Help me Brainstorm - playable Council of Wyrms

[Stormonu]

For those not familiar, Council of Wyrms was a campaign setting done back in 2E that had the PCs take on the roles of dragons, with a humanoid counterpart/lackey. The campaign took place in a chain of islands known as the Tears of Io. Swathes of islands were under the rulership of various dragon "tribes", with a central island set aside as neutral ground. Here dragons could gather to mate and discuss matters that affected all the tribes - such as the occasional appearance of human Dragonslayers from the distant West, troubles with the various giant tribes or the like.

The campaign setting itself was a brilliant idea and setting, but the actual rules were severely >meh<, and with dragons, troupe play seemed contrived. One of the things that was probably the most disappointing was that you had to start your character out as a baby and "level up" to get bigger/more powerful.

I'd like to redesign the play of the game so that dragons start in their "teens" and there's a better playing field for intraparty conflict/goals, with still the occasional need to come together on some goal or activity. Something akin to Birthright, where a fair portion of the game would be the characters doing things in their own "lair" during their "turn", but having a point where the characters come together to interact and perhaps adventure (perhaps a seasonal thing, with a "moot" end turn, representing the end of the year's events).

Likewise, I'd like to put together a system that reduces the firepower of the dragons - something that puts the starting characters on par with 1st level D&D characters (and a "human 1st level adventurer" would be a swattable gnat) and their humanoid associates on par with the advantage of a feat or class ability.

Unfortunately, I'm more of a story person, and I'm horrible with mechanics. If anyone has some ideas - it doesn't have to follow D&D rules, and in some cases a card or board-like game for the non-moot part of the game I think might work best so it's quick and players can throw challenges at each other to keep things interesting - I'd love to hear them.

 

[Loonook]

Have you heard of Xorvintaal? The Great Game would seem to be a great way to go about this... Though the idea of a draconic card game for resolutions sounds fantastic . The Great Game always seemed to me to be a way to make Dragons less overpowered NPCs and more PCish with the ability to have miniatures to send into combat. Yes, Dragons love 4e (but oddly enough still hate Dragonborn).

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Set]

I'd just pick a CR, and have the players choose a dragon that fits there, allowing those who picked a weaker CR dragon type to take a level of Sorcerer or Barbarian or whatever to make up the difference.

Using the 3.X or PF rules for dragons should eliminate a little bit of the wonkiness of the 2nd edition stats.

House rule that any dragon that buys a class level in a spellcasting class (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard) can choose for their effective Sorcerer levels to become effective levels in their chosen spellcasting class instead. (Which seems way easier than coming up with a 'dragon cleric' class or a 'dragon wizard' class for dragons who choose to progress something other than effective sorcerer levels.) If a dragon actually buys a level in a spellcasting class, those effective sorcerer levels might also progress other class abilities *if* he buys a feat to do that sort of thing (and similar feats might exist to allow a dragon Barbarian to increase his barbarian rage abilities as he gains HD, as if progressing in 'effective barbarian levels, just to be fair to the non-spellcasters!).


Have the companion count as a cohort, and have all dragons who are part of the Council of Wyrms, at whatever HD is appropriate (6th? 7th? I don't even remember), take the Leadership feat automatically. Since you'll probably be starting the game with dragons of 6 HD or higher, that's gonna happen automatically.

The game will start with everyone as a 6 HD or larger dragon (or a smaller one with some class levels bringing them up to 6+ HD) and a 4th+ level cohort.

It will be nothing like starting out as a 1st level adventuring party, but, presumably, these very young and inexperienced dragons will be dealing with the dragon-society versions of orcs and goblins, only, in this case, perhaps a corrupted or blighted area that is overrun with fiendish and half-fiendish templated creatures that are proving a nuisance, and that none of the larger dragons even care about (and since these lands are the hinterlands being graciously foisted off on the younglings, they've got to band together and deal with this threat to *their* lands, both to protect the families of their followers and secure their territory, and, more importantly in the long run, prove their worth to run these lands in the eyes of the older dragons who will just as readily re-assign them to another group of fledgelings, if they prove unable to handle this situation on their own).

In the process, they'll discover something more serious (gateway to an infernal realm, powering all this stuff, and a trusted member of the council tied to the devil-worshipping humanoids and fiend-blooded wyverns and whatever haunting the area, which can go in a political direction, as they try to unmask the dragon who is trucking with fiends and unleashing them in the dragonlands to attack and threaten his rivals, or in a fight-fight-fight direction, if the dragonsquad decides to just kill everything that smells like sulphur and let Tiamat sort them out, and, at the end of the campaign, as young adult dragons, end up in a knock-down drag-out fight with the old dragon-traitor himself, who went too far in his grasp for power and ended up getting possessed by a powerful devil, possibly even a pit fiend!, giving him some unexpected powers, as well as some devil allies).

Substitute demon or far realms aberration / Lovecraftian mythos horror or undead lich for 'devil' and you can go in a bunch of different directions with that basic plot.

If the party likes the political aspects, the secret bad-guy could use his position on the council to spread bad gossip about the 'punk kids' and even make it seem like *they* are responsible for stirring up the devil-stuff or whatever, or even, if he's a more scholarly sort, offer sage council and advice to the kids *personally,* while they don't suspect that he's the bad-guy, sending them into a death-trap (which, being the heroes of the story, they survive!) to get them out of the way and stop them from exposing too much of his diabolatry before he manages to steal the power he seeks to take over the Council (or just possess / bind / incapacitate the only ones who can threaten or rival him).

Whichever route you go, devils, demons, far realms critters, mind flayers, undead, clockwork constructs, whatever, you can use templates to bump up more traditional beasties to be appropriate threats for the dragon party members, strapping the half-fiend or half-farspawn or half-illithid or half-construct or whatever templates onto a wyvern or stone giant or rock troll or gargantuan spider or whatever, to make them more credible threats.

The Draconomicon is crawling with awesome feats and dragon-specific PrCs and whatnot. I'd definitely give it a look for a campaign of this sort.