Why _DON'T_ You Buy Dragon Magazine?

[Erik Mona]

I'm about half-way through a much needed vacation, so of course I'm sitting here thinking about work.

I know many of you _do_ buy Dragon regularly, and for that I send you a hearty holdiay cheer and a simple statement: thanks.

But I also know that many of you don't buy Dragon, and I'd like to know why. Over my 20+ years as a D&D player, I've had "on" periods and "off" periods with the magazine, so I know what sorts of things went into my personal decision not to buy Dragon, but I'd like to know yours.

If I can make some changes to the magazine to make it a more attractive purchase, there's a chance we all go away happy.

So, if you're _not_ a regular customer of Dragon magazine (let's say you buy fewer than three issues annually), please take a minute or two to answer the following questions.

1. Why don't you buy the magazine?

2. What sort of changes would make you more likely to give it another look?

I very much appreciate your time and attention.

Thanks,

Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon Magazine (and Dungeon too!)
Still on vacation, still working

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I used to be a subscriber but I stopped years ago when too much non-D&D material seeped in; I hated it.

I've never resubscribed b/c I've found the stuff in Dragon magazine to be a little unbalanced at times and I've got so much crunchy stuff from other sources that I don't need more. I also have the perception that the magazine keeps doing the same themes over and over again, just with different rules.

Some things I liked about Dragon (don't know if the current incarnation has these or not) were the computer game reviews for fantasy games, the miniature reviews (not really appropriate anymore), and the DMing articles.

I'm a subscriber to Dungeon and I love it. It's a vast improvement over previous versions and, even though I don't get to run most of the adventures, I find them to be an enjoyable read and a great source of ideas (and maps! Gotta love the maps!).

 

[shock the monkey]

I like stuff on Greyhawk, but I haven't seen much of it in Dragon of late, so I let my subscription run out.

I've been hanging on to Dungeon, though, as that seems to be the place where Greyhawk shines.

Can't wait for that map.

*grins*

 

[jmucchiello]

But I also know that many of you don't buy Dragon, and I'd like to know why.

I hope this doesn't come off wrong but I think I stopped buying Dragon (and I stopped before 3E came out) because I think I outgrew it. There comes a time when you start seeing the same old articles in Dragon. Go into the archives and pull out an old issue at random. Nothing in your current issue is more innovative, nothing in the old issue is useless (with a little work). They are the same.

Dragon is for people new to the hobby. They want guidance and Dragon gives them that. It's a common point of reference when you want to talk about D&D with someone. But me? I don't need to have those conversations anymore. I've had them. I have my gaming group. I can disappear into my own D&D world and never look at another article or expansion again. This comes with familiarity.

And yet, I post on this website. So maybe I do want to with a community. Dragon is a monthly mag, websites are 24/7 whenever I feel the urge, any time of day, from home or from work. There is nothing in Dragon that I couldn't get from ENWorld by itself and there are dozens of other websites with even more material should I seek it.

Need a new prestige class or feat? I can go to house rules.
Got a rules question? I don't write the sage, I go to the rules forum and ask around.
Need DMing advice? Post on general.
Need plot help? NPCs? Inspiration? It's all here or elsewhere on the web.

I personally don't need those things. But if I did, they're here.

Dragon also has "official"ness. I haven't needed that since I wrote made up my first monsters in 80s.

All that's left I think is tie-ins with WotC properties: Forgotten Realms and Eberron, etc. Again, I don't need official FR or Eb stuff. I can make it up if I play in those worlds (and I do play in FR). And the web still gets me stuff for these places. SKR has "unofficial" Realms material on his website. I'm sure there are others if I cared to look.

For me, Dragon cannot compete with high traffic, low noise, dedicated websites about D&D.

What could draw me in? Open Content. But that's only because I publish. If I didn't publish that wouldn't affect my decision at all. But I'm putting it out there for you.

Hope that came off well. And Erik, I do buy Dungeon, so I am a customer. Just not a Dragon customer.

 

[Trainz]

I bought Dragon back in my 1st edition days because, frankly, that's all there was. The TSR rule books and Dragon.

Now that WotC releases a LOT of material, I have more than enough material for my games. If I bought Dragon, I would probably use one or two items in my games from each, and after a few years, my games would need the access of a good dozen hard covers and twenty or so Dragon mags. That would be too cluttered for my campaign.

So it's really not because of content (I haven't bought Dragon in a decade), because I frankly don't know what's in it currently.

 

[Angcuru]

Well, I've read through a few issues of Dragon. I agree with Ogrork that the content is generally unbalanced. Dungeon however, I do like. A great source of inspiration and suchlike. Lots of good content.

I don't subscribe to either because I don't do enough gaming to put that content to use. In fact, I do almost NO gaming lately. Oh, the tragedy. When I do eventually get back into regular gaming, I think I will likely subscribe. to Dungeon.

 

[Crothian]

It never got used in game. Some nice ideas and neat articles but I just never have had anyone want to bother looking through them to use anything. Also, its hard to find something in them. I'll remember a feat or class but will have no idea which one its from and waste lots of time looking through them.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

So, if you're _not_ a regular customer of Dragon magazine (let's say you buy fewer than three issues annually), please take a minute or two to answer the following questions.

1. Why don't you buy the magazine?

1. I can't buy it for crunch. Dragon magazine has a bad reputation for unbalanced prestige classes and other feats. But even if the crunchy material was balanced, it would still be difficult to introduce it into a group unless the all the players had a subscription, and that's just too much to ask.

2. Other material --- campaign material is iffy, since if you're already running a campaign, it's kind of hard to integrate new material unless the material fits what you're already doing. And that's going to happen less than one in 12 issues.

3. As reading material --- this will be more interesting to me, but so far as I can tell, items that are not (1) or (2) are just advertising pieces from WoTC, which I'm not interested in, since WoTC gets plenty of free, unbiased advertising from EnWorld and other such sites.

4. Advice. The DMing advice has moved to Dungeon (and I love it and am a loyal subscriber to Dungeon!).

2. What sort of changes would make you more likely to give it another look?

1. Generic campaign material. The best stuff would be the kind of stuff that elaborates on what's already in the Core books? Seriously, who's Otiluke? Who was Bigby? How evil really was Vecna?

2. Plot ideas. I loved the plot ideas part of the DMG, and wouldn't mind more material along those lines.

3. Patches/additions to the Core books. For instance, the new NPC tables in the 3.5 DMG are a travesty and not nearly as useful as the NPC tables in the 3.0 DMG was. An article to fix them would get my attention.

4. Anything to flesh out a campaign. I also wouldn't mind tactical analysis of combat or the kind of stuff that's currently on the WoTC web-site running through the rules, etc.

5. A regular column titled "Behind the curtain..." that explained the design process behind certain rules and why they work that way. Heck, that could be applied to the various Campaign Settings that WOTC (and possibly 3rd party) produces. The idea here is that rather than provide me with fodder that I might or might not use, give me tools! "Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day..."

I guess my theme here is:

- material that applies across all campaigns, rather than the specific theme campaign of the month
- no crunch that's not well vetted, and even then, it'd better be crunch that can easily be added to a campaign by just one person and not require that multiple people have to have the subscription to use. (Prestige classes are right out for me)
- fixes/patches/additional materials to 3.5's core
- Why are things designed the way they are

Do any 3 of the above and you won't just get me as a regular reader, you'll get me as a subscriber as well.

 

[GlassJaw]

I already have enough crunch to choke a fiendish half-dragon druid/monk. While I haven't bought Dragon in ages, I love Dungeon. You can never have enough adventure ideas or cool maps IMO. Campaign and adventure ideas are like gold. Dragon just doesn't have those things.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Well... I buy it (to see what other writers are coming up with, and to keep up with the mag's style in case I want to submit articles again), but not with much enthusiasm.

Generally, there's not much passion in the magazine anymore. I see usable mechanics, sometimes innovative mechanics, but I don't see text with them that makes me want to use them.

The text is dry, in other words, and lacks the manic wonder that lots of the older issues had - the good natured humour and oddball enthusiasm isn't there as much, and the magazine reads more like a trade journal than a place where writers and fans come together to gush about their enthusiasms.

I'd like to see the guidelines loosened up a bit, and see quality flavor text encouraged a little more. The monster ecologies articles are a perfect example of the leeching out of flavor.

The ecology articles used to inspire, they told stories, they were funny or creepy or exciting. The stories that framed the stats brought me into the article, and got my mind to thinking about using the monsters in my own "stories" - on some occasions, the Ecology Of... articles turned a monster I thought was pure garbage into something I actually considered using.

Now, to be honest, I've found myself skimming over Ecology articles entirely, because they're leached of flavor for me. This isn't a slam at the writers of those articles - the mechanics are fine, and I see kernels of good ideas in there, but I don't think they're allowed to develop the way they used to be.

This applies to most everything in the magazine. The articles are too textbook dry, because I think Paizo has become too concerned with trying to please almost everyone with every article - and that leads to unfortunate blandness.


So what would make me happier, and encourage me to buy more? Cutting open the creative veins again. Getting a bit crazier with your articles, and a return of more pure flavor, flavor, flavor.

Patrick Younts