The Dragon is Dead,
The Dungeon is Crumbled,
The Knights are all Humbled.
The scriveners desks,
Now sit bare and uncluttered,
Their parchments are scattered,
On a wind of black mutters.
Great Heralds and Lords shout claim,
To build a great city of shimmering glass.
But sorrow shall dwell there,
For our Dragon was Golden,
Lament now that His Era Has Past.
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You know, I can't keep up with this thread, the posts are coming fast and furious, so I figured I'd just post.
I'm a computer geek, and the IT manager at a small marketing research company. I live and die by my computer. Search engines, and databases, and file organization - these are what help keep things available and accessible in a world where information has outstripped the ability of a single human mind to catalogue it all.
I read online forums and some webzines. But, at the end of the day, if I want to really read something, I don't want to be forced to stare at a computer monitor like the one I stare at 8 hours a day (if I'm lucky), anyway. I want a book, I want pages, I want beautiful art. I want to read it while eating, or before bed, or with my cat on my lap. I like searchable databases, I like being able to download portable files, I like being able to cut and paste parts of a PDF into my own gaming documents for quick preparation. Those are nice, great aids for the busy gamer with a job and a life. But I also see the fragility of digital media, the ease of loss, the whirling storm of design over fuctionality, and the limitations on personal access, and "rights" to store and use. And I am not impressed, nor happy with this direction.
In the end, though, that isn't what made me stop today.
I picked up my first Dungeon & Dragons booklet when I was 9. Wondered at the Larry Elmore art, and devoured the text.
When I was 12, I saw my first issue of Dragon. At that point, you may as well have considered my allowance for weeks and years of my childhood pre-spent.
I remember ordering character potraits from and artist listed in Dragon, and my Mother speaking with Roger Moore directly about it (Yes, he actually answered the direct line himself in those days).
I was swept up into the hobby, along with my interests in science fiction and fantasy literature, and my pursuit of art. Dragon kept it alive, even when there were times growing up when there was no one to play with, it let you still feel like you were a community, despite the fact that you were probably a loner or a nerd in those days, or despite the media and religious groups persecution.
It was also a creative outlet for someone who would essentially make their living, not by training in art, but a natural knack with computers which were still just really becoming "personal" at the time. And thanks to that outlet, I got published twice in Dragon. Yes, I got a little money, yes I got a free magazine, but really it was pride. I'd made the cut. I'd made something that the folks who DEFINED the RPG magazine thought should be shared with anyone and everyone who played. I'd somehow given back to the magazine that had helped expand my understanding of history, fantasy, speculative fiction, and how to make a set of rules serve the imagination.
Paizo, Erik Mona, and their entire staff took those magazines and breathed life into them when WotC seemed to think they were already dead. As a consumer, I didn't like everything, every month, but then, I never had. I can look on the most recent years with less nostalgia, and can say they did a spectacular job.
But I let my subscription lapse a couple months ago. I've been running a campaign for just about 12 years now, and it's coming to its conclusion. I liked Dragon, and by extension Dungeon, but I didn't need them right now, I had all the rules that were necessary, and the adventures have been laid to bring the adventurers to the moment of their greatest victory or most dreadful failure. Should a side quest be needed, I already had dozens to choose from.
I just figured that they'd always be there. I would let my players bring their story to an end. And I'd go to the store, and pick up a copy of Dragon to see what was new, and a copy of Dungeon to do some fun one shots before the next big campaign.
And now they're going away.
Yes, maybe this is melodramatic. But you know what. This magazine has been a part of my life off and on (mostly on) for over 24 YEARS. I'm stunned. I'm angry. I'm sad. A pillar of my hobby and what amounts to an insightful friend (even if it is an imaginary friend made up of a chorus of writers and gamers and publishers) is being taken away.
To everyone at Paizo, thank you for keeping Dragon and Dungeon alive when WotC thought it was so much dead weight. Thank you, however unintentionally, of reminding me what it felt like to get published in Dragon by converting my old Fire Troll in the Dragon Compendium. When my current games are done and I need some fuel for the creative fires, I'll look you up. I think I need to thank WotC for the sense to let you renew Dragon and Dungeon back when they did.
If WotC's online offering can come close to the fun and entertainment these ancients of gaming have given me for a quarter century (among all their many and varied incarnations), I will be impressed.
But it won't be the same.
