| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Lyiat |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 06:22:02
The 4e draconomicons changed some things about dragons around, including the apparent "goodness" of metallic dragons to a more aloof neutral. How cannon are these changes to the realms? Are the new added dragons, like Purple, Grey, Mercury, and Orium, wandering around Faerun? |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| The Sage |
Posted - 22 Oct 2014 : 09:34:22
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
Oh, yeah, gem dragons were introduced in 2e. Or, at least, that's as far back as I can recall ever first finding info about them and then wanting to desperately include them in one of my games.
... The sad thing is, he put including gem dragons on his To-Do List... So he's still not gotten to it! 
Funnily enough, it did take me over a year to finally work a gem dragon into my campaign, so... |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 22 Oct 2014 : 05:00:20
quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
Oh, yeah, gem dragons were introduced in 2e. Or, at least, that's as far back as I can recall ever first finding info about them and then wanting to desperately include them in one of my games.
... The sad thing is, he put including gem dragons on his To-Do List... So he's still not gotten to it! |
| The Sage |
Posted - 22 Oct 2014 : 03:38:48
Oh, yeah, gem dragons were introduced in 2e. Or, at least, that's as far back as I can recall ever first finding info about them and then wanting to desperately include them in one of my games. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 21:11:48
quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
quote:
Originally posted by Lyiat
The 4e draconomicons changed some things about dragons around, including the apparent "goodness" of metallic dragons to a more aloof neutral. How cannon are these changes to the realms? Are the new added dragons, like Purple, Grey, Mercury, and Orium, wandering around Faerun?
If I'm not mistaken, a lot of dragons were added during 3E's run too like Gem dragons. So I'm assuming that there's a good chance all the 4E ones are there too.
Pretty sure most of those date back to 2E, actually. If there is one thing that has never been in short supply in this game, it's flavors of dragons and their kin. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 19:47:52
quote:
Originally posted by Lyiat
The 4e draconomicons changed some things about dragons around, including the apparent "goodness" of metallic dragons to a more aloof neutral. How cannon are these changes to the realms? Are the new added dragons, like Purple, Grey, Mercury, and Orium, wandering around Faerun?
If I'm not mistaken, a lot of dragons were added during 3E's run too like Gem dragons. So I'm assuming that there's a good chance all the 4E ones are there too. |
| Bladewind |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 19:14:11
I found 4e's way of handling alignment pretty good on the role play side, but its mechanics (or lack there off) were a little too drastic of a departure from previous lore. The Unaligned alignment is far easier to convey than the awkward true neutral one, for example.
But emphasizing dragons inflated egos is a nice way to keep even encounters with 'goodly' metallic dragons appropriately tense. Interacting with a hungry 12 ton winged firebreathing lizard should be scary, no matter the color of its scales. |
| hashimashadoo |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 19:07:19
Put very simply 4e designers didn't see much point in having a plethora of good monsters for PCs *not* to fight, so they made some of them less good.
This would work well in Eberron where most dragons are aloof and relatively neutral but not so much in the Forgotten Realms where non-good metallic dragons are in the minority (though they do indeed exist in significant (in terms of dragons) numbers). |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 13:56:46
Or how tasty you are  |
| Markustay |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 13:42:17
Ed has always maintained that non-humans are NON-HUMAN. He has also maintained that in The Realms there really isn't any 'black & white', just a billion shades of grey. Thus, every human isn't 100% bad or good - they react differently depending upon the situation. Now apply that to the unknowable, alien nature of non-humans and it gets magnified a million-fold.
Thus, the Realms are NOT made-up of 'good' and 'bad' people/creatures, but rather, a plethora of individuals, each with their own agenda. How can something as powerful and unique as a dragon be anything other then 'complicated'? Metallic dragons have killed 'good' people because its served its purposes, and chromatic dragons occasionally help people, for their own mysterious reasons.
Reading some of Ed's Dragon articles is a good start; there really is no such thing as a 'good' or 'bad' dragon... it all depends on what mood you catch them in... and how useful you are.  |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 09:54:30
The Realms has room for anything - as long as you provide an appropriate justification/reason in the lore. I find that 'magic' works well for most everything!
-- George Krashos |
| The Sage |
Posted - 21 Oct 2014 : 08:42:14
The 4e Realms campaign books really didn't elaborate all that much on how the dynamics of alignments and/or "variant dragons" for dragonkind worked in the post-Spellplague era.
I'd say it's probably easiest to extrapolate from what we knew of stuff like variant dragon types and alignments among Realms dragons, from previous sources like Dragons of Faerūn, and go with what works for your own campaign. |
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