Best Dragon Magazine Issue Evar

[occam]

#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.

So many great issues back in the day, but this is the one I think of first.

 

[coyote6]

I was always fond of #60 - the expanded elven gods, Flight of the Boodles, guns, and the Jester class. It was an April issue.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I don't remember the issue or even the contents, but I can describe my favorite Dragon cover ever: a female ranger, last arrow nocked to her bow, defends herself from an undead monstrosity that is bursting from the snow-covered ground.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I don't remember the issue or even the contents, but I can describe my favorite Dragon cover ever: a female ranger, last arrow nocked to her bow, defends herself from an undead monstrosity that is bursting from the snow-covered ground.

Issue #126, October 1987, one of their first Halloween 'theme' issues. Lots of cool articles in that one.

My favorite? #162, October 1990: More Halloween goodness, including Nigel Findley's seminal article on "The Mind of the Vampire" (and the ghost, and the lich . . . ) and RAVENLOFT DMing tips, along with Allen Varney's review of CHAMPIONS, which pretty much sold me on the game. This was both one of the first issues I was exposed to (a friend had it and #163 when we were just starting on D&D) and one of the ones I spent the longest time trying to get (he wouldn't sell).

 

[Greg K]

This is tough. I'd go with


148: For David Howery's Tracking Down the Barbarian and Corrected Cavalier which, in my opinion, fixed the two classes (and Tracking down Barbarian is my favorite article); or

189: David Howery's: The Dark Continent
------Arms and Armor of Africa by Michael J. Varhola
------The other Orientals by Tom Griffith
------Completing the Complete Bard by Jon Winter

Others worthy
45: The archer and archer ranger (it was also the first issue I received)
58-63: Roger E. Moore's non-human deity and point of view articles
67-71: Gary Gygax's: Greyhawk deity articles
75-76: Ed Greenwood's Nine Hell's articles
87-88: Katherine Kerr's Beyond the Dungeon articles
171: David Howery's Completing the Complete Fighter article
191: Open your MInd by Michael John Wybo II
------The Elven Pantheoen Completed by Carl Sargent
------An African Genesis by Brady English
205: The People by David Howery
280: Magic in the Blood by Geoffery McVey
------A Little More Familiar by Steve Kenson
------Just the Facts Mage by Robin D Laws
------Reel Heroes: The characters and magic items the D&D movie
any issue that had a Demonomicon article by James Jacobs;
any issue with Sean K Reynolds's Greyhawk deity articles

 

[Celebrim]

#184, 7 sentence npc. Most useful article evar

Ok, I have to agree that this was the best article Dragon ever published, and I have #184 on my shelf. And it also occurred right in Dragon's first real renaisance, and the period when the cover art was at its height.

However the greatest issue ever was #116, because it utterly transformed the campaign I was in at the time and really has influenced the way I look at every game since. Dragon #116 was the sea faring issue, featuring the Mariner class and lots and lots of rules for travel on the high seas as well as a lot of other semi-random stuff of pretty good quality.

Now, the rules themselves were junk. They clearly were never play tested at all and we rewrote them 3-4 times and ended up greatly expanding on them to cover lots of things not in the article. But they gave us a starting point and they fired the imagination hugely, and the article was - mechanical issues aside - well written and reasonably well researched. And really, firing the imagination to go in strange new directions is what Dragon is all about. So issue #116 wins for me.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Second on #116 especially the lists of ships.

Dragon #78 for a psionicist that was more balanced than its 2nd Edition version and stats for the Deryni.

My first Dragon was #106 with tips for improving rangers and a system to make 3rd Edition Gamma World a better setting.

But the best had to be Dragon #75 and #76 (and the followup #91) for turning the Nine Hells into a campaign setting.

 

[Evilhalfling]

75,76 and 91. for the hell of it.
91 was my first issue, but my brother-in-law game me his collection 72-93 for which I am very grateful.

127? an issue on wars and armies. # 99, for intelligent magic weapons and tables of troops.

for an outlier: 393 - making starpact warlocks viable(ish) and adding names and personalities to the stars, ive prolly gotten the most use out of this article in 4e.

 

[Reynard]

This thread makes me wish there was an ongoing print Pathfinder magazine not associated with the APs...

 

[Ajax1979]

#78- "Citadel by the Sea" the most useful adventure after KotB, fixed psionics, and details on the Deryni series.

Just talking about specific articles:

#50- Glyphs of Cerilon by Larry Ditillio
#59- Toxins of Cerilon: will cure your forever from poisons that sound like blood types.
#58-62- Roger Moore's Demihuman articles