D&D General Damn I miss Dragon Magazine

[Professor Murder]

I know I am showing my age, but I miss the actual, physical publication. I know that print news media is dying off, but I just enjoyed picking it up every month. I really looked forward to it.

 

[el-remmen]

When I loved Dragon I loved Dragon, but my interest fell off somewhere near the middle of the 2E period. Dungeon, on the other hand was my jam and I am still working on a complete print collection (through the 2E period - which was its high point to my mind).

 

[Professor Murder]

I bought it regularly from 1st ed all the way up until the final issue. Dungeon was more sporadic because my inclination was typically to write my own adventures.

 

[delericho]

Yeah, I miss them both. Especially in the times when I wasn't able to play much (like now), they were a tether to the hobby that nothing else quite replicates.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I miss the crazy Forum (was that what it was called?) where readers had back and forth rants. Like the hilarious guy who thought the "Black Prince" was African.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I used to like the old White Dwarf, before it went Games Workshop products only.

 

[GreyLord]

I used to like the old White Dwarf, before it went Games Workshop products only.

Even then I didn't think it was bad, until it went overboard into mostly just miniature discussion and nothing else (no lore, rules, or much else, at least at one point...where I lost interest).

 

[R_J_K75]

Once it went digital it was never the same. I cant remember But I think it was free with the 4E digital PC creation software/subscription. Whatever the case I stopped reading it for those few years. I dont read Dragon+ either. It would be great if it came back. I truly believe that theres enough of an audience to bring it back in print in some capacity.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

In addition to the print media dying off, I think another problem you run into here in America is the mailing. As someone who handles mail that's delivered to my job, there's no end of troubles with the post office - especially going back about four months. I'd routinely get envelopes that'd been sitting at the post office for two or three weeks. I can't imagine that getting Dragon magazines out in a more timely efficient way would be easier than these.

 

[Maialideth]

I agree, I miss it as well. My favorite article of all time is the Trifling Treasures. I still use it in my games today, but with a file I made in Inspiration Pad Pro. I combined it with the individual treasure tables from DMG for whenever my players loot random stuff.

 

[Alzrius]

I've got a deep collection of the print runs of Dragon, Dungeon, and Polyhedron, which I still fill out with back issues every so often; I just picked up near-mint copies of Dragon issues #184 and #192 earlier this month.

At the very least, I wish WotC would make POD options for the digital versions of Dragon, since they're now on sale on DTRPG, but that doesn't seem likely to happen. As it is, they don't even have all of those issues up for sale; the last print issue was #359, but the DTRPG PDFs don't begin until issue #364 (affiliate link).

 

[Carlsen Chris]

I miss the crazy Forum (was that what it was called?) where readers had back and forth rants. Like the hilarious guy who thought the "Black Prince" was African.

Were you thinking that Edward of Woodstock was the only Black Prince in world history?

 

[Alzrius]

Were you thinking that Edward of Woodstock was the only Black Prince in world history?

Wait, you mean they weren't talking about Robby "The Black Prince" Robinson?

 

[BookTenTiger]

My first friend I ever played D&D (AD&D, a year before 3e came out) learned to play entirely from getting Dragon Magazines from the library. I always think about that.

I used to reread Dragon Magazine from cover to cover as a kid, over and over. Bazar of the Bizarre, Knights of the Dinner Table, the short stories... It really fueled my imagination as a kid.

 

[aco175]

I miss it as well. I can see why they went away, but I would pay for it again. The switch to online Dungeon was ok and I could sort them better, but not the same as having something in your hand. I can still get my Golf magazines each month and do not have any problems getting them. They likely have 20 times the subscriptions though. I would even by cool with the thinner paper and back to staples to have it in print.

Dragon+ is ok and I look at, but most appears to be just advertising and not much crunch I would want. There is some good story and talk behind scenes that I like.

Even the Wizards DnD website is something I do not visit much. I like some of the articles and surveys. There is some to look at and read, but most is just advertising. I also find that most anything worth reading I see linked on this site before I find it there.

 

[el-remmen]

I reread them over and over, too. My collection of Dragon goes from about #103 to the early 220s - but there are some gaps (esp. early on) and those early ones when they have covers, have them barely hanging on.

I did have a subscription for a while (around the time of #200). I never got a subscription to Dungeon (which I regret).

I also submitted several articles to Dragon in my late teens/early twenties, but none were acceptances, though I got some encouraging rejections.

 

[Shiroiken]

When I loved Dragon I loved Dragon, but my interest fell off somewhere near the middle of the 2E period. Dungeon, on the other hand was my jam and I am still working on a complete print collection (through the 2E period - which was its high point to my mind).

I also loved The Dragon, but after a while it became just too bloated with ads and junk articles to be interesting. Dungeon was superior IMO, because even if the adventures weren't particularly good they'd still provide some inspiration for doing it yourself.

 

[wingsandsword]

I miss it too.

It was one of the very few magazines I ever subscribed to. Even when I didn't subscribe to it, I was always at my FLGS once a month to pick it up.

Replacing it with a website really didn't count. Dragon, very sadly, is long dead. In a lot of ways WotC ending Dragon when they went to 4e as just another sign that D&D as I knew it was dead (or at least not officially supported anymore) and how I felt "fired" as a customer with how everything I liked about D&D wasn't officially condoned anymore.

 

[Umbran]

I miss it, in the nostalgic way that glosses over the fact that often enough, most of the content of any given issue wasn't terribly useful.

 

[jgsugden]

I think it should be replaced with a monthly subscription that delivers physical props for D&D that help the DM build a better game (and a few articles / written supplemental materials). A loot crate that ties in directly to the WotC products being released ... Tarot decks for Ravenloft, Unique Terrain features in new Adventures, Unique (exclusive) miniatures for new source books, etc... Instead of monthly, a quarterly release could keep the budget affordable and still give us that joy of experiencing the new releases in 5E.

They could also introduce game options with physical mechanics. For example, I designed a magic system for a homebrew game system where the spellcaster, who gained the ability to cast magic unexpected and did not learn how to control it, was given a bag with colored disks, wire frames of various sizes and a sliding scale (along with a cardboard sheet with a large circle on it). They had a moment of inspiration that told them how to do one thing with these materials, but they had to figure out the rest through experimentation, often with disastrous errors along their learning curve.