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Great video! I have this one on my shelf as well, which I purchased waaaaaaaay back in 1981. Much cherished, and I would say was greatly responsible for my interest in the early days of D&D.
The Best of Dragon Vol. 1 was the first issue I ever bought! Other soldiers and I with downtime in Germany (4-5 regular players) had a months-long campaign. At the beginning of it, our DM suggested we get copper coins, put a small hole in them, then have our Magic User cast 'Continual Light' on them. Tie a string around the coin that leads to a small pouch on your wrist and, VOILA! (VOICI?)- The dark-age flashlight. The pouch on your wrist was the closest thing to an off-switch, (short of a 'dispel magic' spell) since the light is Continual. I love hearing about similar innovations, but that one was my favorite.
What a great find, I have so many good memoires of this magazine. In the UK it was very difficult to find, we only managed to get them from a comic book seller at our weekly market. I still have a couple of issues languishing in my attic, I'll have to root them out. Thanks for this. ☺
TSR did a revised printing of this and Vol 2 a few years later that cuts out all the old advertising because there were apparently some problems with regard to reprinting that and edits in additional art from some of the articles that had not been featured prior or art from the same magazine. The articles are reordered a bit and I'm not 100% sure that some were dropped dropped or substituted. You can tell these versions because the price in the top corner in$3.95 and it says Revised Edition under it. The back cover also features and add for Unearthed Arcana on Vol. 1 and Battlesystem first ed on 2.
Note on nomenclature: The magazine was originally titled The Dragon, and later retitled Dragon Magazine, dropping the definite article. In keeping with this, the first two Best of volumes are titled Best of The Dragon I and II, as they draw from the early issues prior to the title change, and vol III-V are titled Best of Dragon as they draw from later issues.
Second note on nomenclature re: your observation on judge or referee vs Dungeon Master. Dungeon Master originated in a fan letter in Alarums & Excursions in Jan 1975, IIRC, and didn't get adopted as the term by TSR until Supplement III Eldritch Wizardry, for OD&D. Prior to that the term in official publications was referee, though some people preferred Judge, as in the Judges Guild.
Thanks for both of these historical updates. Much appreciated! You are reminding me that I have never gotten back to this series though I often think of doing so
Great idea for a video. Your commentary adds a lot to my appreciation for a favored product. I have long cherished my own copy of Vol.1 as it contains material from the period when design-it-yourself was encouraged. So many awesome original ideas (and a few less than awesome) are shared in these pages along with some glimpses into the thoughts of the game's creators - key to my understanding the intent of concepts which were often ambiguously presented in the original edition game. Thanks!
Thanks @Fred Daniel for your comment. Yes you are so right that early on there was so much improvisation encouraged. It's interesting to me how (it seems) indie RPGers have taken up the improv more over the years as d&d and other big IPs are owned by larger companies, etc.
I have every single copy of The Dragon, as well as Dungeon magazines. Before all the hipsters started thinking D&D was cool(2015), you could get these for very reasonable prices, often in large lots at a major discount.
I would very much be interested in you reading everything in there. I imagine that's quite an undertaking, so reading a passage from it would be AMAZING.
2:39 first time I have ever seen a Ral Partha ad., I only learnt about Ral Partha a couple of days ago. Strange for someone who has been painting Warhammer and remembers Citadel miniatures in the 80s uk.
Enjoying this content? You can support the channel by donating on PayPal: paypal.me/geekgamersDeborah
get SOLO GAME MASTER'S GUIDE:
US customers: tinyurl.com/yckpsrxe
UK customers: tinyurl.com/ykarakda
get WANDERINGS: tinyurl.com/5cj3d4jc
Great video! I have this one on my shelf as well, which I purchased waaaaaaaay back in 1981. Much cherished, and I would say was greatly responsible for my interest in the early days of D&D.
The Best of Dragon Vol. 1 was the first issue I ever bought! Other soldiers and I with downtime in Germany (4-5 regular players) had a months-long campaign. At the beginning of it, our DM suggested we get copper coins, put a small hole in them, then have our Magic User cast 'Continual Light' on them. Tie a string around the coin that leads to a small pouch on your wrist and, VOILA! (VOICI?)- The dark-age flashlight. The pouch on your wrist was the closest thing to an off-switch, (short of a 'dispel magic' spell) since the light is Continual. I love hearing about similar innovations, but that one was my favorite.
Thanks for sharing that
I would be interested in seeing the other volumes of The Best of the Dragon :-)
Amazing how relevant some of those articles are all these years later. You have a gold mine of fun there!
I agree. And I agree! Thanks for commenting and watching.
I would be interested in seeing the other volumes
What a great find, I have so many good memoires of this magazine. In the UK it was very difficult to find, we only managed to get them from a comic book seller at our weekly market. I still have a couple of issues languishing in my attic, I'll have to root them out. Thanks for this. ☺
@Bernard Godfrey Glad you enjoyed and yes, do take a trip to your attic! That would be a great adventure with some treasure at the end!
Almost all of this content is available on DVD, they put it out a while ago, but you can still find copies I'm sure.
My first Dragon magazine purchase....
Back in 81'.
That’s a good first purchase!
The ads were just the same old contemporaneous Dragon mag ads
TSR did a revised printing of this and Vol 2 a few years later that cuts out all the old advertising because there were apparently some problems with regard to reprinting that and edits in additional art from some of the articles that had not been featured prior or art from the same magazine. The articles are reordered a bit and I'm not 100% sure that some were dropped dropped or substituted.
You can tell these versions because the price in the top corner in$3.95 and it says Revised Edition under it. The back cover also features and add for Unearthed Arcana on Vol. 1 and Battlesystem first ed on 2.
Note on nomenclature: The magazine was originally titled The Dragon, and later retitled Dragon Magazine, dropping the definite article.
In keeping with this, the first two Best of volumes are titled Best of The Dragon I and II, as they draw from the early issues prior to the title change, and vol III-V are titled Best of Dragon as they draw from later issues.
Second note on nomenclature re: your observation on judge or referee vs Dungeon Master. Dungeon Master originated in a fan letter in Alarums & Excursions in Jan 1975, IIRC, and didn't get adopted as the term by TSR until Supplement III Eldritch Wizardry, for OD&D. Prior to that the term in official publications was referee, though some people preferred Judge, as in the Judges Guild.
Thanks for both of these historical updates. Much appreciated! You are reminding me that I have never gotten back to this series though I often think of doing so
@@GeekGamers01 Nice flip through! I was looking for the original issue number on that monk combat article when I found this. :)
Great idea for a video. Your commentary adds a lot to my appreciation for a favored product. I have long cherished my own copy of Vol.1 as it contains material from the period when design-it-yourself was encouraged. So many awesome original ideas (and a few less than awesome) are shared in these pages along with some glimpses into the thoughts of the game's creators - key to my understanding the intent of concepts which were often ambiguously presented in the original edition game.
Thanks!
Thanks @Fred Daniel for your comment. Yes you are so right that early on there was so much improvisation encouraged. It's interesting to me how (it seems) indie RPGers have taken up the improv more over the years as d&d and other big IPs are owned by larger companies, etc.
Found this video, very entertaining. Thank you
I have every single copy of The Dragon, as well as Dungeon magazines. Before all the hipsters started thinking D&D was cool(2015), you could get these for very reasonable prices, often in large lots at a major discount.
So that's why they're so spendy now. Dang.
Very cool! So many memories. :)
Do more of this PLEEEAASSEE
Request noted. :)
I would very much be interested in you reading everything in there. I imagine that's quite an undertaking, so reading a passage from it would be AMAZING.
Thanks for the feedback! Not sure I’d do what you ask but maybe a select article…. I foresee you being the only person to view such a vid, however! :)
2:39 first time I have ever seen a Ral Partha ad., I only learnt about Ral Partha a couple of days ago. Strange for someone who has been painting Warhammer and remembers Citadel miniatures in the 80s uk.
Awsome, where did you get these?
I would definitely be interested in seeing more, this stuff is fascinating!
@allluckyseven Good to know. It seems there is interest and I'll likely do at least one more vid, if not vids on each separate volume.
thanks for all the interesting information!
So glad you enjoyed the vid.
Gracias por esta reseña.
Metamorphosis Alpha is pretty much the father of Gamma World.
You didn't use crayon to fill in your dice crevices? Blasphemy!
These are SO gorgeous.
Monster Gems!!