The Great Dragon Question

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How should we describe dragons?

Poll ended at Mon Jan 30, 2023 9:29 pm

Terrain First: Mountain Dragon (Red Dragon)
21
49%
Color First: Red Dragon (Mountain Dragon)
9
21%
Only Terrain: Mountain Dragon
11
26%
Only Color: Red Dragon
2
5%
 
Total votes: 43
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Boggo
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by Boggo »

not sure why though, the spectrum names were always arbitrary and a little dumb, Sure a lot of creatures are named by colour, ie Red Hawk (which is more brown than red) but I cant think of any multiple species groups named by colour, that's not how people think, honestly I would expect them all just to be called Dragon and nothing else because almost no-one is ever going to see more than one
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toddlyons
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by toddlyons »

Totally agree the colour names are stupid and arbitrary, but my young and impressionable mind dutifully filed them anyway. :lol: And it's hard to rewrite that database.
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BruceRipple
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by BruceRipple »

I would think that the environment would have more bearing on the dragon type than simply their scale color. Like I’d expect all Mountain dragons to be similar in build and visual silhouette regardless of color.
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Boggo
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by Boggo »

BruceRipple wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:11 am I would think that the environment would have more bearing on the dragon type than simply their scale color. Like I’d expect all Mountain dragons to be similar in build and visual silhouette regardless of color.
Irrespective of what happens here, MY Dragons will differentiate by home terrain and their colouration will match their home environments (for example a Mountain Dragon in a largely Basalt mountain range will be a very dark bluish grey bordering on black, a Desert Dragon in a sandy desert will be a very pale yellowy tan with patches of white around their extremities, things like that
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knghtbrd
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by knghtbrd »

Dragon, Mountain (Red) is probably my preference.
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leon
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by leon »

If the official stance is going towards terrain-based dragons that have different colors (e.g. white mountain dragon that breathes fire), then it feels like a very cool supplement or campaign setting. Having a mismatch between color and breath type changes mechanics. Yes, it's an absurd idea to divide up the dragons by color from the point of verisimilitude, but it's a time-tested game mechanic.

That said, a wholesale retrofit of dragons where color has nothing to do with ability is interesting. Also, dragons shouldn't need to have four limbs or wings. Maybe every dragon should be a unique individual. It just doesn't seem like straying from the strict color/ability match recreates the traditional experience.
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quozl
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by quozl »

I think the terrain-type dragons should be additional dragon types.
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Solomoriah
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by Solomoriah »

The terrain types and colors are connected, and they are remaining that way. In the book, a mountain dragon is red, an ice dragon is white, and so on.

You can of course do what you want in your own game, as always.

Definitely not adding additional dragon types (other than the Plains/Yellow Dragon we've already added). Not sure how we'd make them interesting if there were that many.
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Mars
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by Mars »

I like the terrain first (color parenthesis) option. It's a cool idea, and it seems logical to me, to have them labelled primarily by where they dwell, but I like having the color there too just for the extra information my brain has already labelled that way.
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Seven
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Re: The Great Dragon Question

Post by Seven »

It's rather like the giants. Hill, stone, ice, fire, storm, cloud. And the cyclops somewhere in there.
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