The Horror Of It!!

[Edena_of_Neith]

Ok, all of you out there, imagine this ...

You're an American Citizen living in your home (or, maybe, you're a British, or Canadian, or Australian, or French, or Belgian, or Japanize, or a Citizen from another Country.)

You're living in your home, minding your own business, not bothering anyone - just living a normal life.

In this theoretical and abstract scenario, the Government either no longer exists as far as you're concerned, or they cannot (or will not) aid you in any way.

Now ...

They are coming to get you.
I do stress the They, and They have an agenda on their minds.

Their Agenda, is to kill you. Killing you is very important to them.
So important that they will probably do whatever it takes to succeed.

They will come for you, and They are stronger than you are.
They will break into your home by force, and They intend to attack you, and kill you where you stand.

If you fight, They have more weapons and firepower than you.
If you run out of the house, they will pursue you to the death.
If you hide in the house, They will search through the house, overturning every piece of furniture and firing into every floor, wall, and ceiling, to find you, and kill you.
If you get in your car to drive away, They will get in their cars, and give chase, and will never stop until They catch you and bring you down.

If you have family in your home, They will kill your family, in the process of trying to kill you.
If you have anything of value in your home (you probably do) then They will take it.
What They cannot take, they will destroy, or leave a guard over until They find a way to take it.

And remember, you cannot call on the authorities, or on friends, or on neighbors, for none of these will willingly aid you against Them.

If you somehow overcome Them, then Their allies will come to avenge Them against you.
There is no end to the resources They can call upon, whereas you have only your own strength.

Does this sound like an unpleasant situation for you?

Well then, in the D&D game ...

You are a dragon.
They are adventurers (and Them refers to more adventurers and their NPC friends.)
Your home is just that ... your home, wherever you as a dragon have made it.
The items in your home are, of course, what most would call your treasure.

And your family is, in all likelihood, your eggs and your dragonmate, and perhaps your human or demihuman familiar, and any friends who frequent your home, and so on.

Remember that the word Adventurer means, in this case, not only the Good Guys (good aligned adventurers or good aligned NPC groups) but the Bad Guys (neutral or evilly aligned adventurers, plus the NPC adventurers of that sort.)
Be you a good aligned dragon or an evil aligned dragon (or, a dragon to whom alignment has little or no meaning ...) They are coming for your treasure, and They are coming for you.

I can think of a lot of adventurers in my gaming career that would have loved to help their careers to the glory of a dragon-kill, and most of those were good aligned types (which leaves little question about all the neutral and evilly aligned types, and their motivations.)

So, your situation - as a dragon - is ... unpleasant.

I think most would call it rather horrific, really.

So, just what is a dragon to do?

(chuckles)

Everyone talks about how unreasonable dragons are ... hmmm ... I'd be unreasonable too, if I spent a thousand years dealing with Breaking-And-Entering thugs, and assorted beings trying to kill me and mine.
Most people accuse dragons of being antisocial. Well, I'd be antisocial, if I had to stay up nights (getting no sleep at all for hundreds of years!) because would-be-murderers kept showing up at my door day and night on end.
Most people accuse dragons of being greedy. I'd be greedy - greedy to save what I have - when everyone is constantly trying to take what I have away from me.

If I were a good aligned dragon, this is true in particular (for after all, those neutral and evil PCs and NPCs are after me just as much as before.)
If I were an evil dragon ... well, I'd BECOME evil, after a couple of hundred years of this kind of thing!! Who wouldn't?!

So, what's a dragon to do?

Well?

Perhaps I destroy all the lands around my lair (ala the Desolation of Smaug.)
Then, at least, they have to trek a ways to get to my home, and trying to kill me (or rob me, ala that rat Bilbo) is inconvenient to them.
Or, if they have spellcasters, perhaps I have to destroy one or more of their cities, to teach the would-be-murderers to leave me alone (of course, I'm a rotten dragon, if I try to convince them to stop killing me, like that!)

What's a dragon to do?

I can befriend some of them (indeed, some of my brethren have done this.)
Yet I'm a dragon, and I'm not really comfortable around them - I just want to be left alone, to eat gems and lie on my bed of gold, and to sleep the long years away.
Is there some Rule saying I must befriend them, and must deal with them - and hold myself to Codes agreeable to them, and live up to their expectations, and hope these newfound friends don't betray me (they betray themselves on a whim ... how can I expect a short friendship of 100 years with one of them to possibly last?), and hope they are sufficient protection (they aren't), and thus be unable to sleep and unable to have privacy and unable to otherwise be a dragon, and live a dragon's life?

What's a dragon to do?

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

(shrug)

Believe it or not, all of the above just sorta dawned on me that night.

The absurdity of a dragon's situation, that is.

And their situation is absurd.

Funny, how something can look you in the face for years, and it never really takes until a situation comes up that makes you examine it from a new perspective.

 

[Reprisal]

Hey Edena,

Great Post!

Well, I think a lot of the problem lies not with the dragon and its nature, but rather the way the world was constructed around them. Dragons are intelligent, very intelligent, no?

While it seems that they have the deck stacked against them, I find that the example given in the (non-D&D) RPGs called Earthdawn and Shadowrun is perhaps the best I've seen to date.

Dragons, as written in the two above-mentioned RPGs, are much more than a big talking lizards with a taste for virgin-flesh and immeasurable wealth, but rather strikingly able beings with a thirst for power. This seemingly insignificant change in wording can have a very significant effect on the status of dragons in nearly any gameworld. Dragons stop being the "BBEG with several hundred wagon-loads of treasure" and become a powerful physical, magical, economic and political force in the world around them.

Think of them not as big, talking, flying lizards, but rather like Niccolo Machiavelli with immeasurable resources, nigh-immortalty, and a staggering reputation. Now throw kobolds and lizardmen into the mix, the Children of the Dragons, and you have a force in the world that can get one heck of a lot of things done.

(This is for Forrester, )

Tired of having the elves being the most potent (meta)physical/economic/political forces in your world? Draconic nations have all the advantages of the elven longevity, and none of the weaknesses. Dragons, if you like, need not sleep, and have minds that can plan eons into the future... This can far outstretch even the reach of the long-lived elves.

With draconics establishing parity with the elves, the dwarves would also be considered peers. Humans, you say? Well, humans, unlike the previous two, have one cardinal rule: the short-term takes precedence over the long-term, always. What cannot be achieved by subjugation might be achieved by machination.

Like I said, dragons are what you make them out to be, hehe. They can be the basic mountain dwellers, slumbering on piles of gold, or they can be something to be feared by warrior and politician alike.



- Rep.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I have not perused Earthdawn, and know only a little about Shadowrun ... but I see your point, Reprisal.

Dragons are sometimes portrayed, even in D&D, as being social beings who can and will assume human or demihuman (or humanoid) form.

Thus, dragons can intermingle within the human and demihuman societies as they see fit to do.
With their wealth, intelligence, and innate powers, one would expect dragons to do for themselves pretty well in such a case.

Also, if a dragon has a human or demihuman (or humanoid) familiar, this gives the dragon an extra edge in blending in to the appropriate society in question.

However, I was using the old portrayal of the lone dragon on his treasure hoard.
I hope that all the dragons who live alone and in draconic form only do not become extinct, giving way to the social dragons who know how to mingle with the humans!
I suppose that might happen in an evolutionary what-if.

As for comparing dragons with elves: there are generally more elves than dragons (unless, of course, Forrester kills them all as he did in the 1st IR.)
The elves, in a rare instance, actually have more bodies to throw into a combat than another race, and have the advantage thus, or so it would seem (I'd take the breath weapon and draconic magic over numbers, but that's me.)

 

[Ace]

If I was a Dragon and "they" were coming for me I would try to reason with them first when that failed I would take what I cold and flee.


Then I would send this message "Humans, hear this!!!!!!!! ROAR we the Dragons wish no war with you but if you choose war

Be Warned I shall avenge my selves upon you." Then I would wait

I have all the time in the world-- My children would grow with me inculated in Hate and the plan---

I figure my treasure would keep the humans fighting among each other (ala The Hobbit) for a time as we grew if the was no peace I would strike

This is Me (from the SRD)

Barrazemal known as Smoke

Mature adult Red Dragon lvl10 Cleric- equiv to Sorcerer 9

12 magic items and spells to 4th level

my Mate
Sathis "Flamesong" with the same abilities

Our Two Children-- Young adult reds with standard abilities..

When the time is right we strike the humans weakest point

Food supplys---- Every field will burn and using the 2 longwalker ring (teleport 2x per day) we can escape.

Every field BURNS

As we live we seek allies, The elementals of fire and yes even other dragons

and we flee

Now somedayI know our luck will run out and an group of Adventurers will catch up with us but i am patient and wise.


Prehaps when the humans flee into the forest the Greens may strike--- After I haven't burned they poison.

I haven't touched a village.

The humans, hungry terrified fight themselves and strike out against the kindly good (bah weak) Dragons who come to aid them.

More die.

And then someday it ends

either my dragon family is destroyed

the humans are destroyed

or we rally our kind together and under our divine ones banner rule the world again as we should.

Never anger a Dragon for you are cruchy and tasted great BARBEQUED

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The threats might work, but ...

They also might bring even more hare-brained adventurers to come and kill the poor dragon (you know, the barbarian, paladin, cavalier, and kender types who know no fear? ...)

- - -

In your scenario, if I were a dragon, I'd want to see the human race destroyed, rather than me, my family, and my own race.
I suppose lofty dragons would choose self-sacrifice for the greater good, but then many dragons aren't very lofty.

 

[Ace]

Thye probably wouldn't work but I have to try. I am a Dragon burn them and not to be triffled with!

 

[Reprisal]

The elves, in a rare instance, actually have more bodies to throw into a combat than another race, and have the advantage thus, or so it would seem (I'd take the breath weapon and draconic magic over numbers, but that's me.)

Yes, this is true, but I was assuming a draconic nation with a nucleus of dragons at the head and an entire population of their bipedal cousins (under their guidance and/or command). You're quite right about a stand-up dragon vs. elves match, but.. of course, I've of the mind that a dragon would have thought about that.

 

[Darkness]

There was a situation in "Cormyr" (the FR novel about the land of the same name) where, long before humans came into the area, there was a war between the elves and the dragons.

It turned out that a dragon could kill many elves (duh!). But every now and then, the elves would succeed in slaying one of the dragons. Further, the elves were much more numerous than the dragons, and also could replenish their losses much more rapidly. And so, the numbers of the dragons dwindled...

 

[the Jester]

Dragons are pretty much gods imc. There's a dragon priest prestige class and everything. Generally, if a dragon lives somewhere people know it. Dragons claim rather large "lairs"- for instance, a large chunk of a mountain range is claimed by Brespicacious, an amethyst dragon. Smart people don't go into her lair. The orcs once built a city that encroached on her lair, and she let them. Then she destroyed it and killed most of them. Another dragon in my game killed an emperor and impersonated him for decades before being found out. He killed off the rest of the royal family to insure his supremacy, except for one baby (who was raised by tigers and later became a pc in the ol' 2e days).

Of course, dragons also are much more powerful in my game than is standard (or at least Greater Dragons are). They have more age categories than normal, also. There's one who's a million years old (yes, a MILLION). He's prolly the oldest thing in my campaign world that pcs are ever likely to fight.