Dragon egg size

[rubixxcube]

Depends on the texture of the egg. If the egg is scaly and rough or somehow irregular compared to "normal" eggs, probably small enough to not tear up the dragons inside when they lay it. If it's smooth and normal egg shaped, then around, probably a tiny bit bigger, then the size of the dragons, uh, parts. Universally, I believe most people agree on the bigger the dragon the bigger the egg, so the size of the dragon is also quite important to either the size, or perhaps the amount. Researching creatures that DO lay eggs, depending on what types your dragons are most similar to, will probably help with overall details. For instance, I imagine a dragon that lays eggs like a fish will have very different sizes then more typical dragon eggs.

 

[Richard Edwards]

What scientists have said about the eggs of a dinosaur is that they were about the size of a chicken's egg. No matter how large the animal will grow to its size. Is not determined by its size when fully grown. Create it any size you wish for it to be? You are the creator, you are the god in your story. Think about it this way, dragon's will leave their eggs alone, for they themselves have to feed themselves. It is not going to be hatched on the day it is laid. They will have to hide the eggs. when they lay it won't they. Safety with the egg is what they will have to protect the egg from being found by the animals which eat the eggs.

 

[Jackarandajam]

What scientists have said about the eggs of a dinosaur is that they were about the size of a chicken's egg. No matter how large the animal will grow to its size. Is not determined by its size when fully grown. Create it any size you wish for it to be? You are the creator, you are the god in your story. Think about it this way, dragon's will leave their eggs alone, for they themselves have to feed themselves. It is not going to be hatched on the day it is laid. They will have to hide the eggs. when they lay it won't they. Safety with the egg is what they will have to protect the egg from being found by the animals which eat the eggs.

Oh yes, they COULD be star-shaped and levitate, you're right about creators being in charge. This is more of a "that truth aside, what could they reasonably look like" thread.

On that note, I'm no paleontologist but I'm pretty sure lots of fossilized dino eggs have been discovered and they very greatly in size. While it seems like "about the size of a chickens egg" covers anything nowadays from a lizard about the size of a chicken to Nile crocodiles, for dinosaurs there was alot more variety

 

[pmmg]

I dont know, those prehistoric chicken eggs could have been pretty large.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I dont know, those prehistoric chicken eggs could have been pretty large.

Well prehistoric chickens were presumably freaking enormous, so I guess they'd make pretty big eggs.

 

[JBCrowson]

say a 100' dragon.

Lizards are weird, but just knee jerk numbers:

Komodo dragons get to be about 10' and have four inch eggs. (40" 100' dragon egg)
Saltwater crocs get to be about 20' and have 2-3" eggs (10"-15" 100' dragon egg)
Titanosaurus Blanforti got to be about 60' long and had 8" spherical eggs according to random pictures and articles on the internet. (13-ish" eggs for a 100' Dragon)

I know it's a preference thing mostly, but just interested if anyone has done research into this question or is aware of a resource justifying different sizes or types of egg for different dragons.

seems to me that egg size depends mostly on how helpless the hatchling is; the bigger the egg in ratio to the adult, the more capable the hatchling is.

Dragons are magical so they don't have to follow the rules of regular biology - look at their puny chest muscles - no way they could fly with those. So don't sweat the egg size would be my suggestion.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Dragons are magical so they don't have to follow the rules of regular biology - look at their puny chest muscles - no way they could fly with those. So don't sweat the egg size would be my suggestion.

I've seen it said by several different authors that if you want to make your readers believe your big fantasy ideas, that you have to make your small details believable first.

Now this does't mean that everyone has to figure out the size and weight of their dragon eggs. You could easily think of some different detail. However, if you are writing about dragons, then knowing details about your dragon eggs and showing those to the reader, will make the reader believe you know everything there is to know about these dragons. And that they are a "real" and integral part of your story world.

Taking 10 minutes to think about your dragon eggs then might make your world more believable to a reader than spending a month on developing the past 200 years of history and conflict between two neighboring countries.

 

[Finchbearer]

Let's say they float! So you could ride it home, perched cross-legged on top, pushing yourself along with a stick. I really like that mental image

It would ride like a coracle!

 

[Jackarandajam]

I've seen it said by several different authors that if you want to make your readers believe your big fantasy ideas, that you have to make your small details believable first.

Now this does't mean that everyone has to figure out the size and weight of their dragon eggs. You could easily think of some different detail. However, if you are writing about dragons, then knowing details about your dragon eggs and showing those to the reader, will make the reader believe you know everything there is to know about these dragons. And that they are a "real" and integral part of your story world.

Taking 10 minutes to think about your dragon eggs then might make your world more believable to a reader than spending a month on developing the past 200 years of history and conflict between two neighboring countries.

Establishing authority is a cool trick.

Describe your character carefully making Biscuits and gravy. Go through all the steps. Mention what happens when you add too much milk, or not enough. Talk about stirring the flour in the gravy rapidly to keep it from clumping. The character prefers to make sausage gravy, because the sausage breaks up the flour. In sausage gravy, you basically never have lumps.

Then mention the character is a ghost, or a vampire or whatever. Or have them stepping over piles of dead bodies in the kitchen.

So yeah, it's really a question of which plot devices or world-building elements you want to build authority with.

In the case of this thread, let's say dragons in this world aren't inherently magical, or at least all of them aren't. At least some are cold-blooded reptiles that, as closely as possible, follow the laws of science.

Maybe the eggs, the size and shell makeup and shape, are the anchor of authority used to then glaze over the musculature necessary to make wings on the back of a giant four-limbed creature flap.

 

[pmmg]

Id call it establishing trust, otherwise, same difference.

 

[Gurkhal]

Just goes to show, those RPG books have a lot of info in them that sometimes come in handy.

But the chart is incomplete. Where is the large and XL, and XXL?

Very much so.

As a personal story I'm dipping my toes into prospective Soulslike fantasy writing I'm gathering a ton of RPG PDFs for research and general enjoyment in reading them. Duel uses if there ever was one.