A Mythic Rant on Modern Dragons

Breathing fire today, watch out!

Hey y’all!!!

I miss ya!

This summer has gone by so quick and I’ve been so busy.

We’ve got some cool stuff on the horizon I can’t wait to show you, but today, we’re going to be talking about the most important part of any RPG experience - DRAGONS. (Obviously)

- SO THERE I WAS ON FACEBOOK THREADS -

(aka “wholesome TTRPG Twitter”)

And I asked all those folks a question about something that was pretty straightforwards in my mind:

Are Dinosaurs Dragons, and vice versa?

Well, here’s the actual “thread” poll in question;

(Click on the pic or this text to see the full Thread with all the great answers we got back!)

Looking back at this quandary, it’s really a question that asks you what your methodology towards worldbuilding looks like.

What are your first principles for “worldbuilding”?

Worldbuilding, or, WRITING, as I like to call it, requires a sort of unwritten, intuited internal logic whereby every character, creature, realm, and all the other fiddly bits abide by as ‘meta-natural law’.

Of course, then the spicier parts of that ensemble break these unwritten writing rules in various ways, but that’s some nitpicking drivel neither of us want to explore right now.

I like to think this ties back to game design as well - every art form is a portal into polymathic dumbness (where I live my entire secret life).

I think with both worldbuilding & game design - writing & presentation - all are made or broken by having “Good Design Goals”.

And here’s where the real rant comes in:

A lot of common design goals are TRASH.

There is a hierarchy of design goals, which will lead to either true art, subversive art, or ‘isekai trash’, as I like to call it.

Here’s a couple design goals, written in a bullet point list.

You tell me which design goals seem more developed vs less developed.

• Create a social environment where players are incentivized to not break character

• Emulate Final Fantasy Tactics’ combat system

• Encourage players to roleplay characters with character flaws and frailties to increase human drama

• Make analogs for each ‘Classic’ D&D racial, class, & monstrous archetype in my world

• Explore the depths of human nature and the questions of death & mortality

• Revive the mythological themes and motifs of The Kalevala

• Make a world where Power Rangers meets Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Explain how fire-breathing dragons could be scientifically plausible

• Equip readers/players with the resources necessary to understand ancient viewpoints and explore thinking in their frames of mind

• Make a Godzilla monster but reskin him as a Jaguar in the American continent

Now, the thing about literature, tabletop role playing games, and enjoying aesthetics in general is that, yes! Enjoyment of genre and tone are extremely subjective.

None of these design goals are “wrong”.

Yet, it’s plain to see that the scope and depth of these various design goals (applied either to RPGs, or “WRITING”), will bear extremely different outcomes if you just picked one and followed it to fruition.

You could also take all of these design goals and use every single one to make some kind of Frankenstein RPG Setting/fantasy novel, and, if executed correctly, could produce something quite profound!

IMO, all bad design goals need are just more time spent thinking and articulating them into something more defined, grounded, and robust.

Asking Yourself “Why?”

In my estimation, again, I’m just an overenthused nerd on the internet who thinks they know something.

But I’ve seen it so many times, where people don’t really scrutinize why they follow the genre conventions they were given, seemingly wholesale.

And this sort of thoughtless writing leads to cheap writing.

And again, in my estimation, cheap writing is the fucking worst.

We’re all going to die someday, and in about 5-6 generations, even if we “make it big”, our names will be forgotten, alongside all of our ideas.

Provolone Cheese will likely overshadow The Lord of the Rings in its overall impact and legacy in the human race.

If you believe in something other than materialism, then this news is less dire than it comes across, but the common ground is this:

Our writing is only worth the amount of inspiration it provides people - other people, but also yourself - most importantly yourself.

If you’re going to leave any sort of lasting mark on the world, don’t be the person who rehashes what the corporations feed you with one more over-saturated sticker slapped on top of it, and call it a day.

This is how trash like the genre of Isekai is born.

Now, I’m not saying “Don’t Enjoy Dungeons & Dragons”.

I enjoyed Dungeons & Dragons for many years growing up.

I mean, I’m a TTRPG creator who’s invested in this hobby.

But you have to know why you’re drawing from the tropes you love (and understand what those tropes are) in order to really make them your own and make them come alive.

& A LOT of that work is simply asking yourself these questions and finding those answers;

• Why am I including this trope?

• Why is this trope so important to me?

• Where did this trope come from?

• What is the context of the original trope?

The point I’m trying to make here is that good design goals help create art that stands the test of time.

Like the archetypal story of slaying a dragon - “The Chaoskampf”.

Even today we’re still addicted to that one story.

Back to the LIZARDS

So, I’m not out to attack any of the folks who answered my poll.

I really appreciate their perspective and feedback, and I hope they’re having absolutely the most fun they can with the hobby in whatever form they enjoy it.

This is Nothosaurus, from the fossil record. These guys grew to anywheres from around 15-20 feet long.

Data shows they used to live in the Triassic period, where they roamed in the rivers and lakes in what would become ancient China.

And while it lacks the regal antlers, the mesmerizing eyes, and the wish-granting pearls of eastern dragons of yore, these served the same general function that is attributed to lake and river dragons in Chinese mythology; sacred guardians of water bodies, whose power was feared.

Now, for the big twist:

I agree with most of the responses I received in my thread - at face value.

This river monster from the Triassic period isn’t the same thing as what mythology teaches what a dragon is:

• Chimera Creature, usually Reptilian

• Embodiment of Chaos

• Elementally aligned with Water (an ancient symbol of chaos)

• Breaks Natural Laws

• Monstrous Power to destroy Cities

• Symbol of Divine, or Profane Power

A lot of the responses I gained from the thread contained the idea that dinosaurs were lesser, primitive, mundane animals, and thus, not the same as what they considered as their understanding of the bullet point definition above.

But the reason for this entire rant is again, the rationale of “Why”?

I have a strong suspicion, which I don’t attribute to any individual who gave me their time in my poll. I’m sure they have nuanced worlds that provide their friends with an amazing amount of fun, more power to them.

My suspicion of the general public is that they inform their decisions based on simply the Bestiary’s labeling of “Dragon” to the being with 4 legs and wings, and the label of “Beast” to the creature without those wings.

Because what they know is a game whose design goals are primarily concerned with mechanical combat effects and hitting nostalgia buttons from an IP they inherited from the 70’s.

Godzilla Loves You

My latest Christophany this summer was Shin Godzilla.

I think it’s the best modern retelling of the dragon myth we have access to.

Slight poetic spoilers ahead…

The banal corruption of the bureaucratic human leaders lead to a culture of complete incompetency, and in the face of a literal cosmic chaos chimera - the perfected monster of nuclear energy and evolution terrorized the city of Tokyo.

The nation was humbled, and the corruption leading the city was destroyed.

The only way the mice-like humans could abey further destruction was to understand the pain of the monster they faced. 

In the end, the people suffered incredible loss, but in their humbled state, the government was renewed to better serve their people with a sober spirit.

I think some of the story gets lost in the dubbed version, but the execution of the Godzilla character is undeniable.

Shin Godzilla compresses all of the tropes of the mythology of dragons into this one Leviathan-sized character.

It lives in the ocean: the realm of primordial chaos where life came from, that is extremely dangerous and harmful to humans.

It’s absolutely a chimera: it evolves through the film from being something that’s definitely a fish, to something more amphibious, then reptilian. It breaks natural law.

(Interesting nerd fact; Dragons don’t need to be reptilians in mythology, but they are nearly always chimera animals. Godzilla / Gojira’s name means “gorilla whale”, neither of which are snakes)

It wields the power of nuclear energy; a modern symbol of limitless chaos, with the potential to bring great life or death to humanity.

Ironically, the morphology of its ‘final form’ really mirrors that of a T-Rex.

The Godzilla franchise is a fantastic retelling of the Chaoskampf myth in the nihilistic nuclear age; the dragon is one of mankind’s making, with no archetypal storm god to save them BUT THEMSELVES.

And only in their embodiment of the storm god, can they vanquish the ocean beast.

That is the role of the mythic dragon archetype, at least in the western traditions, spanning from ancient India to Mesopotamia all through Europe.

And while humans probably/definitely didn’t wage physical war with actual T-Rex Dinosaurs, during the span of human evolution, they absolutely did wrestle with megafauna of various kinds, including crocodilians, giant snakes, and sea beasts of mysterious variety.

And the story plays out the same.

Furthermore, the modern division between mundane and “magical” as categorically different boxes is one of the ghosts of cheap writing we’re dedicated to banishing (More specifically, the blind adoption of this modernist framework and cramming it into the realm of myth unintentionally is where this demon of cheap writing manifests).

Every experience premodern man had was spiritually tinged in some amount, especially those involving real monsters and death. Their entire world wasn’t “physical first”. Superstitions kept you alive.

In these posited encounters, reptilian Megafauna/Dinosaurs, were totally “Dragons”.

In the modern day, we hunted them all until they were of manageable size, with the true dragons of our day now being the crown-bearing human organizations themselves.

Biblical AF.

TL:DR Know your memes, kids.

Update on The Epic of Dreams

We’re working really hard this summer on making a new free rule set zine for The Epic of Dreams.

It’s going to be 100% mechanically consistent with The Basilisk Edition, about 40-60 pages, full color, burning with the glory of the ancients.

And it’s gonna rock your world.

Much Love

Your Worst Servant

Drew