Dragonborn - will you ban them?

[Doug McCrae]

As a kid I loved Robert Asprin's 1979 sci-fi book The Bug Wars, which has lizardmen type creatures as the heroes (and no humans).

I doubt it was the inspiration for dragonborn though. The idea's been kicking around awhile. Draconians in Dragonlance, dragonborn in Races of the Dragon. Doesn't the heroine in Curse of the Azure Bonds have a lizardman companion?

I see no anime influence here. Unless dragonborn are teenage girls with pink hair who pilot mecha.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Is the only requirement to "prove" that Dragonborn are video game inspired the existence of some sort of lizardman in a video game and series that I believe postdates the Dragonlance series' draconians?

Yeah. You might as well argue that wizards in D&D were inspired by Superman comics cause Superman met a wizard once prior to 1974.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

How can 18% of people intend to ban a core race before they have even seen it?

Because people are making very firm decisions based on evidence that's sketchy at best.

Seriously, we don't have enough information on anything in 4e to make such sweeping decisions: not races, not classes, not XP systems, not magic, not magic items.

 

[NaturalZero]

I suppose the idea of making Dragonborn a PC race, rather than just a monster, can be argued to be inspired by videogames and manga... The problem with that is such things are not terribly common even in anime and videogames. I can only name a few examples, myself.

Ironically enough, i usually ban elves and orcs because im tired of always seeing them in video games. You do see way more elves in both video games and manga than you do dragon people.

 

[drothgery]

Given that I'll be DMing in Eberron if I DM 4e at all, I'll either replace the lizardfolk of Q'Barra and the Principalities with Dragonborn, or shuffle them off to Argonessen. No real problems. I expect I'd see more changeling, warforged, shifter, gnome, and Kalashtar PCs than dragonborn and tiefling PCs, but that's Eberron PC demographics for you...

 

[Cadfan]

I feel as if polls like these aren't the most clear...

I've run campaigns where I "banned" vast amounts of material. Basically, I declared the campaign setting and the plotline to my gaming club, told them what sorts of characters would fit in, and left a sheet for people to sign up. It was a military campaign, and the PCs were part of a nation of humans fighting against the hobgoblin legions. So all the PCs had to be human.

I wouldn't really phrase that as "I banned all races except human," because it wasn't done out of an objection to those races inclusion in the books, or objections to their mechanics, or anything. It was just what I did to make the setting coherent. We played about 10 weeks, finished the war, and stopped. My next campaign had no similar restrictions.

So... if you had given me this poll before my military campaign, I guess a "Will Ban" answer would have been true, but it wouldn't indicate any hostility or objection to the dragonborn's inclusion in the game.

 

[Stormborn]

Given that I just finished Michael Stackpole's Cartomancy (Book two of The Age of Discovery) when I saw the leak about dragonborn I thought "Viruk!" I will gladly allow them. In fact I generally prefer to play and run games where most options are allowed and deal with it as it comes. I also agree with the philosophy that anything a player wants, so long as it is reasonably balanced or can be made so, can and should be made to fit the campaign world. It may require an exotic explination, but it can fit. Any game, any setting.

Eberron? Dragonborn are a new race just arrived in Khorvaire (or spotted in Xen'drik) from Argonnessen.

Forgotten Realms? There are all those Unknown Lands beyond the trackless sea. Or they can be strange mutations from the Spellplague (or whatever they are calling it).

Sure, sometimes its fun limit options to create a certain feel, but not right out of the gate and not without a better reason than 'I can't figure out how they fit."

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Too many sources to list, but take Dragonball Z as a starter:

Neither of those are dragons. They're both aliens.

 

[Rykion]

Dragonborn and Tieflings will be in my 4th ed campaigns. I'll be starting a new homebrew once 4th ed comes out, so no need to try to shoehorn them into an existing game.

Dragonmen have been in D&D since the draconians of Dragonlance, and probably before. They don't show up in the majority of fantasy videogames and anime. Now having humans, elves, and dwarves is definitely just pandering to the videogame fans, as they appear in practically every fantasy videogame I've ever played.

 

[SteveFoerster]

Snowflake

I'm working on a campaign setting based somewhat on antediluvian myths, so if the mechanics aren't too silly then I may use Dragonborn as Serpents. Those wanting to play one as a PC will have to come up with a clever back story, though.

-=Steve=-