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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4777693" data-attributes="member: 2067">"Traction" isn't something that individual groups get to determine.IMO, tieflings already had some form of traction: they were popular in 2e, and appeared with some frequency in 3e. They weren't exactly the tieflings of 4e, though...I'm not sure how many peoples' tieflings are an ancient empire of debauched evil with big awkward tails and big ridiculous horns. My tieflings are more in the 2e Planescape vibe, with being shunned outcasts, mutation-offspring that result from curses and unknown parentage. The birth of a tiefling is a cause for lamentation, accusation, and infanticide in most societies, but enough manage to be hidden, or be subtle, or survive despite the attempts at murder. They were suspicious outcasts with no claim to honor in PS, which made them appealing player characters (outcasts often are), and in most of my non-planar settings, the dial just gets turned up a bit higher (since fiends are a rarer thing). Dragonborn are a bit harder to judge. They certainly didn't have any traction at all before they appeared in the 4e core book, but the ones in the 4e core book aren't really the same thing as they were before (except for that unfortunate and narm-inducing name). Playing dragon-people definitely has its appeal, and the whole "honorable empire" thing is appealing, too. They do have trouble in that they are pretty monstrous, but most fantasy -- especially newer fantasy -- is very accepting of monstrosity from sympathetic characters.I'm not a huge fan of dragonborn myself, but that's mostly because I think they don't need to really exist. What needs to exist is robust rules for playing actual dragons alongside other PC's, since that what people actually want. They don't want to be a little dragon knock-off, they want to be a dragon. In any game where people can play a dragon, dragonborn are redundant and useless.Also, I really think their look is tremendously unappealing. I see they are spikey lizard-men without tails, but that aesthetic isn't something I want for any of my characters (or most of my PC's). I'd rather have Kobolds as a PC race. Tieflings have had traction, though I'm not sure their 4e-ified version is the most popular version.Dragonborn don't have traction in and of themselves, but the idea of playing a dragon certainly does -- if you give players a way to be a dragon, dragonborn become pointless. I'd prefer to give people what they want, honestly.</blockquote>

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