I was about to re-subscribe to Dungeon and Dragon after a couple of years break when the announcement was made. I understand that month-to-month subscriptions are now all that is being offered. However all I could find was US and Canadian options for these subscriptions. How do I get a month-to-month subscription here in Australia?
Olaf the Stout
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I was about to re-subscribe to Dungeon and Dragon after a couple of years break when the announcement was made. I understand that month-to-month subscriptions are now all that is being offered. However all I could find was US and Canadian options for these subscriptions. How do I get a month-to-month subscription here in Australia?
Olaf the Stout
I subcribed in US dollars (I'm in the UK) on my credit card, which will convert it to sterling. The books will be posted from the US to wherever they are going, and postage is an extra $5 on the cover price for non-US subscribers (an extra $4 for US ones). So as far as I can tell, all subcriptions are pretty much the same apart from that, be they US, Australian or Tongan.
I'm sure the Paizo crew will correct me if I am wrong.
CEO
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I subcribed in US dollars (I'm in the UK) on my credit card, which will convert it to sterling. The books will be posted from the US to wherever they are going, and postage is an extra $5 on the cover price for non-US subscribers (an extra $4 for US ones). So as far as I can tell, all subcriptions are pretty much the same apart from that, be they US, Australian or Tongan.
I'm sure the Paizo crew will correct me if I am wrong.
You're right—for Pathfinder.
Dungeon and Dragon month-to-month subs work differently, since we're still using Periodicals rate postage for that, and postage is included in the Dungeon and Dragon offering. Unfortunately, postage costs made it impractical to offer month-to-month subs to Dragon and Dungeon outside of the US and Canada.
If you're interested in the remaining issues of those magazines, and live outside of the US and Canada, you can look for them on local newsstands, or purchase them as back issues (they'll be available shortly after they ship to subscribers).
I subcribed in US dollars (I'm in the UK) on my credit card, which will convert it to sterling. The books will be posted from the US to wherever they are going, and postage is an extra $5 on the cover price for non-US subscribers (an extra $4 for US ones). So as far as I can tell, all subcriptions are pretty much the same apart from that, be they US, Australian or Tongan.
I'm sure the Paizo crew will correct me if I am wrong.
You're right—for Pathfinder.
Dungeon and Dragon month-to-month subs work differently, since we're still using Periodicals rate postage for that, and postage is included in the Dungeon and Dragon offering. Unfortunately, postage costs made it impractical to offer month-to-month subs to Dragon and Dungeon outside of the US and Canada.
If you're interested in the remaining issues of those magazines, and live outside of the US and Canada, you can look for them on local newsstands, or purchase them as back issues (they'll be available shortly after they ship to subscribers).
Lisa, on this you now said that you will try to work something out for international subscribers. Does this now mean that you might be able to come up with a way that I can get the last few issues of Dungeon and Dragon in Australia via a month-to-month subscription?
Olaf the Stout
I've gotta say that I am disappointed at this. We might not represent a major part of the market, but us overseas people play D&D too and are running Adventure Paths like anyone else. Now we seem to be at the mercy of overseas magazine allocation.
My experience of these things is that whenever there is something going on with periodicals (like the cover of Dungeon #137) overseas people miss out for months. I live in Sydney and the major distributor for DUNGEON took months to get this magazine in.
Oh and while I am at it: My FLGS did an estimation for PATHFINDER:
$45-50AUD per month.
Per month?!?
DUNGEON and DRAGON was $15 AUD. Hell, BORDERS charge $20AUD for air freight, even that is still relatively cheap. The relationship between this cost and the US cost is not too bad, we come to expect that for overseas magazines.
But $45-50 for Pathfinder because it is no longer a magazine? Our AUD is 0.8 or USD at the moment; I fail to see why exactly PATHFINDER now deserves having its price marked up by about 300%, just because it is not longer a magazine.
Sorry Paizo, I am not angry at you, just the state of things. These are the reasons why we get subscriptions; they might be slower (3-4 months behind), but they are cheaper and we can guarantee that we can get them. Being told that overseas readers were overlooked in the grand scheme of Paizo is not good, even if you were upfront about it.
Sadly, this is the type of thing that the new version of DUNGEON and DRAGON will eliminate, even if they do have all overseas readers over a barrel: It may be a sucky PDF, but at least we will get it, on time and no vagaries in price.
EDIT: Despite what I said in other posts, I am gonna have to rethink if my money is worthwhile spent on this hobby at all.
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Chief Technical Officer
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To be clear, month-to-month subscriptions to Pathfinder are available worldwide (we're working on a solution for Dragon and Dungeon; those month-to-month subs are currently offered only to the US and Canada).
Pathfinder subscribers get a 30% discount, so that's $13.99 compared to the $19.99 retail price. Add $5 shipping to Australia, and you'd pay $18.99 USD per volume, which my exchange rate calculator equates to $23.01 AUD right now.
Also, because we're not using Periodicals class postage for Pathfinder, it should arrive much faster than subscription copies of Dungeon or Dragon.
Oh and while I am at it: My FLGS did an estimation for PATHFINDER:
$45-50AUD per month.
Per month?!?
DUNGEON and DRAGON was $15 AUD. Hell, BORDERS charge $20AUD for air freight, even that is still relatively cheap. The relationship between this cost and the US cost is not too bad, we come to expect that for overseas magazines.
But $45-50 for Pathfinder because it is no longer a magazine? Our AUD is 0.8 or USD at the moment; I fail to see why exactly PATHFINDER now deserves having its price marked up by about 300%, just because it is not longer a magazine.
Yep, us Aussies get right royally screwed on book prices. I have a friend living in the US who never buys books in Australia because when he got to the states he discovered that they were all 40-50% cheaper!
My sister-in-law works in a bookshop (here in Canberra) so I asked her about it and she said that no books are printed in Australia. All of the printing houses are in the US or Europe so EVERY SINGLE book in an Australian book store has to be shipped internationally, doubling the price from the distributor. So you hit the nail on the head. Just because Pathfinder is now a book, it's going to cost us about twice as much as the US and EU customers pay. Not Paizo's fault of course, just one of the downsides of living in Australia. It's a wonder any of us can get educated at all. I once had to buy a textbook for uni that was a small 220 page softcover book, printed in the UK. Guess how much it cost me? 70 BUCKS!
Try buying over the net using US Amazon. Even with international shipping you'll probably undercut the price of an Aussie bookstore. Or you can suck it up and think of it as supporting your FLGS...
EDIT: Or, er, do what Vic said above and buy direct from Paizo. The US dollar isn't so hot any more compared with ours. 23 bucks sounds OK to me.
Try buying over the net using US Amazon. Even with international shipping you'll probably undercut the price of an Aussie bookstore. Or you can suck it up and think of it as supporting your FLGS...EDIT: Or, er, do what Vic said above and buy direct from Paizo. The US dollar isn't so hot any more compared with ours. 23 bucks sounds OK to me.
I don't know if buying from Amazon per month is feasible. I will probably spend more on P&H per year than I would if I bought it at FLGS. If I am going to buy overseas, I am going to go through Paizo. I just hope that I at least get the remaining copies of Dragon and Dungeon so I can finish Savage Tide.
In my experience with Paizo's delivery of Dungeon (and I am not being critical); I was way behind in getting my subscription compared to my FLGS, so I opted to support FLGS and wear the slight increase in cost.
Because Pathfinder isn't a magazine, the rules have changed; so I am either going to have to spend $45-50, or wait those extra month(s) on a direct subscription. It is good to see that I may just get Pathfinder a little quicker. Thanks Vic.
In any case, I think that I have said my piece; D&D is just a game - there is no point my losing sleep over it.
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One of the reasons I can subscribe to Pathfinder is the fact that the Australian Dollar is stronger. The Charter subscription discount of 30% pays for postage and handling which makes the whole thing that more affordable and costing about $25 AUD including credit cards fees for $US conversation.
There was a time when the Dungeon went to $17 dollars per issue at the local Newsagent and at Border it was almost $25 for some reason. At the time the average WoTC hard cover book was about $50 to $60. Books prices have always been quite high in comparison with the rest of world and the government here in Australia loves to place high taxes on them.
I am concerned that the Australian dollar will fall and the price for the books becomes untenable. Dollar fluctuations have wiped out many FLGS in the past, and only those diversifying into comics have been successful in those hard times. In another post I mentioned that I was keen on a paid subscription for Pathfinder say a 6 issue or 12 issue subscription. This may be complicated for Paizio to organise but good for us Ozzies when the dollars is strong.
Cheers
DDM (Pathfinder Charter Subscriber)
One of the reasons I can subscribe to Pathfinder is the fact that the Australian Dollar is stronger. The Charter subscription discount of 30% pays for postage and handling which makes the whole thing that more affordable and costing about $25 AUD including credit cards fees for $US conversation.
There was a time when the Dungeon went to $17 dollars per issue at the local Newsagent and at Border it was almost $25 for some reason. At the time the average WoTC hard cover book was about $50 to $60. Books prices have always been quite high in comparison with the rest of world and the government here in Australia loves to place high taxes on them.
I am concerned that the Australian dollar will fall and the price for the books becomes untenable. Dollar fluctuations have wiped out many FLGS in the past, and only those diversifying into comics have been successful in those hard times. In another post I mentioned that I was keen on a paid subscription for Pathfinder say a 6 issue or 12 issue subscription. This may be complicated for Paizio to organise but good for us Ozzies when the dollars is strong.
Cheers
DDM (Pathfinder Charter Subscriber)
Yeah, while the Month-to-Month Subscription may be good for Paizo to deal with, it sucks for us Aussies (and other internationals, I imagine) who have to deal with fluctuating exchange rates. I would gladly buy a 1 year subscription now while the Australian Dollar is as strong as it is now (over $0.82 US). If the dollar drops back to $0.75, which is likely, it will cost me an extra $2.15 per issue.
This may not seem like much but it adds up over the course of a year. It makes the price of Pathfinder almost beyond the amount I am willing to pay. I really have to consider whether it is still worth getting.
Olaf the Stout
P.S. Lisa, any update on my question asked earlier in the thread?
Olaf the Stout
I remember the first time I laid my eyes on a Dungeon and Dragon mag, it was way back in 1985, I was 12 years old at the time (smiles & sighs) My dad took me to Westfield’s shopping mall in my home town of Liverpool (Australia)
Dad was busy looking for a gift for his friend so we went to this really cool store called Games R Us, you know the type, filled with funny looking BBQ aprons, cool board games and some other crazy 80s nick knacks, anyways as Dad was talking to the shop clerk I ventured deeper within the store, something had attracted my attention, I was not sure what it was but it looked interesting.
As I made my way to the very back of the store I found myself gazing near awe struck at a "life size" cut out of a Skeleton wielding a huge axe!
As I drew my attention away from the fell creature I noticed that I had stumbled upon an entire corner of the store dedicated to D&D, there was this big shelf which contained all the old basic boxed sets and an assortment of other great books but what really got me was the two racks of Dungeon and Dragon Magazines!
I marvelled at the covers, my imagination racing with a thousand thoughts as to what lay within those many enigmatic pages heh, I still remember the first Dragon mag I picked of that rack, Issue 93 Jan 1985, the cover had this great painting of a
Weretiger transforming as a huge Tiger watches guard over her!!!
Anyway I guess what I want to say is that I am a 100% believer in progress but as far as I’m concerned, your decision to discontinue the production of Dungeon & Dragon magazines is a step back rather then a step forward.
Since I live in Australia where we pay about $12 US for a Dungeon mag, I fail to see any way that the versatility of these two publications can even be remotely matched by the new Pathfinder book, which will retail here for about $40 US.
tis a shame indeed...
I,m interested to here what other gamers think of the situation.
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Chief Technical Officer
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P.S. Lisa, any update on my question asked earlier in the thread?
We've worked out an international offer for Dungeon and Dragon month-to-month subscriptions, but it will take a little while to make it available. You'll probably see it before the end of the week, though.
-Vic.
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Senior Software Developer
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We have added international month-to-month subscriptions for Dragon and Dungeon. They are a 12 percent discount from cover price, and use the same periodicals rate shipping as previous annual international subscriptions.
Thanks to everyone at Paizo for making this happen. I'm sure a lot of international subscribers will be very happy about this. :-)
Olaf the Stout
My only question now is, if I start month-to-month subscriptions to Dungeon and Dragon today, what will be the first issues that I will receive?
Olaf the Stout
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Director of Sales
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My only question now is, if I start month-to-month subscriptions to Dungeon and Dragon today, what will be the first issues that I will receive?
Olaf the Stout
If you subscribe this week, your first issue will be Dungeon #148 and Dragon #357. We will be processing Dungeon issue #148 next week, though, so after that your subscription will be gin with #149.
Thanks,
cos
My only question now is, if I start month-to-month subscriptions to Dungeon and Dragon today, what will be the first issues that I will receive?
Olaf the Stout
If you subscribe this week, your first issue will be Dungeon #148 and Dragon #357. We will be processing Dungeon issue #148 next week, though, so after that your subscription will be gin with #149.
Thanks,
cos
Thanks for that Cosmo. I signed up for the last 3 issues of Dungeon and Dragon just now.
I have another question though. My credit card statements get sent to my Petworth Parade address but the magazines are going to be shipped to my Sussex Court address. Will this be an issue in authorising my credit card?
I just don't want to miss out on an issue due to an admin problem. If they absolutely have to be shipped to my Petworth Parade address I can deal with it (it's my parents' address) but it wouldn't be my first preference.
Thanks,
Olaf the Stout
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Chief Technical Officer
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My credit card statements get sent to my Petworth Parade address but the magazines are going to be shipped to my Sussex Court address. Will this be an issue in authorising my credit card?
It shouldn't be a problem, as we've already done an authorization (but not a charge) when you submitted your order, and that went fine.
And should anything go wrong with charging your card in the future, we'll let you know while you still have a couple of days to correct it.
-Vic.
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My credit card statements get sent to my Petworth Parade address but the magazines are going to be shipped to my Sussex Court address. Will this be an issue in authorising my credit card?It shouldn't be a problem, as we've already done an authorization (but not a charge) when you submitted your order, and that went fine.
And should anything go wrong with charging your card in the future, we'll let you know while you still have a couple of days to correct it.
-Vic.
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Cool. Thanks Vic. I just wanted to make sure.
Olaf the Stout
I too am an Australian dungeon subscriber- but I am looking at this in a glass half full way.
1) due to the reeeaally slow shipping ( I got Dungeon issue 145 today) I will still be getting Dungeon magazine well after all the US subscribers have run out...heh heh
2) the fact that as a subscriber I only pay $1 more living overseas sounds like great value to me- awesome
3) the fact that i will have access to the PDF version means that even though I will have to wait for the hard copy to arrive I will get to electronically leaf through it the same time all the US people are- excellent
4)I cant really blame anyone but our own govt for the massive price gouging on books and by subscribing I avoid their evil plan to stop me reading stuff--as for exchange rates--dollar goes up, dollar goes down, dollar goes up, dollar goes down, ...weeee!
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CEO
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I too am an Australian dungeon subscriber- but I am looking at this in a glass half full way.
1) due to the reeeaally slow shipping ( I got Dungeon issue 145 today) I will still be getting Dungeon magazine well after all the US subscribers have run out...heh heh
2) the fact that as a subscriber I only pay $1 more living overseas sounds like great value to me- awesome
3) the fact that i will have access to the PDF version means that even though I will have to wait for the hard copy to arrive I will get to electronically leaf through it the same time all the US people are- excellent
4)I cant really blame anyone but our own govt for the massive price gouging on books and by subscribing I avoid their evil plan to stop me reading stuff--as for exchange rates--dollar goes up, dollar goes down, dollar goes up, dollar goes down, ...weeee!
Hey Werecorpse:
Just wanted to clarify your point #3 above, we are only offering the PDF of Pathfinder with the Pathfinder month to month subscription. We can't offer PDFs of Dragon or Dungeon like that because of contract issues.
Thanks!
-Lisa
If you subscribe this week, your first issue will be Dungeon #148 and Dragon #357. We will be processing Dungeon issue #148 next week, though, so after that your subscription will be gin with #149.
I just added a month-to-month Dragon subscription based on this, but "My Subscriptions" shows that Dragon #356 is due to ship on 5/8. I'm really just interested in #357 (Demonomicon of Demogorgon!) (as far as I know, since I don't know what's expected to be in #356). Is the subscriptions page accurate? If so, where can I find the expected contents of #356 (so I can see if I really want it)?
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Director of Sales
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I just added a month-to-month Dragon subscription based on this, but "My Subscriptions" shows that Dragon #356 is due to ship on 5/8. I'm really just interested in #357 (Demonomicon of Demogorgon!) (as far as I know, since I don't know what's expected to be in #356). Is the subscriptions page accurate? If so, where can I find the expected contents of #356 (so I can see if I really want it)?
I checked your subscription and it will be starting with Dragon #357.
It is displaying #356 because you subscribed in the "sweet spot" after we've processed the issue (so your sub starts with the next issue), but before it ships to subscribers (so it is still listed as "next issue"). We've looked into fixing this, but it has proven to be prohibitively complex. I apologize for the confusion.
Thanks,
cos
I checked your subscription and it will be starting with Dragon #357.
It is displaying #356 because you subscribed in the "sweet spot" after we've processed the issue (so your sub starts with the next issue), but before it ships to subscribers (so it is still listed as "next issue"). We've looked into fixing this, but it has proven to be prohibitively complex. I apologize for the confusion.
No problem; thanks for the clarification!