Why _DON'T_ You Buy Dragon Magazine?

[Ghostwind]

Erik, very thoughtful and well-written. Your ideas show me why I haven't completely given up on Dragon (although I am at a crossroads on renewing my Dungeon subscription now that the 3 year deal I got is running out). I look forward to taking a good look at the changes you are making to see if Dragon is right for my needs once again. Thank you for not only asking for but also listening to our views and opinions.

 

[Richards]

Sounds like you've got some excellent ideas, there, Erik, and it's great to see you at the helm. I look forward to seeing your changes to the magazine.

Any thoughts about the format of the "Ecology" articles, though? Will they be staying the same, or would you be interested in going back to the "fiction and footnotes" format? Whichever way you decide (fiction and footnotes), I'm glad (fiction and footnotes) to see (fiction and footnotes) that the "Ecology" articles are going to be staying (fiction and footnotes), because they're easily one of my favorite (fiction and footnotes) articles in Dragon (fiction and footnotes).

Subliminal messages? What subliminal mesages?

Johnathan

 

[Arnwyn]

329: My favorite article in this issue is "Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Pazuzu," an 8,000-word overview of the demonic Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms, his cult, and his thralls, by Dungeon Managing Editor James Jacobs. The first in an irregular series on the demon lords and princes of Dungeons & Dragons.

330: Into the Far Realm, a 10,000-word overview on how to add Far Realm "bleed" into your material world, by Bruce R. Cordell, creator of the Far Realm and one hell of a creative genius. Contains new monsters, new spells, and a whole lot of disturbing imagery. Anyone wanting to add an element of cosmic horror to their games would do well to check out this primer.

Later: Articles on cities of the Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood. Look for 4-6 of these annually for as long as we can get away with it. Probably about 5000 words each. Meaty. I'm basically just letting Ed go wild with these, and we'll be sure to illustrate them lavishly with "National Geographic"-style fold-out maps and maybe some posters. I'll do what I can afford to do.

Also: Speaking of the Forgotten Realms, I've also got Eric L. Boyd working on a short series of articles on lost empires of the Realms and the items and cultural legacies that remain to this day. Although Eric is weaving these tightly into the Realms continuity, we're trying to make them easily adaptable to just about any campaign.

You suck (read: rock!), Erik. Here I was, all satisfied and content with my decision to let my Dragon subscription lapse and ignore it forevermore, perfectly happy with my Dungeon sub... and then you go and do this. Now I'm incredibly interested again.

Bloody hell. (Read: Cool!)

 

[Ghostwind]

Edit: Double Post for some weird reason.

 

[Richards]

Hmm, time-delayed double post. Very weird.

Johnathan

 

[thundershot]

Here's what's basically staying every issue: Ecology, Spellcraft, Bazaar of the Bizarre, Sage Advice, Class Acts.

Excellent choices. One request for Class Acts though... Since Dragon is the ONLY magazine that can support them, how about doing Class Acts now and then for the new classes in the Complete books like Warmage, Swashbuckler, etc.? Ditto for the Psionic classes. Those, I think, are the ones people need the most advice on. Ones that haven't been touched much (or at all) by WOTC or 3rd party publishers.

We'll probably reshuffle the cartoons a little. I think the magazine needs some new blood on that score.

ORDER OF THE STICK! I'm serious! If you haven't read it, you've got to!

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

329: My favorite article in this issue is "Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Pazuzu," an 8,000-word overview of the demonic Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms, his cult, and his thralls, by Dungeon Managing Editor James Jacobs. The first in an irregular series on the demon lords and princes of Dungeons & Dragons.

Excellent. Usable material for many people. Harkens back to the old days...

330: Into the Far Realm, a 10,000-word overview on how to add Far Realm "bleed" into your material world, by Bruce R. Cordell, creator of the Far Realm and one hell of a creative genius. Contains new monsters, new spells, and a whole lot of disturbing imagery. Anyone wanting to add an element of cosmic horror to their games would do well to check out this primer.

REALLY good idea, because I was going to use it in my cosmology after getting MotP, but I still can't wrap my head around it.

Later: Articles on cities of the Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood. Look for 4-6 of these annually for as long as we can get away with it. Probably about 5000 words each. Meaty. I'm basically just letting Ed go wild with these, and we'll be sure to illustrate them lavishly with "National Geographic"-style fold-out maps and maybe some posters. I'll do what I can afford to do.

Also: Speaking of the Forgotten Realms, I've also got Eric L. Boyd working on a short series of articles on lost empires of the Realms and the items and cultural legacies that remain to this day. Although Eric is weaving these tightly into the Realms continuity, we're trying to make them easily adaptable to just about any campaign.

But I Like Eberron!: So do we, which is why I've commissioned Keith Baker to write about a half-dozen articles on various Eberron topics including the Cult of the Dragon Below and other exciting setting elements. The first of these will cover the Umbragen, the Shadow Elves of Eberron, and ought to appear by #333.

I don't delve into the campaign settings so much (unless Spelljammer came back, or Dark Sun in some official capacity, or Planescape), but hopefully the casual gamer will be able to extract some information from these articles.

But we'll also include plenty of non-setting support. Some of my favorite articles from the recent years have been "Campaign Components," like the Swashbuckler and Spies issues. Look for more of this in the coming months.

Campaign Components, along with Class Acts, has been my favorite addition to Dragon in the recent past. I love those articles as well, and I hope to see more.

I don't have much to say about fiction that I haven't said already. I'm aware that most posters here don't like it. I have yet to make any critical decisions on what must be done. In the mean time, we're printing something like three or four stories a year, so those of you who hate the fiction won't have to suffer much.

Four a year... it's only a handful of pages that I have to ignore. The fiction could be more interesting if you had.. I dunno... D&D stats for the characters at the end, or new magic items or feats they could have used... Just an idea.

"Heroic Feats," as a section, will not appear again for precisely this reason. We will publish additional feats, but probably only three or four in a given article to illustrate some theme of the article in question. Instead of 12 sea-related feats, we'll more likely publish an article on sea adventuring, with a small handful of feats within.

Another excellent idea. Give those feats some meaning. Toss in some aquatic gear and weapons, and maybe some NPCs and you've got a winner.

I thank you for your time, your comments, and your enthusiasm for our favorite magazine.

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

No, thank YOU for YOUR time....


Thanks
Chris

 

[Plane Sailing]

Ok. Here we go.

Great response, Erik. It sounds like I'll be coming back to Dragon again.

Cheers

 

[Sonofapreacherman]

We'll probably reshuffle the cartoons a little. I think the magazine needs some new blood on that score.

I hope you don't mean Zogonia, because that's the only cartoon I look forward to reading in Dragon right now. As for new cartoons... Order of the Stick should be given a full page every month. The link I've included starts you off at #1, but there are currently 130 panels to read (131 by tomorrow). The creator of this comic strip also freelances for Wizards of the Coast.

Order of the Stick is pure D&D joy.

 

[dpmcalister]

So you're not covering non-fantasy d20 products then? Ah, well, didn't expect you would really so, sorry, no sale here.

 

[kmdietri]

Same reason I don't buy/subscribe-to any magazines. The first one gets read, the rest accumulate, unread, on a pile...