Looks like Erik still hasn't filled the readers in here, so although I agree with so much of what has been said I'll throw my voice in too. And there are some discrepancies, just to keep things interesting......
First, I AM a subscriber to both magazines. Just subscribed to Dungeon again, after I found myself buying more issues off the shelf than a year's sub would cost me. Dragon I almost let lapse, but in the clinch decided to give it another year to see the changes (and to keep the collection going).
Second, I make sure to read every issue cover to cover, although I am now three issues back since one came in yesterday (other demands of life and other great things to read including other RPG material). I don't enjoy it all equally, however.
Of the existing items:
- I have yet to find any real nugget of use in the miniatures articles
- I enjoy fiction. As long as it was replaced with something useful I could let it go, but definitely drop miniatures first! (On the other hand, having four issues with a multi-part story by the same author was too much.)
- The recent ecologies are not as entertaining as the prior "story" ones.
- The class articles seem to pass on the buck and rehash items in another shape. I've seen at least two if not three "flaws" articles. The fact that it's moved to another class does little.
- There is less overall "fun", meaning a decline in comics and I miss the zany April issues.
- I like the new races, but like the prestige classes I can see where it's going to get old after a while.
Things gone:
- I didn't mind the few pages of "future WOTC offerings" add a while back, but please do NOT go back to having the bulk of whole issues, each issue devoted to a book that will come out two months in the future. I let my subscription lapse when it became the "product of next month" mouthpiece.
- Gygax is gone, and I probably wouldn't care to see him come back. But I did enjoy "our old game" recollections, so maybe stories by other "pros" with their memories would be good. Sort of like the editorial, but another one that swaps people each month.
- I enjoyed the Three Mages stories. Fiction-like yes, but if it was given some underpinnings on new spells or magic items, then it might squeeze in under the "no fiction" radar that I'm seeing is prevelent here.
- I enjoyed the few medieval cities we saw in the past. I remember London and (I think) Vienna. Bring them or something similar back please! Expand them even more if possible, to the point where I can see/smell/explain/present it to the players. (I'm looking foward to the sewer article as I catch up on reading the mags.)
- I didn't really enjoy "Knight vs. Samurai", but can't put a definite finger on what it was. It seemed to circle on minutiae so much that it ended up losing my attention and any definite thesis/point by the end, but perhaps I was in the wrong mood.
Suggestions for future:
- Yes please, and Index/database! (available online so I can download and search)
- Yes please, the availability to pull them off in PDF format! If you could find a way to meld them in with my Dragon archives CD and have the whole bulk searchable then I will nominate you for sainthood. (But note - I don't want to have to go to PDF-only format.)
- Price creep needs to slow if not stop and reverse. I can get huge discounts on almost anything else through Publishers, wholesalemags, etc. why not Dragon? (OK, it's the size of the distribution I'm sure, 65000 sounds like a lot but is most assuredly a drop compared to Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, etc.)
- I would be open to a small section of non-fantasy. I enjoyed the Polyhedron stuff, and would be willing to see Star Wars, Modern, Future, (and eventually Past or Apocalyptic) material show up inside a few pages each issue.
What could I REALLY use? Unfortunately, I think the answers to this are supposed to go in Dungeon as defined. But I don't think they (currently) give enough space to do any of the ideas justice so I'll post them here for consideration:
- NPC groups/organizations. There were some of these in previous Dragons, but I don't just want people and stats, I want how they really interact with their environment, the plots they are/could be up to.
- Similarly, I want material that I can use to give depth to the world. Ways of intrigue/politicking, the perils and benefits of nobility, governments in action, guilds and their caravans, how a church hierarchy actually works (or doesn't) ... as defined mostly by how they interact with the rest of the world.
- Mini settings. I liked how Shanarra, Robin Hood, and Westeros were presented. I am not an expert on the underlying materials; rather, I like the fact they were presented as a cohesive package. I would really enjoy authors, maybe again some of those RPG "pros" out there that could convincingly present a mini setting by culling out pertinent pieces of the already EXISTING material (especially from previous Dragon issues). Sort of "look, if we pull these (few) prestige classes and these feats, and flavor things slightly 'so' then we have a very good approximation of an XYZ setting" (and if you could actually tack a name on it that might flag the readers even further, like "Lankhmar", "Dune", "Song of Roland", "Beowulf", "Harold the Saxon", "Midkemia" etc. it would be even better.)
Finally, to get more subscribers there really should be a subscriber benefit. Used to be the annuals fit that bill and I'd love a 13th issue again each year, but inserts into subscriber polybags that wouldn't show up on a store shelf (maybe something along the line of the things DMs and/or players can get from the RPGA) or access to web extras might fit that bill too.
Well, there you go! My long shopping list, of which the return of even a part would brighten my day.
