Today I Learned

It's not a mistranslation that caused it, kobolds were both described and illustrated as doglike until 3rd Edition where with no explanation they simply changed it and decided they were lizard like/draconic.

I do think the new version of kobolds is an interesting creature, but truthfully they should've just come up with a new name for this new creature instead of just completely changing the kobold.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88 seems to have a bit of a different approach stating that D&D 3rd ed. changed them to be more reptilian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold actually seems to corroborate this. I played D&D since the end of the 1st ed. days and I think of them as kinda dog-like heads that were also scaly. I have a 2nd ed. Monstrous Manual, but it's on the other side of the world at the moment so I can't check.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold

https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold_(Creature)

I'm not buying the OP here.

Hm. The source for this is a vtubers YouTube short?

Kobolds are originally just the "small folk" of German mythology with all of them being gnome-like but with varying degrees of hospitality. That's why you get your mine Kobolds, your Heinzelmännchen and your Klabautermann.

Bonus fact: Dog like Kobolds in DnD derived media are not exclusive to Japan, in the Everquest lore they are also dog like (and a bit hyena like, whereas gnolls here are fully canine)

They were more doglike in 1e and 2e of D&D, so I don't think it's a mistranslation

Where I live (a German speaking country) a kobold is more like a small humanoid being, more like a gnome

I don't know if the "reptilian" description applies to all Western media. I think it might just be D&D, as I was always used to seeing dog-like Kobolds in EverQuest and rat-like Kobolds in World of Warcraft.

Huh, TIL Kobold is lizard people in D&D. My knowledge of kobold is first via Ragnarok Online, it's a game by South Korean company and it's depict it as dog-people. Since then i didn't see it depict as anything else.

I always saw kobolds as 'slightly redder than normal goblins' in old grindy korean MMOs

I was exposed to them as dog like humanoids in EverQuest before I had ever known about them in D&D even though I had played D&D prior, so when I learned they are actually lizard/dragon like I was confused.

I first heard of Kobolds in the PC game Age of Wonders. They were depicted as scrawny little goblin like creatures who lived in Orcish garbage piles. They had glowing green eyes. Certainly not doglike.

Plus they had a poison melee attack. Respect for those little resource reclamation engineer dudes

Quest For Glory(not really D&D, but old) had them as a Grey, Pot-bellied, lanky, human-heightish, short-eared magical Goblinoid(holy shit: Endermen?). I never encountered any refference to them in western literature with either dog features or lizard tails or scales until some of the more recent Forgotten Realms books; Their presence always seemed like an after-thought. I mostly read the D&D novels though.

Never occoured to me that any dog-people I saw in anime or manga were kobolds, nor that those came into Japanese media through D&D, but un-like D&D, a lot of them were named characters that did stuff.

Still haven't seen a depiction of a lizard-Kobold. Sounds more like a Dragon-born's pet.

Bottom right, isn't that the wolf that ate grandma?

In the old D&D fluff, kobolds are described as having "dog like faces". They became lizard and then dragon people later, so I guess you could say that both versions of kobold are equally divergent from the original concept.

I'm still fighting the good fight of keeping Kobolds as they originally were in Germanic fairy tales: weird little guys spiritually bound to a house or ship.

Just call em furries

Accidental Death & Dismemberment?

that explains the kobold enemy from quest64. that one confused me for ages