My PCs have recently become the unwilling servants of an ancient green dragon. They slaughtered his kobold and lizardfolk servants after they were attacking their colony on this new land. They stumbled into his chamber and he now sees them as part of his horde and his property to do with as he wishes. He is now sending them to go kill a rival red dragon in the mountains. If they just leave he will torch their colony and they will be left forever on this unknown continent alone. Now the question I want to ask is.
How generous would he be with his own horde of treasures to support his new servants in their quest? Would he equip them with magical weapons and armor and give them gold? Just gold? Would he kick them out of his lair and give them nothing? I am thinking one magical item and a small parcel of gold to gather supplies with. The magical item would of course be expected to be returned.
>>46196648
I would think it would depend on his personality and how much he wants the rival confirmed dead.
if he thinks the party able to kill a dragon on their own why wouldn't immediately attempt to kill them himself, to circumvent the risk of them turning on him?
If he gives them magical items in order to facilitate killing the other dragon, what would stop them from using them on himself?
If he doesn't give them enough power to kill the rival, he'll simply be giving him a snack and some more treasures for -his- horde, as well as a motive for revenge and the possible knowledge that greenie no longer has servants.
Is he simply short sighted in his goals, not thinking plans through?
Food for thought.
>>46196764
He sees this dragon as a trivial chore and below him.
He himself is an ancient dragon very powerful.
This is a young upstart at best young/adult red dragon.
He tested them with a hydra to gauge their power before they entered his chamber and has a feel for their abilities and has planned for them attacking him.
Why not guarantee a kill on this rival dragon by giving them just enough power to confirm it but not hurt him.
Your second question is a good one for if they do succeed in killing his rival he will want all his horde for himself and will kill you if you take anything not granted to you.
For your third this rival is an insect to him as said before, he is just being a lazy fuck.
>>46196648
>My PCs have recently become the unwilling servants of an ancient green dragon.
Stop railroading them, you piece of shit, let them slay your fucking mary sue self insert original character dragon you cuntburger.
>>46196806
In that case, maybe something like
>Well I guess you guys might need a little something to help.
>Here's this pile of slightly cursed or ugly stuff, some of it is magic too but I can't remember which is which. You may each take ONE with you, or if you'd rather I will give you -amount- of this gold I haven't gotten around to polishing yet.
Idk I just think he'd be loathe to give up anything "shiny", but maybe the pile has things that are simply unatractive to a dragon like a smelly hide robe or something that actualy ends up being rather impressive, albeit smelly/dingy.
>>46196876
I did not tell them to go into that cave.
I did not tell them to walk into the magical darkness
I did not tell them to cast magical light and break it and wake his ass up.
Fuck you nigger.
>>46196648
First off, while chromatics can commonly have underlings, they aren't considered part of the 'horde'. They are filthy creatures who serve a singular purpose and dragons generally don't give a shit if they get themselves killed while off doing whatever, and in some cases the dragons bite off their heads themselves for how annoying they are at any given time, etc. The blackmail of a razed colony is enough of a story hook for the premise in my opinion, just go with that.no need to give vore fags a reason to infest the thread
Next anon makes a good point, it will largely depend on what personality you gave this particular green dragon, but it's entirely up to you (if you're the one writing it up), anyway.
Specifically, I don't see a chromatic simply giving out goods to people he just met and have only just promised to be dutiful underlings. Too trusting for dragons. Looking back on people have written dragons with kobold worshipers and what not in the past, I'd say he rakes his blackmail hooks into the party, then considers their power, makes them do menial chores, then only later on wonders if they might be able to solve his Red Problem, and after that allows them to keep a portion of their plunder in order to become powerful enough to take on the Red, but never strictly GIVING any of his already owned loot to the party.
In this context, I'd say the green would oblige and give the party extremely useful information on where to loot, how to loot, and perhaps how to overcome certain obstacles, especially if they are magical in nature. So, the party has extra dungeons to go spelunking and they may even end up being a breeze half the time because of the sheer forethought of currently-allied Ancient Green Dragon. Make it sort of build up to a climax where the party knows that these dungeons are easy because they'll need the rewards to fight a gosh darned red dragon very soon, and the green isn't going to care overmuch if they get charred.
>>46196882
>>Here's this pile of slightly cursed or ugly stuff, some of it is magic too but I can't remember which is which. You may each take ONE with you, or if you'd rather I will give you -amount- of this gold I haven't gotten around to polishing yet.
I like this one.
I still like the idea of him seeing living beings as part of his hoard of treasure though.
>>46196885
But you did fuck them over by presenting OOOOH SO MIGHTY AND ANCIENT dragon they could not defeat.
Here's the suggestion: make him young, or wounded, basically so they'll be able to slay them. Give them cool boss battle instead of HAHA I FUCKED YOU OVER railroading engine.
>>46196876
>all these assumptions and buzzwords
You ever think the unwilling part was IC and that they were too underleveled to fight it and win?
>>46196901
>horde
hoARD, you absolute triple nigger.
>>46196904
They failed all their shit to get a good look at him.
If they would have noticed he is ancient as fuck and near the end of his life.
But they didn't so fuck them they are going on a quest.
>>46196911
THEN WHY DID YOU SIC A THREAT THEY COULD NOT DEFEAT AT THEM.
>>46196917
deliberate play on words, if you hadn't noticed the ' ', shut the fuck up you autistic spazdongle if you cant make those kinds of connections and want to do nothing productive and just shitpost
go ahead and REEE any time, then fuck off
>>46196926
>What is a story.
>What is introducing a possible big bad.
>What is not power gaming and killing everything in sight and using your brain to deal with threats.
>>46196904
Not everything in the world has to be at the pc's CR. They can always just weasel their way out of working for the dragon or drop his task after leaving the dungeon.
>>46196902
if thats the case then why would he burn the town rather than enslave it if they refuse to cooperate ?
>>46196920
It's fine bro, dont worry about the spaztards telling you how to design your game. Anything and everything goes provided you can make it interesting and fun in one way or another.
I'm sure we've all heard arguments for 'invisible railroading' and how it ends up being super fun anyway.
Probably best to ignore the autisms.
>>46196937
Pretty much.
He is just giving them extremely good reasons to go do it for him.
>>46196939
What good is a servant if he does not listen anon?
>>46196942
Yeah I am used to retarded shit posters on other boards but I still am not used to it here.
>>46196904
He gave them a boss already you dense nigger, he mentioned a hydra.
>>46196933
>What is a story.
If i want a story i'll read a book thank you.
If a DM wants to write a story how PCs suck dragon cock he should write a book, print copies, douse them in gasoline, sit on them and drop the match.
>What is introducing a possible big bad.
The only time big bad should be introduced is when PCs are about to kill him. Before that use news, lieutenants, threats they can deal with. OOH LOOK HOW COOL MY BBEG IS is a masturbation of the worst kind.
>What is not power gaming and killing everything in sight and using your brain to deal with threats.
>Hurr durr powergaming
>Dealing with threats the way threats should be dealt with is not using your brain
Just go to forge forums, or RPGnet, or GiantITP. You're not welcome here, faglord.
>>46196955
why wouldn't they listen?
you're on a colony and a dragon just destroyed your ships/whatever means of escape you had and dropped a couple of people to their death in the middle of the town square. Then he says "hey if you don't clean my room im going to do the same to you", what would you do?
just pointin out some logic here.
>>46196990
That hydra fucking wrecked them.
They only had one martial class and he got hit with 5 heads for 2 round and 3 heads for 3.
It was hilarious watching my PCs sweat.
Then my druid PC who is newer at the game remembered he could turn into a dire wolf and summon two others to aid him.
Was good times all around.
I got to slap someone with 5 d10s for a few rounds and they got to kill some big shit.
>>46197008
k
>>46197010
Oh I was talking about the colony dude.
The expedition leader would go full on war with the dragon and prob get everyone killed cause hes a hot headed retard.
>>46197008
Get fucked, and go fuck your BADWRONGFUN while you're at it, too.
Perfectly fine to introduce badass motherfuckers if you have a neat story lined up. News flash by the way, nobody said the ancient green was the BBEG.
Would you kindly kill yourself. You don't speak for all of us.
>>46197010
Not OP, but the dragon might not give a flying fuck about the normal scrubs hanging out in the colony. He wants the Red dead, which a bunch of farmers aren't going to be able to handle, but the PCs just might.
Plus it's more work than just telling the PCs he'll totally do it. Why bother getting up off his hoard of gold when he can just talk them into cooperation?
>>46197027
OP have anything else you'd like to table in the thread? It's gone to shit, but I'm still interested in the plot of party being butt slaves to an ancient green.
I swear to god 4ch/tg/ is getting nearly as bad as 4+4ch/tg/. Why can't shitposters just fuck off for once so people can have a constructive thread.
>>46197008
Where are you pulling all this shit from? It just sounds like a bog standard green dragon with a quest that is probably optional once they're a good distance away from the dragon.
>>46197075
The colonists are weak and only serve to be the source of moral blackmail for the party. In terms of persuasion, I think it's more an empty threat than anything, but decisively more than enough to sway the party into doing it + doesn't matter if the party runs away from the dragon because the threat still stands. I'm sure greenie could manage to get off his dying ass for a little bit in any case. Threatening tends to be much quicker than a jolly conversation with sensible persuasion techniques, and the dragon has no qualms about being seen as an evil, abusing fucker.
>>46197010
And he did not have to get too hands on with persuading them.
One of my PCs is seasoned and immediately became a devout servant to him.
I think he is going to worship him and drop Pelor. Which will lead to some hilarious smiting.
>>46197087
Was gonna make this continent devoid of humans.
Mostly just lizardfolk and trolls and random owlbears the the greens forest. It had Elves in it at one time but some orcs came in a blew them the fuck out.
My druid elf PC is going to be connected to that. He was abandoned in the forest as a baby and raised by another druid. Prop an outcast from the other elves.
Red is prob gonna be in a mountain he took from dwarfs.
Dwarfs will be below the mountain in the badlands that border the forest fighting over resources with orcs who are the reds slaves.
Dwarfs living in a valley of some sorts and digging outward into the walls.
I got some other ideas but they are mostly just notes.
>>46197118
Hey that's pretty neat. I especially like the orc bit. In my head I'm imagining orcs that use red ritual paint before going into battle and calling themselves fire orcs or something in service to their red dragon overlord, nice fluff like that.
Diplomacy with dwarves leads to secret tunnel they mined out right underneath Red's gold stash? Sneaky fuckin dwarves using the stolen [double stolen] gold to fund their war efforts with the flame orcs and such.
If I was a GM I'd be shamelessly stealing, but who has time for socializing, right... ha.. haha.
Anyway, good shit.
>>46197162
My first time DMing long time PC.
I am full of ideas atm.
>>46197167
Honestly I think I just come here to catch cool ideas and talk about them but never do anything with them.
Sounds like you got the right mindset for being GM, good luck.
>>46196876
Nicely meme'd
>>46196648
>>46196806
This actually sounds like a good method for starting an evil campaign.
