Why Dragon Magazine?

[Herremann the Wise]

1) Demonomicon
2) Ecologies
3) Zogonia
4) Core Beliefs
5) other assorted cool articles

So incredibly well worth my jink.

This pretty much sums it up for me except point 3) which can be replaced with Adventure Path tie-ins. Erik and Co. and brought a real sense of nostalgia to the magazine which I'm loving. Keep up the good work guys.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Swordsage]

If you are a fan of GH, FR, Eberron et. al. it's the only place you will find non-adventure material outside of the published products. As a Realms fanatic, if they publish an FR article, I buy that issue. No FR content, no sale. On those lines, if you are a fan of a particular setting, or find a particular setting easy to adapt to your homebrew, then Dragon will give you better content that Dungeon, on the whole.

The Swordsage

 

[Hussar]

Heh. Different strokes and all that.

Now that there are the adventure paths, I actually consider subscribing. I'm waiting until October to start, so I can get the whole path. However, prior to that, Dungeon did not hold my interest. If I need maps or NPC's, there are more than enough online to satisfy my every desire. For adventures, I'd rather buy one long one and use that, than get a bag full of random ones.

Then again, I'm biased since I've been playing the World's Largest Dungeon for the last year. Being able to run an entire campaign from one book is a big plus for me.

As a question about Dungeon. If I run adventures from Dungeon, what other books do I need? I am not a book collector and I do not own a lot of monster books. If Dungeon uses a non-core creature, do they print the entire stat-block or just reference the applicable book? One thing I was somewhat disappointed about in Dragon was the large number of non-core Ecology articles that, until recently, didn't include any stats for the creature and even recently don't include the stats for the base creature.

((I know, it's my own personal axe to grind))

In a Dungeon adventure though, not having those stats means I can't use the adventure. It's a tad more important.

How much book flipping do I have to do with Dungeon?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

As a question about Dungeon. If I run adventures from Dungeon, what other books do I need? I am not a book collector and I do not own a lot of monster books. If Dungeon uses a non-core creature, do they print the entire stat-block or just reference the applicable book?

In my experience, they print the stats. The same goes for class features which need explaining to use in play.

 

[Lancelot]

I'm 80% a DM (over 20 years now) and 20% a player; gaming on average about 1.25 times per week. Having said that, Dungeon is worth its weight in gold to me. I've been a subscriber for years, and get value from every issue. I rarely, if ever, run the modules "as is". I have my own home-brew world, hence the modules always need some massaging to fit. But having the basics available is such a huge time-saver, I can't imagine running a regular game without it.

Dragon is more hit-and-miss. Overall, I think the quality is higher now than any time in the past, but it's still something I only buy about a third of the time (maybe 4 issues per year). Given my homebrew, I don't get as much value from campaign-specific articles. Faiths of Greyhawk... Cities of the Realms... Lands of Eberron... these things are all pretty much wasted on me.

However, those issues that are more general are *really* good. My personal favorites: the Demonicon of Iggwilv, Creature Catalogue, Class Acts (new format), OOTS and Zogonia, and one-off gems like...

#336: Haunted locations
#337: Illithid-related creatures
#339: Planescape faction items and prestige classes
#341: Variant golems
#345 (perhaps my favorite recent issue): Artifact spells, giant magic items, sea serpents, unusual transports (and of course, the Demonicon and Class Acts)

I didn't buy 342-344, nor did I buy 346... but I can always count on the fact that at least a couple of the next 6 issues will rock my world.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Heh. Different strokes and all that.

As a question about Dungeon. If I run adventures from Dungeon, what other books do I need? I am not a book collector and I do not own a lot of monster books. If Dungeon uses a non-core creature, do they print the entire stat-block or just reference the applicable book? One thing I was somewhat disappointed about in Dragon was the large number of non-core Ecology articles that, until recently, didn't include any stats for the creature and even recently don't include the stats for the base creature.

((I know, it's my own personal axe to grind))

In a Dungeon adventure though, not having those stats means I can't use the adventure. It's a tad more important.

How much book flipping do I have to do with Dungeon?

All statblocks are provided, which combined with the art galleries on the WotC website should give you a good enough idea of what's going on. With the additional support provided in terms of maps and pictures on the Paizo website, I doubt you will have any difficulty.

However, if you are following their scaling guidelines (at the back of each adventure) occasionally there will be a suggestion to apply a template from Libris Mortis (with page no. provided) or some other non-core book. These occasions are very rare and most likely not applicable to your situation from the sounds of things).

As such, I don't think you will have much page turning to do - at least not due to how Dungeon sets things out anyway.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[James Jacobs]

Herremann the Wise is correct (and wise as well, I hear!). We assume readers of Dungeon have access only to the three core books. We often use material form other WotC books (especially monsters), but whenever we do, we reprint all the rules you need to use the non-core element in your game. For monsters, we also make sure to give a description of the creature (especially if we aren't illustrating it), although the free online art at WotC's site is really handy for this.

 

[Jdvn1]

Core Beliefs.

Other reasons I buy Dragon are less consistant--random good articles and such.

 

[chaotix42]

Not when they fail to include half of the art from MMIV. : /

 

[James Jacobs]

Not when they fail to include half of the art from MMIV. : /

I can only guess that's an error that will be fixed shortly. I remember when they posted the art gallery for Fiendish Codex 1... they had Malcanthet's name attached to the manes picture. Eew.