Dragons as Characters in 4th Edition Campaign?

[dray]

(Apologies if this is a frequently asked question, but I've looked through this forum and have googled around for answers, and found nothing that meshed with D&D 4th edition, only 3.5!)

I'm trying to gather enough information to run a campaign in which the dragons are the characters, starting from Wyrmling and growing in strength as they level up. I have managed to find a rather complicated java site to create a playable dragon character (however, it's for 3.5) and noted that the Pathfinder series has a dragonrider pdf that allows dragons to level up (also for 3.5, and the mechanics seem a little borked; I'd prefer to have these characters act as companions to player characters at first, but not to be beholden steeds in the way that the dragonrider pdf suggests!) Both Draconomicons hint at alternative abilities for each colour of dragon, but don't offer anything that really helps me to put into perspective how and when a young (potentially altered) dragon adventuring with a party might gain new ones to their basic abilities.

I don't mind messing around with the dragon's powers to make them less overwhelmingly powerful (I'm aiming for something that balances nicely with the players' own growth!) I'm just looking for some guidelines that allow me to give them XP and new abilities/feats/etc. based on their new levels. For the sake of simplicity, aging isn't an issue!

Any pointers to sites or suggestions on frameworks for 4th edition dragons to level up in a similar way to characters would be extremely helpful! Again, I'm sorry if this is repetitious, or a little silly... I've been lurking and googling but I think that my googlefu is weak, and I'm a fairly new DM to boot. Thank you in advance for any help!

 

[Kinneus]

I'm not familiar with any resources for playing dragons in 4e. It occurs to me that probably the most painless way to do this without a whole lot of house-ruling would be to:
-Require that everybody be the Dragonborn race, and then just 'refluff' them as dragons.
-Use inherent bonuses so you don't have dragons wielding massive battleaxes or wearing amulets of protection or anything silly like that. Reflavor any items you do hand out; consider using boons more than you would usually.
-Maybe limit the playable classes to those that seem suitable for dragons. Sorcerers, Wizards, Clerics (of Tiamat or Bahamut or both), Invokers (of Tiamat or Bahamut or both), Fighters, Melee Rangers (slashing at people with both claws)... this might not even be necessary so long as players are willing to work with you on reflavoring things.
-Abstract weapons. If a player wants to use the mechanics of a fullblade, fine. They take the feat for proficiency, and then explains how their dragon's melee attacks mimic a full blade. Maybe they have a sharp strip of bone on their tail they swing around, or something.
-In order to make things seem properly "dragony", consider giving all the players a fly speed. Consider increasing their size to 'Large' at Paragon and (maybe) Huge at Epic. Maybe let them get recharge rolls for their racial Dragon Breath, if you feel like being cute. These are the changes most likely to 'break' the game, but as long as you're giving all your players the same benefits, then it's just a matter of building encounters that actually challenge them.