Need opinion on Dragon/Dungeon

[godawful]

DUNGEON period.

i use the maps, enemies, campaign workbook, settings, cities yadda yadda yadda. the only thing i like in dragon is the sage advice column. the last thing on earth i need is new spells/classes/skills/feats to slow down gametime any more than necessary.

 

[frankthedm]

Dungeon.

10 to 20 years from now a Dungeon Adventure will be more usable than a dragon magazine article.

As it happens the only thing i dislike about Dungeon is that i really dislike the style of artist who does downer. He gives Erik Mona a good price from what i hear.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

My personal choice would be Dungeon - besisdes the adventures (which are good to fantastic - it is rare I encounter a poor adventure in Dungeon mag anymore) the DMing articles in the back are always interesting. I loved the Scroll Matrix that gave a large list of variations to the standard scoll on parchment or the Inn Menu with 100 dishes to liven up a visit to the local eatery. And Monte Cook's advice column is great whether you have been DMing for 10 years or 10 days. For comics although Dungeon does have the mediocre Downer it also has the single funniest comic out there in Mount Zogon!

That said I also have a sub to Dragon as well as the useful (to me) content shot through the roof recently with the Class Acts & Demonomicon articles. Hope to see more of those in the future. I also loved stuff like the Boccob issue and the Wizard's Staff-as-familiar issue last year (that was an amazing one!).

 

[Mr Vergee]

Definitely Dungeon! Up to an unprecedented standard since their latest change.

 

[tzor]

It's really hard to say. Both have been doing well of late; both have excellent crunch factors. Dungeon has a lot of both one shot and serial adventures, which actualy can be good for the infrequent players because that way you won't be waiting for the next issue to continue the seires. Dragon is often said to be "player oriented" but I find that 1/3 of the material is really potential DM crunch. I think the last issue had a few encoutner settings in a desctription between giants and drow in Ebberon.

If you had to choose I'd probably reccomend Dungeon, although it's really closer than you might otherwise think. Getting both is twice your reading pleasure every month.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Wow, $39 is a lot for a mag sub? I pay a lot more for The Economist, though that is admittedly a weekly mag.

I get both Dragon and Dungeon. Both are entertaining. Dragon has more player-oriented content and better comics (Nodwick, Dork Tower, Order of the Stick, Zogonia). Dungeon is mostly adventures and DM-related content.

I find the general quality of both to be high. Paizo regularly puts out slicker content than many D20 publishers. Generally, the content of both is worth reading, even if you don't use them in a game.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm a subscriber to both.

For a GM, Dungeon, if for it's NPCs and maps alone, is probably a better tool.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Concur with the general consensus: if you have to choose one, make it Dungeon. That magazine is the best it has ever been.

Dragon is sometimes mediocre, but it is saved by the occassional brilliant article or series (e.g., the currently ongoing Demonomicon).

 

[klofft]

Thanks everyone! It was clear from everyone's advice overall that Dungeon was clearly superior, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that I would be missing something in the other no matter which one I chose. So I scraped some pennies together to add to my wife's gift and ended up subscribing to both. I'll give it a year and see what I think of each after that.

Everyone's comments were very helpful!

C

 

[Glyfair]

Thanks everyone! It was clear from everyone's advice overall that Dungeon was clearly superior, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that I would be missing something in the other no matter which one I chose. So I scraped some pennies together to add to my wife's gift and ended up subscribing to both. I'll give it a year and see what I think of each after that.

Don't forget to order the exclusive Sorcerer on Black Dragon mini (only for subscribers) while you can, if you are interested and subscribed online.