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

[Mercurius]

Because Gygax. And really, it is quintessential Gygax: campy, a bit silly, but overall just fun in a I'm a bit of a square guy in the 70s, but am still taking in a bit of the funky psychedelia.

As with anything D&D, the chromatic scheme is just default, not law. Do as thou wilt at thine own table.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The dragons in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books had several colors. Green and Gold were female. Other colors were male. Also some size and status differences. Books came out starting late 60's. She also had pet sized fire lizards which we found out in later books were where the dragons came from.

Nothing says you have to adhere to the standard color coding. Genetic variance. Cross breeding. Crazy Wizards. Deity activity. Badly worded wish spells.

I was about to bring up McCaffrey's Pern books as well. Although all the dragons breathe fire, the jobs of each dragon type are well-defined and thus color coded. And of all her dragon colors, only brown wasn't later replicated in D&D base dragon type. People nowadays probably don't realize just how popular and influential they were among readers of fantasy and sci-fi in their day.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I like to keep the color coding, but either:

• Make the alignment thing a genuine inherent aspect of the cosmology. E.g., I have a proto-setting where dragons = angels (since we already have dragon gods!), and thus the entire "Prismatic" flight fell into being demoniacal "Chromatic" dragons when Tiamat fell. Similarly, in Jewel of the Desert, a black dragon used to be a different color of dragon, but became black by doing evil things--dragons are part-outsider, and thus their alignment affects their physical body.
• Or, weaken the overt link. It is possible but difficult for a Red dragon to be good. Their natural instincts pull against this. Similarly, it is possible but unlikely that a Gold dragon could become evil, e.g. by doing evil acts in the name of a nebulous, always-distant "greater good" or the like. Think Paarthurnax from Skyrim: dragons who, through effort and practice, choose to live differently.

AIUI, Eberron does the latter. I don't know of any settings that do the former, but I'm sure one exists somewhere.

 

[Chaltab]

I do find it a bit odd that dragons being color coded is considered cheesy considering it happens along familial lines. I wouldn't expect a pair of Clydesdale horses to produce a little pony.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It’s just a D&D tradition. Dragons are different in other fiction.

There are other examples of colour coded dragons in fiction, such as Anne McCaffrey, and even Tolkien (dragons are colour coded on an individual basis).

I think it has its root in heraldry though. Most notably the red dragon of the Britons (later Welsh) vs the White dragon of the Saxons, that features in Arthurian myth.

If you look at breath weapons, a lot of early mythical dragons are depicted as being poisonous or caustic rather than fire breathing.