Which of these would you like to see in 2015 from WotC?

[TheCelric]

I have to say that while I voted for a new FRCS update (Because I've been sticking that needle in my arm since Under Illefarn... but I can stop anytime!), I'd be pretty happy if they brought back some version of Dungeon. Yes, I was a subscriber for a long time, and yes, I paid the monthly fee to have the digital version as well, but even setting that aside, the ADVENTURES! Even the bad ones had wonderful parts you could cobble together to make a wonderful evening happen. The good ones were so, so good.

In my mind, the best idea that WOTC had (when they weren't in the business of making adventures on their own) was getting other people to send in ideas, flesh them out, and have them published for the rest of us. If they aren't going to really start giving us adventures, then bringing that mag back would be wonderful. I'd gladly pay for another subscription in print as well. Please, take my money.

 

[Rygar]

Dragon and Dungeon more or less died when they killed the print issue (well, Dragon was dead at least a year or three before - it'd become splat-supplement-of-the-month-club some time back), and I don't think it would be feasible or profitable to bring it back in this electronic age.

It would be feasible and profitable to bring it back in print. They're Wizards of the Coast, any printer would likely do Dragon and Dungeon at or below cost just for the Magic the Gathering contract. Instead of messing around with magazine circulation, sell it direct on the site or partner with someone like Amazon who lives by diversity.

The "Electronic age" as far as print media goes isn't a factor, primarily because E-books aren't doing all that well. In the first half of 2014 Ebooks made up 23% of sales, Hardcovers were 25%, and paperback was 42%. Not doing print is a catastrophic mistake as it means they're selling to only 1 out of 4 customers at best, and very possibly 1 out of 5. Doing .pdfs only pretty much leaves most of the money on the table.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/06/ebooks-print-books-outsold_n_5940654.html

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I also want some independent adventures, but they don't need to be separate products. I'd be more than happy with hardbound collections of adventures.

 

[guachi]

Mystara Setting box set
Gazetteers
poster size Mystara map folios

If this happened, I'd die a happy man.

 

[Stormonu]

I have to disagree there.

Many of the issues at the end were excellent, with lots of world material.

It was mostly greyhawk stuff, but usable for anyone.
The Demonomicon of Igglw, the writeups about the different gods and their worship, geographical backdrops (mainly for the APs). Good stuff.

Are we talking the last year of print or digital? I'd had a subscription since #105, but let it slide just before they went out of print (I think my last was maybe #336?), I know I missed at least some of the last year because it'd just gotten so banal. I remember #356's cover, but I think my subscription had lapsed by then. Just curious if I'd missed a "revival" of the magazine.

Dungeon, on the other hand, I kept up with until the end - and even collected some of the PDF only versions.

Also, by the by, isn't Kobold Quarterly now out of print as well?

 

[Rune]

Which ones are these? Madness at Gardmore Abbey is OK but the other WotC 4e modules I got were generally somewhere between bad and awful. If there's good ones out there lemme at 'em!
Jury's out on that one; while I've read it (and to me it doesn't read well) I haven't run it yet, and sometimes adventures turn out much better in play than a pre-read would suggest.

Lan-"always looking for more good adventures"-efan

Reavers of Harkenwold (from the DM Kit) was about as good as 4e got. Right up there with Madness at Gardmore Abby.

 

[Rune]

It sounds to me that you're looking for setting books, not adventures. That's exactly what a setting is - a backdrop for adventures with no included story.

The problem I have with APs is that adventures don't actually have any business including stories. What they should do is provide the ingredients for the players to create the story.

In many ways, that does make them settings. Settings for adventure.

 

[TheCelric]

The problem I have with APs is that adventures don't actually have any business including stories. What they should do is provide the ingredients for the players to create the story.
In many ways, that does make them settings. Settings for adventure.

While I can get behind that logic string (especially looking at it from the perspective of leafing through the Monster Manual and seeing the backstories on some of the monsters in there) for one-shot adventures, there is absolutely a place for stories in an Adventure Path. Your PC's are basically playing a targeted campaign in an AP, while in the background, there are a thousand other things happening, each of which can be told as a story within the story. AND, when your heroes win (or are TPK'd), the next generation of PC's can run down some of those storylines. These are typically lore-heavy bits that flesh out some small area. Personally, when running some adventure, these are the bits that stick with me the most and dovetail into so many other ideas, sometimes years down the line, that not having them in there would be jarring and unwelcome.

 

[Rune]

While I can get behind that logic string (especially looking at it from the perspective of leafing through the Monster Manual and seeing the backstories on some of the monsters in there) for one-shot adventures, there is absolutely a place for stories in an Adventure Path.

Self-contained adventures need not be one-shots, nor unrelated to other adventures. They may be (and frequently are) incorporated into the greater context of a full campaign.

Your PC's are basically playing a targeted campaign in an AP, while in the background, there are a thousand other things happening, each of which can be told as a story within the story.

There's a difference between a targeted campaign and a prescribed one.

AND, when your heroes win (or are TPK'd), the next generation of PC's can run down some of those storylines. These are typically lore-heavy bits that flesh out some small area. Personally, when running some adventure, these are the bits that stick with me the most and dovetail into so many other ideas, sometimes years down the line, that not having them in there would be jarring and unwelcome.

These lore-heavy bits that you speak of are an example of the ingredients for the PCs to make a story out of that I speak of. Another example would be NPCs (and their motives).

 

[TheCelric]

Um... Then I have no idea what you mean by "...Adventures don't actually have any business including stories". Also, I'm failing to see the difference between a targeted campaign and a prescribed one. I mean, within the context of an AP. Unless you mean "AP's are too railroad-y", while "Settings = where your PC's can do anything". That seems like a VERY narrow definition though, so I don't want to judge.

Campaigns are campaigns because they have direction. You could just run 20 adventures, one per level, but connecting them with a common thread makes it a Campaign. Writing them down before the first adventure makes that an AP. But, the players certainly have every option available to them during either type (or any type) of adventure, with maybe the only difference being the scope and buy-in level of your players.