But I don't think it's anybody's fault.
As I was reading through old Dragon issues from the 1980s today (as I often do), I was again visited by the feeling that the magazines I was reading were somehow something more than the ones published today.
Sure, they were still mostly things like new monsters and spells and such, but the mag somehow felt different then. More meaningful on a deep level. More important.
So I thought for a while about why that might be, and I came up with this:
a) Nostalgia. It feels more important because it's older.
b) Better content. The magazine really was put together better back then.
But the more I thought about it, the less these explainations satisfied. Sure, the magazines have a classic feel and sure, the content agreed with my preferences more on some levels then (old-school b&w art, longer articles, less crunch and more fluff), but that doesn't really explain what I was feeling: That the mag was just more important then.
Then it occured to be that the Dragon of the 80s and early 90s served one very different function from the one today. Specifically, it was the foundation of the pre-internet D&D community!
You have to remember that, at the time, there were no D&D websites and no D&D forums. Communication within the community on a worldwide level, relied on just two things: Major conventions and Dragon Magazine. Other than that, an individual gamer looking for new ideas and new perspectives on his hobby basically had to either make them up wait for gamers new to the area to wander into his FLGS one day. Dragon was like EN World, RPG.Net and WotC's official site all rolled into one. And then some. It brought the various geographically-isolated gamers of the world together in something collectively bigger and more diverse than any one play group.
Nowadays, Dragon is still good, but it's no longer essential. We have online forums instead of the venerable Forum. There are other places to go to get roleplaying news, game eratta, new pespectives on the hobby, etc, all of which are updated in real time. Dragon is no longer the cornerstone of the worldwide D&D community. It's just a monthly game suppliment. A good one, but just one. And that's nobody's fault.
So I suppose there's no going back to what Dragon once was, but it sure is interesting to ponder the change.
As an aside, I can't help but wonder how Dragon's decreasing importance to the community as a whole has impacted the circulation figures between, say, 1984 and 2004?
In one sense I agree and in another I disagree. I really think that Dragon is heading back towards the style of the early 80's when the game was still mostly played by college level students and thus reflected a higher level of overall research.
On the other hand, not everything back then was a good thing, and sometimes not being what you used to be is a good thing. Dragon in the 80's used to be the source for all rule editions to the original AD&D system, so much so that if you were to give edition numbers to the realy editions, you would have to give a minor edition number to AD&D 1st edition with Dragon supplements. Dragon gave us the cantrip (dropped for 2E, but restored to life in 3E) and the Anti-Paladin, or in other words the good and the ugly.
I think that the current Dragon under the current leadership is quickly becomming the same standard that the old Dragon was ... but please no Anti-paladin equivalents.
"1) Stop adding to common themes like spells, feats, prestige classes, magic items, etc. these are already covered by too many other sources. This way more unique articles that have information harder for an average gamer to acquire can be accepted.
2) Include more articles that present new and creative uses for material already published and alternative game mechanics to encourage a wider variety of playing styles.
3) Provide atricles that introduce groundbreaking concepts in rule mechanics that could eventually spawn a new and improved version of the game."
These are brilliant suggestions. I agree 100%.
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If Dragon Mag articles do not differ from the basic game material it becomes just another place to find the most common information. To stand out from the rest I suggest the following
1) Stop adding to common themes like spells, feats, prestige classes, magic items, etc. these are already covered by too many other sources. This way more unique articles that have information harder for an average gamer to acquire can be accepted.
2) Include more articles that present new and creative uses for material already published and alternative game mechanics to encourage a wider variety of playing styles.
3) Provide atricles that introduce groundbreaking concepts in rule...
I have to disagree with Chaos Disciple & Yamo. At least in part.
Regarding point #1, I also feel that Dragon has a lot of material that I'm not going to use in my game because of the manner in which it is presented. I'm not bringing 100+ issues of Dragon to all my games. I'm not even going to bring the last 50 or so that apply to version 3.x. Something has to really stand-out for inclusion in a game, and usually it is only for the life of a single character.
Point #2 - Some variant rules are good. I really like Unearthed Arcana. Still, the game has to follow a particular "baseline" to make sense. That really limits the ability to offer alternative rules in a meaningful fashion. In the game I run we are using spell points. Still it changes things the designers never mentioned - things like Pearls of Power. Because a single change can have far reaching effects, it is difficult to do #2 well. If they're not going to do it well, they shouldn't do it at all.
Point #3 - The game could be improved. Eventually they'll come out with another edition. Hopefully it will be really good. Perfect even. Still, there isn't much room for a groundbreaking concept that fits within the 3.x rules.
I'd rather see them continue to do what they're doing - provide a mix of races, classes, spells, feats and PrCs along with articles that make us think or educate us. Historical articles or conceptual takes on campaign settings are all good.
Fiction is not.
Maybe if they added an extra page by a semi celebrity who wrote about random Steve Jackson games and how hard it was to be a famous “Gamer” and also doubled as an advertisement for his…um…or it could be her personal Blog. I’m sure something like that would really help DRAGON out.
just trying to help.
ASEO out
"I'd rather see them continue to do what they're doing - provide a mix of races, classes, spells, feats and PrCs along with articles that make us think or educate us. Historical articles or conceptual takes on campaign settings are all good."
So you want Dragon to keep on doing what a million other d20 publishers and websites are already doing to death instead of something more unique?
I think that the various writers here have their points but I must side with DeadDMWalking:
"I'd rather see them continue to do what they're doing - provide a mix of races, classes, spells, feats..."
Not that Dragon shouldn't expand on existing materials as two other readers suggest, but if they only did that, they would lose readers as well as gain them. Dragon must balance between pleasing gamers that have been doing this for years and those who just picked up the game. To illustrate my point, let's look at the other editions of the D+D game. I DM a 3E campaign, but play in a 2E one. None of the 2E players ever picks up a Dragon because it isn't relevant to them anymore. If Dragon only puts in cutting-edge material and completely new concepts, they run the risk of losing those who are only just getting their D+D feet wet. Sure this might make Dragon seem like a watered-down version of what you'd like to see, but they're in business to make money and therefore need to cast their nets far.
Euxitikos
Personally, I've read the old Dragons (though to get my hands on those illustrious beauties for my personal use has been a little harder) and I must agree that Dragon has changed. It has changed a lot, because Dragon, like the game it helps uphold is a living entity unto itself. Kind of like the American Constitution it is something that evolves as needs and dictates and it's readership changes. The game has underwent drastic changes, and so has the magazine. For awhile the very eye-catching "Bazaar of the Bizarre" was switched out for the more utilitarian "Magic Shop". The magzine seems to be just experimenting, and really, isn't that what it is for? I see much content in Dragon continually trun up in collaboritive pieces and official rulebooks because it is the testing ground for new ideas. The magazine is indeed essential to the hobby as a whole. Without the grand article of in issue #300 we would have lost an entire section of the Draconomicon(The evil extraplanar dragons). As you can see if you review the books coming out a lot of the older information in Dragon serves as a sort of preview to the new and soon to be. The magazine continually pushes the envelope of what D&D will be.
Having been through four editors in the past two years alone it is no wonder that these expirimental times are a bit strange to us, but frankly I love them. The new First Watch section of the magazine is my second stop (after Wyrm's Turn of course). And the Winning Races Familiar is great when trying to add original flavour to your home-brew campaigns, or for adding interesting twists in character generation to well established campaign worlds. Remember, when the story warrants it, canon is your enemy.
I've heard the argument that Dragon has become a tool of advertisement, but I cannot see why people take this as an offense. It allows us a diverse look at a growing market, with the revolution brought on by the D20 system there are all sorts of products out there, and sometimes we miss out on that perfect supplement because it doesn't have the D&D logo stamped on front. Lord knows that without those advertisements I'd never have found Dragonmech, and the book has added various elements of technology to my home-brewed campaign. Sure, I don't use the mechs, but there are other things you can glean from such books.
In conclusion, I just have to say that the magazine remains a vital and important part of the hobby.
Dragon also had alot more pages, and was devoted to games other than those owned by TSR. Now, it seems to cater to D&D alone, and I haven't seen anything for other games. But, that's the way it is going to be, I suppose...