Bothered About Disposable Dragons (B.A.D.D.) Membership Drive

[LGodamus]

Count me in my players just encountered their first dragon last weekend. After 2 days of battling with well trained kobold shock troops, who for some reason all had a black talon symbol on their clothing, they tracked them to their lair and confronted their leader a young adult black dragon. After 3 round they had turned tail to run, vowing to rest and come back to win. The next day they returned only to have to retreat again after 7 rounds of battle ...........they are now considering just giving up.

 

[Falcon]

I have created a spat of legends and history concerning dragons that is intertwined with the symbology and mythology my campaign world. From what they have managed to put together, the players have no interest whatsoever in facing a good or an evil dragon, and even huge eagles make them jumpy...and they know that at some point they will be needing to speak to a certain dragon about a sword...

Shrouding them in the shadows of myth, legend, folk-lore, as well as "allowing" the players to come across the remnants of a dragon's rage, can help in providing a mystique rich enough to make players think more than twice about fighting a dragon.

I like the premise of B.A.D.D. In the 26 years (ACK!) I have gamed, I have faced one dragon as a player and as a DM the playres have faced three. The encounters were intense, nasty, and deadly, the way they should be.

 

[Paul Cardwell]

Original B.A.D.D.

ad&dgamer's query of 18 February 18 as to whom got rid of the original B.A.D.D.

It was a combination of Mike Stackpole of GAMA's Industry Watch Committee, CAR-PGa (the committee for the advancement of role-playing games, an international network of researchers) and thousands of gamers spreading the truth about RPG in whatever forum they could find at the time.

Pat Pulling had given up on the cause after her dog and pony show bookings dried up, several years before her death from cancer.

The other major group, NCTV (national coalition on television violence - what RPG and TV have to do with one another we are still trying to find!) sort of committed suicide when its head, Thomas Radecki gave up his medical licence for "improper sexual activity with a female patient" rather than risk trial for what the euphemism really means, rape under color of psychotherapy.

The groups limped on under a couple of successor heads before disappearing entirely. There is a group under that name, but we can't find if it is yet another successor or an entirely different group. At least they stick almost entirely to TV issues and have not mentioned RPG at all.

Anyone is welcome to join CAR-PGa, by the way. The dues are non-monetary, being documented work for the cause. Full information can be found at <theescapist.com/car-pga> and all, members or not, are invited to participate in our discussion group at <yahoogroups.com>

While it started out that way, we are not just a game defense organization, but research all aspects of the games including use in school curriculum, psychotherapy, improving the state of the art in rules and playing techniques, etc. Most of that is in our monthly Newsletter, $10.00 per year North America, $13.50 rest of the world.

Paul Cardwell, CAR-PGa chair

 

[Paul Cardwell]

Dragons as baddies

(As long as I am still on site, I might as well toss in another comment.)

Dwarf, 18 F 02, suggests having dragons as the ultimate baddies.

I find that a bit too Eurocentric! In the orient, dragons are very beneficial, controlling the rain, among other things and it is best to be on good terms with them.

Mythworld, among other games, is far more open about this. Almost any species (even on very rare occasions chaotics, that being their chaotic feature) can be good or bad. Not only is this more true to the nature of reality, it gives the players something else to worry about when encountering anything.

One of the best examples of a beneficial chaotic was in the late lamented RuneQuest. There was a goat-headed humanoid whose species religion involved the spreading to disease. Yet their was one famous broo who was a noted healer.

This uncertainty, combined with making some encounters essential to the success of the mission, both makes the players think and prevents the "shoot first, question later" of the worst of hack'n'slash. All in all, making a better game.

When convention players ask about dragons in Mythworld, I always tell they they could be either, but in any case, more intelligent than humans and more powerful than most species. In the scenario involving dragons I sometimes use at cons, it has made for a far better game than if they were assumed dangerous.

Paul Cardwell

 

[Zarthon]

I agree, Dragons are too easy to kill in 3E.

In my +-7 years of Dming I have only played 3 dragons, 1 white, 1 black and 1 blue, the white and the black dragons did die but only after a really long and hard fight. The blue managed to kill the entire party.

Sign me up for B.A.D.D

 

[mythusmage]

Re: Dragons as baddies

In the scenario involving dragons I sometimes use at cons, it has made for a far better game than if they were assumed dangerous.

Better yet, assume that dragons are dangerous, but they can be reasoned with, so long as you remember the proprieties.

When the other guy can swallow you whole, courtesy is always a good idea.

 

[coyote6]

Hmm. The fourth and fifth level characters in the game I ran Saturday killed a young green dragon; other characters had previously killed Nightscale and Calcryx.

I guess I'm not B.A.D.D.* material . . .


*(Either version)

 

[mythusmage]

Thiswas a troll?

 

[Nightfall]

Okay this you understand is just an idea I have.

Now in this particular world I've created, Dragons (at least TRUE ones) are a rare breed. Most people dismiss them as things from old stories. However in one place, there's an great red wyrm that's been around a VERY long time. He's cunning, deceitful AND very arrogant. (But not to the point of overweening prideful kind of thing). He's also has had time to breed with various "lower" species in an effort to show his "generous" nature. One of his creations is a half Tauron(a monstrous humanoid creature)/half red dragon called Cimber. He's a most fearsome fellow and his beliefs are as follows: Only the strong deserve to survive. His father is the only living being worthy of praise. Death to all the worshippers of divine powers, save those that follow his father.
He has levels in fighter and druid. Now the trouble is he's opposed by two main groups, one a small but heavily fortified town of gnomes, and the other is a local legend, Durlock the Undying, an ogre magi that is also a lich. (This happened because of the true ritual lich) Durlock is a believer in his master, called Chern the Plague Lord. However he is also obsessed with destroying the gnomes and making a new place to help bring about the restoration of his lord.

My trouble is this. 1: Should the dragon be in any way involved in this conflict. He cares about his progeny (one of them is a half cavern hag that has sworn a blood allegiance to her father, among others and is kind of the defunct spiritual leader) but not at the cost of his existence being found out. (Everyone believes he's dead or is a ghost) 2: If the dragon DOES become involved, can he beat back a town (approximate size is a large town, with around 3,500 gnomes (no other races) AND handle Durlock, with his rather large following of undead legions and pestilent type of creatures? 3. What tactics should he employ if he wants to wage a covert war instead of an overt one?

 

[coyote6]

1. Well, if a gnome town got in a war with a lich, and the gnomes were truly a challenge (e.g., they might win; this would seem to require some decent mid-to-high level types & plenty of magic of their own, or some funky tech-type stuff), an all out war might just lead to threats to the dragon's progeny, or even his discovery. If the lich & the gnomes start spraying magic all over the place, who knows what could happen? So it might behoove him to get a hand in, to control the flow of events.

2. Fighting both is probably a bad idea. Even if he is capable of handling it, why bother? Best case: he whomps both sides. Well, somebody might just become curious as to what wiped out the gnome town *and* the lich (either more followers of the lich's god, more gnomes, or just curious high-powered types). Since the dragon doesn't seem arrogant enough to think he can handle any-and-everything that might come after him, it's not worth risking unknowable threats to whoop ass. Instead, I think he'd be better off trying to keep the peace! Try to get the two sides to come to some kind of settlement; if (when) that proves impossible, pick one side or the other (the one least likely to be a problem in the future), and help them slaughter the other side. Lich ogre mage serving a deity sounds like the kind of guy likely to have arrogance issues of his own, so I think I'd pitch in and help the town -- after all, they're a known quantity, and being gnomes, can probably be trusted to be relatively stable. Plus, if they later become a problem, they'll probably be easier to handle.

3. If he wants a covert war, then he needs agents -- multiple layers of them, so that no one knows who they really work for. He needs to use shapechanging & illusion magics to hire & work a network of agents. Through them, hire mercenaries & adventurers and such, and send them to help the gnomes. Pretend to be some reclusive monastic-type who has had a vision from some god that's an enemy of Chern the Plague Lord; this prophet saw Chern moving against the town, and sends help. The dragon might consider actually tipping off Chern's enemies ("Psst, check out Gnomeville") -- this could be dangerous, though, as it might bring in a horde of uncontrolled self-righteous do-gooders with access to divination magics, and they might accidentally uncover the dragon and decide to "do something about the evil beast." So it might be best to leave them out of it, at least as an organized force. Better to get a few independent clerical types (to turn undead, cure diseases, etc.).

Then he should consider feeding the gnomes info about their enemy -- that way, the gnomes don't need to go mucking about blindly looking for data on their own. Keep 'em from accidentally finding out Too Much.