JBone's page

It feels like a waste to have to pay the full price for the book when all I want is the module content. Is there any way to purchase just the adventure module portion of the books?

What timing I have...my subscription for Dungeon ran out as of issue 146 and to be honest I hadn't planned to renew. But then I read the letter from the editor (James Sutter wrote this one) and I thought, you know, maybe they 'get it', maybe things will get better.

Let me explain. My weekly D&D group for the past year or so, has ceased being about pen and paper playing and has been supplanted with DDO. And to be honest, we're quite happy. We're all older players with jobs and families and little time for the time consuming nature that is a pen and paper game. That's why I subscribed to Dungeon and was really happy with the Adventure Path content.

However, given our time constraints (once a week for about 4 hours), we quickly found ourselves losing interest in a D&D session in which a 'simple combat encounter' took up well over half that time.

To put it plainly, we just weren't getting anywhere. Then there's DDO (insert MMOG of choice) where not only do you get an instant sense of accomplishment, but hey, I as the DM can play too! Win/Win.

However, we did have a certain longing that was missing in our weekly sessions, namely the "RP" in MMORPG (that's why I take to just calling these games MMOG's as there's little to no RPing).

Getting back on point; I read James Sutter's editorial and I think, "Hey, maybe they will start coming out with more campaigns like the referenced "Diplomacy" adventure. More focus on good story-telling and interaction. The old 'role-playing' vs. 'roll-playing'.

Nothing Pazio can do about the slow clunky combat mechanics of D&D, not your guys fault, but the adventures that focus more on 'role-playing' would be more enjoyable. We get enough hack and slash these days in our games and frankly, they do it better. Granted you can't jump up on a banister and slide down swinging your sword (yet) but for the trade off in time and ease of use, I'll take it.

I suppose why I'm writing is to encourage you guys to think deeply about where this hobby of ours is today and where it's going. I suspect many a potential D&D pen and paper player has been lost to the silicon darkside. It seems like you have the perfect opportunity now to really take a new direction and perhaps win some of us back.

On a slightly related note, I did want to comment on the price. Not strictly a factor in my choice not to subcribe, but I can't say it had no impact. $20 bucks? Come on guys. Dungeon has gone up quite a bit since I have been a subscriber, but even at the same page count for your new book, Dungeon only cost $7.99 newstand and don't bother mentioning the addition of 'Dragon-like' content. I dropped that subscription long ago.

Good luck guys, I sincerly hope you thrive.

Watching and waiting,
JBone Former Subscriber.

Just for the record, I use Fantasy Grounds to run my games, and the online supplements are a HUGE factor to why I love Dungeon so much! Just wanted to add my thanks!

I've been running SCAP using Fantasy Grounds -it's a great program and there's an active community always looking for players- check out: www.fantasygrounds.com

"Age of Worms has inspired me to run an on-line campaign using Play-by-Post. So this is not a complaint and more of a "I can't get enough" kinda post. ;)"

Jglamere, you should check out Fantasy Grounds-It's fantastic for this kind of thing-I've been using it for about 2 months now-It's great! It's a program for running PnP games online.

Check out www.fantasygrounds.com

Well, I agree with others-$60 bucks is way too high. I'm not sure I follow the logic here-People who tend to buy published adventures for D&D probably already purchase Dungeon Magazine (by far the best value & resource on the market) and those who don't certainly aren't going to spring for one that costs $60 bucks...so I don't see this bringing any 'new blood' to the Dungeon fold. By the time this book comes out, I'll have already run my group through it, so I'll have no need for the book which I'm sure must fit many other DM's. That all said, I think this is a case of too little too late and too expensive. I'm simply posting this because I'm disappointed in the execution of an otherwise good concept. I'm really surprised you guys didn't do some polls or something to research price points with the customer base, or maybe you did and I just missed it. WOTC has been setting the wrong pace I think, rehashing pre-published material and re-selling it at higher price points (3.5 is a collection of ideas and concepts mostly published in numerous other sources not to mention the 'Complete' series), but if that's working for them, maybe it will work for Paizo...

Hey Stegger, thanks for the reply and the link. That looks like a very good option, I'd be curious how things go-let me know how you like the program once you start using it.
Good luck,
JBone

I was wondering if anyone could help me with some thoughts/pointers on how to run a table-top game for my gaming group online. Are there any tools or programs that can help me do this? I am looking for some thing that would allow me to have voice chat, perhaps even video-that would allow for file sharing (for maps and such) perhaps a built in dice roller, some kind of 'battle map' feature. Is there anything out there like this? Any help/links would be greatly appreciated.