D&D General why do we have halflings and gnomes?

[Hriston]

Because the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement was written in part to suggest ways to use figures of different scales all on the same battlefield. It is also partially an adaptation of a LotR-inspired war game, so it had to have hobbits. Gnomes are included for the same reason there are kobolds and faeries. Each of dwarves, goblins, and elves were given an alternative variant of diminutive cousins.

 

[Mind of tempest]

okay, so halflings are just normal people but somehow not just human?

gnomes magic people who are in the middle of nowhere for some reason?
the reason I have to look into this is I was asked to help someone with there world and he forum-phobic

anyone asked their players why they would play one aside from stats as that is just optimisation not the basis of a culture.

 

[nogray]

While other races follow their gods for power, for fear, or for honor, or history, gnomes follow gods because those gods are freakin' cool, and do awesome things. If they lived in our world, gnomes would totally have anime versions of Garl Glittergold's adventures.

I would totally watch that anime (or read that manga).

 

[Mind of tempest]

Umbran said:


While other races follow their gods for power, for fear, or for honor, or history, gnomes follow gods because those gods are freakin' cool, and do awesome things. If they lived in our world, gnomes would totally have anime versions of Garl Glittergold's adventures.

I would totally watch that anime (or read that manga).

stealing this for whenever I get round to making a custom race.

 

[Undrave]

fae wild is aside from a thing in the dmg is so undetailed that I have no idea how to tie into it.
anything else?

4e had a good book on the Feywild and a pretty neat origin for it. When the Gods first came to the Material Plane after the primordials grew tired of it, they began to sift through its component: anything too bright went to one side and anything too dark to the other. Those leftovers coalesced into the Feywild and Shadowfell respectively, becoming echoes of the world, but pushed to a different extreme. The Feywild is MORE. Everything is brighter (it's never fully night), everything is more colourful, more alive, but also wilder and uncontrollable.

An idea we discussed here before was that Gnomes had a link with the Earth as an elemental concept so you had all those Gnome subraces/cultures based on various 'Earthy' concept: Rock Gnomes, Metal Gnomes, Jewel Gnome, Root Gnome, Fungus Gnome, Sand Gnome, Lava Gnome even.. maybe even Gnomes related to oil/petroleum?

 

[Mind of tempest]

4e had a good book on the Feywild and a pretty neat origin for it. When the Gods first came to the Material Plane after the primordials grew tired of it, they began to sift through its component: anything too bright went to one side and anything too dark to the other. Those leftovers coalesced into the Feywild and Shadowfell respectively, becoming echoes of the world, but pushed to a different extreme. The Feywild is MORE. Everything is brighter (it's never fully night), everything is more colourful, more alive, but also wilder and uncontrollable.

An idea we discussed was that Gnomes had a link with the Earth as an elemental concept so you had all those Gnome subraces/cultures based on various 'Earthy' concept: Rock Gnomes, Metal Gnomes, Jewel Gnome, Root Gnome, Fungus Gnome, Sand Gnome, Lava Gnome even.. maybe even Gnomes related to oil/petroleum?

yeah, 5e is my first edition played so I have no knowledge of 4e lore, oil gnomes could get really difficult really fast.

 

[Undrave]

yeah, 5e is my first edition played so I have no knowledge of 4e lore, oil gnomes could get really difficult really fast.

Oil Gnomes would be diesel-punk esque oil barons. They'd be the first to discover the internal combustion engine and make use of it. But you don't need to use that.

A fun background I had came up for a Gnome, at least in 4e, was what I called 'Arcane Corsair'. In 4e lore the Gnomes were once forced into servitude by the Fomorians, who are basically Feywild equivalent to Giants in that setting and perpetual enemies of the Eladrins. So I imagined these massive Fomorian ships out on the Wyrd Sea being manned by Gnomes who eventually mutiny and take control of the ship, becoming Pirates who attack over Fomorian vessels, before being officially hired by the Eladrins to continue to do so. They recruit other Gnome slaves and form their own armada of free ships. And since the ships are made for giants they can build entire floating communities in them. You could always steal that if you want.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Oil Gnomes would be diesel-punk esque oil barons. They'd be the first to discover the internal combustion engine and make use of it. But you don't need to use that.

A fun background I had came up for a Gnome, at least in 4e, was what I called 'Arcane Corsair'. In 4e lore the Gnomes were once forced into servitude by the Fomorians, who are basically Feywild equivalent to Giants in that setting and perpetual enemies of the Eladrins. So I imagined these massive Fomorian ships out on the Wyrd Sea being manned by Gnomes who eventually mutiny and take control of the ship, becoming Pirates who attack over Fomorian vessels, before being officially hired by the Eladrins to continue to do so. They recruit other Gnome slaves and form their own armada of free ships. And since the ships are made for giants they can build entire floating communities in them. You could always steal that if you want.

cool but I was asked for not that kind of crazy for some ungodly reason.

 

[Stormonu]

okay, so halflings are just normal people but somehow not just human?

gnomes magic people who are in the middle of nowhere for some reason?
the reason I have to look into this is I was asked to help someone with there world and he forum-phobic

anyone asked their players why they would play one aside from stats as that is just optimisation not the basis of a culture.

Well, halflings are generally homebodies who get pulled into extraordinary adventures. Gnomes are curious earth-dwelling fey who enjoy pranking evil.

It's hard to put a finger on why people would play a given race (beyond optimization) because the reason is different for each. I like dwarves because they are gruff, bearded and hard-working. Someone might want to play a halfling because they are man-children, or because of the cleptomanic nature of kender halflings. Someone might like to play a gnome wanting to emulate David the gnome or a small magical tinker reminicent of Krynn's tinker gnomes.

 

[Dave Goff]

In the last couple of years I ended up playing a pre-gen halfling fighter and I really enjoyed it, so the next one-shot I made a halflling paladin and it was great.
In my campaign world, everyone thinks they're simple, bucolic folk but they're really quite complex and interesting. For example, there's halfling language that is never spoken to outsiders, so people don't even realize they have one.
Around other people they also use a code-word system that sounds like silly slang.

"Well now, talking to that boy was like carrying a bag of hot irons, weren't it? I don't suppose but if there were three dogs in a box it would be quite the hurbry-durbry."

Would mean "That guy is going to try to ambush us. There are three humans behind that door. Be ready."