If my cell phone camera didn't suck I could post a picture of my dragon collection. But you'll have to settle for http://www.franklinmint.com/images/B11ZH... instead as an example of how I see the "classic" dragon. I guess the style would be considered a European dragon.
12 Jan, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 22nd comment:
Hey… I got ads in the mail for exactly that collection of dragons… :smile:
I have pretty cool wooden sculpture of a dragon that I'll post at some point. Got it in Indonesia; looks kind of like a hybrid Chinese/European dragon. Pretty nifty.
Whichever picture we use for the dragons (and that's a very cool looking dragon set, Samson), I think we're all saying the same thing, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with what others consider the classic dragons or whatever, it's entirely what we all as a group tend to think of as dragons within the context of our muds, which given that they're largely originally based on Dungeons & Dragons it really shouldn't be the least bit surprising that we tend to think of D&D style dragons as the classic style for our worlds.
As for drow, I think the popularity of Drizzt should serve to adequately dispel any notion that drow are popular because they're evil. I suspect that the real reason they're so popular is because they're unusual in many regards compared to the 'stock' races (they're black, they have more abilities (innate spells and such) than other races, etc.) and all the work Salvatore's put into making Drizzt so well known certainly hasn't hurt their popularity either. As David points out, they're also not the run of the mill let's go destroy/dominate the world sort of evil, they're a subtle and cunning evil. Personally, as far as 'evil' races go, I prefer illithid and vampires both to drow, but I didn't choose either of those (the other option) either here.
"Most dragons were thought to be large; however, the Chinese combat dragon was considered to be the size of a thimble. As with every mythological creature, dragons are perceived in different ways by different cultures. Dragons are sometimes said to breathe and spit fire or even acid or ice (depending on the type). They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing extremely large, typically feathered or scaly bodies; they are sometimes portrayed as having large yellow or red eyes, a feature that is the origin for the word for dragon in many cultures, and are often (but not always) portrayed with a row of dorsal spines, keeled scales, long crested ears, slitted eye pupils, leathery bat-like wings and fiery breath. Some dragons do not have wings at all, but look more like long snakes, such as Asian versions of the dragon, sometimes called the Lung. Dragons can have a variable number of legs: none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature. Modern depictions of dragons are very large in size, but some early European depictions of dragons were only the size of bears, or, in some cases, even smaller, around the size of a butterfly or even a flea."
In short, there really isn't a 'typical' medieval dragon. Personally I prefer to give the players as much freedom as possible when deciding what sort of dragon they'd like to play.
Giants for me (dragons second). I've always thought they were the most interesting in medieval literature, apart from the various heroes of course. They're always doing stupid or clever things, getting their heads chopped off and living to tell about it, dwelling in old or fantastical castles with endless supplies of beer and bacon. Usually they're considered to be an old race, with all kinds of magical doo-dads lying around.
Now that I talk it up I think a mud with just giants and dragons would be kind of cool.
15 Jan, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 26th comment:
I honestly figured Dracon would have been everyones favorite but I guess I was way off….. lol (Thats what I picked)
To be honest, I don't have a favorite. It depends on the fantasy. I know on World of Warcraft(Don't really play anymore but when I did) my favorite race was Troll. I hated their elves. It really depends on the setting of the game and the history of the race. Since this is fantasy someone can change elves to be more like trolls and it'd be okay because it's not like it's something real. Everyone is open to their interpretation of races when it comes to a fantasy setting.
16 Jan, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 31st comment:
Votes: 0
Kjwah said:
Everyone is open to their interpretation of races when it comes to a fantasy setting.
Well, yes and no, but in any case that is what makes it so hard to vote on favorites… :wink:
I honestly figured Dracon would have been everyones favorite but I guess I was way off….. lol (Thats what I picked)
Can't say I've ever heard of "Dracon". I tried searching and came up with this:
Dracon (7th century BC): Athenians statesman who founded the so called Draconic laws. They were very strict and the death penalty was applied to almost all crime. Even so, Dracon was very popular, because he had appeared in a time when Athens was suffering a social and financial crises. Dracon died when the people in a theatre started throwing clothes at him to show their appreciation, thus suffocating him.
I'm guessing that's not what you were referring to?
16 Jan, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 34th comment:
That's what I thought at first, but it's listed after Dragon. Perhaps Dracon is short for Draconian?
That's what I was thinking when I first went through the list.
16 Jan, 2008, David Haley wrote in the 37th comment:
Votes: 0
Oops. I didn't even notice it on the vote list. I guess my eyes just combined "dragon" and "dracon" – premature optimization is the root of all evils. :tongue:
Ah…well my dragon class also includes the option of playing as a draconian, but I think full dragons have a much more epic feel to them. There's just something about swooping into a village and burning it to the ground that appeals to my evil nature.
Depends how you see a Draconian on that aspect as well. Cause as I see Draconian's have wings, so what you said is just as possible but just in a much smaller form.