Review:
D&D 4th ed: Player's Handbook Races - Dragonborn

The new Players Handbook Races guide for Dragonborn is better than I expected, considering its size.
Squeezed into a mere 32 pages, the guide expands on the Ecology article by Chris Sims in Dragon Magazine #365. The book sets out to tell the story of the modern day Dragonborn, how they think, what others might think of them, their motivations, backgrounds and the weight of history that hangs over them. While James Wyatt does a good job of keeping the book sharp and very approachable, the lack of any kind of index is, once again, an inexcusable oversight in any kind of reference guide.

One could argue that the book is largely a collection of magazine articles and expanded bits and pieces from other sources, but to have it all in a single volume does lend it a greater weight of authority.
There is the sense that, if it appears in the handbook, it is an official rule, and more likely to find its way into play.

Some of the best areas of the book cover the lifestyles, motivations and likely backgrounds for Dragonborn who follow the different adventuring careers, so to speak. The arcane, divine, martial and primal classes all have backgrounds and a new Paragon path included, followed by some new feat selections, a few pages of magical items (most of which covers one set of items called the Silver Dragon Regalia) another few pages of Quest ideas and finally, one Epic Destiny for everyone to drool over.

In many ways, this book seems like a very long Dragon Magazine article, and I imagine many players will pass it over in favor of a more substantial hardcover source book. But if you love the Dragonborn race and want to have a much better grasp of what makes this ancient and complex race tick, then this is the book for you.

Or possibly a set of printed copies of the Dragon magazine articles and Compendium entries, but that is no where near as pretty to leaf through at the game table and would lack all those glossy new pictures.