Got rid of Dungeon Mag for online Material!!!

This is crap I stare at a computer all day I don't need to game near one. And why should I have to use my own damn crappy printer to print out material that I paid for from WOTC. This is crap! I want my mag back!

I Bet It Will Be Even More Expensive,Too. I Hate Looking Up PDF's,But With Their Ridiculous Prices,WotC Almost Forces Us To...Now Paizo As Well...Grrr.

I guess they see this as the wave of the future, much like Oxy-Clean, the In-The-Egg-Scrambler, the Pocket Fisherman or the Garden Weasel. I'm not a fan of the .pdfs I have....why would I want more computerized content? Give me books that don't strain my eyes, that I can pass around the table for everyone to have a look at. Table space is a premium, especially if you're playing with minis, and there's just no room for a computer at my table, even if I had the desire to use one.

The only thing they could possibly do that would interest me would be an absolutely complete character and monster generator that automatically added classes/templates etc. It would have to be updated with all pertinent content from every book released and would have to be relatively cheap and downloadable.

Sounds like Merric's law....Downloadable, updated, priced right....pick 2....

Bozak Paizo is still using the mag method with the pathfinder series its WOTC thats took back Dungeon/Dragon and going pdf style from my understanding.

WotC and Paizo were not able to successfully complete negotiations regarding the licensing fees. The price being offered by WotC was too high, or the price Paizo was willing to pay was too low. That is an internal matter and we are not likely to ever hear the inside details.

In response to this, WotC and Paizo were able to work out a short-term deal to see Dungeon through the end of Savage Tides and to let Dragon continue until issue 359. This is also an internal matter and we are not likely to ever hear the inside details.

However, we do know that WotC are preparing to launch their own e-zine format material that may or may not bear the name of Dungeon and/or Dragon. This will be in an unknown format, at unknown intervals, for an unknown price, unknown payment methods, with unknown advertising content and unknown solutions to the portability of published material.

We also know that Paizo has decided to embrace the OGL and publish adventure books every month that will handle the type of things that were found in Dungeon and to a lesser extent the types of things found in Dragon. You really can't call it a magazine as it's turning in around 96 pages per month. But the content is no longer 100% official like Dungeon and Dragon were. Pathfinder will be about $20 a shot which is a pretty reasonable deal when you think about it and not much more than a subcriber would pay for both Dungeon and Dragon in a month. I do wish that they were using advertising to partially underwrite the cost.

WotC have put up a spin-blufb on ENWorld answering some questions (but not very revealing answers).

The unfortunate downside to this is that the new paizo product can't use D&D product identity anymore. So the classic monsters not in the OGL can't appear, they can't use their beloved Greyhawk, or the Realms, or Eberron... Can't use the cosmology or deities... Pretty much everything that made Paizo's adventures enjoyable to me.

If any of y'all haven't been checking things out on Paizo's site, I suggest you go peek around over there.

While things in Pathfinder are going to be forced into the OGL, Paizo are not backing down from this in the least. They have their own campaign world building up and they appear to be pulling out all the stops. But, seriously, how much does the lack of access to WotC's IP really harm Paizo?

At first, I thought it would really harm them and limit the appeal of Pathfinder. But the more I think about it, the less limiting I think it will really be. Pantheons can have deities that fill roughly the same positions and not all mind controlling Aberrations need look like mini-Cthulus. If Paizo are careful in their design, and all previous evidence suggests that Paizo are not reckless, it should be a piece of cake to swap out "Cthulans" for Mind Flayers or whatever and to make pantheons that are easily accessible to most players. Even then, there might be conversion notes for certain things to make them accessible to established game worlds or to homebrew campaigns.

I won't deny that the lack of branding will prove to be a hurdle. If Paizo gets over that hurdle, though, I think that they'll be nearly unstoppable in terms of what they'll be able to accomplish next.

Everything that Paizo has showed us is the complete antithesis of the type of "organization" and "design" that WotC are currently demonstrating for us. WotC look like the Keystone Kops here. They have really dropped the ball on this one, and unless they get their collective heads together and start working on something to show the public they will not come out of this one generating any profit.

In my opinion, WotC need to have a cohesive set of plans for next year in their hands and understood in the next 30-60 days. After that, they have another 30 days or so to bring something to the public if they want to pick up where Paizo leaves off. If they don't have something to show by July I would expect that they will have a very tough time being ready by September.

That means a full battle plan including pricing, access, portability, advertising, etc. Without all of that, I don't think WotC will be able to attract many consumers. A majority of people will not just blindly "sign on the dotted line" without knowing what they are getting.