"Classic" Dragon Articles

[Salad Shooter]

A lot of you mention the Wizards Three article, which issue was that from?

 

[Unseelie]

Well, given how well Erik's last 'secret project' turned out, anything we can do to encourage it is GOOD.

All of Dragon Annual #1, in particular the Tesseract articles. To this day, I still think of those as classics that have great value.

The Politics of Hell.
A Plethora of Paladins
Fedifensor
Was the Castle Avignon article in Dragon? It's been so long, I don't recall...but I loved that article.

I really miss the old covers, too. The "chess" covers, to be sure, but so many others. I hate to keep harping on this one, Erik, but I just want some sort of story or action on the cover, instead of the same old character studies. Dungeon has been getting better covers, as of late, so I hope Dragon can follow suit. I'd love to see more pcitures of adventurers...well, adventuring.

Thanks much!

What he said... and less text on the cover would be nice as well. Compared to the old days, the covers of Dragon and Dungeon today are so cluttered. Let me see the art, dammit.

 

[Salad Shooter]

As a living example of how ENWorld is bad for your wallet, I went onto EBay and bought the Dragon Archive CD-Rom this morning.

Curse all of you!!!

Tell me about it, my FLGS has a box of old Dragon magazines, I plan on digging through it and see if I can find some of these oft mentioned issues.

 

[der_kluge]

Ok, I'll admit that I am a mere "casual" reader of Dragon magazine. I have a few back issues, and I do own the CD, but I have only really browsed it occasionally.

The only two articles that I could think of (and one was mentioned - once) are the following:

The article that details adventure hooks for things that you might pick-pocket from someone's pocket. Interesting article.


The other article that I can recall really enjoying, wasn't really an article at all - it was the cardboard cutouts for the Deck of Many Things. Wish I had those in their original form.


Now, to be honest, most of my Dragon's nowadays, I give a cursory glance to, and toss aside. They don't really speak to me. I've stopped being impressed by rules and "cool" things like I was when I was 16. I'm looking for ideas now; something to inspire me.

That said, I would like Dragon magazine to speak to me, as a gamer. I'd like to see Dragon become more of a gamer's magazine, rather than a WoTC magazine. I want more reader mail, more reviews, more feedback from gamers like me. Articles about the meta-game - finding gamers, resolving gamer conflicts, that kind of thing.

How about an issue of nothing but reader mail describing their campaign settings, and the campaign that they are currently running?

How about issues of the 2-10th entries in the campaign setting contest?

How about Dragon actually recognize and legitimize the d20 community, and interview talented, yet no-name authors of some of the better d20 products in the community. How about actual reviews of said d20 products?

I don't need info on the Forgotten Realms, and I care not for Dark Sun. I don't read fiction in Dragon, and for the love of god, I don't need new core classes or even Prestige Classes. I haven't played even 2% of the stuff that is already available to me.

I like the editorials by Gygax, and I like the sage advice, and the fan mail, and you know what, I generally just gloss over the rest and ignore most of it, frankly.

 

[Erik Mona]

JoHnathan said:
>>>
So Erik, any hints on what this is all about?
>>>

Not yet, unfortunately. Let's just say that I've been spending a LOT of time with the Dragon archive. It's been great to see how so many readers' opinions match my memories of favorite articles, and how so many of the articles listed here are in fact ones I've marked "of interest" in my recent reading.

I've got to get back to my work lest the prowler in the publisher's office turn me into a zombei.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine

 

[Richards]

JoHnathan said

Nice "H" there, Erik!

Johnathan

 

[Steve Jung]

A lot of you mention the Wizards Three article, which issue was that from?

It was a recurring series of articles written by Ed Greenwood. The articles were written as Ed's accounts of meetings of Elminster, Mordenkainen, and Dalamar in his home. The wizards gathered to gossip and trade spells, magic items and knowledge of magical creatures. These were given D&D statistics for use in game. I know of two articles: Dragons #196 p.82 and #238 p.42. I would guess there are more.

 

[RFisher]

I also think that thinking they were more useful is an exercise in nostalgia.

Well, I personally have been finding more stuff that is helpful to me today in issues off the archive from before #68* than in the issues from last year.

I also mentally kick myself when I rediscover great articles in the archive that I'd read nigh on two decades ago but had forgotten.

Of course, it probably isn't fair to compare recent issues to the archive. If an archive of Dragon issues from the years 2000 to 2010 fell through a time warp into my hands, maybe it'd look better as a unit than it does month-to-month. Maybe.

*My first issue of Dragon ever.

 

[Alzrius]

I can't remember if I've said this before, but for me, the classic stuff was campaign-specific stuff that you couldn't get elsewhere. If you played in any of the established campaigns, things like that gave you that little bit of extra depth in the world, making it that much richer.

I also realy liked the articles with new gods. Something about that just made it so very cool. Things like the lesser gods of the Seldarine, etc. were pure gold!

 

[Salad Shooter]

It was a recurring series of articles written by Ed Greenwood. The articles were written as Ed's accounts of meetings of Elminster, Mordenkainen, and Dalamar in his home. The wizards gathered to gossip and trade spells, magic items and knowledge of magical creatures. These were given D&D statistics for use in game. I know of two articles: Dragons #196 p.82 and #238 p.42. I would guess there are more.

Okay, thanks!