D&D 5E Dragon/Dungeon Magazines?

[Mercule]

We're not likely to see dead tree mags of Dungeon or Dragon ever again. Compilations, perhaps. Almost all magazines are struggling badly these days - paper cost is way up, and readership is generally down.

I'd be OK with PDFs, including the way DDI handled Dragon and Dungeon. In fact, that might be a toss-up with actual print versions.

I just want some quality content on a regular basis that doesn't think it has to be part of some grand hardcover. I'm also quite fond of the way Dragon of the 1980s was willing to publish multiple, potentially conflicting, subsystems for things.

That was one of the best things about "old school" D&D: It had a solid, stable core (no "living game" foolishness) but was very open to both house rules and polished, professional options. I guess that a splat-book feels like it's official/core/semi-mandatory in a way that Dragon never did. I like the Dragon model better. YMMV

 

[ziltmilt]

Possibly never.

WotC might not have the staff to run a magazine anymore. And licensing the service out seems dubious, as I can't imagine many publishers willingly getting into the magazine game.

Yeah, licensing probably wasn't a great long-term strategy for those magazines. They created major competition.

I wonder if a better approach might be to cull the prior publications for especially relevant articles and re-print them, perhaps in some kind of softcover form. They had tons of good stuff over the years, and it ought to be read and used once more.

 

[ruleslawyer]

[double post]

 

[ruleslawyer]

Honestly, I really think that the energy on this should be put into reprints/reboots rather than new content. I know that's a bit contentious, but I've noticed so many folks out there who would love to get access to the old-school D&D adventures but can't get them legally.

My wish list (obviously nahgahhappen but whatever) would be as follows:

1) Release Dragon 1-360 to pdf just as the CD collection worked (OCR pdf archive). Include EVERYTHING; the ads, the random interviews, the cartoons. That stuff can either just be for folks to read as nostalgia content or even mined for some updated 5e implementation (rules for gladiatorial competitions from #118; partial armor from #113; or even Greyhawk deity descriptions from #59-75. Yes I'm old.)

2) Start a project (and yes; I am volunteering myself and I'm sure hundreds of people on this site would do so as well; feel free to task us!) to convert the best Dungeon adventures to 5e and reprint them. I have all the magazines and, honestly, if I were not liable under copyright violation, I would start with Dungeon #1 and post it TODAY.

3) Start putting together a (perhaps 50% staff-/50% fan-authored) compilation of 5e modular plug-ins sourced from old Dragon magazine articles. Maybe the stronghold rules from issues 125/127, or the magic library rules from 140/142.

Anyway, just my thoughts. If I get a waiver from Hasbro's legal department, I am STARTING on my user-friendly conversion of "Into the Fire..."

 

[aramis erak]

Honestly, I really think that the energy on this should be put into reprints/reboots rather than new content. I know that's a bit contentious, but I've noticed so many folks out there who would love to get access to the old-school D&D adventures but can't get them legally.

My wish list (obviously nahgahhappen but whatever) would be as follows:

1) Release Dragon 1-360 to pdf just as the CD collection worked (OCR pdf archive). Include EVERYTHING; the ads, the random interviews, the cartoons. That stuff can either just be for folks to read as nostalgia content or even mined for some updated 5e implementation (rules for gladiatorial competitions from #118; partial armor from #113; or even Greyhawk deity descriptions from #59-75. Yes I'm old.)

They can't. They settled with David Kenzer & Jolly Blackburn, acknowledging that they had violated Blackburn's copyrights. There may be others' copyrights also violated.

Their settlement with Kenzer & Blackburn would require pulling all the KODT strips, or negotiating a new royalty for Jolly. And Kenzer has implied that other copyrights were violated by the 1-250 compilation.

Note that the pirates have you covered, if you're willing to risk it, but WotC can't do it.

 

[delericho]

They can't. They settled with David Kenzer & Jolly Blackburn, acknowledging that they had violated Blackburn's copyrights. There may be others' copyrights also violated.

Three things about that:

- My understanding is that there was a similar case (TIME?) that actually went to judgement, and the ruling was that a digital reprint of this sort actually was valid. (But, sorry, I can't cite this one, so may be wrong.)

- Possibly the biggest problem with the reprints for the very old editions was that the contract paperwork was lost - WotC (and TSR) actually didn't know what they did and did not own. For the newer issues this is a non-issue. That being the case, they could do a "Dragon Archive Volume 2" containing issues 251 - 359 (or after!), and even if they do need to pull some material (Knights, Gygax's "soapbox" articles, maybe a few others), they do at least know what would need to be pulled. (A "Dungeon Archive" could likewise have problems with the early issues, so they may need to stick to only 3e-era and later issues. But at least a partial set should be possible.)

- All that said, of course, they may well feel that that's too much work/too risky to go ahead with. Especially having been burned once before - "Dragon Archive" is probably counted as an expensive failure over at WotC due to the legal issues it hit.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Sadly, I am aware of both of these issues, just as (as an attorney) I'm aware of the complications involved in determining ownership of the back issues. Hence "wish list."

Sorting out IP rights to dungeon 1-80 should be possible though. Even if the contracts were "lost" (and I have a hard time believing that *someone* doesn't have the contact for an attorney who should retain those records), there are relatively low-cost ways of asserting rights to those materials.

 

[sidonunspa]

Sadly, I am aware of both of these issues, just as (as an attorney) I'm aware of the complications involved in determining ownership of the back issues. Hence "wish list."

Sorting out IP rights to dungeon 1-80 should be possible though. Even if the contracts were "lost" (and I have a hard time believing that *someone* doesn't have the contact for an attorney who should retain those records), there are relatively low-cost ways of asserting rights to those materials.

because of this kind of stupidity there will "always" been a need/want/demand for piracy.... as such I'm sure you can find every single copy of both magazines online someplace.