The new magazine – a reader’s reaction (in article / section order)
1. The Cover
I liked it. Yes, the masthead seems plain, but as a calligrapher, I can appreciate the striking declaration made by simplicity. However, the absence of article taglines might make remembering which articles are in which magazines a little difficult.
2. From the Editor
It’s a letter from the editor. Business as usual.
3. First Watch
This is absolutely great! I love the news magazine section and its capacity to present lots of disparate information in a single place.
4. Scale Mail
You’re always at the mercy of the quality of the letters you receive. I would recommend that if editorial response is going to be frequent, that it be universal. Having only one or two of the eight letters NOT receive a response seems to imply they weren’t worth it.
5. Player Initiative
I like this section as much as First Watch. However, I think it could just as easily be combined WITH First Watch.
6. Under Command
I am not a player of the Miniatures Game, so seeing an entire section of my D&D RPG magazine devoted to miniatures doesn’t sit well with me. This section can go to Undeafeated, where it fits. If you want to have a miniatures-driven segment, please make it D&D-related as a foundation, instead of the appearance of an afterthought addition of Feats.
7. A Novel Approach
Although I am not a fan of most of the D&D novels, the conversion of fictional characters into NPCs is going to be useful to me as a DM, and probably appeals to a large enough reader base to keep it a popular section of the magazine.
8. Silicon Sorcery
I was afraid this was going to be a computer game review. Instead, I found it a valuable source of information for my campaign. If this is the tone for future Silicon Sorcery articles, I’ll be happy.
9. Comics
The comics are the comics. While I really miss Snarfquest and Phil and Dixie (dating myself a bit), the one-pagers are entertaining. I do like having them all in one section.
10. Samurai vs. Knight
Didn’t like it. Not because of its content, but because of its lack of conclusion. Giving me a fluff article is fine, as long as it is also useful. Fluff can include crunch. This article had neither crunch nor conclusion.
11. Demon Stone
Save the computer game reviews for the computer game magazines. This article could have been useful if it included CRPG to RPG conversion, instead of merely assuring us that the RPG mechanics were in the CRPG.
12. Seven Deadly Domains
Loved it! Especially the integration of sins with non-evil character play!
13. See No Evil
I loved the concept, but these spells were less-than-useful. The mechanics have no use to a player. A truly guilty despot (for example) will come of measuring just as innocent as a baby if he feels no remorse, while the person who cut across a restricted lawn will measure as guilty as Sylvester when caught with Tweety Bird in his mouth. Alignment has a game mechanic. Guilt, attitude, heresy and violence have no such mechanics. Measuring them is an endeavor in ambiguity.
14. Ecology
Keep them coming!
15. Spellcraft
I really enjoyed this section. It doesn’t hurt that the author happens to be one of my favorite frequent posters on the WotC message boards!
16. Gaining Prestige
I don’t like the explosion of Prestige Classes in third edition. But I recognize that I am a decided minority in this. So as long as it is restricted to one per issue, I’ll tolerate it.
17. Magic Shop
Again, fantastic! I am going to enjoy this section issue after issue.
18. Heroic Feats
Well, I think there are too many feats from too many sources, but you kept it to one page, so I won’t gripe.
19. Winning Races
I only use core rules races in my campaign, but I really enjoyed this article. Whether I actually use any given entry or not, I will value the content. I consider it a “bonus ecology” article in every issue!
20. Class Acts
This is one of the best ideas in a long time. One-page crunch for each class, every single issue! No matter what my players have chosen in my campaign, I know they have new information at their fingertips.
21. Player Tips
This section is so wide open in regard to what it can contain, and I like that. I look forward to seeing where this takes me.
22. Adventurer Tricks
Another good column. Keep this as tight as this one-page article, and I will continue to enjoy it.
23. Sage Advice
Always useful. Now that the helm has changed hands, any chance we can get a compilation of all of Skip’s Q&A? Preferably on the website as a single downloadable? WotC takes a little too long to get most of the answers into the FAQ.
24. Buyer’s Guide
I could use one of these every single issue, but will settle for the quarterly pace. As long as it is kept “separate” I think you could do this for a few other publishers even. Perhaps there would be enough interest to get a buyer’s guide in every issue, with three different companies stepping up in rotation.
25. Coup De Grace
I’ll be honest. I didn’t like it. Ed hinted at lots of future articles that I will enjoy in future issues, but this was the inaugural closer. It contained more reference to things he will tell us about later than to whatever he was trying to tell us now. I guess this one will have to serve as the weak introduction to what will hopefully become a strong development.