Draconomicon: surprises ahead! (scoop + speculation)

[Cadfan]

I think a dragon that is both blue and breathes lightning because it has a fundamental tie to specific elemental or natural forces is plenty compelling.

That works for me.

But "blue" is not an elemental or natural force.

Bring on the blue, lightning spitting storm dragons, who dance in the thunderclouds and hunt during the darkest of tempests. Sounds great to me.

And once you've made your fundamental theme "storm dragon" instead of "blue," you will be able to vary things a bit. Once "blue" is no longer the defining trait, you can maybe add a beautiful scale pattern or something. Maybe... dark blue scales with partially white edged black patches, black wing leather, and white radiating lines shaped like lines of static that radiate from the muzzle and flow down the neck. Maybe every storm dragon's facial markings are unique, like those of a tiger, and a trained loremaster can identify individual dragons from the facial markings. Maybe all kinds of things other than "blue."

Sincerely,
Cadfan,
Who is particularly bitter about blue dragons because blue and electricity are kind of his favorite.

 

[rkanodia]

Lorem ipsum dolor.

So, someone asserts a position, and provides a supporting argument, and you say, "Why is that so?", and he says, "Because of the argument I already made, which you have not addressed", and you say back, "Addressing that argument would be painful, and I'd rather not endure the pain for no benefit". Is there some other reading for lorem ipsum dolor that I don't understand? I am having a hard time reading this as something other than a snide personal attack.

 

[Mistwell]

So, someone asserts a position, and provides a supporting argument, and you say, "Why is that so?", and he says, "Because of the argument I already made, which you have not addressed", and you say back, "Addressing that argument would be painful, and I'd rather not endure the pain for no benefit". Is there some other reading for lorem ipsum dolor that I don't understand? I am having a hard time reading this as something other than a snide personal attack.

I read it as a rather clever and relatively polite way of saying what is on a lot of people's minds - all of Derrens posts are, essentially, the same. Take any given 4e news of any kind, and you can predict with nearly 100% certainty what Derren would say. It's like reading "lorem ipsum dolor". And while it is not nice to be personal, at some point I think it's appropriate to point out the elephant in the room. [Edit - though it appears likely that Hong meant nothing so dark as that, and it's my own bias coming through].

 

[Dausuul]

So, someone asserts a position, and provides a supporting argument, and you say, "Why is that so?", and he says, "Because of the argument I already made, which you have not addressed", and you say back, "Addressing that argument would be painful, and I'd rather not endure the pain for no benefit". Is there some other reading for lorem ipsum dolor that I don't understand? I am having a hard time reading this as something other than a snide personal attack.

"Lorem ipsum dolor" is a phrase used in the publishing industry. When you want to demonstrate the appearance of a given font or layout, but you haven't got the actual text (or don't want people being distracted by the text), you put in the words "lorem ipsum dolor" over and over again instead. It's a quote from a bit of Latin poetry, I think, but don't ask me what poem.

Hong is saying that the Draconomicon cover art we're seeing is the artistic equivalent of "lorem ipsum dolor," which is a fancy way of saying it's a placeholder.

Edit: Not poetry, but a treatise by Cicero, "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum." And apparently the Latin is somewhat mangled. The original phrase was "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Eh. Using different power sources to "justify" creating new dragons is just asking for a return to the old symmetry-based classification scheme. A new dragon (or any new monster, really) should be compelling in and of itself, without requiring such rationales.

This should be printed out and posted in every WotC cubicle.

 

[Mistwell]

"Lorem ipsum dolor" is a phrase used in the publishing industry. When you want to demonstrate the appearance of a given font or layout, but you haven't got the actual text (or don't want people being distracted by the text), you put in the words "lorem ipsum dolor" over and over again instead. It's a quote from a bit of Latin poetry, I think, but don't ask me what poem.

Hong is saying that the Draconomicon cover art we're seeing is the artistic equivalent of "lorem ipsum dolor," which is a fancy way of saying it's a placeholder.

Is THAT what Hong was saying? See I went with a much darker interpretation of the Honger's comment.

Hong, what WERE you saying?

 

[Dausuul]

Is THAT what Hong was saying? See I went with a much darker interpretation of the Honger's comment.

Hong, what WERE you saying?

Well, given the context of the discussion (a bit of what might or might not be placeholder art), that seemed to me like the obvious inference. But I agree, best to let Hong speak for him/herself.

 

[Simm]

This is getting nitpicky but I am reminded of the section on yellow dragons in an earlier edition (AD&D 2e?) that stated that yellow was not a chromatic dragon because chromatic dragon breath consists of only a single substance and yellow dragons breath weapon was scotching sand laden air. Similarly Browns weren't even dragons because they lacked wings.

That said, my bet for the three dragons are Yellow, Deepwyrm, and some aquatic form.

My bets for the metallic book (assuming the 5 basic are covered) are: steel and mercury. Can't think of a third common metallic type.

 

[Maltrok]

I don't see how:

Red = Fire
White = Cold
Green = Poison
Black = Acid
Blue = Lightning

is so confusing.

The color doesn't come from their environs, but rather from their breath weapon, which is more germane to an adventurer's concern. Which isn't less valid than the environs from which they came. I looked through the dragons you linked, and I don't find them any more compelling than some of the great chromatic dragon pics that we've seen. I may not match what YOU are looking for from you backstory, but that doesn't make it a universal truth that chromatic dragons are somehow less compelling.

EDIT: As for new colors, I'd go Yellow = Heat (just pure heat), Purple/Fuschia/Transformer Fuel = Magic/Astral, and some other color that elicits the same color = breath weapon. I wouldn't count on them being something for sure from the past.

 

[Kaodi]

You have got to be kidding me. MULTIPLE Draconomicons? What a waste. 288 pages for 8 monsters is bloody ridiculous. And compare that to only 160 pages for the new Manual of the Planes.