Dungeon Magazine: New Format, New Subscription Price

[Erik Mona]

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(I'm not counting cartography as art.)
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Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury, since I pay for all of it out of the same budget. More maps means fewer pieces of art, and always will.

Thanks for the insightful comments. While the old layout is dead and buried forever, it's very helpful to me to see what elements of that layout you found important. We'll always keep tinkering, so these sorts of comments are very helpful.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon

 

[Arnwyn]

Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury, since I pay for all of it out of the same budget. More maps means fewer pieces of art, and always will.

And obviously, in a magazine full of adventures, maps beat art everytime. (And to be honest, I'd be happy with Dungeon having no art if that increased the number of maps... but I suspect that's too extreme for others.)

 

[Holy Bovine]

I picked up the new issue and I have to admit I am pleased.

I left Dungeon almost a year ago (I always bought it direct from my local games store) , Dragon even earlier than that, primarily because Polyhedron, imo, was getting too much attention and the adventures not nearly enough (issues with only a single adventure, even a big one, just didn't cut it for me anymore). Strangely I liked many of the mini games but just didn't feel Poly had a place in Dungeon.

With the new format of at least 3 adventures per issue, one each of 3 different level categories, returns Dungeon to its real roots. A job well done guys. The adventures were well fleshed out with plenty of maps (art is always secondary to me - I would rather paint my own picture through my descriptions of how I imagine the setting).

Still don't like Downer but, for a great new format like this, I can live with it (and Zoogonia has really improved - had me laughing out loud!)

 

[Menexenus]

I maintain that good art helps players and DMs alike to imagine the situation clearly and establish the mood. To the extent that the new format reduces the art content of each adventure, it also reduces the utility of the adventures it offers. Dungeon (rightly) prides itself on offering great value to the D&D consumer. But let's face it: I can go online and download *free* text-based adventures. Granted, those free adventures will be of uneven quality. Still, in my view, Dungeon distinguishes itself primarily by providing slick, colorful, *inspiring* art to go with those quality adventures it presents.

But my original point was one about style. To help me make my point more clearly, allow me to direct your attention to a few specific pages in the magazine. Take a look at pages 82-91. This 10-page span is almost entirely filled with text. There is one piece of color cartography over this span (which is much appreciated) and there are a few inset character snapshots (cropped and re-used from the adventure's splashpage on pp. 68-9). But I think you get my point. It's just plain *boring* to look at little more than text for page after page. In fact, it's probably fair to say that the most visually interesting thing in this section of the magazine is the advertisement on page 85!

Take a look at page 98 and page 100. These two pages are mostly white space. (If you thought looking at text was boring, come take a look at some mostly blank pages!) Give me a border. Give me a background. Give me *something* interesting to look at.

Now here's where I need to give Dungeon some credit. The only reason I am able to complain about the lack of art/style in the new format is because, in the past, Dungeon has set a *very* high standard for itself. For most magazines, I would expect no better than what I've just described, but I guess I have a higher standard for Dungeon. I've seen how cool the interior of a Dungeon magazine *can* look, and I want it to stay that way!

So, Erik, I know you're always on a budget. And I know you always do your best. But please do what you can to make the interior of the magazine as visually interesting as it has been in the past. That's all I ask.

Respectfully yours,

- Menexenus

P.S. Sorry for repeating the same basic idea as my original post. But I thought it might be nice to give you some concrete (page #) examples of what I was talking about.

 

[Asmo]

Bumping this for all us europeans with questions about Euro-subscriptions!

Asmo

 

[Erik Mona]

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Originally Posted by Staffan
I wonder... perhaps it would be cheaper to centralize European subscriptions? Instead of sending the issues from Paizo HQ (or more likely, the printer) directly to each subscriber, send a whole bunch of them to somewhere in Europe and then have them sent individually from there. Perhaps one location in each country.
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Sorry I didn't get to this one sooner. I had to poke around a little for an answer.

I am happy to report that there's been movement on this issue, and that, starting with the next issue (115) we will be sending all of the issues for UK and continental European subscribers to one of two central locations in the UK, from which they will be sent to individual subscribers. This should _greatly_ improve subscription service to those of you who live across the Atlantic.

Also, I've been told that Paizo has just this week sent 2,400 copies of various issues going back to #109 to this distributor, and that any missing issues from that period will soon be fulfilled (this is true for Dragon, too, but I don't have specifics on that).

I'm not an expert on this, so I can't promise I can answer every question related to it, but it does seem like things have improved considerably in the recent past, and that they will get very much better in the recent future.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon

 

[Pielorinho]

Finished Iron Council--fantastic book!
Bought Dungeon 114--great issue!
Subscribed--looking forward to issue 115!

Daniel

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Bought Dragon 323, very nice...I like. I also liked Dungeon 114...can't wait for more (and more Eberron goodness).

 

[BryonD]

Hello Erik,

Recently got Dungeon 114 as my first issue since re-subscribing.

Very Good Start.

Thanks

 

[woodelf]

one more question, for all you long time collectors. how do you store your old mags? in binders, boxes, what?

Manila folders in a filing cabinet. Almost 3 drawers of Dragon (~16yrs), plus a drawer of other gaming mags. It works pretty well, with only one caveat: the staple-bound mags (particularly about 2/3rds of my Dragon collection) just don't sit up as well, because of the differential thickness--but then, they'd be doing worse sitting on a shelf. It's no big deal, so long as i don't take a whole bunch out of one drawer at once.