D&D General Why do we color-code Dragons?

[mixmastashizz]

My personal feelings about player/character monster knowledge is similar to how I feel about traps.

The interesting part is not the gotcha of its abilities since that only works exactly once, and once it is known you can never surprise a party with it again. Trying to pretend and not act on that knowledge has been generally unsatisfying in every case in my experiences.

What's way more interesting is how the party overcomes them together using their tools, or how they find a way to survive if they know their limitations but arent prepared for it.

A surprise trap is rarely fun, what's nearly always fun is "Okay this room has insert trap, how are we going to get around it without setting it off or mitigating the harm?"

 

[Staffan]

A surprise trap is rarely fun, what's nearly always fun is "Okay this room has insert trap, how are we going to get around it without setting it off or mitigating the harm?"

A trap by itself is rarely fun. A trap as part of a larger encounter, where an enemy can push you into a pit trap or something, can be great fun.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I’ve never had a problem with color coded dragons (or color coded creatures/enemies in general).

Having said that, I’ve been expanding the lore of my dragons and giving them other names the different dragon species go by, sometimes with overlapping common names for different species that locals will use.

 

[Hriston]

So the character is aware of what the player is aware of? So if between sessions the player reads monster manual and memorises monster information, the character magically becomes aware of it, even though they previously were not and have not had an opportunity to acquire such information?

How was it established the character was previously unaware of and had no opportunity to acquire information about dragons? Do you play through every moment of the character's life from birth in excruciating detail?

 

[Mecheon]

So the character is aware of what the player is aware of? So if between sessions the player reads monster manual and memorises monster information, the character magically becomes aware of it, even though they previously were not and have not had an opportunity to acquire such information?

If this is some brand new creature, brand new to existence, that's, yeah, not great.

But trolls and dragons are D&D staples in the world for decades now. Their quirks are going to be common knowledge, not some obscure lore known only by the most wizened sages found only in the depths