Thoughts on Dragon hide armor

[DanHoward]

Personally I'd probably rule that the "dragon" persona has taken over the player's body and write him off as if he were killed. The dragon becomes a NPC.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine...... then I'll burn down your f*cking village and eat your children.

Am I the only one that couldn't help but add "...with the lemons" to the end of that?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Personally I'd probably rule that the "dragon" persona has taken over the player's body and write him off as if he were killed. The dragon becomes a NPC.

Just as you'd normally do with a PC becoming a vampire or zombie.

Naturally, you'd handle this differently for a monster-PC campaign.

[Qhaysh]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Am I the only one that couldn't help but add "...with the lemons" to the end of that?

Aaaah, Portal...

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Dragons might shed one scale (or one scale pair) at a time, the way birds shed feathers, in which case you'd collect the shed scales and link them together (might have to drill holes in the scales).

Originally Posted by Brett

I see the boss dragon-slayers as wearing armour plates made out of the large back scales, probably shaped into breastplates, backplates, greaves, vambraces etc. by shaping magics. They take smaller scales and have them laced together or sewn to backings to make brigandines for retainers etc. and for sale.

These two slot interestingly together if you assume that shed dragon scales can automatically re-affix themselves (through innate magic) to other hides. This makes dragon-scale armour really easy to make (even allowing old armour to be 'upgraded' using this process, which is handy if it was already very good or even enchanted), but it also leads to the conclusion that someone with enough scales could cover their own skin in dragon scales and never have to wear armour again!

The latter leads to a new dragon being made as affixing dragon scales onto living creatures allows them to slowly grow more scales until they're entirely covered and which begins the final transform into a dragon, in addition to adding a compulsive behaviour to find and affix more scales and/or hide this transformation.

Whilst the element of shedding scales allows the dragon to "reproduce" several times over. It also likely encourages the dragon to range far and wide, leaving multiple hoards (that contain many shed-scales) around the place that it can let thieves steal from (a common story element with dragons). Whilst explaining the "I'll just pretend to sleep whilst you tiptoe around me stealing my stuff" trope when it is at home.

Of cause the bigger the scales the better the armour, but smaller scales are much more common, so you still get the expected "older dragons make the best armour" trope too. You can also get much more interesting armour which includes pattens using scales from different dragons etc, which makes them significantly more fashionable and pushes up the demand (from both an in-game view, and a player based view... as its surprising how much aesthetics can govern a players choice*)

* I say as someone who hasn't spent hours on end customising the look of my avatars and armour in computer-games, or discussing at length the tiny details of the various swords and clothing my players wish to buy or start with...

[Antumbra]

My thoughts on the idea, mostly based on Kromm's mention of Aliens-style dragons:

The Parasite Dragon

Resembling the unholy union of a Xenomorph and the more famous True Dragon, a Parasite Dragon has a long, slender form covered by small black scales with an oily sheen. The flesh of this dragon clings tightly to its unbreakable metal bones, giving it the appearance of starvation - with how it persistently seems to hunt intelligent humanoids, early speculation once thought it incapable of eating anything but the few creatures capable of harming it.

It possesses an acidic breath weapon and claws capable of rending a fully armoured BIG THING in twain. Worst is its speed in flight and agility with the barbed stinger on its tail.

For those who manage to slay the beast, and seek to engage in the traditional forging of armour from its corpse - underneath the scales is a rubbery black hide, as tough as True Dragonhide, but with a surpassingly fast regeneration (persisting even after the monster is slain) such that two split edges need only be pressed together for them to fuse with no loss of strength.

However, the blood of the Parasite Dragon is as acidic as its breath - most weapons that pierce its hide are ruined. When fashioned into armour, any blow that penetrates through into the wearer will contaminate their wound with said acid - causing a brief, but terrible destruction of flesh.

This is where the most sinister aspect of Parasite Dragonhide reveals itself. The pain of the acid is most horrendous - but quickly ceases. The regeneration of the hide seals the wound and fills it with its own sickly black flesh.

At this point, the armour may never be removed without the greatest of white magics.

Further wounds continue this corruption, and as it progresses, the protection afforded by the armour increases. Other effects become apparent - the unnatural patchwork physiology of the wearer causes strange and subtle new strengths to manifest, along with disturbing changes to temperament and diet.

What happens to the wearer once all their flesh has been changed - eventually the corrupted flesh adjacent to the uncovered face or hands will "repair" damage to them on its own - has not been documented. The choice to wear Parasite Dragonhide is one made unknowing by most, and few such escape the fate it bestows.

Vague Mechanics Notes: Damage taken after DR is increased by X, but the wearer gets a Regeneration speed that fills in the X next turn and the full amount within some time period. Each regenerated point becomes both a positive and negative character point towards appropriate advantages (e.g. more DR, xenomorphiness) and disadvantages (e.g. sadism, xenomorphiness).

Pretty new to GURPS, so not sure about the regeneration to CP part - may be better as "the total regenerated HP becomes the total CP limit for buying exotic advantages, but comes with some disadvantages". Or something.