Gnomes' niche in the D&D world

[Strider The Ranger]

Hello all. I haven't been on here in QUITE some time since I've been busy at college. It is good to be back, however, and I'll be visiting more frequently (I hope!)
That said, I've recently run into a snag while fleshing out my campaign world: where do Gnomes fit in? The race itself doesn't seem to have any reason to exist, aside from the fact that it is a core race in D&D.
In the PHB it even says little about them other than the fact that they "get along well with dwarves, enjoy the company of halflings, and are a little suspicious of the taller races....they are welcome everywhere as technicians, alchemists, and inventors"
That helps a little bit, but not much. All it does is set up the Gnomes to be the stereotypical "crazed inventors" that blow things up accidentally in alchemical experiments. I suppose thats fine if thats what you want to use.
I, however, want to get away from that stereotype and make them somewhat unique. For example, in Terry Brooks' Shannara series, the Gnomes of Storlock (the good gnomes) are peaceful healers. Whereas in Dragonlance (and possibly Forgotten Realms too, although I admit I have little knowledge of that campaign setting) Gnomes are troublesome inventors who invent all sorts of crazy gadgets that never seem to work.
Does anyone have any ideas, based on your own campaigns or literature or whatnot? I could really use some food for thought.

 

[Mytholder]

In my game, faery can infect mundane creatures. Elves and half-elves are faery-tainted mortals. Gnomes are faery-tainted dwarves.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

If you're having a hard time fitting something in then drop it. Unless one of your players is a Gnome lover, they won't be missed. I dropped them and added Orcs as a player race. I'm not sure my players even noticed.

 

[Strider The Ranger]

LOL BiggusGeekus. Yeah, I could just drop them, but I'd like to see if I can gather some ideas to get them to fit. My PCs aren't necessarily gnome lovers, but they have had interactions with them, and having them suddenly disappear, get stricken by a mysterious plague, or otherwise get targeted by disaster, wouldn't seem feasible. On another note, I just had a friend (an excellent artist and map-maker) draw the map of my world for free, based off a design I had made, and in it, is the gnomelands. LOL so if I can, I'd like to try to keep them.

 

[Carnifex]

I had problems fitting halflings and gnomes into my Acrozatarim world. Normal gnomes eventually stayed in as rare but with a good knack for thaumineering (combining magic with low-tech mechanical things), and there's only really one settlement of them of any size on the surface. Deep gnomes are present too, and actually in more numbers than common gnomes, just far below the surface.

I dropped halflings entirely. The closes thing to them in the game are creatures called Sarsniks, basically desert-dwelling mongol-style halflings who aren't available as a PC race and are considered by other species as crude savages at best. They're a menace to trade routes across the Myrmecian desert though.

 

[Dagger75]

Ahhh we have had many a discussion about how useless gnomes are and why they have infested D&D worlds like a bad internet worm.

Well someone in my new pirate game decided to play a gnome so I had to fit them in.

For my game I put gnomes near the halflings. There main purpose was doing ship improvements and navigation refinments. I made them the stereotypical tinkerers but with out the stupid tinker gnome uselessness, meaning not making the stupid catapults instead of stairs.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Rather than 'insane inventors', I think gnomes are more of the 'extremely creative' race.

So yes, we quite a few who are creative with machines, but being that it's a magical world, technology doesn't quite work the way it supposed to every time. In that way it's a lot like 2e wild magic. When it works, it works well. When it doesn't work, it has a lot of side effect. This creativlty allows them to explore the likes of being a gnome artificer, where machines gain in power.

We also have the gnomish illusionist, use displays his creativity through magic. They would take sculpt spell to change what spells look like, give sound effects to spells (an ice stormthat yodels, anyone?), go into vivid detail about just what a person's phantasmal killer looks like. They get bonuses to illusions because of this creativity.

And, on top of that, we have the bards, gnomes who express their creativity in song, music, or acting. Represented by gnomes being the core class that has bard as their favored class.

So, creativity is the key to knowing a gnomes mind and heart.

 

[Wippit Guud]

I made them the stereotypical tinkerers but with out the stupid tinker gnome uselessness, meaning not making the stupid catapults instead of stairs.

One made a time travel device... and it worked... so lay off the gnomes, (hu)man!

 

[alsih2o]

gnomes in my world are niche fillers by nature.

they are the race that makes a house of what oyu left after your last picnic. they have a resourceful streak matched with a reverence for nature that makes them incredible recyclers.they are exploiters of the best kind.

the only clan my party has met moved into fallen giant redwoods, carving niche homes here and there up and down the downed logs. herb gardens grow in the shady space between the massive timbers and lookout patroll the mossy tops. the rootball entrances are community spaces, each with a nich itself: religious, newcomers space, guest areas, meeting halls.

have you seen any of the cool toys form africa getting lots of attention nowadays? the ones made form old tires or tuna cans and rice bags? that is what inspored my gnomes. they thrive wherever something else leaves somehting behind, be that forest clutter or the cranky, sometimes evil gnomes who live on garbage pits and downstream of good places, thriving off of the washed up detritus of more civilized society.

 

[Gez]

Druid and loremaster. Nuff said.