Why _DON'T_ You Buy Dragon Magazine?

[Umbra]

I'm not interested in new feats.
I'm not interested in new PRC's.
I have enough crunch.

I am interested in fluff supported with minimum (low admin) crunch.

One of my favorite books purchased in the last few years is A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe

To quote from RPGNow, "It contains a massive amount of game-usable information about the medieval period and focuses on how D20 magic could change a traditional medieval setting."

It is brimming with stuff I can use in my game e.g. some guild memberships may not be gained except by marriage to a member's child or being a member's child. How many adventures/problems can be generated for a party from that simple fact which I hadn't known? Dremk the fighter is the fourth son of member of the merchant guild and has three families trying to foist their daughters onto him so they can gain membership to the guild.

I would buy Dragon if it had more articles examining historical or contemporay cultures, social structures and institutions and how they may be interpreted in various game worlds (high, low, pulp, etc). I would also like articles on how different aspects of the rules can interact with each other to create different types of fluff (high, low, political, etc).

My favorite articles from earlier Dragon's (which I used to buy religiously) were discussions about the alignment system, or how war affects the country-side, or how an Order of knights would operate, or what's happening at a monastery over the course of a day/year. I suppose I don't want to read historical texts but like potted versions with lots of hooks.

 

[humble minion]

Not a subscriber and never have been, although I do pick up occasional issues.

Reasons I don't subscribe:
- I'm running Star Wars at the moment, so it's not much use to me right now. Having said that, I do think that non-fantasy material in Dragon should be kept to an absolute minimum.
- Cost and price, especially given the lousy reputation for reliability for non-US subscriptions
- A perception that it's just a shill for WotC. I know about WotC stuff. They've got a comprehensive website, and there's people all over boards like this that I can ask about it. But if I'm going to shell-out my hard-earned for Dragon, I'd need it to be something more. Something that covers non-WotC publications would be welcome, as would objective reviews of WotC books. Many long years ago, I stopped buying White Dwarf when it became more an advertising vehicle than a useful resource. Dragon threatens to go the same way. If you're publishing articles (as opposed to clearly differentiated ads) talking about Complete Divine, for instance, without mentioning the lousy editing and poor level of playtesting, then I'm never going to take you seriously.
- Pages spent on the D&D miniatures game, and other matters of absolute irrelevance to roleplaying. Again, you're coming across as nothing more than an ad with this sort of thing.
- Unadventurousness. A magazine is inherently more disposable than a book, and less of an investment. That makes it a good place to put the wild, wacked-out ideas that aren't really viable anywhere else. That means occasionally pushing the boundaries of what constitutes 'D&D'. So yes, include wild optional modifications to the rules, deeply unusual non-medieval settings, massively variant magic systems and so on. It does not mean hammering Song of Ice and Fire, Dark Sun, or other established settings into the bland, pre-existing catch-all D&D mould that is completely thematically unsuited for them. Paladins in Westeros and spellcasting bards in Athas don't add anything to either the game or the setting that it's supposedly meant to represent. They look just as fanboyishly amateurish as the 12-year-old who wants to play a Pokemon trainer in Ravenloft.
- Yes, once more, less crunch. I deeply distrust any cruch I find in Dragon, simply because it's often unbalanced or poorly thought-out. The edition-independent inspiration material, however, is often absolutely brilliant. And it can be useful far into the future, once D&D3.5 is only a memory.
- Not everything has to be in a monthly column. If there's no worthwhile PrC, or Ecology, or new magic items this month - include something else rather than printing disposable junk.
- Fiction is good, but remember Dragon is a magazine about roleplaying. If you're going to include fiction, relate it directly and immediately to roleplaying. Include a couple of pages on the setting of the story, or a monster or two, or a discussion of using similar themes in-game. Make the fiction useful.

 

[billd91]

Interesting to see the pushes for broader focus and narrower focus at the same time. I still miss Dragon being a general gaming magazine that just happened to be D&D-heavy. Ah, well...

Whatever changes you make, Erik, keep Dungeon as it currently is. I'm really enjoying it. I didn't mind the Polyhedron content (as long as it wasn't a big old minigame every other month), but I'm not really missing it much either (well, except the Star Wars stuff).

 

[jester47]

>>>
3. It's boring. In a recent issue, the editor responded to reader letters concerning some of the recent changes. One stuck in my head, because it summed up this problem. He said that Bazaar of the Bizarre would be called Magic Shop because Magic Shop "is self explanatory". Excuse me? Give your readers credit for some intelligence. This shows just how much flavor has been (apparently deliberately) taken out of the magazine. Rules are boring - flavor is fun. Too often, Dragon reads like a software manual, not a magazine.
>>>

I'm doing my best not to reply to this thread, as I want you guys to provide as much "raw" feedback as possible without me or my staff getting in the way. I'll reply to the thread as a whole once everyone has had a chance to contribute.

But I did want to say that reversing this change was the first thing I did as Editor-in-Chief of Dragon. Look for the "Bazaar of the Bizarre" title to return within the next two issues.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon

Awesome!

All hail the Great Mona!

A.

 

[Erik Mona]

Whatever changes you make, Erik, keep Dungeon as it currently is.

Oh, you can count on it. I absolutely adore Dungeon now. The trick is to get Dragon in the same category.

And it's a trickier trick.

--Erik Mona
Wizard of Some Repute

 

[Eosin the Red]

Well, spill your guts already!

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Articles about how to play, not just how to exploit the rules.

Seconded.

 

[jasper]

One suggestion to get people to try Dragon (and Dungeon) is to drop free, 3-month subscription cards in the DMG and PH.

....

Good Idea but how about 1 free issue from placed purchased. Or just 1 free dragon issue mailed to you. The cost to Dragon will have to be calculated due to variable natural of purchases of books. Or have a check box where you can send a free issue to friend for when you already have a subscription.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I wonder if the people who want more detail and less mechanics are in the minority.

I understand Erik wanting to make some changes based on feedback and even with the incredible amount of feedback this topic has gathered, it's still not in the thousands that Dragon probably has as a fan base.

Still, thanks for brining back the Bizzare of the Bazzar. Now all we need are Pages from the Mages, the Dragon's Bestiary, the Wizard's Three, the Creature Catalog (although I hear that's going to Dungeon), Legends & Lore (I can't be the only one who remembers the old heroes of myth in D&D terms...) and we'll be all set!

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I wonder if the people who want more detail and less mechanics are in the minority.

I understand Erik wanting to make some changes based on feedback and even with the incredible amount of feedback this topic has gathered, it's still not in the thousands that Dragon probably has as a fan base.

I'm sure Erik knows that we are not a representative sample. It does seem however that we are not always completely off base. All the old threads about Dungeon did result in changes for the better. I'm fairly confident that if sales had been going well for Dungeon we wouldn't have seen any changes made. While a true marketing survey would be better, they are expensive and we are cheap. Erik also posted on the WotC boards so he is not entirely relying on us.