Interesting ways to integrate a dragon in a campaign

[hopeless]

Hmm...

I've been wondering about this since every encounter I've had involving dragons have been well not treated properly for one thing.

A dragon is supposed to be a creature of legend something that should inspire stories of daring and not just of battles.

I'm still thinking through introducing one in the Legend setting and so far its been limited to a fresco inside a crypt where the forces of darkness battle the forces of light and included on the side of good is an enormous ancient red dragon which i told my players is known to them as the "Red Death" an extraordinarily powerful dragon that has the same reputation as Godzilla or Gojira would have if that existed in my campaign.

The game I'm slowly prepping will eventually hint that this is a possible future of present day earth following a cataclysm and the various races seen in the Monsters of Legend are the results of either experimentation, mutation or even evolution since my plan is that dwarves are the descendants of those that took shelter underground whilst the elves took to living in deep forests and so on.

I plan on revealing that there exists a means for people to be transformed into certain dragon types but the types seen as "good" which I intend to be gold, silver and one specific red types are the results of a family bloodline and have a lot of similarity with lycanthropy in its origin.

The bad guys can assume blue, black, green and even white dragon types but are known properly as "Drakes" because it isn't inherited they're being bioengineered unlike the true dragons whom are being protected because of a link to a major cult that forms an important part of the campaign setting where the PCs are based.

Sorry but the way I see it, slaying such a creature should have ramifications whether revealing the creature was cursed into that form by a sorceror and the slayer becomes its replacement (a T&T scenario did that with a troll if memory serves) or they discover they have slain a powerful deterrent for another far more dangerous foe perhaps even an invading army and they're now lumbered with finding a way to either stop them or survive the aftermath of their poorly thought out actions.

Still being Viking based it doesn't necessarily mean dragonslaying since they could either steal some of its treasure and make it come after them or they could seek its help for some task only it can do...

 

[hopeless]

Hi guys,
I’m about to start a Viking themed campaign next week. It’ll be a low-magic, low-fantasy game using the E6 rules, adapted to Pathfinder. Character’s will start at fist level, but I plan to keep the game going until they reach level 6 or maybe even beyond that, advancing the character’s according to the E6 rules.

Even though the campaign is just starting, I’d like to set the ground early for events that may happen later in the story. One such event is a confrontation with a dragon (preferably a red one), that inhabits the region where the game is set.

My plan was to have the PCs stumble across a remote monastery that is slowly becoming a ruin as it has only one monk who will help them with some shelter and provisions if they need it but eventually they'll learn he knows about an ancient dragon which if they follow this up will learn he is actually the last surviving member of an order of knights and the only being known to have faced, survived and bound the "Red Death" an ancient and enormous red dragon.

He'll try to persuade them out of hunting down the wyrm but if they do they'll learn he bound the dragon within himself which is why his descendants have the ability to turn into dragons and have been using this ability to defend the PCs homeland unfortunately as a result they were targetted by both the invaders' but also the natives of their homeland who see this as a means of achieving great power ignoring the fact it places everyone in grave danger.

This particular dragon only appears when desperately needed and the collateral damage involved is why the former knight has chosen to exile himself for the safety of everyone however his extended lifespan means sooner or later he will be discovered.

This encounter could possibly be the final event of the whole campaign, although I have yet to decide why the PC’s would need to fight the dragon in the first place. I’m open to suggestions and also hopping that once the game begins I’ll come up with an in game reason based on character’s choices to set up this battle.

Hmm how about its foraging and is blamed for an incident that it wasn't responsible for so your PCs use this incident as the reason they prepare themselves to hunt down their presumed nemesis?

Even though the character’s will most likely fight this dragon in the final days of the campaign, I’d like to make it as present as possible during the whole story, so the dragon does not appear out of nowhere when he becomes an important part of the plot. A dragon is not just another monster with a status block, it’s a memorable creature and should be treated as such. I want this dragon to be part of the environment the PC’s live in and have the region and its people living according to that situation. I’m looking for small details that breathe life into the setting.

Make a country of your campaign setting use the dragon as their heraldric symbol it doesn't even have to be the same dragon only something thats a constant reminder of its existance perhaps even a noble family whether one of your PCs or an eventual enemy something you can add the occasional detail to explain exactly how it came to be that way.

How a dragon living nearby affects the life of the people? Maybe a person in town found a scale and wears it as necklace. Maybe a lady is a widow because his husband died trying to invade the dragon’s lair and steal its hoard. Perhaps the village experienced a year of hunger when the dragon decided to hunt in the farms, things like that.

There might have been several dragons in the area one or two years and their eventual fight for their hunting ground is why there was a famine maybe throw in that it happens say once every fifty years and its about that time that the dragons fly to mate and the resulting babies eventually grow up and their feeding is what causes the famine until they're old enough to fly away and establish their own homes elsewhere provided they survive that long.

What if they've being hunted to extinction?

Humanity is spreading out far too fast and thats why there have been more encounters but there has to be a reason why humanity persists with this draconic menace, what if they're essential to the local ecosystem and if they're wiped out thats what cause the famine maybe even have a gradually growing desert to represent the damage slaying all of the dragons is causing?

And don’t know if I’m making myself clear, but I’d really appreciate suggestions on how to integrate the dragon in the campaign, with encounters or plot devices that make the PC’s aware that the dragon exists but does not involve fighting it. Anything goes here.
Thanks in advance,
Guilberwood

Hmm have the dragon take precautions because its intelligent?

Perhaps it has allies within the community who in return for its aid protect it from those that would strip their home of a powerful protector?

Maybe its been befriended by a ranger and isn't a threat however an enemy is using a polymorph spell to force the locals to move against it thereby granting the spellcaster and their allies the means to seize power and slay the one foe that stands in their way?

What if one of the PCs befriend a baby dragon unaware that their relationship has earned their home town a secret protector but a rival dragon is seeking to kill the baby and its mother and is trying to coerce the villagers to finish the task it can't do since the dragon trusts the locals?

 

[S'mon]

How about a first session with pregens where the dragon is attacking a village, the PCs are the best warriors in the village and need to hold off the dragon as long as possible so some people can escape. The dragon should massively outmatch them, but with skill and some luck they should be able to survive long enough for some of their fellow villagers to escape.

Then the campaign starts next session, years later. The PCs are the children of those who died defending the village; their first memory was their uncles, fathers & mothers dying so they might live...

There's a small chance the pregen PCs might kill the dragon. In that case you have a different campaign start - the pregens have lived a long and happy life and are now old, their children now grown to manhood, when the offspring of the original dragon, now also grown old and strong, arrives on the scene...

 

[S'mon]

I would hesitate to make this about encounter-level confrontation. Wily foes, even powerful and fearsome ones which includes dragons, typically avoid direct assault without multiple purposes.

Dragons that are scared to actually fight is a D&Dism I would definitely avoid in a Viking-themed campaign.

 

[howandwhy99]

Dragons that are scared to actually fight is a D&Dism I would definitely avoid in a Viking-themed campaign.

I was thinking multiple combats wouldn't be prudent and would really just kill the PCs. Saving the dragon to last, if possible on the DMs part, would be better for combat. Plus more strategic aims lends reason to why the dragon didn't just do this in the first place when they were 1st level.

But if someone crawls in with an axe and a loincloth feel free to fear, breathe, and brute force them to one's pleasure.

 

[Loonook]

PCs are probably going to die in an E6 campaign's bigger battles just because of the power of flagging. Flagging is a fantastic mechanic, and allows the PCs to do truly heroic things and go down down down.

And that's what would be great. Vikings are all about the dead heroics .

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Sigurd is the Viking hero most commonly associated with dragons. Check out wikipedia for an overview, including info on Norse dragons.

 

[Wik]

PCs are probably going to die in an E6 campaign's bigger battles just because of the power of flagging. Flagging is a fantastic mechanic, and allows the PCs to do truly heroic things and go down down down.

And that's what would be great. Vikings are all about the dead heroics .

Slainte,

-Loonook.

Flagging isn't a prerequisite of E6 campaigns, and were really just introduced in the same document as an option to battle the fact that PCs are much more likely to go down due to some of the other conceits of an E6 world (ie, less magic and fewer magic items).

If you introduce reserve points or an optional HP system, you don't need flagging. And to be honest, I think the game works better in such a situation, as flagging to me makes the game seem much more narrative/story focused, which can get annoying for certain playstyles.

In my E6 game, PCs start with their constitution plus half their hit die for starting HP (sort of like 4E), and also receive reserve points. The system works fairly well, and lets heroes fight the big bad monsters while still being afraid of them.

 

[Loonook]

Flagging isn't a prerequisite of E6 campaigns, and were really just introduced in the same document as an option to battle the fact that PCs are much more likely to go down due to some of the other conceits of an E6 world (ie, less magic and fewer magic items).

If you introduce reserve points or an optional HP system, you don't need flagging. And to be honest, I think the game works better in such a situation, as flagging to me makes the game seem much more narrative/story focused, which can get annoying for certain playstyles.

In my E6 game, PCs start with their constitution plus half their hit die for starting HP (sort of like 4E), and also receive reserve points. The system works fairly well, and lets heroes fight the big bad monsters while still being afraid of them.

Personally I like the Death Flag. Presents the options to go more narrative, but you also have to have players who are willing to use the flag to make it exciting. Definitely planning on it for the next campaign (hopefully E6).

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Wik]

Personally I like the Death Flag. Presents the options to go more narrative, but you also have to have players who are willing to use the flag to make it exciting. Definitely planning on it for the next campaign (hopefully E6).

Slainte,

-Loonook.

It really is a personal choice sort of thing. I like having player-controlled narrative in my games as well, but I do it in the form of tokens, which are hit or miss. I was really just pointing out that the death flag and E6 are not necessarily related, except that they were developed by the same guy.

For what it's worth, I don't like the death flag because I see it leading to stuff like this: "I'm going to hold this door, guys - and since I haven't lowered the death flag, the bad guys can't pass!". But I have a feeling the death flag works better in adventure paths and storylines, as opposed to the looser sandbox-style game I run, where player choice in tackling heavier challenges is part of the fun.