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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="Harlock" data-source="post: 1887790" data-attributes="member: 4545">Well, I am one of your pains in the ass.  I subscribed for two years solid but let my subscription falter after the "format" change in issue 323.  The new format was not real pretty, maybe the kinks are worked out now, I dunno.  What don't I like about the changes?  Fair enough. I'm going through page by page and some of this is idicative of just this issue while other points are definitely a habit of Dragon in  general.1. All the sidebars made it too busy and seemed to cut down on real content.  Knowledge check, question: Conan, what is best in life?  Answer: We all know, don't waste space in a magazine I paid for to rehash that!  on the same page we have a plug for a wbsite that sells gaming-related T-shirts.  Guess what?  Still not enthused.  If I want a t-shirt I'll google for it, thanks. Next page?  Plush microbes and of course, the link to buy them... no thanks.2. The focus on D&D/WotC specific crap.  Yes, I know this is a WotC licensed product, but my hopes were high that when Paizo took the license we'd see some changes.  Looking through the magazine I see articles for the D&D Miniatures game.  Well, there's and article I won't bother with, I see som feats at the end... too little too late.  I don't play the minis game, I buy the minis and even own the minis Handbook, but I use them in tabletop D&D, not the CMG.  Next Article: Stuff on a D&D Young Adult line from, you guessed it, WotC.  Great. I'm 31 and my oldest child is 5.  The cheesy attempt to give it some sort of value by including stat blocks of characters from the novel only served to take up even more space that could have been used for something cool.  And, if you have the issue out, Erik, please look into the wasted space on page 31, 34, 52, 66, 71, 78 - really terrible here, 80, 86 (using 24 pt type and leaving 2 standard columns of space on either side of the article title is a sophomorish attempt at best to cover up for lack of real content), 90, 92, 110, and a bit on 130 as well.  Erik, this is unforgiveable.  As a journalism student in high School I was taught not to waste space as badly as this.  It's jarring to the reader to turn a page and see so much white space and you're not fooling anyone.  Add some art, even stock art, put a preface by the author covering intent or something, anything!3. Articles that are not WotC specific are hit or miss at best.  An entire two pages dedicated to Chocobos from Final Fantasy?  An article comparing and contrasting Knights and Samurai asking who would win and then not answering the question?  Thanks for the 10 page history lesson but how does it help my Dungeons and Dragons game?  Wanna see who wins?  Roll up two characters and have three battles.4.  This is a personal thing, but I don't play video games, so huge articles dedicated to the next, new, hot D&D game only serves as eye candy as I look at the graphics as I flip to the next article.  Thanks for asking, all this negativity was getting to me!  You had some great things in this issue, don't get me wrong.  I loved the class specific articles at the back. Even if I don't use the ideas, it got me thinking.  The Seven Deadly Sins domains articles was spiffy.  May not ever use it either, but at least it's D&D.  The Ecology articles are ALWAYS welcome.  I'm not a pure crunch person, though looking at this I sound like it.  Truly, I like fluff, but it needs to be specific: ideas for Campaign settings, 100 adventure hooks that don't suck, Ecology articles, stuff like that.  Also, and very important to get me back as a subscriber, more OGL content and previews/reviews of d20 product that is not WotC.  Campaign settings, feat books, cool web sites that don't sell t-shirts or plushy microbes...My Main Point: I buy Dragon for using at my table top D&D games as both a player and DM and as a consumer to see what else is coming down the pipe for use in my tabletop game.  If I want a Fantasy fiction magazine about literature, I'll buy one.  If I want a video game magazine, I'll google up articles that are all over the web or I'll buy one.  If I want a D&D magazine... to whom do I turn... now?</blockquote>

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