What do dragons do without gold?

[Smart_alec]

Exactly what it say's on the tin I'm afraid. Though I can offer context.

I'm running an extremely low technology/ magic saturated campaign (the player's are a third, fourth and a fifth generation settlers on a new continent) that is very much based off Australia and the British colonial spread. As such there wasn't much in the way of metallurgy before the new people doing the run around bought the various technological parts with them. So there is very little gold around. (Treasure packets are generally awarded in magic items with the equivalent GP value. It work's well thus far.)

I've managed to sidestep the issue thus far but I intend to have an angry hunting dragon as the antagonist a couple of sessions down the line but without the whole hoarding thing and with no big population centres to lord over I've got no idea what the Dragons do without those as their defining character traits.

So does anybody have any suggestions?

[HunterOfJello]

1. Enslave humans to go mine some gold for them to sit on.

2. Sit on Silver.

3. Sit on lots of sparkly gemstones.

4. Invent a philosopher's stone, then enslave humans to go mine lots of lead.

[Yora]

You could substitute treasures with other trophies. Like skulls of large monsters or the weapons and armor of warriors the dragon defeated.

[Eldan]

Enslave nomadic tribes and force them to come to him once a year with a tribute in human sacrifice?

Or gemstones. Opals come from Australia and they are, IIRC, scales of the rainbow serpent. That should provide perfect fodder for making them a magical material.

[nedz]

Maybe he's just a bit moody, but when he's not in a rampaging frame of mind he likes to relax with a good book. So he has a huge library.

BUT, this may not work in your setting. Perhaps he just has a lot of aboriginal art ?

[Morph Bark]

Fifth-generation? Wouldn't that mean at the very least 60 years have passed? (Likely more in the direction of 100-125 years? The 60 year number is based off the first generation immediately having kids upon arrival and those kids and every generation afterwards having kids at age 15.)

[DigoDragon]

Hoard Technology?

If the tech is low due to a lack of useable metals, then it could stand to reason a dragon will control the few metal resources locally. Said dragon could also be raiding ships that are bringing in the technology from across the sea.
This would keep the locals dependant on magic, which would make the dragon's Dispel and AMF spells much more dangerous.

[Smart_alec]

1. Enslave humans to go mine some gold for them to sit on.

2. Sit on Silver.

3. Sit on lots of sparkly gemstones.

4. Invent a philosopher's stone, then enslave humans to go mine lots of lead.

Or gemstones. Opals come from Australia and they are, IIRC, scales of the rainbow serpent. That should provide perfect fodder for making them a magical material.

I phrased this poorly. It's not just gold. It's everything associated with material wealth. There simply hasn't been enough time for the infer-structure to produce great amounts of any rare item and core monetisation to have developed.

Enslave nomadic tribes and force them to come to him once a year with a tribute in human sacrifice?

You could substitute treasures with other trophies. Like skulls of large monsters or the weapons and armor of warriors the dragon defeated.

These I actually really like. They're flavorful, pay lip-service to the whole racial trait's thing that fantasy and sci-fi authors love so much and they provide a vastly different visual aesthetic.

Thanking you so much.

Fifth-generation? Wouldn't that mean at the very least 60 years have passed? (Likely more in the direction of 100-125 years? The 60 year number is based off the first generation immediately having kids upon arrival and those kids and every generation afterwards having kids at age 15.)

It's been about ten years since non-convicts have been arriving and almost twenty for the people who went their as prisoners. (Who were not in fact sent there intentionally. A small armada of ships carrying prisoners of war got blown off course and set up shop there due to lack of supplies and an incident with a Kraken.)

A couple of jail-breaks later and you've got enough seeding to justify every non-native species that the players want to be and you've got the building blocks for a couple of small port towns.

The fifth generation member of the party is a Goblin and there are no humans in this setting.

Spoiler

Show

Yet. I've got plans for an inter-planer invasion force once they hit epic level.

She's fully grown and about five years old (and will live to about 15.)

[hymer]

Just some random thoughts:
Maybe there used to be a highly evolved culture in the area, but the dragons came and took all the gold. With many population centres decimated and no legal tender, the culture soon vanished, but the dragons are still there, and they've had hundreds or thousands of years to gather up all the remaining gold - and the local people have an unexplained taboo against worked gold and silver. They don't remember why it brings destruction any more, though.

[Clawhound]

All dragons love SOMETHING, but that can be anything, can't it? Dragons can like books, totem poles, statues, or whatever. There's really no end to bling out there.

[Smart_alec]

Sorry Nedz. I missed you in the first response.

Hymer, DigoDragon and Nedz, good ideas all but I don't think that they'll be appropriate for the setting.

Thank you as well though.

[Tyndmyr]

Wander around with a strange feeling that something is missing from his life.

[ZeroNumerous]

After discussing with a friend, I realized that dragons are basically giant scaled magpies.

So, with that in mind. They just go find other shiny things to lay on.

[Dazdya]

I was reminded of Easter island, and I could see a dragon demanding the natives to build them enormous statues of guys with funny hats, until the last trees are gone. Just a thouht, though.

[Anxe]

BONES! The Dragon collects bones. Everything he has ever killed has its skeleton proudly displayed in a giant pile. He sits upon his Bone Hoard in his lair, only exiting when he notices that he is missing a particular type of bone. A fibia that is 23.2cm long perhaps? He'll go find one and add it to his collection.

[LibraryOgre]

I like the bone and statues ideas... but also consider that dragons, themselves, may not be native. Assuming you're talking actual Australia (from a geographical reference standpoint), what if dragons come from Vietnam, Thailand, or even all the way from the Americas? Or that they hitched a ride from "England" to find more open areas (with fewer competing dragons)? They would be younger, at first, and wanting to build up riches... but there's no riches to build up. And there's hostile "alien" monsters who are already there.

[1337 b4k4]

Another thing to bear in mind is that over the centuries, many more things than just coins and technology have been signs of wealth. Salt, spices, alcohol, tea, fresh water and so on. Heck, any natural resource that is centrally located and excludable could serve as a dragon's hoard.

[Tenno Seremel]

Nothing. They do not exist until the land feels it needs to punish human infidels who dared to live on it.

[Draconi Redfir]

I always thought dragons unable or incapable of collecting gold and other shiny and rare things might take an interest in rocks, specifically the round kind often found on the bottom of rivers and like, the more spherical the better, morso if the Rocks have an interesting colour.

Further the Rocks have a practical use as well, with a little fire breath you can heat them up and make a nice warm bed for yourself, or an easy way to keep your eggs warm for a long period of time.

[Reltzik]

Hoard magic items.

Gemstones (already mentioned.)

Artwork.

Shiny shells, or whatever the local currency is.

A harem of sacrificial virgins.

Get fundamentally pissed off and kill everything.

There was a 2nd edition setting focusing on PC dragons, where the dragons needed to grow their hoards in order to advance an age category. Maybe dragons just can't get to their true size.

[The Glyphstone]

After discussing with a friend, I realized that dragons are basically giant scaled magpies.

So, with that in mind. They just go find other shiny things to lay on.

Basically this. If there's no currency or precious metals/gems yet, then that means it's still in a barter or subsistence economy, so anything 'useful' becomes valuable. If dragons simply have a compulsion to accumulate wealth, it could be a powerful rancher with vast herds of sheep/cattle (though that means they get a little poorer every time they eat dinner), or guard a vast forest filled with prime timber, or something similar.

[snoopy13a]

A dragon's gotta eat. Maybe dragons think the player characters are yummy.

[Analytica]

I tend to think of dragon greed as being about things others perceive as valuable. Gold is intrinsically worthless to a dragon since it does not purchase anything from anyone. However, all the humans envy the dragon if it has gold, because they would purchase things for gold if they had it. From this perspective, the dragon hoards whatever humans and other creatures crave. In this case, that might be territory - the dragon protects good pasturages, fertile lands or water sources by killing or driving away all others, not because it uses these resources but so that it will have them while others will crave them. The same could go for livestock, slaves or anything else. Whatever gives a mortal status to possess, the dragon will hoard.

[Urpriest]

Lots of mythological monsters hoard livestock, so I'd go with that first. Timber would be a bit more odd, but Humbaba sets vague precedent.

[toapat]

this seems like the kind of perfect situation for the SpellHoard, from Dragon 313

[Doorhandle]

BONES! The Dragon collects bones. Everything he has ever killed has its skeleton proudly displayed in a giant pile. He sits upon his Bone Hoard in his lair, only exiting when he notices that he is missing a particular type of bone. A fibia that is 23.2cm long perhaps? He'll go find one and add it to his collection.

I highly recommend this as it's METAL AS HELL. (tm)

Or gemstones. Opals come from Australia and they are, IIRC, scales of the rainbow serpent. That should provide perfect fodder for making them a magical material.

Also, this would be excellent.

Nothing says that the dragon couldn't mine out mineral wealth by itself: particularly if it's a burrowing type. even if it isn't, they're a 5 ton+ engine of destruction and could use their breath-weapon to do the heavy lifting/digging, to say nothing of helpful spells (ant-haul comes to mind.)

I tend to think of dragon greed as being about things others perceive as valuable. Gold is intrinsically worthless to a dragon since it does not purchase anything from anyone. However, all the humans envy the dragon if it has gold, because they would purchase things for gold if they had it. From this perspective, the dragon hoards whatever humans and other creatures crave. In this case, that might be territory - the dragon protects good pasturages, fertile lands or water sources by killing or driving away all others, not because it uses these resources but so that it will have them while others will crave them. The same could go for livestock, slaves or anything else. Whatever gives a mortal status to possess, the dragon will hoard.

Another cool idea.
Having it hoard water would be particularly appropriate if it's one of the more aquatic dragons: perhaps lording over a massive crater-lake, and toying with interlopers who are dying of thirst.

[Kitten Champion]

If you've got room in your setting for an arid desert your characters could be induced to enter, taking an innocent drink from an oasis or underground spring which the dragon has settled upon as its own... earning some wrath.

Or perhaps a local settlement is being built on a dragon's bone yard? Because the decaying remains leave the soil fertile. Somehow the PCs get involved in a dispute between an old dragon who's come there to die and those seen as defilers of its sacred land.

[Starshade]

Introduce a string of isles to the north (polynesian ish), where natives use seashells as coins, and let the dragons hoard pretty shells. Along with magical masks, strange idols, moai's and whatever they can manage to rob.

[Psyren]

They mope.

Anyway, IIRC Draconomicon talks about alternate hordes, such as rare books or galleries of valuable artwork. I could imagine other options like an exotic arboretum or manufactory of costly perfumes etc.

[Arutema]

They mope.

Anyway, IIRC Draconomicon talks about alternate hordes, such as rare books or galleries of valuable artwork. I could imagine other options like an exotic arboretum or manufactory of costly perfumes etc.

Mixing this with the prior pile of bones idea, have it hoard ivory and carved bone art objects.