Mine was issue 172, with a barbarian babe on the front cover. Sad to say it was the scantily clad woman on the cover that caught my eye, but I was only 12 at the time! ;-)

The first one I had was a gift (Christmas), and I think it was #102. My subscription started at 115 and have all subsequent ones since. It will be missed.

Wow a lot of vicarious nostalgia going on here as I look at all the back issues that were someone's first. Cool thread Heathy!

Mine was July 1982 (the cover is gone so I don't know the number). This is the Dragon that had the great Chagmat spider adventure in it, the one that took place inside Little Boy Mountain. If anyone can give me the number, I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, I have Best of Dragon (Vol1) which includes the best of Strategic Review Vols 1 &2. I am not sure of the age of this one, since I could not find a date, but it may predate my first Dragon. Again, any help on dates would be appreciated.

I think this was #63, my cover is missing, too. Sounds like a conspiracy. That was a great adventure, one of the last I ran before our group disbanded "sigh".

I'm a relatively new gamer, but I was in high school and had just started playing the game. I was at the bookstore and cam across Dragon 260 with the "Magical" article SPAWN OF TIAMAT, CHILDREN OF BAHAMUT!

#52 was my first. a friend showed me the mag when i first started playing and this one was great! the boris picture with the fey dragon seemed alive, there was so much going on there, as with all his paintings. after that, i just couldn't wait to get the next one. when my parents gave me a subscription a year later i was anxious at the beginning of every month, and couldn't wait until the next one came out. i'm gonna miss the old bird.... anybody here feel like someone just killed their best friend?

Wow a lot of vicarious nostalgia going on here as I look at all the back issues that were someone's first. Cool thread Heathy!

Thanks, man!!!

#50 for me, June 1981, the Fifth Anniversary issue. Only picked them up sporadically while I was in college, then started subscribing in January 1983 after I got married. Let my subscription lapse in the 90's when I got into Magic:The Gathering, then came back with the advent of 3rd Edition and have every issue since. Now I've been aquiring most of the back issues I've missed, mostly on Ebay, but I've got a few from Paizo.

Issue 75 was my first issue. Part 1 of Ed Greenwood's Nine Hells article. I was hooked ever since.

75 was a good one. Funny, how sometimes the best articles shape the future of the game; the nine hells article as an example.

284 for me . . . . I think my wife bought it for me.

My first Dragon issues was Dragon #57. I remember buying it mostly because it has the free module in it.

My first purchase, too. Modern-day adventuring, Wandering Trees, and yet another What's New? tease about 'Sex and D&D' - not much to look at now, but at the time it seemed like pure gold.

I liked #57. Wandering Trees is cool.

Issue 96, the one with the clockwork dragon the kid was building in his basement. The cover came off of it, the only cover to do so - but I managed to SAVE the cover!! mwahahahahaha!!!

I may have scored some older issues, I'd have to unearth them all and scatter them out to see. Not doing it tonight, as I'm running a game Friday and *already* have D&D scattered over all the available flat surfaces of the house, so there's no room nor time to verify my other issues. I'm sure y'all will forgive me. ;)

I liked #57. Wandering Trees is cool.

I thought so when I read it, but I failed miseably at running it. People wandered around and got bored.

I think I ran it a gazillion years ago; I kinda jammed it together with the drow tree fort adventure (in #73 I think; don't quote me on it) and made kind of a gulash.

What is it with those covers? Several people have reported missing covers. I looked back over the 2 or 3 dozen old magazines from my collection and, sure enough, only a few of them still have the covers.

@Heathansson: makes me think the half-life of a dragon cover is less than that of Tc-99M.

6 hours...
Maybe more like Co 57....most of mine are shredded too.

I'm another relative newcomer, with my first issue of Dragon being #306. It was the cover art featuring Arnie Swekel's masterfully rendered succubus that drew me in. It was that issue that made me subscribe to Dragon, and it's what got me into D&D in the first place. If I can ever find the right tattoo artist, that artwork may end up inked on my back.

wow; blast from the past; Issue 47 March 1981; the cover art caught my attention; was into Dragon ever since though I liked it better back then when they covered many more rpg game venues rather than just d&d; and I miss the Giants of Fiction section. Wow drunken nomad took me back; I ran two fold talisman; quest for the midas orb; the githyanki adventure for the holy sword Fedifensor or something like that and several others; ah, to be young in the game again hehe.

Annual #1.

Normally I don't post on boards like this... but this is a Black Day when I read about then end of Dragon. *sigh*

Dragon #178 for me.

I was already into D&D, and happened across that issue, with the snowy mountain scene, and a group of dwarves, all but one dead, all frozen, and a scouting party coming from the back of the scene with 3 in the forground, one pointing to the standing frozen dwarf and yelling back to the party.

And the artist commented that in his mind, that yelling dwarf was telling the others that "He still owes me 5 bucks!"

Shortly after that I managed to get a subscription, and have maintained it for the 15 years hence with only a single, 1 issue hiccup during that time.

My first was Issue 49 (although I later acquired some of the older ones). Visitors to my website may get that deja vu feeling. The Hildebrandt cover became the inspiration for my infamous 600 room (yes, its mapped!) Melkotia Castle. ;-)

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

Makes me feel a little young, but mine was #214. I mean, Dark Elves looting a dead body on the cover... what more do you need to turn out a geek?

My first issue was #107 from 1986, a year before I started Highschool and 2ED. I think my mom bought it for me. Sadly I don't have it any more, I don't know what became of it.

After that I only collected the Halloween issue each year for a long time, until I started a subscription somewhere around issue #290. been getting them ever since.

Now you jerks have given me the itch to hit my FLGS to look for back issues!!!

For me it was issue 156.

I was a punk kid with a penchant for puns and general silliness. I couldn't resist the tag on that April issue - "Love is in the eye of...."

From there on I would buy issues whenever I could - it was cheaper than buying new books, and thus easier on my allowance. I wonder where all those old issues are.

for me, it was issue 36, and b y a fluke, issue 37 came out the next week.

My first issue (used) was #90 (the Incantatrix); my first new issue was #93 (the Gypsy Train).

Either #73 or Best of ... #2. My high-school group had some back into the #60's, IIRC. My subscription only started about #240, I got tired of borrowing the DM's, and I had the scratch for it.

Re: the cavalier way back when-- that rocked! That cemented my knightly fixation for a long time.

Yes, I have the CD compilation, and no, I haven't read them all yet. But I did start!

This seems like as good a place as any to state my "me too" comments:

Gee, this is the end of an era, and it really sucks. I'm very very unlikely to use any pay-per-view online content. I will miss Dragon a lot, and I thank Paizo for keeping it going as long as they did. Although the demononicon articles have been a real drag, I won't have anything to look forward to in the mailbox anymore.

Lee.

Summer of 1982 issue 62 or thereabouts. Over time, slowly acquired back issues until I have approximately 20-30 or so very early issues left to claim.

#issue 67- was my first-however I did find issue 39 in a comic shop!

Issue 73, with the Duelist NPC class, and (IIRC) a very cool drow-themed adventure. The drow had carved themselves a dungeon inside a large tree.

Mine was #52. I had played D&D once before but couldn't remember the name of the game, and I wasn't sure what the mag was about but loved the cover art :)

After I started reading it (I remember thinking it was very cryptic) I made the connection and realised that the magazine was about the game. I bought the basic set (red box) soon thereafter.

I agree with all of the comments about #72! I had more than my share of fun with the Cavalier as well. He was my first character to successfully take down a Death Knight. What an epic battle that was! Ah, the good old days. (did I just write that?)

Not remembering what was the First Issue I ever bought I had to go by Cover Art.. The First Issue I ever bought was #110. I bought the Magazine sparadicly for awhile, but I truly got into buying the Magizine with this issue #140. After that I bought every month of the magaize and even got a subscription until 1991.

I can say that the Art of Larry Elmore brought me into the RPG world, I always loved recieving the Magazines with his art on the cover and I have tons of his prints hanging on my wall. One of the most exciting things I ever did was meet him at a convention.

I discovered the Wonders of White Wolfs Vampire: Masqurade in 91 and left D&D (Then AD&D) until 2000 when I joined the Air Force and the only game I could find was D&D games. So I looked up the Magazine again and Discovered the Wonders of Pazio... and I have been a Subscriber ever since.

#47, right after I started playing in 1980. My dad took me to a hobby store where I was exposed to all the gaming goodness of the early "boom", like Judges Guild modules. Think my brother and I played Crimefighters until the magazine disintegrated. Managed to find another copy many years later...

On a side note... My First Dungeon Issue was Issue #19... Never really got into Dungeon until Paizo took over... then got a subscription.. I now enjoy Dungeon more then Dragon

I think mine was around issue 64 I can't remember off the top of my head, and the cover ripped off of it after several years of abuse. I don't even remember what was on the cover.

Mine was issue #55. It had a purple box around the picture. $3.00 cover price.

Erol Otus did the cover; a fighter was walking into a cavern via a bizarre bridge, where a smiling short wizard or jester was gesturing to the side of the cave---where this colossal lovecraftian drooling thing was waiting.
Aaaaah....good times. (they actually kinda sucked, but everything seems better in memory).

I'm not fishing for "grognard props." Just remembering.

You'll eat this bowl of Grognard Props and you'll like it! Or no Kobold Eyescream for you!

:P

For me it was issue #57 with the Traveller adventure inside and a cover showing the characters from it being chased by a psionic giant glowing energy wasp.

The oldest issue I own is #2. I went on a back-issue hunt once I got hooked.

Heathansson wrote:

Mine was issue #55. It had a purple box around the picture. $3.00 cover price.

Erol Otus did the cover; a fighter was walking into a cavern via a bizarre bridge, where a smiling short wizard or jester was gesturing to the side of the cave---where this colossal lovecraftian drooling thing was waiting.
Aaaaah....good times. (they actually kinda sucked, but everything seems better in memory).

I'm not fishing for "grognard props." Just remembering.

You'll eat this bowl of Grognard Props and you'll like it! Or no Kobold Eyescream for you!

:P

For me it was issue #57 with the Traveller adventure inside and a cover showing the characters from it being chased by a psionic giant glowing energy wasp.

The oldest issue I own is #2. I went on a back-issue hunt once I got hooked.

Ok, now I'm wondering if I remember it wrong ... Wandering Trees was definitely one of my favorite things from back then. Have to dig out the Dragon Archive to see which issue I really did get first.

OOPS! My first issue was #59. It wasn't until the big rush of back-issues that I got my hands on #57 and fell in love with Wandering Trees. Never got to play it, but the concept still seems interesting to me.

Mine was issue #55. It had a purple box around the picture. $3.00 cover price.

Erol Otus did the cover; a fighter was walking into a cavern via a bizarre bridge, where a smiling short wizard or jester was gesturing to the side of the cave---where this colossal lovecraftian drooling thing was waiting.
Aaaaah....good times. (they actually kinda sucked, but everything seems better in memory).

I'm not fishing for "grognard props." Just remembering.

Ooh, I love that cover. It was in the Dragon art book and in a current ad for MMV.

Anyways, my first issue was 323, which happened to be the first one to shift to the almost current format of Dragon magazine. I have a few older ones, but most of mine are recent issues, at least compared to a lot of the people here.

My first issue of Dragon was #50 - the Fifth Anniversary issue with a Carl Lundgren dragon on the cover. I later picked up #49 and #46 (both damaged, missing their covers and inserts). I didn't start subscribing regularly until around issue 60, so I'm missing a few in there (51, 53). I let the subscription lapse around #173, and didn't pick it up again until #280.