I've played Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs for most of my life, but it is only recently that I've developed a deep interest in the history of the hobby. It's been a lot of fun learning about these early years - fascinating characters and dramatic events abound!
In this series of articles, I want to look closely at the most important periodical the RPG industry has ever produced, Dragon magazine. The premier issue (actually entitled The Dragon in this issue) was published in June 1976 by TSR, with a cover price of $1.50. The editor was Tim Kask, who was the first full-time employee of TSR and had edited a range of D&D supplements for the company. Kask explained the purpose of the new magazine like this:
"This issue marks a major step for TSR Hobbies Inc. With it, we have bid farewell to the safe, secure world of the house organ, and have entered the arena of competitive magazine publishing. We have activated a new division of the corporation; TSR Periodicals. We are soliciting advertisers, and giving notice to the rest of the pack that we have arrived with a vengeance, with a mission to fulfill. That mission is to publish the best magazine devoted to Sword & Sorcery, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Role Playing gaming."
For those unfamiliar with the term, a "house organ" is a magazine published by a company to promote its products and services. Preceding The Dragon was a house organ called The Strategic Review, which lasted only seven issues.
TSR squeezed an impressive amount of content into The Dragon's thirty-two pages. For Dungeons & Dragons players, there are expanded rules for the illusionist class, a system for making attribute checks, statistics for science-fiction weapons, an essay on D&D languages, DM hints for wilderness adventures, a new monster (the bulette), and several new Tolkien-inspired elven sub-races.
The magazine covers other games as well. There are rules for simulating the Battle of Five Armies using Chainmail, expanded rules for a Conan-inspired wargame called Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age, and new rules for the Dungeon! board game. Even though two of these games were published by TSR (Chainmail and Dungeon!), this reflects the editor's attempt to be a genuine cross-industry magazine.
Perhaps surprisingly, there are three pieces of short fiction in The Dragon. Fritz Lieber shares an amusing story, wherein the author tries to explain wargaming to Fafhrd and the Mouser. This seems to be a promotional piece for Lieber's wargame "Lankhmar," published by TSR soon after. There is a story by future editor Jake Jaquet, which is little more than a dungeon crawl write-up. And there is also the first part of a serialized novel with the uninspiring title of "The Gnome Cache," written by Garrison Ernst (actually a pseudonym used by Gary Gygax).
Production values are pretty crude, especially the somewhat infamous cover. The content is compelling, though, and includes some notable writers: Gary Gygax, James M. Ward, Scott Bizar (founder of Fantasy Games Unlimited), Lee Gold (editor of Alarums and Excursions), Fritz Lieber, and Lin Carter.
And so The Dragon made its debut. But how would the fans respond? Had Kask hit on the right formula? And had the magazine really broken out of the "house organ" mold? Issue #2 would start to answer these questions.
M.T. Black is a game designer and DMs Guild Adept. Please follow him on twitter @mtblack2567 and sign up for his mailing list.
In this series of articles, I want to look closely at the most important periodical the RPG industry has ever produced, Dragon magazine. The premier issue (actually entitled The Dragon in this issue) was published in June 1976 by TSR, with a cover price of $1.50. The editor was Tim Kask, who was the first full-time employee of TSR and had edited a range of D&D supplements for the company. Kask explained the purpose of the new magazine like this:
"This issue marks a major step for TSR Hobbies Inc. With it, we have bid farewell to the safe, secure world of the house organ, and have entered the arena of competitive magazine publishing. We have activated a new division of the corporation; TSR Periodicals. We are soliciting advertisers, and giving notice to the rest of the pack that we have arrived with a vengeance, with a mission to fulfill. That mission is to publish the best magazine devoted to Sword & Sorcery, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Role Playing gaming."
For those unfamiliar with the term, a "house organ" is a magazine published by a company to promote its products and services. Preceding The Dragon was a house organ called The Strategic Review, which lasted only seven issues.
TSR squeezed an impressive amount of content into The Dragon's thirty-two pages. For Dungeons & Dragons players, there are expanded rules for the illusionist class, a system for making attribute checks, statistics for science-fiction weapons, an essay on D&D languages, DM hints for wilderness adventures, a new monster (the bulette), and several new Tolkien-inspired elven sub-races.
The magazine covers other games as well. There are rules for simulating the Battle of Five Armies using Chainmail, expanded rules for a Conan-inspired wargame called Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age, and new rules for the Dungeon! board game. Even though two of these games were published by TSR (Chainmail and Dungeon!), this reflects the editor's attempt to be a genuine cross-industry magazine.
Perhaps surprisingly, there are three pieces of short fiction in The Dragon. Fritz Lieber shares an amusing story, wherein the author tries to explain wargaming to Fafhrd and the Mouser. This seems to be a promotional piece for Lieber's wargame "Lankhmar," published by TSR soon after. There is a story by future editor Jake Jaquet, which is little more than a dungeon crawl write-up. And there is also the first part of a serialized novel with the uninspiring title of "The Gnome Cache," written by Garrison Ernst (actually a pseudonym used by Gary Gygax).
Production values are pretty crude, especially the somewhat infamous cover. The content is compelling, though, and includes some notable writers: Gary Gygax, James M. Ward, Scott Bizar (founder of Fantasy Games Unlimited), Lee Gold (editor of Alarums and Excursions), Fritz Lieber, and Lin Carter.
And so The Dragon made its debut. But how would the fans respond? Had Kask hit on the right formula? And had the magazine really broken out of the "house organ" mold? Issue #2 would start to answer these questions.
M.T. Black is a game designer and DMs Guild Adept. Please follow him on twitter @mtblack2567 and sign up for his mailing list.
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