Tiefling, Dragonborn : have they gained traction ?

[Jürgen Hubert]

Personally, I see nothing wrong with writing dragonborn out of a setting. Sometimes specific races just don't fit the overall themes or moods of the world.

But conversely, there is also nothing wrong with keeping them in. Each DM must make that decision for himself, and tell the players up-front about what is and what isn't permissible for his campaign.


(For the record, my own setting didn't have any dragonborn before 4E - but I've come up with an origin story for them which not only fitted well, but significantly improved some aspects of the setting IMO...)

 

[Arawn76]

This has probably already been said but my job as DM is to run a fun game for my friends.

I've had players play races & classes I don't like before but never allow my personal feelings on the matter to affect their game fun. As such on the rare occasion's I do say no to something my group know that it is purely to preserve the games feel/setting and to enhance their fun.

Always try to say yes, being creative and finding the right place for something is what being a DM is about.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Personally, I see nothing wrong with writing dragonborn out of a setting. Sometimes specific races just don't fit the overall themes or moods of the world.

Yes.

Always try to say yes

No.

Just like that, you can selectively, using your judgement, say 'yes' or 'no' on a case-by-case basis. Win/win.

 

[Eridanis]

Three pages of this thread are people talking about what was actually meant in the others' post. Cut it out and get back on topic, please.

 

[Bumbles]

Always try to say yes, being creative and finding the right place for something is what being a DM is about.

I agree. It may not be possible to say yes, but no shouldn't be automatic. Instead of looking for ways it won't fit, look for ways it can be fitted into the game. Unless of course, you get the occasional player who looks for exploits rather than fun, and brings you the uber-powered god race of Doom! Doom I tell you! Doom!

 

[doctorhook]

We started with two Dragonborn, two Tieflings, and two Eladrin. Since then, we've lost and retired some characters, but most of these guys were merely replaced by newer and wackier races. We've seen a couple Warforged, a Minotaur, a Gnoll, a Goliath, a Drow, a Deva, a Shifter, a Half-Elf, a Dwarf, an Elf, and one Human possessed by aberrant spirits (ironically, the human is probably the most bizarre PC).

Dragonborn and Tieflings aren't going anywhere, I'm certain of it.

Of course! It's like cooking or music - it's as much what you leave out as what you put in.

You want every world to look the same and kitchen sink everything? Everywhere would be like Eberron, which tried that, with mixed results.

What are you trying to say about Eberron? It's pretty obviously a popular setting, and with good reason: it's amazing and original!

 

[Squizzle]

I honestly don't think that this is something that you can judge a year into this. It's the sort of question that you need to wait for another edition, should there be one, to answer.

 

[Ulthwithian]

Well, I've noticed that Eladrin are very popular. A current tally of which races have been seen in the group I'm with:

Human: 2
Eladrin: 3
Tiefling: 1
Dragonborn: 1
Dwarf: 2
Half-Elf: 1

Personally, I think the Deva has great traction. At least, I hope so.

 

[Nai_Calus]

A large part of why I don't like Dragonborn and wouldn't include them is my personal heresy:

I don't like dragons. As myths, sure, they work great. And that's the only way they'd appear in a campaign I'd be running, as myths.

Giant uber-intelligent flying lizards that breathe fire/cold/acid/cotton candy/whatever and breed with anything that moves are not something I want to fit into a game world.

Dragon-people therefore really don't fit either.

For the record, I use primarily human/elven/other common sentient race opponents, with some oozes, aberrations and oversized vermin and eventually some fiends. Most of the latter are the fault of wizards creating/summoning things. I'd use a Rust Monster(In fact, there are several my 3.5 party may encounter if they don't start searching for traps in the place they're currently in, placed there by the wizard owner to help take care of any pesky adventurers that come in. He got them from the area of the world that's being corrupted by the Far Plane). I wouldn't use a dragon.

There's also that 3.5 has made me hate running a game and I enjoy mostly the worldbuilding aspect since the players I have are terrible at playing and even worse at actually RPing, so mostly I'm just boredly fudging rolls so they don't die while they mindlessly kill and loot and complain about walking right into the traps they should know by now are there without even trying to look for said traps. So you'd better believe I'm making a world I enjoy, because it's going to be most of my fun.

And I will not use all the races if I don't want them for various reasons - Even ones that do exist may be horrifically rare, to the point of the PC being the only one in the entire world, with what that entails. I'd rather have a few races I can detail than a bunch of races I only throw together some afterthought junk on because they're redundant, or I just plain don't care enough about them to be able to do them justice.

(With the setup I like to use there's also the little issue that anyone playing a dragonborn is going to instantly get cries of 'aaaaaaaaah! monster!' and either utterly shunned or attacked by a frightened mob, since holy crap, giant lizard-looking thing with ginormous teeth just walked into the village.)

Mos Eisley Cantina kitchen sink is nice and all, if that's what you're going for and what you want. But if I want the Mos Eisley Cantina I'll either play a Star Wars game and do it literally, or I'll start a Planescape game and we can have awesomely weird locations to go with our weird monster races.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

Just like that, you can selectively, using your judgement, say 'yes' or 'no' on a case-by-case basis. Win/win.

No, that's simply not helpful. If you are in a collaborative creative enterprise, you should always try to accommodate the others in your enterprise. Simply shutting others out, even if you think it is reasonable, is antithetical to the collaboration.