therogue5000's page

I have to plug Joel's "Guardian's of the Flame" series. It got me into fantasy in a huge way, and really stirred my imagination for running my own campaigns for the last 20 years.
His "Keeper's of the Hidden Ways" is also incredibly cool, taking the old Norse mythology and putting a very cool spin to it.

I have to agree with NTZ, how can the USPS be so reliable in it's unreliability? If my magazine showed up once at a week late, and the next at three, then down to a meager few days I could buy that. The fact that it's always a solid three weeks late to me would indicate to me that it's more than "low priority status".
It is now October 14th and I haven't seen #325 yet, nor do I expect it for another week assuming the delivery time is consistent with the last three issues.
The postal system manages to deliver all of my wife's periodicals, our bills, junk mail, packages, personal letters and such without a hitch, much less a regularly occuring one.
I'll be calling first thing Monday, and if this continues I'm going to have to start calling fourteen business days after shipping EVERY month to get a magazine I paid up front to receive "hassle free".

Patrick made an excellent point when he said the game was full of things that would play well cinematically (paraphrased). While the first D&D movie may have exposed new people to the game, nothing FROM the game translated very well. I imagine that when you have producers and directors involved, the spirit of the story gets changed to suit their views.
Unfortunately, what made it to the screen was more like the games I ran when I was eight years old instead of the grand, heroic adventures the majority of us run now.
How hard is it to make your players fear a monster in-game? Now imagine that you had millions of dollars to spend in CG animation. Think it would be easier to bring monsters to life? Sure, but that wasn't done. As Patrick's wife put it, "In YOUR game, beholders are scary and dangerous". This is exactly the sort of thing that should keep anyone from wanting a second movie.
Non-gamers and potential gamers alike will easily begin to think that these over-the-top cliches are what D&D is all about.
Any publicity is good publicity? Nope.
There is a very real difference between bad publicity in the form of reviews by movie critics, and bad publicity in the form of horrid reviews from the gamers the movie was made for. The former causes us to want to see it for ourselves, the latter makes us shiver slightly and nudge our Player's Handbook a little deeper in the shelves when company comes over...
Lord of the Rings? 13th Warrior? Willow? These movies come much closer to capturing the spirit of the game.

It's interesting to me that this post started as a simple question. It was answered very politely, then turned into flames, and now it just keeps going. It's nice to know I wasn't the only one to like it, but it's over. At least I still have my Dragon. Let's let Poly rest now...

Issue #257 here, Dark Ages issue. Great fiction, awesome campaign elements for a grittier medieval feel and some cool artwork. I also enjoyed the Steampunk issue.
Then again I pace around my house (annoying my wife) every month waiting for the new issue, and the content almost always provides great new ideas.
See, I can post a positive comment once in a while. :P

While I'm commenting without having read the "From the Editor" (my Dragon visits places all over the country before finally being delivered battered and bruised to me late in the month) I have to agree whole-heartedly with Brad.
We need to do something to get new people into the game, and another horrid B-Movie with the D&D logo ain't it. The first film, for those of you lucky enough to have done anything else with your two hours, was about as much D&D as "Attack of the Killer Tomatos" was horror...
TSR / WotC has published whole lines of incredible novels based on worlds like Dragonlance, Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms.
If WotC really wants to draw people to the theaters, why not ask Greenwood, Weis & Hickman, or Salvatore to write something. Sorry, best selling authors = half a chance at pleasing the old guard and drawing in the new.

James-

I will admit that I did gloss over the adventures in the issues I purchased simply to have the Poly mini-games. Please don't take too much offense at my cookie-cutter comment, the few times I had leafed through Dungeon during the last decade of gaming that's about all I found in there. If Paizo finally brought in some writers to help bring some fresh ideas into the game, that's great.
I'm sure there are tons of people out there who don't always have time to write full adventures out, and adapting some from Dungeon saves them and their group from the dreaded, "uh, and you guys see, uh, a dragon...whew, roll initiative."
I'm not a fan of the giant robot/anime ideas, but you make a good point. Can't someone take an idea from one genre and adapt it to a fantasy game? Some people can, and others won't even try.
I won't miss the giant flying robots, but I will miss the new ideas and twists to the d20 system which easily found their way into my campaign. I don't remember mentioning "big ideas", just fresh ones. The 20 or so pages of "Pulp Heroes" could just as easily be "Eberron Pulp Heroes" with a few twists. Spelljammer and Dark Sun were already fantasy. Shadow Chasers can be dropped into any low magic campaign, Genetech could become Magitech (Mage Vs, Machine Dragon Issue anyone?) And yes, even giant flying golem-suits to the rescue...
I may be the only one who appreciated Poly, and if it had to die for the greater good, so be it. If the writers on staff can come up with cool sounding adventures like the ones you mentioned, why not take it one step further and start throwing in a little "twist" article once in a while. Let's face it, fantasy is in danger of becoming stagnant, and if it weren't for people like Joel Rosenburg, Steven Brust, and even Keith Baker pushing it beyond it's normal limits, we'd all be stuck in a Tolkien-esque rut forever.
A very provocative response James, and being an open minded person, I'm going to take your suggestions and go read the other half of my Dungeons.

My point is that I had leafed through Dungeon for years but never bought one because everything in there is cookie cutter type stuff. (Monster A has been terrorizing = insert NPC or location here.) Sure, every once in a while some writer came up with a cool spin, but most of the adventures can easily be duplicated by closing your eyes and choosing a random monster...
Merging the two magazines might not have helped sales, but at least the magazine was finally printing new ideas. Even if some people are running an Underdark (for example) campaign and can't use every idea presented, it was still something different and creative. Sure, the Cannonbal Run issue was stretching that veil a bit, but the Shadow campaign idea was sweet. Dark Sun, Spelljammer, the Pulp issue...as a DM I was finally starting to see a magazine worth buying.
Hey, no reason to cater to the minority. Obviously I was the only one who appreciated the last few Poly's (or the rest that did have no internet access).
By the way, thanks Steel_Wind, Jaws, ASEO, and diaglo for not feeling they had to talk down to me to answer me...

I was no fan of the Falcon stats, Star Wars has it's own magazine. However, the Spelljammer d20 was an awesome supplement, and the other d20 stuff, while not specifically D&D related presented some great ideas. It's a sad day when 10 pages of great ideas get canned, but the 10 pages of troll-sorcerer/monk and his clockwork gnoll henchmen vs. the 10th level pc's gets to stay...I'm pretty sure all of us can make up villains. Just my 2 cents.

Um, this new layout for the website is kinda sucky...Why aren't they doing the Polyhedron mini-games anymore? It was the whole reason I started buying it. What a sweet concept, why did it go away? Anyone know?