Dungeon 140, 141 and 142 have no FR or Eberron content

[Henry]

And when we say darts, do we mean the D&D style Lawn-Darts, or the kind with a dartboard?

 

[Glyfair]

Paizo have made it clear they're interested in them, but people seem to stick to generic adventures since they (in my opinion, correctly) believe they'll have a better chance f being published and played.

I think it's clear (although maybe not publicized well) that a Eberron or Forgotten Realms adventure has a better chance of being published than a generic adventure. Paizo has said they are actively looking for these adventures, and quality adventures I expect would be published.

That being said, I think comments made here by Dragon staff imply to me that it's a strong hurdle these adventures do have to be published. It's been stated that an adventure has to be strongly tied into the world to be published. If the adventure fits well as a generic adventure, then they want it written as a generic adventure. That leaves a very small subset of adventures that might fit as a world specific adventure to be published.

Also, although I do not believe it directly affects their editorial judgement, I do note that from comments on the forums it seems that neither James nor Erik is a fan of Eberron. I've never seen a compliment about something from the setting from them, but have seen several criticisms of some bits of design of the world.

 

[James Jacobs]

Thanks for the timely response.

Can you elaborate on "the quality of the map turnovers" and "the respect the author gives D&D traditions?"

Map turnovers for adventures need to be understandible and legible (as in, no photocopies of pencil sketches). They don't have to be works of art—that's what we pay the cartographer to do. But the maps do need to be interesting. An interesting map is the hallmark of an interesting adventure, and if I see a map turnover that's essentially squares connected by halls and doors, I'm immediately less interested in the adventrue itself than if I see a map with areas that look like they could hold interesting combats or encounters.

As for the respect question... that's a tricky one. Basically, it boils down to taking the game seriously. I'm not that interested in adventures that are based on crude humor, bad puns, goofy conventions, and basically plots that make fun of D&D or plots that use the rules or established concepts in a disrespectful way. Adventures that cast iconic D&D villians like mind flayers or drow in comedic roles, for example, are not for Dungeon. For a perfect example of the type of adventure I'm talking about, one need look no further than WG7: Castle Greyhawk.

 

[atom crash]

I just re-subscribed to Dungeon, and that's about the best feedback and highest form of praise I can ever give for the magazine. You guys are doing a great job.

The last few issues have been truly awesome. Too bad my group is too high level to run either Siege of the Spider Eaters (issue 137) or Urban Decay (issue 138), as both those adventures are exactly the kind we enjoy playing. I am planning to adapt parts if not all of The Weavers (issue 138) into my Freeport campaign.

The new adventure path is going to work beautifully with my campaign, as well. I just picked up a couple extra copies of issue 139 just so I can have back-up copies of the map -- I foresee them getting lots of wear. In my homebrew world, I've decided that Sasserine is the chief rival -- political and economic -- of Freeport, and the characters will probably spend a good deal of time in each city, whether we play through all the adventure path or just portions of it.

As a GM who runs a modified mini-campaign setting (Green Ronin's Freeport) in a homebrew world, I usually avoid any adventure designed for a specific setting, especially anything for FR (I equate FR with power creep) or any Eberron adventure that includes warforged (incidentally, it's not because I hate warforged, it's because in my setting warforged are extremely rare and limited to one small country's war machine). Even if it's a Greyhawk adventure, I file off the serial numbers and attach my own setting-specific proper names. More generic, less specific.

Do I mind seeing setting-specific material in the mag? No, I don't. But I don't begrudge FR fans and Eberron fans their space. I'd just rather see more generic stuff because that's the stuff I can use as-is. But I also don't honestly believe that DMs of FR and Eberron games should find too much trouble in taking a generic adventure and placing it in Aerenal or Karrnath, or the Forest of Amtar or Amn, (or Keoland or the Theocracy of the Pale, for that matter) or wherever, any more than I'd have trouble taking the same adventures and placing them in Firlindry or the League of the Sea Dragon or the Broken Crown Hills.

 

[GQuail]

I think it's clear (although maybe not publicized well) that a Eberron or Forgotten Realms adventure has a better chance of being published than a generic adventure. Paizo has said they are actively looking for these adventures, and quality adventures I expect would be published.

That being said, I think comments made here by Dragon staff imply to me that it's a strong hurdle these adventures do have to be published. It's been stated that an adventure has to be strongly tied into the world to be published. If the adventure fits well as a generic adventure, then they want it written as a generic adventure. That leaves a very small subset of adventures that might fit as a world specific adventure to be published.

Yeah, I phrased it poorly, but this is what I meant. Someone who sits down to write a generic adventure for dungeon just does it. One who does an Eberron or FR one is probably spending more time sayign to themselves, "Shoudl this really be non-generic?"

Also, although I do not believe it directly affects their editorial judgement, I do note that from comments on the forums it seems that neither James nor Erik is a fan of Eberron. I've never seen a compliment about something from the setting from them, but have seen several criticisms of some bits of design of the world.

Is this realy fair to point out? I mean, it's possibly perfectly true but I think saying that they may be biased because they haven'te ver said they like the setting seems a bit harsh. I dunno if they've ever said what they think about Psionics either - is that affecting our chances of a Githyanki Vs Mindflayer Vs PCs adventure using the XPH set in the Astral?

I think no-one will doubt that Greyhawk has definatly benefited from the fact they like it and are keen to use it: so you could argue the fact they aren't pimping FR or Eberron the same way is perhaps evidence of bias. But as other have said, Dungeon and Dragon ar currently the only place to get new Greyhawk material, with no hardbacks currently in site (GenCon rumours withstanding) and since the game's core setting is theorietically Greyhawk, it's not seen with as much of the "campaign setting that's not mine? Yuck!" stigma others can apply

 

[Nlogue]

Come on James, you can admit it: darts are used for deadline enforcement. ;-)

--Eric

OUCH!

:lucks dart from backside::

Back to work I guess...

 

[Glyfair]

But as other have said, Dungeon and Dragon ar currently the only place to get new Greyhawk material...

The RPGA has dropped Living Greyhawk? I knew they were in big trouble, but I wasn't aware it was so bad they dropped such a large part of their market.

 

[NiTessine]

The RPGA has dropped Living Greyhawk? I knew they were in big trouble, but I wasn't aware it was so bad they dropped such a large part of their market.

Um. No. My region just released a new adventure today. Living Greyhawk is still alive and well.

 

[zoroaster100]

I'm really happy with the current content. I like the adventure paths and other Greyhawk or Core/Greyhawk compatible adventures, and little use for Forgotten Realms adventures and no use for Eberron adventures. So even though there is some content that is not useful to me (FR and Eberron-specific), most of the current content is very useful and much of the rest is potentially useful.

 

[Umbran]

How hard can it be to do good map turnovers? I mean, I have an apple turnover recipe right here that should adapt quite well. Butter... brown sugar... cinnamon... and cellulose! Woohoo!