When was the Dragon Magazine at it's best?

[mattcolville]

I really liked the last Dragon, the one with Knights, I thought that was pretty good.

Here's what I like about Dragon;

New rules and monsters and spells and crunchy bits.

What I don't like;

Articles with 'advice.' God, I hate these. I don't care what it's advice about, I didn't ask for it, I don't need it, and the most annoying advice is unsolicited advice. The only thing worse than that is unsolicited advice that's eating up space that could be used to put some decent rules in the game for elemental spellcasters.

The reason I liked 299 was because it was a collection of new rules that revolved around the idea of knights and chivalry. That was cool. I used some of those rules.

Overall, I think there was a period when Dragon had mostly crunchy bits, and I loved it. Now it's some crunchy bits, some advice, and I still like it, but less.

 

[rounser]

It would seem to be the best of both worlds for me, but then i'm not part of this old-school fan culture that would opposse such a policy on 'principle' simply to establish my status on an internet messageboard.

The "olden days" does get a silver lining, but sometimes not without reason. Maybe you might consider that the earlier Dragons were covering virgin territory, and that was what made them special. The Greyhawk gods, the first glimpses of the Realms' spellbooks, the Ecology of the X articles, the breakdowns of demihuman Point of Views...that sort of thing.

I'm not really a fan of any era of Dragon magazine. IMO, the best thing Dragon magazine ever did was spawn Dungeon magazine. Nevertheless, I speculate that there were expositions and explorations of the game in the early days* rather than commissioned product tie-in articles purpose built to support a supplement, if that's a good deal of what Dragon is doing now** - maybe it shows...

*: In my experience, this happens in other arenas too - the early days are a frenzy of trying out new and crazy stuff, pushing the envelope. Then patterns emerge and begin to take centre-stage, and sophistication becomes more highly valued. The same sort of thing happened to dance music in the last decade and a half, for instance.

**: I don't know, haven't leafed through Dragon in years. Just going by what I hear of it's contents on this board about supporting supplements, which I'm assuming are composed specially for the occasion rather than because the writer has something. Whether the quality suffers depends on the writer, I suppose, but overall I think that inspired writers exploring a theme they're interested in will write better in general.

 

[Kilmore]

By the way, I didn't mention this. It may have sounded in my original post that I don't really care for the new Dragon, but I have to admit... Nodwick rocks!

Here's another question: Most people seem to prefer the more colorful and glossy production, but the price per issue is getting evil! Maybe they should tighten their belts a little and save a couple of bucks on it?

 

[Balrog]

Here's to the Old Guard!!

I have to agree with those that favored the early days of Dragon. I started gaming in 1982, and after about a year of gaming with basic D&D, i switched to what my friends were playing exclusively, AD&D 1st Edition. I bought up every 1st Edition hardbook available that I could and that wasnt enough. At that time, (i believe pre-UA), Dragon was pushing the envelope with articles ranging from the Ecologies, the Nine Hells, new classes such as the Cavalier, Barbarian, and the Thief Acrobat, and inspiring articles by Ed Greenwood about the then-new Forgotten Realms. Everything was new, and the best of the best worked for Dragon, and it showed. And it is no coincidence that ALOT of material from those Dragon Mags (issues 60-100?) ended up as the core of material in Unearthed Arcana and Monster Manual 2. Also, you could find a decent adventure or stand alone game in the center of the magazine back then about 3 or 4 times a year. That rocked. (Anybody else like Clayorama??!!) And I loved Wormy. I even sent in some money to Dave Trampier for a proposed graphic novel of Wormy back in the late-80s, but he ended up cancelling the project supposedly, and he sent back my money. Too bad.

Now as someone has mentioned above, the "talent" is more spread out among D20 companies, whether its print, internet, or both. I think we are in a "new" Golden era, because as others have mentioned before, 3rd Edition was new for awhile and therefore Dragon content was also. But I agree that lately it has gotten somewhat stale. Yet I still buy it just about every month, because while as a whole the magazine has slipped, there are still some good, useful articles, depending on your campaign. And of course, Dungeon has taken over the role of supplemental adventures, and I dont ever see Dragon usurping that unless Dungeon should happen to go under....or they merge.

Bottom line is, back in the day, it wasnt enough if ONE person in the campaign bought the monthly issue of Dragon. I had to buy every one for several years. ( i think i finally quit subscribing to them in 1990). They were that good. Nowadays, its enough for me if ONE person in the campaign buys the monthly issue. If there is something I like, i will borrow it from a friend and use said material, or even decide to then go buy it for myself. but that has not been the case very often lately. Other than the first 18 or so issues for 3rd Edition, they have been really spotty.