Good Dragon Articles

[JoeGKushner]

These can be old or new...

I'll star with Saintly Standards. It would probably be more about templates now, but St. Kargoth and others made numerous apperances in my campaigns back in the day. I loved his sword, Gorgorin the Shatterer (save or be disintigrated, if you made the save, 2d10 points of damage... )I made it an incarnation of Stormbringer ala Michael Moorcock's various Champions, Compaion, and Sword models that pop up in his books. I brought a lot of background to that article but it was still a good read.

I wouldn't mind reading a new article about Saints, either living or dead, in the various settings. Pantheons and Pagans by MEG is one of the few books that covers that type of thinking. I remember in one Fantasy Hero game I used to run, the characters didn't believe in the gods, but they knew the saints were real people... I think I was inspired by that bad middle ages movie Flesh and Blood where they prayed to St. Martin as a warrior patron...

 

[WmRAllen67]

Where to begin?

Ed Greenwood's three-part treatment of the Nine Hells...

Dawn Ibach's "Miscellaneous Mishaps"

and so many others...

 

[Psychic Warrior]

History of a Game that Failed

The Demi-Human articles from issues 56 to about 62(?) (complete with gods, cultural motivations and Orcs! Made gnomes almost cool )

Gem Dragons

Ninjas! Only class to ever have a Save vs Damage I believe...

 

[Dagger75]

Older ones,

All the articles for Star Frontiers.

Some D&D ones- The one with the Mind Flayer equipment. That issue also had Alerinty ship flaws and perks which was cool

Newer, 3.0 and 3.5 articles, the fighter on with the new weapons.
The castle one with the new stuff for the Strong Hold builders guide.


Those are the ones I used the most.

 

[Krug]

The Small Gods article comes to mind...

 

[Alzrius]

I liked it when they did a tie-in article, bringing D&D to some great portion of fantasy.

"A Novel Approach" and "Silicon Sorcery" are great at this. I also loved the Primal Rage demigods of #223.

I also enjoyed articles on what happened to characters who were transported back to prehistoric eras. When there were no gods yet, or civilizations, etc.

 

[DMH]

Ecology of the Dungeon, 211- best article ever. Helps bring life to not only dungeons, but much more.

Survival is a Group Effort, 89- a look at humanoid reproductive rates. Useful in long term campaign planning and war type campaigns.

Make Monsters, not Monstrosities, 59- excellent look at monster creation. Almost all of it is still useable today.

Revenge of the Nobodies, 112, Magic Mangling Made Easy, 173, Defeating More with Less, 174- all 3 on how to use "weak" creatures and people to great effect against much more powerful PCs. As is Tucker's Kobolds in 127.

In a Cavern, In a Canyon..., 152- everything you want to know about mining in D&D.

Curses are Divine, 167- curses bestowed by priests.

"Just Give me Money", 167- ways of altering money and using the silver standard. Has many examples from RL cultures and fictional ones.

The End of the World, 138- how to use plagues. Mostly based on the Black Plague, but has so much useful infomation that can be used for others.

Thats my top 10. I would add Magic That Doesn't go Boom, but it is too short and isn't special anymore.

 

[JoeGKushner]

History of a Game that Failed

The Demi-Human articles from issues 56 to about 62(?) (complete with gods, cultural motivations and Orcs! Made gnomes almost cool )

Gem Dragons

Ninjas! Only class to ever have a Save vs Damage I believe...

Didn't Roger Moore cover the demi-human articles? Man, I loved that dude's game stuff. I remember he did some great stuff for guns in a fantasy setting.

 

[GreyShadow]

The Deck of Many Things issue.
The Nine Hells issues
The Psionic, Deryni issue.

I would have liked to have read the Saintly issue.

 

[DMH]

Here are some more that I forgot:

Villains, Like Fine Wine..., 238- on using ancient creatures. The only odd thing was the sentance about how dragons only live to 400 years old.

...The Harder they Fall, 254- combat and giants. Has seperate sections for DMs and players.

Ill-Gotten Gains, 268- how to invest money in business.

There are a bunch of Bestiaries that are cool (the "sequel" to barrier peaks comes to mind), but I don't consider any of them to be a best article because they are limited compared to what I have mentioned so far, campaign wise.