Tell me about gnomes and halflings in your world(s)!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gnomes are extinct as I don't much see the value in having two short races.

I've played both and even run an all-halfling 2E campaign (which was great), but I wouldn't shed a tear if they merged the two. (Not dumped one in favor of the other -- stick all the flavor into one multifaceted race.) I doubt it'll happen, though. Even 4E, which dropped pretty much everything about traditional halflings but the names, couldn't bear to slaughter that particular sacred cow.

 

[Jimmy Disco T]

I once came up with a homebrew fantasy world where I'd deliberately turned all of the races on their heads.

Dwarves were evil, vicious barbarian predators from the frozen north who goaded polar bears into battle and raided settlements regularly.

Orcs were disciplined soldiers who smithed excellent weapons. Goblins were artisans and gem-cutters who lived alongside them.

Elves were aquatic and lived beneath the waves, fighting undersea battles with merfolk.

Halflings were jungle dwelling tribal hunters who used blowpipes and exotic poisons.

Gnome were experts in teleportation magic and portals, and often hired out as 'Wayfarer guides' to wealthy organisations.

Lizardmen were found in the deserts to the south, and came in different colours signifying different clans. They were known as traders of exotic spices and rare items.

 

[ephemeron]

"Connection"? They still hate each other's guts, as far as I know, if that's what you mean.

Is there some other connection or a memo I missed?

Come to think of it, I vaguely recall somebody pairing up races as good/evil counterparts, with gnomes and kobolds as one such pair.

Does anybody know what I'm thinking of and/or have more of the list?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Current campaign I am working on they are the Prime villain race, sort of Ferengi merchant guilds, they basically move into an area, providing food and tech, then start buying up land or forcing land owners out, setting themselves as the government and slowly enslaving the people with indenture service.

 

[Celebrim]

I generally had the problem with Gnomes and Halflings that in practice they were races represented by a single individual. They were also too cute and twee. So I ditched them.

If you want to play a small person in my game, you have several options but the most obvious is Sidhe. If you wanted to play a Sidhe that was effectively a Gnome or Halfling, that would be completely within the wide scope available in appearance and personality. You'd just be the same race as that lass with insect antenna and purple hair, and that lout with feet on backwards, a hunchback, and a face like a troll. Of course, you'd be no more forced to admit that than humans are forced to admit that they are all related, but the Sidhe are pretty tolerant of differences in general.

There is a Sidhe in the current PC party. A misanthrope among his own kind, this Sidhe basically looks like a human boy and has been serving as a page/baby sitter/butler for a Princedom for the last 400 years or so. Brownie and domestic spirits consider him something of a noble of their kind, albeit one of a strange and eccentric demeanor. He is to a city and nation, what a common brownie is to a house and family. Recently, an attack on his city has provoked his normally gentle nature into something of an avenging spirit, a situation not helped by the fact that he's acquired an intelligent sword that provokes him to kill anything the feels threatens him. So basically you now have a beserker house elf with general sensibilities of the Punisher, and a really really nasty blood drinking sword.

 

[Hand of Evil]

should mention the WFRP Halflings, the Mootifa, just the Mafia run by Halflings.