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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aluvial" data-source="post: 1887328" data-attributes="member: 6862">This sums it up for me too.  I am a LONG time subscriber to Dragon, but I think my run is quickly coming to an end.  The problem is that we have a fantasy game and there isn't any fantasy about it.  "Crunch"ing numbers has become a real hassle and lends the new gamer to a host of min-max powergaming.  I believe that this is the current direction the magazine has taken.  With the split of DM material filling in the back portions of Dungeon, Dragon must by default become the Player magazine.  Ok, no problem there for me IF Dungeon kept a lot of DM content.  But it doesn't seem that there is enough space for both three adventures AND the DM content.  Just put some back into Dragon, there’s plenty of space there.Back to Dragon.  I believe that the theme issues are ok, but only if they give you the tools to create the theme.  All the material in Dragon obviously shouldn't rehash what you can find in the core books, but should give you the tools to flesh out the theme.  All of this needs the sense of fantasy reinstalled into it.  It feels as if the color commentary has been stripped away, if you catch my drift.  I couldn't agree more about the ecology articles.  I was excited to see them make a comeback, but then, whoa...  where is the little story of adventurers facing off with the creature to make it "feel" more like a fantasy game.This is my problem with the 3.0/3.5 rules overall.  I gladly switched over in favor for clearer, more concise rules, but the problem lies in the presentation.  I have played wargames for over 25 years, and the core philosophy of the game has become...  well it's become dry; it's lost its flair.  Dragon has followed suit with articles that offer lots (and lots) of Player options.  There are in fact so many options that it becomes staggering.  If that is all that Dragon has to offer anymore, player options, then the problem should become self-evident.  Reminds me of the old Complete series in the brown faux-leather covers.  More and more and more d20 material floods the market (a good thing I might add, I praise the different publishers trying to make a buck, I find most of your products pretty good) and a lot of player feats and prestige classes have been created.  Sometimes it is overwhelming.A side thought...  Dragon could really use a BONUS index issue.  A good index that listed the whereabouts of each feat, spell, prestige class, skill option, race, class, and monster that it has produced.  This index also NEEDS to contain all of the published Wizards books for the new rule system.  Each entry needs to be in clear alphabetical order (a green slime needs not be listed under ooze, it’s a pain to find a creature or whatever in the host of subcategories out there) with brief description, book or magazine issue, with a page number.  This thing would be the kind of real tool that both Players and DMs absolutely need to reference all of the material out there.  Hell, come to think of it, it would be handy to have one in hardback; I'd pay if it was done right.    Anyway, back to the issue, Dragon and its lack of flavor.  I realize that I've been gaming for a long, long time, and it just might be that I've chewed the taste out of the gum, but I'm still chewing.  I think new players need that same feel whether it is constantly rehashed or not.  It just seems to me that the flavor is getting chewed out of the pages of Dragon.  No one likes chewing stale gum.  Let’s reinvigorate the game with some good, old fashioned fantasy, something that might reinstall the magic and the heart back into the game.Long rant over,Aluvial </blockquote>

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