This Old Dragon

[WebWarlock]

Mods: Please let me know if this is OK. I lurk, but have not posted in years.

This Old Dragon

Afternoon everyone.

I have been playing D&D since 1979 and I have played all editions and have enjoyed them all.
So much so I have passed this love down to my two sons. I spend a lot of time then buying larger collections of D&D books. Usually sight-unseen so I can build up their collections. My oldest loves 1st Edition and 5th Edition. My youngest loves Basic-era and 5th Edition.

To make a long story short I end up with things I keep, things I give to them, things I end up selling in my local game auction and then other stuff. Among this other stuff is a huge collection of really beat up, mildewy Dragon Magazines.

So I am going through all of them and posting my thoughts online.

Part review, part "I Read" but mostly me waxing nostalgic about Dragons and what I was doing at the time.

Which is why I am posting here.
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and your memories as well.

I post these each week (or so) and get all sorts of comments. It have been pretty well recieved and I would like to know what the fine readers here think. It is on my blog, but I'll keep and eye out here and there.

Here is today's, Dragon Magazine Issue #82.
http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2017/08/this-old-dragon-issue-82.html



Let me now what you all think! Thanks!

 

[DragonMan]

I have been playing D&D since 1979 and I have played all editions and have enjoyed them all.

I started playing AD&D in 1979 as well. We liked all but 2nd edition. After playing 3.5 for a while, we got nostalgic and attempted to play 1st edition again. It was a bust and we quickly went back to 3.5 and pathfinder.

Among this other stuff is a huge collection of really beat up, mildewy Dragon Magazines.

I have a stack of Dragon magazines. I was thinking it was about time to read them again for inspiration.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I’ve certainly been enjoying these blog posts as they’ve popped up on my FB feed.

 

[WebWarlock]

Ralif,

Thanks! I have no idea where everyone is posting/reading these days and I wanted to get some other shared experiences.

DragonMan,

I am enjoying the heck out of this. I am playing D&D 5 at them moment and I still find things in these magazines that will help and enspire.

Tim

 

[WebWarlock]

double post. not sure how to delete yet

 

[WebWarlock]

It's June 1985. Unearthed Arcana is heading to the shelves along with the D&D Masters Set, Dragonlance Novels and Super Endless Quest books.

Was 85 the best year for *D&D? We certainly thought so at the time.
I think I played more that summer than anyother summer before or since. Well, maybe the exception is the summer of 2017 with my kids.

Rambo is in the theaters, Wham is on the radio, Moonlighting is the hottest thing on TV and on the shelves is Issue 98 of This Old Dragon!



What were your experiences back then?
ESPECIALLY did you find articles like "Creative Magic Items" helpful?

Thanks!

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hah, Ramal LaMarr! I had just been racking my brain to figure out that name.

Love the cover. Dragon + hoard artwork yielded some outstanding pieces of work over the years of Dragon magazine.

 

[WebWarlock]

We used to use articles from Dragon Magazine all the time.

So much so, I ended up purchasing:

DRAGON MAGAZINE ARCHIVE 250 Issues of Dragon Magazine 5CD set.

I have never found a follow-up CD set for the rest of the printed issues before the magazine was cancelled.

Several of the charts we still use to this day.

I grabbed that Dragon CD-ROM pretty much the minute it came out. And then I procedded to sell off all my print copies.

Kinda wish I had held on to a few though.

THe CD-ROM had issues when it first came out since TSR/WotC did not have reprint rights to many of the articles and covers. Something they even talked about in the magazine at the time.

Still, having an upto-date collection of PDFs on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM would ahve been great.

 

[Lanefan]

DRAGON MAGAZINE ARCHIVE 250 Issues of Dragon Magazine 5CD set.

I have never found a follow-up CD set for the rest of the printed issues before the magazine was cancelled.

There was certainly talk of doing one, if memory serves, and for some reason I thought such a thing had in fact been made. Not sure if it would have gone right to the end-of-print point.