Wondering about dragons

[trial]

According to monster burner, a dragon loves to collect gold.
Howver, my question is: "How he collects this gold?"
I assume the gold comes from a civiliezed race, such as humans.
I dont think he quarry the gold.
Even if he found a place that humans keep a lot of gols and he kills all the humans around it, how does he gets all this gold to his lair?
Can he pick up the gold with his claws? All those little gold coins? How much gold can he pick at once? What if the gold source is far from his lair? He cant just go back and forth for collecting the gold.
A more reasonable explaination for all the gold in his lair, is that he sort of demands a toll from a city for promising he wont destroy the city.
So humans bring the gold to him.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Well, Smaug found a dwarf kingdom, killed all the dwarves (except for Thorin's daddy and so forth) and settled in.

[Viper]

Yeah, i kind of picture it as the dragon homes in on an already large source of gold and takes it over - then his hoard is supplemented by tribute fro msurrounding towns, and the remains of pesky heroes coming to try and slay him.

Also, while you can play dragons as solitary creatures, you could also take a different tack and give them servants, or even worshippers who take care of shifting the gold around so the dragon's bed is comfy.

[Verrain]

I would also point out that dragons don't go ripping off individual purses. They swoop down and carry off whole caravan wagons. Jingly gold coins in a convienient carrying case. Usually get a few snacks that way too.

[Ozark Tim]

They also might eat the treasure; especially gems and maybe not magic swords.

[friartuck]

I think you should also keep in mind that the dragon in the MB is only an example, based on some very specific literary precedents. There are scores of other examples in literature alone (think of the dragons from Oriental myth; or the dragon on whose back an entire community has been constructed, in Lucius Shepard's novella LIAR'S HOUSE; or the arcane dragons of Ursula LeGuin's EARTHSEA books). This is to say nothing of whatever eccentricities and traits you want to ascribe to your own dragon. They have such a rich and varied history in literature that I'd really recommend playing around with the possibilities the MB's mechanics afford you. All due respect to the example monsters provided, I think you'd be missing out on half the fun if you didn't invent your own.