When was the Dragon Magazine at it's best?

[evil_rmf]

Dragon was the best when it was the most useful to you, and that is different to everyone.

Issues in the low 30s to the low 100s seemed to be most useful to me. Todays stuff is bordering on useless to me. It's been a long time since I cracked open a copy and went "Wow!". That's probably because I've seen the cycles that were pointed out earlier, and I'm not in need of ideas and rules clarificarion as much as I used to be.

Very little of the fiction has appealed to me.

Oh, and just about anything with a Tom Wham game was awesome.

 

[jester47]

Often there is a confusion between nostalgia and quality. I can't say one is better than the other, as it depends on what I am looking for.

Aaron.

 

[HellHound]

I have to agree with Psion (we seem to see eye-to-eye on just about everything except DragonLords of Melnibone).

The best era of Dragon was 1982-1983. I love that stuff. The modules were great, and the interesting mix of material kept me looking at different RPGs. (I still have the rules for nobility in Traveller, the Zethra for Star Frontiers, H&K weapons for Top Secret, and the fun board games that I played once or twice - heck, last year Sooch and I cracked out SUMO, written by Brian Blume I believe, and played out a few dozen sumo wrestling matches on a boring day).

 

[JeffB]

I was not around for this suppossed 'glorious era',

Then perhaps you should not be so quick to refute it since you have no knowledge of the subject?

I highly suggest you get yourself a copy of the Dragon Mag archive, and see for yourself how much more well rounded the magazine was at one time. It's money well spent.

Re: the Product tie-ins. I don't think anyone here doesn't understand WHY WOTC does it, many of us are just sick of it taking up a majority (or even the entirety) of an issue.

 

[cybertalus]

Compared to most in this thread, I was a late starter on Dragon, coming in somewhere in the mid 160's. But then I started gaming just in time to make the mad scramble to collect all the 1E hardbacks before they went out of print (managed to get all of them except the Manual of the Planes).

With that in mind, I'd say for me the high point was up until Dale Donovan left. Wolfgang Baur was always one of my favorite authors in both Dragon and Dungeon, but he didn't seem to be at the helm of Dragon long enough to get his footing before he was gone.

A big part of what I liked back then was the variety. Sure I wasn't likely to ever use a lot of the more "out there" stuff, but it was fun to read, and you never know when something will inspire you.

I know I've made this complaint before, but the other thing was that there weren't as many recurring features. In particular Ed Greenwood wasn't trapped inside a regular format. I love Ed's stuff, but he's much more enjoyable when he isn't doing the same type of stuff all the time. It's also nice to not have him appear in every single issue so I can get to missing his stuff sometimes.

I agree too that Dragon has become too much of an infomercial for Wizards products. It feels so corporate and dull these days. All color and gloss with no fanboy soul left.

Oh well, my subscription expires in March. I haven't decided yet whether I'll renew or not, but unless there's a big change for the better I probably won't.

 

[Dark Psion]

I have to agree with Psion (we seem to see eye-to-eye on just about everything except DragonLords of Melnibone).

Mind Seed, page 88 of the Psionic Handbook


One thing to keep in mind is that at the time of those pre-100 issues, Dragon had no competition, not even from T$R. No online sites, no D20 companies, and nothing fromT$R except adventure modules. So most of the "best in the business" were at Dragon at the time.

Now, many of the best do contribute, but most have their own D20 company to release their work.

 

[Nathanael]

I definately agree with the infomercial glut.

I used to subsribe to White Dwarf as well, but after a while, I realized that 50% of the magazine was material devoted to or actually from an upcoming product (but not enough to use the product without purchasing it) 40% ads and how to buy other products, 5% of 'what's coming up' and 5% interesting articles.

I'm not saying that Dragon has gone that far yet, but it's moving in that direction and the publishers might take a hint from the Dwarf's dwindling subscriber base. At least they've still got a few comics and other non-release related stories left in Dragon...

 

[DrSkull]

I also found the early stuff to be the best.

The Best of the Dragon #1, was probably the single most useful and influential magaizine purchase I ever made, there were excellent articles about how to make wildnerness maps and dungeons. There was a ton of practical stuff that shaped my DMing skills. I wore that sucker out eventually.

And in those days, the only news about the gaming industry and new developements one could get was from magazines, what with no internet and so forth

With no websites and message boards, the sage advice columns and letters to the editors were actually important.

I enjoyed much of the stuff in the year before 3e came out, and got a subscription for the first time. Lately, though I've begun to find it tiresome.

 

[Sulimo]

Oh, those were the days...early 80s, D&D was still young and people were exploring options and new ideas. The mag promoted the game...late 80s and 90s it supported the game, late 90s it was one big ad, now support and ad.

Yep. Reminds me of the transformation of White Dwarf into one huge ad for GW.

I miss the days when Dragon had a wider focus, reviews of other games...all that kind of thing. Hell, Dragon's responsible for our group finding and becoming adicted to Rolemaster.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Jasamcarl, here are just a few items from the earliest Dragon issues that were great:

Issue #9 "Let There be a Method to Your Madness", on adding versimilitude to dungeon design.

Issue #12 "The More Humorous Side of D&D, or They Shoot Hirelings, Don't They?", on the inane things characters would do.

Issue #13 "Notes from a Semi-Successful D&D Player", by James Ward, on playing a character in an original, off-beat manner.

Issues #14, 15, 16, 24, and 28, The Monty Haul series, which in many ways was Knights of the Dinner Table before the comic existed.

Issue #19 "The Battle of Snurre's Hall", a recap of the 1978(?) tournament winners, who battled through the now famous modules, Against the Giants. A must-read for anyone planning to game well at a convention.

I admit the production quality of the Dragon has improved with time, but as others have said, the most useful period of the Dragon (for me, at least) was when it was all new. I think the reason the Dragon was so well received a year ago is because 3E was new, and so was the material in the magazine. Now that 3E has been out a while, the Dragon seems ho-hum once again.