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

[Zardnaar]

I've been using Dungeon a lot.

3E runeasiky converted to 5E and shorter size nakes them almost ideal.

The AD&D ones great for retroclones.

Early Savage Tide and Age of Worms heavily mined. Sasserine has been a jump off point more than once.

 

[MGibster]

And, the point is, so much of the material in the magazines is just never used. It's a LOT of work for very little payoff. While I was a pretty regular subsciber (and an overseas one at that making Dragon A LOT more expensive), I do completely understand why it's not a thing anymore.

Dragon was a lot of fun to read but a very limited number of articles were actually used in the games I played. I remember the half-ogre being pretty popular in my group.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dragon was a lot of fun to read but a very limited number of articles were actually used in the games I played. I remember the half-ogre being pretty popular in my group.

Dragon was often OP or kinda weak/bad.

 

[dave2008]

The format of DnD Beyond turned me off it even before I stepped away from WotC 5e.

After WotC purchased DnD Beyond there have been more articles on the site. Some of which have been varying degrees of useful or interesting. But it is never going to compare to the old Dragon magazines.

 

[SkidAce]

Honestly as useful as they are, online tools can be kind of a straight jacket. I'd love to play with content from 5e & its varients all at my fingertips but AFAIK there's no way to get an A5e, o5e & Tales of the Valiant content all in the same ecosystem without doing it oneself

Yeah, I run into this concern a lot.

Its easy to do with pen and paper sitting at the table, but due to life the majority of our gaming is done via beyond, discord, and roll20.

And snce the players like the beyond character builder better thats what we use.

Which leaves my custom classes, or custom classes from kibblestasty, etc, hanging in the wind.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I bought several numbers of Dragon magazine, from 2nd and 3rd Ed, in English and Spanish translation, and I feel a great nostalgia when I review them, but also surprised with the pages promoting videogames that today they are practically obsoletes.

Internet changed radically the publishing industry, not only Dragon and Dungeon but the rest of magazines about different treats.

It is not only the impact of the pirate copies but homemade crunch that can be updated thanks feedback. For example there is an amateur version of Star Wars 5e.

Today people don't want to spend money to buy magazines when they can read blogs and wikis. If the player wants to buy more crunch and adventures then DM Guild is the option.

And I would rather to buy a Dragon compedium with a selection of the most interesting crunch.

Do you remember the reasons because "White Dwarf" by Games Workshop stopped to be published? Do you remember the fate of the magazines about the TTRPG hobby?

And we are talking about a decade where the youngers started to be more interested into videogames.

Even if Dragon returned as a web magazine now it would be a self-advertising than showing new crunch elements.

 

[tomBitonti]

I bought several numbers of Dragon magazine, from 2nd and 3rd Ed, in English and Spanish translation, and I feel a great nostalgia when I review them, but also surprised with the pages promoting videogames that today they are practically obsoletes.

Internet changed radically the publishing industry, not only Dragon and Dungeon but the rest of magazines about different treats.

It is not only the impact of the pirate copies but homemade crunch that can be updated thanks feedback. For example there is an amateur version of Star Wars 5e.

Today people don't want to spend money to buy magazines when they can read blogs and wikis. If the player wants to buy more crunch and adventures then DM Guild is the option.

And I would rather to buy a Dragon compedium with a selection of the most interesting crunch.

Do you remember the reasons because "White Dwarf" by Games Workshop stopped to be published? Do you remember the fate of the magazines about the TTRPG hobby?

And we are talking about a decade where the youngers started to be more interested into videogames.

Even if Dragon returned as a web magazine now it would be a self-advertising than showing new crunch elements.

Minor nit: White Dwarf is still in print, and just passed issue 500. However, it is entirely focused on Games Workshop miniatures games, making it a very different magazine than earlier.
TomB

 

[el-remmen]

probably 60% or more of the magic items I give out are custom

I don’t think I have given out a standard by the book magic item (save a potion or two) since sometime in the late 90s.

That said, as much as I loved Dragon mag back in the day, I know I would not be the audience for it anymore because it was Dragon that helped me to learn how to homebrew to the point where I felt like I didn’t need it anymore. This was doubly true for so-called lore.

I have a nearly complete set of 1E/BECMI/2E era Dungeon mags and they have more than I could possibly ever use in my life time (not sure what is available like that for the current generations). Heck, the very first thing I ran in 5e was a 2E Dungeon adventure by Chris Perkins (figuring out what to change on the fly), it was a blast.

Edit to add: I just realized that I had already replied to this thread a while back. doh!

 

[delericho]

Minor nit: White Dwarf is still in print, and just passed issue 500.

I find that one really interesting, because it did stop print for quite a while (I bought the "final issue"), and then came back. I'd assumed that that was effectively impossible, so I'd really like to know the story there.

 

[tomBitonti]

I find that one really interesting, because it did stop print for quite a while (I bought the "final issue"), and then came back. I'd assumed that that was effectively impossible, so I'd really like to know the story there.

I’m not seeing any lapses. See: White Dwarf Magazine.
Thanks!
TomB