I also think it’s relevant to point out that a lot of the early (I’m thinking of the 1E MM here.) monster descriptions contain what amounts to directions for painting the miniatures. The players would know they were facing especially strong hobgoblins, for example, because of the blue dot of paint on their noses. Of course such description is literally mere color which you are free to change as suits your preference.
Huh, I did not know that. It makes sense considering the origins, but I had never considered the implications of that, since I am very much not a miniatures gamer (far too expensive for my poor butt)
I like Eberron's take on dragons, both the ditching of alignment restrictions, and the mysterious dragon continent.
I am kind-of tempted to get quite silly with Argonessen if/when a campaign goes there, and make it essentially dragon suburbia. Have dragons live there in communities not utterly unlike those of humanoids, but on a much larger scale, both geographically and temporally. Make the entire continent essentially one big city and suburbs, with dragons living in far higher population densities than any other setting (though still far lower than any human town or city) such that the continent-spanning settlement is equivalent in population to a modern capital city and its boroughs.
I'd apply Eberron's "wide magic" concept to the architecture and modern conveniences, except that, this being a draconic civilisation, it's not just low-level magic that's widespread. Dragons can call a Teleport as casually as we would flag down a taxi, and their meteorological department doesn't predict the weather - they make it, based upon the city's current social and economic requirements.
Any dragons seen outside the continent - aside from those silly Draconic Prophecy nerds - are loners or other social misanthropes who just can't stand the big city.
I'm not sure if I want to read it, play it, or watch it, but I definitely love this idea. Man, just trying to work the logistics of that is fun. What does a city look like when a River or a Mountain range is the equivalent of a street?
Yes. Why does D&D have to reflect mythology or medieval themes? There should be room for original D&D fantasy creations without having to justify it against something else.
I agree, but I think this is perpendicular to the point.
They don't have to reflect mythology per se, but in the move from mythology to game mechanics and game worlds you can lose the scale. It is possible for the Dragon to become just another monster, which is harder to do in a story where it is the only dragon you care about.
Sure, Smaug's story implies there are other dragons in the world, but we never see them, interact with them, or hear about them. Smaug is the only dragon the story cares about, so he gets more impressive. But, in DnD it is entirely possible to get "just another dragon" or for the dragon to be secondary to the "real" villain.
Same thing can happen with Ghosts. A single ghost, really leaning heavily into the fact that it is the echo of a living person, dead but remembering and hating the living. In DnD though, they can be throw away fights "six ghosts attack the party"
It isn't an aspect of the game per se, people can add and aggrandize the story of the dragon. But it takes work and focus to accomplish.
