Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 11-11-06, 07:18 PM	I'm just curious: what are people's experiences with the utility, balance, interest, etc they've found in Dragon magazines? Generally? More specifically, any issues you've found particularly useful, egregious, or whatever?
Sarella Starshine 11-11-06, 07:44 PM	I love Dragon. They have really great stuff in there. Some, are completely useful (like # 332 which has magical items for dragons, more uses for dragon parts than just armor/weapons, and even progressions for the chromatic dragons to be used as player classes). The Ecology of <insert monster here> is very good for more indepth look at a lot of the monsters. The class acts are great if you want something a little different than your normal class (like in a couple that tells you how to play fighters from different real world historical cultures like the jannisaries, the celtic fighter, the viking, etc).
Zherog 11-11-06, 07:56 PM	I think Dragon is great - but I'm biased, since I've had 12 articles printed. :) more uses for dragon parts than just armor/weapons Tarkin, from these boards, is the writer of that awesome article. *** More specifically: Every issue contains new spells; every issue contains new magic items. You get in-depth looks at the core deities (the Core Beliefs series by Sean K. Reynolds); you get in-depth looks at the various demonlords and their followers (the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, by James Jacobs); you get new monsters, revisions of old monsters, and just lots of other cool stuff. My subscription to Dragon every year is the best gaming money I spend. And I'd say that even if they didn't publish my stuff. :D
Shinryouga 11-11-06, 10:01 PM	I've had a subscription since early third edition, and I plagued my local library for ten years prior to that. Dragon is an excellent resource. For sheer fluff/cruch/thoughts provoked it outweighs almost any single book you can buy besides the DMG and DMGII, and thats only if you actually spend an evening to sit down and reread them like you've never seen them before in your life. That being said, most of what comes into it is only as playtested as the author who wrote it tested it. WotC books have actual playtesting teams, think tanks who consider the in-game ramifications of whatever feat/spell/ability were talking about. Not to say that Dragon authors can't write balanced material, most of the time they're spot on; consider that many "offical" WotC writers got there by writing for Dragon. Biggest rule to remember with Dragon magazine? "I'm only going to use what works for MY game." Dragon is a magazine for the gaming (specifically D&D, but not always) community. It tries to cater to the entire community; as such, there will always be something in an issue that isn't "right" for your game. Doesn't mean it couldn't be twisted to fit, but more importantly, doesn't mean the rest of the magazine, or the next one, will be utterly worthless to you. I've had a few "dud" magazines where there was very little content I used, but even then, when I consider how much Dragon has enriched my game, I think I'm getting my subscription at a steal. No regrets here. Just my two coppers.
Shemeska the Marauder 11-11-06, 10:28 PM	My subscription to Dragon every year is the best gaming money I spend. And I'd say that even if they didn't publish my stuff. :D Absolutely. I've had a Dragon subscription for the last three years or so, but I think the magazine has really moved up a notch since Mona became editor. I really like the selection of articles in the last two years or so, and that kicked me into finally putting some queries in and submitting some articles. [I'm not at 12 like Zherog, only two upcoming ones and a few queries in limbo, but it's been a blast. I'd strongly encourage others to submit some pitches to Dragon if you've got some ideas for it.]
Zherog 11-11-06, 10:36 PM	That being said, most of what comes into it is only as playtested as the author who wrote it tested it. WotC books have actual playtesting teams, think tanks who consider the in-game ramifications of whatever feat/spell/ability were talking about. As far as I know, WotC does not playtest material in the books prior to releasing it. The basic process is: The writers write it The developers tweak it The editors skip all the mistakes. Er, I mean... :D
Zherog 11-11-06, 10:37 PM	and a few queries in limbo You get used to it. ;)
Shemeska the Marauder 11-11-06, 10:39 PM	You get used to it. ;) 8 months or so on one of 'em. I think some of them are off cavorting with Slaadi. In fact I may get them back and find that they're all warped and insane from exposure to Limbo and all... ;)
Zherog 11-11-06, 10:51 PM	8 months for an actual query is probably too long. I can go look it up, but I recall the Dragon staff having one of their big "query" meetings not too long before GenCon (July or so). I know that because I had a query from before that time that was never answered. I talked to Jason Bulmahn about it at GenCon, and he said it didn't sound familiar to him. So I had to resend. :nonono: I can try to track down the date for you, but you might be in a situation where you'll likely want to contact one of the editors (and cross your fingers) ;) edit: This thread (http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dragon/generalDiscussion/dragonSOwnLittleBlackHole) over on Paizo's Dragon message boards has turned into a really good way to communicate with the editors. There's a similar thread on the Dungeon forum. I'll go see if I can dig up when the last query meeting took place. edit 2: In late July, Jason Bulmahn responded to everything he had (which is features) up through May. So if your query was a feature and goes back before then, Shemmy, you probably want to contact Jason. If your query was for a different editor, then you probably want to contact that editor. I know Mike McArtor (the editor who handles Class Acts and Bazaar of the Bizarre) is usually fairly quick to turn a query around, though he's been a bit behind lately. Wes Schneider handles Spellcraft; I've never dealt with Wes directly; I've only had one Spellcraft query, and that was sent in along with queries for features.
Salla 11-11-06, 11:03 PM	The Big Winner Article for Dragon Magazines I have has to be the Three Dragon Ante method of statistic generation. My players generally prefer to roll stats, but I swear by point buy ... the 3DA method represents a compromise between the two, a 'pseudorandom' distribution of a set number of points among stats.
Shemeska the Marauder 11-11-06, 11:04 PM	8 months for an actual query is probably too long. I can go look it up, but I recall the Dragon staff having one of their big "query" meetings not too long before GenCon (July or so). I know specifically that that particular query of mine is still in limbo along with several others (all yugoloth article pitches) on Jason's desk. For various reasons they've held off on giving the green light to any of them, and so at this point it's just a handful of us having to be patient. At least that was the case when I talked to him briefly at Gen Con.
Can of the Cave Beer 11-11-06, 11:06 PM	There's a lot of good information in Dragon. I was particularly interested in the recent issues with Demononicon segments (especially in light of the Fiendish Codex I & II), issue 298 for its information regarding Drow, and 313 for putting Lycanthropes into progressions usable for PCs.
Zherog 11-11-06, 11:07 PM	Ah. Then your article's not lost in limbo (like mine - nobody had a copy of the query); it's just stuck on Bulmahn's desk. While that's a scary place to be, it's not exactly lost. :D And, er, I think we've probably hijacked the thread enough. We can probably take anything else to PM or e-mail if we need to.
bytor4232 11-12-06, 05:43 AM	I love Dungeon and Dragon magazine. I wholeheartedly suggest you subscribe. Is 100% of the content for you? Probably not, but you'll find at least half the material in both magazines usefull to you every month. They are a DM and Players friend. Subscribing is pretty cheap nowadays too. They have a month-by-month subscription that can't be beat in price, that way I don't have to plop down 80 bucks every year.
Seeker95 11-12-06, 08:25 AM	Dragon subscriber off and on since 1983. I heartily recommend Dragon Magazine to anyone, and Dungeon to any DM willing to use someone else's material.
CharlieRock 11-12-06, 08:34 AM	Dragon is really good. Even the issues that you think 'I'm never going to use that' ,or 'That's not any importance in my campaigns'. They are nice to have for later when something does come up, 'Hey! Let's do a jousting tournament!' 'Ok, lemme grab that Knights & Honor issue, and brush up or get some ideas'. I found a lot of the 'dorky' articles came so useful later on ,sometimes a year after it was published, LoL. :cool: P.S. Plus it has cool artwork :D
Fabius Maximus 11-12-06, 08:41 AM	The Class Act articles alone make it worthwhile.