Re-Thinking Dragons

[BigVanVader]

I never suggested that fighting a dragon should be anything less than epic and campaign altering. I was just commenting that while I liked the new classifications as they are more interesting than simple colors it would be cool if there were no set classifications IMHO. Each dragon is essentially unique and the only information people have to go on is the apparent effects the dragon's environment has on it's appearance and abilities.

This reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus, but with dragons. I dig it.

 

[jodyjohnson]

We did some Shadow of the Colossus inspired encounters in the transition from Heroic to Paragon in our 4e campaign.

Lore and Athletics/Acrobatics skill challenges to negotiate to the next scene/stage combined with combat as the acts.

It worked pretty well.

 

[Samloyal23]

Yes, I am not sure how many dragons there are in my setting, but they are extremely rare and may be unique. I see them as being propagated by the environment itself, spontaneously, though some may reproduce hermaphroditically late in life. Finding a dragon egg should be incredibly rare, I do not think they reproduce more than once or twice in their lives and most not at all. They are more spirit than flesh, holding together the forces of nature in a concrete form...

 

[Nellisir]

I've toyed with the same idea. Also tweaking the visuals of dragons to make them birds, or at least more birdlike. Giant elemental birds are incredibly common in folklore.

 

[Samloyal23]

I've toyed with the same idea. Also tweaking the visuals of dragons to make them birds, or at least more birdlike. Giant elemental birds are incredibly common in folklore.

Take a look at couatls and the archaeopteryx, they have both avian and reptilian traits...

 

[Nellisir]

Take a look at couatls and the archaeopteryx, they have both avian and reptilian traits...

I thought of those, but I also was thinking about rocs. I dunno, it's a concept but I haven't developed it very far and I'm too worn out tonight to try and tease out what I was thinking.

 

[Samloyal23]

I thought of those, but I also was thinking about rocs. I dunno, it's a concept but I haven't developed it very far and I'm too worn out tonight to try and tease out what I was thinking.

Have you looked at the Native American myths about the Thunder Bird? Or the Norse myths about the giant bird that stood atop Yggdrasil? They may give you some inspiration...

 

[Nellisir]

Have you looked at the Native American myths about the Thunder Bird? Or the Norse myths about the giant bird that stood atop Yggdrasil? They may give you some inspiration...

I have; that's in part where the core inspiration came from. What I haven't done is turned the various concepts into a unified idea, since it was originally more of a thought exercise than something I needed for my campaign. :/

 

[Krakenspire]

No need to type dragons. If they are unique powerful and rare then they can each be an individual vice a "forest" dragon as an earlier poster has stated. In the current campaign I'm running the dragon that halted the advance of a huge empire has not been seen or heard for over 100 years. The despoiled land around his know lair area is beginning to regrow and recover from years of dragon hunting and legendary effects.
This has a massive change in the political landscape of the campaign world, creating a new frontier that has essentially been off limits for eons. New towns and people are flocking to the reclaimed area because they want cheap land or to find heir fortune.
But what happend to the dragon? What will the empire do now it's not constrained? What ancient secrets did the dragons territory hide and what happend to its legendary treasure.
The dragons not even in the campaign but it's effects are massive. IMHO that's how dragons should be in a campaign world, not one in every adventure.

 

[Samloyal23]

I remember reading a story from France about a dragon that protected a city, so as part of my setting I have a city, Ys, in which there was a ruler who made a pact with a dragon to help it pillage other cities and their fleets. This gave the Ysians a leg up on the other city-states of the region until heroes from other cities banded together and killed the beast.

I have a second city based on Germany, Burghausen, in which a dwarf built a giant solar smelting machine and used it to kill a dragon.

I have no other plot ideas for dragons yet, just kind of an overall theme of environmental monstrosities...