Dungeon vs. Dragon

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dragon has some good stuff in it but Dungeon is the single best resource for its cost a DM can have, bar none, IMO. Even if you never run an adventure from an issue, just reading them will make you a much, much better DM. I think mercule states it best, and most objectively, but I've played under a few DMs who suck so hard just getting a paper cut from a Dungeon magazine would have improved their games.

I'd put Dungeon Mastering for Dummies, DMG2 and Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe ahead of Dungeon. Oh, and Robin Laws' book, too.

Reading an adventure won't make you a good DM as fast as those first two will, and the third has enough fluff for a lifetime.

I don't hate Dungeon, but I just don't believe reading adventures somehow alters the brain chemistry of the readers.

 

[BluWolf]

I have been collecting Dragon since I started playing in the early 80s. I love the magazine and buy it if the value for that particular issue is marginal. Its a compulsion at this point.

Dungeon is increbily valuable. I have only run 3 or 4 modules out of it whole cloth but I have stolen from it liberaly.

High quality content for the under paid DM.

 

[Erik Mona]

I don't hate Dungeon, but I just don't believe reading adventures somehow alters the brain chemistry of the readers.

Shoot.

I guess we'll have to start taking that claim out of our ads, then.

--Erik Mona

 

[delericho]

In my opinion, both Dragon and Dungeon are must-haves. If I have to choose one, Dungeon just edges it, but both magazines are as good as I've ever seen them.

If nothing else, Dungeon is worth the subscription costs just for the Adventure Paths, both of which have been excellent (and Savage Tide looks good too). Add to that a bunch of other adventures, and all the DM-aide articles (some of which have been inspired), and it's hard to beat.

Dragon, on the other hand, has Core Beliefs, the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, the Creature Collection (though I'm not such a fan of that one, as I have more than enough monsters), and Class Acts (which means there's something for most classes most months). Add to that some outstanding individual articles (I particularly liked the Impiltur article, BTW, and I'm no fan of FR).

If I had to drop my gaming budget right down, then I think every other purchase would go first, then I'd drop Dragon, and then Dungeon would be the last thing I would drop. The only thing that would take a higher priority would be 4th edition core rulebooks.

I've played under a few DMs who suck so hard just getting a paper cut from a Dungeon magazine would have improved their games.

LOL.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shoot.

I guess we'll have to start taking that claim out of our ads, then.

To be fair, I haven't smoked it, so it might in that case.

And again, I don't hate the magazine by any means -- I just picked up the most recent issue at Barnes & Noble two days ago, in fact, so that I could whimper over the Savage Tide preview -- but I just wanted to offer my thoughts, since I seem to be almost alone in viewing it as something other than a must-buy for my needs.

 

[Emirikol]

Either magazine is good for a DM, however Dungeon has always been my favorite.

I plan to subscribe to Dungeon until that proposed artwork of Erik chained to the wall as the medusa in Keep on the Borderlands comes out..

jh

 

[rounser]

I'd put Dungeon Mastering for Dummies, DMG2 and Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe ahead of Dungeon. Oh, and Robin Laws' book, too.

Sure, they talk a nice talk. Dungeon actually walks the walk, which is much, much harder to do well, IMO.