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The cover of the 300th issue
The cover of the 300th issue

Dragon was one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. TSR Inc was an American game publishing company most famous for publishing the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game. The final printed issue was #359 in September 2007. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. [1] [2] Shortly after the last issue shipped in mid-August, 2007, Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro, Inc.), the publication's current intellectual property rightsholder, re-launched Dragon as an online service at its website. Wizards of the Coast (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of Games primarily based on Fantasy and Hasbro ( is an American Toy company It is one of the largest toy makers in the world second only to the toy giant Mattel.

Contents

History

The last Strategic Review
The last Strategic Review

In 1975, TSR, Inc. began publishing The Strategic Review. TSR Inc was an American game publishing company most famous for publishing the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game. At the time, roleplaying games were still seen as a sub-genre of the wargaming industry, and the magazine was designed not only to support Dungeons & Dragons and TSR's other games, but also to cover wargaming in general. A wargame is a Game that simulates or represents a Military operation. In short order, however, the popularity and growth of Dungeons & Dragons made it clear that the game had not only separated itself from its wargaming origins, but had launched an entirely new industry unto itself.

The following year, after only seven issues, TSR cancelled The Strategic Review and replaced it with two magazines, Little Wars, which covered miniature wargaming, and The Dragon, which covered role playing games. Miniature wargaming is a form of Wargaming that incorporates Miniature figures and modeled terrain as the main components of play After 13 issues, Little Wars ceased publication and its content was folded into The Dragon (starting with issue 24)[3]. The Dragon later changed its name to Dragon Magazine and finally simply Dragon.

Dragon was the launching point for a number of rules, spells, monsters, magic items, and other ideas that were incorporated into later official products of the Dungeons & Dragons game. A prime example is the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which first became known through a series of Dragon articles in the 1980s by its creator Ed Greenwood. The Forgotten Realms is a Campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D Fantasy Role-playing game, created by Ed Greenwood (born 1959 is a Canadian writer and editor who created the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting It subsequently went on to become one of the primary campaign 'worlds' for official Dungeons and Dragons products, starting in 1987.

Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR and its intellectual properties, including Dragon in 1997. Wizards of the Coast (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of Games primarily based on Fantasy and Production was then transferred from Wisconsin to Washington state. In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc.

In 1999 a compilation of the first 250 issues was released in PDF format with a special viewer including an article and keyword search in CD-ROM format. Hasbro ( is an American Toy company It is one of the largest toy makers in the world second only to the toy giant Mattel. Also included were the 7 issues of The Strategic Review. This compilation is known as the software title Dragon Magazine Archive. The Dungeons & Dragons fantasy Role-playing game has spawned many related products including Films and Videogames. Because of a conflict regarding the reprint rights for the Knights of the Dinner Table comic strips printed in Dragon for many years, the Dragon Magazine Archive is out of print and very hard to find.

In 2002, Paizo Publishing acquired the rights to publish both Dragon and Dungeon under license from Wizards of the Coast. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Paizo Publishing is an American Publishing company located in Bellevue Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's most It tied Dragon more closely to Dungeon by including articles supporting and promoting its major multi-issue adventures such as the Age of Worms and Savage Tide. In the World of Greyhawk Campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying game, the Age of Worms is an age The Class Acts, monthly one or two-page articles offering ideas for developing specific character classes, were also introduced by Paizo.

On April 18, 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced that it would not be renewing Paizo's licenses for Dragon and Dungeon. Events 1025 - Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Scott Rouse, Senior Brand Manager of Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast stated, "Today the internet is where people go to get this kind of information. By moving to an online model we are using a delivery system that broadens our reach to fans around the world. " [4] Paizo published the last print editions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines for September 2007.

In August of 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced their plans for the 4th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game. Part of this announcement was the "D&D Insider" subscriber content on their Gleemax site that would include the new, online versions of both Dungeon and Dragon magazines along with tools for building campaigns, managing character sheets and other features. Gleemax is a website whose alpha phase was released by Wizards of the Coast on October 10th 2007. [5]

Content

Although Dragon provided coverage of fantasy and roleplaying games in general, it became primarily a house organ for role-playing games produced by TSR (or more recently Wizards of the Coast), with a particular focus on D&D. Wizards of the Coast (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of Games primarily based on Fantasy and Its coverage of games created by other companies is often peripheral.

Most of the magazine's articles provided supplementary material for D&D including new prestige classes, races, monsters and many other subjects that could be used to enhance a Dungeons & Dragons game. Character class is a fundamental part of the identity and nature of characters in the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game. There are many elements that show up throughout the fantasy genre in different guises A monster is any of a large number of Legendary creatures which usually appear in Mythology, Legend, or Horror fiction. A popular long-running column Sage Advice offered official answers to Dungeons & Dragons questions submitted by players. Other articles provided tips and suggestions for both players and Dungeon Masters (DMs). It sometimes discussed meta-gaming issues, such as getting along with fellow players. At the end of its print run, the magazine also featured four comics; Nodwick, Dork Tower, Zogonia and The Order of the Stick. Nodwick is a Comic strip created by Aaron Williams, based around the conventions of Fantasy Role-playing games in particular Dork Tower is an online comic created written and drawn by John Kovalic. The Order of the Stick is a comedic Webcomic that satirizes tabletop Roleplaying games and medieval Fantasy through the ongoing tale of the titular Previous popular gamer-oriented comic strips include Knights of the Dinner Table, Fineous Fingers, What's New with Phil & Dixie, Wormy, Yamara and SnarfQuest. Knights of the Dinner Table ( KoDT) is a comic book/strip created by Jolly R Finieous Fingers (often misspelled Fineous even in Dragon magazine's own FAQ was among the earliest Comics that appeared in Dragon magazine. What's New with Phil & Dixie is a Comic strip by Phil Foglio originally published in Dragon magazine from 1981 to Dave A Trampier is a former Artist and Writer who worked on some of the earliest editions of the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game Yamara is a Comic strip created by Barbara Manui and Chris Adams, and is a satire of Role-playing games and Fantasy settings SnarfQuest, drawn and written by Larry Elmore, is a black-and-white fantasy Comic strip with sci-fi and modern elements

Many of the gaming world's most famous writers, game designers and artists have published work in the magazine. Through most of its run the magazine frequently published fantasy fiction, either short stories or novel excerpts. After the 1990's, the appearance of fiction stories became relatively rare. One late example was issue #305's featured excerpt from George R.R. Martin's later Hugo-nominated novel A Feast for Crows. George Raymond Richard Martin ( September 20, 1948) sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American Author and Screenwriter The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in A Song of Ice and Fire, an Epic fantasy series by American author George

A regular feature of Dragon for many years was its "Ecology of . . . " articles, in which a particular D&D monster received an in-depth review, explaining how it found food, reproduced, and so forth. Under Paizo's tenure such ecology articles became heavier in "crunch" (game mechanics) as opposed to "fluff" (narrative and description) than previously. [6]

In the early 1980's, almost every issue of Dragon would contain a role playing adventure, a simple board game, or some kind of special game supplement (such as a cardboard cut-out castle). For example, Tom Wham's The Awful Green Things From Outer Space and File 13. Tom Wham is a designer of Board games He also produced the artwork for his own games with simplistic but whimsical illustrations The Awful Green Things from Outer Space ( AGTFOS) is a two-player board game developed and illustrated by Tom Wham inspired by the Kinji Fukasaku File 13, "The Game Inventor's Game" is a Board game created by Tom Wham. These bonus features become infrequent after the 1986 launch of Dungeon magazine, which published several new Dungeons & Dragons adventures in each issue. Dungeon Adventures, commonly called simply Dungeon, is a Magazine targeting people who play Role-playing games particularly

During the 1980s, the magazine had a subsection called Ares Magazine which specialized in science fiction and superhero role playing games with pages marked by a gray border. A superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a Fictional character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do The content included write-ups for various characters of the Marvel Universe for TSR's Marvel Super-Heroes. The Marvel Universe is the fictional Shared universe where most of the comic stories published by Marvel Comics take place

Editors

Awards

Notes

  1. ^ Paizo Publishing to Cease Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON (English) (2007-04-19). Anthony J Bryant (born 1961 is the author of four books for Osprey Military Publishing on Samurai history Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer Retrieved on 2007-04-19. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer
  2. ^ Dragon and Dungeon Transition (English) (2007-04-20). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII. Retrieved on 2007-04-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
  3. ^ This according to editorials in issues 22 and 24 of The Dragon.
  4. ^ Paizo Publishing to Cease Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON (English) (2007-04-19). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer Retrieved on 2007-04-19. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer
  5. ^ MerricB (2007-08-16). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting Unofficial 4th Edition News Page. EN World. EN World is a Role-playing game news and reviews website which has grown from the earlier "Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News" site (which was active from said, D&D Insider . . . contains a "Dungeon Master's Kit" . . . "Character Generator" . . . [and] "Dungeon & Dragon Magazines". . . . dndinsider. com, which is due to go live soon . . . I saw examples of the Dragon and Dungeon pages . . . The intention is to provide subscriber services.
  6. ^ http://paizo.com/writersguidelines/dragon_writers_guidelines.pdf - The Dragon Submissions Guidelines explicitly stated that Ecology articles "should have a hunter’s guidebook approach, although it should not be written 'in voice'" and further call out the exact format of Ecology articles, leaving less room for artistic license by the author.

External links

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