An abundance of Blue, or is it just me?

[Sigh]

After thinking back on the various APs I've played in the past few years, I've noticed that there's a bit of a pattern. Specifically, almost all of the named (and therefore important) Dragons the players have to really take time to "deal with" are overwhelmingly Blue, aside from the equally overwhelmingly Gold dragons that Evil parties are usually tasked with fighting like in Vengeance.

For context, I've played in Shattered, Rise, Curse, Vengeance, and am currently running Rebels for some friends. I've also started a session of Carrion Crown but that didn't get farther than Book 2 before crashing and burning so there was no room for Dragons in that campaign... yet.

[keftiu]

No love for the vortex dragon in Iron Gods?

[GayBirdGM]

keftiu wrote:

No love for the vortex dragon in Iron Gods?

Well, that one is yellow and blue? :D

We need more nightmare dragons...

[Moppy]

From an artistic point of view, I see it.

Black and white are hard to highlight or shade, and can get lost in some pictures. Green are straight from cartoons. Red is boring, and isn't every dragon red on D&D covers? Blue is a striking color.

The number of hit dice might have something to do with it.

[Staffan Johansson]

I'm pretty sure my paladin one-shotted* a red dragon about mid-way through Rise of the Runelords. I don't recall its name, though.

* Well, technically it was still recovering from the damage it had taken in an earlier fight, but declaring it as a Smite target followed by a crit with a bow on the first attack, thus doing something like (1d8+25)x3 points, was pretty satisfying.

[Kasoh]

Staffan Johansson wrote:

I'm pretty sure my paladin one-shotted* a red dragon about mid-way through Rise of the Runelords. I don't recall its name, though.

* Well, technically it was still recovering from the damage it had taken in an earlier fight, but declaring it as a Smite target followed by a crit with a bow on the first attack, thus doing something like (1d8+25)x3 points, was pretty satisfying.

Rise has 3 Red dragons near the middle. (A bigger red that attacks Sandpoint and two of its spawn at the library thing) They all have names. Karzoug is flanked by 2 older blues I think, but I don't know if they have names.

[Tangent101]

There's three Reds, two Blues, and an old and cunning White in RotRL.

Hell's Rebels has a Blue Dragon and also an Umbral Dragon who can either end up fighting the PCs, or becoming a potential ally.

Reign of Winter has NO Blue Dragons in the primary storyline (though there are dragon-like entities in Book 4) and two White Dragons. There's a potential third Dragon in Book 3 as well but that's a random encounter that the GM doesn't need to use (and is also a White).

I don't remember too much about Wrath of the Righteous but I don't think there's any dragons involved outside of an undead dragon who most definitely isn't Blue.

[James Jacobs]

I'm waiting for someone to do a spreadsheet of every single dragon encounter we've published now...

That said... there's nothing deeper here. Beyond trying to juggle which dragons appear on rulebook covers so (eventually) we got Wayne to paint all of the chromatic dragons, we've never really had an agenda of making one type of dragon more frequently encountered than others.

[Fumarole]

@Kasoh

Spoilers, yo.

[Tangent101]

James Jacobs wrote:

I'm waiting for someone to do a spreadsheet of every single dragon encounter we've published now...

That said... there's nothing deeper here. Beyond trying to juggle which dragons appear on rulebook covers so (eventually) we got Wayne to paint all of the chromatic dragons, we've never really had an agenda of making one type of dragon more frequently encountered than others.

I was tempted. But I've got work.

Also, I don't have all of the APs and a number of the books are in storage.

[zimmerwald1915]

Hell's Vengeance has a prominent gold dragon :v

[Deadmanwalking]

Age of Ashes features Red, Gold, and Magma Dragons in prominent roles.

[Thebazilly]

Curse of the Crimson Throne prominently features a Blue dragon. But there's also a Black dragon in a boss fight in one of the later books.

[Seannoss]

Giantslayer has several red dragons in it. And going off of the cover Shattered Star has a blue in it.

[Kasoh]

Ironfang Invasion has two prominent black dragons that I'm aware of.

[captain yesterday]

GayBirdGM wrote:

keftiu wrote:

No love for the vortex dragon in Iron Gods?

Well, that one is yellow and blue? :D

We need more nightmare dragons...

There is one in

:

Strange Aeons.

[GayBirdGM]

captain yesterday wrote:

GayBirdGM wrote:

keftiu wrote:

No love for the vortex dragon in Iron Gods?

Well, that one is yellow and blue? :D

We need more nightmare dragons...

There is one in ** spoiler omitted **

I know! I ran that adventure and absolutely loved it! A huge favorite among my group. That particular fight was pretty memorable to all of us.

One of my players handmade a custom little plushie of a nightmare dragon for me for my birthday, even! I just love them so much.

[Sigh]

All of these colors and I'm noticing that I don't see any Greens, and I'm struggling to recall any that I've seen in the past outside of the very nice Gargantuan sized mini that may not even be Paizo's, it might be WotC.

[zimmerwald1915]

Sigh wrote:

All of these colors and I'm noticing that I don't see any Greens, and I'm struggling to recall any that I've seen in the past outside of the very nice Gargantuan sized mini that may not even be Paizo's, it might be WotC.

Didn't The Dragon's Demand feature a Green?

[Kasoh]

zimmerwald1915 wrote:

Sigh wrote:

All of these colors and I'm noticing that I don't see any Greens, and I'm struggling to recall any that I've seen in the past outside of the very nice Gargantuan sized mini that may not even be Paizo's, it might be WotC.

Didn't The Dragon's Demand feature a Green?

Aeteperax. He also showed up prominently in the playtest adventure.

[the nerve-eater of Zur-en-Aarh]

Sigh wrote:

All of these colors and I'm noticing that I don't see any Greens, and I'm struggling to recall any that I've seen in the past outside of the very nice Gargantuan sized mini that may not even be Paizo's, it might be WotC.

Second Darkness has a Green.

I'd still like to see an AP give us a blue dragon who has lived in an area for centuries and controls pretty much everything there through complex layers of intermediaries, as much of the lore about them characterises them as doing. As the end boss of a chapter, if not a whole AP.

[PossibleCabbage]

Blue Dragons are lore-wise the schemers, manipulators, and behind-the scenes puppet masters that a lot of other Chromatic Dragons don't really slot that neatly into. They're also more willing to work with others than Red or Black Dragons, so they can just be a pawn of some deeper evil.

I would expect White, Green, and Blue Dragons to be the most common in adventures as antagonists. Whites, because they're cannon fodder, Green because they're potentially reasonable, and Blue because they're manipulators.

[Green Eyed Liar]

Thebazilly wrote:

Curse of the Crimson Throne prominently features a Blue dragon. But there's also a Black dragon in a boss fight in one of the later books.

It has been a long time since I have read it, but I think there is an umbral dragon in this one as well.

[Kasoh]

James Jacobs wrote:

I'm waiting for someone to do a spreadsheet of every single dragon encounter we've published now...

That said... there's nothing deeper here. Beyond trying to juggle which dragons appear on rulebook covers so (eventually) we got Wayne to paint all of the chromatic dragons, we've never really had an agenda of making one type of dragon more frequently encountered than others.

So, I haven't done a complete inventory, because I don't own every AP or module paizo has printed, but I have enough to risk throwing my back out while moving, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Every dragon mentioned in Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, Reign of Winter, Wrath of the Righteous, Mummy's Mask, Iron Gods, Giantslayer, Hell's Rebels, Hell's Vengeance, Strange Aeons, Abomination Vaults, Age of Ashes, Agents of Edgewatch, Extinction Curse, Ironfang Invasion, Return of the Runelords, Tyrant's Grasp.

I did not count Drakes (one instance of house drake I did though because I liked that encounter.), but I did count fairy dragons, Linnorms, a single instance of a Clockwork Dragon, Wyrmwraiths, Raveners, and Taniniver.

Some of these dragons are named dragons mentioned in Backmatter articles, and I didn't attribute all of them to their respective authors correctly. I apologize, but by the time I realized my mistake I was quite far along I don't want to go back through all these books again to correct it.

Uh, spoilers, I guess.

91 total dragons.
21 of these are unnamed.

The AP with the most Dragons:
Giantslayer with 13
Tyrant's Grasp with 10
Age of Ashes with 8
Wrath of the Righteous with 8
Rise of the Runelords with 6

AP Adventures
Anvil of Fire: 6
Shadow of the Storm Tyrant: 5
Broken Promises: 5
City of Locusts: 4
Gardens of Gallowspire: 4
Rise of New Thassilon: 4

Authors with the most Dragons to their name:
Greg A. Vaughan: 10
Tito Leati: 8
Richard Pett: 7
Crystal Fraiser: 7
Sean K. Reynolds: 6
Luis Loza: 6

So, to answer the question posed by the thread(at least in my sample size):
Red dragons have 24
Black dragons have 10
Blue dragons have 7
Umbral dragons have 5

Anyway, if anyone wants to look at it and judge my horrible spreadsheet skills, here it is.Spreadsheet