Dragon's 35th Birthday, which one is your favorite?

[Ulrick]

Dragon #216

It has one of the best articles written for Dragon. "The Auld Alliance," by Arthur Collins shows how to keep a gaming group together for the long haul, for years. It was published in 1995, but I still use Mr. Collins' advice to this day: Game with friends and people you would enjoy company with away from the gaming table, be responsible, etc, etc. He also pointed out a interesting trend in the hobby, even back then:

It troubles me to see what seems to be a major shift among young gamers of the today in how they use the FRPG format. We [Collins & his group] always had see the rules and game constructs... as mere conviences; what did with them was to enter the world of heroic fantasy. But gamers today who have introduced to the world of the fantasy through FRPGs see it differently; for them, the rules and game constructs are often primary reality...

...They run through all the neat stuff published and it's just not enough. They eat and eat, but are still hungry. They cannot see the legendary being the monster stats represent, but only more and more stats.

I think that last part has come true. 3.0e took three years to cycle through its books. 3.5e took around four years. 4.0 took only about two before Essentials came out.

It also doesn't surprise me that a retro-clone renaissance started in response to this. But that is a topic for another thread or blog post.

 

[fireinthedust]

Issue #1: Rise of the Runelords! Well, er, actually that was the Pathfinder issue I got in the middle of my subscription...


Actually, I loved the Dragon and Dungeon magazines in print form, and for years wanted a subscription (then I get one, and bam: Pathfinder! Also good, it turns out). I don't mind the pdfs on the Wizards site, but I like me some tangible magazines! The content there is fine, but 4e isn't my game right now. (fun game, though, if you can afford a new printer)


Hrm, fave issue? I really liked the Eberron one with the prison in it. Not a Dungeon issue, but it's an article describing a place (I think). Also the last few Paizo issues.

I generally loved the features, especially the comics. Downer geeks me out, enough that I'll need to get my hands on the collections some day soon. Giantitp.com has Oots, so that's good.

I don't like picking favourites! Every issue has something solid in it, or something to learn from.

I loved getting that last issue. There was a mix up in delivery so the penultimate issue shipped after the last one. I got a bunch of stuff I like, including monsters based on Chess(!) which I enjoy a lot.

 

[Shemeska]

Every issue with Zogonia by Tony Moseley

 

[Stormonu]

The first issue I read was #69, but the first one I was able to buy was #98. I had all the way up to two issues before the paper version was retired (I let my subscription lapse because I felt it was no longer interesting). I still felt sad though, when it was no longer produced as a paper mag - a part of my gaming history had, in a way, died.

I most fondly remember the issues prior to 3E, though I had a hard time justifying putting stuff from the mag into a game (referencing it later was always a problem). I especially liked when they would go into subjects like covering the geography and mythology of Africa, India and other non-European psuedo-middle ages fantasy.

The 3E years really got on my nerves because it often seemed that it was just a big ad for whatever book was coming out that month. Dungeon was far, far more useful to me.

If I had to choose the one thing I liked best, it would actually be the stories they used to run. In particular, I greatly enjoyed the Fool Wolf stories spread over a half-dozen Dragon magazines.

And the article on Tesseracts. I designed a whole adventure around one, and it was the sole reason I was willing to endure the movie Hypercube - to see one in action.

 

[darjr]

I remember the dragon with the story of the girl in the MMORPG who needed to make enough money in it to escape to college. I loved many of the stories in Dragon.

 

[Wycen]

I do love #100 since it had that cool adventure plus the embossed cover. #200 had a hologram on the cover and was extra big, but I can't for the life of me tell you what articles are inside.