# The Strategic Review & Dragon - Event: Publication - Date: 1975 – 2013 (print to 2007); Dragon+ 2015 – 2022 - Houses: TSR, Inc., Wizards of the Coast, Paizo - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/dragon-magazine/ > TSR's house newsletter The Strategic Review became The Dragon in June 1976, and for 359 print issues it was where D&D players found new classes, monsters, rules answers and the first glimpses of the Forgotten Realms. **Why it matters:** Dragon was the connective tissue of the tabletop hobby before the internet: a monthly forum where designers tested ideas, fans became professionals, and material later canonized in official rulebooks first saw print. ## Quick answers **What was The Strategic Review & Dragon?** TSR's house newsletter The Strategic Review became The Dragon in June 1976, and for 359 print issues it was where D&D players found new classes, monsters, rules answers and the first glimpses of the Forgotten Realms. **When did The Strategic Review & Dragon happen?** 1975 – 2013 (print to 2007); Dragon+ 2015 – 2022. **Why did The Strategic Review & Dragon matter?** Dragon was the connective tissue of the tabletop hobby before the internet: a monthly forum where designers tested ideas, fans became professionals, and material later canonized in official rulebooks first saw print. ## What happened In 1975, a year after it published [*Dungeons & Dragons*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/), [TSR](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) began a house magazine called *The Strategic Review*. Roleplaying was then still thought of as a branch of wargaming, and the newsletter covered both, carrying rules clarifications, new ideas for D&D and articles on TSR's other games. It lasted seven issues. Its most consequential article was probably [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/)'s 1976 piece "The Meaning of Law and Chaos in Dungeons and Dragons and Their Relationships to Good and Evil," which added a second axis to the game's [Alignment](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/alignment/) system and set up the nine-alignment grid of later editions. By then it was obvious that D&D had outgrown its wargame parent. In 1976 TSR split the magazine in two: *Little Wars* for miniatures, which lasted twelve issues before being folded into its sibling, and *The Dragon*, for roleplaying and fantasy. Gygax hired Tim Kask as editor, and the first issue appeared in June 1976. Years later Gygax admitted he had never contemplated "so great a success or so long a lifespan." ## Why it mattered Before bulletin boards and forums, *Dragon* was where the hobby talked to itself. Each issue offered new character classes, spells, magic items and monsters, much of which was later absorbed into official rulebooks. It was a proving ground for designers and a bridge for fans: [Ed Greenwood](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ed-greenwood/), a Canadian contributor, introduced the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/) through a run of 1980s articles before TSR made his world its flagship setting in 1987. The long-running "Sage Advice" column delivered official answers to rules questions, a job later inherited by designers such as [Jeremy Crawford](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/jeremy-crawford/). "The Ecology of..." articles, initially framed in the voice of the Realms sage Elminster, examined monsters as if they were real animals. The magazine was also a showcase for art and humor. Dave Trampier's comic *Wormy*, [Larry Elmore](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/larry-elmore/)'s *SnarfQuest*, *What's New with Phil & Dixie* and later *Knights of the Dinner Table* and *The Order of the Stick* ran in its pages, and in the early 1980s many issues included a complete bonus game; Tom Wham's *Snit's Revenge* and *The Awful Green Things from Outer Space* both began as *Dragon* inserts. Fantasy fiction and book reviews ran for years. The magazine even reviewed the CBS film of [*Mazes and Monsters*](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/mazes-and-monsters/), one of the artifacts of the [The Satanic Panic & D&D](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/satanic-panic/). Critics sometimes found it too much of a TSR house organ; a 1980 review in the fanzine *Abyss* complained about its advertising and juvenile articles while conceding its quality. The industry disagreed: *Dragon* won Origins Awards as best roleplaying or gaming magazine repeatedly from 1984 to 1995 (see [Origins Game Fair](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/origins-game-fair/)). ## Legacy The title passed through the hands of each D&D owner. [Wizards of the Coast](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/wizards-of-the-coast/) bought TSR in 1997 and moved production from Wisconsin to Washington state. In 2002 [Paizo](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/paizo/), a company founded by Wizards veterans, took over both *Dragon* and its adventure-publishing sibling *Dungeon* under license, printing them until Wizards declined to renew in 2007. The last print issue, #359, was dated September 2007. The loss of the magazines was one reason Paizo turned to its own adventure paths and, in 2009, to the [*Pathfinder Roleplaying Game*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pathfinder-rpg/). Wizards continued *Dragon* online for [fourth-edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-4th-edition/) subscribers until issue #430 in December 2013, then launched the free app magazine *Dragon+* in 2015; it ended in 2022. A 1999 CD-ROM, the *Dragon Magazine Archive*, collected the first 250 issues and all seven *Strategic Reviews*, but went out of print over rights to its comics. Across nearly four decades the magazine chronicled the hobby it helped build, and a remarkable number of its contributors went on to become the hobby's professional designers, novelists and artists. ## Facts - [TSR](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) launched *The Strategic Review* in 1975; after seven issues it was replaced in 1976 by two magazines, *Little Wars* for miniatures and *The Dragon* for roleplaying. - *The Dragon* #1 appeared in June 1976 under editor Tim Kask, hired by [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/) for the job; Kask edited issues 1–34. - Gygax's 1976 *Strategic Review* article "The Meaning of Law and Chaos" added the good–evil axis to D&D [Alignment](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/alignment/). - [Ed Greenwood](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ed-greenwood/) introduced the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/) to readers through a series of Dragon articles in the 1980s, years before the 1987 campaign set. - The cover title became simply *Dragon* in July 1980 and *Dragon Magazine* in November 1987. - [Paizo](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/paizo/) published the magazine under license from September 2002; its last print issue, #359, was dated September 2007. - The online Dragon ran to issue #430 in December 2013; its app-based successor, *Dragon+*, ran 41 issues from 2015 to 2022. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(magazine)) - [Dragon magazines on the Internet Archive](https://archive.org/search?query=dragon+magazine) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.