I want to spend some more time this week talking about the magazines that we’re currently showing off in our free trial. I went over some of the highlights from August last week (you can download the full issues here and here, so this week I’d like to talk a bit about the plans for September and October.
Before we get too far into the details, though, I do want to remind everyone what’s going on. Wizards of the Coast launched the new online versions of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines several months ago. We’re generating a ton of original content, some of it via freelancers but much of it coming straight from our in-house R&D staff. (Think of it as the equivalent of a new book’s worth of text every month.) The table of contents goes up at the beginning of the month and then new articles are posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a “full issue” compilation going up at the end of the month.
Right now these magazines are available for free, but our intention is to begin charging for them relatively soon. Once the free trial ends the price for a D&D Insider subscription will be $4.95 per month if you’re willing to commit to 12 months, or more if you commit for less time (going month-to-month will cost you $7.95, for example). Your subscription includes not just access to the magazines, but also access to the D&D Compendium and the D&DI Bonus Tools. OK, enough overture …
You can judge for yourself from the table of contents, but I think the coolest thing going on in Dragon this month is going to be the rules for Intelligent Magic Items. These rules don’t appear anywhere else -- they are a Dragon magazine exclusive. Note that Adventurer’s Vault, which is being published as a hardcover book this month, has Logan Bonner as the lead designer -- and Logan is also the one writing “Smart Swords” for Dragon. The article and the book will mesh perfectly and give you everything you need to either find or create the perfect item for your character or campaign.
Other highlights for the month include an article by Keith Baker on how to play a gnoll as a PC (what racial feats you can take, etc). There’s also a deeper dive into the Ecology of the Genasi along with the usual assortment of columns, with Class Acts focusing this month on the swordmage, a new class featured in this month’s Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide.
Over on the Dungeon side of the fence there’s going to be an adventure set on a magical submarine, and if the PCs are successful they might wind up with a sub of their own. In addition, there’s another installment of our grand Scales of War Adventure Path.
As regards Scales of War, we’ve been getting a lot of feedback about our decision to hold the key plot elements pretty close to our chest. Some DMs like the suspense of being able to read along and watch as things unfold over time, and we’ve done our best to make the Path really easy to DM (with us seeding in cool plot hooks and NPCs ourselves), but we also recognize that other DMs prefer to have more context so that they can elaborate and expand things on their own. In order to help out that latter kind of DM, R&D has put together a couple of sentences worth of overview on each episode from the heroic tier along with a paragraph about the paragon tier and another on the epic tier (recall that this path is designed to take PCs all the way from level 1 to level 30). This overview is available to those who want it (and it’s surrounded by spoiler tags for those who don’t, though there’s not a ton of spoiler info in there since we’re still not revealing the details of the plot … just its overall trajectory). Meanwhile, episode 3, “The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge” (which includes a significant clue about how things will unfold along with the nature of the conflict in Elsir Vale) should be up within a week.
Click to reveal...
Scales of War Heroic Tier
Episode #3: The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge
On returning from the Vents, the characters search for clues behind the well-armed orcs that sought passage beneath the mountains around Overlook. Their investigation takes them beneath the city, and then to another plane!
Episode #4: The Lost Mines of Karak
A dwarven clan of Overlook—once renowned for their wealthy mines—has fallen on hard times. But the rediscovery of one of their mines could spell relief for the city’s war efforts, and redemption for a once worthy name.
Episode #5
The heroes are summoned back to Brindol by an unexpected source. Their new ally then guides them to a long-lost fortress now inhabited by all manner of foul creatures.
Episode #6
The characters return to Overlook to find the city marshalling for war. But something rotten lurks in the city’s heart, and further investigation reveals that the city faces a threat as great from within as the army marshalling at the gates of Bordrin’s Watch.
Scales of War Paragon Tier (Episodes #7–12)
The scope has changed. By the end of the heroic tier, the heroes finally learn that the war in Elsir Vale is on a much larger scale than they imagined. Not only their small slice of the world is in danger, and the forces of good need powerful champions. The characters venture across the planes as a small, elite strike team, pursuing missions few champions of their world would dare to undertake. There, they must make new alliances to further their war effort, while sundering those of their enemies. Finally, they uncover the magnitude of the true threat facing their home.
Scales of War Epic Tier (Episodes #13–18)
The stakes increase. As the heroes cross into the epic tier, they learn that their world is truly under siege from all sides. Pursuing numerous threats only they can deal with, they single-handedly have the potential to turn the tide of war in one direction or the other. As the balance teeters on a razor’s edge, disaster strikes the characters’ allies, and they must act swiftly before their world—and possibly more—is lost to an age of darkness unlike any other.
While we’re talking about the magazines, I can’t resist the urge to tease some October content as well. One of the coolest things R&D is doing with Dragon is to use it for playtesting. They already did this once with the artificer -- it’s a class that won’t actually be published until the Eberron campaign setting books are released next year, but R&D showed off the current draft of the rules that is being actively developed in house in order to solicit feedback. The idea is to let you guys participate in playtesting. Well, next month we’re planning to do this again, and this time it’ll be the barbarian class from the upcoming Player’s Handbook 2 that gets the full treatment. R&D is actively working on this book right now, and the version of the barbarian that ultimately gets published probably won’t be the same one as we show off in Dragon, but that’s a good thing. With feedback coming from a horde of external playtesters, we’re hoping to make it even better.
October will also see the Domains of Dread return to D&D, with the long-time Ravenloft concept being folded into the core now. Meanwhile we’ll also be trying out a new rules concept that allows you to multiclass into classes that don’t really exist, like gladiator. I should probably stop now before R&D gets forbidden from feeding me previews.
As always, please do hop onto the forums if you have a question you want me to answer or a comment you want me to see.
Randy Buehler
Vice President of Digital Gaming
Wizards of the Coast
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