2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Eighty-Nine

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!

Today is Part 34 (Part B) of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.

**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**

So now to continue on with the Dragons - 

Attacking Dragons: Sleeping Dragons may be attacked with a free melee round by the attacker and +2 on hit dice for chances of hitting.

IMC the Dragon might be sleeping, but that does not mean it is defenseless. Most dragons make it difficult to get close to them without waking them up. In addition, many dragons have guards that they levy from any surrounding monster communities, such as orcs, hobgoblins, and ogres to name but a few. These communities in a Dragons territory also usually pay tribute to the Dragon on a yearly basis in gold and livestock.

Certain weapons will be more or less effective than others against the various types of Dragons. This is indicated on the following chart, the number indicating the addition or subtraction for the probability of hitting as well as the amount of damage done.

As noted in the table below are a number of types of attacks, these attacks include magic spells, certain magical weapons, staves, wands, rods, scrolls, Efreeti, Djinns and Elementals.

Subduing Dragons: Any attack may be to subdue rather than to kill, but this intent must be announced before melee begins. When intent to subdue is announced, hits scored upon the Dragon are counted as subduing rather than killing points. Each round of melee the number of points scored in hits is ratioed over the total number the Dragon has (hit point total), the hits obtained being stated as a percentile of the total possible, i.e. 12%, 67%, etc. The percentile dice are then rolled to determine if the Dragon has been subdued. A roll equal to or less than the percentage of hits already obtained means the Dragon is subdued. 

My Dragons are Immortal creatures and as such it never made much sense for a Dragon to be subduable. So IMC Very Young, Young and Sub-Adult Dragons may be subdued, but Adult, Old and Very Old Dragons may not. In addition, Adult, Old and Very Old Dragons will often be found with their mate. These older Dragons will always use their breath weapon immediately without delay when they are cornered, surprised in their sleep or if they even suspect that you are trying to subdue them and sell them into slavery or even worse to a Magic-User for experimentation. 

If they surmise that you are trying to subdue them (such as striking with the flat of the weapon) they will fight at double value, meaning they can use their breath weapon, immediately followed by claw, claw, bite and a tail sweep all in the same melee round. If they are in the presence of their mate, they will both fight at double value and will gain a +2 to all attacks. This also applies if either or both are in the presence of their young.

For example:

A “Very Old” 11 Hit Dice Red Dragon is encountered asleep in its cavernous lair. Three fighters creep in and strike to subdue. All three hit, scoring respectively 2,3, and 6 points, or 11 points total. 11 ratioed over 66 (the number of hit points the Dragon can absorb before being killed or in this case subdued) is 1/6th or 17%. The referee checks to determine if the Dragon is subdued and rolls over 17 on the percentile dice. The Dragon is not subdued, and a check is then made to see whether he will bite or use his breath weapon during the second melee round. The result indicates he will breathe. The attackers strike again and once more all hit for a total of 12 points. The Dragon breathes and as none make their saving throws the attackers are all killed for they take 66 points of damage from Dragon fire. Subsequently, the referee rolls 01 on the percentile dice (any roll up to 34 would have indicated success) indicating that had the attackers survived, they would have subdued the Red Dragon that turn.

As I noted before about breath weapon damage, this very old 11 Hit Die Dragon does 66 points of damage with its breath weapon. You do not roll damage, they always do maximum damage with their breath weapon if you miss your saving throw.

Not more than eight man-sized creatures can attempt to subdue any one Dragon.

This just identifies how many people can crowd in around a Dragon. My Dragons are larger and the number increases to twelve man-sized creatures.

Value of Subdued Dragons: Subdued Dragons can be sold on the open market (going out of existence in the game) for from 500 to 1,000 Gold Pieces per hit point it can take. Thus, the Red Dragon in the above example would be worth from 33,000 to 66,000 Gold Pieces. Offers are determined by the referee merely by rolling a six-sided die to see if the offer will be 500 (die 1), 600 (die 2), etc. Gold Pieces. Of course the character or characters who subdued the Dragon could keep it in their own service or sell it to other players for whatever they could get.

First, since I only allowed the younger and lower hit point Dragons to be subdued, I increased the value to 1000 to 2000 GP per hit point as standard sale value, but if you could get several bidders in an open auction, the value could be much higher, especially if several Magic-Users are involved.

Second, what is the "(going out of existence in the game)" all about? We assumed that it was a tidbit from the home game of Gygax, due to (we guessed) players deciding to go out and hunt dragons and sell them. So he was taking the open market selling of dragons away from them.  In all the 40+ years since, I have never heard this remarked upon by anyone talking about the Greyhawk campaign and I had really forgotten about it until I was going through it writing this.

Length of Subdual: A subdued Dragon will remain in that state until such time as an opportunity presents itself to escape or kill its master, but as long as the master is in a commanding position it will not attempt either course.

Parental Dragons finding Very Young, Young or Sub-Adult Dragons or a Dragon finding its mate missing, will attempt to track and locate the missing. Dragons have been known to wreak havoc in such cases. (This is something I have kept from the beginning all the way to the present day.)

Two or More Dragons: If two Dragons are encountered they will be a mated pair of at least the 4th age category. If three or four Dragons are encountered they will constitute a family group of a male, female and one or two young. The adults will be of the 4th or greater age category, the young of the 1st. If the young are attacked both parents will automatically use their breath weapons. If the female is attacked the male will attack at double value unless he is simultaneously attacked, and vice versa.

I superseded this with what I wrote higher up the page.

Dragon Treasure: Very Young and Young Dragons are unlikely to have acquired treasure. Sub-Adult Dragons will have about half the indicated treasure for Dragons. Very Old Dragons can have as much as twice the indicated amount.

I changed this to Old Dragons will have as much as twice the indicated amount. Very Old Dragons can have as much as quadruple the indicated amount.

Tomorrow I will post a few of the other things that I did with Dragons back in the fall of 1975 through the spring of 1976.