Rant About Recent Dungeon Magazines

[Sholari]

Sounds like you wont like the mag either way. I think threads like these are most useful when we contribute helpful information for improvement of the product. All I see here is someone who wont buy and will not add anything to improve the product. Just my .002

But you see that's relative. To him and myself removing Polyhedron would be a vast improvement. Customer complaints can be extremely valuable information as long as you validate that with numbers and research.

 

[Treebore]

Eric,

I'll be looking at 104 and 105. I hope you win me back over.

 

[Ranger REG]

Re: Quickly, cuz it's late

I am not happy with Paizo's decision to support more proprietary WotC lines in Poly - Star Wars, Wheel of Time (does anyone really play that? c'mon...), et al. I don't play those, and covering them is just another way to advertise those games. I like the variety we get from minigames, and the suggestion to carry adventures set in those games is a great one! (One cannot get enough of Omega World, and I look warily at White Wolf's version of Gamma World... it smells like "suck," but I can't be sure until the book is out.)

While I'm happy you like Poly, I disagree with your criticism. For now, Poly is the only magazine that can and should support non-D&D products from Wizards.

I was devastated when Star Wars Gamer didn't last beyond ten issues. Now I'm glad they're back in the form of articles in Poly. I'm also glad that d20 Modern is also getting support despite the slow output of that line from WotC.

To me, this makes Poly even more valuable to the other readers who play non-D&D games from Wizards.

Why? I'm not getting the minigames I was told I'd get when I subbed last year (six, one in each Poly, instead of four - maybe). I feel baited and switched. I'm not interested in more coverage of WotC products, especially LG, in Poly. Paizo originally said it'd support more of the D20 community when they split off; Poly/Dungeon is becoming more of a house organ than the magazine was just after it merged. Sad.

Not to me. Perhaps it is better to put out 4 better-quality mini-games a year than 6 average-quality mini-games enforced by quota. I mean how many times have you played each of the mini-games that Poly puts out? Is it a one-shot? Twice?

I can tell you, that among the mini-games produced so far, I find only one that is worth playing over and over again. Maybe because it caters to my own personal preference as well as my group's.

As for supporting d20, Wizards is as much a part of the community as the rest of the d20 publishers, or do you deny the other non-D&D games?

Poly is still trying to find its niche, despite complaints from D&D Purists (or is it Supremacists?), as well as expand their readership. While you may like the previous format, their accounting ledger shows it did not do to expand the sales of the magazine.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Re: Re: Re: Give credit where credit is due department

I think you still have Atlas and AEG confused . . .

Great d20 books by AEG:
Feats
Mercenaries
Toolbox

The other one word books all had at least some useful content, despite the ridiculous number of typos and some rules errors. Some of their adventure boosters were fantastic, too, esp. ones by Mike Mearls.

Entire great d20 product lines from AEG:
Rokugan line
Spycraft line
Swashbuckling Adventures line

That's a lot of stuff from AEG that rocks! And from Atlas, we have...
Backdrops
Dynasties & Demagogues
Three Days To Kill

Nothing else from Atlas has been worth a damn to me. Lots of horrible stuff like Thieves in the Forest, though...