D&D 5E How would you improve Dragon+, WotC's Online Magazine?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've little use for promo material for books I'm already going to buy. The behind the scenes interviews and whatnot are kinda neat, but I barely notice when a new issue drops.

I've been reading lots of old Dragons lately, and the content that holds up (for me, this is subjective), isn't always the hard rules stuff. Yes, there are some great magic items and spells and classes in old Dragons. But in this day and age, I don't think people want someone showing up to their table with some random spell that isn't in any of the books. Instead, its things like the Ecology articles or Wyrms of the North, the lore that expands the world and inspires DMs. The comics also do it for me - something longform like a Wormy or a Snarfquest would be great to see again.

This same appreciation doesn't seem to exist for WotC's current online magazine, Dragon+. I'm not really surprised this is the case as a huge bulk of the book is adverts for their own products.

Seeing issues of Dragon magazine on the shelves helped get me into gaming in the 80s, and back into gaming in 2002. There's something to be said for having that physical presence where people can stumble across it.

Printers exist.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I'd take a physical, b/w paper book over a fancy full-colour-with-animation-and-sound digital 'book' every single time!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

Would you pay twenty dollars an issue for it? Cause that's the price WOTC would have to charge to make it workable...

 

[Zaukrie]

Actual content that isn't advertising would be a good start. So many OLD articles hold up today, about dungeons and wilderness and Hell and, well, so much. How to play, how to DM, how to design almost anything. The old magazines are gold mines of info. NO ONE is going to look back at Dragon+ and type that 20 years from now.......

As for Dungeon magazine, we just got that in Candlekeep, IMO. Now, I'm not sure any of these will be classics, but there are some good ones in there.

 

[dave2008]

The comics also do it for me - something longform like a Wormy or a Snarfquest would be great to see again.

Yes! I should have added that to my list.

 

[Marc Radle]

Yeah, I REALLY miss Dragon as a print mag. There is nothing quite like a professionally produced physical magazine (or module, book etc.)

The online thing is, as has been said earlier, just a stylized website with a release schedule.

 

[Stormonu]

A POD (Print on Demand) option for subscribers or one-off orders (could do this through DriveThruRPG).

Throw in a "Map of Mystery" with each issue, as everyone can always use an unkeyed map to populate.

A Rogue's Gallery article that devotes a page (+ possibly stat block) to an interesting NPC that can be injected into a game - could be an ally, nemesis, henchmen or other NPC the characters could encounter, possibly something that could be bumped up to a PC as a sidekick character.

An "Advanced" article that takes some aspect of the game and delves deeper into it for those that want more intricate rules for a subject. Things like suggestions for crafting, starting a side business, ruling a keep, spells with consequences/corrupting magic, more intricate subclasses and the like. With a firm preamble that these are optional rules for those that want the extra detail.

A research article relating to gaming. It doesn't have to be too in-depth, but something that can provide an overview of a subject and a jumping off point for encouraging the reader to take a deeper dive into the subject if it interests them.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This same appreciation doesn't seem to exist for WotC's current online magazine, Dragon+. I'm not really surprised this is the case as a huge bulk of the book is adverts for their own products.

I mean, the main thing I'd do would be fill it with content, instead of adverts.

That's why no-one likes it. Because the actual content is near-zero. Dragon had:

Articles with rules and ideas from both WotC people and third-party people - tons of them, this was the bulk of it
Opinion pieces
A help column
Comics
Reviews

And so on.

Dragon+ has pretty much NONE of that. Even just like, a handful of articles, which had the same status as UA, rules-wise, would take it from "ignore studiously" to "read every issue" for a huge number of people, and it would actually get talked about.

 

[ART!]

I think just a wider variety of content - maybe even just added incrementally to see what people respond to - would get me to check it out more often. As is, I checked out a couple issues when I first downloaded the app, and haven't checked back since.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd just like there to be an option to download individual articles in pdf. There's an early article on world building that I'd love having an easily accessible version of.

 

[grimslade]

I think WotC believes that DMsGuild fulfills the other aspects of old Dragon and Dungeon. You can get new rules and scenarios for a small fee. They don't have to expend for editors and still get a cut.