REVIEWS

To follow up my review of Dungeon magazine's relaunch, I thought I would take a look at its older sister, Dragon magazine, which also has been relaunched with a new look and a new focus starting with issue 323.

While Dungeon seems more tightly focused and -- at least for this first issue -- slightly less hit-or-miss with its content, this new Dragon has a lot to offer and does a lot of things very right. I'm excited about both magazines' future.

One of the changes with Dragon is that the editors want to make it the "go-to source of information about D&D." I think that's a excellent goal. It seems clear that if you need information about D&D, whether regarding a rules question for a book that's already published, info on a just-released product, or tidbits about something in the works, Dragon should be the first place you look. To accomplish this goal, Dragon does two things.

First, there's a new section of the magazine called "First Watch." This is a nice section. It has the feel of an entertainment magazine, giving you blurbs about upcoming movies or TV shows. This issue, among short articles about D&D books on the way, draws attention to TactTiles, which are neat game accessories that could use more exposure. That's great as well.

The other thing you'll find in this magazine is a sort of catalog section for Wizards of the Coast roleplaying products in the back. This is okay -- Dragon readers should be the most informed people about what's coming and when -- but it could be better. Dragon readers are really into gaming, and in my opinion deserve more real details than the marketing copy from the catalog. What is presented is good, but more would be better. This isn't easy, I know, because it requires the cooperation of both Wizards and Paizo. What Paizo probably needs is a "D&D reporter," who ferrets out the cool details of upcoming product rather than just using what Wizards gives them. This would be more work for both companies, but it would benefit both.

The new Dragon has a section called "Player Initiative" that focuses heavily on the RPGA and topics of interest to gamers, like Gen Con. This is cool, and I'm looking forward to seeing it continue.

The magazine then goes into a series of short but apparently regular features, such as an article on the D&D miniatures game by Mike Mearls, one on translating novel characters and features into D&D stats (this one focusing on Secret of the Spiritkeeper, the first of Wizards' new young adult line, written by Matt Forbeck), and another about doing the same thing with computer games (riding birds from Final Fantasy in this issue, in an article by F. Wesley Schneider). These are interesting articles, and well done. Each has small-text sidebars that talk directly to the reader in greater detail than the main portion of the article.

Issue #323 then goes into a larger feature called "Samurai vs. Knight" by John Clements. I'll admit, I was surprised by this one, as it contains really no mechanical content. Rightly or wrongly, I went into my read of the magazine thinking there would be nothing but rules-heavy articles. More than anything else in the magazine, this piece reminded me of articles in the early days of Dragon that discussed gaming's historical context and things of that nature. While the actual subject matter of this article didn't strike my fancy, I like the precedent it sets for future articles in a similar vein.

The article on the upcoming Forgotten Realms computer game, Demon Stone, provides an interesting peek at this upcoming title, providing information that I didn't have access to elsewhere. It's also the most visually attractive article in the magazine, some of which are light on graphics. Lots of screen shots from the game and a nice black border on the top and bottom of the pages make it really stand out.

The new Dragon does include plenty of crunchy, tasty, rulesy goodness. For example, there's an article by Hal Maclean presenting seven new domains, each centered around one of the seven deadly sins. The article includes some pretty interesting new spells to flesh out the domains and a lengthy sidebar on how to play a character whose deity focuses on, say, gluttony or envy. This latter bit is my favorite part of the article. It showcases what the redirection of the magazine -- one appealing directly to players -- is all about.

This issue also has an article by Michael Tresca about alternatives to the detect evil spell. It includes spells with names like detect attitude, detect guilt, and detect heresy. It's interesting, but the best part of the article comes again in a sidebar, this one discussing the difference between heresy and sin as it applies to D&D religions.

Eric Cagle writes a piece on the ecology of the choker, harkening back to a time when such "ecology" articles were more common. While this would seem to be an article directed at DMs, part of it focuses on strategies fighting the monsters. I, for one, am happy in a nostalgic way to see the ecology articles back, no matter what the focus.

There's also an article by C. Wesley Clough introducing new spells with the force descriptor, a new prestige class called the Spirit Speaker by Monte Lin, some cool new dwarven magic items by Richard Farrese, new feats by Dean Poisso, and a new race (cyclopeans) by Eric Cagle. These are all pretty good rules-related articles, the kind you'd expect in Dragon. The innovation, I think, lies in the implication that every issue will have a few new spells, a prestige class, some magic items, feats, and a new race. That's a lot to cover in every issue, and it certainly suggests that from here on out the magazine will focus the majority of its content on short, to-the-point articles.

Speaking of a lot to cover, as well as short articles, the magazine also presents a one-page article for each character class, with information for just that class. The idea here obviously is that no matter what class you play, there's something for you. It's really ambitious but could prove to be a cool feature. For example, this issue offers a sort of specialist fighter class, roleplaying notes for creating your cleric's background based on his domains, new tricks for a druid to teach his animal companion, and so on. Although I still wonder how they'll be able to maintain this every issue without getting repetitive, I have to admit, I really liked these little articles.

A few more short pieces dealing with fleshing out your character and adventuring tactics, as well as Sage Advice to answer your rules questions, round out the rest of the magazine.

Overall, I like the new direction. So far, the execution isn't as clear-cut as Dungeon's, but then it's easier to direct an article exclusively to DMs than the reverse. I'm interested to see how the editors hone in on this approach in upcoming issues. The actual articles themselves didn't appeal to me the way the content of Dungeon's new issue did, but that could be just this issue, or it could be because I DM more than I play, and that's where my bias lies.

Check out my review of Dungeon's relaunch.