Oh, so you've added Klingons

[Gargoyle]

In my last 3.5 campaign, I decided to elminate orcs and hobgoblins...sort of. I declared that the half-orcs in the PHB were actually full blooded orcs, and that they could not interbreed with any other race. The fractured orc empire consisted of military dictatorships and their culture revolved around personal honor and discipline. They were a proud, aggressive race who could be counted on if they were on your side, and were feared if enemies. Sports were a very important aspect of their daily life. There were rules about behavior that orcs usually followed, even "rules" for cheating and political deception. It was ok to lie if you were not caught, but punishable by death if you were found out. In my mind it was very original.

I told one of my players about this and he immediately replied "Oh, so you've added Klingons".

I was a bit crestfallen, because I realized my original idea wasn't so much, and as an original Star Trek fan I felt a little embarrassed. But I pressed on with it, and we had fun.

When I read about the dragonborn, I couldn't help but think "Oh, so you've added Klingons", even though they are not clones of klingons (neither were my orcs, especially as the campaign developed).

Despite this somewhat snarky observation, I'm thinking that the dragonborn are not a bad thing. After all, my "klingon orcs" worked out fine in the world I had crafted. Klingons are pretty cool after all, and I am in favor of D&D having races that are unique to D&D, and a dragon based race seems like an obvious choice.

However I find that the more I play D&D, the less I need or want a long list of player character races. There is so much untapped potential in human personalities and cultures. The dragonborn and tiefling serve to remind me how cool humans can be, and make me want to run a campaign with all human PC's even more.

 

[Henry]

I REALLY don't remember original series Klingons being all about personal honor and discipline. I remember them as more Machiavellian Lawful Evil types who would do whatever they could to start a fight so they could take over. Klingons seemed more in the "stereotypical Soviet Union" mould than anything else (but don't want to go into "the politics of Star Trek" specifically. )

But Dragonborn are as you say nothing new. They may well work, and they do fit in a game that's called "Dungeons and Dragons" -- I just don't see 'em as my kind of fantasy default race.

 

[Dragonbait]

and the gnomes bio-engineered themselves into little blobby things that ride around in personal armored vehicles. They want to exterminate all things not of their own kind. The Klingon-Orc/Klingon-Dragonborn comparison is very common, but unless the they come from an alien planet and use klingon-designed weapons, it's a bit weak to anybody but a Star Trek fan. Klingons are not the only fictitious species based around combat, and they were not the first.

Re: Human versatility
Yeah, one could run an all human campaign. Some players might like this, some might not.

 

[Ahrimon]

Unfortunately, you'll see this more frequently as time goes on. Just about every combination of racial traits has been done in TV and movies so far. So no matter what "original" idea you come up with it's probably been done before. It's the nature of the beast

But, you didn't base them on klingons. They were original to you. So I say stand up and be proud of your Orcs that coincidentally look like something someone else may have done somewhere on TV.

And Dragonborn look pretty darn cool to me. More wandering mercenaries with honor than klingons though. Do Nichians (Andromida) come close.

 

[Ahrimon]

and the gnomes bio-engineered themselves into little blobby things that ride around in personal armored vehicles. They want to exterminate all things not of their own kind.

Mechanoids?

 

[Dragonbait]

Mechanoids?

Daleks. See, I wonder if Sembia or whatever his name is that started Palladium and the Mechanoid Invasion series, thought that he was terribly original with his creations.

 

[billd91]

I REALLY don't remember original series Klingons being all about personal honor and discipline. I remember them as more Machiavellian Lawful Evil types who would do whatever they could to start a fight so they could take over. Klingons seemed more in the "stereotypical Soviet Union" mould than anything else (but don't want to go into "the politics of Star Trek" specifically. )

In the original series, that was largely true. But in the Next Generation, Klingon society got a lot of fleshing out. At the time, I remember thinking that they would make a good model for an interesting orc culture in D&D. So the OP is certainly not the only person thinking along similar lines.

 

[CleverNickName]

I suppose it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to come up with a 4E Star Trek D20 game. For the races, right off the top of my head:

Humans --> Well, humans of course.
Vulcans --> Eladrin
Klingons --> Half-orcs/Dragonborn
Ferengi --> Goblins
Cardassians --> Tieflings
Romulans --> Drow
Borg --> Warforged
Changelings --> Changelings (naturally)
Betazoids --> Human psions

Wow, my Nerd Meter just pegged out.

 

[TerraDave]

Their not Klingons.

Their Gorn.

 

[Gargoyle]

In the original series, that was largely true. But in the Next Generation, Klingon society got a lot of fleshing out. At the time, I remember thinking that they would make a good model for an interesting orc culture in D&D. So the OP is certainly not the only person thinking along similar lines.

Yeah, I was thinking of Next Gen when I made the comparison, and I'm certain those are the klingons my friend was thinking of. I commented that I'm an original series fan, but I guess I watched a lot of Next Gen too...sort of hoping that it would get better.