Tiefling, Dragonborn : have they gained traction ?

[rounser]

Weren't there dragonborn, or something like them, in the same setting that (unfortunately, IMO) spawned gully dwarves and. . . those other two racial variants (TSNBN, by me anyway)?

Draconians. Definitely not a PC race, definitely villains, had a good name and fair artwork, and did freaky things when they died (like their bones exploding or turning into pools of acid), hinting at their status as abominations.

Also had a compelling backstory (made from corrupting stolen good dragon's eggs). About a million times cooler than dragonboobs IMO, and primarily stayed NPCs as most good monsters should, most of the time.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Draconians.

Ouch. Yeah, that's the name, alright. Then again, I've heard worse. . .

Definitely not a PC race, definitely villains, and did freaky things when they died (like their bones exploding or turning into pools of acid). Also had a compelling backstory (made from corrupting stolen good dragon's eggs). About a million times cooler than dragonboobs IMO, and primarily stayed NPCs as most good monsters should, most of the time.

Ah. So, not really a PC race, and not really all that similar. OK. Well, it's not a setting I've really looked into much. And, as I'm sometimes liable to do, I've tended to dismiss it out of hand a bit too readily, perhaps.

[. . . we now return you to your. . . ]

 

[Nymrohd]

Actually the chromatic draconians were good and were PC races.

 

[Dire Bare]

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

Allowing a player to play a dragonborn is a far cry from making your campaign exactly like all the others, kitchen sinks included. I tend to run my games in Mystara, and dragonborn do not exist in my campaign at this point. I haven't disallowed them, they just haven't come up yet. If a player wants to play a dragonborn in my game, do I need to create a dragonborn nation or culture to let this happen? I could, of course, and that'd be great. Or I could allow this character concept with any number of backstories. My favorite one is how the dragonborn were introduced in 3rd Edition, as an "evolved" race dedicated to the Platinum Dragon.

Official 4th Edition campaigns from WotC will try to give strong backgrounds to all the new races and classes, which makes sense. But Eberron is hardly a clone of Forgotten Realms and my campaign doesn't need to be either if I allow dragonborn.

 

[rounser]

Actually the chromatic draconians were good and were PC races.

Is this in one of the attempted resuscitations of the setting or the work of some obscure prequel book? Saga edition maybe? I don't detect their presence in the War of the Lance, which is pretty much all I tuned in for.

 

[Dire Bare]

Draconians. Definitely not a PC race, definitely villains, had a good name and fair artwork, and did freaky things when they died (like their bones exploding or turning into pools of acid), hinting at their status as abominations.

Draconians weren't originally a PC race, but it didn't take long for that to change. Rules to play draconians existed in 2nd Edition (I'm pretty sure, but it's been a while since I've looked) and they definitely existed in 3rd Edition. Margaret Weis even wrote more than a few books with draconians as the main protagonists (Kang's Regiment).

It's a bit of the klingon syndrome . . . take a villian so cool that everybody wants to be them . . . but there is a long history of playing dragon-men in D&D and fantasy gaming, including Dragonlance.

 

[rounser]

Allowing a player to play a dragonborn is a far cry from making your campaign exactly like all the others, kitchen sinks included.

But that's what we're talking about by allowing everything in the core, all the time. It's kitchen sinking every campaign world. Dark Sun with dragonboob PCs. Ravenloft with dragonboob PCs. Etcetera.

 

[Bumbles]

Ah. So, not really a PC race, and not really all that similar. OK.

So were Drow once upon a time, but then came a certain book series, and we all know where that lead.

Sadly, the books about Kang's Regiment just weren't as popular.

Still, I would say that the Dragonborn are the effective descendants of those draconians in some ways. Heck, I'm sure there's somebody out there who is running a campaign with that as their origin.

Or somebody might have something like the Where Dragons Lie books by Salsitz.

 

[rounser]

Draconians weren't originally a PC race, but it didn't take long for that to change. Rules to play draconians existed in 2nd Edition (I'm pretty sure, but it's been a while since I've looked) and they definitely existed in 3rd Edition. Margaret Weis even wrote more than a few books with draconians as the main protagonists (Kang's Regiment).

Okay, that was after I tuned out. I think they should probably have stayed villains, and I think I'll try and remember them that way. It's a bit like Darth Vader being ruined a bit by whiny Anakin. It might have more depth, but sometimes you just want straight up bad guys.

 

[Dire Bare]

Is this in one of the attempted resuscitations of the setting or the work of some obscure prequel book? Saga edition maybe? I don't detect their presence in the War of the Lance, which is pretty much all I tuned in for.

I don't think the "good" chromatic draconians ever appeared in any novels. I think they were introduced in 3rd Edition, but maybe they showed up in 2nd somewhere. While I'm okay with the idea of PC draconians, I don't think the chromatic draconians were a well executed idea. But the reason why they exist, is because fans wanted to play draconian PCs.

There were still rules introduced to play good old fashioned "metallic" draconians. As the setting progressed draconians were portrayed as a slave race to Takhisis . . . with some reveling in that role and others rebelling against it.