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[Servant Corps]

This is a big pet peeve of mine.

Kobolds are NOT regular semi-humaniod creatures who go out and live as savages.

This is a Kobold.

The kobold is a sprite of German folklore. Although usually invisible, a kobold can materialise in the form of an animal, fire, a human being, and a mundane object. The most common depictions of kobolds show them as humanlike figures the size of small children. Kobolds who live in human homes wear the clothing of peasants; those who live in mines are hunched and ugly; and kobolds who live on ships smoke pipes and wear sailor clothing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobolds
(Emphasis mine.)

Basically, kobolds are beings with magical powers, who have great potential to cause mischief throughout the land. Mess with them at your own peril.

Now, I don't want this kind of Kobold in DF, I don't see the need. I'm fine with the original Kobold already. But it's a pet peeve of mine that this 'neo-Kobold', who is not at all an Kobold, but rather a small primitive society who are not at all magical and who cannot turn invisible or polymorph into whatever they want to be...

So, just rename those species to something else. It's that simple. Otherwise, people like me would go in, worried about the possiblity of magical Kobolds going in and blowing up my entire fortress with magical powers, and then get rather underwhelamed when they get presented with these non-magical primitives.

[Random832]

Most people when they see "Kobold" think of the one from D&D, not the one from German folklore.

[i are not good with compu]

Kobolds aren't real.  They can be whatever Toady, and perhaps more importantly anyone with an opinion on the matter, wishes them to be because they aren't real.

[Skid]

I'd say the ones in DF can turn invisible, you can't see them right up until somebody actually bumps into one.

[Servant Corps]

Most people when they see "Kobold" think of the one from D&D, not the one from German folklore.

Huh. My bad then. Any reason why D&D did such butchering of German folklore?

[Granite26]

same reason Diablo 2 broke down over a hundred centuries of warfare technology in at least a dozen cultures on 5 continents into a handful of weapon names with arbitrary stat differences.

D&D is a High fantasy but Low myth game.  They needed a small creature to fill the 'skulking, massed assault' role for humanoids, and bastardized a name from Gary's common book o' mythic creatures

[i are not good with compu]

Most people when they see "Kobold" think of the one from D&D, not the one from German folklore.

Huh. My bad then. Any reason why D&D did such butchering of German folklore?

If you consider that "butchering", then you can look through the dictionary for the origins of every word you use and find that they were all butchered.  You could probably even look those up online and find that they had different uses which just adds more layers to the butchery.  In fact, language as a concept can be called a giant cascade of butchery by this metric.

[Dasleah]

Kobolds for me have always been little blue canine humanoids. But yeah, they're not real, so they're whatever Toady wants them to be (I believe DF Kobolds are reptilian and have big ears, or something)

If you really want 'true' Kobolds, just mod them in. Hell, are there any actual descriptors for Kobold's physical appearance in the actual game? I don't think so. So before the next version - where descriptions of physical attributes come in - they're whatever you want them to be. What you're foolishly raging about now is other people's perception of Kobolds.

[Silverionmox]

Standard fantasy gaming is heavily D&D inspired, which is 80% tactical combat (pet peeve: Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, what usually passes for gorgon is a catoblepas in historical sources). DF already has a few nice twists of the standard (cannibalistic elves, smart goblins) and a particular atmosphere.

Various mods adapted to a particular mythos would be very interesting, but for now it's all standard.

If you like rigourous realism, you might like Unreal World, with the Finnish Iron Age as setting. Worth a try.

[Draco18s]

f you like rigourous realism, you might like Unreal World, with the Finnish Iron Age as setting. Worth a try.

If you can survive through winter without a reigndeer beating the shi snot out of you, then you've basically won.

But can you escape from being a slave and survive in the wilderness afterwards? (You start surrounded by the guys who have metal weapons and they're all pissed at you; I suggest you run--a friend of mine got up to a 50% survival rate on that starting...well, by "survive" I mean he got away, after that though...no, as you own nothing and you're probably severely wounded).

My only real issue with the game is the inability to make a fishing pole.  I can build a cabin and get a wood stove, made of cast iron, but I can't make a fishing pole.

[Neonivek]

My favorite fantasy creature from any game will still forever be the Gnomes (Which are freekishly the closest to the true mythological Gnomes I ever seen only lacking the bloodthirsty villainy and curse) from Majesty.

Anyhow, We cannot see what Kobolds look like in Dwarf Fortress as it is and their size is 5 and they have to tail. They also have 3 toes and 5 fingers (which to me is actually pretty odd)

They also have no indication of their appearace other then perhaps a three toe story which I have yet to see.

I think we are safe... They only lack the magical abilities of the original Kobolds which can be forgiven.

[Mike Mayday]

What the hell is this thread all about?
That's what the raws are for, no need to clutter the Suggestion forum with such nonsense when you can quickly edit the name yourself.

Kobolds for me have always been little blue canine humanoids.

Haha, somebody played Die by the Sword, eh?

Neon: I vaguely recall Toady describing the DF kobolds in an interview.

[Tormy]

What the hell is this thread all about?
That's what the raws are for, no need to clutter the Suggestion forum with such nonsense when you can quickly edit the name yourself.

Exactly.
I don't see any problems with this. What about the elves if you have problems with the kobolds in the vanilla game? They are cannibals and fighting with "toy weapons" in DF. Pretty unique and awesome stuff, isn't it? 
Just modify the RAWs, if you have problems with anything.
PS. I will turn the DF elves into Tolkienesque elves when I will start to work on my TC mod for example, because of the concept of the mod.

[unobtaniumman]

Er... This is what the wikisite TVTropes.com calls "Our Monsters Are Different". Seriously, all fantasy writers do this to some degree.

[Belteshazzar]

This is a Kobold.

The kobold is a sprite of German folklore. Although usually invisible, a kobold can materialise in the form of an animal, fire, a human being, and a mundane object. The most common depictions of kobolds show them as humanlike figures the size of small children. Kobolds who live in human homes wear the clothing of peasants; those who live in mines are hunched and ugly; and kobolds who live on ships smoke pipes and wear sailor clothing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobolds
(Emphasis mine.)

Basically, kobolds are beings with magical powers, who have great potential to cause mischief throughout the land. Mess with them at your own peril.

Where I am from we call what you just described a gnome. Seriously get a grip. Everyone always thinks of gnomes as happy little old garden men and forgets that the reason their hats are red is not because there was a sale on red felt at J. C. Penny. They soaked those things with the blood of their enemies, Powries, or Redcaps are another less recognized names of the same creature.

As for what you say... sure it is technically true, but most people I know who recognize the name (Ironically they are the only mythical being with an element, Cobalt) think of it as some kind of rat/dog/lizard hybrid and frankly I prefer that because the gnomes have enough alternate names as it is.

Besides after realizing that most non-western dragons have fur/feathers the ideas of a little furry kobald and little scaly kobald stopped fighting and settled down into their own little segregated neighborhoods. Ever wonder where those dragons come from anyway, and why they're so arrogant about their power, why kobalds seem so kleptomaniac and bold despite their weakness? 

Their not just related, they're family and the dragons wont admit to it and the kobalds can hardly comprehend it Just don't let them get too many of those silk socks or they may start getting big ideas, and we know how dangerous those can be right?