I think the competition should be focused around surviving and beating the HNM, not claiming it. In case of dragon attack, dragon should be so hard that full parties of skilled coordinated teams wipe all the time. And the day that a party low-man's it - the next pop it should be patched harder. He proposed signing up to challenge it - I could see some kind of mechanic where dragon spotted on horizon - all adventurer's have time limit to organize and meet the city guard captain. Each party then signs up and lotto get nominated to be sent to defend the city walls from the dragon - only one party at a time, because that's all that fits on the city wall. You'd be able to watch the on-going battle from many places in the city - and as each group of adventurers got toasted, a new group got sent out. I want to see adventurer's get wiped and "repop" because it's so hard...not the HNM.