At the moment that means that you have only extremly low level (which is also damn short) or high level Content (that you cannot use if you want to play the AP later), so IMHO Dungeon could really use one or two normal Sized Stand-Alone Adventures too fill the gap...
Any type would be OK but How about some timeline/event based adventures? Haven't seen those for
4e yet...We get mostly the same type of "site-based" combat-focused adventures...
I understand switching to smaller articles and putting all DM related content in Dungeon and player stuff in Dragon, but they have increasingly failed to produce adventures. I suspect the budget just isn't there for adventures of a decent length because the sign up for DnDInsider seems significantly less than the old Dragon/Dungeon circulation, and what they charge is lower. Also eating into that budget is the development cost for all the Insider tools, the maintaince of those with monthly updates.
As for the Dungeon; It looks like they're almost done with Scales of War. I suspect that once that's over with and the writers are freed up that you'll see more content of other types.
You might want to give it a try just for the character builder and the compendium. Even if you decide it's not worth renewing the character builder will continue to work; you just cannot update it. And you may decide you like it; DDI is cheaper than buying all of the splat books.
As for the Dungeon; It looks like they're almost done with Scales of War. I suspect that once that's over with and the writers are freed up that you'll see more content of other types.
I've already bought a set of the core books.
I've also tried the preview download character creator. It's okay. I'm kinda ambivalent about signing up for the rest, really. Maybe, we'll see.
I get my adventure path fix from Paizo and from my own writing but I am always looking for good standalone adventures to pull apart.
To be even more frank, what I am looking for is:
- good art;
- good maps; and
- interesting NPCs,
all of which I can use in my own adventures and campaigns. I really don't want WotC to attempt another adventure path unless they learn the lessons that Paizo did (prepare the synopsis in advance and make it available to the authors and DMs... and appoint a single "traffic cop" with responsibility to ensure continuity so that it actually turns out to be an adventure path).
Man, the more I read these negative things about DDI the less I feel like signing up for it and trying it out.
The Character Builder, Monster Builder and Compendium are worth the price of a DDi subscription alone, IMO. I would even go so far as to say, "Actually, that's not 'IMO'. That's a simple fact."
But I can easily afford 7$ a month or so (I have to pay taxes too) if that means that 1: I don't have to buy any books, per se. And 2: I can build and play my characters without having to look everything up in a book all the time... I think I can save about 10-15 minutes per encounter by not having to do that which makes for a lot more playtimeThis has (apparently) been going on for months, and now we find ourselves with one adventure in the current issue (174). This has got to stop. Where have the protests been? Or like myself, has everyone just stopped bothering to read becuase there's nothing worth reading?
I'm seriously considering canceling my subscription.
I hope that Scales of War is the last adventure path for a long time. I would rather see standalone adventures and delves/sidetreks than another attempt at any adventure path.
I get my adventure path fix from Paizo and from my own writing but I am always looking for good standalone adventures to pull apart.
To be even more frank, what I am looking for is:
- good art;
- good maps; and
- interesting NPCs,
all of which I can use in my own adventures and campaigns. I really don't want WotC to attempt another adventure path unless they learn the lessons that Paizo did (prepare the synopsis in advance and make it available to the authors and DMs... and appoint a single "traffic cop" with responsibility to ensure continuity so that it actually turns out to be an adventure path).Man, the more I read these negative things about DDI the less I feel like signing up for it and trying it out.
The Character Builder, Monster Builder and Compendium are worth the price of a DDi subscription alone, IMO. I would even go so far as to say, "Actually, that's not 'IMO'. That's a simple fact."
Have you checked out the Friar's Almanac on www.drivethrurpg.com it has some npcs in it as well as adventure ideas and things like that. Its low on art though.
Where have the protests been? Or like myself, has everyone just stopped bothering to read becuase there's nothing worth reading?
I'm seriously considering canceling my subscription.
That's obviously for you to decide to do. Myself, I've been enjoying the Scales of War adventure path, and that is eating up a TON of space in Dungeon. Next month should be the wrap-up of that, so I assume that after Februray's issue, there will be a lot more, shorter adventures in the magazine.
I'm sure DMaple remembers this thread, but others may want to take a look at it. I kept quiet during that thread because I'm not a subscriber, but part of the reason I choose not to subscribe is because DDI management keeps moving the goalposts rather than setting the bar high and striving. I was extremely dissapointed when Mr. Perkins changed the standard from 3-5 adventures per issue to 2-3. I still don't understand the purpose behind the self-imposed limit of 40,000* words per issue. As a digital publication I can't see the readers being turned off by additional size and I don't see how production cost would be significantly affected. Perhaps Dungeon content will be improved when SoW is done; I will take the same wait and see attitude I've had from the beginning (but it will take significant improvement to make me a regular subscriber).
*"roughly" to quote Mr. Perkins.
The Character Builder, Monster Builder and Compendium are worth the price of a DDi subscription alone, IMO. I would even go so far as to say, "Actually, that's not 'IMO'. That's a simple fact."
QFT.
D&DI, even as it stands now as less than half of what they promised at the start, has made 4E play so easy that I don't really want to play anything else. We sat down to play a 3.5E session a few weeks back, and I wondered out loud, "How are we supposed to find the feats and spells we want? How did we play this for so long?". The rest of the table laughed in agreement.
It's so much easier.
I still enjoyed playing 3.5E, but 4E is just a better system all around. It's not quite as drastic a leap as the one from 2E to 3E, but it's still pretty significant.
I seam to recall that Dungeon used to have a lot of player submited adventures in it. Mostly people hoping to become recognized in the industry and stuff.
Just throw in a no new feat/skill/magic item/ritual clause into the thing and get people to start submitting already. Then you can just bulk up the product till it matches expectation.
I seam to recall that Dungeon used to have a lot of player submited adventures in it. Mostly people hoping to become recognized in the industry and stuff.
Just throw in a no new feat/skill/magic item/ritual clause into the thing and get people to start submitting already. Then you can just bulk up the product till it matches expectation.
I remember that initially they promoted the fact they would integrate user submitted adventures and content, but that in practice they ignore everything they receive. I remember reading a complaint of someone who stopped sending anything till they would actually start using it.
I hope that Scales of War is the last adventure path for a long time. I would rather see standalone adventures and delves/sidetreks than another attempt at any adventure path.
I like the idea of an adventure path and avidly read the adventures up to level 15ish. However the months have really dragged since then. The higher the level of an adventure the smaller the audience, and the more pages it consumes.
Chaos scar is a good idea, but no more than 1 adventure per issue or every other month.
The perfect edition of Dungeon for me would be:
1 short adventure/encounter - like Chaos Scar
1 standalone adventure
1 adventure path adventure
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