So, it's been a few weeks since THE ANNOUNCEMENT, and within the past 24 hours, I had the wonderful realization that the 2 on the right side of the room and the 2 on the left side of the room really could come together to make 4.
Okay, I'll be less cryptic.
The 2 on the Right:
- I guess what really appealed to me about Dungeon, especially through the Adventure Paths, is something that has been missing from D&D since first edition: the Shared Experience. For the first time in fifteen, twenty years, I was hearing players and DMs, many who had never played together, sharing conversations and "war stories" about the same adventures. It took me back to the days of White Plume Mountain and King Snurre Ironbelly's Hall.
When the licensing announcement was made, both of Dungeon ceasing publication and Pathfinder beginning, I was kinda bummed. Over the past year, the quality I've seen in Dungeon has really appealed to me, so much so that a Pathfinder subscription seemed to be the answer. The problem, however, was the price. Even at 33% off, 14 bucks a month was a bit outside my limited gaming budget. <sigh> C'est la vie.
The 2 on the Left:
- Even though I never subscribed to Dragon, and only began a Dungeon subscription within the past year, they have been a part of my gaming pedigree since shortly after I began playing. When it was announced that Paizo's license was being pulled, and WotC announced the upcoming digital initiative... well, it was like they came into my house, shredded all the pictures of my son, then handed me a CD with digital copies of those photos - yeah, I still have the pics, but only so long as I have a PC to view them on.
I had already been lamenting, privately, the decline of quality in WotC's products. Every D&D Minis product of the past year or more has had some major issue, from the paint quality in War Drums to the split Hellspike maps to the Blackguard on Nightmare distribution snafu. Each new sourcebook seemed to include a smaller and smaller percentage of useful material, while the page filler content continued to increase.
When I started buying Dungeon, I pretty much stopped buying WotC's paper products, except for my two or three D&D Minis boosters a month. With the upcoming pre-painted plastic minis line from Reapor, the fact that I can trade for the few DDMs I might still want, and the fact that, from what I'm seeing, WotC just isn't concerned with providing the information that their customers have asked for, NDA be damned... there's just no reason for me to keep giving my money WotC.
The 4 in the Middle:
- So today I was trying to figure out what to do with the 12 bucks per booster I've been paying for D&D Minis. Well, let's see, what to do with $24 to $36 per month. I'd love to sub to Pathfinder if...only...it...
...and the light bulb over my head flashed on with a ding.