benjoshua wrote:

stylean wrote:Completely not paying attention due to lots of bouncing due to travel, got a notice that this shipped and an invitation to review online, anyone get thier copy yet?

No I have not!  And I am anxiously awaiting that magazine!  

Maybe today!  

Jayson, Ernie & Luke,

Thanks for all you do at Gygax Magazine.  I am a subscriber, and I am already looking forward to the next issue!  Feedback about the magazine was requested, so I thought I'd do my part and express my opinions.  

Just so you know what kind of a subscriber you are hearing from, I've been gaming and collecting since the early eighties, almost exclusively 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D.  I have a complete collection of Dungeon and hundreds of Dragon Magazines.  I am an active member of both Dragonsfoot and The Acaeum web-sites.

The main thing you need to know is that I believe you are off to a great start!  The size is right, the look is right, and the spirit is right.  You are giving old and newer school collectors and players an inspirational, fun and worthwhile resource.  There are serious articles, evocative art, relevant ads, and funny comics.  While the price of these periodicals has definitely risen over the years, it is a good value for the money.  Getting this enterprise started was quite an ordeal I imagine, so I appreciate all the work involved to get this going.  Thank you!

Even though Gygax Magazine is amazing, there are concerns I have for the magazine going forward.  Gygax Magazine highlights the past of gaming and how diverse the gaming universe has become since D&D emerged.  With the plethora of gaming systems, worlds, and companies, I hope you realize that you cannot make everyone happy.  I started losing interest in Dragon when they simply tried to do too much.  They reviewed books and video games.  They had articles about fantasy, science fiction, historical realms, and other settings.  They interviewed artists and writers.  There were articles and photos about all kinds of miniatures.  While all of these things are interesting and are a part of role-playing, all of these things are not of interest to everybody.  Therefore, pick a niche and spend at least 80% of your magazine towards that niche.  You may lose some readers quickly by limiting your territory, but at least you won't lose most of them slowly.  And since I brought this up, I personally vote for a magazine which is reminiscent of Dragon Magazine issues 39 through 90, roughly speaking.

The main thing I hoped to see in every issue of Dragon was a mini-module.  I always felt like an issue of Dragon was particularly worthwhile if there was an adventure inside since modules usually ran triple for what the price of the magazine cost.  I really enjoyed the Gnatdamp setting and the way it was not created specifically for a particular rule-set.  No space was wasted on stat blocks I could easily create or edit myself.  This is a clever way around pleasing readers who use a multitude of rule formats.  The map was on one page so it could be easily copied.  The addition of several adventure seeds allows DM's to use the setting in a variety of ways.  This trend could continue with goblin dens, monk monasteries, orc stys, and keeps on the borderlands!  But I would like to see dungeon crawls and adventure stories requiring maps as well.  Mini-modules are a must!

Other articles I always liked were lists and descriptions of new magic items, monsters, spells, and places.  Articles about new types or classes of characters were interesting, even though I rarely incorporated them into my campaigns.  Articles that inspired me about new worlds, civilizations, cultures, races were fun reads as were the ecology articles about different monsters.  While I like being creative, I am pragmatic, so I like information which is useful and helpful.  These articles helped me as I thought and planned ways to create adventures or DM my players.

There are also little places where Gygax Magazine might improve.  While this was a later feature of Dragon Magazine, I liked the Forum column, where readers submitted longer letters to the editor with their opinions and thoughts on role-playing.  I also enjoyed the letters to editor, especially the April Fools' issue where foolish letters were put on display (Out in Limbo).  Of course, including Forum and Letters sections were impossible in the first issue.  Also, convention schedule page(s) were worthwhile as these help gather gamers together and increase their interest in products like Gygax Magazine.

I have never been a fan of short fiction submissions.  While the writing is usually excellent and possibly inspired, these were usually four to eight pages I never or rarely read.  Thank you for not including any of these.

One way to increase the value of the magazine is to have a web presence with additional material and/or feedback. Having a web presence with add-on material for articles within the magazine should generate more interest in people subscribing.  If you chose to have your own web-site, a password could be created for subscribers if you wanted to limit access, but I don't recommend that approach.  Another way to approach this is to negotiate thread-space for magazine discussion with a currently established rpg web-site where interaction with article authors and editors could enhance the magazine content.  Deleted content due to size and/or space restrictions could be made available.  That way, you don't have the time and expense of running your own web-site with many of the benefits (FREE Advertising!).  However, there are perils with partnerships so choose wisely.

Finally, I have a recommendation for an article.  I think it would be worthwhile to highlight many of the fantasy gaming web-sites which foster the same kind of participation in the hobby as Gygax Magazine.  The Acaeum, Dragonsfoot and rpg.net are but a few.  The more gamers gather together in person or on-line, the more their interest will be sustained and nurtured.  And the more they are interested in gaming, the more likely they will subscribe to Gygax Magazine!  I learned about Gygax Magazine through these forums.

Thank you again for creating Gygax Magazine!  I wish you the best in your publishing adventures.

Badmike wrote:For anyone else (like me) who hasn't pulled their head out of their ass long enough to order an issue, we should have copies of Gygax Magazine 1 & 2 for sale at NTRPG Con this year.

Mike B.

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:

benjoshua wrote:I do not expect all of you to agree with me on everything, but suspect many of you on these forums have opinions that I like more than I dislike, so I hope many of you who subscribe will also share your views.

Actually, it mirrored almost perfectly what I was thinking.