Richard Snider's Additions: The Dragons

"Richard Snider's Additions" in JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign" provide detailed statistics for six types of dragons, and I can't help but wonder if this might have been the source used for dragons in OD&D vol. 2 "Monsters & Treasure".

Gary Gygax had previously published descriptions of white, black, green, blue, and "mottled" dragons in the "Diplomacy" fanzine Thangorodrim (see OD&D Dragons: On the Origin of Species).  (Mottled dragons were another name for purple worms).

The entry for dragons in Chainmail includes a description of "the Great Red Dragon (Draco Conflagratio, or Draco Horribilis) which is typified in Tolkien's The Hobbit", and lists the other colored types, except for gold dragons.

Illustration of a Gold Dragon (Draco Orientalus Sino Dux) by David Sutherland, from the AD&D 1e Monster Manual (1977).  Note the lack of wings, in keeping with a Chinese dragon.

Dragons in Blackmoor were originally mentioned in the Blackmoor Gazette & Rumormonger, under "Gertie Has Kiddies":

As all in the village are now aware, thanks to the massive appetites of the little ones, the Wizard's pet Dragon, affectionately called Gertrude, has been reliably reported to have given birth (Hatched?) five offspring of various sizes, shapes, and colors.  The young Dragons have been busy learning to fly and hunt with sharp increases reported in the cattle herds of the vicinity.

Dave Arneson, BG&R #1

The final section of JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign" provides additional details for many monsters, including dragons.  The five colored types previously described by Gygax (including purple) as well as red dragons (from Chainmail) are listed.

In "Differences in Creatures from Blackmoor Game", Snider describes three types of dragons; green (which cannot breathe fire), brown (which can breathe fire), and gold (which can breathe fire, and are described as the "Lords of Dragondom").

Snider appears to have incorporated five of the six dragons used by Arneson (leaving out purple dragons), equating brown with red dragons, and adding gold dragons as the most powerful type, in the table, below:

Table for calculating the amount of damage a Dragon can sustain, as well as the number of die rolled for a breath attack, by a Dragon's color type and level.  From JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign".

Snider's table for dragons presents "levels" for color type, which correspond to the Hit Dice range as given in OD&D vol. 2, where the amount of damage a Dragon can sustain is likewise related to its age.  It's possible that Snider's table came first.

Damage from a dragon's breath weapon in Snider's system is variable (d6 per "age level" in the left-hand column or more, depending on color type), as opposed to fixed as in OD&D (equal to a dragon's hit points, linked to its age).

Snider describes an alternate method for determining the damage from a dragon's breath weapon (% of a dragon's maximum hit points, increasing by 5% for each level above 2nd, and an additional 10% for each level above 7th).

The rules for subdual are reversed, with dragons having the ability to subdue humans, rather than the other way around, and the likelihood of a dragon having spell-casting ability is discussed, similar to what appears in OD&D.