Advice and Feedback on Draconic Campaign Setting, pls. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Advice and Feedback on Draconic Campaign Setting, pls.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
aradraugfea
Dec 17, 2009 21:11:27 Alright, first off, a little background. I like dragons. I like them alot. When I was flipping through the Draconomicon (1), I came to the realiziation that there is pretty much a dragon for every level of play, and draconic enemies for all of them, and in fairly good variety. Then, when I saw just how quickly dragons are capable of breeding when they don't intentionally lower their fertility, I had an idea. A game setting where dragons have reproduced in great numbers, to the point where they are the rulers of the world. As time went on, the gimmick became less gimmick and more backdrop, and I've even started running the setting, on a 'flesh it out as it becomes important' basis. I have a month's break from running the game, though, and I want to really build this thing up.

Here's what I have so far.

community.wizards.com/wiki/dnd%3ATerra_W...

I'd appreciate any advice, feedback, or questions. I tend to flesh out games better when I'm responding to someone else's questions.
#2
howlofmemories
Dec 18, 2009 0:30:47
I like it. Dragons may be overdone, but they're still awesome.

Some things I'd like to see-

1. What are the Draconic versions of the pantheon like? Are they technically the same deity, or are they different deities who fill the same role as the old one? Do they correspond to actual draconic varieties? Do they have new names? How do the old deities feel about this?

2. Will you be making maps and specific areas or are you leaving it open-ended like the points of light setting? Either way, some examples of kingdoms and leaders would be nice.

3. How do different character races fit into the setting? Especially strange ones? Are Dragonborn now considered upper class in these societies? On the subject of strange/niche races, where would players playing as warforged or genasi come from?

4. Where, if at all, do primordials fit in your setting? Was there a dawn war?

5. How will other dragon varieties, Catastophic, Scourge, and Planar, fit in? Do they rule any kingdoms, or are they roving monsters?

6. How has the draconic takeover effected the planes? Have dragons taken over there too?

Sorry for the list, but these are just some things to think about when refining your setting. Otherwise, I think you're off to a good start and I hope to see more about this setting in the future.
#3
nowiwantmydmg
Dec 18, 2009 1:11:39
Aside from the fact that so many large, immensly powerful predators with nothing preying them would be completely unsupportable by any quasi-realistic ecosysyem, there's nothing wrong with it.

I tend to think the Dragons in D&D are more than a bit over done, but that's prefrence, I prefer more human driven conflict/stories.
#4
aradraugfea
Dec 18, 2009 10:02:24

I like it. Dragons may be overdone, but they're still awesome.

Some things I'd like to see-

1. What are the Draconic versions of the pantheon like? Are they technically the same deity, or are they different deities who fill the same role as the old one? Do they correspond to actual draconic varieties? Do they have new names? How do the old deities feel about this?

This I'm not entirely sure on. One thing I want to do is have deities draw a portion oftheir power from the strength of their follower's faith, mostly as an excuse to place Tiamat (now with 8 heads) and Bahamut head and shoulders above the others, with a solid chunck of the astral sea being the battleground from them murdering one another only to get a few months without the other until they manage to recorporate. By that, if everyone's worshiping the Draconic versions of the dieties, they might just actually end up becoming draconic. On the other hand, I'm tempted to say the draconic versions of the diety are just propaganda. The draconic versions would have new names, though what those names might be I'm not entirely sure on. I'm tempted to pull an Eberron sort of thing and assign a dragon type to each diety. Reaction depends on the diety. Ones with little stake in the material plane don't mind it too much. Others hate it, but can't really manage much about it with Tiamat and Bahamut trashing the place constantly. I guess, ultimately, it's going to depend on exactly how much control one wants to give dragons over the setting.

2. Will you be making maps and specific areas or are you leaving it open-ended like the points of light setting? Either way, some examples of kingdoms and leaders would be nice.

I'm presently working on a very general sort of map (blacks here, red here, silvers here), and some basic characterizations. Like the Orium dragons have set up in the jungle ruins of Arkhosia, having all decided to work on bringing various parts of the old empire back to their former glory. Bronze (I think it was Bronze) has an island chain off the main continent, not really effecting local politics all that much. Mithral don't actually have a kingdom, operating from a island monastery, spending the vast majorit of their time working on figuring out the Prophecy of Io (reskinned Draconic Prophecy). That sorta thing.
3. How do different character races fit into the setting? Especially strange ones? Are Dragonborn now considered upper class in these societies? On the subject of strange/niche races, where would players playing as warforged or genasi come from?

Dragonborn, it depends on the kingdom, or even the quasi-Feudal local lord. Some dragons like dragonborn, reminded of stories of the great draconic empire (Arkhosia) and seeing something of themselves in the humanoids, so they hold them up above all of their other Intelligent Race brethern. Others see an animal as an animal, essentially. Like how a human might not treat an ape any differently from a dog, regardless of how much they resemble them On average, though, Dragonborn are more the former than the latter, at least the ones that work within the Draconic society. That's not to say they're all upper class, but that, on average, in a generalized manner, they find themselves higher up in the social hierarchy. Kobolds have something similar going. Their status as draconic sycophants has earned them some measure of status. It might only be them getting the 'honor' of picking bones out of the king's teeth, but at least they're still in the palace. Though, some dragon varieties have different priorities. Grays, for example, tend to perfer Orcs and Goblins to Dragonborne and Kobolds. Warforged (at least in my current incarnation of the campaign) are all 'descended' from one Warforged in particular, the first one to every really show up and do something significant (even if the signifiant thing was just managing to survive for a thousand years). During that thousand years, he created children, some of whom, concievably, went on to create their own children, and so on and so forth. Or it's possible some unrelated artificer heard stories of these warforged (Which are rare in the extreme, by the way, I'm thinking a couple dozen, tops) and decided to make their own. Genasi... those I'm not entirely sure on, just because I'm not really that big of a Forgotten Realms guy, so I don't know their fluff all that well.
4. Where, if at all, do primordials fit in your setting? Was there a dawn war?

Everything that happened in the points of light setting happened in Terra Wyrma. It's Points of Light 2: The Dragoning. As for how they actually fit in, I haven't really thought about it much. Probably the same way they'd fit into a standard campaign.
5. How will other dragon varieties, Catastophic, Scourge, and Planar, fit in? Do they rule any kingdoms, or are they roving monsters?

Catastrophic and Scourge weren't in on takeover, they fit into Terra Wyrma the same way they fit into the standard setting, the chromatics and metallics not feeling the need to chase them out of the territory as long as they don't make nuisance of themselves. As for planar dragons...
6. How has the draconic takeover effected the planes? Have dragons taken over there too?

I'm not sure. Comes back to that 'how much control do I give dragons' question. Part of me wants to say the takeover was principally a material plane sort of thing. There's plenty of draconic stuff on the material plane, so I don't really see a need to branch out onto the planes. However, just because the draconic gods (the real ones) are so powerful (I want to frame them as epic quest targets for Epic Destiny purposes) the dragons do have significant control on the Astral Sea. There was a time where I was just going to have the planar dragons be allied with the Chromatic dragons in a distant sort of "We're friendly, but don't really interact much" way, but as I work on it, I like the idea of the dragons only really working together on the big stuff more and more,as it kinda feeds into the static feel I'm going for. I want everything to seem pretty locked, with it up to the PCs to tip the scales one way or the other.

Aside from the fact that so many large, immensly powerful predators with nothing preying them would be completely unsupportable by any quasi-realistic ecosysyem, there's nothing wrong with it.

I tend to think the Dragons in D&D are more than a bit over done, but that's prefrence, I prefer more human driven conflict/stories.

Weaker dragons will stil get picked off by wandering monsters from time to time, and there's always dragon on dragon violence, so it's not like NOTHING is killing these things off. There's also the dragonslayers/assassins. Also they're not really breeding like they once were. A kingdom might have a dozen or two dragons adult or older. It's not like everywhere you turn,there's a dragon. Think of it as feudal Europe, but with the vast majority of the lords being dragons. Except it's not just kings, but the majority of tribal chieftains (like grays like to set themselves up as) and that sorta thing.

As for the conflict, the entire world's kind of in a balancing act, as I imagine it. The borders mightwiggle a little but don't change much. The dragons, even Bahamut and Tiamat, haven't changed anything in a real, lasting manner for over 500 years. Even Bahamut and Tiamat constantly murdering one another is thisweird balanced cycle (though I have some plans for the PCs to eventually breakthat cycle in my particular campaign.) If anything's going to change in a real, lasting manner, it's going to be because of the PCs and their actions.

The best heroes have really good villains.
#5
aradraugfea
Dec 18, 2009 22:23:33 Did anyone have any more questions/suggestions/feedback?
#6
aradraugfea
Dec 23, 2009 16:02:36 Wiki updated with another organization and some significant locations.

Thoughts?
#7
aradraugfea
Dec 27, 2009 21:41:57 Okay, now in the middle of working up a map, and I've hit a snag.

How do I divy up the land? Gold and Red I'll probably have to stick right next to each other so their other neighbors aren't automatic dragon bait, but what about the others. How far does 'numbers' (which the chromatic dragons will always have in their favor) go? What level gap is too big for them to make sense as neighbors?
#8
marc_byrne
Jan 01, 2010 0:36:13 Is there any reason why you need to group the colors together? Dragons are very territorial and would defend their land against any other dragon. Why bother with, this is the land of the red dragons, and this is the blue and this the gold, etc.

Make part of the mystery in that you have no idea what parts of the world are controled by which dragons. Of course, you can have several territories that are known to be owned by elder and ancient dragons, where the dragons are the leaders of vast amounts of lands and the whole area is considered a country under the rulership of said dragon. But there can be many smaller areas where lesser (younger) dragons roam. Maybe they aren't important enough to be known and labled on a map.

While every city and town and such can be assumed to be under the thumb of a dragon, maybe only those who live in the area know which. Maybe there are constant power struggles as dragons try to expand their territory and fight each other for dominance. Much of this could be going on 'under the hood' so to speak of the world.

Make less specifics you have to figure out and more room to throw in whatever is appropriate to teh story when your PC's wonder to a new area.

Anway, just some ramblings and thoughts, hopefully they'll spark some of your own.
#9
aradraugfea
Jan 01, 2010 15:14:48
Is there any reason why you need to group the colors together? Dragons are very territorial and would defend their land against any other dragon. Why bother with, this is the land of the red dragons, and this is the blue and this the gold, etc.

Make part of the mystery in that you have no idea what parts of the world are controled by which dragons. Of course, you can have several territories that are known to be owned by elder and ancient dragons, where the dragons are the leaders of vast amounts of lands and the whole area is considered a country under the rulership of said dragon. But there can be many smaller areas where lesser (younger) dragons roam. Maybe they aren't important enough to be known and labled on a map.

While every city and town and such can be assumed to be under the thumb of a dragon, maybe only those who live in the area know which. Maybe there are constant power struggles as dragons try to expand their territory and fight each other for dominance. Much of this could be going on 'under the hood' so to speak of the world.

Make less specifics you have to figure out and more room to throw in whatever is appropriate to teh story when your PC's wonder to a new area.

Anway, just some ramblings and thoughts, hopefully they'll spark some of your own.

Well part of the thinking behind the 'kingdoms' was that the dragons had, in the past, worked together, and that with their entire Me>My Scale Hue>My Breed>All other Dragons thing, that if they were going to work together, it would basically fall down into lines like Red, Gold, Black, Purple, etc.

In my mind, this is especially true of Metallics, which have their entire family ties, thing, and dragons of similar hues tend to have roughly similar goals.

Another aspect is if there's a single, young Blue near the territory of an Adult Gold, what's to stop that gold from just swoopign over, killing the blue, and taking over his territory? If it's bands or kingdoms of dragons of the same type that can form a united front, the problems of one powerful dragon near weaker dragons are reduced greatly.

That's the logic behind it.
#10
marc_byrne
Jan 01, 2010 18:30:51
I suppose it is just my understanding that Dragons are much more solitary than that. And slow. The Adult Gold wouldn't bother with the blue as long as it didn't come into his territory. One, because he would assume he could take him easily if he ever needed to and two, because he wouldn't be bothered to interrupt his plans of the last couple 100 years to deal with a young blue who had, so far, respected the territory claimed by him.

Anyway, its just an idea that always reduces some of the pre-planning you have do to. I've always found it easier to keep things broad, so when the PC's are introduced, you have the breathing room to change things on the fly. Because PC's always screw up your most carefully laid out plans. :-)
#11
therion666
Jan 25, 2010 18:56:21 There is a D20 setting called Dragonstar (old obviously) that describes the backdrop you describe where dragons began taking control and turning their considerable intellect to driving humanity to evolve to serve their needs.

Dragons in charge, I like it, why not. Sort of Dragonlance but dragons are in charge of the armies. Even 'Good' Metalic Dragons are greedy for power but are just more inclined to ruling just empires rather than tyrannical.

Tall spires and broad towers would be common, vast courts with dragons forming the counts, kings, lords of the lands some younger dragons being knights or even knight errants.

Standard races could be trying to achieve position and recognition in the empire whether Chromatic or Metallic.

The only two Draconic Deities could be Tiamat and Bahamut but the lower races could have the other races.
#12
aradraugfea
Jan 25, 2010 22:16:27
There is a D20 setting called Dragonstar (old obviously) that describes the backdrop you describe where dragons began taking control and turning their considerable intellect to driving humanity to evolve to serve their needs.

Dragons in charge, I like it, why not. Sort of Dragonlance but dragons are in charge of the armies. Even 'Good' Metalic Dragons are greedy for power but are just more inclined to ruling just empires rather than tyrannical.

Tall spires and broad towers would be common, vast courts with dragons forming the counts, kings, lords of the lands some younger dragons being knights or even knight errants.

Standard races could be trying to achieve position and recognition in the empire whether Chromatic or Metallic.

The only two Draconic Deities could be Tiamat and Bahamut but the lower races could have the other races.

I have 'Change Shape' as really common. Most adult dragons know it, if they ever chose to pick up the ritual. Some Dragon Kings even insist on members of their court using it while in their presence. Only the very well to do Nobles have castles big enough to houses their full glory, though some do have an audience chamber capable of holding their full form, as well as the huge treasure chamber. Generally, these dragons are only Elder or better. I guess starting at level 20 or so, if for no reason other than 'PC treasure' concerns.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 aradraugfea Dec 17, 2009 21:11:27	Alright, first off, a little background. I like dragons. I like them alot. When I was flipping through the Draconomicon (1), I came to the realiziation that there is pretty much a dragon for every level of play, and draconic enemies for all of them, and in fairly good variety. Then, when I saw just how quickly dragons are capable of breeding when they don't intentionally lower their fertility, I had an idea. A game setting where dragons have reproduced in great numbers, to the point where they are the rulers of the world. As time went on, the gimmick became less gimmick and more backdrop, and I've even started running the setting, on a 'flesh it out as it becomes important' basis. I have a month's break from running the game, though, and I want to really build this thing up. Here's what I have so far. community.wizards.com/wiki/dnd%3ATerra_W... I'd appreciate any advice, feedback, or questions. I tend to flesh out games better when I'm responding to someone else's questions.
#2 howlofmemories Dec 18, 2009 0:30:47	I like it. Dragons may be overdone, but they're still awesome. Some things I'd like to see- 1. What are the Draconic versions of the pantheon like? Are they technically the same deity, or are they different deities who fill the same role as the old one? Do they correspond to actual draconic varieties? Do they have new names? How do the old deities feel about this? 2. Will you be making maps and specific areas or are you leaving it open-ended like the points of light setting? Either way, some examples of kingdoms and leaders would be nice. 3. How do different character races fit into the setting? Especially strange ones? Are Dragonborn now considered upper class in these societies? On the subject of strange/niche races, where would players playing as warforged or genasi come from? 4. Where, if at all, do primordials fit in your setting? Was there a dawn war? 5. How will other dragon varieties, Catastophic, Scourge, and Planar, fit in? Do they rule any kingdoms, or are they roving monsters? 6. How has the draconic takeover effected the planes? Have dragons taken over there too? Sorry for the list, but these are just some things to think about when refining your setting. Otherwise, I think you're off to a good start and I hope to see more about this setting in the future.
#3 nowiwantmydmg Dec 18, 2009 1:11:39	Aside from the fact that so many large, immensly powerful predators with nothing preying them would be completely unsupportable by any quasi-realistic ecosysyem, there's nothing wrong with it. I tend to think the Dragons in D&D are more than a bit over done, but that's prefrence, I prefer more human driven conflict/stories.
#4 aradraugfea Dec 18, 2009 10:02:24	I like it. Dragons may be overdone, but they're still awesome. Some things I'd like to see- 1. What are the Draconic versions of the pantheon like? Are they technically the same deity, or are they different deities who fill the same role as the old one? Do they correspond to actual draconic varieties? Do they have new names? How do the old deities feel about this? This I'm not entirely sure on. One thing I want to do is have deities draw a portion oftheir power from the strength of their follower's faith, mostly as an excuse to place Tiamat (now with 8 heads) and Bahamut head and shoulders above the others, with a solid chunck of the astral sea being the battleground from them murdering one another only to get a few months without the other until they manage to recorporate. By that, if everyone's worshiping the Draconic versions of the dieties, they might just actually end up becoming draconic. On the other hand, I'm tempted to say the draconic versions of the diety are just propaganda. The draconic versions would have new names, though what those names might be I'm not entirely sure on. I'm tempted to pull an Eberron sort of thing and assign a dragon type to each diety. Reaction depends on the diety. Ones with little stake in the material plane don't mind it too much. Others hate it, but can't really manage much about it with Tiamat and Bahamut trashing the place constantly. I guess, ultimately, it's going to depend on exactly how much control one wants to give dragons over the setting. 2. Will you be making maps and specific areas or are you leaving it open-ended like the points of light setting? Either way, some examples of kingdoms and leaders would be nice. I'm presently working on a very general sort of map (blacks here, red here, silvers here), and some basic characterizations. Like the Orium dragons have set up in the jungle ruins of Arkhosia, having all decided to work on bringing various parts of the old empire back to their former glory. Bronze (I think it was Bronze) has an island chain off the main continent, not really effecting local politics all that much. Mithral don't actually have a kingdom, operating from a island monastery, spending the vast majorit of their time working on figuring out the Prophecy of Io (reskinned Draconic Prophecy). That sorta thing. 3. How do different character races fit into the setting? Especially strange ones? Are Dragonborn now considered upper class in these societies? On the subject of strange/niche races, where would players playing as warforged or genasi come from? Dragonborn, it depends on the kingdom, or even the quasi-Feudal local lord. Some dragons like dragonborn, reminded of stories of the great draconic empire (Arkhosia) and seeing something of themselves in the humanoids, so they hold them up above all of their other Intelligent Race brethern. Others see an animal as an animal, essentially. Like how a human might not treat an ape any differently from a dog, regardless of how much they resemble them On average, though, Dragonborn are more the former than the latter, at least the ones that work within the Draconic society. That's not to say they're all upper class, but that, on average, in a generalized manner, they find themselves higher up in the social hierarchy. Kobolds have something similar going. Their status as draconic sycophants has earned them some measure of status. It might only be them getting the 'honor' of picking bones out of the king's teeth, but at least they're still in the palace. Though, some dragon varieties have different priorities. Grays, for example, tend to perfer Orcs and Goblins to Dragonborne and Kobolds. Warforged (at least in my current incarnation of the campaign) are all 'descended' from one Warforged in particular, the first one to every really show up and do something significant (even if the signifiant thing was just managing to survive for a thousand years). During that thousand years, he created children, some of whom, concievably, went on to create their own children, and so on and so forth. Or it's possible some unrelated artificer heard stories of these warforged (Which are rare in the extreme, by the way, I'm thinking a couple dozen, tops) and decided to make their own. Genasi... those I'm not entirely sure on, just because I'm not really that big of a Forgotten Realms guy, so I don't know their fluff all that well. 4. Where, if at all, do primordials fit in your setting? Was there a dawn war? Everything that happened in the points of light setting happened in Terra Wyrma. It's Points of Light 2: The Dragoning. As for how they actually fit in, I haven't really thought about it much. Probably the same way they'd fit into a standard campaign. 5. How will other dragon varieties, Catastophic, Scourge, and Planar, fit in? Do they rule any kingdoms, or are they roving monsters? Catastrophic and Scourge weren't in on takeover, they fit into Terra Wyrma the same way they fit into the standard setting, the chromatics and metallics not feeling the need to chase them out of the territory as long as they don't make nuisance of themselves. As for planar dragons... 6. How has the draconic takeover effected the planes? Have dragons taken over there too? I'm not sure. Comes back to that 'how much control do I give dragons' question. Part of me wants to say the takeover was principally a material plane sort of thing. There's plenty of draconic stuff on the material plane, so I don't really see a need to branch out onto the planes. However, just because the draconic gods (the real ones) are so powerful (I want to frame them as epic quest targets for Epic Destiny purposes) the dragons do have significant control on the Astral Sea. There was a time where I was just going to have the planar dragons be allied with the Chromatic dragons in a distant sort of "We're friendly, but don't really interact much" way, but as I work on it, I like the idea of the dragons only really working together on the big stuff more and more,as it kinda feeds into the static feel I'm going for. I want everything to seem pretty locked, with it up to the PCs to tip the scales one way or the other. Aside from the fact that so many large, immensly powerful predators with nothing preying them would be completely unsupportable by any quasi-realistic ecosysyem, there's nothing wrong with it. I tend to think the Dragons in D&D are more than a bit over done, but that's prefrence, I prefer more human driven conflict/stories. Weaker dragons will stil get picked off by wandering monsters from time to time, and there's always dragon on dragon violence, so it's not like NOTHING is killing these things off. There's also the dragonslayers/assassins. Also they're not really breeding like they once were. A kingdom might have a dozen or two dragons adult or older. It's not like everywhere you turn,there's a dragon. Think of it as feudal Europe, but with the vast majority of the lords being dragons. Except it's not just kings, but the majority of tribal chieftains (like grays like to set themselves up as) and that sorta thing. As for the conflict, the entire world's kind of in a balancing act, as I imagine it. The borders mightwiggle a little but don't change much. The dragons, even Bahamut and Tiamat, haven't changed anything in a real, lasting manner for over 500 years. Even Bahamut and Tiamat constantly murdering one another is thisweird balanced cycle (though I have some plans for the PCs to eventually breakthat cycle in my particular campaign.) If anything's going to change in a real, lasting manner, it's going to be because of the PCs and their actions. The best heroes have really good villains.
#5 aradraugfea Dec 18, 2009 22:23:33	Did anyone have any more questions/suggestions/feedback?
#6 aradraugfea Dec 23, 2009 16:02:36	Wiki updated with another organization and some significant locations. Thoughts?
#7 aradraugfea Dec 27, 2009 21:41:57	Okay, now in the middle of working up a map, and I've hit a snag. How do I divy up the land? Gold and Red I'll probably have to stick right next to each other so their other neighbors aren't automatic dragon bait, but what about the others. How far does 'numbers' (which the chromatic dragons will always have in their favor) go? What level gap is too big for them to make sense as neighbors?
#8 marc_byrne Jan 01, 2010 0:36:13	Is there any reason why you need to group the colors together? Dragons are very territorial and would defend their land against any other dragon. Why bother with, this is the land of the red dragons, and this is the blue and this the gold, etc. Make part of the mystery in that you have no idea what parts of the world are controled by which dragons. Of course, you can have several territories that are known to be owned by elder and ancient dragons, where the dragons are the leaders of vast amounts of lands and the whole area is considered a country under the rulership of said dragon. But there can be many smaller areas where lesser (younger) dragons roam. Maybe they aren't important enough to be known and labled on a map. While every city and town and such can be assumed to be under the thumb of a dragon, maybe only those who live in the area know which. Maybe there are constant power struggles as dragons try to expand their territory and fight each other for dominance. Much of this could be going on 'under the hood' so to speak of the world. Make less specifics you have to figure out and more room to throw in whatever is appropriate to teh story when your PC's wonder to a new area. Anway, just some ramblings and thoughts, hopefully they'll spark some of your own.
#9 aradraugfea Jan 01, 2010 15:14:48	Is there any reason why you need to group the colors together? Dragons are very territorial and would defend their land against any other dragon. Why bother with, this is the land of the red dragons, and this is the blue and this the gold, etc. Make part of the mystery in that you have no idea what parts of the world are controled by which dragons. Of course, you can have several territories that are known to be owned by elder and ancient dragons, where the dragons are the leaders of vast amounts of lands and the whole area is considered a country under the rulership of said dragon. But there can be many smaller areas where lesser (younger) dragons roam. Maybe they aren't important enough to be known and labled on a map. While every city and town and such can be assumed to be under the thumb of a dragon, maybe only those who live in the area know which. Maybe there are constant power struggles as dragons try to expand their territory and fight each other for dominance. Much of this could be going on 'under the hood' so to speak of the world. Make less specifics you have to figure out and more room to throw in whatever is appropriate to teh story when your PC's wonder to a new area. Anway, just some ramblings and thoughts, hopefully they'll spark some of your own. Well part of the thinking behind the 'kingdoms' was that the dragons had, in the past, worked together, and that with their entire Me>My Scale Hue>My Breed>All other Dragons thing, that if they were going to work together, it would basically fall down into lines like Red, Gold, Black, Purple, etc. In my mind, this is especially true of Metallics, which have their entire family ties, thing, and dragons of similar hues tend to have roughly similar goals. Another aspect is if there's a single, young Blue near the territory of an Adult Gold, what's to stop that gold from just swoopign over, killing the blue, and taking over his territory? If it's bands or kingdoms of dragons of the same type that can form a united front, the problems of one powerful dragon near weaker dragons are reduced greatly. That's the logic behind it.
#10 marc_byrne Jan 01, 2010 18:30:51	I suppose it is just my understanding that Dragons are much more solitary than that. And slow. The Adult Gold wouldn't bother with the blue as long as it didn't come into his territory. One, because he would assume he could take him easily if he ever needed to and two, because he wouldn't be bothered to interrupt his plans of the last couple 100 years to deal with a young blue who had, so far, respected the territory claimed by him. Anyway, its just an idea that always reduces some of the pre-planning you have do to. I've always found it easier to keep things broad, so when the PC's are introduced, you have the breathing room to change things on the fly. Because PC's always screw up your most carefully laid out plans. :-)
#11 therion666 Jan 25, 2010 18:56:21	There is a D20 setting called Dragonstar (old obviously) that describes the backdrop you describe where dragons began taking control and turning their considerable intellect to driving humanity to evolve to serve their needs. Dragons in charge, I like it, why not. Sort of Dragonlance but dragons are in charge of the armies. Even 'Good' Metalic Dragons are greedy for power but are just more inclined to ruling just empires rather than tyrannical. Tall spires and broad towers would be common, vast courts with dragons forming the counts, kings, lords of the lands some younger dragons being knights or even knight errants. Standard races could be trying to achieve position and recognition in the empire whether Chromatic or Metallic. The only two Draconic Deities could be Tiamat and Bahamut but the lower races could have the other races.
#12 aradraugfea Jan 25, 2010 22:16:27	There is a D20 setting called Dragonstar (old obviously) that describes the backdrop you describe where dragons began taking control and turning their considerable intellect to driving humanity to evolve to serve their needs. Dragons in charge, I like it, why not. Sort of Dragonlance but dragons are in charge of the armies. Even 'Good' Metalic Dragons are greedy for power but are just more inclined to ruling just empires rather than tyrannical. Tall spires and broad towers would be common, vast courts with dragons forming the counts, kings, lords of the lands some younger dragons being knights or even knight errants. Standard races could be trying to achieve position and recognition in the empire whether Chromatic or Metallic. The only two Draconic Deities could be Tiamat and Bahamut but the lower races could have the other races. I have 'Change Shape' as really common. Most adult dragons know it, if they ever chose to pick up the ritual. Some Dragon Kings even insist on members of their court using it while in their presence. Only the very well to do Nobles have castles big enough to houses their full glory, though some do have an audience chamber capable of holding their full form, as well as the huge treasure chamber. Generally, these dragons are only Elder or better. I guess starting at level 20 or so, if for no reason other than 'PC treasure' concerns.