Races & Classes spotted?

[Charwoman Gene]

are lame-o furries?

Dragons don't have fur dude.

 

[Tquirky]

Dragons don't have fur dude.

Scalies, then. Whatever.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Scalies, then. Whatever.

They make creams for that now.

 

[Vigilance]

No, you're forgetting that Raymond E Feist Riftwar world whose name escapes me (but that's kind of cheating on my part because it's based on a D&D world).

Right, and there's elves and dwarves in Sword of Shannarra too. But no Halflings, no Half-Orcs (or Orcs if I recall correctly).

And there's Dwarves in Arthurian legends

But Halfings and Half-Orcs are the real keys. They are MUCH less common in fantasy fiction as whole (especially sword and sorcery fiction) than lizard men (which I think Dragonborn could pass for) or demon-bloods.

Are there gnomes in Middle Earth?

Yeah, gnomes are sort of an attempt to bring a different sort of woodland demihuman into the game.

I think if you look at some traditions, you'd see things called elves that are pretty close to D&D gnomes.

And anyway, the only reason why modern fantasy authors avoid the set of elves, dwarves etc. like the plague (generally) and come up with pseudo-name solutions like Trolloc is because Tolkien Did It, and they want to be considered Original.

That's one reason yes. Another reason is that Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth is a more or less entirely new fantasy tradition. And because his shadow is so large, its easier to emulate Howard's Hyboria, as Nehwon and Sanctuary did.

But still, lizard/dragon blood and demon blood characters are much more to the sword and sorcery side of D&D's roots, and I am very happy about that.

Too much high fantasy in D&D imo.

YMMV and all that.

 

[GVDammerung]

Dragonborn? What cool roleplaying opportunities! A race that has congenital amnesia but gains secret abilities or powers that can only be discovered in play!

I can't wait for the sourcebooks:

The Dragonborn Identity
The Dragonborn Supremacy
The Dragonborn Ultimatum

Too bad they had to spell the name that way, though. I think the other spelling would have been cooler.

 

[Tquirky]

They make creams for that now.

Next you'll be telling me that crabmen are in there.

 

[Reaper Steve]

The PHB should be the bland crap that is GURPS

I disagree, a lot.
1) Bland does not get people interested.
2) D&D needs its own clear identity. I like the direction they are taking it. Plenty of recognizable stuff, now homogeneously blended instead of being LotR with every other cool (or no so) idea that some gamer had in the last 30 years grafted on to it.

 

[Tquirky]

Shannarra

That's teh one.

That's one reason yes. Another reason is that Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth is a more or less entirely new fantasy tradition.

Bollocks.

Absolute and utter bollocks.

Go read The King of Elfland's Daughter, Three Hearts & Three Lions, and then maybe consider stopping to think that it all came from MYTHOLOGY anyway, which means that TOLKIEN DIDN'T COME UP WITH IT, he just stole it from the real world, just like his languages. Which makes it GENERIC FANTASY. BY DEFINITION.

Can't recall dragonborn in mythology. Maybe they were hiding behind the crabmen. Yeah, that's gotta be it.

 

[Kintara]

I disagree, a lot.

Rechan wasn't serious.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

By the way, in regards to the "Horned Folk" images.

The spikier ones that some said might be dragonborn? All male.
The smoother ones? Female.