Best Dragon Magazine Issue Evar

[Lancelot]

#75 - First part of Ed Greenwood's iconic take on the Nine Hells (still influencing every description of this plane and its politics even after 20 years), a very good module (Can Seapoint be Saved), and the first installment of the classic Snarfquest comic.

Honorable mentions to the following issues:

#100 - Anniversary issue with the "embossed" dragon cover, rules for DragonChess, new Gary Gygax fiction, and the classic "Beyond the Gate / D&D meets Modern World" module.

#63 - First issue I bought, plus the final (and in my mind, best) of the articles that defined the common D&D races (kobolds, goblins, gnolls), new gods/monsters/NPCs, and one of the best modules ever released in Dragon (Chagmat).

To my mind, issues 50-120 were the Golden Age of Dragon Magazine. They were released during the height of D&D's popularity, and helped form much of its background lore. We saw the formation of the Forgotten Realms in Dragon articles, the release of experimental new material from GG himself (like the Barbarian), the creation of the demihuman pantheons, high quality comics like Wormy, Snarfquest and What's New with Phil and Dixie, adventure modules (before Dungeon appeared on the scene)... so much good stuff.

I'll give a shout-out to the Silver Age as well (the Paizo era), which was also very good. But it's all the pioneering work in 50-120 that I remember most fondly, and keep going back to.

 

[Lidgar]

#83. Awesome cover art by Denis Beauvais ("Checkmate"), the best version of Baba Yaga's Hut, Dragon Lance short story, gemstones...just all around greatness!

 

[pemerton]

No single favourite, but I agree with Lancelot about the golden age: demi-human point of view articles; "For King and Country" in #101; an article in #99, I think, on XP for non-combat adventures; all the discussions and debates in Forum about GMing and player issues. There really was some good stuff being written back then.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

114 because of the return of the Witch class. Loved it, loved the cover, loved the b&w Elmore interior art. Also, a good remorhaz article.

Runners-up: 100, 75 and 76 for the 9 Hells articles.

 

[Plane Sailing]

#4 for me. It was part of my first rpg purpose along with metamorphosis alpha, and it was dedicated to Empire of the petal throne, starting my love affair with the setting and introducing mihalli which have appeared in every fantasy and scifi campaign I've ever run.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

#4 for me. It was part of my first rpg purpose along with metamorphosis alpha, and it was dedicated to Empire of the petal throne, starting my love affair with the setting and introducing mihalli which have appeared in every fantasy and scifi campaign I've ever run.

Cheers

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Three-way tie between Best of the Dragon I (insane old school D&D stories, including the interview with the rust monster and the story about the Nazi tank division fighting D&D monsters), Best of the Dragon II (the anti-paladin, the half-ogre and a bunch of other classic AD&D awesomeness) and the second (?) issue with the Witch class in it (the one with the brown cover), which featured the best classic cartoons, a great, meaty new class and a ton of other AD&D coolness.

 

[Alzrius]

Issue #213.

I was still pretty new to AD&D (having started with BD&D) when I'd picked up issue #212 on a newsstand while on vacation at Disney World. It wasn't bad, but failed to impress me.

However, I came home to find issue #213 in my mailbox, the first of a subscription that was a present from my dad, and found myself blown away. A huge article on the Demiplane of Shadow! An entire article on weird places and mishaps across the planes, and two on the people of Sigil (one being factions, the other individuals).

I was pretty well stunned at how this all suddenly expanded the vista of the AD&D multiverse. After that, I knew that I had to keep getting this magazine to see what wonders it had each new month. I kept my subscription going all the way until issue #359, and I never regretted it.

 

[jmucchiello]

#63 - First issue I bought, plus the final (and in my mind, best) of the articles that defined the common D&D races (kobolds, goblins, gnolls), new gods/monsters/NPCs, and one of the best modules ever released in Dragon (Chagmat).

For the same reason, first issue I bought, and wasn't this the one where Gary introduced the Barbarian?

 

[Orius]

Of all the ones I actually have, I'll mention #315. One of the best of the Paizo era, this was the Campaign Classics issue that had the 3.5 based articles on most of the classic D&D settings.