I read the quick description on Wikipedia, and my first thought is "What type adventure would I sent a group of dragons on?" Could you give an example or two of the plot hooks that were included?
The islands were ruled by dragon clans, about five or six per dragon color with Metallic, Gem, and Chromatic all represented. The boxed set presented a few sample adventures, as well as some dangling hooks. Humans were no where to be found on the islands, and were the feared "enemy" race because they had dragonslayers. There was a dracolich secretly controlling one of the dragon clans. A philosophical conflict between two copper clans...one had broken off from the larger, more traditional clan over idealogical differences.
It was really bare bones, but there were some pretty bones, especially the one or two line descriptions of some of the draconic cities (bronze clan living in a city built into a cliff face, sapphire and emerald clans living in a city that was both above and below ground, a secret haven for half-dragons somewhere in the territory of a silver dragon clan). This is all from memory as I no longer have the old boxed set.
The setting also had no halflings. Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes were the servitors, slaves, minions, companions, or what have you to the dragons, with some becoming specially bonded "kindred."
Ah, memories. I love Council of Wyrms.
I read the quick description on Wikipedia, and my first thought is "What type adventure would I sent a group of dragons on?" Could you give an example or two of the plot hooks that were included?
The campaign was very political. For examples the sample adventures are about nearby frost giants who plan a big raid on a nearby dragon domain. The PCs first had to uncover the plot then repell the giants and in a later adventure take the fight to them.
Also each dragon had a humanoid "familiar" which could also be used in adventures.
In 3Ed it was rather easy to create a Council of Wyrm like game. Dragons were easily playable so you just needed the setting information. Sadly it looks like that in 4Ed it will be much harder to convert monsters into playable characters.
I used to have the Council of Wyrms setting, read a bit on it but never got around to running a game in it...whish is a shame. And I too, no longer own it boxed set.
Id certainly be interested if ever it was re-released but I wont hold my breath.
A Draconomicon II (metallic dragons) and III (gem dragons) (since there'll be a Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons) dovetails with one intriguing possibility: Council of Wyrms. Although there are ardent fans, it seems doubtful WotC will develop it for 4E, especially given the perceived de-emphasis of monsters as PCs on WotC's part. A hard copy CoW sourcebook is next to imaginary the way I see things right now (but then miracles happen). So here's an idea. Put out the three Draconomicons. Each individual copy has a personal serial number or some such code. When a player registers all three codes to WotC, he gets a Council of Wyrms sourcebook PDF for free (similar to the way that owning the three core books entitles one to free official on-line content). It's a stretch, but feasible, I think.
I loved the Idea of Dragons as PCs, especially considering the nature of races as PCs in 2ed.
I had 3 primary problems with the setting. 1.) I found it difficult to concieve viable plot lines for the charcters. How do you get such staunch LG golds to work with the passionate CG Coppers, and dont get me started having a mixed party of Cromatic, Gem and Metalics. 2.) Dragons live for multiples of 100 years, some (according the the CS) lived upwards of 2000 years. So the PCs spend a year or so adventuring, but must age for several more years before they can advance to their next age bracket. so every time the PCs leveled, lots of stuff would be changing on the political front of the world. It was too much to try to create and keep up with. 3.) Players like amassing wealth and magical weapons etc. Dragons, being the Apex Predators that they are, amass wealth to advance not to spend. Players always had trouble wraping their mind around this concept and it took alot of the fun out of the game for the 2 groups I experimented with.
I will admit in defense of TSR, That I was only about 15 at the time I played it (im 30 now). Having the experience and knowledge base that I have now, i could probably overcome several of the problems I had, especailly if I had a game group who was really into the ROLEPLAY aspect of being a dragon.
I believe I have my old box set (less posters) somewhere around here. anyone care to make a purchase?
Bill
When a player registers all three codes to WotC, he gets a Council of Wyrms sourcebook PDF for free (similar to the way that owning the three core books entitles one to free official on-line content).
Spiffy idea!
Hey, wasn't there another landmass hinted as lying on the same planet as CoW, with giants instead of dragons? So WotC could sketch this "giants as PCs" setting and post it as a DDI enhancement to Gigantonomicon: The Book of Giants.
Travis
I wouldn't monkey with the basic framework of a PC. Their level bonuses and save bonuses, ect, would remain the same. Give them an expanded racial package including flight, an encounter breath weapon, a bite attack and two +2 stat bonuses based on their dragon type. (Yes, dragons probably should be better than two +2 stat bonuses, but we have to be cautious of breaking the XP model.) Design some draconic racial feats and powers they can select instead of class powers to improve on their existing abilities, and you're basically done.
Some might balk at the breath weapon being an encounter ability but I think it's critically important here. If dragon PCs can use their breath weapon repeatedly, then even melee PCs can trivialize ground-bound opponents. With the breath weapon as just an encounter power, they'd still get to use their classic breath weapon ability, but after that melee inclined dragon PCs would probably close to range. This keeps vast portions of the Monster Manual usable while it otherwise wouldn't be. Of course, you're still depending on the party to not decide that the Wizard dragon PC shouldn't just blast the ground-bound enemy to bits with at-will Magic Missiles, but that shouldn't be too huge of an issue. (But be prolific with adding basic ranged attacks to monsters just in case.)
Most of the PCs abilities would probably still come from their character classes, but they'd have class options that would let them focus on being a dragon instead of whatever class they'd chosen if they want to. You'd have a feat to give claw attacks alongside the bite, a feat to grant large size, a feat to gain a fear aura, ect...whatever your PCs would need to feel draconic. (These feats are much better than normal feats will likely be, but this is going over the top with our eyes open, right?) At the very least, requiring some feat and power expenditure to get cool dragon abilities will keep the power level of the PCs somewhat closer to a normal range since they'd be missing out on other feats and powers from their class.
Oh yeah, make some of the stronger dragon feats/powers require Paragon or Epic tier just to be safe. (I'm looking at you, Large-size-from-a-feat!)
In the end, the additional powers might end up requiring the use of an effective level adjustment (Subtract X from the level of the enemies when allocating your XP budget) but there's no reason it couldn't work with some tweaking and patience on the part of PCs and DMs alike as the bugs get worked out.
Spiffy idea!
Hey, wasn't there another landmass hinted as lying on the same planet as CoW, with giants instead of dragons? So WotC could sketch this "giants as PCs" setting and post it as a DDI enhancement to Gigantonomicon: The Book of Giants.
Travis
I prefer Libre Gigantes.
I don't see how it'd be especially difficult to make 4th edition dragon PCs for a Council of Wyrms campaign.
I agree, and think it'd be neat. Thanks for the sketch of how it could be done.
I prefer Libre Gigantes.
Yep, that'd work too.
I also have the Council of Wyrms campaign setting with all of the posters and all but one of the cardboard cards. I think it has some of the best D&D dragon artwork around. Never got around to playing it, but then again, I've never actually played a roleplaying game (CRPGs don't count) for more than one session. For some reason, I love reading rules, so I have quite a collection of roleplaying books now. I think 4th edition will be the first time I really try to play now that my younger brothers are old enough and really into WOW.