D&D 5E Dragon/Dungeon Magazines?

[TheBlueKnight]

Where can one find old copies of the magazines? I have the 4e issues from DnD Insider but the stuff from 1e-3.5e I don't have. Are they available electronically somehow?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rygar]

Where can one find old copies of the magazines? I have the 4e issues from DnD Insider but the stuff from 1e-3.5e I don't have. Are they available electronically somehow?

Thanks in advance.

You can find copies on E-bay for relatively low prices (Other than the Paizo adventure paths), Paizo currently has a ton of the 3.x era magazines on sale at their site. You can get a huge chunk of the 1e/2e era stuff if you track down the Dragon Magazine CD set.

 

[Zardnaar]

As a writer for 4e Dungeon I have to disagree; while I think there was a bit of an initial dip, by 2009-2010 the magazine was regularly producing high quality adventures.

I went through my 4th ed Dugneons last week from that era (2010) looking for maps to use and I had just looked at the final Paizo era Dungeons and ran the War of the Wielded adventure. The 4E PDFs are not even in the same league as a lot of the maps look like badly arranged tiles. The cartography is le suck.

 

[Shroomy]

I went through my 4th ed Dugneons last week from that era (2010) looking for maps to use and I had just looked at the final Paizo era Dungeons and ran the War of the Wielded adventure. The 4E PDFs are not even in the same league as a lot of the maps look like badly arranged tiles. The cartography is le suck.

I'm not going to dispute that maps created from Dungeon Tiles aren't that attractive, but there are plenty of good adventures, especially after WotC abandoned the tactical encounter format.

 

[The_Gneech]

I actually usually have the opposite approach; I made extensive use of Dragon but I usually skipped over Dungeon since it was mostly adventures, which is good and all but not what I was interested in content-wise (since I generally engineer my own adventures).

YMMV, of course. I can always use more adventures, even if I tear 'em to pieces and scatter the bits across my own campaign like chocolate sprinkles.

-TG

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm not going to dispute that maps created from Dungeon Tiles aren't that attractive, but there are plenty of good adventures, especially after WotC abandoned the tactical encounter format.

Feel free to recommend a few up to the end of 2010. Were you familiar with Dungeon in the final days of 3.5? At the time thats what I compared the 4E Dungeon to and that was probably the apex of 3.5 adventure design with the Savage Tide AP.

 

[Shroomy]

Feel free to recommend a few up to the end of 2010. Were you familiar with Dungeon in the final days of 3.5? At the time thats what I compared the 4E Dungeon to and that was probably the apex of 3.5 adventure design with the Savage Tide AP.

I'm familiar with all the eras of Dungeon magazine. Here are some good to great 4e adventures from before 2011:

Last Breaths of Ashenport (Dungeon 156)
Siege of Bordrin's Watch (Dungeon 157)
Haven of the Bitter Glass (Dungeon 164)
Remains of the Empire (Dungeon 165)
Storm Tower (Dungeon 166)
Oasis of the Golden Peacock (Dungeon 169 - disclosure: I wrote this one)
Monument of the Ancients (Dungeon 170)
Dead by Dawn (Dungeon 176)
Tyrant's Oath (Dungeon 178)
The Spiral Gate (Dungeon 180)
The Vault of Darom Madar (Dungeon 181)
Lord of the White Fields (Dungeon 184)
Bark at the Moon (Dungeon 185)

Now do I think that early 4e era measures up to the late 3.5e Dungeon era or Barbara Young's tenure during the 1e/2e/BECMI days (probably the highwater mark of the magazines), no, but I think it still produced some good stuff (and a couple of those adventures like "Monuments of the Ancients" and "Lord of the White Fields" are really topnotch; I'd include my own, but I'm humble ) - and got even better when the tactical encounter format was abandoned in the following year.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I miss DRAGON/DUNGEON magazines and am eager to give my $$ again to WoTC without looking back!!

 

[Mercule]

Every issue of Dungeon is worth getting. Dragon is much more variable, with earlier issues being more generally useful and later ones being more edition-dependent.

I actually usually have the opposite approach; I made extensive use of Dragon but I usually skipped over Dungeon since it was mostly adventures, which is good and all but not what I was interested in content-wise (since I generally engineer my own adventures).

A little bit of A and a bit of B. I still have tons of 1E Dragons, but mostly 3E Dungeons. For Dragon, that's because I definitely preferred the 1E/2E content to 3E/4E content -- and hope 5E Dragon looks more "old school". For Dungeon, it's a matter of being a hard-core home-brewer; I didn't need published adventures until I had a 40 hour job and kids. I still have a shelf full of 3E Dungeons, though, that'll get updated for 5E, as needed.

As a writer for 4e Dungeon I have to disagree; while I think there was a bit of an initial dip, by 2009-2010 the magazine was regularly producing high quality adventures.

I'd guess that the style of adventure presentation (emphasis on encounters) has more to do with any disparaging of 4E Dragon. I think the writers typically did what was asked of them, well enough. Maybe that's what you mean, though.

 

[Jester David]

Possibly never.

WotC might not have the staff to run a magazine anymore. And licensing the service out seems dubious, as I can't imagine many publishers willingly getting into the magazine game.