How many dragons?

[Draegn]

In my game the frequency of dragons is dictated by how hard the players search for them. I have also house ruled that only one in twenty dragon eggs will produce a "true dragon" all the rest range in size from ferrets (the majority) to suitable sizes for steeds, (the minority). My players chose not to go on the exotic pet market quest.

In three and a half years of game time the group has only came across three dragons. A fat greenish yellow one and a pair of incesteous black dragons that are trying to produce a two-headed hatchling.

 

[Azzy]

Once in three campaigns thus far.

 

[the Jester]

In between a couple per campaign and every few sessions- probably one every 20 or 50 sessions or so? That's a guess; I'd have to check my notes to actually figure the ratio.

 

[Oofta]

In most campaigns I only use dragons rarely because an intelligently run dragon can punch far above it's CR. I know most people don't do that, but I run them as hit-and-run strikers flying out of range only to come back when their breath weapon recharges or they can do a fly by grab and drop.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[PabloM]

Oh, I´m running a Dragonlance campaign, so...

 

[77IM]

The last campaign I ran lasted a year, playing weekly. They encountered a dragon in roughly 16 sessions by my count, which is literally every few sessions. BUT only 1/3 of those dragon sessions had hostile dragons -- the others were a couple of neutral-to-good dragon NPCs who showed up from time to time. The Final Boss at the end was a dragon. (The campaign was "Monster Town" so a dragon showing up as an NPC wasn't as big a deal as it would be in most settings.)

My next campaign I want to do this, now: "All of my PCs are dragons and so are most of the NPCs."

 

[Imaculata]

Once or twice in a campaign. I've been teasing my players with dragons in my current campaign for years now. They've only ever encountered one friendly dragon who is now their ally, and has fought by their side in one big battle.

I want dragons to be special, so I'm very careful with introducing them. Currently my players have yet to fight one, and they are a little bit anxious about it. They know it is coming, and they know that I don't kid around when it comes to dragons. It is going to be nasty.

 

[S'mon]

My son plays Dragonborn whenever possible.

Otherwise maybe once per Tier II III & IV is typical. Don't see many in Tier I unless running The Sunless Citadel or The Forge of Fury.

 

[Zilong]

Depends on the setting I’m using.

In the current setting dragons feature heavily in mythology, history, and the oversight of natural and unnatural phenomenon. In this setting they show up fairly frequently but they are rarely something the pc interact with in a direct manner. Usually dragons sightings are more like watching a storm gathering on the horizon, a potentially deadly force of nature that can be avoided with a bit of care. I’ve only had one full blown encounter with a dragon and that was at lvl 2 against an adult blue dragon. No it was not fair and they ended up hiding and letting npc guards distract it until it got bored. They couldn’t fight it. That was the point.