To whom it may concern,
I’m not sure where to begin so I’ll just start by saying the lack of creativity, or better yet, the increase of absurd creativity that has been haunting the pages of your magazine since the take over of the 3.0/3.5 edition of D&D has got to come to some sort of end. Please.
Your adventure designers/creature designers have made a mockery of the more noble monsters, character concepts, and the general intelligence of the gamers that I grew up cherishing in the years I’ve been gaming D&D. I don’t care who you are but creature/character concepts such as Dorn Greybrook (issue 326, Page 35) a Male human/Iron Half Golem Fighter 10/Ranger 3 or Half-Elemental concepts is one degrading and two insulting.
Both the Dungeon and Dragon magazines both have reached a point where I think some inward reflection needs to be the order of the day. Most gamers want a good adventure, a world environment they can both view in mind and character, and a fully functional and wholly believable bad guy at the end. Creatures such as a Half Red-Dragon/ Dryad Druid 10/ Pyromancer 5 are just a joke. And please for the love of all that is hackable do not use that concept. Would it not be easier to put a Single Human Thief or Assassin that the players are trying to find or apprehend that have led them on a marry chase through town killing members of an elite order, trying to work his way to the top man which insulted the thief in some way shape or form, only to have the thief be one of the order himself. Or one like a new museum has opened in town that has the most realistic statues of the prominent nobles of the areas, only for the players to somehow find out the museum curator is a medusa in disguise as a human and has sent doppelgangers to replace those she has turned to stone in order to gain power in the town.
Things like this, the simple concepts, ones that can work and are more “believable” to the players are I believe what most of us are looking for. Can you throw in something really weird here or there? Sure that’s the fun part of D&D. Leave them in a fun-park/mad-scientist scene and leave the monsters that deserve the respect of players and GMs alike alone. Give the dragon back his noble, haughty, holier (if not really holier) than thou attitude. And not degrade him by breeding with a naga or kobold or something else that doesn’t deserve a second chance by a dragon. Don’t give into the thought that a Half Displacer Beast/ Half Fiendish Beholder that has eyestalks instead of tentacles as a good idea in the mini adventures you create.
I’m truly sorry to have to finally come out in saying this. Creativity is a wonderful thing and you’ve more than proven you’re capable of thought and expression. Its just time those thoughts and expression be used for what these magazine were originally here for. To help bolster the game, give new ideas and new adventures to those wanting them, and inspire those new to the game to want to join in.
Thank you for hearing me out.
Jason Robert Dooley
Melbourne, Florida
jdrastus@hotmail.com