Steel_Wind said:
But a lot has changed since that golden age. From my perspective:
1 – Dragon is no longer a meaningful source of gaming news. Like all print publications, the timeliness of “news” in print has been made nigh impossible by the Internet.
In the early days of rpgs, Dragon wasn't much of a news source, either. One of the best things about early Dragon was the articles that focused not on (1) new rules or (2) a published campaign world, but rather (3) devising your own campaign world, or some part of that world. Sure, sometimes these articles contained a fair bit of "crunch," but they were mostly advice on how to use existing "crunch" to get a desired effect. Even the articles that were crunch-heavy (Toxins of Cerilon, for example) contained a lot of "fluff" that made the crunch flavorful. Early Dragon was
evocative, and I believe that it is this quality that the current magazine lacks.
I don't know how many people here remember when Greyhawk was the only "official" D&D world. In those days, writers were forced to use their own campaign worlds as examples. Ed Greenwood introduced us to the Forgetten Realms by discussing how he created its pantheon, by showcasing creatures he invented, and by writing about campaign design. We were introduced to a lot of other worlds, including the aforementioned Cerilon, simply because the writers were DMs, and they used the perspective of their creations in their articles. Their personalities showed through. The personalities of their worlds showed through. It was great.
The fiction was rougher, but it was also written by gamers, and frequently had bits that could be transported directly into a campaign. In one case, an article gave Traveller stats to the things that appeared in a sf story. It was a lot less polished. And it was a lot cooler.
That feeling of evocative settings is what I want back. I can't possibly be alone, because the EN World Gamer contains a lot of "old feel" material, and Golden City Comics sells at least three copies of EN World Gamer
per copy of Dragon
magazine sold.
I don't need new prestige classes every issue. What would be cool, though, is an article that looks at how to select which prestige classes are right for a campaign setting, and how to introduce them effectively. I don't need new feats for barbarians every time I turn around, but I would really appreciate an in-depth look at real-world and/or fantasy world barbarian cultures. You get the idea.
2- Dragon is no longer a place where gamers “come together”. I’m not sure this was ever true as its pretty hard to “come together” while reading a magazine where the info flows only one way for the most part. Whatever the case, to the extent this was true – again – the Internet has replaced it. To be blunt, ENWorld, RPG.net and the Wizards forums have replaced that element and it's gone for good.
Bring back "Forum". It was like the "Dragon Mail" column, but better. Message boards are nice, but sometimes it's good to have an editor decide which "posts" are worth bringing attention to.
A– non-fiction: There is only so much non-fiction you can do of a gaming nature before it becomes a re-tread of an article done long ago. Near as I can tell – they are into the third or fourth retreads in some cases at this stage.
Over the years, Dragon has run dozens of articles on how to design a campaign world, but all of these articles have come from very different perspectives, and all have been unique offerings. If they did a "Best of Dragon: Designing Your Campaign World" volume, I would buy it in a heartbeat.
B- Fiction: maybe some people enjoy this – but I don’t really read the fiction very often.
C- Magic Items: Bazaar of the Bizarre remains very useful. But it isn’t enough to persuade me to bring this to the cashier every month.
D – The New Character Class Pages: This really does not appeal very much to me at all. Sounded nice in theory – has not worked well in practice. Ditch it Erik.
E- Sage Advice: Interesting, sure. But WotC puts it up on its website for free. Why am I buying this?
You know what I keep thinking? These features are attempts to
force the reader to buy new books/update campaign settings to new editions in order to make the magazine useful. When I look at the older Dragon magazine, I find ideas and advice that are relevant to
any edition of the game and, frequently,
to any game system. Okay, this wasn't always the case (especially the system portability), but it was the case often enough that I suspect Dragon was originally
about role-playing, and is currently
about rules.
Fix that, and I predict sales will rise.
RC
