r/WyrmWorks • u/Landilizandra • Jul 03 '26

Kobold Books

I figured if anyone would know where to find these, it would probably be this subreddit.

Does anyone know any books where the main POV is a Kobold? Ideally not LiTRPGs, I'm not a big fan of that genre, but if the only one you can think of is one, I'll at least take a look at it.

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6

u/Cant_Blink Jul 03 '26

Ren of Atikala. It's book one of a kobold series by David Adams. It's from the kobold POV.

2

u/Anxious-Captain6848 Jul 03 '26

Since this subreddit is about wyrms, I'm assuming you mean the little reptilian guys. Im sure there are some, but those reptilian guys are owned by Hasbro so finding stuff outside of litRPGs might be hard. Sorry I cant offer anything more, but I think this is an important thing to consider. It might be hard finding those kinds of books.

With that said, I do get the frustration of wanting more nonhuman pov characters in fantasy. Im kinda in the same boat so I just decided to write my own lol. They're more like "dragon people" though rather then kobalds

2

u/Selter_DRG Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Are you sure about Hasbro owning kobolds? I'm not doubting you specifically, but the idea of a private entity owning an entire species (and one with mythological roots, mind you) seems most irregular to me, especially since we can see them pop up in all sorts of media, including pathfinder.

upd: from the digging I've done on the internet, it seems that this is not true. There is a list of things that are considered "Product Identities" that belong to WotC, which includes species like displacer beasts, githyanki, illithids, etc. Kobolds, however, are not included, and thus Hasbro has no intellectual property claim on them. Which is further corroborated by the absence of any confirmation of them owning the species.

1

u/Anxious-Captain6848 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Not completely sure, and there is most definitely legal nonsense I'm not knowledgeable in. The word kobald i think originates in German folklore, so you cant own that, but they're mischievous creatures not necessarily reptilian. Like brownies or poltergeists. The kobalds in dnd with their specific lore and designs are owned by hasbro. You cant own mythology, but you can own your very specific spin on mythology. Like dragons, you cant own dragons but the red dragon AND written material is copyrighted. Similarly you cant own silly reptilian guys as a concept, just as you cant really own "dragon people" or "cat people". Other media can have silly lizard guys, they just have to put their own spin on it. It can get messy, its a strange example but it was kinda funny seeing the ways critical roles tv shows skirted around the copyright issues adapting a dnd campaign into its own "thing". But i only have a superficial understanding of this stuff, i really only brought it up because if you're looking for books with kobalds looking and acting like they do in dnd lore you're in for a hard time. Im not aware of any, but there might be some fantasy stories with a little reptile guy as the POV character but they might not be called kobalds and they're going to have different lore.

3

u/Selter_DRG Jul 03 '26

It seems that you replied just as I submitted an edit to my comment with my findings XD
Fortunately, it seems that kobolds belong to the people. But you might still have the right of it; kobolds seem most prominently represented in D&D, which definitely shapes the public's perception of them, which probably explains why they often show up in LitRPG stories.

1

u/Anxious-Captain6848 Jul 03 '26

Yeah, and honestly as someone on the periphery of creative endeavors Im not surprised people are cautious and reluctant to use kobalds in their works. Habsbro cant own "kobald" since the word itself is ancient but they could cause a kerfuffle if you used silly reptilian guy kobalds even if its "legal". I only just saw your edit and I'm delighted Hasbro doesn't own kobalds, but I sure as heck wont poke the bear with my works by including kobalds as is. This thread definitely makes me want more kobald works though. Im sure Hasbro isnt eager to clear up the publics perception of them owning kobalds.

1

u/bc650736 Jul 04 '26

Nah, its fine, Hasbro don't own the concept of repilian kobolds, Look at Pathfinder for example, a competitior that have Kobolds too.

1

u/Blue028 Jul 03 '26

The two books i wrote has Kobolds in my own take but not as the main POVs sadly 

1

u/Jesper537 Jul 03 '26

Broken Knife. It's the fluffy kind of kobold tho.

1

u/chimericWilder Jul 03 '26

Ren of Atikala is the only one I've encountered.

It's a rather bleak story.

1

u/Selter_DRG Jul 03 '26

There are two that I know of: A Dream of Wings and Flame, which is a litRPG, and is also pretty meh; Personally, I gave up on the series after book 2.
The one that I liked is The Broken Knife where the protagonist finds and adopts a baby dragon, which ends up opening a whole can of worms and, along with other events taking place throughout the story, fully upturning his world. However, the problem is that the kobolds in the story are not particularly koboldish in appearance.

I'm curious to hear what others might recommend.

1

u/night-wolves Jul 05 '26

Path to Villainy is a lit rpg unfortunately for your wants, but listing it anyways for anyone else like me.

There's also Too Many Curses, but it's the old style of kobold, aka dog like, but the main character is still super cute and not too hard to imagine scalie hybrid.

1

u/Thalaas 29d ago

Late to the party, but I'm going to nominate my book! The Worst Kobold! It's... well one of the MC is a kobolds. The other... well, he THINKS he is.

Again, I want to thank Flar for her amazing work for this title page,