Tags
D&D5e, Dragonborn, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, House Rules, Kudos
I don’t like Dragonborn – primarily because I have been running my campaign world since the 80’s and still haven’t even actually included gnomes in it… so making room for the “new” races of D&D feels a bit problematic to the themes of my games.
He proposes that the Dragonborn are not so much born as the end of a transformative process that some sinners manifest. That the very foulness of their inner being becomes manifest in their form, leading to their transition from their native race to that of the dragonborn. This links in well with any mythos where dragons are representative of mighty emotions and deadly sins.
He presents two awesome dragonborn on his blog, and here I add Durrek the Elder.
(art by Fushark – used without permision)
Durrek was once a great sage, and is still a source of much information if you can pry it from him. However he harbours no goodwill towards humanity and it’s allies. After years of living in his home collecting information, books and scrolls his hoard of written knowledge became greater than the hoard of coins kept by some of the mightiest dragons. But he was content to sit on this hoard, surrounded by old scrolls and ancient books that slowly fell apart around him, eaten by insects and humidity and his lack of concern except to collect more. When his housekeeper died, he hardly took notice except to hire a runner to bring him food from the market… and then later from the tavern when he couldn’t be bothered to cook for himself.
It was when the book beetles and cockroaches became a problem for his neighbours that the people finally discovered what had become of Durrek – living in a massive nest of paper and filth, he had descended into the form of the dragonborn. In the end it was only because none would sell nor deliver him food that he was forced from the city to where he lives now, despondent and ever lazy, dribbling out minor bits of information and lore to desperate students in exchange for them taking care of his ancient scaled form.
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
So backwards Dragonewts then?
Dragons and Dragonborn should be more than big magic lizards or a race for min-maxing goldbrickers – this is a good choice. It makes each dragonborn corrupt and fascinating while giving the player a clear set of instructions/ideas that the power they have comes with compulsion. I was using dragons as beasts created by apocalypse in my ASE game and this works rather similarly in a classic fantasy world. E.G. The King gets too greedy and meglomaniacal turns into a red dragonborn or dragon, waging war constantly to “protect his kingdom” and plunder.