D&D General Companion Thread to D&D Survivor: Dragons, Metallic

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I stand by my assertion that metallics just exist due slot filling for alignment system, and nothing you said has dissuaded me from that.

That only works if the alignment system is simply good vs evil. The alignments of dragons didn’t map up cleanly to the alignment system.

Also, I’m 4e most metallics, IIRC, we’re unaligned, not some version of good alignments

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Then your experience is bad, don’t blame the dragons!

I could say the same of metallics...

 

[dave2008]

Nope. Shen the Gold Dragon from EzekielRaiden's Jewel of the Desert game. I didn't know there was a Black Dragon by the same name.

I know it wasn't the Shen from the endless quest books, but that was just my favorite and most awesome black dragon ever!

 

[dave2008]

Hah, not quite. Beautiful picture though.

His name is Tenryu Shen, surname first since his homeland is my pastiche of fantasy Japan and China. (Just as the Tarrakhuna region has "Jinnistan" as the country in the elemental otherworld of Al-Akirah, so too does Yuxia have "Fusang" as the elemental otherworld, with both terms drawn from IRL myths about magical lands, one Near Eastern/Indian Subcontinental, the other Chinese.)

He's a gold dragon, who normally protects some particular area of Yuxia, the "Jade Home." Currently, however, he is on assignment (implicitly from the Jade Emperor or some functionary thereof) to hunt down a treacherous black dragon, who had been thought killed, but who actually snuck away to the Tarrakhuna, where there are no Guardians to oppose them (as the Genie-Rajahs abandoned the world for Al-Akirah long ago.)

I knew it was the Shen from the Endless Quest book - I just couldn't help giving a shout out to my favorite black dragon!

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I knew it was the Shen from the Endless Quest book - I just couldn't help giving a shout out to my favorite black dragon!

Fair enough. If it helps, my Shen is hunting a black dragon! He's been struggling though. His quarry is sneaky and has had a long time to prepare for someone to come hunting. Hence, he relies on the party to help him with stuff he can't do himself, at least not without blowing his cover.

It's very much a game of spy-vs-spy, just played by dragons masquerading as (relatively) "ordinary" mortals.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Weirdness for weirdness' sake alone just comes across as trying too hard. "Look how cool this thing is! Isn't it just the coolest! It's so different it just HAS to be cool!"

I've been running D&D for over 40 years; I guess I need them to be different to be interesting. Like, I love vanilla soft serve ice cream, but if that was the only option every time I went to get ice cream, it would get tired fast. I feel that way about most of the chromatics and metallics -- they were the only dragons used in dozens of campaigns I played in.

 

[Corinnguard]

I've been running D&D for over 40 years; I guess I need them to be different to be interesting. Like, I love vanilla soft serve ice cream, but if that was the only option every time I went to get ice cream, it would get tired fast. I feel that way about most of the chromatics and metallics -- they were the only dragons used in dozens of campaigns I played in.

This could explain why Pathfinder created 7 different groups of dragons in it's first edition. 1. Chromatic, 2. Metallic, 3. Primal, 4. Imperial, 5. Outer, 6. Esoteric and 7. Planar. More variety.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Does the giant flying tank tyrannically imposing its will in your neighborhood think it's doing so for a good reason?

Tonight we interview X'tchlaitan the Expansive from atop his pile of pilfered gold and art pieces he never earned or created to find what he plans to do for the common man and which watchword for 'enslavement by fear' he prefers to use for it. We'll also ask about his environmental policies are considering that he's a 100 ton predator with the hunting mentality of a cat and how that will inevitably deplete all of the large fauna of the region within a year.