This, the inaugural issue of WereDragon Magazine, promises to be chock-full of useful articles and fun adventures.
We have an adventure with a mad wizard named Mog, a super adventure involving creepy puppets, and more. There is also a wonderful article that any player having trouble with character backgrounds will find extremely useful—those that aren't having trouble might get a few new ideas. Our pages are also graced with wonderful art and some great comics. We also have a Gen Con and a virtual gaming table review for you as well.
All of these—plus some things you might not expect to see in a gaming magazine—are waiting for you in this issue!
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At first glance it is an impressive first issue, it is clear that enthusiasm is there in abundance.
3 fairly good adventures (all for Dungeons & Dragons despite frequent protests that it's a multi-system mag!), a couple of interesting articles...
Overall, a good first attempt with some good writing struggling at times to get past poor editing and amateur layout. Persevere, and maybe find a good proofreader.
Ok, I said I would write a review for this if Paizo hosted it, and they did so here.
(This is going to sound a lot like the review before me...mostly 'cuz I feel pretty much the same way.)
Positive:
- The price. 3 Adventures, a couple comics and a handful of other articles for $3.50? It’s a great deal.
- No Ads. It really is roughly 100 pages of content.
- A bunch of full page pictures, which are neat for using as NPC’s or monsters.
- The variety in the articles. There’s even one for cooking snacks for gaming night. And as mentioned before, the one on Character Background is awesome.
Negative:
- Lack of maps in the adventures. My mapping skills aren’t that good, so I look forward to maps being included to get a better sense of the area. It doesn’t make the adventures impossible to run, just harder.
- Page layout could be improved. It switches from 2 columns to 3 columns to different background colors. I found it made it harder to read then it could’ve been, and it made it seem quite amateurish. Some consistency would definitely make it a better product I feel.
Conclusion:
It’s a great first effort, and well worth buying. I have a feeling some of the things like editing will improve as more get released, but I for one am looking forward to issue 2.
I am very much enjoying my very first WereDragon Magazine. I think this is a great first effort from this publisher. Let's go through the basics.
The Good:
1. The price. This e-zine has 100 pages of content. That's content, not ads. At less than $4, this thing is dirt cheap and a great value
2. Nice hand drawn artwork
3. Three whole adventures. All three look like "good times" for my gaming group.
4. I love the character background article. It made me want to work up a bunch of NPCs. I know my players will enjoy it to. (But I will encourage them to buy their own copy of the magazine.)
Needs Improvement:
1. Of the three adventures, one is for 1st-3rd level characters, and the other two for 8th to 10th level. In the future, I'd like to see one low level, one medium, and one high level adventure.
2. Editing, editing, editing. As I consumer, I can't stress enough the importance of good grammar and sentence structure. Poor writing detracts from otherwise good articles. I found this to be a problem in the three adventures, the columns and my favorite character background article. Call me nit-picky, but this takes what could be a great magazine down to just a good magazine.
I'm sure this will be addressed in time and overall, I'm still very impressed. I hope to be enjoying this magazine for years to come.
I bought this last night and read through most of it. I really like the new magazine and hope to see it in print soon. I left a review on the main product page.
I'm curious about others' thoughts. Any one else try this out? There are a few areas that need improvement but $4 for 100 pages (no ads btw) I think is pretty good. For me it was money well spent.
I think my players will really enjoy the "Temple of the Necromancer". We will all get good use out of the character background article. Oh, and the recipe page was an interesting feature.
So ya...uh...Buy this! it's a pretty awesome magazine and you are getting a great value for your money. see above for my more in depth review I don't feel like reposting.
I bought this last night and read through most of it. I really like the new magazine and hope to see it in print soon. I left a review on the main product page.
I'm curious about others' thoughts. Any one else try this out? There are a few areas that need improvement but $4 for 100 pages (no ads btw) I think is pretty good. For me it was money well spent.
I think my players will really enjoy the "Temple of the Necromancer". We will all get good use out of the character background article. Oh, and the recipe page was an interesting feature.
There is a map for "The Otanshu Legacy". Duvik will be posting good news soon about Mog. The missing map for "Temple of the Necromancer" was an oversight and will be posted on our site very soon. Apologies, we are still working out a few bugs in the system, so to speak.
I love maps myself. It's my favorite part of any given adventure. In fact...
I had meant to include some for the Mog Adventure but, it just slipped my mind completely. I will accept no less than 10 lashings for this transgression.
No... please... I insist.
In fact... to make it up to you quickly... after you finish flogging me, you can find the Mad Mog adventure saved as a full adventure node ready for play via OpenRPG in the errata section of the Weredragon forums right now. This very moment in fact! Go ahead and look, you can find it in this thread...
I'll also promise you that in the next and future issues... we'll be having some maps to go with these here adventures.
Even if I have to make them myself...
A few samples of my cartography efforts can be found at the following URLS, Keep in mind that each new map is a learning experience and so far I'm all they have for a mapper, methinks. Mayhaps one of you can point a talented and starving Master Cartographer in our direction:
I love maps myself. It's my favorite part of any given adventure. In fact...
I had meant to include some for the Mog Adventure but, it just slipped my mind completely. I will accept no less than 10 lashings for this transgression.
No... please... I insist.
In fact... to make it up to you quickly... after you finish flogging me, you can find the Mad Mog adventure saved as a full adventure node ready for play via OpenRPG in the errata section of the Weredragon forums right now. This very moment in fact! Go ahead and look, you can find it in this thread...
I'll also promise you that in the next and future issues... we'll be having some maps to go with these here adventures.
Even if I have to make them myself...
A few samples of my cartography efforts can be found at the following URLS, Keep in mind that each new map is a learning experience and so far I'm all they have for a mapper, methinks. Mayhaps one of you can point a talented and starving Master Cartographer in our direction:
My overall impression is very positive. I've enjoyed the material thus far, it's surprisingly inexpensive and even has a few little surprises. the highlights for me are the character background article and "Temple of the Necromancer". I really liked the rabbit-shaped outsider. I will have some real fun springing that on my players.
The article on virtual gaming tables gave me some new, good information. It's not a subject to which I've ever paid a lot of attention, but as some members of my gaming group are nearing retirement and planning to do a lot of traveling, we may need a VGT in the near future.
I hope that in time, there will be improvement in the editing. I think that is the one factor holding this magazine back. I'm probably too nit-picky (around the office I'm known as the grammar-nazi, a badge I wear proudly) but I think that in written language, proper attention to grammar and sentence structure is crucial. It's probably why I can't read Faulkner *wink* If the magazine needs some volunteer editing, they should let me know =)
You can get the maps for Temple of the Necromancer by using the URL below. They're just the sketch maps for the adventure but they'll let you run it much more effectively.
