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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="Eosin the Red" data-source="post: 1887819" data-attributes="member: 168">I only purchase sporadically now days and here is why:1.    If you can say it in 2 pages I have already heard it. Get into the subject – especially in the meaty articles. If you do an article on sewers then show me examples – like the much touted Paris sewers, compare that with other sewers in Europe and or Asia.2.    Bland writing. I just read another thread about great articles – it mentioned Saintly Standards an article I will still refer to on occasion. I still sometimes get out the article on the Red Sails Campaign but I did not finish any of the articles in the most recent magazine.3.    Both of these are just ways of saying entertain me. I don’t buy the magazine for rules or to learn of the newest “heavenly, half a what-cha-ma-call-it, half-thingy-ma-bob, vampire, ascended, plane touched, fighter-sorcerer-halfling” I buy the magazine to be entertained and right now it ain’t doing that.4.    I cannot say it enough or loud enough so I will say it again – The magazine should be fun to read all by itself. It should be entertaining. It should be relevant even if I play Hero System instead of d20 (I did not say it should have Hero articles BUT I did say that I should be able to use many of the articles for whatever game system I want). 5.    The great advertisement! Dragon focuses overmuch on the most current WotC product especially hyped products like Draconomicon or Vile Darkness. There is nothing wrong with thematically supporting products but that is rarely what happens – instead we get “you can use product X like this” and “cool feat from product X.”  If you want to support Vile Darkness write an article on the use of horrific enemies in the RPGs. Give me a write-up on Saint Kargoth. Talk about Death-Knights in Greyhawk (PS – that was also a really good article even if it was in poly). In conclusion, purpose of the magazine is profit and the way to profit is to provide entertainment value to a broad range of people. Focusing on gizmos does not do that (but there is nothing wrong with a recurring article on gizmos like Bizarre of the Bizarre). Focusing on providing informative and compelling articles that are useful in ANY fantasy campaign is a must but it does not have to be generic. You could have an article called “Cities of Eberron” and make the article useful to any campaign and you can do it without the use of a sidebar. It takes more skillful writing but it is perfectly doable, in fact Dragon has done it before. Entertain. Enthrall. Write good fiction not technical fiction. Oh yeah, kudos on continuing to always strive to get better. Dragon and Dungeon have some really good things going for them but that is not what this thread is about – lest this post end on a bad note I will finish with this: The Dungeon magazine with the first of the Istivan series contained the single best written setting and intro module that I have read in a very long time. The villain and his methods are insanely well done. This adventure can be taken and played anywhere and in nearly any setting. The antagonist is someone/thing that can be easily morphed into just about any homebrew unlike your previous series which focused on a heavily monster infested world with everybody having at least one dose of what-ya-ma-gigging. I had nearly given up on Dungeon but my faith was renewed. Thank you.With all that – you guys do a great job."Kewl are only cool for a moment, entertaining articles endure no matter what the edtion or system of the game."</blockquote>

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