So, I've been writing up details of a city that has (in the relatively recent past) become the lair of a dragon for my Rolemaster homebrew setting. That got me thinking about general dragon placement. And that, in turn, got me thinking about dragon treasure hoards.

The default D&D setting typically involves a past age that was richer and grander than the present one, which is also what we see with Middle Earth. That's something I've been trying to avoid, or at least do a little differently than one normally sees, but it occurs to me now that lacking such an age makes it much, much harder to give dragons treasure hoards.

The easy fix is to simply say dragons don't necessarily have vast hoards -- and, in some cases, that works for me. However, if my players ever hunt down a truly powerful dragon, I know they're likely to be disappointed if they don't see a nice hoard of riches at the end of it.

Fortunately, there is a bit of room in my setting for a few significant lost treasures, but what other ways are there to give dragons hoards?

A recent acquisition is, of course possible, just as the dragon that started all this, who sacked a city only a couple of decades ago and decided to make it home.

You can also have a dragon that expects tribute from a nearby civilisation although in this case you also need to be able to explain why no adventurer has got their first and dealt with the issue.

A dragon that raids merchant routes or shipping could also acquire some cash and nifty magic items.

Any other ideas?

Maybe their hoard is built upon the treasures of adventurers who did get their first.

Tribute is always good and doesn't always have to be begrudged, perhaps the citizens of your city believe that good fortune comes to those who tithe the dragon or that he will defend them in times of need etc.

I treat older dragons as sort of super-villains, using their power and magical abilities to attract and control minions. All focused on the accumulation of power and wealth. Seemingly random acts of violence are just a cover for complex machinations ...

That wagon of gold stolen on the road -> payment for burning a rival's fields
The kidnapped princess -> part of a plot of a evil nobleman (eating the princess is just a bonus)
The mysterious and powerful wizard that seems to control the dragon -> as powerless as he is expendable.

The dragon get's a cut of the Wizard Guild in exchange for knowledge
The dragon get's a cut of the Thieves Guild in exchange for protecting their mountain hide out.

A clever dragon can be the main BBEG of a campaign without the PCs ever even realizing it. Manipulating events for its personal gain from deep in the mountain year after year.

A lot of this comes down to world building.

Why hasn't a hero come along and knocked down the dragon? How common are Big Damn Heroes in your world? Perhaps there simply isn't a hero or adventurer available until the PCs reach appropriate power.

What is the role of dragons in the world? Are they simply big, treasure hoarding lizards? Are they intelligent schemers manipulating politics? Are the apex predators and treasure hoards are just an accumulation of "junk" from their prey?

Smaug the Great and Terrible got his treasure hoard by taking over a dwarfish kingdom. He was also powerful enough to defeat whole armies by himself and was only brought down by plot magic.

Also how common are dragons, especially powerful one such as might have and keep large treasure hoard in your world?  Need there be more than one in the region covered by your campaign?  Look at how large an area the two novels concerning the War of the Ring in the late Third Age of Middle Earth cover, in all that vast expanse a grand total of one dragon actually appears on camera. A couple of others are mentioned in history, and a note or two on the maps point to where others might be found, but basically there is one. The more powerful dragons are the rarer they should be.

Then there are RuneQuest dragons, which actually form hills and mountain ranges with their sleeping bodies. The "dragons" that adventurers encounter are physical projections of the dragons' dreams.

Well, in this case, I'm mainly thinking about the sort of dragon that would be inclined to gather a treasure hoard.

Not a horde, for the record. That thread title is a bit embarrassing.

The best dragonhoard is the dragon's teeth, scales, claws, blood, heart, eyes, brains, gizzard...

What if the dragon takes up residence in a gold, silver, or gym mine. It could be surrounded by immense wealth but in a raw form.

This would probably dry up resources for the local mint bringing the dragon into conflict with the king.

Didn't the dragon in Beowulf have a hoard? It didnt rely on any lost grand era of riches. Maybe yours can get theirs the same way.

If not the riches of ancient civilizations, I like the Horusarisen's tribute idea the best, over many decades etc it has amassed a great treasure hoard.

Quote from: Dumarest;967058Didn't the dragon in Beowulf have a hoard? It didnt rely on any lost grand era of riches.

Roman empire? Maybe it flew north a bit.

Quote from: Dumarest;967058Didn't the dragon in Beowulf have a hoard? It didnt rely on any lost grand era of riches. Maybe yours can get theirs the same way.

The hoard was the product of a long-vanished noble people, utterly destroyed by some forgotten war, whose last surviving member collected their treasures and secured them in a grand barrow that the dragon eventually found.  That's about as lost grand era of riches as it gets, I think.

Quote from: The Scythian;967155The hoard was the product of a long-vanished noble people, utterly destroyed by some forgotten war, whose last surviving member collected their treasures and secured them in a grand barrow that the dragon eventually found.  That's about as lost grand era of riches as it gets, I think.

And it becomes the perfect excuse to combine a tomb with traps and a dragon's lair -Raiders of the Lost Ark and Dragonslayer rolled into one!

Quote from: HorusArisen;966899Maybe their hoard is built upon the treasures of adventurers who did get their first.

Tribute is always good and doesn't always have to be begrudged, perhaps the citizens of your city believe that good fortune comes to those who tithe the dragon or that he will defend them in times of need etc.

Maybe the locals who sacrifice virgins and livestock in order to keep the dragon from napalming the whole community decorate the victims with all kinds of baubles and grave goods. Not so much for the dragon, but for the sacrificial victim to carry with them to the afterlife. The dragon's fondness for treasure could be chalked up to an animal-like fascination with shiny things, combined with being accustomed to dinner delivery with fancy "table settings".