Is Dragon Magazine even *Relevant* anymore?

[Vocenoctum]

The Problem with Dragon

There was a recent thread here on ENWorld which indicated there appeared to be widespread dissatisfaction with Dragon Magazine.

neglecting the fact that not everyone is on ENWorld, those of us that ARE on here and happy with Dragon may not go into those threads, since they devolve into multi-page discussions with nothing useful for me.

3- Dragon is no longer the main source for new rules. This is a major change and it is one that WotC has unleashed all on its own. With the Open Gaming License, the flood of new rules of a more “hobbyist” nature such as Dragon used to print a lot of has never been greater. We don’t need Dragon for this venue anymore.

But it’s more than that. I appreciate that there are a lot of people that don’t use non- WotC products and so the OGL has had a minimal effect on them. But in the golden age of Dragon during 1st edition, we only got a new hardcover rule book once a year – if that. Right now, the publication schedule of WotC brings those new rules to us at a rate faster than we can almost read. Every month or every other month – we are getting a new big fat official D&D rule book. And that is a huge structural change.

You do seem to ignore the rate during Second Edition.

But more than that, Dragon costs 38.95 a year. Roughly two of the new books. With that you get loads of ad's of course, but plenty of good material mixed in. I'm certainly getting more value out of the 1200 (minus ad's) pages of Dragon vs most of the 3rd party material I was buying. The Wizards books are good overall, but still hit or miss.
The material is scattered out over 12 issues certainly, and it's not all great material, but I do usually get something useful out of each magazine, even if it's just something to read while doing Laundry.

I can see room for improvement, but then I'm happy with the current stuff too. I subscribe to both Dragon and Dungeon and have been happy with them. I was bored, so I read page one of this thread, but it's already up to Page 3 by now, and frankly following the thread isn't worth it for me. I'm sure plenty of other folks that are happy with Dragon and Dungeon also don't follow these threads, so don't think a bunch of people nagging about the magazines is any indication of something.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

The berserker, the ninja, the anti-paladin, the healer, the ninja, the dualist, the ninja..

Got this thing for ninjas, don't'cha?

I mean, Storm Shadow was kewl and all.........

 

[TerraDave]

Respect the Dragon Ninja

Got this thing for ninjas, don't'cha?

I mean, Storm Shadow was kewl and all.........

not me, DRAGON. But seriously, I think the only did 2 or 3, with 5 or 10 articles.

with more special class abilities then the 3rd edition druid and monk put together, and more ninja specific weapons (including things like rockets) then all the weapons in the current PHB.

Of course, these memories are aproaching the two decade mark

 

[Rawhide]

First, let's cover the basics. Dragon has to be about D&D, and it has to mostly be about core D&D (rather than some specific world). All efforts to do anthing else have been met with howls of anger from the existing readership. while Paizo -could- decide to ignore existing readers in favor of trying to build a whole new readership that would be risky. So risky I would call it dumb.

I understand why people want other d20 content. It isn;t going to happen in dragon. for all the reasons some people are claiming dragon isn;t useful at all anymore, it must focus its content. If it gets too diverse, most people will ditch it in favor of other sources. The only things it has going for it is officialness, history, and access to WotC. It should play those up.

Making dungeon and DM resource and Dragon a player resource is, inbroad terms, a good idea. Dungeon is well loved by far more people now, and Dragon doesn't seem to have suffered much readership loss. better one great mag and one mediocre one that two mediocre ones.

Every Dragon should have at least one really crunchy rules article. The best of these will be things easily tacked on to existing, ongoing campaigns. New arcane spells, new magic items, and new uses for old rules are top of the list. The reason for this is obvious. How many PrCs do you use in your game, and how often do you need a new one? A single campaign goes through a lot more magic items than PrCs or feats. And new arcane spells are a legit player resource -- a player can always ask a DM to allow a wizard tor esearch a new spell. Even better are spells that do new sorts of things.

After that, every issue should have at least ne thing you can;t get anywhere else. An interwive with a WotC designer outlining why a rule works the way it does. A one page preview of an upcoiming wotc product. If possible, news and insights from WotC no one else has access to, as well as information about future paizo plans.

Then, the remianing space should be general, useful articles. An excellent example is those race name articles dragon did back for 2nd ed. Those are useful, well written, and required no new rules. examples of new equipment. What all can be considered a scimitar, with illustrations. What does an 18 Wis mean? What does Cha mean for a wolverine? Solid game related things with less rules content.

Then, paizo needs an electornic version of the magazine which only subscribers have access to. A pdf version at minimum, but a searchable archive is better. when your subscription runs out, so does your access.

And -that- is how you make dragon relevant again.

 

[d20Dwarf]

The berserker, the ninja, the anti-paladin, the healer, the ninja, the dualist, the ninja..

Binky the jester was one of only two characters I've ever played as high as 16th level from 1st.

Man I'd love to do a jester core class for 3rd ed.

 

[Crothian]

Has Dragon ever said about how many subscribers they have? It'd be interesting to see how those numbers compare to past years.

 

[warlord]

What they need to do to fix it is make it more like the old Dragon mags.

 

[Crothian]

What they need to do to fix it is make it more like the old Dragon mags.

to do that they also need to change the state of role playing to make that more like what existed during the Old Dragon Magazine run.....

 

[Truth Seeker]

What they need to do to fix it is make it more like the old Dragon mags.

As great as that sounds, it is the nature of the human being, to forever go forward.

 

[Felon]

_Part_ of the answer is embracing the elements of D&D that other companies and websites cannot touch. That means official expansion of Eberron, Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and the Great Wheel cosmology.

That should also mean new elements of game design, like tactical feats (from Complete Warrior) and monster classes (from Savage Species), right?

As for the list of Steel Wind's un-favorite articles, half of them have already been put out of their misery. Don't expect a lot more new classes or races from the magazine. You rightly point out that the world is choking in such things already. We'll include some new feats and prestige classes from time to time, but only when surrounded by compelling ideas that just beg to be used in your campaign.

Well, see now that's discouraging for me, because that means you won't be capitalizng on concepts like tactical feats in Class Acts or monster classes in Winning Races.

You know, after a long campaign of advertisement, the "new" Dragon format vanished pretty quickly. What's up with that? Taking negative posts on blogs too seriously?