The Mechanics of Dragon Sex?

Like how does it work in regards to offspring and what type of Dragon it produces? What determines whether a Dragon is a White Dragon or a Black Dragon or a Gold Dragon ect? I know Dragons are generally very isolationist and territorial and they are generally long lived and don't mate often but how do they select a mate? Are they into race mixing? Can a Black Dragon mate with a white Dragon or a gold Dragon? Is the offspring dependent on what type of Dragons mate with each other or can the offspring be any type of Dragon regardless of who the parents are?

Just I figure Dragons are pretty few in number and the dating pool can't really be too large, just wondering how it works out without the species becoming too inbred?

This is all "DM's call" stuff. Fizban's goes into the question a little, but mostly in "here are some ideas on how dragon reproduction might work if it's not just the usual biology".

My 2cp worth...

Back in 3e there was a source book called "Draconomicon" which goes into some detail about the Draconic life cycles, physiology etc, although it doesn't go into detail on the ins and outs of how mummy and daddy dragons go about the reproduction act, there is a section on dragon eggs. To poach from the book:

"Dragon eggs vary in size depending on the kind of Dragon. They are generally of the same colour as the Dragon that laid them and have the same energy immunities as the dragon that laid them, for instance, a black dragons egg will be black or dark grey in colour and be impervious to acid. A Dragon egg has an elongated ovoid shape and a hard stony shell. A female Dragon can produce eggs from a Young Adult stage and remains fertile through to Wyrm stage. The eggs are fertilised inside the females body and are ready for laying about a quarter of the way through the incubation period"

The incubation period and size of egg all depend on the type of Dragon laying the egg, a Black Dragon for instance lays an egg which is considered Tiny sized and it can lay it after 120 days of incubation and the total incubation period before it hatches in 480 days, whilst its Gold cousin lays an egg that is medium sized and can lay it after 180 days incubation with a total incubation period before hatching of 720 days.

It also goes on to say:

"Dragon eggs are laid in clutches of 2-5 as often as once a year. Ovulation begins with mating and a female can produce eggs much less often if she wishes simply by not mating. Mating and egg laying can happen in almost any season of the year. Most dragon eggs are laid in a nest within the females lair where one or both parents can guard and tend them. A typical nest consists of a pit or mound with the eggs buried in loose material such as sand or leaves. A Dragon eggs ovoid shape gives it great resistance to pressure and the female can walk, fight or sleep atop the nest without fear of breaking the eggs. Dragons sometimes leave their eggs unguarded. In such cases the female takes great care to keep the nest hidden. She, her mate or sometimes both of them may visit the area periodically but they take care not to approach the nest to closely unless some danger threatens the eggs."

The book then goes on to give more info about each stage a dragon goes through from hatching onwards as well as a small section on their psychology. It's quite an interesting read if you can find the book.

Quote from Rob76 >>

My 2cp worth...

Back in 3e there was a source book called "Draconomicon" which goes into some detail about the Draconic life cycles, physiology etc, although it doesn't go into detail on the ins and outs of how mummy and daddy dragons go about the reproduction act,

 For that information, one can go to OnlyFangs

As far as I am aware there's no official rules on this, however a dude named dungeon dad on YouTube has a bunch of different dragons all based on older editions that seem to come from those mixes 

Quote from Rob76 >>

My 2cp worth...

Back in 3e there was a source book called "Draconomicon" which goes into some detail about the Draconic life cycles, physiology etc, although it doesn't go into detail on the ins and outs of how mummy and daddy dragons go about the reproduction act, there is a section on dragon eggs. To poach from the book:

"Dragon eggs vary in size depending on the kind of Dragon. They are generally of the same colour as the Dragon that laid them and have the same energy immunities as the dragon that laid them, for instance, a black dragons egg will be black or dark grey in colour and be impervious to acid. A Dragon egg has an elongated ovoid shape and a hard stony shell. A female Dragon can produce eggs from a Young Adult stage and remains fertile through to Wyrm stage. The eggs are fertilised inside the females body and are ready for laying about a quarter of the way through the incubation period"

The incubation period and size of egg all depend on the type of Dragon laying the egg, a Black Dragon for instance lays an egg which is considered Tiny sized and it can lay it after 120 days of incubation and the total incubation period before it hatches in 480 days, whilst its Gold cousin lays an egg that is medium sized and can lay it after 180 days incubation with a total incubation period before hatching of 720 days.

It also goes on to say:

"Dragon eggs are laid in clutches of 2-5 as often as once a year. Ovulation begins with mating and a female can produce eggs much less often if she wishes simply by not mating. Mating and egg laying can happen in almost any season of the year. Most dragon eggs are laid in a nest within the females lair where one or both parents can guard and tend them. A typical nest consists of a pit or mound with the eggs buried in loose material such as sand or leaves. A Dragon eggs ovoid shape gives it great resistance to pressure and the female can walk, fight or sleep atop the nest without fear of breaking the eggs. Dragons sometimes leave their eggs unguarded. In such cases the female takes great care to keep the nest hidden. She, her mate or sometimes both of them may visit the area periodically but they take care not to approach the nest to closely unless some danger threatens the eggs."

The book then goes on to give more info about each stage a dragon goes through from hatching onwards as well as a small section on their psychology. It's quite an interesting read if you can find the book.

 

I guess I am more interested in mate selection, whether or not different Dragon types can mate or whether they need to find a mate of the same species in order to reproduce. And in the case of mixed race relations what traits does the offspring inherit from their parents, such as in the case of an offspring produced as the result of a gold and a red mating would it be either a gold or a red or some mixture of the 2?

From the sound of what you posted it seems like the offspring mostly takes on the traits of the mother?

Actually to be honest I don't know how prevalent Dragons are in the various Dungeons and Dragons universes? I assumed they would be rare considering their size and territorial nature but how many Dragons would potentially fit in a specific area? What sort of population would be expected in an area between say Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate? I take it Ancient Dragons would be quite rare but Young Adults not so much so plenty of breeding stock for the potential different types?

Quote from Agent_Grey >>

Actually to be honest I don't know how prevalent Dragons are in the various Dungeons and Dragons universes? I assumed they would be rare considering their size and territorial nature but how many Dragons would potentially fit in a specific area? What sort of population would be expected in an area between say Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate? I take it Ancient Dragons would be quite rare but Young Adults not so much so plenty of breeding stock for the potential different types?

 It's probably best not to think too hard about the population dynamics of dragons, because it won't actually make sense.

(Operating theory: dragons are actually quite prolific, because they have an incredibly effective natural predator -- PCs.)

You might also want to take a look at this wiki: https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Mating_(CWS)

As far as I can see its a verbatim copy of what is in the ad&d book: Council of Wyrms and gives a tiny bit more info on breeding/crossbreeding/inbreeding and interspecies breeding of Half Dragons. 

First of all, this is fantasy, don't worry too much about sensible genetics.

Secondly, given that 3.5e had rules for half-dragons with, well, "any living, corporeal creature", you should really really not worry about sensible genetics. Also, apparently some dragons are ... very experimental. We also have the ancestors of dragonborn coming from dragon eggs for... reasons?

Now, back in the AD&D days, a random dragon would be a random age category (from 1-8). Given that Wyrmling is 0-5 years (6 years), and Mature Adult is 201-400 (200 years), this tells us that about 3% of dragons actually survive to age 200, which puts draconic reproduction pretty solidly in the r strategy; there are also enough stories involving eggs that we should assume that not all eggs even hatch. If we assume that a typical (5e) adult female dragon (101-800 years) produces an average of wyrmling per 10 years, that gives us 70 wyrmlings, of which 2.1 survive to maturity. Of course, our typical image of dragon nests has more than one egg, and given that there are all sorts of plots about dragon eggs, probably a significant number don't even hatch, so I would say that a draconic breeding cycle is 25 years (why 25 years? Because a lot of dragon age categories are multiples of 25 years, suggesting 25 years is important to dragons), in which time about 80% of females will lay 3-5 eggs, and 80% of those eggs will hatch. This gives us (28 cycles of adulthood) * (0.8) * (0.8) * (4) = 71 wyrmlings, of which 3% (2.1) survive to adulthood.

Quote from Agent_Grey >>

Actually to be honest I don't know how prevalent Dragons are in the various Dungeons and Dragons universes? I assumed they would be rare considering their size and territorial nature but how many Dragons would potentially fit in a specific area? What sort of population would be expected in an area between say Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate? I take it Ancient Dragons would be quite rare but Young Adults not so much so plenty of breeding stock for the potential different types?

 Waterdeep and Neverwinter have several adult dragons living in the cities last I recall, usually in humanoid form. There's also a map of dragon territories around the Sword Coast, and it's absolutely jam packed. Some individuals are also listed with no territory because they wander a lot (like Felgolos).