Dragon Magazine

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Iavas's picture
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Dragon Magazine

I've recently become privy to the idea that Dragon Magazine has some pretty awesome stuff in it, particularly relating to Planescape. I might be wrong, as I've never actually picked up an issue, but from what I've read about it, even on these forums, it seems to take up what WotC decides is too ungeneric for its purposes.

That being said, before I start ordering issues online or living in my local used book store, I was hoping that some of you more experienced Dragon readers might recommend some good issues. They seem to be in the 300's, from what I gathered through a short google search, and I have no clue where 3e even starts, and if its worth going earlier than it. Plus, I don't think I can cough up the dough to buy an entire library, so if you could name a few of your favorites, that would be really great.

Krypter's picture
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Dragon Magazine

If you're unsure of where to start you might want to pick up the Dragon Compendium, a hardcover book that collects some of the best Dragon articles.

Personally I really like the Demonomicon of Iggwilv articles which go into greater detail about the demon lords than even the Fiendish Codex.

"Brent" wrote:
Pazuzu Demon Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms Dragon #329 Fraz Urb'luu Demon Prince of Deception Dragon #333 Zuggtmoy Demon Queen of Fungi Dragon #337 Baphomet Demon Prince of Beasts Dragon #341 Kostchtie Demon Prince of Wrath Dragon #345 Dagon Demon Prince of the Darkened Depths Dragon #349

There was also an article on spells of the Demonomicon in Dragon #336. That particular article tied into the series by talking about the book itself and some of the unique spells therein. The first one to be made using advancement rules from the FCI was Kostchtie. All the rest from now on should be built that way.

Also, the Ebon Maw had a very Demonomicon style article in Dragon #312 which had him statted out along with some of the info that is typical for a Demonomicon article, although the first "true" Demonomicon article was Pazuzu in #329.

#330 had some great Far Realm stuff.
#351 had an expanded World Serpent Inn and cool locations for 7 classic campaign settings, including Planescape and Ravenloft.

I only started subscribing to Dragon myself a little while ago so I'm not familiar with any of the old stuff.

Shemeska the Marauder's picture
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Dragon Magazine

The current editorial staff for both Dragon and Dungeon magazine have been much kinder towards planar material than in prior years, at least in my experience. I think in general that they're just more approachable about material from 1e and 2e campaign settings, and less absolutely generic material.

I've had some luck getting a handful of things into print, and others have as well. Both magazines really are coming into something of a Silver Age with the job that Paizo has been doing.

Sucros's picture
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Dragon Magazine

Absolutely agreed. The head editor is Erik Mona, and I've seen a real turnaround in magazine quality since he's been in office. Some other issues to keep in mind that haven't been mentioned:

Upcoming Dragon 354 has an article devoted to modrons. While the modrons will be presented as extraplanar constructs, I'm still looking forwards to it.
347 was devoted to the inner planes, with stats for paraelemental planar creatures, inner planar hazards, and the evil archomentals
Dragon 353 was devoted to the planes, with a number of demiplanes, demonicon of malcanthet, and the good archomentals
Planar dragons were in dragon 344 and another I can't find
There has been an ongoing series called "core beliefs" in which a single "core" deity is detailed in full, which I've found handy.

Also, Dungeon recently featured a very good planescape adventure called "diplomacy" in issue 144, and their twelve-issue adventure path features demogorgon and malcanthet as the adversaries, and is expected to get to the abyss in two issues time.

Krypter's picture
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Dragon Magazine

Yes, the planar dragon articles in #321 and #344 were great too.

Edit: Plus the Howling, Styx, Tarterian, Pyroclastic and Rust dragons from #300.

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