The Great Kobold Debate

Now that the orc alignment/racism thing seems to have blown over, time to move on to a more pressing question about D&D humanoids: Kobolds -- dog-men or mini dragon men?

Starting with Mentzer, I took the dog-like description as more telling than the hairless & scaly description (like I thought that meant they were mangy and diseased) but when later editions made them specifically little crappy dragonmen I didn't oppose it since it was an interesting twist. Anyway, here's the evolution of the kobold for the first 30 years or so. Feel free to chime in in the comments about how you view them.

In Chainmail, they're interchangeable with goblins, and no description given.

In OD&D, they're still just slightly weaker goblins.

Holmes goes with the folkloric description. Interestingly, they've got a save bonus to everything EXCEPT dragon breath.

In AD&D 1E, we get a lot of description, and for the first time they are described as hairless, scaly, and with small horns. The Sutherland illustrations have very dog-like faces, but the bodies are scaly (or wearing chain mail?)

Moldvay is the first time the kobold is described as dog-like. The Errol Otis illustration seems to support my 'diseased' assumption. Mentzer was the first set I owned, but I had seen BX before I got it. So maybe this picture colored my view?

Mentzer's text is nearly identical to Moldvay, but there is no illustration.

AD&D 2E of course gives us more information on kobolds than most people really need, although a lot of it is identical to the 1E information. The DiTerlizzi picture is definitely a hybrid dog-lizard here, which likely shaped their future development by WotC.

And in the Rules Cyclopedia, of course the text is again nearly identical to Mentzer, only adding in the note about spellcasters (from Mentzer's Masters Set).

And in 3E and forward, the kobold is finally specifically tagged as "reptilian" and given the draconic heritage. The heads are still described as dog-like, though.

The indie (and very fun) Kobolds Ate My Baby rejected the reptilian/draconic angle, and made them little furry nasties. I really appreciated that. I don't have a copy of that game to post, though.

Are they dog men? Mini dragon men? Something in-between? Or do you go to the folklore sources and make them evil little fae like redcaps? Something original?

Hey, that's my baby, bring it back! (March Madness Day 21)

21 What is the narrowest genre RPG you have ever played? How was it?

Again, that would probably be Kobolds Ate My Baby. You can play a kobold, a kobold with a wooden spoon, or if you're lucky a kobold with a sharp stick. You can get killed fighting chickens, village children with sticks can pound you to death, and you have one mission and one mission only... King Torg (All Hail King Torg!) wants to eat that baby!

Now, this is probably not the sort of game you build massive campaigns around.  But if you don't have a quorum in your gaming group one night, or the DM has the flu or whatever, it's a nice little game to whip out and play.  It doesn't take a whole lot of prep, I would think (having only been a player, not the GM).  Char-gen is minimal and random and really in the big picture not that important.  Like I said, no matter how lucky you get with the random rolls, you're likely going to die quickly anyway.

Laugh it up, Fuzzball (March Madness Day 12)

12 What humorous RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

Kobolds Ate My Baby. If you don't know, this is a game where everyone plays as a kobold serving King Torg (All Hail King Torg!!!), trying to not get killed. And you will get killed. IIRC, if you sit around doing nothing for long enough you have to roll on the death chart. And then roll up another kobold and see how it can get killed. 

This is a game where chickens and house cats are deadly perils (yeah, don't tell me again about AD&D house cats and level one MUs...), and a farmer's wife can seem like a dragon!  Yet, if you don't sneak into her lair to steal one of her delicious little brats for King Torg (All Hail King Torg!!!) to feast on, you will probably fall in a well or get mauled by squirrels or something, so you might as well take the chance and try to nab the little diaper-filler.

Also, although it's not necessarily a humorous RPG, the rules lite “All Outta Bubblegum” RPG was a crazy-fun blast to play. But that may have something to do with the fact that we decided the setting was 80's WWF superstars vs. zombies, and played at a “beer mart” (Koreans are adept at tax-dodging/red tape side-stepping, so these places are run as a “convenience store” on paper, but they're really bars) so we had our imaginations well lubricated.

In AOB, basically sticks of gum determine how well you do non-combat things, and lack of gum determines how well you do combat things. And you spend gum to get bonuses on rolls. Or was it re-rolls? It's been a while. Anyway, over the course of the game you get better and better at kicking ass, and worse at everything else. Fun game!