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

[Staffan]

They really do seem to be colour-coded for our convenience. I've no idea why they ended up with the colours they have, but it is something I'm moving away from. Now I have dragons based on element and each element tends to have a range of colours that is typical.

White, green, and red seem fairly obvious and maybe black as well (dark fetid swamp water). The weird one is blue, living in deserts – blue for lightning/storms makes sense, but not that they're desert-based. I have a vague recollection that 4e moved blue dragons to the sea which makes more sense both for the color theme and the storms angle.

 

[Voadam]

White, green, and red seem fairly obvious and maybe black as well (dark fetid swamp water). The weird one is blue, living in deserts – blue for lightning/storms makes sense, but not that they're desert-based. I have a vague recollection that 4e moved blue dragons to the sea which makes more sense both for the color theme and the storms angle.

I always thought of blue as blending in with the sky.

 

[Staffan]

I always thought of blue as blending in with the sky.

Could be, but to paraphrase the Doctor: "Lots of terrain types have a sky." Though I'm guessing it tends to be more blue in deserts on account of fewer clouds and obstructions.

 

[NotAYakk]

It's pretty convenient that their abilities, alignment, likelihood of speaking and using magic, and danger level is all conveniently color-coded like a threat condition chart.

What are the in-world and metagame reasons? How would the game change if the bag of Skittles that are dragons didn't have a clear correspondence to game mechanics?

So, you start with "its a dragon". It breathes fire. It has claws and teeth and wings.

The PCs in your semi-adversarial game research that there is a dragon somewhere. So they gather their dragon-hunting kit, which includes fire resistance stuff and non-fire spells, and go hunting.

Then, as a DM who wants to twist things, you reveal "IT BREATHES COLD NOT FIRE BWAHAHAHAHA".

And thus you get dragons of a different color. Once you've done this, you start attaching other stuff to each dragon type, like good and evil dragons, make one chromatic the other metallic, etc.

 

[Staffan]

Then, as a DM who wants to twist things, you reveal "IT BREATHES COLD NOT FIRE BWAHAHAHAHA".

Now I'm reminded of an article I read in the ancient days on the Wizards website, where a designer talked about their campaign where the PCs had learned about a white dragon and prepared to fight it with cold resistance spells and fire magic and such. Except, as they learned, it wasn't a white dragon – it was an undead wight-dragon.

 

[Voadam]

Could be, but to paraphrase the Doctor: "Lots of terrain types have a sky." Though I'm guessing it tends to be more blue in deserts on account of fewer clouds and obstructions.

I was thinking more that blues can work most anywhere, desert, sea coastline, mountains, whatever. Others like whites and greens have less options for predator camouflage.

 

[Voadam]

Now I'm reminded of an article I read in the ancient days on the Wizards website, where a designer talked about their campaign where the PCs had learned about a white dragon and prepared to fight it with cold resistance spells and fire magic and such. Except, as they learned, it wasn't a white dragon – it was an undead wight-dragon.

I did that for a 5e one shot, though I had never heard that a WotC designer did so as well. I was riffing on a friend’s story from back in 1e but who had done something similar with an albino red.

 

[Staffan]

Ah, I found the story via the Internet Archive: https://archive.is/Eenla

 

[cbwjm]

White, green, and red seem fairly obvious and maybe black as well (dark fetid swamp water). The weird one is blue, living in deserts – blue for lightning/storms makes sense, but not that they're desert-based. I have a vague recollection that 4e moved blue dragons to the sea which makes more sense both for the color theme and the storms angle.

I remember reading something that the blue helped them blend in to the blue skies. No idea where I read that, if it was in an actual edition, or if it actually was in DnD. So many years of lore, hard to keep it all separate.

 

[Tonguez]

I've also discovered some '70s era books on mythological creatures that seem to indicate Gary might have drawn the colored dragons from Indian (Vedic?) folklore. Green dragons living in trees and breathing toxic gas. Black dragons dwelling in swamps and having a line of yellow, acidic breath. Red dragons breathing fire and living in mountains. And blue dragons dwelling in deserts and gathering the lightning from storms to use themselves.

Chinese Dragons also come in a variety of colours, though they tend to represent ideals rather than being coded in the manner of DnD dragons. The habitat associations arent there, nor the breath weapon or alignment.

Gold: The most revered color, linked to divine power, Earth element, imperial authority, wisdom, and wealth.
Red: Fire Element, a symbol of Warriors, good fortune, happiness, and power, making it a common sight during festivals and celebrations.
Green: Wood Element, representing growth, renewal, and health, often associated with nature and spring.
Blue: Water Element, represents the vastness of the sky and water, symbolizing power and the life-giving force of rain.
Black: Water Element, symbolizes the hidden realms of the earth or represent the balance between light and shadow.
White: Metal Element, representing purity or transformation, can also be seen as harbingers of death in some traditions.


Personally I think the DnD system of colour coded dragons is dumb so I dont use it