Zine Sections?

[MoogleEmpMog]

Are the two of you talking primarily about wall maps or battlemaps?

I'm talking about battlemaps.

Wall maps should be in grainy black-and-white, 2e style, so only the GM can read them properly.

 

[Nightfall]

Moogle,

Darn right! We don't need no stinking 3d color maps of Waterdeep!

 

[Jdvn1]

I'd also like to see reviews of non-WoTC (*gasp*) products, which is why I enjoy ENWorld so much - for the reviews.

I'd also love to see an industry news section. Talk about the industry - what things are in the pipeline, what are the trends? WoTC has always been very hush-hush about this kind of stuff. That's a shame, I think.

I'm favorable to crunch and a steady supply of magic items, spells, monsters, and character classes. If not a fantasy game, there are corresponding elements in about any other game with tech, tools, weapons, etc. There doesn't have to be each in every issue, but every issue needs a little bit.

Then I like setting work that can be dropped into my game. Stuff like organizations, powerful NPCs, cities or villages, or even natural regions (eg Witch mountain). Those save me time as a Dm to come up with neat setting stuff I might not be able to think of or don't have the time to work out.

News section would be doubleplus good. Reviews are a toss up but usually good so long as they don't take up too much space.

There must be comics. I need at least one good comic and preferably two. I can't tell you want has been printed in the latest Dragons or Dungeons, but I can convey the plot to Downer or OotS. Because of that, I never feel like I got nothing out of the magazine even if I didn't.

I agree with all of this, but on the 'crunch' side, I only want a little. I don't need character classes (though one every once in a while is cool), but I wouldn't mind interesting new pieces of equipment or magical items.

And I love the setting stuff I can just drop in. An interesting traveling caravan, a peculiar magic shop, a rowdy tavern, a mysterious tower... things that make for perfect side quests/breathers.

News/industry news, while rarely useful for me, I find immensely interesting. Reviews are in a similar vein, but a little bit less interesting.

I don't find maps very useful or interesting unless they're tiles I can use in a game (maybe to supplement the setting/side quest stuff), in which case, you definitely have yourself a customer. They could even be paper tiles, as long as they look cool and have the proper 1" grid on them.

 

[Nightfall]

*just wants what he had before*

 

[Jdvn1]

Demononicon. Core Beliefs, Class Acts, Comics.

I'd love these, especially Core Beliefs (you're into devils, I'm into divine--go figure. ) but I think that'd be too optimistic. Core Beliefs were an automatic buy for me.

 

[Nightfall]

Demons, my friend. Devils are just my off hours. I'm into fiends and gods. But yeah Core beliefs rocked and even when it wasn't a god I liked (say like Boccob or Wee Jas), it STILL was interesting.

 

[Lanefan]

One thing TSR used to use the old-time Dragon Mags for was trial-ballooning new ideas before "officially" adpoting them into the game. Most of what ended up as the 1e Unearthed Arcana had already been in Drag Mag...UA was more like a compilation of what (at the time) worked. And that was perhaps my main reason for paying attention to the magazine back then, to see what new ideas were coming. Unfortunately now with the rise of the interweb new ideas pour forth from all sides faster than the average mind can digest them, and the magazine gets lost in the background noise.

Comics and humour are essential, as are articles from designers, etc.

Dungeon, on the other hand, I haven't found much of use in for years; once 3e came out they never looked back. It'd be really cool if a similar magazine started with modules for all editions (either the same module statted out for each edition, or different modules for different editions, whatever) as there's still an awful lot of us playing 0-1-2e.

Lanefan

 

[Jdvn1]

Demons, my friend. Devils are just my off hours. I'm into fiends and gods. But yeah Core beliefs rocked and even when it wasn't a god I liked (say like Boccob or Wee Jas), it STILL was interesting.

I typed Demons first and then switched it. Silly me! Boccob took me by surprise. I didn't expect much from it, but they really gave him depth!

Still, I think that sort of material is going to be hard to come by now that Dragon is gone. If a magazine did features on the deities (or demons), that'd be really cool, but I'm not expecting that.

 

[Nightfall]

Lane,

What I liked about Dungeon was the improvements on Dungeon paths and the multi-connected modules that I liked. Usually centered on fiends.

 

[Mark CMG]

Comics and humour are essential, as are articles from designers, etc.

Most people love comics (at least one of them, somewhere), I think. I sem to remember an old study that showed they were the first section of a newspaper that most people turned to.