At first glance, it reminds me of Gnome Stew, which itself is more than a blog but less than a magazine. Well, that's if Gnome Stew had black and red demonic goat's heads (or are they demonic goat-dragon mongrelations?) on the front page trying to play off the OSR by branding each head with "O" "5" "R" respectively while using the classic Dragon Magazine font for it's title (much like Gygax magazine does, it an attempt to be what it is not).
Therein lies my first issue with the first "issue" of "Draconic Magazine" - what identity is it trying to portray? Is it an OSR blog? A 5e blog? A "D&D is satanism blog? Is it the reincarnation of the Old Dragon Magazine, assuming it went the way of the dracolich?
+Venger Satanis is a Satanist (or Cthulhuian now) priest. I get where the "demonic" trappings come from. To each their own, but for me, such overt trappings are a turn off. It's not prudishness. I'd have similar feelings if the trappings were crosses or stars of David. My preference is to keep "real" world (as in not created by modern fiction) out of my gaming.
As for the actual content? No better and no worse than the average gaming blog. Which in the end is what Draconic Magazine is - a blog with mostly posts by Venger with a few others in the mix. Again, similar to Gnome Stew but with a satanic tilt to the trappings and an attempt to cover a wide base of D&D editions.
Is it worth the read? It's a gaming blog. There should be something worth stealing.
It seems rather pedantic to make it a sticking point that it's not a magazine. Blogs are the modern equivalent of zines.
ReplyDelete... it claims to be a "magazine" right in the title banner, so the validity of the label deserves examination.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the review. The Satanic trapping for the blog bother me less than most might imagine, but I would think the same about someone shoving a Crucifix, Papal Flag or Bible in my face while gaming. If we were playing a campaign with that vibe I guess I wouldn't mind, but I can't imagine there is a large market for either Satanic or Judeo-Christian settings/flavors in gaming. Sort of like Christian Rock, I never really got into it much.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking through the articles, I don't see anything Satanic on the site besides Venger's name. I do see a bunch of cool creative content made by D&D enthusiasts. The Torth setting is definitely intriguing.
ReplyDeleteIsn't D&D stuffed with religious and mythological motifs, creatures, and artifacts.
ReplyDeleteD&D is kind of a mishmash of real-world religion anyway. The original cleric class was based on the medieval Knights Templar, and many deities of the Forgotten Realms are real-world pagan gods. Of course, the Greco/Roman, Norse/Germanic, and Egyptian gods have been available for insertion in D&D games in pretty much every edition. And all the Outer Planes of the Great Wheel are based on various afterlife places posited by real-world religions. Yeah, there's always been plenty of real-world baggage in D&D.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree this is not a magazine by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, you can have online magazines, but in order to be a magazine you really need the periodic nature. If you read his "about section" Venger Satanis comes right out and says this effort is made up of "glorified blog posts, really".
ReplyDeleteNot my words, but his.
VS goes so far as to note that this is only an electronic effort in the submissions section. I find it "interesting" that if you submit something to him he wants 3 months exclusivity on content and a citation, but the work is still the owner's and " If Draconic Magazine re-publishes content in a commercial form (PDF or print for sale), the original author will receive credit and a portion of the profits equal to the percentage of author's content within the entire manuscript."
Definitely not a magazine.
Draconic regularly-updated-post-hub-willing-to-share-profits didn't quite have the same ring to it.
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