I was wondering if anybody knows if Dragon magazine has published any articles that could prove useful with the AoW?
I was going to order #333 as it was mentioned in "The Whispering Cairn" as having an article describing a abandoned mining office. Just wondered if there were any other issues that I should consider picking up before I make the order. (I will be using FR as the setting.)
Thanks,
Rich.
Dragon Magazine is doing an entire series of articles called Wormfood designed for the players of an AoW campaign. Each article, beginning with #333, offers up ideas and fleshes out characters and/or locations in the AP while it's being released in Dungeon.
|
Thanks for the answer.
Are the Wormfood articles worth getting?
#333 is nice for Fant's abandoned mining office except I'm sure you can scrounge up the plans to a building for a lot cheaper. #336 is minorly useful for some Free City fluff. Unfortunately the Ecology of the Spawn of Kyuss article gives too much information away. My game is only at the Whispering Cairn stage though my Dragon subscribing player is already asking about stuff from #336. ::sigh:: Doomgrinder to the rescue...
Of course 333-337 may have other material you may find useful. I still find Dragon disappointing and understand why I let my subscription wane after years of dedication. ::shrugs:: If you have a local game/book store, look for the back issues and thumb through them to aid your relevancy research.
I'm also not a big fan of Dragon, believing the bulk of the information they provide isn't terribly interesting or applicable. Dungeon, however, ROCKS! (I often puzzle over two such different magazines being published by the same company). I'm quite annoyed at Paizo for twisting arms a bit with their Wormfood articles to manipulate Dungeon fans into buying Dragon for information unavailable elsewhere. That said, I admit I allowed myself to get sucked in because I want all the relevant information I can get to flesh out my AoW campaign. Thus far I have found the Wormfood articles to be applicable and mildly helpful but not impressive (which is generally consistent with my opinion of Dragon overall anyway). I missed #333 and am itching for the map of the overseer's office/base camp. I fear I must reluctantly order this past issue. Ahh, well...
Just out of curriosity... what is it about Dungeon that you find more uesful than Dragon? Or to put it another way, what could Dragon do that would spark your interest?
I used to subscribe to both. I let my subscription to Dragon lapse and kept Dungeon going, simply because Dungeon is more essential to my needs as a DM with very little time to brew his own adventures. I like Dragon's content overall, and frequently buy issues off the newstand if I see a few articles I like (LOVED your article "Not for the Living" in the October issue, by the way). Some issues are more useful than others... which in itself says something, because I can't name a single issue of Dungeon that I'd get rid of from my collection. I have, however, passed over some Dragon issues. I will admit I've been a little disappointed with the Wormfood articles, which I keep up with since I've been running AoW. The first one was very useful, but I just haven't really gotten much use out of any of the others since then. The info is nice to have and all, but it seems a little too removed from the actual content of the adventures taking place in the corresponding Dungeon issue. The first article was clearly tied to the Whispering Cairn. That set the tone, and I then expected the following Wormfood articles to support the corresponding adventure in some clear, specific way, only from a Player's perspective. This hasn't been the case, and the articles are fine in and of themselves, but it just wasn't what I expected after the precedent set by the first Wormfood. If I could name one thing I'd like to see in Dragon that would spark my interest - more content in the style of the Ecology series. Articles that clearly, and specifically, pertain to and explore in more depth some of the iconic aspects of D&D.
Dragon issues useful in Age of Worms:
Dragon #303 - All about Gladiators. There are some useful rules to create the feel of gladiator events in D&D games. It also comes with an oustanding miniatures map of an arena. The arean map will be way smaller than the arena used in The Champion's Belt, but it could be used anyways, possibly as a "side court" like in tennis, for smaller battles.
Dragon #307 - There is a template called Scion of Kyuss you could use to make some meaner Kyuss enemies. I'm considering using this template in lieu of the kyuss zombie in Blackwall Keep.
Dragon #313 - Includes an article about Illithids you might be able to use in Hall of Harsh Reflections and another about Dragon Psycoses that you might be able to fit in with any of the dragons in AoW.
Dragon #316 - Spies! Theres all sorts of stuff that you could potentially use, as the PCs investigate areas in the Free City.
Dragon #316 - Exotic Heroes. There are four new races you could use to make your own NPCs (Gladiators), a bestiary of Cental American Monsters to add an exotic flavor to the PCs' travels, and an alternate Urban Druid presented in a 20-level progression.
Dragon #322 - Darkness. Some usefull things you could use in most of the dungeon crawls, and Zogonia takes on the "coolest paladin ever."
And that's just by flipping through my magazine box. Of course, all of this depends on how much you personalize the Age of Worms Adventure Path. You most certainly can run the adventures with only the Dungeon magazines and the core rule books.
I like my Dungeons because there is ALWAYS at least one adventure I'm excited to use by the end of the read, and sometimes two or three. The Dungeoncraft, Campaign Workshop, Maps of Mystery - all of them are clear, concise, unique and begging to be inserted in my campaign with little effort.
Dragon seems sadly lacking in these things. I see Dragon as more "player-oriented" and since I mostly DM it is automatically at somewhat of a disadvantage. Even so, I enjoy the occassionally-well-written Ecology articles (which seem to be getting fewer and farther between). Spellcraft is something that doesn't appeal to me at all - IMO, the LAST thing we need is more spells! That being said, I was surprised to enjoy that specific article in Dragon #334. The Livre d'Aquatha was well-written and extremely helpful to both specialized wizards and aquatic campaign-designing DMs. Kudos for that! The Class Acts seem to have potential that is only rarely realized. I liked "That which does not kill" applications for the rogue. But I guess one of my biggest complaints about the Class Act section is that nothing ties the pieces together. If your going to talk about flaws for the barbarian, why not do flaws for all the classes at the same time? The whole thing is chaotic to me. Dragon's main articles always promise excitement and creativity but almost never actually deliver. I pick up a Dragon at the FLGS and thumb through it every month. I actually purchase one maybe once a year (until recently when I got suckered into buying them for the Wormfood articles - which *surprise!* have also been a big disappointment). When I do purchase the mag it is almost always for one specific part and not because the majority or even a large portion is appealing.
Thanks for caring, though, about my disappointment with your product.
P.S. I always enjoy the letter from the editor in both mags!
;-)
Just out of curriosity... what is it about Dungeon that you find more uesful than Dragon? Or to put it another way, what could Dragon do that would spark your interest?
I'd like to see more ecology articles. I know you already have 1 an issue, but it's not enough. You guys have pretty much exclusive access to all WotC's trademark monsters, and I like seeing them fleshed out. Ecology of the Spawn of Kyuss was a great and useful article, but Ecology of the Lizardfolk was less so as there are lizardfolk suplments out there from third party publishers (such as Slayer's Guide to Lizardfolk from Mongoose Publishing). Personally, I'd like to see Ecology of the Kuo-Tao.
One thing I'd like to see less of are pure cruch artiles like Class Acts and Bizaree of the Bazaar. I find these articles completely useless. Feats, magic items, etc. are a dime a dozen, and unless they factor into a larger article, good luck searching through your Dragon backissues looking for something.
Now the exception to the crunch articles would be campaign-based crunch, i.e. stuff that can't be found elsewhere other than WotC. Bring back Faiths of Faerun. I love cleric prestige classes as it makes clerics of different deities actually feel different.
Also, a monthly Order of the Stick comic would be great (hint hint). Considering there's preorders for TPB in your store, hopefully this is already in the stars.
Also, I wanted to add that I love the Knowledge (check) blocks of the ecology articles. I find them very useful, even when the rest of the article covers the same teritory as 3rd party materials (such as the aforementioned Ecolgoy of the Lizardfolk).