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What is THE classic dragon-hunting/slaying adventure?
A couple hundred years ago an elder blue dragon destroys a thriving dwarven city, taking up residence in its ruins. Many a dwarven adventurer has sought the fabled riches of the city, in particular the Crown of Kings, but to no avail...
An adult female red dragon has been terrorizing a rural community, requiring sacrifices to appease her appetite. Why is the dragon so angry? And what lies within her cavernous lair?
Deep in the heart of the Mistmarshes dwells an ancient green dragon who rules over a court of ensorcelled elves. The green is the guardian of a powerful emerald jewel which holds the elves in thrall...
These are just what came to mind as I typed, as an attempt to illustrate variants on archetypal dragon-slaying stories (although, I must admit, they were all inspired by various sources...I'm curious if anyone can name them).
What are the classic dragon adventures? Off-beat ones are great, but I'm really looking for those core, mythic--archetypal--dragon quests.
I've never played a good (published) dragon hunting adventure.
There are quite a few adventures that feature a dragon in the role of "Guardian on the Threshold," including the moathouse of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, and the black dragon that guards the tomb Sakathka in Tomb of the Lizard King.
(Of Sound Mind is a great adventure, with a dragon capstone, but I don't think it fits your criteria.)
You'll find a few of these in Dungeon magazine but mostly in the older issues. The very first issue has one, with a spectacular cover image, and there's a sequel to it in #17. But the actual adventure is not that good iirc. There are a few more and better ones in the later issues. See this Dungeon Magazine Index
Last edited by Thanael; 21st January 2009 at 03:22 PM..
I can't think of anything either. I'm guessing it's such a cliche that it wasn't a worthy subject if publishing. So the irony is that it's so cliche that it doesn't exist!
I remember playing Dragon Mountain back in my 2e days. I remember it sucking so bad that we never even got to the mountain.
The RPG.net review is interesting.
A while back I started a project with Destan (from ENworld) to do a "dragon adventure done right" but moth-balled it for various reasons-- I'll blame Destan's laziness, or his unwillingness to work for no pay, or both. Jerk.
I still think it is an adventure cliche that has yet to be done well. I'd love to see Paizo tackle it.
Dragons of Despair, the first Dragonlance adventure seems to have been fairly well received. I can't claim to have played it myself, but it seems to be a dragon-slaying type adventure.
You referenced Dragonlance in your own post, so it must have been there in your mind.
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The adventure wasn't all about the dragon, but for me it is the most significant and coolest part:
Sabre River
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I remember an old Dungeon adventure I always liked called "The Wounded Worm". Basically a crippled dragon, having survived a group of adventurers, starts using charms and other subtle tactics to control the lands around him and prevent anyone else from threatening his life.
The adventure is pitched to the PCs as "just go here, finish off the beast, and get the horde", but it quickly gets complicated with all the minions the dragon has. Really, it was less a dragon (it couldn't walk or fly, don't remember if it had breath weapon or not) and more a scaly evil wizard. So it wasn't a typical hunt, but still interesting.
Well, Paizo has that adventure in the dragon cemetery...
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A couple hundred years ago an elder blue dragon destroys a thriving dwarven city, taking up residence in its ruins. Many a dwarven adventurer has sought the fabled riches of the city, in particular the Crown of Kings, but to no avail...
An adult female red dragon has been terrorizing a rural community, requiring sacrifices to appease her appetite. Why is the dragon so angry? And what lies within her cavernous lair?
Deep in the heart of the Mistmarshes dwells an ancient green dragon who rules over a court of ensorcelled elves. The green is the guardian of a powerful emerald jewel which holds the elves in thrall...
These are just what came to mind as I typed, as an attempt to illustrate variants on archetypal dragon-slaying stories (although, I must admit, they were all inspired by various sources...I'm curious if anyone can name them).
What are the classic dragon adventures? Off-beat ones are great, but I'm really looking for those core, mythic--archetypal--dragon quests.
dunno about you, but ... Back in 1e, when I was young and handsome ...
We were all students and all so cash poor that we wrote all our modules and could maybe afford to buy a published one once a year ! And we gamed every weekend, so that meant, we had to write most of what we played ourselves.
That usually meant a random map, with a few random monsters ... and a dragon on the last level. Just saying ...
For your examples, the third one (green) reminds me of a Dragonlance module in the Silvanesti forest, back in 1e, though I don't remember which one it was.
Yes, the last example was taken from Cyan Bloodbane of Dragonlance fame. The second one is similar to the 80s movie "Dragonslayer", and the first is similar to an old fantasy comic from the late 80s called "The Adventurers" (Great comic, btw).
I find it amazing that in 30 years there has not been a published adventure primarily dealing with hunting a dragon. I refuse to believe that there was never one published for OD&D, BD&D, AD&D1e. Might as well have called our game Dungeons & Drow.
EDIT: What I mean is a module published by TSR not related directly to Dragonlance. Really, no iconic hunt the dragon and rescue the princess module?
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The main part of this thing was to kill the dragon, and her 5 kids. Imagine the looks of fear on your players faces as they are approaching the mountain and you describe to them a flight of 5 red dragons preparing to make a flaming run on their group. Priceless! Every time!
__________________ It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. NEVER hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, IF it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Volumes, YOU are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be. May you find as much pleasure in so doing as the rest of us do.
Maybe that's it; hunting dragons was supposed to be something you worked towards, not something you could do at first level like in 3e's Sunless Citadel. I still would have thought there would have been an Expert level (4-14 BECMI) module to go after a dragon.
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I hold now in my formerly nicotine stained hands a mint copy of CM3 Sabre River.
Do they make modules like this anymore?
Well, there have been a few Goodman DCC's that made me think it would go well with "Sabre River". Still, Sabre River, and many modules around that time are in a class all their own. I think a lot of their appeal is their bare bones simplicity.
Plus when I just imagine the mountain volcano, and those 5 young dragons flying around it, the imagery is just awesome. Then when I try and picture their HUGE mother coming out of it in all her fury... Dang! Hard material to top.
__________________ It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. NEVER hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, IF it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Volumes, YOU are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be. May you find as much pleasure in so doing as the rest of us do.
poor that we wrote all our modules and could maybe afford to buy a published one once a year ! And we gamed every weekend, so that meant, we had to write most of what we played ourselves. 
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