How many dragons?

[ParanoydStyle]

This might be a silly question, but how often/frequently do dragons appear in your Dungeons & Dragons game? Back in college, we used to jokingly call the game "Dungeons & Dungeons" because there were plenty of dungeons but dragons were of questionable frequency. Later on in my "career" as a DM, I instead made it a point to make sure that dragons were as prominent as Dungeons in my D&D, or damn near to it.

So how often are their dragons in your Dungeons & Dragons?

 

[iserith]

Dragons have featured in every one of my D&D 5e campaigns so far.

Dungeons, too, oddly enough.

 

[robus]

Dragons were a big part of my campaign as we went through ToD and SKT. Now, though, we're in the Underdark, so dragons are not a feature. I don't envisage dragons making any impression in the next campaign.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I've always used very young dragons as generic fodder, for as long as I've been running games. Given that a dragon tends to die whenever it shows up, I figured there must be tons of them out there, for any of them to survive to adulthood.

I've also added a playable dragon class to my game, so that assures at least one in every session.

 

[Istbor]

Everyone is a dragon. Dragon's everywhere.

It's as though Oprah gave out Dragons at one of her shows.

Every player is Dragonborn. Even when they don't pick that race, an odd alchemical disaster or strange spell, or archaic nano-virus sweeps through and BAM! Dragon.

 

[Immortal Sun]

Why are the results hidden? That's no fun.

Also, the final answer is humorous, but I literally ran a campaign where the PCs started out as dragonborn and evolved into dragons. Dragonborn were the primary race on the world, dragons had basically "devolved" over millions of years due to lack of magic, and the players were basically the key factor in "would enough magic return to the world to sustain dragons again"...or not.

 

[aco175]

I have a few in the campaign. There may be some if the PCs go looking for one or in special places. Mostly they are dreaded in the background and may come out late in the game.

I also cannot see the results, which may be on my end or set up that way- which would be something to say before voting.

 

[Bitbrain]

Dragons are a very big part of my D&D game, and you can expect to encounter a hostile dragon about once every three sessions.

 

[Lanefan]

There's a huge gap between "once or twice per campaign" and "every few game sessions". I'll have a dragon* show up every now and then - maybe not every few sessions but way more often than once or twice per campaign (or I bloody hope so anyway, seeing as I tend to run 10+ year campaigns).

* - including the occasional decent one that isn't out to kill the PCs on sight and might even be talked into helping them out....

 

[cmad1977]

As with a lot of questions here, the answer is....
‘Depends’