[Dragon] What would you do?

[Eternalknight]

If you had creative control over Dragon magazine, what would you do with it? What features would you add, and what would you remove?

 

[Alzrius]

- I'd designate a lot more of the articles as Open Game Content.

- I'd be more clear on which answers in Sage Advice are and aren't official clarifications and errata (minor point here).

- I wouldn't take so much of the negative criticism so badly. Paizo seems a lot more thin-skinned than WotC was, and a lot of what we read in Scale Mail is them defending themselves against harsh letters (we've only now just seen the end of that from the vile content).

- I'd get rid of those unbound subscription cards.

Other than that, they're doing pretty good so far, and I can't really complain.

 

[jgbrowning]

Providing I have control and no pending agreements preventing any of the following. (just off the top of my head)

1- Ditch the voguesque covers.
2- Include a lot of OGC.
3- Lower Ad rates for d20 companies- increase Ad rates for computer games


joe b.

 

[jasamcarl]

As a man of reason, I would say that I have no idea what I would do, not having any expertise in the publishing market or gaming for that matter.

But I will take great amusment in the backseat advice dished out by respondents to this thread.

 

[Alzrius]

As a man of reason, I would say that I have no idea what I would do, not having any expertise in the publishing market or gaming for that matter.

But I will take great amusment in the backseat advice dished out by respondents to this thread.

Now that's hardly fair. Some of us do indeed have experience (and even some expertise) in publishing and/or the game market. That means our advice isn't quite so backseat as someone with absolutely none would be.

 

[Kaiyosama]

Change the Table o Contents... not easy to use.
Less adds (esp computer games), more OGC, and more crunchy bits.
Also, I don't really like the Living Greyhawk RL updates... I don't belong so I don't care. However, the setting info on Greyhawk is cool.

 

[Wormwood]

1. Subscription Cards: the CCG
2. Include Local TV Listings
3. Scratch-N-Sniff Encounter Tables
4. 'Up On A Soapbox with John Wick'
5. Allow 'Sage Advice' to handle questions about sexual dysfunction.
6. Page 3 Elves
   [/list=1]

 

[Ulrick]

Cancel it.

I think Dragon has run its course.

 

[Eternalknight]

1. Page 3 Elves
   [/list=1]

1. 
   
   

 

[Silver Griffon]

Providing I have control and no pending agreements preventing any of the following. (just off the top of my head)

1- Ditch the voguesque covers.
2- Include a lot of OGC.
3- Lower Ad rates for d20 companies- increase Ad rates for computer games


joe b.

Yes to all of the above!
Also: ditch Forgotten Realms material. Wait! Nobody start angrily typing yet! First, I admit that I do not use FR. The setting is too detailed for my tastes, and as I have seen others post it feels like playing in someone else's game. That said, there are more compelling reasons. Because of the sheer volume of background and flavor material connected to everything FR it does not fit easily into a generic D&D campaign. Sure, that stuff can be stripped out, but in doing so you lose all of the charm of said material. I'm not against having a single issue each year devoted to FR, but I think that FR has enough of a following to support its own magazine. Or maybe a magazine that covers several "official" settings.
Dragon should be kept generic D&D. It is an extension of the core rules and a forum for the release of official errata, clarifications, and expansion on the ideas presented in the core books. If any setting should get regular attention it might be Greyhawk because that's what is in the core rulebooks. But I'm not really in favor of that either, because as Living Greyhawk gets more detailed it gets more susceptable to the same issue. I believe that the majority of players and DMs want generic material that helps them create their own world.