For the past few years I’ve had the extreme privilege to serve as the D&D website producer. In fact, back in 1999 (after a stint teaching abroad) I moved to Seattle with the specific intention of one day working for Wizards of the Coast, the company producing both games I slavishly followed: Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. For several years, however, I first toiled in the salt mines of Microsoft, producing websites and online content for their game studios… well, actually it was a pretty copasetic environment there: soda was free, and at the time I thought it the height of good fortune to be paid to play video games on the clock. That is, until I finally landed a gig within WotC’s Online Media department in 2004, and have come to realize the true height of good fortune is playtesting D&D on the clock.

When I first took over as producer for the D&D website, the directives were clear—online content should help support and promote the product releases. This was, after all, a marketing site first and foremost (though I did try to sneak in whatever “extra” content I could, taking pride in shepherding through the revised Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain, among others).

I say “was” a marketing website in the past tense. We’ve come to a new edition of the game, and thus to a new iteration of the website. Some things will remain the same. There will still be a marketing component, including the characters sheets, art galleries, Sage Advice answers, In the Works previews… and on, and on. In one sense, we’re not losing the tools or online content you’ve come to know and expect.

At the same time, we’re also quite pleased to be expanding—greatly—our online content beyond a robust marketing site. The website team itself has grown. Dragon and Dungeon magazines have arrived at their new online venue, with columns and features to start rolling out in October. And while D&D Insider—the name we’ve now given to the subscription part of the D&D website—will encompass the marketing and magazine content, there’s another online face as well.

In the coming months, look for the Gleemax.com/DnD site to serve as a kind of hub for community content. This will include not just the message boards, but also blogs from individual members of R&D (as well as for columns, serving as their talk-back and commentary pages), D&D wikis, and even a repository for fan-generated content. Plus, we’re quite excited about some of the D&D Insider features that will live on the Gleemax side, including expansive new options for storing character and campaign information. For more on what’s in the works, check out part two of our inaugural editorial.

The website is dead! Long live the website!

--Bart Carroll

So What’s Next?

If you read Bart’s editorial, you know have a better idea where we've been and an inkling of the community features we'll be showcasing. There's a lot more to show, and you’ll just have to come back from time to time and see what’s up for yourself. But we would be poor hosts if we didn’t at least offer a taste of what’s to come.

Bart already told you about the Gleemax/DnD site. We’re really excited about putting Gleemax’s functionality to the test. “But what,” you ask, “is this log-in thing? Why am I doing it? What does it mean?” Here’s the plan:

Sometime in the spring, when all of D&D Insider’s digital components go live, we’ll begin charging a monthly subscription fee to access some of our online content. We don’t have final pricing details ready to share, but one subscription fee will cover all aspects of D&D Insider, including more than two print issues’ worth of editorial content each month. You’ll get access to the amazing set of tools D&D Insider will provide—the D&D Game Table, the D&D Character Creator, and the Dungeon Master’s Toolkit, details of which will be unveiled in the coming months. You’ll also get more of the great content you’ve come to expect from Dragon and Dungeon over the past umpteen-dozen years.

In the meantime, we want to start showing you the type of editorial content you’ll get for your money, and help you understand what constitutes subscription-level content (that is, something you need an account to access). And that’s where the current log-in system fits in.

Over these next few months, we’ll be keeping an eye on the things you like and don’t like, making adjustments based on your feedback. Feel free to drop us a line at dndinsider@wizards.com or post on the new Dragon and Dungeon forum. Your voice will help shape future content.

Dungeon and Dragon magazines are industry titans, with storied histories. As the D&D game has evolved, so too have the magazines. Our goal going forward is to provide you with great content plus much more utility than print magazines can allow. Don’t believe me? Heck, both Chris Perkins and I started our careers in the industry on these magazines. And speaking for myself, I wouldn’t be walking this path again if I didn’t think it was worth it, or if I didn’t think we couldn’t do an even better job this time around. But I’m about as giddy as this kid when I think about what’s coming.

Which leads me to the next few months. From now to the 4th Edition launch, Dragon is going to give you the latest 4th Edition developments. We’ve revamped the Design & Development column, which has run on the site now for some time, and we’re using it to show you now not only what is coming, but why and how. Several times each week, we’ll give a detailed look at one specific part of the new system, with commentary by the folks doing the design and development of the game. At the same time, Dragon will continue to bring you favorites such as Ecology articles, campaign setting support, and other great content written, as always, by members of the D&D community. You’ll see this in Dragon #360, which, among other things, includes a spectacular 360-degree panoramic view of the D&D game.

Need adventures? Check out the new Dungeon pages for a sneak peek at issue #151, which also comes out in October. This issue heralds the return of Dungeoncraft. James Wyatt—D&D game designer, co-author of the Eberron Campaign Setting, and Eberron novelist—takes over as the new master of Dungeoncraft, and I can’t want to show what he’s up to.

Then there’s the comics, the free maps, Sage Advice, all the stuff Bart already talked about, and more I'm probably forgetting. Every Monday we’ll have a weekly update to tell you what’s in store for D&D Insider in the coming week, as well as new editorial content every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We’ll also use these newfangled tubes we call the “Interweb” to bring a new spin to classic D&D content. We’re looking at more innovative ways to leverage the technology at our disposal and bring your game to new heights of cool.

So stick around. We’re just getting started here, and I can’t wait to show you what we’re gonna do next.

--Chris Thomasson