Why _DON'T_ You Buy Dragon Magazine?

[shady]

I cannot believe WotC's R&D Group (aka the D&D brand team) are playing second fiddle to those guys. Stop playing nice to them folks and do it to spite them. What are they gonna do? Smite ya with cards?

Although I for one would never buy a M:tG RPG product.

This is maybe a different thread, but I find it difficult to believe that WotC's cards group thinks MtG is a bigger brand than Everquest, Warcraft or Buffy. Or that (since it would be done by sub-brand) Mirrodin is a bigger brand than (see previous list). OK not difficult to believe (and I'd suspected as much), but difficult to believe that WotC management lets them think it.

In general, a few points (and again, maybe this should be a different thread, as it's not so related to Dragon):
- many of the best RPG products and product lines of recent years, have used or introduced specific settings - Eberron, Arcana Unearthed, Iron Kingdoms, Midnight, etc. Some of the stuff from those settings is more widely usable in homebrew, and of course the designers have an eye on that anyhow, but within the new setting context you can bring together a number of new ideas, rules and concepts and play with them in a convincing manner.
- MtG has a number of interesting settings, mechanisms, creatures etc which could be mapped in interesting ways to D20, at no harm to the MtG brand. In fact MtG retires settings even more ruthlessly than D&D does. I can understand those who dislike the game ... personally I'm a fan, I play casually online, and buy a few theme decks to play with the kids, and enjoy it, and I'm impressed by the thought and imagination that goes into the settings.
- I'd personally prefer more well thought out setting books (like Ghostwalk) to half empty irrelevancies like Races of Destiny and the Arms & Equipment Guide.
- And also, I would have thought that as a company they'd be interested in feeding their pre-painted miniatures cash cow with interesting new creatures (which is why I'm skeptical about seeing painting & conversion articles in Dragon).

 

[scourger]

My understanding is that the Magic brand team doesn't want its creatures used for D&D.

--Erik

Too Bad! That could be two great tastes that taste great together. Hey, you got MTG in my D&D! Hey, you got D&D on my MTG!

 

[Perun]

1. Why don't you buy the magazine?

Being from Europe, the subscription would cost me 71.95 US$, according to the Paizo site. A bit too much, considering that the National Geographic subscription comes out to less than 50 US$. I know we're almost talking apples and oranges here, but still 70+ $ is way more than I'm willing to spend on a gaming magazine.

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

See above

 

[JoeGKushner]

Looking forward to seeing thos changes!

 

[Ranger REG]

This is maybe a different thread, but I find it difficult to believe that WotC's cards group thinks MtG is a bigger brand than Everquest, Warcraft or Buffy. Or that (since it would be done by sub-brand) Mirrodin is a bigger brand than (see previous list). OK not difficult to believe (and I'd suspected as much), but difficult to believe that WotC management lets them think it.

Well, it's not a bigger brand outside the "unplugged game" market. (The other brands you mentioned span over other mediums). But it is dominating the TCG market as much as D&D dominate the RPG market. And when it comes to unplugged games, TCG ranks right up there with boardgames while RPG is struggling to climb up in a distant third place.

And no, I don't like mixing up TCG with RPG. I want RPG to rival over TCG despite being the underdog.

 

[velm]

Eric mentioned on how the MTG did not want the critters in DND. I played MTG for a while, from Revised, Antiquities, Legends, Dark, Ice Age. I think the critters would be a worthy addition to the game. Take out the MTG name, leave the setting. A wealth of ideas. The Elder Dragons would be Awe inspiring. Many, many possibilies, if done right.

 

[Dark Psion]

I would love to see some Magic:TG conversions myself.

Back during the TSR/WoTC hiatus, I turned to Magic for inspiration to spice up my D&D game. I would love to see many of the older creatures adapted to D&D.

Oh and one of the reasons Magic out does D&D? You can buy it at Wal Mart and other stores. It gets more exposure that way, people who have never set foot in a gaming shop are playing Magic, but not D&D.

As to the Ecology articles, my bigest problem is that the current version sounds like the Players talking and not their Characters speaking. When you refer to a Rakasha's Damage Resistance / Piercing, you destroy the illusion of the fanatsy.

As to Class Acts, please expand them beyond the core classes. One thing 2004 has left us is a lot of unsuported new core classes. Give me a reason to play a Healer, what about a variant "Good" version of the Warlock, the Saint and why not include other "official" D&D classes from Rokugan and Kalamar?

 

[Treebore]

Eric,

I have bought the first two issues of ENWorlds magazine. Their production looks rough but I really like the ideas and variety they are putting out. Heck, I was reading stuff on Cyberware and diseases and not only were they telling me how they would fit into a modern or future d20 game they were telling me how I could use/introduce it into a D&D game. After some thought I realized it would definitely work!

ITs been years since I saw anything in Dragon to get me juiced about DMing AND playing ideas! Let alone about multiple genre's at the same time!

If they keep it up and improve like they were with their last try they will soon be giving Dragon a run for its money.

As for the MtG hi-jack, they can keep their monsters. Besides, if you look carefully you can see a LOT of similarities that they already have to D&D monsters. I wonder if that would be because the original owners of MtG were all avid D&D players. Avid enough to buy D&D from TSR, avid enough to be inspired by D&D. The connection seemed obvious to me.

 

[Ranger REG]

As to Class Acts, please expand them beyond the core classes. One thing 2004 has left us is a lot of unsuported new core classes. Give me a reason to play a Healer, what about a variant "Good" version of the Warlock, the Saint and why not include other "official" D&D classes from Rokugan and Kalamar?

With all due respect, let AEG do Rokugan, and let Kenzer do Kalamar. I'm more interested in more WotC's Oriental Adventures material that steer clear of Rokugan.

 

[Richards]

Originally posted by Dark Psion:

As to the Ecology articles, my bigest problem is that the current version sounds like the Players talking and not their Characters speaking. When you refer to a Rakasha's Damage Resistance / Piercing, you destroy the illusion of the fanatsy.

That was one of the advantages of putting that sort of information in the footnotes, under the old format.

Johnathan