The Four Dragons

Surely everyone has a take on dragons. Here's mine.

Dragons follow their own morality, perhaps not quite so alien as that of the creatures of the Void, but certainly not one that humans might understand. In dealing with dragons, it is perhaps best not to draw their attention. Does it especially matter to a rat whether it is in a laboratory, the hands of a sadistic torturer, or the home of a loving owner? Could it even tell? So it is, when treating with dragons. Even a dragon which appears to be helpful is likely to view you as a useful curiosity... for now.

There are four Great Dragons: the Red, Yellow, Black, and Green. None is associated with Good, or Evil, or Order, or Chaos, in a way that mortals might understand. Lesser dragons may display some combination of these characteristics, and are correspondingly weakened by the dilution of their ancestors' blood.

It is of course the Yellow Dragon that is most feared, though in truth all inspire dread. Some hold that the Black and the Red dragon are enemies, and that the Yellow and White are enemies. Others hold that there is a fifth Great Dragon, incorruptible and unchanging.

Statistics for these in your game system are left to your discretion.

Yellow Dragon

The yellow dragon has the boldness of the lion, and controls fire. It seeks to acquire assets for its hoard, acting decisively to pursue its ambition. It is often bitter, usually short-tempered, and invariably daring - although for all that, it is displays good sense and does not take foolish risks. It is greenish-yellow in colour.

White Dragon

The white dragon has the sturdiness of the ox, and controls water. It values reasoning and logical investigation, pursuing scholarly interests. It is reserved, low-spirited and forgetful, and white in colour.

Red Dragon

The Red Dragon has the vision of an eagle, and controls the air. It values art and beauty, seeking to enjoy sensual pleasures. It acts spontaneously, according to its whims. It is enthusiastic, active, and social, making friends readily, joking and laughing. It is beautiful to behold.

Black Dragon

The Black Dragon has the spirit of a man, and controls the earth. It acts intuitively, in line with its connection with the Gods, to promote morality and punish vice. It is melancholy in nature, fearful, slow to act, and has a sickly appearance. It is black in colour.

Quest For It!

Story time. In my first D&D campaign (Fifth Edition, of course), my character acquired a cool sword early on from a character who left the party, and I used it for a long time. Then I acquired a second cool sword. The first one had useful powers against demons. The second one, against giants. There was an interesting choice to be made about which sword I used depending on the situation.

Of course, my character wanted to not have to make that choice, and just have one cool sword that combined both. I suggested this to the GM, expecting to have a short arc where I'd have to find a smith with sufficient skills in the arcane arts - probably the elven smith who'd become hostile to us earlier in the campaign. I'd then have to persuade them to do the work, and likely do some kind of favour for them by way of payment. It would have been a fun follow-up, after my character's main motivation for adventuring had been resolved.

Instead, the next time we encountered a blacksmith, my character struck up a conversation, expecting the hook for this mini-arc. And the blacksmith said 'Oh yes, I can do that, but I'll need to get a priest to help so it'll take a couple of days and cost extra.' Well, in that campaign time wasn't really an issue, and money is irrelevant in 5E. So, what could have been character motivation and the creation of a really impressive magic item became just another transaction.

Now, everyone likes a cool magic item. They make characters more powerful, either by making them better at stuff they're already good at (I'm looking at you, +3 Sword) or making them good at stuff they couldn't already do. Give your Fighter a Wand of Fireballs. I dare you.

Getting that advancement because the GM decides it's time for you to have it is unsatisfying. It feels like the player is just an actor in the GM's story. And if you're running a campaign with story-based advancement, where new character abilities are gained when the GM says so, that goes double.

(Seriously, don't do story-based advancement. If XP isn't working for you, look at how you're awarding it instead of throwing it out. Making numbers go up feels good.)

Getting that item because you defeated the evil archmage or mighty warrior who bore it, or because you liberated it from the hoard of a terrible dragon, makes it into a reward. Earning - and I do mean earning - the favour of some potentate, and being gifted an ancestral blade, feels like you've made real progress in the world.

So, please, make your characters work for their rewards. They'll appreciate it all the more when they get them.

It Takes A Village To Stock A Hex

It's fairly likely that your favourite fantasy roleplaying game has, buried in the rules somewhere, an assumption that you're using six-mile hexes at the basis for overland travel. This assumption is almost as old as the genre, and is present even if you're using a ruleset that doesn't explicitly use hex maps. Ever wonder why D&D 5th Edition has paces of 18, 24 or 30 miles a day? That's 3, 4 or 5 hexes!

The idea that they're the 'ideal' scale goes back to at least 2009, and Steamtunnel's oft-cited In Praise of the 6 Mile Hex. And that idea has merit, it's certainly mathematically convenient. But we don't make maps for the convenience of mapmakers: we make them to describe territory. The 6-mile hex does a poor job of that, because it is too big.

This has been remarked upon before, of course. Most recently by Eric Diaz at Methods & Madness, but also by Skerples at Coins and Scrolls. Both authors use European cities as their reference points, and quite reasonably so. Siena, used by Skerples as an example, is of course in densely-populated (even in the mediaeval era) Italy, where such a hex can contain - as he shows - a dozen or more towns and villages, as well as the city iself.

Even in rural Scotland, relatively sparsely populated even in the mediaeval era, such a hex containing my hometown contains:

• The town itself
• Two or three villages
• Two Iron Age hill forts
• At least three castles
• Part of a line of Roman fortifications and signal stations, though none of the major structures fall within the area
• Sundry standing stones, churches, chapels etc

Most of these would be considered 'points of interest' in most fantasy adventure campaigns. If one operates on the conceit that a hex ought to contain precisely one 'point of interest', as is usual, the six-mile hex only works for an exceptionally sparsely populated area. One that makes even mediaeval Scotland look cosmopolitan, and which - for that reason - cannot contain any major cities

What it does describe, and quite well, is the plains of the American West. Which makes sense, actually. Since the beginnings of the genre, Original Dungeons and Dragons was implicitly a Western draped in fantasy mediaeval trappings. 

Now, you're certainly free to imagine a setting where the combined effects of wizards and dragons do create a dynamic rather similar to that. And there's some charm in doing so. You're still constrained by the limitations of agriculture, which mean that if you've got cities (or dwarven mines - in any case, places with lots of people who import food) you need farms. And therefore somewhat-dense habitation at least near them.

Rather more plausible, at least for a quasi-European setting, is the three-mile (or one-league) hex. Steamtunnel came to a similar conclusion in The Ergonomic 3-Mile Hex. As did Silverarm Press in Down with the 6-Mile Hex! A Modest Proposal. A village, or equivalent unit - any self-respecting castle will function like a village! - to each 3-mile hex feels appropriate for a setting of European density, with a point of interest to each hex. That gives the players the opportunity to feel the scale of a setting, with interesting choices to make each hour or so of in-game time.

Interestingly, the Wilderness Exploration board game used 5 kilometre (that is, 3 mile) hexes. And Original Dungeons and Dragons used it, wholesale, as an overland travel system. So the 3-mile hex really isn't that weird.