Michael Hopcroft Posted December 3, 2008 Report Share Posted December 3, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? So long as you actually made monsters' date=' and not misunderstood creatures with hearts of gold, I'll be happy. [/quote'] "This creature has a heart of gold? Great! We can get a ton of cash for it!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted December 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? not misunderstood creatures with hearts of gold None of those in TBoD -- though of course there's nothing to prevent a GM from changing a monster's personality, if he's so inclined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? So long as you actually made monsters' date=' and not misunderstood creatures with hearts of gold, I'll be happy. [/quote']None of those in TBoD -- though of course there's nothing to prevent a GM from changing a monster's personality' date=' if he's so inclined. [/quote']Actually, I'd like to see one of those. (Not two or more. Just one. Exactly one.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Admiral C Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? One of the things I would like to see that is very appropriate is a Dragon with Multiform in to a human wizard of close power. The whole "Taking the Skin of Man" thing allows the dragon to come to town and RP with the PCs and expands who he can interact with him. Of course you could take this a step further and have a dragon cursed to be in the shape of man, his Multiform has the limitation that it can't work until a very specific set of conditions occur, the same conditions that "lift the curse." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? One of the things I would like to see that is very appropriate is a Dragon with Multiform in to a human wizard of close power. The whole "Taking the Skin of Man" thing allows the dragon to come to town and RP with the PCs and expands who he can interact with him. Of course you could take this a step further and have a dragon cursed to be in the shape of man, his Multiform has the limitation that it can't work until a very specific set of conditions occur, the same conditions that "lift the curse." I remember reading a book when I was young about a bunch of people arguing about what a dragon looks like while a dragon, disguised as an old man, finds the argument humorous. I'd like to see something about this, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Admiral C Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I remember reading a book when I was young about a bunch of people arguing about what a dragon looks like while a dragon, disguised as an old man, finds the argument humorous. I'd like to see something about this, yes. My inspiration for this was hearkening back to the first Dragon Warrior/DragonQuest game and the main baddie the Dragonlord. Though I've seen a number of fantasy novel incarnations like the one you've mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I remember creating a character with a similar concept like so but I simply used Shape Shift + Shrinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? One of the things I would like to see that is very appropriate is a Dragon with Multiform in to a human wizard of close power. The whole "Taking the Skin of Man" thing allows the dragon to come to town and RP with the PCs and expands who he can interact with him. In the Slayers-verse, there are several incompatible types of dragons. Most are animals -- alarmingly powerful animals, but animals nonetheless. But the most powerful dragons, the Golden Dragons, are more angels than physical beings. They are the "priest beings" of the goddess of light, and can take human (or at least human-like) form when they need or wish to interact with mortals (which is rare -- they're still smarting from a war against the Demon race that they lost). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? 2. I agree with the concept of "usable" in a broad sense, which is one reason for the large number of dragon character sheets (it makes the book easier for the GM to use, IMO). However, one person's "usable" is another person's "unusable," so my goal is to create big ol' monsters that I think are cool, fun, and inspirational. If you don't consider them "usable" as-is, I'm sorry 'bout that, but I'm not writing the book just for you. Fortunately, the HERO System makes it an easy matter to adapt a monster to fit your specific preferences, play style, or players. Honestly, there are so many different campaigns out there, and so many play styles, that I expect few gaming groups use any book we publish 100% as-is. The trick is to make as much of the book as possible useful to as many people as possible. Oh, didn't mean to imply anything along that line. Hmmm...here is an example of what I mean though you have probably taken it into account. Take a Red Dragon (myself I hate 'color coded" dragons but it make my example easy to follow ). I would like to see the write up of the red dragon complete with easy to plug in point breaks (200/300/500 etc.). That way any GM could just grab the version he needed and run. I have bought books before that nothing was usable because the weakest creature was a ultra-mega godkiller. Neat pictures, but useless for a game unless all the PC's were gods. While I believe Dragons are extemely powerful beings and more than a match for high point/high level party. There are many people that classify dragons as big lizards that can be wacked by a 150 pt /5ish level party or what I call D&Dish. Both approaches are equally valid and a game book should support everyone as you meantioned. So in the end I am defining 'usuable' as meaning a few scaled write-ups for each 'creature' so that they can be plugged in easier to different campaigns. Not to mention being a great set of examples for newer GM's in the design of characters/creatures in Hero. So did that make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Oh, didn't mean to imply anything along that line. Hmmm...here is an example of what I mean though you have probably taken it into account. Take a Red Dragon (myself I hate 'color coded" dragons but it make my example easy to follow ). I would like to see the write up of the red dragon complete with easy to plug in point breaks (200/300/500 etc.). That way any GM could just grab the version he needed and run. I have bought books before that nothing was usable because the weakest creature was a ultra-mega godkiller. Neat pictures, but useless for a game unless all the PC's were gods. While I believe Dragons are extemely powerful beings and more than a match for high point/high level party. There are many people that classify dragons as big lizards that can be wacked by a 150 pt /5ish level party or what I call D&Dish. Both approaches are equally valid and a game book should support everyone as you meantioned. So in the end I am defining 'usuable' as meaning a few scaled write-ups for each 'creature' so that they can be plugged in easier to different campaigns. Not to mention being a great set of examples for newer GM's in the design of characters/creatures in Hero. So did that make sense? Makes sense to me, and I agree completely. Also, I think it would be a good idea to build at least a few creatures with one of the established settings in mind...an Atlantean dragon or two, a Tuala Morn type dragon, a Valdorian Age dragon (a remnant of some Drindrish warband, no doubt). Maybe even a space dragon for Galactic Champions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? One of the things I would like to see that is very appropriate is a Dragon with Multiform in to a human wizard of close power. The whole "Taking the Skin of Man" thing allows the dragon to come to town and RP with the PCs and expands who he can interact with him. Of course you could take this a step further and have a dragon cursed to be in the shape of man, his Multiform has the limitation that it can't work until a very specific set of conditions occur, the same conditions that "lift the curse." How about Anomander Rake from Malazan Book of the Fallen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I'd like to see Oolong, the Black Dragon from "Tea with the Black Dragon", "Twisting the Rope" and "Raphael" by R. A. Mackavoy. Oolong being both the Chinese word for a tea between green and black, and black dragon. This character went from dragon to man. However it was a permanent change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted December 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? One of the things I would like to see that is very appropriate is a Dragon with Multiform in to a human wizard of close power. The whole "Taking the Skin of Man" thing allows the dragon to come to town and RP with the PCs and expands who he can interact with him. Well, yeah. That's why the dragons in The HERO System Bestiary have that as an optional power. Given that we've had that since 2002, it's safe to assume the dragons in TBoD will also have it as an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted December 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? So did that make sense? Sure, and by and large I agree. That's why the basic dragon in TBoD comes in four "sizes" -- Juvenile, Lesser, Greater, and Majestic. If those aren't enough you can easily keep scaling up and down. Most of the numerous variants (Blood Dragon, Helldragon, Shadow Dragon, and on and on) are built on the Lesser or Greater template, but there's some variation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Makes sense to me, and I agree completely. Also, I think it would be a good idea to build at least a few creatures with one of the established settings in mind...an Atlantean dragon or two, a Tuala Morn type dragon, a Valdorian Age dragon (a remnant of some Drindrish warband, no doubt). Maybe even a space dragon for Galactic Champions. I concur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Sure' date=' and by and large I agree. That's why the basic dragon in TBoD comes in four "sizes" -- Juvenile, Lesser, Greater, and Majestic. If those aren't enough you can easily keep scaling up and down. Most of the numerous variants (Blood Dragon, Helldragon, Shadow Dragon, and on and on) are built on the Lesser or Greater template, but there's some variation.[/quote'] Cool, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Admiral C Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Well' date=' yeah. That's why the dragons in [i']The HERO System Bestiary[/i] have that as an optional power. Given that we've had that since 2002, it's safe to assume the dragons in TBoD will also have it as an option. The option is fine but if there is room I'd like to see an individual statted out on both sides, the core form and the multiform. Building a powerful high point mage is laborious, even more so if you talking about some massive 1,000 point dragon and his 550 point human wizard form. If it has to be more generic maybe a dragon's multiform into something else like ti's possessing demon or golem. I know you said you didn't want demons in there but a demonic dragon that turn into a more man sized demon would still fit thematically. Alternately you could have a relatively small dragon that has another dragon form, that of a much larger primal version of its self. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted December 6, 2008 Report Share Posted December 6, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Then there are the pocket-sized dragons that are prized as wizard familiars. Just how intelligent the little critters are varies from campaign to campaign, as is whether they're a small species or the hatchlings of larger dragon species. How dragons reproduce and raise young is another interesting question to which each campaign probably has a different -- even unique -- answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Deconstruct the Dragon mystique and then present ways to make just about any creature have that same aura as dragons do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Deconstruct the Dragon mystique and then present ways to make just about any creature have that same aura as dragons do.Hm... even giant squirrels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Hey -- squirrels with fiery breath commands Respect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Hey -- squirrels with fiery breath commands Respect! Not to mention the teeth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Big, nasty, and pointy? But of course! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? But where are people going to find 30-pound acorns? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 Re: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS -- What Do *You* Want To See? . . . People contain more protein. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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