@vahnj tell me more

@bleak well there's the fairy type which has three different derivations but each ultimately do similar things-

they're kind of like invisible chore people who resemble small children and get offended kind of easily

their types are kind of based on where they show up

then there's the D&D ones which was originally more of a "scaled dog"! D&D decided to make them more lizardy, effectively to relate them to dragons!

Japan loved kobolds too and decided they were dogs so, they're dogs too.

@bleak Then there's the mousey miners from World of Warcraft. Kind of boring because WoW doesn't really do anything other than make them into a stereotype.

There's also Final Fantasy 14's kobolds, who are cool. Their attunement is earth and they're into mining but they're not afraid to go to the surface to hunt and roam in packs collecting crystals to summon their god. They're like little mice dogs!

@bleak I'm not at all biased because of the latest expansion having a kobold baby you take care of and avenge the death of his parents or anything :X

@bleak Because of the Germanic roots though a lot of kobolds revolve around mining. D&D took it in the right direction of also making them very proficient in traps as this is a very fairy kobold trait. Dogbolds do not usually bear this trait, they're really just anthro dogs in most cases.

I really like Suioden's kobolds though. They're basically battle-ready elves in that and they're cute as heck :O

@vahnj wait what does mining have to do with their germanic roots

@bleak one of the kobolds represented is associated with mines and is often portrayed as a sooty, hunched over child

@vahnj i'm not seeing the connection between that and germanic

@bleak gygax basically just focused on one aspect of kobolds and it became its own thing, that's about it

@vahnj OHHH the kobold myth originated in germany. i was like "what? are the germans well known for their mining prowess or something?"

@bleak yea! sorry i didn't explain that part super well