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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1222037" data-attributes="member: 10201">No contradiction: i didn't say i didn't use the FR articles, i said i couldn't use them without significant alteration.  The amount of most FR articles that i used was on par with the amount of many articles written for completely different systems/settings that i used.  I obviously did the cost-benefit analysis differently: i'd rather have 1 article i can use as is, than 20 i have to tweak--but i'd rather have 20 i have to tweak than 0 of any use whatsoever.  Right now, if you're a crunch-lovin' D&D3E player, you get 20 articles that you can either use as is, or have to tweak.  If you play anything else, you get zip--crunchiness is the thing that least translates to different systems.  More specifically, even if i could've only used the non-setting-specific AD&D articles in the old Dragon, that would've been, say, 3 articles a month.  Probably more than i could actually make use of, despite as much as 20hrs/week of gaming.  The other element of this is what it does to the RPG market as a whole.  Remember the WotC survey?  Remember all those people who'd either stopped playing RPGs, or now only played not-D&D (whatever flavor of not-D&D appealed to them)?  If someone gets sick of D&D, would you rather they stop RPing altogether, or find another RPG they like but give up D&D?  Which do you think is better for the market?  With the insular attitude that Dragon takes, combined with the ridiculous dominance of D&D/D20 System in the sales channels, it is more likely now than ever that a D&D player might not be aware of other RPGs or, if they are, not be aware of how different some of them might be.  It might not even occur to them that they could keep what they love (RPing) while ditching what they don't (whatever element of D&D they don't like--not realistic enough, too detailed, not detailed enough, too simple, too complex, too random--whatever).  So they stop playing.  If it hadn't been for the non-D&D content in Dragon, back when, i might very well not be RPing any more, or i might be a very bitter unhappy gamer, playing only a system that frustrates me.  Or, who knows--if i'd somehow remained ignorant of most other RPGs, maybe i'd be a big-name RPG publisher now, having been driven by frustration to write and publish my own stuff.um... that's the whole problem.  It wouldn't be "Just Another Gaming Magazine", 'cause that implies there are multiple gaming magazines.  There aren't.  There are multiple D20 System magazines, and zero RPG magazines.  It is an untapped market.My understanding is that Arcane is the only RPG magazine ever to turn a profit consistently--and that includes Dragon. Now, based on the fact that Paizo seems to be surviving without a massive RPG line to absorb the magazine's losses, this comparison is probably no longer correct--i suspect that Dragon and/or Dungeon are finally turning a profit.  Anyway, my point is that saying non-D&D RPG magazines are bound to fail isn't absolutely true.  It'd be just as accurate to say that non-"Dragon" magazines are bound to fail--the track record is about the same--which implies that Dragon, like D&D, has sufficient brand identity to make its own market, whatever its content.And, in that same period, i could be excited whenever i saw a "how to DM better", "The Ecology of..." or "the metaphysics of the schools of magic" article.  That's the difference--not that there weren't crunchy articles, but that there were also lots of fluffy articles.  [Snipped a bunch of stuff on the next Harry Potter film, i think.  What'd you mean to be there?]Well, frankly, i don't care *which* magazine is of general RPer interest--i just wish such a beast existed.  However, i think anyone who cares about the long-term health of the RPG market should care that D&D players (and Vampire players, and Palladium players, and any other market leaders) be exposed to other games, and that would mean "the D&D magazine" shouldn't be "the D&D magazine"--it should have some acknowledgement of the rest of the RPG world.  All your eggs in one basket is a *bad* idea, for a market as well as everything else.  Especially for a luxury entertainment good that is poorly understood even by many participants.</blockquote>

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