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Author Topic: Villainous dragons and beasts.  (Read 609 times)

Lestrage

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Villainous dragons and beasts.
« on: December 07, 2018, 12:13:09 pm »

I wonder if there is a possibility for dragons and other mega beasts to be intelligent and have an alignment.
Reading legends I believe dragons are already antagonists with bases in lairs, so further villain capability should be suitable.

Other villains could be : giants, forgotten beasts, ?eventually(sea beasts and creatures), great collectives of lesser creatures (eg. imps?)
single or collectives of were-creatures? greater-spiders.

> Villainous activity could be capturing and kidnapping people and imprisonment in lair, possibly as ransom for treasure (or to eat)

> They may hypnotise and control creatures : to spy on settlements (maybe to later attack or take over)

> They may gather a willing (cult) or unwilling following of people, and possibly use these to attack, defend themselves or spy, or make themselves powerful

> They may menace and threaten a settlement or people in return for tribute, or they may bribe with treasure or a hypnotism for influence

> They may cause trouble for the sake of it, scheme out of nature or enjoyment

> they may hold grudges on a general population


The obvious dragon villains are talkien's Smaug, Fafnir from norse mythology and Beowulf dragon.
They seem have a thing for treasure and greed for wealth

So other villain beasts could be fixated on power and influence (tribute / following), or causing violence and damage, or hunger for food, 
or hunger for a following (belief / worship)
they could also be motivated by jealousy (of wealth/reputation), or out of alignment (eg enmity to followers of a deity)
They may just hate certain kinds of creatures eg. underground beast hating dwarfs from surface
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The platypus is making a plaintive gesture. The pangolin is striking a menacing pose. The penguin is laughing.

FantasticDorf

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Re: Villainous dragons and beasts.
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2018, 12:56:04 pm »

Its in development goals for megabeasts to eventually barter but of course the tags, definitions and abilities all vary, unless new megabeasts were added of course. Development log here

Quote
Better megabeasts

    Variety and randomization within constraints (e.g. various dragons)
    Reproduction
    Share any intelligent/diplomacy behavior that other hist figs have when appropriate


The only one actually in a position to speak sensibly without attempting to murder you first for no reasons (making a particular dig at the minotaur in its maze) is the Cyclops, so these will probably often be the brainboxes behind a particular scheme probably to establish its [POWER] tag and take over a civ as supreme leader.

  • Nearly all the creatures that are beastial or too stupid to function like a normal intelligent being would probably be elicit to bribery of some sort, the 'sacrifice' of a citizen, article of wealth or artifact to carry off screen satisified until the next collection. However most to nearly all of them have [POWER] or a particular sphere to worship so that plays a part too to maybe bypassing these restrictions
You honestly want to David vs Goliath a cyclops after it's already succeeded its plan to become the monarch of the realm and live in its big dwarven built tower fortress of Babel?
« Last Edit: December 07, 2018, 01:00:13 pm by FantasticDorf »
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PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Villainous dragons and beasts.
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2018, 04:28:52 pm »

I think I remember Toady saying that villains will require the [INTELLIGENT] token to function, which unfortunately would rule out most of the megabeasts without modding. Could be a false memory on my part though, I can certainly think of ways in which villainous beasts might work.
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