Dragon (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Dragon is one of the two official magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

s for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

 role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 and associated products, the other being Dungeon
Dungeon (magazine)
Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...

. TSR, Inc.
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....

 originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The final printed issue was #359 in September 2007. Shortly after the last print issue shipped in mid-August, 2007, Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

 (part of Hasbro, Inc.), the publication's current intellectual property rightsholder, re-launched Dragon as an online magazine
Online magazine
An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...

, continuing on the numbering of the print edition. (Issue #395 was published in January 2011.)

History

In 1975, TSR, Inc.
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....

 began publishing The Strategic Review. At the time, roleplaying games were still seen as a sub-genre of the wargaming
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...

 industry, and the magazine was designed not only to support Dungeons & Dragons and TSR's other games, but also to cover wargaming in general. 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.

TSR cancelled The Strategic Review after only seven issues the following year, and replaced it with two magazines, Little Wars, which covered miniature wargaming
Miniature wargaming
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming that incorporates miniature figures, miniature armor and modeled terrain as the main components of play...

, and The Dragon, which covered role playing games. After 13 issues, Little Wars ceased publication and its content was folded into The Dragon (starting with issue 24). The Dragon later changed its name to Dragon Magazine and finally simply Dragon.

The Dragon debuted in June 1976. TSR co-founder Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....

 commented years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask
Tim Kask
Timothy James Kask is an American editor and writer in the role-playing game industry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatures wargames...

 as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon, I thought we would eventually have a great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide... At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan."

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
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...

 campaign setting, which first became known through a series of Dragon articles in the 1980s by its creator Ed Greenwood
Ed Greenwood
Ed Greenwood is a Canadian writer and editor who created the Forgotten Realms. He invented the Forgotten Realms as a child, as a fantasy world in which to set the stories he imagined, and later used this world as a campaign setting for his own personal Dungeons & Dragons playing group...

. 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
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

 purchased TSR and its intellectual properties, including Dragon in 1997. 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
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....

 format with a special viewer including an article and keyword search in CD-ROM format. Also included were the 7 issues of The Strategic Review. This compilation is known as the software title Dragon Magazine Archive. 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
Paizo Publishing
Paizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...

 acquired the rights to publish both Dragon and Dungeon under license from Wizards of the Coast. It tied Dragon more closely to Dungeon by including articles supporting and promoting its major multi-issue adventures such as the Age of Worms
Age of Worms
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Age of Worms is an age of darkness and despair heard of only in ancient prophecies...

 and Savage Tide
Savage Tide
The Savage Tide Adventure Path is the third and final Adventure Path for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game published in Dungeon Adventures...

. 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. 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." Paizo published the last print editions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines for September 2007.

In August 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced plans for the 4th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. Part of this announcement was that D&D Insider
D&D Insider
Dungeons & Dragons Insider is Wizards of the Coast's method of digitally delivering periodic content and information about Dungeons & Dragons to the game's players....

 subscriber content would include the new, online versions of both Dungeon and Dragon magazines along with tools for building campaigns, managing character sheets and other features. In its online form, Dragon continues to publish articles aimed at Dungeons & Dragons players, with rules data from these articles feeding the D&D Character Builder and other online tools.

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
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

), with a particular focus on D&D. 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, monster
Monster
A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...

s and many other subjects that could be used to enhance a Dungeons & Dragons game. 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
Nodwick
Nodwick is a comic strip created by Aaron Williams, based around the conventions of fantasy role-playing games, in particular Dungeons & Dragons . It debuted in Dragon magazine issue #246 , first with short strips, and later receiving a second strip in Dungeon magazine, making fun of one of the...

, Dork Tower
Dork Tower
Dork Tower is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of Madison, Wisconsin. Topics have included role-playing...

, Zogonia and a specialized version of the webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....

 The Order of the Stick
The Order of the Stick
The Order of the Stick is a comedic webcomic that celebrates and satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy through the ongoing tale of the eponymous fellowship of adventuring heroes...

. Previous popular gamer-oriented comic strips include Knights of the Dinner Table
Knights of the Dinner Table
Knights of the Dinner Table is a comic book/strip created by Jolly R. Blackburn and published by Kenzer & Company. It primarily focuses on a group of role playing gamers and their actions at the gaming table, which often result in unfortunate, but humorous consequences in the game...

, Fineous Fingers, What's New with Phil & Dixie
What's New with Phil & Dixie
What's New with Phil & Dixie is a comic strip by Phil Foglio originally published in Dragon magazine from 1980 to 1984, returning to print in the 1990s. The comic stars Phil Foglio, along with Dixie Null, as they explore the world of tabletop RPGs with a mixture of reportage and advice to the reader...

, Wormy
David A. Trampier
Dave A. Trampier is a former artist and writer who worked on some of the earliest editions of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and was the creator of the Wormy comic strip that ran in Dragon magazine...

, Yamara
Yamara
Yamara is a comic strip created by Barbara Manui and Chris Adams, and is a satire of role-playing games and fantasy settings. It debuted in Dragon Magazine with the June 1988 issue, and ran until the December 1995 issue. A Yamara collection , was released circa 1994...

 and SnarfQuest
SnarfQuest
SnarfQuest, drawn and written by Larry Elmore, is a fantasy comic strip with sci-fi and modern elements. Its epic fantasy-adventure context, along with its black-and-white art style, quirky humor, twinge of satire, and anachronistic elements, have earned it comparisons to Jeff Smith's acclaimed...

.

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 1990s, 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
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

 novel A Feast for Crows
A Feast for Crows
A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin...

. It also featured book reviews of fantasy and science fiction novels, and occasionally of films of particular interest (such as the TV movie of Mazes and Monsters
Mazes and Monsters
Mazes and Monsters is a 1982 made-for-TV movie directed by Steven Hilliard Stern about a group of college students and their interest in a fictitious role-playing game of the same name. The movie starred a 26-year-old Tom Hanks in his first major leading film role.- Background :The film was...

).

During various Dungeons & Dragons controversies
Dungeons & Dragons controversies
Dungeons & Dragons controversies concern the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons , which has received significant attention in the media and in popular culture. The game has received some negative coverage, especially during the game's early years in the early 1980s...

, Dragon featured occasional articles from TSR spokespeople discussing issues from their point of view.

A regular feature of Dragon for many years was its "Ecology of ..." articles as sometimes discussed by the fictional sage Elminster, 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.

In the early 1980s, 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 instance, Tom Wham
Tom Wham
Tom Wham is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games.Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he worked for the Guidon Games hobby shop in Maine where he got his first game, a variant...

's Snit's Revenge
Snit's Revenge
Snit's Revenge is a two-player board game developed and illustrated by Tom Wham. It originally appeared as an insert in Dragon Magazine in 1977, and subsequently as a boxed game first published by TSR, Inc. and currently by Steve Jackson Games...

, The Awful Green Things From Outer Space
The Awful Green Things From Outer Space
The Awful Green Things from Outer Space is a two-player board game developed and illustrated by Tom Wham inspired by the Kinji Fukasaku motion picture, The Green Slime. It originally appeared as an insert in Dragon Magazine #28 , and subsequently as a boxed game published by TSR in 1980...

 and File 13
File 13 (board game)
File 13, "The Game Inventor's Game", is a board game created by Tom Wham. File 13 first appeared in Dragon Magazine #72 and was later re-released by TSR, Inc. in the boxed set Best of the Dragon Magazine Games....

 all started as supplements within The Dragon. These bonus features become infrequent after the 1986 launch of Dungeon
Dungeon (magazine)
Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...

 magazine, which published several new Dungeons & Dragons adventures in each issue.

During the 1980s, after TSR had purchased Simulations Publications Inc., the magazine had a subsection called Ares Magazine
Ares (magazine)
Ares was a science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. , and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a wargame, complete with a foldout stiff paper map, a set of cardboard counters, and the rules.There were a total of...

, based on SPI's magazine of that name, specializing in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 role playing games, with pages marked by a gray border. The content included write-ups for various characters of the Marvel Universe
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...

 for TSR's Marvel Super-Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes (role-playing game)
Marvel Superheroes , aka "the FASERIP system," is a role playing game set in the Marvel Universe, first published by TSR under license from Marvel Comics in 1984. In 1986, TSR published an expanded edition, entitled the Marvel Superheroes Advanced Game. Jeff Grubb designed both editions and Steve...

.

Special Issues

As noted above The Dragon was preceded by seven issues of The Strategic Review. In the magazine's early years it also published five "Best of" issues, reprinting highly regarded articles from The Strategic Review and The Dragon.

From 1996 to 2001, Dragon Magazine published the "Dragon Annual," a 13th issue of all new content.

Editors

  • Timothy J. Kask
    Tim Kask
    Timothy James Kask is an American editor and writer in the role-playing game industry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatures wargames...

     - Editor of issues #1 – 34
  • Jake Jaquet  - Editor of issues #35 – 48
  • Kim Mohan
    Kim Mohan
    Kim Mohan is an American author and editor.-Biography:Kim Mohan was born in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Williams Bay, Wisconsin when he was five. He became an avid science-fiction and fantasy reader and occasional wargamer, and graduated third in his high school class...

      - Editor-in-Chief of issues #49 – 114; #199 – 217
  • Roger E. Moore
    Roger E. Moore
    Roger E. Moore is a designer of role-playing games. He is best known for his long-running tenure as editor of Dragon magazine, and was the founding editor of Dungeon magazine.-Early life:...

      - Editor of issues #115 – 198
  • Wolfgang Baur
    Wolfgang Baur
    Wolfgang Baur is an American game designer, best known for his work with Dragon magazine. He designs role-playing games and also is known for his work at Wizards of the Coast.-Biography:...

      - Editor of issues #218 – 221
  • Pierce B. Watters - Editor-in-Chief of issues #222 – 238
  • Anthony J. Bryant
    Anthony J. Bryant
    -Biography:Anthony J. Bryant is the author of four books for Osprey Military Publishing on samurai history. He is an historian of Japan specializing in Kamakura, Muromachi, and Momoyama period warrior culture. His areas of interest also include Heian-period court structure and society and Japanese...

     - Editor of issues #222 – 229
  • Dave Gross  - Editor of issues #230 – 273; Editor-in-Chief #274 – 287
  • Jesse Decker
    Jesse Decker
    -Biography:Decker began playing Dungeons & Dragons in 1983 during recess at his elementary school. During the summer of 1996, he began doing "temp work" for Wizards of the Coast, before returning to finish college that fall. After finishing college, he returned to Wizards of the Coast, where he...

      - Editor-in-Chief of issues #288 – 311
  • Chris Thomasson  - Editor-in-Chief of issues #312 – 315
  • Matthew Sernett  - Editor-in-Chief of issues #316 – 326
  • Erik Mona
    Erik Mona
    -Career:Erik Mona served as the editor-in-chief of Dragon magazine since 2004 and Dungeon magazine from 2004 to 2006; at the time, both magazines were published by Paizo Publishing, until the license through Wizards of the Coast expired in September 2007...

      - Editor-in-Chief of issues #327 – 359
  • Chris Youngs  - Editor-in-Chief of issues #360 – 388
  • Steve Winter
    Steve Winter
    Steve Winter is a game designer who has worked on numerous products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR and later Wizards of the Coast.-Early life:Steve Winter was born in Dubuque, Iowa on December 8, 1957...

      - Editor-in-Chief of issues #389 – Present

Awards

  • 1986: Origins Award
    Origins Award
    The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...

    for Best Professional Roleplaying Magazine of 1985
  • 1990: Origins Award for Best Professional Adventure Gaming Magazine of 1989
  • 1994: Origins Award for Best Professional Gaming Magazine of 1993
  • 1995: Origins Awards for Best Professional Gaming Magazine of 1994, Origins Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame
  • 2004: Origins Award for Best Game Related Periodical 2003
  • 2007: Origins Award for Best Non-Fiction Publication of the Year 2006

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK