PHR: Dragonborn Mini-Review

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Bought it, liked it. There is a lot of fluff in it. Lots of backstory, some of it we might knew already, some of it not. Also more about the clan/family structure of Dragonborn society and their role during the time of the Nerathi Empire.

Just a few tidbits I found interesting
- Some Dragonborn, especially during the time of Arkhosia, seemed to follow a creation myth indicating that the Dragonborn were Io's first creation and the dragons were just created for the Dawn War, making the Dragonborn the "superior" race. Interesting twist. I am sure the Dragons are not amused.
- The Nerathi Empire was integrating other races better than other (non-human) empires, but with a few restrictions - appparantly Dragonborn were not allowed to gather in large groups. The humans wanted not just allies, but also keep tabs on others.

I agree that in a way it's a very big Dragon article on Dragonborns. But I did mention before that I really liked the big articles, right?

 

[kenmarable]

Just a few tidbits I found interesting
- Some Dragonborn, especially during the time of Arkhosia, seemed to follow a creation myth indicating that the Dragonborn were Io's first creation and the dragons were just created for the Dawn War, making the Dragonborn the "superior" race. Interesting twist. I am sure the Dragons are not amused.
- The Nerathi Empire was integrating other races better than other (non-human) empires, but with a few restrictions - appparantly Dragonborn were not allowed to gather in large groups. The humans wanted not just allies, but also keep tabs on others.

This isn't about the book in particular, but it just occurred to me that a campaign set in the ancient times before these kingdoms fell sounds more and more interesting every day.

 

[Umbran]

You're talking out of your ass, plain and simple.

And you are being unconscionably rude, plain and simple. The Rules are clear enough - Keep it Civil. Please don't speak like this to your fellow posters again.

 

[Mercule]

- Some Dragonborn, especially during the time of Arkhosia, seemed to follow a creation myth indicating that the Dragonborn were Io's first creation and the dragons were just created for the Dawn War, making the Dragonborn the "superior" race. Interesting twist. I am sure the Dragons are not amused.

I'm running an Eberron campaign and this idea amuses me greatly.

 

[Zaukrie]

Apparently my quick skim was wrong, at least that's what you've all posted. I'll have to give it another, longer look, as I like fluff.

 

[Obryn]

Seems to be a great value for $10. It's higher-quality than I expected, seems pretty durable, and yeah - it's mostly fluff. I will buy future books in this line, I think.

-O

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This isn't about the book in particular, but it just occurred to me that a campaign set in the ancient times before these kingdoms fell sounds more and more interesting every day.

I also feel the story parts might make the next book in the line, the Tiefling book, very interesting.

I really hope they do something similar for the "old" races, too. To be honest, currently the PoL setting doesn't seem to have all that much on Dwarven or Elven history, and I think that would be interesting

From the Penny Arcade podcast we heard a little about Hammerfast (an upcoming setting-type of book, IIRC), and that also provided intriguing details. Of course, it is just one city, not necessarily strongly tied to the "general" Dwarven history.

Spoiler

Hammerfast is apparantly a city that, due to some pact between Orcs and Dwarves or Gruumsh and Moradin contains a lot of ghosts that live alongside the general population...

Personally I am very fond of the fluff about the Points of Light setting. And the Dragonborn and the Underdark book certainly did not disappoint.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'll be curious to see how this type of product does. At Borders for example, they don't carry it. You can special order it. Now, that may not be true for all Borders (I checked several in the local Mount Prospect/North Chicago area) and I haven't checked Barnes and Nobels. I also notice that it doesn't boast the mightly 30% + discount that most WoTC books do on Amazon.com.

I thought it was okay but I could swear I've seen some of that art before. And reprinting Dragon articles while talking about how awesome the DDI is and how that has everything you need seemed double speak. "We've reprinted X for convience but no appendix is listed because we have this awesome DDI you should use!" Uh... if I'm using the DDI, why do I need the feats reprinted?

Overall, I thought Goodman did a better job.

 

[Klaus]

This isn't about the book in particular, but it just occurred to me that a campaign set in the ancient times before these kingdoms fell sounds more and more interesting every day.

IMC, Bale Tanarith (nod, nod, wink, wink) is still going, and only tieflings can be of the nobility (and mingling with non-nobles is verbotten), and Arakhosa is not an empire, but a region of fjords and cliffs where the dragonborn hide and hunt the rampaging dragons (mostly gray, cobalt and orium).