Editing Dragon (magazine) (section)

==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 Award|Hugo-nominated]] novel ''[[A Feast for Crows]]''. It also featured [[book reviews]] of fantasy and science fiction novels, and occasionally of films of particular interest (such as the [[TV movie]] of ''[[Mazes and Monsters]]'').

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 class (Dungeons & Dragons)|prestige class]]es, races, and [[monster]]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]]'', ''Zogonia'', and a [[The Order of the Stick#Dragon magazine|specialized version]] of the [[webcomic]] ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''. Previous gamer-oriented comic strips include ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'', ''[[Finieous Fingers]]'', ''[[What's New with Phil & Dixie]]'', ''[[David A. Trampier|Wormy]]'', ''Yamara'', and ''[[SnarfQuest]]''.

''Dragon'''s "Ecology of ..." articles were initially written in the voice of the fictional sage [[Elminster]], 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.<ref name=P>{{cite web|url=http://paizo.com/writersguidelines/dragon_writers_guidelines.pdf|title=Dragon Writers Guildines|work=Paizo.com}}</ref>

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]]'s ''[[Snit's Revenge]]'', ''[[The Awful Green Things from Outer Space]]'' and ''[[File 13 (board game)|File 13]]'' all started as supplements within ''The Dragon''. These bonus features are infrequent after the 1986 launch of ''[[Dungeon (magazine)|Dungeon]]'' magazine, which published several new ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adventures in each issue.

During the 1980s, after TSR had purchased [[Simulations Publications Inc.]], the magazine had a subsection called ''[[Ares (magazine)|Ares Magazine]]'', based on SPI's magazine of that name, specializing in [[science fiction]] and [[superhero]] role playing games, with pages marked by a gray border.  The content included write-ups for various characters of the [[Marvel Universe]] for TSR's ''[[Marvel Super Heroes (role-playing game)|Marvel Super-Heroes]]''.

===Special issues===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Best of The Dragon Vol I.jpg|thumb|150px|right|''Best of the Dragon'', Vol. 1]] -->
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.