You Wanted Character Themes, You Got 'Em - Dragon 399 ToC

[cignus_pfaccari]

I'm not trying to bust balls but back in 'the day', love 'em or hate 'em, every month Dragon magazine usually had 'Class Acts' that had some game mechanics for your character based on some type of role. Online Dragon is so far behind the game in supporting the latest innovations that it's a damn shame and reading the editorial there, sounded like they would continue to remain behind.

I remember what got me to unsubscribe to the print version.

When, under Paizo, all the player-focused stuff got crammed into the four "power source" columns at the end, which were one page each...maybe two, with art.

And, far more often than you'd think, consisted of spell lists.


Online Dragon has never gotten that bad, to me. There's not always something I want in a current issue, but at least it hasn't been devolved into a Dungeon adjunct.

Brad

 

[Obryn]

Based solely on recent DDI output, you reveal yourself to be highly optimistic. (And don't get me wrong, thats a terrific quality.)

Have you been subscribed the past few months? March and April both had a boatload of good stuff, delivered - just barely - in before deadlines.

DDI looks to be on an upswing; I hope they can keep it up.

-O

 

[JoeGKushner]

I remember what got me to unsubscribe to the print version.

When, under Paizo, all the player-focused stuff got crammed into the four "power source" columns at the end, which were one page each...maybe two, with art.

And, far more often than you'd think, consisted of spell lists.


Online Dragon has never gotten that bad, to me. There's not always something I want in a current issue, but at least it hasn't been devolved into a Dungeon adjunct.

Brad

So 2 pages of spell list got you to unsubscribe to a 80-120 page magazine?

And I thought I was a harsh critic!

 

[WalterKovacs]

So 2 pages of spell list got you to unsubscribe to a 80-120 page magazine?

And I thought I was a harsh critic!

It think the relevant part was : "all the player-focused stuff got crammed into the four "power source" columns at the end, which were one page each".

If those 2 pages contained the only content he wanted, and it turned out to be bad ... then it makes sense to unsubscribe.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

It think the relevant part was : "all the player-focused stuff got crammed into the four "power source" columns at the end, which were one page each".

If those 2 pages contained the only content he wanted, and it turned out to be bad ... then it makes sense to unsubscribe.

That is it, exactly.

Demonomicons for various demon princes that weren't ever going to be in a game that I played in, let alone ran, really added no value. Neither did supporting articles for Dungeon adventures that we're not using.

Brad

 

[Incenjucar]

Honestly, monsters should probably go into Dungeon, as should all DM-centric material. I actually recently made the mistake of sending in a Bestiary proposal under Dungeon instead of Dragon because it was just such an unnatural place to put DM-only stuff.

 

[ourchair]

I am so hard now.

Will there be Eberron themes eventually? Cause everytime I look at the first chapter of the 3.5 Player's Guide to Eberron and see the 'adventurer archetypes' those scream to me THEMES.

 

[Aegeri]

Yes, but how many of them have new content for the game (as opposed to advice, anecdotes, history etc) that was created specifically for this issue (as opposed to a book that was later canceled)? Either zero or one, depending how the Unearthed Arcana looks.

Themes are substantial mechanical crunch for all characters in 4E. This is far more important than most of the stuff that Dragon has been publishing for MONTHS now. I would sooner have themes than a near pure fluff article with a couple of garbage feats and a mediocre to terrible PP (which is a general description of a fair amount of Dragon articles over the past few months).

 

[Jhaelen]

alchemist
animal master
apprentice
chevalier
explorer
guardian
guttersnipe
hospitaler
mercenary
noble
ordained priest
order adept
outlaw
seer
scholar

That's a very nice list!

Having just one of them like 'apprentice' expands the list of mechanically sound character archetypes a lot. a few of them sound a bit specific, though, e.g. 'hospitaler'. Or is this supposed to model a 'healer' background?

 

[Dice4Hire]

These look very good. I'm looking forward to them and might well sign up this month just to get them.