What do you want to see in a new magazine?

[Wystan]

I would also like support or at least ideas for non D&D D20 games. Maybe not a lot, but a 3-5 page spread every month on a separate old/new/innovative/nonD20 game.

Examples:
Mechwarriors and why they fight - Mechwarrior/Battletech
The spy who stayed out in the cold -TSSI
Who decides that you are a hero? - any Superhero genre
The Horrible features of the Creatures of the Outer Dark - Cthulu


Just some ideas

 

[DM-Rocco]

I would like a Cheap PDF subscription. (Or even a reasonable print subscription) Or both.


Mini-Adventures (sub-plots type things.)

While we are trying to focus on a mail order magazine, we know that many of you want a PDF instead, so we will offer that. The prices listed on our web-site are not set in stone. We want to make everything as cheap as we can. We went high on the prices to get a feel for the worse case senerio. We hope to bring down the price soon. That is why we aren't taking orders just yet. We are trying to get a feel for the interest by the number of people who sign up for the newsletter.

I encourage you to sign up for the newsletter. Right now, it is our only way of tracking the growing interest in the magazine, and thus our final price.

We do plan on a combined PDF and paper magazine subscription too, just a heads up.

I *never* read the fiction in DRAGON. They were wasted pages.

I liked what DRAGON was doing toward the end with small sections about the different major settings (Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc.)

Well, I won't say that there will never be fiction, but not as much as Dragon did.

We talked about articles for WOTC settings. We would love to host those too, but it is something we will have to most likely get from other writers as most of us are homebrew kind of guys. We prefer to make our own worlds that is. So, if you have a strong sense of one of the worlds, we would love to hear from you.

I'll have to check back later for more. I am at work

 

[DM-Rocco]

I would like to see a gaming publication that most resembles the early issues of Dragon.

Funny you say that, it is exactly what I am going for.

1. Print rather than PDF.
2. Black printing on clean white paper, not strange colors on other strange colors.
3. Decent sized font for easy reading.
4. Crisp B&W line artwork interior, color cover optional.

As far as content goes, I would like to see articles about how to plan a dungeon, map a city, design a world. I get tired of someone doing these things for me and then publishing it because to me much of this is filler, and think that general articles helping people design their own materials are more useful overall.

If the magazine wants to pre-make materials, you might consider the idea of picking one campaign world and sticking with it. This can even be an original campaign setting unique to the publication. Think about Judges Guild from the 1970's and their "Wilderlands" campaign where each module or adventure had a specific place to occur in their world. They gave us a city-state, a haunted house, several villages, and more. All tied together into a single campaign, and most of it came as parts of their magazine subscription.

Giving player tips seems better than extra classes. Having DM tricks that can be used in a home-brew campaign would be useful. I guess I would like to see an emphasis on how to play rather than enless monster ecology type articles and the like that (to me) don't enhance the gaming experience at all.

Just my two cents.

I think you sir are our ideal subscriber. Our web-site doesn't say it yet because I am still waiting for his excerpt, but one of the featured articles in issue #0 is how to create a campaign setting. It is not going to be a one shot, here is what you need to know, kind of thing, but an on-going series. We will have our own Adventure Path style modules called Campaign Arcs and it will take place in our own setting. We will also show how and why we came up with certian things in the adventure so you can better understand how to build your own.

I think pretty much everything you mentioned is exactly what we are doing. I think you, and others like you, will be pleased.

 

[DM-Rocco]

I wasn't into Dragon. I was such a big fan of Dungeon, that I would be interested in a bigger version of Dungeon. More pages per issue is what I'd want.

Hmm, because of room we will only be having one adventure in the magazine at a time and it will be our Campaign Arc. Although, Daniel Bishop and I have talked about making a few smaller side quest adventures, for the DM to whip out when the players want to stray from the map. Other than that, we are more focued on usable content for players and DMs, like the glory days of Dragon.

I think the Campaign Arc is very good though, to toot my own horn, so you might want to check that out.

This is a must IMO. The issues up until the early 90's were, IMO, the best I've ever read. Less crunch and more useful fluff.



I fully agree here that this is what is needed.

The real question comes up as to whether you zine will be 4th ed or 3.X. I'd only be interested if it was 3.X

We are trying to create content that can transcend editions, so hopefully this won't be a big problem. However, it looks like 4th edition will be coming sooner rather than later, so it is something we will have to address. If the changes are too big, we will have to swing one way or the other. But, if you write a good enough article, you should be able to use it in any edition.

 

[DM-Rocco]

I would also like support or at least ideas for non D&D D20 games. Maybe not a lot, but a 3-5 page spread every month on a separate old/new/innovative/nonD20 game.

Examples:
Mechwarriors and why they fight - Mechwarrior/Battletech
The spy who stayed out in the cold -TSSI
Who decides that you are a hero? - any Superhero genre
The Horrible features of the Creatures of the Outer Dark - Cthulu


Just some ideas

That is something I want to do too. I didn't play a lot of the other games that the early Dragon magazine talked about, but I did enjoy reading those articles anyway. Even if it is not D&D, they give you ideas, and that is what role-playing is about.

I don't play any of those mentioned above, but our submission policy states that we would be happy to host an article related to a non-D&D game if one, or many, are submitted.

It looks like most of what people have posted so far is stuff we are already trying to do or are doing. Please keep coming with your ideas though. I would love to hear from everyone.

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

Just signed up for the mailing list and sent the email for Issue #0. Good luck with this and thanks for stepping up to fill the void that WotC created by cancelling the print magazines. I mailed a letter to WotC letting them know my displeasure of their decision to cancel the print versions of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Who knows in a few years maybe you can expand and have Dungeon Roots magazine or maybe call it Dungeon Halls . I really hope this works out.

Sorry, just realized I posted this in the wrong thread.

What would I like to see... yeah, what they (the above) said.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Just signed up for the mailing list and sent the email for Issue #0. Good luck with this and thanks for stepping up to fill the void that WotC created by cancelling the print magazines. I mailed a letter to WotC letting them know my displeasure of their decision to cancel the print versions of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Who knows in a few years maybe you can expand and have Dungeon Roots magazine or maybe call it Dungeon Halls . I really hope this works out.

Sorry, just realized I posted this in the wrong thread.

What would I like to see... yeah, what they (the above) said.

Hey, thanks for the support. I don't really care where you reply, for the record. I would love to do a Dungeon Pit, or something like that. One step at a time though. To start, this will have one, maybe two adventures in it just like the old Dragon magazines.

Thanks for the support.

I just hope that this magazine doesn't get too over shadowed by all the 4E threads

 

[The_Gneech]

Hey, DM-Rocco! I put my e-mail in at the site and never got a confirmation request. Please sign me up! thegneech (at) gmail.com.

-The Gneech

 

[DM-Rocco]

Hey, DM-Rocco! I put my e-mail in at the site and never got a confirmation request. Please sign me up! thegneech (at) gmail.com.

-The Gneech

If you put your name in the mailing list, then please give it up to 24 hours. If you don't get a response back by noon tomorrow, let me know.

The service for the sign-up can be automated, but we haven't done it just yet. So we have to send the reply back manually.

Thanks for the interest. Glad to see one more step up to the plate.

Now, if I could just start a virus that ate up all these 4th edition threads

 

[DM-Rocco]

Gneech,


Did you get a confirmation e-mail yet? You are my quality control test