"Classic" Dragon Articles

[Gentlegamer]

IMHO, Dragon worked best when it catered to all the fans by giving them a breadth of material. That meant regular 'monster' stuff for the DMs who wanted to throw something new at their players ("Creature Catalogs", "The Ecology of ..."), regular FR articles for the fans of that setting without necessarily having to do a 'series' ("Rogue Stones and Gem Jumping", "City of Sunken Spires", "Seven Swords"), regular GH/DL/Mystara et. al. articles for the fans of those settings, and enough non-gameworld specific material to stop the griping from the anti-FR/GH/DL etc. brigade. I was always interested in material that could be instantly used in any campaign like new herbs, poisons, horses - even if that material was showcased in a gameworld specific vehicle (like GH or FR) - it was very simple to take it out of the 'fluff'. And at the very least, the 'fluff' was usually interesting and entertaining and with a bit of work could be transported to other campaign settings. Certainly better than a bland, dry schoolbook recitation of game stats.

This an excellent description of "the old days!" This is generally how I remember Dragon when I was a regular reader.

 

[Gentlegamer]

More coming to mind:

Ecology of the Gibbering Mouther

"The Lay of Droone" -- short story

"Thief on a String" -- short story

 

[diaglo]

Tom Wham games.

visit www.tomwham.com

Wormy.

i miss Wormy.

 

[Ron]

Why were you disappointed? Had you not read Dragon very much before buying the archive? I ask because I see you're not in the US. I'd read Dragon since issue 45, and I love the archive.

We often played at a friend's house who was a subscriber in the middle 80s. I read a lot of those issues and, at that time, they appear to be nice. I was about 18 and I wanted to digest everything I could find about D&D. I was in my middle 30s when I brought the CD and, quite frankly, I think Dragon don't have much for a more mature audience. I didn't found much use to the rules additions and I didn't found the setting pieces to be that interesting. In fact, there are already too many rules available for free or otherwise and I believe that reading fantasy literature or real world history is much more inspiring than reading rpg settings.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The people who are posting here and read this stuff as it came out are almost certainly jaded as all hell!

I think its people who didn't read it back in the old days who are jaded, perhaps because they don't have the nostalgia factor working on them.

jaded adj.
Worn out; wearied: “My father's words had left me jaded and depressed” (William Styron).
Dulled by surfeit; sated: “the sickeningly sweet life of the amoral, jaded, bored upper classes” (John Simon).
Cynically or pretentiously callous.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

We often played at a friend's house who was a subscriber in the middle 80s. I read a lot of those issues and, at that time, they appear to be nice. I was about 18 and I wanted to digest everything I could find about D&D. I was in my middle 30s when I brought the CD and, quite frankly, I think Dragon don't have much for a more mature audience. I didn't found much use to the rules additions and I didn't found the setting pieces to be that interesting. In fact, there are already too many rules available for free or otherwise and I believe that reading fantasy literature or real world history is much more inspiring than reading rpg settings.

Well, sure, the rules additions are for older editions of D&D, so are of limited use for 3e/3.5 players. I think the archive is great because it shows the evolution of the game, and reveals how gamers have always been pretty much the same, in that they have always been interested in the same basic things - rules additions, monsters, etc.

At that time, the late 70s and into the 80s, the age of the average gamer was probably a lot younger than it is now, simply because the game itself was new, which would explain why Dragon didn't seem geared toward a more mature audience.

I think comparing the archive to today's game environment may be a little unfair. For a long time, Dragon was one of only a very few outlets for game material that was available on a wide-scale basis. The internet has obviously made the dissemination of game material much easier on a much wider scale. I'd say the Dragon archive is more interesting as an historical document than as a game resource for today's gamer - but I do think there are plenty of ideas to be gathered from it.

 

[Gomez]

Tom Wham games

Man that bring be back! I vividly remembering playing The Awful Green Things From Outer Space with my friend after school! Good times, good times!

 

[The_Universe]

I nominate the "Missing Dragons of the Color Wheel" though I suspect it's too late.

 

[Committed Hero]

First one read was #63; subscription started with #67 (Fedifensor)

Favorite Issue: #73. Contest-winning dungeon (Forest of Doom), reworked Elemental Planes; good stuff on every page.

My favorite 1/2 spell was Bigby's Insulting Finger.

I remember reading pre-FR Greenwood articles (esp Pages from the Mages and Seven Swords from #74) and marveling at the backstory of the people and places involved.

My list includes: Top Secret Adventures;

the Greyhawk metaplot articles from the #50s-60s or so;

I can't make a pantheon anymore without thinking about #77's Elemental Gods article;

just about anything by Katherine Kerr;

Weather in the World of Greyhawk (#68);

and the first and second reviews of Magic: The Gathering

PS Sunday's planet....

 

[fredramsey]

Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut

Oh, and what I wouldn't give for a Nine Hells boxed set... [drool]