Suggested Reading: Issues 1-250

[Oni]

I was digging around today in some old Cd's and found my Dragon Magazine Archive, which I've never actually read much of. So rather than poking around randomly trying to find interesting article I thought I would call on the collective knowledge of ENworld.

What articles would you recommend looking up out of the first 250 issues of Dragon that are real standouts? I'm looking for anything of real historic interest to the hobby, of exceptional quality, or that has stuck with you and made a difference in the way you game. So if you could pick a couple articles and say, "hey read these!!!" which would they be?

 

[Jasperak]

Wow.

You are asking the impossible. When Dragon magazine was the ENWorld for D&D in the 80's and 90's everything was good; there were so many articles about game play, game mastering, and game rules in addition to book, game, and computer game reviews that they were THE link to the D&D community. I cannot fathom a way to single out any articles without knowing what you are looking for.

But for an example, I would read the Best of Dragon magazines to catch a glimpse of the role the Dragon magazines played back in those days. I had two copies of the maroon mag and remember fondly the Ecology of the Rust Monster. The Silver Mag had a lot of NPC classes like the original anti-paladin and the duelist.

I'm going to go put on my rose-colored reading glasses and reconnect with something about the game and community that I have missed for awhile now.

 

[RangerWickett]

I remember loving an article in issue 200 about personalizing spells, but I read that when I was, like, 16.

 

[Glyfair]

There are certainly some articles that are generally considered classics almost universally. The Politics of Hell comes to mind.

 

[Greg K]

Thankfully, I keep a list of my favorite articles just so I can go back and find them with ease (it also saves me a lot of typing for threads of this topic).

58 Dwarves
59 Halflings Point of View;
60 Elves Point of View;
61 Gnomes Point of View;
62 Half-orcs/orcs Point of View;
63
- Humanoids
- "Plan before you Play" by Ed Greenwood
65 "Law of the Land" by Ed Greenwood
66 Thieve's Cant
67 Greyhawk Deities
68
- Weather in Greyhawk
- Thrills and Chills
68 Greyhawk Deites (Celestian, Farlanghn,Ehlonna, Pholzus, Tritheron)
69 Greyhawk Deities (Istus, Obad-hai)
70 Greyhawk Deities (Boccob, zagyg, Oldimarra)
71
- Greyhawks World (Heward, Keoghtom,Murlyand, Kelanen)
- Greyhawk Deities (Erythnul, Incubalos, Nerull, Ralishaz, Wastri)

72 The Real Barbarians by Katherine Kerr
73 Non Violent Magic Itemsby Lewis Pulsipher and Roland Getliffe
75
- Beyond the Rule Book by Lew Pulsipher
- Nine Hells Part 1 by Ed Greenwood
- All games Need Names by Katherine Kerr
76 Nine Hells Part 2 by Ed Greenwood
79 The Fights of Fantasy Lew Pulsipher
80 Who Lives in that Castle Katherine Kerr
84
- Never the same thing Twice: Scott Bennie
- A cast of strange Familiars by Stephen Inniss
85 Clerics must be deity-bound Frazer Sherman
87 Beyond the Dungeon by Katherine Kerr
88 Beyond the Dungeon part 2 by Katherine Kerr
91 Eight Devilish Questions by Ed Greenwood
91 Nine Hells Revisited by Ed Greenwood
93 The Making of a Milieu by Arthur Collins
94 An army travels on its stomach by Katherine Kerr
96 What good PCs are made of by Katherine Kerr
97 Blueprints for a Big Game by Jim Dutton
98
- Detailing a Fanasty World by Jim Dutton
- Creative Magic Items
99 That's Life in the Big city by Kevin Anderson and Kristine Thompson
102 Creating a Cast of NPCs by Jim Dutton
104
- The Well Rounded Thief by John C. Bunnel
- Race is ahead of Class by John C. Bunnel
- Was it Worth the Risk by Bruce Barber
105
-The Well Equipped Victim by Ed Greenwood
-Travel works Both Ways by Paul Vernon
108 The role of Nature by Bruce Humphrey
109 Locals aren't all Yokels by Ralph Sizer
111 Welcom to Malachi by Becky Helfenstein
112 Armor Piece by Piece by Matt Bandy
115
- Lords of the Night by Eric Oppen
- A Den of Thieves by Vince Garcia
- The Art of Climbing Walls by Vince Garcia
Honor Among Thieves by Eric Oppen and Robin Jenkins
117 Fun without Fighting by Scott Bennie
118
- Surely, You Joust! by Leonard Carpenter
- On Target by Leonard Carpenter
119 Underestimating the Druid by Carl Sargent
122 Marshalling the Martial Arts by Wayne Goldsmith and Dan Salas
123 Just Making Time by Roger Moore
133 Notice Anything Different by Thomas Ruddick
148
- Tracking down the Barbarian by David Howery
- Corrected Cavalier by David Howery
164
167 Curses are Divine
171 Completing the Complete fighter by David Howery
175
- Creative Campaigns: A New Recipe by Tim Schroeder
- Inventing the "Instant Adventure" by Arthur Collins
176 Servants of the Seldarine
177 Defenders of the Hearth
178 What not to Include by Arthur Collins
184 The 7-Sentence NPC by C.M. Cline
189
- The Dark Continent by David Howery
- Arms and Armor of Africa by Michael J. Varhola
-The other Orientals by Tom Griffith
-Completing the Complete Bard by Jon Winter
191
- Open your MInd by Michael John Wybo II
- The Elven Pantheoen Completed by Carl Sargent
- An African Genesis by Brady English
196
- Magic From the Gods: Wizard kits for an African Campaign by Michael John Wybo II
200
- Familiar Faces by David Howery
- The Even More Complete Psionicist by Jon Winter
202: Mythic Races of Africa by Michael John Wybo II
205 The People by David Howery
208 Right from the Start by Eric Noah
209 The Priests of Africa by Michael John Wybo II
210 Primitive Weaponry
214
- The Complete Half Elf
- Lost Empires: Add and Atlantis to your Campaign's Background by David Howery
215 The Deities of Africa by Michael John Wybo II
216 The Auld Alliance by Arthur Collins

 

[Aeolius]

You missed:

114 - The Witch class
125 - "Ecology of the Greenhag" - Nigel Findley

The spirit of those articles still shapes my games, today.

 

[Greg K]

You missed:

114 - The Witch class

No. I left it off, because I didn't care for it. I preferred Mayfair's Witches for AD&D (which if I recall was 2e)

125 - "Ecology of the Greenhag" - Nigel Findley

I'll have to go back and reread this. I loved Nigel Findley's work.

 

[thedungeondelver]

The ads.

No, seriously.

I like going back and reading the ads. The smaller, the better.

Why? Nostalgia*, really. They remind me of a time when the RPG industry wasn't so much an INDUSTRY. Yes, yes, blah blah blah nobody did it to be altruistic, nobody gave stuff away back then, the good old days weren't always so good, but whatever.

I like reading through the old ads, watching people put their best foot forward - not just an OGL or d20 book of this-or-that, but honestly and truly trying to build the better mousetrap, once and for all.

I mean, yeah, nobody came out with the D&D slayer that unseated TSR - but everyone who could come up with a print run and thought they had a chance to do so gave it a crack. That's inspiring.

Oh, and all of the Gardner Fox stories, too.

*=I mean nostalgia nostalgia, not what some folks mistake for nostalgia.

 

[Greg K]

The ads.

I loved the ads for Villains and Vigilantes.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

"D&D Options: Orgies, Inc." in Dragon #10. Worth it just for the title, and the Trampier illustration, but also a very interesting take on the old-school gold for XP idea.