PLEASE Don't Make Dragons Boring!

Chromatic Dragons. Big scary monsters that drastically affect your world, right? Well, many GM's forget that dragons keep existing while your players aren't engaged in a dragon-based quest. How do D&D's evil dragons shape the worlds they inhabit?

#dnd #worldbuilding #ttrpg #dragons

Credits:
The Grungeon Master logo, and intro music were composed by the wonderful Janina Arndt!

[jesustyronechrist]

For me, I like 2 types of dragons:
1) Smaller beasts who just like to BBQ villages sometimes in packs.
2) Giant ones who live eons, who hold immense knowledge and are downright Lovecraftian horrors of sorts.

[BloodDracolich]

Given what I know about green and blue dragons, they might actually welcome civilization cropping up in their territories, at least to an extent. This gives the green dragons people to manipulate and screw around with, and the blue dragons somebody to subjugate and dominate.

[hartthorn]

I just thought of a potential villain faction off this one.
What if the dragon IS the bank. Have it start off in a one off. Dragon comes to terrorize a village and the minister just comes out to talk to the dragon. As a novelty, the dragon lets him speak his piece. Minister explains that they would gladly fork over what they have, but that a local warlord is due here any day now for their OWN tribute payment, and they're sort of stuck with "ONE of you is gonna raze our village to the ground either way, we can't afford to pay both". But the minister notes: if the village burns, that means NO future tributes. This gets the dragon's brain turning.
So when the warlord comes rolling in, the dragon lands near the minister and helpfully explains that the warlords tribute HAS been paid and that the dragon is simply holding onto it for "safekeeping". Delivering a tenth of it so the warlord can pay and feed his troops, he's welcome to get more of it if he NEEDS it.
Later, the warlord gets even more bad news. The Imperial borders are getting a LOT closer. They WILL move in, they WILL take over, and they will thank themselves to any loot the warlord and his company might have if they don't kill them outright. But then the warlord thinks... about the dragon. He comes to their lair, every single copper they have in tow. The warlord asks if the dragon would mind holding onto THIS coin. For safekeeping.

And over time this venture slowly becomes just how commerce operates in the area. Anyone is welcome to use coin, but many larger transactions are actually bargained over bonds equating to various shares of the dragon's hoard, going from one party to the next. And anyone is welcome to come and bring their bond into the dragon's lair! Now an opulent edifice you could see from freakin' orbit. You can walk right in, present your bond, and then ask the Ancient Red Dragon you'd like your coin back.
And you MIGHT just live to tell about it!

[augmenautus]

The 3rd edition draconomicon had some cool dragons. I liked the blue dragon that took over a mine and used zombies to mine, because he was too cheap to pay normal workers. He ended up running a massive mining company.

[Emunseelie]

The dragon idea I like the most, is dragon horde as fractional reserve banking with credit.

Dragon accumulates a whole pile of wealth, writes letters of credit and loans on the back of that treasure.

The dragon wants treasure. The people are perfectly happy with paper money.

[graysoul]

Fun fact, in certain settings of DND certain dungeons were specifically used to hide treasure and protect people from dragons

That's why most dungeons are built underground, hidden and have security measures. It's when their abandon you see monsters take over.

[kamikage]

I feel like I never see Giants get the same love that dragons and other monsters get, especially in deep dives like this.
If you're taking requests on videos to make the worldbuilding of world-changing monsters more interesting, Giants would be my vote.

[darcyw]

Thank you for covering D&D dragons. I agree that they are boring, when used RAW. Another thing to consider is the sheer volume of food they would consume. Consider their size, the dragon may actually invite humans (as they would be easy to manipulate) to move into an area to promote livestock breeding. It may, even an evil dragon, provide the city with protection as long as the city continues to raise livestock for it. It may make for some interesting regional laws surrounding eating meat. Anyway, dragons have some of the most untapped potential in D&D. Your insights are unique.

[coracorvus]

3:16 A note about movement: The speed in the statblock is primarily for combat. It's reasonable to assume that a dragon would be able to fly much faster if they have time to accelerate properly. (15 km/h would be pretty slow for a large flying animal!) For comparison, it has been estimated that azhdarchids - the largest of the pterosaurs - were able to cover up to 16000 km IN ONE GO, meaning they could have circled the planet in a few days.

[ARViuff]

the ramification of dragons is why I decided to make them near extinct in my game
they are so rare, no one can agree if they ever were real or not.
their legendary exploits and tales of destruction have some believe dragon is just an old word for big natural disasters.
This means I can make a lot of fake dragon encounters where the dragon turns out to be, at worst, a wyvern but more often than not the dragon turns out to be a Cockatrice or lizardfolk, sometimes its just a dragonblood sorcerer.
It also means I buffed the few dragons that do exist, by making them larger, harder to kill and a couple new abilities, to keep them in line with the stories people tell about them and to terrify the players when they eventually come face to face with an actual dragon.

[ryan]

A lot of the misconception about dragon movement is in that movespeed. I've always felt that 80 feet in a round is their full maneuverability top speed, not their actual flying speed. They can fly much faster but they're beholden to things like inertia and aerodynamics at that point, 9mph or less is like their "hover" speed.

[Hilianus]

Aaaah, finally some quality worldbuilding content on youtube for DRAGONS! Well, I got a few notes on this vid, so it's gonna be a long one!

- Your angle on the world having developed alongside dragons is on point, especially the easily-rotate-able ballistas. In my setting, I basically give means of aerial defense and defensible architectural features (like the roofed walkways across the streets!) in ALL the places that have dragons OR another aerial threat present. Moreover, DUNGEONS HAVE A REASON TO EXIST! If people had problems dealing with dragons, then they could've made dwellings or even whole TOWNS underground, which later get abandoned for one reason or another, leaving cool places for players to explore!

- I'm VERY glad you remembered there are more aerial creatures and monsters than just dragons - aaracokra, (hippo)griffon cavalry, manticores, perytons, harpies, perhaps some winged bug people or drakes or winged dragonborn or urd or whatever else - if there is ANY threat from above, people will adapt. Though all of this aerial combat also means that an aerial cavalry is ALSO a viable response - instead of land-air defense, have interceptors to swoop in! Make a dragon breathe their element, then IMMEDIATELY charge in before their breath comes back, or simply pursue it while peppering it with arrows, using superior numbers as an advantage.

- Castles would still be built, I think. Dragons have a habit of taking years-long power-naps or simply... not bothering to destroy a castle, convinced of their own superiority. At least SOME of them would make a mistake of letting a castle be built, and pay with their life for it - which would show that a highly defensible place with LOTS of ballistas and a courtyard that's a killzone with HUNDREDS of archers is effective... So more people are gonna copy that strategy. AND EVEN IF early castles were not effective against dragons at first... Well, all the more reason for dragons to leave them alone, same as all the other wooden shacks, if the dragon is given their tribute. At the same time, a castle (even a wooden one) is perfect for PROTECTING YOUR WEALTH FROM OTHER HUMANOIDS. In that way, their use is not that different from IRL. It's just that there are additional threats, so if you want a BIG and EXPENSIVE castle, then it also has to have anti-air capabilities that serve as a strong deterrent.

- As for dragons simply ruling over land and claiming it for themselves - you make it sound like if they wouldn't create quite valid city-states under their rule. Blue and Green could absolutely rule and manipulate mortals in a noble-like capacity. But remember - DRAGONS ARE NOT THE ONLY POWERHOUSE AROUND. Even an adult or ancient dragon is not gonna just attack a stone/frost/fire giant stronghold that has DOZENS of capable giants of fighting age. Solo? Sure, dragon wins. But giants often have organized communities and even consider dragons a DELICACY! (like Frost giants and white dragons) In fact, MIMICING GIANTS might have been what pushed humanoids towards building castles! And a ballista was just someone thinking how to achieve the firepower of a giant's bow or yeeted boulder with machines.

- The idea that mortals could not defeat dragons in the olden days is perhaps short-sighted, given how "the olden days" often have huge presence of the GODS AND THEIR MIRACLES. Imagine some demigod or a saint/chosen of a given diety making a power move of freeing their followers from slavery under a dragon! Smiting a beast of the material with godly might!

- As for common adaptations of civilized folk for fending off dragons, I'd simply make a law that REQUIRES every family to have a spear and a crossbow at home, and require that each guild holds shooting drills for their members (as it was the case IRL, actually). Most people are not too strong, nor do they have the training to learn to use a longbow... But a crossbow? Much more viable! Additionally, there may be mandates that a town only gets announced a town once it has aerial protections, basically incentivizing building such defenses by policy in ALL of your kingdom, not only places that directly border dragon-infested lands. This will mean that a dragon simply CANNOT attack any settlement bigger than a village with impunity. They gonna get hurt, unless they are very smart about it and the people are very neglectful.

- Speaking of illusion magic, I can definitely see elves and gnomes using those in order to hide from draconic tyranny, given that I don't see them burrowing or making ballistas to defend themselves. That said, elves (with their HORRENDOUSLY long lifespan) could simply have SUPREMELY powerful individuals that are able to simply take down dragons via their magic, skill, or both, with squads of very high level individuals. I mean, just look at how powerful DROW are with their matrons and elite warriors and all! If you have surface elves be motivated by dragons to develop similar level of skill, they have the ability to do the same.

- Other races that might take on hunting dragons are, of course... Orcs. Imagine if orcs have developed a culture of seeking to befell the BIGGEST AND BADDEST MONSTERS in search for status within their tribes... And then figured out that if they share in the glory with a few mates, they could take down way bigger monsters than when fighting alone. And if they take down a dragon, then it's their whole TRIBE getting a reputation boost! That then leads to warbands of orcs that are not interested in pillaging wealth from other humanoids, but rather want to get a chance of hunting big beasties in other lands... because they have already killed most of beasties in THEIR lands! :V That way, you can have bands of scarily efficient orc mercenaries. Ones that, perhaps, could be hired by a kingdom that has an overpopulation of "flying magical dinosaurs", as you have called them? :)

[williansnobre]

I think the idea of isolated cities cut by large wilderness with dragons roaming around is similar to the Monster Hunter world and is the type of setting that I like.

[remingtonwright]

In my setting, there's a subspecies of dragon called rust dragons. Their breath weapon is an acidic miasma that hastens oxidation in ferrous metals, and it is these metals they horde, but only to eat. Their diet is entirely composed of said materials, which means they will snap up and armored knight, chew off the tasty crunchy coating, and spit out the chewy part on the inside. This would leave only a select few precious metals usable in equipment (which some of you probably know does not make good equipment) wood or stone. The environmental effects of their lairs would be rust particulates "salting" the earth and poisoning the water supply. If this is left unchecked, the rivers and lakes may even run orange.

[zephyrstrife]

I actually really liked a red dragon that I built for a campaign. Valethar the Conqueror is the ruler of a domain about the size of how far she can fly in a day, she's more likely to be encountered within half a day's flight from her lair, but the capital city of her domain is nestled near her volcano lair. She guards the land as a preventative measure against giants and other very large creatures, while the cities and towns are all meant to give her offerings, from food to treasure to people so she can have soldiers for her army. The Duke ruling in her stead has several rumors floating around; like him being a person given magic by her presence, being one of her descendants and some hushed whispers claim that the Duke is actually Valethar in disguise.

She is meant to be a mover and shaker in the world, but she also only reacts to something when it is dangerous enough to require her attention.

[thedigodragon]

I once created a village that was ruled by a dragon who kept themselves in the shadows. If the dragon had to make a public appearance, they'll use disguise magic. The village wasn't oppressed or suffering; the dragon kept the local laws fair and would broker deals to have trade routes run through their village, taking cuts of the trade profits (disguised as taxes). Thus, the locals were doing pretty well for themselves. The dragon even hired the PCs a couple times to go slay monsters that threatened the village! The dragon was evil, but leaned into the lawful side of their alignment because it was a practical way of amassing a hoard without attracting a band of heroes out to slay them.

[Elessarwind]

You neglect the fact that dragons can be negotiated with, even the chromatics. Granted a deal with an evil dragon is bound to be one-sided, there are stories of dragons being sponsors for pockets of civilization, making it part of their territory, and so on. The social aspect of dragons in these worlds seem afterthought as well. The oldest and scariest dragons are often manipulators, and what better to use than a group of adventurers who think they know better.

[curethedarkness]

In a game i once ran i had a metalic dragon running the city's bank. This meant everyone had tremendous faith in the banking institution, they knew that the dragon (being a goodly creature) would never cheat them and that its loans were always extremely reasonable.
As a result the city thrived and the dragon was heralded as the heart of their city, they even went so far as to sell merchandise of the dragon.
The dragon loved all of this and would often secretly take a human form to just spend time around the citizens, sometimes basking in their praise other times finding out about problems the people are having and using its immeasurable economic power to solve the problems people had.

[yamibakura]

I solve this in my games in three ways:

1. An elder Dragon's territory is called a Desolation. It is marked like a Kingdom on the map and almost always avoided by sensible people.

2. Dragons collect mortals which it uses as minions. These minions form a Drakencult, a pack of brainwashed creatures that literally or metaphorically worship the Dragon. Drakenkults vary depending on a Dragon's needs and desires.

3. Dragons hoard different things. One Dragon may hoard books and scrolls, many full of ancient knowledge and magical power, while others may hoard statues, art, certain kinds of people (actors, artists, musicians, failed dragonslayers, etc) jewels, desserts, beetles, etc. Whatever a Dragon hoards it has a fixation on.

Whatever a Dragon doesn't hoard is useless in it's eyes. A Dragon that hoards weapons will try to steal famous magical swords, but it will try to bribe intruders with huge rubies which are just taking up space, as the Dragon would rather be eating or admiring it's collection than wasting time fighting a bunch of apes.

[nathanlaleff]

Don't forget, magic missile can't miss and doesn't use spell slots(i.e. isn't a limited resource). Having a civilization prepared to have a few hundred wizard trainees in case dragons come by is a MASSIVE deterrent. With that setup, you basically have an instant kill setup for just about any major threat, and it would all be over in a few minutes.