Is Dungeon getting... smaller?

[JoeGKushner]

DUN: Editorial
DUN: Scales of War #11
DUN: Save My Game
DUN: Penny Arcade Adventure
DUN: Ruling Skill Challenges
DUN: Dungeoncraft

Am I missing something?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Actually the plan for the magazines in general is for Dungeon to get bigger. It will be getting stuff like the "Ecology of", etc. Since they are specifically making DM stuff in Dungeon and putting new Player oriented in Dragon.

 

[Zaukrie]

I don't know if the page count is dropping, as the SoW adventures get longer, but the amount of stuff I can use is dropping fast. Two adventures, one SoW, just isn't enough.

We need 2 or so plug and play short encounters, and two adventures that aren't adventure path related, that's what we need (in addition to DM advice columns).

 

[Asmor]

I don't really feel like checking into it, but a few months ago someone complained that it seemed like Dungeon or Dragon (I forget which) was getting smaller every month.

I went through and checked the page counts of all the magazines up to that point. Individually, they varied quite widely, but when you took them as a pair (i.e. the Dungeon and the Dragon of any particular month) it was consistently in the ~200 page range, give or take 10 or so pages.

So if Dungeon is getting smaller, you might want to check if Dragon isn't getting bigger...

Personally, I think they should just ditch the false dichotomy entirely. They're on the right track by reclassifying Ecologies and such as Dungeon, though.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Yeah, mapped encounters are great. One of the things I like about Level Up 1.

But... it seems this month is two adventurers, including the ap one, and the other one was an adventure that was home brewed for the PvP/Penny Arcade combo and while I love Penny Arcade, I certainly found the art... distracting.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

Actually the plan for the magazines in general is for Dungeon to get bigger. It will be getting stuff like the "Ecology of", etc. Since they are specifically making DM stuff in Dungeon and putting new Player oriented in Dragon.

I think this material belongs in Dungeon, but I hope it doesn't come at the expense of bringing the amount of prepared adventure material back up. I'd love to see three adventures in every issue or at least two adventures and multiple "lairs" (like those in Draconomicon or Open Grave) or other encounters. There's too much unrealized potential for WotC showing off what can be done with 4E!

 

[LightPhoenix]

So if Dungeon is getting smaller, you might want to check if Dragon isn't getting bigger...

This month, it's seemed like Dragon was almost entirely DM-based. My suspicion is the opposite of yours - that Dragon didn't have enough player-oriented articles, so they put in more DM-oriented articles.

For players, there was the Monk Playtest and Celestian Order.

For DMs, there's been Game Transparency, Domains of Dread, Gontal, MM3 Playtest (yet to come), Expeditionary Dispatches, and Ampersand (DMG2).

Needless to say, as a player, I've been very disappointed with Dragon this month. All of the DM stuff (except maybe the MM3 Playtest and Ampersand) should have been Dungeon articles, and not Dragon. I was talking with my DM about it, and the basic set up now is that DMs get roughly 75% of the articles - all of Dungeon and half of Dragon. That's three times as much as the players get. Of course, that's why I think they're redistributing the articles. I think there are more players buying subscriptions now.

Really though, I think subscription should be a la carte. Pay for the parts you want, don't pay for what you don't. Of course, $10/month isn't a lot, and I just upped my subscription for a year (perfect timing on the expiration). So maybe I'm just whining hypocritically. I guess WotC is doing something right.

 

[wedgeski]

Dungeon was weak this month IMO, but it's a blip on an otherwise stellar record up to this point. No cause for alarm... yet.

 

[CapnZapp]

Btw, have there been an announcement of "Dungeon Delve 2" (or some similar product) yet?