Female Dragonborn - No longer have breasts?

[DandD]

Easy there, we don't want to have serious insults thrown around here at each another.

 

[Andor]

Just...get rid of the human (not mammal, human) genitals, please.

Just a quibble, but boobs are not genitals. They are a secondary sexual characteristic unrelated to reproduction, like an anole's dewlap or a peacock's tail.

And, as I've mentioned before, all you need for boobs to evolve is for Dragonborn men to prefer their females with boobs. Maybe they got the idea from hanging out with hummies, who knows? Or maybe they were made by some pervy wizard who thought scalie hot chicks would top his brother Ruprickt's owlbears.

Secondary sexual characteristics don't have to make sense. Right now there are birds in my yard where the females look like this:

And the males look like this:

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Just a quibble, but boobs are not genitals. They are a secondary sexual characteristic unrelated to reproduction, like an anole's dewlap or a peacock's tail.

And, as I've mentioned before, all you need for boobs to evolve is for Dragonborn men to prefer their females with boobs. Maybe they got the idea from hanging out with hummies, who knows? Or maybe they were made by some pervy wizard who thought scalie hot chicks would top his brother Ruprickt's owlbears.

While the "unrealism" bit is part of the big complaint against dragonborn breasts, I think the crux of the argument is "It's unimaginative, sloppy, lazy, and panders to the lowest common denominator, and if we wanted that, we'd play FATAL."

 

[Andor]

While the "unrealism" bit is part of the big complaint against dragonborn breasts, I think the crux of the argument is "It's unimaginative, sloppy, lazy, and panders to the lowest common denominator, and if we wanted that, we'd play FATAL."

FATAL doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator. It panders to things that live in the damp places under rocks and in rotten logs. Slime mold has more character than a creature that would find that game appealing.

By comparison dragonborn boobs are merely amusingly juvenile.

 

[DandD]

While the "unrealism" bit is part of the big complaint against dragonborn breasts, I think the crux of the argument is "It's unimaginative, sloppy, lazy, and panders to the lowest common denominator, and if we wanted that, we'd play FATAL."

Yeah, I think that's it. Those birds that Andor posted would be a significantly better inspiration for the Dragonborn to be distinguished in male and female, for example. Just give them different colours or something like that.
In "The Dark Eye", the way to tell what a gender the (warmblooded) Lizardman would have was to look at the colour of its crest. If it was red, it was male, if not, it was a female.
Of course, Dragonborn aren't Lizardmen, but something similar could very well be applied, like pigmentations on their scales, or perhaps they do also have a back crest.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

FATAL doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator. It panders to things that live in the damp places under rocks and in rotten logs. Slime mold has more character than a creature that would find that game appealing.

By comparison dragonborn boobs are merely amusingly juvenile.

Well, ok.

But aside from the FATAL bit, I'd like to think I'm mostly correct

 

[am181d]

Everybody's going to approach the game differently, but the idea that we would use modern day biology and zoology to define fantasy races seems a bit daft to me. (Well, the rigid adherence there to, at any rate. I suppose it's as fine an organizing principle as any as long as you're not taking yourself too seriously.)

As I mentioned upthread, there's a perfectly good justification for Dragonborn with breasts (and other mammalian characteristics): they were created to interact with other humanoids. Done.

Beyond that, there's the mythological/fantasy tradition. I mean, if 4e were a Conan story, would the army of Dragonborn women have breasts? Of course!

Personally, as a CS Lewis fan, I'm all for anthropomorphic animals in my fantasy, but when you spend too much time thinking about "well, if she was really lizardy/catty/doggy, then she'd be like this..." you've taken the right turn to furry town.

 

[Incenjucar]

As I mentioned upthread, there's a perfectly good justification for Dragonborn with breasts (and other mammalian characteristics): they were created to interact with other humanoids. Done.

I use this with my own set of serpent- and dragon-derived humanoids, though they're even more humanoid than dragonborn, with their creation being specifically to influence humans (no demi-humans in the setting).

It makes their boobs wonderfully sinister things.

Especially since the males have no analogous tissue like male humans do.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Quite frankly, I think if you really want to differentiate between the two, let's make it a legit difference that harkens back to the whole scale bit. Females are dull and brown looking, while male dragonborn have a large array of colors across their scales to impress the females. God knows that'll bring in some interesting character concepts. And a few blinding ones, but hey, nothing worse then the inevitable dragonborn harem girls we'd have otherwise.

The more I think about the idea I admittingly just tossed out at random, the more I'm sure it's got some serious potential. In Races and Classes, dragonborn are described as being very tribal, very militant, and very confident in other dragonborn. I think the idea of garish males would actually help that - colors would show tribal loyalties, and they'd look down on the drab and plain humans and dwarves and the like. You could even - and I know this is CRAZY talk here - make them a matriarchal society that isn't horribly twisted and evil.

 

[Andor]

The more I think about the idea I admittingly just tossed out at random, the more I'm sure it's got some serious potential. In Races and Classes, dragonborn are described as being very tribal, very militant, and very confident in other dragonborn. I think the idea of garish males would actually help that - colors would show tribal loyalties, and they'd look down on the drab and plain humans and dwarves and the like.

I'm currently dammed to the humid deeps of Florida. It's a reptile paradise downhere. I'm constantly watching the little anoles battle over turf, food and females. The males do pushups and show off their dewlaps.

I could totally see Dragonborn with dewlaps and head crests struting about like scaly peacocks. Or worse. I mean have you seen what female turkeys think is sexy?

You could even - and I know this is CRAZY talk here - make them a matriarchal society that isn't horribly twisted and evil.

You've already got Drow and Beholders. What more could you need?