Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1888319" data-attributes="member: 15470">Great point: As a reader, I don't feel a 'mission statement' from Dragon: the content is fairly widely scattered, trying to appeal to too many people, and thus not appealing to any specific individual as much.If I were to answer the question, I'd say 'Dragon is a repository of unbalanced feats, spells, and prestige classes'.Which is particularly sad when I hear people saying I definitely agree!I was (like many of your responders) a Dragon subscriber back in the two-digit era, and I let my subscription run out because I felt it had gotten to the following crux:Too many non-core variations which weren't game-balanced and didn't fit into my campaign setting.Frankly, this is my biggest problem with the glut of d20 source material which the OGL has engendered: there is so much out there that I have a very difficult time determining what's 'level' between different systems, and especially at the crucial 'Before time of purchase' moment.The biggest challenge I face as a DM is determining what rules to 'allow' and what rules to 'disallow' in my campaign setting.What do I really want?1. Reviews of other OGL content, specifically with an eye to a 'quick description' of what new systems they might have added, and then a detailed discussion of how balanced or unbalanced that is relative to some baseline (core?)2. 'Behind the Curtain' articles, perhaps interviews with publishers and producers, describing how they decided on the mechanics they chose, what alternate mechanics they discarded, and why.3. 'Power Evaluator' articles, describing ways of evaluating the balance of entirely new material, e.g., something which I could apply both to anything which my creativity can devise, or to a third-party supplement which I am considering. Specifically, I want to hear: a.) How to judge the relative power of different feats b.) How to find the appropriate level for a spell c.) How to evaluate the relative power of a class or prestige class d.) How to evaluate the relative power of a magic item e.) Which creature CR's are broken and why; a better system for deciding on a CR for your home-brew monster f.) Some non-lethal counters for over-optimized characters g.) How to judge experience awards for non-combat game sessions.4. House rules and how to judge/evaluate them5. Random DM'img aids, such as Creature Collection-style counters, etc.What I've been hoping for for a while are things like Dr_Spunge's 'character point' system, things which 'open the hood' of this rules system we play by, and let us get our hands greasy tinkering with the engine.But somehow, I think that's a different magazine. Or even a core rulebook.</blockquote>

Verification