Dragon Steeds Pt. 1

Thank you, says I, for the enthusiasm and generosity of all who agreed to bribe me to tackle this sprawling topic!

Dragon Rider by Iamagri on Deviantart

            Onward to slay the dragon do I not go, but to saddle up and soar into the wild blue yonder. This treatment dovetails with the previous three articles developing the mechanics, roleplaying, and color needed to flesh out legendary horses and other fantastic mounts in your favorite game. Much of the basis for this latest blog entry comes from the article about equines and builds on the developments of the next two (camels, elephants, and such, vs. downright monstrous steeds). I’d decided early on to handle dragons separately given the place of honor these beasties occupy in most RPG worlds. As with the earlier posts, this one accommodates several game systems: B/X-BECMI as well as 1st and 2nd AD&D Editions. The general ideas presented here can be cannibalized or adapted easily enough for use with later game versions. Attention was also given to four game worlds, such as Mystara, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and my own setting, Calidar.

 

The Really Big Question

 

Before going into the primary subject of dragons as mounts, their sizes and weights need to be addressed because they will affect what follows in the next installments. The question was brought up and amply debated on social media with various results. Ideally, a paleontologist would be best suited to make reliable estimations, but since I don’t have one hiding in my drawer at this time, I’ll just offer my take on this. So, to preface my long-ish deliberation on this subject, I’ll say that the simplest approach to figuring weight is to compare a monster with some real-world animal of the same approximate shape and size. Therein lies a challenge with dragons because: 1. Their sizes and shapes vary a great deal, 2. The darned things fly for crying out loud, and 3. There’s nothing alive today that readily compares. Arguably, the closest analog for a large reptilian predator is a dinosaur. I picked the T-Rex as a starting point, bearing in mind it lacks wings, it is a biped, and its head is too large. Nonetheless, it gives a rough idea of what a creature of comparable size should weigh.

 

The Big Guy: Based on Wikipedia and other sources, I found that a 12ft-tall T-Rex (measured at the hips) weighs about 19,000 lbs. (or 8.6 metric tons). The graphic below shows the two beasties’ body proportions (more or less). For approximately the same total heights, the T-Rex is about 30ft long vs. 44-ish for the dragon, taking into consideration the curving necks and tails shown below. Click on the graphic to get a full-res view.

            The dragon is altogether longer than the T-Rex, by about 40%, but its body shape differs. The heaviest part of the dragon is concentrated on its abdomen and thorax, about 30% of its length; its tail and neck are longer, and its head much slimmer. In comparison, much of the T-Rex’s weight seems to come from its abdomen, thorax, and disproportionate head, or 62% of its length. So the relative weight gain for the dragon, so far, ought to be +40% divided by 62 and multiplied by 30 = +19% without its wings and forelimbs. Based on this, the “incomplete” dragon’s weight comes somewhere near: 19,000 +19% = 22,600 lbs. We still have to add the wings and the forelimbs to finish the reconstruction job.

The Forelimbs: A total guess on my part, I’m assuming the front paws could easily add as much as 10% to the dragon’s mid-body weight, therefore 10% of 22,600 = 2,260 lbs. The dragon now weighs 24,860 lbs.

 

The Wings: Established figures for avians indicate wing muscles account for about 20% of a bird’s weight. Given the morphology of our basic dragon, I’d include bones and skin in that total, bringing the dragon’s weight up to: 24,860 + 20% = 29,830 lbs. Forget about bird bones being lighter than those of mammals (check this out). This isn’t going to matter a whole lot at the end anyway because those bat-like wings are never going to be big enough to realistically sustain flight for a beastie this heavy. From a visual standpoint, I’d guess the wings ought to be about 2.5 times the length of the dragon’s mid-body: 13.3 x 2.5 = 35 ft. per wing. So, the total wingspan should come to 70-80ft.
            Consider this: a pteranodon weighing 550 lbs. is thought to have had a 30ft wingspan. Using the same proportions (which are way off, since the pteranodon’s build is infinitely slimmer), our dragon’s wingspan would be: 29,830 divided by 550 and multiplied by 30 = 1,630 feet… yeah, right: not gonna happen! This is where fantasy must come into play. This doggone, fire-breathing critter sure isn’t made of helium (I haven’t heard of one ever going down like the Hindenburg). We must assume, therefore, that its wings trigger some form of magic when deployed, providing enough lift for the dragon to fly (sort of like the way oriental dragons are described).

 

The Big Guy’s Lowdown: All together with wings, forelimbs, and fearsome attitude, the 44ft-long dragon shown in the image could weigh somewhere around 29,830 lbs. (13.3 metric tons). Conclusion: It doesn’t matter if it’s 10, 15, or 20 tons—in gaming terms, it’s really big and really heavy. If it lands on top of your favorite character, it’s gonna hurt!

 

Extrapolating Further

            Here comes the tough part. A way to quickly find the weight of a dragon based on its length (if other than the example above) is a diagram. It shows how quickly weight increases with body length. What data do I possess to help put this together?
            On the low end, a 4-foot dragon corresponds (roughly) to an albatross weighing 19 lbs. The next size up is 16ft and 1,800 lbs., in the ballpark of a Komodo dragon. On the high end, we have a huge dragon measuring 96ft long. Owning somewhere between a foggy idea and none whatsoever about what it could possibly weigh, I looked up other dinosaurs of comparable size. I found the plodding diplodocus tipping the prehistoric scale at a whopping 160,000 lbs.
            Armed with this, I plotted numbers generating a curve connecting all the dots, including the earlier 44ft-long example. Luckily, everything falls neatly into place. I included the relative weights of whales and dinosaurs in the chart to get a better sense of how these numbers relate.

            I didn’t fit the truly colossal dragon in the diagram but, at 144ft long, it looks like it may reach around 330,000 lbs. (150 metric tons). Compare this with a record-holding 120ft-long arctic blue whale weighing circa 440,000 lbs. (200 metric tons). The maximum wingspan should be around 80-90 yards (compare this with a soccer field measuring 112 yds. long). Now, either I’m much smarter than I thought or I’m a complete idiot and got it all wrong. Either way, if you find my analysis believable, then I successfully fooled you and myself as well. After all, RPGs are about make-believe, right? 

Conventional Dragon Measurements                                                             (Imperial)
	V. Small	Small	Medium	Large	Massive	Huge	Colossal
Overall Length	4ft	8ft	16ft	32ft	64ft	96ft	48 yd.
Body Length	14½”	2½ft	5ft	10ft	19ft	29ft	43ft
Body Width	9½”	1.5ft	3ft	5ft	9ft	13ft	18ft
Neck & Head	11”	2ft	4ft	7ft	15ft	22ft	33ft
Tail Length	22½”	3½ft	7ft	15ft	30ft	45ft	68ft
Standing H.	20”	3½ft	7ft	14ft	27ft	40ft	60ft
Shoulder H.	14½”	2½ft	5ft	10ft	19ft	29ft	43ft
Max. Wingsp.	7-8ft	14-16ft	27-31ft	53-61ft	35+ yd.	53+ yd.	80+ yd.
Min. Wingsp.	3ft	5½ft	11ft	21ft	42ft	63ft	94ft
Weight	20 lbs.	200 lbs.	0.9 T.	6.4 t.	35 t.	80 t.	165 t.

Reading the Table: Read each value as “at least” but “smaller than the next.” For example, a “small” dragon is at least 8ft long but smaller than a “medium” dragon; a “medium” one is at least 16ft long but smaller than a “large,” and so on. This may seem obvious but it addresses a possible confusion since official AD&D rules specify dragons’ lengths (B/X-BECMI doesn’t). This means that 30ft-long black and brass dragons are “medium-sized” while all the others (except the 72ft-long platinum) are “massive-sized.” Weights are listed in pounds and US tons.

 

Conventional Dragon Measurements                                                                (Metric)
	V. Small	Small	Medium	Large	Massive	Huge	Colossal
Overall Length	1.22m	2.44m	4.50m	10m	20m	30m	45m
Body Length	37cm	73cm	1.40m	3m	6m	9m	13m
Body Width	24cm	44cm	81cm	2m	3m	4m	5m
Neck & Head	28cm	56cm	1m	2m	4m	7m	10m
Tail Length	57cm	1.15m	2m	5m	10m	15m	22m
Standing H.	51cm	1m	2m	4m	8m	12m	18m
Shoulder H.	37cm	73cm	11.50m	3m	6m	9m	13m
Max. Wingsp.	2m	4-5m	8-9m	16-18m	32+ m	50+ m	75+ m
Min. Wingsp.	83cm	1.65m	3.50m	7m	15	22m	32m
Weight	9 kg	90 kg	816 kg	5.8 mt.	31 mt.	72 mt.	150 mt.

Other Notes: I fudged some of the metric entries to preserve the proportions discussed earlier while rounding some of the converted numbers.
            In “horse terms,” 1ft height = 3 hands measured from ground to shoulder, so a Medium-sized dragon is about 15 hands or as tall as an average horse from a rider’s point of view. A large-sized dragon would be 30 hands tall, definitely much bigger than the mightiest destrier at about 20 hands. A small-sized dragon, however, is fit at best for a halfling or a gnome rider if it were to fly while mounted.

 

Dragon Ages vs. Sizes

 

B/X-BECMI: Official game rules give three categories of dragons (Small, Large, and Huge). They do not address their actual measurements, only whether they are younger or older. A younger dragon would have 3 fewer Hit Dice than its base stats, or 3 more for an older one. For example, a small red dragon has 10 HD, meaning 7 HD if younger, or 13 HD if older. This approach isn’t perfect in that it fits green and blue dragons well, but not the others. For black and white dragons, I suggest a +/–2 HD modifier instead, and for the red and gold, +/–4 HD.

            The green-shaded cells in the table below relate directly to B/X-BECMI categories and actual body sizes. The numbers in the cells are years of age, which came from AD&D; ignore these numbers for B/X-BECMI since they don’t matter in this game system. As one should expect, the table shows that a Small adult is indeed “small-sized,” a Large adult is “large-sized,” and a Huge adult is “huge-sized.” If a dragon is younger, shift one row up. If it is older, shift one down. So far, this much is straightforward. For example, a younger Large would have “medium-sized” body measurements.

Dragon Categories vs. Body Sizes
Body Sizes	Dragon Categories
B/X-BECMI è	Small	Large	Huge
AD&D        è	Up to 30ft	31ft-70ft	71ft +
Hatchling	1<	1<	1<
Very Small	1-15	1-10	1-5
Small	16-50	11-25	6-15
Medium	51-100	26-50	16-25
Large	101-200	51-100	26-50
Massive	201-400	101-200	51-100
Huge	401-600	201-400	101-200
Colossal	601-800	401-600	201-400
Gigantic	801-1,000	601-800	401-600
Gargantuan	1,001-1,200	801-1,000	601-800
Titanic	1,201+	1,001-1,200	801-1,000
Unearthly	—	1,201+	1,001-1,200
Astronomic	—	—	1,201+

            This assumes that all dragons don’t just pop from hatchling size to fully grown overnight and remain exactly the same size during the rest of their lives (with just different game stats reflecting their ages). Also consider this: since official rules give different combat stats to categories of Small, Large, and Huge dragons of the same color, this seems to suggest that they are different breeds.

 

AD&D 1st Ed.: There are still three main dragon categories (Small, Large, and Huge) modifying base Hit Dice +1/–1, which isn’t particularly relevant here. Since official AD&D rules specify the length of each dragon type, it makes more sense for aging effects to reflect the breeds’ official measurements rather than their Hit Dice. The 8 different age groups described in the official rules don’t quite fit the tables listed earlier. This requires a different approach.
            The table above shows how dragon ages (in years) affect their actual sizes. For example, the Monster Manual describes an adult (51-100 years old) black dragon as being 30ft long. In the table above, this corresponds to a “medium-sized” body, reading down the column labeled "Up to 30ft." In the same column, a young adult should therefore be “small-sized” and an old should be “large-sized.”

            A hatchling could be about half the size of a very small dragon and weigh 6 lbs. Each row above colossal could make a dragon +50% larger than the previous one and weigh at least twice as much. Using this “yardstick,” the absolute biggest dragon would weigh 4,800 tons and measure 546 yards (a modern destroyer measures about 166 yards and weighs 9,300 tons). So, we’re somewhere between total fantasy and utter silliness. What fun.
            My earlier observation as to whether dragons of Small, Large, and Huge categories of the same color should be three separate regional breeds does not apply here because they all use the same game stats except for a minimal Hit Die difference.
            The table in the previous section shows the measurements for each body size. As a result of the measurement ranges, dragons experience asymmetrical growth rates when reaching new age groups. This can reflect the dragons’ odd ecology, or if DMs really want to handle the minutia, they are welcome to adjust measurements to be more proportional across the various age groups. For example, an adult black dragon measures 30ft long, nearing the top of its category’s range; its actual weight should be much higher than 0.9 tons, more like 5.7 tons.

 

AD&D 2nd Edition: The three basic categories (Small, Large, and Huge) have been done away with. Age groups simply add more Hit Dice (no hit point modifiers). Unlike the 1st Edition, base measurements are conveniently listed for each dragon, but they are intended for young adults. Just use those and check the approximate weights earlier in this article. For example, if a young adult black measures 110ft long (33m), including its head, body, and tail, it should weigh about 105 tons (95 metric tons) based on this article’s measurements table.

 

Dragon Turtle & Dragonne

            For the dragon turtle, increase its weight +30%, and remove most of the tail. Its shell is about 10% longer than its mid-body; it is also about 10% narrower than it is long; subtract 50% from the shell’s length to find its height. For example, if a “large” dragon’s mid-body (not incl. tail and head) measures at least 10ft long, its shell would be 11ft long, about 10ft wide, and 5½ft high (including the legs beneath the shell). The large turtle dragon should weigh at least 8.3 tons.
            For the dragonne, just use normal dragon figures; its body is somewhat bulkier but the neck is shorter and the tail mostly rope-like. For ref. some of the largest RW Siberian tigers measure about 10’ long nose to tail and weigh about 660 lbs.

 

Oriental Dragons

            These types of dragons are more snake-like compared to their western cousins. They are usually represented either as very long, coiling quadrupeds or with a pair of forelimbs only. The length-to-girth ratio seems to be about 1/17.8 in the art I picked (copyright ownership is unclear but the art credit goes to Russel Dongjun Lu). I also checked the dimensions of real-world snakes including the Pleistocene Titanoboa (for ref. this beastie measured 47ft and was estimated to weigh 2,500 lbs.).

            Based on this, here are numbers I came up with for the sizes and weights of these dragons (see below). Weight figures are mostly academic since these dragons have no wings, therefore, they rely on magic alone to fly (the magic pearls-inside-their-heads thing). Figures are included here only for reference in the event that they come to matter at some point. As far as I could see, these creatures are treated exactly the same way as traditional western dragons as regards their Hit Dice, age effects, and size categories.

 

Oriental Dragons                                                                 (Imperial)
	V. Small	Small	Medium	Large	Massive	Huge	Colossal	Un’thly
Length	4ft	8ft	16ft	32ft	64ft	96ft	48yd	72yd
Girth	3”	6”	1ft	2ft	3.6ft	5.5ft	7ft	11ft
Weight	2 lbs.	14 lbs.	106 lbs.	793 lbs.	3.2 T	11 T	25 T	63 T

 

Oriental Dragons                                                                   (Metric)
	V. Small	Small	Medium	Large	Massive	Huge	Colossal	Un’thly
Length	1.25	2.50m	5m	10m	20m	30m	45m	65m
Girth	7½cm	15cm	30cm	60cm	1m	1.70	2.10m	3.50m
Weight	1 kg	6½kg	48 kg	360 kg	2.9 T	10 T	23 T	57 T.

 

 

Feeding the Dragon

            If you’ve enjoyed this article and are interested in the next section, please hit the donation button at the top of this blog’s page. I’ll raise a mug of beer to thank you for your generosity, and will thereafter begin work on the next chapter (riding dragons, raising, training, feeding, dealing with local rulers, etc.). Thanks for your support.