Dungeon Magazine Pricing Issue (long, sorry)

[Ranger REG]

???

Exactly what issue do you have now, subscribers? I've yet to see Dungeon/Poly #98/157, which will be the first MONTHLY issue, hopefully in FLGS soon.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

I received #98/#157 last week. Dungeon contents:

• Gluttony- Side Trek (~5-6 pages)
• Wings, Spikes, and Teeth- Side Trek (4 pages)
• Flood Season- Adventure Path (~34-35 pages)
• Total Dungeon content: ~43-45 pages (without ads)

Next month's Dungeon only has one adventure (according to the previews), with a "bonus" adventure for subscribers.

 

[tassander]

I have to agree with everyone who states that you can't compare Dungeon to a regular adventure. I mean, before I buy an adventure I look whether I like the writer, the company, the products they usually publish, whether it's any use for me, based on subject matter and level range. Then i wait for the first reviews. Then I flip through it at the game store. Then I decide whether I buy it.
Thus, I actually PLAY the adventures I buy. Not so with dungeon. You get a bunch of adventures, and it's hit and miss. That's a reasonable buy if you get lots of bang for your buck. Taking into account that I'm a very busy person, I've got no time to start any d20 minigame campaigns, thus, Poly is useless for me.

Well, at the moment, I don't get a lot of bang for my buck.

I 'll take a look at the new adventure path modules and, If i REALLY like them as much as I would an adventure that I buy specifically, I might keep buying Dungeon, till' the AP is done. Otherwise I'll stop buying Dungeon right now. I hope that a lot of other people think the same about Dungeon, for purely egoistical reasons: we vote with our wallets. If the new dungeon tanks, the format will go back to bi-monthly, adventure-filled crunchyness.

tas.

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm guessing your concern is not the quantity (the page count devoted to the magazine material and not the amount of space reserved for advertisements supporting the magazine to give the reading consumers the $6.99 price tag per issue) but the quality of the Dungeon adventures that may be of great use to you.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

The two are closely related- in the past, Dungeon was still a great value if only 1-2 adventures (out of 4-6) were useful/usable. Now, with the limited number of pages dedicated to adventures each month, it's much less likely that one will find an adventure that suits their taste and/or campaign.

 

[Silver Moon]

My 2-coppers worth:

I read through this thread, but since my current issue was still sealed in the plastic, decided not to weigh in just yet. During the past decade I've used only 7 modules from Dungeon Magazine for a total of 33 3-hour game nights. So has my 12-year subscription been worth it for roughly 100 hours of entertainment? Absolutely! The modules have been great, and I've got hundreds of other modules that can be used by myself, my players, or other members of my family. So the real question was "Will there be anything in this issue useful to me to make it worth it?"

So I just thumbed through the issue.

Page 14: A side trek for 4th level characters. Very nice graphic of the famlands. OK, I will probably find a place for this in a campaign.

Page 20: A side trek for 4th level characters involving lions coming down from the mountains. Good valley graphic. OK, another winner.

Page 25: The only full D&D module in the issue. For 4 characters of 4th level. Description does nothing for me. Useable - not sure. Then I skip through it. Pages 30 to 38 - "The Lucky Monkey". A full-scale inn with unique architecture! Full color floor plan! EXACTLY what I need for the climax battle of the current module I'm running!

On the Ploy side:

Page 8: A d20 Modern martial-arts based campaign. My oldest daughter is now on her third belt in Karate, and is getting into gaming, so I will probably use it some time (in fact, she just glanced at it and said "cool").

Page 14: Star Wars. Seldom play it, but do have older versions of most of the rule books, so might use it some time. The Starship diagram is well done.

Page 22: Living Greyhawk. An adventure set in the deserts of Flan. My current module includes some guests from a desert land, with a minimal of background developed for them. Lots of good place names on the map for me to borrow! Probably good back-story information too.

Page 36: Great illustration of a municipal police station. Our D&D group has visited modern worlds twice before, and probably will again. Police stations always enter into those stories.

So my conclusion, tons of great stuff here. This is about quality, not quantity! The magazine continues to be a bargain!

 

[tassander]

The two are closely related- in the past, Dungeon was still a great value if only 1-2 adventures (out of 4-6) were useful/usable. Now, with the limited number of pages dedicated to adventures each month, it's much less likely that one will find an adventure that suits their taste and/or campaign.

What he said.

you know, Poly is absolutely useless for me. To me, the ideas that are presented don't seem very novel and interesting, and I don't like the various "d20" spin-offs. As far as I'm concerned, D&D is a one-trick-pony. Fine for fantasy, but not much else.
I know and respect that some people feel differently, I just hope the majority is with me.

I mean, TSR tried several times to introduce other games in Dungeon/Dragon. The readers almost always reacted with a huge outcry. Dungeon and Dragon readers want Dungeons & Dragons content. That's what I think. That's how I feel.

And there were a great number of issues (about 50%) where I didn't like ANY adventure, and that was in the olden days, when there was no Poly around, and Dungeon had only adventures as content.

I'm just a little picky, I guess. but the less adventures there are, the less likely it's that one module suits my tastes.
If, in the past, I only liked one adventure in every second issue, that means that now I'll only like one adventure in every FOUR issues.

You see, one issue is $7. Four issues are $28. Not really cheap for one adventure. And this ONE adventure will have about 30 pages. I just bought "Grey Citadel" for $19.99, an adventure that I chose specifically and that I will run in a few weeks. It's got 108 pages.
Go figure.

tas.

 

[pogre]

Yeah but,

The new issue of Poly has a Norker in it! How can you beat Norkers!

 

[Sholari]

My vote is split Poly out into it's own magazine so those of us who find it of no value are not forced to buy it and others who find it useful can spend their money subscribing to it. If Poly has that much value it should be able to stand on its own two feet with its own subscription. Then up the number of adventures per dungeon magazine. People who value both Dungeon and Poly can subscribe to both. Those of us who subscribe to Dungeon for pure adventures can get just that.

 

[tassander]

My vote is split Poly out into it's own magazine so those of us who find it of no value are not forced to buy it and others who find it useful can spend their money subscribing to it. If Poly has that much value it should be able to stand on its own two feet with its own subscription. Then up the number of adventures per dungeon magazine. People who value both Dungeon and Poly can subscribe to both. Those of us who subscribe to Dungeon for pure adventures can get just that.

Amen, brother.