# Best Dragon Magazine Issue Evar



## Mark CMG (Jan 20, 2011)

Name it and why.


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## shadzar (Jan 20, 2011)

#11

Why?

Because it has the best _snit_ you will ever find and give you back that _spark of life_ that makes you want to _runnungitm_ rather than sit on your fat _bolotomus_.


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## Aeolius (Jan 20, 2011)

#125 - "Ecology of the Greenhag" by Nigel Findley

   Thinking of hags in terms of night hags begetting greenhags begetting annis hags shaped all of my online games, since my "Into the Land of Black Ice" game back in 1995. I've added a few branches to the Night Hag Family Tree, since then, of course.


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## kitsune9 (Jan 20, 2011)

#90. It's the very first rpg _anything _that I got before I got my D&D Basic set for Christmas. 

Ahhh....Memory Lane.....


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## Zil (Jan 20, 2011)

Mark CMG said:


> Name it and why.




If I had to choose one, issue #81.  We got a lot of use out of the poison article over the years in our AD&D games.

Other magazines that were close, anything that had a Tom Wham game in it!  (especially issues #49 Quest for the Emperor's Treasure, #64 Planet Busters, and #77 King of the Tabletop )


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## Imhotepthewise (Jan 20, 2011)

#184, 7 sentence npc. Most useful article evar


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## Wik (Jan 20, 2011)

#220.  Because it was my first.


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## JohnnFour (Jan 20, 2011)

Going from memory here, but Best of Dragon II (blue cover, right?). NPC classes and good GM advice.

Runner up: 80/81. Fuzzy on the issue #s, but they had a two part series on the Politics of Hell. Those articles sold me on every D&D devil book since.


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## RangerWickett (Jan 20, 2011)

#200. An actual drow with actual dark grey skin on the cover (way too often back then, artists drew them with brown or solid black or -- in the case of the Drizzt novels -- as old white guys). And a hologram of a dragon.

An article on reskinning spells with new aesthetics.

Hm, that's all I recall. But I know there was other cool stuff.


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## Shemeska (Jan 20, 2011)

#287 - it was both the first issue I bought, and it had some 3e adaptations of some Planescape stuff. Plus a planetar on the cover which was totally sweet.


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## Lancelot (Jan 20, 2011)

*#75* - First part of Ed Greenwood's iconic take on the *Nine Hells* (still influencing every description of this plane and its politics even after 20 years), a very good module (*Can Seapoint be Saved*), and the first installment of the classic *Snarfquest *comic.

_Honorable mentions to the following issues:_

*#100* - *Anniversary issue* with the "embossed" dragon cover, rules for *DragonChess*, new *Gary Gygax* fiction, and the classic "*Beyond the Gate* / D&D meets Modern World" module.

*#63* - First issue I bought, plus the final (and in my mind, best) of the articles that defined the *common D&D races* (kobolds, goblins, gnolls), new *gods/monsters/NPCs*, and one of the best modules ever released in Dragon (*Chagmat*).

To my mind, issues 50-120 were the Golden Age of Dragon Magazine. They were released during the height of D&D's popularity, and helped form much of its background lore. We saw the formation of the Forgotten Realms in Dragon articles, the release of experimental new material from GG himself (like the Barbarian), the creation of the demihuman pantheons, high quality comics like Wormy, Snarfquest and What's New with Phil and Dixie, adventure modules (before Dungeon appeared on the scene)... so much good stuff.

I'll give a shout-out to the Silver Age as well (the Paizo era), which was also very good. But it's all the pioneering work in 50-120 that I remember most fondly, and keep going back to.


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## Lidgar (Jan 20, 2011)

#83. Awesome cover art by Denis Beauvais ("Checkmate"), the best version of Baba Yaga's Hut, Dragon Lance short story, gemstones...just all around greatness!


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## pemerton (Jan 20, 2011)

No single favourite, but I agree with Lancelot about the golden age: demi-human point of view articles; "For King and Country" in #101; an article in #99, I think, on XP for non-combat adventures; all the discussions and debates in Forum about GMing and player issues. There really was some good stuff being written back then.


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## Ycore Rixle (Jan 20, 2011)

114 because of the return of the Witch class. Loved it, loved the cover, loved the b&w Elmore interior art. Also, a good remorhaz article.

Runners-up: 100, 75 and 76 for the 9 Hells articles.


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## Plane Sailing (Jan 20, 2011)

#4 for me. It was part of my first rpg purpose along with metamorphosis alpha, and it was dedicated to Empire of the petal throne, starting my love affair with the setting and introducing mihalli which have appeared in every fantasy and scifi campaign I've ever run. 

Cheers


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## Plane Sailing (Jan 20, 2011)

#4 for me. It was part of my first rpg purpose along with metamorphosis alpha, and it was dedicated to Empire of the petal throne, starting my love affair with the setting and introducing mihalli which have appeared in every fantasy and scifi campaign I've ever run. 

Cheers


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 21, 2011)

Three-way tie between Best of the Dragon I (insane old school D&D stories, including the interview with the rust monster and the story about the Nazi tank division fighting D&D monsters), Best of the Dragon II (the anti-paladin, the half-ogre and a bunch of other classic AD&D awesomeness) and the second (?) issue with the Witch class in it (the one with the brown cover), which featured the best classic cartoons, a great, meaty new class and a ton of other AD&D coolness.


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## Alzrius (Jan 21, 2011)

Issue #213.

I was still pretty new to AD&D (having started with BD&D) when I'd picked up issue #212 on a newsstand while on vacation at Disney World. It wasn't bad, but failed to impress me.

However, I came home to find issue #213 in my mailbox, the first of a subscription that was a present from my dad, and found myself blown away. A huge article on the Demiplane of Shadow! An entire article on weird places and mishaps across the planes, and two on the people of Sigil (one being factions, the other individuals).

I was pretty well stunned at how this all suddenly expanded the vista of the AD&D multiverse. After that, I knew that I had to keep getting this magazine to see what wonders it had each new month. I kept my subscription going all the way until issue #359, and I never regretted it.


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## jmucchiello (Jan 21, 2011)

Lancelot said:


> *#63* - First issue I bought, plus the final (and in my mind, best) of the articles that defined the *common D&D races* (kobolds, goblins, gnolls), new *gods/monsters/NPCs*, and one of the best modules ever released in Dragon (*Chagmat*).



For the same reason, first issue I bought, and wasn't this the one where Gary introduced the Barbarian?


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## Orius (Jan 21, 2011)

Of all the ones I actually have, I'll mention #315.  One of the best of the Paizo era, this was the Campaign Classics issue that had the 3.5 based articles on most of the classic D&D settings.


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## occam (Jan 21, 2011)

Lancelot said:


> *#75* - First part of Ed Greenwood's iconic take on the *Nine Hells* (still influencing every description of this plane and its politics even after 20 years), a very good module (*Can Seapoint be Saved*), and the first installment of the classic *Snarfquest *comic.




So many great issues back in the day, but this is the one I think of first.


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## coyote6 (Jan 22, 2011)

I was always fond of #60 - the expanded elven gods, Flight of the Boodles, guns, and the Jester class. It was an April issue.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Jan 22, 2011)

I don't remember the issue or even the contents, but I can describe my favorite Dragon cover ever:  a female ranger, last arrow nocked to her bow, defends herself from an undead monstrosity that is bursting from the snow-covered ground.


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## M.L. Martin (Jan 22, 2011)

Olgar Shiverstone said:


> I don't remember the issue or even the contents, but I can describe my favorite Dragon cover ever:  a female ranger, last arrow nocked to her bow, defends herself from an undead monstrosity that is bursting from the snow-covered ground.




   Issue #126, October 1987, one of their first Halloween 'theme' issues. Lots of cool articles in that one.

  My favorite? #162, October 1990: More Halloween goodness, including Nigel Findley's seminal article on "The Mind of the Vampire" (and the ghost, and the lich . . . ) and RAVENLOFT DMing tips, along with Allen Varney's review of CHAMPIONS, which pretty much sold me on the game. This was both one of the first issues I was exposed to (a friend had it and #163 when we were just starting on D&D) and one of the ones I spent the longest time trying to get (he wouldn't sell).


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## Greg K (Jan 22, 2011)

This is tough. I'd go with


148: For David Howery's Tracking Down the Barbarian and Corrected Cavalier which, in my opinion, fixed the two classes (and Tracking down Barbarian is my favorite article); or

189: David Howery's: The Dark Continent
------Arms and Armor of Africa by Michael J. Varhola
------The other Orientals by Tom Griffith
------Completing the Complete Bard by Jon Winter

Others worthy
45: The archer and archer ranger (it was also the first issue I received)
58-63: Roger E. Moore's non-human deity and point of view articles
67-71: Gary Gygax's: Greyhawk deity articles
75-76: Ed Greenwood's Nine Hell's articles
87-88: Katherine Kerr's Beyond the Dungeon articles
171: David Howery's Completing the Complete Fighter article
191: Open your MInd by  Michael John Wybo II
------The Elven Pantheoen Completed by Carl Sargent
------An African Genesis by Brady English
205: The People by David Howery
280: Magic in the Blood by Geoffery McVey
------A Little More Familiar by Steve Kenson 
------Just the Facts Mage by Robin D Laws
------Reel Heroes: The characters and magic items the D&D movie
any issue that had a  Demonomicon article by James Jacobs;
any issue with Sean K Reynolds's Greyhawk deity articles


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## Celebrim (Jan 23, 2011)

Imhotepthewise said:


> #184, 7 sentence npc. Most useful article evar




Ok, I have to agree that this was the best article Dragon ever published, and I have #184 on my shelf.  And it also occurred right in Dragon's first real renaisance, and the period when the cover art was at its height.

However the greatest issue ever was #116, because it utterly transformed the campaign I was in at the time and really has influenced the way I look at every game since.  Dragon #116 was the sea faring issue, featuring the Mariner class and lots and lots of rules for travel on the high seas as well as a lot of other semi-random stuff of pretty good quality.

Now, the rules themselves were junk.  They clearly were never play tested at all and we rewrote them 3-4 times and ended up greatly expanding on them to cover lots of things not in the article.  But they gave us a starting point and they fired the imagination hugely, and the article was - mechanical issues aside - well written and reasonably well researched.  And really, firing the imagination to go in strange new directions is what Dragon is all about.  So issue #116 wins for me.


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## Achan hiArusa (Jan 23, 2011)

Second on #116 especially the lists of ships.

Dragon #78 for a psionicist that was more balanced than its 2nd Edition version and stats for the Deryni.

My first Dragon was #106 with tips for improving rangers and a system to make 3rd Edition Gamma World a better setting.

But the best had to be Dragon #75 and #76 (and the followup #91) for turning the Nine Hells into a campaign setting.


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## Evilhalfling (Jan 23, 2011)

75,76 and 91.  for the hell of it. 
91 was my first issue, but my brother-in-law game me his collection 72-93 for which I am very grateful. 

127? an issue on wars and armies.  # 99, for intelligent magic weapons and tables of troops. 

for an outlier: 393 - making starpact warlocks viable(ish) and adding names and personalities to the stars, ive prolly gotten the most use out of this article in 4e.


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## Reynard (Jan 23, 2011)

This thread makes me wish there was an ongoing print Pathfinder magazine not associated with the APs...


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## Ajax1979 (Jan 23, 2011)

#78- "Citadel by the Sea" the most useful adventure after KotB, fixed psionics, and details on the Deryni series.

Just talking about specific articles:

#50- Glyphs of Cerilon by Larry Ditillio
#59- Toxins of Cerilon: will cure your forever from poisons that sound like blood types.
#58-62- Roger Moore's Demihuman articles


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## David Howery (Jan 23, 2011)

#54... first issue I ever bought.  
#121... first issue one of my articles appeared in 
#137... had 3 articles published in that one 
#200... it had a hologram! 
#148... apparently, one of the rarer issues because of the Deck of Many Things handout.  
#60... Flight of the Boodles.  Still makes me laugh.


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## Aeolius (Jan 23, 2011)

This thread makes me glad that I found my Dragon CD-ROMs with issues #1-250.


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## Raven Crowking (Jan 23, 2011)

What was the issue with the weredragon on the cover, and the excellent article on worldbuilding?

That and the issue with tables to randomly dress dungeon corridors in the underdark.


RC


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## Stoat (Jan 23, 2011)

Dragon #164: My 2E group made extensive use of the fighter maneuvers in this issue.

Dragon #156: Hooray for the werelagomorph!


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## Mark CMG (Mar 7, 2011)

Any new insights?  The Games Plus auction over the weekend made a few additional back issues available.


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