About:French Dragon
The following comments are from DM Magazine and are not intended as infringement on any author's copyright.
France is one the best developed countries for role playing games, having seen the very first translations of Dungeons & Dragons in 1982 - this is now a very sought for collector's item. Many magazines followed, starting with Runes (devoted only to RPGs) in 1983 and Casus Belli (devoted to all of the hobby games) in 1980 - this magazine is still published and today entirely devoted to RPGs. Nothing surprising so in seeing a French edition of TSR' Dragon magazine from Hexagonal under license, first from TSR itself and then (briefly) from Wizards of the Coast. The magazine started in 1991 with a 'zero' issue and lasted for 45 more issues, to fold in 1999 due to money disagreements with Wizards of the Coast. According to Wikipedia the magazine was a big success, reaching a print run of 20,000 copies (Casus Belli in its best years touched over 35,000 copies, today should sell around 2,000).
The French touch on Dragon magazine
Dragon magazine in French was not a 'simple' translation of selected articles from its English speaking parent, as happened in the Italian edition for example, but charted a different path aimed to attract not just gamers but fans of fantasy, science fiction and fantastic worlds ("The encyclopedia of imaginary worlds" claim appears on every cover). The magazine was part colour, part black and white with a dossier on some TSR setting (not just AD&D worlds but also, for example, Gamma World) that got the cover and presented as a 'travel diary' or a geographer report with no gaming stats altoghether. There were, however, some boxes about 'jeux de roles' exoplaining the products, if any, available for such a setting. The magazine hosted articles about strange places in the real world, comment and copy about upcoming novels (not just translations of TSR ones), a comic strip and (amazingly) its own currency, the Dragons! Interesting to note that Bruce Heard, who know French very well and translated some TSR products in French, wrote an article about Mystara just for the French edition of the magazine! More, French writers seemed to have a free rein in creating articles and for example for many issues there were a running series about the DrakoMega. Set initially in the world of Krynn, it was a running race among dragons (!) that started on the continent of Taladas (not Ansalon) and saw the participants 'visit' other TSR settings (the very first stop, not exactly voluntary, was Ravenloft...).
The Dragon Dragons
Dragon magazine had its own currency, the Dragons, that readers might get for example subscribing to the magazine, sending interesting or funny letters or photos, entering and winning contests and much more. Of course, Dragons would have been worthless if a reader could do nothing with them so the magazine offered auctions (yes, auctions) offering books, games, computer games, posters, comic books - bigger the prize bigger the amount of Dragons needed and higher the minimum bid required. The idea seems having worked well and it's something unique in gaming magazines (at least I know of).
Not just a translation
Most of the articles were written by French authors and were not translations of original English language ones, albeit Dragon magazine used a lot of TSR wonderful art in its pages (flipping one issue give us the chance to see these wonderful drawings with no writing, logos or anything else on them, a real feast for the eyes!). Gaming content was somewhat limited with no adventures at all and some 'gamers only' contents at the end of the magazine, in black and white. The most technical feature was the Sage Advice column (with a French sage, not an American or British one) answering questions about AD&D rules. This approach placed Dragon magazine in a category of its own and it did not really compete with Casus Belli or the other, gaming heavy periodicals sometimes appearing in France. More, Dragon magazine was distributed not just in game stores but in newsstands too, letting it reach an important number of non gamers.
This is the end...
So, why did Dragon magazine in French fold? Fabrice Sarelli, CEO of Hexagonal, recalls in his L'histoire de Dungeons & Dragins - Des origines a la 5e edition that his company did all the French translation of TSR products for TSR, TSR UK printed them (in Spain, undoubtedly for cost reasons) and Jeux Descartes (the other big player in the French game industry at the time and part of the publishing group that controlled Casus Belli ) distributed them - along Hexagonal of course. When TSR stopped paying in 1997 any dues for translation work, Hexagonal got an agreement so it could subtract royalties due to TSR for the magazine from the outstanding debt to Hexagonal (100,000 euros!). When Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR, it asked Hexagonal to pay all back royalties and, when such money would have been paid, WotC would have paid the TSR debt. Alas, writes Sarelli, WotC did not put this in writing so the contract was not renewed and the magazine folded. After the disappearance of Dragon magazine, Hexagonal launched Multimondes (it lasted just a couple of years) and D20 Magazine (a 'roleplaying heavy' periodical) that lasted from 2001 to 2005. But, it seems, these magazines never reached the circulation of Dragon.
