D&D 5E Dragon/Dungeon Magazines?

[exile]

I don't think we will see a 5e era Dungeon. I think WotC is heavily promoting in store play. There are special rewards (commerce certificates) available for playing HotDQ as Encounters sessions. Expeditions are really only avaialble through stores. Providing adventures that can be played at home seems to be in opposition to this. That said, if a 5e era Dngeon is produced, I expect that some of the adventures will be sanctioned for store play. Of course you can choose to play them at home; but if you play them at an approved store, you can use your AL character, or get a commerce certificate for whatever treasure you find, or somesuch.

For that matter, I'm not sure we will get a 5e era Dragon either. Dragon has often featured new classes, races, abilities, etc.; and there doesn't seem to be much call from the player base for these things for 5e. In fact, my general impression is that the player base does not want 5e to become cluttered with such things.

In hopes that this doesn't come off as an entirely negative post, here is an open ended question. What would you (the general you) like to see out of a 5e era Dragon?

 

[Bumamgar]

A few thousand forum posters is not a representative sample of the player base.

I for one would be extremely sad if Dungeon and Dragon don't return for 5e.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

If you subscribe to D&D insider, are the magazines in pdf form or do you lose them if you don't renew your subscription?

 

[Shroomy]

If you subscribe to D&D insider, are the magazines in pdf form or do you lose them if you don't renew your subscription?

They're PDF; if you sign up for a month-long subscription, you can download them all, which is a pretty good deal.

 

[VorpalBunny]

A few thousand forum posters is not a representative sample of the player base.

I for one would be extremely sad if Dungeon and Dragon don't return for 5e.

Heartily seconded. It wouldn't be the same without 'em.

 

[Shroomy]

I'd guess that the style of adventure presentation (emphasis on encounters) has more to do with any disparaging of 4E Dragon. I think the writers typically did what was asked of them, well enough. Maybe that's what you mean, though.

The tactical encounter format wasn't my favorite and I wasn't exactly sad to see it go (I think it's a definite reason why 4e Dungeon really improved from 2011-2013); that said, even with the restrictions of that format and 4e's tendency towards set piece combat encounters, a lot of writers put out a lot of excellent work. For the most part, all the Dark Sun adventures were excellent and you couldn't go wrong with stuff by Chris Perkins, John Rossomangno, Daniel Marthaler, Craig Campbell, Andrew Schneider, Jared Espley, Will Doyle, and many others (hopefully, people regard my adventures similarly).

 

[Rygar]

I don't think we will see a 5e era Dungeon. I think WotC is heavily promoting in store play. There are special rewards (commerce certificates) available for playing HotDQ as Encounters sessions. Expeditions are really only avaialble through stores. Providing adventures that can be played at home seems to be in opposition to this. That said, if a 5e era Dngeon is produced, I expect that some of the adventures will be sanctioned for store play. Of course you can choose to play them at home; but if you play them at an approved store, you can use your AL character, or get a commerce certificate for whatever treasure you find, or somesuch.

For that matter, I'm not sure we will get a 5e era Dragon either. Dragon has often featured new classes, races, abilities, etc.; and there doesn't seem to be much call from the player base for these things for 5e. In fact, my general impression is that the player base does not want 5e to become cluttered with such things.

In hopes that this doesn't come off as an entirely negative post, here is an open ended question. What would you (the general you) like to see out of a 5e era Dragon?

There are many ways that WOTC can kill D&D's chances of success, very few of them are as bad as not releasing Dungeon and Dragon.

Most potential players will have little idea what they're doing when they first start playing, many more are time limited or imagination limited and cannot homebrew dungeons. Without Dungeon Magazine, WOTC has to fill that gap with a high rate of adventures, something we can already see they're not doing. Dungeon magazine allows them to give new players a steady stream of quality material while they're learning, or to facilitate play when time or imagination prevents homebrewing adventures.

Many potential players and even existing players thrive on an influx of new material and grow bored without it. Dragon Magazine provides a steady stream of material at a very reasonable price.

Dragon Magazine offers other benefits as well, it historically has introduced game ideas and play concepts that people might otherwise not think of: Uses for monster's body parts, alchemy, ideas for non-standard loot, and so many more things.

Without Dungeon and Dragon, I suspect WOTC's going to find that D&D's market size is very limited. I think they would be unable to acquire time limited and imagination limited players, I think new players would struggle with generating quality material, and I think people will become bored without an influx of material and ideas for gameplay. I think it would be a huge mistake to overlook or underestimate Dungeon and Dragon's contribution to D&D's success over the years.

 

[VorpalBunny]

Without Dungeon Magazine, WOTC has to fill that gap with a high rate of adventures, something we can already see they're not doing. Dungeon magazine allows them to give new players a steady stream of quality material while they're learning, or to facilitate play when time or imagination prevents homebrewing adventures.

EXACTLY. Historically, WotC hasn't embraced adventures in the same way that say, Paizo has. We get Rise of Tiamat this month then there's nothing on the horizon until March, 2015 with Princes of the Apocalypse. This of course can be Hasbro's management, because let's face it, published adventures are geared as a DM only purchase - which means at best, 1/4 to 1/2 of people that bought the Player's Handbook will buy published adventures.

I think the best way to keep momentum, as well as showcase what your shiny new ruleset can do would be to release a bunch of new adventures steadily - something Dungeon does very well. The mag serves as a way to get stuff out there with less overhead than a published book, and I think a 50% player circulation would still be good enough numbers to justify the expense of putting it together.

 

[exile]

I agree that Dungeon is an awesome asset to the game (and Dragon can be too). I would personally hate to see either of them die and stay dead. But I feel that with 5e there is such an emphasis on in store play, I'm just not sure if there is a place for the magazines. For what it is worth, I hope that there is a place for the magazines, and I hope it is not tied tightly to stores.

 

[Bumamgar]

I really don't get the impression that there is an emphasis on in-store play. I do feel like WotC is trying to do 'better' with it's in-store programs but certainly there's nothing in the currently published offerings that favors organized play over non-organized play.