Paizo Publishing's 10th Anniversary Retrospective—Year 4 (2006)

And the silver lining, as several people have pointed out, has been extremely worthwhile for gamers everywhere. Beware of idle hands forged in the crucible of magazine publishing, when those hands are turned to creating great gaming material. :)

Of course, that could be said about someone else as well :)

(Paizo? Sounded like an italian takeout restaurant. Paizo Pizza!).

If Paizo opened a pizza place, I would subscribe.

Geez. These blogs are tear jerkers every time.

I had always been a fan of Dragon magazine since my time in the Army, and I didn't even notice when it changed hands to Paizo. I wasn't really product savvy in that way, I didn't know who made the chips I eat, or raised the cows, or whatnot. Dragon was just a DnD mag, and I enjoyed it.

I think it was when they announced the non-renewal that I even realized Paizo was in charge of them, and suddenly things clicked...Paizo, not WotC, had been behind the huge upswing in quality that Dragon had experienced. It was then that I gave Dungeon another look, and found out that I loved Dungeon even more than the new Dragon. (My Savage Tide+ campaign has been running for years now, since Pathfinder Alpha) A flurry of back issue buying later, and I was stunned that anything this good could go away.

It definitely soured me on 4e right out the gate, since I saw the lack of something I had come to love as tied directly to that product's release.

I remember the email asking people like me with some Dragon and Dungeon "credit" remaining about switching to that strange and newly announced product called "Pathfinder" or getting our money back.

To be honest, I was not really enthralled at first but being a bit lazy and wondering about the hassle of cashing in a cheque in $ in Britain, I just chose the subscription option. After all, Paizo had graciously replaced some Dragon issues lost in the post before, they had been kind to me, so I thought they deserved a break. Of course with having Erik Mona and others who knew how to write decent Greyhawk stuff, there was also some hope for that Pathfinder thingy to be half-decent too...

That decision got me a Pathfinder "Chartered" Subscriber (and later superscriber) handle on the website. Ain't many of them around! ;)

Back to the blog entries, they show that the people at Paizo not only have some talent, they also have the balls (even for the ladies) to make tough decisions.

That decision got me a Pathfinder "Chartered" Subscriber (and later superscriber) handle on the website. Ain't many of them around! ;)

High Five, Brother Slaavik!

And to you fellow "Chartered" Snorter.

Odd that you do not get the "superscriber" moniker too, you seem to allow Paizo to empty your bank account every month like me.
Oh... I got the Planet Stories subscription back in the days. I think that was the one that made me super-scribe to Paizo.

I only hear about Paizo through BoardGameGeek, and what's interesting is that Paizo's only been talked about with their Pathfinder system. So it's interesting reading about 2005/2006, in the pre-Pathfinder days. With the Game Mastery series, it's entirely possible that Paizo could have hit "diworsification" by spreading itself too thin over multiple lines -- much like WotC did with its digital content and other pre-boardgame projects.

8')

These blogs make for a neat read. I can't wait for the biggies.

It never occurred to me how rough it must've been to get your dream job, the thing you've always wanted to do, and have to shepherd it through it's final days. I wanted to work for TSR when I was a kid too. You guys get props for doing it well. The last year of the magazine runs was just....spectacular.

The loss of the magazines was painful (best value in gaming, ever) but, the outcome has been pretty cool. It might not have been the smartest decision for WotC, considering how poorly the online mags were handled but gaming is better for it overall. The idea that one company would have absolute control of all gaming content would seem to just take us back to the weird years in the early 90's. Not something I would have enjoyed.

Another thing I liked about this installment, 3PP and their relation to Paizo. One of the things that really got me back to gaming after a multi-year hiatus was the odd stuff from some of the little guys. I've always wondered how that relationship was not adversarial considering this market is so "boutique". The support and even praise given to the 3PP by Paizo has been a nice change of pace. It's pleasant to see Lisa actually consider them an asset to the company's product catalogue. That's another thing that sets Paizo apart.

Quite interesting to read that WotC handled the end of the licenses very decently. Great blogpost again, here goes another month of waiting for the next one.

And to you fellow "Chartered" Snorter.

Odd that you do not get the "superscriber" moniker too, you seem to allow Paizo to empty your bank account every month like me.
Oh... I got the Planet Stories subscription back in the days. I think that was the one that made me super-scribe to Paizo.

I think Snorter needs the Pathfinder Tales sub to have the same moniker as you.

I need a time-machine and the RPG-line sub...

I guess I'm in the minority here and I credit Lisa for being diplomatic in her views of WoTC giving Paizo an advanced non-renewal notice for and allowing an extension to the magazine license. In the end it was good business for WoTC to do what they did. They certianly could not provide content for them nor did they have a means to disseminate it in the platform they were hoping to use in the future. Essentially the IP would languish for a year until 4E came out. Instead Paizo did the work for them by continuing to publish a popular and high quality periodical that only enhanced both magazines reputations. A win-win for both parties involved I think.

I just think it would be a bit naive to think WoTC was doing Paizo a "a solid" by extending the license. I have a hard time believing that if Wizards digital initiative was ready to go when the licenses were expiring, that Paizo would have been able to get that extension, and it did Wizards no good to have both magazines in limbo, out of sight and mind of customers when another company could foot the bill to keep it in the minds of gamers until 4E was released.

@Jim,

Even if WotC had been ready to go day 1 with their digital 'magazines', it doesn't change that 'they'* were kind enough to let Paizo know 6 months early that the license wouldn't be renewed.

*

"Kindness" could also be seen as "avoiding a riot from the fans if they cut off an AP halfway through".

Geez. These blogs are tear jerkers every time.

I had always been a fan of Dragon magazine since my time in the Army, and I didn't even notice when it changed hands to Paizo. I wasn't really product savvy in that way, I didn't know who made the chips I eat, or raised the cows, or whatnot. Dragon was just a DnD mag, and I enjoyed it.

I think it was when they announced the non-renewal that I even realized Paizo was in charge of them, and suddenly things clicked...Paizo, not WotC, had been behind the huge upswing in quality that Dragon had experienced. It was then that I gave Dungeon another look, and found out that I loved Dungeon even more than the new Dragon. (My Savage Tide+ campaign has been running for years now, since Pathfinder Alpha) A flurry of back issue buying later, and I was stunned that anything this good could go away.

It definitely soured me on 4e right out the gate, since I saw the lack of something I had come to love as tied directly to that product's release.

They're going to start getting better from next time...

Will the prisoners who send me mail every week blame me for canceling the magazines?

I wrote a cover-my-ass editorial directly to the prisoners, laying out their importance to the magazine, lest I incur some unfortunate vendetta.

Did I miss something? Was there a significant contingent of subscribers who were in prison? Or is it metaphorical, and if so, for what?

Did I miss something? Was there a significant contingent of subscribers who were in prison? Or is it metaphorical, and if so, for what?

A little-known fact is that Dungeon and Dragon were *wildly* popular with prison inmates. A lot of prisons have very strict guidelines about what sort of mail inmates are allowed to receive--for instance, no hardback books--and thus the prisoners are starved for interesting reading material. There's also not a ton to do in prison, and who needs "escapism" more than someone who's incarcerated? So yeah--there's a lot of gaming in the penal system. Over the years, we got a ton of letters. Sometimes they even included the homemade spinners they used (in places where dice weren't allowed), or homemade dice made from compressing layer after layer of toilet paper (the same method sometimes used for creating shivs).

Now you know why Dungeon's letters column was called "Prison Mail"...

We still get letters from prisoners lamenting the end of the print versions of Dragon and Dungeon.

You could sell them a subscription to the adventure path line ;)

Good to know that there's still gaming to be found in prison.

Good to know that there's still gaming to be found in prison.

Planning on going to prison?

My favorite bit of prison mail ever was an actual letter sent to TSR around 1994.

In this letter, a Mafioso appealed to the writers at TSR to help him write his life story and split the profits. By which he meant, some game writer would do all the work, and the mobster would take the money.

It stayed up on the bulletin board for a month or so and was the subject of some discussion, but so far as I know, it got no reply.

You could sell them a subscription to the adventure path line ;)

Oh, we do, when they can. However, it is a bit more difficult for inmates to have a Pathfinder subscription due to the email address requirement. Inmates that have moved onto Pathfinder will often have a non-incarcerated agent of some sort (i.e. "someone on the outside") who manages their subscription online for them.

The more you know!

See this whole thing just gets even more interesting.
Penal Gaming clubs, A much better alternative to the Nation, Brotherhood, Crips or Bloods.

Maybe I should save this for the next blog, but anyway ...

I wasn't particularly a fan of Paizo in those days. I had a subscription to Dungeon and Dragon, and was happy with the magazines but not happy with the way they kept going astray, or turning up a few weeks after my FLGS got theirs. Paizo were very good about getting me replacement copies - and sometimes the original would also turn up eventually - but I got fed up with it and cancelled my subscription. Instead, I ordered the magazines from my FLGS each month.

However, when WotC decided not to renew the licenses, I was extremely angry. I surprised myself by how angry I was - Dungeon and Dragon had been part of my life for a very long time; even though hadn't always bought the magazines, it was good to know they were around to support the hobby. They seemed to be doing well, and now they had been cancelled for no reason.

(In fact, there was a reason, as we eventually found out, but that just made things worse - I personally wasn't ready for a new edition, and if there was going to be a new edition surely the magazines would have been the best place to highlight it, as happened with 3rd edition.)

Twenty dollars plus overseas postage seemed like a lot of money for the new Pathfinder thing, and since I wasn't a subscriber I didn't have any money already tied up with Paizo. If circumstances had been different, I doubt I'd have signed up for Pathfinder. However, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to make a point to WotC that I was not happy with them, and since I was now going to boycott WotC products I had some spare cash.

So I became a charter subscriber for all the wrong reasons, and have never had cause to regret my decision. I'm not angry any more, just sad for the loss of Dungeon in particular. These days WotC is just another gaming company - if something of theirs appeals to me, I'll buy it.

My favorite bit of prison mail ever was an actual letter sent to TSR around 1994.

In this letter, a Mafioso appealed to the writers at TSR to help him write his life story and split the profits. By which he meant, some game writer would do all the work, and the mobster would take the money.

It stayed up on the bulletin board for a month or so and was the subject of some discussion, but so far as I know, it got no reply.

Should've given that guy a cameo in Council of Thieves! =]

I do have one question: the rejected comic panel that Erik mentioned... would that be the Mr. Potato Head cameo in the very last story arc of Dragon's version of "Order of the Stick"?

I was also curious as to how Rich Burlew was able to print a compilation of those strips so many years later - I would have assumed that creative control of that content would have been retained by either Paizo or WotC, but then I know very little about the cartooning business beyond how good Bill Watterson was at drawing dinosaurs. =]

I do have one question: the rejected comic panel that Erik mentioned... would that be the Mr. Potato Head cameo in the very last story arc of Dragon's version of "Order of the Stick"?

I was also curious as to how Rich Burlew was able to print a compilation of those strips so many years later - I would have assumed that creative control of that content would have been retained by either Paizo or WotC, but then I know very little about the cartooning business beyond how good Bill Watterson was at drawing dinosaurs. =]

Nope. It was a Mt. Zogon comic... one we reprinted later on in the Zogonia compilation (at the top of page 62).

I suspect I remember this time a little differently than most people. I remember it as the year when I discovered Paizo had won my loyalty as a freelance writer.

Dragon was my gateway into my entire career. Dave Gross published my first professional work in Dragon, and his advice and assistance set me on the path to being hired as a member of the WotC RPG writing staff. As both the guardians of my most beloved hobby and the people paying me for writing more often than anyone else, WotC was my first priority in my writing schedule. I once turned down an non-WotC offer for work because Rich Baker had said he "might" have a WotC project for me halfway through the proposed writing schedule. The developer was stunned, and flat out asked me "How do I inspire that kind of dedication?"

It was a dumb move in a lot of ways, but I write from the heart and the heart often dictates who I write for.

Though I worked at Wizards of the Coast at the same time as several past and present Paizo employees, for the most part I didn't know them well. For the most part we worked on different things and in different areas (Sean K Reynolds being a major exception to that trend). The only dealings I'd had with Erik Mona while we were both at WotC were magazine-related, and mostly after I had learned I was being laid off. (Unlike most people laid off the day I was, WotC kept me on for another two months after that. I was basically a dead man walking.)

So when Paizo was first created, I really thought of them as "WotC's Magazine Department with a Funny Name" instead of being its own company or a group of people I had a strong relationship with. I paid attention to them because of their control of Dungeon and Dragon, but I'd moved on from articles, mostly, and was doing web things for WotC and bigger projects for WotC and several other companies.

Then, suddenly, Wes Schneider contacted me in early 2005 and asked if I'd like to do Dragon again. I was honored to be asked, instead of sending in a pitch, and discovered I missed writing for Dragon. Wes became my main contact for Dragon articles, and through 2005 I got a lot of work, and had a lot of funny exchanges with him. (Once when trying to explain I needed to cut the intro to the Mooncalf, which I kept just making smaller by editing it from 300 words to 200 words, to 100 words, to 50 words, he had to say "You get twelve words!") When I'd turn an article in, he'd send another email asking "What can I get you working on next?"

For most everything else I wrote, I had to go out and scrounge for work. Wes, and through him Paizo, let me know they wanted my efforts whenever I was free, and they got in touch with me. And, suddenly in later 2006, they were making sure I knew they would always have work for me if I wanted it. I didn't know then that they'd already lost the license, but I can see with hindsight they were preparing me to not freak out when I head the news. Paizo wasn't just a place I could sell articles... it was a professional relationship.

So when a Paizo Dragon article (ecology of the devourer as I recall) conflicted with a proposed WotC project... for the first time ever I picked someone other than WotC. Don't get me wrong, I still love WotC to death, and I've done a lot of work for them. But if I had to pick who to work with, I picked Paizo.

Amusingly when Pathfinder was announced I got an email from Wes that said "So! It's been like three hours now. When am I going to start getting queries for monsters from you in Pathfinder?"

And I felt very at home.

Good to know that there's still gaming to be found in prison.

Not necessarily. This reminded me of a news story I saw a while back. One prison, at least, decided to ban D&D. Not a very well-reasoned decision (they said it could lead to gang behavior and fantasies of escape). And, ironically, it happened in Wisconsin, where D&D was born.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27dungeons.html

I do have one question: the rejected comic panel that Erik mentioned... would that be the Mr. Potato Head cameo in the very last story arc of Dragon's version of "Order of the Stick"?

No, it was a joke in a Mt. Zogon strip wherein an ogre (or something) won't eat the main character, and she speculates that it's probably because he's gay. WotC (I think rightfully) thought that was in poor taste, and asked us to remove it or change it, which we did.

The things I could tell all of you about people playing D&D in prison........

The things I could tell all of you about people playing D&D in prison........

Number one rule: never drop the D20?

Michael Brock wrote:

The things I could tell all of you about people playing D&D in prison........

Number one rule: never drop the D20?

Number Two Rule: Even when playing a rogue, it is not kosher to yell "Sneak Attack" while residing in prison.

I wasn't particularly a fan of Paizo in those days. I had a subscription to Dungeon and Dragon, and was happy with the magazines but not happy with the way they kept going astray, or turning up a few weeks after my FLGS got theirs. Paizo were very good about getting me replacement copies - and sometimes the original would also turn up eventually - but I got fed up with it and cancelled my subscription. Instead, I ordered the magazines from my FLGS each month.

We haven't mentioned it in the blogs, but European fulfillment of the magazines caused us (and our European customers) much anguish those five years. Wizards had set up a European distributor that we inherited; we soon figured out that we were losing money on every single copy they were fulfilling, *and* they weren't doing a very good job anyway! We got out of that contract as soon as we could, and made a deal with another company, and that went just about as badly. We learned a lot from the experience (one key lesson: if your customers have questions that can only be answered after communicating with multiple people in drastically different time zones, you're doing customer service wrong). I'm confident that the net result of attempting to fulfill the magazines through a European partner was that we lost money and we lost customers. This is why we groan whenever anybody asks us to do that again (which happens several times per year). We wish international shipping were cheaper too, but the solution to that problem is *not* creating an arm of our company halfway around the globe.

This year was the first year I really started to dislike the Wizards. They underwent some personnel changes that didn't result in great things and the 3.x content went downhill everywhere but my beloved Dragon and Dungeon mags. While I was not on the inside you could feel the change coming (literally you could squeeze it's brain).

I came back to D&D with 3rd ed and fell in love with the inclusive feel of Dragon. Before it always felt like an outsider writing about a hobby and now it was for the hobby, by the hobby. When Paizo took over and it was easier to renew, the format was amazing, the article more relevant AND I could actually find back issues, rather than having to scour the hobby shops and used book stores, I was impressed.

With the withdrawal of the license I felt that Wizards was reducing a face of the hobby that was in stores nationwide and also playing a game of "mine", like a 3 year old with a discarded toy that another child finds interesting. I felt like I got punched in the jejunum when the digitization was announced. A few months later when they retired the DDM mini's game, which I was active and competitive in, I knew that this company had no costumer loyalty options for me to pursue. My heart sank lower and lower the more I saw of 4e and to this day there are people in the industry that I have zero respect for, due to their poor handling of the change over.

The first month I didn't have a mailbox full of D&D was a sad set of days, luckily Burnt Offerings showed up very soon there after. Those freaking maniacs at Paizo reinvented the goblin, something I never thought possible and made me a hardcore Paizonian with that book. The invention of Pathfinder and the great customer appreciation I feel when I scan the boards daily are what keep me a fan.

But man do I miss my monthly dose of Dragon & Dungeon to this day and when you guys own the license to them again I am going to be a happy man-child.

Keep up the good work!

This is why we groan whenever anybody asks us to do that again (which happens several times per year). We wish international shipping were cheaper too, but the solution to that problem is *not* creating an arm of our company halfway around the globe.

In our defense, things do change. New technology comes with new opportunities, logistical issues change as treaties and trade agreements are signed by the nations' politicians, etc. So even a definite no a previous year *may* have shifted slightly on the posibility scale. Obviously that's not the case at this point but we* remain hopeful that some day that changes. :)

Of course, European distribution should not be realized until it's possible to do so without losing money and customers. That would be foolish.

*) I can't speak for every European out there but I get the feeling most Europeans would love to save a "few bucks" on their Paizo orders. :)

The solution is pretty easy - invade USA, take it over, change the government, make them join the EU, problem solved.

...
After you force the EU to become something resembling a political and economical union, that is...

I was also curious as to how Rich Burlew was able to print a compilation of those strips so many years later - I would have assumed that creative control of that content would have been retained by either Paizo or WotC, but then I know very little about the cartooning business beyond how good Bill Watterson was at drawing dinosaurs. =]

My understanding is that the comic is produced under license, but the creator retains all copyright, and that the magazine is not allowed to reproduce it outside of the terms of the original contract/license.

Of course, the creator can do whatever he pleases with it.

This is what led to much of the 3E Kingdoms of Kalamar stuff having the giant "Dungeons & Dragons" masthead on the books, having the same "trade dress" as official WotC books, and even being listed as "Official Licensed Prodct" instead of just an OGL/D20 STL book.

See, back in 1999, shortly after WotC bought TSR, they "reprinted" the first 250 issues of Dragon (along with The Strategic Review) in PDF form, and released a CD-ROM compilation, the Dragon Magazine Archive.

Only catch was, they pretty much released the PDFs wholesale, and didn't pay attention to licensing rights for the stuff inside.

The Knights of the Dinner Table strip proved to be one of those prickly bits - Kenzer & Co. took them to task for it, as they didn't have reprint rights, and part of that arrangement resulted in K&C getting "official" status for their Kalamar products.

(If I'm not mistaken, I believe the product ended up getting yanked from being sold, which has made it a tad more expensive. SOOOOOO glad that I got my copy way back then.)

See, back in 1999, shortly after WotC bought TSR, they "reprinted" the first 250 issues of Dragon (along with The Strategic Review) in PDF form, and released a CD-ROM compilation, the Dragon Magazine Archive.

Only catch was, they pretty much released the PDFs wholesale, and didn't pay attention to licensing rights for the stuff inside.

The Knights of the Dinner Table strip proved to be one of those prickly bits - Kenzer & Co. took them to task for it, as they didn't have reprint rights, and part of that arrangement resulted in K&C getting "official" status for their Kalamar products.

(If I'm not mistaken, I believe the product ended up getting yanked from being sold, which has made it a tad more expensive. SOOOOOO glad that I got my copy way back then.)

I didn't know about that bit. I'm going to start sleeping with the discs under my pillow to protect it from thieves...

I have to say, I have often thought that Eric Mona in particular must have at least a streak of bitterness after having such a strong hand in visioning what I (and many) think is the very finest Greyhawk adventure ever published -- the Age of Worms -- and then to so quickly have that entire world pulled out from under him with the cancelling of Dungeon. He and James and the other compelling authors of that great series really did so much to further the canon into a new age, inspire readers over generations and effectively play nostalgia into a absolutely compelling and epic campaign. Although with success one must get over it, but today I bet Greyhawk brings up those feelings of loss and betrayal. Of course, we all benefit so well off the phoenix from those ashes and I am thankful for that. I hope those feelings of pride and accomplishment still allow Eric and friends to enjoy old classic campaign setting.

When we look back at it, although this was a sad year..being the one in which WoTC commited ritual suicide..in the end everything came out better than before.

I know how terrible I felt when Paizo finally announced the end of both print magazines, but still - and even after having read the blog - I still can't fathom how terrible it must have been for the Paizo gang.

But they already had gained my loyalty, and in hindsight, it was Erik's idea to publish the author's name on the magazines' covers what sealed the deal. I had fallen in love with the writings of Mona, Jacobs, Pett, Vaughan, Logue and many others and and didn't want to miss whatever they would offer with Pathfinder, so the only thing making me think twice about subscribing to Pathfinder was that I actually couldn't afford it at that time.

Needless to say that I'm glad that this didn't stop me.

A neat look on the inside, thanks! The only thing I have to add is:

It's been almost FIVE years since the last print issues of Dungeon and Dragon? Where the heck has all of the time gone?

I stole it for material to build a time elemental. My preparations are nearly complete. Soon, I will rule the world! BWAHAHAHAHA-- <cough> Sorry, I get carried away sometimes. By all that power... of stolen TIME. <maniacal grin>

The Knights of the Dinner Table strip proved to be one of those prickly bits - Kenzer & Co. took them to task for it, as they didn't have reprint rights, and part of that arrangement resulted in K&C getting "official" status for their Kalamar products.

That's not how Kenzerco tells it...

How do they tell it now? What's changed?

(I did leave out/forget about Hackmaster, and them getting the rights to reproduce the 2E? rules officially as part of the same deal. This has also expired.)

Power Word Unzip wrote:

I was also curious as to how Rich Burlew was able to print a compilation of those strips so many years later - I would have assumed that creative control of that content would have been retained by either Paizo or WotC, but then I know very little about the cartooning business beyond how good Bill Watterson was at drawing dinosaurs. =]

My understanding is that the comic is produced under license, but the creator retains all copyright, and that the magazine is not allowed to reproduce it outside of the terms of the original contract/license.

Generally, the magazines' editorial content was owned by TSR/Wizards, but there were a few exceptions where things were owned by the creator; mostly, *some* comics and *some* fiction, but certainly not *all* comics or *all* fiction.

I think the cancellation of those two magazines (though I must admit to being more partial to Dungeon -- I still have all 150 issues and a handful of module rejection letters from Roger E. Moore) is one of the biggest blunders WotC has made and a true blow to the hobby.

I had always dreamed of being published in Dungeon and the news of the cancellation hit hard. Not having time to muster up a proposal (it had been almost two decades since my last one) I decided the prudent course of action was to consider getting a letter published in Dungeon "good enough" to fulfill my dream (when the bar's too high, lower the bar!). You guys ended up publishing my letter in #150, the couple of copies of which I treasure to this day. Thanks!

There is consolation that Pathfinder rose from those ashes but I still wish the two publications were around today. Great blog and thanks for letting us peek behind the curtain!

Dragon and Dungeon are still being published, but by WotC instead of Paizo. They still take submissions from freelance writers.

That there Savage Tide Player's Guide pdf... it was the thing that put Paizo "on the map" for me personally, 'cause it was free and available (and still is, I think); at the time, I didn't know that the Dungeon or Dragon mags got licensed out- heck, I only found out about that player's guide because it (and the corresponding Paizo website) got mentioned by the Ennies on their website.