Yeah, I understand wanting to maintain an "official" sort of mod to quasi-enforce stone use and other tech-based limitations. I'm mostly just saying I'd diddle with appropriate tokens for my own version, so no one should take my posts here as anything other than my own vision.
Something else I considered doing with a personal version: IIRC, elves were pretty much the original attackers against kobolds, so I'd probably try to maintain that rivalry and come up with differences that would put the two against each other, and I think I've got my own personal fluff reasons for doing so:
Elves are arrogant: They think they're so superior. So many bad fantasy writers (and some good ones as well) have pretty much put elves as a Mary Sue race who end up acting in a condescending manner towards other races so that they can preach whatever the author wants them to.
Kobolds are humble: They know they're far from the best. They're small, weak, and technologically backwards. All the other races look down on them, either with contempt or pity. If they attract the malice of another race, it will be a struggle just to survive.
Elves live in the Disney version of nature: They don't cut down trees, animals never attack them, and Mother Nature just seems to give them a free pass on everything. They just spend their centuries of life frolicking in the forest, singing tra-la-la-li-laly.
Kobolds live in nature when it's red in tooth and claw: They have to hunt animals in the wilderness to survive, and any predator could pose a threat. They have limited ability to build shelters, and they can't simply raise crops because of their carnivorous nature. They have to earn their survival.
Elves are beautiful: This bit is inspired by Lorwyn elves from one of the Magic: the Gathering worlds. Those elves sought to beautify the world, and part of doing so meant killing off the 'eyeblights': Creatures who didn't measure up to their vision of beauty. Their free pass for survival has blinded them to the ugly truths other creatures have to face.
Kobolds have little use for beauty: Art falls by the wayside when survival is a struggle. Kobolds know the savage side of life, and when they do create art, it's unlikely to be the excessively tranquil sort.
One idea I'm thinking of to implement this rivalry is to give the elves the Baby Snatcher token: Some elves could consider it daring and fashionable to sneak into a kobold camp alone to capture pups and raise them like pets, and eventually, slaves. I suspect since elves don't die of old age, baby-snatching elves are less likely than goblins to end up being replaced by snatched races. It'd probably be a good idea for someone to test that. Of course, another concern that crops up is how the elves would fare against dwarves and humans if they're that much more likely to be at war.
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Other thoughts:
A while back, I came up with an idea for a 'magic' profession where a kobold shaman or whatever would go into a custom workshop and use the Concentration skill to meditate or commune with the spirits and achieve some sort of effect. Unfortunately, I have no idea what sort of product would be a good output for the workshop.
On the engraved magic runes: I got the idea while I was looking over the raws. Apparently there are some categories of images that can be excluded or selected for each civ entity. I'd have to look things over again. It's either that, or preferred words for naming things. I might be mixing those things up.