D&D General How Would You Do a Dragon Themed Campaign?

[doctorbadwolf]

Definitely dragon riders.

But I’d also involve primordial dragons who came into being in the first moments of creation. They are the first thoughts, the first expressions of conscious Will, which caused the infinite chaos to explode and create the universe.

Tiamat isn’t a dragon goddess, she is the first reply to the notion of creation, in opposition to the first thought of “things should happen”.

God said let there be light, and Tiamat said, “okay do we actually have to though? Could we not?”

But that is top level stuff that priests care about. Day to day, there are big dragons running around.

 

[Dragonhelm]

The basic idea of both is decent enough. Buit Dragonlance told the tale of the Heroes of the Lance.

Dragonlance has other adventures as well, including the Age of Mortals adventure path. Plus other adventures can be adapted there. Sunless Citadel is a good example.

Contrary to what Christopher Perkins has said, Dragonlance is NOT a single story world.

And had things like Kender, Gully Dwarves, and tinker Gnomes. Which not everyone likes.

There will always be haters. However, there's some good stuff that could happen.

Maybe the heroes need to find a dragon lair and the only guide is a kender. This kender is a handler, but she only handles dragon-themed stuff. She's not going to steal your purse. So she uses her maps to get to the dragon's lair.

To make it more interesting, let's say the dragon is a good metallic dragon who hasn't been heard from in some time. When the heroes get to the lair, they find the remains of an ancient bronze dragon. There they see a small group of gully dwarves living within the rotted corpse of the dragon.

As disgusting of a site that is, the heroes can deduce that the gully dwarves could not kill the dragon. That's when they hear the kaboom. As they rush outside, they see a clockwork dragon, built by tinker gnomes! They have to fight the gnomes and defeat the clockwork dragon, before it inevitably explodes.

The Dragonlances themselves and riding dragons is fun.

Always.

So if I wanted a dragon-themed adventure or campaign, I would definitely go with Dragonlance.

I may be biased.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’m a big fan of dragon riders and other “big mythical critter riders” using the mechanics of a large creature at low levels that can only fly without a rider, and then increase its size and power by player levels, so you’re able to fly with it by level 5-6, and it’s a proper big ol critter by level 11 or 15 or whatever fits the pacing of the campaign.

The idea is usually that the character bonded with the critter and helped raise it, and they’re bonded for life.

 

[Ogre Mage]

How about a dragon as the party's patron? The dragon gives them missions to do, monetary rewards when they succeed and harsh criticism when they fail (lol). This can get the party interacting with an adult dragon even at low level. The party gives the dragon an "arm" out in the world of mortals. The dragon patron can direct the party to influence mortal society in ways the dragon wants. It can send the party to undermine or destroy the dragon's enemies (annoyances at first, but eventually powerful foes like giants and rival dragons).

While a good-aligned dragon is easier to work with, a lawful evil dragon could make for an interesting patron. A green or blue dragon would be best for an evil dragon patron.

 

[iserith]

I'd put a dragon on top of a big pile of gold in a dungeon then let nature take its course.

 

[Derren]

Depends on what type of campaign you want. The inclusion of dragons alone does not force the campaign into a certain direction. You can still run political intrigue, criminal, etc. campaigns and are not limited to dragon slayer/rider stories. And even if you run those there are lots of variations you can use.

For inspiration I suggest the Temeraire series, even though its a bit more modern than the common D&D setting. You still have dragon riders but with a few twists (Why only have one rider?) and also skirts the issue of slavery although that plot could have been a bit bigger.

 

[Tallifer]

I ran a campaign based around a Draconic Prophecy in Eberron: I was thus able to utilize a multitude of different dragons as well as a cool overarching theme and reason for all kinds of crazy stuff.

 

[Bitbrain]

I’ve always liked the idea of using tropes from “aliens in the government” conspiracy theories for an Eberron-based dragon campaign.

 

[Stormonu]

How about a dragon as the party's patron? The dragon gives them missions to do, monetary rewards when they succeed and harsh criticism when they fail (lol). This can get the party interacting with an adult dragon even at low level. The party gives the dragon an "arm" out in the world of mortals. The dragon patron can direct the party to influence mortal society in ways the dragon wants. It can send the party to undermine or destroy the dragon's enemies (annoyances at first, but eventually powerful foes like giants and rival dragons).

While a good-aligned dragon is easier to work with, a lawful evil dragon could make for an interesting patron. A green or blue dragon would be best for an evil dragon patron.

I did that, the party just wanted to turn on their patron and steal it’s hoard (despite my attempts to make the dragon benevolent initially). So, in converse, it plotted to kill them.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Something like a remake of "Councyl of Wyrms" but in the demiplane of Io's blood islands, and giants/titankin as archyenemies... and friendnemies sometimes. Used to be the supreme rulers and busy with their game of thrones, they discover they are being attacked by alien invaders from Far Realm.

Other idea is like Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire but the noble houses are fabulous monsters (giants, feys, dragons, hags, vampire's thralls) diguised as humans.

* Wouldn't you like a new class mixture of dracolyte, dragon shaman, dragonfire adept and dragon as monster class, dragonborn racial parangon and dragon disciple(prestige class). Maybe a subclass with incarnum soulmelds.