Paizo to cease publication of Dungeon and Dragon Magazines

Squashua

per Slashdot, but I'm sure the rest of you saw it on EnWorld or somewhere.

They'll stop publishing by September when WoTC takes the license back. I prefer Pyramid Online for my magazine gaming "stuff".

Paizo will put out Pathfinder, which will replace Dungeon, I guess.

DeVryGuy

It kind of sucks, because I like just got a gift subscription to Dragon.

DevoutlyApathetic

This is such an asinine move on Wizards (more likely Hasbro's) part. The best adventures recently published have all been in Dungeon and removing their brand name from them is just going to hurt their image. Nevermind that one of the shift with the OGL was to be away from modules which were terribly unprofitable for TSR back in the day.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.

On the plus side Paizo seems to be saying "Well you know those three adventure paths that everybody is talking about and loved and basically are the "Core D&D experiance" like you wanted Sunless Citadel to be? Well now that we're an established name and can tell you to fuck the hell off right back, we'll just be printing more of those. So suck us."

I feel like such an old timer bemoaning what's become of my hobby but I really think this is different. I was all on board with the 3e mindset. I found the concept of driving ideas behind a business strategy compelling (Much like Nintendo's current plans) and invigorating. Now Hasbro is just raping out the corpse of those good ideas. Bah.

Litejedi

The Shackled City Adventure Path is phenomenal. As long as they keep making good things like that, I'll buy their stuff. The only irritating thing for me, is that now it'll be even MORE difficult to get conversion notes for the modules to different settings. Lame.

The magazines got me into RPGs, in part. Discontinuing them is tantamount to Hasbro killing D&D as a whole, in my book. Greyhawk is going to be gone soon, I suspect, and with it Living Greyhawk. Bye bye 6 years of characters, and the largest "Living" rpg campaign ever, in the world. Then they'll release 4th edition (non-OGL), nobody will buy it, and we'll stop getting new official supplements. Hasbro will close down the RPG department for Wizards, and that will be that. With luck, they'll sell the D&D license again, and we'll get a resurgence. Maybe ten years from now. It's a dire prediction, but it's seeming likely.

DevoutlyApathetic

I don't know, I'd look 3 or 4 years out from a new edition unless the new edition tanks in spectacular fashion. Even then I don't know. It's a shame Monte's out as a buyer and Dancey was tarnished by the Organized Play fiasco.

Damn I miss that guy, such a shill but such an amazing one.

Panda4You

LiteJedi wrote:

Hasbro will close down the RPG department for Wizards, and that will be that.

Doomed.

Scary thing is there's the possibility of you being right.

DevoutlyApathetic

At the very least they can't rescind the OGL with regards to already released stuff. So 3.x can live on indefinitely.

Though I expect major changes in 4e just to make backwards compatibility (and forwards for 3rd party goods) an absolute bitch.

Echo

Man. Dungeon had some pretty kickin' adventures too. :x

Aegis

Panda4You wrote: »

LiteJedi wrote:

Hasbro will close down the RPG department for Wizards, and that will be that.

Doomed.

Scary thing is there's the possibility of you being right.

Maybe it isn't a bad thing then to hope Hasbro closes down the department quickly so that the resurgence later on takes less time in the long run and we can (hopefully) have a controlling entity that isn't as terrible.

EmperorSeth

I read most of that 800+ page thread on ENWorld. That was a definate gut-punch moment when I heard about this yesterday. My collection goes back to issue 170 or so, and I largely went from games like Pools of Radiance to the actual game from reading the magazine in the local library.

Ozmodai

I was so saddened to hear the news. On the plus side this will free up funds for Paizo's upcoming products. I've only recently been buying Dungeon and Dragon but I've gotten hooked on the Savage Tide adventure path and have always loved all those ready made adventures ready at a moments notice.

As far as the decision by Wizard's goes, I can see their point. Print media, like magazines, are a dying form. Circulation for magazine's are at an all time low, and advertisers, who fund the magazines, are realizing that online adds get more bang for the buck. The web is the future for the written word.

Waiting to see what Wizard's offering will be as far as new online content goes, but I'm guessing the artwork that is so good in Dungeon and Dragon will be sadly absent.

zenpotato

I haven't read a Dragon in a long time, but I recall them having no ads (other than being a giant D&D ad itself). Advertiser support certainly wasn't the issue. The entire magazine was a big old ad for their product.

Horseshoe

Well, hopefully for those of us who missed out on them when it was in magazine form, maybe Paizo can publish the adventure paths like Shackled City and Age of Worms as collected modules.

zenpotato

Paizo has announced it will continue to publish it's own adventure paths in a new magazine entitled Pathfinder. Basically, it's an OGL version of Dragon/Dungeon.

DevoutlyApathetic

Horseshoe wrote: »

Well, hopefully for those of us who missed out on them when it was in magazine form, maybe Paizo can publish the adventure paths like Shackled City and Age of Worms as collected modules.

Shackled City has already been collected and released in a Hardcover. Age of Worms is waiting on Wizards approval before they can do such a thing.