Playing a Dragon

[AdamG]

Has anyone done a write-up of a "dragon" character ala Dresden Files Ferrovax? Curious how that would work out.

[Flinty]

A major behind the scenes NPC of a mage chronicle I ran was essentially a dragon. Really she was the Daughter of Lucifer and Eve (Lilith, actually), getting the dragon bits from her father. I mostly handled her as an insane Archmage of tremendous powers that had split herself into multiple personalities. One aspect of hers was the lady of the lake, another was a gigantic dragon (mostly busy sleeping, his exposed back doubling as the isle of Avalon, which incidentially was his name). Definitly at the upper end of how you could do things like that though, since her powers were largely ST fiat when necessary. Otherwise I'd probably handle a dragon as a powerful spirit.

[Lian]

Options by Gameline:

Vampire: Elder Gangrel with Mythic form. Vis is a hell of a thing.
Werewolf: Mokole or Spirit.
Mage: Primal marks, Blessing, Technocratic bioconstructs, Bygones, Spirits.
Wraith:Moliates a hell of a thing.
Changeling: Chimera, various Fan made Kiths.
KOTE: Flesh Shintai is a hell of a thing.
Demon: Pick appropriate Apocalyptic form bits.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Options by Gameline:

Vampire: Elder Gangrel with Mythic form. Vis is a hell of a thing.

Kind of mechanically disappointing, though, especially on the firebreathing front.

Werewolf: Mokole or Spirit.

You don't usually play spirits except as part of a Possessed character, which means anything but a Drone is fair game for making a dragon.

KOTE: Flesh Shintai is a hell of a thing.

To some extent, also Demon Shintai, or Beast Shintai if it ever got beyond 5 dots...

[Illithid]

http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon

Technically Tzimesce with Viscisitude 9 can be a dragon, with flying and breathing fire, as well as eating someone whole as one action

[Lian]

Kind of mechanically disappointing, though, especially on the firebreathing front.

Fire breathing is not part of all Dragon stories. "Ruinous" breath either as some sort of venom or acid is just as common in stories. Add in judicious use of other Kindred discplines and you should have something.

You don't usually play spirits except as part of a Possessed character, which means anything but a Drone is fair game for making a dragon.

I was giving npc options as well.

To some extent, also Demon Shintai, or Beast Shintai if it ever got beyond 5 dots...

Both pretty good options.

[AdamG]

So what would a "spirit" [Werewolf] dragon character look like?

[Saur Ops Specialist]

So what would a "spirit" [Werewolf] dragon character look like?

That depends on what its essential nature is; as an example, here's a rundown of various dragon-like totems in the Werewolf books. If it's an avatar of Dragon, the totem venerated by Mokole, it's going to represent reptilian diversity in all its splendor and not have much in the way of time for mammals, as one mammal in particular is causing it no end of trouble and it wants its followers to either mitigate this damage or... stop it entirely. An avatar of Typhon, however, will likely just want to get into fights, as it represents a combative aspect hand in hand with its connection to severe weather patterns. Firedrake is basically Smaug, and is interested in GOOOOOOLD!, which you have to sacrifice in a furnace in order to gain its favor, which comes with resistance to fire, greater stores of Rage, and a facility for metalwork. In contrast, Seadrake is cold and wants live sacrifices tossed into the ocean, and Wyvern is a heraldric symbol of war that, more than anything, wishes for Garou to be alert, never allow a caern to fall, and even forbids hostile takeovers and ousting of caern inhabitants by packs that follow it.

So, aside from Garou being terrible, horribly hypocrites about declaring Mokole to be "the very image of the Wyrm" for following every one of these but the Mokole totem, this gives you a fairly broad range of ideas about what dragons can represent. As for their stats, consult the totem avatar construction portion of the book in the Totem Background and spirit sections of the book; it's fairly customizable in most regards. The actual Incarnae of these, however, will not have statistics.

As with most spirit characters, however, the ST can make up whatever they wish. Dragons made of Greed? Doable. It's a bane that looks like a dragon and has the power to influence people to seek out wealth for its own sake, and then sits on a pile of said wealth. This may bring it into contention with followers of Firedrake for less than noble reasons, but only if the wealth that the Dragon of Greed is hoarding is GOOOOOOOLD!, as Firedrake is very specifically about the shinies.

[Colognian]

I would either go the Mokole way too or use The Bygone Bestiary.

[Lian]

for Werewolf totems there's also Seiryu the Azure dragon of the East and debately Quetzlcoatl and Uktena.

[TheVarulfen]

I would eitherr go the Mokole way too or use The Bygone Bestiary.

Bygone Bestiary would be the best source, I feel. A really powerfull dragon would be an advanced character, but that book has all the bits and pieces.

[Aleph]

One thing about Bygone Bestiary it's that it's dragons are full blooded dragons. They're Dragons: Not half-dragon, not a mage/vampire that transforms into a dragon trough magic, they're as dragon as dragons get. Another thing it's that it rules out that they're mostly dead or gone in the modern age. That's why it's called "bygone" bestiary.

[Lian]

One thing about Bygone Bestiary it's that it's dragons are full blooded dragons. They're Dragons: Not half-dragon, not a mage/vampire that transforms into a dragon trough magic, they're as dragon as dragons get. Another thing it's that it rules out that they're mostly dead or gone in the modern age. That's why it's called "bygone" bestiary.

Except they aren't dragons, because they don't swim through the air and speak for the Jade Emperor. Dragon is a friggen large category in myth and legend that covers a bunch of different things. Saying a mage or vampire who transforms into a dragon "doesn't count" means Fafnir doesn't count as a Dragon. Its kind of stupid to say anything doesn't count.

[Ramnesis]

A long time ago (late 90s) there were a few fan WoD lines running around the internet. One of them was about playing Dragons. Couldn't tell you if it was any good or not, I only skimmed it and I didn't have any real sense of good game design back then anyways. It's probably still around somewhere, though.

[Aleph]

Except they aren't dragons, because they don't swim through the air and speak for the Jade Emperor.

Why not? I tought that the dragons summoned by the Wu Lung were covered there too. Aren't the elemental dragons there?. What a miss if they aren't...

Dragon is a friggen large category in myth and legend that covers a bunch of different things.

This is true, but I think that when someone asks about playing a dragon, isn't asking about playing a vampire

Saying a mage or vampire who transforms into a dragon "doesn't count" means Fafnir doesn't count as a Dragon. Its kind of stupid to say anything doesn't count.

I never used that expresion, I admit that transformation powers can get you there. However, if someone asks about playing a vampire, I would send that someone to Vampire, not to Mage (in spite of the fact that mages can have fangs, suck blood and be alergic to sunlight)

You really don't see how playing an Elder Gangrel may be a different experience from playing a character that was deviced to be a dragon first and foremost?