The Dragon Issue 6: April 1977.

We learn this issue that they have quadrupled their circulation in the past year. Which doesn't surprise me, but it's nice to see concrete figures. Its pretty much business as usual for the magazine. The usual mix of fiction, articles and adverts. No letters pages this time, and more significantly, No more Dirt. I suppose there's only so long you can keep two pairs of eyes talking to each other interesting. What will replace it? That would be telling.

In this issue:

An alternate character background for metamorphosis alpha. Instead of being wild decendants of the people on the ship, the characters are clones imprinted with memories, grown to repair the ship as an emergency procedure. As you would expect, it is heavily dependent on luck what abilities you get, which range from food service technician (go red dwarf!) to immortal.

Sea trade in D&D campaigns: Creates a nice little greater risk/greater profit gambling game for managing your high level characters trade in the background. It doesn't have any real element of skill, and so it a little dated, but seems like it would do the job quickly for players who have reached high level and want to own companies while still going out adventuring. Also interesting because it references a particular players campaign, which is always revealing, as it is more evidence that people were trying things beyond the scope of the rules and playing in styles not spelled out by the designers.

Legions of the petal throne painting guide: More of the tremendous attention to detail and inventive creatures we've come to expect from professor Barker.

Fiction: The forest of flame by Morno. A wizards apprentice learns about hubris and not trying spells beyond your power the hard way. Or does he?

An advert for dragonewt figures. I've seen nothing on runequest in the magazine so far, but this means that glorantha is already out there, developing. Was there a boardgame set in it before the RPG? Why, I do believe there was. More on this when it becomes significant.

More extra rules and errata for Metamorphosis alpha. They really didn't make it as self-contained as they should. I suppose when you're dealing with characters that diverse, its hard to be comprehensive in the little booklets they used then.

From the Fantasy Forge reviews a load more monster figurines.

Another interesting advert. Monsters! Monsters!, the game of gribleys from the dungeon wreaking havoc on villages of innocent humans. Turnaround is fair play, I suppose.

The Gnome Cache continues.

Ral partha. Another familiar face starts advertising in Dragon.

Optional expansions for psionic abilities and morale.

Angels of Death. You know the drill, relentless and virtually impossible to get rid of permanently, they seek out those who's time has come and take them away. The Bastards.

As you may have noticed, the number of adverts by recognisable companies is increasing rapidly at this point. The magazine's been around long enough, and achieved enough of a reputation that we're seeing other significant companies spring up and follow in their tracks. Still no book reviews though. I wonder how long it'll take before they get round to that?

A lot of the early articles covered so far get collected in the "Best of The Dragon Volume 1", which before the days of PDFs was pretty much the only way some of us saw those.

Anyone else notice that the random dungeon tables from SR #1 have a problem - there's no result on Table I for a die roll of 12-13, and this error got repeated when the tables were reprinted in the DMG.

Damn, every time I read that early article on Witches it makes me want to run an OD&D campaign with them. I like how they were specifically created to kick the asses of high-level characters.

The article on "Traps" encouraged me to track down Clark Ashton Smith's story "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan", primarily since I thought that the title HAD to be a typo. The author's right, though - there's a lot of inspiration for D&D nastiness in CAS stories like "The Last Heiroglyph" and "The Ice Demon" and "The Seven Geases".

the very first copy of dragon I bought was iss 28.  The only place I could find them in my area was a little tiny game shop in Crystal City Underground near DC...(my mom worked in one of the offices in the towers)  Since I would meet her after having my braces worked on every week, I was able to pick up each issue as they hit the shelf.  

then we moved and I wasn't able to get them as reliably...so my collection has some gaps in the 50's and 60's...but after complaining about it loudly and often for a few years, my family got me a subscription and I kept it for many years...basically until 3rd Ed came out and 2nd Ed material became as rare as a unicorn.

Later, I bought the Dragon Archive, which covers the first 250 issues.  That filled in the material I didn't have very nicely.  If you're wanting material from those old issues, it's definately the way to go; 250 ish's of material for less than $50, not a bad deal really...may be hard to find these days though....

Even though I haven't bought an issue in years, I've still toted my collection around every time I move....recently, my new wife (who is a big comic book fan) bought me the collectors boxes, bags and boards to fight the harsh treatment some of them have gotten.  

I've been tempted a few times to see how well the collection might sell...my wife says I shouldn't even think of parting with them, and instead should try to find the issues I'm missing to make it a continuous collection.

It was always a tremendous resource for me; everything from treasure tables, new monsters, new campaign angles, and such, to answers to specific rules clarifications and whole modules.   Even the "extra" games that were occasionally included were really great.

The thing is....you could tell exactly when WotC took over....the magazine got a slick, shiny new feel to it, but it was just that....totally cosmetic.  The substance dwindled away more and more, becoming almost a faint shadow of it's former self....sorta like a old western movie storefront, with nothing behind the door/window....looks great, until you walk around to find more..and there isn't any.   Didnt come as too much of a surprise to me when they announced they were shutting down the paper publication and becoming a web-zine.   But, that seems to be the way of WotC; they don't seem to understand (or just don't care) what the gaming community wants....

Dragon was past its prime long before WoTC took over.  Basically, it stopped being any good when they stopped doing the Princess Ark supplement in it.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Pere Ubu;295424Anyone else notice that the random dungeon tables from SR #1 have a problem - there's no result on Table I for a die roll of 12-13, and this error got repeated when the tables were reprinted in the DMG.

Not until I actually tested it out Goes to show what you can gloss over.  

Quote from: WindWolf;295449The thing is....you could tell exactly when WotC took over....the magazine got a slick, shiny new feel to it, but it was just that....totally cosmetic.  The substance dwindled away more and more, becoming almost a faint shadow of it's former self....sorta like a old western movie storefront, with nothing behind the door/window....looks great, until you walk around to find more..and there isn't any.   Didnt come as too much of a surprise to me when they announced they were shutting down the paper publication and becoming a web-zine.   But, that seems to be the way of WotC; they don't seem to understand (or just don't care) what the gaming community wants....

Quote from: RPGPundit;295511Dragon was past its prime long before WoTC took over.  Basically, it stopped being any good when they stopped doing the Princess Ark supplement in it.

RPGPundit

I do hope my opinion of that era isn't quite as negative as that. I'd hate to have to plug through the last third of this hating every bit of it. Personally, I found it went crap at the end of 1995, when they started to panic about their declining sales, and did a major "refocussing", which ironically removed a huge chunk of the bits that I liked, and IMO just hastened their decline. Which is where I got off first time round. But let's not get miles ahead of ourselves.

(un)reason: That was around the same time I'm talking about, a couple of years later, but to me by then they were already in decline compared to what they once were.The early 90s was the last great period for Dragon.

RPGPundit

(un)reason: That was around the same time I'm talking about, a couple of years later, but to me by then they were already in decline compared to what they once were.The early 90s was the last great period for Dragon.

RPGPundit

The Dragon Issue 7: June 1977

So its a year since Dragon started. They're pretty happy with what they've achieved, but still have bigger ambitions. Already they can look back at their old issues and cringe at the quality. But as we know, there are still substantial improvements coming ahead. Still, lets see what the present contains.

In this issue:

How to vote for the third annual strategists club awards. Gives me a pretty good idea of what was released and did well this year, as well as what authors are currently popular.

What to do when the dog eats your dice: Pretty self explanatory. shows how to use other common methods of generating random numbers to substitute for dice rolling.   Most notable for including mexican jumping beans as one of the options, among other joke options.

Gary talks about the origins of TSR and D&D. Most of this is pretty familiar, particularly as its only a short article. But as their fanbase is expanding so quickly, I guess he gets asked it a lot. Rest assured, you have many long years of answering that question ahead of you.

Mapping the dungeon now includes entries for australia and germany.

Mystery hill - Americas stonehenge: Manages to cover several different ancient conspiracy theories in a couple of pages. Lots of stuff thats transplantable to virtually any setting here.

Fiction: The journey most alone, by morno. This continues the journey of the wizard from the forest of flame. It's a bit late, but I can't help thinking that this story makes an excellent example of a seeking for mage: the ascencion.

Military Formation stuff for tekumel. Making battles look like advanced geometry lessons with florid titles from above since 1977. This is really more aimed at the wargamers among the audience, and I found it pretty dull.

More Finieous Fingers

Monster: The prowler. Another worse than death inflicting creature who can makes life a nightmare for dumb or unlucky PC's. More nice errol otus artwork depicting it.

The gnome cache continues, with the situation going from bad to worse for our protagonist, with the ready promise of getting worse still. Will there ever be a happy ending to this story? No, because this is the last installment before it simply gets dropped unceremoniously. So much for that then.

Pretty dull issue really. Doesn't seem to be anything historically significant or hugely entertaining or thought-provoking in this one.

Quote from: (un)reason;295553 Not until I actually tested it out Goes to show what you can gloss over.

Is the errata for that article available anywhere? I mean, I've been assuming the missing result for Table 1 should be something like "11-13: Turn (see Table IV)" but it'd be nice to know for sure.

Just posting to say that I'm enjoying this thread!  

The Dragon Issue 8: July 1977

Oohh. Several very cool things here. We get fiction from the co-creator of Lankhmar, harry fischer, plus the first proper map of the planar cosmology. We also get lots of hints on upcoming games. It seems that they are planning something big in the near future, putting a whole game into issue 11. We'll see how that one pans out. We also get a case of the disappearing freelancer, as the creator of finieous fingers goes AWOL. Again, I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

But enough of the future/distant past (we have got to invent better time travel tenses) In this issue:

The great wheel cosmology that has defined D&D all the way through 1st and 2nd edition, and still got plenty of coverage in 3rd, with various variations and additions; gets its first outing. It's still the same basic setup: 6 inner planes representing building blocks of reality in a sphere, 16 outer planes representing moral positions in a big ring, ethereal and astral planes to connect them to the prime material. There's still a few differences to the final model, the upper planes are in a different order, and there's no Outlands or demi/quasiplanes. What upheaval could move them to the classic form most of us are familiar with? As a longtime planescape fan, any further developments on this front will be reported with great enthusiasm.

The development of towns in D&D. Looks like we're starting to get thoughts on realism and worldbuilding. Guess sharing a magazine with professor barker all this time is starting to rub off. Includes a whole bunch of implicit suggestions about the average level of characters and distribution of alignments that you may want to take or leave, but thats implicit setting stuff in general for you. You have to watch out for it and know how to change it for your own game.

The Finzer Family - A tale of modern magic, by Harry. O. Fischer, the co-creator of lankhmar (Who's books are all out of print, it seems while fritz lieber continues to sell nicely. Quite shocking. ) This is a long story, taking up a full third of the issue, and ends on a too be continued. I won't spoil you on this one.

Gamma World! Coming soon, they give us a sneak preview. Seems a bit odd to release two gonzo sci-fi games within a few months of each other. And I can't say I'm overly inspired by the teaser either. I guess I've just seen these tropes done too many times, often better.

A set of tables for those of you who want more detailed gems and jewelry, measured in carats, and their respective value in GP. Pretty dull stuff, only for hose of you crave detail in everything.

So, you want realism in D&D. A joke article on how to translate youself into D&D ability scores. Most notable for its wisdom entry. Calculate the average number of hours in a week you spend playing D&D and working on your D&D campaign, and subtract it from 20 Which also becomes a subtle dig at how often the writer actually gets to play, thanks to being a tsr staffer. Ahh, turning your hobby into your job. Destroying the joy you take in life since the age of 18.

From the Fantasy Forge continues to point out miniatures for us. Not much reviewing this time though, just straight out pimping, which isn't briliant.

Name that monster! They give us a picture and then ask readers give a name and stats for it. Best entry gets published plus other prizes. I'll report how this one turns out.

Yet more stuff on Metamorphosis alpha by jim ward. He really is plugging this for all he's worth. I suppose it is his creation and all, so he has a strong stake in its success.

An odd little comic on the creation of the world.

This ones a mixed bag, going from the very interesting ( the planes and the fiction) to very dull with little in between. It's nice to see their imaginations are expanding along with their ambitions, but there's still something missing as far as consistency goes. Once again, due to their limited page count, they've bumped their "regular" features out the way to make space for the special stuff. Since they've only been going a few issues, that stops them from feeling regular, and letting people get a feel for their format. Which is a bit annoying. Still, I know they got there in the end. I just have to keep following the path to find out when.

Quote from: Pere Ubu;295788Is the errata for that article available anywhere? I mean, I've been assuming the missing result for Table 1 should be something like "11-13: Turn (see Table IV)" but it'd be nice to know for sure.

Not as far as I can see. It wasn't in any of the official erratas they did back in the day. Your houserule's probably as good as any, since it's a fairly simple system.

How the hell you getting these articles? Thundercats can do anything!

The Dragon Issue 9: September 1977

Once again the fiction eats up a huge portion of this issue, possibly even more than in issue 2. We also see the start of a proper comics section, instead of putting them throughout the magazine. Most significantly, Wormy! Yes, many peoples favourite flat-capped dragon and his demonic pal with a brooklyn accent get their debut here. Now I know.

Also in this issue:

Mixing alignments in D&D. Gary reminds us that even in D&D, everyone doesn't automatically know each others alignment and try to kill each other because of it. It is often more profitable to tolerate people different from you, and take advantage of those different outlooks. Particularly among humans, who span a range of alignments, this is simply not viable, and you have to think politically to survive and achieve your ambitions. Which is important to reminds people. This may be a fantasy, but it's not totally unrealistic (and will continue to get less so, in many ways.)

The finzer family story takes a sharp right angle, and turns into a "time travelers who go to observe an event wind up making it happen" story.  Only without the horrible ending in something like Behold the Man. But then, this is a family friendly magazine.

Seal of the imperium: A Q&A column by MAR Barker about tekumel. Lots of boring little rules niggles that I shan't go into, but we do get one very valuable bit of advice. The tekumel that exists in the game is not the same as the one in the books. If every event and item was incorporated, then any semblence of realism and sanity would soon go out the window. Advice which was never heeded by D&D settings like athas and krynn later. Oh well. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. And we're certainly learning quite a lot of history here.

The fastest guns who never lived part 2: More boot hill stats for fictional cowboys, including luminaries such as Tom mix and Lee van cleef. Still not familiar enough with the shows or the rules to comment on how good they are, but there certainly seems to be a good selection of genre emulating abilities there.

Tombs and crypts: Another set of random tables for determination of monsters, should players decide to do a little unplanned graverobbing. Like PC's do.

An Elric boardgame being advertised. I guess this means Moorcock already knows about D&D now, and a RPG will be along soon. Iiinteresting

The comics section. We get Floating in timeless space, Wormy and Finieous fingers. All seem to involve ongoing storylines.

The first issue of White dwarf magazine is released around this time, and they put an advert here. I was going to ask if someone wanted to take that job on, but since they already have, I don't need too. Which is nice.

More building up of detail here, but nothing else stands out. Still, surely wormy is  enough for you. If they crammed all new stuff into every issue it'd be a nightmare to keep track of.

Quote from: Jim Profit;296049How the hell you getting these articles? Thundercats can do anything!

O_o