DUNGEON: A suggestion

[Erik Mona]

>>>
What happened to the Monster Tokens? They were fantastic! It was good to get tokens with the nice MM illustrations on them. I would be overjoyed if they made a comeback as they were a valuable addition to my campaign.

Is there any chance of them reappearing in future issues of Dungeon?
>>>

In a word, no.

Two reasons. First, they were expensive to produce. Second, Wizards would prefer that people buy their nifty miniatures. So, for the time being, at least, monster tokens are a no-go.

>>>
Edit: there have been a number of comments about downloads from the Paizo site. If the monster tokens are not viable to include with the magazine, could the tokens for the creatures appearing in that issue's scenarios be made into a pdf available for download instead?
>>>

This isn't likely to happen for the second of the two reasons listed above. Also, putting together a page like that takes a fair amount of production time, and we don't currently have the capacity for the extra work.

--Erik

 

[Simplicity]

There is something to be said, I think, for a fully-fleshed out idea, sans stats.

There's a lot of these available... DM's guide. Forgotten Realm campaign. A few others.

If you want to be REALLY cool, flesh out these ideas with stats and maybe a small map. And that's it. No room descriptions. Just say:

---

Ogre kidnaps mayor's daughter.

[Ogre stats here]

[Ogre henchmen here]

[Small, numbered map of Ogre Lair]

---

Duergars lead a slave gathering expedition into a local village.

[Duergar leader stats]

[Duergar sergent stats]

[Pet bullette stats]

[Small duergar enclave map]

---

etc.

You could fit a hundred of these in about 20 pages.

 

[omedon]

PDFs of the maps and handouts for each issue will definitely be a part of the puzzle. We're currently planning to start that with issue #114, but it may take a couple issues before we've worked out the process completely.

--Erik

I remember the old WotC Dungeon Magazine page had JPG images of each issuses maps but it was updated very slowly and irregularly.

What I would really like to see on the Paizo site are low ink, printer friendly b&w maps; preferably player versions with all the secret rooms and encounter info taken off.

That would be real nice.

 

[diaglo]

just got my subscription for Dungeon 110....

the website said it was sent back in March...23rd to be exact. so after it went on newstands i called. customer service was great and sent me a copy.

so i got the customer service copy before i got the subscription.

customer service was too good. i just got another copy.

i had called and sent an email... (you always use all available resources imho)... when my subscription was late. customer service never answers the phone, but you can leave a message..do it.. it pays off...read futher...anyway, the customer service guy called back. and i also got an email reply...from a different rep...well i wasn't sure if they both were sending me a copy or if they had spoken and were only sending me one....

in the end i got 3 copies... my subscription, the email copy, and the phone message copy...

 

[Morrus]

My ears are always open to people with suggestions for how we might improve the magazine.

Free ads for EN World on every page!

 

[Izerath]

I have a few recommendations:
1) The new format of Light/Sounds/Auras/Reaction should go away... It's a big waste of space.

2) At the very least, when the Light/Sound/Aura/Reaction entry is "None"... Leave it out.

3) Come up with an graphic to represent the levels 1-20. Use these graphics to represent the starting level of the adventure. Replace the current High/Med./Low graphics with these graphics. Unless I'm generating statistics about the distribution of Dungeon adventures, I really don't need to know whether the adventure is for High, Medium, or Low level parties. It would be useful to know the non-scaled level, however.

4) .....Remove most of the intro text that comes before the Preparation heading. All of the adventures have Scaling the adventure sidebars. Don't bother to refer to it. It speaks for itself.

5) Remove ALL of the Preparation Heading.....

First off, I don't mean to single anyone's comments out, but Simplicity's post had most of the comments I felt the need to address of what's been discussed in one place.

LIGHT/SOUNDS/REACTION/AURAS entries: I LOVE these sections. I have time enough to read the adventure, but the Light/Sounds/Reaction/Aura pieces are INVALUABLE for a DM who doesn't have the time to take notes while he's on a plane, train or in some other automobile. It also saves me the grief of rereading the entire entry during the session when I am asked these things. My players are paranoid SOBs and are always waiting for me to kill them - listen, spot, search, detect and enter cautiously are SOP for them. Guess I am doing a good job of keeping them on their toes, but this section helps thosem DMs with little prep time - it's invaluable and hardly a waste of space. I could live with the absence of an entry which simply states none - that is logical. Just don't scrap the whole thing.

Fix the graphics? WHY? I glance at the first page and see:
LOW. Means 1-5 and says so right in each graphic.
MED. 6-10. Gee. I see a pattern.
HIGH 11+. OK I think I've got it now.

Where's the problem? If you want the specifics, read the first paragraph. It tells you exactly what you've asked for in every adventure I've read.

And speaking of the intro and the prep sections, I can't blame Erik for keeping them in. Lord knows not all of those who buy Dungeon are long time players and without meaning to be callous, some people are just not as intuitive or observant as others. They have to keep their new customers and new players in mind as well. I don't see one colum of space improving the adventure any if its just another pic, stat block or godforbid half-dragon mook. Let them market their mag and cater to newbies and those with low spot checks. It's the only way we'll keep getting it.

On the positive side, I really would love the maps on the website. Those you have posted are invaluable. I actually imported the Cauldron City cap from issue 97 (the blank one) into Campaign Cartographer and printed out a full color movie poster sized map for my players. They LOVED it, and it took me all of 5 minutes to really get the interest of my players with such a cool prop. The regional map also worked well and makes running the game very easy.

Tokens weren't all that necessary - nice but not necessary.

I loved the web enhancements for the first two Adventure Path modules. I especially liked from FLOOD SEASON:
** The MOOK section reprinting heavily used stat blocks for easy reference. [Flipping pages constantly, that sucks. Again little prep time available] ....
** The EXTRA ENCOUNTER that detailed a location on the Cauldron City map that the adventure path had yet to use but the players may frequent - in this case Skie's Treasury. It saved me a ton of time.
** Obviously, Monsters from books we may not own are wonderful and extremely useful additions. Don't lose them.

 

[Simplicity]

Fix the graphics? WHY? I glance at the first page and see:
LOW. Means 1-5 and says so right in each graphic.
MED. 6-10. Gee. I see a pattern.
HIGH 11+. OK I think I've got it now.

Where's the problem? If you want the specifics, read the first paragraph. It tells you exactly what you've asked for in every adventure I've read.

Indeed it does say "6-10" in the graphic. What I'd like the graphic to say instead is "6". "6-10" isn't even accurate. The Scaling Adventure bar doesn't scale to this range. It scales around the actual level of the adventure. If they'd just print the actual level of the adventure in the graphic, I wouldn't have to read the first paragraph. If I wanted to run "Zenith Trajectory", and I looked at the graphic (6-10) I might think
I could scale it to a 10th level party. I would be wrong.

A half-column doesn't sound like much, but split amongst 2 or 3 adventures, that's a page. Remove the intro sections, and thats another page. That's a lot of space for content. Faces of Cauldron, Critical Threats, Maps of Mystery, or a major encounter could fit in this much space.

I'd rather have content than extra convenience.

 

[Campbell]

Indeed it does say "6-10" in the graphic. What I'd like the graphic to say instead is "6". "6-10" isn't even accurate. The Scaling Adventure bar doesn't scale to this range. It scales around the actual level of the adventure. If they'd just print the actual level of the adventure in the graphic, I wouldn't have to read the first paragraph. If I wanted to run "Zenith Trajectory", and I looked at the graphic (6-10) I might think
I could scale it to a 10th level party. I would be wrong.

A half-column doesn't sound like much, but split amongst 2 or 3 adventures, that's a page. Remove the intro sections, and thats another page. That's a lot of space for content. Faces of Cauldron, Critical Threats, Maps of Mystery, or a major encounter could fit in this much space.

I'd rather have content than extra convenience.

I believe it's also worth noting that 10+ is an awfully unreliable range. Would it be possible to seperate the high graphic into two seperate entries? Keep up the good work guys!

 

[shady]

Dungeon or rather Polyhedron

As one of the people who mostly liked Polyhedron before it got shrunk back, I'd like to see the better mini-games republished in longer form, if not by Paizo then by (say) Fantasy Flight as part of their Horizon line. Pulp Heroes in particular, but there have been some very good ones (along with the not so good).

The polyhedron section doesn't seem particularly viable in its current vestigial form, and I'm not sure if a generic D20 zine would survive on its own (though I'd buy it) - maybe a relaunch around D20 Future?

As for Dungeon - low level, simple, shorter scenarios that I can embed within longer campaigns. And less comics.

 

[scourger]

Republishing the better mini games is a capital idea! Omega World in particular. Just don't make them too big. Part of the appeal is that they are concise. Fantasy Flight's Horizon line is a great model that I like to think is inspired by Dungeon/Polyhedron.