And the mystery race is...hated

[Lonely Tylenol]

Seriously, was there any possible announcement of the mystery race that wasn't going to met with calls for drawing and quartering WOTC? So the race will be dragonborn. How bad can that be? I would have liked gnomes in my PHB, but apparently I am a minority. So I deal with it. Okay, start the endless argument about WOTC broke into your living room and ruined your game...

Well, not so much that they ruined the game, but that they could have put something in there that was more appealing. While I'm the first to declare that I'm going to have no trouble editing out everything I don't want and adding in everything I do, I'd be happier if there were gnomes. Or minotaurs. Or even grippli. I just don't like dragonish races. So when I look at this info, I think, "oh, hey, there's two or three pages of the PHB that could be used for something better."

 

[Rechan]

And I don't think anything would have received unanimous support. If it had been Half-Orcs, people would roll their eyes. If it were Full orcs, "PCs are monsters! It's becomign WoW!" Minotaur would've garnered the same. Drow would've caused an upset beyond believable. Warforged just the same. Gnomes would have brought groans. There was no choice that's optimal.

As far as "Dragonborn are going to get murdered in towns!" Well, not everyone is playing the Points of Light. That may be the implied setting for the rulebooks, but uh, that's not your campaign.

And as pointed out, a "Point of Light" doesn't need to be a little hamlet in the middle of no where; it can be a kingdom, a fortified trade city. It could be an elven village hostile to humans, or a dwarven keep that trusts anything non-dwarf.

The Dragonborn are probably known as a Neutral race that isn't inherently destructive/dangerous. Honestly, the Tiefling is going to have a harder time than the dragon guy.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I hate half-dragons, so I'm not likely to be pleased with dragonborn.

Please let their origins be something besides horny dragons. Please.

 

[The Little Raven]

Please let their origins be something besides horny dragons. Please.

Awww!

Why?

Half of Greek mythology is explained by horny gods, so why can't at least one race be explained by horny dragons?

 

[Rechan]

I think an origin similar to the mojh from AE might be intriguing; Humans who, in the past, gave up their humanity to be closer to dragons for the sake of arcane knowledge/pinnacle of form/whatever.

 

[vectner]

Ok, it just feels to me like every decision WOTC is making is being shoved down our throats. D&D has always flourished because of it's general vague setting. Why are they hardcoding setting into our game. If I had wanted dragonlance, I would have bought the setting, same thing with planescape. I'm sorry, but I don't think elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, humans, half-elves, and half-orcs are really that boring. I don't need horns and scales to make my game more exciting. Let the people choose, stop making setting choices for us.

 

[Henry]

My biggest problem with it is one of convenience. This is the first time in the history of D&D that I don't feel comfortable with turning absolutely everything in the PHB loose with the players, and that I couldn't find everything in the PHB usable in almost any D&D campaign I'd choose to run. The PHB will be sufficiently "non-vanilla" that I feel like I'll have to have a list saying, "you can't use this, this, and this in my new campaign" instead of saying, "you can use the PHB, and these parts of the following supplement books."

If dragons only fit a theme of being evil creatures, or that they're rare beings who never had much contact with the common races, or "no one has ever seen a dragon", then I've got to eliminate Dragonborn as a PHB choice. For me, it's a problem of having to be exclusive, rather than inclusive. One could probably make the point with ANY race or class in any previous PHB, but it's the first time for me that it's been a problem. Dragonborn are "just fantastic enough" that they cause a few problems, if they are indeed the spawn of dragons and have draconic powers, rather than being dressed-up lizardmen.

And I don't think anything would have received unanimous support. If it had been Half-Orcs, people would roll their eyes. If it were Full orcs, "PCs are monsters! It's becomign WoW!"

Not me for darned sure. I'm a lover of half-orcs and orcs (eeewww!) since AD&D, and having full orcs as a race would not be very far off the previous D&D beaten path. But then, that's why the mystery race wasn't orcs or half-orcs - they want to forge new ground.

Minotaur would've garnered the same.Drow would've caused an upset beyond believable.

Old fan of Dragonlance, so minotaurs are cool. Drow? Given the number of misunderstood good drow PCs floating around in D&D-land, I doubt they would have caused much upset.

There was no choice that's optimal.

That, I agree. No choice would have been, "BRILLIANT!!!!" from all corners.

 

[Wolfspider]

Paladine is in the Realms?

 

[Stone Dog]

If they are easily remade as lizardfolk of somekind then I'll be.... okay. If they have built in advancement with breathing fire or anything that is intrinsically draconic then I'll be rolling my eyes and setting them aside.

It isn't such a big deal, but it is certainly a "what the..." moment.

 

[Rechan]

If they are easily remade as lizardfolk of somekind then I'll be.... okay. If they have built in advancement with breathing fire or anything that is intrinsically draconic then I'll be rolling my eyes and setting them aside.

...

Given that we know you get racial powers as you advance in level, and they're called Dragonborn, you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be flying around and breathing fire.

It would shock me if they didn't.