"Classic" Dragon Articles
- Thread starter Erik Mona
- Start date
johnsemlak
First Post
I bought it late last year at www.barnesandnoble.com
MrFilthyIke
First Post
Dr. Harry said:
Wow, thanks for the linkage.
Mouseferatu
Hero
Dr. Harry said:
Grumble, grumble, stupid link, making me spend $42, grumble...
Seriously, thanks. Mine's on its way.
MrFilthyIke
First Post
Mouseferatu said:
Hee hee, I hear you "grumble, grumble"...
Lazybones
Hero
You've all hit the ones I remember most. I instantly recalled "Good Hits, Bad Misses;" I used it in two campaigns and it was INSANE. My party looked like a bunch of escapees from a WW1 veterans' hospital; one player had a wooden foot, another a wooden arm, a third was missing an eye (and of course that ignores the ones that didn't survive, including a guy who shot a bolt into his own brain with his crossbow).
For a bunch of teenagers, it was wicked fun
The other thing that really stuck were the comic "What's New" and the modules... "Citadel by the Sea" was a classic starter in those days (played or DMed it maybe 4 times in total). Never got to play "Baba Yaga's Hut" but I remember writing out about 20 pages of notes on what was in those rooms.
For a bunch of teenagers, it was wicked fun
The other thing that really stuck were the comic "What's New" and the modules... "Citadel by the Sea" was a classic starter in those days (played or DMed it maybe 4 times in total). Never got to play "Baba Yaga's Hut" but I remember writing out about 20 pages of notes on what was in those rooms.
Emirikol
Adventurer
Erik,
My glory days of Dragon were between 76 and 118 (my first purchase was #86). Some of the finest issues ever were between 107 and 118 (and are essentially 3rd edition in the flesh). Now look what you've done, I've got to go dig out my Dragon CD's to relive my past
I really loved the list/blocks of mercenaries in 109 (etc.) and the cover done by my favorite fantasy artist, Daniel Horne. Here's a list:
Greyhawk stuff (cuz' it had so many open-ended adventure strings and 'that Greyhawk feel')
The classes: incantatrix, duelist, barbarian-cleric, the witch (114..cover mostly)
109-Locals aren't all Yokels, Hooves & green hair
118-Hero points (nuff said)
116-All about Thieves
Later issues also had stuff on "how players can help the DM" and "how the DM can help the players 'role'-play." I liked those a lot.
148: Deck of many things
To sum it up: I like those little charts of useful information that I can clip and stick on my DM's screen to help aid an adventure. I always wish that Bizarre of the Bizarre and the like would have put the new magical items in a format that I could do the following with:
1. Sorted by low/med/high level instead of all mixed together, leaving you to 'guess' if an item might work. All of the articles should have worked more towards 'fitting' the stuff into a campaign at level variances..just like DUNGEON does with their adventures. Wow, I can already see how this would fit into DUNGEON...
2. "Boxed" or something so that I could copy off the page, cut out the description of the item and just HAND it to the player instead of having them have to hand-write out the description..which ALWAYS ended up being just the bonuses and NOT the history of the item (which is what really makes the items cool).
I was neutral on the following:
Princess ark..interesting, but not something I felt like sorting through
On the wrong end, I never found any practical use for the following:
The over-done, numerous, redundant, useless, space-wasting, surplus YEARLY articles on Dragons. Christ, 90% of regular campaigns have maybe TWO dragons in them per player LIFETIME but Dragon always chewed up an ENTIRE issue every year.
jh
..
My glory days of Dragon were between 76 and 118 (my first purchase was #86). Some of the finest issues ever were between 107 and 118 (and are essentially 3rd edition in the flesh). Now look what you've done, I've got to go dig out my Dragon CD's to relive my past
I really loved the list/blocks of mercenaries in 109 (etc.) and the cover done by my favorite fantasy artist, Daniel Horne. Here's a list:
Greyhawk stuff (cuz' it had so many open-ended adventure strings and 'that Greyhawk feel')
The classes: incantatrix, duelist, barbarian-cleric, the witch (114..cover mostly)
109-Locals aren't all Yokels, Hooves & green hair
118-Hero points (nuff said)
116-All about Thieves
Later issues also had stuff on "how players can help the DM" and "how the DM can help the players 'role'-play." I liked those a lot.
148: Deck of many things
To sum it up: I like those little charts of useful information that I can clip and stick on my DM's screen to help aid an adventure. I always wish that Bizarre of the Bizarre and the like would have put the new magical items in a format that I could do the following with:
1. Sorted by low/med/high level instead of all mixed together, leaving you to 'guess' if an item might work. All of the articles should have worked more towards 'fitting' the stuff into a campaign at level variances..just like DUNGEON does with their adventures. Wow, I can already see how this would fit into DUNGEON...
2. "Boxed" or something so that I could copy off the page, cut out the description of the item and just HAND it to the player instead of having them have to hand-write out the description..which ALWAYS ended up being just the bonuses and NOT the history of the item (which is what really makes the items cool).
I was neutral on the following:
Princess ark..interesting, but not something I felt like sorting through
On the wrong end, I never found any practical use for the following:
The over-done, numerous, redundant, useless, space-wasting, surplus YEARLY articles on Dragons. Christ, 90% of regular campaigns have maybe TWO dragons in them per player LIFETIME but Dragon always chewed up an ENTIRE issue every year.
jh
..
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DungeonmasterCal
First Post
I remember the Nine Hells articles (and the Elmore drawing of the Paladin stating "Tomorrow I ride on the Hells". We all thought that guy surely had more balls than brains.
Issue 114's Witch Class is one of my favorites, and my first original D&D character was an anti-paladin (my first character was a fighter I inherited when a player quit the campaign).
"Good Hits and Bad Misses" saw much usage in our campaigns. My players LOVED those charts, even the Fumble chart. I've created a d20 based Critical Hit system that we use now, but it still lacks the feel of that original one.
The Dragon's Bestiary--more cool monsters than you could shake a stick at, and most you wouldn't even dare doing that to.
Bazaar of the Bizarre--Having a regular monthly article with new magic doohickeys was great.
New NPC articles, such as the Bounty Hunter, the Mariner, the Deathmaster, The Dreamer, etc. I played a Type II Bounty Hunter for years, and the most insidious foe some of my early players faced was a Deathmaster.
Historical articles about so many topics, such as early forms of long distance communication, themed articles about real world cultures and how to integrate them into a campaign (the issue with all the classes and weapons from India is still one of my favorites).
The Halloween issues chock full of undead and necromantic goodness, and the April Fool's issues that were actually funny.
And The Forum!! Sure, sure, we have messageboards and the internet now, but man...I miss reading the Forum articles.
"What's New with Phil and Dixie"...it was great to have them back for awhile.
Oh...and the covers that actually seemed to tell a story on their own. I can't recall the issue, but the cover features an undead knight in rusted armor astride a skeletal horse in a dismal marsh, holding a lantern on a pole. I created a whole adventure based on that one cover, and tied the incident to a holiday celebrated in the campaign I ran then. Another favorite was a Jim Holloway cover of three wounded orcs surrounded by an elven army, and one of the orcs beckoning the elven commander to "Come get some". Current covers, while often done by very talented artists, seem flat and lifeless to me.
In today's Dragon, I really have no use at all for anything to do with the Forgotten Realms or any of the fluff, to be honest. I used to read Dragon cover to cover because even the fluff was interesting, but now it just seems to be advertisement for more product. Now I just glean the crunchy bits out and put the rest away. Some of the older Dragon mags (especially from the mid 80's to early 90's) carried articles that challenged a person intellectually, involving random number theories, how languages were developed, and historical facts to back up examples for game play. I've not missed a single issue since #115 (and have managed to track down 70% of the remaining issues), but I feel Dragon has "dumbed down" a great deal over the years, and have been pondering how better to spend my subscription money.
Issue 114's Witch Class is one of my favorites, and my first original D&D character was an anti-paladin (my first character was a fighter I inherited when a player quit the campaign).
"Good Hits and Bad Misses" saw much usage in our campaigns. My players LOVED those charts, even the Fumble chart. I've created a d20 based Critical Hit system that we use now, but it still lacks the feel of that original one.
The Dragon's Bestiary--more cool monsters than you could shake a stick at, and most you wouldn't even dare doing that to.
Bazaar of the Bizarre--Having a regular monthly article with new magic doohickeys was great.
New NPC articles, such as the Bounty Hunter, the Mariner, the Deathmaster, The Dreamer, etc. I played a Type II Bounty Hunter for years, and the most insidious foe some of my early players faced was a Deathmaster.
Historical articles about so many topics, such as early forms of long distance communication, themed articles about real world cultures and how to integrate them into a campaign (the issue with all the classes and weapons from India is still one of my favorites).
The Halloween issues chock full of undead and necromantic goodness, and the April Fool's issues that were actually funny.
And The Forum!! Sure, sure, we have messageboards and the internet now, but man...I miss reading the Forum articles.
"What's New with Phil and Dixie"...it was great to have them back for awhile.
Oh...and the covers that actually seemed to tell a story on their own. I can't recall the issue, but the cover features an undead knight in rusted armor astride a skeletal horse in a dismal marsh, holding a lantern on a pole. I created a whole adventure based on that one cover, and tied the incident to a holiday celebrated in the campaign I ran then. Another favorite was a Jim Holloway cover of three wounded orcs surrounded by an elven army, and one of the orcs beckoning the elven commander to "Come get some". Current covers, while often done by very talented artists, seem flat and lifeless to me.
In today's Dragon, I really have no use at all for anything to do with the Forgotten Realms or any of the fluff, to be honest. I used to read Dragon cover to cover because even the fluff was interesting, but now it just seems to be advertisement for more product. Now I just glean the crunchy bits out and put the rest away. Some of the older Dragon mags (especially from the mid 80's to early 90's) carried articles that challenged a person intellectually, involving random number theories, how languages were developed, and historical facts to back up examples for game play. I've not missed a single issue since #115 (and have managed to track down 70% of the remaining issues), but I feel Dragon has "dumbed down" a great deal over the years, and have been pondering how better to spend my subscription money.
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Erik Mona said:
Well, you ask what are, to me, three distinct questions. Which articles we talk about, which are classics, and which are my favorites, only have partial overlap.
The only ones we seem to talk about on a recurring basis would be the attack priority and alternate alignment articles, and the ecology articles in the abstract (not any particular one, just how great the old ones all are). Oh, and i might bring up Role-Playing Reviews any time i want to bitch about how the magazine has changed.
The classics?
- Role-Playing Reviews
- Ecology of ...
- Voyage of the Princess Ark
- Gods of the Suel Pantheon
- Pages from the Mages
- Treasure Trove
- Creature Catalog
- From the Sorcerer's Scroll
- Leomund's Tiny Hut
- The [demihuman] Point of View series (only reason this one doesn't make it onto my favorites list, below, is because by the time i got into D&D, the material that had first appeared in these articles was pretty much a given, so i don't really think of these articles as to credit)
- Nogard and the whole April Fools section of #96, especially the Wandering Damage Table
- The Marvel Phile
- the Tucker's kobolds editorial
- The Plants of Biurndon
- Arcane Lore
- Katherine Kerr's outdoor adventuring articles
- SnarfQuest
- Wormy
- Dragon Mirth
As for my favorites--you'll notice a lot of the "classics" from above on the list, and a lot missing. This is far from a complete list, but it took me long enough to locate these (i wanted to put issue numbers to as many of them as possible), so i stopped looking around #200 (my collection is ~75 - ~275).
series:
- Role-playing Reviews (while i generally preferred the ecology articles, it was Role-playing Reviews that kept me subscribed to Dragon for two or three years after the rest of it had gone to pot and was rarely of any interest to me)
- Ecology of ... (though i hear tell that, since i stopped reading, they've pretty much ruined these, dropping the fluff that made them so useful, in favor of just crunch)
- Voyage of the Princess Ark
- The Marvel Phile
- the African series of articles (monsters, gods, weapons, classes, maybe one or two others)
- Pages from the Mages, and then Arcane Lore [much preferred to Three Wizards] is probably second only to Ecology of ... for the most-reliably satisfying article series
- Wormy
individual articles:
- Notice Anything Different? (perception stat--i'm still disappointed they rolled this into Wis in D&D3E)
- Get Your Priorities Straight (best system for D&D-style alignment i've seen yet, #173)
- Hey, Wanna be a Kobold? (#141)
- Who Gets the First Swing? (attack priority, #71--the basis for much of my combat system from the time i saw it)
- Underestimating Druids (Is a Bad Practice) (#119)
- Good Stuff, for a Spell (magic-focusing items, #111)
- Welcome to Malachi (city designed with magic in mind, #111)
- The Plants of Biurndon (fantasy non-magical vegetation, #108)
- The Laws of Magic (#106)
- The Sunset World (mind flayers--i'd probably pick this as the single best article prior to issue 275 (when i stopped reading), if i had to pick just one)
- The Many Types of Magic (how spells are classified into their schools)
- He's Got a Lot to Kick About (revised monk)
- Singing a New Tune (revised bard--i used this one in preference to the 2nd-ed one for many a year)
- A Plethora of Paladins (#106)
- The Ranger Redefined (wilderness skills, #106)
- Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd (#93)
- wandering damage (#96)
- "tucker's kobolds" editorial
- the editorial pointing out that more people suffer religion-inspired hallucinations than fantasy-inspired hallucinations when they suffer a psychotic break
- land dragons
- ferrous dragons
- Short Hops and Big Drops (jumping mechanics)
- Mind of the Monster (RPing monsters according to Int)
- the incantatrix
- gemstone dragons
- Six Very Special Shields (i generally don't care for magic item articles, unless they have very cool backstories)
- How Many Coins in a Coffer? (treasure volumes)
- Unearthed Mundana (non-magical treasures)
- The Enemy at the Gates (castle design with magic in mind, #160)
- Thief on a String (fiction, #160)
- Inside Information (information sources, #161)
- Romance and Adventure (#161)
- Making Law out of Chaos (clearing up alignment, #163)
- The Making of a Monster (RPing monsters, #171)
- Role-playing and the Real World (guest editorial by Michael A. Stackpole, #171)
- Lifegiver (fiction, nov '94)
- No Campaign Ever Fails (campaign-fixing eadvice, #111)
- Worth its Weight in Gold (dwarven beards)
- For King and Country (alignment system, #101)
- Treasures of teh Wilds (furs and such, #137)
- The Long Arm of the Law (#136)
- Front-End Alignments ("alignments" for players, rather than characters, #124)
- The Mystic College (#123)
- Are You Having Bad Thoughts? (psionics in ravenloft, #174)
- The Whole-Earth Ecology (creating believable creatures, #123)
- How Taxes Take Their Toll (#99)
- article on magic items made of embodied elements or ideals, like a sword literally made of lightning
There, that should keep you busy for a bit.
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