Of Mana and Dragons

[sir_pudding]

The Horde ability in GURPS Dragons does this exactly.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The Horde ability in GURPS Dragons does this exactly.

I may have missed that. I'll give it a look. Thanks.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The Horde ability in GURPS Dragons does this exactly.

It is kinda like what I was going for, but not exactly.

[Balor Patch]

An ER recovers naturally, no Regeneration required, and "only while consuming loot " is an accessibility modifier. How much of a modifier depends how mobile the loot is (can the dragon move his hoard in a wagon?) and how rapidly it needs to be replaced (Smaug's hoard could probably shrink for a thousand years and still work).

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by TheGnome

I'm trying to figure the best way to represent a thing with dragons in my 4th ed Fantasy game and can use some help from the brain trust here.

Are the dragons NPCs? If so, don't worry about the mechanics at all. Simply describe their powers/abilities sufficiently for you the GM to use those powers in play and move on. Pretty sure that advice comes from Kromm himself.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by Balor Patch

An ER recovers naturally, no Regeneration required, and "only while consuming loot " is an accessibility modifier. How much of a modifier depends how mobile the loot is (can the dragon move his hoard in a wagon?) and how rapidly it needs to be replaced (Smaug's hoard could probably shrink for a thousand years and still work).

Using this idea, then 1% per 10 points of ER regain.
My dragons have anything between 50 and 200 ER.
They use Words of Power and Spoken Verb Noun magic.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Are the dragons NPCs? If so, don't worry about the mechanics at all. Simply describe their powers/abilities sufficiently for you the GM to use those powers in play and move on. Pretty sure that advice comes from Kromm himself.

Normally they would be NPCs, but I may run a dragon campaign in my world in the future.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by TheGnome

Using this idea, then 1% per 10 points of ER regain.

Make it an absolute value. Players will see that and go: "I regain 100 points of ER by depleting 10% of my $10 hoard."

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Make it an absolute value. Players will see that and go: "I regain 100 points of ER by depleting 10% of my $10 hoard."

That was off the cuff. Still playing with the math. Also, the value of a hoard is subjective in many cases.

"Oh, you hoard has art work in it? Well, it has value in the lands you took it, but folk here care little for art."

The mana is coming from the subjective reality of the idea of value. A virgin princess of fair appearance has more value than the farm girl everyone knows. This why one is often accepted by the dragon as a bribe and the other just pisses it off.

[Mister Negative]

Originally Posted by TheGnome

That was off the cuff. Still playing with the math. Also, the value of a hoard is subjective in many cases.

"Oh, you hoard has art work in it? Well, it has value in the lands you took it, but folk here care little for art."

The mana is coming from the subjective reality of the idea of value. A virgin princess of fair appearance has more value than the farm girl everyone knows. This why one is often accepted by the dragon as a bribe and the other just pisses it off.

In fact, this subjective value could be the actual value of the hoard. What if the mana is recovered through envy, rather than the wealth itself. The accumulated envy from others is what powers dragon mana. So sleeping on wealth is a deliberate act to increase the amount of envy generated.

This also means that dragons can't regenerate their reserves through hoards of once-valuable material that is no longer considered valuable (say, shell currency from a prior empire), and they can't regenerate their reserves through secret, unknown hoards, nor can they surreptitiously assemble a pile of valuables and regenerate mana.

It has to be known that the dragon has taken a hoard, known that the hoard exists, and known that the dragon is in control of it. It also has to be in a form that would generate envy--which is why dragons don't control massive tracts of land through shell corporations and proxies.

In that case, the diminution of the hoard could simply be the ebbing of envy over time as the populace grows complacent or resigned to the dragon's control over their hoard. Taking new items for the hoard, or even allowing thieves to steal and bring back choice spoils from the hoard, would work to increase envy and offset the loss in value (otherwise, old dragons with old hoards not only have to acquire new stuff, but also have a load of old, musty, unimpressive crap in their hoard).

"I thought Smaug had the Arkenstone. All I found was this crummy disco ball."