So, umm, outer dragons: what do they eat?

[Master of the Dark Triad]

It's a cool concept, but yeah. I was under the impression that space wasn't that populated.

[Cheapy]

Halflings, mostly.

Space halflings.

[Cheapy]

Maybe space plankton? There are space baleen whales.

[MagusJanus]

Each other?

[MrSin]

Aliens. Because why not?

Among these aliens shall be space halflings.

[Mikaze]

I like to think each dragon is mostly sustained by their thematic tie-in. Solar dragons soaking up solar power, Lunar dragons powered by cheese, etc. :)

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Now I have to make a custom space halfling race. Grrrr.

But, like, there aren't any other creatures I know of that should be common enough that a great wyrm, say, solar dragon could live off of, much less live a life that didn't entirely revolve around hunting.

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Mikaze wrote:

I like to think each dreagon is mostly sustained by their thematic tie-in. Solar dragons soaking up solar power, Lunar dragons powered by cheese, etc. :)

I kind of thought the same thing, but then I thought they'd mention it with the description. It's kind of important how they CAN EVEN SURVIVE.

But now I imagine solar dragons with big, back-mounted solar panels.

[Mikaze]

Kind of imagined the membranes of their wings functioning that way, with their very veins lighting up as they soak in those rays and catching solar winds to aid in flight.

[Timebomb]

maybe they photosynthesize? ghosts that accidentally forget to account for the momentum of the earth?

I vote space halflings.

[Cheapy]

Until I find canonical lore stating that the outer dragons do not in fact eat space halflings, I see no reason to believe they do not chow down on space halflings by the dozen.

[williamoak]

What do regular dragons even eat? It's never been clear to me that they actually need to eat at all. They be magic!

But yeah, I'll go with cheese, maybe space halflings. Definitly the souls of PCs. There's a glint in my current GMs eye whenever vortex dragons are mentionned that I might have to fight one soon.

[Mikaze]

williamoak wrote:

What do regular dragons even eat?

The scenery, if Benedict Cumberbatch's recent performance is anything to go by.

[Cheapy]

williamoak wrote:

What do regular dragons even eat?

Halflings, mostly.

[14 sided die]

Dragons ARE magical, maybe they don't require as much food as would be expected for their size. Thus they only need a few space halflings to get through the day. And the occasional inquisitive trying to discover their diet

[MrSin]

Cheapy wrote:

williamoak wrote:

What do regular dragons even eat?

Halflings, mostly.

Dragon 1: Why do we eat these guys anyway? Aren't they half the size of everyone else?

Dragon 2: Gotta watch your waistline. Besides, never seen a 'full'ling before you?

In other news, they tend to sleep a lot. I would think they don't eat much.

[Rysky]

hmm let's see:

Lunar = Moonlight (which is technically Sunlight but MAGIC!)

Solar =Sunlight

Time = Displaced Time existence particle... things

Void = Radiation

Vortex = *shrugs* really I doubt they spend enough time in space they have to worry about starving, with the Vortex's bite and alternate breath abilities it appears to rely on eating "normal" food, and being quite good at it infact.

[Cthulhudrew]

Great Old Ones.

"The diet that shall eternally digestify,
For those once eaten cannot die."

- The Mad Arab, Adbul Al-McDonald

[Zhayne]

My two non-canonical responses:

They absorb various types of electromagnetic radiation for sustenance, such as sunlight and cosmic rays.

They're magic, who says they eat anything at all?

[ThatWeirdGeckoGuy]

The fact that Giant Space Hamsters have not been brought up is a travesty .

[williamoak]

You see, everyone here only knows the MINIATURE giant space hamster. Far too small for a dragon.

[14 sided die]

Compromise, space halflings riding giant space hamsters being eaten by space dragons in space. SPAAAAAAACE

[Umbral Reaver]

This reminds me. I really need to finish my Iridium Dragon (Meteor Dragon). It's all about high velocity impacts. :3

[Rysky]

Umbral Reaver wrote:

This reminds me. I really need to finish my Iridium Dragon (Meteor Dragon). It's all about high velocity impacts. :3

Ooo me likey.

[Mikaze]

Umbral Reaver wrote:

This reminds me. I really need to finish my Iridium Dragon (Meteor Dragon). It's all about high velocity impacts. :3

can't decide if more awesome or more terrifying

[Umbral Reaver]

Here's my original post. Nothing ever came of it. I was sure I wrote up stats somewhere, but I can't find it.

Quote:

Iridium Dragons! Iridium dragons mate in space near planets, laying their rocky, meteor-like eggs in a decaying orbit. Most iridium dragons drop and form small impact craters where they land, using that as the first basis for their lairs. More rarely, unhatched iridium dragons remain in orbit for centuries, growing to greater size as their eggs 'accrete' stellar matter. These rapacious terrors have the full powers of an adult dragon but none of the maturity. Their oversized meteor-eggs impact with colossal force, devastating the lands around and giving forth a monstrous beast to devour whatever remains.

Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Breath weapon: A cone of stellar radiation (half fire, half untyped).
Powers: Immunity to vacuum, does not need to breathe and can go without food for years, can fly in space at increased speed.
Spell-like abilities: Suffocation, meteor swarm, interplanetary teleport.

[Peet]

I stumbled on this website a long time ago and it has a few ideas for creatures native to space:

http://steam-trek.com/flora_fauna.php

[LazarX]

Adventurers who go out into space asking such stupid questions.

[Luthorne]

Well, the primary possibilities that would seem to suggest themselves...

First of all, as many people have suggested, they might well feed on more esoteric forms of energy, ranging from starlight to space leylines to background cosmic radiation to ambient magic to just about anything you can imagine. It's certainly the simplest explanation.

Secondly, they might simply be capable of going for extremely long periods of time without eating, and touch down on planets to stock up as much as they can. In this scenario, it seems likely that they would keep a fairly well-developed mental star map of planets that have suitable lifeforms (presumably lots of large, meaty animals).

Thirdly, space ecology might be more well-developed than one might think. We know at least some creatures travel from star system to star system, such as elder things, mi-gos, and shantaks, while others seem quite natural inhabitants of space, such as oma and star monarchs, whether they originated there or simply adapted to live there, leaving out more esoteric cases like akatas, flumphs, etc. Not to mention outer dragons potentially attacking the spaceships of a spacefaring race and devouring the crew... Space isn't a normal environment for adventures to occur in, so it's possible these are just the tip of the iceberg of what's living out there as part of a grand, unthinkably huge ecosystem. In short, that space is not really that empty.

Of course, you might ask, in that case, why don't we see this life from Earth? Well, creatures with space flight can travel a lot faster than we currently can, I believe (minus elder things), so it's possible that they're simply spread out more...or they could be actively avoiding our planet. Perhaps because of Cthulhu? Or, adapted to microgravity or zero gravity, they might well avoid the crushing gravity wells of planets and suns. It's hard to say for sure, but perhaps there's life everywhere - Golarion's solar system would certainly seem to indicate so - and we just don't have the eyes to see them...yet.

And, of course, it could be a combination of any or all of these, with outer dragons being opportunistic feeders who can survive off of some esoteric energies and occasional space creatures to get to a planet where they really feast. Who knows?

[LazarX]

Lovecraft never really bothered about such things. His intent was to write horror stories that would justify using favored Victorian words like Antediluvian (which means Before the Flood, in case you ever wondered.) not Robert Forward style science fiction. He frankly did not care about addressing questions such as how often did Cthulhu or mi-go go to the john.

[Matrix Dragon]

Cheapy wrote:

Halflings, mostly.

Space halflings.

You mean Giant Space Halflings?

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Zhayne wrote:

My two non-canonical responses:

They absorb various types of electromagnetic radiation for sustenance, such as sunlight and cosmic rays.

They're magic, who says they eat anything at all?

The "dragon" type says they eat.

[Zhayne]

LazarX wrote:

Lovecraft never really bothered about such things. His intent was to write horror stories that would justify using favored Victorian words like Antediluvian (which means Before the Flood, in case you ever wondered.) not Robert Forward style science fiction. He frankly did not care about addressing questions such as how often did Cthulhu or mi-go go to the john.

Yeah, but Lovecraft was a nutter who needed a IV drip of Prozac.

[robert best 549]

I would guess they eat whatever they wish. The draconomicon for D&D gave some useful info that could determine it though. Like one of the common dragons eats rubies as a favored meal, though IIRC all dragons are omnivorous.

[Luthorne]

LazarX wrote:

Lovecraft never really bothered about such things. His intent was to write horror stories that would justify using favored Victorian words like Antediluvian (which means Before the Flood, in case you ever wondered.) not Robert Forward style science fiction. He frankly did not care about addressing questions such as how often did Cthulhu or mi-go go to the john.

Well, that's interesting, but not really relevant. Lovecraft may have created them initially, but they are now part of a larger ecosystem than Lovecraft's, one with giant scorpion robots with plasma cannons, space moths, elves, angels, genies, gods, kaiju, giant constructs that turn into castles, and so on and so forth. This is not Lovecraft's setting anymore. When he created them, their abilities and limitations were based purely on narrative needs, and now they have hit points, specified defenses, specified abilities, and while there is always room for narrative additions to any and all of these, they aren't purely narrative constructs anymore (unless the DM wants to do it that way, at least).

So, really, is there any reason people shouldn't ponder what space dragons might feed on? You might not care, no one's forcing you to ponder it, and in your games you can make it be whatever you want when you involve space dragons at all, but I'd much rather consider what implications space ecosystems might have, especially if it leads to fun concepts. Famished void dragons chasing a spaceship onto the planet of the party, an elder thing apocalypse being averted by contacting some outer dragons to let them know there's a slow-moving feast near the planet, considering that if outer dragons are sustained between planets by coasting along galactic leylines, that spaceships might also utilize this power for their faster-than-light travel, which frequently puts them in the path of outer dragons, or even causes problems with outer dragons who find that the energy of a galactic leyline they were seeking to use has been rendered thin and unpalatable by countless spaceships...lots of possibilities.

[Ciaran Barnes]

Cheapy wrote:

Until I find canonical lore stating that the outer dragons do not in fact eat space halflings, I see no reason to believe they do not chow down on space halflings by the dozen.

Indeed. Perhaps Space Halflings are the Gully Dwarves of Golarion.

[Cthulhudrew]

LazarX wrote:

Lovecraft never really bothered about such things. His intent was to write horror stories that would justify using favored Victorian words like Antediluvian (which means Before the Flood, in case you ever wondered.) not Robert Forward style science fiction. He frankly did not care about addressing questions such as how often did Cthulhu or mi-go go to the john.

Cthulhu goes to the john the same place humans dump all their waste- the ocean.

[MrSin]

Cthulhudrew wrote:

LazarX wrote:

Lovecraft never really bothered about such things. His intent was to write horror stories that would justify using favored Victorian words like Antediluvian (which means Before the Flood, in case you ever wondered.) not Robert Forward style science fiction. He frankly did not care about addressing questions such as how often did Cthulhu or mi-go go to the john.

Cthulhu goes to the john the same place humans dump all their waste- the ocean.

I think his john is an inconceivable abomination crafted in non-Euclidian geometry. We should be thankful that we don't have a description of how Eldritch Abominations from beyond the Aether do their business.

In other news, I thought we were talking about food. Like Space Halflings. Maybe they eat rocks? What if there are space plankton! What if space halflings are the space plankton...

[KahnyaGnorc]

From "The Dragon's Retort":

Yes, virgins taste better than those who are not
But me favorite snack with perils is fraught
Me teeth will decay and me trim go to pot
Yes, virgins taste better than those who are not

Answer: Whatever they want to.

[Zombieneighbours]

Volatile rich comets, Sun lifted carbon, Suryas, Migo, and Shantaks. But, mostly Shantaks.

[Drejk]

Pizza with lunar cheese, shantak ham and chopped mi-gos?

[lucky7]

They go to Dunkin Donuts: There's one every 500 feet.

[MagusJanus]

Thanks to this thread, if I ever run one of those dragons, it will have a book in its lair titled, "How To Serve Space Halfling."

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

Cheapy wrote:

Until I find canonical lore stating that the outer dragons do not in fact eat space halflings, I see no reason to believe they do not chow down on space halflings by the dozen.

Indeed. Perhaps Space Halflings are the Gully Dwarves of Golarion.

Even space halfling a aren't THAT dumb.

[cnetarian]

people are so silly when the answer is obvious, they eat normal halflings. Outer Dragons my be able to survive in the void but when an outer dragon needs food it just lands on a planet, moon, comet or other astronomical body and chow down on halflings. If for some reason there is a shortage of halflings they can eat other things but since halflings are the type of vermin which spreads everywhere (except space, there are no 'space halfling') this is very rarely a problem.