Favorite Issue of Dragon

[LRonKnieval]

Howdy Dragon Aficionados!

First off, Nick and I would like to extend our thanks to all of you who posted your favorite dragons for our Ten Most Wanted Dragons list. We swear we weren’t planning on repeating the formula so soon, but due to extenuating circumstances we’d like to sequester your aid one last time.

We are compiling a list of the Ten Greatest Issues of Dragon Magazine for the final print issue of the world’s greatest magazine. This is your last chance to rally for your all-time favorite issues. Perhaps you fondly recall Ed Greenwood turning us on to a new world called Faerun, or issue #274 that sparked a gaming revolution by introduced us all to the upgraded D&D 3.0. After 30+ years of excellence, compiling the ten favorite issues seems an impossible task. I admit my own biases, as I sit here toying with a well-worn Pocket Dictionary of Thieves’ Cant, that I sloppily cut from issue #66 and bound in a cloth-covered piece of cardboard. Still, who better to seek support from than the faithful readers who’ve supported Dragon Magazine year after year. Nick and myself, eagerly await your replies.

Sincerely,
Tim Hitchcock and Nicolas Logue

 

[Mycanid]

Well ...my favorite was actually a "Best of the Dragon" issue #3.

Does that count?

 

[ivocaliban]

Although I've been gaming since '91 I didn't start buying Dragon magazines until after the D&D 3.0 edition hit the stands. So if my favorite issue seems relatively recent it's because I live in an area with no local gaming stores (even the nearest bookstore is a two-hour round trip). I never had the pleasure of growing up with Dragon. I bought the Rules Cyclopedia on a trip to Detroit one summer and pretty much based my next four or five years of gaming on it alone. Then I got detoured into White Wolf and didn't come back to D&D until the release of 3.0e.

Issue #294 was the turning point for me. It was the first time I'd ever bought an issue (though I'd read several before) and it remains my favorite to this day. It's seen more use than any other Dragon magazine I've bought since. Nearly every article offered something significant to my recent Greyhawk campaign.

Because of issue #294, Iuz and Tharizdun (along with Hextor) became the major threats to the heroes and the Church of Rao became a great ally (joining those of Heironeous and Pelor). Because of issue #294, my BBEG wielded the chilling artifact Druniazth in the final battle of a nearly seven-year campaign. Because of issue #294, the PCs discovered a relic of the mythic empires west of the Flanaess: a legendary flying ship complete with a living figurehead. No single issue of Dragon did so much to shape one of my campaigns than #294. I used something from almost every single article...and I still use much of it today.

While I've found useful material in all the Dragon (and Dungeon) magazines that I've bought since that issue, it's still the one that inspired me to buy more and to make a weekly trek to that faraway bookstore just to thumb through the latest issue. I'll miss those trips!

 

[rgard]

My favorite was issue #5. Bought that at the now-long-gone FLGS.

1. It has the Wizard Research Rules detailing how you could make some nasty items to include Wizard Blades and True Rings (think the One Ring.) And it cost you xps to do it.

2. Also had that "Gandalf Was Only a Fifth Level Magic-User" article by Bill Seligman.

3. Witch rules! One of the earliest BBEGs in my first campaign was a witch written up with that article as a guide.

4. Anhkheg! Had my first TPK with the hapless adventurers being eaten by Anhkhegs. The last to fall was the dwarf fighter who was slower afoot than the bugs.

I'll look through my collection and archive and find more favorites, but the above is my most favorite for those 4 articles and it was the first Dragon mag I ever read/purchased.

Thanks
Rich

Edit: found two more reasons to like that issue and added them above.

 

[Thunderfoot]

#106
Great cover art, The 7 Other Paladins, More Range For Rangers - For 1st and 2nd Editions this thing was a gold mine of crunchy goodness. I don't think I have ever seen a Dragon before or since that had something from start to finish that I could use in my game immediately regardless of the campaign I was playing. Every article was good and completely genereic, so I could drop it in a homebrew or an established campaign world without any hesitation.
Pure Freakin' Magic!

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

For me it has to be #121, the first issue I bought. Dragon was very expensive in UK game shops in the mid 80s but this was the Oriental Adventures special issue, featuring a fold-up cardboard module of a Japanese castle, so I had to have it. Great stuff!


Richard

 

[DMH]

211- Ecology of the Dungeon is by far my most favorite article.

 

[Aeolius]

#125 - "Ecology of the Greenhag" by Nigel Findley... Without a doubt, this is where my fascination with hags began.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Golden Age: #39 Anti-Paladin, Good Hit and Bad Misses
Silver Age: #338 - Boccob, Schools of Magic, Imps, Staffs of the Magi, Spellweavers etc.

 

[Wombat]

A tie.

The Dragon #1, cuz it started it all.

The Dragon #3, because I still remember with fondness my buddy Ian playing a Jester...