D&D 5E A reptilian world?

[Zeromaru X]

Not 100% sure which analogues I'd use but maybe I'd have dragonborn replace humans as the most populace race. Kobolds would replace gnomes, specifically tinker gnomes. I have an image of kobolds as artificers that are the equivalent of wild magic sorcerers, they love making things and often those things blow up.

That was my point when I said that kobolds should be "the gnomes" of this setting. Kobolds are intelligent and creative creatures. They would the tinkerers and engeeniers of this world, much like the Zil gnomes of Eberron.

And as a bonus setting, after playing in the scaled world, you can advance the setting thousands of years to a point where man has risen and spread out, great dragonborn and yuanti empires have crumbled, and now their former homes become sites for humanity to explore and plunder.

There couldn't be a setting that has no humanity as the dominant species? I mean, there are a lot of those already, either official or fanmade. Why "ruin" this setting with that concept?

 

[cbwjm]

That was my point when I said that kobolds should be "the gnomes" of this setting. Kobolds are intelligent and creative creatures. They would the tinkerers and engeeniers of this world, much like the Zil gnomes of Eberron.



There couldn't be a setting that has no humanity as the dominant species? I mean, there are a lot of those already, either official or fanmade. Why "ruin" this setting with that concept?

I'm not, this is essentially two settings separated by timelines. Play in one doesn't affect the other, the earlier time of the scaled folk just serves as a springboard for the history of the later setting and explains why there are all these ancient ruins to explore.

 

[Tonguez]

And as a bonus setting, after playing in the scaled world, you can advance the setting thousands of years to a point where man has risen and spread out, great dragonborn and yuanti empires have crumbled, and now their former homes become sites for humanity to explore and plunder.

Thats essentially what I did with one of my homebrews, in the modern era the PCs started uncovering ancient ruins with statues and hieroglyphs of serpent headed ‘snake people’ and eventually uncovered a tomb of mummified snake men (called Lamia imc) who of course were undead. The Church however suppressed any suggestion that they were signs of an ancient serpent civilisation.

essentially the worlds prehistory was dominated by the Lamia Queen Nakasha, high priestess of the ’Great Devourer who Encircles’. The Lamia empire was a theocracy where females were priesthood and males were warrior-overseers who conquered and dominated other races. The Lamia enslaved the Saurials (Lizardmen and Tri-horns) to build their Ziggurat temples and made alliances with Dragons (leading to Lamia/Dragon and Lizardman/Dragon crossbreeds).

Anyway when mammalian races started to appea they were initially treated as food and then as enemies, but then some mysterious cataclysm occured and the Queen Nakasha fell into a slumber and the Lamia Empire collapsed, ther Lizardmen rebelled and the Dragons withdrew from the mortal world. The Lamia who remained become tyranical despots and were eventually overthrown and forced into hiding, using their shapechanging ability to live among the warm-bloods Leading to legends of dopplegangers and vampires.

Nakasha has slept for thousands of years but is now awakening and wants to reclaim her empire …

That however was backstory to a otherwise standard fantasy world, not one created from the ground up to be dominated by reptiles

 

[Zeromaru X]

That however was backstory to a otherwise standard fantasy world, not one created from the ground up to be dominated by reptiles

This is my point. We are trying to create here a world meant to be dominated by the scaled ones. Not a world that would become the backstory of Standard Fantasy world #th.

I have a few ideas to share here, that I hope I can share when I get home.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Of the ideas here so far, the idea I like least is using the Dragonborn in the human niche. To me, with their abilities and the lore of their origins, they’re a better fit to replace elves.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Of the ideas here so far, the idea I like least is using the Dragonborn in the human niche. To me, with their abilities and the lore of their origins, they’re a better fit to replace elves.

This depends. Are dragonborn in the human niche of the "most common race" or in the niche of "the dominant species of this world". I think that dragonborn can be the dominant humanoid species in Reptorth (placeholder name for now), under their masters (and true dominant species of Reptorth), the dragons. While, yes, I think they will be not as numerous as lizardfolk.

 

[Tonguez]

This depends. Are dragonborn in the human niche of the "most common race" or in the niche of "the dominant species of this world". I think that dragonborn can be the dominant humanoid species in Reptorth (placeholder name for now), under their masters (and true dominant species of Reptorth), the dragons. While, yes, I think they will be not as numerous as lizardfolk.

Humans are defined not just by their ubiquity but also by their mundanity and that’s something Dragonborn lack, even more so if they are the servants of True Dragons. Even in Reptileworld Dragonborn are an elite race not the mundane base that humans represent.

Personally I’d be inclined to start from a Finhead/Lizardman base (Human stand in) and diversify from there - Dragonborn as elite Lizardman/dragon hybrids, Crocodile men as savage Lizardman and Trogs as degenerate Lizardman etc.
Hornhead Saurials as firbolgish “wise giants”, kobolds and Urds/Pterafolk ...