''Dragon'' 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 for source material for 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, along with ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (fr ...

''.

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 ...

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 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 ...

(part of Hasbro, Inc.), the publication's current copyright holder, relaunched ''Dragon'' as an

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the comput ...

, continuing on the numbering of the print edition. The last published issue was No. 430 in December 2013. A digital publication called ''Dragon+'', which replaced ''Dragon'' magazine, was launched in 2015. It was created by the

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...

Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, and its numbering system for issues started at No. 1.

History

TSR

In 1975,

began publishing ''The Strategic Review''. At the time, roleplaying games were still seen as a subgenre of the

wargaming A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...

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 canceled ''The Strategic Review'' the following year after only seven issues, and replaced it with two magazines, ''

Little Wars ''Little Wars'' is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by English novelist H. G. Wells in 1913. The book, which had a full title of ''Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that ...

'', which covered

miniature wargaming A miniature wargame is a type of wargame in which military units are represented by Miniature model (gaming), miniature physical models on a model battlefield. Miniature wargames are played using Toy soldier, model soldiers, vehicles, and arti ...

, and ''The Dragon'', which covered role playing games. After twelve issues, ''Little Wars'' ceased independent publication and issue 13 was published as part of ''Dragon'' issue 22. The magazine debuted as ''The Dragon'' in June 1976.
The Dragon
' #1 (1976-06) TSR co-founder

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax creat ...

commented years later: "When I decided that ''The Strategic Review'' was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask 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'' is 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'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...

campaign setting, which first became known through a series of ''Dragon'' articles in the 1980s by its creator

Ed Greenwood Ed Greenwood (born July 21, 1959) is a Canadian fantasy writer and the creator of the '' Forgotten Realms'' game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for ''Dragon'' magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rig ...

. It subsequently went on to become one of the primary campaign "worlds" for official ''Dungeons and Dragons'' products, starting in 1987. The magazine appeared on the cover as simply ''Dragon'' from July 1980, later changing its name to ''Dragon Magazine'' starting November 1987.

Wizards of the Coast

purchased TSR and its intellectual properties, including ''Dragon Magazine'', in 1997. Production was then transferred from Wisconsin to Washington state. In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc. ''Dragon Magazine'' 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. They removed the word "magazine" from the cover title starting with the June 2000 issue, changing the publication's name back to simply ''Dragon''. In 1999 a CD-ROM compilation of the first 250 issues, called '' Dragon Magazine Archive'', was released in

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, ...

format with a special viewer. It includes the seven issues of ''The Strategic Review''. The ''Dragon Magazine Archive'' is out of print because of issues raised with the 2001 ruling in '' Greenberg v. National Geographic'' regarding the reprint rights of various comic strips that had been printed in ''Dragon'' over the years and Paizo Publishing's policy that creators of comics retain their copyright."Actually, as was back then, and remains today, the cartoonist contracts in ''Dragon'' and ''Dungeon'' allow for the artists to retain all their rights, and gives them the ability to publish compilations of their work." —Sean Glenn, Art Director Dragon and Dungeon magazines
"Where's Wormy?" Thread
/ref> These comic strips include ''Wormy'', ''What's New with Phil & Dixie'', ''Snarf Quest'', and ''Knights of the Dinner Table'' which is covered in TSR's own statement in the first issue that "All material published herein becomes the exclusive property of the publisher unless special arrangements to the contrary are made."

Paizo

In 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 the rights to publish both ''Dragon'' and ''Dungeon'' under license from Wizards of the Coast. ''Dragon'' was published by Paizo starting September 2002. It ties ''Dragon'' more closely to ''Dungeon'' by including articles supporting and promoting its major multi-issue adventures such as the ''

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 ...

'' and '' Savage Tide''. ''Class Acts'', a monthly publication with one- or two-page articles offering ideas for developing specific character classes, were also introduced by Paizo.

Return to Wizards of the Coast

On April 18, 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced that it would not be renewing Paizo's licenses for ''Dragon'' and ''Dungeon,'' instead opting for online publishing. Paizo published the last print editions of ''Dragon'' and ''Dungeon'' magazines for September 2007. In August 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced the fourth edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game and that ''

D&D Insider ''D&D'' Insider (DDI) was Wizards of the Coast's subscription method of digitally delivering periodic content, information, and online tools for the 4th Edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' to the game's players from 2008 to 2014. The service offici ...

'' 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.

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 ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 5th edition. The final online version released is Issue #430 in December 2013.

Dragon+

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. The magazine branded itself as an app with content "showcasing what’s new in Dungeons & Dragons – from backstory and world information to discussions about what's coming next from the creators and developers of your favorite D&D products". Articles included cover content such as: game strategies and insights; details of the current D&D storyline; interviews; ongoing comic series; lore; Forgotten Realms world information; community updates and fan submissions; and videos. Additional content in the magazine is also accessible through links to the magazine's content in

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

feeds. ''Dragon+'' ran for 41 issues in total with the last issue published in April 2022; Wizards of the Coast published an update in July 2022 announcing the cancellation of the publication. On November 15, 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that "''Dragon+'' will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available".

Content

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 novel ''

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. The novel was first published in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2005, with a United St ...

''. It also featured

book reviews A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view. B ...

of fantasy and science fiction novels, and occasionally of films of particular interest (such as the

TV movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a terrest ...

of ''

Mazes and Monsters ''Mazes and Monsters'', also known as ''Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters'', is a 1982 American made-for-television film directed by Steven Hilliard Stern about a group of college students and their interest in a fictitious role-playing game (R ...

''). From the magazine's beginning until issue 274, from August 2000, ''Dragon'' published articles for various versions of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and, at various times, other gaming systems. With issue 274, ''Dragon'' published exclusively 3rd Edition ''D&D'' content, or content for other games published by Wizards Of The Coast's d20 System games. With the release of the 3.5 Edition update in July 2003, issue 309 onward published only Edition 3.5 content and carried a "100% Official ''Dungeons & Dragons''" masthead. The magazine switched to exclusively 4th Edition ''D&D'' content from issue 364 on the release of 4th Edition in June 2008.

Articles

Most of the magazine's articles provide supplementary material for ''D&D'' including new prestige classes, races, and

monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

s. A long-running column ''Sage Advice'' offers official answers to ''Dungeons & Dragons'' questions submitted by players. Other articles provide tips and suggestions for players and Dungeon Masters (DMs). It sometimes discusses meta-gaming issues, such as getting along with fellow players. At the end of its print run, the magazine also features four comics; '' Nodwick'', ''

Dork Tower ''Dork Tower'' is an online comics, 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 writer's home, a ...

'', ''Zogonia'', and a specialized version of the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

The Order of the Stick ''The Order of the Stick'' (''OOTS'') is a comedic webcomic that satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy. The comic is written and drawn by Rich Burlew, who illustrates the comic in a stick figure style. Taking place in a mag ...

''. Previous gamer-oriented comic strips include ''

Knights of the Dinner Table ''Knights of the Dinner Table'' (''KoDT'') 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 ...

'', '' Finieous Fingers'', ''

What's New with Phil & Dixie ''What's New with Phil & Dixie'' is a gaming parody comic by Phil Foglio. ''What's New'' was Foglio's first comic, and it was published in the magazines ''Dragon'' and '' The Duelist'', as well as in print collections and online. Premise Th ...

'', '' Wormy'', ''Yamara'', and ''

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, ...

''. ''Dragons "Ecology of ..." articles were initially written in the voice of the fictional sage

Elminster Elminster Aumar is a fictional character appearing in the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. He is also known as the Sage of Shadowdale, and is depicted as a powerful wizard featured i ...

, who reviewed a D&D monster in-depth. Under Paizo's tenure such ecology articles became heavier in game mechanics than narrative and description. The ''Dragon'' submissions guidelines explicitly state that Ecology articles "should have a hunter’s guidebook approach, although it should not be written 'in voice'" and further specify the exact format of Ecology articles, leaving less room for artistic license by the author. In the early 1980s, almost every issue contains 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 (born 1944) is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games. Career Early life and Guidon Games Born in Chester, Illinois, Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. Afte ...

's '' Snit's Revenge'', '' The Awful Green Things from Outer Space'' and '' File 13'' all started as supplements within ''The Dragon''. These bonus features are infrequent after the 1986 launch of ''

'' magazine, which published several new ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adventures in each issue. During the 1980s, after TSR had purchased

Simulations Publications Inc. Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) was an American publisher of board wargames and related magazines, particularly its flagship ''Strategy & Tactics'', in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an enormous number of games and introduced innovati ...

, the magazine had a subsection called '' Ares Magazine'', based on SPI's magazine of that name, specializing in

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

role playing games, with pages marked by a gray border. The content included write-ups for various characters of the

Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Superhero teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardia ...

for TSR's '' Marvel Super-Heroes''.

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 thirteenth issue of all new content.

Editors

Print versions: * #1 – 34: Timothy J. Kask, Editor * #35 – 48: Jake Jaquet, Editor * #49 – 114 & 199 – 217:

Kim Mohan Kim Rudolph Mohan (May 4, 1949 – December 12, 2022) was an American author, editor and game designer best known for works related to the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Early life and education Mohan was born in Chicago, Illinois, on ...

, Editor-in-Chief * #115 – 198:

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 ...

, Editor * #218 – 221:

Wolfgang Baur Wolfgang Baur (born 1968) is an American game designer, best known for his work with ''Dragon'' magazine. He designs role-playing games and is known for his work at Wizards of the Coast. Baur is also the founder of Open Design LLC, later known ...

, Editor * #222 – 238: Pierce B. Watters, Editor-in-Chief * #222 – 229: Anthony J. Bryant, Editor * #230 – 273 & 274 – 287: Dave Gross, Editor & Editor-in-Chief * #288 – 311: Jesse Decker, Editor-in-Chief * #312 – 315: Chris Thomasson, Editor-in-Chief * #316 – 326:

Matthew Sernett Matthew Lee Sernett is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Matt Sernett was part of the SCRAMJET team, led by Richard Baker, with designers James Wyatt, Ed Stark, Michele Carter, Stacy Longstreet, and Chris ...

, Editor-in-Chief * #327 – 359:

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 ...

, Editor-in-Chief Digital (online/PDF) versions: * #360 – 387: Chris Youngs, Editor-in-Chief * #388 – 430:

Steve Winter Steve Winter (born December 8, 1957) is an American game designer who worked on numerous products for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, which was originally published by TSR and later Wizards of the Coast. Early life Winter ...

, Editor-in-Chief * (''Dragon''+) #1-7 Matt Chapman, Editor-in-Chief; #8-13 John Houlihan, Editor-in-Chief; #14-present Matt Chapman, Editor-in-Chief

Awards

* 1984:

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 Roleplaying Magazine of 1984'' * 1986:

for ''Best Professional Roleplaying Magazine of 1985'' * 1987:

for "Special Award for Outstanding Achievement of 1987". * 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'' * 2006: ENnie Award Gold Winner for ''Best Supplement'' (Dragon Compendium Vol. 1) * 2007: Origins Award for ''Best Non-Fiction Publication of the Year 2006''

Other releases

A collection of ''Dragon'' was released as the ''Dragon Magazine Archive'' in 1999. It was released as a CD-ROM with a Windows application and PDF files. The ''Dragon Magazine Archive'' was directed by Rob Voce, and published by TSR/

. ''

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

'' reviewed it, saying that the archive was "worth the price", but that its application's Windows-only format limits other platforms from being able to read the PDFs manually. It was reviewed in ''Backstab'' #19.

References

External links

DragonDex
– a complete, exhaustive index of the contents of ''Dragon'' magazine through the final printed issue #359 (last updated in 2007) * Archives: ** Archived Dragon Magazines on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

*
Dragon+ digital magazine
via the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

*
Dragon+ digital magazine iOS app
via the Wayback Machine {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon (Magazine) Defunct magazines published in the United States Dungeons & Dragons magazines House organs Magazines disestablished in 2007 Magazines established in 1976 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 Wargaming magazines Wizards of the Coast magazines