Pathfinder 2E A Few Images From Erik Mona's Pathfinder 2nd Edition Presentation At GAMA

LuisCarlos17f · Mar 14, 2018

The gnomes are the ugly duckling of the fantasy races. They aren't very popular among fans, but maybe they only need a character with enough charisma. Tirion Lannister is the ugly duckling of the fantasy for adults, but he is one of the most interesting characters from modern fiction. They have to demonstrate they aren't only midget thiefs with some magic tricks.

Charlaquin · Mar 14, 2018

LuisCarlos17f said:
The gnomes are the ugly duckling of the fantasy races. They aren't very popular among fans, but maybe they only need a character with enough charisma. Tirion Lannister is the ugly duckling of the fantasy for adults, but he is one of the most interesting characters from modern fiction. They have to demonstrate they aren't only midget thiefs with some magic tricks.

In what way is Tyrion an ugly duckling? The character has been universally beloved since his first appearance. Literally the only thing he has in common with gnomes is that they’re both short. And please don’t use that word to refer to people with dwarfism.

LuisCarlos17f · Mar 14, 2018

Sorry, English isn't my naive languange.

Tirion Lannister is a very popular character in our real life, but withing his world, in Westeros. Although he has suffered a lot of scorn, he has showed a man isn't only his body.

The background of the gnomes from RPGs need to show us they aren't only little bodies with some magic tricks and thief skills. It isn't about being more powerful, but arousing fans' empaty. In the right hands, they can be the main characters of good stories. They only need a good script, a good writter for their stories. The geek fiction is full of stories about "losers" who become champions.

Connorsrpg · Mar 15, 2018

Don't worry [MENTION=6802378]LuisCarlos17f[/MENTION] I think people have merely mistaken your 'tone'.

Charlaquin · Mar 15, 2018

LuisCarlos17f said:
Sorry, English isn't my naive languange.

Tirion Lannister is a very popular character in our real life, but withing his world, in Westeros. Although he has suffered a lot of scorn, he has showed a man isn't only his body.

The background of the gnomes from RPGs need to show us they aren't only little bodies with some magic tricks and thief skills. It isn't about being more powerful, but arousing fans' empaty. In the right hands, they can be the main characters of good stories. They only need a good script, a good writter for their stories. The geek fiction is full of stories about "losers" who become champions.

I see what you mean now, thank you for clarifying.

The thing is, I don’t think the analogy makes sense. Tyrion is scorned in the fiction and beloved in real life. Gnomes are scorned in real life. And the root of Tyrion’s fictional scorn is his size and appearance, whereas the root of Gnomes’ real life scorn is their lack of coherent identity in the fiction and tonal mismatch with heroic fantasy. I do agree with your argument that a Gnome character written as well as Tyrion would go a long way to redeeming Gnomes as a race in the eyes of the fans, but I don’t think that comparing them to Tyrion actually supports your argument. What Gnomes need of they are ever to be taken seriously is two things: to ditch the comic relief aspect, and to have a racial identity that is unique to Gnomes, rather than just being shorter dwarves or more magical halflings. A well written example character would certainly help with those goals, but yoi could just as easily say that they need a character like Jorah Mormont, or like Aragorn, or hell, Luke Skywalker. The important thing is that they need a well-written fictional example of how gnomes could be cool, and that example really wouldn’t look anything like Tyrion Lannister except in the sense that they’re short. The fictional prejudices that Tyrion overxomes are completely different from either the fictional predjudices Gnomes face or the real-life barriers to their popularity.