I was involved in a discussion about kobolds earlier today. About their origins and how people describe and use them. One person brought up an idea that I've used before myself, dragons that lay unfertilized eggs that hatch out kobolds. These kobolds would be the same color and general alignment as the parent dragon. They would also be fanatically loyal. I think I based the number of kobolds per egg on the dragons age category.

   Which got me thinking... this would mean that in a traditional game only females would have kobold servants. Which doesn't seem fair really. So I thought, why not hermaphrodite dragons? They lay unfertilized eggs based on physical condition and available food supplies. But if they want to lay a fertilized egg they have to swap genetic material with another dragon. This is complete fluff mind you. But fluff that appeals to me.

   Anyone else ever use anything like this?

The idea of hermaphrodite dragons makes a certain kind of sense... for top end solitary territorial predators, it's a wonderful means of doubling the clutches from a single mating.

Kobolds being young dragons is a variant on the Gloranthan Dragonnewt theme. One I didn't care for. (Some love it....)

Sounds a nice idea. Another option, bought on by my visit to the sealife centre yesterday is that dragons change their sex from female to male when there is a lack of male dragons in the area for reproductive purposes. This probably matters more in a setting where dragons are more closely integrated into the main civilisation