D&D 5E Dragonborn inter-species breeding?

[Bacon Bits]

Thank you for this. Admittedly I played with the idea of presenting my players with such a moral dilemma, but something in the back of my mind kept telling me not to. You have perfectly articulated what my subconscious was warning me from doing, which is playing the players, not the characters.

As you say, in a world where such things as Lawful Good and Neutral Evil actually exist, our own moralities don't really have a place. It's a made up world where Orc babies are, to their core, evil, and a Lawful Good character should have no qualms about dealing with them accordingly, but given that understanding, why put them in that position to begin with?

Again, thank you for your post. You've given me many things to think about, and many new, hopefully interesting plots for my game are beginning to form...

It's not even that orcs have to be irredeemably evil, really. It's just that the culture, laws, and religions in place that the characters are familiar with would have almost certainly already addressed the problem in some way. It doesn't matter if the answer is that you kill them or you let them go. It's that there ought to be no dilemma to the decision. Just like how the rules for this situation are already super clear cut in our world (until they pick up a weapon) they would probably be equally clear in theirs.

The biggest problem is if Corellon Larethian and Moradin and Pelor (or Illmater or Helm or whomever) disagree, but even then there would likely be a known compromise. The alternative, that there is no compromise, means the players are now expected to, what, resolve a conflict of doctrine between deities? That's moderately unreasonable, isn't it?

I mean, sure, some people like that type of game. I would argue that D&D is not the right game for that style of play, however. IMX, people play D&D to escape that weight of topic.

 

[Talmek]

So...not to advocate throwing shade upon the PC's campaign desires or long-term goals - but couldn't a conversation be had to say,

"Look man, I understand you didn't mean for your character to come across as a sociopathic rapist-type, but that's how it is to the other players. Come up with some different goals for your character so we can all move on."

I don't see the reasoning to even bother allowing one player to pursue something that would alienate the rest of the group. This doesn't mean don't come up with provocative and innovative ideas and motives for your PCs...but just TRY to come up with something that's not quite so polarizing as rape within what's supposed to be a "social" game setting.

I guess I think of it like this - While there MAY be some rape/sexual assault victims that MAY want to talk about it to everyone they meet, my impression is that most want to recover and move forward with their lives. Why bring something like that up to roleplay? Unless your table is so close that they wouldn't mind discussion regarding whatever kink/fetish/dark family secrets they may have in real life, keep this kind of stuff off of the table (so to speak).

Reference/Background: Close personal relationships with rape/sexual assault victims (multiple).

 

[Redthistle]

Ah, point of order. Mehen was attracted to a shapeshifted succubus in orc form during the first book. When going by Evan's books, you kinda have to remember that Mehen is gay, which shades his romantic interactions a bit.

http://slushlush.com/2013/11/the-adversary-excerpt-character-blog-clanless-mehen/

I recognize your point and especially thank you for the link.

My understanding of the scenario you mention was that it was only because of the powers of the succubus that Mehen was attracted to a non-dragonborn. If my comprehension of that scene was mistaken, it certainly wasn't the first time in my life that I've experienced that phenomenon.

 

[Mephista]

I recognize your point and especially thank you for the link.

My understanding of the scenario you mention was that it was only because of the powers of the succubus that Mehen was attracted to a non-dragonborn. If my comprehension of that scene was mistaken, it certainly wasn't the first time in my life that I've experienced that phenomenon.

Well, possibly. Its just hard with Mehen, since he's the Dad as well. I just don't know if there's enough with Mehen to qualify either way, given the confusing data. With the next book being set in dragonborn country, we should get a bit more information from there.

I personally look to the scene in Adversary, where that one Harper is trying to figure out why Mehen was exiled, and he starts laughing at her for not realizing he was gay, and making all those comments about eggs and hatchlings. I get the impression that the author was hinting that it should be obvious for someone to recognize it from observing Mehen's behavior, and because he's rarely interacting with other dragonborn while doing all this Harper stuff with the princeling...

 

[Riley37]

it certainly wasn't the first time in my life that I've experienced that phenomenon.

The phenomenon of succubus powers, or the phenomenon of attraction to a non-dragonborn?

Perhaps I did not properly comprehend what you wrote.

 

[Riley37]

It's just that the culture, laws, and religions in place that the characters are familiar with would have almost certainly already addressed the problem in some way.

Agreed. If the player says "My PC does what my PC's culture considers right and proper", then the DM can say "Okay, well, your culture says do X, so you do X", or the DM can say "I'm not clear on what your culture considers right and proper. Let's do some off-the-cuff world-building." In either of those answers, the DM takes responsibility for the setting.

Equally true whether X is walk away from the orphans, or kill them, or adopt them, or whatever.

Of course, perhaps one PC favors Moradin's answer, and another PC favors Pelor's answer, and the resulting scene can be interesting or it can be trite, depending on the background, skills and tastes of the players.

 

[Awin]

I'm new and coming into this late but I can't find a definitive answer to the OP. Some say yes. Some say no. Some say possibly.

The reason I was googling this question (halfling dragonborn) is because one of my favorite mythos has dragons (changelings so they have a human form) mating with humans. The catch (and what prevents mass extinction of one race or the other) is that only certain humans have a compatible dna. Details aren't gotten into but for a few humans it IS possible to bare dragon babies, or rather halflings.

Since there is no definitive answer would this line of thought be acceptable?

 

[gyor]

Simple solution, he captures the eggs, but not the females, and uses a ritual to transform/corrupt the contents into his children.

It's an idea based off, of how Draconians are made.

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm new and coming into this late but I can't find a definitive answer to the OP. Some say yes. Some say no. Some say possibly.

The reason I was googling this question (halfling dragonborn) is because one of my favorite mythos has dragons (changelings so they have a human form) mating with humans. The catch (and what prevents mass extinction of one race or the other) is that only certain humans have a compatible dna. Details aren't gotten into but for a few humans it IS possible to bare dragon babies, or rather halflings.

Since there is no definitive answer would this line of thought be acceptable?

There is no definitive answer because we are discussing fiction. The "right" answer is to do whatever you want in your own campaign.

If you have a campaign where dragons mate with humans, the result could actually be the dragonborn race. In D&D, one of the first such concepts was in the Council of Wyrms setting, where polymorphed dragons mated with humans and produced half-dragons, which were a lot like modern D&D's dragonborn.

 

[Soul Stigma]

There is no definitive answer because we are discussing fiction. The "right" answer is to do whatever you want in your own campaign.

If you have a campaign where dragons mate with humans, the result could actually be the dragonborn race. In D&D, one of the first such concepts was in the Council of Wyrms setting, where polymorphed dragons mated with humans and produced half-dragons, which were a lot like modern D&D's dragonborn.

In my homebrew setting, this is the case, making Dragonborn somewhat rare.


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