-There are a handful of cool magic item articles. These are more acceptable to me, because they seem to be genuinely expanding the design space for certain magic item types.
-there was an article in january with some new backgrounds stuff, which was nice.
-there was a piece of fiction in january.
This seems to have occured after the fallout of the wonkily presented Vistani. I'd like to apologize for how brutal we all were about that.
But I'd love to see Dragon return to the awesomeness it was last summerish.I'm kind of bored with Class Acts, Winning Races, Channel Divinity, and thinly veiled variations thereof (ex. Minotaurs of Mistwatch). Every article in Dragon (excluding editorials) for the past 6 months has been some variant on "Class X or Race X gets some powers and maybe a paragon path". Exceptions:
-There are a handful of cool magic item articles. These are more acceptable to me, because they seem to be genuinely expanding the design space for certain magic item types.
-there was an article in january with some new backgrounds stuff, which was nice.
-there was a piece of fiction in january.
This seems to have occured after the fallout of the wonkily presented Vistani. I'd like to apologize for how brutal we all were about that.
i can agree with most of this. i wasn't all that worried to see there wasn't a fiction piece in this month or at any other time when a fiction piece isn't included. that steel princess with the rakshasa ranger was, however, lots of awesome sauce all over eveything. maybe i've been missin gout because i mostly ignore the fiction pieces.
i could live with a pause in some of the winning races and class acts, but there are still some races and classes that could use a bit of added oomph here and there. one of the problems with that is that the articles are largely coming from what is submitted. that which is submitted i suspect is largely drawn from what the writers or the peers of the writers are playing in current games. the classes that many players are choosing happen to be those which are getting articles and increasing the diversity and options. vicious cycle +1; critial: 2d10.
the guilds and groups is a nice series. i like that very much. i also enjoy the channel divinity to a degree. I'd like to see somehting similar to give more background on additional primal spirits, which most of the class acts referring to primal classes has been doing. so, if those class acts related to primal spirits gets placed on the back-burner, i lose some of that material.
i'd prefer to see more intelligent items and artifacts. the massive groups of magic items would be great in another Adventurer's Vault if that were published. but, i don't need to see the lesser magic enchantments in the magazine. i'd rather see that space go to the off-the-wall magic items that could be a fantastic game tool.
i'm surprised taht you mention the backgrounds. at this point i don't see why that is actual scope for anything. perhaps if there were methods of making that background more determinant of what powers and feats were made available... but then, we've got huge numbers of feats already. i don't think that needs expansion. feats and powers really falls into the realms of more class acts... so, vicious cycle +2; critical 2d10.
i'm most saddened by the slow growth of a few series, Lords of Chaos, Deities and Demigods, Creature incarnation, Roll vs Role, Bestiary, Demonicon (though with a book coming soon, this series may sit on the shelf for a while yet.), Ecology of ...
all of those are also dependent on submissions to a degree, so without the stuff getting submitted by writers, that will not grow and expand very much. shame.
i'd like to see more tips and techniques of what and how to best submit. perhaps a once per quarter review of one submission that made it which points out the highlights of why it made its way past the "NO" pile. and another review of one or two submissions that didn't make it and highlights of a few problem areas that couldn't be reconciled. hmmmm... once a quarter might be too much. maybe twice a year. that could really change the attitude about submitting articles for the series of articles that you most want to see (or that i most want to see).
but, yeah, last summerish was a pretty good time for the magazines.
A) people aren't submitting anything but "power pack" articles
B) wizards isn't accepting anything but power pack articles
C) people aren't competent enough to write acceptable articles except for power pack ones
D) something else
I suppose there is only one definitive way to find out :D
To the writing machine!
Disclaimer: I am a terrible, *terrible* writer.
With the 'power pack' articles, it's easy enough to find something of interest, that applies to my game or PC, every month or so. I like that. The super-short articles also apparently play nice with the rapid-release schedule of the mags. I can understand that.
Unfortunately, the 'feature' articles seem to have been put on the back burner, especially over the last several months.
I enjoy stuff like the recent Codex of Betrayal featuring Geryon and Deities and Demigods featuring Torog. These are features, while Class Acts and Winning Races seem more like sidebars to me (for lack of a better term).
The power pack articles are nice but let's not forget the features; they have their place too.
I definitely wouldn't mind to see more, especially if it's about Swordmages *g* Let's see whether any of my pitches will be accepted.
If you're bored with the scheme, the best way to change the situation is to submit other interesting pitches to WotC!
Secondly, how do you submit to Dragon, I can't find the link :X
Blame the release schedule and the desire to have daily content. I'd much prefer more interesting articles split-up over multiple days like the assassin or the Vistani, but because the latter was received so poorly (and was likely not written to be split-up) they're likely hesitant to do this again.