Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8265606" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think the thing with Kobolds started with the folklore it was built from, a small trouble-making spirit which hid in the dark. They were supposedly the reason why copper would be spoiled (nickel contamination). That was evolved into one of the humanoid types defined to represent different grades of troops in Chainmail's fantasy supplement, where they were the very weakest type. Naturally they had poor morale, that was how the system worked.OD&amp;D simply brought in all those creatures wholesale, so they became these little doglike guys. The one in the 1e MM looks kind of like a dog with small horns and weird ears, and either mail armor, or else scales, but it is hard to be sure which it is, though I lean towards the mail. Later they acquired their lizard-like traits and then, presumably based on that, a draconic affinity. So, I agree it was not portrayed as some sort of slur on kobolds. More a racial characteristic inherent to their natures, that they are little scavanger-type humanoids who are too small to fight toe-to-toe with bigger folk. They are smart enough not to try. They already had a sneakiness in their background from folklore, and this simply got played up as a way to explain their overall nature, sneaky trap-building scavangers who don't fight, at least fairly. Then of course they got tarred with the 'humanoids are evil' brush, but that was just basically a Gygax thing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8265606, member: 82106"] I think the thing with Kobolds started with the folklore it was built from, a small trouble-making spirit which hid in the dark. They were supposedly the reason why copper would be spoiled (nickel contamination). That was evolved into one of the humanoid types defined to represent different grades of troops in Chainmail's fantasy supplement, where they were the very weakest type. Naturally they had poor morale, that was how the system worked. OD&D simply brought in all those creatures wholesale, so they became these little doglike guys. The one in the 1e MM looks kind of like a dog with small horns and weird ears, and either mail armor, or else scales, but it is hard to be sure which it is, though I lean towards the mail. Later they acquired their lizard-like traits and then, presumably based on that, a draconic affinity. So, I agree it was not portrayed as some sort of slur on kobolds. More a racial characteristic inherent to their natures, that they are little scavanger-type humanoids who are too small to fight toe-to-toe with bigger folk. They are smart enough not to try. They already had a sneakiness in their background from folklore, and this simply got played up as a way to explain their overall nature, sneaky trap-building scavangers who don't fight, at least fairly. Then of course they got tarred with the 'humanoids are evil' brush, but that was just basically a Gygax thing. [/QUOTE]

Verification