Say roleplaying game, and Dungeons and Dragons is very likely part of that conversation. Yet for all the fantasy adventures I’ve played or run, I never encountered a dragon. A wyvern, a basilisk… but no dragon. I am setting myself on a quest to play a series of different RPGs set around the premise of dealing with a dragon. Multiple RPG systems, one campaign. One Nasty Dragon.

My shortlist of games looks like this:

D&D, BX, or 5E - We should see how a Vs. dragon adventure goes down in the game that started it all.

Barbarians of Lemuria - I hear this game is HAWT! I’d like to find out.

Burning Wheel - because it’s my jam.

Tenra Bansho Zero - Record of Lodoss War, of course!

Cortex Prime - ‘cause reasons!

Then there’s the longlist: Palladium RPG, Mazes, Blackhack, Whitehack, Torchbearer, The One Ring, Symbaroum? Forbidden Lands? Blades???

This will probably take all of 2022. Quick math says 5 games x 5 sessions(avg) = 25 weeks, minimum.

Do I run it on Twitch for ActualPlay? Or do I podcast it? Or both and run multiple games in parallel? Unknown.

I do think the dragon is a black dragon as we understand them from D&D. I like its nasty temperament, its maliciousness. A black dragon’s lair, a bog swamp, is all kinds of fun and shenanigans. I’m sold on it. I think the dragon is a recent problem because it has just awakened. The bogland it went to sleep in as a youngling is now an overgrown forest; perhaps there was a town there also? Or a place of importance so that it’s easy to hook reasons for why folks would venture back to a location where a known dragon lairs and hunts. I think this is the pitch we start session zero with. We’ll figure out what brings the characters to or through this dragon territory. And I’ll need a moniker for this dragon!

So, tell me your dragon encounter stories!