And the mystery race is...hated

[Gloombunny]

Yeah... elves and dwarves and halflings are high fantasy. Dragonborn and tieflings are way more sword-and-sorcery than them.

Though I'm also not at all clear on what points-of-light has to do with this. It's not like points-of-light is somehow incompatible with high fantasy.

 

[Derren]

They have existed in dozens of different books, movies, and video games.

And each book movie and game interpreted them differently. So the only thing you recognize is the name and nothing else. The runequest(?) elves which I think are 3 feet tall living plants with humanoid shapes are rather different from D&D elves.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Quite simply, whatever the eighth race, a lot of people would find it unappealing. The same with the flavor and/or name of the dragonborn (again, what's wrong with the name?).

As long as we don't have the actual PHB in our hands, so we can make statements and comparisions based on actual rules and finalized (generic) fluff, all we have are the WotC tidbits and everybody's personal ideas and opinions.

And those ideas and opinions are naturally going to diverge a lot. Look at the gnome fans, and the people who never cared for gnomes; or the elf fans and elf haters; people who think D&D should be more Tolkien, or less Tolkien; more sword-and-sorcery, or less; the gamers who like wizards over fighters, and vice versa...

Seriously, no single race, no matter how creative, is going to please the whole D&D audience, or even a majority of it. The thing is, can people live with races and other stuff that doesn't exactly match what they'd wanted? Of course; we've been doing that for years and years, in all the previous editions. (And if we can't, we can houserule things. That's been done, too.)

 

[Khuxan]

In fact, I know the "Yakman" exists in one of the Monster Manuals but couldn't tell you the actual DnD name to save my life.

Yakmen are called... wait for it... "yakfolk".

In the MMII.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Apparently that poll needed a "I will hate the new race whatever it turns out to be option".

Clearly, that would have won hands down!

Yes, because it obviously follows that if you hate what they picked, that you would hate whatever they picked. That explains all the anger about, say, elves.

Similarly, if you like what they picked, if follows that you would like whatever they picked. So, had they picked Dungborn, that would have been fine, too.

RC

 

[Raven Crowking]

Insert one half-naked barbarian and you've got 50% of the Conan stories ever written.

Apart from, apparently, never having read a REH Conan story, you're right about one thing....Dragonborn would probably fit into Conan's world, if they were instead snakemen, and if they had the ability to appear like humans, and if they were an evil NPC race bent on erradicating humans.

RC

 

[Raven Crowking]

I was just thinking of how best to explain dragonborn to a 5 year old, then I got it: "They're Dinosaur Men." All 5 year olds love dinosaurs!

So, IOW, Barney made it into the PHB.

Finally!

 

[Wolfspider]

Quite simply, whatever the eighth race, a lot of people would find it unappealing. The same with the flavor and/or name of the dragonborn (again, what's wrong with the name?).

 

[Stormtower]

So...how many of you have played a dragonborn or played with a player who has run one (from "Races of the Dragon")?

(My answer: 0)

My current campaign arc (Slaughtergarde/Red Hand of Doom) has featured a dragonblooded sorcerer with a few Draconic Heritage feats but no actual dragonborn. But we like the dragon-themed stuff! I know there's many who are kinda "meh" to it. But I think dragonborn as a PHB1 core race for 4e is, as others have said, a bit too much hard-coded flavor for my tastes. I don't hate the new mystery race, but it's not a point in 4e's favor either.

 

[Mercule]

I could see dragon-men fitting into Hyboria more easily than Halflings, Gnomes, or Dwarves, so I'm not sure how you get the impression that Dragonmen is a high fantasy construct.

You make them degenerate worshipers of a "snake god man was not meant to know" about, have them tie a hot chick to an altar and grab a big knife.

Insert one half-naked barbarian and you've got 50% of the Conan stories ever written.

And a race that's generally unacceptable as a PC. Which means that it shouldn't be in any PHB.