Good Dragon Articles

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

One of my favorite mini-articles was the one a few years back that had the random Monk combat style name generation tables.

Those were ... hilarious ...

 

[Mouseferatu]

One of my favorite mini-articles was the one a few years back that had the random Monk combat style name generation tables.

Those were ... hilarious ...

I loved that article. We once legitimately rolled a style called "Hides Like Elbow."

 

[Evilhalfling]

So From Long Ago
1. The Hells by greenwood - best ever 74-76? I have them somewhere..
2. Tuckers kobold editorial
3. issue 99 - intelligent weapons
still sitting beside my chair are the following
136 # A room for the Knight by Goshtigian and Kopsinis
building blocks, city style by Tomas Kane
196 # "the greatest and most honorable adventure" by Jan Berends
208 # Team Spirit - by Thomas Kane
253 # Random Magical Weapon Generator by Gregory Detwiler

other articals have shaped my views and spawned house rules, but I don't actually refer to the articals - such as the monk styles of #310 which became part of 3.5 or the psiwarror/monk #281 now in the XPH

I really dislike Computer based articals, it seems like most of what I want moved to dungeon. In thumbing through recent dragons nothing has caught my fancy.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

I loved that article. We once legitimately rolled a style called "Hides Like Elbow."

The first d20 work I ever sold.

I loved writing that thing:

"Red General devours the yellow snow" was my personal favorite result.


Patrick Y.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

No kiddin' - you wrote that, ARP?

I mean, seriously, that's one of the most amusing, and yet stylistically appropriate, articles I've ever seen.

It resulted, by turns, in things you'd be proud to have poorly dubbed into any kung-fu flick ("My Nine Turtles Under The Stars style will defeat you and your master!") to things that would be ever better when dubbed into a kung-fu flick!

I'm glad I get the chance to thank you personally* and express my appreciation for a great article. I even liked the quick intro and outro pieces. "Uh ... I Flurry of Blows?"

* Well, as personally as you can get on the internet, anyway!

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

I'm glad I get the chance to thank you personally* and express my appreciation for a great article. I even liked the quick intro and outro pieces. "Uh ... I Flurry of Blows?"

* Well, as personally as you can get on the internet, anyway!

I'm glad you liked it so much.

When I wrote it, I was desperate to finally get something out worth publishing. And so I started trying to think up things I'd never seen in Dragon before. About 3 am, I got bored and started perusing my shelves, which held about 10K worth of Honk Kong martial arts movies.

And it just clicked. Sent off an email, got a positive response from Jesse Decker, and that was it.

For me at least, the old adage of writing what you know turned out to be true. Until I started writing on things I knew well, I wasn't able to fire on all cylinders.

Patrick Y.

 

[MulhorandSage]

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...

I'm honored that you remember this.

(And frightened to realize that I wrote the damn thing twenty years ago).

As for me, I remember tons of things from the old Dragon with fondness: Fineous, Tucker's Kobolds, most of Roger's editorials, his one short story with Asmodeus and Bes, Ed's articles (especially the Nine Hells), Katherine Kerr's historical articles, Lawrence Schick's review of Spawn of Fashawn, some of Tom Wham's old games, a lot of Arthur Collins' articles. even Gary's editorials when he wasn't in a bad mood.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

The Roles of Rage - Multiclassing the Revised Barbarian
Champions of the Divine - Paladins of Other Alignments
Roles of the Wild - Multiclassing the Revised Ranger
Faces of Faith - Variant Cleric Concepts
Changing Nature's Design - Variant Druids
Holier Than Thou - Celestial Monster Classes
Animal Ancestry - Character that Answer the Call of the Wild
Born of Death - Half Undead and Their Kin
Strage Bedfellows - New Half Monster Templates
Brotherhood of the Burning Heart - The Magic and Mettle of Fire
Channeling the Elements - 4 Elemental Prestige Classes
Taladas - Angry Dead Gnomes and Sinister Walking Sharks
Body of Knowledge - Feeling it in the Bones
Oriental Adventures Update
Dungeons and Dinosaurs - Digging up Epoch Monsters
Children of Ka - The Dagger of the Dinosaur Sage
Dark Sun Player's Handbook
Warriors of the Animal Fist - Crouching Panther, Slashing Dragon
Dragon Player Characters - Play the Most Powerful Creatures in D&D
The Limitless Light - A Tour of the Plane of Radiance
Shadow's City - Balefire - City of Lanterns
Collaborative Campaign Building - Making the Player's Work For It
Shady Characters - Level Progressions for Shadow Themed Templates
The Shadow Over D&D
Chilled to the Bone - Icy Enemies from Arctic Environs
Winning Races - Grippli
Arcane Ancestry 2 - More Bloodline Feats for Sorcerers
A Surge of Theurgy - Feats that Combine Class Abilities
Winning Races - Lupins
Silicon Sorcery - World of Warcraft
Down the Drain - Sewers in a Fantasy Campaign
Spellcraft - Cantrips and Orisons of the Academy of Apprentices
Tomb Raider - Real World Tombs in D&D
Bazaar of the Bizarre - Modern Magic

 

[DMH]

More importantly, i don't think it's coincidence that a large portion--perhaps the majority--of articles cited here are ones that are either rules-free, or have nothing particularly to do with any specific rules system. I think it's that i'm not the only one that finds the most use out of precisely those sorts of articles that provide material that the rulebooks don't, rather than just more variations on the sorts of stuff the rulebooks already provide (i.e., feats, spells, monsters, classes, and other new widgets). ...but the content is precisely the sort of tthing that transcends campaigns, game systems, and maybe even playstyles.

Woodelf has much wisdom. The best are those that can be used for a lifetime. And, sadly, other than metagaming articles, I have yet to see one since 293.

 

[Dr_Draco]

My favorite article had to be:

The article that introduced Psi-Spell feats and the Mind Mage PrC in Dragon 313. Had to update the psionic stuff the 3.5 myself (everything else was 3.5, just not the psionic stuff since the XPH wasn't out at the time), but there was definitely some good stuff there. That Dual-Plane Summons feat is my favorite part of the article.