Odhanan said:
I guess not.
It's making me feel that way though.
From what I see of e-Dragon so far... that's not remotely the same thing as the old magazine. I was actually reading the letters of the readers. The news, the ads, the magazine, you know? That's not because you have "Ecology" or "Bazaar of the Bizarre" that you have Dragon. Layout on a website is not the same thing as layout on a page. Reading a PDF is not the same as turning the pages of a magazine on your couch. The smell of it, the touch of it? God, just writing this, I really feel like I'm a has-been, now.
I mean, it's great some of you can really rejoice in the advent of e-Dragon and just love the possibilities it offers. I know it's early to call it one way or another, but what I'm seeing so far just does not excite me one bit. I hope it changes over time, but I'm not holding my breath.
Od, even though I don't agree, I think I understand what you're saying. However, I feel the need to point out a few things.
1. As I understand it, the articles in
Dragon &
Dungeon will be collected into .pdf's very similar to a magazine at the end of every month. A subscription to DDI means you "own" the pdf for the month you subscribed.
2. Also, as I understand it, the Gleemax presentation of
Dragon and
Dungeon isn't online and functional yet. So, for right now, we're getting the magazine articles presented in article format, not "online magazine" format.
There are some people who haven't bought the magazines on a regular basis for years who are HAPPY that they've gone digital. I'm one of them. I might have bought 1 issue in 4 of
Dragon and 1 in 6 of
Dungeon on the newsstand. I hate magazines because in my life, they get read once and filed. I'd MUCH rather get gaming material in digital format. I also fully expect that periodicals of all sorts will be the first print materials to become digital only over the next decade.
I wouldn't worry too much about the business model making the game unwieldy. I imagine, if anything, that we'll see fewer books than in 3.5, but higher quality ones.
The
Monster Manual situation isn't changing much, except that we know in advance we'll get a new book (with more monsters to play with) each year. The PHB and DMG sequels seem problematic, until you look at it from the standpoint of the business.
The problem with a "splat book" is that they're class specific. If you don't play an arcanist, you're probably not going to buy
The Complete Arcane. Even a DM might be hesitant to shell out $35 on a book he's not likely to use. So I think the idea is to take the information you'd print in all those splats, and spread them out over various PHB and DMG releases. That way, only the good material will see print - but there will be more incentive for everyone to buy the books because it's useful, regardless of the kind of character you play. The PHB and DMG sequels will probably be a combination of new options for existing character classes, new character classes, DMing tips and advice, adventure suggestions and the like that just won't fit in one book.
It's going to take them years to equal the options in 3.5, and I think they realized that making PHB 1, 2, 3, etc. and DMG 1, 2, 3, etc. is a better approach than releasing Complete Warrior 1, 2, 3, etc.; Complete Arcane 1, 2, 3, etc.; Complete Adventurer 1, 2, 3 etc.; and Complete Divine 1, 2, 3, etc.
Basically, if you can make one book, and sell 100,000 copies of it, it's far better than selling 10,000 copies of 10 books. Make sense? And if there are fewer books, it also might mean that everyone is MORE likely to have the same books. Because even a DM will get some use out of a book which provides 8 new classes in various roles, more powers, more feats, and so on. That potentially allows more gamers to have more of the same common ground than before, rather than less.
In addtion, we'll probably get books dedicated to providing more "powers" for each "power source" (functionally equivalent to the
Spell Compendium) between the various PHB/DMG sequels, since those seem to do reasonably well. However, those will probably come out as good ideas overwhelm the page count available in the Core Rules, rather than on any kind of mandated schedule.
