''Dungeon'' (originally published as ''Dungeon: Adventures for TSR Role-Playing Games'') was one of the two official

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s targeting consumers of the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

and associated products; ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' was the other. ''Dungeon'' was first published by

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had bee ...

in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150. Starting in 2008, ''Dungeon'' and its more widely read sister publication, ''Dragon'', went to an online-only format published by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

. Both magazines went on hiatus at the end of 2013, with ''Dungeon'' #221 being the last issue released.

History

TSR

''Dungeon'' (initially titled ''Dungeon Adventures'') first received mention in the editor's column of ''

'' Issue 107 (March 1986). Lacking a title at that point, it was described as "a new magazine filled entirely with modules" made available "by subscription only" that would debut "in the late summer or early fall" of 1986 and "come out once every two months". The publication's original editor,

Roger E. Moore Roger E. Moore (born July 11, 1955, in Winchester, Kentucky) is a designer of role-playing games. He had a long-running tenure as editor of ''Dragon'' magazine and was the founding editor of ''Dungeon'' magazine. Early life Moore's family moved ...

, elaborated on this basic outline:

''Dungeon Adventures'' is a new periodical from TSR, Inc., in which you, the readers, may share your own adventures and scenarios from '' AD&D'' and '' D&D'' gaming with the legions of other fantasy gamers. Each issue offers a number of fairly short (but often quite complicated and long-playing) modules, selected from the best we receive.
What kind of adventures do you want to see? We're going to offer as broad a spectrum of material as possible:
dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video g ...
s, wilderness camp-outs, ''
Oriental Adventures ''Oriental Adventures'' (abbreviated OA) is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different Editions of Dungeons & Dragons, versions of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy roleplaying game. Each version of ''Oriental ...
'' modules, solo quests, tournament designs, ''
Battlesystem ''Battlesystem'' is a tabletop miniature wargame designed as a supplement for use with the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. The original ''Battlesystem'' was printed as a boxed set in 1985 for use with the first edition ''AD&D'' rules. Fo ...
'' scenarios, and more.

The premiere issue of ''Dungeon: Adventures for TSR Role-Playing Games'' was undated, but "November/December 1986" appears on the cover of the subsequent issue, and Moore stated that it had been released prior to the November issue of ''Dragon''. The magazine's format consisted of 64 pages of short ''D&D'' and ''AD&D'' game adventures of various lengths, themes, and tones, written by both amateur and professional fantasy role-playing writers. In conjunction with the first anniversary of ''Dungeon Adventures'',

Ken Rolston Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. Tabletop role-playing games Ken Rolston began working as a professional g ...

included a brief review in Issue 125 (September 1987) of ''Dragon''. Regarding the modules themselves, he called them " eap and cheerful, full of the basic fun of ''D&D'' games", and said that they reminded him of "the selection of game sessions you find at gaming conventions or in old-fashioned modules". Rolston commented on the anthology format, which allowed writers to "publish fine little bits" and provided "great training grounds for new writers" that offered "an opportunity to experiment with offbeat themes and tones". Rolston concluded that "sophisticated gamers will find a lot to snicker at here, but there are some cute ideas", and added that the "writing ranges from young and enthusiastic to polished, and when compared with some of TSR's current modules...the quality of the layout and graphics is quite decent."

Wizards of the Coast

With the sale of TSR due to solvency concerns, the magazine came under the umbrella of

in 1997, and the company printed the next 30 issues. With the release of Issue #78 in January 2000, the long title printed on the cover was simplified from ''Dungeon: Adventures for TSR Role-Playing Games'' to ''Dungeon: Adventures''. By Issue #82 (August 2000) it was simplified again to ''Dungeon''.

Paizo

In late 2002,

Paizo Publishing Paizo Inc. (; originally Paizo Publishing) is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing games '' Pathfinder'' and '' Starfinder''. The company's name is derived from ...

acquired publishing rights to both ''Dungeon'' and ''Dragon'' magazine titles as part of a move by

to divest business ventures not related to its core business.

Return to Wizards of the Coast

On April 18, 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced that Paizo would cease publication of ''Dungeon'' in September of that year. Scott Rouse, senior brand manager of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' at Wizards of the Coast, stated, "Today the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

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." Coinciding with the release of the 4th edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' in June 2008, Wizards of the Coast launched a website that included online versions of ''Dungeon'' and ''Dragon'' magazines for subscribers. In this new format, ''Dungeon'' (now subtitled ''A Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Supplement'') retained its mandate to deliver adventures of varying lengths and levels as well as articles with information and advice for DMs. Mainstay columns such as "Dungeoncraft" (written by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...

) were retained, and DM-focused articles that formerly appeared in ''Dragon'' magazine (like "Save My Game") were incorporated into ''Dungeon'', making it a "one-stop shop" for DMs. The magazine shifted to a landscape format with the intent of making the articles and adventures more readable onscreen. Content was released daily and gathered into

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

compilations on a monthly basis. In May 2011, Wizards of the Coast stopped the monthly compilations and left content in single article format. In October 2012, Wizards of the Coast resumed monthly compilations.

Cessation

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 the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 5th edition product line. The final online version was Issue #221 in December 2013. The successor magazine, called Dragon+, was subsequently released online on 30 April 2015.

Content

Each issue featured a variety of self-contained, pre-scripted, play-tested game scenarios, often called "modules", "adventures" or "scenarios". Dungeon Masters (DMs) could either enact these

adventures An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme s ...

with their respective player groups as written or adapt them to their own

campaign setting A campaign setting is a setting for a tabletop role-playing game or wargame campaign. Most campaign settings are fictional worlds; however, some are historical or contemporary real-world locations. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adve ...

s. ''Dungeon'' aimed to save DMs time and effort in preparing game sessions for their players by providing a full complement of ideas, hooks, plots, adversaries, creatures, illustrations, maps, hand-outs, and character dialogue. It was a resource containing several modules per issue, significantly cheaper than standard-format modules. From Dungeon's founding in 1986, it published content that could be used in a variety of forms of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' systems, much like its sister magazine, ''Dragon''. When Wizards of the Coast merged all ''D&D'' product lines into one, 2000's 3rd Edition, ''Dungeon'' published exclusively 3E content between September 2000's issue 82 and July 2003's issue 100, which shifted to 3.5E. With the release of 4th Edition in June 2008, issue 155 saw the 3.5E content dropped and focused exclusively on 4E. Like ''Dragon'', ''Dungeon'' was cancelled by Wizards of the Coast before the release of 5th Edition.

Polyhedron

Polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (: polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional figure with flat polygonal Face (geometry), faces, straight Edge (geometry), edges and sharp corners or Vertex (geometry), vertices. The term "polyhedron" may refer ...

'', the monthly membership publication of the Role-Playing Game Association, was combined with ''Dungeon'' into a single magazine beginning with Issue 90 (January 2002) and lasting until Issue 111 (June 2004). Many of the ''Polyhedron'' sections presented complete mini-games for the

d20 system The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast, originally developed for the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, 3rd edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The system is named after ...

in genres other than fantasy. Editor

Erik Mona Erik Mona (born April 1974) is an American game designer who lives in Seattle, Washington. Career Mona was the Managing Editor of issues 1 and 2 of the ''Oerth Journal'', an online publication devoted to the ''World of Greyhawk'' campaign settin ...

changed the format in September 2004, starting with Issue 114, discontinuing the ''Polyhedron'' component and focusing solely on ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Each issue included three adventures, one each for low, medium, and high levels. A few issues each year also contained another substantial article which provided further details on the setting of one of the adventures (Previously, ''Dungeon'' almost never had features other than modules). Following the adventures and articles, many issues included the three-page "Dungeoncraft" column, at the time written by

Monte Cook Monte Cook (born January 29, 1968) is an American professional tabletop role-playing game designer and writer, best known for his work on ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Role-playing industry career Early years Cook has been a professional game d ...

, as well as a handful of shorter articles on various subjects, collectively titled the "Campaign Workbook".

Adventure Paths

Beginning in 2003, ''Dungeon'' magazine featured episodic, multi-part adventures, referred to as "

Adventure Path An Adventure Path is a series of interlinked adventures (campaign) for tabletop role-playing games which can be played in succession and lead characters to advance from lower to higher levels, through a particular path of events. While campaign ...

s", which were designed to take a group of player characters from the beginning of their adventuring careers (1st level) through epic levels (20th and above). As of April 2013, four such serials were published: ''

Shackled City ''The Shackled City Adventure Path'' (or simply ''Shackled City'') is a role-playing game Adventure Path designed for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''), originally appearing as a series of modules in Dungeon (magazine), ''Dungeon'' magazine, and l ...

'', ''

Age of Worms The ''Age of Worms'' Adventure Path (or simply ''Age of Worms'') is the second Adventure Path for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game, published over twelve installments from July 2005 through June 2006 in ''Dungeon'' magazine. A campai ...

'', ''

Savage Tide The ''Savage Tide'' Adventure Path (or simply ''Savage Tide'') is the third Adventure Path for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game, published over twelve installments from October 2006 through September 2007 in ''Dungeon'' magazine. It ...

'', and ''Scales of War''. In August 2005 the ''Shackled City'' Adventure Path was collected into a hardcover edition with various revisions and corrections, new background information, and a bonus adventure meant to fill a gap near the beginning of the series. Similarly, several shorter campaign arcs (typically consisting of three parts) and various sporadic, open-ended series and side treks were featured in these later issues.

Recognition

;Awards * 1990:

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

for Best Professional Adventure Gaming Magazine of 1989 * 1991: Origins Award for Best Professional Adventure Gaming Magazine of 1990 * 2002:

ENnie Award The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications, and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World ...

for Best Aid or Accessory * 2005: ENnie Awards for Best Cartography ("World Map of Greyhawk", Issues 118–121), Best Adventure ('' Maure Castle'', Issue 112), Best Aid or Accessory (''Dungeon'' magazine), and Best Free Product or Web Enhancement (Maps and handouts, Issues 114–122) * 2006: ENnie Awards for Best Cartography, Best Adventure, and Best Campaign Setting/Setting Supplement (''Shackled City'' Adventure Path); and Best Free Product or Web Enhancement (''Age of Worms'' Overload) * 2007: Origins Award for Best Fiction Publication of the Year 2006 * 2007: ENnie Award for Best Free Product (''Savage Tide'' Player's Guide) ;Nominations * 2006: Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game Supplement of the Year 2005 (''Shackled City'' hardcover) * 2006: ENnie Award for Best Production Values, Best d20/d20 OGL Product, and Best Product (''Shackled City'' Adventure Path) * 2007: Origins Award for Best Fiction Publication of the Year 2006 * 2007: ENnie Award for Best Adventure (''Age of Worms'' Adventure Path)

Notes

External links

''Dungeon Magazine'' archive
(all issues)
Paizo Publishing
– Products, resources, news, and message boards for ''Dungeon Adventures''
RPGnet
– Partial catalogue of ''Dungeon Adventures'' issues with cover images, content descriptions, and user reviews and comments * Unofficial indices of adventure modules: ** ** {{Dungeons & Dragons franchise media Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Dungeons & Dragons magazines ENnies winners House organs Magazines established in 1986 Magazines disestablished in 2007 Magazines published in Seattle Magazines published in Wisconsin Monthly magazines published in the United States Online magazines published in the United States Online magazines with defunct print editions Origins Award winners Role-playing game magazines TSR, Inc. magazines Wizards of the Coast magazines