D&D General How Would You Do a Dragon Themed Campaign?

[Laurefindel]

As th title says. We've had Dragonlance and Tyranny of Dragons both are flawed for different reasons.

The basic idea of both is decent enough. Buit Dragonlance told the tale of the Heroes of the Lance. And had things like Kender, Gully Dwarves, and tinker Gnomes. Which not everyone likes.

The Dragonlances themselves and riding dragons is fun.

And the problem with ToD is let's face it the execution of HotDQ. It's not hard to think of a different direction though.

Do how would you do it?

With dragons as allies? Or dragons as enemies? Or dragons as mounts? Or dragons as PCs? Dragons as campaign setting background? All of the above?

Keeping D&D official stats or homebrewing?

 

[Zardnaar]

Official stats but you can add extra.

 

[Laurefindel]

Official stats but you can add extra.

Going the "dragons as mounts", the (re)creation of a "very young" age category could provide a large creature (suitable for a mount) with more manageable hp and attacks for a PC's pet. That should be easy enough to homebrew. But by more "manageable" it still probably means "suitable for a 10th level character"...

Otherwise, it's hard to get away from the "invasion of dragons" theme when dealing with a published setting without bending it too far. Either as a "the dragons are coming!" or as a post dragon-apocalypse setting. Then again, Forgotten Realms has some eras where elves rode dragons, Eberron has Argonessen for a dragon-as-PC game, and Dragonlance has, well, dragon lances. Again, Homebrew settings can perhaps achieve the desired theme(s) more easily.

There is also the hunt for a specific dragon, pitching the PCs against its minions, its spawns, and finally the dragon itself for a wider level spectrum campaign.

 

[GlassJaw]

I've thought about what a dragon-focused campaign would look like. They are the most iconic monster (it's in the name!) but battles against them are fairly rare (for good reason). But what if "dragons" are more common as enemies?

The first sources that come to mind are Skyrim and Reign of Fire (starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey). In both of those, dragons are much more numerous and generally not as powerful.

Skyrim is a fairly standard fantasy world but the dragon frequency is dialed up slightly. Dragons are also the source of magical power that can be extracted when they are killed. Definitely salvageable stuff.

Reign of Fire has some pretty interesting world-building elements. Because dragons are so numerous, it has resulted in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Survival is hard. People have gone into hiding and going out into the world is dangerous. Food is scare and the land has been ravaged. Those that hunt dragons are incredibly rare and viewed with both awe and fear.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

You might try the Taladas trilogy focused on the relationship between dragons and mortals from the Dragonlance setting. Not everything was War of the Lance, and I ran these back in the day. Extremely fun. Starts with finding out who is killing young copper dragons and by the finale, you'd get a chance to wield the power of dragon gems, perhaps on dragonback, against the Dark Queen's army. Has a solid amount of intersection with the dragon world and mortal world.

For those not in the know, Taladas was a new continent that had a phenomenal guide and maps, a place where dragons who didn't fight in the War of the Lance took root, and where many races had some twists (dwarves feared being underground as the Cataclysm broke their homes, minotaurs rule like ancient Rome, and gnomes ride ships on the fiery sea where the gods tossed the mountain). Regardless, with a little work, you could easily adapt it to most worlds.

I'll add that the sourcebook Otherlands adds Chorane (an underdark underneath the south pole), Selasia (a chain of coral reef islands), and Watermere (an underwater kingdom).

 

[Beleriphon]

How about a dragon as the party's patron? The dragon gives them missions to do, monetary rewards when they succeed and harsh criticism when they fail (lol). This can get the party interacting with an adult dragon even at low level. The party gives the dragon an "arm" out in the world of mortals. The dragon patron can direct the party to influence mortal society in ways the dragon wants. It can send the party to undermine or destroy the dragon's enemies (annoyances at first, but eventually powerful foes like giants and rival dragons).

The group patron rules in Rising would be a good place to start for that actually. I can see dragons having very, very long term plans.

 

[Jediking]

Have a continent separated into different regions. Each region has an Ancient Dragon of each colour either ruling it or at least prolific in that area, and the region generally reflects that.
Eg. Red Dragon area is volcanic, mountainous, people are angry and greedy and aggressive. Black Dragon area is swampy, inhabitants are deceptive and prone to ambush.

Different regions may have different ways of ruling, with each dragon playing a more active or passive role in governing or causing random havoc. People may try to avoid dragons, or just accept them as a way of life and try to beg/bargain their way into good graces

 

[Tonguez]

I'd put a dragon on top of a big pile of gold in a dungeon then let nature take its course.

Bishnagar was the largest city in one of my settings, a mercantile nexus both for its geographic position and due to the services of Bishnagar the ancient gold Dragon who laired under the city and would encourage Adventurers to deposit gold and other treasures into his ever growing horde. In return Bishnagar would issue a Dragon-marque - a Licence to ‘trade’ in the dragons domain and beyond. These Dragonmarques became tradable commodities in their own right, underwritten by the guarantee of an ancient dragon.

(Bishnagar had taken human form in the past, though not for a few centuries, and he did have some half-dragon children who now served as his intermediaries and Judges in the city)

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[werecorpse]

First the party battles against a group of white dragons raiding the local kingdom.

Once they defeat them they find out they are allied with some green dragons who have a hideout deep in the forest.

After defeating them they realise that the green dragons are allied with a Red dragon king who has a complex in the mountains.

After defeating the red dragons they discover that the dragons were secretly working for the drow all along!



But seriously I think Red Hand of Doom did a good job