"Classic" Dragon Articles

[Joshua Randall]

The majority of people's favorites mentioned in this thread fall into one of two categories:

(1) really cool fluff wrapped around a little crunch
(2) new game mechanics

I think that the days of seeing a lot of (2) in Dragon are over. Why? Because under the d20 license, publishers don't need Dragon as a vehicle for introducing cool new rules variants. Third-party publishers are the major source for new game mechanics, now.

As for (1), we could debate until the end of time over the appropriate fluff-to-crunch ratio. For my own preference, I would point to the Githyanki Incursion articles in Dragon (and Dungeon) as the 'right' ratio: a few new PrCs and weapons and magic, and a whole ton of wicked-cool background information. I'd like to see more articles like that in Dragon. But again, that's just me... your fluff-to-crunch mileage may vary.

 

[Patlin]

Stuff I remember most fondly:

1. The Deryni and the original Psionicist class
2. A story called "Wear Wolf" -- I don't read Dragon for the short stories, usually, but this one has stuck with me. I really liked the punch line.
3. Giants in the Earth. I liked both the conversions of literary characters and some of the new stuff. I remember a halfling who's enemies tended to be accident prone. One fell out of a window and landed on his own sword and knife a couple of dozen times! (This was from an April issue, I'm sure.)

New stuff I especially like:

1. Zogonia!! More! More!
2. Anything that provides new spells and/or feats. One of the editorials in the last couple of years discussed how cool that is, and I agree. Water Blast from the temple of Elemental Evil article is my Arcane Trickster's number one spell...

 

[Olive]

(2) new game mechanics

I think that the days of seeing a lot of (2) in Dragon are over. Why? Because under the d20 license, publishers don't need Dragon as a vehicle for introducing cool new rules variants. Third-party publishers are the major source for new game mechanics, now.

Well, i think it's also a product of 3e. 3e is so much more flexible around core mechanics (feats, skills PrCs) that many new mechanics are simply unnecessary. Most of the classes mentioned are easily replicable with feats and PrCs.

 

[woodelf]

When I think of old Dragon articles, a lot of truly outrageous stuff comes to mind, like OTT character classes that had 4 or 5 pages worth of class features. Anyone else remember the ninja or the jester? Those authors didn't think for a second that they should be trimmed down to resemble something reasonable. But then again, why should they have? Everyone knew they were strictly for NPC's only.....

Riiiiight!

Actually, in all the groups i knew about, we took that seriously, with one exception--had an anti-paladin once. But never had a balance problem with that one, either--i'd looked at it before allowing it, just as i'd judged for myself to disallow the ninja, witch, and several others.

 

[woodelf]

For me, all the best Dragon material is tied to a specific world: Ed Greenwood's 200-odd Realms articles, everything by Gary Gygax, Bruce Heard's Mystara work, and others. Good stuff too from Robin Laws and Ray Winninger, but mostly the 'idea' articles and the pieces not anchored to a named setting are ephemeral and not the sort of thing you refer to later. Building memorable depth and emotion in an isolated non-narrative article is just too hard.

Huh. The idea articles are the ones i still go back to, 20 years later. The crunch i used to varying degrees, though i never have liked the Forgotten Realms, so articles that fit well with it often didn't appeal to me (even when they weren't so tied to the Realms that they couldn't be put into a different setting).

 

[woodelf]

The best, most useful article I ever read was the Seven Sentence NPC. I think it still works well today.

Doh! Completely forgot about that one. i *should* be using it still, to this day. D'you remember which issue that one was in?

 

[Ron]

The Voyage of the Princess Ark series by Bruce Heard is, by far, the best articles I ever read in Dragon. I am also liked the Nine Hells by Ed Greenwood and the Anti-Paladin piece, which also got a lot of use in its time.

The worst offender was, also by far, The Three Wizards series of articles by Ed Greenwood. I found them to be stupid and I still hate them (yes, I still have strong negative emotions to those) after many years.

 

[MerricB]

If there's one type of article I'd like to see, it is the article where a designer explains the choices made during the design of a feat, prestige class, game mechanic or similar.

Yes, I love the "Behind the Curtain" sidebars in the books.

Cheers!

 

[Tratyn Runewind]

Hi again,

Posted by Patlin:
I remember a halfling who's enemies tended to be accident prone. One fell out of a window and landed on his own sword and knife a couple of dozen times! (This was from an April issue, I'm sure.)

This would be the infamous Eubeen Hadd, from the "Midgets in the Earth" column in Dragon #60. How could I have forgotten poor Eubeen?! The passage in question is,

There were some troubles at the start of his career, but most of them were cleared up in a short time. Hecklers at his nightly rallies were surprised to find the thongs on their sandals cut or tied together, and all of their spare change disappeared when they least expected it. The hecklers assumed that Eubeen’s numerous halfling followers were to blame, and they hired a noted and feared anti-paladin to go after him and discuss the matter. Unfortunately, the anti-paladin suffered an unusual accident while riding through town to meet Eubeen. His saddle straps parted as he rode past a group of hairy-footed children, and he fell into a large public fountain. Though the children tried to rescue him, it was to no avail. Constables on the scene found the anti-paladin had drowned and had fallen on his sword and dagger thirty-eight times. Later, a ringleader of the hecklers was found in his home, having apparently fallen from an upper-story window twice, after tying himself to a chair and taking poison. Eubeen’s comment that the man must have been accident-prone was accepted without hesitation by everyone, and his rallies now go on uninterrupted.

Hope this helps!

 

[BOZ]

heheh...