Just want to say that Monster Races are a real challenge to add to a gaming world. If everyone is a good guy or a bad guy the whole party can expect welcome in places. If your party plays for both teams your list of allies grows thin.
Kobolds are deadly vicious critters (This goes for most monster races) that kill in great numbers and by deception. Even your average shop keeper will know your character sure isn't normal for a civilized city and would probably breath easier if your character was in little pieces. You won't fair any better in Kobold lairs with the rest of the party.
Racial hatreds, bounties and laws make it more than a matter of... "Yeah I'm a monster, isn't that special ?"
Many social settings necessary to adventure development break down if you have obvious racial hatred being the first thing a party confronts in a given situation.
Pretending a player's race is simply ignored for game reasons can become very unsatisfying. Goblins and Kobolds being treated as ugly Halflings sort of ruins the game immersion for me.
Really thats can happen with any player character. Dwarves hate elves vice versa. There is too many fantasies out there were elves hate everyone.. Even ones where humans are xenophobes.
I have to admit I have never played a kobold. But I wouldn't be averse to it, for the cool factor. Kobolds (and goblins to a lesser extent) are the most abused monster in the game. As a race, they are small, weak, lazy, not overly intelligent and cowardly, and they have died in hordes at the hands of adventurers over the years. That makes them great underdogs. I would be happy to play a kobold just to be able to mock the BBEG with: "Yeah, I'm a kobold, but I still kicked your ass. So what does that make you?"We have a tribe of Kobolds living inside our country, in Kingmaker. I can assure you that they are neither stupid nor lazy;rather, they are cunning and actually quite lawful (albeit of the Evil variety.)
If you wanted to explore the varies of a LE society, of a reptilian nature, then you want to play Kobolds.
I think an entire party of 'em would be a blast.
All in how you choose to play them. I'm GMing Kingmaker now as well, and they did end up being a part of the burgeoning kingdom for a while, but couldn't keep themselves from doing evil stuff, so eventually the PCs moved to wipe them out. The scaly little survivors were prepared for that, though, and a lot of them got away through secret escape tunnels and are still plaguing the countryside.
I also didn't say they were stupid, just "not overly intelligent". Their intelligence is average, in comparison to humans (or a bit below average, since they don't get the option of putting a racial +2 in Int). I play them as having a fair amount of cunning, but not a great deal of pure intellect. I play them as cowardly purely as a defense mechanism based on their size. Being brave when you are smaller and weaker than a halfling is not a survival trait. The lazy is just my own personal take, extrapolated from the fact there have never been any great kobold societies or great kobold contributions to the world that I'm aware of.
You wants Deekin?