D&D General All Time Favorite Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine Content

[Hexmage-EN]

Of all the content you've ever seen from Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine, what really stood out to you? I'll go first:

• The various features on different famous/infamous beings of the multiverse were always a treat. I loved the Demonomicon of Iggwilv series, and during the 4E era I especially enjoyed the various additional series introduced dedicated to other kinds of beings: Deities & Demigods for the gods, Codex of Betrayal for the devils, Lords of Chaos for the primordials, and Court of Stars for the archfey. Of all the Dragon Magazine features I think I miss those the most.
• The two adventure paths that really got into extraplanar content were gems. The Savage Tide took me on a tour of the lower planes, especially the Abyss, and Scales of War had a raid on a githyanki naval base in the Astral, intrigue in the City of Brass, and a final dungen crawl through Tiamat's inner sanctum.
• One Dragon Magazine article I remember featured a selection of charms and other materials intended for commoners and fledgling adventurers to use against various supernatural threats. Another I was found of had a selection of unusual beverages, and another listed a number of demiplanes mentioned throughout D&D history.

I'm sure I'll think of others later, but that should be enough to start with.

 

[Maxperson]

Of all the content you've ever seen from Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine, what really stood out to you? I'll go first:

• The various features on different famous/infamous beings of the multiverse were always a treat. I loved the Demonomicon of Iggwilv series, and during the 4E era I especially enjoyed the various additional series introduced dedicated to other kinds of beings: Deities & Demigods for the gods, Codex of Betrayal for the devils, Lords of Chaos for the primordials, and Court of Stars for the archfey. Of all the Dragon Magazine features I think I miss those the most.
• The two adventure paths that really got into extraplanar content were gems. The Savage Tide took me on a tour of the lower planes, especially the Abyss, and Scales of War had a raid on a githyanki naval base in the Astral, intrigue in the City of Brass, and a final dungen crawl through Tiamat's inner sanctum.
• One Dragon Magazine article I remember featured a selection of charms and other materials intended for commoners and fledgling adventurers to use against various supernatural threats. Another I was found of had a selection of unusual beverages, and another listed a number of demiplanes mentioned throughout D&D history.

I'm sure I'll think of others later, but that should be enough to start with.

I absolutely loved The Wizards Three. As well as any new spells, magic items, prestige classes and feats.

 

[aco175]

I remember printing off and using all the name generators for the various races. I liked how they took syllables and told you what they mean or you can roll dice to get something. There was also a tavern name generator I liked.

Dungeon had a tie-in with Dragon for a gladiator theme crossover. I never got my players to bite or play it, but wanted to.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I remember printing off and using all the name generators for the various races. I liked how they took syllables and told you what they mean or you can roll dice to get something. There was also a tavern name generator I liked.

You just reminded me of a very good article called "Inns in an Instant". It included a tavern name generator, tables of names for inn employees from a number of races, multiple menus that varied based on locale (including a menu for an inn in the Underdark), and random tables for things you might overhear other patrons saying and events that might happen.

Here's one of the nine charts of food and drink from that article:

 

[Croesus]

Finieous Fingers

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The Deck of Many Things cardstock insert.

 

[cbwjm]

There was an article that I really enjoyed which was for becmi called "the colour of magic" and it was all about changing spells to fit a theme. So for a pyromancer, darkness instead became a billowing cloud of smoke that filled the area and blocked line of sight or a cryomancer would trap people in ice instead of a web.

They also talked about what were essentially cantrips. A wizard that can cast fireball probably doesn't need flint and tinder to light his pipe, he just snaps his fingers to light it. It was a cool article, especially as I think that was the edition I was playing at the time so definitely relevant to my interests.

 

[darjr]

The ecologies

 

[cbwjm]

Just remembered another article I really liked, not sure of the name but it was something like "don't tell anyone you're an illusionist" and then went in where an illusionist was giving a lecture on how to create realistic illusions and how you should always keep spell components on you that people knew belonged to spells like fireball. And most of all, don't dress like a wizard in wizard robes, blend in by dressing in common clothes.

Best part was, after the lecture, he releases an illusion and the audience find themselves trapped in cages or something and he and his friend extort the audience for money foe their freedom.

 

[Celebrim]

Probably the best article in Dragon history was "The Seven Sentence NPC" from Dragon #184. It stands out because of the timelessness of its advice and even though I rarely follow its formal method, it's had a huge influence on how I characterize NPCs. Required reading for all GMs and I strongly advise all GMs of moderate or less experience, or any GM that feels that their NPCs are bland to read the article and force themselves to use the methodology for a while.

Other articles were hugely influential on my game because of the ideas they introduced, but are less worth reading because their rules are out of date:

"For Sail: One New NPC", by Scott Bennie, Dragon #106 - The one NPC class that has really stuck around in my game and really filled a niche that needed to be filled. By 3e era this became my Explorer class because when I tried to transform my 1e/2e game ideas over to 3e, I had to bring the Mariner with me.
"Better Living through Alchemy" by Tom Armstrong, Dragon #130 - This is probably the second most influential NPC class and its existence forced me to modify a skill in 3e to reflect the fact that Brew Potion was not how potions were normally brewed in my game.
"Courts & Courtiers" by Larry Granato, Dragon #184 - Dragon issue #184 is probably the best issue Dragon ever released and is part of what I consider Dragon's golden age in the early 1990's where it felt like every issue was gold and the cover art all felt like it deserved a gallery. This article was a big part of a push that turned a campaign into a high political game of court intrigue and grand battles.

Special call out to what is probably the most influential article I ever read in Dragon:
"High Seas" by Margaret Foy, Dragon #116 - This article ended up being absolutely game changing. Unfortunately, while we loved the concepts and used some of them, the rules themselves are an absolute unplayable mess that was clearly never play tested. But if any article ever changed my life, it was this one. This article resulted in me reading upwards of 10,000 pages on the Great Age of Sail, transformed a campaign, spawned my semester project in Technical Writing to create a playable great age of sail naval wargame, and helped fuel my love of history to new heights. But yeah, the first time we tried to run a ship combat using these rules we realized we had to throw a lot of them out, which led to me writing like 30 pages of new rules on everything ship related based on the aforementioned research.

 

[Rabulias]

Dave Trampier's Wormy.

Denis Beauvais's covers.

Roger Raupp's illustrations.

 

[JEB]

"The Sunset World" (Dragon #150), on the supposed homeworld of the mind flayers, is probably the article I remember best.

Also, pretty much any article with new monsters. One on variant undead in Dragon #198 sticks out, as does one on variant gargoyles from Dragon #223.

 

[TheLibrarian]

Dragon 140 w/ Avelyne the Life Giver on the cover by Elmore.

I think it was the first piece of D&D content I ever bought. My parents bought it for me because the Red Box was out of stock and they wanted to get me into the hobby. It was my introduction into D&D and just a magical piece of art.

I still have the issue in my collection (albeit a bit worse for wear) and a signed print hangs on my office wall. And yes, I typically play the cleric in many games.

I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Bizaar of the Bizarre featuring the mage Ballant.

 

[TheLibrarian]

The Deck of Many Things cardstock insert.

I still have those!

 

[Lazvon]

Anti-Paladin, think it was Issue #66.

My Paladin at the time had been annoyed by Kender for quite a while. When I read about the AP, talked to the GM and he let me do it… next session, we were in a city and I saw a bunch of Kender “working” the crowd’s pockets.

My Paladin just snapped. Rest of the party sat dumbfounded as began to slaughter Kender everywhere. I was ravenous! A running gag from the GM had been having a Kender pull a Breadbox out of nowhere (assumed bag of holding) anytime the party was looking for something and ask, “how about a breadbox”… well, this time I started collecting Kender finders and shoving them into a breadbox for the rest of the sessions.

Fortunately most of the party was neutral of some type and somehow we were able to keep the party functioning with a completely insane, newly minted Anti-Paladin who (whoever the evil god was) himself took on during his turning and granted him everything he had with (whoever the lawful good god(dess) was).

It was a lot of fun… and really after that, and with a different group, and in a different system (Iron Crown’s Rolemaster), it set me on the path to play Lazvon to incredibly high levels, though as a “Neutral Evil” who was actually nice to some folks as long as there was a means to his ends… much easier to play in pretty much any party (and no alignment constraints in that system - all in my back story and evolving story and a highly creative GM who ran one of the two best campaigns I have ever played in, other was GURPS space game with an equally talented GM).

 

[delericho]

The last few years of both magazines were really strong, IMO. In particular, Dragon had series on various demon lords, the core Greyhawk deities, and extended ecology articles on various monsters that were all highlights for me. Dungeon, of course, had the Adventure Paths, but their approach of having a Low, Medium, and High level adventure in every issue was great.

 

[Reynard]

This thread is going to make me dig out my massive box of Dragon Magazines. Days will be wasted. Damn you, @Hexmage-EN

Before I do that, though, the first one that springs to mind is the Voyages of the Princess Ark. I read those religiously -- and don't remember a single detail! Ah, youth.

I don't have any favorite Dungeon issues, adventures or articles -- other than maybe Dungeoncraft from the 3E era. I never used published adventures.

 

[Lazvon]

Do you have the CD Archive for 1-250? Loaded that onto our NAS quite a while back… ahh access from any device. checking now from phone, lying in bath… issue 66… nope… Google says #39… yep… ooooh, cool add for Iron Crown… ahh there, Page 8. NPC?!? NOT!

 

[Wolfram stout]

1) The ads from the early Dragon magazines. They were so evocative and I could read over them for hours.
2) Bazaar of the Bizarre. Weird Wonderful magic items.
3) Wormy, really all the cartoons but especially Wormy (with What's Up with Phil and Dixie a close second).

Ah, good times.

 

[Hussar]

Ok, going from memory: (so certainly no issue numbers)

The iconic Chessboard Covers - I'm not sure if this is the first Dragon I bought or just the first I remember buying but, it was a staple in my collection for a very, very long time.

A Plethora of Paladins - 9 different paladins, one for each alignment. Was such a COOOL concept at the time.

Ecology of the Wyvern - the fact that they made a tar from wyvern feces to keep wyverns away from towns was just a fantastic bit of world building that I incorporated into so many games.

Savage Tide was my last 3e campaign, and it will always be fondly remembered as a really cool campaign.

The Chaos Scar from the 4e run of online Dragon formed an entire introductory campaign for my newest gaming group. Tons of fun.

Great Stoney - the MASSIVE cardboard castle that came in one of the issues. I had that thing for YEARS. SO COOL even if I don't think I ever used it.

Rules for (well, maybe rules is a bit strong - suggestions might be better) making a flying sailing ship. I used that thing for years.

Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut- loved it so much I bought the 2e version. The part where the party gets shrunk to 1/12th size, plunked down in a model city on a bay and then a giant lizard is sent in just makes me giggle to this day.

So many giggles.