D&D General Why Were the Dragon and Dungeon Magazines Discontinued?

[Hexmage-EN]

When I first got into running D&D around 2007 one of my favorite things to do was to collect the new issues of Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine, and even when they went fully digital with 4E I still loved looking at each issue for inspiration and resources. Some of my favorites were the various series on gods, demon lords, and archfey.

Even 10 years into 5E I feel like there's just a dearth of content. I keep going back to my 3E and 4E issues of the magazines for inspiration because there's just not enough to work with going by official 5E content alone, especially where lore and world building is concerned. It's honestly one of my biggest problems with the edition.

With that said, why do you think the magazines were discontinued, and would you like to see them return?

 

[Parmandur]

Return on investment juat wasn't there, same as moat magazines.

However, I would say that thw DMsGuild fills the same gap by and large of old magazine content that was sourced from readers.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Return on investment juat wasn't there, same as moat magazines.

However, I would say that thw DMsGuild fills the same gap by and large of old magazine content that was sourced from readers.

As a lore junkie I have a hard time getting excited for anything that comes out of the DMs Guild, unfortunately. I want to see official lore developments that build up the world of D&D and could be expanded upon in the future, not someone's obscure homebrew.

Lore and worldbuilding in particular have largely languished during 5E. The inclusion of the Lore Glossary in the 2024 DMG was a good first step at trying to rectify this, at least, as the designers have said that they included it because they realized fewer players and DMs nowadays have had a reference for who any of the characters and concepts they've mentioned in the last decade even are.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Few people buy magazines anymore because online content has taken its place. And I personally would not buy any magazine because I am fine just getting whatever I might need from online sources. I do not find something being printed on paper to be automatically more worthwhile than reading it on a screen.

As far as DMs Guild... seeing as how a crapton of actual TSR and WotC published material from years and decades past are available to purchase... a whole host of established lore is still available to be picked up and used. Is it "new lore" from a 5E perspective? No. But so what? Old lore that a person has never used before is New lore for them regardless of when it was written and published. If someone needs Eberron lore for example... you can just buy any of the 10+ Eberron books that were published for 3.5 and those are just as good as anything produced later (and in truth actually better because the books are much larger in page count than anything that was made for 4E and 5E for Eberron.)

 

[Parmandur]

As a lore junkie I have a hard time getting excited for anything that comes out of the DMs Guild, unfortunately. I want to see official lore developments that build up the world of D&D and could be expanded upon in the future, not someone's obscure homebrew.

Lore and worldbuilding in particular have largely languished during 5E. The inclusion of the Lore Glossary in the 2024 DMG was a good first step at trying to rectify this, at least, as the designers have said that they included it because they realized fewer players and DMs nowadays have had a reference for who any of the characters and concepts they've mentioned in the last decade even are.

Lore can be fun, bur WotC does not enjoy a monopoly on content. I miss magazines in general, but the model doesn't really make sense any more. WotC gas been putting out material about as fast as I can process it in my spare time, so...that is fine.

 

[Parmandur]

Few people buy magazines anymore because online content has taken its place. And I personally would not buy any magazine because I am fine just getting whatever I might need from online sources. I do not find something being printed on paper to be automatically more worthwhile than reading it on a screen.

As far as DMs Guild... seeing as how a crapton of actual TSR and WotC published material from years and decades past are available to purchase... a whole host of established lore is still available to be picked up and used. Is it "new lore" from a 5E perspective? No. But so what? Old lore that a person has never used before is New lore for them regardless of when it was written and published. If someone needs Eberron lore for example... you can just buy any of the 10+ Eberron books that were published for 3.5 and those are just as good as anything produced later (and in truth actually better because the books are much larger in page count than anything that was made for 4E and 5E for Eberron.)

Not to mention the multiple quality new Eberron books Keith Baker has produced.

 

[mamba]

As a lore junkie I have a hard time getting excited for anything that comes out of the DMs Guild, unfortunately. I want to see official lore developments that build up the world of D&D and could be expanded upon in the future, not someone's obscure homebrew.

5e was the swan song edition, WotC was not going to waste money on a magazine for it back then, apparently they still have not reconsidered / still think the opportunity cost is too high and they are better off having people work on books instead.

There is a lot of 3pp material, incl. actual magazines, that can fill that niche, as can DMsGuild.

As to official lore development, I think they realized that having that was a big mistake of the earlier editions and that they are much better off not having a metaplot for the setting. Fleshing out settings / regions, that they could do however and are doing, albeit slowly

 

[Morrus]

Magazines in general have been struggling for the last 20 years. Ad revenues are down, readership is down, everything is down. Same as newspapers! Lots of people have tried to launch TTRPG magazines over the last couple of decades, some with better success than others, but nothing anywhere near the popularlity or success of Dragon in the 80s.

The magazine industry is on its last legs. The internet took its lunch.

 

[Parmandur]

Magazines in general have been struggling for the last 20 years. Ad revenues are down, readership is down, everything is down. Same as newspapers! Lots of people have tried to launch TTRPG magazines over the last couple of decades, some with better success than others, but nothing anywhere near the popularlity or success of Dragon in the 80s.

The magazine industry is on its last legs. The internet took its lunch.

Part of me is sad about that...but not sad enough to go get any magazines?

 

[mamba]

Part of me is sad about that...but not sad enough to go get any magazines?

if anything, I get the digital edition, but not print