Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Forgotten Realms, first published in 1976.

History
In 1975, TSR. began publishing The Strategic Review. 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 The Dragon which later became Dragon Magazine and finally Dragon.

A compilation of the first 250 issues was released; also included were the 7 issues of The Strategic Review. This compilation is known as the software title Dragon Magazine Archive.

Wizards of the Coast 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, Dragon suffered a five-month gap between #236 and #237 but remained published by TSR as a subsidiary of WotC starting September 1997, and until January 2000 when WotC became the listed de facto publisher. The magazine changed its name to Dragon starting June 2000.

In 2002, Paizo Publishing acquired the rights to publish both Dragon and Dungeon under license from Wizards of the Coast. Dragon was published by Paizo starting September 2002. 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. 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. The final printed issue was #359 in September 2007. Shortly after the last print issue shipped in mid-August, 2007, Wizards of the Coast re-launched Dragon as an online Magazine, continuing on the numbering of the print edition.

In the September 2013 issue of Dragon (#427) an article by Wizards of the Coast game designer and editor Chris Perkins announced that both Dragon and its sibling publication Dungeon would be going on hiatus starting January 2014 pending the release of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. The final online version released was Issue #430 in December 2013.

A new and fully digital bi-monthly publication called Dragon+, was launched on April 30, 2015, succeeding the existing versions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Created by Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, the online edition ceased continuity with the printed and digital versions of both magazines, and restarted its numbering system for issues at No. 1.

Content
Although Dragon was originally designed to support the roleplaying industry in general, it has always been primarily a house organ for role-playing games with a particular focus on D&D.

Most of the magazine's articles provide supplementary material for the game including new prestige classes, races, monsters and many other subjects that can be used to enhance a Dungeons & Dragons game. Other articles will provide tips and suggestions for players and DMs.

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). These bonus features become infrequent after the 1986 launch of Dungeon magazine, which published several new Dungeons & Dragons adventures in each issue.

Ares was a science fiction wargame magazine that was purchased by TSR. After publication ceased, a large new section called the "Ares Section" was added to Dragon magazine starting with Dragon #84 in April 1984 and was treated as almost a magazine within a magazine. This special section provided support for science fantasy and superhero roleplaying games such as Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes and Star Frontiers. The "Ares Section" was published until July 1986, Dragon #111, after which it too was discontinued.
 * Ares Section:

Bazaar of the Bizarre is a long-running series of articles appearing in Dragon. They would discuss various magical items and classes in the D&D multiverse.
 * Bazaar of the Bizarre:

At the end of its print run, the magazine also featured four comics; Nodwick, Dork Tower, Zogonia and a specialized version of the webcomic The Order of the Stick. Previous popular gamer-oriented comic strips include Knights of the Dinner Table, Finieous Fingers, What's New with Phil & Dixie, Wormy, Yamara and SnarfQuest.
 * Comics:


 * Dragon's Bestiary:

Appearing in almost every issue beginning with Dragon #26, this series of articles would cover a wide variety of monsters in D&D. The articles were primarily based on monsters from the D&D Bestiary and Monster Manual series of sourcebooks.

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.
 * Ecology Series:

In the magazine's early years Dragon 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 thirteenth issue of all new content.
 * Special issues:

Wyrms of the North was a series of articles in Dragon Magazine by Ed Greenwood that covered over two dozen unique dragons of Faerûn. They were published in issues #230 to #259.
 * Wyrms of the North:

Editors

 * Timothy J. Kask   - Editor of issues Dragon #1 - Dragon #34
 * Jake Jaquet      - Editor of issues Dragon #35 - Dragon #48
 * Kim Mohan        - Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #49 - Dragon #114; Dragon #199 - Dragon #217
 * Roger E. Moore   - Editor of issues Dragon #115 - Dragon #198
 * Wolfgang Baur    - Editor of issues Dragon #218 - Dragon #221
 * Pierce Watters - Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #222 - Dragon #238
 * Anthony J. Bryant - Editor of issues Dragon #222 - Dragon #229
 * Dave Gross       - Editor of issues Dragon #230 - Dragon #273; Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #274 - Dragon #287
 * Jesse Decker     - Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #288 - Dragon #311
 * Chris Thomasson  - Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #312 - Dragon #315
 * Matthew Sernett  - Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #316 - Dragon #326
 * Erik Mona        - Editor-in-Chief of issues Dragon #327 - Dragon #359
 * Chris Youngs     - Editor-in-Chief of issues - Dragon #360 – Dragon #388
 * Steve Winter     - Editor-in-Chief of issues - Dragon #389 – Dragon #430
 * Matt Chapman     - Present Dragon+ Editor-in-Chief

Awards

 * 1986: Origins Award 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 Award 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

In the Realms
Though Ed Greenwood had his first published article in issue #30 and his first Forgotten Realms article in issue #39, most fans agree that work found in this magazine before the release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set was part of his home game and therefore potentially conflicts with later canon. The first Dragon published after the release of the Campaign Set was issue #123 and all content produced from thereon is 100% Dungeons and Dragons canon.

Issue Index
An index of all the Dragon magazines published, sorted by year. Includes special editions.


 * Best of the Dragon:


 * Dragon Annual: