How to fix Dragon

[Zaukrie]

So, Dragon is getting smaller. The crunch is getting repetitive. They are not going to playtest/balance all the content anymore.

We were talking about this last night. Here are some suggestions, feel free to add some/comment:

1. The issues seem to have no theme. There is no excitement about the magazines.....so, we agreed that themes would be good. Issues with an adventure in the water, articles in Dragon with feats about the water, and more importantly, how to use existing feats/powers/skills in a water based campaign. There is a ton of content, but no advice on how to use it or tie it together.

2. Less repetitive feats/powers. They are starting to seem like the same thing, with just different names. I don't have a suggestion for fixing this one.

3. Same voices....many of the articles seem to be written by the same people. I love Schwalb's work, but is it my imagination, or does he write half the content now? I think the magazines are stale. Get some new voices in there.

4. More advice on running a campaign. In the glory days of the magazine, there were tons of articles on building campaigns. What can you expect in a cave, or ruins...what is a castle really like and who lives/works there....how are the Hells organized. Some, but not all of this, is covered in the books. But, most of the content is crunch now.

5. Better adventures. Right now, they seem to be the same things over and over. Where are the planar adventures with all the interesting terrain and effects from the books? This one has been beaten to death on these boards, but something needs to change.

6. EVERY MONTH have a core beliefs or demon lord or archfey article. EVERY MONTH.

7. If you give us an article with a cool fluffy NPC, give us stats. And, give us stats at different levels, so we can use it where we are, and have the NPC grow over time.

 

[zoroaster100]

Those sound like pretty good suggestions.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

They are not going to playtest/balance all the content anymore.

Are you referring here to the Unearthed Arcana material? They aren't playtesting/balancing that material because it isn't meant to be balanced -- it is meant to be experimental options which won't be in the character builder, stuff like gunpowder weapons, elaborate semi-permanent curses, and stuff like that.

If that's what you are referring to, it isn't really fair to imply that they won't be play-testing the actual mechanical stuff meant to be used in every campaign. Or are you referring to something else?

 

[LightPhoenix]

Are you referring here to the Unearthed Arcana material? They aren't playtesting/balancing that material because it isn't meant to be balanced -- it is meant to be experimental options which won't be in the character builder, stuff like gunpowder weapons, elaborate semi-permanent curses, and stuff like that.

I can't claim to speak for Zaukrie, but I think the point is that rather that UA being in addition to the normal allotment of (supposedly) play-tested material, it is replacing it. The end effect is that rather than play-test everything in Dragon, some stuff just gets thrown out there regardless, under the guise of being unofficial. Since it's not added to the CB, that further reinforces the idea that this is just filler material in place of "proper" material.

Of course, I'm not convinced that Dragon material gets play-tested anyway. I'm under the impression that WotC is just barely keeping their heads above water on the whole DDI/CB/online thing.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

I can't claim to speak for Zaukrie, but I think the point is that rather that UA being in addition to the normal allotment of (supposedly) play-tested material, it is replacing it. The end effect is that rather than play-test everything in Dragon, some stuff just gets thrown out there regardless, under the guise of being unofficial. Since it's not added to the CB, that further reinforces the idea that this is just filler material in place of "proper" material.

Of course, I'm not convinced that Dragon material gets play-tested anyway. I'm under the impression that WotC is just barely keeping their heads above water on the whole DDI/CB/online thing.

Certainly, if the Unearthed Arcana pushed out the universally applicable material, that would be a bad idea. But if it is just an addition, that's not a problem in and of itself. Unearthed Arcana isn't going out in the "guise" of being unofficial. It's unofficial and they are upfront about that. That's completely honest.

Again, if they do/are releasing less good, playtested material, that would be a problem. But announcing they will also release unplaytested, experimental material isn't problematic in and of itself.

Also, assuming OP was referring to Unearthed Arcana in his introduction, he was being misleading (perhaps unintentionally); he made it sound like there would just be random, untested, unbalanced material sprinkled throughout Dragon. That isn't what has been announced.

 

[caudor]

I have one idea for both Dragon and Dungeon. Completely change the format! I'm talking about ePub, MOBI, or something that will display properly on modern electronic e-readers, tablets, or iPad-like devices.

PDFs are great for printing, but lack as far as the intended purpose--to read them on electronic devices. You can still make them pretty.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I agree with all of these, but especially numbers 1,3, and 6.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just an utterly insane thought: treat it like a physical magazine, with actual deadlines, minimum standards and so forth.

(Better yet, make it into a physical magazine!)

From what I've heard on the boards about eDrag, its almost as if the electronic format has made the brand managers lazy, hiding behind the fact that its a lot harder for people to notice a decline in content (amount & quality) for ephemeral online magazines as opposed to physical magazines- if the old Dragon mag fluctuated by 25% of its volume each issue, they'd have heard bloody murder.

 

[Paraxis]

I would love a monthly article that takes a classic old school article and gives it the 4E crunch, looking in my closet at old issues of Dragon gives me lots of cool ideas but having the conversion work done already would be great. Like a "From the Vault" type thing.

 

[AngryMojo]

When WotC first released Dragon for 4e, I was very happy. The first issue was great, imho. Here's a breakdown of what we had.

Issue 364
Demonomicon featuring Yeenoghu. 11 page article with five monsters.
Vor Kragal. 10 page article with two normal magic items, an artifact and three monsters.
Playing Warforged. 9 page article with Warforged writeup, including six feats, two paragon paths and five items.
The Ashen Covenenant. 12 page article with four monsters, seven items and a template.
Wolves of Maldeen. 7 page article with five items, one feat and a paragon path.
Creature Incarnations: Kobolds. 5 page article with eight monsters.
Role vs. Role: Alchemical Imbalance. 6 page article with two skill challenges and two altered monster powers.
Hazards of Dark Sun. 2 page article with three hazards.
Class Acts: Wizard. 2 page article with 9 wizard powers.
Expeditionary Dispatches: The Forest of Flesh. 5 page article with two monsters and one disease.
Under the Hood of the DMG. 5 page article with no mechanics.
Confessions. 3 page article with no mechanics.
RPGA Report. 2 page article with no mechanics.
Ampersand. 1 page, no mechanics.

So, we have 85 pages total including cover and ToC. Mechanically we have:
22 Monsters
19 Magic Items
1 Artifact
1 Race
7 Feats
3 Paragon Paths
1 Template
2 Skill Challenges
2 Altered monster powers
9 Powers
1 Disease
3 Hazards
11 pages of non-gameplay content.

Now examine the newest issue

Issue 390
Templars of the Sorcerer Kings. 11 page article with 14 feats.
Sweating under Dark Sun, Slaves of Athas. 6 page article with 1 theme, 7 powers, 1 paragon path and 3 feats.
Bardic Items: Closing the Magic Item Gap. 2 page article with 9 items.
Class Acts: Sorcerer. 4 page article with 8 feats and 6 powers.
Class Acts: Warlords. 5 page article with 4 paragon paths.
Winning Races: Eladrin. 4 page article with 7 feats and 2 familiars.
Winning Races: Gnomes. 4 page article with 7 powers.
Winning Races: Drow. 3 page article with 3 magic items.
Power Play: Divine, Dead Gods. 7 page article with 3 feats and 1 epic destiny.
Groups and Guilds: The Circle of Smoke and Whispers. 4 page article with 1 paragon path.
Lord of the Darkways. 23 pages of fiction excerpt.
Ampersand. 10 page article with 1 class writeup, 3 powers and 2 monsters, all previews.
Powers, Implements, Feats. 6 page article of previews.
Design and Development: Psionics, Magic and Metal. 3 page article with 2 powers, both from Dark Sun.
Confessions. 4 page article, no mechanics.
Alumni: Dark Sun. 3 page article, no mechanics.

So, we have 103 pages total including cover and ToC. Mechanically we have:
35 feats
1 Theme
20 new powers, 5 repeated or preview powers
6 paragon paths
1 epic destiny
12 items
2 familiars
2 monsters, all previews
1 class, a preview
33 pages of non-gameplay content
16 pages of previews.

So, the new dragon has a hell of a lot more feats, powers and paragon paths. It also has 49 pages of "padding" in the form of company-related articles that I personally don't care about, as opposed to the 11 pages in the first issue. Issue 390 has a bit more mechanical content, but devotes far fewer pages to fluff involving that mechanical content. Let's look at what the corresponding issue of Dungeon has in it outside the adventure content, considering DM stuff is supposed to be in Dungeon now.

22 Pages of 4 DM game play articles
9 pages of 2 DM advice articles
7 Monsters
3 Hazards
2 Magic Items

Even if you include the DM articles that are now in Dungeon instead of Dragon, you still see an alarming trend of reduced fluff per mechanic article. Most of the new articles in Dragon 390 are nothing but pages of feats, powers and paragon paths with little theme, rhyme or reason behind them. Meanwhile, issue 364 contains story and inspiration behind every feat and item, and a minimum of powers that are interesting, and that fill a niche that the game needed filled at the time (illusions for wizards). In addition, the new issue (390) has three class specific articles (Bards, Sorcerers and Warlords) as well as three race specific articles (Gnomes, Eladrin and Drow). Issue 364 contains no article repeats.

You can draw your own conclusions from these numbers, but I would suggest that WotC stop duplicating the same type of article in the same issue, and provide good flavor, fluff and inspiration behind each of their mechanical pieces. Oh, and for the love of God, stop publishing feats, we have a glut of them already.