 2010, there was a casual game on Facebook called "D&D Tiny Adventures" that let you play simple solo adventures with a character you'd level up and develop over time. . .that disappeared almost instantly, as in they put up an announcement it was ending and had it gone later the same day. It turned out that the game was in violation of the licensing agreements WotC had for licensing out D&D video game rights, so as soon as the lawyers noticed it had to come down immediately.

I played that game!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I do think this is a waste of a legacy brand with remaining customer goodwill.

If they don't repurpose them -- maybe using "Dragon" for player-facing emails and "Dungeon" for DM-facing emails -- they should license out the magazine names to a third party.

 

[darjr]

They did say they had plans for Dragon specifically. I dint think they meant the DnDBeyond page.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I still say one of the biggest L's on Wizard's part was pretty much removing all of the fantastic 3.0/3.5 stuff they used to have on their website many moons ago. Lot of it was fantastic with lore, ideas, and what not.

Granted, there's still some work arounds to find most of it or what not, but still.

All those free adventures you can now buy on DmsGuild lol glad I saved them all.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

But frankly, as Wizardly a thing this is to do, I wish they had done the unwizardly thing and actually archived their library before banishing it to the graveyard…

Par for the course...
The listserv archives, old message board, legacy edition articles
... Like tears in rain.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

Wasn't Dragon+ mostly just ads and previews of upcoming WotC releases?

At least it felt that way to me in stark contrast to the meatiness of the original Dragon magazine.

 

[darjr]

Wasn't Dragon+ mostly just ads and previews of upcoming WotC releases?

At least it felt that way to me in stark contrast to the meatiness of the original Dragon magazine.

Mostly yea, it got better as time went on, and the interviews were cool. Same with some of the art and art previews. There were gems.

 

[jgsugden]

Same story as ever - something created through communal contribution gains popularity, people monetize it, then it gets strangled to death. D&D prospered because it was once a game that could generate hundreds of hours of fun per $ spent. Now we move further and further into the $/minute category.

 

[Blue]

I really feel the whole company and D&D, in general, have lost their way much as many things have.

I've become suspicious of "oh, things used to be so much better and now it's crap" without specifics. Deleting all their content is something they have done several times since WotC started their stewardship of D&D. Gleemax, their 3.x forum - so much gone. 4e compendium and online tools, heck even earlier with their offline character builder for 4e. This is same as they've always done - so what have they lost their way from that this is a harbinger of? If you've always done it this way, wouldn't it be more correct to say "they haven't lost their way and are on the same path"?

 

[Blue]

Same story as ever - something created through communal contribution gains popularity, people monetize it, then it gets strangled to death. D&D prospered because it was once a game that could generate hundreds of hours of fun per $ spent. Now we move further and further into the $/minute category.

Can you give an example? I've bought one book this year, Monsters of the Multiverse. While I don't use them, the hardcover adventures aren't shrinking in play length. Their production schedule hasn't changed.

I'm unhappy that adventures they gave away for free are now pay-for-access. But those aren't a major fraction of the D&D budget. So what's changed to go from hundreds of hours per $ to fractions of a minute per $?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Same story as ever - something created through communal contribution gains popularity, people monetize it, then it gets strangled to death. D&D prospered because it was once a game that could generate hundreds of hours of fun per $ spent. Now we move further and further into the $/minute category.

I spend more then I should, and I complain of price here a lot, but I feel there is still a lot of play you can get out of 2-4 books

 

[JEB]

The Wayback Machine appears to have archived many of the issues.

Unfortunately, having just checked, there are some pretty significant gaps. Not to mention that navigation between pages appears to be impossible. But if you use this specific link, you can at least see all of the content that did get archived before Wizards pulled the plug:

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

I do have a complete backup on my Dragon+ app on my phone, as I assume do others, but no idea what can be done to share it.

The worst part, as usual for these situations, is the loss of gaming history - all those interviews, in particular.

 

[darjr]

Well I blame this all in the 2e rules CD debacle

Oh! And the Dragon Magazine CD collection debacle!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well I blame this all in the 2e rules CD debacle

Oh! And the Dragon Magazine CD collection debacle!

Both of those were among the greatest things TSR ever produced.

 

[darjr]

Both of those were among the greatest things TSR ever produced.

And dropped like hot potatoes.

But otherwise I don't disagree.

 

[darjr]

For those wondering… The wording was: “we’re exploring new ways to further integrate this content” Nothing said it would be inaccessible.

 

[darjr]

Dragon+ magazine has been slain, with its site and app now deleted, so it's as dead as last year's lich. But you can still pick over its bones and download PDFs, thanks to the tireless gnomes of the
@internetarchive

Dragon+ Magazine : Wizards of the Coast : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Dragon+ Magazine ran from April 2015 to April 2022. It was the successor to Dragon Magazine, which originally ran as a paper magazine from 1975 to 2007, and...

archive.org

 

[Hussar]

Same story as ever - something created through communal contribution gains popularity, people monetize it, then it gets strangled to death. D&D prospered because it was once a game that could generate hundreds of hours of fun per $ spent. Now we move further and further into the $/minute category.

That might just be a bit of a stretch. My Candlekeep campaign is now just tipping over into 18 months. We play 3 hour sessions and we don't miss too many weeks, so, probably about 200 hours of entertainment for 6 people. So, that's about 1200 people hours of fun for about 30 bucks.

You cannot possibly have a cheaper hobby than RPG gaming.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I can understand not continuing it, but why remove all the previous content?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Same story as ever - something created through communal contribution gains popularity, people monetize it, then it gets strangled to death. D&D prospered because it was once a game that could generate hundreds of hours of fun per $ spent. Now we move further and further into the $/minute category.

That might be the case for you, but it’s definitely not my group’s experience. My group has spent way less on 5E than we did on 3.5E and we’re having just as much fun now with our games as we were a decade ago.