Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer Issue 1 Review

[The Grinning Frog]

I dunno if they do this is in the US, but this is typical with UK hobby magazines - you take a big hit on the first issue then the rest are significantly more expensive - as @June Soler shows, this is exactly what they're doing here.

This has been "a thing" in the UK since when I was a little kid, so like 40 years.

As someone who remembers being a 10-y/o, no I wouldn't have been excited by this. I might have been excited to GET it, but then I would have been disappointed by what was in it.

Sadly, this is exactly it. I've now ranted to my wife and youngest son about this magazine (they came home at different times). I find myself annoyed that such a poor product has been put out to market. It could have been brilliant. Great idea. Get in a young crop of players with a streamlined product. It's treating them as mentally limited that bothers me the most.

 

[The Grinning Frog]

This suggests a challenge/contest: if the viable market rate is £9 for 28 pp., say that you’ve got 6 pages to work with (is this A4? A5?) for £2 or $2.50, and that you’ve got to write at an eighth grade reading level (with allowances for a few particularly evocative words to send kids to the dictionary,) for people who’ve never played or heard of the medium before, it has to be compatible with the 5e rules, and, most importantly obviously, it has to get them playing something like the game. No forcing little Timmy or Adele to squint at the font, either.

(I might try my hand at this, if only because OP has set the standards so low.)

I'm confident you work will outshine this product!

 

[Nikosandros]

They're not. They're a French publishing company. If you go up their ownership chain, they're ultimately owned by Lagardère S.A., a French/international corporation.

So this would have been licensed to them by WotC, given it uses the D&D name, branding, ampersand, and so on. Which means WotC would have had approval, but didn't specifically say "Do this" - indeed, this is classically Hachette's approach to hobby magazines - they have a pretty rip-off-y 40K one for example.

Yes, they are quite "active" on the Italian market. They typically sell "magazines" in which in each issue you get pieces to build some kind of model.

 

[Dire Bare]

They're not. They're a French publishing company. If you go up their ownership chain, they're ultimately owned by Lagardère S.A., a French/international corporation.

So this would have been licensed to them by WotC, given it uses the D&D name, branding, ampersand, and so on. Which means WotC would have had approval, but didn't specifically say "Do this" - indeed, this is classically Hachette's approach to hobby magazines - they have a pretty rip-off-y 40K one for example.

I liked the Warhammer 40K magazine . . . the magazine itself was crap, but the minis included were a pretty good deal.

Sadly, from previews of upcoming issues . . . the "loot" that comes with the D&D magazine is not likely worth 9 pounds per issue.

2 pounds for some okay dice with issue 1 . . . well, that's okay. But not great.

 

[aco175]

Would my parakeet learn anything if I lined the bottom of his cage with this?

 

[The Grinning Frog]

Would my parakeet learn anything if I lined the bottom of his cage with this?

Nope