D&D 5E Kickstart Dragon Magazine or any other rpg type magazine?

[delericho]

If anyone could make a go of a regular gaming magazine, it would be Paizo, who have both past experience with magazines and are well practiced with handling subscriptions.

That they haven't even tried to launch a new magazine of any sort is telling (and while their Dragon contract may have had a non-compete clause for some time after the license expired, that must surely have ended by now).

It's a nice idea, but I can't see it working. That said, I think (and I hope) that the Patreon model being investigated by EN5IDER and others will prove fruitful.

 

[Dartavian]

ENWorld big cheese [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] is trying something himself: EN5IDER and TRAILSEEKER.

Gygax Magazine Pretty much looks like the Dragon Magazines from the mid-80's. I enjoy it.

 

[Morrus]

When will these Patreon listings go live? I am ready to stand up and be counted.

When we have a couple of months of articles in the bank. I want a buffer of at least 8 weeks.

 

[Mistwell]

When we have a couple of months of articles in the bank. I want a buffer of at least 8 weeks.

It's looking really good. I like the funding model you chose.

 

[Riley]

When we have a couple of months of articles in the bank. I want a buffer of at least 8 weeks.

Might there be any benefit to opening subscriptions long before the first articles (and the related charges) go live? It would seem like a good way to gauge interest.

 

[Morrus]

Might there be any benefit to opening subscriptions long before the first articles (and the related charges) go live? It would seem like a good way to gauge interest.

I want a selection of free sample articles there first, so people can see what to expect.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Print on demand would be the only feasible route to market. The days of seeing gaming mags in newsagents are long past. Advertising revenues would dictate survivability and even with the relatively buoyant market today there just isn't the mass infrastructure to support the 80s era heyday.

 

[Shiv]

Print on demand would be the only feasible route to market. The days of seeing gaming mags in newsagents are long past. Advertising revenues would dictate survivability and even with the relatively buoyant market today there just isn't the mass infrastructure to support the 80s era heyday.

Agreed.

Jason Bulmahn once described to me the logistics of putting print magazines on shelves in bookstores and hobby stores. I don't recall enough of the specifics to describe accurately here, but suffice it to say that it's more complex and expensive than most of us realize. It's just not something that can be easily done nowadays, Kickstarter or not.

 

[Dire Bare]

Gygax Magazine Pretty much looks like the Dragon Magazines from the mid-80's. I enjoy it.

Heh, heh. It's a direct rip-off . . . err, tribute . . . to Dragon's trade dress from the 80s. I'm sure it's an okay mag, but I could never get behind it as the company behind it appropriated the TSR brand, roped in Gygax's sons, and then directly copied the old trade dress for the magazine. It's all a deliberate push for nostalgia and I'm not trying to imply anything underhanded, but it just left me a plagiaristy taste in my mouth I couldn't rinse out . . .

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Agreed.

Jason Bulmahn once described to me the logistics of putting print magazines on shelves in bookstores and hobby stores. I don't recall enough of the specifics to describe accurately here, but suffice it to say that it's more complex and expensive than most of us realize. It's just not something that can be easily done nowadays, Kickstarter or not.

can you even kickstart a magazine? isn't there something in KS rules like "You can't kickstart things with ongoing costs, just one time costs" maybe I'm thinking of something else...