Dragon magazine 351
It was also the first issue of the magazine whose cover was illustrated by a notable fantasy artist, Tim Hildebrandt. Issue 49 (May 1981) was the first issue by Dragon’s third editor-in-chief, Kim Mohan.
However, there would be an even more notable sign in issue 49. “The”s are hard to deal with editorially, as you have to decide if you should write “the The Dragon” and other such silliness, so its loss may have been a further sign of the magazine’s increasing professionalism. The Dragon lost its “The” with issue 39 (July 1980). The first of these were Snit Smashing and Snit’s Revenge by Tom Wham in The Dragon 10 and 11 (October-December 1977) the latter was turned into one of TSR’s best-known board games: Snit’s Revenge! (1978).įinally, a great tradition began in The Dragon 36 (April 1980) when a section of humorous articles presented monsters like “The DM” and “The Keebler” for April Fools' Day. Complete board games (1977-1991, 2000) appeared in the middle of many early issues of The Dragon.“Giants in the Earth” (1979-1982) converted mythical and literary characters to D&D this introduced readers to yet more iconic fantasy books (and was a great resource besides).“Leomund’s Tiny Hut” (1979-1986), by Len Lakofka, contained many well-conceived rules variants.“From the Sorcerer’s Scroll” (1977-1986), mostly by Gary Gygax, detailed his own thoughts on the game.Some of the magazine’s earliest columns and recurring features are of particular note:
#DRAGON MAGAZINE 351 PROFESSIONAL#
If it began as an amateur publication at its start, it became a professional magazine by the time that Jaquet ended his short run as editor-in-chief. The story of The Dragon in these formative years was that of a magazine finding its footing in a hobby also doing the same. Jaquet was then editor-in-chief from issues 37 (May 1980) through 48 (April 1981). With the last few issues, Kask stepped back to a managing role, while former Assistant Editor Jake Jaquet took on much of the day-to-day running of the magazine. Kask was The Dragon’s editor-in-chief from issues 1 (June 1976) through 36 (April 1980). The Dragon even featured articles about other publishers’ RPGs-with GDW’s Traveller (1977) getting particular attention. TSR Hobbies had to buy their own ads too, while the magazine staff was willing to publish critical reviews of TSR products, as when Ed Greenwood panned the original Fiend Folio (1981) in Dragon 55 (November 1981). When Gary Gygax began writing his “From the Sorcerer’s Scroll” column with The Dragon 11 (December 1977), it was only under the editorship of Kask. This was at the insistence of Kask, who wanted The Dragon to be a more independent voice for the hobby. Second, TSR Hobbies did not produce The Dragon it was instead published by TSR Periodicals. In the late ‘70s, fantasy books weren’t nearly as common as they are today, so The Dragon presented these authors to many D&D players for the first time. This was obvious from the start, as early issues included fiction by Harry Fischer, Gardener Fox, and Fritz Leiber-all notables in the swords & sorcery genre. Two things about Tim Kask’s early The Dragon might not be obvious to later fans of the magazine.įirst, The Dragon billed itself as a “magazine of fantasy, s&s, sci-fi, and roleplaying games.” In other words, it sought to serve the whole speculative genre. The Dragon appeared in 1976 as one of two new magazines from TSR, the other being the short-lived Little Wars miniatures magazine (1976-1978). He took over The Strategic Review with issue 5 (December 1975) and quickly turned the newsletter into a small magazine. However, when Tim Kask joined TSR as employee #2 and the Periodicals Editor, he wanted something more. So as we reach the end of the year, we wanted to take a look back at the history of these magazines.Ī year after the appearance of the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974), a young TSR started The Strategic Review (1975-1976)-a newsletter intended to advertise and supplement its products. Hone your writing skills as best you can. If you are interested in contributing to the D&D tabletop roleplaying game in the future, my best advice (for the time being) is to start up a regular D&D Next game and familiarize yourself with the new rules. The editorial went on to further state: " Every new edition is a chance for the magazines to evolve, and evolve they will. As we turn our attention to the next D&D rules set, we’re putting Dragon and Dungeon on hiatus. In years past, when we found ourselves at the lonely crossroads between game editions, the magazines simply went from one edition to the next with nary a breath in between. Back in September's Dragon editorial, Chris Perkins made the following announcement: