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1. Dragon and Dungeon magazines have been cancelled. Something else d20 based would be cool. 2. I’m a ‘patron’ for the Wolfgang’s ghoul adventure and have enjoyed the post on the subject so far so I figured I’d give it a shot. 3. It was cheap. It was like $12 for a PDF subscription which covers 4 issues.
The first issue is a 32 page magazine or a 34 page PDF. The PDF is in color for several of the illustrations and looks better than the print magazine. I found the print magazine’s pages a little too thin and the cover a little too… I don’t want to say ‘crispy’ but can’t think of a better word to describe it. Some of the articles didn’t do a lot for me. For example, It’s Not (always) About the Gold provides eight different ways to reward characters. Some of these break the rules right out of the box and some of them showcase the massive limitations with systems that generally tend to rely not on ‘in-game’ knowledge translating to skills or points, but to things you learn in the game.
For example, in breaking the game, he suggests giving out bonus skill points, extra hit points, or improved ability scores. At what point do these increases cumulate in a ECL boost? If you provide more than 3 bonus hit points, you’ve already beaten a standard core feat (Toughness) and if you provide too many skill points or don’t have a cap on things, you’ll find players may be able to enter PrCs or other restricted things like feats before their time.
It’s a good article for those who aren’t worried about game balance or feel that the ‘little’ things don’t matter. While I can agree with that theory in idea, in a game like Hero or GURPS, you can always provide bonus points that show up on the character sheet. D&D, with it’s inherent limitations of levels and caps on skills, and (default) random rolled hit points and ability points, doesn’t quite have that ease of use. In Champions, +5 to STR is +5 points regardless of who you give it to.
Another article that I was disappointed in was Mordenkainen’s Apprentice. Here we have a massive interview with Erik Mona that spans pages and pages and most of it feels like a nostalgic love feast and reads more like two friends talking about the good old days as opposed to Wolfgang’s approach to this new venture and the patron system and one of the men at the top of Paizo Publsihing.
Pages of stuff ranging from a default campaign setting, Greyhawk, to how Erik first got into gaming are followed pages latter by what I’d consider ‘good’ questions that focus on the here and now. Things I would’ve liked to have seen Erik talk about? The relationship with Necromancer, the potential to publish a Judge’s Guild adventure, how useful is the internet in determining actual purchases (for example, based online conversations you’d think anything with Ptlous would be an instant seller but after four batches and some terrible real life events, no more miniatures in that line were launched which to me indicates, along with the other encounter lines with miniatures, that it was not the most successful venture.) Heck, how about feelings on 4th edition and how Necromancer, one of their ‘partners’, is putting things on hold (until 4th ed is ‘announced’ this Gen Con)?
How about Paizo trying to have their cake and eat it too when it concerns being a publisher and having a store, sometimes with items that are exclusive to Paizo online including D&D official miniatures as well as miniatures that were supposed to be official and then wound up going back to the creator (Age of Worms Corpse Shamblers ,I’m looking at you.)
I also found some of Erik’s opinions on other things tied into the past a little too much too. For example, when asked about Planet Stories, a series of books where the stories have generally been long out of print, Erik is asked, “Someone asked about Planet Stories, saying “Why should I care?” and his reply is that if they are a Dungeons & Dragons fan, they should care because we are reprinting a lot of the books that inspired Gary Gygax when he was doing AD&D. Appendix N of the 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide is the roadmap for the genre that inspired D&D.”
Okay, so gamers in particular, should care because in a book 2+ editions ago, a series of books are listed. Hmmm… the major problem I see with that is that D&D has evolved so far beyond those books that the current game bears no resemblance to them at all and trying to capture that low magic sword and sorcery feel in the game is a massive undertaking in and of itself. Not only that, D&D has several fiction lines that are ‘official’. I would’ve rather seen him talk first about how damn good these books are and how people who aren’t up for a massive thousand page epic that’s the first in ten books that will never be written should show case their desire for shorter books by buying the old stuff. Or something like that. Personally, I can’t see many teens who may have just started with 3.5 going, “Man, Gary Gygax thought these were important books in the formation of an edition that was out before I was born? I gotta get some of that!”
On the other hand, as I’ve been many times in the past, I could be completely wrong.
If you’re heavy into the old times and want to see some people talking and reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ and wishing what could have been with the old boys like Gary Gygax, you’ll love the interview. Me? I’m much more interesting in what’s going on now. Heck, there wasn’t even that much pimping of Pathfinder.
The magazine has a few things that are useful right out of the box. For example, Underdark Encounters uses abbreviations for many 3.5 sourcebooks without telling you what they are in a wink wink style to showcase many powerful monsters. Say you need a CR11 encounter. You can use a Bone Naga from MM2 or say go with a Dread Wraith. Useful but a no-brainer style article. The ecology of the Derro showcases a little madness behind the suckers. It’s an interesting article but could use a little more detail despite being five pages long. For example, the deities felt so artificial and ‘mirroring’ of other Underdark deities that I couldn’t help but feel that I’d read them all before. It comes with an advanced sample derro, a ‘derror netter’ that clocks in at 7th level fighter.
Perhaps in a mirror of the old demon princes articles from Dragon, we have Princes of Hell, and here we get Titivillus, the Scribe of Hell. I loved the old Demons supplements from Role Aids and thought they covered a lot of area. This article would fall into that area, a little used area of influence with background built into the game without being overwhelming or requiring a lot of rewriting. Not only does it include full game stats for Titivillus but also for his minions, the ink devils.
The first issue has some hits and misses and at the price, I’m already locked in for three more issues so I’m hoping we’ll see less eight page interviews and more neat stuff on the devils. Despite my rant of the eight page interview, I found a lot of potential here. I’m looking forward to the next issue.
