Unique Dragons

I always thought that dragons should be huge

blusterous things that – each of them – are unique.

                                                                                         – Dave Arneson

As of today, it has been three years since Dave Arneson departed this mortal coil. In remembrance, your humble host would like to expound upon one small aspect of Arneson's legacy. I came across the above quote in D. H. Boggs' Dragons at Dawn (which I recommend) and thought about how Arneson addressed the concept of 'unique dragons' in Adventures in Fantasy (co-authored with Richard Snider). For some time Charlie Warren had been posting about AiF, so I held off discussing that game. However, I don't think Warren touched upon the Book of Creatures and Treasures, about one-fifth of which is devoted to describing Dragons.  (The word 'Dragon' is consistently capitalized in AiF.) On page 1, we are told...

The Dragon is the most puissant, deadly and intelligent of all the creatures of man's mythi.  Of all his attributes, the individuality of the Dragon must be stressed the most.  Each Dragon is individual in its appearance, interests and personality and these features must be simulated to adequately do justice to the species called Dragon.

A Dragon's form is defined by its head, body, and extremities.  Among the six head options are horned camel and hornless crocodile.  A body is typically defined by color and either scales or armor; however, one option, "Armored Scales," leaves us wondering what color is appropriate.  According to the extremities table, most (but not all) Dragons will have wings.  Other possible extremities (with or without wings) include bovine ears and tiger feet.

In terms of age, each Dragon has a grade from 1 to 34; each grade is equivalent to thirty years. Dragons have a Size Grade of 10, 15, 20, or 30. Multiply age grade by Size Grade* to determine size.  A Dragon's hit points equals its size and the lethality of a Dragon's fire breath is based upon its size.  Any given Dragon is either female or male; females are 20% larger.

Adventures in Fantasy possesses a familiar single-axis alignment paradigm; the extremes of lawful and chaotic are separated by neutral. However, at least for Dragons, alignment is quantified. Neutral extends from zero to five; values less than zero correlate with law while values greater than five correlate with chaos. Alignment for Dragons is determined by combining the numeric values associated with the Dragon's Egotism Index, Greed Index, and Personality Traits.

The Egotism Index is, in essence, the likelihood that (and the conditions under which) a Dragon will travel with an adventuring party for the sake of obtaining treasure. Dragons that are more apt to co-operate with adventurers have an Egotism Index that favors law. The Greed Index measures how equitably a Dragon will share (jointly acquired) treasure. Dragons that are not inclined to share have a Greed Index skewed toward chaos.

Each Dragon has three Personality Traits that are determined by rolling on a table. I dislike this table for two reasons. First, the probability distribution is curved; I see no reason why the distribution shouldn't be flat. Second, it is possible to obtain contradictory traits. Below, I provide an example of how these issues could be addressed. There is a flat probability distribution of one through ten. Some listings have opposed traits such as “Kind / Mean.” For these, an additional roll is made; even results indicate the former trait while odd results indicate the latter. Once a given listing is rolled, it is ignored on subsequent rolls for the same Dragon.

With regard to magic, “A sorcerer is but an instrument of a greater force; the Dragon is a force in and of Himself.” However, only about 30% of Dragons are able to use their innate magical ability and even those Dragons “tend to make little use of it.”

The last important 'characteristic' of a Dragon is its Interest(s).  Most Dragons have only one Interest; 3% of Dragons have two Interests and 1% of Dragons have three Interests.  Examples of Interests are magic, histories (of major races), foods, and procreation.  While a Dragon's Interest does not affect its alignment, it certainly influences a Dragon's goals and behavior.  A Dragon's Interest also helps to determine what items (magical or otherwise) that a Dragon has in its treasure hoard.

*  Size Grade is capitalized, age grade is not