Caution: Here There Be Dragon No More

It was announced a couple of days ago that both Dungeon and Dragon magazines were coming to an end. If you don't play role-playing games, that really doesn't seem like a big deal, but to those of us that are big-time gamers, it's a sad passing.

I haven't played Dungeons and Dragons for years. I've flirted with coming back with the release of 3.0 and 3.5, but to date I haven't made it back for anything but an occassional game or two. There are other games that have held my attention more.

But those magazines have still caught my eye every month. I don't always read them, but I always look through them. It takes me back to when I was in high school and first was introduced to role-playing. When every issue was something exciting and new, and inevitably everyone would try to incorporate what was in the issue almost immediately in the game. But there wasn't as much material available then, so each and every thing they added was precious.

Things today are not the same. The material from Wizards of the Coast is ten-fold everything that was available 25 years ago when I first started playing D&D, and there is plenty of additional material coming out from third-party companies every month. Both Dungeon and Dragon became specialty magazines, with each issue focusing on a niche aspect of the game, trying to flesh it out completely. But I don't know if that's what has brought about their demise.

Dungeons and Dragons still sells very well. And both Dungeon and Dragon magazine have strong sales from what I can determine talking to distributors. So I can't say what caused them to lose their place on the shelves. Paizo Publishing is planning to release a new magazine called Pathfinder that will be, well, expensive. And it's said that Dragon Magazine will continue using an online model...but it won't be the same.

No longer will there be that made rush through a stack of magazines to find the write-up on the Anti-Paladin. You won't be scanning over every page looking for the last hidden "Growf" that Phil Foglio drew.

And what's more, it seems to be an indication to me that the RPG industry really is heading down an online road, aimed at a smaller and smaller audience of people who appreciate the social and creative aspects of the game.

So, to Dungeon magazine: farewell, and good luck. To Dragon Magazine: good-bye old friend, I wish that we could have had more time together, even though we've grown apart some in the past couple of decades...or so.